Anderson Silva - Image: Zuma Press

This is pretty crazy news, but Anderson has been chasing a challenge for the past two years and hasn’t been able to find one even after taking a few fights at light heavyweight. Not only should fights at heavyweight satisfy that need, but it will also set Silva up for some huge paydays.

So how did we end up here? The UFC’s middleweight division has been pretty anemic for a few years now, and the arrival of Anderson Silva as a world beater three years ago just made the rest of the guys at 185 look even worse. Now the division has built up a bit with solid names like Dan Henderson, Demian Maia, and Nate Marquardt, but for all their skills a fight with Anderson Silva seems like an exercise in pointlessness. Silva is just too good for them.

The UFC decided to bring Silva up to light heavyweight to see how he’d fare there. His two fights against James Irvin and Forrest Griffin lasted just under four and a half minutes combined. But his friendship with current light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida means he refuses to challenge for the belt. That means there’s not much point in having him fight other contenders, which stuck everyone in the same problem they had at 185 pounds: who does Silva fight now?

Moving to heavyweight seems pretty crazy, but it solves a lot of problems. Silva wants to set up a legacy and he wants to make as much money as possible before retiring. Fights against Frank Mir, Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, and Mirko Crocop would accomplish that easily. The UFC gets to free up the middleweight belt and let a more equally skilled group of fighters scrap for it in a suddenly relevant middleweight division. And Anderson Silva isn’t stuck fighting random light heavyweight odd ends so long as his pal Lyoto Machida is champ.

No dates, names, opponents, or anything else have been announced regarding this, but last week’s sudden game of heavyweight musical chairs points towards something interesting brewing. The moment we get more info from Dana White and the UFC regarding the situation, I’ll post it up here. For now, you’ll just have to wait and salivate like the rest of us.

Post from: EveryJoe

Anderson Silva moving to heavyweight?

Brock Lesnar made Frank Mir eat his words tonight, taking his opponent down in both the first and second rounds and slipping a number of punches right to the kisser through Mir’s arms. Despite an early leglock attempt in the first and flying knee in the second from Frank Mir, Brock’s size and strength were just too much. The fight ended 1:48 into the second round when Lesnar pinned Mir against the cage and knocked him unconscious.

UFC 100 - Image: UFC

Georges St Pierre dominated Thiago Alves with his wrestling in a fight that was impressive but not exactly the most exciting thing in the world. Alves was unable to get his striking game going and spent the large majority of the fight on his back being smothered by the French Canadian champion. Despite a groin injury in the third, St Pierre kept the pressure on and won the fight via decision, with judges scoring it 50-45, 50-45, and 50-44.

In other action, Michael Bisping looked completely outclassed by Dan Henderson, who spent the entire fight throwing loaded right hands at the nervous looking Brit until one finally caught Bisping flush and knocked him out for a good minute or two at 3:20 of the second round.

Jon Fitch avenged his teammate Josh Koscheck’s loss to Paulo Thiago by grinding out a methodical decision on the ground and avoiding several nice choke attempts from Thiago.

And Yoshihiro Akiyama won what many are considering a bogus split decision over Alan Belcher in what was essentially a stand-up battle. While Belcher seemed to be hitting harder, Akiyama was the more accurate of the two and spent the majority of the night ducking half of Belcher’s blows and countering with two shots landed in return.

Now on to the results of the undercard fights which were not featured on the Pay Per View event:

• Mark Coleman defeated Stephan Bonnar via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jim Miller defeated Mac Danzig via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jon Jones defeated Jake O’Brien via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:43 of round 2
• Dong Hyun Kim defeated TJ Grant via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
• Tom Lawlor defeated CB Dollaway via submission (guillotine choke) at 0:55 of round 1
• Shannon Gugerty defeated Matt Grice via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:36 of round 1

Post from: EveryJoe

Full UFC 100 Results

Brock Lesnar - Image: Zuma Press

The fun thing about this fight is both guys have weaknesses that the other is easily capable of exploiting. Lesnar has only been training mixed martial arts for a few years and there’s no way his jiu jitsu is even close to Frank Mir’s. On the other hand Brock Lesnar hits harder than a truck, and Mir has never done well against guys who manage to whack him in the face a few times. There’s a very easy way to boil this fight down: if it stays on the feet, Brock will win. If it goes to the ground, that’s Frank’s domain … unless it goes to the ground because that’s where Brock’s fists send Mir.

One interesting factor in all this is whether Frank Mir has managed to get under the skin of Brock Lesnar. Mir has spent the last three months talking smack about Lesnar and the former WWE star has been acting extra dour lately, walking out on interviews and press conferences. Who knows if this is the real Brock or just pro wrestling style theatrics. But it adds another dimension to the fight … with all his physical tools, this is Lesnar’s fight to lose but because of Mir’s submission skills all it takes is one hot headed mistake and Lesnar will find himself sans heavyweight belt.

