Tatame is reporting that Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira will face Frank Mir as the main event fight of UFC 119 which is scheduled to take place from the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 25. There was talk of a rematch between the two, and it looks like it’s happening now.
Mir’s path to a shot at Brock Lesnar’s title went through Nogueira who was easily overmatched and stopped for the first time in his career. Noguiera’s camp however, insisted that the former Pride fighter had been battling staph and that the victory was a fluke.
Mir has since fallen away from the championship title, as a loss to former number one contender Shane Carwin seems to have pushed him at least a few fights(and victories) from a chance at the title. A win over Nogueira seems to be somewhat suspect as “Minotauro” seems to certainly have lost a step, but it would start the ball rolling forward for Mir.
A win by Nogueira would convince many MMA fans that the Brazillian fighter can still compete at the highest levels of the UFC, and after his defeat at the hands of number one contender Cain Velasquez, many are wondering just how good Big Nog’ is still.
UFC 119 is slowly starting to shape up, with word coming out that Lil’ Nog will face Ryan Bader and that Sean Sherk will face Evan Dunham. We’ll bring you more as it comes out.
A rematch between heavyweights Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira headlines September's UFC 119 event.
UFC president Dana White today confirmed the fight with MMAFighting.com, and MMAjunkie has confirmed the booking with a source close to one of the fighters.
An official announcement of the fight and event is expected as soon as this week.
If only big fighters came complete with big gas tanks.
Big fighters bring something to the table which the smaller guys simply do not and it is not just about marketability, it is about raw power. Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar both hit very hard. The type of blows which would be no more than an irritation if thrown in the lighter divisions suddenly become the stuff of which knockouts are made of when thrown by one of these two men.
Witness the uppercuts which ended Carwin’s fight with Frank Mir. Normally short, sharp blows of this nature are only used to rough an opponent up not finish them off. Look at the hammer fists with which Lesnar brutalized Randy Couture. What these shots might have lacked in technique they more than made up for in raw power.
There are examples to be found outside of MMA as well. In last year’s K-1 Grand Prix Heavyweight final Semmy Schilt knocked Badr Hari down and very nearly out with a jab. Schilt weighs almost 300 lbs and there is absolutely no way a smaller man would ever be able to jab with such devastating effect.
Fighting giants such as Schilt, Carwin and Lesnar are able to generate the sort of power which would be unthinkable in any other weight class. Unfortunately there is a catch and it is one of the reasons why entertaining heavyweight fights have been so few and far between in any combat sport in recent years.
Heavyweights simply cannot maintain the same sort of pace that the lighter fighters are capable of. This is the major reason that the WEC has been such a huge hit with fight fans. The fights might not carry the same sort of prestige as those within the actual UFC but they are fought at a far more frenetic, fan pleasing pace.
The allure of the heavyweight division is that the best in that division can legitimately claim to be the best actual fighter in the world. Pound-for-pound Anderson Silva might be a superior mixed martial artist to Lesnar but if the two met in a fight there is little doubt in most people’s minds that Lesnar would win. In the unlikely event that Silva wanted to test that particular theory he would need merely pile on a few pounds to be able to do so.
While the pound for pound debate will always be a hypothetical one heavyweight fights can provide definitive answers. This is what makes fights for the heavyweight title that much more significant than title fights in any other division. They are not just about finding out who is the best fighter at a specific weight class, they are about finding out who is the best fighter, period.
The physical equation which dictates that a man who weighs in excess of 265 lbs can hit harder than a man who weighs 155 lbs does not work in the bigger man’s favour in every aspect of the sport. The amount of energy required to perform any sort of physical activity is going to be that much greater for the man with the bigger frame. Bigger fighters do not come with bigger gas tanks as Carwin recently discovered to his cost.
The first round went almost entirely according to plan for Carwin. He rocked Lesnar with punches, leaving the UFC heavyweight champion with no option but to cover up as Carwin picked him off at will. Once the fight went to the floor Carwin continued to land some brutal shots but not sufficiently brutal for the fight to be stopped.
