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Urijah Faber vs. Ivan Menjivar Possible for UFC 157

Urijah Faber was expected to fight in February, but the card and opponent are now different. MMAWeekly.com is reporting that verbal agreements are in place for Faber to square off in a rematch against Ivan Menjivar at UFC 157.The bantamweight…

The bantamweight bout would be taking place on February 23 from the Honda Center in Anaheim with Dan Henderson vs Lyoto Machida on the card as well.

It was reported by Tatame.com nine days ago that Faber was going to face Vaughan Lee at UFC 156 on February 2 in Las Vegas. Lee, though, told Fighters Only on Saturday that the fight was just a rumor and nothing more.

We last saw Faber in the cage at UFC 149 in July, where he lost by unanimous decision to Renan Barao for the UFC interim bantamweight championship.

The last time we saw Menjivar step into the Octagon was at UFC 154 last month when he defeated Azamat Gashimov by first round submission.

Faber and Menjivar fought in 2006 under the TKO Promotion based in Canada. Faber won the fight by disqualification as Menjivar kicked Faber while he was down on the mat.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

10 Greatest Trash Talkers in MMA History

Trash talk is defined as insulting or boastful speech intended to demoralize, intimidate or humiliate someone.In sports, it is very common for athletes to jaw back and forth at each other. They do it to try to get inside an opponent’s head, to force th…

Trash talk is defined as insulting or boastful speech intended to demoralize, intimidate or humiliate someone.

In sports, it is very common for athletes to jaw back and forth at each other. They do it to try to get inside an opponent’s head, to force them to make a mistake or lose their control.

In the world of mixed martial arts, that can be deadly, as you can quickly be knocked out or submitted.

Let’s take a look at the ten greatest trash talkers in MMA history.

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Lorenz Larkin: "I Don’t Think Rockhold Is Mentally Tough," Reluctant to Fight Me

When something gets taken away from you once, you feel sad, but you might get over it pretty quickly.But when the same thing is taken away from you twice, you might be a little more impatient to get it back again.In the case of Strikeforce middleweight…

When something gets taken away from you once, you feel sad, but you might get over it pretty quickly.

But when the same thing is taken away from you twice, you might be a little more impatient to get it back again.

In the case of Strikeforce middleweight Lorenz Larkin, that sentiment is an understatement. Larkin was scheduled to face middleweight champion Luke Rockhold on a Strikeforce show on November 3, but Rockhold had to bow out due to a wrist injury.

According to a report from The MMA Corner, Rockhold has suffered an injury to the same wrist and will not be able fight Larkin at the January 12 Strikeforce event.

However, it took a little while though for Larkin to find out that Rockhold was injured.

“I always find out stuff out over the Internet or get a text,” Larkin told Bleacher Report. “I got a text early this morning from a friend saying Rockhold got injured. I woke up and was like, “What are you talking about?”

“I look on the Internet and stuff starts popping up. I got a hold of my manager and then he got a hold of Zuffa. They told him that he (Rockhold) pulled out of the fight with a wrist injury.”

After talking to his manager, Larkin was naturally disappointed.

“It is extremely frustrating,” Larkin stated. “You are scheduled to fight somebody two times and it doesn’t happen. Now you can possibly be in a situation where there is going to be a last-minute replacement or you aren’t fighting. It sucks. That’s the part of fighting I hate.”

Rockhold has suffered a variety of injuries in his five-year career that have forced him to take substantial time off. That includes a shoulder injury that caused him to not fight from February of 2010 to September of 2011.

With the wrist injury canceling the fight in November and now the one on January 12, Larkin feels that Rockhold isn’t mentally tough enough to be a fighter.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to hate on the guy, he (Rockhold) gets paid,” Larkin stated. “He gets good money. That guy gets $100,000 to fight. When you’re comfortable like that, these types of breaks don’t really matter to that guy.

“Taking eight months off or just not fighting, declining a fight or even just being able to be like, “I don’t feel like fighting.”

“He’s in that position where he can do it because of the money he gets from whatever sponsors pay him a month. He’s in that opportunity. I don’t think Rockhold is mentally tough. I don’t think he still has that hunger that the smaller guys have that aren’t getting the good money. They can fight just to fight.

“Anybody who’s in this organization doesn’t fight just to fight. They fight because they get paid. It is those guys that love to fight, that if they weren’t in Strikeforce or in MMA, then all of these guys would have been locked up because they would be fighting.”

Rumors have been running rampant that the January 12 Strikeforce event could be the last show, after which the fighters from Strikeforce would go over to the UFC. Larkin feels that Rockhold and the people around him are reluctant to face him, as they don’t want Rockhold to potentially enter the UFC with a loss.

“At first (when Rockhold got injured before the November 3rd show) I was thinking I wouldn’t put nothing past him,” Larkin stated. “I was really cool about it. I wasn’t really angry after everything was said and done.

