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UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2 poster on Wikipedia:

 

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Dana White thinks the show will be bigger than UFC 100 which I disagree with:

 

TORRANCE, Calif. -- UFC president Dana White was feeling pretty confident on Monday.

 

And why not? Here in the Los Angeles suburb where Rorion Gracie first conceptualized the company White now runs, an overflow crowd outside the UFC Gym was lined around the block for a fan question-and-answer session on the opening day of the week-long media tour promotion the Chris Weidman-Anderson Silva rematch.

 

The throng was cued up less than 48 hours after what might have been the greatest fight in UFC history, as Jon Jones edged Alexander Gustafsson to retain the UFC light heavyweight title in a 25-minute war in Toronto which few who witnessed will ever forget.

 

Riding the wave of momentum, White was in the mood to aim high. Asked in a one-on-one interview with MMAFighting.com just how big the Dec. 28 middleweight matchup in Las Vegas will be, White goes straight after the holy grail of UFC events: UFC 100 in July 2009, the most successful event in company history.

 

"I think it's going to be the biggest fight we've ever done," White said.

 

Bigger than UFC 100, he's asked?

 

White nods. "Bigger than UFC 100. On every level. Tickets, pay-per-views, everything. You're going to see a motivated Anderson, but what makes this so much fun is, what Anderson are you going to see? How is this thing going to go? That's such a big part of the fun."

 

Informed later of his boss's comments, Weidman displays the same unflappability that enabled him to pull off his historic UFC 162 knockout victory, the one which promises to make the rematch such a blockbuster.

 

"You know, as much distractions that are out there, my mindset is just to win this next fight, that's it,"

Weidman said. "My focus is there. Biggest fight ever? That's cool, yeah. But that doesn't change anything."

 

The Weidman-Silva media tour, which makes five stops on both coasts before heading down to Brazil for two days, also serves as the unofficial kickoff to what many consider the most stacked series of events in White's UFC tenure.

 

UFC 168 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which also features Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate for the women's bantamweight title, ends a run which includes the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos trilogy fight at UFC 166 in Houston; Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks headlining the 20th anniversary card in Las Vegas for UFC 167; and UFC on FOX 9 on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, in which the lightweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Josh Thomson tops a loaded bill.

 

Of course, we're just a year removed from the most volatile matchmaking period in UFC history. An epidemic of fight fallouts and injuries led many in this age of instant, knee-jerk analysis to wonder if the company had finally seen its luck run out.

 

"Listen, if there was ever a testament that the business is sustainable, last year was the test of all tests," White said. "And I was actually really glad that that happened, because I never would have believed in a million years that it could. I wouldn't think that really would be possible for that many injuries, main event, co-main event.

 

"And how about the one up in Calgary?" White asked, about the ill-fated UFC 149 in July 2012. "An entire card gets wiped out and half the card gets wiped out again after we make it over. I never would have thought it possible, but now that I know that it is possible, I know we'll get through if it ever happens."

 

After 13 years running the UFC, White fully understands the fight promotion business goes through ebbs and flows. Periods like the upcoming fight schedule counterbalance last year's nightmares.

 

"It just happens, man," White said. "Everything lined up perfectly. People stayed healthy, we had Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis, sick fight, followed that up with Jones-Gustafsson, unbelievable fight, now we're going into Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos and the list goes on and on. I'm excited, I love it and thank God everyone's staying healthy."

 

While White is looking to turn the page toward the blockbuster fall lineup, the buzz from UFC 165 continues. During the fan Q & A, White, Silva, and Weidman would get asked their opinions on the Jones-Gustafsson bout several times. But for his part, White was most enthused about a Sunday night phone conversation with his light heavyweight champ.

 

"I talked to Jon last night," White said. "Normally when you get into a war like that, the last thing you want to do is talk about it. He was so pumped up, he loved that fight, he thought that fight was awesome. I love where Jones is right now and the champion he's become."

 

At this point, we're running a few minutes past the appointed start time for the fan Q & A, and White's handlers are getting a bit antsy. Asked in closing to sum up what makes the Weidman-Silva fight special, the UFC boss seems to be mentally hyping himself to address the fired-up flock of fans just on the other side of the doorway.

 

"Just think about this," White said. "If you put it in your head, the f--- music goes off, the lights go down, the walk-in music starts, when they go down on Dec. 28, how f--- crazy is that going to be? How insane is that going to be when they start walking in?"

 

As he heads toward the door, White turns around and repeats himself for emphasis: "Think about it."

 

Credit: mmafighting.com

 

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Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva at the UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2 press conference.

