GSP - No Strength and Conditioning Training?

I found an interesting post today about Georges St. Pierre, in which GSP says that he does not train strength and conditioning for his fights.  My own opinion from knowing and training with martial artists and grapplers for several years, is that GSP is right, but misleading at the same time.  He says that he only lifts weights he make himself look his best, so he is more marketable.  I would agree with this, weights alone will do very little to help you in MMA unless do a ton of reps as well.  GSP says that he does some exercises to build explosive power, which really is the same as lifting weights, but with a variety of excersizes built in.  However, if GSP means that he does not train in conditioning to prevent gassing out in a match, it's complete B.S.  Every fighter I've ever known personally does some type of MMA oriented cardio, such as water exercises, or stairs, or dog laps.

Betting Odds for UFC 118

Betting odds that are available so far for UFC 118:

BJ Penn = -350
Frank Edgar = +250

Randy Couture = -700
James Toney = +450

Kenny Florian = -160
Gray Maynard = +130

Nate Diaz = -210
Marcus Davis = +165

Nick Osipczak = -140
Greg Soto = +110

Andre Winner = -120
Nick Lentz = -110

Bobby Lashley - Hospitalized?

There has been a lot of talk after Bobby Lashley lost his first MMA match against Chad Griggs.  At first, the rumor was that Lashley was taken to the hospital not long after the fight for a laceration above his left eye.  This morning, reports from Strikeforce were saying that he indeed was taken to the hospital, but it was from severe dehydration.  They said that overnight he was given several bags of IV fluids to help him rehydrate, and was released this morning.  I'm wondering how much of his dehydration was from the stand-up, and how much of it was from trying to cut too much weight in too short a time frame before the fight??

UFC - printable *crap* Fight Card

So I saw on the UFC.com website today, that they have a nice looking printable fight card posted for most recent UFC's!!  I thought, great, they see people doing their own and realized they could improve people's enjoyment of the fights.  Then I actually printed it out.  I tried again and again and again, but it just does NOT print out nicely.  One way or another, a fighter's picture gets chopped off.  NICE.  NICE JOB!

Bobby Lashley - The Black Lesner?

Bobby Lashley's next fight in Strikeforce will again be against less than top-tier competition, Chad Griggs.  While you need to respect Lashley for not following Brock's lead and going straight to the UFC, and taking the biggest fights possible, but rather building himself up with real experience, sooner or later we all expect him to start taking on some real challenges.  To Griggs credit, he does have a plan for beating Lashley - get Lashley nice and tired from beating on him, then submit him.  Well, not exactly, but you know the result is pretty much the same.

UFC Fight Night 22

I didn't even realize until today that Fight Night 22 is coming up very soon after UFC 118!  It'll be here on Sept. 15th, and it was supposed to have Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman headlining.  Unfortunately, Mac had to pull out of the fight due to a chest injury.  I'm sure a huge number of people, myself included, were looking forward to this rematch.  If you'll recall, Danzig lost against Wiman at UFC 115 due to a very controversial call, where the ref called it a technical submission, without Danzig tapping or getting put to sleep.  With even more anticipation, will this fight now make it to a main card on a full UFC?

Expected card for UFC 122

So far, the supposed inside information as to the fights arranged for UFC 122 has the Fight Card looking something like this:

- Amir Sadollah vs. Peter Sobotta
- Goran Reljic vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
- Pascal Krauss vs. TBA
- Dennis Siver vs. TBA
- Kris McCray vs. TBA

Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson on Twitter

I've been very amused lately with what Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson have been posting back and forth to twitter.  Lots of talk from Shane Carwin, but nothing about steroids, of course:



"Just woke up and was reading the mma news websites and only one had real news ufc champ shane carwin steroids court case... I am surprised that athletes in mma do steroids ;( that explains body types"  -Roy Nelson

"I love Roy Nelson trying to elevate his status by talking smacks. Hopefully he is doing so on a treadmil. Some have rolls he has a bakery."  -Shane Carwin


"you are wrong. I was a spectator that night and he flipped me off. Plus if he wants his second loss in the UFC ill give it to him"  -Shane Carwin

"I just read big nog is out, so after I get knee surgery, we both can give the fans a show of heart, and great jits, and the next title shot after that."  -Roy Nelson


"Going to hospital for surgery today, video blog coming later... This is the hospital bed I am in right now... Here is me in my sexy gown, thank u for all the prayers"  -Roy Nelson

PPV buys for UFC 117

The UFC has some early working PPV numbers for UFC 117, nothing official of course, but they are looking lower than expected.  Sure, with Anderson Silva headlining this past UFC, outstanding numbers weren't expected, but matching him with Chael Sonnen was supposed to boost PPV buys a lot.  Maybe, now that its more and more apparent that Chael's loud loud mouth didn't gain him fans OR PPV buys, he'll try a better strategy =)

UFC 119

Another fighter has now dropped off the card for UFC 119.  Aaron Riley is out of the fight against the undefeated Pat Audinwood. Thiago Tavares will now be stepping in on short notice to fight against Audinwood.

