This is an interesting signing. Everytime Denis Kang seems to rise up the ranks, he has a setback loss that brings him back down to ground zero. I only hope his win over Marvin Eastman will be enough to propel him towards stringing together a couple more victories and then a shot at Anderson Silva.
Kang has been a highly sought after free agent twice in the last 2 years. Once after Pride was bought out by Zuffa and the Canadian fighter opted to land with new Japanese promotion, Dream, while still fighting in his native land of Korea for the Spirit MC organization.
Just 2 weeks ago, Kang announced via MMAWeekly Radio that his contract with Dream was up and he was hoping to sign with a new promotion fairly quickly.
“If it’s going to be an exclusive contract then pay me something that’s going to make it worth my while to be exclusive and not fight anywhere else and not work anywhere else,” Kang said about whatever new promotion he signed with.
Unless something drastic changed, Kang will be with the UFC exclusively as the promotion is not usually in the business of signing open ended contracts.
Another great Kimbo quote: “A guy like that, it’s clearly that he’s [Brett Rogers] just fighting to get paid. I’m fighting for the love of the sport.” Excuse me while I laugh uncontrollably.
Andrei Arlovski is coming off a huge win against Ben Rothwell, and is now set to take on Roy Nelson on the upcoming EliteXC card. Andrei has had an up and down career, but is headed back on the upswing.
Two big fights have been added to the UFC 92 card.
Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans
Forrest will be defending his title for the first time, against a game opponent in Rashad Evans. Rashad is coming off his upset knockout victory of Chuck Liddell, while Forrest is coming off of his hard fought upset victory against Quinton Jackson. Forrest will likely look to keep the fight standing, and batter Evans with leg kicks, while Evans will want to get Forrest to the ground and beat on him.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
This will be the third time these two have faced each other, and with their previous fights, I think it’s safe to expect an exciting battle. Wanderlei is coming off his destruction of Keith Jardine, while Rampage is coming off of his loss to Forrest Griffin, as well as his legal woes. We’ll see if Rampage will finally be able to settle the score.
These matches along with Mir vs. Nogueira make for an exciting night.
War Machine has been in the spotlight recently for throwing away his UFC chance, and making disparaging remarks about Evan Tanner and about the UFC. Today, he’s decided to insult Rashad Evans in a myspace BULLETIN.
So a New Mexico based show called my gym last thursday talking about they need someone to fight Rashad’s brother at 205 in TWO days. Our boy Frank Lester, who fights at 185, is out of shape, but says he’ll do it cuz he’s broke as a joke…lol Soooo the next morning he’s on a plane to NM. He weighs in at 192 to fight a bigger, stronger, in shape, light heavyweight.
Fight day comes and Frank’s super nervous…he’s knows he’s not well prepared, knows he’s smaller, knows he was brought there to lose, and to top it all off he’s a fan of Rashad Evans and it’s a bit intimidating to have him in the opposing corner.
Anyway the fight kicks off and within the first minute Frank gets dropped and grounded and pounded…some how he manages to survive and starts to turn the tide a bit. The first round ends and in the corner Wade tells him to just go out there and go for it….swing for the fences. Round two starts and Frank comes out agressive, he stops Evans’ shots and ends up dropping him with a knee and as he is getting up pins him against the fans and bashed him with punches until Evans’ VERBALLY QUIT!!
So Frank is super happy and backstage he goes up to Evans and says good job/good fight and Evans says the same. Then Frank walks up to Rashad and tells him its an honor to meet him and tries to shake his hand….Rashad looked him up and down….made a stupid lil noise with his mouth….turned around and walked away.
Go cry Rashad…sorry your bro couldn’t beat a guy who took a fight on two days notice, who was out of shape and was like 20 pounds lighter. You might be a great fighter but that’s no reason to treat the guys under you like punks. Suck a dick cool guy.
Suck a dick cool guy indeed. While I don’t necessarily disagree that Rashad was being a douche, who knows if this is exactly what happened. In War Machine’s world, it’s cool to beat people up in front of a club, get fired for being an idiot, and generally make stupid statements. Whether or not this situation actually occurred in this fashion is anyones guess. All I know is someone should follow him around with a camera, because they are bound to get him doing something entertaining, or something worth documenting for science.
An interesting fight to say the least. This bout stems from the controversial win Mark Coleman had over Shogun at Pride 31. Coleman attempted a takedown on Rua, and as he went down to the mat, Rua’s arm landed awkwardly, aka BROKE. Coleman apparently in a rage continued to try to attack Shogun after the ref tried to stop him, he got to the point where he nearly tossed the referee out of the ring like rag doll. This lead to Wanderlei Silva getting in the ring and presumably yelling at Coleman, only to have Coleman once again freak out. Phil Baroni got involved, as with the rest of Hammer House. Coleman then went on to celebrate like he just won the lottery. You can watch it all, even with crazy aftermath ending:
The fight had not gone on long, but it appeared that Shogun was wrapping Coleman in knots on the ground. I don’t expect the fight to go much differently, aside from the arm breaking.
This wallpaper was originally going to be a tribute to the upcoming battle between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben, but after searching the web, I found that there’s no good Chris Leben images to work with. So in the end, it turned into a Michael Bisping wallpaper. Which is great for you Michael Bisping fans, but not so great for the Chris Leben ones. Anyway, here it is!
This is the best rumor I’ve heard, since the one about Couture coming back and that one totally ended up being true.
Sources close to both fighters told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the Franklin-Henderson fight has been discussed as a possibility for the fight card, though bout agreements have not been distributed.
Rich Franklin is coming off of a win, in a recent foray into the 205 division. He put on a striking clinic against the outmatched Matt Hamill. Rich Franklin’s career has been in limbo, since he can’t and won’t get passed Anderson Silva. Plus, the 205 division is so stacked that there isn’t much room on the ladder for Rich. So Rich’s fights are now relegated to seating people in the arena, and then taking them out of their seats with excitement.
Henderson is also coming off of a win, but not a very impressive one. He took Rousimar Palhares to a Unanimous Decision. Henderson is looking to climb back up the ladder and get another shot at Anderson Silva. While this would be a great step in the right direction for Dan, a victory here and another against Yushin Okami would cement his claim at a title shot.
In recent news, Dean Lister is the unfortunate bastard that has to step in the ring with the returning from injury Yushin Okami. The fight is slated for UFC 92 on December 27th.
Yushin Okami is coming off of a two fight win streak, beating Evan Tanner and Jason McDonald.
Dean Lister is also coming off of a two fight win streak, with wins over: Jeremy Horn and Jordan Radev.
Should be an interesting fight. Okami’s strength is taking people to the ground and beating them up mentally and physically, but taking Lister to the ground might not be a great idea. Dean Lister has world renowned JIu-Jitsu, and we’ll see if he can use it effectively with a very strong Okami on top of him. An Okami victory should ensure him a shot at Anderson Silva, pending the destruction of Patrick Cote.
