Cerrone get his wish for quick fight with Siver match up at UFC 137

Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone is as hot as a pistol right now. After his quick win over Charles Oliveira two weeks ago at UFC on Versus 5, he told Joe Silva he's waiting for the phone call. Even if there was opening for UFC 135 just six weeks, he'd take the fight.

"I want the Denver card coming up very soon. Hopefully nobody get hurt, but then I hope somebody gets hurt," joked Cerrone. "I told [UFC matchmaker] Joe [Silva], I'm the guy to call. I'll fight anybody, anywhere. I have to back that up."

Well, it won't be that soon, but Cerrone is now booked to take on Denis Siver in late October.

Siver's original opponent Sam Stout had to back out of the fight. There's no official word on the reason, but it makes sense to think that Stout is out because of the recent passing of his brother-in-law and trainer Shawn Tompkins.

Tompkins passed away on Aug. 14. He died in his sleep from a heart attack. The 37-year-old, who worked out of Las Vegas and Canada, was laid to rest on Aug. 19. Stout, 27, is riding a nice streak with two straight wins and 4-of-5.

Now it's Cerrone turn to step in with Siver, who's also been on fire. The Russian fighting out of Germany has won four straight including an upset over Sotiropoulos. Stylistically, this is a dream for fight fans. Cerrone loves to bang it out and Siver, is a very good one-trick pony with an excellent stand-up game.

This is a another statement fight for Cerrone, who was one of the big stars in the WEC, but always had that cloud of doubt hanging over him. How good were WEC lightweights? We get more answers at UFC 137.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Cerrone-get-his-wish-for-quick-fight-with-Siver-?urn=mma-wp6404

Volk Han Joachim Hansen Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy

Absurd Skateboards Montage


I can't tell you much about this Russian montage from Absurd Skateboards other than dudes are ripping, and someone does a BS 180 nosegrind 180 transfer on a flatbar at 1:07 which is a trick I've been wanting to see for years.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MostlySkateboarding/~3/ma61IjaEj34/absurd-skateboards-montage.html

Patrick The Predator Côté  Randy The Natural Couture  Dan Cramer Alberto Crane

Caught on video: Solid Muay Thai game pays off for Memphis security guard

Don't call them rent-a-cops anymore. There are some highly trained security guards around the country especially those who've watched a little mixed martial arts.

Check out this wild scene in Tennessee where an off-duty Memphis Area Transit Authority guard took on some idiot named Morgan Turner.

According to officials the fracas was absolutely necessitated by Turner:

MATA says the fight started after the guard received complaints that Turner was harassing women outside the bus terminal on Main Street.

ABC24 provided the video and did a follow up with some local fighters to ask about the guard's technique.

Fighter Ladarius Miller says he's trained with the guard, known as "Karate" to his buddies. He was shocked by the video.

"The fight ain't his fault. It ain't surprising in how he fights, but I'm surprised it's him," says Miller. "Watch it, Inside leg kick. Check out the hook.  You see the hook? You see the hook? Look at the upper cut. "

Another local fighter Brian Hall could tell "Karate" had some training.

"The suspect had his hands down and the guard had his hands up," says Hall, "and that right there should have told him, I don't want to mess with this guy," said Hall.

No charges were filed against the victim of the butt kicking or the guard. The MATA officer has been reassigned to a new location.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Caught-on-video-Solid-Muay-Thai-game-pays-off-f?urn=mma-wp6167

Joachim Hansen Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy Lee Hasdell

UFC 134 weigh-in: Brazil vs. the rest of the world

A pro-Brazil crowd showed up for the UFC 134 weigh-in this afternoon in Rio de Janeiro. All of the American fighters were greeted with booing and chanting. That said most seemed unphased. Forrest Griffin waved on more catcalls and Brendan Schaub just chuckled. All 24 fighters made weight and there was little drama during the staredowns.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva came in just under the middleweight limit at 184 pounds and said he hopes everyone comes out to back this "Brazil vs. the rest of the world card". His challenger Yushin Okami checked in at 183.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua looked much trimmer than he did at UFC 128 against Jon Jones. Griffin nearly ran to scale. It looked like a well-managed weight cut for the American. On Wednesday, he told Dana White  he was 216. When we saw him last week at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas he couldn't have been much heavier than that. Griffin's had previous cases where he was walking around in the 220's days before the fight.

UFC 134 weigh-in:

Yushin Okami (183) vs. Anderson Silva (184) - UFC middleweight title

Forrest Griffin (205) vs. Mauricio Rua (205)
Antonio Nogueira (243) vs. Brendan Schaub (247)
Luiz Cane (204) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (203)
Ross Pearson (155) vs. Edson Barboza (155)
Spencer Fisher (156) vs. Thiago Tavares (156)
Dan Miller (184) vs. Rousimar Palhares (185)
David Mitchell (171) vs. Paulo Thiago (169)
Johnny Eduardo (135) vs. Raphael Assuncao (134)
Erick Silva (169) vs. Luis Ramos (171)
Felipe Arantes (145) vs. Yuri Alcantara (144)
Yves Jabouin (135) vs. Ian Loveland (135)

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-134-weigh-in-Brazil-vs-the-rest-of-the-wor?urn=mma-wp6244

Rob Broughton  Mike Brown  Junie Browning Paul Buentello 

MMA Marketplace: Get your own authentic MMA championship belt

To get an authentic MMA championship belt, you can put in years of hard work, sacrifice and training to earn it, or you can drop $1,600 on a WAMMA belt on eBay. Look, it's so shiny!

