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By Anthony De Franco  March 12, 2010, at 4:04 pm  It was Late July last year when Josh Barnett single-handedly sunk the Affliction promotion by peeing in a cup. When he tested positive for a third time, he ruined a potential bout with the world’s best heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko and forced the card to be canceled and the the promotion to be shut down. Since then, Barnett has not sniffed a fight.
As usual, here come the Japanese to welcome another substance abuser into the fold. At a DREAM press conference, the Japanese promotion announced that Barnett would be on their 13th card.
He doesn’t have an opponent yet, but SI’s Josh Gross reported a possible matchup with “Mighty Mo” Siliga.
The question is, how relevant is Barnett at this point? Does America really care about Josh Barnett at this point? Is anyone going to rush to the TV to watch Barnett fight? The answer to that question is likely no. However, Barnett may have his own version of a saving grace. Fedor’s management has decreed that they would like to fight him at some point, and it isn’t impossible to think that Strikeforce would allow Fedor to fight in DREAM so that Barnett wouldn’t have to pass a steroid test. Remember, DREAM and Strikeforce have a co-promotional deal where they share fighters. That’s how we ended up with Nick Diaz pummeling Marius Zaromskis.
You’ll have to excuse me if I remain somewhat apathetic to Barnett until he fights in the states, or fights Fedor.
By Anthony De Franco February 28, 2010, at 9:39 pm Sherdog.com did an interview with former PRIDE light heavyweight fighter Ricardo Arona that had some very interesting tidbits in it.
Ricardo Arona is recovering from surgery and hopes to fight again this year, the Brazilian recently told Sherdog.com.
He injured his knee during his win over Marvin Eastman in September at Bitetti Combat 4.
“I injured a ligament in the first round, but at the end of the second round, when I put my foot on the Octagon grid, I must have (torn) my meniscus. From that point on I felt a really hard pain, but I returned in the third round and fought standing up until the bell rang,” said Arona, who had surgery two months ago.
The two-time ADCC submission wrestling champion is now planning a return to training and to the ring
“In July I’ll restart my MMA training,” Arona said. “I got some calls from two American events. I want to be fighting in October or November.”
While I doubt one of them is the UFC as he is coming off a serious injury, he is probably one fight away from securing a deal. While in PRIDE, Arona defeated names like Guy Mezger, Dan Henderson, and of course, The Axe Murderer himself, Wanderlei Silva.
However, Arona has never fought on American soil. This raises two questions: Can he pass a drug test, and can he get over “octagon block” or whatever it is that Cro Cop claims he has? If he does, the UFC can quickly add another contender to the 205 lb division.
By Anthony De Franco February 15, 2010, at 10:00 am Remember Jason High? He’s the guy who got head kicked by Marius Zaromskis in the finals of the DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix. Now, the young, athletic wrestler is in the UFC and will make his debut on Fight Night 21 against Charlie Brenneman, according to SB Nation.
Although High is coming off a vicious knockout loss to Marius Zaromskis at the finals of the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix back in July, the gifted wrestler and Antonio McKee prodigy has been training hard and keeping a high profile in the Twitter world. The KC Bandit has notable career victories over BJJ phenom Andre Galvao, and UFC vets Kevin Burns and James Giboo.
Brenneman’s signing was announced earlier this week by the AMA Fight Club in New Jersey, also home to UFC fighters Dan and Jim Miller. The former D-1 wrestler at Lock Haven University and winner of the first season of Spike’s Pros vs. Joes, Brenneman is riding a five-fight winning streak which includes four stoppages.
High really impressed me on that card. He showed a ton of ability in a short time and is 9-2 total is his career. His best wins are against BJJ phenom Andre Galvao, and former UFC fighter (and intentional eye-poker) Kevin Burns. His losses are to Zaromskis, and MMA’s most underrated fighter, Jay Hieron.
Brenneman is from New Jersey. Shockingly, that means that he’s fought on a Ring of Combat card. That is his only loss of his blooming career, and it came to current UFC fighter John Howard. Charlie is a former college wrestler at Lock Haven University (I’ve called one of their football games. Don’t ask.) and had a top 12 finish at nationals. He lacks high profile wins, but has some wrestling pedigree.
So, what do we get when we throw two wrestlers in the cage? A sloppy boxing match! Look for High to come out on top by being more athletic and explosive.
By Anthony De Franco January 15, 2010, at 3:40 pm About damn time. Here is the full quote from MMA Weekly:
“From what I understand, if I win this fight, I will get the shot,” Marquardt said.
“I think (Belfort’s) a great fighter. I don’t necessarily agree with him getting a shot or whatever, just because he really hasn’t fought at 85,” Marquardt commented. “His first fight in the UFC was at 95, but to be honest it doesn’t really matter too much to me because I’ve got a good fight coming up and to me I’m going to have to fight all those guys anyways, so it doesn’t really matter.”
The fight he is speaking of is not an easy one. He fights Chael Sonnen at UFC 109, in what is probably the most competitive fight of the night. Marquardt is clearly the next best middleweight after Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, and he has had to wait for his shot due to Belfort’s sudden arrival and dismantling of Rich Franklin.
Of course, we know that Marquardt has already lost one to Silva way back in July of 2007. However, don’t underestimate the improvement of Nate The Great since then. He’s 4-1 since than and his loss came in a “controversial” decision to Thales Leites, where he was docked two points.
Well, than how improved can he be if he lost to Leites? Yes. Thank you for the excuse to bust out one of my favorite MMA highlights ever. The Nate Marquardt 10-hit combo KO.
