General UFC Chit Chat/News

Zero-Cool

When I heard Barnett returning to the UFC, I thought Mir would be a good matchup and looks like it's going to happen at UFC164

http://middleeasy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11029%3Ajosh-barnett-vs-frank-mir-at-ufc-164-should-give-you-a-warm-and-fuzzy-feeling-inside&catid=34%3Aorganizations

El Guapo!

Thales Leites is back in the UFC against Tom Watson at UFC 163.
I hope Watson wins this and starts a good run in the division.

After a four-year absence, Thales Leites (20-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) is once again a UFC fighter.

The onetime middleweight title challenger is slated to return to the octagon at UFC 163 against up-and-comer Tom Watson (16-5 MMA, 1-1 UFC), according to UFC officials, who confirmed the matchup to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following a report on Tatame.

UFC 163 takes place Aug. 3 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The event's pay-per-view main card includes a featherweight title headliner between champion Jose Aldo and Anthony Pettis. Preliminary-card bouts serve on FX and Facebook. It's unknown whether Leites vs. Watson will serve on the main card or prelims.

Leites' most recent octagon appearance came at UFC 101, where he lost a split-decision call to Alessio Sakara. The setback followed the most notable fight of his career, which was unfortunately the most lackluster.

Leites earned a title shot after five straight wins in the middleweight division, and despite critics who said he wasn't of Anderson Silva 's caliber, he met the middleweight kingpin at UFC 97. What followed was a frustrating encounter that saw him all but concede defeat against Silva, who at times seemed less than enthusiastic about his work, as well.

Since his UFC release, Leites has earned a 6-1 record on the international circuit and beaten UFC vets Dean Lister, Jesse Taylor, Jeremy Horn and Matt Horwich.

Watson, by contrast, is on his way up in the UFC's middleweight division. The former BAMMA champion got back on the winning track this past February with a second-round TKO over Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on FUEL TV 7. Previously, he lost a decision to Brad Tavares in his octagon debut at UFC on FUEL TV 5.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/05/former-title-challenger-thales-leites-returns-against-tom-watson-at-ufc-163

El Guapo!

Phil Baroni had a bit of a nasty ankle break in OneFC last night.
I can't embed the gif, so I'll just link to it instead.
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/5/31/4383070/phil-baroni-broken-ankle-gif-from-one-fc-fight-against-nobutatsu#top

unknown13

Tate has just blasted Winslow after she found out that Winslow could be a referee for the TUF fights. Finally a fighter has spoken out about Winslow. This is very long overdue.

Tate blasting Winslow

weemcd

Lil over 2 weeks and lil Nog is out of the Shogun fight. Real pity as I was looking forward to this one, gonna be tough to get a replacement so close. Any ideas?

Ush1

weemcd wrote: »

Lil over 2 weeks and lil Nog is out of the Shogun fight. Real pity as I was looking forward to this one, gonna be tough to get a replacement so close. Any ideas?

Get Glover in there with him.

stuchyg

Love It, lets see if all the hype is real, he will still be fresh as a daisy after the Te Huna fight as well.

Professey Chin

Glover is in Brazil for his sisters wedding according to his manager

The true World Champion looks willing to step up though!

The irrepressible Chael Sonnen has wasted no time in capitalizing on news that Rogerio Nogueira is out of the UFC 161 match with former light-heavyweight champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. "@ShogunRua I HEAR BRAZILIAN CHICKEN IS OFF THE MENU. AMERICAN GANGSTER IS STILL AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR WAITRESS OVER," he wrote on Twitter. Nogueira’s withdrawal was announced late on Sunday due to a herniated disc suffered in training. No replacement opponent has yet been found. Sonnen is coming off a first-round loss to Jon Jones at UFC 159, having returned to light-heavyweight in the wake of two losses to middleweight champion Anderson Silva ending his 185lb run. Rua is 1-1 in his last two and is coming off a December loss to light-heavyweight contender Alexander Gustaffson.

http://www.fightersonlymag.com/content/news/19052-sonnen-offers-to-step-in-against-shogun-at-ufc-161

El Guapo!

Chael Sonnen vs Brazil......again.
This should be good!

El Guapo!

Th UFC have decided to loosen the reigns on marajuana testing and also lower the limit for testosterone ratio testing.
Both good measures in my opinion.

