Jake Shields Will Remain on UFN 25 Following Father's Death

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Jake Shields has decided to go through with his Sept. 17 fight against Jake Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night 25 following the recent death of his father and manager, Jack Shields. MMA Fighting confirmed the fighter's decision with UFC officials.

GracieFighter.com broke the news of Jack Shields' passing on Tuesday. He was 67 years old.

No word just yet on the cause of death. According to Sherdog.com, Shields died in his sleep on Monday at his Sacramento, Calif., home.

"Lost my father manager and one of my best friends today!! R.I.P jack you will be greatly missed and loved by many," Shields was quoted as saying on the Web site.

Shields served as his son's manager since 2002. Prior to his son's title fight against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129, Shields spoke to MMA Fighting's Ben Fowlkes about how he ended up working with his son.

"After the ['Mach'] Sakurai fight he didn't get any offers. He upset Sakurai and then two months later he still wasn't in any fights. So he asked me to find him a fight," he said.

"Jake asked me to manage him after that and I said, 'I'm sure there's someone down there who knows the business a lot better than I do. I'm all the way up here in the mountains. There's got to be someone closer to you who knows this business.' Six to eight months later he sent me a contract that somebody wanted him to sign and then I took over. It was terrible. I had to [delete] the whole thing and write a new one."

UFN 25: "Battle at the Bayou" airs live on Spike TV from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Shields vs. Ellenberger will serve as the card's main event.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/08/31/jake-shields-will-remain-on-ufn-25-following-fathers-death/

Ray Cooper  Kit Cope  Wesley Cabbage Correira  Patrick The Predator Côté 

Kendall Grove wins big in front of fellow Hawaiians

After a rough patch, losing three of four fights and being handed his walking papers from Zuffa, it appears Kendall Grove may have finally regained the form many came to expect from the Ultimate Fighter 3 winner after starting his UFC career with a trio of victories. Grove fought this past weekend under the newly reformed [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/08/29/kendall-grove-wins-big-in-front-of-fellow-hawaiians

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

Video: Anderson Silva loves canaries, harps and cheeseburgers

Burger King Brazil recently signed on as a sponsor for UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. Just before his UFC 134 bout with Yushin Okami, we see what that means. Silva lipsynching Minnie Riperton? Of course.

I never knew of Silva's love for playing the harp, or canaries, or jewel-encrusted dogs, but the man is multi-faceted. He likes to dance, do impressions, eat grotesquely large cheeseburgers, and kick people in the face. This is a man who cannot be pigeonholed.

For his next trick, Silva will need to win a rematch against Okami, the last fighter to put a loss on Silva's record. (Okami won via disqualification due to an illegal kick.) Will Silva pull it off?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-Anderson-Silva-loves-canaries-harps-and-?urn=mma-wp6200

Wilson Gouveia Jason Grace Crosley Gracie Gregor Gracie

Roger Gracie Says MMA Is Now His No. 1 Priority

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While still considered one of the top jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world -- a reputation proven by his numerous competition wins and accolades -- Roger Gracie has transitioned slowly into mixed martial arts. Now fast approaching his most important bout, the Strikeforce light-heavyweight knows that his professional fighting career is about to hit overdrive.

As a result, Gracie said that he is now fully committed to MMA going forward.

The 4-0 Gracie, who will face Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal on September 10's Strikeforce event, said fighting was his destiny from the time he was a jiu-jitsu blue belt many years ago. He believes he followed a natural progression, dedicated himself to the family art and advancing to high-level black belt status before moving on to fight MMA.

"I always knew," he said. "It was just a matter of time, of when I'm ready, I'll fight MMA. I never had any doubts of, Will I do that? That never crossed my mind. It was a natural way for things to happen."

But Gracie's progression has been slower than some might have liked. He made his debut back in December 2006, defeating Ron Waterman via arm bar, then didn't fight again until May 2008. After that, he took another two years away from the cage before signing with Strikeforce and debuting in the promotion.

