Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett

By Jesse Heitz

Recently, news broke that Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett, formerly known as “The Baby-Faced Assassin”, is due to make his long-awaited Octagon return, having signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC. The expected, yet unexpected move, should shakeup the UFC’s Heavyweight Division, which in the eyes of some, had been on the path to stagnation.

Just a few hours before this article was written, Barnett officially announced his signing with the UFC via his Twitter account, tweeting,

“The enemy has returned. I’ve signed w/the @UFC & no heavyweight is safe. They’re all due a lesson in violence from the Warmaster. #ufc #mma”

UFC President Dana White had been angling to capture Barnett, one of the more elusive top heavyweights still on the market, for several months now. Yet, even now that the deal is in the books, so to speak, I’m still a little surprised that this deal was finalized. For years following Barnett’s departure from the UFC in 2002 following his disastrous positive PED test following his victory over Randy “The Natural” Couture, there was a bitter back-and-forth between Dana White and Josh Barnett, which for many cast considerable doubt on whether or not Barnett would ever fight under the UFC banner.

In a 2007 interview with MMAWeekly, Barnett had taken his own shot at the UFC boss, stating,

“Sitting back watching almost a decade’s worth of MMA being re-written by some guys, and that’s just a slap in the face of everybody who ever got into this in the beginning that didn’t even make a dime when we first started fighting, and didn’t even have promotions, and traveled the world to try to do everything we could to become mixed martial artists as we have today. It’s just completely disrespectful.”

“Not to mention, we’re not retired. We’re still friggen here, and training hard, and proving our mettle amongst the best in the world. Putting us on a back burner trying to act like we don’t exist, that’s either because they’re scared, they’re cowards and they don’t want us to ruin their sand castle, or they’re just spiteful.”

“Basically what it comes down to is if Dana wants to run his mouth, don’t say something that you’re not going to back up. You challenged all the boxing guys. You challenged Floyd Mayweather Jr. You make all these challenges, well, here, you said something; I’m putting a challenge to him. Step up. You claimed that they were all cowards and they didn’t have the balls to step up and laughed about it. Well, now I’m saying, look, you’re a coward. You’re not stepping up, and you made this statement, and I’m willing to prove you wrong.”

One of the more recent, and highly memorable barbs traded by these two men came from Dana White in September of 2010 following Chael Sonnen’s failed post-UFC 117 drug test. As reported by MMATorch, White stated,

“Everybody makes mistakes, it’s how you deal with those mistakes. You take a guy like Josh Barnett. This guy has tested positive three times, denies every time that he’s taken steroids. He comes out with an interview last week, basically saying ‘I don’t care about anyone else. The only person I care about is myself. I got some fans out there, thanks for following me or whatever but I’m not fighting for you, I’m fighting for me.’

“This is a guy who single handedly put a company out of business for doing what he did and has zero remorse for it. ‘I don’t care that you bought tickets for that fight and you were planning on going. I don’t care that Fedor flew all the way in from Russia to fight me, and trained and spent his own money to do this. I don’t care that this company Affliction believed in me and was allowing me to make a living and I put them out of business. All I care about is me.’ Those are the kind of guys that I have zero tolerance for, and that’s why he’s not in the UFC and never will be.”

Right now, it looks as if money, and not time, have healed old wounds. I suppose that this just proves that you can’t believe everything that you hear, that the dollar reigns supreme. To an extent, I enjoyed the banter, it made for some great headlines. However, as a fight fan, I found such bickering to be a tragedy of sorts. At a time when the UFC’s Heavyweight Division was at its weakest, a top talent like Barnett would have been incredible.

Barnett is now 35, and has been a professional fighter for 16 years, so one is left to wonder how many great fights he has left in the tank. His lopsided loss to Daniel Cormier a year ago tends to support the case that he’s on the downswing. In any event, I’m sure he’ll notch his belt with a few more wins, but I have my doubts that he’ll be able to overcome the new crop of young talent that dominates the division. What a shame that personal squabbling on both sides delayed his return to the UFC.

Sonnen (photo via telegraph.co.uk)

By FCF Staff

Chael Sonnen remained in the MMA spotlight recently by calling out Wanderlei Silva on “UFC Tonight”, and although the former PRIDE champ appeared to accept the challenge, the bout apparently isn’t done just yet.

