The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Welcome back, fight fans. Another day has passed and sure enough the MMA world did not skip a beat. Although today was a fairly slow day for fight announcements and shocking news there were still a few things that are worth mentioning.

First, and what I feel is the biggest news to hit the media stream today, was a UFC fight announcement in which we found out that Mike Pierce would be squaring off with Eduardo Rocha at UFC on FX 3. Both men are top welterweights in the UFC but are both coming off of close decision losses to fellow top ranked welterweights (Koscheck and Ellenberger, respectively). This is going to be a huge fight between two very talented, athletic welterweights. The event is rumored to be on tap for June 8th but no official announcement has been made yet.

We also heard a little bit from UFC middleweight, Mark Munoz, today. In a n interview Munoz expressed his surprise in the recent announcement that Michael Bisping would be fighting Tim Boetsch next. Munoz stated that he felt he and Bisping were on “a collision course,” but then went on to say it doesn’t matter and the Bisping is going to have his hands full with Mr. Boetsch. I think that a lot of people agreed with Munoz in thinking that the two would meet, but because Bisping is now set to face Boetch who does that leave for Mark Munoz to face next? We’ll see what the UFC decides to do.

Mirko Cro-Cop made top news today by explaining that after his recent K1 victory over Ray Sefo that he is in negotiation talks with K1 and several other MMA promotions, which means that the Croatian is not going to retire like many thought he would after leave the famed octagon. This is risky business, in my opinion. CroCop is obviously riding high after getting a much need victory but he is not getting any younger and the talent in every organization is only rising. We’ll keep a close eye on what Mirko decides to do with his future.

And in other news we heard that Rampage still wants out of his last fight with the UFC, in which he is set to take on Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The verbal war between Jackson and the UFC continues to rise and I’m sure we’ll hear more about this subject tomorrow. We also saw another interview with UFC Lightweight Champion, Benson Henderson, get released today. In the interview Henderson once again explained that he wanted to break Anderson Silva’s record for most UFC title defenses and wants to beat everyone on the UFC 155lbs roster. It seems that the confidence of the new champ is unwavering and unshakable. But before he starts looking down the lightweight roster he’ll have to get past Edgar one more time.

Jon Jones released a blog today that touched on his sudden rise to MMA stardom, his growth over the past year as champion, and how Rashad Evans is sorely wrong for assuming that he has Jones’ number. The entire blog can be viewed at BJPenn.com

And to close out today’s top MMA news we heard that Alistair Overeem will be a guest making his debut at the 2012 MMA Weekender at SENI, Ross Pearson doesn’t want his coaching on this season of TUF to prevent him from getting a fight, and Revel, Atlantic City’s newest hotel and resort casino, will be playing host to the upcoming UFC on FX 4 event in July.

And that wraps up today’s top news in the MMA world. For more in depth coverage, interviews, and videos be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until next time, fight fans; stay classy

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45

The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Welcome to another installment of “The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain.” Monday was quit a jammed packed day in the MMA world. We experienced a flurry of great fight announcements, ratings results, and of course we saw build up for the upcoming shows that will be taking place across the globe.

First, let’s look at the viewer ratings that were revealed for last Friday’s TUF episode. We found out today that the show, which featured the first bracket fight for the show’s season, garnered approximately 1.1 million views nationwide. This is slightly lower than the season’s premiere episode last week, which pulled in 1.3 million views. These are still very strong, promising numbers that I’m sure will rise as the season continues to build within its new FX home.

We heard today that UFC middleweight, Chael Sonnen is releasing a book, entitled, “The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P Pass to Enlightenment.” The book is sure to be filled with hilarious tales filled with the satiric genius of Chael Sonnen. The 320 page book titled will be available on May 15 at Amazon.com for $16.47.
We also had a handful of amazing fight announcements take place today. UFC 148, which is expected to take place on July 8th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, added three fights to its card today. First, news broke the Michael Bisping would be fighting the recently victorious Tim Boetsch. This fight in itself is a co-main event caliber brawl in the making. Both men are at the top of the weight class and trying to stay there.