The game plan which had served Carwin so well in his first twelve fights came up short this time around. Carwin might have done severe damage to Lesnar’s face but, for the first time in his career, he found himself facing a second round with the burst of energy with which he nearly finished Lesnar having visibly taken its toll.
It was fairly obvious prior to the start of the second round that Carwin was struggling and it was no surprise when Lesnar was able to secure the takedown. The manner in which he finished the fight, with a well executed arm triangle, demonstrated the extent to which the much maligned Lesnar is evolving. Carwin by contrast was made to look much more one dimensional. However it is difficult to criticize him for expending so much energy trying to finish the fight because he came so tantalizingly close to succeeding.
Fight fans will always find it frustrating when a fighter lacks the necessary stamina to properly showcase his skill set but it would be wrong to question the cardio of Carwin. I suspect it would be physically impossible for any man of his weight to sustain such a frenzied assault for any length of time. By going all out for a first round stoppage he was effectively gambling for the greatest stake in MMA and, unfortunately for Carwin, that gamble did not quite pay off.
Meaningful heavyweight title fights are few and far between and the fact that the UFC is finally in a position to put them on is undoubtedly cause for celebration. It is still worth remembering that, while the big guys might bring the glamour, it is often the small guys who offer the real action.
A much cooler, calmer and more respectful Brock Lesnar showed his face last evening following his come from behind strangulation of the previously undefeated Shane Carwin during the main event of UFC 116 in Las Vegas.
Gone was the brash, controversial Lesnar who stalked the cage following his previous outing, flipping off fans and disrespecting sponsors, and in his place stood a level-headed athlete showing the sort of class and charisma many have come to expect from a champion.
Lesnar had previously dissed UFC affiliate Bud Light following his UFC 100 mauling of Frank Mir, and more recently took a light-hearted jab at Direct TV during the pre-fight press conference leading up to UFC 116. However, when asked how he planned to celebrate folowing his victory over Carwin, Lesnar had UFC President Dana White grinning from ear to ear with his statements.
“I’m gonna go home and watch some Direct TV, drink Bud Light, and ride my Harley Davidson,” said Lesnar immediately following UFC 116.
And while Stephan Bonnar, who TKO’d Krzysztof Soszynski two fights prior to Lesnar’s showdown with Carwin, went on record to describe the sensatuion he received from fighting on the card as being “better than sex” during the post-fight press conference to UFC 116, Brock would tend to disagree.
“I don’t know if it’s better than sex… it’s great. It’s right up there. I really enjoy it,” said the UFC Heavyweight Champion, keeping it real following Bonnar’s candid remark.
UFC heavyweight fighters Cheick Kongo (15-6-1) and undefeated Travis Browne (10-0) are expected to meet in the octagon at UFC 120 in October.
UFC 120 will take place on October 16 at the O2 Arena in London also unconfirmed for the card is a welterweight bout between Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit.
MMAjunkie.com has confirmed that both fighters have made verbal agreements but have, as of yet, to sign the bout agreement.
Kongo recently staved off a two fight losing skid by defeating Paul Buentello in March at UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones and probably saved his UFC career with that victory. Losses came against Frank Mir at UFC 107 in December and to Cain Velasquez at UFC 99 in June of last year.
Kongo made his UFC debut in July of 2008 against Gilbert Aldana at UFC 61 earning a TKO (doctor stoppage) victory. Since that time he’s earned a 8-4 record with the UFC.
Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar is the sort of heavyweight title fight that the UFC has always dreamed of. Lesnar is well on his way towards establishing himself as the most dominant heavyweight in the sport and Carwin is an up and coming fighter with an immaculate record.
Carwin has faced twelve opponents in his career to date and all twelve have been finished via stoppage in the very first round. Lesnar has lost only once, by submission to Frank Mir in his UFC debut, and he subsequently avenged that loss, unifying the heavyweight division in the process.
The barren days in which fighters the caliber of Tim Sylvia and Jeff Monson competing for the UFC heavyweight title are long gone. The division has long since taken its rightful place as the most marketable weight class the organization has and UFC 116 will be the culmination of years of effort on the behalf of the UFC matchmakers in acquiring the best heavyweight talent in the world.
