UFC betting | Bet on UFC

UFC President Dana White announced today that former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and number one contender Junior dos Santos will match wits as the coaches of season 13 of the hit Spike TV reality series. Following the season, which begins filming later this month and begins airing on March 30, Lesnar and dos Santos will then match fists in the Octagon at a date and location to be announced in June. The winner will face current heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, who is currently sidelined with a torn rotator cuff. “It’s gonna be a very interesting six weeks of filming,” said White during a media teleconference Tuesday. “These two will coach, then they’ll fight, and the winner of the fight will fight Cain Velasquez when he’s healthy.” This will be the first time either fighter has appeared on The Ultimate Fighter, which began airing on Spike in 2005. The last time heavyweights coached the show was during season eight in 2008, when dos Santos’ mentor, “Minotauro” Nogueira, faced off against former champion Frank Mir. This season, the two will coach a host of welterweight hopefuls looking to secure a UFC contract. One of the biggest success stories of recent years, Brock Lesnar’s rise to the top of the UFC has been well-documented. A former NCAA Division I wrestling champion for the University of Minnesota, Lesnar brought size, speed, and power to the Octagon in 2008, and in only his fourth professional fight, he defeated Randy Couture for the heavyweight crown. After successful defenses against Mir and Shane Carwin, Lesnar lost his belt to Velasquez at UFC 121 last October. Determined to get his championship back, Lesnar knows the quickest way to do so is through dos Santos. “The guy’s a former world champion, he’s beat guys and held the title,” said White of Lesnar. “No matter what his record is, what the guy has accomplished in the short amount of time that he’s been in MMA is incredible. He’s obviously got a lot that he can teach, and not only him, but the staff that he has around him have a lot to teach young, up and coming guys, and that’s what it’s really all about.” Unheralded Brazilian prospect Junior dos Santos turned into a contender overnight in 2008 when he knocked out highly-regarded veteran Fabricio Werdum in the first round. This spectacular debut was followed by finishes of Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, and Gabriel Gonzaga before earning a shot at the heavyweight title with a three round win over Roy Nelson. Yet instead of choosing to wait for Velasquez to return to action, dos Santos will risk his number one contender’s spot by coaching against – and then fighting – Lesnar later this year. “Junior dos Santos is a young, up and coming guy,” said White of dos Santos. “He’s been knocking everybody out, comes off a three round war with “Big Country” (Roy Nelson) and I love when guys do that because it’s good for them, it’s good experience, it gets them in better shape and it takes them to another level. And to put this guy on the shelf for a long time is ridiculous, and much credit to him for not wanting to go on the shelf.”

Your mother always told you that you will be judged by the company you keep. If that’s true in mixed martial arts, then the resume of Gray Maynard keeps looking better and better. Frankie Edgar, Maynard’s opponent in Saturday’s UFC 125 main event, is a world champion. Nate Diaz is 2-0 with two finishes at 170 pounds since their January 2010 bout. Kenny Florian is a two-time title challenger. Dennis Siver has gone 6-2 after a defeat to Maynard. And Jim Miller has run off a six fight winning streak after losing to “The Bully.” That’s a number one contender for you, and when you consider his slate contains a host of top-notch pros, does it really matter that he’s defeated them all by decision? “I believe that the people who talk about decisions all the time and say that this guy sucks because he wins by decision, they’ve got a rude awakening coming in the future because the gap is getting so close with the top guys,” said Maynard, unbeaten in 12 pro fights. “And nobody’s gonna quit and it’s gonna get harder to get knockouts. Everybody knows jiu-jitsu now, and it’s gonna be the small intricacies that are gonna win big fights by close margins.” Maynard has become more than adept at mastering those intricacies. Whether it’s standing or on the mat, the former Michigan State University wrestling standout has become a well-rounded MMA fighter who can beat anyone not only at his game, but at theirs. But at the same time, he’s heard the criticism for not having scored a finish since he took out Joe Veres in nine seconds back in September of 2007. “I’ve never tried to pad my record with who I choose to have for a scrap, so that could have hurt me in the aspect of not having the stuff where it’s ‘he ran through that guy, oh my God, he’s unbelievable because he tapped a guy who was in the UFC for the first time,’” he chuckles. “I don’t know what people are looking at at times. And I can understand, you’re a fan and you want drama where one guy’s knocked out almost, he pops back up, and comes back. That’s what makes TV and movies great – the drama. But for me, I’m not trying to create any drama in a fight; I’m trying to beat this guy’s ass, and that’s it.” It’s the same dilemma posed by the current reign of welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who hasn’t