by Robert Joyner | Feb 7, 2011 | BLOGS
As he enters the twilight of his tenure in the mixed martial arts game, Sean Sherk has ascertained what the goal is before hanging up the little four ounce baby gloves and calling it a career. The goal: a second bite of the championship apple, another reign with the UFC lightweight title. Sherk recently spoke about the intoxicating nature of holding the belt and the legacy that a double reign as champ leaves: “For me to fulfill my career, to really, really be happy with it, I’d like to win the belt one more time,” Sherk said, speaking to the Timmins Daily Press. “The feeling when I had when I won that belt was great. I loved being a UFC champion. It’s a whole different class of athlete when you look at who has won the belt twice. There are only five or six guys in history.” The road back to the lightweight title will be a perilous one. While his one time conqueror BJ Penn has seemingly taken permanent leave of the lightweight ranks, there are still a slew of elite fighters that will greatly complicate Sherk’s plans at lightweight domination. The twin capos of the current lightweight scene – Champion Frank Edgar and the undefeated Gray Maynard – both possess a better stand up game as well superior wrestling to Sherk. A second battalion of hungry young challengers – from Dunham, Sotiropoulous, Pettis, among a host of others- will be a particularly hard-to-navigate minefield to be negotiated if Sherk is attain championship redemption. Sherk will look to start his last round up sometime over the summer, as that is the target for his return to the Octagon. As of now...
by Robert Joyner | Feb 7, 2011 | BLOGS
Aussie brawler James Te Huna comes into UFC 127 looking to shake off ring rust and re-establish himself in the UFC 205 division. A broken arm incurred in his UFC debut against Igor Pokrajac has proven to be a vexing problem for the Aussie 205’er. The severity of the break and resulting complications during his convalescence have sidelined Te Huna since the UFC last appeared in Australia in February of 2010. “I had snapped the ulna, it was a bad break. The ends were badly splintered so when they brought it back together and ran the plate alongside of it, there was a bit of a gap in there and it took a while for it to fuse together,” Te Huna said in speaking to the Penrith Press. “When it did fuse together it took about four or five months to heal. I started training again but I got an infection and it went inside the bone and it caused big dramas. I went back in hospital for a week, came back out, started training again, and then went back in hospital for another week. After the second operation I had time off, tried to get it fixed and now I’ve been training the last couple of months.” The lingering effects of the injury caused Te Huna to turn down a bout at UFC 120 in London. With his body now fully healed, Te Huna will look to get back on track and move up the light heavyweight ranks. His opponent at UFC 127 will be bruising Swede Alexander Gustafsson. With wins over Jared Hamman and Cyrille Diabate as well...
by Rob Maysey | Feb 5, 2011 | Official MMAFA Blog
Matyushenko claims he is far from done and is eyeing his next bout. Speaking with MMAFA.tv from his ‘VMAT’ gym in El Segundo, Matyushenko shared his plans. Read...
by Jon Luther | Feb 4, 2011 | BLOGS
Many fans would identify Vladimir Matyushenko as a staple in the sport of mixed martial arts. The forty-year-old Belarusian has been in the sport for over a decade and fought some of the most notable fighters it can offer. But make no mistake, Matyushenko claims he is far from done and is eyeing his next bout. Speaking with MMAFA.tv from his ‘VMAT’ gym in El Segundo, Matyushenko shared his plans. “Nothing is official and I would like to fight before Summer, but I want to fight the winner of Tito Ortiz vs. Antonio Rogerio Noguiera. It is a common sense fight for me. Both of those losses still bug me. It would be a way to redeem myself and it would be a great fight for Tito or Noguiera.” It would appear that redemption is big motivator for Matyushenko, who lost at the hands of up-and-comer Jon Jones 6 months ago and went on score a stoppage win over Alexandre Ferreira only three months later. The stoppage win would be the first for Matyushenko in five years. “I didn’t get hurt in the Jones fight. Well, my ego got hurt I guess [laughs]. But that was good for me, and I was healthy enough that when the UFC called me up shortly after I immediately took the fight against Ferreira. I never like walking around with a loss on my shoulders.” Being a veteran of the sport, Matyushenko has seen his fair share of paradigm shifts. Yet Matyushenko claims the rise of younger fighters throughout the years wouldn’t have been possible without the groundwork laid down by him and...
by Jon Luther | Feb 2, 2011 | BLOGS
Fedor Emelianenko, considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight — and perhaps mixed martial artist — of all time, is a man of few words. Rather than fruitlessly guessing at the unknowable, he will admit he doesn’t know. Instead of pondering the future, he will focus on the present. Emelianenko will bring that same practical mindset into battle on February 12 when he takes on top 10 ranked Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in the opening round of the highly anticipated Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament. Speaking with MMAFA.tv, Emelianenko reflects on his training and opponent. “I can’t wait to compete again. Silva is a great athlete who is skilled in many areas. He has proven to be a very worthy and dangerous opponent. My training camp has been very strong. I feel proud to be representing my country in the tournament. I’m training to win the tournament.” Eight of the top heavyweights in the world will participate in the tournament, leading many to believe that the eventual tournament champion should be in the running for the title of best heavyweight alive. To Emelianenko, his opinion on the matter is irrelevant. “The tournament participants are all highly skilled athletes. As for whether the winner should be considered number one in the world, it is not for me to say. That is something left to the media and to the fans.” In Fedor’s last outing he suffered the first blemish on his record in a decade when he lost via submission to Fabricio Werdum, one of the best heavyweight grapplers in the world. Werdum will fight Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem...
by Robert Joyner | Jan 31, 2011 | BLOGS
With the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix (SFHWGP) just around the corner, there as been a drumbeat of questions from the British contingent of mixed martial arts fans. With a field that includes nearly half of the Top 15 heavyweights in the world, British MMA fans have been anxious to find out what viewing options may be available for them to view the SFHWGP. MMAFA.tv was able to get in contact with Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz, who confirmed that the San Jose based promotion would be going the Pay Per View route for broadcasts of Strikeforce content in the UK. The move to PPV was somewhat necessitated by the recent shuttering of the Bravo UK television channel. Bravo had played host to stateside MMA broadcasts such as the UFC as well as domestic shows like Cage Rage. Additionally, it served as the most recent home for Strikeforce broadcasts in Great Britain. The Bravo channels closed on January 1, 2011, and many of the programs offered by Bravo were transferred over to Sky/BSKYB, which had previously bought and subsequently shuttered Bravo. Sky Sports has been home to the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter reality show the past few seasons, which would preclude Strikeforce from airing there. The only other Sky channels that have shown MMA are “The Active Channel” free to air on Sky and Extreme TV on Channel 419, but both channels are considered of low quality and not really viable options by most UK MMA observers. Other networks that have been friendly to MMA in the past have bitten the dust recently, with NUTS-TV (formerly the...
