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The long-anticipated professional debut of Ryan Couture (0-0 MMA, 0-0 SF) is now official.

 

Following a successful amateur career, Couture will cash his first paycheck following an Aug. 13 bout against Rage in the Cage veteran Lucas Stark (2-4 MMA, 0-0 SF) at Strikeforce Challengers 10.

 

Couture, of course, is the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and trains with his father's Xtreme Couture camp in Las Vegas.

 

Strikeforce Challengers 10 takes place Aug. 13 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz., and airs on Showtime. A 182-pound catchweight bout between veteran Joe Riggs and Louis Taylor headlines the event.

 

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker first announced the fight on Tuesday while a guest on "Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch" on the Arizona-based KDUS-AM 1060.

 

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) has since confirmed the matchup with Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz, who said the bout was the first of a multi-fight deal with Couture. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

 

A lightweight, Couture makes his pro debut at 27 years old. While his father has long been a mainstay in the MMA world, the younger Couture didn't know from day one that he would follow in his father's footsteps.

 

"I was 200 pounds and lazy and working at a bank," Couture told MMAjunkie.com in 2009. "I was thinking, 'What's my future?' … I didn't have any idea this would happen."

 

Nevertheless, Couture has embraced the family business and has rattled off five wins via submission since making his amateur debut.

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Nothing that Jon Jones says would suggest that he’s fallen in love with himself or that he believes he’s God’s gift to mixed martial arts. He speaks softly and humbly, talking of what an honor it is to fight Vladimir Matyushenko and scoffing at suggestions he’s on the verge of becoming a superstar.

Listen to him rave about Matyushenko’s skills and you might walk away fearing for Jones’ safety.

Yet, one needs to go no further than UFC.com to see the 23-year-old light heavyweight referred to as the future of the MMA. Search the Internet and you’ll see words such as “star,” “sensation,” “phenom” and “generational talent” next to his name.

More From Kevin Iole

 

 

 

After dismantling Brandon Vera, himself once a heavily hyped UFC prospect poised on the brink of stardom, on March 21 in Broomfield, Colo., Jones seems a fight away from hitting the big-time. The UFC’s light heavyweight division is filled with, well, stars, sensations and phenoms, from guys like champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former champions Lyoto Machida, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans to legends like Randy Couture and Rich Franklin.

Jones has the talent to some day place himself in the same sentence with those types of fighters, though he’s yet to accomplish an iota of what the least of them have so far.

And in professional sports, there are many more great prospects who don’t make it big than there are those who do. All you have to do to understand that is to remember JaMarcus Russell, David Carr, Ki-Jana Carter, Aundray Bruce and Walt Patulski, all former first overall selections in the NFL Draft who were flops of varying levels once they turned pro. And that doesn’t even consider the NBA, where guys like Kwame Brown and Michael Olowokandi are prominent among the first overall flops.

Jones is extraordinarily gifted, no doubt – Just watch the way he almost effortlessly took apart Stephan Bonnar and Vera if you need convincing – but he still has to prove he can handle the pressure that comes with being a young prodigy.

He’s going to have women throwing themselves at him and men making him all sorts of outlandish business propositions. For the time being, he’ll never have to pay for his own drinks if he chooses to hit a night club, which might seem like a good thing, but the more he wins and the greater the legend grows, the greater the scrutiny will get.

Evans, his teammate at Jackson’s Submission Fighting, knows a thing or two about dealing with soaring expectations. He likes what he sees from Jones, but he also knows there’s a long way to go before anyone draws conclusions.

“It’s hard to hear the praise and people saying you’re this and you’re that and not get sucked in by it,” Evans said. “Whenever you build a high profile, there are always going to be expectations and, a lot of times, living up to those expectations is the hardest part. Jon seems to be doing a decent job of showing up to the fights and being a game fighter when he hits the arena, but the more successful he is, the more pressure there’s going to be and the more people are going to expect from him.

“People are cheering him and telling him he’s great and they’re patting him on the back. But the thing about that is, the same people who are patting you on the back and wanting to be your best friend are going to be the ones who will break you when you hit a bump in the road.”