lost a round, let alone a fight, since 2007. ? “He’s dominating,” said Maynard of GSP. “He’s doing a great job and he’s at the top of his game. People aren’t quitting, people don’t have the holes that they had before where you could say I’m gonna exploit that because it’s a huge gap and I know it’s there. Now everybody’s well-rounded, everybody’s tough, and everybody’s getting paid pretty good so they can train smart, and the sport’s evolving. And you’ve got to want the sport to evolve, and you’ve got to evolve too. That’s important.” When it comes down to it, Maynard is going to be Maynard, and if the Arizona native is one thing, he’s a winner, and until you can pin a loss on his record, you’re going to have to deal with him. And you don’t hear his peers complaining about him; they’re just trying to figure out the puzzle he’s presented thus far. Currently working on that formula is New Jersey’s Edgar, who Maynard defeated via unanimous decision in April of 2008. Ask Maynard about that fight and whether he thought he would be meeting “The Answer” again, and he’s honest in his reply. “I knew he was good, but I just don’t try to look that far ahead,” said Maynard

Just two weeks before his next fight, Chris Leben is inside a Honolulu shopping mall doing some Christmas shopping with his girlfriend – a stark contrast to the last time he was this far off from a fight – when he was standing inside the Octagon going toe-to-toe with Aaron Simpson in the TUF 12 Finale. “Yeah, but this is just as stressful,” laughs Leben over the phone, the sounds of holiday shoppers and Christmas tunes dominating in the background. For fans who have been following Leben’s career since he exploded onto the UFC scene during the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, if you had told them that just over five years later the crazy drunk guy from the show would be in the middle of a career resurgence and on his way to a title shot they would say you were crazy. Yet here we are going into UFC 125 on January 1, 2011, and Leben (21-6) is coming off a three fight win streak heading into a match with Brian “All American” Stann (9-3). After a career that has been dead and resurrected time and time again, Leben’s business inside the Octagon is finally on solid ground. But for the man fighting out of Hawaii, it’s never really been about what the fans or the reporters say. “I never really worried that much about everybody saying, ‘I’m left, I’m right, — I’m up, I’m down.’ I never pay attention to that. I just keep doing what I do, and that’s training,” he said. “I never really worry about where my career is going until the night of the fight. I’ve trained with guys like Matt Lindland, Evan Tanner, Chael Sonnen, Randy Couture and I’ve watched their careers go sometimes high, sometimes low, so I know it’ s the nature of the business. That’s just the way it works out.” This past summer, Leben weathered an early onslaught from a very tough Aaron Simpson, TKO’ing the exhausted former Arizona State University wrestler in round two, and then just 14 days later, he stepped in for an injured Wanderlei Silva to take on Japanese superstar Yoshihiro Akiyama, whom he submitted in round 3 with a triangle choke. “I was stoked to get the Akiyama fight,” he said. “At first I told Joe Silva I had doubts about taking the fight, but then Dana called and you just don’t say no to Dana,” he said. “I don’t really care about what the win did for my career per se. Financially, I was able to buy my mom a house, which is something I’ve always wanted to do, so for that, I’m extremely grateful. Those are the rewards for me, that feeling of security.” In October, Leben was arrested on suspicion of DUI, and he has a court hearing in February. “The UFC called and they were concerned but it’s all still in the works so I can’t talk too much about it,” he says. “The UFC has always been fantastic to me. I think it goes back to being that guy on ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ you know. But I think a lot of us from that first season, Forrest (Griffin), Stephan (Bonnar), Josh (Koscheck), Kenny (Florian) – a lot of us have been taken care of pretty well.” In Stann, Leben faces a fighter who is just beginning to discover what it feels like to fight in a lower weight division, making the cut for the first time from 205 pounds to 185 pounds in his last fight against Mike Massenzio, where he recorded his first ever submission victory. Stann, the former WEC light heavyweight champion, has heavy hands and has knocked plenty of guys out in his relatively short career. “I have a lot of power in my hands too,” says Leben. “I’ll take that gamble with Stann any day of the week. I’ll roll those dice for sure.” And though Leben respects Stann, he believes the Marine Corps vet is a bit of a setback considering the man he finished at UFC 116, Akiyama, got to fight consummate contender Michael Bisping next. But as is his custom, Leben doesn’t complain about much; he just shows up to work. “I’ll fight whoever they put in front of me; I’m a fighter. That’s what I do,” he said, before taking control of this interview the way he’s taken control of his last three fights. “Are we about done here?” he asks. “My girlfriend is flipping out.” Let’s hope for Stann’s sake, Leben comes solo to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, because if his girlfriend has any say over the matter, Leben will look to finish the fight as quickly as possible.

