Vitor Belfort might have earned the title shot that he has been longing for when he disposed Dan Henderson in the headlining bout of UFC Fight Night 32. He finally avenged his 2006 loss to the former Olympian and he did it in a devastating fashion. He knocked out Henderson in just the 78 seconds of their rematch in Goiania, Brazil. The loss was the first time for Henderson to be stopped by strikes in his 39 fights as a pro MMA fighter.

After his impressive victory, Belfort again expresses his desire for another crack at the middleweight gold.

“I’m looking right now for the winner of Silva-Weidman, but Dana White makes the call,” Belfort said at the UFC Fight Night 32 post-fight press conference. “I told them I’ll be ready, but good things come when you work hard. I just gotta be willing to take the risk and go forward.”

The win solidified Belfort’s spot as a contender in the middleweight division. He has been relentlessly asking Dana White for a shot at the 185 belt after Chris Weidman wrestled the title from Anderson Silva last July. During that time, the UFC president firmly stated that he will not give a middleweight title shot to Belfort. However, that decision was changed after Belfort put together a string of spectacular finishes over three notable opponents.

In the post-fight interview of UFC Fight Night 32, Dana White confirms that Belfort will challenge whoever walks away with the 185 belt in UFC 168. He also hinted that the promotion could set up a big event in Brazil should Silva regain his title in his upcoming rematch with Chris Weidman this December.

“The 185-pound division is exciting. It’s really getting good,” said White. “There will be nothing but big fights for Vitor. Imagine if we did a rematch between Silva and Belfort. We could do that in a soccer stadium here.”

[Photos from imperiomma.com]

Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort had their first encounter in Pride FC 32 with Hendo bagging the W with a unanimous decision. Seven years later, the two MMA icons will meet again but this time, Henderson wants a definitive win over The Phenom.

According to Henderson, the only things that he remembers from their 2006 fight was that he was getting the better of his Brazilian counterpart for the entire 15 minutes of their light heavyweight bout. Although happy with his performance, Hendo mentions that he should have not leave the fight to the hands of the judges.

“It was a good fight. I just felt like I controlled and dominated the whole fight, but I didn’t finish him,”  says Henderson. “That’s one thing I want to try and do: not leave it up to the judges this fight.

Henderson and Belfort has gone on to fight under different promotions following their encounter in Pride. Both of them claims to be a better fighter now and Henderson admits that Belfort have shown some improvements in striking game especially in his consecutive head kick knockout wins over Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold.

“He’s improved a lot on his striking as well,” Henderson said of Belfort. “He moves his feet better than he used to. He moves his head and is more patient. And as we’ve seen in his last couple fights, he’s throwing some head kicks now.”

Henderson, although born and raised in the US feels that the upcoming showdown with Belfort will serve as his homecoming fight. The 43 year old Greco-Roman Olympian has made his MMA debut in Brazil in 1997. Henderson stated that he is happy to be back in the country after 16 years.

“I was excited when they told me I was going to be fighting in Brazil again,” he said. “I had my first fights down here and haven’t been back since. Hopefully I have a couple Brazilian fans in the stands.

[Photos from thecagemexico.com]

Multidivisional contender Vitor Belfort, whose just days away from a rematch with Dan Henderson is already visualizing his future should he win in their headline bout at UFC Fight Night 32. The Phenom believes that a win over the heavy handed Henderson will earn him a shot at the middleweight belt despite the fight happening at 205. However, a loss to Henderson, a man known for his fight ending right hand will put Vitor back in the line of 185 contenders that includes the likes of Ronaldo Souza and the reinvigorated Lyoto Machida. Belfort states that while he is very much aware of the consequences, the reward is worth all the risk.

“You’re remembered for your last fight, so some people are afraid of taking a risk,” Belfort said. “Everything is a risk in life. We have to go out and risk in order to win.”

Dana White has earlier promised the 36 year old Brazilian a title shot should he win on Saturday night. He will get the winner of the rematch between middleweight champ Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva, a man who registered a highlight reel knock out over Belfort in their middleweight title fight in 2011.

That being said, Belfort will have another obstacle for his campaign towards title contention aside from Dan Henderson. He is one of the few UFC fighters (including Henderson) that were allowed to take testosterone replacement therapy, a procedure that can be easily abused if not monitored properly. Through the past years, several fighters are suspended for high levels of testosterone, with Ben Rothwell being the latest man to be sidelined for abusing the aforementioned process. Belfort so far is having no problems getting consent fighting in Brazil. However, Las Vegas, the usual host of the promotion’s biggest fights is a little stricter on implementing exemptions towards fighters that are on TRT. The Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer has previously stated that he is not sure if they will give Belfort the same benefits that he is enjoying in his home country.

[Photos from mma-core.com]

Fort Campbell – US Army veteran Tim Kennedy did not disappoint in front of his fellow service man inside the packed Fort Campbell Hangar in Kentucky when he bagged his first KO of the Night honors after knocking out Rafael Natal in the first round of their headlining bout.

Rafael Natal opened the round strong by constantly landing leg kicks to his stalking opponent. Kennedy’s leg has started to show marks from the leg kicks by the middle part of the round. Despite that, the 10 year army veteran continued with his game plan of pressuring his elusive opponent back into the cage. His patience finally paid off in the dying seconds of the first round when he landed a lunging left hook that sent Natal to the canvass. Kennedy followed up with a few strikes to finish him off before Herb Dean steps in to put a halt to the action at 4:40 of the first round. The loss to Kennedy snapped the three fight winning streak of the Brazilian, his record now stands at 17-5, 5-3-1 inside the octagon.

A visibly ecstatic Kennedy, praised his fellow servicemen in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

“I’m one 100-percent overwhelmed,” said Kennedy. “Your guys’ job is a thousand times, infinitely harder than anything I could ever do in here.  I don’t deserve to be here. I love you guys so much. “You guys are my heroes. You guys are my idols. I’m a Christian, I give the glory to God, but I worship you guys. I love every one of you.”

Kennedy maintained his unbeaten status in the UFC with the victory over Natal. He is now on a three fight winning streak since suffering a decision loss in his bid for the Strikeforce welterweight belt against Luke Rockhold.

The card featured 4 military veterans including Tim Kennedy, Liz Carmouche, Colton Smith and Neil Magny. Unfortunately, only one of them took the W after the event. The full results of UFC Fight for the Troops 3 are as follows:

• Tim Kennedy def. Rafael Natal via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:40
• Alexis Davis def. Liz Carmouche via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Yoel Romero def. Ronny Markes via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 1:39
• Rustam Khabilov def. Jorge Masvidal via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Michael Chiesa def. Colton Smith via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:41
• Bobby Green def. James Krause via TKO (kick) – Round 1, 3:50
• Francisco Rivera def. George Roop via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:20
• Dennis Bermudez def. Steven Siler via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Amanda Nunes def. Germaine De Randamie via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:56
• Lorenz Larkin def. Chris Camozzi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Yancy Medeiros def. Yves Edwards via KO (punches) – Round 1, 2:47
• Seth Baczynski def. Neil Magny via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Derek Brunson def. Brian Houston via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 0:48

[Photos from theflyingkneemma.com]

Alexander Gustafsson has found a new dance partner for his octagon return and it will be none other than the undefeated Nigerian- English prospect Jimi Manuwa. UFC officials made the announcement this Tuesday, confirming that Manuwa will replace the injured Antonio Rogerio Nogueira as Gustafsson’s opponent in the headline bout of the upcoming UFC card in London.

The 33 year old Manuwa just fought less than two weeks ago in UFC Fight Night 30 where he won by TKO (injury) against Ryan Jimmo. Manuwa is unbeaten in his MMA career, he has stopped all of his 14 opponents, 13 of them by KO and 1 by submission. Ironically, his three UFC wins ended in bizarre stoppages. Manuwa defeated Kyle Kingsbury via TKO due to doctor stoppage in his promotional debut. That fight was stopped after the second round due to the severe swelling in the eyes of Kingsbury. Manuwa would again win by unusual stoppage in his subsequent bout when his opponent, Cyrille Diabate was unable to continue after the first round of their fight due to a leg injury. In his last fight, Manuwa won by TKO over Ryan Jimmo, also by leg injury.

