John Alessio Has Tons Of Offers On The Table After Big Victory At The Score Fighting Series 3 in Hamilton


The Score main event was a blockbuster showcase of skills and heart as Canada’s own John Alessio bested Team Quests Ryan Healy to win a close 29-28 decision. Both men showed heart as John almost had the match won on numerous occasions in the first round as he connected with a monstrous hook that dazed and eventually dropped Ryan.

Then he sunk in the guillotine on numerous occasions. The see saw battle had the near sold out crowd at the edge of their seats.

Right after John’s big win mmacanada.net was right there to get his thoughts on the night.


mmacanada.net: How was your training camp going into this fight?

John Alessio: It was awesome man, I’d like to thank all my training partners and coaches.
Thank you so much for preparing me, I had a great camp and felt really great coming into this fight.

mmacanada.net: Did you enforce your game plan and did it work perfectly for you?

John Alessio: For the most part, I kind of stood in the pocket with him and got into more exchanges with him then I wanted to. Instead of just sticking and moving and using more angles I just kind of got in their and winged it with him. That part I was a little off my game plan but in the back of my head the UFC has told me that they wanted me to get into a little bit of a bigger war in there. I think this is the war they might have been looking for. We both got stitches and I am hoping this is the big one for me.

mmacanada.net: What do you think of your opponent tonight?

John Alessio: Tough as hell! I knew that going into this, I did not expect anything different. Obviously I said I was going in for the finish and I was going for the finish the whole time in that fight. I did not really expect it, I thought we where going to go three tough fights and we did, nothing but tip my hat off to Healy.

mmacanada.net: How did this win feel for you?

John Alessio: Awesome man, coming back to Canada, making my Score debut as a main event and getting the win, awesome man it feels great!

mmacanada.net: What’s in your future, there’s a lot of talk of the UFC?

John Alessio: There’s a lot of talk with that, I have a bunch of offers on the table, there’s a big tournament coming up that I might be involved with that I cannot talk about, stay tuned for those results. We’ll see it’s up to my manager and team and see what offer stands out to be the best choice to make career wise.

mmacanada.net: Today is a special day for you not just career wise….

John Alessio: Oh yeah, smiling, it’s my wife’s birthday. Me bringing home the win, she usually comes to the fights but she couldn’t come to this one, she is a little sick, had to work today, it’s her Birthday and her husbands not there! So I feel bad for her but it was a good day, she was super excited I’ll be home tomorrow to celebrate, we have a lot to celebrate.

mmacanada.net: Awesome, thank you so much and wonderful win..

John Alessio: Thank you so much

http://www.mmacanada.net/news/news/john-alessio-has-tons-of-offers-on-the-table-after-big-victory-at-the-score-fighting-series-3-in-hamilton-1803

Anthony Pettis Set For Surgery After Title Shot Goes To Frankie Edgar


With a title shot not on the immediate horizon, Anthony Pettis is making sure he's completely ready when his time comes.

The former WEC lightweight champion and top-tier UFC lightweight is set to undergo surgery for an undisclosed injury, manager Mike Roberts today told MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com).

The move was first revealed on Tuesday's edition of "UFC Tonight" on FUEL TV.

According to a report on MMAWeekly.com, Pettis (15-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) will be out of action for eight weeks but should be ready to fight by mid to late summer.

Earlier this month, former champ Frankie Edgar (14-2-1 MMA, 9-2-1 UFC) was granted an immediate rematch with new champ Benson Henderson (16-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) for this summer. That took the opportunity off the table for Pettis, who wowed fans by knocking out Joe Lauzon at UFC 144 with an 81-second head-kick KO. It was his second consecutive win following a decision loss to Clay Guida that scratched a possible No. 1 contender's spot.

Recent rumors suggested Pettis might defect to Strikeforce to vie for champ Gilbert Melendez's belt, but those were shot down by Roberts. Another rumor that he was headed to featherweight to challenge UFC champ Jose Aldo was similarly dismissed.

"I'm not dropping to 145 to fight aldo!" Pettis tweeted. "155 is my home, and I'll get that belt soon!!!"

From the sidelines, Pettis will watch Henderson vs. Edgar II with heightened interest. If the title bout takes place sometime in the summer, he could be forced to wait until the fall to meet the winner, or he could choose to take a fight as soon as he's ready. He faced a similar situation when Edgar fought Maynard to a draw at UFC 125, which delayed a title shot he was supposed to receive after he won the WEC belt in the promotion's final show. He chose instead to fight Guida, and fell short.

