The new MMA general news, events and thoughts thread

[cleslie92]

It's now Hendricks .vs. Condit, and Ellenberger .vs. Marquardt. Link

[pryko]

Johnny Hendricks isn't fucking around is he, that guys on a fucking mission.

If Hendricks beats Condit, then beats Diaz / GSP for the belt, the only people for him to fight would be the Diaz / GSP loser, Rory McDonald and any new contenders who break through like Maia and Woodley. H's almost cleared the division out without being Champion or receiving a title shot

[wandshogun09]

He's already no-showed 3 Countdown interviews according to Dana.

 

Not according to Nick's lawyers he's not.

 

Really? Why would Dana make that up though, he has nothing to gain by saying that if it's not true.

 

H's almost cleared the division out without being Champion or receiving a title shot

 

Reminds me of JDS at heavyweight, he knocked off Carwin, Nelson, Cro Cop, Struve, Gonzaga, Werdum on the way up. Even now, after the Reem fight it's gonna be almost all rematches for JDS.

 

As for Condit vs Hendricks. I'm picking Condit. I'm torn because although I wanna see GSP vs Hendricks and despite me agreeing that Hendricks has earned his shot, I still can't root for him over Condit. And I don't wanna see Condit lose 2 in a row.

[Snake Plissken]

The full line up for BAMMA 12 has just been confirmed via their Twitter (@BAMMAUK)

 

BAMMA 12 FIGHT CARD

 

 

WELTERWEIGHT BOUT

MATT VEACH VS. JIM WALLHEAD

 

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT

MAX NUNES VS. MARCIN LAZARZ

 

BAMMA LONSDALE BRITISH LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE BOUT

CURT WARBURTON VS. STEVIE RAY

 

BRITISH WELTERWEIGHT TITLE CONTENDERS FIGHT

BOLA OMOYELE VS. TBA

 

LIGHTWEIGHT BOUT

LUKE NEWMAN VS. RYAN SCOPE

 

MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT

KEVIN THOMPSON VS. SCOTT ASKHAM

 

BANTAMWEIGHT BOUT

JAMES MACALISTER VS DAWID FARYCKI

 

MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT

LEEROY BARNES VS. STEVE WATSON

 

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT

RICHI KNOX VS. THOMAS DENHAM

 

MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT

PAUL MCBRIDE VS. DARREN WARDLE

 

MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT

CRAIG ROBERTSON VS. LUKE HARRIMAN

 

BANTAMWEIGHT BOUT

MAHMOOD BESHARATE VS. STEVEN GARDENER

 

LIGHTWEIGHT BOUT

JEFFERSON GEORGE VS STEPHEN MARTIN

 

WELTERWEIGHT BOUT

JOHN JACKSON VS. AMAS SIRAJ MOUNIR

[Egg Shen]

if we get the top 5 fights on the 5* broadcast.ill be well happy...im likely to ignore the UK broadcast and get the US feed, much better last time out.

[Snake Plissken]

Top 5 fights with the possibility of the Askham fight too. It's a 2 hour Broadcast on 5*. Hearing big things about Mounir & Jefferson George too, I will be interested to see these two on the night.

[METAL ON METAL]

Yeah, Anas is absolutely brilliant and always puts on a show. I've trained with him a little bit before and he's just so so talented on the ground, let alone striking - he's an absolute beast, with a hard work ethic to match. You won't be able to find anyone with a bad word said against him. I'd be very surprised if he isn't headlining BAMMA shows/signing for UFC in one or two years time. The Moroccan Sensation!

 

Can't say enough good things about Anas & Scope, two genuine talents with great futures ahead of them. Plus it'd be great to see Scope KO that twat Luke off TUF Smashes.

[wandshogun09]

Looking at the card, I didn't even click that it was Luke Newman off The Smashes. How quickly we forget. Two months and I'd already forgot he even existed. Him and Brendan were the least likeable on Team UK for me.

 

A lot of these names are familiar from the Cage Warriors forum, and of course Bola also from The Smashes and Warburton from the UFC stint. I hear Scope's name a fair bit. But really, I'm well out of touch with UK MMA. With the increasing number of fights going on between UFC, Bellator and so on, I just don't have the motivation to follow the UK scene closely which is a shame really. I always tune in for BAMMA and Cage Warriors but that's about it.

 

Looking forward to seeing some of these fighters being talked about now. Wallhead vs Veach should be a good fight as well.

