UFC president Dana White made comments about Greg Jackson's fighters at a post UFC 122 event. He was critical of Jackson fighters not finishing fights.

"I got to be honest; you see this happen now consistently with the Greg Jackson camp," White said. "I don't know if they are told or what their deal is; in their minds they are winning the fight going into the last round, and it's not true. There's like this 'avoid the fight because we think we're winning' thing."

White added, "I look at fights the way that I see them ... and there is absolutely, 100 percent, consistency with that in the Greg Jackson camp."

Jackson responded to White’s criticism with facts and not with opinion like White had done. Jackson told mmafighting.com in a phone interview: "We sat down and did the math after we heard that. Here's a quick stat for you. So there's been 22 [UFC events] this year? We had 12 bonuses so far this year. So one out of every two, one of my fighters got Submission of the Night, Knockout of the Night or Fight of the Night."

I took a look at some stats for Jackson fighters; here are some of their accomplishments:

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone – WEC “Fight of the Night” (five times); Sherdog “2009 Fight of the Year”

Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia - WEC “Fight of the Night” (two times)

Keith Jardine - UFC “Fight of the Night” (two times)

Cub Swanson - WEC “Fight of the Night” (three times)

George St. Pierre - 2009 & 2010 Fighter of the Year

Rashad Evans - UFC “Knockout of the Night” (two times); UFC “Fight of the Night” (one time); 2008 Fighter of the Year

Jon Jones – UFC “Knockout of the Night” (one time)

Carlos Condit – UFC “Knockout of the Night” (one time); UFC “Fight of the Night’ (one time)

Joe “Big Daddy” Stevenson – UFC “Fight of the Night” (three times)

Nate Marquardt – UFC “Knockout of the Night” (one time); UFC “Fight of the Night’ (one time)

Diego Sanchez - UFC “Fight of the Night” (one time)

Clay “The Carpenter” Guida - UFC “Fight of the Night” (three times)

I think this clearly shows White gives his opinion before he thinks. Jackson has some of the most exciting fighters in MMA.

What's your opinion on White's comments? 

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I talked to Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia this month about his upcoming fight with Tyler Toner and his lost to Mark Hominick. I asked if his next fight was a must win fight to remain in the UFC. He also talked about maybe a rematch with the "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Newly crowned UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has pulled out of his title defense at UFC 125 against Josh Grispi.

Heavy MMA first reported the news of Aldo’s withdrawl from the event scheduled for Jan. 1. They are reporting that Aldo has a compacted vertebrae that is causing tingling in his arm.

Aldo received his new featherweight title in a private ceremony with media members this weekend from UFC president Dana White.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

At the conclusion of the main event bout at UFC 123 between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida, I sat wondering how could two judges get this decision so wrong? I thought clearly Machida won the first and third rounds and Rampage took the second round.

The last time I felt a fight was so wrongfully decided, was the Machida-Rua 1 bout at UFC 104.

At the end of a close bout, most fighters believe they should get the edge. But, clearly Rampage knew he had lost this fight. Every ounce of his body language expressed those feelings at the end of the fight.  He sat against the cage, like a whipped fighter with his head down. So it was to his dismay that ring announcer Bruce Buffer would call his name at the end as the winner. His first words to analyst Joe Rogan were, “He bloody my nose, I consider that a [expletive] whipping,” said Jackson.

He later changed his opinion when his corner men “yes men” told him he had won the bout. And later UFC president Dana White chimed in declaring Rampage the winner.

Here are my thoughts on why the decision was made in Rampage’s favor.

It starts with Steven Seagal.  That’s right, the action movie star Steven Seagal, who is a 7^th-dan black belt in aikido. The 58-year-old actor worked with Machida for the fight with Rampage. If you look at the techniques on youtube he taught Machida. And you hear Rampage at the UFC 123 post-fight press conference; you could see that Machida was doing some moves in the cage that could be misconstrued as boring. Jackson said, “Even though he [Machida] was elusive and everything but it really made for an exciting fight I think. I remember trying to punch him and he was already on this side over here [pointing to his side]. I was thinking like man you know what I’m saying, it’s weird; I think his style, I got more respect for his style … I won’t want to watch though.”

I think as a fighter, Rampage realized that what Machida was doing was such a beautiful art form of fighting. Being elusive and not taking punishment can be mistaking as boring. But it’s the opposite of what Dana White would want for a UFC fight. He pays bonuses for toe-to-toe fighting. Taking punches in the face and afflicting as much damage to your opponent as possible. The “Fight of the Night” consists of very little defense and all out punching with your opponent.

My point: If you look at the first round, Machida had octagon control and effective aggressiveness as defined by the scoring rules.