After that fight, Dana White promised to give Manuwa a big fight in the US for his next octagon appearance.The UFC president fulfilled his promise on Tuesday, giving Manuwa a lucrative fight against the former number 1 contender Alexander Gustafsson.

The card, which is set to take place in London by March of 2014, already have a fight booked aside from Gustafsson vs. Manuwa. Ross Pearson and Melvin Guillard are also slated for their rematch following their controversial No Contest bout in UFC Fight Night 30.

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones finally bagged the slot of a UFC video game cover after losing his spot to Anderson Silva in 2011. He will now join the company of Brock Lesnar, Forrest Griffin and Anderson Silva as fighters who became faces of the game. The UFC and EA Sports made the announcement this Monday and they confirmed that Jones will appear in the cover of EA’s inaugural UFC game along with another fighter who will be determined through a voting process.

“The UFC is the first new major sports league partnership for EA Sports in over a decade and to stay true to the sport, we’re featuring two fighters on the cover,” Dean Richards, general manager of EA Sports UFC said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Jon Jones and we can’t wait to see who fans choose to join him in sharing the spotlight.”

The light heavyweight champ, who claims to be an avid gamer, admits that gracing the cover of a game is a dream come true for him.

“It’s a huge honor to be selected as one of the fighters to appear on the cover of EA SPORTS UFC,” said Jones. “I am a big fan of EA SPORTS and appearing on a cover is one of those things you dream about as a kid. I’ll definitely be following the Cover Vote to see which fighter the fans choose to join me as the face of the game.”

The cover vote that Jones is referring to is a four round tournament elimination that will be held on the official site of UFC. Fans can choose from 16 UFC fighters to share the cover with the light heavyweight champion. The preliminary matches and the schedule of voting is listed below:

Preliminary Match-ups

• Urijah Faber vs. Michael Bisping
• Johny Hendricks vs. Dominick Cruz
• Anthony Pettis vs. Demetrious Johnson
• Alexander Gustafsson vs. Daniel Cormier
• Georges St-Pierre vs. Chris Weidman
• Junior dos Santos vs. Chael Sonnen
• Jose Aldo vs. Benson Henderson
• Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate

EA SPORTS UFC Cover Vote Schedule

• Round of 16 : Prelims – Voting from Mon, Nov. 4 – Sun, Nov. 10
• Round of 8 : Main Card – Voting from Mon, Nov. 11 – Sun, Nov. 17
• Final Four : Co-Main Event – Voting from Mon, Nov. 18 – Sun, Nov. 24
• Finals : Title Fight – Voting from Mon, Nov. 19 – Sun, Dec. 1

[Photos from www.ea.com]

Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will finally return to the octagon after being sidelined for more than 2 years. He will be fighting in a unification bout with interim titleholder Renan Barao in the co-main event of the annual Super Bowl weekend event of UFC. Newsday was the first to report the news and it was confirmed by UFC officials afterwards.

Cruz has been out in the octagon since his second title defense against Demetrious Johnson in October 1, 2011. The injury occurred in the filming of the 15^th season of The Ultimate Fighter where he coaches opposite to Urijah Faber. The two are set for a rubber match in a bout that will serve as a bantamweight title fight but to the injury, Cruz was replaced by Renan Barao. With the champion sidelined for the year, Barao and Faber fought for the interim title instead. Barao won that fight by unanimous decision. Since then, he defended the interim title twice against Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland.

Meanwhile, the other card will also feature a title fight between Jose Aldo and Ricardo Lamas. Aldo will put his featherweight title on the line for the 7^th time in his career, 5 of those defenses happened in the UFC. His opponent, Ricardo Lamas has yet to taste defeat since joining UFC 2 years ago. He won all his 4 fights, finishing 3 of his opponents. Despite that, he will be heading into the fight from a 1 year layoff. He has not fought in the octagon since his 2^nd round destruction of Erik Koch in January 26.

UFC 169 is set to take place on February 1 at Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey. Zuffa usually hosts the event in Las Vegas but they decided to move it to New Jersey to coincide with the NFL title game that will be held the following day at MetLife Stadium.

Former UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson finally broke his silence after losing his belt to rival Anthony Pettis last August. He discussed some of his plans for his return bout and the injury that he suffered following the loss. To his credit, Henderson has not mentioned any excuses or factors that might have affected his performances that night. The former champ just stated some clarifications regarding his “controversial” verbal tap.