The best move Jones has made in his young career probably was opting to train at Jackson’s in Albuquerque, N.M., where a treasure trove of not only the sport’s elite but also the sport’s most grounded personalities are housed. Jones is a teammate of Evans and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, as well as veterans like Keith Jardine and Shane Carwin. They’re the consummate professionals, even-keeled and level-headed and their presence has helped teach Jones the importance of losing the ego, ignoring the expectations and working every day in order to get better.

“Growing up, being humble was something that was stressed to me time and time again,” Jones said. “And working at Jackson’s and being around guys like Rashad and Keith Jardine, they’re like big brothers and they show me the right way to do things.

“I don’t pay attention to the hype. It’s not that important to me, honestly. I am in MMA because I have a passion for the sport. I love it. It’s becoming who I am as a person. And I know there are going to be critics, some who love what you’re doing and some who hate what you’re doing. To me, none of it matters. The only thing that matters is being humble and working as hard as I can and fighting the best that I can because this is what I love to do.”

Trainer Greg Jackson said when he was building his camp, he recalled a story he heard one of The Beatles tell about how they dealt with fame. It’s become part of the philosophy of his gym, for the group to keep the individual grounded and humble.

The Beatles remain one of the greatest acts in history. But Jackson said they policed themselves and didn’t allow each other to change and become influenced by their press clippings.

“When one of them would get full of himself and start to show his ego, the other three would jump on him,” Jackson said. “They’d say, ‘Hey, relax. You’re one of us. We’re all in the same boat.’ And in our gym, with the culture the way it is and the number of veterans we have, it’s kind of that way.

“A hot prospect can’t come into our gym and say he’s done this or that, because so many of the guys there have already done that. Jon’s a humble guy to begin with, but when he comes through the doors and sees a Georges St. Pierre or a Rashad Evans and he realizes that no matter what anyone thinks about him, they’ve done what he’s done and way more. It’s not a giant deal to them and they remind each other about the need to stay humble and to keep your focus.”

Jackson said Matyushenko is the perfect type of opponent for Jones at this stage of Jones’ career. Matyushenko is 24-4 and a former International Fight League champion. He once fought Tito Ortiz for the UFC light heavyweight title and his only losses are to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, Vernon White and Ortiz.

He’s not going to be intimidated or awestruck by Jones. And nor, Jones said, should he.

“He’s an extremely durable guy and he’s earned the respect of everybody in this business,” Jones said of Matyushenko. “He’s a lion and he’s not going to lay down for a 23-year-old kid. I don’t know for sure what is going to happen, but I do know it’s going to be a very tough fight.”

Jones has quickly earned the respect of UFC president Dana White, but even White, who frequently gets fired up by a high-profile knockout, knows he has to temper his enthusiasm.

Jones is still more about potential than performance and White knows all too well that a lot of potentially great fighters have come into the UFC and left with losing records, swollen eyes and bloodied lips.

“He’s an extremely talented kid with a great future,” White said. “But he’s a young guy and he’s got to do it in the Octagon. I know you guys (in the media) love him, and I’ll admit, it’s hard not to when you see what he can do. But to become a star in this sport and to make it to legend status, you have to do it night after night and year after year and you have to prove you can handle all the outside stuff that comes with it.

“He’s off to a good start, but he’s got a long way to go, still, and a lot to prove.”

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Impact FC, an Australian mixed martial arts start-up, may be done almost as quickly as it started.

The promotions put on two events in an eight-day span, one in Brisbane, the other in Sydney.

 

A report from Cage Potato shed light on the fact that the vast majority of the promotion’s fighters have yet to be paid. MMAWeekly.com was also able to verify those claims. Fighters such as Karo Parisyan, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Jesse Taylor, Jeff Monson, Brian Ebersole, and Denis Kang are among those that have yet to receive payment or have only received partial payment.

The problem appears to be between the two men that head Impact FC and a disagreement over who was responsible for the finances. Australian concert promoter Andrew McManus and his Impact FC partner Tom Huggins are the principle parties sparring over who owes what.

“[Tom] Huggins has run back to Brazil and is uncontactable, whilst I (who never negotiated, contracted or was a party to any deal) have now been left trying to find funds to pay the men whilst all the false promises of sponsorships (never happened) and late gate sales and walk up all turned out to be lies,” McManus wrote in an email to the blog Cage Potato.

