Before They Were Stars (VIDEO)

UFC 128: Jon Jones Recounts How He Took Down Thief on Fight Day

UFC In the Moment: Jon Jones

FORM Apparel Collection - Fall 2011 LookBook Preview

Kenny Powers Tubes Commercial (Get Championy) R-rated version.mpg

Urijah and his Camp goes big!

Article by Dave Meltzer of yahoo sports

The recent announcement of World Extreme Cagefighting’s impending merger with the Ultimate Fighting Championship was about the UFC’s addition of two new weight divisions, featherweight and bantamweight.
But an offshoot of the deal is also the addition of a new powerhouse team to join to camps like Black House, American Kickboxing Academy, American Top Team and Jackson’s MMA.
Team Alpha Male of Sacramento, Calif., a group of top-level lighter-weight fighters with wrestling backgrounds, scored a clean sweep on the next-to-last WEC show on Thursday night in at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. The sweep wasn’t unexpected, since Faber, Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez were all favored in the top three fights on the show.

But the nature of how the fights went in all three cases was the story. Faber (24-4) choked out Takeya Mizugaki (13-5-2) in his bantamweight debut with ten seconds left in round one. Mizugaki, who came one round away from winning the bantamweight title from then-champion Miguel Angel Torres last year, was known for his staying power, having only been stopped once in his career, and having never been submitted.

Mendes (9-0) swept three rounds against Javier Vazquez (15-5). He not only put Vazquez on his back repeatedly, as most would have expected from the best wrestler in the featherweight division. But he surprised many by dominating the standing exchanges, putting notice that he’s a lot more complete and dangerous a fighter than his reputation coming into the fight as a one-dimensional wrestler

Benavidez (13-2) used a guillotine choke to finish Wagnney Fabiano (14-3), a third-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, at 2:45 of the second round. This makes two submissions fn black belts by Benavidez in his last three fights, who also finished Torres with the same move in March.

Faber had insisted throughout his career that the 135 pound weight class would be his best, but he had always been either champion or a top contender at 145. After being knocked out of contention at featherweight in a devastating loss to Jose Aldo Jr., in April, Faber didn’t appear to show any negative effects from the weight cut.

“I felt more agile,” said Faber told Yahoo! Sports minutes after the victory. “I feel leaner, faster on my feet, with better scrambling.”

Faber closed his WEC career with the kind of a win that would likely put him in a top position when he makes his UFC debut next year ¬– perhaps a UFC bantamweight title opportunity at the winner of the Dec. 16 fight between WEC champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Scott Jorgensen. The Cruz-Jorgensen winner goes into the UFC as its first-ever 135-pound champion.

Faber took Thursday’s fight when he first went for a takedown, then grabbed an attempt at a guillotine. He let the hold go, wound up on Mizugaki’s back as the Japanese fighter was standing, and went for a choke. Mizugaki tried to shake him, but ended up on the ground with Faber behind him. Faber kept maneuvering as the round wound toward a close, finally sinking in a tight choke. Mizugaki tried to hold out, but the end of the round may as well been an hour away instead of 15 seconds. Mizugaki refused to tap, went unconscious, and ref Josh Rosenthal jumped in and stopped the fight.

“The Japanese have that fighting spirit,” said Faber. “This guy is known for going to the very end. I had to do something drastic, which I did.”

Faber took some punches early, including a hard right just before he shot in with the sequence that ended up as the finish.

“Yeah, I wanted to finish, I’m a finisher,” he said. “It’s what this division needs. We’re going to the UFC, it’s been an awesome run in the WEC. I love these guys. It’s time to step it up and to win my belt in the UFC and live the dream”. “I’ve been in title contention for like six years now. When I started, there was no 135 pound weight class. I was the best guy at 145 or in contention. It’s a whole new era here.” Mendes showed great improvement as an overall fighter compared to his previous WEC wins, where he relied almost exclusively on his wrestling pedigree. When he told people before the fight he was going to stand and trade with Vazquez, few believed him. But after standing exchanges, it was Vazquez who wanted the fight on the ground.

In the first round, Vazquez did a tremendous job of guard play, really controlling the fight and doing more damage from his back, although he never threatened with a submission. All three judges gave the round to Mendes since he was on top, but it was a round that could have gone either way.