Pettis will surely have plenty of time to think about options in the next few months.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/27922/ufcs-anthony-pettis-set-for-surgery-after-title-shot-goes-to-frankie-edgar.mma

Dana White Announces Jake Ellenberger Vs. Martin Kampmann As 5 Round Ultimate Fighter Finale Main Event


For those wondering what was next for Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann, you now have an answer, courtesy of FX's the Ultimate Fighter website:

Two top welterweights will wage war over five rounds in the TUF Live Finale main event, UFC president Dana White announced today.

Verbal agreements are in for a June 1 matchup between Martin "The Hitman" Kampmann will take on Jake "The Juggernaut" Ellenberger.

Ellenberger (27-5) is coming off a decision victory against Diego Sanchez, which was awarded the Fight of the Night and subsequent bonus. Kampmann (19-5) touts a late submission victory over Thiago Alves, which earned him the Submission of the Night bonus. With this five round battle of recent event headliners now set, both men are likely thinking about title shots after this fight - although neither will be an easy obstacle for the other to overcome.

As a TUF Finale main event, this is likely to end the night on a terrific note although neither Ellenberger nor Kampmann are involved in the filming of either FX's TUF or Brazil's TUF.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/3/21/2890612/dana-white-announces-martin-kampmann-vs-jake-ellenberger-as-5-round

Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson Finally Takes Some Accountability For Trouble With UFC


In the ongoing saga of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. The UFC, many fans have become disgruntled with the former champion for blaming everyone but himself for his recent troubles.

Jackson spoke with Sherdog and finally took some accountability for his now-rough relationship with the UFC and Dana White.

"I know I messed up the relationship by doing the movie over fighting Rashad Evans,” Jackson said. “It was my fault. I’ve got to keep it real. I did that. I messed up. I should have honored my contract and fought Rashad after ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ … Before that Dana and I was really cool. I was really cool with the UFC, Lorenzo [Fertitta] and everybody. We were all cool, but I messed up the relationship by doing the movie and I’m aware of that." (Sherdog.com)

"Rampage" was supposed to face Evans after their coaching stints on The Ultimate Fighter at an event that took place in Jackson's hometown of Memphis, Tenn. Instead, Jackson pulled out of the bout midseason, which completely ruined the on-screen tension between the two superstars.

Not only did Jackson take time away from MMA to make and market the movie, he also ballooned up to around 250 pounds.

Cutting all of that weight clearly hindered his performance when Jackson finally met Evans at UFC 114, but Jackson would come back with two straight wins over Lyoto Machida and Matt Hamill.

Being in the greatest shape of his UFC career against Jon Jones couldn't help him win the title, and "Rampage" was set to face off against Ryan Bader at UFC 144.

This is where the drama really picked up, as Jackson missed weight and looked like a shell of his former self as Bader easily dominated "Rampage."

Jackson attributed the injury to a knee injury and repeatedly made mention of the fact of fighting hurt in pre and post-fight interviews. Jackson wasn't looking for pity, but rather appreciation.

I just feel like the UFC knows when I’m injured, but at the same time, when I don’t pull out of a fight and I still fight, I think they should basically more than thank me,” Jackson said. “In my opinion, I feel like Dana kind of disrespected me a little bit by saying the three words that he did say. (Sherdog.com)

"Rampage" did say he understands the UFC's business model by not putting a fighter above the brand of the UFC, but still said he needed to concern himself with his own "brand."

I feel them on that because anything that happens to a fighter --and [a fighter] can just be gone, get hurt -- and they put all this money into promoting this fighter, then they ain’t got no product no more,” Jackson said. “I understand that. I just want the UFC to understand that I have to promote my own brand." (Sherdog.com)

Jackson will rematch with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in his final UFC bout after going through double knee surgery. So where will one of the most popular fighters in MMA history take his talents after his UFC contract is up?