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I think Silva even said at the Vegas conference was his contract is what changed his mind about wanting to rematch, and he was like "I have contract.  I have 9 fight OO-FC.  I am here for working."  And then Dana was basically just like, "his new contract motivates him."  In California he only seemed to perk up when people asked about Roy Jones.

 

EDIT: 

UFC has cut Ryan Couture.  Paging Epwar so he can complain about UFC throwing him to the wolves like Ross Pearson and Al Iaquinta.

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LAS VEGAS -- UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones' next title defense will come against No. 1 contender Glover Teixeira, likely on Feb. 1 in Newark, N.J.

UFC president Dana White confirmed Jones' next opponent to ESPN.com on Wednesday. According to White, Jones personally requested to fight Teixeira next.

"That's what the champ wants," White said. "We'll probably have that fight on the Super Bowl card in New Jersey."

Jones (19-1) broke the UFC record for consecutive light heavyweight title defenses at UFC 165 this past weekend in Toronto, defeating Alexander Gustafsson via unanimous decision for his sixth title defense.

The bout was an instant classic and Jones' toughest title defense to date. Demand for an immediate rematch was high as soon as the unanimous scores were announced.

Jones, however, elected to pursue a seventh title defense against Teixeira, while promising a rematch with Gustafsson immediately after.

"I said before the [Gustafsson] fight my sights were set on breaking the record," Jones said in a statement released by the UFC. "I want to crush the record. I want to beat the record so bad it can never be broken.

"I'm going to fight Glover and I will answer all the critics about the Gustafsson fight. I will fight Gustafsson after I fight Glover. I won the fight but I look at it as a blemish on my record because some people think I didn't. I promise you, he will be next."

Gustafsson (15-2) will instead face another opponent yet to be determined in his native country of Sweden, according to White.

"Around the same time of the Jones-Teixeira fight, Gustafsson will fight in Sweden," White said. "I don't have an official date for that yet."

Jones was hospitalized after his win over Gustafsson at the Air Canada Centre. The 26-year-old champion was released the following day, and a follow-up MRI revealed no serious injury.

The Ontario Athletic Commission did place Jones on a 60-day medical suspension following this past weekend's title fight.

Teixeira (22-2) will carry a 20-fight win streak into the cage against Jones. The Brazilian is coming off a first-round TKO victory over Ryan Bader at UFC Fight Night 28 on Sept. 4.

 

 

 

So if Gustafsson is fighting around the same time in Sweden who would be his likely opponent

 

It would have to be someone they could market for a title shot if he were to beat Gusatsson so I would think the options would be a rematch with Phil Davis or Daniel Cormier.  Maybe an outside chance of someone like Rashad Evans.

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A Brazilian MMA Fighter died minutes before weighing in.  Most likely due to cutting weight.

 

Tragedy has struck the Brazilian MMA community.
 
MMA fighter Leandro "Feijao" Souza (5-5), a member of Nova Uniao and Delfim Cacadores, died on Thursday while cutting weight for Friday's Shooto Brazil 43 card in Rio de Janeiro. The 26-year-old fighter, who was slated to fight Gabriel Brasil (1-1) in flyweight action, was cutting the final two pounds for the official weigh-ins when he passed out, and his death was confirmed moments later.
 
"We are sad to report the death of Leandro Caetano de Souza," Shooto president Andre Pederneiras wrote on his Facebook page. "The athlete has passed away in Botafogo’s UPA. We don’t know the reasons why yet. We would like to express our condolences to all friends and family."
 
MMAFighting.com confirmed the news with Shooto officials, but there is still no information on the cause of the death.
 
"We don’t have much information yet," Feijao’s teammate Andre Santos told MMAFighting.com, "but we do know that is related to his weight cut. He’s my student but he also trains at Nova Uniao for about a year. I wasn’t with him during this process because I have a fight scheduled in Russia, so he spent the night at Nova Uniao’s gym. His sister called me saying that he had passed out so I went to the hospital, but he was already dead when I got there."

 

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/9/26/4775208/mma-fighter-dies-moments-before-shootos-weigh-ins-in-brazil

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And you're next Bellator middleweight tournament semifinalist, Yushin Okami.

 

Not a huge Okami fan, but the dude was still ranked No. 6, plus he was only 3-2 in his last five with losses to Boetsch and Jacare.  Think he should've gotten another fight.  

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How can you get a concussion by a guy going to a decision?

NVM that Munoz is a tad hittable. You should do a google search on concussions.

 

 

 I wonder if Okami turned this fight down, hence his firing?  We all know how Joe Silva is.

 

If they had Machida at their disposal, they probably wouldn't ask Okami (who already had mediocre fight with Munoz).

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