Three outstanding fighters have emerged from the much improved UFC heavyweight division, Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. The UFC is now in the enviable position of being able to put on at least two massive heavyweight fights, the first will come at UFC 116, the second when the winner emerges to face Velasquez.
Heavyweight fights traditionally carry more prestige than those in any other weight class, a fact which will definitely not be lost on the UFC. The fight between Carwin and Lesnar has been described by UFC President Dana White as ‘the biggest in UFC history’ and is likely to do more than a million pay per view buys.
For all the hype, there will only be two men in the Octagon at the UFC 116 main event. One of them, Lesnar, is absolutely enormous, and his sheer bulk has half of the heavyweight division starting to thinking serious thoughts about cutting down to 205 lbs
Carwin is not much smaller and possesses more power in his right hand then arguably any other fighter in UFC history. Lesnar has excellent wrestling credentials and will be looking to follow the blueprint for success which has seen him stop Randy Couture and Frank Mir in his last two Octagon appearances. Lesnar’s game plan will undoubtedly be to get Carwin on the floor with his 265 lbs + frame on top of him and ground and pound his way towards unifying the UFC heavyweight title.
Carwin, who holds an interim version of the UFC heavyweight title, will be looking to land a big right hand and finish the fight early. Lesnar is still a relative newcomer to the sport of MMA and his striking is still not exactly crisp. Randy Couture was able to pick Tim Sylvia apart with punches in their title fight he was nothing like as effective with his hands against Lesnar and this will give the Lesnar camp confidence that their man can stay out of harm’s way against the hard hitting Carwin.
It is easy to forget that there are four other fights on the main card, which is not a bad thing as they are all fairly forgettable match ups. An injury to Wanderlei Silva denied fans the chance to see the always interesting Brazilian in action against Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Akiyama was less than convincing in his UFC debut against Alan Belcher and will be expecting an emphatic victory against Silva’s replacement, Chris Leben. He has been quite vocal about the fact that he feels Leben is an inferior opponent but would be well advised not to underestimate Leben who is a veteran of 15 previous UFC appearances.
Akiyama was extremely fortunate to get the benefit of the judge’s doubt against Belcher and will need to put his money where his mouth is with an impressive performance in his fight with TUF veteran Leben.
Chris Lytle and Matt Brown first met in 2007 outside of the UFC with Lytle winning with a rear naked choke. Lytle’s last four fights have either won fight of the night or submission of the night honors with Lytle emerging victorious from all of them except for a debatable split decision loss to Marcus Davis.
Brown is coming off a submission loss to Ricardo Almeida and will likely feel like he is fighting for his UFC future while the UFC must be hoping that Lytle can continue his recent habit of getting involved in exciting, fan friendly fights.
Stephan Bonnar is another man who has played his part in some of the most entertaining match ups in the recent history of the UFC. He will be facing Krzysztof Soszynski for the second time this year after the unsatisfactory ending to their first meeting.
The first fight was awarded to Soszynski as Bonnar was unable to continue due to a cut which replays showed was caused by an accidental head butt. A fourth consecutive loss for Bonnar would cast serious doubt over his UFC future and he will be looking to get his career back on track with a win against the ‘Polish Experiment’.
George Sotiropoulos has gone from strength to strength since competing on TUF 6 and is undefeated in the UFC with five wins out of five. After a slow start to his UFC career Kurt Pellegrino is now riding a four fight win streak and the winner of this contest will propel themselves to somewhere approaching the top of the lightweight division.
All eyes will be on Lesnar and Carwin though and most fight fans will view any entertainment to be found away from the main event a something of a bonus. The UFC would have you believe that Lesnar is already the greatest heavyweight MMA fighter there is but for me he is still two wins away from proving them right.
The first of those wins will need to come against Carwin at UFC 116 but Lesnar will need to keep his wits about him if he is to avoid being on the wrong end of an eighth consecutive knock out for Carwin.