[David]

Condit vs Hendricks should be good. I still wouldn't be all that surprised if Diaz ends up fucking up again, getting pulled out of the title fight and Hendricks replaces him. He's already no-showed 3 Countdown interviews according to Dana.

Not according to Nick's lawyers he's not.

This has been addressed, although the last statement from Diaz lawyer had me chuckling a bit;

 

At the UFC on Fuel 7 post-fight media scrum, Dana White stated that welterweight title challenger Nick Diaz already missed three "Countdown to UFC 158" tapings, an allegation the Diaz camp has denied.

 

UFC 158 is less than one month away, as Georges St. Pierre fights Nick Diaz for GSP's welterweight title. This is the 3rd time they've set this fight up, and Diaz already lost one title shot for no-showing press conference. Diaz has played nice as far as the press conferences, but now the issue has apparently shifted to the Countdown series. MMA Weekly transcribed what he had to say about Nick at the UFC on Fuel post-event media scrum:

 

"First we gotta get him to show up for the (expletive) interviews and then we can do it. How many has he missed, four? Three. He

[lambyUK]

Wand, you say you don't know what Dana would have to gain from potentially lieing about this. I actually see the gain.

 

It continues this mystique that Diaz brings. When he turned up to the press conference the other week and was, well, not Nick Diaz, I was actually pissed off. It felt like Nick "someone is under the table with a knife to my balls, i better behave" Diaz.

 

i want the Nick Diaz who can't be arsed with camera crews. Yes, I want some film, but some reports of him being a tool certainly won't take away from the buys.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah lamby, I see that point. It all adds to Diaz's rebel persona. But if Diaz keeps no-showing stuff it makes promotion (and in turn, Dana's life) really difficult. What do they do for a Countdown without one of the headliners?

 

From David's post it's clear that for whatever reason, Diaz did miss interviews so Dana obviously hasn't just lied. I don't buy Nick's lawyer's excuse. How would it be "arranged" without Nick's knowledge? Who was it "arranged" with if not Diaz? I think Diaz no-showed like Dana said. Not like he hasn't got form is it?

 

That bolded line in David's post is classic.

[Swift89]

Yeah lamby, I see that point. It all adds to Diaz's rebel persona. But if Diaz keeps no-showing stuff it makes promotion (and in turn, Dana's life) really difficult. What do they do for a Countdown without one of the headliners?

 

From David's post it's clear that for whatever reason, Diaz did miss interviews so Dana obviously hasn't just lied. I don't buy Nick's lawyer's excuse. How would it be "arranged" without Nick's knowledge? Who was it "arranged" with if not Diaz? I think Diaz no-showed like Dana said. Not like he hasn't got form is it?

 

That bolded line in David's post is classic.

 

Surely they would have been arranged though Cesar Gracie and not Diaz himself? I can see a situation where the UFC arranges the interviews with Cesar who says he will get Diaz there but then can't manage too.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it would have been Cesar. My point was that the lawyer's claim that Diaz wasn't aware of the interviews is surely bollocks. You'd think Cesar would have mentioned it to Diaz.

 

I think it's exactly what you said, UFC contacted Cesar, Cesar agreed but when the camera crew showed up in Stockton, he couldn't get Diaz out of his smoke filled bedroom to do the interview. Now they're trying to act like they didn't know the UFC were coming. As if they would just turn up without so much as a phonecall.

 

Don't get me wrong I love all the ridiculous drama which surrounds Diaz, but I worry every time he has a fight coming up, is he gonna go AWAS (Absent With A Spliff) again and the fight gets cancelled.

[David]

Surely they would have been arranged though Cesar Gracie and not Diaz himself? I can see a situation where the UFC arranges the interviews with Cesar who says he will get Diaz there but then can't manage too.

To be fair Dana is a bit of an idiot if he really expected the pre-fight promotion to go smoothly. Both Diaz and Gracie are idiots, so it should surprise no one that they don't know what the fuck their doing.

 

He had better not pull Diaz from this fight though. We've been down this road too many times for something else to go wrong. Just put them in the cage, let St-Pierre take the comfortable decision win and we can put this whole deal behind us and see what happens as far as Hendricks is concerned.

[John Matrix]

Couple of interesting stories doing the rounds this morning.

 

Donald Cerrone Vs K.J. Noons booked for UFC 160, and Jacob Volkmann has been released following his loss to Bobby Green.

 

Also, Dana has gone on a bit of a tirade (shock) about guys turning down fights and it's thought to be triggered by / aimed at Tarec Saffedine who was their initial preference to face Carlos Condit.