There's no easy way to say it: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira got his ass kicked by Frank Mir.
The 32-year-old Brazilian did not look like the fighter that, save for one Russian, lorded over one of the best collections of heavyweight talent in history at Pride Fighting Championships, nor the man who came from behind to win the UFC interim heavyweight championship last year. He looked sluggish, out of step, and sadly, old.
But there was a reason for it, says UFC president Dana White.
White maintains the former champ was suffering from a serious case of staph infection going into the Dec. 27 bout.
"I think Nog had staph real bad like six days before that fight," White told reporters on Thursday.
Though he didn't have blood tests to prove his theory, his eyes gave him all the evidence he needed.
"He had these things all over his body," continued White. "I can't explain what they looked like."
Since the fight, Nogueira has remained silent on the circumstances leading up to the fight. Last month, he underwent knee surgery to repair an injury that also hampered his preparation for Mir, according to trainers.
Last week, Nogueira accepted his first bout since the loss, a meeting with former heavyweight champ Randy Couture at UFC 101 in August. Sources say he will do most of his preparation for the fight in Los Angeles.
C.B. Dollaway defeated Mike Massenzio at UFC 92 by TKO, but was stunned on his feet and found himself in a guillotine choke early in the fight that some thought he tapped out to. The video is inconclusive and so was Dollaway when asked about the alleged tap.
"I don't really remember that part of the fight," said the Arizona Combat Sports trained fighter. "Apparently I got hit with a big shot. I remember taking him down and I kind of came to when I was in the guillotine. I just popped my head out. I don't remember tapping."
In the end, it doesn't really matter much. There wasn't enough of a tap for the referee to notice and stop the fight. Meanwhile, Dollaway was able to gain mount and drop down enough blows for the fight to be stopped, earning him the TKO win.
Every time you see a Greg Jackson trained fighter enter the Octagon, you can expect to see them tweak their nipples before entering combat. It's become a tradition, and since it's inception, it has yielded strong results for Jackson's fighters in the UFC.
Heading into UFC 92, Rashad Evans prepared for the biggest fight of his career taking on Forrest Griffin for the UFC light heavyweight title. But as Bruce Buffer introduced the fighters, Evans forgot to perform the ritual.
According to a superstitious teammate, that's why Evans lost the first two rounds against Griffin. "I didn't do the nipple tweak," said the UFC light heavyweight titleholder. "Jardine pointed it out. He said, 'Know what? I think that's maybe why you started off slow, man. You didn't get the nipple tweak in.'
"That's exactly what I get," added Evans. "I realized after the fight started that I didn't do the nipple tweak. I was like, man, what's going on? I lost my mojo."
In the final edition of Dana White's UFC 92 video blog, he goes backstage for the fights that took place on Saturday night. The event featured two title changes...Rashad Evans winning the light heavyweight title and Frank Mir taking home the heavyweight crown.
MMAWeekly.com was on the scene at UFC 92 and following the light heavyweight title fight on Saturday night, now former champion Forrest Griffin left the arena to head to the hospital and get treated for a broken hand.
It is unknown at this time at what point in the fight Griffin suffered the broken hand, but he had mentioned in his post fight comments that he was heading to the hospital.
It was assumed at the time the trip was for a possible concussion with the TKO suffered to end the fight.
Griffin looked very good in his first title defense, but fell victim to a vicious ground and pound attack from new champion, Rashad Evans, who won his first UFC title while keeping his record perfect in the process.
The third installment of Dana White's UFC 92 blog from Dec. 24 and 25. In this episode Dana takes viewers through a workout in the gym, Christmas morning at the White household, and the UFC Christmas dinner provided for the fighters and their camps and family that were away from home during the holiday.
ESPN's MMA Live previews Saturday night's UFC 92 featuring Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir, and Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson.
UFC middleweight Dean Lister has always been known as a ground ace, but his performances in MMA have often been less than exciting. Despite an impressive outing against Jeremy Horn at the season seven finale of "The Ultimate Fighter," Lister has largely dropped off the radar screen of potential contenders in the 185 lb. division.
In an business environment where fighters are more frequently getting cut from the organization after one bad performance, UFC president Dana White had this to say about Lister, who faces Yushin Okami this Saturday at UFC 92.
"He needs to get in there and let his (expletive) go," White told reporters after a press conference for the event. "He needs to go in there and actually try and finish a fight. Dean's a talented guy, he's been fighting in mixed martial arts for a long time, and he needs to go in there and show it."
