After loss to Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen should call it a career Posted by Drew Ellis (04/28/2013 @ 2:52 pm)  Chael Sonnen has done a good job running his mouth, but now, his mouth may not be able to support his fighting career.
After losing to Anderson Silva in an underwhelming performance back at UFC 148, Sonnen was stopped in 4:33 against UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, on Saturday night at UFC 159. Sonnen didn’t really deserve a title fight in the first place. He hadn’t fought at 205 pounds in the UFC in over six years, yet somehow got an immediate title fight with Jones. Sonnen can sell a fight, but even his promos are outdated and tiresome. If you really want to know where Chael Sonnen gets his material, watch tapes of pro wrestling from the 90s. I will give credit to Sonnen for being one of the best at 185 pounds, but he had no business competing against Jones on Saturday night, and with an unimpressive loss in the first round, he finds himself without any direction for his career. A rematch with Silva isn’t in the cards and he certainly isn’t going to talk his way into a rematch with Jones after failing to put forth much offense on Saturday night. Sonnen should do what he does best and that is sell fights, but not for himself, for the UFC. He should stick to being a broadcaster and realize that he had a successful career, despite not winning a title. Posted in: Events, Fighters, News, Results, UFC Tags: 185 pounds, 205 pounds, Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, Jon Jones, Jones vs. Sonnen, MMA, Silva vs. Sonnen, top 10 light heavyweights, top 10 middleweights, UFC, UFC 148, UFC 159, ufc light heavyweight championship, UFC Middleweight Championship, Ultimate Fighting Championship
UFC marketing magic Posted by Staff (11/25/2012 @ 4:08 pm) The UFC has become a marketing machine. Here’s an interesting article from Fast Company that addresses this topic in depth. On the afternoon before one of the biggest mixed-martial-arts fights of 2012, a group of Ultimate Fighting Championship employees takes up position in a sun-blasted parking lot outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. It’s July in Las Vegas. It’s 103 degrees of unpleasant. And it’s about to get worse–because UFC president Dana White just tweeted their location. White is giving away 20 $1,200 tickets to this weekend’s UFC 148 (most fight cards are named by number), headlined by a rematch between Brazilian middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his American nemesis, Chael Sonnen. Any fan who shows up within 20 minutes with a can of UFC-branded Edge shave gel will be entered into a ticket raffle. It takes less than 10 seconds for Isiah and Dominique Quintanilla, teenage brothers from Visalia, California, to materialize from the back stairs with cans. “Some guy offered us $66 for one,” Isiah says. UFC fans, it seems, had cleaned out drugstores on the Las Vegas Strip. Minutes later, a horde bursts from the casino–mostly men in the UFC’s coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic, but women, too, in a dead sprint. They stampede toward the UFC team, grooming products in hand. Some hurdle a chain in the parking lot. One woman tries to scale a fence and bloodies her knee. In the fight business, these fans are known as hardcores. They buy the UFC’s pay-per-view shows, which blend wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and other combat styles into an action-packed, often-bloody sport known as mixed-martial arts, or MMA. They buy apparel and merchandise. Above all, they buy into a UFC lifestyle that celebrates everyone’s inner warrior.
Check out the entire article. UFC 146 Results & Recap – Junior Dos Santos Keeps Rolling Posted by Drew Ellis (05/27/2012 @ 12:29 am)  Junior Dos Santos verified himself as the top heavyweight in the UFC as he knocked out Frank Mir in the second round of the main event of UFC 146 on Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Coming into his bout with the former UFC champion, Mir, Dos Santos was expected to win with his crisp striking, and that is exactly what led to the win. After somewhat of an eventful first round that saw Dos Santos win thanks to his striking, the champion managed to finish off the fight in the second thanks to a big right hand that caught Mir flush on the cheek. JDS then followed up with a flurry on the ground to earn the TKO stoppage. The win for JDS was as big for him as it was a big loss for Mir. The former champion likely won’t see another title shot anytime soon after losing his last three matches where a belt was on the line by devastating knockout. Mir has had quite the career, but it is clear he doesn’t have the ability to contend with explosive strikers that have the ability to keep the fight standing. He has been brutally beaten by the likes of Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, and now Dos Santos. In the co-main event, Cain Velasquez destroyed Antonio Silva in Silva’s UFC debut. The former heavyweight champ bloodied Silva thanks to a big elbow across the nose and he followed up with a number of strikes thereafter. The win for Velasquez probably pushes him right back up to the No. 1 contender spot, as Dos Santos knocked him out in their meeting last November. For complete results from UFC 146, check out the jump. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in: Events, Fighters, News, Results, UFC Tags: Antonio Silva, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Dos Santos vs. Mir, Frank Mir, Junior Dos Santos, MMA, Shane Carwin, top 10 heavyweights, UFC, UFC 146, ufc heavyweight championship, UFC heavyweights, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Velasquez vs. Silva
Penn to now face Diaz at UFC 137 Posted by Drew Ellis (09/08/2011 @ 8:26 pm)  Now that the dust has settled in on the change to the UFC 137 main event, with Carlos Condit replacing Nick Diaz to face Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight championship, the next biggest question was who was B.J. Penn facing that night?
