MMA Quickies

Josh Koscheck confirms a fight happening between him and an unknown opponent at the Fort Bragg show.

Josh Koscheck confirmed that he will be fighting on the December 10th Fight Night show from Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC. Though, he wouldn’t reveal his opponent.

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Babalu to fight Bobby Southworth for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title on November 20th.

Babalu informed us that he is all but signed to face Bobby Southworth for the Strikeforce light heavyweight title on November 20th. Of course, that was supposed to happen on Saturday night before both men got injured. Babalu also mentioned that he is hoping to fight on the January Affliction card.

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Kazuo Misaki TKO’s Joe Riggs at Strikeforce Event

The second opened with more tentative offense from the two veterans, as Misaki landed a couple of body shots in the opening minute and Riggs stalked without firing; the American then ate a body shot before connecting on a straight left. Riggs drilled Misaki with a big left moments later. The UFC veteran pounced and landed a kick, but Misaki countered with a pinpoint right cross that drove Riggs halfway across the cage and onto his back. The Japanese middleweight seized the chance to finish the fight and rained down shots — though many missed the covered-up Riggs — until the match was stopped by referee Josh Rosenthal.

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MMA Junkie has an interview with Gina Carano: View that Here.

It’s snoresville in the MMA world right now, so here’s some small “newsworthy” tidbits that are floating around.

Randy Couture is an Evil Genius

“I am not retired,” said Couture at the HDNet Fights show in Dallas, Texas. “I am waiting for my UFC contract to expire. I will fight Fedor Emelianenko.”

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Randy plans on waiting his UFC contract out, to fight Fedor! Holy Breaking News Batman! Who didn’t see this coming a mile away.

CNBC’s UFC Special

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=rss&vid=892d7730-8063-4fe1

Rampage talks TUF – LOL

“I saw the first season (of TUF) a couple of times, (but) it comes on late at night,” Jackson said. “I’m training for fights so I don’t have time to watch a bunch of dudes running around a house.”

“I heard the show’s pretty good,” Jackson said. “I saw some interesting stuff. The first time I saw it, a guy was pissing on somebody’s pillow and I thought it was pretty funny so I tried to watch it every chance I got.”

“I don’t really coach people,” Jackson said. “Most times I try to give my teammates and the people I train with a few pointers about what to do and what works for me and they don’t take my advice. I guess I’m not influential. I guess people don’t give a damn about what I’ve got to say about fighting.”

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Go Drool Over Gina Carano

http://www.nbc.com/American_Gladiators/photos/

Quick Might Lose His Swick?

Mike “Quick” Swick will make his long overdue return to the octagon at UFN 12 (January 23rd) against a dangerous fighter in Josh Burkman. Burkman is very explosive and fast, it’s going to be a tall order for Mike Swick. He was fast for his division, but he was also small for his division. He got by on having fast hands and being able to give his opponents fits. That strength is now negated. We’ll see if Swick will still have the same kind of firepower in one of the most stacked divisions in the UFC.

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Crocop Gives an Ominous Warning

I think my next fight is going to happen in January.

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Alright, so it’s not so ominous. But hopefully we’ll see a Crocop with his shit together in January.

Matt Wiman vs. Justin Buchholz at UFN 12

I’ve never heard of Justin Buchholz, and I’m sure Matt Wiman hasn’t either. We’ll see if he’s not just cannon fodder at UFN 12. The one thing I do know, is he has some bright ass orange hair.

Nate Diaz vs. Alvin Robinson

Nate Diaz will be fighting on UFN 12 against Alvin Robinson. Should be a great fight, we’ll see if Nate will employ his usual tactic. Absorb violence and win by submission.

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Belcher vs. Almeida

Alan Belcher will be taking on Ricardo Almeida at UFC 81. Ricardo will be coming in after a four year layoff. He has a couple of impressive wins over, Ryo Chonan, and Nathan Marquardt. Alan Belcher is coming off his victory in which he opened up the Grand Canyon on Kalib Starnes’s face.

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Fedor’s Publicity Stunt Match, Has Yet to be Confirmed

It was reported that Emelianenko would return to action against Korean Hong Man Choi. Although Choi is the likely candidate, the bout has not yet been finalized.

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I don’t really care either way if this match happens. Sure it’s nice to see Fedor back in the ring, but not in another freak show match. I might as well just watch Fedor vs. Zulu again. At least then, I can pinpoint when that earthquake happened in Japan. The next match up with Fedor will be Fedor vs. King Kong. Prediction: Fedor via Armbar.

Kenny Florian Interview

Pretty interesting interview, here’s one highlight.

Q: You started working with a nutritionist in preparation for your fight against Alvin Robinson at UFC 73. What was the biggest change you had to make to your diet?