Sonnen took to Twitter recently and directed the following post at Silva:

Wand- you have 24 hours to accept. If you do, I will donate 10% of my purse to help schools in your hometown of Curitiba .. I mean, VEGAS.

After Sonnen’s original challenge, which came just days after he was quickly stopped by Jon Jones at UFC 159, Silva tweeted “let’s go” and warned the outgoing fighter that “real men talk face to face.”

Due to the attendance and ratings draw a Silva-Sonnen bout would likely pull in, one would think this bout will get signed at some juncture. There has been speculation that the UFC might look to place the fight on the upcoming, August 17th, UFC on FOX Sports 1 card.

Silva has yet to book a fight since he knocked out Brian Stann at UFC on FUEL TV 8 in March.

Weidman (photo via UFC.com)

By Joshua Molina

Everybody’s a big shot until they get hit in the face.

That may be a lesson Chris Weidman will have to learn sooner rather than later.

Weidman will battle UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva on July 6. In a recently published report, Weidman said that he is a “nightmare matchup for Anderson.” Weidman is 9-0 and the No. 1 contender. Silva is 33-4 and regarded as pound-for-pound the best mixed martial artist in the world.

It’s great that Weidman has confidence going in there against Silva, but he ought to be careful not to overlook the talented champion. He has a way of knocking out and submitting fighters, even if he loses every round – just ask Chael Sonnen.

It’s true that Silva has benefited from fighting sparingly, and then fighting guys that in the last few years that didn’t pose a real threat to him. But Weidman shouldn’t be so confident going in there with a guy who even UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones says is the best MMA fighter on the planet.

. . .  Speaking of top middleweights, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza will fight on May 18 on FX against Chris Camozzi, who replaces Costa Philippou, forced out by a cut. Souza, the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, is a dangerous fighter who beat Tim Kennedy for the vacant title after Cung Le left for Hollywood. Souza lost to former Strikeforce middleweight champ Luke Rockhold.

Souza should be in the UFC title picture very soon if he puts together a couple of victories.

. . .  Here’s something to think about. Floyd Mayweather Jr. will step inside the ring Saturday night to fight Roberto Guerrero, in a big-time boxing match. Mayweather will defend his welterweight championship against Guerrero. Mayweather, who is undefeated, will earn $32 million for his performance, win or lose. He will earn millions more from the Pay Per View buy rate.

For years now people have been saying that boxing is dead, but Mayweather is bigger than any UFC star will ever be and makes a lot more money. Jon Jones, the light-heavyweight champ, earned $400,000 for defending against Chael Sonnen last weekend. He will earn more from Pay Per View buys.

With such a huge gap in salaries, for shows that should do comparable Pay Per View buy rates (the Mayweather fight will probably top 1.1. million), where’s all the UFC money going?

"King Mo" Lawal celebrates victory in his Bellator debut (photo via Bellator)

By Joshua Molina

Time for Chael Sonnen to Call Vince McMahon.

No amount of money will be worth getting knocked out three times in a row.

Sonnen is a showman and his best days are behind him. The brilliant trash talk works when you win now and then. It doesn’t work when you can’t make it out of the first round.

Wanderlei Silva will knock Sonnen out. That’s not the way he wants to go out. It’s respectable to lose to Jon Jones and Anderson Silva, the best MMA fighters in the world. Get KO’d by Wanderlei Silva at this stage of his career?

That’s a one-way ticket to a tarnished legacy.

. . . “King Mo” Lawal made his pro wrestling in-ring debut last night in an untelevised dark match for Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Mo wrestled Wednesday night at the Davis Arena in Louisville, winning in his debut against Austin Bradley. After a short exchange, Mo arm-barred Bradley.

In a big mistake, King Mo must now take on Seth Petruzelli in Bellator on June 19. Petruzelli, of course, KO’d Kimbo Slice, on national television. If King Mo chooses to wrestle, he can win. If Mo chooses to stand with the Silverback, Petruzelli will turn him into Queen Mo very quickly.

King Mo’s career focus seems to have become unclear. Wrestling in untelevised matches? Fighting heavyweights with knockout power?

Like Sonnen, Mo can’t afford anymore KO losses right now.

By FCF Staff

After being stopped by UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones last weekend, Chael Sonnen hinted that his career may be coming to a close, but the charismatic vet has ultimately decided to keep fighting.

