Tag: brian stann

Anderson Silva Out Until Early 2012 With Shoulder Injury


(Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland)

Between the rotator cuff injury he fought through against Yushin Okami and the rib injury during his scrap with Chael Sonnen, Anderson Silva is becoming a bizarro version of Tito Ortiz — meaning that he makes injury excuses after winning fights. His latest ouchie is enough to take the UFC middleweight champion out of action for the rest of the year. Silva’s manager Ed Soares informed MMA Fighting this weekend that the Spider’s bum shoulder will most likely keep him benched until the first quarter of 2012.

So here’s the good news: 1) Silva will not need surgery to treat it, and should be back to 100% after some rest and rehabilitation. 2) It’s not like Silva needed to fight again this year anyway. And I don’t mean just financially, although he’s clearly rich beyond measure. More importantly, there won’t be a legit challenger to his belt set up until at least January.


(Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland)

Between the rotator cuff injury he fought through against Yushin Okami and the rib injury during his scrap with Chael Sonnen, Anderson Silva is becoming a bizarro version of Tito Ortiz — meaning that he makes injury excuses after winning fights. His latest ouchie is enough to take the UFC middleweight champion out of action for the rest of the year. Silva’s manager Ed Soares informed MMA Fighting this weekend that the Spider’s bum shoulder will most likely keep him benched until the first quarter of 2012.

So here’s the good news: 1) Silva will not need surgery to treat it, and should be back to 100% after some rest and rehabilitation. 2) It’s not like Silva needed to fight again this year anyway. And I don’t mean just financially, although he’s clearly rich beyond measure. More importantly, there won’t be a legit challenger to his belt set up until at least January.

The UFC 136 bout between Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann on October 8th is thought to be a #1 contender’s match in the middleweight division. And while it would be great to see the winner of that fight take on the winner of Bisping/Miller to produce an undisputed challenger — who Silva could destroy before permanently jumping to light-heavyweight — it’s a safe bet that Sonnen or Stann will get the nod, probably around February or March. So no harm there.

But here’s a question: Are Silva’s injuries starting to becoming a trend? Based simply on talent, Silva could continue to dominate the sport a long as he feels like it. But after 14 years of kicking ass around the world, physical deterioration could be his biggest enemy. (Remember when Anderson wanted to retire in 2009, around his 35th birthday? We’re already talking about 2012, here.) Silva has already made the nine-year-rule his bitch — but how much longer can he realistically stay on top, considering that he inhabits a mortal body?

Friday Afternoon Link Dump

(Got $4,500 to spare? Why not buy some douchebag shoes?  All the kids with too much money are doing it. Ask Bieber. Vid courtesy of YouTube/Nike)

– Carlos Condit talks UFC 137 title shot against GSP (TheBigLead)

– 25 of the lamest movie villains ever (HolyTaco)

– New MMA-based social media game Fight Camp (6Waves)

– Did Al Roker just threaten someon live on The Today Show? (Guyism)

– The “Warrior” workout (MadeMan)

– Fox, Velasquez-Dos Santos and the UFC’s heavyweight plays (TheRugged)

– Never forget. Unless we tell you to (WithLeather)

– Gil Melendez talks Jake Shields, El Nino Training Center and more (BleacherReport)

– Schweddy Balls now in an ice cream freezer near you (Clutch.MTV)

– Brian Stann talks Chael Sonnen and fighting teammates (FightLine)

– The 25 funniest Hooters photos of all time (SuperBooyah)

– To promote “The Sitter” Jonah Hill is taking your call (ScreenJunkies)

– Strikeforce weigh-in results (MMAFighting)

– Anderson Silva shouldn’t quit his day job (Tatame)


(Got $4,500 to spare? Why not buy some douchebag shoes?  All the kids with too much money are doing it. Ask Bieber. Vid courtesy of YouTube/Nike)

– Carlos Condit talks UFC 137 title shot against GSP (TheBigLead)

– 25 of the lamest movie villains ever (HolyTaco)

– New MMA-based social media game Fight Camp (6Waves)

– Did Al Roker just threaten someon live on The Today Show? (Guyism)

– The “Warrior” workout (MadeMan)