It's inevitable that Okami and Lister will hit the mat come Saturday, and Okami's wrestling prowess would seem tailor made for Lister's submission ability. The danger with both fighters is an excess of respect. The way White paints it, a stalemate could be bad for their careers.
The second installment of Dana White's UFC 92 blog. In this episode Dana meets with several of the UFC 92 fighters, takes viewers to the UFC 92 press conference as he meets with the media, tours his office showing some of the gifts he's received from various people, and more.
Everyone knows Rashad Evans for his obvious strength in wrestling, as displayed in most of his fights, but most prominently against Tito Ortiz. Coming off of his stunning knockout of Chuck Liddell, will the winner of The Ultimate Fighter season 2 chance slugging it out with UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 on Saturday night?
He sure might.
"When you have a major wrestling background, you learn to use it as a defense. So you know you're not going to get taken down by somebody and you can take a little bit more chances on your feet and slug it out," said Evans.
"The hard part is just getting yourself to be comfortable enough to stand up and throw the blows. Sometimes you throw a couple of shots and someone catches you with one and the next thing you know is you want to wrap them up. You've just got to ignore that instinct and you've just got to just fight through it."
So in the first championship battle between Ultimate Fighter winners, will we see an epic battle similar to the Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin fight that launched The Ultimate Fighter franchise?
Who knows? But we'll find out Saturday night at UFC 92.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson takes on "The Axe Murderer," Wanderlei Silva, at UFC 92 Saturday night in Las Vegas. It will be their third fight but their first under Unified Rules. Their two previous bouts took place under Pride rules with ten-minute first rounds, yellow cards, stomps, soccer kicks, knees to the head on the ground, no elbows, and took place in a square ring.
This time around, they will compete for three, five-minute rounds, inside the world famous Octagon with no knees to the head on the ground, no stomps, no soccer kicks, but they are allowed to use elbows.
Seems like a big difference, but Jackson doesn't think so. "A fight is a fight," says the former UFC light heavyweight titleholder.
"Wanderlei is a warrior... Wanderlei fought in the UFC before he fought in Pride," he pointed out. "I don't think it makes a difference. A fight is a fight. I'll fight Wanderlei in a phone booth if I had to.
"It don't matter what the rules are or what the advantages is. A fight is a fight," Jackson added. "I do like the Pride rules, and I do like some of the UFC rules. I wish that, if there was a perfect world for me, I wish we could mix them up and have both rules. That would be cool."
At the end of the day, Rampage commented, "I'm just thinking about staying within the rules and having a good fight."
Mostapha Al Turk, who makes his UFC debut against Cheick Kongo at UFC 92, spoke with MMAWeekly.com about the demise of ProElite and subsequently, Cage Rage.
"It's always sad to see any organization sort of come to their knees. But hey, you know, there's not one person or one organization that's bigger than the sport itself. And where as one door closes, another one opens for anybody," said the former Cage Rage British heavyweight titleholder. "I'm disappointed to see that happen for Cage Rage and EliteXC, but hey, life carries on.
"Cage Rage, they're a great bunch of guys. A very professional organization. I've got nothing bad to say about the guys that ran Cage Rage and the time I've had at Cage Rage, nothing bad what so ever really. It's all been positive," added Al Turk.
"It was the main show in the U.K., so it had a massive fan base. It was huge in the U.K."
For the first time in UFC history, two winners of The Ultimate Fighter reality series on Spike TV will square off for a UFC championship. Forrest Griffin won the inaugural season of the show and defeated Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to capture the UFC light heavyweight title, while Rashad Evans won season two of the show. Now they will face each other on Dec. 27 at UFC 92 in Las Vegas.
Ryan Bader won the light heavyweight division of the most recent edition of The Ultimate Fighter, the show's eighth season. On a recent episode of MMAWeekly Radio, The Ultimate Fighter gave his thoughts on the UFC 92 title bout, the first ever "All Ultimate Fighter" championship if you will.
"It's hard to say. I think if Rashad uses his wrestling, he could definitely, probably win a decision," said Bader. "If he tries to stand the whole time, I think Forrest is just going to stay on the outside and pick him apart a little bit and also win a decision.
"Rashad is coming off his knockout of Chuck (Liddell) and he's pretty confident in his hands. I think Forrest is going to nitpick at him the whole time, but if Rashad goes back and takes him down at least once a round, I think he can definitely win," Bader continued. "So it's going to be hard, but I'm going to say, I'm actually going to say Rashad is going to take the belt.