UFC 121 Main Card

The top Main Card fight of UFC 121 in Anaheim California has finally been confirmed as Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez.  The other Main Card fights are going to be:

Martin Kampmann vs. Jake Shields
Paulo Thiago vs. Diego Sanchez
Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill
Brendan Schaub vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

Big Nog out of the Mir fight

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is officially out of the main card fight against Frank Mir at UFC 119.  Sources close to the fighter say that he suffered an injury during training that will require surgery.  Nogueira will likely be out until next year, so Mirko Cro-Cop Filipovic will take his spot on the main card against Mir.

Shane Carwin named in a steroids scandal

A recent arrest of a pharmacist in Alabama has drawn a number of athletes into the mud with him, including Shane Carwin.  Of course, there still is no evidence at all that Shane Carwin used steroids, but some of the prescribed steroids were definitely intended for his use.

UFC: Welcome to Ontario!

Late news today reports that Ontario is now set to sanction legalized MMA matches, beginning in 2011.  The UFC has been pushing for several years now to get MMA legalized in Ontario, seeing that Toronto alone could be a huge venue and draw bigger crowds than many locations.  Up to now, the government in Ontario has put regulating MMA on the back burner, saying that safety and regulation issues would need to be worked out first.  As always, money talks and they have quickly pushed through the laws needed, realizing how far 6 million in taxes could go.  Look for an announcement by the UFC, as soon as they can get the details worked out, for GSP to be headlining a UFC event in Toronto!

Ben Saunders - Cut

On his Facebook page today, Ben 'Killa Bee' Saunders announced that he has officially been cut by the UFC.  His latest decision loss to Dennis Hallman marked a multiple fight losing streak, although he has looked better in his last 2 fights.  Ben says that he will go and work hard on his ground game, and be back in the UFC soon.

Batista versus Lashley - this time NOT in WWE

Bobby Lashley, former WWE star, has changed his mind somewhat about a fight proposed by many fans, against another from WWE star, David Bastista.  While it is a match that will start people talking, both positive and negative, it is not a match that is technically interesting.  Take any 2 fighters that will likely use very very similar fighting styles, and what do you get? Crickets chirping.  Sure, you may have a quick knockdown, a quick submission, a quick knockout.  Maybe they will beat each other into dirt for all 3 rounds, and await a decision.  Either way, the only thing that will get people talking is the unexpected.

Gina Curano

Randy Couture, who has been the lead trainer for Gina Curano in the past, made a comment about her future in a recent interview.  He said that, given both her loss to Cyborg, and the success of her upcoming movie with big name actors, that Gina may forgo fighting towards a rematch completely.  Randy said that he has not seen Gina train, or even been in contact with her in 9 months.

UFC 117 Results

Dennis Hallman def. Ben Saunders - Decision (Unanimous) in round 3
Stefan Struve def. Christian Morecraft - KO (Punches) in round 2
Tim Boetsch def. Todd Brown - Decision (Unanimous) in round 3
Johny Hendricks def. Charlie Brenneman - TKO (Punches) in round 2
Phil Davis def. Rodney Wallace -Decision (Unanimous) in round 3
Rick Story def. Dustin Hazelett - TKO (Punches) in round 2
Junior dos Santos def. Roy Nelson - Decision (Unanimous) in round 3
Matt Hughes def. Ricardo Almeida -Technical Submission (Modified Anaconda Choke) in round 1
Clay Guida def. Rafael dos Anjos - Submission (Jaw Injury) in round 3
Jon Fitch def. Thiago Alves -Decision (Unanimous) in round 3
Anderson Silva def. Chael Sonnen - Submission (Triangle Armbar) in round 5

Does Chael Sonnen stand a chance?