Then we heard the UFC 148 card would also be adding Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le. Franklin will be returning to the middleweight division for the first time since moving to light heavyweight in 2008. Anderson Silva has been the only man to defeat Franklin in the 185 pound weight class. Le is coming off of a loss to Wanderlei Silva but is an explosive, dangerous fighter with kicks that can give any fighter problems. This is a gem of a fight.

Then, in the closing hours of Monday night, Tito Ortiz broke news via his Twitter account that he and Forrest Griffin would be completing their trilogy at UFC 148 as well. The two have split the last two meetings with Ortiz taking the first back at UFC 59 and Griffin getting his revenge at UFC 106. This should be an exciting fight between two declining yet huge names in the MMA world. This is a great addition to the card, which is more than likely going to be headlined by another trilogy fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.
And then on top of these three fight announcements we found out that UFC 148 would also be adding a bantamweight scrap between Renan Barao and Jeff Hougland. Barao is the current owner of the longest MMA winning streak, which is now at 31 after his UFC debut victory at UFC 143, and Hougland is also riding a nine-fight winning streak. These four fights announcements quickly shaped UFC 148 into a “can’t miss” PPV event. We’ll see how the remainder of the card stacks up in the coming weeks.

And while we’re on the topic of UFC fight announcements I may as mention that UFC on FX 4 added its main event bout today, and it’ll be a lightweight war between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard. The two have verbally agreed to the fight and will look to face off in Atlantic City on June 22nd, although the UFC has not yet made the date and venue official. This will be a very interesting fight as both fighters will be coming off of losses at the top level. Maynard will be making his first appearance after dropping his first official MMA loss to Frankie Edgar in their title fight, and Guida will be returning after his number-one contender fight with current champion Benson Henderson. Both Maynard and Guida are explosive, top-notch lightweights that need this win to move back up the ranks of the UFC lightweight division.

The UFC also finalized its 5-fight UFC on FUEL TV 3 card today. The event is set to take place on May 15th in Fairfax, VA. Here is how the card currently stands:
MAIN CARD: (FUEL TV)
Dustin Poirier vs. Chan Sung Jung
Donald Cerrone vs. Jeremy Stephens
Mike Easton vs. Yves Jabouin
Tom Lawlor vs. Jason MacDonald
Jorge Lopez vs. Amir Sadollah

PRELIMINARY CARD: (Facebook)
Jeff Curran vs. Johnny Eduardo
Cody McKenzie vs. Aaron Riley
Brad Tavares vs. Dongi Yang
T.J. Grant vs. Carlo Prater
Rafael Dos Anjos vs. Kamal Shalorus
Azamat Gashimov vs. Alex Soto
Fabio Maldonado vs. Igor Pokrajac

The MMA world heard from Dan Henderson today as he spoke with ESPN and explained, despite what UFC president Dana White says, that he would only be willing to cut down to fight at middleweight if it was a fight with current champion, Anderson Silva. Other than that he wants to focus on capturing gold at light heavyweight. We’ll see how this shakes out in the coming week as Henderson is still opponent-less.

And in other news we witnessed a small verbal war begin between Dana White and Ken Shamrock, early betting odds on Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva heavily favor Belfort, Matt Serra earned his 3rd Dan in BJJ from Renzo Gracie, and the Jon Jones/Rashad Evans verbal war continued.

For more in depth MMA news, interviews, and videos be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until next time, fight fans; stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45

The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Thursday was another fairly slow day in the MMA world. Not much happened with the UFC, other than an interview with Dana White regarding the upcoming, first ever LIVE season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The show is set to premiere tomorrow night on FX at 9pm. He touched on great information about how the show will run this season, the attitude of the fighters, and how this season will be so much different than any before it. The interview can be viewed at BJPenn.com

The betting odds for the Henderson vs. Edgar II fight came out today and surprisingly the experts are favoring the former champ, Frankie Edgar…again. This made me very curious for a little while, then I realized that if Frankie can just avoid the big, devastating strikes (like the up-kick he absorbed from Henderson in the last fight) then I can understand how the precision and durability of Edgar can give him the early betting edge. Not to mention, Edgar is 2 for 2 in his last 2 rematches…just something else to think about.

