Koch out, Edgar in

At first I thought some one was bluffing but then came the confirmed news. Frankie Edgar is getting a title shot at 145 Lbs because he is a company man. And also, Erik Koch is injured of course. Fight is schedule for the UFC 153 event on the October 13 in HSBC Arena, Rio de Janeiro.

It seems in the UFC, fortune favours the loyal.


Article from MMA Fighting


Aug 31, 2012 - Frankie Edgar will be getting an immediate title shot when he drops to featherweight after all.

Edgar has replaced Erik Koch in the UFC 153 main event and will face Jose Aldo, MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani has confirmed. USA Today was the first to break the news.

Koch suffered a knee injury recently and was forced to withdraw from the fight, according to Helwani.

Edgar (14-3-1) has lost his past two fights to UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson. He was expected to make his featherweight debut later this year before the injury to Koch.

Koch apologized to his fans on Twitter, stating "I'm sorry guys this has been one crazy year for me deff a hard one, I just wanna thank all of you guys for the support means the world to me."

Aldo (21-1), who has won 14 straight fights, was critical of former UFC champion Edgar recently in an interview with Tatame.

"He said he wants to drop to featherweight, so I'm hoping he does that to end this story," Aldo told Tatame.com. "He's welcome here so that we can shut him off and he goes to the lightweight or bantamweight classes."

UFC 153 is scheduled for Oct. 13 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Last Stand? No, This Is Kenny Florian's Time

From Fightline
by Mark Wayne

Many see Kenny Florian's upcoming title fight with UFC featherweight champion José Aldo - his third shot at UFC gold - as possibly his last opportunity to fight for a belt. Florian has seen championship rounds twice and, after losing an opportunity to fight Frankie Edgar by losing to Gray Manyard in a title eliminator, the affable Bostonian dropped to featherweight to mount what has been called his last stand.
Florian though, doesn't quite look at it in those terms.

"I don't really see it that way," said Florian. "I'm fortunate that I love what I do. I love going to the gym everyday and learning. I love the challenges. I've been in the UFC a long time. I think, just to be able to do that, has been a blessing. I want to compete against the best guys and that's what I have here on Saturday night. I'm gonna go out there and get it done. This has been an excellent training camp and I feel that it's my time."

Ken-Flo believes that the fight, which takes place in the co-main event slot of UFC 136: Edgar vs. Maynard 3 tomorrow night from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, will be one of the - or possibly the - most difficult of his career, but he still plans on walking out of the ring with a belt.

"It's gonna be a tough fight, Aldo's dangerous and I expect it's going to be a bloody fight," he predicted. "I'll leave there bloody, but I'll leave there with the belt."

JOSE ALDO: FROM FAVELA TO THE OCTAGON™

A Beautiful feature on Jose Aldo Jr.

He Talks about how he got to be where he is right now and his dreams and some bad ass Rocky training Nova Uniao style

UFC 136 Edgar vs Maynard III Press Conference

UFC 136 official press conference in Houston, Texas

Note to Kenny Florian

Jose Aldo means Business

UFC 136 Fight Card

On the 8th October finally the wait is over. Edgar vs Maynard III is on. It is a highly anticipated bout between champ and challenger ever since the last fight was an exciting draw. Experts and fans a like were split between who won so too were the judges.

But come this Saturday in the Toyota Center, Houston, Texas a winner will emerge. (Hopefully) UFC might have a new Lightweight Champ or the champ might retain his belt and cement his place as the best lightweight in the world and one of the best pound for pound fighters in MMA.

The Co-Main event of the evening is between the highly explosive and very entertaining UFC featherweight Champion, Jose Aldo Jr against a UFC and Ultiamte fighter veteran and Jiu Jitsu expert in Kenny Florian. This is Kenny's second fight in the UFC Featherweight division. His First was against Diego Nunes who is Jose Aldo's team mate in Nova Uniao. My guess is Aldo's team has plenty of information on Florian based on the Nunes fight.

Besides the two title fights, UFC 136 is stacked from the prelims to the main card. First fight for the main card is  Leonard Garcia vs Nam Phan II. The first fight between the two was a war and Leonard Garcia won by Split decision. Next is a ultra exciting fight between Joe Lauzon vs Melvin Guillard. Both fighters are finishers and my bet is this fight won't last till the 3rd round. 2nd round tops.

