Filed under: UFCAs anyone who's ever gone out to dinner with Mike Swick can tell you, watching the UFC welterweight order is an ordeal unto itself. He can't have garlic, or any of the great stuff that makes spicy food spicy. He can't have many of the staples of the American restaurant industry, in fact, and it's not just when he's cutting weight.Because of an esophageal issue that he's struggled with for the past four years, even minor interactions like ordering at a restaurant have become exhausting."I know every time I have to order food somewhere, it's going to be a problem," Swick told MMA Fighting this week. "When the waitress comes up to ask for my order, I know ahead of time it's going to be an issue. I have to explain that I can't have garlic, can't have spice, go through this whole spiel every time, and then there's about a 50% chance that I'll just be ignored and it will be in there anyway. Then I'll be up for four hours feeling like I'm having a heart attack."It's a problem that's affected his social life and his fighting career, but now he's hoping that he may be on the verge of a solution.
Filed under: Fighting, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsDaniel Gracie, the cousin of Renzo and Roger Gracie, woke up one morning and knew it was time to return to MMA.His last fight -- a loss to to Allan Goes in the now-defunct IFL -- took place in November 2006. Since then, the 38-year has remained active as a jiu-jitsu instructor, most recently taking over the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Stamford, CT.But when Gracie stopped by The MMA Hour on Monday, he announced that his time away from MMA was coming to an end later this year."I can't just watch it. I was getting cranky because I wasn't fighting. Actually, I decided to take a little while from MMA because my English was terrible. I could talk but not teach jiu-jitsu, so I said, I have to learn to teach in English, because I know that my future is going to be having a jiu-jitsu school and teaching jiu-jitsu."
Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse ExclusiveIt's just after 6 p.m. in an upscale steakhouse in Houston and already Jason "Mayhem" Miller is yelling at me. Maybe it's not so much at me. More like near me. More like near everyone in the room, and people are starting to notice. "It's stupid, all these people who are so worried about communism if we get free health care," Miller says, his voice rising far past what most people would consider an indoor volume. "What if the fire department made you go through the same steps as the non-socialist health care system?"Businessmen in ties glance up from their prime rib dinners at the next table. Any thought they may have had of asking Miller to keep it down vanish when they see the source of the commotion - a rangy, cauliflower-eared 29-year-old with a nose that looks as if it's been broken just for fun on more than one occasion, gesturing spastically as he becomes more agitated."Imagine, you call them up and they're like, 'Do you have fire insurance?' And you're saying, 'Uh, my house is burning down right now.' 'Are you PPO or HMO? 'The house is on fire!' 'What's your policy number?' 'Okay, it's, uh, 97JK39W2.' 'What's your group ID?' 'AHHHHHH! MY HOUSE IS GONE!'"He erupts into his trademark laugh, an almost cartoonishly maniacal cackle that suggests he might be on the verge of either torturing James Bond or simply flipping the table over on a whim. It's the kind of laugh that makes me briefly wonder whether this whole dinner idea, where I would sit down with Miller to learn a little about what makes this enigmatic fighter tick, was really such a brilliant notion.
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsLess than a year after Dana White tweeted that Karo Parisyan would never fight again in the UFC, "The Heat" has been welcomed back to the organization and offered a fight against Dennis Hallman at UFC 123 in Auburn Hills, Mich.MMA Fighting confirmed the news with two sources close to the situation, as well as Parisyan himself Thursday afternoon.Both Parisyan and Hallman have yet to sign the bout agreements, which have been issued to both fighters, but both fighters have verbally agreed to the welterweight bout.
Filed under: Bellator, NewsThe surge in popularity of mixed martial arts in the last five years brought with it plenty of upstart promotions looking for their piece of the pie. A few major promotions have come along, and a few have gone away, including EliteXC and Affliction, both rather infamously.When Bellator Fighting Championships arrived in spring 2009, it launched with a format unique enough to give it a better shot at longevity than some of its predecessors. Using season-long tournaments, Bellator crowned champions in four weight classes in its first season. The Season 2 tournaments in those classes created opponents for the Season 1 champs to defend their belts against. Thursday, in Season 3, in its 27th event, Bellator gets to see some of the fruits of its labor when Season 1 featherweight title winner Joe Soto meets Season 2 tournament champ Joe Warren in San Antonio. It will be Bellator's first true title fight.
Filed under: Bellator, NewsJoe Warren has certainly made an impact in his 17-month pro MMA career.He defeated veterans Chase Beebe and Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto in his first two fights, which just so happened to be in the DREAM featherweight tournament in 2009. Those wins landed him in the finals of the tournament before losing to eventual champion Bibiano Fernandes. Warren rebounded from that defeat to win the Bellator Season 2 featherweight tournament. Thursday evening, he challenges champion Joe Soto for the Bellator 145-pound belt.Three weeks later, Warren will face the dangerous Michihiro Omigawa at DREAM.16. Obviously, Warren expects to win both those fights. He also expects to be the DREAM featherweight champion by Jan. 1, 2011. His next move, though, might surprise you.Warren told host Mauro Ranallo on Sirius' The Fight Show earlier this week, that he plans to leave MMA this time next year to make a run at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Filed under: UFC, NewsThe Massachusetts State Athletic Commission released Thursday the salary figures for last Saturday's UFC 118 event at the TD Garden. The biggest surprise is, without a doubt, James Toney earning more than any other fighter on the card. "Lights Out" walked away with a cool $500,000 for his 199-second MMA debut.His opponent, Randy Couture, earned $250,000 for his win, while lightweight champion Frankie Edgar walked away with his belt and $96,000.Of course, the salaries reported to the commission do not necessarily represent a fighter's final earnings once sponsorships and extra bonuses are factored in.The purses (show/win bonus) are below.
Filed under: BellatorIn a classic fight for the Bellator bantamweight title, Joe Warren was beaten senseless for five minutes in the first round against Joe Soto, only to storm back and knock Soto out just 33 seconds into the second round.It was one of the fights of the year, and a fight that showed that Warren, a world-class wrestler, also has an incredible chin and powerful striking."I had a bad first round," Warren said afterward. "I took a deep breath, got my focus back and pushed hard. You can't stop me. I'm the baddest man on the planet."
Filed under: BellatorEd West, Zach Makovsky and Ulysses Gomez all won decisions Thursday night at Bellator 27 to advance to the semifinals of the Bellator Fighting Championships bantamweight tournament.In the first fight of the televised card, West beat Bryan Goldsby by unanimous decision in a bout that will be remembered mostly for the fact that the fans at home couldn't watch it: For most of the fight the Fox Sports Net broadcast lost its video feed, and viewers saw only a graphic saying "Bellator 27 technical difficulties." The Fox Sports Net audio was still working, but the announcers didn't seem to realize that the viewers at home couldn't see the action, and therefore weren't as descriptive as they should have been.
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveChances are you've witnessed this scene before. A victorious fighter, flush with adrenaline, steps up to the mic for a post-fight interview. His face is lit up like a full moon and, at least in that triumphant moment, anything seems possible. He's just cold-clocked a qualified competitor on national TV. He feels like a giant among ants. He's Julius Caesar. He's Alexander the Great. Conqueror of kingdoms and destroyer of worlds. So is it any surprise what he says when asked who he'd like to face next?'I'll fight anybody they put in front of me.'Really? Anybody? Because - and don't take this the wrong way, guy with only two or three UFC fights under his belt - 'anybody' covers a lot of territory. A lot of very, very dangerous territory.And yet, to hear the fighters tell it, they've never turned down a fight. Not ever. Merely suggesting otherwise is enough to make you their enemy for life. But the thinking fan has to wonder, aren't there times when it's smart to turn down a fight? Isn't it sometimes better to know your own limitations, particularly early in your career?
Filed under: FanHouse ExclusiveRomulo "Rominho" Barral, a five-time BJJ world champion and one of the most respected grapplers in the world, is looking to make a serious run at mixed martial arts.But unlike other recent crossovers such as Robert Drysdale and Braulio Estima, jiu-jitsu wasn't always Barral's dream."I came from a small town in Brazil and my friend showed me this MMA fight on tape and then I said, 'Man, this is nice. I want to do this,'" Barral recently told MMAFighting.com. "And he told me if you want to do this, you need to learn the ground game.' "I was supposed to be a striker," Barral continued, with a laugh. "And then I turned until a jiu-jitsu guy."
Filed under: UFC, NewsThe UFC 121 main event between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez is expected to be one of the most anticipated UFC fights of the year, and the organization is ensuring it will receive the full promotional push.UFC announced on it's weekly Ultimate Insider show Thursday that a three-part Primetime series will air on Spike TV in the weeks leading up to the fight. The series will debut on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 11 pm ET/PT, and subsequent episodes will air on Oct. 13 and Oct. 20 on the cable network.
Filed under: UFCOn The Ultimate Fighter 10, heavyweight Matt Mitrione tells the audience that the reason he fights MMA is to silence the voices in his head.For his own well-being and others, it's nice to know Mitrione wasn't serious.During an appearance on this past Monday's The MMA Hour (full video below), host Ariel Helwani asked the former NFL player if his villainy was all an act."Yeah, brother," Mitrione responded. "I don't really hear voices, man."
Filed under: Bellator, NewsComing off a win three weeks ago over former UFC title challenger Thales Leites on the War on the Mainland pay-per-view, Matt Horwich has been booked for a Bellator 28 fight against season two semifinalist Eric Schambari on Sept. 9 in New Orleans.The Bellator 28 card will be headlined by UFC veteran Rich Clementi (37-16-1) facing off against season two semifinalist Carey Vanier (9-3) in a lightweight showdown.
Filed under: WEC, NewsIt didn't take long for Zuffa to puts its official stamp on mixed martial arts in Asia. Following UFC 118, UFC president Dana White announced the company had set up an office in Beijing, China, and hired Mark Fischer, formerly of the NBA's China branch, to run its operations in Asia as executive vice president and managing director. On Thursday, the WEC, the UFC's sibling promotion, officially announced the signing of lightweight Tiequan Zhang, of Beijing. Zhang will be the first fighter from mainland China in the WEC's history. His first task comes later this month against Alex Karalexis at WEC 51 in Broomfield, Colo.
