MMAcca

Due to this we took “Rampage” up on his previous offer of another interview in order to get to the bottom of the situation and to ask him about the movie business in general and the Memphis native wasn’t shy on sharing his thoughts. “I’m addressing the fans only here, I think I owe them an explanation. Yeah I feel the things I said (in my blog) are true and yeah, I don’t like Rashad Evans because of the type of person he is. He talks smack and he tries to turn around on how it’s me that’s the one who’s talking smack and not him. At first I really wanted this fight to get my belt back but since doing “The Ultimate Fighter” show and six weeks of him talking the way he’s talking and him just being the way he is, yeah it makes me wanna fight Rashad, especially after he said he’d punch me in the face for free. I’m having none of that either.” Rest of interview

Firstly, you’re scheduled to compete in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 19 against Roger Heurta. How has your camp been, and how are you feeling in the run up to the fight? Maynard - I feel great!! Camp has been good, I train year round though. So I feel prepared. LINK

Tito Ortiz has launched a scathing attack on long time rival, Chuck Liddell, saying “The Iceman’s” career is over and that he hopes he can dance better than he fights. When asked about the recent comments Liddell made about Ortiz needing a win or two under his belt to make him relevant enough to face again inside the octagon, Ortiz said: “That’s kinda funny. I think he needs to get a couple of wins under his belt also. I think he’s been knocked out four of his last five fights. I’ve never been knocked out unconscious in any of my fights in my whole career in the last thirteen years so for him to say those words is like calling the kettle black. It is what it is, Chuck Liddell’s career’s done, he going to “Dancing With The Stars” and hopefully he can dance better than he can fight.” LINK

I think it would be a different story in a cage with elbows on the ground.

MMABay can EXCLUSIVELY confirm that the inclusion of the lightweight title fight between B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez at UFC 107 in Memphis, Tennessee on December 12th has been done in order to replace the clash between former light heavyweight champions, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans. LINK

Hi Shane, Thank you for taking the time to sit down with MMABay and answer a few of our questions: MMABay - It’s recently been revealed that you have agreed to face Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight title in November. How hard has it been to shift your attention from Velasquez to Lesnar? Carwin - Not to hard we have been preparing for a fast wrestler who is big and powerful so the adjustments are not major. Cain will be a tough fight for anyone he is a world class athlete and Brock is the Champ so really no matter which fighter we prepare for we better bring our A game. LINK

On the comments he made earlier this week in another interview, Kang explained: “’Beat his ass’ of course, because I’m coming in with the winning mentality, I always come in like that. I’m not going to come in and say ‘I’m going to get my ass beat’, you know what I mean and ‘sack of flesh and bones’ that just means I’m not making the fight personal, he’s just some clone, some human, nameless-faceless human across the octagon from me.” LINK

Hi Phillipe, Thank you for taking the time to sit down with MMABay and answer a few of our questions: MMABay - Firstly, you have a big fight coming up in just a few weeks, how’s the preparation going, and how are you feeling in the run up to the fight? Nover - I feel fantastic. I was notified only 4 weeks out but I'm always in shape and have been training. It is just a matter of tailoring my training for Sam's style. My overall preparation has been almost perfect. Weight is good, no major injuries, lots of team support, and I'm totally focused! LINK

UFC heavyweight number one contender, Shane Carwin gave his thoughts on Fedor Emelianenko recently signing with Strikeforce, saying the Russian could have gone down as the greatest of all time but he chose to seek protection, just as he has done in recent years. When asked about the recent comments made that Strikeforce offers Fedor a better challenge at heavyweight LINK

I'm definately a real user, just been a bit busy in the real world this past week. I got back from Leeds Festival on Monday. What a weekend!

