Junior dos Santos jokingly escalates growing rivalry with Cain Velasquez, saying UFC champ ‘hits like a girl’

Junior dos Santos jokingly escalates growing rivalry with Cain Velasquez, saying UFC champ ‘hits like a girl’
Junior dos Santos will meet Cain Velasquez in the main event of UFC 166 on Oct. 19 in Houston, the third time in less than two years that the men have met with the heavyweight title at stake.
Dos Santos took the belt from Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1 on Nov. 12, 2011, with a 64-second TKO. Velasquez regained the belt and evened the series when he routed dos Santos and scored a wide five-round decision on Dec. 29, 2012, at UFC 155 in Las Vegas.
UFC officials would love for the rivalry to become heated, as it would stoke pay-per-view sales. As it is, both men are affable, low-key sorts who usually have little bad to say about the other.
Dos Santos, though, may have taken the first step toward creating a true rivalry when he said during a lengthy interview done in Portuguese and linked here that Velasquez “hits like a girl.”
He was trying to explain his surprisingly poor performance against Velasquez at UFC 155 when he made the remark, which seems like an attempt at humor.
The term catch is a Brazilian slang term for heavy punching power.
Now, dos Santos already admitted he was overtrained for the fight. And in an extensive interview with Yahoo! Sports, he repeatedly praised Velasquez.
But though he made a joke about it’s power, it’s likely that he does believe that Velasquez is not the biggest puncher around. He called Velasquez “my biggest adversary” but had some interesting things to say about light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
A dos Santos-Jones fight would be a massive event for the UFC, as would a Velasquez-Jones fight. The winner of the rubber match at UFC 166 might be the guy who ultimately gets to Jones first.
Hat tip to Fernando Arbex of Yahoo! Brazil for the Portuguese-to-English translation of dos Santos’ remarks. (Source)


UFC 162 Video Preview: Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin Full Fight Video

Anderson Silva made his UFC debut with a 43-second shellacking of Chris Leben at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 5. A few months later, he walked out of the Octagon in Las Vegas, Nev. as the UFC middleweight champion.
Silva had a professional record of 18-4 when he faced UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 77 in October 2006. Franklin had won the title when he defeated Evan Tanner in June 2005. His fight against Silva was his third attempted defense of the title. Franklin had previously defended the title by defeating Nate Quarry and David Loiseau.
Franklin was 22-1-0-1 when he entered the Octagon to face Silva. Franklin was, without a doubt, the crowd favorite entering the arena that night in Vegas. He was also favored in the eyes of the oddsmakers, via MMAmania.com, as he entered at minus-185 to Silva’s plus-165.
When the fight began, Silva was fluid in his motions and wasted very little time working knees to the body from the clinch. The strikes were very effective, and in short order Silva had Franklin lowering his hands to his reddening torso to block the blows.
As soon as Franklin dropped his hands, Silva went upstairs and delivered a knee to the chin of his opponent. That gave Franklin something to think about, should he protect his midsection or protect his head?
Franklin didn’t have much time to ponder that question. Shortly after planting that seed in Franklin’s head Silva planted a knee directly on his nose. He followed that with a kick to the head and another knee to the head, and that was the end of the night for Franklin.
Just 2:59 after the fight began, the UFC had a new middleweight champion and Franklin had a new angle to his nose. After Franklin was back to his feet, Bruce Buffer announced “and now the new UFC middleweight champion of the world, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva.”
Since that night, Buffer has only announced the finish of Silva’s middleweight bouts with the phrase “and still UFC middleweight champion of the world.” That announcement has been made a UFC record 10 consecutive times.
Will Silva make it 11 at UFC 162 or will we finally hear the words “and new UFC middleweight champion of the world” again?  We’ll find out on July 6 when Silva attempts to defend his title against top-ranked Chris Weidman. (Source)


Georges St-Pierre to Defend UFC Title Against Johny Hendricks on Nov. 16

The question finally has an answer, and the answer is yes.
Let me fill in a few more details if that is a bit too vague. Yes, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will fight top-ranked Johny Hendricks.
Yes, the fight does have a date, and that date is Nov. 16.
Yes, the fight has a location: Las Vegas, Nev.
No, the fight does not have a venue as of yet.
Ariel Helwani broke the news of St-Pierre’s impending title defense on Tuesday’s episode of UFC Tonight.
St-Pierre (24-2) last fought at UFC 158, defeating Nick Diaz by unanimous decision in front of a hometown crowd in Montreal’s Bell Centre. The win was St-Pierre’s eighth consecutive defense of the title. It was also his fourth consecutive fight in his home country of Canada.
When St-Pierre steps into the Octagon in Las Vegas in November it will be the first time he has fought outside of Canada since defending his title against Dan Hardy in New Jersey at UFC 111.
The last time St-Pierre competed in Las Vegas was in July 2009.  In that bout, he defeated Thiago Alves by unanimous decision.
Hendricks’ (15-1) last fight was also at UFC 158. Hendricks defeated Carlos Condit on that card, running his unbeaten streak to six consecutive fights.
Helwani also noted that the event that St-Pierre and Hendricks will meet at would also serve as the UFC’s 20th anniversary event.
The UFC had hoped that it would be able to hold that event in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, but the failure of that state to legalize MMA made that dream impossible, as Newsday’s Mark La Monica explains. (Source)


