Chael Sonnen Speaks...And Goes Off...

((HT: AOL))

MMA reporter Ariel Helwani got the chance to catch up with previously-suspended MMA fighter Chael Sonnen as Sonnen gets ready for his return to the ring...

And, since Sonnen had a lot of time to think, it didn't take a lot to get him fired up all over again...

Here's the sit-down...

UFC 129: Couture, GSP Headline 55,000

((HT: UFC/PPV/youtube))

There is no denying the place of Randy Couture in the places of ultimate fighting.

At the age of 47, he decided to retire after one more fight- this time with Lyoto Machida. Machida had a bit of a rough go in the last few fights he had in the octagon, but round 2 got Couture one last time.

Here's the fight, 'til it gets pulled...


In other fights, GSP kept his title with a five-rounder over Jake Shields. mark Hominick and Jose Aldo had, by far, the bloodiest fight in the featherweight division.

Here's their final round...

UFC 127: Bisping Takes Out Rivera- More Than Once

((HT: UFC/ESPN/youtube))

Some things were resolved, others weren't...

But after a pre-fight mouth-running by the Jorge Rivera camp, Michael Bisping let the fight get to him with a heavily-illegal knee in round one before he won the bout by TKO.

Here's the fight...
The illegal part starts at the 2:48 mark...


It went into the second round, and the HQ guesses a rematch is in the offing some time soon...

Velasquez Proves Lesnar Is Human At UFC 121, Undertaker Surprised

((HT: UFC/ESPN/Youtube))

There is no doubt that Brock Lesnar is a bad man...
But, at his most basic, he's still learning the craft that is Mixed Martial Arts...

He had only fought six times going into the fight at the Honda Center last night against Cain Velasquez...

But Velasquez, for those of you who dig those "Sport Science" features on the four-letter, know that he can hit at the top end of the power scale with his right hand ((over 2200 lbs of force)) and he can spear someone to the floor with the power of Dwight Freeney.

This was a three-minute beatdown once Velasquez got on top of Lesnar...

Here's your fight... and act surprised as much as we did...
Until it gets pulled...


The HQ still doesn't necessarily get UFC, but it's a helluva lot better than boxing these days...

But, then after the fight, there was this exchange...
((HT: Fanhouse))


At least the HQ also knows that 'Taker won't ever go in there...
Too much common sense...

Silva-Sonnen Is An Instant Classic...

UFC's Chael Sonnen had run his mouth all week about how he was going to retire Anderson Silva after UFC 117...

Evidence below...
((HT: UFC/HeavyMMA))


Sonnen took the fight to Silva for the first four rounds and was way ahead on the cards. He did the same thing in the fifth round, but ((according to those who know MMA)) handling choke submissions has always been a Sonnen problem. Silva slipped a triangle choke on Sonnen in the fifth, and Sonnen ended up tapping out.

Although, Sonnen questioned his tapping out to the ref...

Here's the end of the fight, until it gets pulled...
((HT: UFC/ESPN/hixxy040183))


Here's your post...
((HT: UFC/sx02687))


The HQ is actually looking forward to Sonnen-Silva 2 when it goes down...
If only on talk alone...

Lesnar Survives Carwin Early, Takes UFC Title

((HT: ESPN/UFC))

Brock Lesnar was out of UFC for quite a while- almost a year- after it was disclosed that he was fighting diverticulitis and was hospitalized when it was disclosed.

Saturday night, he was back in the octagon taking on undefeated Shane Carwin.

Carwin came out strongly and pounded Lesnar for a great deal of the first round. But the second round was the challengers as he forced Carwin to submit with a triangle-choke hold.

In his old business, Lesnar had Carwin in a Japanese sleeper hold ((thanks to the Masked Superstar's training overseas for that reminder)) and the champ tapped.

"This isn't about me tonight," said Lesnar, who made his first appearance in nearly a year. "This is about my family. This is about my doctors. This is about my training partners, my training staff. I am blessed by God. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you a humble champion. And I'm still the toughest SOB around, baby."

Here's the fight while it's up, thanks UFC and notpitnnelg


ESPN's Kenny Florian caught up with the next big thing...

Evans sends Jackson back to the movies....