Dave Herman, Thiago Silva, Matt Riddle, Alex Caceres, and most recently, Pat Healy; the list of UFC fighters to vacate wins off their record, forfeit money from their fight purse, and lose precious time on suspension seemingly grows longer after every event, solely because of positive tests for marijuana. It's a broken system, but fortunately it's one the UFC is taking steps to repair.

Effective last Friday, UFC officials raised the testing threshold for marijuana metabolites from 50 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL, following in the footsteps of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"When we self-regulate around the world, we are going to go the WADA standard of 150," said UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner. "So we're starting that immediately."

The decision, revealed by Ratner and first reported by MMA Junkie, will take effect for all UFC regulated international events, including events held in Brazil, and is intended to lighten the previously restrictive protocols that were just as likely to catch fighters entering the ring high as much as those who used marijuana weeks before a fight.

Likewise, "preliminary talks seem to indicate" a recommendation will be sent for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to consider raising its own testing threshold from 50 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL, as discussed by the NSAC Steroid and Drug Testing Advisory Panel.

"It could be 10 years from now when the commission will say it's not the right number, or two years from now, because I can easily see where that would change," said panel member Dr. James Nave. "Maybe it's 400. ... It's a different ballgame now. Society is different and everything is different."

In addition, the Panel deliberated over several proposals to revise the NSAC's policy on testing for performance enhancing drugs, including considerations to lower the legal testosterone-to-epitestosterone level from 6:1 to 4:1, as well as "the addition of testing for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), recommendations to require a hematologic passport (or hematocrit) and the requirement for out-of-competition tests to include both urine and blood samples."

According to the report, an official proposal is expected to be drafted within the next few weeks and introduced to the NSAC in July.

"I want to commend the committee," Ratner said in closing. "This goes along with the UFC's thinking, as well as my own, that we're moving progressively to the future, and times are changing."

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/6/3/4389094/morning-report-ufc-raises-marijuana-testing-threshold-nsac-considers

lertsnim

El Guapo! wrote: »

Chael Sonnen vs Brazil......again.
This should be good!

He sure knows how to talk his way into a fight. I'd say Joe Silva loves him.

unknown13

lertsnim wrote: »

He sure knows how to talk his way into a fight. I'd say Joe Silva loves him.

The fight actually makes perfect sense aswell. Shogun lost his last fight, Chael lost his last two, which were both title fights. It ain't a bad fight either and if Chael has been doing some sort of training could be a good and competitive fight.

MrStuffins

It's kinda pointless. Lads know they shouldn't smoke but they do anyway thinking they'll get away with it by having it out of their system or below the level of the test.

Now the idiots who will take the risk will just take the bigger risk.

Professey Chin

Chinpool wrote: »

Glover is in Brazil for his sisters wedding according to his manager

The true World Champion looks willing to step up though!

http://www.fightersonlymag.com/content/news/19052-sonnen-offers-to-step-in-against-shogun-at-ufc-161

And it looks like its happening according to the same site that broke the lil nog injury
http://sportv.globo.com/site/combate/noticia/2013/06/chael-sonnen-vai-substituir-rogerio-minotouro-contra-shogun-no-ufc-161.html

weemcd

I'd quite like to see Sonnen v Shogun. Shogun's wrestling is underrated, Hendo didn't have the wrestling all his own way in their match. Shogun wins on the feet. I'd say he's a fair bit bigger than Sonnen also? Short notice fight in a different country, not much time to prepare either.

Who wins?

scudzilla

weemcd wrote: »

I'd quite like to see Sonnen v Shogun. Shogun's wrestling is underrated, Hendo didn't have the wrestling all his own way in their match. Shogun wins on the feet. I'd say he's a fair bit bigger than Sonnen also? Short notice fight in a different country, not much time to prepare either.

Who wins?

Would Chael have to put his belts on the line?

unknown13

I think Chael actually pulls it off. You don't know what Shogun will show up. Chael shows up to fight and the three round distance will suit him. All he has to do is get Shogun down in two different rounds for a good chance to pull off the decision. It will be close though, especially since we don't know the shape Chael is in.