Rounds two and three were no question. Mendes did some crowd-pleasing maneuvers, including two slams, using low back power to pick Vazquez up while being held in guard, and hurling him to the canvas. But the highlight sequence was in round two, with Vazquez on his back trying to throw up kicks at Mendes standing. Mendes jumped over Vazquez’s legs and flipped over, landing on him with a splash, and then scrambled to take top position.

Mendes started fighting after going 30-1 and placing second in the nation at 141 pounds in 2008 as a college wrestler at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

“Chad has only been at this for two years and people don’t know he’s got a Tyson punch, he’s short with strong arms,” said Faber.

As far as Mendes going for the title, Faber doesn’t want to rush things, but he does think he’s got a chance right now.

“I think we’d want to wait until he gets better,” said Faber. “He could stylistically be the guy who can beat Aldo by taking him down and winning a decision, or at least we’d see just how good Aldo is. He’s only going to get better. He’s been the best in competition at every level, from elementary school, junior high, high school and college.”

While not as heralded as his training partner, Benavidez, who lost his title opportunity by a close split decision to Cruz on Aug. 18, came back and although giving away what appeared to be significant size, showed superior quickness and a multifaceted attack of punches and high kicks, forcing Fabiano to mostly play defense in the first round.

In the second round, when Fabiano, the former International Fight League featherweight champion, went forward with a takedown, Benavidez went for a guillotine. Fabiano escaped the first attempt, as well as a second and a third attempt. But on the fourth attempt, Fabiano was checkmated and tapped out.

“He had practiced 12 different guillotines and he used four of them in the fight,” noted Faber.

[source]

WEC 52 Weigh In Highlights (VIDEO)

The Shoot: Urijah Faber (VIDEO)

UFC - WEC Merge!

The best top-to-bottom cards in mixed martial arts on a consistent basis were, unquestionably, delivered by the World Extreme Cagefighting. Those fights will now take place on a significantly larger stage as Zuffa has folded the WEC into the Ultimate Fighting Championship, effective with UFC 125 on Jan. 1.

The UFC and the WEC each had its own lightweight divisions and their own champions, but those divisions will merge. WEC champion Benson Henderson will defend his title on Dec. 16 against Anthony Pettis. The winner will meet the winner of the UFC lightweight title fight at UFC 125 between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard later in 2011 for the undisputed belt.

The UFC will simply fold the WEC’s bantamweight and featherweight divisions into its stable, giving it seven weight classes now, joining lightweight, welterweight (170 pounds), middleweight (185), light heavyweight (205) and heavyweight (265). WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo will make his UFC debut at UFC 125 when he defends his title against an opponent to be named. The UFC will recognize the winner of the Dec. 16 fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen as its bantamweight champion.

The addition of the WEC fighters to the UFC roster should provide deeper pay-per-view cards and provide higher-quality fights.

The downside for fight fans, at least in the short term, will be a reduction of free fights on television. In 2010, the UFC had two fights on Versus, which will expand to four under a new deal announced Thursday by UFC president Dana White. But the WEC has already had five fights on Versus and still will air cards on the cable network on Nov. 11 from Las Vegas and Dec. 16 from Glendale, Ariz. As a result, that was nine shows, which will be cut to four under the new deal.

Unless the UFC adds an additional television deal, those five shows won’t be replaced on free television, though White did not seem to mind.

“I’m not looking at this thing as a negative like, ‘Oh, we lost a couple of fights on Versus,’ ” White said. “It’s a positive. We’ve got the UFC on Versus. The last one we did pulled killer numbers. Now that we’ve added these other two weight classes to the UFC, everything is positive. I’m not looking at it like, ‘Oh, we lost two fights. We have to pick them up somewhere else.’ ”

White said the merger became necessary because of the UFC’s expansion and the growth of the business in general. Adding high-quality fights from the WEC to UFC pay-per-view shows will clearly strengthen the UFC cards and should at least lessen common fan complaints about the lack of championship fights and diluted pay-per-view cards.

White has become irate when fans complained about shows such as UFC 119 in September, which didn’t have a title fight or many of the company’s star attractions on it. But with the WEC fighters coming aboard, guys like Aldo and bantamweight Urijah Faber should instantly become household names and the complaints should decrease.

“It’s time,” White said of the long-sought merger. “As we continue to grow globally and we’re going into these new markets like China, India and Mexico, it’s time to do it. We’re doing enough fights, et cetera, et cetera, to fold this thing into the UFC. What’s always been in the cards is to continue to grow this sport and add every weight class, not just 135 and 145.

