Countdown to UFC on Versus: The Heavyweights

The UFC's first live event on a national sports network in the U.S., UFC on Versus 1, takes place March 21 in Broomfield, Colo. A large portion of the main card are large athletes. Check out the Countdown to UFC on Versus with the focus on the big boys...


Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga:




Paul Buentello vs. Cheick Kongo:

Brazilian Heavyweights Collide on March 21

Junior Dos Santos meets Gabriel Gonzaga on March 21st in Broomfield, Colorado. It marks the first time the UFC will air on Versus.

Miguel Torres' Cut Gets 20 Stitches

The elbow that landed from Joseph Benavidez on Miguel Torres left the former bantamweight champion wearing a crimson mask for the remainder of their fight on Saturday night.

On Sunday, Torres posted a picture of the cut on his Twitter page (@MiguelTorresMMA) and said in a separate post that it required 20 stitches to close up.

The Indiana based fighter also said that he was breathing in blood during the fight, and obviously struggle to see much of anything.

Guess the old saying is true. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Benavidez and Torres Break Down WEC 47 Main Event

Joseph Benavidez and Miguel Torres fight each other in Saturday night's WEC 47 co-main event. But both had a lot to say about the evening's main event between WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles and challenger Dominick Cruz.

JOSEPH BENAVIDEZ:
I like Brian Bowles. He's a great guy, so as far as fighting him, we've trained together a little bit, and I'd love to have the fight with Dominick Cruz again. Of course I want to avenge my loss, and I know I'm better than that, so I could beat him. There's that aspect of wanting to fight Cruz again, but as far as the outside looking in, if I had to pick someone, I'd definitely pick Bowles.

I just think he has more ways to finish the fight. And if it's a five-round fight, the only way Dominick really has at beating him is a decision. It's going to be hard to stay away from his submissions and power for five rounds. He can maybe do it for three rounds. I just think that Bowles has more ways to finish the fight, and Cruz has one, which is to out point him.

You can't underestimate Cruz. He has that point, beating people on points down to a science basically, so it's going to be a great fight, but if I had to bet, I'd pick Brian.

MIGUEL TORRES:
At first when I looked at the fight I thought Dominick Cruz would have the edge, and then I started watching fights on Bowles and fights on Cruz, and Cruz fights with his hands down a lot, and he's fought a lot of shorter guys. A lot of his opponents have been shorter guys, so I think the same strategy that he's used against his past opponents and keeping his hand real low, Brian just needs one big punch to hurt Cruz. I haven't seen Cruz get rocked yet. I'm leaning more towards Bowles because with one punch you can change everything.

The fights that I've seen of Cruz, he moves very well, and he's a very good striker, but he leaves his hands real low. He might have the edge in wrestling. I think Dominick's wrestling is better than Bowles', but I haven't seen Bowles get pushed yet. I couldn't push him past the first round, so we're going to see. It's an interesting fight.

Mayhem Miller & Other Strikeforce Fighters Head to MTV2

Strikeforce fighter Jason "Mayhem" Miller -- the host of "Bully Beatdown" -- is no stranger to the MTV spotlight. But when he makes an appearance on MTV2's "Rock N Jock" series, he's gonna drag a few of his Strikeforce co-horts along for the ride.

The next two episodes of the show, on March 6 and March 13 at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET, will feature Miller, former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh "The Punk" Thomson, Lavar Johnson, and Scott Smith counting down the week's top 5 rock videos.

They'll also give the inside scoop about what it's like to be a fighter, tips on how to survive a bar fight and how to stay in top shape to fight at an elite level.

MTV2's "Rock N Jock"
Saturday, March 6 & Saturday, March 13
8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

ESPN's MMA Live: James Toney, Strikefoce & WEC 47

This week on ESPN's MMA Live: New UFC signee and former boxing champion James Toney, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and a WEC 47 preview.

Bowles Feels Torres is Looking Past Benavidez

As evidenced via his Twitter account, Miguel Torres is known for saying some pretty outlandish things. So when Brian Bowles heard that Torres, the former WEC bantamweight king who was dethroned by the aforementioned Georgia boy, was talking he didn't pay any attention to it.

"Miguel's not known for not saying some crazy stuff," said Bowles.

"I really don't even pay attention to what he says anymore. I just let him say and do his own thing."

Torres was obviously still sore from the loss that ended an impressive 17-fight winning streak. It was the first finish that Torres had suffered of his two losses as a professional.

Never one to turn down a fight, Bowles is open to a rematch in the future, but believes that Torres has another daunting task on his hands when he meets spitfire bantamweight Joseph Benavidez, who Bowles also calls a friend.

"He's got a tough fight lurking ahead of him right now and he needs to be worrying about Joseph," said the WEC 135-pound champion.

"I'm friends with Joseph. I'd like to see him win. I'd like to see him fight for the title."

Strikeforce Champ Jake Shields Blasts Frank Shamrock

There's always been a rift between Frank Shamrock and Cesar Gracie's camp. As trainers, the two exchanged words for years that eventually escalated into a bout for Strikeforce in March of 2006 where Shamrock dispatched of Gracie in just 21 seconds.

Cesar Gracie trained fighter Nick Diaz exacted revenge on April 11, 2009, TKO'ing the former UFC titleholder in the second round.

