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Aung La N Sang: I'll make the fight ugly, break Brandon Vera early
"I don’t know what [Brandon Vera] has been doing, but I’ve been slowly and steadily getting ready for him; getting sure my weight is on point and making sure there won’t be as big of a weight difference and power difference. I get the win by being in the face, making the fight ugly, and just breaking him within the first few rounds. ... My last three or four fights have been within the last year and a half. I’ve had more ring time and more cage time than him in the last five years. For sure I’m going to have that edge. Even though he’s older and he’s been competing for longer, it is going to be a big difference. I’m going to be more comfortable when I walk out. I’m going to be more comfortable when I step in the cage. I’m going to be more comfortable as the fight goes. I’ll be more comfortable with round three, round four, and round five." The pair fight this weekend at the Typhoon-defying ONE: Century. h/t Yahoo Sports 2:09) • Watch interview
Neither sleet nor rain nor typhoon will stay ONE CENTURY this weekend
Tito Ortiz offers 50k to charity if Alberto El Patron lasts a round (31:52)
Brandon Vera: ONE Century is the most important fight of my career
At the weekend's ONE: Century in Toyko, Japan, ONE heavyweight champion Brandon Vera fights ONE light heavyweight and middleweight champion Aung La N Sang for the latter's larger belt: "I’m very excited to be on the path to fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine to become a titleholder in two divisions. I’m the ONE heavyweight world champion, which I will be until I retire. Now, I am chasing after the ONE light heavyweight world title against a man who is cut from the same cloth. This bout means more to me than anything else in my career. I want to thank Brandon Vera for asking me for this fight. I’ve been a big fan of his since I was in college 10 years ago. I’ve been training for over six months now, and training has gone very well. I hope to put on the best performance of my life this Sunday." h/t GMA News
UFC honors Holland's Hemmers family with Ramon Dekkers Room
Now in their 35th year of producing world champion strikers, the Hemmers family were honored earlier this year by the unveiling of the ‘Ramon Dekkers Room’ in the newly-built UFC headquarters in Las Vegas. The facility has several meeting rooms named after iconic fighters – Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali are among them. Alistair Overeem, Semmy Schilt, Gokhan Saki, and above all Hemmers step son Ramon Dekkers have trained under Cor Hemmers at the Hemmers Gym Institute in Breda, the Netherlands over the years.The team is currently scouting locations in the USA ahead of opening the first Hemmers Gym USA facility. Dekkers passed away from a heart attack in 2013; he was just 43. h/t My MMA News
Is pro wrestling more dangerous that MMA?
Professional wrestling had a far larger influence on the development of mixed martial arts than is generally acknowledged, but many MMA fans dismiss the WWE as fake. It's an odd take, as movies, too, are "fake". Daria Beranato (WWE star Sonya Deville) was 2-1 in MMA before moving to 'rasslin' and says pro wrestling is more dangerous: "You can obviously sustain crazy injuries in both sports, but the most common injuries in MMA are bloody noses, welts, black eyes, bruises, and cuts. The most common, more severe injuries in professional wrestling are broken necks, fractured backs, far more serious. So I would take a bloody nose, any day, over landing wrong on a flip." And Beranato notes the UFC has moved in the WWE's direction, notably around trash talk: "Personality, charisma, it puts peoples' butts in seats and it sells tickets, bottom-line. So, I think the MMA world is smart by going in that direction. I mean, you can't go too far or it'll get a bit crazy, but Conor's genius." h/t Too Fab
Nina Ansaroff taking a year off to start family
Tyron Woodley wants to box Canelo Alvarez, offers a prediction
“I still can box right now. I want Canelo. I don’t want to go in there and fight ‘Boo Boo the Fool’ because if he land a couple shots off on you then everybody going to be like, ‘Oh, Tyron got touched up by this dude, and he ain’t even a .500 fighter.’ If you go in there and risk it all and let it hang, I want the No. 1 guy. All I wanted to do was box when I came up. I just started MMA at 23, so I felt I was a little old to start boxing at that age. But since I was a kid, that was the only sport I’ve ever wanted to do. So most of my training is boxing training. No. 1, I’m not going to sit there and try to win 12 rounds, let’s be real. His defense is crazy. He’ll slip an uppercut and make you look real stupid,so I’m throwing all unorthodox. I’m trying to knock him out. If I land, he going down, let’s not even play. It don’t matter how many boxing and fights you got and how many MMA stuff, If I hit Canelo with everything, throw some $#!@ on the punch, it’s a wrap.” h/t MMA Junkie • Watch TMZ interview
Weili Zhang gets visa for USA media tour
Why Arjan Bhullar passed on UFC and signed with ONE Championship
Arjan Singh Bhullar, 33 declined to re-sign with the UFC and instead joined ONE Championship; he cited ONE's expansion into India, and more: “In my contract, I am guaranteed more fights than I was in the UFC. That was another big [reason]. The UFC was giving me two fights a year. I [wasn’t] busy enough from where I’m at to climb that ladder, and make money winning. You lose that time; you’re not maximizing your time in the sport as a competitive athlete. Aside from that, everything worked out the way it’s supposed to. I’m on the biggest card in MMA history. Two [events] in one day. Everything’s lining up beautifully.” He debuts this weekend at ONE Century in Toyko, Japan. h/t Sherdog
Kayla Harrison gets new opponent 1 day before PFL 7
Genah Fabian, Harrison's opponent for Friday's PFL 7, was pulled over weight-cutting concerns and has been replaced by Bobbi-Jo Dalziel. Dalziel was a participant in the PFL regular season, and defeated Fabian. However, under the PFL's byzantine system, after Dalziel defeated Fabian, Daziel lost to Larissa Pacheco by submission in 2:31, while Fabian bounced back with a TKO win over Moriel Charneski in 1:42, and thus moved forward into the playoffs. Pacheco next fights Sarah Kaufman on the other side of the playoffs brackets. The season system is screwy, but the million-dollar prize for the season winner is, well, it's money. Harrison recently signed a PFL contract extension keeping her in the promotion until long after the current season ends.
King Mo comes back from 'MMA retirement' for 1 more fight
Mike Tyson to host his PFL series on YouTube
Tyson will serve as a host of his own Professional Fighters League series called "Mike Tyson's New Fight Game." The series will debut later this week on the league's YouTube channels as well as additional platforms. Tyson is going to conduct interviews with fighters and entertainers that are associated with the MMA circuit. The series is co-hosted by now-retired former PFL LHW champ Sean O'Connell. Tyson: "We can take this to another dimension. We can brand it the proper way. Give it the proper advertisement. We can take these fighters and publicize these fighters properly. We can take all the fighters from all over the planet, and all the techniques and all the disciplines and put them in one tournament and find out who really is the baddest on the planet that ever lived." h/t CBS Sports
