?Warrior? almost looks like MMA?s ?Rocky?

Is it possible mixed martial arts may have its first really good movie? It's only a trailer, but I have to admit the extended trailer in theaters looked damn good as well.

The storyline is a bit cheesy with two brothers fighting at the end of the movie, but "Warrior" looks like it has potential. The nationwide debut comes this Friday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/-Warrior-almost-looks-like-MMA-s-Rocky-?urn=mma-wp6568

Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo 

Title belts, illegal kicks and more notes from the Strikeforce press conference

CINCINNATI -- Scott Coker started the Strikeforce post-fight press conference by pointing out that it was filled with unbelievable fights. More notes from the press conference:

-- Main event winner Josh Barnett quickly got to the heart of questions about the Strikeforce heavyweight championship by asking that his Grand Prix final match with Daniel Cormier be for the Strikeforce belt.

"Why don't we sweeten the pot? Why not put the belt on the line? The people that he had to step over to get it a real belt."

Coker asked Barnett to slow down, saying, "Let's keep it one step at a time." They expect that the fight will take place in the first quarter of 2012. Cormier's hand was wrapped up and said that he did hurt it, so the timing rests on his health.

-- Rockhold said that his prediction of a 4-0 night by American Kickboxing Academy was not just to hype the fights. Having trained with the fighters who all won, Rockhold said that they were all ready.

"It sucks to get hit by Mo," he said of Lawal.

-- Rockhold's win was in one of the tightest fights of the night. His opponent, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza asked for a rematch. Coker said it's not a bad idea, but Rockhold didn't seem as keen on it.

-- Mo Lawal, who was fighting for the first time in over a year, mentioned earlier in the week that he was unhappy with the buzz surrounding his fights. He pointed out how Strikeforce delivered again.

"I'm glad to be back. Tonight was a great night of fights. I'm speechless because there were so many great fights. Strikeforce, we always put on great fights," he said.

-- Pat Healy said that he wasn't surprised when Maximo Blanco peppered him with illegal kicks to the head. "I don't want to say he's cheap, but he's had a few incidents."

-- Lawal wants to win to fight for the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt, unless it's vacant.

"If Dan has belt, I want it. But if it's vacant, I don't want to fight for no vacant title. Real talk," Lawal said.

Coker was unsure if that can happen because Strikeforce is still negotiating with Henderson.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Title-belts-illegal-kicks-and-more-notes-from-t?urn=mma-wp6819

Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott

Yoel Romero?s long road to Strikeforce debut

CINCINNATI -- Yoel Romero Palacio will make his Strikeforce debut on Saturday against former light heavyweight champ Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante, a tough test in just his fifth fight. But his journey to MMA was one that prepared him for any test.

Romero wrestled for Cuba, and around the turn of the century, was one of the world's best at 84 kg. He has world and Olympic medals, including a world championship in 1999, but he defected from Cuba after a wrestling tournament in Germany in 2005.

This was a dangerous decision, because top wrestlers are well-known athletes in Cuba. He had to sell all of his belongings and leave his family. His wife and young daughter are now with him in Germany, but his six-year-old son is still in Cuba. He told Cagewriter that it was a terribly difficult decision to defect from the Communist country.

"It wasn't just Cuba. It was my family."

He coached wrestling before starting to train in MMA. Though he didn't have his first fight until 2009, MMA was on his mind even when he was still in Cuba.

"It's a sport that I think God gave me the talent to be good at, and I felt that attraction when I was in Cuba and watched a few of the first UFCs, with Royce Gracie, and his wins made me really feel a passion to try the sport. I felt like it was in me to be able to try it out," he told Cagewriter.

He hopes to find the same success and satisfaction in MMA that he did in wrestling. He has yet to have a fight go to a decision, winning all four by TKO or knockout. Romero Palacio is hoping for a true test in Cavalcante.

"I haven't been able to let it go like I wanted to because those fights were just the beginners. To let it go the way I can? I will have even better satisfaction than in wrestling."

Though wrestlers are often tagged with being boring fighters, Romero Palacio promises that fans will enjoy watching him fight.

"I always fight for the public. It's always been my style to fight for the public. I like the fans to feel satisfied with what I have done," he said. "It's going to be a gladiators fight."

But that doesn't mean that he has forgotten his roots as a wrestler. With the Olympics coming up next summer, he does have the itch to compete again. His one-time nemesis, American Cael Sanderson, is returning to competition after retiring to coach. Romero Palacio smiled at the idea of wrestling Sanderson, who beat him at the 2004 Olympics, again.

"I would love to. I want to show the world who is the world's best wrestler at that weight class. I don't think [Cael Sanderson] would like it if I came back."

Romero Palacio's bout with Feijao and the rest of the preliminary fights for Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov will air on HDNet starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Yoel-Romero-s-long-road-to-Strikeforce-debut?urn=mma-wp6707

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz

Floyd Mayweather, Larry Merchant Go Toe to Toe

Just moments after Floyd Mayweather knocked out Victor Ortiz in controversial fashion on Saturday night, another controversy erupted in the ring during Mayweather's post-fight interview with HBO's longtime boxing commentator Larry Merchant.

As he always does after big fights, Merchant stepped into the ring after Mayweather beat Ortiz and began to pepper Mayweather with tough questions. But these questions were tougher than most because the circumstances were unprecedented: Mayweather had just knocked Ortiz out at a point when the referee had appeared to call time out, and the fans at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas were loudly booing Mayweather, rather than celebrating his latest victory.

