MMA Link Parade

- Marcus Davis says cutting to lightweight nearly killed him. [Middle Easy]

- Identity of Joe Son's alleged prison murder victim revealed. [CagePotato]

- ProElite readies for second life. [Sports Illustrated]

- Michael Bisping believes he is next in line for a shot at Anderson Silva. [Five Ounces of Pain]

- Ed Soares: Chael Sonnen should take a number and wait for Anderson Silva. [LowKick]

- Florian's future in doubt. [NBC Sports]

- Rashad Evans thinks Lyoto Machida can give Jon Jones trouble. [MMA Convert]

- Jon Jones: "I absolutely cannot lose Rashad Evans fight". [5th Round]

- GSP Is the no. 2 pound-for-pound fighter, not Frankie Edgar. [Bleacher Report]

- MMA gear company "Manto" gets in trouble for NSFW ad with nipple slip. [The Fight Nerd]

- Frankie Edgar finds appeal in vulnerability. [Sports Illustrated]

- UFC Undisputed 3 roster: light heavyweights. [MMA Mania]

- Takeaways from UFC shifting PPV start times back to 10 PM EST. [Fight Opinion]

- Hershman leaves Showtime for HBO. [MMA Payout]

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/10/14/mma-link-parade/

Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo 

Bellator 54 recap: Vianna destroys Baker, Makovsky cruises past Roberts

Alexander Shlemenko battled through an absolute slugfest to advance to the Bellator middleweight tournament finals, but he'll have a beast awaiting him. Right before Shlemenko finished off Brian Rogers, Vitor Vianna sent a resounding message by running over Bryan Baker with a first round TKO finish at Bellator 54 in Atlantic City.

Vianna (13-1-1), who trains at Wanderlei Silva's Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas, decided to stand and bang with Baker. The jiu-jitsu ace showed he has thunder in his hands.

Vianna floored Baker with a well-placed right hook to the temple. Once Baker went down, Vianna sat on Baker, who was trapped along the cage, and punched away before the referee stopped things. The Brazilian actually caught a break. When Baker was on his hands and knees, Vianna nearly connected with an illegal soccer kick to the face.

Bellator 135-pound champion Zack Makovsky rolled in a non-title fight against UFC veteran Ryan Roberts. Frankly, Roberts looked a bit amateurish in being taken down twice by Makovsky using a low-single leg takedown. Once on the ground, Makovsky easily passed guard to side control. The second time, Makovsky quickly transitioned to slap on a north-south choke. The champ will now wait to see what happens in Bellator's bantamweight tournament.

Next week at Bellator 55 in Yuma, Az., 40-year-old Alexis Vila will try to continue his amazing run. The former Cuban Olympian will face Marcos Galvao. Ed West, a finalist in last year's 135-pound tourney faces Eduardo Duntas in the other semifinal. The winner of the tournament gets a title shot against Makovsky.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Bellator-54-recap-Vianna-destroys-Baker-Makovs?urn=mma-wp8274

Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio

MMA Top 10 Featherweights: Is Mendes the Man to Challenge Aldo?

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Jose Aldo is continuing to run roughshod over the rest of the featherweight division, improving his professional MMA record to 20-1 with a unanimous decision victory over Kenny Florian at UFC 136. So does anyone at 145 have a chance against Aldo?

So far it hasn't looked like it. It's not just that Aldo has won every single one of his fights since coming to North America at WEC 34 in 2008. It's that none of his fights have been close. He's shifted from being a knockout artist to usually winning one-sided decisions, but he really hasn't been tested by anyone.

Is Chad Mendes the man to change that? He's certainly the most worthy challenger to Aldo's title. We'll run down the top of the featherweight division below.

Top 10 featherweights in MMA
(Number in parentheses is the fighter's previous ranking.)

1. Jose Aldo (1): After struggling to cut down to 145 pounds, Aldo has talked about moving up to lightweight, but I think that would be a mistake. I don't think he has the frame for 155, and I think he'd really struggle against big lightweight wrestlers. In fact, I think he might struggle against a good featherweight wrestler like ...

2. Chad Mendes (2): The undefeated Mendes was a good college wrestler and may be the opponent to put Aldo on his back and keep him there. If there's anyone in the featherweight division who represents a threat to Aldo, it's Mendes.

3. Hatsu Hioki (3): Hioki is the big question mark in the UFC's featherweight division. He's about to make his UFC debut after going on a great run in Japan, and if he can make the adjustment to the cage and the North American unified rules, he could be a title contender: Hioki's reach, high-volume striking and active guard make him a tough puzzle to solve. Unfortunately, the recent track record of Japanese fighters coming to the U.S. has not been good. Hioki makes his debut against George Roop at UFC 137.

4. Pat Curran (NR): Curran has looked sensational since dropping from lightweight to featherweight, and after seeing him knock out Marlon Sandro, I think he's the best featherweight outside the UFC. Bellator has a strong featherweight division, and fights with Joe Warren or Patricio "Pitbull" Freire would be great matchups for Curran.

5. Erik Koch (8): Koch looked good in his September victory over Jonathan Brookins, which improved his record to 13-1, with the only loss coming against Mendes. At age 23, Koch has a very bright future ahead of him.

6. Mark Hominick (7): After taking several months off following his loss to Aldo, Hominick will return at UFC 140 against Chan Sung Jung in what should be an outstanding battle.

7. Kenny Florian (4): It's tough to see where Florian goes from here. He's good enough that he's earned three title shots in his career, but not good enough to win any of them, or even be competitive in any of them. And at age 35, with 20 pro fights under his belt, it's not like he's suddenly going to get a lot better. Still, I hope we haven't seen the last of Florian. He can have a gatekeeper role at either featherweight or lightweight, even if he's done fighting for belts.

8. Tyson Griffin (NR): Featherweight -- not lightweight -- has always been the right weight class for Griffin. It was the right weight class for him when he beat Urijah Faber in 2005, and it's the right weight class for him now, after he's moved back down from lightweight and beaten Manny Gamburyan. Up next for Griffin is a featherweight fight with another former lightweight, Bart Palaszewski, at UFC 137.

9. Tatsuya Kawajiri (NR): Another former lightweight dropping down, Kawajiri put on a good show in submitting Joachim Hansen at Dream.17. I'd like to see the UFC add Kawajiri to its featherweight roster.

10. Dustin Poirier (9): The 22-year-old Poirier is a rising star at featherweight. He gets Pablo Garza on the undercard of the November 12 UFC on Fox event.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/10/14/mma-top-10-featherweights-is-mendes-the-man-to-challenge-aldo/

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger 

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

HOUSTON - Featherweight champ Jose Aldo was an unstoppable force on his way up through the WEC. Now that Aldo has arrived in the UFC, and he isn't running through opponents anymore, you have to ask - did many in the media and some fans push Aldo into MMA's top five pound-for-pound rankings too quickly? It looks like it.

With the addition of new fighters from around the world and some former lightweights dropping down to featherweight, Aldo (20-1-1, 2-0 UFC) has a lot to get done before he should be legitimately mentioned amongst the elite of the elite.

"No way (has he cleaned out the division). That's why when they talk about him being top three pound-for-pound ... it's like, he's got a lot of work to do," Dana White said.

Kenny Florian made that obvious on Saturday night. Aldo was far from his super-aggressive self. He won the fight, but Florian made him battle for 25 minutes to get a unanimous decision, 49-46 on all three cards. Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA Writer Kevin Iole actually scored the fight 48-47 for Florian. Several others along press row in Houston had it 48-47 for Aldo.

"When you get into a fight with a guy like Kenny, a big, strong guy who's pushing you against the cage, you're in there trying to get out. It's one thing if you're in there going guns-a-blazing like when Urijah Faber and Aldo fought ... they went at it. That's not what you saw tonight," said Dana White, sounding less than impressed.

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

Aldo admitted that he fought with a conservative approach.

"I had to pace it a little bit in this fight. I knew if I was too explosive that Kenny could end up beating me. So I had to pace it. I couldn't really be as explosive as I wanted to be. And everybody was kind of telling me to hold back so I just kept it cool and studied the fight," Aldo said, not looking overly pleased with the W.