KF: A lot of it was just the timing of the foods and the type of foods I was using. Basically, I just took it to the next level as far as optimizing my energy levels (with) the right foods and just balancing everything together. My nutritionist is also a nationally ranked tri-athlete, so he’s tremendous.

He’s an athlete himself and not some guy who is just a nutritionist who doesn’t do it himself. He actually goes in there and shows what he does and proves that it works. He’s been amazing just in showing me what are the right supplements to take and eliminating some supplements — a lot of supplements don’t work. He showed me really what works and what the right timing is for foods and what I need to be doing fight week in losing the weight properly and also putting it back on properly as well. He’s been a huge help and a great addition to the team. And he also has been monitoring my cardio and heart rate levels as well.

I’m trying to do everything. I want to do that extra 2 percent that people aren’t doing. Everyone is doing all the right stuff. Everyone is training hard. Everyone is training in wrestling, jiu-jitsu and doing their strength conditioning, but you look at the Olympics where someone wins by 0.0001 — what made that difference? I try to find all those little advantages. Any little thing that I can do to help my mind, my body, or my technique, I’m going to use it.

Read the Rest Here.

A Clay Guida Interview, here’s the highlights:

TK: What are your thoughts on your upcoming opponent Roger Huerta?
CG: He’s a tough kid, as advertised. I definitely think I’ve fought better competition than him, but he’s fought some tough dudes, is very athletic, and keeps a high pace. I hope and expect he’ll be in tip top shape. That’s the only way I want it too. When I win, people won’t be able to say it was a fluke or Roger was a flash in the pan. It’s going to be “game on” for sure.

TK: Do you have any advice for young fighters trying to make it?
CG: Don’t do what I did. If you look at my record, I fought like 13 times in one year without the kind of training I have now. My brother and I went into fighting head first, we didn’t know any better. Now I realize that you have to have time to analyze your fights and make improvements. I’d recommend fighters to fight a little less often, train more often and just have fun.

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Yushin Signs with… THE UFC?

They must be offering him a title shot at some point, since they relegated him to the undercard, I don’t see any reason why he’d stick around. This really torpedoes my Okami jokes, but what can you do. The UFC must want Anderson to pull a Chuck Liddell, and attempt to avenge all of his losses. Lets just make sure he can get through Dan Henderson first.

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Jon Fitch Rumored to Fight Akihiro Gono?

Say it isn’t so. What does Jon Fitch have to do to get a respectable match? He fought through Thunder and Lightning (Diego), and is on a 7 and 0 streak in the UFC. The other rumor is that it might be Karo Parysian. If you ever wanted to have a number TWO contender, it would be this match. I’m not saying Gono isn’t good, he just hasn’t been in the UFC long enough to warrant a match with someone like Fitch, especially when that division is so stacked. Put Gono in there with Koscheck.

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No Coddling for Anderson Silva

Anderson “The Spider” Silva will be taking on Dan “Hollywood” Henderson at UFC 82. No one can say that they’re are protecting Silva now. This will be his stiffest competition to date. Henderson has never been knocked out, he’s as tough as they come, and has proved he can fight a five round war.

Rampage is Riding the Pine

Dana White was asked about Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s status at the UFC 78 post fight press conference. White said that he would be “sitting out for awhile.” He also added that the UFC has plans for him that they can’t yet reveal. White did make one thing clear however; Rashad Evans will not get a shot at the title in the near future.

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Hopefully that only means he’s taking care of his hand injury, and not “we’re going through more bullshit disputes about money.”

BJ Penn Gets Cheeky

“Sean Sherk can say it’s a fake interim title, but his belt is no more real that Marion Jones’ gold medals,” Penn said at the UFC 78 weigh-ins.

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Quite the burn, and totally using a pop culture reference. I have to wonder if he paid one of Jay Leno’s striking writers to crack out that gem.

Dana Needs to Fire his Secretary

Randy Couture is at the show tonight and has been civil with Dana White. Dana had claimed that he was meeting with Couture this Tuesday, and sources close to Couture said there was no meeting scheduled. Apparently, they were actually supposed to meet this past Tuesday and Dana thought it was this coming Tuesday, so he wasn’t there and Randy thought Dana blew him off. Dana joked that clearly his communication skills still hadn’t improved much. He said they would now be meeting after Thanksgiving.

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Way to go Dana. You are trying to rekindle your relationship with this guy, and you left him sitting at a restaurant all alone, stirring his drink, and thinking about all the other hot MMA Presidents he could be dating.

SOKOUDJOU MAKETH A RETURNETH

The big rumor around the web is that Soko is finally going to fight again. The guys at fightlinker may have the inside scoop of where he’s going to land.