Gracie attributes those layoffs to various reasons including injuries and failed negotiations, adding that "everything happens in the right time."

"Now I feel that I can dedicate 100 percent to MMA," he said. "Before, I wanted to do MMA but I still wanted to dedicate time to jiu-jitsu. To do both very well is hard, because one gets in the way of the other. Now, in this day, I'm very happy to compete once a year in the world championships, which I like to do every year. But the rest of the year is dedicated just to MMA.

"This sport is so big now, so evolved that if you don't really take it serious, you don't go anywhere," he continued. "There are so many good fighters out there. It's not a joke. If I take it lightly, I won't go anywhere. For me to be able to succeed, to become a good fighter, I have to do it full-time. Now at this stage of my life, I'm ready for that, and I can leave everything else aside. I'm dedicated to MMA."

The fight against Lawal will undoubtedly cast him against his most prime opponent. Lawal (7-1) is a former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion who will be competing for the first time since losing his belt and then undergoing knee surgery.

While all four of Gracie's wins have come by way of submission, the Lawal bout offers no guarantees of a ground advantage, mostly because Gracie is not guaranteed to get the fight there. Lawal is a highly decorated amateur wrestler who is likely to keep the fight where he wants it. And that means the two could spend the majority of the duration in the middle of the cage trading strikes.

Gracie says that possibility is one for which he's well prepared. Though he primarily trains at his home base in London, he also occasionally works with UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, and recently spent time sharpening his Muay Thai with GSP's coach Firas Zahabi. Because of that, Gracie has no qualms about trading with Lawal.

"To be honest, I'm pretty comfortable with my striking," he said. "Because of my height (he's 6-foot-4), I have the reach advantage against most of guys I will face. So that gives me some advantage. Even though Mo's standup is good, it's not great. He's very explosive and very strong. That makes him very dangerous. But he's not the kind of guy that if I'm on my feet, I'm just going to get lit up. I've been training a lot. I'm sure I can survive and take my time. All I need is one opportunity to put him on his back. Him on top is too dangerous, because he's strong and things get slippery. But I'm sure once he's on his back, these things fall out the window."

A win would allow Gracie to surge up the list of contenders and put him in position to angle himself for a title shot. That would make him a very busy fighter, and despite his two bustling academies, that would be just fine with him.

"If I have to spend the whole year dedicated just to fighting, I will do that," he said. "I'm not going to jeopardize fighting. I'm going to be 30 this month. I have what, maybe another 10 years? After that, I can dedicate as much time as I want to my school, business or anything else. But the next 10 years is my fighting career. That's my priority."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/09/01/roger-gracie-says-mma-is-now-his-no-1-priority/

Andrei Arlovski  Ricardo Arona  Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio 

Roger Gracie Says MMA Is Now His No. 1 Priority

Filed under: , ,

While still considered one of the top jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world -- a reputation proven by his numerous competition wins and accolades -- Roger Gracie has transitioned slowly into mixed martial arts. Now fast approaching his most important bout, the Strikeforce light-heavyweight knows that his professional fighting career is about to hit overdrive.

As a result, Gracie said that he is now fully committed to MMA going forward.

The 4-0 Gracie, who will face Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal on September 10's Strikeforce event, said fighting was his destiny from the time he was a jiu-jitsu blue belt many years ago. He believes he followed a natural progression, dedicated himself to the family art and advancing to high-level black belt status before moving on to fight MMA.

"I always knew," he said. "It was just a matter of time, of when I'm ready, I'll fight MMA. I never had any doubts of, Will I do that? That never crossed my mind. It was a natural way for things to happen."

But Gracie's progression has been slower than some might have liked. He made his debut back in December 2006, defeating Ron Waterman via arm bar, then didn't fight again until May 2008. After that, he took another two years away from the cage before signing with Strikeforce and debuting in the promotion.