Lightweights Jamie Varner and Gleison Tibau set for UFC 164 in Milwaukee

The UFC’s August return to Milwaukee has a new lightweight fight set for the bill.
Former WEC champion Jamie Varner (21-7-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is set to meet Gleison Tibau (27-9 MMA, 11-7 UFC) at UFC 164. Sources with knowledge of the bout recently confirmed the fight booking to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), and UFC officials made the announcement Wednesday afternoon.
UFC 164 takes place Aug. 31 at Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The card is headlined by a lightweight title fight between champion Benson Henderson and top contender T.J. Grant. Also on the card, Josh Barnett returns to the UFC in a heavyweight fight against former champ Frank Mir.
Varner got back in the win column in December with a split-decision win over Melvin Guillard at UFC 155 in Las Vegas. Before that, he was submitted by Joe Lauzon in a “Fight of the Night” bonus winner at UFC on FOX 4.
But it was his return to the UFC on short notice at UFC 146 that has been the hallmark of his time since he was the WEC champ. He upset Edson Barboza with a first-round TKO, becoming the first fighter to beat the Brazilian.
After a rough run to end his WEC career – an 0-3-1 mark in four fights – his return to the UFC has given him a bit of a career resurgence.
Tibau has won two of his past three fights, including a submission win over John Cholish at UFC on FX 8 a month ago in Brazil. At UFC 156 in February, he dropped a split decision to Evan Dunham to fall back in the loss column after a win over Francisco Trinaldo in October.
Tibau will be going after his first win streak since 2011, when he went 3-0, including a “Submission of the Night” win over Rafaello Oliveira at UFC 130. The former welterweight and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt trains at American Top Team in South Florida.
The latest UFC 164 card includes:
Champ Benson Henderson vs. T.J. Grant - for UFC lightweight title
Josh Barnett vs. Frank Mir
Clay Guida vs. Chad Mendes
Erik Koch vs. Dustin Poirier
Ben Rothwell vs. Brandon Vera
Gleison Tibau vs. Jamie Varner
Chico Camus vs. Kyung Ho Kang
Nikita Krylov vs. Soa Palelei
Tim Elliott vs. Louis Gaudinot
Derek Brunson vs. Yoel Romero
Magnus Cedenblad vs. Jared Hamman
Pascal Krauss vs. Hyun Gyu Lim


Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 to Serve as 20th Anniversary Show

UFC president Dana White recently stated that Georges St-Pierre would next defend his belt against Johny Hendricks, and that the bout would likely take place in Las Vegas.
TVA Sports on Tuesday reported the St-Pierre vs. Hendricks would take place on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. UFC Tonight confirmed the report, noting that the event, likely to be dubbed UFC 167, would also serve as the UFC’s 20thanniversary show.
St-Pierre has not fought in Las Vegas since he faced Thiago Alves in the co-main event of the promotion’s massively successful UFC 100 event.
No venue has been revealed for UFC 167, but it will likely take place at either the MGM Grand Garden Arena or the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the promotion’s two staple venues in its hometown.
The fight has been a long time coming for Hendricks, whose last four victories include Carlos Condit, Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck, and Jon Fitch. The Kampmann and Fitch victories were both first-round knockouts.
White initially held out hope that the promotion’s 20th anniversary event could be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but professional mixed martial arts has yet to receive sanctioning in the state. (Source)


Garcia vs Lopez does season-high rating for Boxing After Dark

Mikey Garcia and Juan Manuel Lopez did the year's best number for HBO Boxing After Dark, bringing in 1.3 million viewers this past Saturday night.
Mikey Garcia's fourth round TKO win over Juan Manuel Lopez this past Saturday night from Dallas did the year's best Nielsen rating for HBO Boxing After Dark, bringing in 1.3 million viewers for a card that started late at 10:45 pm EDT, and featured a Terence Crawford-Alejandro Sanabria co-feature.
While one might argue that this proves that Garcia is a star, or that Mexico vs Puerto Rico always draws, or that maybe Crawford is a breakout phenom, or that this is total, absolute proof that HBO is a far, far better platform to build a star than rival Showtime, or that Top Rank is flying high and the haters can all just suck right on it, I mean just suck it so hard, right where it should be sucked, let's not forget to mention one extremely important thing.
The lead-in for this fight was the TV premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. That mattered. If a Beyonce documentary has been given credit for boosting HBO boxing viewership, then I think The Dark Knight Rises should be considered a factor, too.
HBO Boxing After The Dark Knight Rises. Ha! Hilarious. Just some humor, you guys. (Source)

Boxing head coach Billy Walsh unaware two coaches removed in his absence

Head coach to the Irish boxing team Billy Walsh was unaware that two coaches he had in place were removed from their positions with the elite Irish women’s team, when he was abroad in training camp with the men’s Irish team.
Walsh who was voted Irish Manager of the Year for 2012 across all sports, was with the Irish team in Ukraine prior to their participation in the European Championships in Minsk, when coaches Pat Ryan and Tony Davitt were removed without his knowledge or approval.
A common view is that Walsh’s position was undermined by the decision. The issue was brought up yesterday by John O’Mahony TD during a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. However there appears to be some confusion.
The former Mayo football manager asked if the Irish Sports Council (ISC) and Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) were aware of the “tension within the IABA”.
Been addressed
“There seems to be issues there and have they been addressed? The director of boxing sacked a coach of the ladies team recently. Have those issues been resolved?” he asked.
Asked to comment yesterday, the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA), denied that anybody had been sacked.
Chairman of the IABA board, Dr John Lynch said: “No, there was nobody sacked. There was a relocation of duties for revenue reasons.”
Responding to O’Mahony’s question, ISC chief executive John Treacy said: “We’ve heard the same stories and it’s unacceptable. If they have a clear job description then we fully support the work they do. Those issues will be discussed shortly with Billy Walsh.”
ISC chairman Kieran Mulvey added: “If we have governance issues with bodies and we are unhappy then those issues have to be addressed because we fund them.”
Walsh, whose men’s team won four medals in Minsk, is on holidays and was unavailable for comment. He is expected back on Tuesday. (Source)


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