The champ defended take down attempts extremely well, thwarting 19-of-20 tries (Compustrike said it was 12-of-14) from Florian. But the Brazilian's lethal kicking game never got going and according to FightMetric, he was actually outlanded 69-66 over the course of five rounds. Those are hardly the numbers you'd expect from a guy being mentioned with the likes of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

On top of that, Aldo (20-1-1, 2-0 UFC) wasn't exactly facing a young gun or a guy on the upswing. Frankly, Florian is probably on the other side as far his career goes. He spends an awful lot of time with his side gig, as a television analyst with ESPN and he's now 35 years old. Following the loss, there were even rumors swirling that he was going to announce his retirement.

At UFC 129, Mark Hominick was beat up early against Aldo, but came on strong later in the fight to take the champ the distance as well. There were also moments where Hominick clearly outstruck the champ.

A closer examination of Aldo's previous victims in the WEC and you start to question the quality of his victories. He took the WEC title from Mike Brown in 2009. Brown is just 3-3 since.

Faber lost Aldo as well at 145, but now he's down at 135, his natural weight. Aldo's victories before that were against pretty non-descript fighters in the WEC.

This isn't a hatchet job on Aldo, but he is just 25 years old and needs to accomplish a lot to reach GSP and Silva heights. St-Pierre has won nine straight fights since 2007. Over that time, he's also won roughly 34-of-36 rounds. Silva's been even more impressive with 15 straight wins, 13 of them via some sort of finish.

Aldo's going to get Chad Mendes next and then a whole new wave of contenders from inside and otuside the promotion. Maybe these two decision victories will launch him to new level of dedication and Aldo can legitimately take the pound-for-pound crown from GSP and Silva, just give him a few years.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Aldo-has-much-to-prove-before-he-s-mentioned-wit?urn=mma-wp8025

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz

Phan wins thrilling UFC 136 decision over Garcia

Phan wins thrilling UFC 136 decision over Garcia

Nam Phan took an electrifying decision over Leonard Garcia at UFC 136 in Houston on Saturday night. Neither fighter let up for one second during the fight. On all three judges card, Phan won 29-28.

Phan got the edge early, teeing off on Garcia then knocking him down. Phan quickly moved into Garcia's guard, but after the referee didn't see enough action, he stood them up. Phan wobbled Garcia, and then defended one of his takedowns. Phan used body shots to create damage, and kept Garcia on his heels. In the final seconds of the round, Phan had one more onslaught to knock Garcia down again.

Garcia became more wild in the second round, winging big strikes that didn't go anywhere near Phan's face. Phan used short, fast punches to Garcia's face and body throughout the round. As the round wore on, Garcia began to tire, and a cut opened underneath his eye.

Between rounds, Phan said, "Let's touch gloves," to Garcia, who laughed and called Phan a word not fit for Cagewriter.

The first minute of the third round followed the same script that the rest of the fight had followed until Garcia knocked Phan down. He quickly got back to his feet, but Garcia teed off, swinging for the fences on every punch. They clinched, which slowed down the pace, but not for long. Phan took Garcia down, but the ref stood them up.

In the final minute, Garcia threw spinning backfists, swinging hooks, and every punch in the book. With less then 30 seconds left, Garcia tried for an unsuccessful takedown. As the round ended, the two swung wildly until the final horn ended, causing the crowd at the Toyota Center to erupt in cheers.

"I knew I had him in trouble. He had gathered so many points in the beginning. I knew I had to finish him," Garcia said after the bout.

This is a rematch of their December bout, which Garcia won by a controversial decision. Phan appeared to be the clear-cut winner in that bout, and was angry about the loss. He said he didn't want to fight Garcia a third time, but Garcia said he would be up for it if it were in Houston.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Phan-wins-thrilling-UFC-136-decision-over-Garcia?urn=mma-wp7965

Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi 

UFC 136 postfight: ?Rocky? references, baseball bats and the People?s champ

UFC 136 postfight: ?Rocky? references, baseball bats and the People?s champ

HOUSTON - In the end, the main card at UFC 136 delivered because Frank Edgar and Gray Maynard produced another classic in their third meeting in front of 16,164.

The live gate was $2.23 million. The UFC now holds the marks for the No. 1 and No. 4 all-time gates at the Toyota Center.

The effort in that main event got the UFC's lightweight champ the Knockout of the Night bonus, good for $75,000. Joe Lauzon beat out Chael Sonnen for Submission of the Night, while Fight of the Night went to Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia for their rock'em, sock'em brawl.