UFC heavyweight number one contender, Shane Carwin revealed that he has been told that the winner of the Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell fight at UFC 104 will fight for the title next. When asked about the possibility of facing either Randy Couture or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira somewhere down the line should he capture the title against Brock Lesnar, Carwin revealed: “I was told that the winner of the Brock fight will likely face the winner of the Cain and Rothwell fight at UFC 104.” As fans will remember who have followed the situation over the past couple of weeks, Carwin was originally set to face Velasquez on the UFC 104 card in October. When Lesnar decided he wanted to fight again this year, Carwin was moved to UFC 106 to oppose the champion and Affliction import, Rothwell, was brought in to fill the void. LINK

It is fitting given his soft-spoken demeanor that Nate Marquardt has very quietly been among the top-rated middleweights in the world for years. The 30-year-old Coloradan is 9-2 over his last 11 fights, with his only losses coming to awe-inspiring champion Anderson Silva and the former No. 1 contender Thales Leites, a fight in which Marquardt had two points deducted for fouls and still only narrowly lost by split-decision. At UFC 102, Marquardt (28-8-2) will square off with unbeaten Brazilian ground wizard Demian Maia. The winner is not likely to receive a title shot, as UFC President Dana White has indicated Dan Henderson is the likely next foe for "the Spider," but a win will certainly move Marquardt right on Henderson's tail. The contender recently took a few minutes from his training to talk to FanHouse about his recent improvement, the risk of going to the ground with Maia, and chasing the title. LINK

Former EliteXC lightweight champion K.J. Noons and UFC veteran Terry Martin both picked up boxing victories in separate shows over the weekend. Noons (11-2) earned a unanimous decision win over Randy Pogue (8-9-2) on the undercard of Grady Brewer vs. Albert Onolunose, which was held Saturday at the PALA Casino Spa and Resort in Pala, Calif. Martin (2-0) scored a second-round knockout of Rayvon Wilson (0-6-1) on the undercard of Andy Lee vs. Anthony Shuler, held Friday at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. LINK

While the executives of M-1 Global are no strangers to controversy and criticism, the organization's upcoming "M-1 Global presents Breakthrough" took a hit when original headliner Don Frye backed out of his fight with Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. While M-1 Global CEO Joost Raimond immediately went on the offensive, issuing a press release that questioned Frye's motives for backing out, "The Predator" remained relatively silent on the subject. That is, until now. "I didn't drop out; I walked away," Frye recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "I didn't want to talk to anybody about this, but I'll talk to you fellas because you're my amigos. "This is business that should be conducted between me and Joost, or Roost, whatever his name is. But he got on the internet and did a Dana White/Perez Hilton internet blog and started talking [expletive]." Raimond's statements suggested Frye may have simply been looking for a way out of the fight with Lawal, and that he used the seemingly simple relocation of the Aug. 28 event from Los Angeles to Kansas City, Kan., as his ticket out of the event. Frye insists that's not an accurate representation of what happened. "Here's the deal: [The event] didn't just move from L.A.," Frye said. "It went from the Staples Center to the L.A. Convention Center. From the L.A. convention center to the Hilton in Las Vegas. From the Hilton in Las Vegas to an Indian casino on the Oklahoma-Texas border. From the Indian casino on the Oklahoma-Texas border to an Indian casino up in Tulsa, which is North Oklahoma. And from there up to Kansas City, Mo. "So you know, after four or five times changing the venue, and then we asked [Raimond] 'Hey, what are you doing for advertising? Are you sending a photographer out to Don's house?' He says, 'No, we're just going to use stock photos off the Internet.'" With a complete lack of faith in the promoter, Frye said he made the difficult decision to walk away. LINK

After being a mainstay on the Central California MMA scene for more than two years, Palace Fighting Championship appeared to join the growing legion of failed promotions this year. PFC, which held events at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore since January 2007, went dark after its May 8 show, pulled the plug on its Web site and appeared to have shut it down after a successful 19-show run. However, behind the scenes, founder and owner Christian Printup was putting plans in place for a restructured promotion, independent of Tachi Palace. "I'd classify it as us being on a hiatus," Printup told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Most people didn't realize that I was an employee of the (Tachi Yokut) Tribe. I was director of entertainment at the casino. I was there for over nine years, and I just needed a change. It was a basically a mutual decision, and when I left, the PFC was attached to me." LINK

