Archive for March, 2011

A beef seems to be brewing between two of the sports top 205-pounders, Rashad Evans and Jon Jones. The two have stated in the media that there are no hard feelings between them, but a recent series of interviews between the two fighters, coupled with the rumor of Rashad leaving Team Jackson, makes one have to believe otherwise. In his most recent segment of “Suga and Pep” on Pro MMA Radio, Rashad had a handful of comments regarding Jones. Rashad was asked about the comment Jones made — “I have a lot of people outside of Rashad who I can [...]

A rumor first started circulating a few days ago that former UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans had left Greg Jackson’s team. The news was easily passed off as it made it’s way to the popular mixed martial arts forum, The Underground. I’ve received confirmation from one source, who appears to be valid, that Rashad did in fact leave Jackson’s MMA. Evans has been spotted recently with a variety of fighters who once called American Top Team their home and Evans even posted a picture with the caption, “Trained 4 the first time since the injury.. I felt good! I trained [...]

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker will remain the man in charge when it comes to all Strikeforce operations, despite the recent sale of the organization to Zuffa. Many believed the news meant Strikeforce and the UFC would merge into one super organization, but that is not the case. Strikeforce and the UFC will remain as two different businesses. Coker released a statement regarding the recent sale and expressed his anticipation for the future and excitement about the move. This is an important day for the sport of mixed martial arts,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker stated. We are excited to work with Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank [...]

On today’s conference call which featured Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and new Zuffa employee Scott Coker, the news was announced that Strikeforce, while using the same cage, will now be using the unified rules of combat for future shows. What does this mean? Strikeforce fighters will now be able to use elbow strikes to the head of downed opponents. Another development in the call is that Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta now seem open to putting on superfights if the demand is there — a move that didn’t seem likely during Dana’s “business as usual” interview. The unified rules will [...]

Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com broke some huge news in the MMA world today. Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC, has purchased the Strikeforce organization. Purchasing Strikeforce allows the UFC a place to build up their talent and expand into television contracts. Here is a video explaining the what the purchase of Strikeforce means:

One of the top female mixed martial artists, “The Happy Warrior” Roxanne Modafferi (14-5), is a resident of Tokyo, Japan and witnessed the devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake first hand. The quake struck Friday at 2:46pm JST. As a result of the earthquake, all Japanese MMA events scheduled for the weekend have been cancelled and it is likely that the Japanese MMA scene will be without fights for up to a month. Here is a video of some of the damage that was a direct result from the earthquake: Continue after the jump for Roxanne’s detailings of the Japan earthquake!

Over at MMAMania.com, the staff has made an interesting find. MMA legend and jiu jitsu ace Royce Gracie is once again listed as an active member of the UFC roster. Gracie is listed under middleweights on the UFC site. What could this mean for the original UFC tournament champion’s future? Is Gracie prepping himself for a return to the octagon? Gracie has not fought in the UFC since May of 2006 when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Matt Hughes. Gracie has only had one fight since then — a unanimous decision victory at K-1 HERO’s in June of [...]

The folks at ESPN have been becoming more and more involved with their coverage of mixed martial arts. Their latest endeavor was to put together some top ten lists of divisional rankings and even put out a top ten pound-for-pound rankings list. ESPN’s top ten pound-for-pound list includes only fighters on the UFC roster and seems to forget about guys like Gilbert Melendez or the UFC’s very own Jon Fitch. Pat Miletich, who was on the panel when ESPN revealed their rankings on air, criticized the rankings for their obvious UFC bias. You can check out a video of the very flawed [...]

Today marks two years since the tragic passing of TapouT co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis. Mask helped the sport grow as the TapouT brand became more visible and prominent. It’s safe to safe that without Mask and the other members of Tapout, that the sport would not be as far ahead as it is today. Not only did Mask do so much for the sport, but his impact goes beyond the sport of MMA. He was a great guy who touched many peoples lives and his wisdom and passion is something that we can all learn from. As you remember Mask [...]

All fighters made weight for tomorrow night’s ‘Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson’ event which will take place in Columbus, Ohio at the Nationwide Arena. The event is headlined by a championship double-header. The main event is a light-heavyweight showdown between current champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and MMA legend Dan Henderson. In the co-main event, women’s welterweight champion Marloes Coenen defends her title for the first time against undefeated Liz Carmouche. Televised Main Card (Showtime) -Rafael Cavalcante (204.5) vs. Dan Henderson (204.5) -Marloes Coenen (135) vs. Liz Carmouche (134) -Tim Kennedy (186) vs. Melvin Manhoef (185) -Billy Evangelista (155.5) vs. Jorge Masvidal [...]