– Fox, Velasquez-Dos Santos and the UFC’s heavyweight plays (TheRugged)

– Never forget. Unless we tell you to (WithLeather)

– Gil Melendez talks Jake Shields, El Nino Training Center and more (BleacherReport)

– Schweddy Balls now in an ice cream freezer near you (Clutch.MTV)

– Brian Stann talks Chael Sonnen and fighting teammates (FightLine)

– The 25 funniest Hooters photos of all time (SuperBooyah)

– To promote “The Sitter” Jonah Hill is taking your call (ScreenJunkies)

– Strikeforce weigh-in results (MMAFighting)

– Anderson Silva shouldn’t quit his day job (Tatame)

Friday Afternoon Link Dump

– Top 10 Colleges with the hottest girls (TheRugged)

– 10 predictions for the 2011 NFL season (Bullz-Eye)

– LOL clip of the day: Oprah/screaming goat mash-up (TuVez)

– 25 photos of girls with balls in their mouths (SuperBooyah)

– The 5 best ‘Dating on Demand’ videos (HolyTaco)

– Stann believes he could be the first man to KO Sonnen (BleacherReport)

– If movie hotels were reviewed on Trip Advisor (ScreenJunkies)

– Video: Foods for the moods with Bucky Larson (MadeMan)

– 22 baseball players who just got drilled (ClutchMTV)

– Classic conditioning of college roommate (Break)

– Nickelback: not the answer to the NHL’s depression problem (WithLeather)

– Fighters Only  MMA Awards Finalists Named (MMAJunkie)

– All of Call of Duty XP’s hijinks and dirty details, front and center (Guyism)

– Video of the day: Tom Cruise gets a letter from an Aussie (FilmDrunk)

– Top 10 Colleges with the hottest girls (TheRugged)

– 10 predictions for the 2011 NFL season (Bullz-Eye)

– LOL clip of the day: Oprah/screaming goat mash-up (TuVez)

– 25 photos of girls with balls in their mouths (SuperBooyah)

– The 5 best ‘Dating on Demand’ videos (HolyTaco)

– Stann believes he could be the first man to KO Sonnen (BleacherReport)

– If movie hotels were reviewed on Trip Advisor (ScreenJunkies)

– Video: Foods for the moods with Bucky Larson (MadeMan)

– 22 baseball players who just got drilled (ClutchMTV)

– Classic conditioning of college roommate (Break)

– Nickelback: not the answer to the NHL’s depression problem (WithLeather)

– Fighters Only  MMA Awards Finalists Named (MMAJunkie)

– All of Call of Duty XP’s hijinks and dirty details, front and center (Guyism)

– Video of the day: Tom Cruise gets a letter from an Aussie (FilmDrunk)

MMA Top 10 Middleweights: Anderson Silva Makes It Look Easy

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, MiddleweightsThere’s plenty of talent in the middleweight division in the UFC. Vitor Belfort is pound-for-pound as hard a puncher as anyone in mixed martial arts. Chael Sonnen’s MMA wrestling is first-rate. Demi…

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Anderson Silva defeated Yushin Okami in the main event of UFC 134.There’s plenty of talent in the middleweight division in the UFC. Vitor Belfort is pound-for-pound as hard a puncher as anyone in mixed martial arts. Chael Sonnen‘s MMA wrestling is first-rate. Demian Maia‘s Brazilian jiu jitsu is world class.

And yet when we survey the middleweight division, it almost feels like a pointless exercise. Anderson Silva has spent the last five years proving himself to be so far ahead of the rest of the 185-pound class that the rest of the division doesn’t seem all that interesting. At UFC 134, Silva spent one round measuring Yushin Okami, then made Okami look like a rank amateur in the second round.

So as we look at the top 10 middleweights in MMA, we’re looking at a list of talented fighters, all of whom have either already lost to Silva or would surely lose to Silva. He’s head and shoulders above the rest.

Top 10 Middleweights in MMA
 (Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did middleweights are in parentheses.)

1. Anderson Silva (1): As great an offensive striker as Silva is, his stand-up defense may be even more impressive. Silva’s head movement is so good that he can stand right in front of his opponents with his chin up and his hands below his waist and know they’re not going to be able to hit him. He does things that no one else in combat sports can do.

