Kimbo Will Fight In The House And Dana White Will Boot Kimbo Slice If He Has To

Posted by JMusk on Aug 26, 2009 in Fight News | 0 comments

Dana White says the rules are no different for Kimbo Slice. He was asked what if Kimbo snaps and he fights at the TUF house? I wouldn’t be to concerned, my predictions are that Kimbo is going to get a beating on that show. I’m putting it out there, I don’t think Kimbo is as big a phenomenon as people like to think. More like a ratings booster then anything else. We will see.

Popularity: 1%

Ultimate Fighter 10 – The NFL Players That Turned Fighters

Posted by JMusk on Aug 26, 2009 in Featured Articles, MMA Blog | 0 comments

Today mixed martial arts has become both lucrative and mainstream, and Lesnar, 32, who never made the Vikings, is the UFC heavyweight champion.

This fall, a number of former pro football players are trying to follow in his footsteps. As part of the cast of Spike TV’s reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, Marcus Jones, Matt Mitrione, Brendan Schaub and Wes Shivers will compete for a chance to fight in the UFC

(Kevin Lynch/Spike TV) Matt Mitrione hopes his athleticism can help make up for his lack of mixed martial arts experience. If you don’t remember these guys, you’re probably not alone. Mitrione, a backup defensive lineman for the Giants, left the N.F.L. because of injuries. Shivers played one season at offensive tackle for the Falcons and Schaub, a fullback, never made it past the Bills practice squad. In other words, they’re not exactly Pro Bowlers.

Jones, 36, a former first-round draft pick, is the most high profile of the four. In 2000, he had 13 sacks as a defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he left the N.F.L. in 2003 because of injuries. He had planned to take two years off to heal and then return. But one night, roughly two years ago, while hanging out with friends from college and talking about the U.F.C., Jones and his friends cleared out the living room furniture and began to spar.
“I was a big guy who had never thrown a punch,” he said.

After five minutes, Jones was exhausted. A smaller friend of his put him in a choke hold and Jones tapped out. From then on, he began training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “Now I feel great,” Jones said. “My first four or five months, I lost 70 pounds.”

(Kevin Lynch/Spike TV) Jones, who once weighed as much as 325 pounds, has slimmed down to roughly 250 pounds since he began training in jiu-jitsu His cardio, he said, has never been better.

“In MMA man, there is no way out. It’s like playing two-minute football for five minutes.”

Mitrione, 31, said that intensity is part of what attracted him to the sport. A former Shotokan karate practitioner, he stopped training in martial arts in high school after he found success in football.
“Fighting is socially acceptable now,” he said. “Five years ago it wasn’t.”

After injuries forced him to leave football in 2005, he started a supplement company. But he never lost the desire to compete.
“In the N.F.L., there are no other amateur leagues,” he said. “If you get cut, you can’t chase it down for five or six years.”

Mitrione and his former N.F.L cohorts aren’t the first former pro football players to enter the cage. Alonzo Spellman, a former defensive end who struggled with a bipolar disorder, won his first and only MMA fight in 2006. And Bobby Jones (offensive line) and Michael Westbrook (wide receiver) have also earned mixed martial arts victories.

But success in football doesn’t always translate into success in MMA Just ask Johnnie Morton, perhaps the best football player to dabble in fighting. In 2007, the former wide receiver was knocked out in just 38 seconds by Bernard Ackah, a comedian from the Ivory Coast. After the fight, Morton was suspended for refusing to take a drug test.

While the former N.F.L. players may not have made it in football, they are all explosive athletes, according to Rashad Evans, one of the coaches on the show, especially compared with the average heavyweight in mixed martial arts. And Lesnar’s success, Evans said, has proved that power and athleticism can go a long way.

Yet technique is still vital in mixed martial arts, and unlike Lesnar, who was an N.C.A.A. wrestling champion, the former N.F.L. players are largely green. They may initially struggle because of their raw and and rudimentary skills.

Nonetheless, as with Lesnar before them, their presence within the sport’s ranks perhaps says something about where mixed martial arts is going in the future and the caliber of athletes it may be able to attract.