In a recent interview with MMAWeekly Radio, Jake Shields, Gracie trained Strikeforce middleweight titleholder, blasted Shamrock.

"Shamrock's a douche bag. He's not worth my time," said Shields. "The guy would never fight me. He's just trying to talk to keep his washed up career going."

Shields didn't stop there. He brought up teammate Diaz's one-sided victory over Shamrock last year.

"We saw what happened when he stepped in against a real fighter, against Nick Diaz. It was obvious he was on a completely different level than Shamrock."

A Day In The Life of WEC Fighter Scott Jorgensen

Take a journey to Boise, Idaho, and meet up with Scott Jorgensen as he prepares for his upcoming fight with Chad George. See Scott spar with Jens Pulver in the gym, and have sword fights with his kid at home.

UFC 111: St-Pierre vs Hardy Extended Video Preview

An extended video preview of the upcoming UFC 111 fight card in New Jersey. UFC 111 is headed up by a welterweight title bout between champion Georges St-Pierre and Brit Dan Hardy, plus a heavyweight interim title bout between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.

Mike Swick and Roger Huerta Go On A Bug Binge In Thailand

Mike Swick and Roger Huerta enjoy a local delicacy by eating insects at the Chinese New Year festival in the Chalong Province, Phuket, Thailand.

A Day In The Life of WEC Fighter Chad Mendes

Check out a day in the life of WEC fighter Chad Mendes as he prepares for his WEC 47 bout with Erik Kotch.

GSP Appears In New Under Armour Commercial

UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre, appears in a new Under Armour campaign that debuted with a commercial also featuring Olympic Gold medal winner, Michael Phelps. The Canadian superstar will appear on MMAWeekly Radio this Tuesday night to talk about his upcoming title defense against Dan Hardy as well.

G4's XPlay Previews UFC Undisputed 2010

G4's Blair Herter goes behinds the scenes with THQ to preview the new 2010 version of UFC Undisputed...

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - UFC Undisputed 2010

ESPN's MMA Live: UFC 110 Wrap-Up

ESPN's MMA Live has highlights and analysis of UFC 110, as Cain Velasquez cements his status as a heavyweight contender. Also, Chael Sonnen checks in to discuss Frank Mir's comments on Brock Lesnar.

A Day In The Life of WEC Fighter Karen Darabedyan

Check out a day in the life of WEC fighter Karen Darabedyan as he prepares for his WEC 47 fight against Bart Palaszewski on March 6.

A Day In The Life of WEC Fighter LC Davis

Check out a day in the life of WEC fighter LC Davis as he prepares for his fight with Deividas Taurosevicius at WEC 47 on March 6.

Dan Hardy Thinks Bisping Beat Wanderlei at UFC 110

UFC welterweight contender Dan Hardy thinks countryman Michael Bisping defeated Wanderlei Silva at UFC 110.

"I was a little disappointed. To be honest, in my opinion, it was either a draw or Bisping just edged it," Hardy told TapouT Radio. "I think the thing that hurt him was the knockdown at the final bell, but I thought Bisping did great.

"He looked good. He was moving well. He was countering well. It was just unfortunate that he couldn't have pushed the pace just a little bit more," addd Hardy.

"Wanderlei is very aggressive and looked great at that weight as well. It was an off night, but he'll be back. I thought it was a good performance."

Hardy and Bisping are both Englishmen, but train at different camps.

PTI Host Defends Frank Mir Comments

The ire of the MMA world was raised with Frank Mir's recent comments about UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar, and his wish for the death of the fighter in the Octagon.

UFC president Dana White responded to the comments yesterday, and Mir himself issued an apology on Tuesday acknowledging the statement was out of line. That said one of the harshest critics of the sport, Mike Wilbon, defended Mir's comments on "Pardon the Interruption" on Wednesday.

"It's not out of line, I'm sorry this wouldn't even make the top 50 awful things Mike Tyson said he was going to do to an opponent some time that week before a big match in Vegas," Wilbon said when asked about Mir's comments.

"This is just how you promote boxing, MMA, wrestling, this is par for the course."

Wilbon went on to say that former heavyweight boxing champ, Mike Tyson, was the king of saying controversial things before his fights, so much so it actually frightened him at the time.

"Mike said things that when I was sitting there I got scared and wanted to leave the press conference," Wilbon commented.

Dan LeBatard, a columnist for the Miami Herald and ESPN contributor, who has been a fan of MMA for some time, brought up the fact that the sport is still trying to battle certain perceptions.

"Dana White is fighting something with this sport when John McCain calls it "human cockfighting", this sport is safer than boxing, because people don't know it, they look at it, they look at it and it's violent," LeBatard said. "It's safer than boxing. So when you have this thrown in it's something that Dana White's trying to get rid of with this sport."

ESPN programming has been featuring more and more MMA coverage lately, and a feature spot on one of the most popular programs, "Pardon the Interruption" can only be good for the future of the sport.

UFC Pres Dana White Clobbers IGN Reporter For Calling UFC Fake

Okay, so we may have taken a few liberties with the title of this blog post, but hey, if the IGN reporter can do it... we're gonna run with it.

Actually, UFC president Dana White, besides clobbering the reporter, does talk about some of the new features of UFC Undisputed 2010.