2. Vitor Belfort (3): The combination of Belfort’s very impressive knockout of Yoshihiro Akiyama and Chael Sonnen’s continued inactivity gets Belfort a bump in the rankings. But while Belfort is saying he wants another shot at Silva, it’s hard to see why the UFC would do that. Belfort will need more than one win to get a rematch after Silva’s brutal knockout of Belfort in February.

3. Chael Sonnen (2): The one big fight left for Silva at middleweight is a rematch with Sonnen, who’s the only person who has really even challenged Silva in the UFC. If Sonnen beats Brian Stann at UFC 136, Silva-Sonnen 2 is the fight to make next.

4. Yushin Okami (4): Prior to meeting Silva, Okami had only been finished once in 31 pro fights, and that was almost eight years ago. Okami is a big, strong guy with a good chin, but Silva toyed with him. That’s how big the gap is between Silva and the rest of the Top 10 middleweights.

5. Mark Munoz (5): Munoz is the highest-ranked middleweight who hasn’t yet had a chance to face Silva, and his wrestling pedigree would make him an interesting matchup with the champion. We’re probably not going to see Munoz vs. Silva outside the Black House gym, however. Up next for Munoz is Chris Leben in the main event at UFC 138.

6. Demian Maia (6): Maia will try to rebound from his loss to Munoz with a fight against Jorge Santiago at UFC 136. Maia is only 3-3 in his last six fights and hasn’t submitted anyone since Chael Sonnen at UFC 95, and if he loses to Santiago, he’ll drop out of the Top 10.

7. Brian Stann (7): As a charismatic, articulate fighter who won a Silver Star for service in Iraq, Stann is a guy the UFC should want to put front and center on Fox: He’s just who the UFC brass should want representing them in front of a mainstream audience. If Stann beats Sonnen at UFC 136, would the UFC consider putting Stann in a middleweight title fight on Fox? Or would that fight be too lucrative on pay-per-view for the UFC to give it away for free?

8. Chris Leben (8): If Leben can beat Munoz in November, he might be able to make the case that he deserves a shot at the middleweight belt in 2012. But considering how easily Silva beat Leben the first time those two fought, a rematch probably wouldn’t be pretty for the Crippler.

9. Ronaldo Souza (9): Jacare is the Strikeforce middleweight champion, and one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world, but until he moves to the UFC and fights better competition it’s hard to move him any higher in the rankings. His next fight, with Luke Rockhold on September 10, shouldn’t be much of a challenge.

10. Michael Bisping (10): Bisping will coach The Ultimate Fighter and then fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in December. A win there would get him close to title contention, although he’d likely need one more victory in 2012 before he’d get a crack at Silva.

 

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Excuse Watch: Chris Leben Had the Ol’ Gummi Bear Poops Before Fight With Brian Stann


(“Oh God, why did I chug that gallon of Pop Rocks and coke before the fight?” Photo courtesy of ESPN)

Heading into his highly anticipated face-off with Wanderlei Silva tomorrow night at UFC 132, Chris Leben was bound to hear the inevitable question about his last performance against Brian Stann: What went wrong? After all, Leben went into that match with the momentum of an impressive three-fight win streak, and wound up getting flattened within one round. Well, the explanation is simple, and it’s so perfectly Chris that all you can do is nod in sympathy. As he tells Ben Fowlkes:

“I ate a bunch of candy, dude. I’m not lying…I didn’t eat sugar for like two months. Then after I made weight I went and bought gummy bears and chocolate and ice cream, and I ate that. My body hadn’t had sugar, so I was backstage puking, sh—ing and puking when I was on-deck for that fight. That’s not a lie; that’s the truth. And Brian Stann fought an amazing fight, but hindsight’s 20/20. No gummy bears for me this fight.”

Hey, we’ve all been there before, right? I mean, certainly not in our adult lives, but as eight-year-olds on Halloween, yeah we could have totally related to that. Anyway, it’s a good thing that Leben is one of those guys who never, ever repeats his mistakes.


