It was reported that Urijah Faber was paid $28,000 for his fight on Saturday against WEC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo. This doesn't include money paid by sponsors or any other undisclosed bonuses. Whatever the paycheck Urijah received it doesn't seem like enough to have to take that sort of damage. His leg looks like it may have died and is simply remaining attached to his body by bruised flesh, with no life in it. Props to Faber for continuing to answer the bell each round... I would have quit after one of those kicks.
There are some other pictures surfacing around the internet of his leg, swollen and looking like he had just been run over by a truck. This one is one of the most recent. It really looks like there has been some serious damage done. We'll have to wait and see if there are any medical complications as a result of his injury.
Urijah received a medical suspension of six months or until he is cleared by a physician for his left thigh and knee injury. Which means he won't be training for a long time, and it is unlikely we will see him in the cage until 2011. When he does return I wouldn't be surprised to see him sporting a wrapped knee.
I really enjoyed the fight on this weeks episode of The Ultimate Fighter. Especially good if you are really pulling for one team over another, like I am.
Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates over the past week, I was away and wasn't keeping up on what was happening in the MMA world. When I came back my inbox was flooded with Tito/Jenna news... and I just didn't care enough to post about it. If you want any info on their situation, just CHECK THE INTERNET, it's everywhere.
Anyway, during my time away I was able to catch this past weekends WEC which featured former champion Urijah Faber vs. Jose Aldo. Aldo has been getting a lot of attention lately, which is entirely deserved, but it may be Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung who will be getting the attention this week after their thrilling fight on Saturday. Click on the video above to check out this fight, you won't be sorry. I will defiantly be purchasing whatever pay per view that features Garcia/Jung II.
"Have you ever seen him do that at one of my shows?" White asked of Nathan Diaz. White said he believes the incident occurred because CBS didn’t align itself with the UFC. He said he had a tentative deal with CBS, but said that Showtime executives talked CBS into buying into the now-defunct Elite XC instead of agreeing to broadcast UFC fights.
The result, White said, was that an inferior product was put on national television. "Of course, everyone thinks I’m anti-competition, but I’m not," White said. "But everyone knows that they didn’t belong on CBS. Even if you’re the biggest UFC hater out there, you know that. Shame on CBS for this. They knew they should have been with us, but they went out and let those Showtime idiots talk them into going with Elite XC.
"Now, they’re stuck with a bush league, C-level promotion that will probably be out of business next month," he added. "And what you saw on Saturday is the kind of thing that happens when you put a product like that on national television."
Dana was also unhappy with the play-by-player announcer Gus Johnson. Johnson was quoted saying "sometime these things happen in MMA, there is a lot of testosterone in the cage" while live on camera.
"When have you seen anything remotely close to that happen at a UFC event?" White said. "What kind of ridiculous commentary was that? That was an idiotic thing to say. And then he was yelling at them to stop, telling them they are on national television. That was just another example of how bush league they are."
I should be careful what I say, because I don't want to the Diaz brothers and 20 other Cesar Gracie team members to go thug on me, but I like every other MMA fan is wondering what tonight's Strikeforce event will mean for the promotion.
For many casual fight watchers, the event will go unnoticed since it didn't take place in the UFC octagon, but for MMA journalists it's like Christmas came twice this year. However, they certainly wont be writing much about the fights themselves. The whole night can be summed up by simply stating that wrestling dominated in unimpressive fashion, and as we all learned after UFC 112, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that is not backed up with elite level striking does not lead to an effective gameplan once the bell rings.
The night started with Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal. Gegard, who was the Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion was favored to win this fight, and was viewed by many MMA critics to be one of the most promising fighters outside of the UFC. "King Mo" has also gained a lot of recent attention with some victories in Japan, and a viral video of him in a verbal dispute with "Rampage" Jackson. This 5 round fight showed a tired Lawal repeatedly takedown an even more tired Mousasi and absorb relatively ineffective strikes from the grounded Dutchman. Lawal won the fight by unanimous decision, and answered a lot of questions about his ability against higher level competition. Mousasi, on the other hand, will now be faced with thousand fans who will call him over-rated and undeserving of his status as a top 10 fighter.
The matchup was Shinya Aoki vs Gilbert "El Niño" Melendez. This fight showed that Aoki has a lot of work to do in the striking department. Aoki, who is the DREAM lightweight champion, and elite brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner was dominated by Melendez in a 5 round battle for the Strikeforce lightweight championship. Aoki simply had nothing to offer Melendez on his feet, and was unable to pull off any submissions from the bottom, or even improve his position. It is possible there will be an immediate rematch in Japan for the DREAM lightweight championship, which fights under slightly different rules in a ring instead of a cage.
The main event featured UFC veteran Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields. The third title fight of the evening looked to be the most promising, when the heavily favored Henderson rocked Shields with a right hand dropping in the first round. Shields managed to survive the attack and made it out of the round looking outclassed. However after receiving advice from his corner to continue his attempts at a takedown, Shields came back to dominate the next 4 rounds. Effortlessly passing guard and mounting Henderson over and over, Shields showed that he is a force to be reckoned with at both welterweight and middleweight.
These three fights may have not been the most exiting to casual observer, but I really didn't mind them at all. Shields vs. Henderson was technical battle between 2 great grapplers, and still a lot better than watching Anderson Silva act like a monkey for 5 rounds. I think Shields poses a real challenge to the top fighters in the UFC and creates some very interesting matches in the Welterweight division. This leads to the question about Strikeforces future in the MMA world, and exposure in mainstream media.