As Merchant's questions heated up, Mayweather became enraged.

"You never give me a fair shake. HBO needs to fire you," Mayweather screamed. "You don't know s--t about boxing."

The 80-year-old Merchant replied, "I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass."

With that, Mayweather stormed off, and Merchant began to interview Ortiz, who was much more mild-mannered. But once the interview with Ortiz was over, Merchant returned to the subject of his own confrontation with Mayweather.

"I don't really think I could have kicked his ass 50 years ago, but I would have tried it," Merchant said.

Merchant added that he believed the real reason Mayweather cut the interview short is that he didn't want to face questions about why he has refused to fight Manny Pacquiao, who is widely regarded as the opponent with the best chance to hand Mayweather his first career loss.

"What happened? I think Floyd Mayweather knew that the next question was going to be about, Why don't you fight Pacquiao? That's still the question that will linger long after this fight," Merchant said.

If nothing else, the exchange between Merchant and Mayweather will bolster Merchant's reputation as a journalist who's not afraid to ask any question -- and bolster Mayweather's reputation as boxing's greatest villain.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/09/18/floyd-mayweather-larry-merchant-go-toe-to-toe/

José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez

Free clips for Chris Sharma ?King Lines? climbing video?

Interested in downloading high-quality clips of Chris Sharma climbing? Today I checked out the website for Chris Sharma’s King Lines movie - and there’s a new addition! Early versions of the DVD didn’t feature all of the extras properly, so the website features downloadable clips from the extras. This won’t replace the need to buy the DVD, but [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rock-climbing-blog/~3/v-YQWecn-lk/philsheard

Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama 

Brett Rogers Pleads Guilty to Assault

Filed under: ,

Brett Rogers pled guilty to third-degree assault on Thursday in connection with a domestic violence incident involving his wife, and as a result had three other charges dropped.

Rogers will not be sentenced until Nov. 30, and in the mean time he will face Eddie Sanchez on the Sept. 23 Titan Fighting Championships card, as scheduled.

Rogers' attorney, Murad Mohammed, told Apple Valley Patch that he believes there is a good chance Rogers will escape any jail time.

"Overall, Brett and I are pleased with the outcome," Mohammed said. "I think it's important for everyone, especially Brett's wife and family, to know that Brett has taken ownership for everything that's happened. It's an unfortunate situation for the family and the end result is Brett not having a felony conviction resulting in him returning to his family and continuing to fight."

In June, shortly after Rogers lost to Josh Barnett in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, witnesses said they saw Rogers strike his wife, and he was arrested. Zuffa, the parent company of Strikeforce and the UFC, immediately released Rogers. He and his wife later appeared together in a television interview and said they were reconciled.

Rogers has been in several high-profile MMA fights, including a first-round knockout of Jon Murphy in the first MMA fight ever to be broadcast on network television and a first-round knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. He had lost consecutive Strikeforce fights to Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Barnett at the time he was released by the promotion.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/09/15/brett-rogers-pleads-guilty-to-assault/

Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah 

How to?build a home gym

When I moved into my new home, I spent a little time on reconnaissance for somewhere to train for climbing. I initially thought a fingerboard would be the way to go. However, all the doorways were flimsy stud walls and not sturdy enough. An alternative jumped out - Rock Rings by Metolius. If only I could find [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rock-climbing-blog/~3/kB9Hgxz2rko/philsheard

Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama 

Hughes goes old school, training with Penn and Miletich for next week?s fight

Hughes goes old school, training with Penn and Miletich for next week?s fight

Only in mixed martial arts, right? Unless we're talking Rocky III, when Balboa and Apollo Creed worked together, it's bizarre to see fighters working together just months after one knocks the other one silly in a fight. But that's exactly what Matt Hughes is doing by training with B.J. Penn, the guy who beat him less than 11 months ago.

"I brought in a couple of special guests ? B.J. Penn and Pat Miletich. Being around such great fighters and coaches is humbling, No. 1; and No. 2, it was a great learning environment because we all learned off each other," Hughes wrote in ESPN.com blog.

Hughes said he also worked with Jeremy Horn, Matt Pena and DaMarques Johnson. In advance of his UFC 135 fight next week against Josh Koscheck, the experience was eye opening.

"All I had to do was show up, not do anything on the mat, and I was gonna sit there and learn. If I wanted to, I could have charged admission and people would have loved to just sit there, watch and soak it in," said Hughes.

Publicly, Penn and Hughes seemed to have a pretty heated relationship until the last few years. Hughes pointed out that Penn's appearance in his latest camp was actually paying back a favor. Just weeks after he was laid out by Penn at UFC 123, Hughes actually traveled to Hawaii to work takedown defense for the Hawaiian's fight against Jon Fitch in February.

Miletich, a former UFC champion from 1998-2000, hadn't worked with Hughes since 2007. Hughes left Miletich Fighting Systems in Iowa to open his own training center, but fighter and coach stayed on good terms since the split.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Hughes-goes-old-school-training-with-Penn-and-M?urn=mma-wp6901

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

?Warrior? almost looks like MMA?s ?Rocky?

Is it possible mixed martial arts may have its first really good movie? It's only a trailer, but I have to admit the extended trailer in theaters looked damn good as well.

The storyline is a bit cheesy with two brothers fighting at the end of the movie, but "Warrior" looks like it has potential. The nationwide debut comes this Friday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/-Warrior-almost-looks-like-MMA-s-Rocky-?urn=mma-wp6568

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz