This week’s episode starts out with a recap of last week’s fight between Tim Credeur and Matt Riddle. It was a very entertaining fight with Credeur coming out on top via armbar in the second round. Credeur tells Riddle that he’s one of the toughest opponents that he’s ever faced and tells the camera that he thanks Riddle for making him a better fighter.

Credeur tells Riddle that he owes him an XBOX 360 and promises to buy Riddle one with his winnings for stopping the fight. Riddle is pretty stoked about getting an XBOX even though he lost the fight. His teammate Jeremy May, however, is not happy.

“You don’t defend the armbar and you get an XBOX,” is what May has to say during the van ride home. Cut the kid some slack, Jeremy. He fought his ass off against an experienced opponent. Riddle and his teammates are obviously a bit annoyed with Jeremy and his antics as a whole, not just this one incident. A lot of them think he needs to cool his jets, and I agree wholeheartedly.

During a Team Rampage training session, Rampage brings in Michael Bisping, season three winner, to motivate his camp. Bisping comes in and tells the guys what a great opportunity this is for them and to make the most of it.

Read the rest of this entry »

TKO Xtreme is reporting that Canadian Jonathan Goulet will be facing off against Englishman Paul Kelly in a welterweight bout at UFC 85.

Goulet is coming off a knockout victory over Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC 83 in Montreal. The fight earned Fight of the Night honors from the UFC and both fighters earned $75,000 bonuses for their crowd pleasing affair.

Kelly is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Paul Taylor at UFC 80 and was likely put on the card to appease the UK fans who lost a main event when Chuck Liddell pulled off the card with an injury.

Kelly is known for slugging, as is Goulet, but Goulet might have the weakest chin of any MMA fighter on the planet (although James Thompson is giving him a run for his money), so this one could end quickly.

Check out more UFC 85 content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com!

Matt Lindland is a busy man these days. He’s a fighter; a trainer; and a promoter. And if all goes according to plan, he could become a State House Representative in Oregon.

Lindland, running as a conservative republican, recently launched his campaign, which you can find out more about at MattForOregon.com. In the meantime, Lindland was kind enough to take out for an exclusive interview with FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

During the interview, Lindland was very candid on his thoughts about the state of Oregon; the IFL’s current direction; and his appraisal of the MMA media that included some intriguing allegations regarding UFC president Dana White and his behavior towards members of the media.

The full transcript of our one-on-one interview with Lindland is available below.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to Sherdog, Shinya Aoki will not be continuing on in DREAM’s lightweight grand prix due to a facial injury suffered during Tuesday’s fight with Gesias “JZ Calvan” Calvancante. There had been much speculation that Calvancante would step in to replace the injured Aoki and continue on in the grand prix but that now seems highly unlikely:

Calvancante was approached about replacing the Japanese fighter, but the 24-year-old American Top Team representative could not come to terms with the promotion and has since left Japan.

That’s a bummer for DREAM, but that’s what happens when you don’t make a clear ruling on the first fight between the two. DREAM deciding that the first fight was a no contest put them in this position. Aoki had expressed a while back that he may not continue on in the tournament regardless of the outcome of the second fight with JZ or whether or not he was injured, so DREAM has no one to blame but themselves for this predicament.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that former New York Giants fullback Jarrod Bunch has turned down an opportunity to fight former Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro offensive tackle Carlton Haselrig during the undercard of EliteXC’s debut CBS show on May 31.

Haselrig, who won his MMA debut against former IFL heavyweight Shane Ott on April 19, is without an opponent for EliteXC’s undercard, which will be streamed live from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on ProElite.com.

Haselrig, who is also a former six-time NCAA Division I and II wrestling champion, TKO’d Ott at 4:09 of round 1 during Battle Cage Xtreme 4 in Atlantic City. Meanwhile, Bunch is 0-1 in his brief mixed martial arts career, losing his one and only fight to former Washington wide receiver Michael Westbrook during a King of the Cage show in 2005.

EliteXC contracted heavyweight and former Giants’ offensive lineman Bobby Jones was originally proposed as an opponent for Haselrig but was unable to accept the match due to a neck injury. There have been rumblings that EliteXC officials were interested in signing former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Marcus Jones to fight Haselrig, however, Jones is already signed to fight Hercules Benjamin on May 30 in Atlantic City for the World Fighting Championships.

