Nam Phan not interested in trilogy with Leonard Garcia

Despite two fast-paced, highly-competitive clashes already being in the books, Nam Phan has no plans to see if he and Leonard Garcia can deliver a third straight ?Fight of the Night? performance even if their series is technically split at 1-1. The main point of contention in creating a ?rubber match? between the two stems [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/10/20/nam-phan-not-interested-in-trilogy-with-leonard-garcia

Ebenezer Fontes Braga Chris Brennan Marcelo Brito  Rob Broughton 

Chael Sonnen to Co-Host 2011 World MMA Awards; Show to Air on Fox Sports

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Chael Sonnen is taking his act to the 2011 World MMA Awards.

The loquacious middleweight fighter has been named co-host for the 2011 World MMA Awards by Fighters Only Magazine, the publication announced Friday afternoon. Sonnen will share the stage with TV personality Molly Qerim, who co-hosted the event last year with Randy Couture.

News of Sonnen hosting the show was first reported by MMAWeekly.com Friday morning.

In addition, it was also announced that the awards show will air via tape delay across the Fox Sports regional networks and on Fuel TV. Air dates and times will be announced in the coming weeks.

"I say it every year that we want to make the awards show bigger and better and every year we have done just that," Rob Hewitt, CEO of Fighters Only, stated in a release. "However, none of it would be possible with out the support of the MMA industry, the fans, our sponsors and TV and venue partners who all believe as much as we do in this project. To celebrate the sport we love and the people within it in the way that we do is a crowning moment of the year for Fighters Only and we can't wait to reveal this year's winners."

World MMA Awards winners are selected by the fans. You can cast your vote by clicking here.

The fourth annual World MMA Awards takes place Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the Pearl Theatre inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The event is open to the public, and tickets go on sale Friday afternoon at the Pearl box office or any Ticketmaster location.

Editor's note: MMAFighting.com is nominated for Media Source of the Year, while our own Ben Fowlkes and Ariel Helwani are nominated for Journalist of the Year.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/10/21/chael-sonnen-to-co-host-2011-world-mma-awards-show-to-air-on-fo/

Kit Cope  Wesley Cabbage Correira  Patrick The Predator Côté  Randy The Natural Couture 

Lucky thief robbed Ben Henderson?s home

Lucky thief robbed Ben Henderson?s home

There is a thief in Glendale, Ariz., who should consider himself quite lucky. He robbed UFC lightweight contender Benson Henderson's home and managed to make it out before "Smooth" returned home.

Henderson tweeted that his place was rummaged through. The thief took many of his DVDs and his XBox 360, but left behind Henderson's new 44-inch television. Henderson was shaken up at first, but then thankful that the damage wasn't worse.

Shouldn't the thief be the one who is thankful? Breaking  into anyone's home is a bad idea, but it's an especially bad idea to break into the home of a man who is paid to beat people up, and who has a degree in criminology. The thief should be truly appreciative that Henderson did not catch him in the act.

Henderson is currently training to fight Clay Guida on the UFC on Fox card in November. Come to think of it, what was Guida doing at the time of the crime?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Lucky-thief-robbed-Ben-Henderson-8217-s-home?urn=mma-wp8298

Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante  Luiz Cane  Dos Caras Jr  

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

HOUSTON - Featherweight champ Jose Aldo was an unstoppable force on his way up through the WEC. Now that Aldo has arrived in the UFC, and he isn't running through opponents anymore, you have to ask - did many in the media and some fans push Aldo into MMA's top five pound-for-pound rankings too quickly? It looks like it.

With the addition of new fighters from around the world and some former lightweights dropping down to featherweight, Aldo (20-1-1, 2-0 UFC) has a lot to get done before he should be legitimately mentioned amongst the elite of the elite.

"No way (has he cleaned out the division). That's why when they talk about him being top three pound-for-pound ... it's like, he's got a lot of work to do," Dana White said.

Kenny Florian made that obvious on Saturday night. Aldo was far from his super-aggressive self. He won the fight, but Florian made him battle for 25 minutes to get a unanimous decision, 49-46 on all three cards. Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA Writer Kevin Iole actually scored the fight 48-47 for Florian. Several others along press row in Houston had it 48-47 for Aldo.

