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Tag: mixed martial arts

  • Gina Carano’s Return to UFC ‘Complicated’

    Back in March, former professional mixed martial artist Gina Carano expressed that she was “very open” to returning to the MMA cage. Two weeks ago, UFC president Dana White stated with confidence that he expected to easily sign Carano to fight the following week. Though Carano has proven more reluctant to return than White anticipated.

    Carano, 32, left the ring for an acting career five years ago, and has been featured in films including Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire alongside Channing Tatum, as well as Fast & Furious 6, which starred the late Paul Walker.

    Regarding having Carano, formerly the third-ranked 145 pound female MMA fighter in the world, back on board with the UFC, White vaguely commented, “It’s going very positive, but it’s complicated.”

    Aside from possible filming schedule conflicts, Carano realizes that five years outside of the ring will have diminished her Muy Thai fighting skills. The actress said in March, “I would definitely take something like that extremely seriously. I would dedicate myself to it, and need the time because you’re taking somebody who hasn’t fought in a while, that hasn’t been in the fight camp-type environment; and it would have to be done in a time where there would be enough time for me to get ready for that and be able to support myself during that time because that’s all I’d be doing is taking that seriously, and it would take me away from other projects or potential projects that I’ve been working this far in my life to get to.”

    Here Carano scraps with Michelle Rodriguez in Fast & Furious 6:

    The last time Carano (who at times goes by “Conviction” in the ring) fought, she was defeated by Christiane “Cyborg” Justino in August, 2009. Carano has not been in the ring in a professional capacity since.

    UFC fans are excited about a possible rematch between former Strikeforce champion Carano and current bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. Rousey said she would go back up to middleweight (145 pounds) to fight Carano. Carano said she would return to the ring if the circumstances were right.

    Image via YouTube

  • Jamie Varner Suffers Broken Ankle at UFC 173

    Admittedly, UFC 173 was not billed as a blockbuster event. Most people dismissed the headlining fight between bantamweights Renan Barao and T.J. Dillashaw, seeing Barao as the much more talented fighter, having won his last 22 fights and going into the contest with a 34-fight unbeaten streak.

    Fortunately for the UFC and Dana White, UFC 173 would go down as one of the most entertaining events in quite some time, with Barao losing handedly to Dillashaw in a stunning upset and another bout giving spectators that gut-wrenching, nauseating feeling of witnessing a broken limb.

    Jamie Varner, a 29-year-old American who had lost three of his last four bouts coming into UFC 173, had no expectations of stealing the limelight. While he most certainly felt he had something to prove to continue in his second stint in the UFC, Varner did not realize the pain he would have to endure in order to assure himself of more fights in the future.

    It became quite apparent early in the first round of Varner’s fight against James Krause that something was wrong with his left leg. Despite the injury, however, Varner continued to fight.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4sqUw8pqXc

    Unfortunately for Varner, he did not receive much sympathy after he informed the doctors and referee that he could not continue the fight after the first round. During his days with the World Extreme Cagefighting, Varner developed a reputation of looking for ways to get out of fights instead of finishing them, something he continued to receive flak from following his bout against Krause.

    During a post-fight examination, though, it was discovered that Varner did in fact receive quite an injury to his ankle during the fight:

    An injury which was perhaps exacerbated by the ringside doctor:

    While Varner did not win the fight, his grit and resiliency did not go unnoticed by UFC President Dana White, who had several glowing comments for Varner following his loss.

    “Usually they’ll quit, guys will tap out and say ‘ahhh, I broke my ankle. There was no quit in that kid. That’s one of those situations where, he kept going. That’s a tough one,” stated White.

    Despite certifying Varner as a “bad ass” and commending his courage inside the octagon, White did express common sense in the post-fight interviews: “If that was my guy, I would have thrown the towel in, in a second.”

    Despite now having lost four of his last five contests, Varner hopes his toughness inside the ring will lead to another chance to prove his worth in the UFC in the near future.

    Image via YouTube

  • Ronda Rousey Boasts She Could Beat Floyd Mayweather

    Ronda Rousey has taken the MMA world by storm since signing a contract with the UFC in 2012. Over that time period, Rousey has won all 9 of her fights in dominating fashion: 8 by arm-bar submission, and her latest fight against Sara McMann was won in just 66 seconds by TKO – a new record for women UFC MMA fighters.

    Not only has Rousey been successful inside the Octagon but also in her ventures outside the octagon. Rousey has filmed two movies (Fast & Furious 7 and The Expendables 3, become a star in the next UFC video game, and has been a coach on the UFC’s successful reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.

    Rousey’s successes has prompted UFC owner Dana White to proclaim that “She’s the hugest superstar.” White would further add to his grandiose statement: “I’m going to go out and say she’s the biggest star we’ve ever had.”

    Unfortunately for Rousey, the sport doesn’t have much more to offer. She has defeated all of the top stars currently fighting in the UFC and is currently awaiting any newcomers hoping to challenge for her title.

    Perhaps it is this “boredom” that pushed Rousey to declare that she could best world-famous, undefeated, and current WBC welterweight world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. In speaking to hosts at Power 106 FM, Rousey unveiled her plan to defeat Mayweather if the two were ever placed in the same octagon:

    “I’ll tell you what I’d do… You ready? I would drop down to the ground and crawl over to him as fast I as I can and then I’d grab him by … I wouldn’t even stand up. I wouldn’t be anywhere near him. I would just do a little army crawl over there [laughs]. He’d have to run away and I’d be skittering after him, like the one dude in ‘Bloodsport’ who was doing the whole monkey-crawl fight system. I would do that. I would just bear crawl over there, just too low for him to hit me and tackle him down.”

    (Here is a video for any who do not get the reference.)

    With UFC 170 not making the amount of money Dana White wanted, perhaps the Mayweather v. Rousey fight will come to fruition sooner than later. Let’s hope.

    Image via Facebook

  • Shane del Rosario: Reports of Death Proven False

    The official word at this time on Shane del Rosario is that the 30-year-old UFC fighter is on life support after suffering a heart attack on November 26th.

    Rosario was resuscitated at Hoag Memorial Hospital that same day, but has remained in critical condition since his severe cardiac arrest.

    After attempting various treatments with no results, doctors advised his family and friends to begin their goodbyes. Fans from all over via the internet joined in with hope and support with a “prayforshane” hashtag, but due to an early ESPN report there is a bit of confusion on if he has actually died or not. The article apparently written by ESPN writer Josh Gross has been publicly disavowed by him on twitter:


    Josh Gross has written another article clarifying Rosario’s status after the report here.

    Although doctors say that his chances of survival are slim, his family will make the decision today to determine if they will end his life support.

    [Image: UFC]