“But now it is like, I wouldn’t say he’s scared, but I think he has too much to lose. If everything happens with Strikeforce and we do go over to the UFC, I just feel like it is a cop-out. He (Rockhold) doesn’t want to fight because potentially he could come into the UFC with a loss. Him and his camp don’t want to do that.

“It is a risk he doesn’t need to take, and I’m pretty sure his camp and managers are telling him, ‘Take the fight for what reason?’

“It’s one of those things where everybody knows he’s going to the UFC. Everybody knows at least which Strikeforce guys are going to the UFC. It’s one of those things where on his side it is like for what, why fight, risk it and lose the belt, go in and not have no bargaining room? Or don’t fight, go in (the UFC) with the belt and have all the bargaining room.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.

You can also follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

5 Countries the UFC Should Visit in the Next Two Years

UFC president Dana White gets asked all the time by the fans when is the UFC going to this country and this country. The UFC under the Zuffa banner has made enormous strides all around the world. The UFC has been to Canada, England, Ireland, …

UFC president Dana White gets asked all the time by the fans when is the UFC going to this country and this country. The UFC under the Zuffa banner has made enormous strides all around the world.

The UFC has been to Canada, England, Ireland, Japan and, most recently, China, to just name a few. The UFC can be seen in about 150 countries around the world.

Which countries will the UFC venture to in the next two years? Let’s take a look and see five possible destinations where the UFC could be heading.

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Johny Hendricks: Koscheck Was My Test to See If I Was Ready for the Next Level

When you have doubts about yourself, the best way to overcome those doubts is to face them head on. Johny Hendricks had that problem in his fight in May with Josh Koscheck. That doubt is now gone, as he heads into UFC 154 in the co-main …

UFC 154 takes place this Saturday night from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the main card airs live on pay-per-view starting at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Questions were surrounding Hendricks when faced off with former welterweight title contender Josh Koscheck at UFC on Fox 3 in May. Was Hendricks’ knockout victory over Jon Fitch in twelve seconds at UFC 141 a fluke? Could he win another big fight? Hendricks put all of those questions to rest, as he defeated Koscheck by split decision. The Oklahoma native feels more relaxed for this fight than the Fox show.

“I feel more relaxed now than the Fox show because I knew that fight (with Koscheck) could be a number one contender’s fight and Josh was a tough opponent,” Hendricks told Bleacher Report. “I knew he was a good wrestler and had knockout power. That’s scary going into a fight like that. I knew it was going to be a battle. I never get nervous.

“With Josh though, it was a little bit different. I knew he had just changed gyms, knew he was going to train harder and wanting to win that much more. I knew that I had to prepare myself for the best Josh Koscheck. I was wondering if I was ready for that next step in my career. I needed to test myself with Jon Fitch. Now that I got to test myself against Josh Koscheck, I’m like, “Ok, now I’m ready for that next step.”

With the Koscheck fight done and having reflected on the fight, Hendricks felt Koscheck was a litmus test to prove he can hang at this level.

“Everything is a test in my book,” Hendricks states. “Everything is a challenge. Kampmann poses a lot of challenges, but I’m not as worried about him as I was against Josh. I didn’t know if I was ready. You believe you are doing everything right. Your doing this and your doing that and all of a sudden it comes to be that time, you sort of question that.

“You ask yourself, “Am I ready for that next level? “

“You get that victory and your level of confidence gets turned up a little more. You start to believe in yourself that much more and then you start training that much harder. You know that you are one step away from a title shot. I keep pushing myself and the next thing you know I am about to fight on the same card as Georges and Carlos.”

Martin Kampmann is on a three fight winning streak having defeated Rick Story, Thiago Alves and Jake Ellenberger to get to this fight. Hendricks feels Kampmann got lucky along the way, but knows the Las Vegas native poses a lot of problems.

“He (Kampmann) was lucky to submit Thiago Alves,” Hendricks states. “If the fight would have went to the judges’ scorecards, Alves wins the fight. Kampmann‘s a tough fighter. You have to put him out. You can’t make those mistakes against him. You saw with Thiago and saw that with Elllenberger. They had him hurt and they tried to do something else.

“With Kampmann, you have to make sure every punch counts. Don’t start flurrying, make every shot count.”

With all of that being said about Kampmann, the former four-time All-American collegiate wrestler from Oklahoma State feels Koscheck is a tougher fight than Kampmann.

“I think Koscheck was a heck of a lot tougher opponent,” Hendricks states. I know Kampmann‘s tough, don’t get me wrong. I’m training though like I’m fighting Josh again. I have trained with Kampmann, but never fought him. So I trained like I just got done with the Koscheck fight. That’s how I am training for this fight with Kampmann.

“Then after this fight, if I win, I’ll be training like I did for this fight for GSP or Condit.”