Speaking of Benson Henderson, a video of him losing a jiu-jitsu match this past weekend hit the media stream today. Henderson wasted little time after winning the UFC lightweight belt to get back into competition. In the video Henderson gets submitted by an arm bar in the early moments of the match. The entire video can be viewed at BJPenn.com

And rumors began today about a possible signing of current Bellator Middleweight Champion, Hector Lombard, to the UFC. These are still just talks in the wind, but here is a quote from Dana White on the situation: “I’ve been hearing all about him since I’ve been here. I hear he’s under contract though with someone else, so we’ll see. I’ll probably end up with him. If he wants to fight in the UFC, then we’ll probably end up with him.”Lombard is currently in renegotiation talks with Bellator, but sooner or later the Big Dog has to eat, so we’ll keep a close eye on this situation. This is especially interesting because the UFC middleweight division could always use another huge name contender to stir up Anderson Silva talks again. More news on this should come in the next few days.

And the Bellator 60 weigh-ins took place today in Hammond, Ind. and things got a little rocky. Four of the scheduled fighters missed weight on their first attempts. That seems like a huge disaster that Bellator is going to have to address in the coming days. However, regardless of a rocky weigh-in Bellator 60 will go down tomorrow night on MTV2 as featherweight champ, Joe Warren takes on Pat Curran.

And that just about wraps up today’s top MMA news. For more in depth coverage, interviews, and videos be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

And don’t forget to watch the season premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter” LIVE on FX tomorrow night at 9pm.

Until next time, fight fans; stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45

The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Welcome back, fight fans. Here we are once again in the midst of a ton of MMA announcements and fight additions in the span of a quick 24 hours. Today was Wednesday, which is usually the day we are hit with the most news and announcements. However, the MMA current was quite calm today. With the exception of a few big UFC fight additions the day was fairly uneventful.

Still, even on a slow day, the MMA world never really rests. Today’s top news starts off with two huge fight announcements coming way of the UFC. We found out that UFC 146, which is being headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Junior Dos Santos Alistair Overeem, just got a whole lot heavier.

First, we caught news that “Big Country” Roy Nelson will take on Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in a massive heavyweight collision. Silva will be making his UFC debut while Nelson is 3-3 in the famed UFC octagon. Both fighters are coming off of losses and are in desperate need of a win. This should be a great bout.

Then we later heard that UFC 146 would also be adding another heavyweight bout, this time between two men vying for the UFC heavyweight number one contender spot: Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez. Both men have already been UFC champs, both men want the strap again, both are only two straight wins away. This fight, along with the Nelson vs. Silva fight and the main event title fight between Dos Santos and Overeem have already made this a “must-watch” fight card. All three of these fights will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 26th.

A quote from a legend made MMA headlines today as Fedor Emelianenko stated that even after three consecutive losses he still desires to fight in the world’s largest MMA promotion, the UFC. He explained that he loves fighting in front of his home countrymen but he realizes that the best competition exists in The States, fighting in the UFC. Fedor, now 35 years old and having lost three in a row to top notch competitors, may be trying to make his second coming in MMA just a little too late. However, I have seen crazier things, and there are a few compelling match-ups in the UFC that could draw the masses, which eventually equals money…so there you go. I‘ll leave it at that.

Speaking of fighters past their prime, Tim Sylvia has recently been campaigning throughout numerous media outlets and networks to get a spot back on the UFC heavyweight roster. He stated that he could beat a majority of the heavyweights currently listed on the UFC roster and felt he deserved to at least be given one more shot in the octagon. Well, we found out from an interview with MMA Fighting on Tuesday that UFC President Dana White said, “hell no,” to a Sylvia return to the octagon. I guess that’s enough said.

A video interview with Nate Diaz from Tuesday’s UFC on FOX 3 presser hit top news today. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani talked with Diaz about his upcoming fight with Jim Miller, his thoughts on Henderson, Edgar, and Pettis, and he also talked about his brother’s future in MMA.