This isn’t the only huge fight on the UFC 100 card. Fighting for the welterweight belt is Georges St Pierre versus Thiago Alves, and the coaches from season 9 of the Ultimate Fighter, Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping, will also face off to see who’s next in line for the middleweight belt. The show starts at 10pm on Pay Per View and is guaranteed to be an amazing and historic night of fights, so don’t miss out!

Post from: EveryJoe

UFC 100 Preview: Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir

UFC 100 Logo

Here are some details as reported by UFC.com

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – With the mega-card UFC® 100 already sold out, the Ultimate Fighting Championship® organization will hold a closed-circuit screening of this historic pay-per-view at Mandalay Bay Beach Saturday, July 11. Don’t miss your chance to watch all the action on a LED Video Wall under the stars at the UFC 100 viewing party.

For ticket sales and information visit UFC.com. UFC President Dana White commented “I started hearing about UFC 100 around UFC 90. I am blown away by how excited fans were for this event,” said UFC President Dana White. “So I made sure to stack this card with the greatest fights and greatest fighters in the world, and keep ticket prices consistent with our other big events. Once again, our fans responded with a record sellout. This is another great milestone for the UFC, and July 11 is going to be an amazing event.”

Here is the confirmed fight card.
Main Card

Brock Lesnar Vs. Frank Mir
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Thiago Alves
Jon Fitch Vs. Paulo Thiago
Dan Henderson Vs. Michael Bisping
Yoshihiro Akiyama Vs. Alan Belcher
Mark Coleman Vs. Stephan Bonnar

Undercard
Jon Jones Vs. Jake O’Brien
Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Jonathan Goulet
Mac Danzig Vs. Jim Miller
CB Dollaway Vs. Tom Lawlor
Matt Grice Vs. Shannon Gugerty

Post from: EveryJoe

UFC 100 Viewing Party On Sale Now

Prior to the July 11th event at Mandalay Bay in Nevada, UFC will premiere UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights starting on July 5th. Fans can vote on which fights they think deserve to be in the 100 Greatest Fights. That starts on May 1st at http://ultimate100.spike.com/. That show will start airing on July 5th at 9pm EST and will continue every evening that week, with the exception of Friday July 10th.

UFC Logo

Here is the current fight card as published on UFC.com.

Main Card

• Brock Lesnar Vs. Frank Mir (for the Hw Title)
• Georges St. Pierre Vs. Thiago Alves
• Dan Henderson Vs. Michale Bisping
• Yoshihiro Akiyama Vs. Alan Belcher

Preliminary Card

• Jon Jones Vs. Jake O’Brien
• Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Jonathan Goulet
• CB Dollaway Vs. Tom Lawlor
• Matt Grice Vs. Shannon Gugerty

Post from: EveryJoe

UFC 100 Building With 5 New Fights Carded

Coming a year a a few months since his first and last loss in UFC, heavyweight Brock Lesnar will face the man that made his first fight in the UFC a loss. Frank Mir is the number 1 contender after beating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Frank Mir is eager to win the heavyweight Championship from Lesnar who won it after beating a returning Randy Couture whom held the UFC heavyweight title during his absence from the UFC. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was the “Interim” Heavyweight champion and I can only assume that if Frank Mir wins the “Interim” championship will no longer exist and it will only be the Heavyweight Championship.

Lesnar has won two fights since his first loss to Mir and chances are he will be more cautious of Mir’s Jiu-Jitsu this time and will look to keep it standing until a good ground and pound game-plan can be executed.

UFC 98 will take place on May 23rd at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

For a rumored fight card and more information on this event visit MMA Junkie.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Lesnar Vs. Mir II Officially Set For UFC 98

What’s a better way to get in to your opponents head and perhaps make them overconfident? Maybe even train a little lighter in anticipation that you may not be training hard if at all? Start some rumors, or maybe just help spread the ones others let you in on. This is exactly what Frank Mir did prior to his winning fight over Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

There were rumors floating around by word of mouth and cyber-space that Mir may have injured his back and that he wasn’t training hard for the fight in hopes to find a way out. When December 27th came around it was quite obvious that the rumors were nothing more than that.

Mir discussed this with Taggradio.com, MMA Junkie’s Radio Partner this past week.

“Every fighter gets injured a lot during training camps,” Mir said. “One thing I’ve learned not to do is – I don’t really give any validity to my injuries. Some of my injuries are fake. I’ve faked a few injuries in the past but not to pull out of fights or anything. It’s just there a lot of rumors out there, and when I hear them, I help people out. … ‘Go tell people and put it on the Internet.’