Popularity: 1%

UFC 100 $5.1 million gate could be second largest in history

Posted by JMusk on Jul 16, 2009 in Fight News | 0 comments

Saturday’s long-awaited UFC 100 event, which sold out before tickets even technically went on sale to the public, drew an estimated 11,000 fans for a staggering live gate of $5.1 million. 
UFC officials disclosed the figures in the post-UFC 100 press conference. 

The Nevada State Athletic Commission will release official numbers later this week, but if the figure holds up, the live gate will go as the second largest in UFC history. 

Saturday’s event took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired on pay-per-view. UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and welterweight title-holder Georges St. Pierre both made successful title defenses at the show at the milestone. 

UFC 100 tickets, which sold out during a pre-sale period for UFC Fight Club and UFC.com newsletter subscribers, were going for as much as $45,000 each on the secondary market. 

If the UFC’s figures are correct (and they usually are), UFC 100 would have had an average ticket price of $464. 

UFC 100′s estimated gate currently ranks tied for second in the 16-year history of the organization. 

The top five now includes: 

1. UFC 66 (Liddell vs. Ortiz II): $5,397,300 gate (12,191 attendance)
2. UFC 83 (St. Pierre vs. Serra II): $5,100,000 gate (21,390 attendance)
3. UFC 100 (Lesnar vs. Mir II): $5,100,000 gate (11,000)*
4. UFC 79 (St. Pierre vs. Hughes): $4,994,050 gate (9,704 attendance)
5. UFC 91 (Couture vs. Lesnar): $4,815,675 gate (13,224 attendance)

* – Estimated figures

Visit The Dragon Zone’s Newsroom for more stories  like these.

Popularity: 4%

Meet The Ultimate Fighter 10 Heavyweight Cast

Posted by JMusk on Jul 14, 2009 in Fight News | 0 comments

Who will be the next Ultimate Fighter? There are a couple of big boys here should be some heavy hitting going on, and I can not wait!

Check out the full cast below (records provided by Spike TV).

Coaches

• “Sugar” Rashad Evans (Coach) (13-1-1)
• Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (Coach) (30-7-0)