Ultimate Fighting Championships had what was perhaps their most hyped match ever this past Saturday.

The fighters, Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson fought for the light heavyweight championship at the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas.

Evans got the better of Jackson, who had a feature role in the new A-Team movie remake, outpointing him and getting the unanimous decision win.

More from the Las Vegas Sun RIGHT HERE

((Rashad Evans with the takedown//Courtesy: Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun))

There had been a lot of "Pre-fight" hype leading up to this fight as both fighters, at least publicly expressed a lot of "Dislike" to each other. However, aside from an intense pre-fight staredown, it was a close, hard-fought fight and both fighters expressed nothing but respect for each other at the conclusion.

MMA's Lesnar In Hospital

((HT: CP))

Brock Lesnar, ex pro wrestler and current MMA'er, is in a really bad way according to his boss UFC head Dana White...

"He's in rough shape, he's in really bad shape," White said Saturday after UFC 105.

"He is not well and he is not getting any better. . . . He's very, very sick and he's going to be out for a while. He's got a lot of problems."

UFC sited Lesnar's bout with mono as the reason for pulling out of UFC 106 on November 21st. The match with Shane Carwin was pushed back to UFC 108, but that match was pushed back even further.

"He's got mono and he's got something else wrong with him. I know what's wrong with him, he just doesn't want me talking about it," White said.

Those of us at OSG HQ send our best to Lesnar and his wife, Rena, and wait to hear the diagnosis from hospital...

Here's one of Lesnar's brighter moments in sports entertainment...
His last match in his first round at professional wrestling during the 20th renewal of their annual spectacular...
The chants of the MSG crowd are priceless...
((HT: WWE))

Todd Duffee Wants To Eat

Welcome to the fastest knockout in MMA history...
From UFC 102 this past weekend in Portland, Todd Duffee knocks the crap out of Tim Hague- in a sport-record 7 seconds...

Duffee, when asked, thought it was six...
Enjoy...
((HT: UFC/PPV))


The knockout was a UFC record surpassing the previous mark of eight seconds set by James Irvin over Houston Alexander at Ultimate Fight Night 13 and Don Fyre over Thomas Ramirez at UFC 8.

Fight For The Troops Recap

We figured you'd be looking for this stuff... so here ya go...

Josh Koschecks' first-round KO of Yoshiyuki Yoshida...
Koscheck sizes up the right hand and, at about the 2:30 mark, chops Yoshida down...


And then the worse-than-Theismann injury from the 2nd-Round of the Dale Hartt-Corey Hill match... and it is not for the faint of heart...
((HT: TMZ.com))

Elite XC X'd Out

From Dave Meltzer at Yahoo Sports...

The Elite XC folks will all be looking for work at the end of the week.

Elite was, by some reports, as much as US$55-million in the hole after a bad TV deal in year one of their existence with Showtime, and purchasing four other rival companies. Those losses would have forced Elite, eventually, to sell to Showtime or declare bankruptcy.

“I got a call earlier [Monday] telling me they were shutting down,” said Frank Shamrock, who was a television commentator, a main event fighter and a shareholder in the promotion told Meltzer.

UFC Poohbah Dana White has already said he wouldn't go anywhere near Kimbo Slice ((pictured, thanks Vancouver Sun/Stephen Shugerman-Getty Images)), but he may have to re-think his plan on female fighters like Gina Carano.

More from Meltzer:

"The Elite XC sale was believed to be close to completion heading into the Oct. 4 show on CBS. The show was a ratings success, beating both Major League Baseball playoff games and both major college football games in the target male 18-49 demographic, but left the brand tainted due to a controversy stemming from the main event.

CBS funded the event because Elite XC didn’t have the money to continue while negotiations for the sale continued."

Then, Seth Petruzelli went and opened his mouth on an Orlando radio station that further increased the credibility questions of Elite after the Slice upset... that didn't help, either...

“The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him,” Petruzelli said two days after the fight on “The Monsters in Orlando” radio show. “They didn’t want me to take him down.

“Let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch with him.”

Elite XC, we hardly knew ye... but it does give us one more excuse to show the Slice-Petruzelli fight and hear Gus Johnson go... well, All Gus Johnson on us again...

((HT: Elite XC/CBS/the youtube))