While speaking on the UFC Tonight program, the 36 year-old fighter relayed that he is “definitely” not retiring, and that he plans to stay at light-heavyweight for the foreseeable future. Sonnen based his decision on the fact that he’s already fought many of the top middleweights in the UFC, including champion Anderson Silva twice, but that if the landscape were to change, he may consider returning to the division.

When asked by host Kenny Florian who he’s interested in fighting next, Sonnen called out Wanderlei Silva, who he’s quarreled publicly with in the past.

He’s called me out before, and I’ve called him out, but the fight never really made sense,” said Sonnen. “I was a contender, and he was just a guy on the card. Now I think the fight does make it a little more sense.”

Sonnen then added: “I’m not going anywhere until me and Wanderlei straighten this thing out.”

The 36 year-old Silva is coming off a KO win over Brian Stann in March, and currently has no fight booked. Due to the rivalry between Silva and Sonnen, as well as their drawing power, this fight will very likely get signed if the former PRIDE champ is interested.

UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva

By Joshua Molina

In the past year, Jon Jones has fought twice — against Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort.

Those are two guys who, at this stage of their career, probably ought to be competing in the World Series of Fighting, not for a UFC title.

Anderson Silva has fought twice in the last year, against Stephan Bonnar and Chael Sonnen.

How is it that the supposed two best fighters in the world, separated by one weight class and 20 pounds, have fought a combined four times in the last year, and against only three different opponents?

By way of comparison, at least Georges St-Pierre, the other guy in the pound-for-pound great discussion, fought two top contenders within a five-month span this last year.

It is absolutely time for some Super Fights.

There’s no good reason for these big fights not to happen. If you ask any boxing fan over 40 to recall some of his best fight memories, he will mention Mike Tyson and a series of Super Fights that elevated the sport.

We had Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns for the welterweight title. There was Leonard vs. Roberto Duran – twice – for the welterweight gold. Leonard, Duran and Hearns all moved up two weight classes to fight middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, who beat Duran and Hearns, but lost to Leonard.

Leonard eventually won the light-heavyweight championship. Great fighters such as Hector “Macho” Camacho, Oscar de la Hoya, Roy Jones Jr. and Evander Holyfield all moved up in weight classes, and guess what? They are all now remembered as among boxing’s elite.

One of the problems is that the public doesn’t clamor for big MMA fights in the same way it does boxing fights. The UFC is still wildly popular among its base, but your average person could probably fire off the names of five boxers past, and present, for every one MMA fighter they could think of.

MMA needs SuperFights and it needs it now.

Unless of course Chael Sonnen can convince Dana White that he deserves a title shot against Cain Velasquez.

Sonnen

Roy Nelson to Fight Daniel Cormier or Mark Hunt

By FCF Staff

Immediately after being overpowered by UFC light-Heavyweight champ Jon Jones at UFC 159, Chael Sonnen hinted in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that his fighting career may be over. During the post-fight presser, the former middleweight contender relayed that he’ll take some time before any decision is made.

When asked to expand on his future in fighting, Sonnen stated he’s not ready to make up his mind yet, but expressed concerns as to what could be next. Since he’s already fought middleweight champion Anderson Silva twice, and now Jones, he added “what are they going to do with me? Put me in with Anderson Silva?” (Quote via MMA Junkie.com).

Speaking of Jones and Silva,  according to multiple reports, UFC President Dana White revealed at the post-fight presser that the middleweight champion called him last night to request a “super fight.” While White wouldn’t confirm whether Silva called regarding Jones or welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, it’s interesting that the renowned fighter would do so, the same night Jones stopped his longtime rival Sonnen.

Of course, Silva has to get by rising middleweight Chris Weidman first, which will take place on July 6th.

One of the card’s highlights was Roy Nelson’s first round stoppage of Cheick Kongo, which prompted the heavyweight to call for a title shot. While White isn’t ready to declare Nelson as the top contender, he confirmed that Daniel Cormier or Mark Hunt will be the powerful slugger’s next opponent.

Cormier responded via Twitter to White’s proposal by stating that the bout “would be a damn good fight.”

Hunt is scheduled to fight former champ Junior dos Santos at UFC 160 on May 25th.