- Sonnen certainly deserved the Postfight Interview of the Night bonus. He called out Anderson Silva and asked to fight on the UFC's Super Saturday card in early February of 2012 in Las Vegas. Sonnen said the speech in the Octagon was off the cuff and he got fired up when he saw Silva sitting in the crowd. Dialing up more of the wrestling rhetoric, Sonnen said he was the people's champion and he was willing to give Silva a shot at the linear belt, his belt.

- White said he was highly impressed by Sonnen's victory over Stann. He believes in the theory of ring rust, but Sonnen showed no signs that he'd been away from the Octagon for 14 months.

- White said he wants to make the Silva-Sonnen fight as soon as possible. He wouldn't confirm that the fight would be on Super Bowl weekend, but he did say Brazil was almost an impossibility.

- Both Joe Lauzon and Dana White agreed on Melvin Guillard's performance saying he came into the fight with a lack of focus. Lauzon pointed out that while he sat in his hotel room all day on Saturday, Guillard was hanging out the UFC Fan Expo going down next door at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

- A very disappointed Kenny Florian wouldn't address retirement rumors. He was asked five questions and had little to say.

- Maynard still appeared stunned during the postfight. He couldn't believe Edgar made it through the first round.

"I don' know if he has a button that puts him out. I hit him on a knee, a right ... I think I hit him on a hook. What else? If there was a bat in there I probably would've hit him with that too. I couldn't find one. Where do you keep the bats in the cage?" Maynard jokingly asked White.

- White said he lost his mind cage side when Edgar pulled off the victory. Some may say   his mind was still lost when he made an impassioned plea that Edgar is now the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world during the postfight. White said he always thought the stuff you see in "Rocky" movies was [expletive], but Edgar produced a real-life Rocky fight.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-136-postfight-Rocky-references-baseball-?urn=mma-wp8049

Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio

Bellator CEO Rebney talks his fighters, Spike and the Olympics

Bellator CEO Rebney talks his fighters, Spike and the OlympicsAs Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney looks at what has happened in the fifth season, he can't help but still be amazed at how well his fighters perform week in and week out. He talked to Cagewriter about some of his favorite moments of the season and Bellator's future.

"The thing that's made me happy is the level of fights. From event no. 3 on, they've just been great. Dantas' flying knee, Alexis [Vila], the way that he knocked out Joe Warren was crazy, Brian Rogers, and saying to me in the incredibly articulate way he speaks as a teacher, 'I'm going to bring it.' And then he did. Shlemenko pulling of a submission victory, there's all these things that have been jumping out at me. There's just been moment after moment," Rebney said.

One of the fights that he is most looking forward to is the Nov. 19 title fight between champ Eddie Alvarez and tournament champ Michael Chandler. He says that no one should count out Chandler.

"Nobody is talking about Chandler in the upper echelon of the division. I'll be honest with you. I don't know if I can count on one hand the guys who can beat him."

That fight will air on MTV2, but with the UFC ending their relationship with Spike TV, there's a chance that Bellator could switch to the station that is aimed towards young men. Bellator's preliminary fights air on Spike's website, and Bellator's deal is with MTV's parent company.

"We're a great position in that our deal is with MTV networks, so it's that larger corporate umbrella. They control Spike, MTV, MTV2. You never know what the future will bring. The foreseeable future will be what it is, which is MTV2 and Spike.com for the prelims, but Spike is better than anyone in this space. They get it better than anyone."

Rebney is also excited about some of the challenges coming up for his fighters, both in and out of Bellator. He said that they are working on a match-up between DREAM fighter Shinya Aoki and Alvarez, but that it will likely happen in February, after Aoki fights in DREAM's New Year's Eve show.

Warren is working on returning to his wrestling roots and will try to make the 2012 Greco-Roman wrestling Olympic team. Rebney supports the world champion wrestler in trying to go for the gold.

"It's a great platform for Warren. If he can be our champion at 145, and then go and make the U.S. Olympic team, what a great thing for Bellator and for MMA."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Bellator-CEO-Rebney-talks-his-fighters-Spike-an?urn=mma-wp8194

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz