Author: Dustin Filloy

Bellator Champ Eduardo Dantas: ‘If I Fight Anybody, I’ll Kill Them’

In the final days leading up to their bantamweight title unification bout Friday at Bellator 128, Joe Warren has done his best Chael Sonnen impersonation in an attempt to get under the skin of Eduardo Dantas.
Unfortunately for Warren, the Bellator MMA …

In the final days leading up to their bantamweight title unification bout Friday at Bellator 128, Joe Warren has done his best Chael Sonnen impersonation in an attempt to get under the skin of Eduardo Dantas.

Unfortunately for Warren, the Bellator MMA bantamweight champ seems just as comfortable engaging in a war of words as he does a slugfest in the cage.

In different interviews that were conducted Wednesday, Warren and Dantas threw verbal jabs at each other in what was either a genuine exchange of disdain or a late attempt to hype their fight, which will take place at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.

Warren told Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie that he believes the Brazilian has ducked him, and on Saturday, he’ll ultimately succumb to Warren’s “pressure.”

Eduardo Dantas is a champion who’s scared and runs away from competitors. I’ve been trying to fight this guy for a long time now. He’s a young kid. What do you expect? Champions stand in there and defend their belts. Champions don’t run. I just don’t know if he’ll be able to deal with the pressure I’m going to bring.

In an interview with Elias Cepeda of Cagewriter (via Yahoo), and apparently not in response to Warren’s comments, Dantas squashed the notion that he ever ran from the former NCAA Division I All-American wrestler.

“It doesn‘t make a big difference to me,” said the 25-year-old Dantas, who pulled out of his first scheduled bout with Warren at Bellator 118 due to a head injury. “Everyone knows I’m the champ. To me, Bellator gave him a belt because he’s famous, so they could take pictures with him holding it.” 

In true Sonnen-like spirit, the 37-year-old Warren elaborated on how his rivalry with Dantas has become a family matter:

My wife wants me to put this guy down bad. So this is going to be a family affair with me beating the s–t out of this guy. My wife doesn’t like the kid. She hates him, and my wife doesn’t hate anybody and respects everybody. Dantas really pissed her off by skipping out on our fight, talking about me being on steroids when I’m the cleanest man in the sport. He’s just scared! He’s a scared little kid. I’m getting in his head a little bit and it’s hurting him, and that’s the difference with age, being able to handle something with respect or not. The words I say to him come strictly out of annoyance. I’ve never had my wife tell me she wants somebody dead, and I told her ‘no problem.’

Dantas ended his interview with a bold message to Warren and any other bantamweight who plans to take his belt, saying: “It doesn‘t matter where guys fight. If I fight anybody, I kill them.”

In May, Warren scored a unanimous-decision win over Rafael Silva at Bellator 118 to claim the bantamweight interim belt. He won his first world title by knocking out Joe Soto in the second round at Bellator 27 in February 2010 for the featherweight title. 

Pat Curran took the featherweight strap from Warren with a third-round KO at Bellator 60 in March 2012.

Warren holds an overall record of 11-3, and his nine wins in Bellator MMA give him the most in the company’s history for any bantamweight.

Dantas (16-3) has prevailed in each of his six fights in Bellator MMA, including three wins in bantamweight title fights.

He won the belt when he submitted Zach Makovsky (arm-triangle choke) in the second round at Bellator 65 in April 2012. Four months later, Dantas got knocked out in the first round by Tyson Nam in his next bout at Shooto Brazil 33: Fight for BOPE II. 

Dantas bounced back and finished his next two opponents in the second round in Bellator MMA bantamweight title fights. He first knocked out Marcus Galvao at Bellator 89 in February 2013 and then submitted Anthony Leone (rear-naked choke) at Bellator 111 in March.

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Browne to Schaub: ‘Opinions Are Like A——s, You Should Keep Them to Yourself’

As if he didn’t already have his hands full with UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub fanned the already roaring flame of “Hapa” during a September episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (NSFW language; h/t Jesse Holland of MM…

As if he didn’t already have his hands full with UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub fanned the already roaring flame of “Hapa” during a September episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (NSFW language; h/t Jesse Holland of MMA Mania).

Two months before his fight with the third-ranked Browne at UFC 181, the unranked Schaub talked about Hapa‘s decision to leave Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA to train at the Glendale Fighting Club with Ronda Rousey‘s coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.

“Obviously, I know Ronda very well, and I know that camp pretty well,” Schaub said. “I’m not going to go into detail, but I think it’s a great thing for me that he’s training there. I’ll put it like that. I think it’s a good thing for me.”

Schaub’s comments regarding Hapa‘s change in camps apparently irked the colossal Hawaiian, who offered the following advice to “Big Brown” during Friday’s UFC Fight Night 54 Q&A (NSFW language; h/t Adam Guillen Jr. of MMA Mania).

“Honestly, I don’t want to knock him out,” Browne said. “I want him to feel what it’s like to go three rounds with me. And I’ll tell you right now, this guy, a lot of people don’t rub me the wrong way, but opinions are like a——s, you need to keep them to yourself. That’s exactly what he needs to do.”

Browne’s impressive three-fight winning streak ended in his last bout when he suffered a lopsided loss to Fabricio Werdum (unanimous decision) in a title eliminator fight at UFC on Fox 11 in April.

Prior to his setback to Werdum, Browne (16-2) scored three straight KO wins and three straight “Knockout of the Night” bonuses in less than a nine-month span in 2013.

Schaub (10-4), on the other hand, has dropped three of his last five fights, including a controversial split-decision loss to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 174 in June.

Big Brown holds a 6-4 UFC record with just two of this victories coming via decision.

 

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Conor McGregor: ‘I Don’t Like This Weight. I Like Fighting at Lightweight’

The fact that Conor McGregor has yet to challenge for the UFC featherweight title certainly didn’t deter the silver-tongued Irishman from teasing the notion of bumping up to lightweight Saturday night.
Following his prophetic win over seasoned vet Dust…

The fact that Conor McGregor has yet to challenge for the UFC featherweight title certainly didn’t deter the silver-tongued Irishman from teasing the notion of bumping up to lightweight Saturday night.

Following his prophetic win over seasoned vet Dustin Poirier at UFC 178, the surging McGregor opened up on his future plans to jump from 145 pounds to 155 during a post-fight media scrum with Damon Martin of Fox Sports. 

I don’t like making this weight. I like fighting at lightweight. I fought at lightweight many times in my career. I’m fast at lightweight. I come in refreshed at lightweight. It’s a different camp. It’s a different buildup when I’m fighting at lightweight than it is fighting at featherweight. I’m definitely open to fighting at lightweight no doubt.

McGregor, Poirier and Jeremy Stephens each stand 5’9″ and represent the tallest fighters in the top 10 of the UFC’s featherweight rankings. No fighter in the top five of the featherweight division stands over 5’8″.

At 74 inches, McGregor also holds the longest reach of the UFC’s 15 ranked featherweights.

McGregor, who last competed at lightweight in December 2012, talked about the benefits of bumping up to 155.

Would your spirit not be different if you go into a steakhouse with your team and they’re ordering like 64-ounce ribeyes, rare ribeyes, marbled and delicious. And it’s cooked on a stone, they bring it on a stone so it’s not even cooked and the stone is sizzling and you put butter on it and it sizzles and cooks it, and then I show up: ‘Can I have chicken and can I have some salmon and some spinach, please?’ That’s what I’m talking about. I want to show up at these places two weeks out from the fight and be like, ‘Give me the 64-ounce ribeye, some sweet potato mash, and I’ll also have some dessert.’

The idea of making the move to 155 at some point doesn’t seem that far-fetched, especially after UFC President Dana White said the following regarding McGregor on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show (per MMA Junkie): 

“Conor McGregor is the real deal. He is legit. He is a force that I have never seen ever. Bigger than Brock Lesnar when he was here. Bigger than any of the fighters we’ve ever had. Yes, (he’s bigger than Georges St-Pierre). I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The twice-beaten McGregor has reeled off 12 straight victories since getting submitted by journeyman Joseph Duffy (arm-triangle choke) at Cage Warriors Fighting Championships 39 in November 2010. During that span, the 26-year-old won 10 times via KO/TKO and once by submission.

Cagey Hawaiian Max Holloway marked the only fighter to go the distance with McGregor during his 12-fight winning streak.

Although he tore his ACL against Holloway, McGregor still managed to earn a unanimous decision in just his second fight with the promotion at UFC Fight Night 26 in August 2013.

With his first-round TKO of Poirier, who was ranked fifth before the bout, McGregor jumped from No. 9 to No. 5 in the UFC’s featherweight rankings. 

 

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Carano’s Plan to Co-Star with De Niro and ‘Batista’ Likely Ends Rousey Talks

At least for the moment, widespread rumors that Gina Carano plans to return to MMA and challenge UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey have subsided.
That’s because the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight title challenger told MMA Fight…

At least for the moment, widespread rumors that Gina Carano plans to return to MMA and challenge UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey have subsided.

That’s because the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight title challenger told MMA Fighting (h/t Yahoo Sports) that she plans on starring in a pair of movies, one in October and another in December.

In mid-October, Carano will travel to Baton Rouge to begin filming heist flick Bus 657, a film that has a $22,000,000 budget and will feature megastars Robert De Niro and Kate Bosworth.

The UFC’s brass began negotiating Carano’s return in early 2014, and by midsummer, company president Dana White said Carano would get a crack at Rousey in December if the 32-year-old actress could ink a deal before then.

But White has changed his tune in light of Carano’s announcement to devote the rest of her time in 2014 to her acting career.

During an interview this week with Damon Martin of Fox Sports, White griped about essentially coming to a standstill in his negotiations with Carano.

(Carano is) The hardest human being we’ve ever dealt with and I didn’t see it coming. I don’t know, we’ll see how these things play out.  Just incredibly difficult.  We’ve dealt with (Brock) Lesnar, Tito (Ortiz), Chuck (Liddell) was f—–g king of the world, Ronda Rousey, we’ve pretty much done deals with everyone on Earth and she is the hardest f—–g athlete we have ever dealt with.

White then specified his issues with Carano and her management by saying the following: 

The problem is she allows herself to be handled by these Hollywood f—–g idiots. It’s absolutely crazy.  We’ve had all the biggest superstars in the world.  You’re talking about a girl who hasn’t fought in a while.  Any time you deal with anyone in f—–g Hollywood it’s a joke.  It’s literally a joke, it’s comical.  You feel like you’re in a Saturday Night Live skit. This can’t be f—–g real.  In dealing with her people, I don’t know if it can be done.

Dave Bautista, better known in the realm of pro wrestling by his his ring name,”Batista,” also landed a part in Bus 657.

A former World Wrestling Entertainment champ, Batista made his pro MMA debut in 2012, scoring a first-round TKO over the 300-pound Vince Lucero at CES MMA: Real Pain. Lucero entered the bout with 22 pro wins.

The retired Carano, who holds a 12-1-1 pro kickboxing record and an 8-1 pro MMA mark, last fought at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg in August 2009, where she lost via first-round KO to Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino.

Rowdy, conversely, has racked up a 10-0 record since making her pro debut in March 2011. Rousey has finished seven foes with first-round armbars and another with a third-round armbar and has won by first-round KO/TKO in each of her last two bouts.

While UFC matchmakers have yet to determine her next opponent, according to the UFC on Fox, Rousey said she would like to fight on the Jan. 3 card, which includes the light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

In her last outing, Rousey mauled Alexis Davis with a 16-second KO at UFC 175 in July. For her efforts, Rousey pocketed her second straight “Performance of the Night” bonus.

