St-Pierre suffered his knee injury in training Tuesday afternoon

St-Pierre suffered his knee injury in training Tuesday afternoon

Georges St-Pierre was days, if not hours away, from scaling back in his preparation for UFC 137 next weekend. Training for a fight is always a risky proposition and GSP failed to escape these final moments of training without injuring a knee.

At 1:51 p.m. ET Tuesday, GSP tweeted this photo of him working his kicks. A little over four hours later, he spoke of visiting the doctor.

St-Pierre suffered his knee injury in training Tuesday afternoon

His trainer Firas Zahabi gave his account of the afternoon incident to Sherdog:

"He was sparring today and he hurt his knee. I had a feeling it was bad, but then, once he cooled down, he started limping. There's no way he would be able to fight. It was a weird thing. I can't really explain it. Of course, everybody is disappointed," Zahabi said. "[...] We made a lot of sacrifices. We had a lot of people come in to help us train. We put a lot of man hours into getting ready for this fight. But it's not going to waste, it's just being put on hold."

We could get a clearer picture of GSP's recovery timetable Wednesday. There's a UFC 137 media teleconference scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/St-Pierre-suffered-his-knee-injury-in-training-T?urn=mma-wp8338

José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez

Illinois Commission Reverses Course; Andreas Kraniotakes Back in at ProElite2

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It's nothing short of a soap opera script.

Less than 24 hours after main event heavyweight Andreas Kraniotakes was denied a license to fight Tim Slyvia in the ProElite 2 main event on Nov. 5, Sylvia has his new opponent.

After his fight with Pedro Rizzo was scrapped due to an injury, and Kraniotakes wasn't approved by the Illinois State Professional Athletic Commission just Wednesday, Sylvia's new opponent will be ... Andreas Kraniotakes.

In a somewhat surprising reversal, the Illinois commission, according to sources close to ProElite, took another look at the fight and decided to grant Kraniotakes a license after all. In a story first reported by MMA Fighting, the commission had initially denied Kraniotakes a license because of a lack of sanctioned fights on his 12-4 record, many of which have taken place in his native Germany, which has only a short history with legalized mixed martial arts.

Sources told MMA Fighting that ProElite had indeed lined up a replacement fighter for Slyvia on Wednesday and anticipated that new opponent being approved by the Illinois commission on Thursday for a fight on just nine days notice. Now that won't be necessary, and Sylvia-Kraniotakes is back on.

In addition, HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon took to his Twitter feed on Thursday to say the fight would indeed remain as the main event of the show, which will take place at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill., on Nov. 5. The main card will air live on HDNet. MMA Fighting first reported last month that the card moved from Atlantic City to the Quad Cities area in western Illinois and would feature a main event between Sylvia and Rizzo with a co-main event of Andrei Arlovski vs. Travis Fulton.

But less than two weeks ago, Rizzo pulled out of the fight with an injury and Kraniotakes, who has cracked the Top 100 heavyweights in the world in some rankings, was tapped as the replacement.

Early Thursday, Kraniotakes, who has been training for the Sylvia fight in San Diego, took to his official website to voice his disappointment in being pulled from the card.

"?Eventually, the commission wouldn't give me a license for some reasons no one understands," Kraniotakes said. "I think the people making those decisions probably don't know anything about the sport. I did everything I could do, my management did everything it could do, ProElite did everything it could do to make the fight happen. But the commission just said no."

Perhaps everything that could be done eventually was enough, even if it is a day later.

A message asking for comment left for the Illinois commission's director of athletics, Ron Puccillo, was not immediately returned on Thursday.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/10/27/illinois-commission-reverses-course-andreas-kraniotakes-remains/

Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah 

Bellator 54: Makovsky fighting for respect

Zack Makovsky is very good. How good? It's difficult to truly gauge if he's amongst the top 10 bantamweights in the world.

He stormed to Bellator's 135-pound tourney title last year, but even he recognizes that he needs to be more active and face a higher level of competition.

"I don't know. I try not to get caught up in any of that. It kind of is what it is. The UFC is by far the biggest name in the game. I would think to most casual fans, they don't know the sport is called Mixed Martial Arts. To them, the sport is Ultimate Fighting," Makovsky told Bloody Elbow's Matt Roth. "It's frustrating from that kind of stand point. But at the same time you appreciate what the UFC is doing and they're obviously doing good things for their business."

Makovsky (13-2) is one of the headliners against Ryan Roberts at Bellator 54 tomorrow night in Atlantic City.

Bellator's tournament format is great because you control your own destiny, but the television exposure from the WEC might have been more beneficial over the last few years.

