Issue 075
May 2011
Catch the latest news and hot interviews over at our website, updated daily by our worldwide team of reporters
NEWS: DANA WHITE ON ‘GREEDY’ BOXING PROMOTERS
UFC president Dana White has lambasted “greedy” boxing promoters who charge huge money for plum tickets and price their own fans out of attending live events. “I don’t want to do crazy, overpriced tickets like boxing does,” White said. “Somebody asked me, ‘How come you guys don’t do gates like boxing does? $20 million, $30 million gates?’ It’s because boxing’s a completely different model. That model doesn’t work. Real people buy tickets to the UFC events. These guys [in boxing] did all these events in Las Vegas, and the tickets were insanely priced where fans couldn’t even buy them and the casinos bought them all up. We don’t do that. We sold 55,000 tickets in Toronto to UFC fans.”
NEWS: STEVEN SEAGAL TAKES CREDIT FOR SILVA’S wINNING KICK AT UFC 126
Anderson Silva has claimed that he learned his unusual Vitor Belfort-stopping kick from action movie star Steven Seagal. “As far as the kick goes,” explained Anderson at the post-fight press conference, “the last time I did my training camp here, I was training at Black House with Steven Seagal, and he helped me a lot with that kick. He perfected it. I did that kick for a long time, and he actually helped me perfect it.” Ariel Helwani then caught up with Seagal, who was part of Anderson’s entourage for the UFC 126 fight, and asked him about the pedigree of the kick and why he taught it to Anderson. Seagal said: “Where did I learn it? It was a variation of that in Japan probably 30, 40 years ago. All these years I have been perfecting it. It’s not exactly karate, it’s just something that I created – it’s a little bit different – that I thought Anderson could learn well because he is a natural-born athlete.”
NEWS: ‘I CAN FIX ARLOVSKI’ SAYS GREG JACKSON
Greg Jackson says he already has a plan to right the issues with former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski that has seen the Belarusian go on an 0-4 losing streak, his KO loss to Sergei Kharitonov at Strikeforce’s grand prix opener being the latest ‘L’. “I think he’s going to come back a better fighter,” explained Jackson to Sherdog. “I’m a diehard optimist, it’s really hard to discourage me or tell me it shouldn’t be done or it can’t be done. I’m a guy that I think I know what to do to fix it. I’m going to try everything I can to do that.” Jackson added: “I don’t think he has a weak chin. I think he’s fighting in a heavyweight division where these guys would knock down a house if they hit it.”
FEATURE: THE UFC MOVERS AND SHAKERS IN 2011
By Matt Hyde – In the past 12 months only Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva and Georges ‘Rush’ St Pierre managed to hold on to their respective UFC divisional straps. Messers Penn, Machida and Lesnar all relinquished their spots at the pinnacle of their weight class. What will happen in 2011? And which of the present standouts – Edgar, St Pierre, Silva, Rua and Velasquez – will keep hold of their belts?
Read the full story at fightersonlymag.com
Poll: Who will be the better tuf coach, Brock Lesnar or Junior dos Santos?
64% JDS
36% LESNAR
...