“They trained us to break people.” Those are the stark and intimidating words of Jacob “Christmas” Volkmann. The UFC lightweight is not referencing the mysterious Russian military doctors who trained Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Volkmann is referring to the very real teachings of the Division I wrestling coaches at the University of Minnesota. A “Golden Gopher” sounds a lot less friendly now, doesn’t it? “That is what I’m trying to carry over to the UFC – the idea of breaking somebody,” states the three-time All-American wrestler, who has shown dramatic improvement with each of his appearances in the Octagon. “It’s getting closer. I still have to open it up more like I did back when I was at the U of M. I’m still holding back a little bit.” After suffering two losses in his first two fights in the UFC’s welterweight division, “Christmas” dropped the 15 pounds to make lightweight and has walked out of the cage a winner in his past two fights. Volkmann’s most recent victory was against hard-hitting Brit Paul Kelly on August 1st. “The main thing that I did that I feel like I accomplished in this fight was simply moving more,” said Volkmann, who outworked Kelly for the unanimous decision. “I felt my movement was pretty good against Kelly because he really couldn’t hit me.” Besides better movement, the 30-year old father of three showed off a better overall striking arsenal, namely leg kicks. “I just started doing it because he kicked me first, so I started throwing kicks back at him,” explains Volkmann, noting that he had no specific strategy to batter the lead leg of Paul Kelly with kicks. Nevertheless he landed a bevy of them in the first round. “They were definitely effective because I could see in his face that things didn’t add up, it confused him a little bit, so I kept on throwing them.” The Minnesota native’s stand-up and movement aside, it was Volkmann’s vaunted wrestling pedigree that sealed his second straight win in the UFC. “I felt like I dominated him on the ground,” Volkmann continues. That should have been expected, but there was something amiss: “There was one thing that did bother me when I got full mount on him; he bridged and my balance wasn’t there and he rolled and got on top of me – that shouldn’t happen. I need to work on that.” Volkmann’s self-effacing criticism is accurate, but it may be the only mistake that he made in those 15 minutes. The rest of Volkmann’s fourth fight in the UFC was a wrestling clinic for Kelly with the University of Minnesota alum on his back as his teacher. “I was hooking his ankle, so he can’t stand-up, and it should force him to go to his back, or if he doesn’t go to his back he’ll take some punches. That’s straight wrestling right there.” The UFC’s next test for “Christmas” will only be a week removed from the holiday, at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day in Las Vegas. This will be the second time Volkmann has fought on the UFC’s New Year’s card, the first being against Martin Kampmann, so this is all old news for him. The same cannot be said for Volkmann’s opponent, UFC newcomer Antonio McKee. At 40 years old and with 30 total fights to his record, the term “rookie” feels inappropriate to describe Antonio McKee, who recently signed his first fight contract with the UFC. “I’m not thinking about how old he is,” says Volkmann who thinks age is just another number. “He could be wrestling and training like he’s 20 years old. Who knows?” “I had no idea who he was,” admits Volkmann when he was offered the January 1st fight with Antonio McKee. Since then, Volkmann has studied McKee’s past fights like any opponent, and has come to two conclusions: “He’s powerful” and “He’s really boring.” The latter is most likely alluding to McKee’s inordinate amount of decision wins: 18 of his 25. The former is unmistakable about his foe’s muscular physique and explosive double leg takedown. Regardless, Volkmann believes that power is as much a positive as it is a negative. “He’s got good power, but with that there is a downside that your endurance is not as good. It’s pretty obvious that he is powerful, but it doesn’t seem like he’s been pushed. He’s hardly been in any scrambles and that really wears on a guy. He’s got a good power double and that’s pretty much it. ” The buzz word for Volkmann’s gameplan is “scrambles”. “I’m assuming he’s going to try and take me down,” remarks Volkmann. “I think he’ll get me down a couple times, but I’ll make sure to make him tired fighting for these takedowns and I’ll scramble out of them if he gets them. My main goal is to make him tired in these scrambles and then I can work submissions and work my hands.” Jacob Volkmann is looking to test Antonio McKee in a way he believes that he has not been tested in his other 30 professional fights. “You really don’t know how hard it is to scramble until you are actually out there scrambling with someone – it exhausts you.” Volkmann’s confidence to execute this is a mix between his own abilities as a wrestler and the sheer difference it is to fight in the UFC’s Octagon as opposed to any other organization. In Volkmann’s own words, nothing compares to fighting in the UFC. “I think this first fight will be a rude awakening for him because it was for me when I got into the UFC. The intensity was so much higher than any other organization I fought for. It seemed like I needed to work twice as hard to compete with these guys