While conducting an interview with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Marcus Jones for CBSSports.com, the former NFL star revealed that he is next scheduled to fight on May 30 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Jones will be a part of Florida-based World Fighting Championships’ “North vs. South” event at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in a heavyweight clash against Judo standout Hercules Benjamin.

During the interview, Jones indicated that MTV is slated to televise the event.

“…May 30, the WFC has teamed up with MTV and they’re supposed to be putting on a show and I’ll be on that card,” Jones stated during the interview.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com followed up on the revelation and confirmed with the New Jersey Athletic Control Board that MTV is indeed expected to be involved with the show. However, it uncertain what MTV’s exact role will be.

Muay Thai standout Kit Cope is scheduled to headline the show against MMA veteran Dave Cochran. Cope was once featured on MTV’s documentary series “True Life,” so it’s possible that they will be on hand to tape some of the bouts as opposed to doing a live telecast.

Developing…

Two fighters from Philadelphia’s famed Fight Factory fight camp have been added to the undercard of EliteXC’s first-ever “Saturday Night Fights” card on CBS television, a source close to the camp has revealed exclusively to FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

The Fight Factory, started by head trainer Stephen Haigh, features both DREAM lightweight Grand Prix competitor Eddie Alvarez and female MMA champion Tara LaRosa. Two of the camp’s up and coming fighters, Zach Makovsky, a former Division I wrestler, and Mike Groves, an aggressive boxer and wrestler, will both be appearing on the undercard in separate fights.

Makovsky has signed on to fight against Andre “Giugeto” Soares of American Top Team in a 140 pound encounter. Soares is 5-1 according to Sherdog.com’s fight finder and is on a four fight win streak. He most recently fought on April 18 for Battle Cage Xtreme in Atlantic City, submitting Josh Spearman with a guillotine choke at 0:19 of round 1.

Prior to the win over Spearman, Soares last fought in September of 2006, submitting Matt McCabe with an armbar at 1:09 of round 1 while competing for the Combat in the Cage promotion.

Makovsky made his professional MMA debut just over a year ago, recording a split decision victory over Leandro Escobar at Extreme Challenge 75 on March 23. He then returned to action this past October on a Combat in the Cage show, where he recorded a unanimous decision victory over Emerson Souza.

Read the rest of this entry »

What: WEC 34 Faber vs. Pulver
When: June 1st ‘08
Where: Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA

Here’s the latest on the WEC 34 event:

Main Card
• Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver (WEC Featherweight Title)
• Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda (WEC Bantamweight Title)
• “Razor” Rob McCullough vs. Kenneth Alexander
• Mark Munoz vs. Chuck Grisby

Undercard

• Chase Beebe vs. Will Ribiero
• Richard Crunkilton vs. Donald Cerrone
• Jeff Curran vs. Mike Brown
• Tim McKenzie vs. Eric Schambari
• Alex Serdyukov vs. Luis Sapo
• Alexandre Noguiera vs. Jose Aldo
• Charlie Valencia vs. Dominick Cruz

Check out more WEC 34 event content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

Middleweight Joe Doerksen is the latest fighter to be released by the UFC.

The news comes courtesy of Sportsnet.ca, which received word of Doerksen’s release from the fighter himself.

Doerksen is currently in the midst of a three fight losing streak that began this past August at WEC 29, was TKO’d by current WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho at 4:07 of round 1.

After losing the vacant middleweight title to Filho, Doerksen was then transferred to the UFC and suffered a third round knockout against Ed Herman at UFC 78 this past November.

Doerksen fought on the undercard of the UFC’s most recent event, UFC 83 in Montreal, but lost to fellow Canadian fighter Jason MacDonald when he was TKO’d at  0:54 of the second round.

Doerksen had one fight remaining on his Zuffa contract at the time of his release but indicated that the company is open to the possibility of re-signing him in the future.

“(The UFC officials) made it very clear they’re very happy with the way I fight and they want me to come back,” Doerksen is quoted as saying by Sportsnet. “But they need me to go put a couple of wins together (first).”

Normally I spend almost no time and attention towards covering the MMA media, because in the end, do the masses really care about my thoughts on other websites and other writers? You’re hear to read about fights and fighters, and I get that.

However, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Josh Gross is leaving Sherdog.com as its editor in order to accept a position with Sports Illustrated. In fact, I think today is his last day on “Beatdown” with T.J. DeSantis.