“That statement is categorically untrue,” Huggins wrote in resonse to McManus. “I can provide you with the agreement between Andrew and myself, which clearly demonstrates that my responsibility was to procure fighters and make matches for the event within a given budget. The agreement clearly shows that ALL of the financing for the events, including fighter purses, was the responsibility of McManus.”

McManus then responded, saying he never signed such an agreement and that Huggins was a 50-percent partner in Impact FC.

It was unclear, at the time of publication, whether or not the fighters would eventually receive all of the payment due, but it seems apparent that Impact FC has had it’s day in the sun and will likely not come through on a planned September event.

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In Jones eyes, doing the right thing definitely included spilling the beans anytime he witnessed anything he judged to be wrong as an adolescent.

 

“I’ve always been a person who tries to do the right thing in life, for the most part,” said Jones. “I’m no angel, but I was always the kid who snitched on the kids who had pot. I don’t want to offend the pot smokers out there, but I was kind of just a snitch. I was just down for people doing the right thing"

 

Fuck Jon Jones, WAR MATYUSHENKO, brutal hype-train derailment Belarussian style.

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i think bellator is a pretty good company being that they put on pretty quality shows with alot of people that most of us have never heard of before. sucks that the ufc filed a lawsuit against them, hope it don't sink there ship.

 

Yeah, they have some good fights in there, not all the time, but enough that I'll check it out. Why are they getting sued?

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http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=ki-ufcsuit072910

 

 

 

LAS VEGAS – Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, has filed suit against Ken Pavia, one of the sport’s most prominent fighter agents, alleging Pavia passed along trade secrets and confidential Zuffa documents to rival mixed martial arts promotion Bellator.

 

The suit alleges that Bellator used the documents to help run its business.

 

Pavia is the founder of MMA Agents and represents in excess of 50 fighters, more than 40 of whom are now or have been in the past under contract to Zuffa.

 

More From Kevin Iole

Jones holds steady while hype builds Jul 30, 2010

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Bellator, which is a co-defendant, is a fledgling MMA promotional company that has earned rave reviews for the entertaining fights it made during its first two seasons, which were broadcast initially on ESPN Deportes and then on FOX Sports Net, among other networks.

 

According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court, Pavia delivered confidential contracts, including fighter agreements, to Bellator after being asked to do so in a July 4 email to him from Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney.

 

In a text message to Yahoo! Sports on Thursday, Pavia wrote “I want to get a better understanding of this before I comment.” Rebney referred calls to Bellator attorney Patrick English.

 

“I’ve looked at the paperwork, and I understand what’s going on here, and it is literally much ado about very little,” English said.

 

“There were documents sent by Mr. Pavia to Bellator, but they are not of a competitive nature and they would give no advantage or disadvantage to the viewer. The bulk of them in no way, shape or form would be considered confidential and are not what I consider to be documents that Zuffa should be concerned about.

 

“I did attempt to reach out to Zuffa [Thursday] and, unfortunately, have not gotten a return call. It happens that Bellator has not used any of the documents in any case.”

 

An email which Zuffa’s lawsuit alleges is from Rebney to Pavia on July 4 was attached as an exhibit to the 16-page suit. In it, Rebney writes, ” … You’ve been great about sending us ‘All’ of the seminal docs from the UFC, so that we can re-do them and implement them for Bellator.”

 

Later, the email Zuffa alleges to have been written by Rebney continues, “Please list each in terms of what it is for and how the UFC uses them/implements them. … Then I’m going to have our team Monday re-type them and we will sufficiently alter them such that they will appear to be ours and not theirs.”

 

The response that is purported to have come from Pavia is brief and says, in its entirety, “Still I (sic) vegas. May take 24 hours to organize as some forms go to the guys in my office.”

 

Pavia was in Las Vegas for UFC 116 on July 3 and the alleged email is dated July 4. The email addresses that are in the emails Zuffa included are the email addresses for Rebney and Pavia.

 

English said Rebney’s email “was phrased in an unfortunate way.”