Jon Jones (photo via Al Bello/ Zuffa LLC)

By FCF Staff

Jon Jones relayed heading into UFC 159 tonight that observers may be looking past his ability to take decorated wrestler Chael Sonnen to the mat, and the light-heavyweight turned to his top game to put away the challenger in round one.

Although Sonnen was able to get back to his feet after Jones scored a couple of takedowns early on, the powerful champion began landing vicious elbows from the top position as the round approached its end. As Sonnen attempted to defend himself from the bottom along the Octagon fence, Jones landed a follow up knee to the body and several more strikes, before the bout was brought to a halt.

Despite the fact Sonnen appeared relatively okay immediately following the stoppage, the former middleweight conceded that Jones had been the better man tonight, and was noncommittal when asked about his future.

As Jones joined UFC commentator Joe Rogan for his post-fight interview, the champion realized he had a foot injury, and the camera panned down to reveal that his left, big toe was severely broken. A clearly shaken and in pain Jones continued to do the interview as doctors attended to him. If the bout had not been stopped in the champion’s favor, it may have been called in between rounds due to the nature of Jones’ injury.

Here are the results from tonight’s UFC 159 card, which was hosted by the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Jon Jones def. Chael Sonnen via TKO (punches and elbows)- R1 4:33

Michael Bisping def. Alan Belcher via technical decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)- R3 4:31

Roy Nelson def. Cheick Kongo via knockout (punch) – R1, 2:03

Phil Davis def. Vinny Magalhaes via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Pat Healy def. Jim Miller via submission (rear-naked choke) – R3, 4:02

Rustam Khabilov def. Yancy Medeiros via TKO (thumb injury) – R1, 2:32

Ovince St. Preux def. Gian Villante via majority technical decision (30-28, 30-29, 29-29) – R3, 0:33

Sara McMann def. Sheila Gaff via TKO (strikes) – R1, 4:06

Bryan Caraway def. Johnny Bedford via submission (guillotine choke) – R3, 4:44

Cody McKenzie def. Leonard Garcia via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Steven Siler def. Kurt Holobaugh via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Chael Sonnen

By Joshua Molina

Chael Sonnen needs to shut up.

He’s been running his mouth almost non-stop for most of the year. After trashing Anderson Silva, his country and his training partners, he walked into the cage and got TKO’d by Silva in July.

Now, he’s trying to bait Jon Jones into agreeing to fight him. He was willing to replace an injured Dan Henderson and fight Jones on eight days notice on Sept. 1, but when Jones refused, Sonnen attacked him. He’s called him a chicken, a coward and a mental midget. Now he told ESPN radio that he will end up fighting Jones on Sept. 22 because Jones’ opponent, Vitor Belfort, is going to pull out of the fight.

Sonnen has been praised for his willingness to fight Jones on such short notice, but Jones and others have speculated that Sonnen has been quietly training for the fight because he knew Henderson was too injured to fight more than three weeks prior. Was Sonnen courageous or cunning?

Regardless of what Sonnen knew and when he knew it, he needs to stop talking before he ends up making a fool of himself.

Here’s why the Sonnen trash talk worked with Silva. People believed he could win. He hammered the unbeatable Silva for four rounds, then made a mistake, and paid for it, tapping out to a triangle choke.

The insults worked against Silva in the rematch because fans believed that he could actually beat him. It doesn’t matter that Sonnen was TKO’d in the second fight. Once again, Sonnen won the first round, and then made a mistake in the second (why on earth is he trying spinning backfists)?

Fight fans know that Sonnen is competitive with Silva, so listening to his trash talk is worth their time.

That’s not the case with Jones.

We don’t know that he’s competitive with Jones. In fact, the most logical assumption is that he’s not.

Jones is bigger, younger, faster, and just about more skilled in everything except wrestling and trash talking. To use pro wrestling vernacular that Sonnen would appreciate, barring some outside interference from Dan Henderson in the match, when the referee isn’t looking, Jones would likely clobber Sonnen and do it worse than Silva did.

Sonnen needs to calm down and stop diluting his effectiveness as a UFC character. There’s a fine line between brilliant self promoter and bizarre, delusional self promoter.

What if Sonnen talks his way into a fight with Jones and then gets tapped out in the first round? He’s going to have a hard time selling his next fight based on trash talk. He also needs to show some modicum of respect for Jones as a fighter. He’s not a coward for not wanting to fight a new opponent on eight days notice.