El Guapo!

unknown13 wrote: »

I think Chael actually pulls it off. You don't know what Shogun will show up. Chael shows up to fight and the three round distance will suit him. All he has to do is get Shogun down in two different rounds for a good chance to pull off the decision. It will be close though, especially since we don't know the shape Chael is in.

I think that's the key to this fight. If Shogun shows up in top form then he takes this all day long. If he shows up in any way off form, then Chael takes him down and grinds out a decision.

MrStuffins

I'm really hoping Chael wins. If he doesn't then he might retire and I'd hate for that to happen.

DrPhilG

This site, (Brazilian I presume) is reporting that the fight is booked.

http://sportv.globo.com/site/combate/noticia/2013/06/chael-sonnen-vai-substituir-rogerio-minotouro-contra-shogun-no-ufc-161.html

Mellor

MrStuffins wrote: »

It's kinda pointless. Lads know they shouldn't smoke but they do anyway thinking they'll get away with it by having it out of their system or below the level of the test.

What do you mean by "know they shouldn't smoke", and "get away with it".

It's up to them if they want to smoke weed imo. If its out of their system they are good to go. Having a threshold set too low means people were failing for something weeks before the fight. I'd rather see the integrity of the result maintained than penalties for something which had no impact of the fight.

Mr. Manager

Visa issues reportedly scrap Sonnen-Rua at UFC 161, Jimmo-Pokrajac head to main

That sucks, was really looking forward to that.

MrStuffins

Mellor wrote: »

What do you mean by "know they shouldn't smoke", and "get away with it".

It's up to them if they want to smoke weed imo. If its out of their system they are good to go. Having a threshold set too low means people were failing for something weeks before the fight. I'd rather see the integrity of the result maintained than penalties for something which had no impact of the fight.

By the same token you could just say it's up to them to take PEDs the long as it's out of their system by the time the test comes around.

Yeah, it has no effect on the fight itself but they know coming in its not allowed and they do it anyway. It's stupid to take the risk.

Ush1

Poor pay per view for Winnipeg. Would have liked Shogun Sonnen.

Zero-Cool

As much as I would have liked to see Sonnen Rua (way more than lil nog), it's probably a good thing for Chael. Another loss so soon would be really bad for him. I know he only wants title/main event fights but he needs a 'handy' fight next and a win under his belt.

El Guapo!

I'd like to see Sonnen v Rockhold.
Rockhold called him out during the week.
Although I'm not sure where Sonnen could go in the MW division.

Zero-Cool

Shogun says he is now fighting on the Boston card. Anyone know if McGregor is on the main card or prelims in Boston?

“I’m very sad that I won’t be able to fight at June 15. I got so much ready for this with my team of coaches. I was crazy to fight. I had already changed my strategy, I was ready to get in action, but the UFC told my manager that Sonnen had problems to get a visa to fly to Canada. That’s why they cancelled the fight, and that’s a shame. I’ll have to wait a little longer to fight again, but my will is only getting bigger. UFC asked me to keep training, that I would fight on August 17, at Boston. I’d like to thank the support of my fans, they always gave me strength to train harder and fight”

DrPhilG

sheehy83 wrote: »

Shogun says he is now fighting on the Boston card. Anyone know if McGregor is on the main card or prelims in Boston?

I think he was already well down the list but if Sonnen vs Rua is added I'd say he'll drop to the prelims. Would be a silly move IMO. Not just having an Irish bias, but McGregor is an exciting fighter, brimming with charisma and loves to put on a show. Plus they shouldn't underestimate the hype and support he has as shown by the demand for him on the MMAHour etc.

Zero-Cool

Yeah, actually not looking too good for a main card appearance so far but ya never know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_on_Fox_Sports_1:_1

Mellor

MrStuffins wrote: »

By the same token you could just say it's up to them to take PEDs the long as it's out of their system by the time the test comes around.

That comparison doesn't really work. PEDs are banned at all times. If you take them out of competition you are breaking the rules, regardless of whether or not they are out of your system.

Weed on the other hand isn't banned out of competition. You are allowed to smoke between fights if you wish. You just can't have it in your system at fight time. Key difference that you might be forgetting.

Yeah, it has no effect on the fight itself but they know coming in its not allowed and they do it anyway. It's stupid to take the risk.

I agree that it's a stupid risk, as you never know how your body will process it. But I felt it was worth pointing out it isn't actually not allowed.