Seems like there’s no shortage of cheezy movies about mixed martial arts, and from the scene above Circle of Pain is going to continue that tradition. It would be interesting to find out just how much these MMA fighters get paid for these roles; i would hope it’s a hell of a lot.
Los Angeles, Calif (USA), June 25, 2010….. HeadBlade® announced today that UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Shane Carwin inked a deal with the Culver City-based men’s grooming company specializing in headcare and head-shaving products worldwide.
Carwin holds an impressive 12-0 record in the UFC, many of which ended by knockout. His most recent KO against Frank Mir in UFC 111 landed him the pay-per-view bout against Brock Lesnar on July 3rd at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, billed as “The Biggest Heavyweight Fight Ever.” While Lesnar still holds the Heavyweight Championship belt, Carwin earned the title of Interim Heavyweight Champion after Lesnar pulled out of UFC due to illness in 2009. Up until this point, Carwin has always stepped into the Octagon with hair on his head.
“I am honored to be working with HeadBlade®. I have recently started shaving my head (mother nature was doing it for me) and I love it,” Carwin said. “Using the HeadBlade® Sport razor gives me a cleaner and faster shave than any other grooming device. For a guy who is raising a family, and being the UFC Interim Champion, time is everything. HeadBlade® is the ultimate razor, and the only one good enough for me.”
Todd Greene, the owner and inventor of HeadBlade®, saw an incredible opportunity to sponsor Carwin. “We’ve been huge fans of MMA (mixed martial-arts) since starting the company in 1999,” Greene said. “Shane is an undeniable force in the UFC, and when we heard he started shaving his head, there was no hesitation. He’s both a powerful fighter, and a genuine class act – the type of guy we had to have on our team.”
HeadBlade® has a long history of partnering with athletes and celebrities that embody the lifestyle of the brand, including NBA star Al Harrington, Olympian Zach Lund, comedian Howie Mandel, and over 40 fighters such as Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Keith Jardine.
Watch freshly-shaved Carwin brawl with Lesnar on pay-per-view Saturday July 3rd in Las Vegas for UFC 116. Carwin fans can also have exclusive chances to win prizes leading up to the fight through HeadBlade® and Carwin’s communities.
(photo via HeadBlade.com
For longer than anyone can remember, Fedor Emelianenko has ruled the heavyweight ranks. His legendary battles in PRIDE combined with his unparalleled streak of victories has kept Fedor in the #1 position for several years now. There are questions about the level of competition that he’s faced in recent years, but as long as he’s kept winning in spectacular fashion then those concerns are kept in the minority.
That is about to change, and sooner than you think. Within the next year Fedor will be unseated from his spot atop the heavyweight rankings.
Before we can look ahead, we should take a quick look back. At the beginning of 2008 the UFC’s heavyweight division was in ruins. Their champion, Randy Couture, had left the company over frustrations with management and Zuffa’s inability to sign Emelianenko. The UFC needed to continue recognizing Couture as their champion to keep the upper hand in any upcoming legal battles, yet they still needed someone currently on their roster to represent the top of the division. Their solution was to match up their former champ Tim Sylvia and former PRIDE champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title. Sylvia was coming off a dreadfully boring decision win over Brandon Vera, while Nogueira had made a less-than-stellar octagon debut by nearly being knocked out by Heath Herring. Nogueira won the title, but from the beginning he wasn’t considered a true champion while Couture still had his belt.
While things may have been grim at the time, that same year would see the seeds being planted for an entirely new era in the heavyweight division. It started with former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar, who made his UFC debut on the same card as the Nogueira/Sylvia title fight. Lesnar got the bulk of fans’ attention before UFC 81 and his popularity has grown substantially since then, despite the loss in that first octagon appearance. He has since claimed the UFC Heavyweight Championship and is widely regarded as the #2 heavyweight in the world behind Fedor.