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 2 alum, Seth Petruzelli, finally returned to action last night after nearly a year-long layoff, picking up right where he left off. Petruzelli scored a first round technical knockout over Chris Baten in the co-main event at Art of Fighting 4 from the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla., according to The News-Press. It was a stoppage with which Baten, and apparently the crowd, did not agree. Here’s a snip: “It was definitely a clean knock down but not a knockout. It caught me on the cheekbone with enough power to put me on my butt. But I wasn’t seeing stars. I was in a scramble coming back up.” Regardless, the win stands — his third straight and first since hitting the MMA lotto with a 14-second stoppage of the previously undefeated YouTube.com street fighting legend Kimbo Slice at Elite XC: “Heat” in Oct. 2008. LINK

It has been several weeks since the World Victory Road officials have named Antonio Silva as one of the participants in Sengoku 10. Now, the undefeated super-heavyweight prospect, Ron Sparks, has surfaced as his potential opponent. The announcement of Silva-Sparks comes at the heel of the confirmation of a series of bouts slated for Sengoku 10 that feature Nick Thompson, Ryan Schultz, and Dan Hornbuckle amongst others. Sengoku 10 will take place on September 23 at the Saitama Community Arena in Saitama, Japan. It will air on HDNet in North America and is expected to see the MMA debut of 2004 Olympic judo silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi. LINK

“I’m still at the top of the division and in one or two fights I think I can put myself back into contention to fight for the belt again. In order to do that, I’m going to have to face some tough guys, but I’m motivated and excited with that possibility…. In no way, shape or form did (Keith) ever use [the eye poke allegation] as an excuse, and that’s definitely not the reason I lost. I lost because B.J. was the better fighter that night, simple as that…. It’s little things that I should have done better. For me, it’s basically, ‘stop talking and start doing.’ I just want to get back to training and refine everything and just get back in the cage. I’m just motivated and fired up to fight someone right now.” LINK

“The winner’s still going to be top tier in the world and looking for a title fight, and fighting contenders, and the loser’s definitely going to drop off…. It’s just another fight, man. I’m fighting a really tough guy, a top-rated guy. I’m just in it for the fight, man. I don’t care about all that other stuff…. More than anything, not too many people have been fighting the quality of people that I’ve been fighting from fight to fight. And I have had a few holes in my game, and I feel like I’ve been improving. I think I’ve fixed a lot of those holes…. It’s a new and improved me, and it’s the start of a run for me to the top of the UFC. That’s the way I’m looking at it…. I’ve never been in a boring fight. It’s going to be another really exciting fight. … Fight of the Night-caliber fight.” LINK

“I may possibly be fighting Denis Kang at UFC 105…. Denis is a very experienced fighter who has fought, and beat some of the top names in the sport. I’m sure it would make for an exiting fight and we can make it a night to remember for the fans in Manchester. If your reading this Denis, good luck in training and I look forward to meeting you in Manchester.” LINK

Welcome to another installment of the table (seen in the extended entry) which cannot be stopped. One of the assorted talking points which can be pulled from this exercise is the contrast between domestic and European events and how that impacts the moves going forward. UFC UK president Marshall Zelaznik gives insight to Zuffa's continued and future investment overseas: “We didn’t deliberately cut back our UK schedule in 2009, it just worked out that we only had two shows. But in 2010 we are looking to be busy in Britain,” he said. Zelaznik says the UFC is interested in visiting cities that have not yet hosted a show, but says the size of venues is a limiting factor in some cases. “We definitely want to do Liverpool and Nottingham in 2010. Any city that has a suitable venue capable of holding more than 9,000 spectators, we are interested in,” he says. “We want to go to Scotland as soon as possible but at present there is no venue there that can accommodate us. But we are going to go back to Dublin in 2010. The last UK event for the UFC in 2009 will be the105 event November 14th in Manchester, England. The card features the rumored headline of B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez for the lightweight title and will not be on available on PPV. Penn's last foray into a UK PPV against Joe Stevenson at 80 did a reported, unimpressive 225k in buys. See full entry for the newly updated MMA in Numbers listing. LINK