The Heavyweights

• Zak Jensen (11-2): The 6-foot-4, 265-pound 26-year-old Jensen was a collegiate wrestler and football player at Northern Illinois University and Augsburg College. After college, he found success in “Tough Man” competitions and Golden Gloves competitions and eventually made the move to MMA in 2007.
• Marcus Jones (4-1): The 6-foot-6, 260-pound 35-year-old Jones is the most prolific of the show’s NFL quartet. While playing defensive end at the University of North Carolina, Jones was an All-American and the 1995 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and became the 1996 first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After eight successful years in the NFL, he joined Gracie Tampa and made the transition to MMA.
• Scott Junk (6-2): The 6-foot-1, 265-pound 30-year-old Junk was a former Division II All-American football player at Southwest Oklahoma State. After college, Junk began training in mixed martial arts, earning his way into the UFC in 2007. Junk, who took the fight on less-than-two-weeks’ notice, suffered a first-round submission loss to Christian Wellisch.
• John Madsen (3-0): The 6-foot, 240-pound 29-year-old Madsen grew up in South Dakota, where he earned all-conference and all-state honors in football, wrestling and track. After defeating current UFC champion Brock Lesnar in a high-school wrestling match, Madsen went on to earn a Division II wrestling national championship at South Dakota State University. Madsen currently trains at Matt Hughes’ H.I.T. Squad.
• James McSweeney (12-4): The 6-foot-4, 230-pound 28-year-old Englishman McSweeney started with a striking background, beginning his training in kickboxing at 6 years old before moving to Thailand to train full-time. After amassing a 136-9 combined record in multiple kickboxing organizations, McSweeney moved in with former UFC champion Rashad Evans and now trains full time at Greg Jackson’s MMA in New Mexico.
• Matt Mitrione (0-0): The 6-foot-3, 275-pound 30-year-old was a two-position football All-American while in high school. After attending Purdue University and earning All-Big Ten honors, Mitrione played six seasons in the NFL as a member of the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings. Following a devastating injury, Mitrione returned to his childhood passion of combat sports and began training with UFC veterans Chris Lytle and Jake O’Brien. 
• Roy Nelson (14-4): The 6-foot-1, 265-pound 33-year-old was born and raised in Las Vegas, training in martial arts from an early age while playing football, baseball and wrestling. After turning pro, Nelson surprised many opponents with his less-than-impressive physique. “Big Country” earned the now-defunct IFL’s heavyweight crown, before suffering recent losses to notables Jeff Monson and Andrei Arlovski.
• Demico Rogers (4-0): The 6-foot-4, 235-pound 27-year-old was a stand-out wrestler and football player while attending high school in his native Washington. Rogers began training jiu-jitsu as a means of staying in shape, and after winning a local mixed martial arts tournament, he began to focus on the sport as a potential career.
• Brendan Schaub (4-0): The 6-foot-4, 240-pound 26-year-old credits the Jean Claude Van Damme movie “Bloodsport” as his inspiration to pursue martial arts. Growing up in Colorado, Schaub was an all-state athlete in both football and lacrosse. Schaub went on to play fullback at the University of Colorado before later playing in the Arena Football League and earning a spot on the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad in the NFL. Schaub remained active in tae kwon do and jiu-jitsu, and he currently trains at T’s KO Fight Club and Jackson’s MMA.
• Darill Schoonover (10-0): The 6-foot-2, 250-pound 24-year-old Schoonover grew up in Texas and began training in jiu-jitsu, judo and submission grappling at 17. After graduating high school, Schoonover entered the Army, serving two years in the armed forces. Schoonover remains on active reserve while pursuing a career in teaching, though with 10-stoppages wins in 10 trips to the cage, mixed martial arts may quickly take precedence.
• Wes Shivers (3-1): The 6-foot-7, 285-pound 32-year-old Shivers grew up in Mississippi, earning a scholarship to play football at Mississippi State University. Shivers earned all-SEC honors before playing in the NFL with both the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. Shivers followed his football career with a four-year stint in law enforcement. Shivers continues to train in Mississippi, including with UFC veteran Alan Belcher.
• Wes Sims (22-12-1): The 6-foot-10, 260-pound 29-year-old Sims originally planned to pursue a career in professional wrestling before UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman convinced “The Project” to take a shot at mixed martial arts. Sims earned his way into the UFC in 2003, dropping back-to-back outings to current UFC interim champion Frank Mir. Sims currently runs a gym in his native Ohio.
• Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson (3-1): The 6-foot-1, 235-pound 35-year-old Ferguson needs little introduction to hardcore or casual MMA fans. The streetfighting YouTube sensation played football at the University of Miami before working as a bodyguard, earning extra money with his bareknuckle brawling exploits. A four-time veteran of the now-defunct EliteXC, Fergsuon last fought in a now-infamous loss to Seth Petruzelli.
• Abe Wagner (6-2): The 6-foot-4, 265-pound 29-year-old Wagner grew up in Wisconsin, excelling in both football and basketball while in high school. Wagner played linebacker at Michigan Tech University, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. Wagner began training in mixed martial arts in 2005.
• Mike Wessel (6-1): The 6-foot, 255-pound 31-year-old Wessel was raised in Ohio, eventually playing his way onto the University of St. Francis football team. Wessel played briefly in the Arena Football League before accepting a position as the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Arkansas. Wessel suffered his first professional defeat at the hands of Antoni Hardonk in his lone UFC appearance at UFC 92 in December 2008.
• Justin Wren (10-1): The 6-foot-3, 264-pound 22-year-old Wren was a two-time high-school national champion wrestler in his native Texas, earning a spot on the Iowa State University wrestling team before an injury forced him to take a year off and recover. During his time away from wrestling, Wren focused his energy on mixed martial arts training, eventually electing to turn pro. Wren trains in Texas with “The Ultimate Fighter 4″ champ Travis Lutter, and he plans on moving to Las Vegas to train full-time with current UFC interim champ Frank Mir.

Popularity: 1%

Dana White Changes his Tune on Kimbo Slice

Posted by BISHOP on Jul 14, 2009 in MMA Blog | 1 comment

If you know anything at all about Kimbo Slice and Dana White, you know that Dana has run his mouth and spent a lot of time flat out talking shit about Kimbo.

Well now Dana is changing his tune, and realizing that when you talk shit about a big negro from Miami they aren’t gonna forget about when you were running your big mouth.

Popularity: 1%