2008 was the same year that saw the debut of a few more fighters in the UFC heavyweight division. The preliminary portion of UFC 83 featured the then 2-0 Cain Velasquez making his debut in the octagon. One month later Shane Carwin picked up his ninth first-round stoppage on the undercard of UFC 84 (the bout lasted 44 seconds and was shown on the PPV broadcast). Junior Dos Santos was brought in to face rising contender Fabrico Werdum at UFC 90, but it was Dos Santos who got the win (and all of Werdum’s momentum) on that night.
Now these four men make up the very top of the UFC’s heavyweight ranks. Their win columns are filled with the names of those fighters that were previously considered amongst the best in the division. Names like Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga, Heath Herring, and Cheick Kongo. At the moment Lesnar is considered to be the best in the company, with Carwin, Velasquez, and Dos Santos following behind (usually in that order). However any attempts to rank these four fighters is entirely arbitrary, because all four men have yet to face one another. As such we don’t truly know who the best heavyweight in the UFC is, but it won’t be that way for too much longer.
Next weekend will see the long-awaited meeting between Lesnar and Carwin. The winner of that fight will become the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion, and will then have to defend that belt against Velasquez later this year. Assuming he can get by Roy Nelson in August, it’s safe to assume that Dos Santos will be next in line for a shot at the title sometime in 2011.
Once we’ve seen this first round of match-ups between the UFC’s new breed of heavyweights, we’ll be left with one man standing. It’s all-but-impossible to predict who that man will be but one thing is for sure: By virtue of the competition that he’ll have faced to get there, that man will be the very best fighter in the heavyweight division.
Could you deny that honor to any one of these four fighters by that point? No matter how this series of fights shakes out, the man left standing at the end will have beaten several top ten fighters. That’s more than we can say for what Fedor stands to accomplish within that same amount of time.
It’s almost a given that Fedor will emerge victorious this Saturday night, but what exactly does a win over Werdum prove to anyone? Anyone ranking Werdum in the top ten has him towards the bottom half of the list, and the same can be said for Fedor’s last opponent Brett Rogers. Before that Fedor toppled Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, but one need only look at the trajectory of both men’s post-Fedor careers to see that those victories aren’t that big of an accomplishment.
Presumably, Fedor is heading towards a showdown with current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem. Overeem is coming off a completely one-sided victory over Rogers, but other than that he hasn’t beaten anyone of consequence since moving to heavyweight. Most rankings have Overeem at #7, which seems a bit silly to me given the number of sub-par opponents that make up the majority of his win column. If Overeem can defeat Fedor that does not mean that he deserves to take over the #1 spot. Fedor has earned his place at the top by facing some of the best fighters to ever step into a ring, Overeem most certainly has not.
We know that Fedor doesn’t care about internet rankings, nor does he consider himself to be the best fighter in the world. We, the fans, will hold his legacy in high regard no matter what the future brings. There will never be another fighter like him, and that’s a fact. He’s been the best in the world for a long time, but all good things must come to an end.
It appears Shane Carwin, already viewed by many as one of the classiest individuals in Mixed Martial Arts, has revealed yet another likable characteristic – a self-deprecating sense of humor. The UFC 116 headliner recently took to popular forum The Underground to address his subdued demeanor and monotone delivery while being interviewed, alongside UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar, during last weekend’s Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale in order to promote their upcoming bout.
“I wanted to tell you that I am now sponsored by the Night Time Nyquill. The interview during the TUF Finale was our attempt at gorilla marketing. If you were sleepy or felt “bored” by my interview then we hit our mark. Imagine what the actual product will do for you if I was able to put you to sleep with my words. Nyquill it helps you sleep like my right hand. Available at fine Pharmacies everywhere.
Man what a boring interview. They should have played the part where Goldberg was talking about going hunting with Brock.
No excuse but it was a lazy day and I had just been in a epic water balloon fight with my son and I was trying to keep a straight face. I will do better if they ever have me back.”
Carwin, who holds the UFC’s interim heavyweight title, will clash with Lesnar on July 3rd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. His knockout of former champ Frank Mir at UFC 111 this past March moved his record to 12-0 with the entire dozen coming by way of first-round finish.
A rematch between heavyweights Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira headlines September's UFC 119 event.
