Fighters Only

Issue 097

January 2013

All the head-turning information every MMA fan needs to know

ALDO-EDGAR, BELFORT-BISPING BOOKED FOR 2013

Mega bouts between UFC featherweight champion José Aldo and former lightweight king Frankie Edgar, as well as Brazilian fan favorite Vitor Belfort and British striker Michael Bisping have been booked for 2013.

Dominant 145lb king Aldo will finally face off with long-courted Edgar, with the featherweight belt up for grabs, on SuperBowl weekend, February 2nd next year. It’s slated to headline UFC 156, which is due to take place in Las Vegas. The two men were linked as potential opponents for much of Edgar’s 155lb title reign, however it took the first back-to-back losses of his career to encourage Edgar to drop a division.

Two weeks earlier than UFC 156, as the main event of UFC on FX 7 in Brazil, in an as-yet undetermined city, Belfort will square off with Bisping at middleweight in a bout that could earn ‘The Count’ number-one contender status for Anderson Silva’s middleweight belt. Belfort is returning to 185lb following a brief visit to 205lb to challenge division champion Jon Jones.

BACKTALK

MIKE SWICK: “I like Edgar as a person, I think he’s a hard worker and I like what he’s about, but I really am impressed with how José Aldo fights. I was fortunate to go and train with Nova Uniao in Brazil and they train crazy hard. He’s just a deadly striker. I think Frankie is a type that would probably use his boxing. He loves using that speed and throwing his hands and I think trying to strike with José would be a mistake.”

$11.99

Via an $11.99 per minute phone line from the Call A Champ company, you can have a telephone conversation with UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock.

FORMER UFC OFFICIAL JEFF BLATNIK DIES AGED 55

Olympic gold medalist and former UFC commentator and commissioner Jeff Blatnik passed away in October, aged 55, due to heart failure. From New York State, Blatnik took the gold in Greco-Roman wrestling, the first American to do so, at the 1984 Olympic Games, two years after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Blatnik served as color commentator for the UFC between 1994 and 2001, and years later would become a judge as well as a public advocate of the sport.

Seeking to heal a bruised bone prior to UFC Macau, Cung Le had the injured area blood-let. Which involved piercing the affliction with a pin 50 times once a week.

WHAT'S HOT

WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING

Folks are digging the brand-new MMA org

RONDA ROUSEY

MMA’s wonder woman can do no wrong

SETH PETRUZELLI AT HALLOWEEN

Ex-UFC 205lb’er has gone as Kimbo Slice, Blanka and, in 2012, as Venom. Bravo

WHAT'S NOT

POST-FIGHT FRIENDS

Anyone else think it’s cool but bizarre Jon Fitch and Erick Silva trekked around Brazil together?

NOT VOTING ON WORLD MMA AWARDS

We accept no excuses