And I haven’t even mentioned the quick KO of previously undefeated Demian Maia.
So, It’s about time for Nate. Some suggest that Silva is ready for a full time move to Light Heavyweight and may just give up the belt after the Belfort fight. The Spider himself has already tagged Nate as his successor at the top of 185, and I would agree with him.
By Anthony De Franco January 7, 2010, at 12:53 am Okay. Let me get this straight. On the same day that B.J. Penn says that his next fight is going to be on the UFC 112 card in Abu Dhabi, Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort is rumored to be on that same date?
Weird.
While the UFC is introducing their brand to the middle eastern audience, it seems weird that they would choose to defend two belts on the same night. Silva and Penn are two of the biggest draws that the UFC has in their pockets. I know for a fact that there are a ton of people out there who are excited to see The Spider pushed by a fighter who is at least close to his level. Is Vitor close to Silva’s level? Who knows? At the very least, I’m excited to find out.
As for Penn, there is a bit of a question about which weight class this fight will be in. If it’s going to be in April, then it could be a title defense. Assuming that the top two lightweights in contention right now are Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, it would give both of them a chance to train for the fight. Edgar is coming off a defeat of decent prospect Matt Veach, and Gray Maynard will fight this Monday against Nate Diaz. Assuming Maynard beats Diaz, then he would have more than two full months to train. Edgar last fought in December, so he even has a head start.
The other option is B.J. fighting at welterweight. It’s not that crazy to think. While Dana might have said that he needs to clean out the division, and that would take another win, it wouldn’t be that nuts to see him fight a top ten welterweight in an attempt to put together a massive show for their first trek into a new territory.
I’m not a fan of loading cards up like this. Look at last July and UFC 100. Sure, that was an awesome card. However, what happened after that? UFC 101 was headlined by B.J. Penn, and that is fine. However, 102 was Couture and Nog, which while it was an awesome fight, isn’t the strongest main event. They sold that card on the fact that Couture would be fighting in his home area of Portland. At UFC 103, Vitor Belfort defeated Rich Franklin. There needs to be an understanding about Franklin. America loves him, but he is just not a main event draw. A ton of people pointed at the Mayweather fight that night as the reason why the card barely drew, but I beleive that it’s more because Franklin just isn’t really a draw.
The next few cards suffered because of UFC 100. How much better would it look if the UFC held off GSP v. Alves til UFC 101, and had B.J. fight at UFC 102?
Couture and Big Nog could have been an awesome semi-main at either of those cards. Remember what the semi-main of 102 was? The wonderful Thiago Silva knockout of Keith Jardine from the “I saw that coming” file. Hell, even if they would have kept that and moved Franklin down to Semi-main, the cards would have looked better.
So, after all those words, let me say this. The source on Silva and Belfort is TATAME, which is a brazillian source. Let’s just say it’s not the New York Times. While it might be true, there is a chance that it’s not.
While it might seem incredible to look at a card like this and say “Sick, I’m so ordering that!” it’s just not good business for the month-to-month plan.
By Anthony De Franco December 7, 2009, at 12:27 pm Ladies and Gentlemen, the first UFC fighter has chose to leave the MMA paradise of the Zuffa companies and fight for Strikeforce. Former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson has signed with the San Jose based company, according to Ariel Helwani of AOL Fanhouse:
After months of speculation, Dan Henderson has finally agreed to sign with Strikeforce. FanHouse has learned that the 12-year veteran, who was last seen knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in July, recently came to terms with the San Jose-based organization on a multi-fight agreement.
At this time, it is unknown when and where Henderson will make his debut for Strikeforce.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole first reported the possibility of Henderson signing with Strikeforce in October, but at Strikeforce’s CBS event in Chicago last month, the former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion told FanHouse that he had not come to terms with the organization yet.
Henderson returned to the UFC in September 2007 following Zuffa’s purchase of PRIDE. He lost a light heavyweight title unification bout against Rampage Jackson at UFC 75 and then a middleweight unification match with Anderson Silva at UFC 82. Following those back-to-back losses, he would go on to win his next three UFC fights against Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin and Bisping.
Recently, Henderson had publicly talked about being frustrated with the fact that he didn’t receive a middleweight title shot following his victory over Bisping and that he was hoping for a bump in salary.
Henderson really doesn’t have much to complain about in the money department. For his fight against Bisping at UFC 100, he made 100,000 dollars in addition to another 150,000 in bonuses. How many UFC fighters can walk away from any one event saying that they made 250,000 dollars? Not a whole lot of them that’s for sure.
As far as what this means for the MMA landscape, It’s really nothing but good things. Right now, we are in the teenage years of the sport, and the UFC has dominated those awkward, growing years. However, that doesn’t mean that some legit competition won’t make Dana and the boys all that much better.
As for Strikeforce, I’m happy it exists because it is another place besides the highly politicized UFC for fighters to make money. This signing really makes their explosion onto the UFC’s level. Remember the key thing here is that this isn’t a guy that the UFC didn’t want. Hendo chose to sign with Strikeforce. He turned down an offer from the UFC in order to do so.
Will this lead to an exodus of fighters from the UFC? Probably not. However, it’s good for fighters to know that there is somewhere that they can go even if Dana doesn’t want them.
Possible opponents for Henderson include Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields, and of course, Fedor. All three of those are good fights, and we’ll breaking them all down coming later today.
One thing is for sure: I wouldn’t want to be working in the UFC headquarters today.
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