Shields is at the end of his contract with Strikeforce, and had already sparked the interest of UFC president Dana White prior to his win over Henderson. Dana who has been criticized for his strict "champions clause", which limits any UFC champion from fighting in another promotion at the end of their contract, must be beaming right now. He will no doubtingly offer Shields a huge sum of money to fight in the UFC, bringing his belt with him and leaving Strikeforce without a champion, and an overpaid Henderson coming off a heartbreaking loss. Dana's champions clause may seem overly strict, but it is necessary to avoid the kind of situation Strikeforce has put themselves in. After over-promoting Henderson, Shields had already expressed his displeasure, feeling he was overlooked as the champion and was open to other opportunities following the fight.
This couldn't come at a worse time for Strikeforce, whose nationally televised card on CBS went 45 minutes over their time-slot, with all three fights going the full 5 rounds. Not to mention the giant blemish that occurred at the end of the event, when Shields was interrupted by former opponent Jason Miller during his post fight interview. Miller was met with angry Cesar Gracie team members and all chaos broke loose...
Now do I think it is as big a deal as MMA forum members are making of it... No, it's Mixed Martial Arts, not chess. When tempers flare in baseball, a fights break out, so what do you think is going to happen when things get heated when the sport IS fighting? But I have a feeling CBS executives wont be as forgiving as me. Even though most people likely changed the channel after the 4th round of the second fight, a street brawl of broadcast TV isn't the kind of image MMA wants right now. CBS may have signed on to have a controlled combat sport on their network, but they certainly didn't agree to have 10 men stomping on Jason Miller while security attempted to gain control of the situation. I'm pretty sure CBS never aired the Jerry Springer show. If I had my way the Diaz brothers, who were at the center of the chaos, would never compete in MMA again. I can't stand either of them, I think they are over-rated thugs who showed their true colors tonight. They are everything that is wrong with MMA, and give the entire sport a bad image with there Stockton attitude.
Anyway, this is my longwinded analysis of the night. I fear the worst for Strikeforce and will be starting the countdown to their demise. There is only so much money to pay Fedor and his management, and if CBS decides they are no longer interested in watching the Diaz brothers act like morons, Strikeforce will soon be asking for a government bailout.
It's a good night to be Dana White considering his biggest competition pretty much lost every fan they had. His twitter said it all... " :) " Quotes from the fans:
Aniketos on Sherdog says: Is this really the kind of attention you want for the sport? I mean seriously?? And you wonder why a lot of sports media trash talk the sport and bad mouth it. T Bag on The Underground says: Shields is really, really boring. I love groundfighting but man is he boring in an MMA context. Still, he's right up there with GSP as the top WW in the world. There needs to be a fight between them LongTimeMMAGuy on The Underground says: Nick Diaz had a very slim chance of ever fighting in the UFC and giving GSP a fight. Now, after the thug fight in the cage, his chances are less then slim. I dont think we will ever see a Nick Diaz UFC fight again.
Bellator is a great up and coming promotion with some good fighters. When Strikeforce goes under (and it will if they compete with the UFC and Fedors management gets what they want) I think Bellator will be the non-UFC promotion to watch... Anyway, good knockout, worth the watch.
Great from from last weekends UFC 112. Back and forth, good striking, grappling, & Ground and Pound. Probably my favorite fight from the night. Check it out.
UFC President Dana White announced today, while on "Jim Rome Is Burning", that middleweight champion Anderson Silva's next opponent with be Chael Sonnen. This comes as a surprise to many MMA fans who had hoped Vitor Belfort would be the champs next challenge.
After Silva's recent lackuster bout at UFC 112 Chael was quoted saying, "There's people out there that need (to be) beaten up – he's one of them. And I have a moral obligation to society to beat him up."
According to Dana, this match up is likely targeted for UFC 117. Quotes from the fans: McBride61 on Sherdog says: Well... .... .... I wont be buying that PPV unless it is stacked otherwise. D_S_A on The Underground says: It'll be funny if sonnen just humps him for 5 rounds and the crowd boos louder than ever. Merlinmhc on youtube says: Silva redeems himself at Chael's cost then..
Chuck Liddell will face Rich Franklin at UFC 115 instead of original opponent and opposing coach from the current season of "The Ultimate Fighter" Tito Ortiz.
The UFC confirmed on monday rumors announcing that Liddell will indeed face Franklin on June 12 in Vancouver for the main event of UFC 115.
The story surfaced after Ortiz had suffered injuries during training that would prevent him from fighting in the bout against Liddell in June, and it was former middleweight champion Rich Franklin that would step in to replace him.
The UFC denied the initial reports and stood by the original pairing of Liddell vs. Ortiz, but it looks like with tickets about to go on sale for the event that the cat has been let out of the bag.
Liddell will face Franklin in a light heavyweight main event bout on the card, which will serve as the first UFC fight in the city of Vancouver.
UFC 115 will take place at General Motors Place in Vancouver on Saturday, June 12.
It was reported that Urijah Faber was paid $28,000 for his fight on Saturday against WEC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo. This doesn't include money paid by sponsors or any other undisclosed bonuses. Whatever the paycheck Urijah received it doesn't seem like enough to have to take that sort of damage. His leg looks like it may have died and is simply remaining attached to his body by bruised flesh, with no life in it. Props to Faber for continuing to answer the bell each round... I would have quit after one of those kicks.