According to Jackson, "whoever wants to promote me like I should be promoted."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1114790-quinton-rampage-jackson-finally-takes-some-accountability-for-trouble-with-ufc

An extraordinary true story about a warrior in the Octagon and selfless soldier in the battlefield. UFC Middleweight & U.S. Marine Brian Stann walks us through every harrowing detail of the mission for which he was awarded the Silver Star. Stann also outlines his return to the Octagon after his battle in the middle east; and how he is helping fellow soldiers return back home to the United States.

http://www.themmanews.com/brian-stann-operation-matador-segment-from-ufc-tonight/

Dana White Looking To Seat 80,000 Fans For UFC 147 In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


The Ultimate Fighting Championship had initially been seeking a stadium venue in Sao Paolo, Brazil for this summer’s expected UFC 147 event, but due to a lack of available venues the promotion is headed back to Rio de Janeiro and is looking for a venue there to seat 80,000 fans.

UFC president Dana White revealed the details during Wednesday’s press conference from Calgary, Alberta, Canada to announce the upcoming UFC 145 event.

No specific venue was named, but the UFC 147 show is expected to take place on either June 16th or June 23rd.

Headlining the event will be a UFC middleweight title rematch between champion Anderson Silva and challenger, Chael Sonnen. Both men faced off in August 2010 in the main event of UFC 117. Sonnen surprised most everyone by controlling the fight for most of the fight, only to wind up losing in the last round via triangle/armbar choke.

Sonnen earned his title shot by defeating Michael Bisping at the UFC on FOX 2 show this past January. While ‘The Spider’ last saw action at UFC 134 last August by defeating Yushin Okami.

This stadium event would surpass the UFC’s largest event, UFC 129, which saw 55,724 fans pack the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario last April.

http://www.themmanews.com/dana-white-looking-to-seat-80000-fans-for-ufc-147-in-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/

During Wednesday’s UFC press conference from Calgary, Alberta welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre (22-2) joined the activities via satellite to the joy of the gathered fans.

According to the champ, he is hopeful for a return to the Octagon by November. He underwent surgery to repair damage to his knee for an ACL injury and has been rehabbing his leg religiously, as noted in his latest video blog.

“My rehab is going really well. My doctor says it is the fastest rehab they have seen for an ACL surgery. Even though I’m feeling almost 100 percent right now, I’m halfway through my rehab and I can’t push too much because my graph is still not fused properly. Even though my muscle feels good, I have to wait the minimum amount of time that I’m allowed to start training again. So I’ll be training full out around July.”

“So, Hopefully I’ll have a chance to fight in front of my Canadian fans in November, but Dana (White) is the boss and he is the one that decides everything. But hopefully, I cross my fingers, and I hope that will happen.”

St-Pierre had been scheduled to face Nick Diaz, then Carlos Condit last year at UFC 143 but the French-Canadian was forced out due to the right knee injury.

His last bout took place in April 2011 against former Strikeforce champ Jake Shields. ‘Rush’ earned a unanimous decision in front of 55,000 fans at the Rogers Centre in Toronto in the main event of UFC 129.

http://www.themmanews.com/ufc-champ-georges-st-pierre-hopeful-for-november-return/

Following Surprise Fight Booking, Rich Franklin Hoping For UFC Cinderella Story


Rich Franklin had wowed doctors with the speed of his recovery from shoulder surgery and recently returned to near-full speed training in the gym.

All the while, he kept the UFC updated on his progress and talked about a return to the cage. But even he was surprised at the speed with which he went from disabled to active after his doctor cleared him this past Friday.

"I'm sitting there, my phone goes off on Sunday night and I found out via Twitter that my fight was signed," Franklin (28-6 MMA, 13-5 UFC) today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (http://www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

The fight, in this case, is a middleweight bout against Cung Le (7-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at UFC 148, which takes place July 7 at MGM Grand Garden Arena and airs live on pay-per-view. (Preliminary-card fights air on FX.)

Franklin admits that a run at the belt is a nice idea, but more importantly, the fight with Le promises an entertaining fight. Since losing the UFC title to Anderson Silva six years ago and losing a rematch, he's more concerned with pleasing the fans than adding to career achievements.

"The great Cinderella story would be for me to drop to 185 and make a run for the title," he said. "I can't say I haven't thought about that. But I don't want to put the carriage before the horse. I have a tough opponent in front of me, and I really need to focus on that fight first and get some momentum going."

Franklin has already started preparations for his first trip to middleweight in four years. Although he competed twice in catchweight bouts at 195 pounds, he said he won't have time to get acclimated to 185 with a test cut. So he's already started attacking his diet and workout regimen.

"This is not an easy fight," he said. "He's southpaw, and I've historically had problems with southpaws. So this will be a good challenge for me to come back at 185."