"I mean, of course if I fought in the WEC earlier I would have had that exposure so people would know me better but I kind of really started building my name in Bellator. I kind of was under the radar until I got in the tournament and ended up winning it. There's not much else I could have done otherwise. I don't think the WEC would have had me in there before I created a name in Bellator which is a good thing about Bellator," said Makovsky.

Makovsky's story is similar to many of the elite fighters around mixed martial arts. He was a standout wrestler at Drexel in Philadelphia, but unlike most high level college wrestlers he wasn't a big high school star. He walked on at Drexel and when he was pushed to new limits, Makovsky took it as a challenge and made himself into an elite grappler.

The 28-year-old has a bright future and at 5-foot-4, he looks like a candidate to be a hot shot down at 125 pounds when that division blows up. But he's got to get his work done at Bellator 54.

Roberts is big for the weight. He's got UFC experience and been in there at lightweight with guys like Marcus Aurelio, Donald Cerrone and Duane Ludwig.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Bellator-54-Makovsky-fighting-for-respect?urn=mma-wp8265

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger 

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?

Welcome to another installment of "The Ultimate Fighter" season 14 recap. Who wins the prank war? Who wins the fight? Whose car ends up getting towed? Read on for spoilers and a recap.

After the last fight, Diego Brandao started to go slightly insane at Steven Siler. There seemed to be little provocation, but on TUF, there doesn't need to be provocation.

Jason "Mayhem" Miller stopped by the house to hang with his guys, but more importantly, to figure out who the mole is. He found out it was John Dodson, and decided to mess with him a bit. Instead of giving Brandao the fight he so clearly wants, they will give Dustin Neace a bout with Akira Corassani. However, they continues to make it seem like Siler and Brandao will be the fight.

At the Team Bisping practice, Miller's plan works out as Bisping's team discussed that Brandao will have the next fight.

So, do you guys want to read about prank wars? Really? OK. Corassani and Neace's problems started last week when they messed with each other's things, but Neace was especially angry when the special, special hat that Mayhem brought him went missing. He retaliated by taking a bunch of Corassani's food, and throwing it all over the Team Bisping ready room at the training center. This turned into a war of words where Corassani challenged Neace to a fight  "in the garden at 7:00. If he's a man, he'll come to the garden!" That's an amazing sentence.

Their jawing continued right until the fight match-ups, where a whole lot of bleeped out language is uttered. It veers from the misogynistic to the homophobic to just plain nonsensical. Fantastic. When Miller finally announces that they are fighting, they butt heads as they face off, then start fighting.

But wait! It turns into a more ridiculous bar fight. As Miller and Bisping try to break up the fight, one of Miller's coaches takes exception to Bisping pushing him, and Miller and Bisping start jawing. When it finally all settles down, Miller points out that Brandao vs. Siler will be the second fight.

Side note before the fights: Two of Bisping's fighters put an "M" for Miller on the handicapped parking spot. Miller then parks in it. That's disappointing, and karma will get you.

Fight one -- Akira Corassani (Team Bisping) vs. Dustin Neace (Team Miller)

Round 1: For two fighters who jawed so much, they spend quite a long time chasing each other around the cage. Finally, Neace tries to throw a back kick, which Corassani caught and used to throw Neace to the ground. After avoiding upkicks, Corassani goes into Neace's guard. Neace holds off Corassani with good grappling, and then grabs him in a leg lock. Team Miller says that Corassani tapped, but Team Bisping denies it. They return to their feet, and Neace ends it with a takedown.

Round 2: Corassani quickly pushes Neace's back into the cage, but does not accomplish much in the clinch. The two stand and trade until Corassani knocks Neace down with one punch. Neace goes to the ground and follows with several punches, but they're ineffective. The fight goes on this way, with Neace holding off Corassani, but Corassani remaining in control, for the rest of the round.

When the final horn sounds, Neace goes to his corner, but Corassani goes over to Neace and dances around, celebrating his (assumed) victory. Neace gets angry and goes after Corassani, but is held back by his coaches. Bisping yells that Miller needs to control his team. Um, Bisping? Remove the plank from your own eye, n'amsayin?

Keith Kizer, the head of the Nevada Athletic Commission, saw enough. He heads into the cage to tell Corassani that if he keeps it up, he will be suspended. Once every is settled down, Corassani's win is announced.

Team Bisping goes to the parking lot to celebrate and watch Miller's car get towed. What did I say about karma?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/What-you-need-to-know-from-this-week-on-8216-T?urn=mma-wp8377

Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio