Tag: Ryan Bader (Page 2 of 3)

Top 10 Light-Heavyweight Rankings

June 9, 2011 / Drew Ellis

The Light Heavyweight Division is currently led by a young phenom with a bunch of hungry sharks ready to take a bite out of him.

Here is a look at how I see the top 10 in the 205-pound division in MMA. (Click here to see other weight class rankings)

1. Jon Jones (13-1): Jones is still the leader of the pack but now seems to finally have his next opponent finalized. It looks to be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, in what will be a very tough fight. Jones may struggle to move the large Jackson and in punch-for-punch power, he probably doesn’t have the edge against his veteran opponent.

2. Rashad Evans (15-1-1): Rashad Evans is still the No. 1 contender in my eyes as he disposed of Jackson in his last fight and was set to challenge for the title before suffering a minor knee injury. Now set to face rising star, Phil Davis, Evans will have to prove that he can still hang with the best after more than a year away form action.

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (32-8): Rampage looked good but not great in his decision win over Matt Hamill. He landed some good punches on Hamill and stuffed each of his takedown attempts. While Hamill has a good wrestling background, he lacked the explosive takedown attempts that Jackson will see against the likes of Evans, Jones, or even a Ryan Bader.

Fighters, Rankings, Strikeforce, UFC

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira Dan Henderson Forrest Griffin Jon Jones Lyoto Machida Mauricio “Shogun” Rua Phil Davis Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Rashad Evans Ryan Bader

MMA News & Notes for May 31

May 31, 2011 / Drew Ellis

Following UFC 130, all seems to be quiet on the MMA front.

However, I was able to find some tidbits that you may be interested in.

– It appears that Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson are having another lovers’ quarrel. Like any ~~media hungry~~ respectable couple, the two have taken to their Twitter accounts (Here’s Tito’s and here’s Jenna’s) to hurl insults at one another. Tito accuses Jenna of cheating and Jenna accuses Tito of domestic abuse. Boy, if these two level-headed people can’t make it work out, what couple can? Any chance Ortiz uses this as a reason to pull out of his UFC 132 bout with Ryan Bader in hopes to get a lesser opponent?

– Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made us all a little uncomfortable by sexually harassing a female reporter on camera, again. The incident isn’t the first time that Rampage has been sexually aggressive toward a female interviewer. He is just begging to have a major lawsuit handed to him and the UFC. (MMAFighting)

– Dream “Fight for Japan” took place on Sunday and top lightweight, Shinya Aoki, added to his impressive record with a submission of former UFC contender, Rich Clementi. Aoki improves to 28-5 in his MMA career and the submission against Clementi came in the second round from a face lock. Aoki has now won his last three fights by submission. (Sherdog)

– Thiago Alves thinks he won his UFC 130 bout with Rick Story. Apparently Alves forgot about the first two rounds where he mounted little offense and spent a great deal of time on his back. Alves did have an impressive third round, but he didn’t finish the fight. Last time I checked, winning one round isn’t as good as winning two rounds. (MMAMania)

Dream, Fighters, News, UFC

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Rich Clementi Rick Story Ryan Bader Shinya Aoki Thiago Alves Tito Ortiz

Ortiz and Mitrione get into verbal exchange at UFC Summit

May 12, 2011 / Drew Ellis

Something interesting happened at the UFC Summit this weekend, and it wasn’t Dana White explaining to fighters how to do their taxes.

None other than “Big Country” Roy Nelson caught this little verbal exchange between Matt Mitrione and Tito Ortiz.

Now, the background behind this encounter is that Mitrione had some unflattering remarks that he made about Ortiz’ wife, Jenna Jameson.

Mitrione was joking that Ortiz would pull out of his upcoming UFC 132 fight with Ryan Bader and let Jameson take the fight instead, claiming she is good off her back and has amazing top control.

Now, granted, I wouldn’t want someone talking about my wife like that and would be pretty upset if they did. However, if I married the world’s most famous porn star, I would probably expect that to happen.

Instead of going after a younger and stronger fighter in Matt Mitrione, Ortiz should just remain focused on Bader and ending a four year winless streak.

Then again, Ortiz is probably just trying to set up another fight for himself after he loses to Bader.

Events, Fighters, News, UFC, Videos

Matt Mitrione Roy Nelson Ryan Bader Tito Ortiz UFC 132

Fighters react to news of Osama Bin Laden’s death

May 2, 2011 / Drew Ellis

Given the historical significance of last night’s announcement from President Barack Obama that 9/11 mastermind, Osama Bin Laden, was found and killed; I thought it would be insincere to focus on UFC 129 this morning.

I will get back to some follow up thoughts on Saturday’s event later today, but for now, I thought I would post some tweets from last night on fighter’s reactions to the President’s announcement.

@BrianStann (Brian Stann) – Bin Laden is dead, I hope this continues the movement towards more freedoms for the people in the middle east and an end to ops for our forces

@danhardymma (Dan Hardy) – One less murdering lunatic in the world. Always good news.

@aaronsimpson (Aaron Simpson) – Go F yourself Osama.

@TimKennedyMMA (Tim Kennedy) – I find myself kind of sad that Osama Bin Ladin is dead. I have fantasized about killing him almost as much as zombies… I will have to find a replacement.

@NateRockQuarry (Nathan Quarry) – This just in: Steven Seagal kicks Osama Bin Laden with front kick

Fighters, News, UFC

Brian Stann Carlos Condit Dan Hardy Jon Jones Kenny Florian Miguel Torres Ryan Bader UFC Vitor Belfort

Tito Ortiz, Living Proof You Can Survive Despite Repeated Failure

April 18, 2011 / Drew Ellis

If you failed at your job for four years, would you still hold that position?

Probably not.

Yet, that is the reality that is Tito Ortiz.

Ortiz has not won a fight since October 10, 2006. That is about 54 months by my count. Yet, Ortiz is still landing major fights on pay-per-view and he will now be taking on Ryan Bader as part of the main card of UFC 132.

Ortiz was once a dominant champion in the UFC, but that was back in the early 2000’s when Tim Sylvia was still a factor.

What is funny about Ortiz’ is that he still talks about getting back “his belt”. I don’t know that Ortiz could beat any champion in any UFC weight class right now, let alone light heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

Ortiz is a pretty easy guy to game plan for too. Just stay off your back. His striking hasn’t evolved since he was champion and now, guys are throwing him around like he used to throw his opponents around.

I respect what Ortiz has done, but he is only hurting his legacy with each loss. His time has passed and just like the UFC did with Chuck Liddell, it is time for the organization to force him away from the octagon.