Video: Anderson Silva dancing with Justin Bieber. No, really.

Anderson Silva recently defended his middleweight title at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro. What does the pound-for-pound king do to kick back after a hard training camp? Maybe spend some time on the beach, hang out with his family, go ballroom dancing, or enjoy some burgers from his sponsor?

Nope. He dances on-stage with Justin Bieber.

Yes, that's the tween sensation dancing with the UFC middleweight champ as Brazilian girls scream like, well, little girls. It's funny to hear the fathers join in on the screaming when they see Silva take the stage.

This isn't Bieber's first close encounter with fighters, as he has been to UFC fights before. He tweeted his thanks to UFC president Dana White after attending UFC 132, and the subsequent Twitter replies crashed White's phone.

There's no avoiding it. Mixed martial arts and Bieber Fever go hand in hand.

Thanks to Middle Easy.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-Anderson-Silva-dancing-with-Justin-Bieber?urn=mma-wp7803

John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves 

MMA Marketplace: Milwaukee shirt just in time for playoffs

The state of Wisconsin had quite a weekend, as their baseball, college football and pro football teams all walked away with big wins. This weekend, one of their favorite sons, Anthony Pettis, will try to extend the winning streak as he takes on Jeremy Stephens.

If you want to celebrate the success of the Dairy State with an MMA twist, check out this shirt from Roufus Sport, who has a slightly different take on the logo of the Milwaukee Brewers:

MMA Marketplace: Milwaukee shirt just in time for playoffs

The Brewers are up 2-1 on the Diamondbacks and need to win today to move onto the NLCS. This shirt is perfect for a trip to Miller Park as people will have to give it a closer look to see just who you're supporting. Get it for $20.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/MMA-Marketplace-Milwaukee-shirt-just-in-time-fo?urn=mma-wp7750

Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè 

UFC 136 draw: Aldo and Florian can?t decide a winner, huh?

UFC 136 draw: Aldo and Florian can?t decide a winner, huh?

Kenny Florian is hoping for a fairer outcome than he got Wednesday against Jose Aldo Jr. The featherweights locked horns in a soccer battle, but were in need of more rounds to decide a winner. If the same thing happens tomorrow night, we'll see a round four and five.

In conjunction with the MLS' Houston Dynamo, Florian and Aldo did a special "kick-up" promotion. The fighters, who both have a solid soccer background, squared off in a soccer ball juggling contest. MMAjunkie had the details:

Florian jumped out to the early lead by using only his feet, knees and head to score 17 consecutive touches on the soccer ball before it hit the ground. Aldo answered with just 10 touches.

Both fighters adjusted their plans in the second frame and favored a strategy of keeping the ball very low and playing just with their feet. Aldo took the round, 23 touches to 12.

In the final round, Florian put on the best performance of the night with 42 touches. Aldo answered back with his best output and netted 28 consecutive strikes.

UFC 136 draw: Aldo and Florian can?t decide a winner, huh?

Aldo was a pretty accomplished soccer player into his early 20's before switching over full-time to MMA. Florian actually played on the soccer team at Boston College.

Aldo defends his UFC featherweight title against Florian tomorrow night at UFC 136.

Watch UFC 136 right here on Yahoo! Sports

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-136-draw-Aldo-and-Florian-can-t-decide-a-wi?urn=mma-wp7863

Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott

Photo: Sir Charles Barkley enjoyed UFC 136

Photo: Sir Charles Barkley enjoyed UFC 136

NBA legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley was one of the 16,164 at the Toyota Center in Houston for UFC 136. Barkley took a second to pose for a picture with Strikeforce welterweight contender Tyron Woodley and his wife Averi.

Barkley was also in Philadelphia for UFC 133. He was known for being a bruiser in his NBA days, and once punched Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull. Would you like to see him in the cage?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Photo-Sir-Charles-Barkley-enjoyed-UFC-136?urn=mma-wp8072

Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè 

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

John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves 

Dominick Cruz breaks hand in victory, Dana White raves about his toughness

Dominick Cruz breaks hand in victory, Dana White raves about his toughness

If you watched Dominick Cruz's title defense last night words like fast, smart, powerful and elusive all describe the champ in his win over Demetrious Johnson. Add tough to the list of superlatives.

Following the UFC on Versus 6 postfight press conference, his boss Dana White informed the media that the UFC's bantamweight champ had suffered a broken hand during the fight. Cruz fought for 25 minutes and then went through the press conference at Verizon Center, and made no mention of an injury.

"You know one of the things I respect about the kid?" White said. "He's got a broken hand and had one the entire fight. He broke his (left) hand and is going to have surgery. Not only did he not stop fighting and keep coming up 100 percent, he doesn't even [expletive] say anything about it."

White suggested it was far from a minor injury.

"You should see his hand right now. His whole middle of his hand is all swollen. His knuckle looks nasty. He's going to get surgery next week. (But) I don't know how long that will keep him out," said White.

Cruz (19-1, 2-0 UFC) may be on the shelf for a while, but that'll give him plenty of time to size up his next opponent. He's likely see a familiar face across the Octagon.

Brian Bowles and Urijah Faber will fight at UFC 139 in November. The winner is the leading candidate to get a crack at Cruz. Faber is 1-1 against Cruz and the champ originally won the WEC/UFC title against Bowles back in March of 2010. He's made four successful title defenses since then.

When asked about the Bowles-Faber bout, it sounded like Cruz would like another shot at the more glamorous Faber.

"It's going to be an awesome fight. I fought both of those guys. I'm extremely excited to watch it. Both those guys are finishers," Cruz said. "[...] I'm going to be right in crowd smirking at [Faber] just like he's always doing with me with his long curly locks."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Dominick-Cruz-breaks-hand-in-victory-Dana-White?urn=mma-wp7678

Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi