5 Reasons Why Nick Diaz Will Dominate Paul Daley

It?s recently been announced that Paul Daley would be the next man to challenge for the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship, and fans are already buzzing about a potentially epic showdown between ?Semtex? and Strikeforce?s currently-reigning champion, Nick Diaz. Diaz will have to get past Evangelista Santos before that dream-fight comes to fruition, but many fans, including [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/01/21/5-reasons-why-nick-diaz-will-dominate-paul-daley

Carlos Newton Mike Nickels Alexandre Franca Nogueira Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira Antônio Rogério Nogueira

BELLATOR NEWS: Jay Hieron officially confirmed as eighth and final participant in season four welterweight tournament

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Logo_Bellator_150_210.jpg

The eighth and final participant in Bellator's fourth season welterweight tournament is now set, as the organization on Thursday confirmed the participation of veteran Jay Hieron. Hieron had previously been reported for the tournament, and it is now official.

"Jay's the perfect fighter to round out our stacked welterweight tournament," said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. "He's a true mixed martial artist who has very few weaknesses and a ton of strengths inside the cage. Jay will be a tremendous test for anyone and everyone in this talent rich tournament."

Hieron signed with Bellator late last year after the end of his tumultuous relationship with Strikeforce. It had been expected that he would make the move back to the UFC on his seven fight win streak, but he opted to take part in the tournament field instead.

?I feel great right now. I turned a negative into a positive with my time off and just took the opportunity to sharpen my skills," said Hieron. "When you're training for a fight, the pressure's on, so it'' hard to learn and evolve. It's straight business. With this time off I've been able to focus on a lot of new techniques. Now I'm just excited to get back in there and show off my new arsenal."

In addition to promising some new tricks up his sleeve, Hieron took a shot at his prior organization in Thursday's release.

"This is the exact type of situation I wanted to be in right now. With the tournament format, there's no politics, no golden boys, and nobody getting protected, there's none of that. If you win you move forward, and that's that. That's the bottom line and that's exactly what I was looking for. I feel like I've been through as bad a situation that somebody can go through in their career, and I'm still here. Not only that, but my body's right, I'm healthy, and I feel like it's my time."

Hieron completes a field that will also feature Lyman Good, Dan Hornbuckle, Rick Hawn, Steve Carl, Chris Lozano, "Judo" Jim Wallhead, and Brent Weedman. Season four begins in March, airing live weekly on MTV2.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator/article_8207.shtml

Ryan Jensen DaMarques Johnson Jon Jones Nathan Jones  Kevin Jordan

Mike Brown Injures Left Hand At ?Fight For The Troops? Event

After taking a fight with Rani Yahya on short notice as part of last weekends UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 event, former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown (24-8) is reporting that he?ll undergo surgery for his left hand after damaging it in his fight with Yahya. Brown, who fought just three weeks prior to last Saturday at UFC 125, posted this notice on his Facebook page late last night. Thanks for the continued support. Wanted to let everyone know that i?m doing fine, but I tore a radial cruciate ligament in ...

Source: http://www.ifight365.com/2011/01/mike-brown-injures-left-hand-at-%e2%80%98fight-for-the-troops%e2%80%99-event/

Melvin Guillard Cody Guinn Jorge Gurgel Andre Gusmao Alexander Gustafsson

STRIKEFORCE NEWS: Ryan Couture meets Lee Higgins at Strikeforce Challengers 14

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

LogoStrikeforce2010_105_68.png

Ryan Couture's second professional fight will come to Showtime on February 18 on the Strikeforce Challengers 14 card, and now he's got an opponent.

According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, will meet Lee Higgins on the card, which emanates from the Cedar Park Center in Cedar Park, Texas and airs live on Showtime.

Couture made his professional debut on the Strikeforce Challengers 10 card in 2010 after a 4-1 amateur career. He submitted Lucas Stark with a first round triangle choke in that bout, but injury delayed his return late in the year.

He now meets Higgins, a 2-0 professional who earned both wins by first round rear naked choke. The Houston, Texas based fighter went 3-3 as an amateur before turning pro.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: Higgins is another beneficiary of the Couture name, getting his third professional fight televised on Showtime. That's the positive thing that comes with the 28-year-old's famous last name, because he's getting the exposure on television because of that, and both fighters can showcase themselves on a higher platform than most fighters at this stage in their careers. Couture was highly impressive in his pro debut, and this will be another good fight for him. It's also a chance for Higgins to put a big name on his resume with a win, too, so it should be a good, competitive fight between a couple of fighters still very young in the sport.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_8201.shtml

Mauricio Rua Dave Menne Murilo Bustamante Evan Tanner Rich Franklin

UFC QUOTABLES: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira discusses Junior Dos Santos vs. Brock Lesnar

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

NogueiraAntonio_CG150_16.jpg

"TUF is going to be important to showcase Brazilian MMA in the US, show them how we train united. I showed them that when I was TUF coach and Cigano will show the same. We'll be going to visit him, me and Anderson, but Cigano is a guy who already knows how to teach, he already teaches. He'll know how to show the techniques and show why he's one of the best in the world. As for Lesnar, he doesn't kick, so Cigano will not need to train too much defensive Muay Thai, as he was training for Cain, he can now rely more on training offensive Muay Thai. And this is the type of fight where he'll look for the KO, train a lot of wrestling, train the guard because he could end up falling underneath [Lesnar], even though Lesnar's ground and pound is not as good as Cain's. But [Cigano] will look for the KO in this fight."

-Antonio Minotauro Nogueira talks to Brazilian site Portal Vale Tudo (translated by Orcus via BloodyElbow.com) about the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, coached by his protege Junior Dos Santos and former UFC Heavyweight Champ Brock Lesnar, as well as Dos Santos' preparation for the fight with Lesnar.

Penick's Analysis: It will be good to see Nogueira and Silva making an appearance during this season of TUF. While their time is sure to be short-lived - as they're not going to Vegas as full-on assistant coaches - their assistance even for a short time will make for an invaluable experience for those fighters on Dos Santos' team. It's interesting that they were preparing for more kicks from Velasquez for that fight, but not surprising, as Velasquez's overall striking game is simply more nuanced and polished than Lesnar's, something that was made abundantly clear in October. Still, this remains a fight in which Lesnar will be extremely dangerous, regardless of some deficiencies in his stand up game. If Dos Santos remains aware of the danger he faces on the ground, and prepares accordingly, it will be his best shot at winning the fight. This is going to be a huge non-title fight for the organization.

[Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8174.shtml

Dave Gomez Keith Hackney Matt Hamill Volk Han Joachim Hansen

Dana White Says Rampage is Next in Line for the Winner of Shogun-Evans and That Nick Diaz is Welcome Back if he Plays the Game


("I trust this dude so much, I'd let him be my chauffeur if he needed a job. We could make it into a reality show and call it 'Driving Mr. Dana.'")

Dana White helmed a Q&A session at Fort Hood last week ahead of the Fight for the Troops II show Saturday night and the UFC president dropped a handful of interesting tidbits during the hour-long forum.

Perhaps most noteworthy was White's proclamation that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will likely get the next crack at the winner of the UFC 128 championship bout between current champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Rashad Evans. White pointed to Jackson's win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 -- a fight many thought should have gone to "The Dragon" -- as being the main factor in his title consideration. He also hinted that the winner of next month's UFC 127 tilt between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will likely get dibs on the winner of Jackson versus Evans or Rua.

"There are so many guys at 205. Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. We've got Jon Jones and Ryan Bader fighting on the fifth [of February], which is going to be a great fight and catapults one of those guys to the top five.There's so many great guys in the 205-pound division," White said. "The big problem has been 'Shogun's' injury has been clogging up the division. Now he's healthy and going to fight, and we'll get everything rolling. [Shogun's] recovered now and back in training."

Surprisingly, White said that Machida, who just as easily could be sitting in Rampage's place in line had the judges given him the split decision nod over Jackson, needs to win his upcoming UFC 129 bout in Toronto with Randy Couture, stopping short of saying that he could be on the chopping block if he loses.

"I didn't think [Lyoto] was ever going to lose," White admitted. "Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage, too," he explained. "Now he's fighting Randy Couture. It's a must-win for him."

White also touched on several other topics, rumors and bout signings. Check the most pertinent ones out after the jump.

read more

Source: http://www.cagepotato.com/dana-white-says-rampage-next-line-winner-shogun-evans-and-nick-diaz-welcome-back-if-he-plays-game

Tony Fryklund Kazuyuki Fujita Masakatsu Funaki Zelg Benkei Galesić Mauro Galvao

UFC News: Daily Show's Jon Stewart references UFC and Joe Rogan tonight - the sport has arrived

DailyShow_220.png

Tonight on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Stewart said, in reference to Sarah Palin's characterization of her political foes...

"They are working desperately to get America to tap out and then get awkwardly interviewed by Joe Rogan.

A photo then appeared of Rogan interviewing the Statue of Liberty.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8193.shtml

Ryan Schultz Pete Sell Andrei Semenov Ivan Serati Matt Serra