Despite being a devastating knockout artist in the cage, Junior dos Santos is a smiling, affable man outside of it. He, UFC lightweight Gray Maynard and Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste stopped by a surfing school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as part of the run up to UFC 142 this weekend. They met with the students and even tried surfing.
If you're wondering what it looks like when a heavyweight champion surfs, here you go:
And yes, if the champ makes it to his feet on dry land, he will get applause. That's just how it goes. He gets extra credit for pulling off the Ron Santo-esque heel click.
Mike Pyle has fought all over the world, but even he admits tomorrow night at UFC 142, Rio de Janeiro could be unlike anything he's ever seen.
"We're fighting and we have to fight other countryman on their soil. That makes it fun. Get out there in some hostile territory," Pyle told ESPN1100/98.9 FM. "It's kind of different. You don't get booed and looked at in strange ways at home. It's cool. Makes me feel like a super villain."
Pyle won't be walking through the Rio crowd with complete unfamiliarity. He cornerd Forrest Griffin back at UFC 134 and saw how intense the Brazilians were that night.
"The energy was ... I just got chill bumps just now thinking about that night when we walked out, how intense the crowd was," Pyle said. "They were into it dude. I can't even put it into words. It was awesome."
Pyle, 36, has fought in Denmark, Russia and the U.K. This will be his first time in Brazil and he's facing Bahia, Brazil native Ricardo Funch. The American is coming off a quick loss against Rory MacDonald. He made sure to make some changes to get back on the right track.
Pyle added a new jiu-jitsu coach, Mitch Coats and Nate Pettit, who's serving as his main coach.
Landing 15 unanswered shots, Muhammed Lawal nearly beat Lorenz Larkin into oblivion to pick up his ninth career win. "King Mo" was far from jubilant. In fact, he was angry following the victory. Lawal lashed out at the referee Kim Winslow for not protecting his opponent.
In the ring, Lawal screamed out a suggestion that Winslow shouldn't be reffing fights. In the postfight press conference, he brought it even stronger.
"The commission, they need to like to do something with her ... let her take a fight or something and give her a bad ref. Let her fight [Cristiane] "Cyborg" Santos and let's do a late stoppage with her," said Lawal."The tables need to be turned. Put me in there as a ref and I'll do a terrible job like her."
Winslow's decision to allow a limp Larkin to absorb 6-8 extra punches was shaky, but her explanation to Lawal was even worse.
"She said 'well, I wanted to give him every opportunity to bounce back. If it takes for him to be asleep, that's what it is,'" said Lawal. "She's never taken a punch before, so it's easy for her to say that."
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker suggested that it been rough night overall for the Nevada State Athletic Commission appointed referees and judges.
In an earlier fight, Winslow also allowed Gian Villante to finish off Trevor Smith with two illegal shots to the back of the head. Smith spoke to Aaron Tru about the end of the fight and said Winslow "has no business in the sport." Smith said Winslow tried to make up for a poor early stoppage in his fight by allowing Larkin to take an extra beating.
The scoring in two other fights confused cageside observers. Most onlookers thought Tyron Woodley rolled to a 30-27 decision over Jordan Mein, but one judge gave it 29-28 to Mein, who spent most of the fight on his back. The same goes for James Terry's loss to Nah-Shon Burrell got the nod 29-28 on two scorecards and looked completely shocked when he was announced as the winner.
At UFC 142, Anthony Johnson will make his middleweight debut against Vitor Belfort. Johnson always appeared to be too large for welterweight and sometimes struggled with his weight cut. Judging by his size in this video, Johnson will be comfortable at 185 lbs. (Warning: A few NSFW words are dropped in it.)
Johnson plans on submitting and knocking out Belfort in Brazil on Saturday, plus throw a spinning kick from the guard. Though this seems logistically unlikely, I have my fingers crossed that it will happen, because Johnson would then get a bonus for both Knockout and Submission of the night.
Who do you think will win? Tell us in the comments or on Facebook.
The first-ever UFC on FX Fight Night airs this Friday night on -- you guessed it -- FX in the United States. The card will be headlined by Jim Miller vs. Melvin Guillard and will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN, at 9 p.m. ET. The two-hour main card will be preceded by a three-hour prelim telecast on FUEL TV. The prelims will only air in the United States. FUEL TV will also air the weigh-ins live on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. ET, as well as a post-fight show immediately following the main event. In addition, FX will air the first episode of UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit right after the Fight Night telecast at 11 p.m. ET. Below are the channels that will be airing the card outside the United States: Sportsnet One -- Canada TVA (French) -- Canada FOX Deportes (Spanish broadcast) -- United States and Latin America SKY Sport 2 -- New Zealand ONE HD -- Australia Balls -- Phillipines ESPN UK -- UK SKY Italia -- Italia OSN -- United Arab Emirates CANAL + Sport -- Sweden, Denmark, Norway MTV3 -- Finland * If your home country is not listed above, check UFC.TV for viewing options.
HDNet WebFights is back with this beating from the Midwest Cagefighting Championships in Des Moines, IA on 6/24/2011. This bout features two lightweights Nick Walker and Joe Morris
This Saturday, December 17th is the second annual House Of Vans Coat Drive from 1-6PM at the House Of Vans in Brooklyn. There will be a best trick contest for cash and sneakers and live performances from DJ PF Cuttin and McRad. Admission to the event is a new or slightly used coat to be donated to NYCares. be sure to RSVP here.