Five-time UFC champion Randy Couture can empathize with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when critics say the former Pride and UFC champ is past his prime. At 46, he’s made a career of bucking the trend, performing at peak ability long past the usual shelf life for combatants. At 33, Nogueira is battling his first crisis of confidence after years of come-from-behind fighting and a lackluster performance in December against Frank Mir. Couture has been there, done that. LINK

It has been confirmed that UFC lightweight champion, B.J. Penn has agreed to face Diego Sanchez at UFC 105 in Manchester, England on November 14th. Sources close to the 155 pound champion told Dave Meltzer of Yahoo!Sports about the news, meaning a quick turn around for the Hawaiian native after winning earlier this month against Kenny Florian. Penn vowed never to return to the UK after UFC 80 due to the low Pay-Per-View buys affecting his paypacket. But with this event going out for free on SPIKE TV it seems that the promotion have compensated him accordingly and he has done a u-turn. He faces stiff competition in the form of “Ultimate Fighter” season one middleweight winner, Diego Sanchez who has looked impressive in his two lightweight outings to date, decisioning both Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida. LINK

“We think that Couture will fight standing against him, and Rodrigo thinks that too. Rodrigo is 100% prepared standing. I always said that this fight were good to Rodrigo, because Couture has no punch to knock him out, and Rodrigo boxes better than him… Rodrigo is prepared in the ground too and will work to submit, because Rodrigo has everything to submit him. Our strategy is stay away from the fence.” LINK