While I’ve been a fan of MMA and traditional martial arts for quite some time and have been a sports writer for over ten years, I did not start covering MMA until December of ‘06. As such, I feel it necessary to give respect to the journalists in this field who were covering the sport even when there was no money in it. Not that there is much money in covering MMA now, but at least you can earn a living wage if you’re one of the chosen few.

So on behalf of 5 Oz. of Pain, I wanted to congratulate Gross on his new gig. I’ve never met the man, but I respect him and his contributions to the sport.

But the move is not without some controversy. In the April 28 print edition of the Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer raises the following point:

A very interesting situation in the MMA media arose when Josh Gross, formerly at Sherdog.com, left this week to take a job as the main writer for MMA for the Sports Illustrated web site. SI.com has been way behind in covering MMA, as CBS, NBC, FOX, and Yahoo! have gone into varying degrees. However, Dana White hates Gross. I’d describe the situation as similar to Vince McMahon and me in 1985, but there are major differences. The people on White’s bad side took it way too personal and I never did and really never cared… From my standpoint, the behavior of both in the situation was wrong. Point of all this is everyone is wondering with Gross with SI if White will now be cooperative with him. I don’t know the answer but I’m betting he won’t be. Whether that leads to a negative slant, I don’t know, because I can’t see SI caring about anything except UFC and maybe EliteXC because of Showtime and CBS…

Meltzer is right in that since word broke that Gross was going to SI, a lot of people have wondered whether he would begin to get credentialed by the UFC. Like Meltzer, I would also bet against him getting access but I’m hoping that’s not the case. However, White just doesn’t seem to be the forgiving type.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I came up with this draft concept, I thought it would be fun. However, I had no idea that the staff would be into it as they are. We’ve got one guy, Ram, who has created spreadsheets and metrics for his rankings. Then, we have another guy, Adam, who has assumed the role of impatient drafter who gets mad when someone filibusters before making a pick.

This draft is no joke. The staff of 5 Oz. has their game faces on and are sincere in their quest of wanting to walk away with the best roster of talent. Round eight is now done and available for your perusal.

View draft results HERE 

In case you’re new to the site , you can re-live the glory of the previous rounds.

• Click here for rounds 1 & 2
• click here for round 3
• click here for round 4
• click here for rounds 5 & 6
• click here for round 7
  

To make a long story short, this is not a pound-for-pound top fighter list. What we’re doing is essentially pretending that every fighter in the world is suddenly declared a free agent with six new organizations selecting talent through a draft format.

The idea is to see how six different fans would construct their organization and which fighters they would select to help them execute their vision. Much like real world MMA, every promoter has their different philosophy with each organization establishing its own identity.

The results to round eight are available below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Winner of our latest Caption Contest sponsored by EFK Nutrition is

# 184 sasquatch_nfld for his caption of the pic of a very dapper Georges St. Pierre:

“MMA…anything less would be uncivilized.”

Reader “sasquatch_nfld” has won $150 worth of health supplements from EFK Nutrition.

We had a lot of really good entries and went back and forth on which caption was our favorite.  Thanks to our readers for another strong turnout for this contest and special thanks to EFK Nutrition for providing the prize.

Matt Lindland’s Oregon-based Sportfight promotion is scheduled to return to the Rose Garden in Portland on Friday, June 20.

During an upcoming full-length interview conducted with FiveOuncesOfPain.com, Lindland revealed that the show’s co-headlining bouts have been finalized.

According to Lindland, Michael Pierce will defend his Sportfight welterweight title against Team Quest’s Nathan Coy. Coy was a amateur wrestling standout at Oregon State while Pierce was also a standout amateur wrestler while at Portland State.

Pierce won the title after recording a unanimous decision victory over Ed Nuno at Sportfight 21 this past December. Coy improved his career pro MMA record to 4-0 after submitting Jerrod Jones due to strikes at 2:37 of round 2 during the promotion’s most recent event, Sportfight 22, on April 18.

The show’s other main event will consist of Josh Queen of the Lions Den will put his Sportfight heavyweight title on the line against Josh Bennett, another Team Quest fighter.

Like Pierce, Queen also won his title at Sportfight 21. He took the strap when he submitted Jeremiah Constant with a rear naked choke at 4:56 of round 1 while Bennett became the number one contender after TKO’ing Matt Kovacs in the second round at Sportfight 22. Bennett is undefeated while competing under the Sportfight banner.