"When you get into a fight with a guy like Kenny, a big, strong guy who's pushing you against the cage, you're in there trying to get out. It's one thing if you're in there going guns-a-blazing like when Urijah Faber and Aldo fought ... they went at it. That's not what you saw tonight," said Dana White, sounding less than impressed.

Aldo has much to prove before he?s mentioned with the elite

Aldo admitted that he fought with a conservative approach.

"I had to pace it a little bit in this fight. I knew if I was too explosive that Kenny could end up beating me. So I had to pace it. I couldn't really be as explosive as I wanted to be. And everybody was kind of telling me to hold back so I just kept it cool and studied the fight," Aldo said, not looking overly pleased with the W.

The champ defended take down attempts extremely well, thwarting 19-of-20 tries (Compustrike said it was 12-of-14) from Florian. But the Brazilian's lethal kicking game never got going and according to FightMetric, he was actually outlanded 69-66 over the course of five rounds. Those are hardly the numbers you'd expect from a guy being mentioned with the likes of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

On top of that, Aldo (20-1-1, 2-0 UFC) wasn't exactly facing a young gun or a guy on the upswing. Frankly, Florian is probably on the other side as far his career goes. He spends an awful lot of time with his side gig, as a television analyst with ESPN and he's now 35 years old. Following the loss, there were even rumors swirling that he was going to announce his retirement.

At UFC 129, Mark Hominick was beat up early against Aldo, but came on strong later in the fight to take the champ the distance as well. There were also moments where Hominick clearly outstruck the champ.

A closer examination of Aldo's previous victims in the WEC and you start to question the quality of his victories. He took the WEC title from Mike Brown in 2009. Brown is just 3-3 since.

Faber lost Aldo as well at 145, but now he's down at 135, his natural weight. Aldo's victories before that were against pretty non-descript fighters in the WEC.

This isn't a hatchet job on Aldo, but he is just 25 years old and needs to accomplish a lot to reach GSP and Silva heights. St-Pierre has won nine straight fights since 2007. Over that time, he's also won roughly 34-of-36 rounds. Silva's been even more impressive with 15 straight wins, 13 of them via some sort of finish.

Aldo's going to get Chad Mendes next and then a whole new wave of contenders from inside and otuside the promotion. Maybe these two decision victories will launch him to new level of dedication and Aldo can legitimately take the pound-for-pound crown from GSP and Silva, just give him a few years.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Aldo-has-much-to-prove-before-he-8217-s-mention?urn=mma-wp8025

Kendall Grove Clay Guida Jason Guida Melvin Guillard

Gilbert Melendez discusses Jorge Masvidal, Frankie Edgar, and possible move to welterweight

Coming off of a five-fight win streak, and looking to make his third defense of the Strikeforce lightweight title, Gilbert Melendez is said by some to be the last bastion of legitimate pound for pound talent outside of the UFC (for now). Holding notable victories over Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri, Melendez’s official record is [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/10/15/gilbert-melendez-discusses-jorge-masvidal-frankie-edgar-and-possible-move-to-welterweight

Ian Freeman Don Frye Tony Fryklund Kazuyuki Fujita

Michael Bisping says Chael Sonnen blew his chance, wants Anderson Silva next

Michael Bisping is tired of hearing people talk about Chael Sonnen being in line for a crack at UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva after losing cleanly to ?The Spider? a year ago and only fighting a single time since. He?s also ready to fill the contendership vacancy Sonnen?s removal from the picture would create, that [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/10/15/michael-bisping-says-chael-sonnen-blew-his-chance-wants-anderson-silva-next

Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin  Jason Hollywood Chambers Ryo Piranha Chonan 

Rich Franklin out until at least late summer after undergoing shoulder surgery

Today brought a bit of both good and bad news regarding the future of former UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin who is currently sidelined with a torn shoulder labrum. According to a press release from Franklin?s representatives, ?Ace? underwent surgery yesterday to repair the damage and things went successfully meaning the 37-year old is expected [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/10/13/rich-franklin-out-until-at-least-late-summer-after-undergoing-shoulder-surgery

Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji AnjoÂ