The talk of a potential merger between the UFC and the WEC has increased dramatically over the last few weeks, thus MMAPayout has decided to explore the idea and potential consequences of such a deal. Since Zuffa bought the WEC in 2007, the idea has been to run the company as a completely separate entity to the UFC and develop the brand as a stand-alone product that featured some of the world’s best smaller fighters - that’s why the company dropped its 170, 185, and 205 division in 2008. While Zuffa has more or less succeeded making WEC the home to most of the world’s top bantamweight and featherweight fighters, it hasn’t been able to grow the brand into a wildly successful, highly profitable brand like the UFC. It’s by virtue of that poor brand recognition that we’ve yet to see a WEC PPV; and therein lies the problem. It’s sort of become a vicious, self-fulfilling cycle for the WEC: they lack the brand recogntion to host PPV and major television events, events that would in turn help to boost their brand. To a certain degree its hard to fault the WEC because they’re really getting the short end of the stick in terms of human and financial capital; the UFC is simply too big and growing too quickly to leave much for the WEC to work with. And so, without the strong PPV buys or the backing of a major network - in addition to lacking the support structure that the UFC enjoys - the money, nor the exposure, is available to the world-class athletes that the WEC does employ. The feeling is very much that fighters like Mike Brown, Miguel Torres, Brian Bowles, Urjiah Faber, Jose Aldo, and Donald Cerrone in co. deserve more. Enter the UFC-WEC merger discussion. Pros and Cons + Fighters like Torres, Faber, Brown, Bowles, Aldo, and the rest of the emerging WEC talent would be given a much larger stage to showcase themselves and their fighting talent. An increase in exposure would give these fighters an opportunity to earn a greater following, and thus increase their earning potential (both from a compensation standpoint and a sponsorship standpoint). + Two new divisions within the UFC would supply the organization with enough top-end talent to better fill the main card portions of PPVs and Spike TV cards. The PPV and rating numbers seem to support the idea that non-title fight events are seen as second tier; by absorbing the WEC, the UFC is giving itself two additional belts and a host of new talent to help fill those main cards. If the UFC is looking for consistency in its PPV numbers, it must work to eliminate the UFC 95 and 96 cards that don’t feature a title defense or an incredibly interesting match-up. Even the UFC 101 main cards that really only feature two draws of any interest need to be eliminated. The two new divisions would also help matchmaker Joe Silva make last minute replacements to cards that would otherwise be victimized by last-minute changes (UFC 85 comes to mind). + Likewise, the UFC could use two new divisions to spur the expansion of other content offerings such as its UFC magazine or UFC unleashed and knockout series. If the magazine, for example, is looking to move from a bi-monthly to a monthly edition in the next couple years, more fights and fighters will greatly help that transition. - However, the UFC already has enough trouble giving its current roster the standard 3-4 fights per year; adding more fighters would complicate things even further. Sure the champions and top-end talent will find fights, but what about the lower-level guys or developing prospects? - Higher fighter turnover is likely to result from an influx of even more fighters into the UFC. If you thought the fighter turnover was bad now (McCrory and Leites just the latest of known UFC fighters to get the axe), then just wait until the UFC adds 40-50 more guys. - There are also a lot of talented industry people working for the WEC currently - what of their jobs? - What happens to obligations with Versus? A Potential Solution At the time Zuffa bought the WEC, the UFC didn’t have the capacity to absorb the entire organization; so in hindsight, it was probably the correct play on Zuffa’s part to operate the WEC as a separate entity. At the very least, it gave Zuffa the opportunity to try and duplicate the success they had with the UFC. Now, the UFC is a far larger company than anyone probably envisioned even two years ago, and the WEC’s growth has been less than flattering for a parent company used to expanding at a breakneck pace. Not only is there not enough human or financial resources necessary to make the WEC a major player, but it would appear as though the WEC seems destined to forever linger in the shadow of its sister company. The question then becomes, if the WEC really isn’t taking off, then why not bring the best of the organization over to the UFC? The idea being that parts of the WEC could potentially add more value as a part of the UFC than as a separate entity; transfer the best WEC fighters, its video library, and some of the management personnel to the UFC in order to help round out the organization. Then move to address some of the potential pitfalls of the merger. It’s not as if the UFC is really adding a ton of fighters, either. If you take the top 20 guys in both the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, plus 5 of the top lightweights from the WEC, that’s just 45 contracts. The UFC is growing at such a quick pace - both domestically and internationally - that it likely wouldn’t surprise anyone if they were to host 24+events in 2010, and more in following years. Those events are going to need quality main events - many of them title defenses - and having seven divisions full of champions and contenders makes that a lot easier. It also bodes well for the future of the 135 and 145 divisions if prospective fighters know that they can earn a healthy living as an MMA fighter in those categories. In order to address the 3-4 fights per year issue, the UFC would probably have to use some combination of roster cuts in other divisions, while also tacking on 1-2 more fights to every undercard in order to push everyone through to their 3-4 fights a year. Not much of a stretch considering we’ve already seen the UFC fill big cards (UFC 99 in Germany had 12 fights at one time). Also consider that the UFC seems to have revisited its policy on exclusivity to some extent. They’ve allowed Houston Alexander to fight on the next Adrenaline card, which is something they really haven’t done in close to three years. It’s another tool they can use to alleviate some of the roster stress they organization might experience with added WEC fighters. In the end, a simple comparison is all that’s necessary to realize that the long run benefit of adding potential PPV draws like Torres, Brown, Faber, Bowles, etc. far outweighs the short-term cost of paying for a few extra fight purses on every card. Unfortunately, there’s no way to address the rampant turnover that exists in the UFC - it’s a necessary evil from the organizations perspective (as unpopular as it may be with the fans). While it’s regrettable that fighters are sometimes signed and released quickly, their marketability is forever improved having fought in the UFC. It also helps the sport, believe it or not, to have a host of former UFC fighters because they’re seen as legitimate options to anchor the fight cards of smaller promotions. Another Option? If, for whatever reason, a merger isn’t possible it would be well worth Zuffa’s while to canvas network television at any cost. I say this for two reasons: 1.) even if they had to take a bad deal in the short term, the resulting gains in popularity would almost certainly garner them a better deal in the future, and 2.) it’s really a trojan horse of sorts, because Zuffa can still use the WEC programming on network TV to push viewers to their UFC PPVs which generate the bulk of the company’s revenues. Even if Zuffa receives nothing in terms of rights fees, they’re still going to be ahead in terms of the exposure that might lead to potential WEC PPVs, better television deals in the future, or in-programming UFC content advertisements that push viewers to UFC content. Zuffa and the WEC would simply need to ensure they retained some semblance of production control in order to run the sponsorship and advertisement set they need to. Food for thought at any rate. LINK