With UFC President Dana White surprisingly absent from Tuesday’s UFC 104 press conference at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, headliners UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida (pictured) and challenger Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vowed to put their friendship aside and display unique styles in the October 24 showdown.

“Lyoto is a nice guy and we’ve known each other for a while,” said Rua. “Even though we are friends, I got very surprised to see him on the plane and actually sitting next to me for the whole flight from Brazil to here. It was a funny situation, but we’re both professionals, we’re training very hard and we both want the same goal, so we’re gonna do our best.”

Machida improved to 15-0 in May with a second-round knockout of title-holder Rashad Evans, employing his elusive Karate-influenced style that has allowed him to win seven-straight bouts since joining the UFC in 2007, with his latest victory being referred by many as the start of the “Machida Era”.

“Lyoto is a standup fighter,” commented Rua. “I’m a standup fighter myself, but he comes from karate and is a very good counterstriker; he fights in a very efficient style. I’m a Muay Thai fighter and I fight much more in a pressing style by being aggressive. I think this is a big motivation for me, to show and prove that Muay Thai can be very efficient against his style.

“Each fight is a different story,” Rua continued. “To fight Chuck Liddell I believed I needed to emphasize boxing, and Sao Paulo has the best boxing in Brazil, so I went there to train and to prepare. For this fight against Lyoto I think I need different aspects of training, so me and my team talked about it and we decided to stay in Curitiba for this fight. My team is my team, but I’ll go wherever is best for my strategy and my opponent, and I’ll bring my team with me.”

A longtime PRIDE veteran, Rua looked unimpressive in losing his UFC debut to Forrest Griffin in late-2007 after previously winning five-straight, but back-to-back TKOs of Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell in 2009 have propelled him into title contention.

“My style is karate,” said Machida “My personal style is counterstriking. Shogun is a very aggressive fighter with good knees, good punching, but I’ll try to push him into my style.

“I keep training a lot for the night of the fight,” Machida concluded. “This is my first title defense and I hope I’ll win. My opponent is tough, a great person, very good on the ground and (in his) striking, but I know one thing – I’ll keep doing my homework.”

To see highlights

(props to mmaweekly.com for pic.)

Former Elite XC welterweight champion Jake Shields and former ICON Sport middleweight champion Jason “Mayhem” Miller (pictured) will battle it out for the interim Strikeforce middleweight title sometime soon.

No date or location is known at this time. Miller made the announcement in a recent forum post over at MyFightTeam.com.

Mayhem stated:

“I’m set to take on Jake Shields for the middleweight championship of the world in Strikeforce.”

It’s expected that the winner of the 185-pound contest between Shields and Miller will challenge reigning Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le later this year to unify the belts.

Howver, Le is currently tied up with several Hollywood-related projects outside the cage that have kept him out of action for almost two years. But has vowed to make a return early in 2010.

According the smug British wanker, Michael Bisping in his latest blog entry, he won’t be fighting Wanderlei Silva in the main event of UFC 105 on November 14 in Manchester, England as previously rumored:

Quick update on the potential Wanderlei Silva fight. Unfortunately thats not gonna happen. He’s undergone facial surgery, so obviously won’t be fighting in the near future. Rumours are he’s actually out for the rest of the year.

Ok, so that explains the recent photos of Wandy looking like monkey. I’m very disappointed this fight isn’t happening. Bisping just dodged a massive Brazilian shaped bullet. I wonder if this smug douche even knows how lucky he is, or maybe he to retarded to understand since Hendo crushed his cranium? Either way, I’m sure the UFC will find some suitable tomato can for “The Count” to fight in replacement for Silva.

Recent photos have surfaced of Wanderlei Silva with a new, strange face.. Wandy (32-10-1), who hasn’t always been known has the most handsome man in mixed martial arts, seems to have gone under the knife. With some speculation as to these new facial changes has a risen, such as; a possible operation to remove scar tissue. However, as you can see in the photos, it looks a little bit more weirder than that. See below for the old vs new Silva comparison.

Old Wanderlei:



New Wanderlei:

“Phil Baroni has verbally agreed to a contract with the UFC, according to a source close to the fighter. The veteran welterweight’s potential signing will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows as well as shed some light on the brewing feud between the UFC and rival promotion Strikeforce.”

source: sherdog

Baroni (13-11), was recently released from his Strikeforce contract a few days ago. Strikeforce’s CEO Scott Coker made this announcement in a press release :

“We wish Phil the best of luck and hope he can revive his career, if he can, maybe one day, he can return and fight for us.”