We also heard today that Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler will face off against UFC and PRIDE veteran Akihiro Gono, in a three-round non-title “superfight” at Bellator 67 on Friday, May 4th in Ontario, Canada.

And in other news, Chael Sonnen stated, “Anderson, you can kiss my ass,” on national television, Rampage Jackson’s future with the UFC is still drifting over rocky waters, and the UFC continues to battle for MMA sanctioning in New York.

And to top off the night’s MMA news, a quote from the current UFC light heavyweight champion, Jonny “Bones” Jones, in his recent interview with mensjournal.com. Jones was talking about his image and how some people view his confidence and faith as cockiness. Jones explained,” My road wasn’t easy, by any means. That’s why when people call me cocky, it’s, like, the biggest blow I can get. It’s like, ‘It’s not me! I’m sorry I’m coming across that way.’ I don’t think I’m better than ¬anyone. I heard this story once of this football player who, whenever he scored, just handed the ball to the ref. And I thought that was really cool, like, ‘This is what I do. I score touchdowns.’ I wasn’t trying to be cocky or anything, but that’s what I was thinking: ‘This is what I do. I defend my title.’ ”Jones will meet former UFC champion and former training partner, Rashad Evans, on April 21st.

And that wraps up another Day in MMA with Jake Chastain. For more in depth MMA news, interviews, and updates visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until next time, fight fans; stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jcahstain45

The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Hello, fight fans. Welcome to another edition of The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain. Today’s top MMA news was quite explosive. Let’s start with what I found most informative: The UFC on FOX 3 presser was held today. We heard from Dana White on a ton of different topics, Nate Diaz and Jim Miller, Johnny Hendricks and Josh Koscheck, and few others fighting on the card. Most of the commotion revolved around the talks between Hendricks and Koscheck. Koscheck continued to live out his role of being “the heel”. I have to admit though; he’s pretty damn good at it. This card, which take place in New Jersey on May 5th, is shaping up to be a very interesting one with several contenders providing interesting storylines while vying to move up UFC ladder. This card will surely not disappoint. The entire press conference can be viewed at BJPenn.com

In other news we found out that the rematch that Frankie Edgar so desperately wanted with lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, has been granted to him. The two will fight in an immediate rematch sometime this summer for Henderson’s UFC lightweight strap. Edgar and Dana White broke the news via their trusty Twitter accounts. Once again, just when we thought we were out of the clogged-up phase of the UFC lightweight division, we’re right back to being clogged up again. Frankie Edgar, although I am fan, has undoubtedly become the rematch king. But I can’t blame him…considering the circumstances, I sort of think he deserves it too. We’ll see how the MMA world reacts and how quickly Henderson’s recent injuries heal up.

The heavyweight title fight between current champ, Junior Dos Santos, and number one contender, Alistair Overeem was made official by the UFC today. The two will collide for the UFC Heavyweight crown on May 26th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 146. Don’t miss this fight. It will be unlike any heavyweight fight we’ve ever seen. Two of the purest heavyweight strikers we’ve ever seen, masters of their crafts, meeting for the belt. This one could be legendary.

Little Nog was recently injured in training for his upcoming fight with rising star Alexander Gustafsson. Noguira announced today that he is unable to compete and the UFC immediately reacted and replaced Little Nog with the always dangerous, Thiago Silva. Silva will be coming off of almost a year and half layoff due to a suspension involving a failed drug test. Gustafsson and Silva will now square off on April 14th for UFC on FUEL 2. Although the injury to Noguira is unfortunate the fight between Silva and Gustafsson seems a little more appealing to me. This should test both fighters and will likely move the winner into the light heavyweight title picture. Don’t blink during this one, fight fans.

We also received the viewing numbers for this past weekend’s fight cards. UFC on FX 2 drew in an average of 1.4 million viewers. The final tally of viewers was approximately 100,000 more than the UFC on FX debut. These numbers are very promising for the promotion and for FOX. And then the Strikeforce card which headlined the women’s title bout between Tate and Rousey drew in 431,00 viewers. This is neither the highest nor the lowest Strikeforce and Showtime have pulled in, but for a card that was headlined by women I think that these are pretty decent numbers. And Dana White today explained that he believes Rousey is going to be a huge star and a big draw in the future. As MMA continues to grow and evolve I think that the Rousey vs. Tate fight was a huge, positive step in the on-going process.