Le migrated to the UFC this past November at UFC 139 and was stopped by Wanderlei Silva by second-round TKO. The former Strikeforce middleweight champ has taken long breaks from the sport as his career in action movies has blossomed in recent years. Prior to Silva, he spent 17 months away from fighting.

Franklin can relate to layoffs. He's grappled with several injuries as the result of his fights including an eye surgery to address a severely scratched cornea suffered in a meeting with Dan Henderson at UFC 93. His most recent layoff, however, came during the off-season just after he was scheduled to fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 133 and Nogueira withdrew due to injury (he declined to fight Alexander Gustafsson on short notice). An accident dislocated his shoulder, which required the surgery he underwent six months ago.

"I suffered a torn labrum from a shoulder dislocation," Franklin wrote on his official website, RichFranklin.com. "While in the shoulder, the doctor did some minor repair to the rotator cuff as well."

As part of his post-surgery recovery, Franklin was required to sleep upright for four weeks.

"(It was) just a repetitive process of you getting a crappy night's sleep over and over again," he said.

But Franklin doesn't feel that this layoff will leave him rusty come July. He has, in fact, been preparing for his return for several months.

"As the shoulder gets better, you're given more permission of things you're allowed to do," he said. "So even though I had the surgery in October, I was already doing some stuff in December."

Even if he is victorious against Le, Franklin expects to fight at least one or two more opponents before he's in consideration for the title.

But right now, he's got one task ahead. So what if he was the last to know about it.

"It's the speed of the Internet now," Franklin said. "You can't beat it."

http://mmajunkie.com/news/27946/following-surprise-fight-booking-rich-franklin-hoping-for-ufc-cinderella-story.mma

UFC cageside announcer Joe Rogan has amassed a loyal following over the years for the way he calls fights, and he isn't looking for help from producers who want him to calm down.

Joe Rogan Doesn't Want FOX Executives Telling Him To 'Take It Down A Notch'


"Look. I've been doing the UFC for how long? F---ing, who knows? (19)97. It's very rare that anyone ever says anything. But, once we started going on FOX, the producer had to actually tell me in my ear, the FOX executive was like, 'Tell him to take it down a notch.' When I get excited about something, the way I get excited about something -- it's natural. I'm pumping it up. When I'm actually fired up...of course they (the audience) like it! But these f---ing dummy executives, I'm not saying the FOX ones, these huge group of -- this huge percentage of the group of people in the 'producer' position, a lot of them think that they're creative. You can't tell me to deliver the way I deliver. I've been doing it forever. They either like it or they don't. Most people like it. If you don't...tough s---. It doesn't sound like your f---ing baseball guys, your basketball guys...it's not supposed to. It's not! It's not supposed to. It's a different f---ing sport, and it's just the way I do it.

If it was football, I probably wouldn't do it this way. You're lucky I don't curse! I mean, I'm lucky I got the job. Really, I'm lucky too. But the whole idea behind going in and saying, 'Oh, we're gonna fix all this and fix all that,' like, that's what happens in movies! That's what happens on TV shows. That's what would happen on this podcast. If we brought in production people and said, 'We're gonna move the podcast to a studio and bring in some producers, take some of the strain away from me,' and just had people just whispering in my ear saying, 'Hey man. Why don't you change the subject. This is a bad subject.' Do you know how f---ing crazy we would go?!"'

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator Joe Rogan has been sweating, yelling and warning mixed martial arts (MMA) fans about potential omaplatas at UFC events since 1997. He's a veteran who has developed somewhat of a cult following, not just for his Octagon announcing gig, but also for his stand-up comedy act and his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience."

During a recent rant on said podcast, Rogan spoke about the growing pains involved in adjusting to some of the new personnel the UFC inherited to go along with the deal with FOX Sports, as well as the adjustment FOX has had to make to Rogan. Though he didn't exactly bash FOX or any of its executives, Rogan made it clear that he really doesn't want someone "in his ear" telling him to tone it down. When you've had free reign for so long, it must be difficult to suddenly be micromanaged.

Should Rogan have tenure enough to be able to do his thing, "deliver" and be left alone by the "creative" executives at FOX? Or are they well within their rights and he should adhere to their suggestions? Opinions, please.

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/3/22/2892455/ufc-quick-quote-joe-rogan-commentary-fox-mma-news