“I think the problem is that Rashad needs to fight. Here’s the other issue. Rashad hasn’t fought and he needs to fight right away, well… he needs to fight, basically. So the issue here, because normally what would have happened is, hey, Jon can probably be back in Oct. and if you’re going to fight [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmaconvert/~3/CrYzA_HRR5k/

Rashad Evans Lyoto Machida Mauricio Rua Dave Menne

CREST HILL, Ill. --UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is the person most affected by Brock Lesnar pulling out of his bout with Junior dos Santos, but he responded to the change of his potential future opponent with a shrug.

"I was surprised, but in any sport, it happens. People get hurt all the time. You have to expect that sometimes," Velasquez told Cagewriter.

It's a predicament that Velasquez understands. Still rehabbing from the shoulder injury that knocked him out of a planned bout with Junior dos Santos, Velasquez spoke with Cagewriter after teaching a seminar at Clay Guida's Gym in suburban Chicago.

Velasquez will fight the winner of the Shane Carwin, who stepped into fight Junior dos Santos at UFC 133. He said that he is open to fighting either fighter. He just wants a good opponent.

"No, to me, it's whoever the better fighter is. Now they're two guys with similar styles. With Brock, it was two different styles. Brock's a wrestler, Junior's a striker. Now both of these guys are heavy-handed, they hit hard, they're bigger guys. It's pretty much the same."

Like Lesnar, Velasquez had to make the hard decision to not fight. He mentioned the UFC's new plan to give fighters health insurance, and how that will make the decision easier for fighters.

"We always go into fights where we're not 100 percent. But now, we're OK. We don't have to worry about. Before, we had to think about it, should I just tough it out, what should I do. It's a big weight off our shoulders."

Velasquez's shoulder has improved, and he's been cleared to start some training, but not full out. At the seminar, he displayed techniques and corrected attendees -- who ranged from wrestlers in grade school to fighters looking for a pro bout -- but stayed conservative with his movements.

As he heals, Velasquez has plenty of other things to keep him occupied. He is getting married at the end of the month, and he engaged in some friendly competition with fellow fighters while in Las Vegas for the Fighters Summit. Velasquez headed out to Exotics Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Phil Davis, Urijah Faber, Jake Ellenberger, Eddie Wineland, Matt Mitrione and his collegiate teammate Ryan Bader. The fighters raced around the track, and Velasquez's competitive side came out.

"I was just trying to beat everyone. Me and Ryan Bader were driving, and I actually lapped him. He was in a Ferrari," Velasquez said. He drove a Nissan GT-R. "It's not the car, it's how you drive it. He was pretty upset about that."

He admits that he is incredibly competitive, and competes with everyone in his life. That includes his fiancee.

"I'm competitive with everybody. It doesn't matter. I'm competitive with everybody. With my fiancee, everybody. Everything. Every little game. I hate to lose."

That's not a bad trait for a UFC champion to have.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Velasquez-talks-opponents-competition-and-racin?urn=mma-wp2277

José Aldo John Alessio Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida

Up-and-coming heavyweight Shane del Rosario was on track to fight Daniel Cormier on the same Strikeforce card as the Alistair Overeem/Fabricio Werdum bout in June. That was until his car was hit by a drunk driver early Thursday evening. Now, his bout with Cormier is off, and his fighting future is up in the air.

"He's having some serious physical difficulties," Oyama (del Rosario's trainier) told MMAjunkie.com. "He's planning on [fighting again], but the injuries are serious enough to where it's kind of in question whether he can or not. We're hoping that he can. We'll know more in six months."

To a fighter, six months  is an eternity, and a long time to go without a fight and the paycheck that comes with it. Del Rosario's last bout, a submission of Lavar Johnson, was in February. Now, he has no idea when his next bout will be. He is pursuing a lawsuit, but no court can give him back the time he's put into this training camp, or the spoils that would come with a win over Cormier.

Del Rosario isn't the only one affected by the crash. Cormier's last bout was in January, and he was looking forward to the step up in competition that del Rosario represented. Now, Strikeforce has to scramble to find a heavyweight that will take on Cormier and his Olympic-level wrestling on short notice, or he will have to wait to fight.