Octagon Control

1. The fighter who is dictating the pace, place and position of the fight.

2. A striker who fends off a grappler's takedown attempt to remain standing and effectively strike is octagon control.

3. A grappler who can take down an effective standing striker to ground fight is octagon control.

4. The fighter on the ground who creates submission, mount or clean striking opportunities.

Effective Aggressiveness

1. This simply means who is moving forward and finding success.

2. Throwing a strike moving backwards is not as effective as a strike thrown moving forward. (Neither)

3. Throwing strikes and not landing is not effective aggressiveness.

4. Moving forward and getting struck is not effective aggressiveness.

5. Shooting takedowns and getting countered and fended off is not effective aggressiveness.

What are your thoughts?

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Rolles Gracie last fought at UFC 109 against Joey “Mexicutioner” Beltran. He lost for the first time to take his record to 3-1 in the cage.

Shine Fights have several heavyweights in their stable. Gracie joins veteran Jeff “The Snowman” Monson (32-9) and Thiago “Big Monster” Santos (6-1) to fill out the heavyweight roster.

"Rolles Gracie is one of the best grapplers in the world. He is consistently working on developing his game and he is ready to show his true capabilities in ring.  If there is one thing history has taught us, it is that an in shape, ready to go Gracie, is a very dangerous thing," said Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

The Ultimate Fighting Championship held a media call for UFC 123, Rampage vs. Machida, taking place Saturday.

On the call were four former UFC champions, former light heavyweight champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida, former two-time UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and former UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn.

Usually on media calls the featured fighters would talk about winning their previous bout. In this case, three of the four fighters are coming off huge losses and two of them lost championship bouts.

One of the fighters, Rampage Jackson, was quite candid about his loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 114. Said Jackson, “I knew I lost that fight before I even stepped in the cage. The day I lost that fight was a couple of weeks before the fight even started, so it had nothing to do with the movie [A-Team], tour or anything.”

He didn’t go into details about why he thought he had lost the fight before the event, only stating, “We’ll I’d like to keep that personal.” But, one can extrapolate from the remaining answers on the call that his relationship with his kids is really important and that my have played a role. If you recall Jackson’s training camp was spend in Widnes, United Kingdom, with Michael Bisping preparing for the Evans fight.

 Many of us watched as the UFC aired UFC Primetime, it’s pre-fight behind-the-scenes show leading up to the event. On the show Jackson said, “I can’t wait to destroy you [Evans]. That’s all I think about is you and your big mouth. That’s what motivates me to train hard. I never trained this hard in my entire life.” If that statement were true, it would mean that mixed marital arts is just as mental as it is physical. If he was physically ready, it only means he was not mentally ready.

On the call Jackson was asked about moving his training camp from the U.K. to the United States. Jackson said, “I just bought a new house and I just decided to train right down the street from my house.”

That sounds a lot like Brock Lesnar's situation. One can only hope that Rampage has not surrounded himself with “yes men” and that he has brought in some tough fighters to train against.

It seems that fighters that have earned a significant amount of money (millions), tend to get away from the team concept of training.

If you look at the current champions, they all train with teams. Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez trains with American Kickboxing Academy, Lightweight Champion Mauricio Rua with Universidade da Luta (UDL), Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva with Black House, Welterweight Champion George St.-Pierre with Jackson’s Submission Fighting, Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar with Renzo Gracie Combat Team, Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo with Black House, Bantamweight Dominick Cruz with Team Lloyd Irvin.

I know Lesnar was about to be the Heavyweight Champion, but many believe the lack of a fighting team was his downfall.

Do you believe an MMA fighter can train with his/her own personal trainers and sparring partners and become a champion?

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Shogun Fights III was an action-packed night of fights that had many UFC fighters in attendance, including Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia and Mike Brown.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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In Baltimore, we have Shogun Fights III at 1st Mariner Arena on Saturday, November 13. If this card is anything like Shogun Fights I & II, it's going to be a great event.

I got a chance to talk with Baltimore's own Binky Jones, Dan Root and Ryan Mackin about there upcoming fights.

The fight of the night may be the super heavyweight bout between Ryan McGowan and Bobby Favors. Favors tip the scales at 350 pounds while McGowan come in at 315 pounds.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Cerrone who fights at the 155-pound class is thought to have taken the first swing and cut the 219-pound Sursa over his eye. Sursa punched Cerrone causing a cut to his lip.

Na Koa Podcast reported: “UFC 155 lb fighter Donald Cerrone was involved in a backstage brawl at the Evolution Combat Sports event in Clovis New Mexico event. The brawl was apparently about a young lady now dating Donald Cerrone who used to date main event fighter of the evening Marcus Sursa. Comments were exchanged after Sursa returned from a trip to the rest room and Cerrone was over seeing the warm-ups of several Jackson MMA fighters on the card this night, some words were exchanged by the two and then a shove followed by Cerrone throwing a punch causing a laceration on the eye of Sursa, he responded with a punch cutting the lip of Cerrone. All told, Sursa was now out of the main event tonight against Buddy Roberts of Reno, NV due to the cut he suffered.”

Cerrone plans to be a special guest at Shogun Fights III in Baltimore, Maryland on November 13, along with Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia and Mike Brown.

Posted by Kevin Richardson at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)