"It's a scary thing when a wrestler has boxing."
Now there's an overly committed pick that makes you want to go out and bet the house.
At UFC 86 back in July, Forrest Griffin took the first step in solidifying the worth of The Ultimate Fighter reality series as a fight factory for the UFC. He beat Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in a five-round war, and in the process, took his UFC light heavyweight belt, making Griffin the first Ultimate Fighter alum to win a UFC championship.
On Saturday night at UFC 92 in Las Vegas, another Ultimate Fighter milestone will be reached when Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner Forrest Griffin and Ultimate Fighter Season 2 winner Rashad Evans fight for the title. The bout marks the first time two veterans of the reality series have battled for a belt.
"I think it's a great compliment to Forrest and myself," Evans noted of the distinction of the fight and The Ultimate Fighter ties. "Since I came off the show, I've been trying to keep up with Forrest because he set the tone coming off the show. He did excellent. But I have to show everyone that I can do my thing as well and it just wasn't a reality show."
Evans went on to comment about how he believes that The Ultimate Fighter is producing top tier talent, the superstars of the future for the UFC. "We're in a position right now, to really show that the show works to get the best talent out there and these fighters are going to be the fighters of the future. We're going to be the Chuck Liddells and the Randy Coutures because we have a following because the fans were watching us from the ground up."
With each passing day, the third fight between "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson draws nearer and nearer. As Silva prepares for the fight, he has branched out his training to extend to his own gym which will open in January after his bout at UFC 92.
Silva spoke to MMAWeekly Radio recently about his training and especially dealing with someone like Randy Couture to help prepare him.
"I'm training at (Xtreme) Couture for this fight. Cause (Randy) Couture is an amazing guy, I like him a lot," Silva said. "He opened his gym for me, he helped me a lot after I move here to Vegas, he's an amazing guy."
Working with a wide variety of training partners, Silva gets specialized help in every area and this week his gym will open up to old friend and current UFC heavyweight champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
"I'm training at (Xtreme) Couture and training at my gym. Because this week, (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira coming to train at my gym with his team," Silva stated. "He has a lot of strong guys, good jiu-jitsu, good guys for takedowns, and I'm training in my gym with him. I'm training my boxing with Skip Kelps, he's from Vegas and he's very good at boxing. I train my wrestling with Mike Whitehead, he has amazing jiu-jitsu and he's so much stronger."
Wanderlei also says that he expects to invite another champion into his gym to work with Nogueira over the next few days.
"Tomorrow I invited Forrest (Griffin) to train with me and (Nogueira). Maybe Forrest is going to train with Nogueira and with me tomorrow. Tomorrow is a hot day in my gym!"
Silva says he'll slow down on a couple of days out from the actual fight, but until then he will be at full force getting ready for his match-up against Jackson next Saturday night.
At the Nevada State Athletic Commision meetin on Wednesday, the Commission determined that Mario Yamasaki would be the referee in charge of the action when UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture defends his belt against Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 on Nov. 15 in Las Vegas.
Also called to work for the bout were judges Jeff Mullen, Cecil Peoples, and Tony Weeks.
The bout marks Couture's return to the Octagon following more than a year mired in legal battles with the promotion.
The winner between Couture and Lesnar will face the winner of the bout between interim champion Antinio Rodrigo Nogueira and challenger Frank Mir, who are fighting on Dec. 27 at UFC 92. That unification bout will likely take place in early 2009.
Tickets for UFC 92 "The Ultimate 2008" go on sale to the general public beginning Saturday, Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. PT. There are presale options to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public.
Starting Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. PT, tickets for UFC 92 go on sale to UFC Fight Club members. And on Friday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. PT, tickets go on sale to newsletter subscribers.
UFC 92 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It features three of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's highest profile fights of the year. Forrest Griffin puts his newly won light heavyweight championship on the line against Rashad Evans, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defends his heavyweight interim belt against fellow Ultimate Fighter 8 coach Frank Mir, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson returns to the Octagon to try and avenge two brutal losses to Wanderlei Silva.
Copyright 2009 MMA Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of MMA Weekly content is expressly prohibited without expressed written consent of MMA Weekly. MMA Weekly will not be liable for any errors in content or any action taken in reliance thereof.
MMA Insider Blog RSS Feed