Professional fighters aren’t chickens or cowards. Jones may have his priorities out of whack; he might be getting bad advice from those around him; he might be playing it too safe and trying his career, but he’s not a chicken.

Besides, Jones is so hated in MMA right now that it really doesn’t matter if he fights Belfort, Sonnen or Elton John; people will pay to see him fight anybody, hoping that he will lose. At least for one more pay per view.

Lack of competition alert: Everyone in MMA is still reeling over Dana White’s verbal destruction of Jones last week during a media call. White wouldn’t be acting that way if there were another MMA competitor that he could lose Jones to. It’s easy for White to abuse Jones because he knows Jones probably won’t fight anywhere out of the UFC.

Theoretically Jones could move to Bellator once his UFC contract is up, but White doesn’t appear to be too worried about Bellator as competition yet. The UFC is not MMA.

Contact reporter Joshua Molina at jmolina@fcfighter.com. Or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JoshuaMolinaMMA

Ronda Rousey (left) has made her opinion on the Jon Jones-UFC situation clear. Photo Credit: Esther Lin/Showtime

By Joshua Molina

Not too surprisingly, Ronda Rousey agrees with UFC president Dana White.

She also believes Jon Jones should have fought Chael Sonnen on eight days notice.

Rousey, who smashed Sarah Kaufman two weeks ago in 54 seconds, told ESPN this:

“I don’t know what Jon Jones’ reasoning is, but I’d have made a different decision,” Rousey told espn.com.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina

Sometimes you can be your worst enemy. That was the case this week with UFC boss Dana White.

At a time when he should have been protecting the business that he claims to have created, he was actually destroying it.

In recent years the UFC has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in pay per view buys and live gates, but it’s never a good thing when network sports writers are saying that you have no class.

CBS Sports.com National Columnist Gregg Doyel wrote this after Thursday’s debacle involving UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and his trainer Greg Jackson:

“Jones and Jackson don’t deserve crucifixion. They deserve what everyone in the UFC deserves on a hard day like Thursday: They deserve a company president with class. But they got Dana White.”

As everyone knows now, Dan Henderson injured his knee and pulled out of his fight with Jones. Chael Sonnen agreed to fight Jones on eight days notice. Jones refused to fight Sonnen.  White canceled UFC 151 scheduled for Sept. 1 – and blamed the cancelation on Jones for refusing to fight Sonnen.

King Mo Muhammad Lawal and Rampage Jackson appear in a video seemingly putting their differences behind them.  Not too long ago, Jackson called King Mo “Queen Ho” because he wore nipple rings. King Mo felt that the Jackson ignored him when he met him at a King of the Cage event.

The most interesting part of the video, however, is Jackson saying he wants to leave UFC and MMA to go box or kickbox because too many fighters are not fighting, and instead rolling around “humping” each other, creating boring fights.

Jackson trashed Sonnen for his style of fighting, but King Mo defended him, saying that he knows how to promote fights and you are fighting him, he’s going to “put money in your pocket.”

King Mo, by the way, is in full pro wrestling mode.

He’s about to make his pro wrestling debut with TNA on Spike TV, before debuting with Bellator at the beginning of the year, where he hopes to compete as a full-time MMA and pro wrestler. At the end of the interview, he shakes Rampage’s hand and tells him that the two should reform the famous 1990s tag team of “Harlem Heat,” where King Mo would play Booker T and Jackson would be Stevie Ray. Booker T, by the way, was the far more successful, and better-conditioned of the two athletes.

Fortunately for Dana White, the UFC has Chael Sonnen to keep the interest in the company alive.

Sonnen continues his verbal beat down of Jon Jones, this time in the form of a clever pizza special at the pizza restaurant he owns Oregon.

People can buy the “The Jon Jones” pizza special, loaded with chicken and cheese. The pizza comes with a six-pack of beer with special delivery (Jones of course was arrested and convicted of drunken driving earlier this year).

The best line is at the bottom of the advertisement, “Hurry Up! Get this deal now before our chicken runs out and we have to cancel.”

Sonnen is doing everything he can to angle himself into a fight with Jones. Even if it never happens, he keeps his name relevant and he is still the best in the sport and promoting fights.

Contact reporter Joshua Molina at jmolina@fcfighter.com. Or follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JoshuaMolinaMMA