Tickets for the event will go on sale Friday, May 9, at 10 a.m. PT and will be available through ComcastTix.com. A pre-sale will be open on Wednesday, May 7 and will continue into Thursday, May 8.

Jens Pulver talks about what it’s going to take to beat Urijah Faber on June 1 in Sacramento, California when these two featherweights clash for Faber’s WEC title. This should be a great scrap, but I don’t see how Pulver beats Faber. If Pulver can keep it standing and utilize his great striking skills, he has a chance. If this fight ends up on the ground, however, Pulver is in some serious trouble.

HT: Bloody Elbow

A 140 pound encounter between Wilson Reis and Justin Robbins has been added to the undercard of EliteXC’s debut telecast on CBS on May 31 in Newark, N.J.

The bout was confirmed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com (www.FiveOuncesOfPain.com) by two separate sources within the past 48 hours.

Reis, 3-0, had been scheduled to fight former UFC lightweight Doug Evans during EliteXC’s ShoXC event on April 5. However, he was scratched from the card during the week leading up to the fight due to a question about his medicals. The concern proved to be a false alarm but the proper clearance was not submitted to the California State Athletic Commission in time for Reis to remain on the card.

Reis was replaced by Bao Quach, who won a TKO over Evans at just 0:55 into round 1.

The Brazilian-born fighter trains full-time in the Philadelphia area and is a jiu-jitsu instructor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA. A renowned competitive grappler, Reis made his professional MMA debut at Extreme Challenge 81 last July, recording a unanimous decision over Baba Shegeyasu.

He improved his record to 2-0 while fighting for Combat in the Cage last October, submitting Diego Jimenez with a rear naked choke at just 2:00 of round 1. He would go on to make his ShoXC debut this past January in Atlantic City, submitting former Division I wrestler Zach Makovsky at 1:15 of round 2.

Read the rest of this entry »

If Dave Meltzer’s reporting is accurate (and it usually is), the UFC will be cutting its existing talent roster down from 200 to somewhere in between the 140-160 range.

According to the print edition of last week’s Wrestling Observer, Meltzer indicated that the loser of every non-televised undercard match from this point forward will be a candidate to be cut, barring an amazing performance in a losing effort.

If the UFC cuts 50 fighters, that means its current workforce will be downsized by about 25%. That’s a pretty steep number, and as such, there are a lot of fighters right now who are essentially on unofficial notice.

Nobody likes to see anyone lose their job, but the reality is that the UFC isn’t going to continue to put on 11-13 fights each show for much longer. It’s likely that they decided to expand their roster in the first place in hopes of hoarding talent in an attempt to hinder its competition from building up their own rosters. But after seeing EliteXC sign Scott Smith and then proceed to schedule him for the first-ever broadcast of an MMA event on live primetime network TV, the strategy essentially became moot.

Fighters such as Smith, Soa Palelei, Diego Saraiva, Doug Evans, Ryan Jensen, Junior Assuncao, Hermes Franca, Joe Veres, Hector Ramirez, David Terrell and several other fighters were put on the chopping block towards the latter stages of last year and during the early portion of this year.

The latest round of cuts got an early start soon after UFC 83, with Travis Lutter being dropped following a disappointing loss to Rich Franklin. Both Kalib Starnes and Charles McCarthy have also signaled their respective retirements in the wake of their losses in Montreal, but chances are they would have been dropped regardless. In the case of Starnes, UFC president Dana White was quoted after the event as saying Starnes had in fact been dropped by the company.

So while some cuts have already been made, many more are on the way. Again, no one enjoys seeing someone lose their job — especially not in this economy, however, it’s the purpose of this website to cover the industry whether the tone of the story be positive or negative. I also do not like to speculate, but I couldn’t help but look at the UFC’s upcoming cards in an attempt to determine which fighters stand to lose the most in their upcoming bouts.

