"[Kenny Florian was] The first step in me learning about the American fight style; he was a real comer and he really took it to me. So I sort of got a gauge on how the American fighters are going to fight."
"Then I was at the UFC Expo later [lost to Shane Roller] and that sort of cemented the knowledge. So I think I really have it down how the Americans are going to bring it to me."
"[Tyson Griffin] He's completely different than Florian, the first guy I took on. But he doesn't loose anything to him in terms of aggressiveness. He's very aggressive."
"I wouldn't say he's the most strategically based fighter ...coming with some sort of big strategy. He's just going to come and come and come and really bring it. So that's going to be a challenge."
(Letting James Toney wear four-ounce gloves? Sounds like contrapment to me. PicProps: SBNation)
We’re not sure if this meets the legal burden for proving premeditation, but boxing champion James Toney says he’s liable to kill (yes, literally kill) Randy Couture next month at UFC 118 if he hits him while wearing MMA gloves. Oh, and as for Couture’s takedown prowess? Lights Out’s not even sweating it.
“Everybody asks ‘How are you going to defend the takedown?’ I’m not worried about that. How are you going to defend these punches?” Toney told MMA Weekly in an interview published on Saturday. “I’m going from 10-ounce gloves to four-ounce gloves. If I hit someone with four-ounce gloves, oh my goodness, me and my crew might go to jail for homicide.”
"I’ve been training with the Nogueiras here in Bahia. Rogerio (Lil' Nog) was here a little longer than Rodrigo. Demian Maia has also been strong for me and a few more people who came to assist me and my team out here including the Northeast Champion of Jiu-Jitsu who has helped me from the beginning. This week I am doing the final preparation, its time to start winding down and on Saturday I do my last sparring and I'll have to be 100% to do this sparring. Then next week is the maintenance phase of the training. My intention is to keep the fight standing up, because I like the striking and want to use my boxing, which is where I consider myself better and it's where I want to try to surprise my opponent. But if the fight goes to the floor, I'm ready too, because I'm training a lot of Jiu-Jitsu and I'm sure I can still surprise him on the floor as well."
Brazilian powerhouse Junior dos Santos takes on Roy Nelson next Saturday night (Aug. 7, 2010) at UFC 117: "Silva vs. Sonnen," in a heavyweight clash that will likely determine the next division contender. Nelson, who's very skilled on the ground, and perhaps even better at keeping his opponents plastered on their backs, has indicated that he intends to throw leather. However, how long can he last with that gameplan? Or is he just better off seeing what "surprises" dos Santos has down south?
It’s been nearly 20 months since UFC middleweight Mike Massenzio stepped into the octagon.
After injuries and illness kept him away for so long, Massenzio surely feels the pressure going into his fight with former WEC champion Brian Stann on Sunday at UFC on Versus 2, right?
“I try not to think of it like that,” Massenzio recently told MMAjunkie.com. “I love to fight, and I love to be in the UFC.”
"I’ve been training with the Nogueiras here in Bahia. Rogerio (Lil' Nog) was here a little longer than Rodrigo. Demian Maia has also been strong for me and a few more people who came to assist me and my team out here including the Northeast Champion of Jiu-Jitsu who has helped me from the beginning."
"This week I am doing the final preparation, its time to start winding down and on Saturday I do my last sparring and I'll have to be 100% to do this sparring. Then next week is the maintenance phase of the training," Dos Santos said.
"My intention is to keep the fight standing up, because I like the striking and want to use my boxing, which is where I consider myself better and it's where I want to try to surprise my opponent. But if the fight goes to the floor, I'm ready too, because I'm training a lot of Jiu-Jitsu and I'm sure I can still surprise him on the floor as well."
(Go ahead, write untruths about this man. See what happens ...)
Almost by definition, the media conference calls that fight companies stage before major events are pretty tedious affairs. On rare occasions, the stars align and they can turn into total shitshows where something interesting actually happens, but usually you just end up sitting on the phone for 45 minutes while different writers ask the same questions over and over and the athletes repeatedly mumble the same prepared responses.
Unfortunately, last week’s reporter cattle call for Sunday’s UFC Live on Versus event was no different. In fact, it was perhaps even more monotonous after first being interrupted by a fire alarm at the conference center (seriously) and then when Jon Jones and Vladimir Matyushenko spent the whole time trying to out nice-guy each other. The only halfway illuminating or unexpected exchange occurred nearly 35 minutes in, when a reporter from Fox Twin Cities-Minneapolis asked Jones about reports a couple months back that he had balked at the chance to fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 114.
The main card for September's WEC 51 event now appears complete.
World Extreme Cagefighting officials recently moved a featherweight bout between "The Korean Zombie," Chan Sung Jung, and opponent George Roop from the preliminary card to the night's Versus-televised main card.
The five-fight televised lineup is now set for the card, which takes place Sept. 30 at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo.
In the main event of the evening, twenty-three year old National Junior College wrestling champion Jon Jones (10-1, 4-1 UFC) will aim to continue his quick rise toward the top of the UFC's light heavyweight ranks as he takes on Belarusian wrestler and former IFL light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko (24-4, 2-0 UFC). In Jones' last performance, he destroyed the once heavily hyped Brandon Vera in a little over three minutes in the first round, breaking Vera's face. In previous appearances, he crushed Matt Hamill before being disqualified for illegal use of the elbow, submitted Jake O'Brien, and defeated Stephan Bonnar and Andre Gusmao via unanimous decision. An impressive list of wins for a fighter who only just turned 23 years old.