“The reality is, all of these weight classes should be in the UFC. There was a time early on, when we first bought this thing, that 155 didn’t even exist. Now, as we continue to grow and we’re doing more fights every year, and we’re going into these different markets, we can continue to add weight classes. That’s always been our goal. Our goal is to build this sport worldwide and continue to add weight divisions until we have every single weight division in the UFC.”

The two missing weight classes are flyweight, which has a limit of 125 pounds, and super heavyweight, which is everything above 266. White said the UFC will eventually add flyweight, though he’s not sure when, but will not add either super heavyweight or a women’s division. He’s long maintained that there are not enough super heavyweights or women to make a viable division and held that stance again Thursday.

The WEC used a 25-foot cage, but White said that all shows will be contested in the UFC’s 30-foot cage.

[source]

WEC Tonight: Watch Jose Aldo highlights (VIDEO)

 

Wanna get pumped up before the WEC tonight? Watch this highlights video of Jose Aldo.

 

WEC 51 Fight Card

Main Card:

Jose Aldo (c) vs Manny Gamburyan

Donald Cerrone vs Jamie Varner

Miguel Torres vs Charlie Valencia

Chan Sung Jung vs George Roop

Leonard Garcia vs Mark Hominick

Preliminary Card:

Pablo Garza vs Tiequan Zhang

Mike Brown vs Cole Province

Chris Horodecki vs Ed Ratcliff

Diego Nunes vs Tyler Toner

Antonio Banuelos vs Chad George

Demetrious Johnson vs Nick Pace

Urijah faber gets decapitated by Kenny Powers!

Kenny Powers Gets Signed By K-Swiss - watch more funny videos

Urijah Faber moves to 135 lb weight class....holy crap!

It was just reported by MMA Weekly; "The former WEC featherweight champion will make the move down to 135lbs for his next fight on August 18 as he faces Japanese fighter Takeya Mizugaki in the WEC."

And although the August 18th show hasn't officially been announced by the WEC, word is that it will be soon and will most likely be in Las Vegas......

On that note, here's Amp'd Energy's new commercial with Urijah. Why is he wearing gloves while driving? Weird people do that.

(thanks mmaweekly for all your wisdom)

Your leg on 'ALDO'.

Urijah Faber vs. Jose Aldo in WEC 48 was LAST SATURDAY.......Here's Faber's leg the following Thursday.........anyone wanna fight Aldo?  HOLY CRAP!

If you're stupid enough to fight Jose Aldo, let's say this word together; "HEEEEMMMMAAAAA TOOOOOMMMMAAAA"

Hematoma—from Greek αίμα, haima, blood + τωμα, t-oma—indicating an abnormality.  A hematoma, or haematoma, is a collection of blood outside the blood vessels,[1] generally the result of hemorrhage, or more specifically, internal bleeding. It is commonly called a bruise.

(pic from urijah's twitter, info based off article on yahoo sports and hematoma info from wikipedia.)

Urijah Faber talks about his fight with Jose Aldo (VIDEO)

Find more videos like this on Urijah Faber

(video str8 off faber's website - www.urijahfaber.com) 

Dana White - WEC 48 Post Fight Interview!

Here is Ariel Helwani hittin up Dana White on multiple topics you wanna know about!

.

WEC 48 Results

Urijah Faber's bruised and swollen leg. Enjoy that Urijah. Damn, that looks like it hurts!

PPV card:

Jose Aldo def. Urijah Faber via unanimous decision
Ben Henderson def. Donald Cerrone via submission (guillotine choke)
Manny Gamburyan def. Mike Brown by TKO (strikes)
Shane Roller def. Anthony Njokuani via (rear-naked choke)
Scott Jorgensen def. Antonio Banuelos via unanimous decision


Spike TV card:
Leonard Garcia def. Chan Sung Jung via split decision
Anthony Pettis def. Alex Karalexis via submission (triangle choke)


Undercard:
Brad Pickett def. Demetrious Johnson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Chad Mendes def. Anthony Morrison via submission (guillotine)
Takeya Mizugaki def. Rani Yahya via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
Tyler Toner def. Brandon Visher via TKO


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Dana White Aldo vs Faber Video Blog 4-22-10

New Dana White Video Blog....we call it a VLOG.

Brandon Vera talks about his next fight and status in the UFC!

Here's a great interview with Brandon Vera....Urijah Fabor on hand as well...