Issue 076
June 2011
Evans Splits From Award-Winning Coach Greg Jackson
UFC light heavyweight number-one contender Rashad Evans has confirmed his departure from Greg Jackson’s award-winning training camp. The former UFC light heavyweight champ made the statement on Twitter after first telling reporter Ariel Helwani he was “done” with the Greg Jackson camp.
“Greg brought this situation about,” claimed Evans. “He brought Jones on board a while back against my wishes and here we are today. So, I decided to leave Greg because I felt like he didn’t have my best interest anymore. Greg is not the same coach he used to be.”
Evans went on to reveal he has only trained a handful of times with Jackson, who has won numerous fan-voted FO World MMA Awards, for recent fights.
Lombard Top-Ten Win Streak
Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard has set the eighth-longest win streak in MMA history at 22 fights. The Cuban slugger avoided a notch in his loss column for the 22nd consecutive bout against UFC alumnus Joe Doerksen in Australia in March. Bellator’s 185lb champ last lost to Gegard Mousasi at Pride Bushido 13 in 2006. According to Fight Matrix, Lombard shares the top ten with only two other active streaks, one from Brazilian bantamweight Renan Barao and the other apparently belonging to Pancrase and UFC legend Bas Rutten.
BJ Penn and Jon Fitch To Rematch
UFC welterweights BJ Penn and Jon Fitch will square off again following their anti-climactic UFC 127 draw. The fighters have been re-booked to throwdown at UFC 132 on July 2nd in Las Vegas. After their UFC 127 scrap in Australia was judged even, both fighters expressed their interest in a rematch and agreed that Fitch had done enough to win the fight.
Cordeiro Wants ‘Shogun’ Back
Famed trainer Rafael Cordeiro wants former UFC light heavyweight champion ‘Shogun’ Rua to return to his tutelage. A former instructor at the aggressive Chute Boxe Academy in Brazil, Cordeiro taught Muay Thai to a young Rua and believes he can sure up some holes in the fighter’s game. “It would be very easy to say that Shogun coming to train at my gym would be the solution to
his problems. I think it would be the first step to solving things.”
West Virginia Legalizes MMA
West Virginia has become the 45th US state to approve the regulation of mixed martial arts in its territory. A bill to regulate mixed martial arts recently passed through the West Virginia Legislature, prompting officials at the Ultimate Fighting Championship to express their gratitude to local lawmakers who helped clear the way for mixed martial arts in ‘The Mountain State.’ For the full story go to FightersOnlyMag.com
1.3m
The UFC 128 prelims broadcast on Spike TV drew an audience of 1.3 million
173,000
On the same night, Bellator 37 pulled in 173,000 viewers on MTV2
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