No incidents at Friday’s official weigh-in at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro for UFC 153. UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva came in at 202 pounds, and veteran fighter Stephan Bonnar meet was 202 pounds.
In the co-main event, Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira (244) and Dave Herman (243) were just a pound apart for their heavyweight bout.
Silva comes from a streak of 16 consecutive victories, 14 of them finishes. His last match was at UFC 148 in July, when he defeated Chael Sonnen by technical knockout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (= Silva vs Sonnen 2). Silva has secured 25 of his 32 professional wins by knockout, technical knockout or submission, including Rich Franklin (twice) and Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort, Forrest Griffin and Nate Marquardt. Undefeated inside the Octagon, he has not been legitimately defeated since the incredible Ryo Chonan’s flying scissor heel hook in December 2004 (video at the bottom of this post),
A lot of time has passed. Ten months. It was at UFC 140 when the right arm of Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira went snap, crackle and pop under the kimura of Frank Mir (= Frank Mir vs Minotauro Nogueira).
Tomorrow the 36-year-old Brazilian will make his return facing Bellator Fighting Championships, Sengoku and EliteXC veteran Dave Herman in the UFC 153 Silva vs Bonnar co-main event at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He is confident, really hungry and excited to fight in his country: “I’m feeling good. My arm feels strong. I’m ready to go,” he said during a pre-fight media call. “I was hungry to fight. I asked to fight in
The official weigh-in event for tonight Bellator 76 fight card at Caesars Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, presented no surprises: all the 20 fighters made weight.
The main event will be a highly anticipated lightweight bout between former Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez (155.4 pounds) and top Brazilian brawler Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire (154.8 pounds).
After holding the Bellator Lightweight Title for over two years, Alvarez was submitted by reigning Bellator Champion Michael Chandler in a super match (= Michael Chandler vs Eddie Alvarez). Alvarez quickly rebounded, as the Top 10 lightweight collected one of the most great wins of his career after earning a long awaited win at
After the knee injury that knocked Frank Mir out from the fight with Strikeforce grand prix winner Daniel Cormier (a replacement opponent has not yet been named), the bout, that will take place on November 3 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, loses another two protagonists.
Luke Rockhold has been forced to withdraw from his title defense against Lorenz Larkin because of a left hand injury. Rockhold, 27, posted six consecutive victories before capturing the middleweight title in September 2011 defeating Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza. He has since defended his belt twice, first with ex-UFC light heavyweight Keith Jardine in January and taking a unanimous decision from Tim Kennedy in July.
A former light heavyweight, Lorenz Larkin has fought just
The MMA injury bug continues to spread, but at least one fighter got the luck to enter the cage before being struck by it.
After the loss against Antonio Silva at UFC on FX 5 last Friday, Browne suffered a hamstring injury that will take him out 2 to 4 months approximately.
It isn’t clear which specific move lead to it, but during the fight Travis ‘Hapa’ Browne appeared to be unable to stand on his left leg and this handicap made all easy for ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, who landed a
As already announced (UFC 153 previous post) Anderson “The Spider” Silva, middleweight champion and pound-for-pound king will take the risky move 20 pounds north to face former Ultimate Fighter finalist Stephan Bonnar, who has won three in a row. The bout is scheduled on Saturday in Brazil at UFC 153: Silva vs Bonnar.
Dave ‘Batista’ Bautista made his MMA debut (= Dave Batista vs Vince Lucero) Saturday Night earning a first-round TKO win over the veteran Vince Lucero. But, as we know, the performance wasn’t really good, and there were critics about his slowness and clumsiness. Unlike other former pro wrestlers as Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashely who passed to MMA, Bautista had no amateur wrestling experience. Because of that, WWE champion CM Punk says that Bautista deserves more time to be judged:
“It’s definitely a bucket-list kind of thing. I think it’s awesome, too. Dave just wanted the experience. He wanted to fight even if
The 33-year-old lightweight Shane Roller have announced his retirement three days after his loss to Jacob Volkmann at UFC on FX 5.
A three-time All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Roller debuted with a second-round knockout against Thiago Tavares at UFC Live 3, but then suffered three defeats in a row (Melvin Guillard, TJ Grant and Michael Johnson).
Finally he accomplished an unanimous decision against John Alessio in July 8, his last success in MMA.
He leaves with
The verbal quarrel between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos continues (Ronda Rousey vs Cris Cyborg Santos first post), and we are happy, because we want to see this great fight.
“I think Cyborg really doesn’t have any other options besides me. I think she’s a victim of her own cheating, whereas when she was doped up and she looked like she was so head-over-heels above all these girls, it made the women’s division look bad. Then she cleaned out her own division because of that. Now she’s having to deal with the consequences of it. No one’s going to want to fight a cheater. I’m pretty much her only option and I’m chock full of options.” Ronda said recently.
Santos has not fought since failing a steroid test last December and lost her 145 pound title.
The Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion invited Cyborg to
On December 7 at Australian Fighting Championships (AFC) 4 in Melbourne, Australia, heavyweight Soa ‘The Hulk’ Palelei (17-3-0) will continue his climb towards another UFC contract when he faces former UFC fighter Sean “Big Sexy” McCorkle (16-3-0).
Palelei has had one previous UFC fight back in 2007, when he lost to Eddie Sanchez. Since the UFC loss, Palelei’s record sits at 9-1 with his only recent loss being to now Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier and has 7 victories in a row. His last match was against Palelei vs Bob Sapp and it lasted 12 seconds (it was very funny indeed…look at Palelei’s face after the victoy!)
His opponent, Sean McCorkle, was cut from the UFC roster in 2011 after
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