The frustrating part is that this wasn't an injury sustained in training. Those are part of fighting, and fights get moved around all the time because of training-related injuries. Del Rosario was simply sitting at a stoplight and was hit by a drunk idiot who made the destructive decision of driving a car. She was lucky that she didn't kill del Rosario. In making that stupid, self-centered choice to drive while drunk, she affected the careers of two exciting heavyweight prospects.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Drunk-driver-puts-del-Rosario-s-fighting-future-?urn=mma-wp2097

Tim Sylvia Frank Mir Andrei Arlovski Tim Sylvia

UFC lightweight top contender Gray Maynard recently shared his thoughts on the emergence of WEC champ Anthony Pettis. Unfortunately for ?Showtime? fans, it appears Maynard isn?t quite ready to hop aboard Pettis? overcrowded bandwagon just yet. ?Let?s look at who he?s fought. Ben Henderson is the best name ? But for me, [I look at [...]

Source: http://www.5thRound.com/76028/anthony-pettis-on-gray-maynard-he-might-be-a-little-jealous/

Vitor Belfort Robert Berry David Bielkheden Michael Bisping

Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/5/16/2173477/ufc-130-fight-card-and-predictions-from-the-fight-fix

Junie Browning Paul Buentello Josh Burkman Mikey Burnett

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is out of his UFC 131 main event fight with Junior Dos Santos, and the man he defeated at UFC 116 will take his place in the #1 contender's fight in Vancouver on June 11.

The UFC made an announcement of the change during a media conference call on Thursday.

Lesnar's diverticulitis has re-emerged, and after getting checked out at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. this week he was forced to make the decision to pull out of the fight. Lesnar's training camp has been hampered by more symptoms, but he says it's not as severe as what hit him at the end of 2009.

The former champion spoke at length during the call on Thursday, and expressed regret that he had to pull out of the fight, but unfortunately he's dealing with a disease that doesn't really go away.

"First and foremost I want to thank the UFC, I want to thank Dana White and I want to apologize to Junior Dos Santos and Spike TV," Lesnar said. I dodged a bullet two years ago with not knowing what this was and avoiding the surgery, [but] diverticulitis is something that never goes away."

Lesnar has been able to manage the disease for the last year and a half since first being diagnosed by changing up his diet and doing what he was advised. When symptoms began popping up throughout the last three months, Lesnar went through the antibiotic regiments to take care of the infection, but it was keeping him out of the gym and not allowing him to train to his fullest capacity. Lesnar pointed to his inability to train to his fullest extent to prepare for Dos Santos in his need to pull out of the fight.

"It didn't allow me to train to my full capabilities," he said. "I was forced to go back to the doctor this week and make a decision... It's not as serious as last time, but it just didn't allow me to train the way I needed to train for a number one contender's fight... I wouldn't have been 100% on June 11 because I'm not there now. I had to make a decision this week to give the UFC enough time [to make a replacement]... It was a hard decision, I'm choked up about it."

Though he may be facing surgery at this point to take care of this illness, he made it clear that this doesn't mean he's done in the sport.

"I'll tell you one thing, I'm not retiring, this isn't the end of my fight career," he said. "I have strong faith that there's a solution to every problem, I just need to find a solution to this problem... I can't perceive this being a career-ending ordeal."

Lesnar hasn't weighed the pros and cons yet of whether he'll go under the knife for this issue, as he just met with doctors this week and has more follow ups to go through, but he says he's looking to figure out whatever will get him back into the cage.

"I have to follow up with my doctors and we need to weigh the pros and cons [of surgery]," Lesnar said. "They're waiting on a number of tests to come back so we haven't even talked about that yet. From here to June 11 I can't be ready for Junior Dos Santos, so that's the first thing I needed to address. I've got some more doctors appointments to follow up with, I don't know the risks [of surgery] but it's got to be better than what I've been dealing with for the last two years. I'm looking for the light at the end of the tunnel right now."

Lesnar expressed gratitude toward UFC President Dana White, who said his immediate concerns were all for Lesnar's health and not the event on June 11. For Lesnar, while he hated to pull out of the fight, his health is the biggest concern, and that was White's stance as well.

"Dana was first class on this thing," Lesnar said. "He's always been first class with the health and well-being of his fighters. Fighting is second to my health and that's the first thing that came out of his mouth and I greatly appreciate that."

UFC 131 will go forward with Shane Carwin and Junior Dos Santos in the night's main event, and the winner will take on UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez this fall.