The “Count” Down (LOL)

The Countdown to UFC 78 airs tonight (11/13/07) at midnight ET/PT.

Crocop Returns in January

An opponent is unknown. Also unknown is whether Crocop will decide to show up to this fight, since he hasn’t shown up to his last two.

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Tito Wants the “Winner” of Bisping vs. Rashad

Insomniacs rejoice. The only thing more boring than a Bisping vs. Tito match, is a Rashad vs. Tito rematch.

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Replay of Nations Collide on Friday (11/16/07)

Speculation of the renaming the event to: “Gonzaga’s Shin Colliding with Mirko’s Face” has been debased. (9pm ET/PT)

Terrell is out, and Doerkson is in.

After David Terrell was forced to withdraw from his UFC 78 bout against Ed Herman due to an ankle injury, veteran middleweight contender Joe Doerksen has decided to step up to face the Ultimate Fighter 3 finalist on November 17th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

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Manny Gamburyan Returns to the Octagon. (Maybe)

According to sources, he will fight Nate Mohr in December at UFC 79. Mohr (8-4) last fought in a decision win over Luke Caudillo at Ultimate Fight Night 10 and is 4-1 in his last five fights.

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Evans is running his mouth about being a better fighter than Bisping, lets just hope he doesn’t blow this fight.

“I do just about everything better than Michael Bisping.

“I think he’s pretty tough but I’m just a better fighter than him.”

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Cote to fight in February

Patrick Cote has announced that he will return to the octagon in February, likely on the February 2nd UFC 81 card.

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Kendall vs. Jorge Rivera

Contracts haven’t been signed yet, but we’re told Kendall Grove’s next opponent will be “The Conquistador” Jorge Rivera. The fight is being planned as part of UFC 80 in Newcastle, England.

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Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva

Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva is finally official. After being told that we’d hear the announcement on Saturday, and being told about it on UFC.com, by DirectTV, and everybody else, but Dana White. We finally get the confirmation. However, I still won’t believe that this fight is taking place until I see them standing in the ring together, because there’s been way too many obstacles before this, to make it this easy.

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Okami Can’t Catch a Break

I’ve never heard of anyone go 5 and 1 in the UFC and be rumored not to be resigned to a new contract. This really does prove, that you have to be exciting in order to stick around in the UFC. It makes me wonder, how Tim Sylvia has managed to secure such a hefty contract, and stick around this long. It’s not like Okami hasn’t put a beat down on people.

Rich Franklin Got No Money

Here’s the payscale for UFC 77.

Tim Sylvia: $200,000 <- lol
Anderson Silva: $120,000
Brandon Vera: $100,000
Rich Franklin: $45,000 <- WTF?
Stephan Bonnar: $44,000
Yushin Okami: $24,000
Alan Belcher: $22,000
Josh Burkman: $20,000
Jason MacDonald: $17,000
Demian Maia: $10,000
Jason Black: $8,000
Jorge Gurgel: $7,000
Kalib Starnes $7,000
Eric Schafer: $6,000
Alvin Robinson: $6,000
Forrest Petz: $6,000
Matt Grice: $6,000
Ryan Jensen: $4,000

Total Payroll: $652,000

Franklin needs to fire his agent, because he’s getting screwed. Not only has he had his face rearranged twice, the UFC is giving it to him from behind. Rich is arguably one of the UFC’s most popular fighters, he held the belt, is a great ambassador for the sport and the UFC, and makes the UFC a lot of money. PAY THE MAN.

Chuck Liddell vs. Wandy, is being rumoured acrossed the web. It’s also being rumored that I give a shit. I’ve posted before that I want to see this fight happen, but I’m so tired of these damn rumors, just sign the fight. – Source

Another Wanderlei Silva Story. Apparently Chute Box and Wandy have split company. Not all that surprising, and not all that important. – Source

Evan Tanner’s battle with Alcoholism might be in the last round. We haven’t seen Evan in a while, so hopefully he’s able to get his life back on track, and beat his vice. – Source

The UFC 77 card has been finalized:

What You Will See For Sure

Rich Franklin Vs. Anderson Silva
Tim Sylvia Vs. Brandon Vera
Eric Schafer Vs. Stephan Bonnar
Alan Belcher Vs. Kalib Starnes

The Stuff You Probably Won’t See

Jason MacDonald Vs. Yushin Okami
Alvin Robinson Vs. Jorge Gurgel
Josh Burkman Vs. Forrest Petz
Matt Grice Vs. Jason Black

What the hell? Why is Okami already banished to the non-televised domain. He just fought Rich Franklin for fuck sakes, and we’re stuck with Alan Belcher Vs. Kalib Starnes? Not all TUFers are popular. Kalib isn’t putting asses in the seats, get this BS off of the main card.