Q: The WEC blossomed into MMA’s second biggest promotion, home to the best lighter weight fighters in the world. At what point in the organization’s existence did that become true? Reed Harris: We had all weight classes. Our approach for our events was, ‘What’s the best way to draw fans to the event?’ Whether they were light or heavy didn’t matter. We tried to find local guys, known fighters, that would enhance the cards. Dana was the one that (the lighter weight classes exclusively) forced that on me, I didn’t want to do it. He told me he wanted to get rid of light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight. I didn’t want to do it because I had Carlos Condit, Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen and all of these guys. I did not want to do it but Dana was like, ‘You’ve got to do this to break out from under our shadow, otherwise you guys are never going to make it.’ So we did it and it ended up working great. It was a great call. Q: Is it safe to say the WEC was merely a regional promotion until Zuffa acquired you guys in December 2006? Harris: Yeah, we were regional for sure. But we were on HDNet, so we had coverage nationwide. We did all of our shows in California and only did one show back east but it didn’t do well so we never went back. We were careful. Scott and I didn’t have rose-colored glasses. We were doing well in Lemoore, California and we had a great thing going. The problem is that a lot of these other companies try to be UFC and we didn’t want to be that. Q: Worst fight in WEC history. Harris: Paulo Filho/Chael Sonnen (their second fight). It wasn’t Chael’s fault; Paulo didn’t want to fight and didn’t seem to care about making weight. I told Chael later, ‘That fight sucked.’ Chael said, ‘It’s really hard to fight against a guy who doesn’t want to fight.’ There was also a Shannon Ritch fight. He came out and got submitted in like a minute, and then walked off the ramp and asked if he could get paid (laughs heartily). Q: Reed, you’ve got the last WEC show coming up tonight. What are you going to miss most of all those experiences, all of the things you looked forward to whenever you hosted a WEC show? Harris: I think the overall satisfaction I gained having my friends and family calling me and saying, ‘Wow, what a great show.’ I’ll miss talking with the fighters before the fights, you know, I would always give them a talk about what I expected from them. I don’t think I’ll miss the relationships and stuff because I think I’ll still have ‘em. Q: Tell me how much the WEC’s success has exceeded your earliest expectations? Harris: When I first got in we were looking at throwing one show. It was more like throwing a party than a fight show. It reminded me of a party. And then the next thing I know I’m standing up on stage, looking out at this huge crowd, and a guy walks up to me and says, ‘OK, let’s talk about number two.’ At that point it turned into a business. Q: I hate talking about the message without talking about the messenger. For people who don’t know you, talk about your life before becoming a fight promoter. Harris: I started as an appliance salesman and was working at the store and a guy from a real estate company came into the store. I sold him a VCR and he said, ‘Wow, you’re a good salesman. Go get your real estate license and you can come work for me.’ And I rode that into becoming vice president of a large company. It was all hard work. There were a couple years where I worked every day; I didn’t take any days off. I actually started training taekwondo back in high school in Chicago but only trained for like a year and a half and then went to college. I took some Karate at the University of Iowa, my first year of college, and right when I started Christmas of my first year my dad was killed in a car accident. So I left school and went home to deal with that. It was real hard. Q: How old was your father when he passed? Harris: He was 43. My dad was a very ingenious guy. He was one of the first people to manufacture milk bottles in plastic. Milk had always been in cartons but my dad and this other guy had this idea to put it in plastic, gallon bottles. He invented the plastic milk bottle.