“I’m not going to act like I didn’t say tap because no one else saw it. But yeah, I think I said tap, and I could barely move my  other hand, my free hand, which wasn’t really that free — it was trapped with my other arm. But I think I barely, lightly tapped with that hand…and Pettis, being the good dude that he is let go. Herb didn’t see it I guess.”

Pettis, the man who gave him 2 of his 3 losses is scheduled to defend his belt against Josh Thomson this December. And while Benson is unlikely to get a shot while Pettis holds the belt, Smooth has not been cheering for Thomson regarding that fight. However, he did give his thoughts on a potential match up that will probably lead him back to title contention.

“We’re kind of leaning towards Rafael dos Anjos,” he said. “We think it would be a good fight with him, entertaining, a good fight, and I think the match-up works well for us. I don’t know if he has anybody scheduled or not.”

Rafael dos Anjos has quietly worked his way to a title eliminator. He has won 5 straight bouts after splitting his first eight fights at 4-4. The Kings MMA fighter holds notable victories over George Sotiropoulos, Mark Bocek, Evan Dunham and Donald Cerrone.

[Photos from zanda.com]

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has started talking smack at potential rival Daniel Cormier and this time he took a shot at DC’s body. Bones, who is probably on a diet in preparation for his upcoming title defense against Glover Teixeira, took it to his twitter account. According to the weight conscious champ, he avoids over eating for the fear of looking like Cormier.

“With that being said I love these people. their hospitality is first class nothing but hugs and smiles eating so much Ill look like DC soon. “ wrotes Jones on his Twitter.

Obviously, Cormier does not like it. He immediately answered right after learning the tweet.

“@JonnyBones it’s much easier to talk when you know theres two fights seperating us. Keep running ur mouth kid! Jon u can’t beat me!”

DC has been clamoring for a fight with Jones way before his UFC career. He already said his goodbye to the heavyweight division in his lopsided win over Roy Nelson at UFC 166.After that he announced that he will be officially dropping to 205 to challenge Bones for the title. That being said, it will be a long road for him before he lands a superfight with Jones.

Alexander Gustafsson has already been promised a rematch with Bones should he win against Little Nog early next year in London. Of course, that depends on the outcome of Jones’ title defense against Glover Teixeira. If both of them wins, Cormier will likely have to win 2 or matches before finally earning his much awaited fight against Jon Jones.

Bellator MMA encountered a major roadblock leading up to their first ever PPV event when Tito Ortiz injured his neck while preparing for his showdown with fellow UFC legend Quinton Jackson in Bellator 106. As a result, Bellator scrapped the headlining bout and they turned the PPV into a regular event on Spike TV. The lightweight title fight between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler will now serve as the main event in the four-fight main card that includes the featherweight title fight between Pat Curran and Daniel Strauss and an interim light heavyweight title fight with Muhammed Lawal and Emanuel Newton. The card will also feature the “Fight Master” finals between Joe Riggs and Mike Bronzoulis.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney made the announcement this Friday on a conference hall with media members.

“We’re incredibly excited about that,” says Rebney regarding the move of  Bellator 106 to free television. “It’s awesome for us, it’ll be awesome for fans, it’ll reach millions of consumers. While we’re disappointed that Tito’s injured, we’re thrilled that we’re going to be able to present the rest of that card to everybody on free TV, on Spike.”

According to Rebney, Ortiz informed him that he had a fractured neck a day before the CEO announced the cancellation. He also added that the UFC hall of famer consulted a physician for an X-Ray and MRI and the results showed that further injury for him will have “dire consequences”. That being said, Rebney assured that the injury is not related to the one that hampered the latter stages of Tito’s career.

“Tito wanted to fight, and his doctor said asbolutely not,” states Rebney. The executive said that the doctor said if he landed the wrong way or hit injury the wrong way, it could cause paralysis.”

Tito’s injury has left Rampage without an opponent and Bellator had no choice but to pull him out of the cards. According to Rebney, they are now planning to find a match for Jackson and they are looking to have him fight within the next month.

[Photos from realpain-mma.com]