And in other news Benson Henderson said he doesn’t care who he fights next because he’s wants to line them all up and knock them all down, one by one. Jim Miller appeared on “Good Day New York” to promote his upcoming May UFC on FOX 3 fight with Nate Diaz (the video can be seen at BJPenn.com). And Rampage Jackson stated that he will fight one more time in the UFC and that’s it, but then suggested that he may continue fighting elsewhere. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with the UFC organization as they look for a final fight to give Rampage.

And that just about wraps up the top news from the MMA world for today. For more in depth news, interviews, and coverage be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until next time; stay classy, fight fans.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45

The Day in MMA

Hello, fight fans. Welcome back to another addition of The Day in MMA. Today was a fairly big day in MMA. With such a big weekend for the sport starting tomorrow the buzz seems to have reached its peak.

Tomorrow will play host to UFC on FX 2 in Sydney, Australia. Today’s biggest news was that all the fighters for tomorrow night’s card weighed-in on weight to make all the bouts official. I personally think this is the perfect way to start the weekend. The card is being broadcast on FX and is headlined by a welterweight scrap between Martin “the Hitman” Kampmann and Thiago “Pitbull” Alves. This card will also be the UFC’s first to host the newly adopted flyweight class. Don’t miss this card, fight fans. It’s history in the making.

And then on Saturday we’ll get to see Miesha Tate defend her women’s bantamweight title against the new girl on the block, Ronda Rousey. The fight will headline a Strikeforce card that will air on Showtime. The press conference for the event took place today and the build-up and tension between the two headliners has been escalating for the past month. The tension peaked today during the conference as both women went back and forth, accusations were confronted, and the fight is just two days away! The highlights of the presser can be found at BJPenn.com

Bellator made the Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez II fight official today. The two will face off on April 20th on Bellator 66. The fight will be a rematch between the two (in which Aoki won by hell hook) three and a half years in the making. Don’t miss it next month on MTV2.

We also found out today that newly crowned lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, and Rampage Jackson received medical suspensions today that could amount to six months each. Henderson may have fractured both hands and a foot while Rampage has been suffering from a knee injury even before his fight with Bader last weekend. More news on these medical suspensions will come soon.

Rampage also admitted to using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) prior to his fight with Bader at UFC 144. Rampage said his levels were never exceeding the legal amount for the sport and that he plans to fight many more times because he now feels 25 again. We’ll see if this shakes up the MMA sporting world at all. Many fighters have already admitted to using TRT, like Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt, but the more popular it gets the more attention it’s going to get, so we’ll see what happens.

The UFC announced three more fights to be added to its upcoming UFC on FUEL 3 card earlier today. Lightweights Kamal Shalorus and Rafael Dos Anjos have agreed to face off, bantamweights Azamat Gashimov and Alex Soto have agreed to throw down, and top featherweight stars Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung have signed on to do battle. UFC on FUEL 3 is set to take place from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on May 15. This card has been a big topic of discussion this entire week, adding several bouts to its lineup. These additions are another big plus for the upcoming event.

We heard Dana White speak more about the Frankie Edgar situation today. He explained that he really wants Edgar to drop to featherweight and that if he did he would gain an immediate title fight with Jose Aldo. However, he also said that if he did not drop and decides to stay at lightweight he may have to climb the ladder again before getting the immediate rematch that Frankie feels he deserves. This is surely going to be a huge topic of discussion in the coming days.

And in other news Paul Daley stated that after he beats Misaki this Saturday on the Strikeforce card he wants to fight newly acquired Nate “The Great” Marquardt for the vacant welterweight strap, the TUF 15 preview show aired tonight, and Dana White stated that TUF was headed to Australia, India, and the Philippines next.

And that wraps up another day in MMA news. For more in depth coverage, videos, and interviews visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until tomorrow, fight fans, stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45