WAMMA was the organization that wanted to create an undisputed champ at every weight class, regardless of what promotion they fought in. Fedor Emelianenko held the WAMMA heavyweight title. In this picture from November 2009, Fabricio Werdum can be seen jokingly grabbing at Fedor's WAMMA belt, but WAMMA barely made a blip among most MMA fans.

What they did make was a pretty, pretty belt, and it can be yours for a starting bid at $1,595 plus shipping on eBay.

Thanks to Bloody Elbow

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/MMA-Marketplace-Get-your-own-authentic-MMA-cham?urn=mma-wp6135

Tony DeSouza  Edwin Dewees  Nick Diaz  Tadhg Steamfist Dixon

Pat Curran talks about Bellator, gameplanning and that KO

CRYSTAL LAKE, Illinois -- Pat Curran, Bellator's new featherweight tournament winner, was back at Curran Martial Arts for the first time since knocking out Marlon Sandro on Saturday night. The gym built by his cousin Jeff was now Pat's home, too, and the several congratulations he received over the course of our interview showed just how happy Curran Martial Arts was to have Pat on the roster.

Now, Curran credits the preparation he did with Curran Martial Arts as the reason that he has won two straight Bellator tournaments. The difference for him in the featherweight tournament, in which he submitted Luis Palomino, and won by decision over Ronnie Mann before knocking out Sandro, was film study and game planning.

Curran knew Sandro's weaknesses before Saturday night, and envisioned a knockout win.

"When he gets in exchanges, he starts going really wild. His chin is up in the air. I saw myself connecting with an overhand right, and knocking him out that way, but I also saw the head kick, too. That's exactly what happened. As he was bobbing and weaving, his hands were down and he ducked right into my kick. I saw that in the footage, but I give credit to my corners, too, because they gave me good advice," Curran said.

He knew from the moment the kick landed that the fight was going to be over soon.

"I felt it right on my shin. He dropped, and I rushed over him in. I didn't want him getting back up, so that's why I rushed over with those quick little shots."

That gave Curran his second tournament win with Bellator. He won their lightweight tournament, only to drop a five-round decision to champion Eddie Alvarez. Curran says that losing to Alvarez helped him rattle off three straight wins after that.

"I lost the fight, but I walked away with a lot of knowledge. I saw that I needed to mix up my gameplan instead of focusing on just one goal. I mixed up my gameplan, started to throw more takedowns in, throwing more kicks, start showing off my ground skills."

He also dropped down to featherweight after the loss. Curran says that though the weight cut was the toughest part of the tournament, he is much more confident fighting at 145 lbs. than he was at 155 lbs.

"I didn't have much confidence going through the 155 tournament. Nobody thought I was going to win. I was a filler fight. I ended up winning the whole tournament. I went up against Eddie Alvarez, and he was still favored to win the whole thing. I trained my ass off for that fight, and it still was a confidence booster. I stood with one of the best lightweights in the world, one of the best strikers in the world, and he didn't knock me out, and I was able to land my shots as well. Now I'm dropping down to the weight class that I originally wanted to fight at, and I was a tournament favorite. I had a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence going into it."

Those wins have catapulted Curran into the top-10 among featherweights. MMA Weekly's latest rankings put him eighth in the world.

"It is really cool to see myself in the top-10 or top-5, but I look at all the fighters in the top 5 and I see myself beating them any day. I see myself belonging with the high quality guys."

But just who he'll fight next, and when that fight will happen is a question mark. Joe Warren is Bellator's featherweight champ, and winning the featherweight tournament means that Curran should have a shot at him. However, Patricio Freire won the last FW tourney, but hasn't been able to fight Warren yet because of an injury. Also, Warren is entered into Bellator's bantamweight tournament, so Curran will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, he has no problem taking time off as he has already fought four times in 2011.

"I'm looking forward to a little time off. I had the Alvarez fight, and then I went right into the featherweight tournament. I really didn't get much of a break. I want to take a little time off and improve on my skills, and do some grappling tournaments."

He'll also help his cousin Jeff and teammate Bart Palaszewski get ready for their bouts at UFC 137. Though he'll be in Las Vegas to support them in the UFC, Curran doesn't have any questions about which promotion is right for him.

"The UFC was always a goal, but Bellator has been so good to me/ I'm making good money, I love Bjorn (Rebney, the Bellator CEO). He's treating me really well. Everyone over there is treating me well, and I see myself staying with them as long as they're around. They're a great organization."

Thanks to Eric Coleman and Bellator for the photos.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Pat-Curran-talks-about-Bellator-gameplanning-an?urn=mma-wp6150

Kyle Bradley  Jai Bradney  Ebenezer Fontes Braga Chris Brennan