Below you will see a list, broken down by card, with matches that I have identified as fights in which the loser could potentially lose more than just their fight. I want to stress that the list is based purely on speculation and not on inside information, so take it for what it’s worth.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. JZ Calvancante vs Shinya Aoki

Round 1: Aoki immediately hops on him and pulls guard standing but JZ remains up and brings him back to his feet in the corner. They fall in the corner with Aoki briefly grabbing his back but JZ gets top position and they’re restarted in the center. Aoki is working his normal high active guard as JZ stands in it and lands a couple of punches. Aoki grabs a leg and falls to his back but JZ remains composed despite the leglock danger and peppers the crap out of Aoki’s face before they get back on their feet and into the corner. Aoki again looks for a takedown and wants zero distance. Shinya gets his back standing and locks in the hooks with his back against the post. He’s looking for a RNC but JZ defends, still standing in the corner. Aoki looks to be putting everything into it but he doesn’t have it as JZ continues with professional defense. Aoki, still with his back in the corner, peppers shots before looking for another RNC. We’ve spent about 3 minutes in this position with Aoki peppering shots and looking for a choke. Finally JZ crumples down to the ground, still with Aoki on his back against the corner looking to choke. Aoki locks in a full body triangle with two minutes left as the referee again restarts them in the center. Aoki wanted this to be complete jiu-jitsu and he’s having his way. JZ finally fights his way out and stands over the grounded Aoki looking for his spot. JZ just wants to unload but Aoki’s defense is incredible on the ground. Multiple upkicks by Aoki but JZ isn’t requesting he stand as the round comes to an end. I score this round 10-9 for Shinya Aoki.

Round 2: Aoki again pulls guard and if he continues to control JZ like this it should be a lopsided decision. Aoki looks to grab an omoplata but JZ pulls out and this time is wise enough to make him stand. GREAT flying guard pull by Aoki as he’s telling JZ he has no chance at keeping this standing. Aoki working rubber guard looking for another omoplata but JZ is again able to pull out and look to land before the ref stands Aoki back up. Two minutes remain in the round and this time JZ just tosses Aoki off as he dives in. Aoki butt scoots toward him and JZ plays by diving in with a punch and getting into his guard. Aoki’s third omoplata does the job and puts JZ in a horrible position ready to tap as Aoki lands punches to the back of the head with no warning. Aoki with a full armbar but JZ flips out of it!! JZ, now visibly upset, begins trying to tee off on Aoki’s face but does little damage. I score this round 10-9 for Shinya Aoki and 20-18 overall.

WINNER: Shinya Aoki, unanimous decision

Read the rest of this entry »

Another round down. Round seven of Five Ounces of Pain’s Fantasy MMA Mock Draft is in the can.

In case you’re new to the site , you can re-live the glory of the previous rounds.

• Click here for rounds 1 & 2
• click here for round 3
• click here for round 4
• click here for rounds 5 & 6

To make a long story short, this is not a pound-for-pound top fighter list. What we’re doing is essentially pretending that every fighter in the world is suddenly declared a free agent with six new organizations selecting talent through a draft format.

The idea is to see how six different fans would construct their organization and which fighters they would select to help them execute their vision. Much like real world MMA, every promoter has their different philosophy with each organization establishing its own identity.

The results to round seven are available by clicking below.

Read the rest of this entry »

While DREAM is no doubt trying to finalize their card in the last 8 hours before the show, MMAWeekly is reporting the UFC is already booking for August with Kenny Florian vs Roger Huerta.

The fight comes as a surprise to no one but it’s nice to finally have confirmation after months of speculation. Many thought this was the card the fight would appear on as it takes place in the Huerta stomping ground of Minneapolis.

Huerta will make his first appearance in the Octagon this year after taking a voluntary break to heal his body after a ridiculously active 2007. Florian last appeared earlier this month with an impressive beating of Joe Lauzon on Fight Night 13.

This bout will very likely mean a title shot for the winner as Florian looks for his second attempt to take the belt home and the young Huerta looks to make a statement.

So the $64,000 question is…. who ya got?

Former ICON Sport middleweight champion Jason “Mayhem” Miller has revealed he will be returning to action on May 11 at DREAM.3 in Japan, according to MMANews.com.

Miller revealed to the website that his opponent on the show will be Katsuyori Shibata.

Miller, 20-5, has not competed since fighting for Mark Cuban’s HDNet Fights in Dallas on December 15. Miller fought in the co-featured main event on the card, defeating Tim Kennedy via unanimous decision and avenging a prior loss to Kennedy in 2003 in the process.

Miller has been idle since December in large part due to a leg injury that required the use of crutches at one point during his recovery.

The charismatic fighter holds career victories over current EliteXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler, Falaniko Vitale, Denis Kang, and Hiromitsu Miura. In addition to ICON, HDNet Fights and DREAM, Miller has also competed for the UFC, WEC, and the now-defunct WFA.

The May 11 show for DREAM is set to feature matches from the second round of its lightweight Grand Prix.