No decision has been made whether Hendricks/Kampmann will determine a number one contender to face the winner of the main event between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit. There has been speculation that if St-Pierre wins, a superfight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva will take place. Hendricks doesn’t know what will happen if he’s victorious, but feels different things could play out for whoever wins the fight.

“There’s a couple different ways you can look at it,” Hendricks states. “What if the UFC tells me, “Johny you aren’t ready for GSP. We will give you a little time off to prepare for GSP as he fights Anderson Silva.”

“The UFC can also if Kampmann wins, “We don’t want to give Kampmann this title shot just yet as well.”

Hendricks feels the main event is going to come down to how healthy St-Pierre’s reconstructed knee holds up and Condit‘s takedown defense. “Bigg Rigg” doesn’t know who is going to win, and really doesn’t know who will emerge victorious. All he is focused on is winning against Kampmann and getting a shot at the belt.

“It’s tough decision right now because I don’t know how GSP really is feeling,” Hendricks states. “We don’t know how Carlos Condit‘s takedown defense is. It has probably gotten better, but it really depends on GSP‘s knee. If it has gotten better like I think it has, then he is going to take Condit down.

“If he is not going to be able to take him down, then I think Carlos Condit has the better standup.

“I don’t have a preference on who wins the main event. I just want a shot at the belt. Whoever has the belt, that’s who I want to face.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.

You can also follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Mark Hominick: "I Feel Like I’m Fighting for My Job Every Day"

When it comes performance, MMA is like the NFL. If you perform badly, you get cut. In the UFC, if you lose three fights in a row, you usually get cut. If you lose four in a row, you will certainly get cut, except if you are Dan Hardy. Mark Hominick is in that situation as he squares off against Pablo Garza in featherweight action to kick off the main card portion of UFC 154 this Saturday night.

UFC 154 takes places from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The main card begins at 10 p.m. Eastern on pay-per-view.

Hominick suffered his third straight loss against Eddie Yagin at UFC 145 in April by split decision. It was a fight a lot of people felt Hominick won. The Canadian thought he won the fight, but felt he did things wrong in the fight that swayed the judges’ decision. Hominick told Bleacher Report,

I thought I won the fight. He (Yagin) landed two big power shots that scored knockdowns and that’s what got him the nod. On my end, I think I was a little bit too one dimensional in that fight. I treated it like a boxing match. I wasn’t mixing it up with kicks and takedowns.

For this camp, I focused on going back to my roots. I come from a kickboxing background and that put everything back to full circle. My grappling and wrestling game is always improving. I’m keeping it simple.

Hominick used to be trained by Shawn Tompkins until his tragic passing in August of 2011. Hominick reverted back to earlier fighting days as he brought in former UFC bantamweight Jeff Curran for his fight against Yagin, and Curran is around for this fight as well.

When Shawn passed away, each one of us from the team realized we had to find a head coach. We are not ever leaving Team Tompkins because we are still that core unit. We also need a leader in that corner. It was an easy decision to go with Jeff because I started with Jeff in 2004-2005.

He cornered me for my first two fights with Shawn against Yves Edwards at UFC 58 and Jorge Gurgel after that. I was very comfortable with him as a coach, as a person and as a friend. It was a very easy transition for me.

Tompkins and Hominick were as close as close can be. They were the best of friends outside of the cage. People can go through severe funks, and when you’re a fighter, you have to have supreme focus at all times. Hominick has lost his last two fights without Tompkins and feels that Tompkins’ passing hasn’t affected him more than he realized and caused the losing streak to continue.

I don’t want to use that as an excuse at all. It has motivated me because I know that I have a responsibility to carry on his name and legacy. It has never been like that. Obviously I will have a piece of me that’s always going to be missing whether it’s in my corner, during training camp or just everyday life.

That’s something that I’m going to have to figure out as I go. Because there isn’t one person that’s going to be replacing him, no question about that. I don’t look at it as something that’s bringing me down.

After fighting for 11 years like Hominck has, sometimes the ability to find that hunger and motivation to fight can start to wane. The featherweight says that hasn’t ever been the case.

Hunger and motivation has never been a factor in my life. I’ve always been hungry, motivated and been in shape. I’ve always woke up in the morning and not any other desire, but to get on the mat and train. Anyone who has trained with me or worked with me knows that.

Hominick‘s opponent this Saturday, Pablo Garza, is riding a two-fight losing streak heading into the fight. The former featherweight title contender knows Garza poses challenges for him heading into this key tilt.

He’s (Garza) very dangerous. I think the biggest thing is his height and reach. He’s the biggest guy in the featherweight division. His reach on the ground and on the feet are major advantages for him in the fight.

This is a fight where both guys are fighting to keep their jobs, but the man known as ‘The Machine” has a different and unique take.

“I feel like I’m fighting for my job every day,” Hominick stated. “The thing I’m fighting for is the W.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.

You can also follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com