 

Also included in the suit are unnamed persons and corporations that Zuffa alleges participated in breach of contract. According to the suit, “The improper disclosure of Zuffa’s operations documents and confidential information by Pavia, MMA Agents, and the Doe and Roe Defendants constitutes a distinct act of dominion wrongfully exerted over Zuffa’s personal property.”

 

It further states, “The improper use by Bellator of Zuffa’s operational documents and confidential information in order to conduct its competing business operations constitutes a distinct act of dominion wrongfully exerted over Zuffa’s personal property.”

 

Zuffa seeks actual and punitive damages and a permanent injunction barring Bellator or Pavia from using Zuffa’s assets, including its intellectual property.

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:lol:

anthony please stop posting broing mma news articles

just for you

 

Here comes the Hammer.

 

Stanley Burrell, also known as MC Hammer, announced today that he's getting into the MMA business with Alchemist Management, a new management and "brand-building" firm based out of Los Angeles.

 

"I've been a fan of combat sports for years," MC Hammer stated today in a press release. "MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and this is a great opportunity for us to launch a full-service management company."

 

Known for 90s mega-hits such as "U Can't Touch This" and "2 Legit 2 Quit" and his trademark Hammer Pants, MC Hammer's rise to fame and sudden bankruptcy were perfect fodder for VH1's "Behind the Music." The hip-hop artist later became a minister and continued to work on a comeback while appearing on VH1's "The Surreal Life."

 

MC Hammer was most recently seen on A&E's reality series "Hammertime," which profiled his life as a family man and entrepreneur. It ran for 12 episodes in 2009.

 

In his new MMA venture, MC Hammer will take the reigns as CEO of Alchemist while managers Lex MacMahon and Nima Safapour will join the company as President and Vice President of Business Affairs and General Counsel, respectively.

 

The firm has amassed several high-profile MMA names, including former UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt and veterans Vladimir Matyushenko, Jorge Rivera, Jared Hamman, Antoni Hardonk and James McSweeney. Current Strikeforce middleweight contender Tim Kennedy has also signed on.

 

Safapour and McMahon previously managed several of the competitors now inked to Alchemist.

 

"Alchemist Management will leverage its relationships and resources for the benefit of fighters, the sponsors, and the industry at large," MC Hammer stated.

 

In social networking terms, you could say Hammer's star is too legit. An early advocate of Twitter, Hammer has 1.8 million Twitter followers to White's 1.1 million-plus.

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The main card for September's WEC 51 event now appears complete.

 

World Extreme Cagefighting officials recently moved a featherweight bout between "The Korean Zombie," Chan Sung Jung (10-2 MMA, 0-1 WEC), and opponent George Roop (10-6-1 MMA, 0-1-1 WEC) from the preliminary card to the night's Versus-televised main card.

 

The five-fight televised lineup is now set for the card, which takes place Sept. 30 at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo.

 

Featherweight champ Jose Aldo meets Manny Gamburyan in WEC 51 headliner.

 

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) initially passed along news of the Jung vs. Roop bout earlier this month.

 

Jung, a former World Victory Road/Sengoku fighter, made his highly anticipated WEC debut in April during WEC 48, which marked the organization's pay-per-view debut. The Jung vs. Leonard Garcia bout was part of the night's pre-PPV special on Spike TV. In a knockdown, drag-out affair, Garcia earned a close split-decision win, though both competitors earned "Fight of the Night" bonus checks.

 

Jung became an overnight sensation with North American fans thanks to the performance, But including a unanimous-decision loss to former Sengoku champ Masanori Kanehara in May 2009, he now has lost two of his past three fights.

 

He looks to rebound against Roop, who gets a third shot at a first WEC win. "The Ultimate Fighter 8" cast member and former UFC fighter dropped two weight classes and fought bantamweight Eddie Wineland at WEC 46, where he suffered a unanimous-decision loss. He then met Garcia in a rousing WEC 47 featherweight bout that ended in a split draw. Roop is now 2-3-1 over his past six fights going back to the TUF 8 Finale.

 

The latest WEC 51 card now includes:

 

MAIN CARD

  • Champ Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan (for featherweight title)
  • Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia
  • Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner
  • Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop
  • Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick

PRELIMINARY CARD

 

  • Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff
  • Antonio Banuelos vs. Chad George
  • Tyler Toner vs. TBA*

* - Not officially announced

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