You can read more on this story at MMAJunkie.com

You can view Frank Mir’s post-fight interview as well as the interviews of the other fighters at THIS LINK.

The picture above is from 2002 when Frank Mir Lost to Ian Freeman at UFC 38. What does that have to do with this article? It’s Frank Mir and that’s about it.

Post from: EveryJoe

Frank Mir Spreads Rumors… About Himself

Both Mir and Lesnar are cocky and confident fighters. Mir being the more skilled fighter with many more fights under his belt and a defeat already over Lesnar. Lesnar being the bigger, overwhelming fighters that is dedicated to everything that he does. Mir has the skill while Lesnar has the size, but Mir’s no 220 pounder and is much more in his prime than Randy Couture. Standing the same height as Lesnar with only 15 or 20 lbs less than Lesnar this will be interesting.

Lesnar has fought two other great fighters since his loss to Mir. Heath Herring who has had 3 wins and 3 losses (Including his loss to Lesnar), went three rounds with Lesnar and lost all three rounds by being completely dominated by Lesnar. Randy Couture is a great wrestler but proved to be slightly too small to handle the size of Lesnar.

Mir on the other hand played it smart and looked for a limb during his victory or Lesnar, but it didn’t look so great for Mir in the beginning of that fight. Mir has the Jiu-Jitsu but will he be able to get the submission again? I doubt if Lesnar will make it so easy this time around but at the same time Mir is probably not going to try to use the same submission unless Brock makes it that easy. In an article on MMAJunkie, Mir stated:

“I’m not going to question Brock’s legitimacy or anything like that,” Mir said. “He beat one of the all-time greats of the game to win the title. Let’s go out and settle this.”

Nothing has been set in stone just yet but a title match will most likely take place in spring of 2009

Post from: EveryJoe

Mir Defeats Nogueira, Looks Next At Lesnar

• Patrick Barry wins over Dan Evensen: TKO (Evenson injured by a leg kick and unable to continue) @ 2:36 in the first round
• Brad Blackburn wins over Ryo Chonan by unanimous decision after 3 rounds. Judges score the fight 29-28, 29-28, 29-28.
• Matt Hamill beats Reese Andy with a strikes TKO @ 2:19 in round 2
• Antoni Hardonk scores the win over Mike Wessel with a strikes TKO @ 2:09 in round 2.
• Yushin Okami wins by unanimous decision over Dean Lister after 3 rounds. Judges score the fight 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
• Cheick Kongo defeated Mostapha Al-Turk with a strikes TKO @ 4:37 in round 1.
• Quinton Jackson knocks out Wanderlei Silva with a left hook in round 1 @ 3:21.
• C.B. Dollaway wins over Mike Massenzio with a TKO from strikes @ 3:01 in round 1.
• Frank Mir defeated Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira @ 1:54 in round two by TKO from punches, fight stopped by Herb Dean.
• Rashad Evans wins the lightweight championship title by beating Forrest Griffin in three rounds (@2:46) by TKO punches.

Post from: EveryJoe

UFC 92 Results

Junie Browning showed some impressive skills when he fought Jose Aguilar on the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8. He made short work of Aguilar and impressed both Dana White and Frank Mir.

It wasn’t long after that we saw an alcohol fueled Junie Browning start acting childish and getting upset. Some pushing ensued but nothing serious happened. It didn’t stop there though, it happened a few times and the last time was shortly before Browning lost in the semifinals to Efrain Escudero.

In a recent article on MMA Junkie, Frank Mir talks about Browning and his placement on tomorrow night’s Ultimate Finale Fight card. He doesn’t feel that Browning deserves to be on the card and feels that the UFC has given him an undeserving opportunity.

"As far as him being on the main card, it does reward his behavior," Mir said. "I think in the future, it shows people who get on the show that as long as they act like a moron and idiot that they get to have time. And that face time equals money, so maybe they don’t have to put that much effort into fighting."

Since the show, Junie has moved to to Las Vegas and has been training at Xtreme Couture. Junie’s biggest complaint on the show was that he wasn’t getting good training. I can agree because from the footage we whenever really saw a lot of Frank Mir getting involved in training. He was sitting against the wall most of the time. Like I said though…that’s only what we saw on TV. If I were to state my opinion on just watching the show I would say that Mir is a good fighter but not a good coach, but that would be an unfair statement.

I think we can expect a good fight between Browning and Dave Kaplan on the Finale. Both showed some promise during the casting fights but neither of them showed much during their fights. Maybe we’ll get to see just how good the both of them are and who’s the better fighter. Kaplan claims he’s never been knocked out and Junie has shown that he can take a punch as well as throw some strong one. We’ll see what happens on Spike TV on Saturday.

Post from: EveryJoe

Frank Mir Speaks Out About Junie Browning