(“Oh God, why did I chug that gallon of Pop Rocks and coke before the fight?” Photo courtesy of ESPN)

Heading into his highly anticipated face-off with Wanderlei Silva tomorrow night at UFC 132, Chris Leben was bound to hear the inevitable question about his last performance against Brian Stann: What went wrong? After all, Leben went into that match with the momentum of an impressive three-fight win streak, and wound up getting flattened within one round. Well, the explanation is simple, and it’s so perfectly Chris that all you can do is nod in sympathy. As he tells Ben Fowlkes:

“I ate a bunch of candy, dude. I’m not lying…I didn’t eat sugar for like two months. Then after I made weight I went and bought gummy bears and chocolate and ice cream, and I ate that. My body hadn’t had sugar, so I was backstage puking, sh—ing and puking when I was on-deck for that fight. That’s not a lie; that’s the truth. And Brian Stann fought an amazing fight, but hindsight’s 20/20. No gummy bears for me this fight.”

Hey, we’ve all been there before, right? I mean, certainly not in our adult lives, but as eight-year-olds on Halloween, yeah we could have totally related to that. Anyway, it’s a good thing that Leben is one of those guys who never, ever repeats his mistakes.

Chris Leben’s Biggest Problem in Last Loss? Too Much Candy

Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — As Chris Leben pointed out this week, his fight with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 will be his 18th UFC bout. But that doesn’t mean he’s not still a work in progress, learning as he goes.

Take, for instance, his loss to Brian…

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LAS VEGAS — As Chris Leben pointed out this week, his fight with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 will be his 18th UFC bout. But that doesn’t mean he’s not still a work in progress, learning as he goes.

Take, for instance, his loss to Brian Stann at UFC 125. Stann knocked him out in the first round, but Leben didn’t exactly help his own cause before the fight, he told reporters on Wednesday.

“I ate a bunch of candy, dude. I’m not lying,” said Leben, who, of course, also stressed that he didn’t want to take anything away from Stann’s victory.

“I didn’t eat sugar for like two months. Then after I made weight I went and bought gummy bears and chocolate and ice cream, and I ate that. My body hadn’t had sugar, so I was backstage puking, sh—ing and puking when I was on-deck for that fight. That’s not a lie; that’s the truth. And Brian Stann fought an amazing fight, but hindsight’s 20/20. No gummy bears for me this fight.”

That’s right: candy.

Leben, a nine-year veteran of MMA with over 30 pro fights, was undone by the highly questionable decision to feast on sweets right before fighting another human being in a cage for money.

But hey, at least now he knows not to do it again. Not that that’s a lesson many fighters have to learn the hard way, but still.

At 30 years old, there aren’t many secrets about Leben’s game. He comes forward, throws one looping bomb after another, and tries to bait every opponent into a street fight. Against Silva, the baiting process ought to be the easiest part, or at least that’s what most people are expecting.

For Leben, the fight with Silva is a chance to take on a personal hero, as well as a bit of an MMA role model.

“When I first starting fighting, I was watching Wanderlei and, in some ways, attempting to emulate some of the stuff that he did,” Leben said. “The guy’s been in dozens of legendary wars. You can’t go into 7-11 without seeing him next to the little Xyience things. He’s everywhere.”

At the same time, even with a win over the aging Silva, Leben isn’t likely to be a title contender any time soon — though UFC president Dana White did say that the winner would likely be “in the mix,” for what that’s worth.

But Leben seems to realize his own limitations, and has instead set his sights on being one of the most exciting fighters rather than winning at all costs. The belt, he said, is just a “superficial object.” Etching your name in people’s minds as a fan favorite isn’t something you can touch, but it does seem like a more attainable goal for Leben.

“There’s somebody that’s not in the UFC that’s better than me that can beat me right now,” Leben said. “I guarantee that. There’s a lot of people in this world. Where I’m at in my career, I just want to have epic fights. I want to have fights that go down in the history books. I want to put on a show. I want people to think, hey, Chris Leben’s on this card, I’m buying that pay-per-view.”

If that’s his goal, he seems to be most of the way there already. Leben has rarely been in a boring UFC fight, and the few he has had were almost universally his opponent’s doing rather than his. If things with Silva even live up to half of the hype, he should have another slugfest to add to his highlight clip very soon.

And later, when it’s over? Now that’s the type to break out the candy and celebrate. At least now he knows.

 

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