Penick's Analysis: This is the second major loss of a main event this week, and this is really unfortunate news for Lesnar. He sounded hopeful on the call that he'll figure out a way to get through this, and made it clear that he's not retiring, but this illness hitting him again is bad news. The worst part of this for the UFC is that all this time has been built up on the fight between Lesnar and JDS through the Ultimate Fighter, and now it's not happening. But Carwin will make for a very tough and deserving challenger for that spot himself, and it will still be a big heavyweight fight. This is a huge blow to the UFC in the short term, but the most important thing is that Lesnar gets himself taken care of. This is an awful loss, but his health is the most important thing, and I just hope he can this thing taken care of and get himself back into the cage.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9315.shtml

Brock Lesnar Shane Carwin Brock Lesnar Frank Shamrock

Jon Jones talks to MMACanada.tv about his decision not to have surgery and what that means for him and Rashad Evans. Jones says he and Rashad will fight at some point in their careers, but he doesn’t know when. In the meantime, he names Rampage Jackson and Lyoto Machida as two possible contenders for his [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmaconvert/~3/TVmpzMJ6U-Q/

Andrei Arlovski Ricardo Arona Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio

Shane Carwin got a late start to his MMA career and now that he's in his mid-30's, he's jumping on the opportunity to grab a title shot.

Brock Lesnar, ill again with diverticulitis, has dropped out of his title eliminator with Junior dos Santos on June 11. With the clock ticking on his career, Carwin, 36, felt like he had to take the shot.

"Junior is a serious fight and not the type of fight that you would normally take on a 30 day notice but I have a dream to chase and I do not have a lot of time to chase it.  This is an opportunity to put myself in contention for the title. I know my Coaches will have me ready so I have everything to gain, Carwin said on his blog. "My manager said 'This is where you belong' and I am going to make sure I do everything I can to prove him right."

The important phrase in there is clearly the reference to not having a lot of time. Carwin's been battling back issues. He was also facing a long climb back up the ladder after nearly 13 months off. This fight throws him right into the title mix. The winner is likely to get UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez in the fall.

Carwin (12-1, 4-1 UFC) is certainly qualified to face a guy like dos Santos (12-1, 6-1 UFC), but he's in a tough position. He had back surgery in the fall of 2010 and hasn't fought since his UFC 116 loss to Lesnar. Coming out of that defeat, there were also questions about his stamina.

For JDS, Carwin brings a similar build and background to Lesnar, although his striking is much more dangerous. Dos Santos is predicting a finish on one side or the other.

"His boxing skills are great," Dos Santos told Sherdog. "It's gonna be a great fight with tough blows from both sides. I would say that it will end by knockout."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/-Older-Carwin-jumps-on-the-chance-to-face-JDS?urn=mma-wp2223

Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio Mikhail Avetisyan Luiz Azeredo

a rapist or a paedophile just by the look of them. So.. is this **** a rapist? Image:...

Source: http://forums.ufc.production.sparkart.net/showthread.php?t=86415&goto=newpost

Gilbert Yvel Ishkhan Zakharian Roman Zentsov Nobuhiko Takada

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC on Wednesday officially announced UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II for July 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and confirmed the night's full main card.

The card is headlined by the Bantamweight Championship between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, a rematch of their 2007 bout for the WEC Featherweight Championship.

Also on the main card, middleweight sluggers Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben square off in the night's co-main event, lightweights Matt Wiman and Dennis Siver do battle, Tito Ortiz meets Ryan Bader in light heavyweight action, and welterweight Carlos Condit and Dong Hyun Kim meet to take a step closer to a title shot in the division.

"There is no love lost between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber and they are both fired up to not only fight again, but to fight for the UFC Bantamweight Title," UFC President Dana White said in today's release. "The bantamweight division is one of the most exciting weight classes in this sport and Dominick and Urijah will both bring it for five rounds.

"Wandy came and asked for this fight and Leben wanted it just as bad," White continued. "This is gonna be fun! When you add in the Siver-Wiman and Kim-Condit fights, and the fact that Tito will be fighting Ryan Bader to keep his career alive, it's hard not to get excited for UFC 132."

Tickets for the event go on sale to the general public this Saturday, May 7, ranging from $75-$800. UFC Fight Club members get their first crack at tickets this Thursday, May 5, while UFC Newsletter subscribers get their chance at tickets on Friday, May 6.

[Urijah Faber art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9244.shtml

Kenny Florian Jesse Forbes Xavier Foupa Pokam Hermes Franca