Phil, who lately lost to Joe Rigs on Strikeforce’s – Lawler vs. Shields card in June, has had a somewhat patchy career. With UFC’s recent releases of Tandem McCory and Thales Leites, it seems quite odd to me that the UFC would be targeting someone of Barnoi’s calibre. Stay tuned to our rumors section as more of this story unfolds.

Ricardo Almeida (Pictured) will make his welterweight debut against Jon Fitch at UFC 106 on November 21 in Las Vegas, rumour has it the fight will be at at 170-pounds.

Almeida who is a veteran of both PRIDE and Pancrase, recently defeated TUF alumni Kendal Grove at UFC 101 via unanimous decision. Before the fight Ricardo had mentioned that this would most likely his last bout at middleweight before moving down to welterweight. It will be interesting to see how well Ricardo can make the cut down to 170 pounds as he isn’t the smallest middleweight.

Fitch, who trains out of American Kickboxing Academy; was previously a UFC he welterweight contender before losing a unanimous decision to George St. Pierre has recently rebounded from that loss with two back-to-back wins over Akihiro Gono and Pualo Thiago.

Almeida-Fitch, which is the first rumoured bout for UFC 106, is expected to air on the event’s pay-per-view main card.

For more rumours and speculation please check out our rumours section.

“I made the decision not to do the blogs anymore. I am the one that took them down. They were fun while they lasted, and thanks to everyone for the support.”

Carmichael Dave, who is close friends with Dana white has confirmed the UFC president has pulled the blog on his video blogs. Not only has he stopped doing them but he has also removed old footage from previous events. His entire library has been deleted. Many people are wondering as to what could trigger such a unexpected decision. Speculation is that it could have something to do with a future television deal with a Major Network.

After his crushing knockout loss at the hands of Anderson Silva, Forrrest Griffin quite oddly got up and ran out of the stadium. He did not stay for the judges offical descision nor did he attend the UFC 101 post fight press conference. This had many fans speculating on what actually happend?

According to a source on the underground, this is why Forrest left with such haste:

I heard his jaw was dislocated very early in the fight…then he took several more punches to the jaw. Apparently he can’t hear out of the ear on that side either. He left the octagon because he needed medical attention asap. At first they thought his jaw was broken, then said it was dislocated.

This would obviously explain the odd behaviour on his part.

Update:

Joe Ferraro of Sportnet has stated that Forrest’s was “fine”. During the UFC 101 post fight press conference Dana White stated he had not yet seen Forrest following his knockout loss to Anderson Silva. However, he did say the he believed Griffin ran out of the Octagon as a result of being such an emotional fighter.

If any injuries did occur to Forrest or any other fighters they cannot be confirmed yet as the cards medical suspensions haven’t been realised.

Stay tuned to Fightburger as more updates and news unfolds.


For all the UFC 101 results please go here.

According to a recent post on Dana Whites Twitter page, it looks like not only have Tito and Dana kissed and made up; but, Tito is possibly back in the UFC. I imagine Dana will spill all the beans on his July 31st press conference which is going to be “crazy”.

With Tito (assumingly) back in the mix hopefully this will save the UFC 103 card which I was previously meant to be Henderson v Franklin II. I guess Zuffa felt the reverberation of 10 million face palms all going off at once after this matchup was announced. And pulled the matchup was per speculation on Rich Franklins Twitter:

 

 So, maybe, just maybe there could be a possible Hendo or Franklin v Tito for UFC 103? Or maybe since the collapse of Affliction there could be a possible Vitor v Hendo / Franklin v Tito matchup. With any luck Dana will spill all the beans in his press conference and answer all these questions. Stay tuned for more updates.

prepared eulogies for the UFC after its disastrous 33rd show, which had been supposed to mark a triumphant return to pay-per-view.

Instead, the event was cursed from the word go, as a super fight between incumbent light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz and top contender Vitor Belfort was scrapped after the Brazilian suffered an injury during training camp. With millions already invested in the UFC since its purchase of the brand earlier the same year, Zuffa had no choice but to move forward.

A less-than-inspiring replacement was found in Vladimir Matyushenko, but with two other title bouts already on the card, many held out hope that some semblance of success could be salvaged from the wreckage of Belfort’s injury. Those hopes got shot through a particle collider, as the show deteriorated into a mess of dull decisions that left fans wondering if the hyped return of the UFC was destined to end like a small-town fireworks show — a bit of flash that leaves nothing but smoke. We all know Zuffa continued to dump millions into the UFC despite years spent operating in the red before finally emerging as the juggernaut we know today, but it’s worth remembering that bit of history after watching the less-than-shocking demise of Affliction Entertainment as a fight promotion.