Author: Dustin Filloy

Poirier Eyeing Rematch with McGregor: ‘I Still Think I Can Beat Him’

The sorrow that accompanied falling to the prophetic Conor McGregor at UFC 178 certainly still lingers in the mind of sixth-ranked featherweight Dustin Poirier.
After a long war of words in the buildup for the fight, the fifth-ranked McGregor…

The sorrow that accompanied falling to the prophetic Conor McGregor at UFC 178 certainly still lingers in the mind of sixth-ranked featherweight Dustin Poirier.

After a long war of words in the buildup for the fight, the fifth-ranked McGregor made good on his prediction and KO’d an emotional Poirier in just one minute, 46 seconds to move another step closer to challenging for the featherweight strap.

But in the five weeks since his setback to the silver-tongued Irishman, Poirier has shown that he possesses the rare resilience needed to bounce back from a devastating loss and return a stronger and wiser fighter. 

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (per a report from MMAFighting.com), the 25-year-old Poirier talked about moving on from the pain that came with the loss to McGregor.

I don’t know if I’m ever going to be over it. It’s a loss on my record, and it hurt me, you know. I might say this often, but I didn’t cut any corners. I pushed myself harder than I ever have in the gym. I was very prepared to fight and perform well, it just didn’t go my way that night, man. And that’s what hurt. I didn’t get to show who I am. But you know, you live to fight another day and there’s lots more fights coming.

Poirier obviously holds a disdain for the 26-year-old Irishman, but in the time since their fight, the Louisiana native has rightfully given McGregor his due.

In the same vein, the ever-confident American Top Team stalwart insists that if given another chance, he’ll redeem himself and exact revenge on McGregor.

I never thought he was going to be an easy fight, or thought that he wasn’t good. I knew that he was a good fighter and he’s here for a reason, but I still think I can beat him. That night just wasn’t my night, and I didn’t get a chance to fight him. I got hurt early and he put me away quick, and it sucks because I really trained and was prepared to fight and beat him, and I still think I can. Of course I’ve moved past it. But at the same time, he’s still in this weight class with me and we’re both still young, and we’re probably going to fight again one day.

Poirier, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt who has yet to receive word on his next opponent, saw his three-fight winning streak snapped in his loss to McGregor. 

Poirier holds an 8-3 record in the UFC with three submissions and two KOs. The Diamond submitted Pablo Garza (D’Arce choke), Max Holloway (mounted armbar) and Jonathan Brookins (D’Arce choke) before KO’ing Diego Brandao and Akira Corassani. 

McGregor scored his 12th straight win by KO’ing Poirier. During that span, McGregor has won 10 times by form of KO and once by submission.

McGregor, who also earned his brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, will face the eighth-ranked Dennis Siver at UFC Fight Night 59 on Jan. 18 at Boston’s TD Garden.

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Benson Henderson vs. Eddie Alvarez Booked for UFC Fight Night 59 in Boston

The UFC’s brass obviously has no plans of easing former Bellator MMA champ Eddie Alvarez into the mix in its stacked lightweight division.
Roughly a month after watching him drop his promotional debut in a barn-burner against Donald Cerrone, the UFC an…

The UFC’s brass obviously has no plans of easing former Bellator MMA champ Eddie Alvarez into the mix in its stacked lightweight division.

Roughly a month after watching him drop his promotional debut in a barn-burner against Donald Cerrone, the UFC announced that Alvarez will face former UFC lightweight kingpin Benson Henderson in his next fight.

The 10th-ranked Alvarez will lock horns with the fifth-ranked Henderson in the co-main event at UFC Fight Night 59 in Boston on Jan. 18. The night’s main event will feature a scrap between fifth-ranked featherweight Conor McGregor and the eighth-ranked Dennis Siver.

The Alvarez/Henderson fight replaces the originally scheduled co-main event bout between the fourth-ranked Cerrone and the eighth-ranked Myles Jury. The Cerrone/Jury bout will instead take place at UFC 182 on Jan. 3. 

Alvarez and Henderson, who are each 30 years old, are both looking to rebound from recent losses.

Alvarez (25-4) saw a three-fight winning streak snapped when he dropped his much-anticipated promotional debut in a unanimous-decision loss to Cerrone in the co-main event of UFC 178 on Sept. 27.

The third-ranked Rafael dos Anjos handed Henderson his third loss under the Zuffa banner by KO’ing him in the main event of UFC Fight Night 49 on Aug. 23. 

Alvarez became the Bellator MMA lightweight champ by avenging his lone loss with the promotion with a controversial split-decision win over Michael Chandler at Bellator 106 in November 2013.

Henderson, the former WEC lightweight champ, won the lightweight title with a narrow unanimous-decision win over Frankie Edgar at UFC 144 in February 2012.

Henderson defended his UFC belt three times before getting submitted (armbar) by Anthony Pettis at UFC 164 in August 2013.

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B.J. Penn Threatens Former Nutritionist Mike Dolce Via Twitter

The ongoing feud that began in August between B.J. Penn and former nutritionist Mike Dolce continued to heat up on Wednesday via Twitter.
Penn sparked the quarrel by claiming on BJPenn.com that Dolce didn’t earn his paycheck as his nutri…

The ongoing feud that began in August between B.J. Penn and former nutritionist Mike Dolce continued to heat up on Wednesday via Twitter.

Penn sparked the quarrel by claiming on BJPenn.com that Dolce didn’t earn his paycheck as his nutritionist during his training camp for his third fight with Frankie Edgar at The Ultimate Fighter Season 19 Finale in July.

Penn lost via third-round TKO to Edgar to fall to the former lightweight champ for the third time in his career. The loss marked Penn’s third in a row and his fifth in seven fights.

More than two months after igniting the spat, the former two-division UFC champ threw the latest dart at Dolce by tweeting the following on Wednesday:

Dolce wasted little time firing back at “Baby Jay,” tweeting the following less than three hours later. 

The basis of Penn’s beef with Dolce lies in the notion that even though he paid the famed nutritionist $22,000 for 21 days of work, he didn’t get the services he was promised.

Dolce quickly responded to Penn’s initial complaints by making these comments on the Joe Rogan Experience (h/t MMAJunkie.com) in September:

It was one of the oddest training camps I’ve ever been a part of, and I was there for less than two weeks, physically, in Hawaii. I had very little influence. I made some strong suggestions and very strong observations to members of the team about what I saw, what I’m accustomed to and what I think would really benefit him. 

The suggestions that I made, I made them officially, and they were accepted but not responded or reacted to. It was just a matter of that’s the direction he chose to go. He’s either going to win and look like a f—–g genius, or he’s going to not win and he’s going to make the oddsmakers look like geniuses.

Penn lost his lightweight belt to Edgar in a unanimous decision at UFC 112 in 2010. He has amassed a 1-4-1 record since then.

Dolce, a member of Team Rampage on Season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter, recorded a 5-10 pro MMA record between 2006 and 2010.

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Eddie Bravo Arrested in the UK, Deported Back to US

For a foreign Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor to hold a seminar legally in the United Kingdom, he or she must obtain a valid work visa.
Unclear on the intricacies of this strictly enforced law, former longtime UFC employee and 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu foun…

For a foreign Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor to hold a seminar legally in the United Kingdom, he or she must obtain a valid work visa.

Unclear on the intricacies of this strictly enforced law, former longtime UFC employee and 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder Eddie Bravo found himself behind bars on Saturday for violating it.

Bravo, a famed BJJ instructor who regularly conducts seminars in the UK, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday afternoon for attempting to run a seminar without a proper work visa.

The following afternoon, Bravo announced on his Twitter page that he’d detail the arrest on the latest installment of Eddie Bravo Radio on Sunday.

On Sunday’s edition of Eddie Bravo Radio (as transcribed by MMALatestNews), the longtime Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, who’s also dealt with immigration issues in Canada, talked about how the situation arose.

Generally when people teach seminars out of the country generally, they just say they’re here for holiday. But some countries have super tight immigration, and Canada is one of them. I decide to show up (in London)…no more lying. I show them my itinerary. … They took me right into a detention center in the airport.

Bravo waited several hours in the holding cell alongside fellow prisoners before being moved to a remote meeting room, where he was told he was being deported back to the United States.

Although the unpleasant encounter resulted in the postponement of several seminars in the UK, Bravo said he took something positive from the experience.

“It was good for me,” Bravo said. “I got a tiny little, little taste of what being imprisoned feels like.”

Canadian immigration doesn’t require U.S. citizens to obtain work visas to conduct business in Canada.

However, in 2013, Canadian immigration discovered that Bravo, who was unaware of Canada’s guidelines on the matter, had been dishonest regarding several seminars he planned to conduct in Canada. As a result, Bravo got banned from the country for a year.

Bravo, whose birth name is Edgar Cano, originally made waves in the sphere of grappling by upsetting three-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club champ Royler Gracie (under-66 kg) with a triangle choke as a brown belt at the 2003 ADCC in Brazil.

Bravo resigned from his post at the UFC after seven years of playing several roles for the company. During his time at the UFC, Bravo served as the company’s unofficial scorer and grappling replay director and as a post-fight interviewer and analyst.

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WSOF 14: Why Ryan Ford Fought Jake Shields with a Broken Right Arm

Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields scored his first submission victory in over five years when he defeated Ryan Ford with a rear-naked choke Saturday in Edmonton during his promotional debut at WSOF 14.
The former UF…

Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields scored his first submission victory in over five years when he defeated Ryan Ford with a rear-naked choke Saturday in Edmonton during his promotional debut at WSOF 14.

The former UFC welterweight title contender didn’t know it at the time, but heading into the bout, he enjoyed a major advantage over Ford, one that had nothing to do with Shields bending the rules.

The 32-year-old Ford broke his ulnar (the bone opposite the radius in the forearm) in his right arm during a sparring session on Sept. 30. The injury came just 11 days before arguably the most significant fight of his career.

In this Oct. 2 video (per MMAjunkie), the Tristar Gym stalwart explained the unfortunate circumstances that prevented him from postponing his fight Saturday with Shields:

You know, I don’t have a choice but to fight. You know, it’s funny. I have the toughest challenge ahead of me on Oct. 11 against Jake Shields. And now I get thrown with another challenge: fighting him with a broken arm. We’re not in a sport where insurance is available, where if you get injured nine days, 10 days up to a fight, then you get paid. It don’t work like that. You step into the cage, you get paid. This is how I feed my wife and my two kids. I put a roof over their heads, so the only option I have is to step into the cage, put on a hell of a fight and get paid—broken arm or not.

WSOF president Ray Sefo told Sherdog on Sunday that he and his staff didn’t find out about Ford’s broken ulnar until after the fight.

Neither I nor any of my staff at World Series of Fighting had any prior knowledge of Ryan Ford’s condition until he went on the record about it after last night’s fight. Like all of the other fighters who competed last night, Ryan went through all of the steps necessary to receive clearance by the athletic commission to fight. Had we been aware that Ryan was suffering from an arm injury, we would have immediately pulled the plug on his matchup with Jake Shields and secured another suitable opponent for Jake.

Ford fought Shields in an orthodox stance, throwing only low kicks and left hands at the 35-year-old Californian.

Just 36 seconds into the bout, Ford clipped Shields on the chin with a stiff left jab that dropped him momentarily. But in atypical fashion, the usually opportunistic Ford failed to capitalize on the knockdown and allowed Shields to regain his footing and ultimately recover.

In an impressive display of intestinal fortitude, Ford stuffed Shields’ first takedown attempt and succumbed to his second, only to pop back to his feet almost instantly. 

The two exchanged knees before Ford pushed Shields up against the fence in the clinch, a move that marked the beginning of his demise.

Shields quickly established an overhook on Fords’ broken arm and used it to throw The Real Deal onto his back. And with over three minutes left in the round and having just one functional arm, Ford had little chance to escape the round without tapping.

Shields needed the better part of those three minutes to set up the finish, but at the 4:29 mark of the opening round, he slapped on a rear-naked choke to pick up his first submission since June 2009 (a guillotine choke of Robbie Lawler).

The loss snapped a six-fight winning streak for Ford that began in February 2012. Ford had finished five of his six previous opponents, including Joel Powell, who he knocked out with a front kick and punches in his promotional debut at WSOF Canada 1 in February.

Shields got released from the UFC after falling via unanimous decision to the streaking Hector Lombard at UFC 171 in March. Shields finished with a 4-3-1 mark in the UFC.

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Dan Hardy on Matt Hughes: ‘That Man Is a Real Piece of S–t’

The personal beef that started in 2012 between Dan Hardy and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was reignited—at least on one side—by another series of jabs from the Englishman on Twitter.
The most recent occurrence in the feud began when Hardy,…

The personal beef that started in 2012 between Dan Hardy and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was reignited—at least on one side—by another series of jabs from the Englishman on Twitter.

The most recent occurrence in the feud began when Hardy, a vegan and self-professed animal lover, saw this tweet from Bloody Elbow on Saturday regarding the longtime former UFC welterweight champ:  

Less than six hours later, an obviously irked Hardy took to Twitter to respond to Bloody Elbow’s post (warning: NSFW): 

While Hughes has yet to respond to Hardy’s comment, he fired back on several occasions to jabs from former UFC lightweight Mark Bocek via Twitter.

In this response, Hughes essentially said his hunting trips to Africa have served as altruistic endeavors:

“The Outlaw,” on the contrary, has continued to vehemently defend his beliefs on animal rights via Twitter. 

After losing four straight scraps between March 2010 and Aug 2011, Hardy won back-to-back bouts in 2012, including a first-round KO of Duane Ludwig at UFC 146.

Hardy (25-10-1) was slated to face Matt Brown at UFC on Fox 7 in April 2013 but withdrew from the bout when doctors discovered that he suffered from a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Although he’s teased the notion of a possible comeback, Hardy has yet to fight since being diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Hughes (45-9) lost the welterweight strap in November 2006 by being TKO’d in the first of two career losses to Georges St-Pierre (head kick and punches) at UFC 65.

Hughes retired after an illustrious 14-year career in January 2013. On the day of his retirement, the UFC announced that Hughes accepted the role of the company’s Vice President of Athlete Development and Government Relations. 

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