Then there's the Chael Sonnen vs Brian Stann. All american wrestler vs and all american soldier. This is an excellent middleweight fight. Another title eliminator. Stann is on a role ever since dropping down to 185 lbs and Sonnen was very impressive in his defeat against the champ Anderson Silva. I sure hope Sonnen took Demian Maian advice on learning how to defend a triangle choke cos Stann defeated Mike Massenzio by triangle choke.

Man this card is stacked. (Yes, I know I ahve repeated myself again) Look at it's undercard former Sengoku middleweight Champ, Jorge Santiago vs World Jiu Jitsu Champ Demian Maia, Duke Roufos Stand out and former WEC lightweight Champ Anthony Pettis vs Jeremy Stephens who is riding on a two fight win streak.

Truly UFC 136 might be one of the best cards of the year if it lives to its expectation. Now I can't wait for the weekend to come.

Main card

Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar (c) vs. Gray Maynard
Featherweight Championship bout: José Aldo (c) vs. Kenny Florian
Middleweight bout: Chael Sonnen vs. Brian Stann
Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs. Melvin Guillard
Featherweight bout: Leonard Garcia vs. Nam Phan

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago
Lightweight bout: Anthony Pettis vs. Jeremy Stephens

Preliminary card (Facebook)

Heavyweight bout: Joey Beltran vs. Stipe Miocic
Featherweight bout: Zhang Tie Quan vs. Darren Elkins
Middleweight bout: Aaron Simpson vs. Eric Schafer
Middleweight bout: Steve Cantwell vs. Mike Massenzio

UFC Champs by numbers

I got this info graphic thanks to the guys from Sherdog.com

Data courtesy of Fight metric

Some numbers which stood out to me

Cain Velasquez - Strikes landed per minute - 7.05
Jon Jones          - Take down defended - 100%
Anderson Silva  - Strikes landed  - 68%
Anderson Silva  - Title reign - 1,783 days and counting
Anderson and Cain - Wins by Finishing - 86% of their fights
GSP - Submission attempted per minute - 1.35

Jose Aldo: Weight Cut Battle, Part 1

I'm a Keyboard warrior so I don't know much about the real thing

Watching this video speaks a lot about weight cutting

Many fighters said it over and over again, that the hardest part of a fight is the weight cutting

Man, it is true. You can see it in Aldo's eyes. The pain.

Excruciating

UFC 136 Edgar vs Maynard preview

UFC 136 preview

UFC 136 Edgar vs Maynard III

UFC 136 is just around the corner. It will be on the 8th of October 2011 (For us in Asia it will be on the 9th) held in the Toyota Center, Houston, Texas

It will feature two title fights in the lightweight (155 lbs) and featherweight(145 lbs) division

The main event of the evening would be the lightweight contest between Frankie "The Answer" Edgar vs Gray "The Bully' Maynard. This is going to be the third time the both of them will be fighting each other. The Champ is 0-1-1 against The Bully

While  the co-main event would be the title fight is between the Champ, Jose Aldo vs Kenny Florian for the Featherweight title. This would be Aldo third title defense but only his second in the UFC. (First was in the WEC for their featherweight title)

Here's the official Fight card on the 8th

Main Card

Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard III - Lightweight (155 lbs) title bout
Jose Aldo vs Kenny Florian        - Featherweight (145 lbs) title bout
Chael Sonnen vs Brian Stann      - Middleweight bout
Melvin Guillard vs Joe Lauzon     - Lightweight bout
Leonard Garcia vs Nam Phan II  - Featherweight bout

Spike Prelims

Demian Maia vs Jorge Santiago     - Middlewight bout
Anthony Pettis vs Jeremy Stephens - Lightweight bout

Facebook Prelims

Joey Beltran vs Stipe Miocic          - Heavyweight bout
Zhang Tie Quan vs Darren Elkins   - Featherweight bout
Aaron Simpson vs Eric Schafer      -Middleweight bout
Steve Cantwell vs Mike Massenzio -Middle weight bout

Number of bouts according to weight class
Featherweight - 3 bouts
Lightweight     - 3 bouts
Middleweight   - 4 bouts
Heavyweights   - 1 bout