Matyushenko's recent run in the UFC has been successful as well, although his strength of competition is a notch lower than that of Jon Jones. "The Janitor", as he's nicknamed, defeated both Eliot Marshall and Igor Pokrajac via decision at UFC on Versus I and UFC 103 respectively. The 39-year-old will play old man in this showdown between youth versus experience, and it doesn't look like the outcome will be too favorable for Matyushenko.
Honestly, I'm not too keen on this match-up. A 39-year-old wrestler versus a 23-year-old wrecking machine? It's definitely a nice fight to help Jon Jones progress, but I don't think Matyushenko has anything to offer that Jones hasn't seen before. Matyushenko is primarily a wrestler, but he's shown some improving stand-up skills in his last couple of fights. He can be a pest by relentlessly putting opponents on their backs, but Jones has never been outwrestled in the cage.
Matyushenko's best chance is to press the pace so hurriedly that Jones' huge frame begins to fatigue. While that seems like an impossibility, Bonnar was able to take advantage in late rounds of technical deficiencies in Jones' stand-up game when he became tired. Matyushenko has to get this fight into the later rounds and tire out Jones, otherwise this is a closed case.
Why such the gloomy outlook on this main event? Stylistically, Jones has all the gifts to crush Matyushenko in one or two rounds of action, and all the great training partners in the world that Vladimir has been bringing in aren't going to change the fact that he's going to be very surprised by Jones' strength and frustrated by his unpredictability. There's also that other problem of Jones being freakishly powerful enough to implement his own wrestling game on the ground and mount opponents at will.
Jones will win on Sunday night. While I've been a fan of Matyushenko for quite a long time, his time has come to succumb to the younger generation. Jones is just far too gifted to lose here, and unless Matyushenko pulls off a Mike Russow miracle in the striking department -- he's going to find himself in very dangerous situations with a monster like Jones on top of him. Jon Jones via TKO.
The flow of massive wrestlers into mixed martial arts continues, and
former Oklahoma State Cowboy Jared Rosholt is the next heavyweight ready
to make the plunge.
Team Takedown boss Ted Ehrhardt revealed on Thursday to MMAjunkie.com Radio that Rosholt has joined brother Jake, WEC
lightweight contender Shane Roller, and UFC welterweight Johny Hendricks
on the Team Takedown roster.
"We have signed a new fighter - Jake's brother, Jared Rosholt," Ehrhardt
said. "He's a three-time All-American, and he finished second in
nationals this year."
"I respect Vladimir a ton and I look at him as a huge step-up in competition and a huge test for me. I think he’s a great warrior and he’s everything when it comes to having a tough fight. He probably has some of the best wrestling credentials I ever fought against, he definitely has the best record I’ve ever gone against, and he’s the best fighter I ever fought. I think he’s better than Stephan Bonnar, better than Hamill, better than Brandon Vera. Technique wise and skill wise, I’m considering him the hardest fight I’ve had."
Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - Before he was Bones Jones, NBT (Next Big Thing), Jon Jones was a 21-year old armed with talent, desire, and the dreams of every young fighter in mixed martial arts - to be in the UFC.
And despite a spotless 6-0 record, when he set foot inside the Octagon for the first time to face Andre Gusmao at UFC 87 in August of 2008, it was more than just another fight.
As a reminder, submissions for the upcoming edition of "The Sunday Junkie" are due Sunday at 10 a.m. ET.
All topics are open for
discussion. The person who sends in the submission we deem the best -
based on timeliness of subject, clarity and overall persuasiveness -
will be invited onto MMAjunkie.com Radio to discuss the topic.
Each winner will also receive a free year's subscription to Fighters Only, the world's leading MMA and lifestyle magazine!
Main bouts: Jon Jones (206) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (206) Mark Munoz (185) vs. Yushin Okami (185) John Howard (170.5) vs. Jake Ellenberger (170.5) Tyson Griffin (154) vs. Takanori Gomi (156)
Preliminary bouts: Paul Kelly (155) vs. Jacob Volkmann (156) DaMarques Johnson (172)* vs. Matt Riddle (171) James Irvin (205) vs. Igor Pokrajac (204.5) Brian Stann (186) vs. Mike Massenzio (184) Darren Elkins (154.5) vs. Charles Oliveira (154) Rob Kimmons (185) vs. Steve Steinbeiss (185)
* Johnson originally weighed in at 172.5 pounds and failed to make weight on his second attempt. He will be fined 20% of his fight purse.
It’s been nearly 20 months since UFC middleweight Mike Massenzio stepped into the octagon.
The main card for September's WEC 51 event now appears complete.
The flow of massive wrestlers into mixed martial arts continues, and
former Oklahoma State Cowboy Jared Rosholt is the next heavyweight ready
to make the plunge.
As a reminder, submissions for the upcoming edition of "The Sunday Junkie" are due Sunday at 10 a.m. ET.
