Ahern Hight's blog

Strikeforce Challengers 16 coming to Kent, Wash. on June 24 with Fodor vs. Terry main event

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Strikeforce Challengers 16 is headed to Kent, Wash. next month, coming to the ShoWare Center on Friday, June 24 and airing live on Showtime.

Tickets for the event - which will be headlined by lightweight bout between Caros Fodor and James Terry - are now on sale, ranging from $25-$100.

Fodor will make his fourth appearance in Strikeforce's "Challengers" series, having won his previous three fights in the organization dating back to last July. Most recently, Fodor took out David Douglas by TKO at Strikeforce Challengers 15 last month.

Terry competed on that same card, and pulled off a highly impressive first round knockout win of his own over Josh Thornburg. The win put his Strikeforce record at 5-1 in six appearances, including a three fight winning streak of his own.

Also on the card will be the light heavyweight bout between the highly impressive Lorenz Larkin and Gian Villante, as well as 2-0 Ryan Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, back in action for his third professional fight against the undefeated Matt Ricehouse. In addition to those two fights, the main card is rounded out by a light heavyweight fight between Antwain Britt and one time UFC competitor Danillo Villefort, as well as a women's bout between Julia Budd and Germaine de Randamie.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_9305.shtml

Mixed Martial Arts News Josh Barnett Ricco Rodriguez Tim Sylvia

Mike Brown vs. Nam Phan heading to UFC 133 in Philadelphia

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Former WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Brown and Ultimate Fighter 12 competitor Nam Phan will meet in a featherweight fight at UFC 133 in Philadelphia, the UFC announced on Wednesday.

Brown's second stint in the UFC hasn't gone very well thus far. After going 2-1 in his final three WEC fights following the loss of his title, Brown dropped back to back fights in January. After an unsuccessful return at UFC 125 in a decision loss to Diego Nunes, Brown took a short notice fight just three weeks later at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 against Rani Yahya, and dropped that fight by decision as well.

Phan made his UFC debut at the finale event for his season of The Ultimate Fighter in December, losing one of the worst judges' decisions in recent memory to Leonard Garcia. The two were then scheduled to rematch in March, but Phan suffered an injury that pulled him out of the fight and Garcia was subsequently defeated by Phan's replacement, "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung.

UFC 133 takes place from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Penn. on August 6, the first event in the city since 2009's UFC 101 event.

Penick's Analysis: This is a great featherweight fight. I hope Brown has gotten things in order for himself since January, as when he talked to us shortly after the loss to Yahya he was in a state of almost depression, and unsure of what his next move would be after two straight losses. Now, he's returning from a hand injury suffered in the Yahya fight and desperately needs a win in this outing. Phan needs a win himself to avoid a second straight loss. Even though the UFC essentially treated him as if he won the Garcia fight, a second straight loss will certainly put him more in danger of being cut after another loss. But that will also make for a great fight from them both.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9306.shtml

Ian Freeman Don Frye Tony Fryklund Kazuyuki Fujita

"Why's he grabbing his shoulder like that? Is there a bug?"

Source: http://www.watchkalibrun.com/2011/1/10/1927489/whys-he-grabbing-his-shoulder-like-that-is-there-a-bug

Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio Mikhail Avetisyan Luiz Azeredo

New Mirko Crocop Update: Part 2

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Source: http://www.ufcrundown.com/blog/new-mirko-crocop-update-part-2-2/

Aleksander Emelianenko Fedor Emelianenko Yasubey Enomoto Mark Epstein

Former NHL Enforcer Donald Brashear Readies for MMA Debut

Filed under: Fighting, News

During an 18-year career in the National Hockey League, Donald Brashear earned a reputation as one of the sport's top enforcers due to his willingness to rip off his gloves and throw down. Now, though, he is getting to strap on some gloves and change his fighting arena from a rink to a cage when he makes his mixed martial arts debut at Ringside MMA 11 on June 4.

The 39-year-old will face an opponent yet to be determined in his adopted hometown of Quebec City, Quebec, and his first prizefight will come on very short notice. During a recent edition of The MMA Hour, Brashear said that he decided to take the fight after being approached by the event's promoter just around one month ago, and with no previous MMA experience. If that sounds like a rash decision, Brashear can't exactly argue.

"The most I know is from the people I see fighting," he said. "The only knowledge of fighting I have is boxing and playing in the NHL, so I've got a lot of stuff to learn."

Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/14/former-nhl-enforcer-donald-brashear-readies-for-mma-debut/

Kiyoshi Tamura Evan Tanner Peni Taufa ao Thiago Tavares

**Breaking News: Chael Sonnen Admits To Money Laundering**

Source: http://www.watchkalibrun.com/2011/1/3/1912409/breaking-news-chael-sonnen-admits-to-money-laundering-no-satire

Don Frye Tony Fryklund Kazuyuki Fujita Masakatsu Funaki

Anthony Pettis says UFC approached him to face Gray Maynard at UFC 130 before Maynard bowed out

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

News broke on Monday afternoon that this month's UFC 130 main event between Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar is off with both fighters suffering injuries while training for the fight, but according to one fighter, Maynard was at least considering the possibility of fighting through his knee injury.

It appears Edgar informed the UFC sometime recently about his rib injury, and according to the final WEC Champion Anthony Pettis, the UFC approached him about stepping in to face Maynard later this month.

"They were going to have me fight Maynard on that card," Pettis said in comments made to HeavyMMA. "I said yes to that deal right away. I guess it turns out that it's not going to happen. I'm back to fighting Guida. It sucks that he got injured, because it kinda puts the whole lightweight division back on standstill."

However, Maynard ultimately decided to not fight through the injury, and so Pettis remains on target to face Clay Guida at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale the week after on June 4.

"For three or four days I thought I was going to fight on May 28 and now it's just killing me, so I'm going to take it out on Clay Guida."

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: That fight certainly would have allowed Pettis to stake a real claim for a title shot, but Maynard was probably smart in pulling out of the card himself with the title no longer on the line. It would have been the right fight for the UFC to make with Pettis scheduled to fight just a week later anyway, but unfortunately they weren't able to bring it to fruition. The lightweight division will simply be on hold a little while longer until Maynard and Edgar can settle their score.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9286.shtml

Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah

How To Do A Jiu Jitsu Gi Choke ? The Exciting Way

How To Do A Jiu Jitsu Gi Choke From The Back With Little Effort.

Source: http://www.mmatko.com/how-to-do-a-jiu-jitsu-gi-choke-the-exciting-way/

Karen Darabedyan Viacheslav Datsik Marcus Davis Tony DeSouza

Drunk driver puts del Rosario’s fighting future in jeopardy

Up-and-coming heavyweight Shane del Rosario was on track to fight Daniel Cormier on the same Strikeforce card as the Alistair Overeem/Fabricio Werdum bout in June. That was until his car was hit by a drunk driver early Thursday evening. Now, his bout with Cormier is off, and his fighting future is up in the air.

"He's having some serious physical difficulties," Oyama (del Rosario's trainier) told MMAjunkie.com. "He's planning on [fighting again], but the injuries are serious enough to where it's kind of in question whether he can or not. We're hoping that he can. We'll know more in six months."

To a fighter, six months  is an eternity, and a long time to go without a fight and the paycheck that comes with it. Del Rosario's last bout, a submission of Lavar Johnson, was in February. Now, he has no idea when his next bout will be. He is pursuing a lawsuit, but no court can give him back the time he's put into this training camp, or the spoils that would come with a win over Cormier.

Del Rosario isn't the only one affected by the crash. Cormier's last bout was in January, and he was looking forward to the step up in competition that del Rosario represented. Now, Strikeforce has to scramble to find a heavyweight that will take on Cormier and his Olympic-level wrestling on short notice, or he will have to wait to fight.

The frustrating part is that this wasn't an injury sustained in training. Those are part of fighting, and fights get moved around all the time because of training-related injuries. Del Rosario was simply sitting at a stoplight and was hit by a drunk idiot who made the destructive decision of driving a car. She was lucky that she didn't kill del Rosario. In making that stupid, self-centered choice to drive while drunk, she affected the careers of two exciting heavyweight prospects.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Drunk-driver-puts-del-Rosario-s-fighting-future-?urn=mma-wp2097

Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen Alex Andrade Jermaine Andrè

On his road back to a title, Henderson wins at UFC 129

One kick changed everything for Ben Henderson. At WEC 53 in December, the former WEC lightweight champion was two minutes away from potentially locking up a shot against UFC champ Frank Edgar. Anthony Pettis landed his "Showtime Kick" and stole the fight. As a result, Henderson became a small fish in a huge pond awaiting his debut in the UFC.

Tonight, Henderson made a statement by dominating Mark Bocek over 15 minutes to take a unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards, in the pay-per-view opener of UFC 129.

Bocek (9-4, 5-4 UFC) has a sterling reputation as a ground fighter, but Henderson chose to clinch with him often. Sure the fight went the ground a few times with Bocek on top, but Henderson stayed away from danger against the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.

When it was on the feet, Henderson (13-2, 1-0 UFC) was a class above Bocek. The American was very effective using a thai clinch along the cage. At times, he brutalized Bocek to the body. He also mixed in some nasty elbows and punches. An elbow towards the end of the second on the top of Bocek's head busted him open.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/On-his-road-back-to-a-title-Henderson-wins-at-U?urn=mma-wp1829

Jason Hollywood Chambers Ryo Piranha Chonan Dan The Sandman Christison Logan The Pink Pounder Clark