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Tito Ortiz: ‘The UFC Stopped Bellator from Holding Show in Anaheim’

He claims to have moved on from the company that employed him for over 15 years, but Bellator MMA light heavyweight Tito Ortiz obviously still enjoys feuding with the UFC.
Still in the midst of his never-ending war of words with unabashed UFC President…

He claims to have moved on from the company that employed him for over 15 years, but Bellator MMA light heavyweight Tito Ortiz obviously still enjoys feuding with the UFC.

Still in the midst of his never-ending war of words with unabashed UFC President Dana White, Ortiz took his latest stand against his former employers during an interview on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (as transcribed by Dave Doyle of MMAFighting).

Ortiz, who’s scheduled to fight fellow UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131, claims that the UFC essentially nixed the idea of Bellator MMA holding the event near Ortiz’s stomping grounds at Anaheim’s Honda Center on Nov. 15.

“The UFC said no,” Ortiz said. “They tried to get to the Pond and the UFC didn’t let it happen. They wanted to do it at the Pond and the UFC said no.”

So rather than getting to tangle with Bonnar less than 20 miles from his hometown of Huntington Beach, Ortiz will have to settle for a showdown with the runner-up of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center.

Regardless of the change in scenery, Ortiz seems confident that his fan following will make him feel just as welcome in San Diego.

“We’re in San Diego, I have thousands of fans down there, they get to watch me live in their own backyard,” he said.

The Bellator 131 card, which also includes a rematch between interim lightweight champ Will Brooks and former champ Michael Chandler in the co-main event, will run in concurrence with UFC 180 (the company’s first card to be held in Mexico).

Although Ortiz will have to compete with a heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180 in Mexico City, the former UFC light heavyweight champ embraces the challenge.

I think it’s kinda cool actually to tell you the truth, see how much weight my name can hold. I think the big difference in all of it is, all the fans get to watch free fights instead of having to pay for fight. They get to watch free on Spike, and I think diehard fight fans will be watching no matter what, Tito Ortiz fans will be there no matter what, and Stephanie Bonnar fans will be there no matter what.

Ortiz came out of retirement for his last fight and snapped a three-fight losing skid by submitting Bellator MMA middleweight champ Alexander Shlemenko with a first-round arm-triangle choke at Bellator 120 in May.

Before his win over Shlemenko, Ortiz had dropped six of his last seven bouts, all of which took place in the Octagon.

Akin to Ortiz, Bonnar temporarily retired from competition following a long and volatile career in the UFC.

Bonnar saw his three-fight winning streak snapped with a lopsided TKO loss (knee to the body and punches) to longtime former middleweight champ Anderson Silva in his last outing at UFC 153 in 2012.

Bonnar tested positive for the anabolic steroid drostanolone in his post-fight drug screen following his loss to Silva. Seventeen days later, White announced that Bonnar had retired.

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The Most Underrated MMA Fights of 2014

Every year the still-blossoming sport of mixed martial arts attracts flocks of new fans who fill arenas, balloon demand and entice promotions like the UFC to saturate the calender with events.
And since the days of expecting a few major shows per month…

Every year the still-blossoming sport of mixed martial arts attracts flocks of new fans who fill arenas, balloon demand and entice promotions like the UFC to saturate the calender with events.

And since the days of expecting a few major shows per month have long since passed (the UFC has already had 33 events in 2014), it’s only natural that some fans only tend to remember the year’s blockbusters.

This countdown’s not about all the marquee scraps that got the proper pre– and post-fight attention from fans and members of the mass media. This list serves as an homage to the handfuls of unforgettable clashes that stayed under the radar for one reason or another in 2014.

Here are the most underrated fights of the first 8.5 months of 2014.

All stats gathered via Fightmetric.com.

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