Penn was originally scheduled to face Condit in the co-main event, but UFC President Dana White said he was working on something crazy for Penn, and he hoped that it still take place at UFC 137. Well, the UFC decided if it could move one fighter, why not just move the other. Dana White released on his Twitter that Penn will now fight Nick Diaz in the co-main event. This is crazy but here we go again! Penn vs Diaz 10/29 in Vegas
This should be a tremendous bout as both men have a warrior mentality and they will certainly leave everything in the octagon. Diaz still gets his shot at a high-profile bout while Penn gets a chance to land a marquee win in the welterweight division. I think from a matchup standpoint, the changes to both fights make each one more interesting. Posted in: Events, Fighters, News, Strikeforce, UFC Tags: 170 pounds, BJ Penn, Carlos Condit, Georges St. Pierre, Las Vegas, mma events, mma matchups, Nick Diaz, penn vs. condit, penn vs. diaz, st. Pierre vs. condit, St. Pierre vs. Diaz, top 10 welterweights, UFC 137, UFC events, ufc matchups, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Welterweight Division
Diaz removed for UFC 137 main event, GSP vs. Condit on Posted by Drew Ellis (09/07/2011 @ 5:27 pm)  I see your Nate Marquardt and raise you a Nick Diaz.
In one of the most bizarre situations in UFC history, Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz has been removed from the main event of UFC 137 against UFC champ, Georges St. Pierre, after going AWOL on the company and skipping two press conferences in two days. After missing three different flights to head to Toronto for a press conference to promote UFC 137 on Tuesday, Diaz stopped communicating with Dana White and the UFC and was nowhere to be found on Wednesday, for another press conference to promote the event in Las Vegas. White announced at the beginning of the presser that Diaz was removed from the fight and co-main eventer, Carlos Condit, will take on GSP for the title. Diaz’ trainer, Cesar Gracie, expressed his frustration with his own fighter to MMAJunkie.com. “I don’t blame Dana White on this at all,” Gracie today told MMAjunkie.com  “This is a professional company, and Nick is a 28-year-old man.” “I’ve stuck up for Nick, even when he was wrong before,” Gracie said. “But he’s let a lot of people down. He’s let his team down. We all bought plane tickets to Vegas. We got hotel rooms booked, paid for. We’ve got all that, and Nick just decided not to go to something he’s supposed to. They’re paying him a lot of money, and in this economy where people don’t have money, he’s blessed. He should be thanking God every night how blessed he is. “And instead, he’s not getting on a plane to go to Vegas. I’m extremely disappointed. He’s done a lot of stuff, but this is the worst of it. If I were him, I would be begging Dana White to get my job back and work your way up to a title shot at some point.” “I’m not a psychologist,” he said. “I personally think there’s some kind of social anxiety happening here with Nick. Dana said, ‘You’ve got to play the game this much.’ And this isn’t even playing the game. This is about being a man and being responsible. And Nick has done neither in this situation. “He’s a great jiu-jitsu guy. He’s a great fighter. I’m saying this because I care deeply about the guy. He’s one of my black belts. But in this situation, he is 100 percent wrong, and he got what he deserved.”
There are so many side stories to this happening, but clearly the main one is the odd behavior of Diaz. I sincerely hope he is of good physical and mental health, but he has a lot of explaining to do. He has certainly blown the greatest opportunity of his pro career and may never step foot inside a Zuffa cage or octagon again. Carlos Condit may be a tougher opponent for St. Pierre, but we will break down that fight another time. Also lost in the mix is that B.J. Penn is now without an opponent, as he was set to face Condit at UFC 137 in the co-main event. Posted in: Events, Fighters, News, Strikeforce, UFC Tags: 170 pounds, BJ Penn, Carlos Condit, Cesar Gracie, Condit vs. Penn, Condit vs. St. Pierre, Dana White, Diaz vs. St. Pierre, Georges St. Pierre, GSP, mma events, mma fight cards, mma matchups, mma welterweights, Nick Diaz, UFC 137, UFC events, ufc matchups, UFC welterweights, Ultimate Fighting Championship
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