Gracie attributes those layoffs to various reasons including injuries and failed negotiations, adding that "everything happens in the right time."

"Now I feel that I can dedicate 100 percent to MMA," he said. "Before, I wanted to do MMA but I still wanted to dedicate time to jiu-jitsu. To do both very well is hard, because one gets in the way of the other. Now, in this day, I'm very happy to compete once a year in the world championships, which I like to do every year. But the rest of the year is dedicated just to MMA.

"This sport is so big now, so evolved that if you don't really take it serious, you don't go anywhere," he continued. "There are so many good fighters out there. It's not a joke. If I take it lightly, I won't go anywhere. For me to be able to succeed, to become a good fighter, I have to do it full-time. Now at this stage of my life, I'm ready for that, and I can leave everything else aside. I'm dedicated to MMA."

The fight against Lawal will undoubtedly cast him against his most prime opponent. Lawal (7-1) is a former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion who will be competing for the first time since losing his belt and then undergoing knee surgery.

While all four of Gracie's wins have come by way of submission, the Lawal bout offers no guarantees of a ground advantage, mostly because Gracie is not guaranteed to get the fight there. Lawal is a highly decorated amateur wrestler who is likely to keep the fight where he wants it. And that means the two could spend the majority of the duration in the middle of the cage trading strikes.

Gracie says that possibility is one for which he's well prepared. Though he primarily trains at his home base in London, he also occasionally works with UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, and recently spent time sharpening his Muay Thai with GSP's coach Firas Zahabi. Because of that, Gracie has no qualms about trading with Lawal.

"To be honest, I'm pretty comfortable with my striking," he said. "Because of my height (he's 6-foot-4), I have the reach advantage against most of guys I will face. So that gives me some advantage. Even though Mo's standup is good, it's not great. He's very explosive and very strong. That makes him very dangerous. But he's not the kind of guy that if I'm on my feet, I'm just going to get lit up. I've been training a lot. I'm sure I can survive and take my time. All I need is one opportunity to put him on his back. Him on top is too dangerous, because he's strong and things get slippery. But I'm sure once he's on his back, these things fall out the window."

A win would allow Gracie to surge up the list of contenders and put him in position to angle himself for a title shot. That would make him a very busy fighter, and despite his two bustling academies, that would be just fine with him.

"If I have to spend the whole year dedicated just to fighting, I will do that," he said. "I'm not going to jeopardize fighting. I'm going to be 30 this month. I have what, maybe another 10 years? After that, I can dedicate as much time as I want to my school, business or anything else. But the next 10 years is my fighting career. That's my priority."

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/09/01/roger-gracie-says-mma-is-now-his-no-1-priority/

Andrei Arlovski  Ricardo Arona  Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio 

Video analysis: UFC may announce FOX card fighters today, who will it be?

On Thursday, the UFC sent out a late press release to announce that Dana White has a Friday teleconference for the media at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. It was simply slugged "UFC PRESIDENT DANA WHITE TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW?"
major announcement.

Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA writer Kevin Iole joined us to break down the possibilities at the UFC's debut on FOX on Nov. 12.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-analysis-UFC-may-announce-FOX-card-fighte?urn=mma-wp6513

Steve The Snake Claveau  Rich No Love Clementi  Mark The Hammer Coleman Wes Soldier Combs 

UFC Undisputed 3: Cain Velasquez Highlight Video

Last week, THQ Inc. announced fans will have the opportunity to select the cover athlete for UFC Undisputed 3. By visiting HERE between now and 12PM PT on September 30th, fanboys can choose from one of five current UFC champions to grace the game?s box. Now that the polls are open, it?s time to apply [...]

Source: http://www.5thRound.com/87221/ufc-undisputed-3-cain-velasquez-highlight-video/

Stav Crazy Bear Economou  Yves Edwards  Justin Eilers  Jon Olav Einemo