Obviously, everyone has a chance, otherwise the fight wouldn't be worth paying for.  And Chael probably will fare the best of all recent fighters to take on Anderson Silva.  But what do the odds really stand at?  Our best indicator is probably the betting odds, which are no doubt inflated to Sonnen's favor due to the amount of trash talk lately.  The highest percentage chance I've seen a gambling site have for Sonnen so far was a 22.5% chance of him winning.  The Lowest, you ask?  11% chance =)

GSP. vs. Koscheck

The rematch coming up in December of GSP against Josh Koscheck will not happen in Pittsburgh, as was seemingly more and more likely.  However, Dana White just released a statement that "Pittsburgh just didn’t feel quite big-time enough" for this match.  Originally, GSP stated his desire to have this fight happen in Montreal, and it seemed possible that the UFC might try to market this fight as it's first Ontario venue.  However, when that fell through (or became very unlikely to occur in time)  Josh Kocheck stated he would like to have in Pittsburgh, which seemed a suitable alternate venue.

Chael Sonnen

The amount of trash talk coming from Chael Sonnen is nothing short of amazing.  Despite going head to head against a fighter almost no one expects him to beat, his trash talk virtually never stops.  Just imagine what would happen if there was no trash talk - people would only be comparing his skills to that of Silva

UFC 118 - Another Fight Card change

First off, Alessio Sakara has been forced out of his fight against Gerald Harris due to a knee injury. Yes, Gerald Harris himself being a replacement for Jorge Rivera, will now face Joe Vedepo.  Also off the card is Terry Etim, who was set to face Joe Lauzon, is out with a broken rib.  Joe will now face Gabe "Godzilla" Ruediger, which doesn't seem anywheres near as interesting of a fight.

UFC cracks down on PPV pirates

"According to a report by newteevee.com Ustream.com has complied with a request by UFC parent company Zuffa LLC to hand over the Internet protocol addresses of members who broadcasted the promotion's events via the popular Internet streaming site.
Last week, Zuffa subpoenaed both Ustream and Justin.tv, demanding that both sites provide them with the IP addresses of individuals whom it says, quite simply, are infringing on its intellectual property rights."

Ouch, looks like I need to be careful next time =)

Fantasy MMA Picks and Wagers

http://www.mmaplayground.com/

I've heard of a similar website before, but this one seems to still have a good deal of activity going on.  I certainly plan on giving it a try this week.

UFC 22

Check out some classic UFC footage from UFC 22.  Shame that UFC practically denies it was significant.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/QIEmPvQT4yg/#

UFC 118 loses a main card

The official word from Dana White is that the Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares fight, which was scheduled to happen at UFC 118, has been pushed to UFC Fight Night 22 as the Main Event.  Where does that leave the card for UFC 118, since this fight was a main card event, and UFC officials have not declared any possible replacements for the vacant spot.

Paul Daley - signing with Strikeforce

News is in that Paul Daley has unofficially signed with Strikeforce for a 6-fight deal.  After a number of rumors about where Daley will ultimately end up, it looks like Daley's first fight is almost ready to be inked, with Daley likely fighting in September.  In case you don't remember, Daley was previously cut from the UFC's roster, or ejected from the UFC rather, for a punch in the fight against Josh Koscheck well after the final beg had rung.

UFC on Versus 2 - Results

Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
- Jones def. Matyushenko via TKO, round 1

Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami
- Okami def. Munoz via split decision

John Howard vs. Jake Ellenberger
- Ellenberger def. Howard via TKO (doctor's stoppage), round 3

Takanori Gomi vs. Tyson Griffin
- Gomi def. Griffin via KO, round 1

Fight Odds for UFC on Versus 2

Jon Jones -600
Vladmir Matyushenko +400

Yushin Okami -210
Mark Munoz +165

Jake Ellenberger -200
John Howard +160

Tyson Griffin -300
Takanori Gomi +220

Jacob Volkmann -125
Paul Kelley -105

Matt Riddle -210
DaMarques Johnson +165

James Irvin -180
Igor Pokrajac +150

Mike Massenzio -180
Brian Stann +150

Charles Oliveira -350
Darren Elkins +250

Rob Kimmons -220
Steve Steinbeiss +175

Another UFC on Versus

Another UFC on Versus (the second one, IIRC) is ready to get underway pretty soon.  As always, Dana White has something more to say last minute. Dana White starts off by saying that Jon Jones has a long long way to go before he deserves a title shot, like beating Shogun, Machida, Rampage, and Rashad.  He goes on to say that Yushin Okami has long been due a title shot, and how he is one of the best 185'ers in the world.  Sure Dana, problem is that people actually want to WATCH Jon Jones fight.