MMA Cult (Fighter Apparel)

Photo: UFC.com 

RealityWanted.net recently conducted an interview with TUF 6 competitor Joe Scarola:

Q. Mark RealityWanted.com: What originally got you involved in MMA?

A. Joe Scarola Ultimate Fighter: Thanks to the fans for watching and Dana for the chance to fight. I hope Dana will give me another shot to show him and the fans on what I can do.

Photo Credit: www.forrestgriffin.net

It was supposed to be the triumphant arrival of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua onto the UFC stage. Forrest Griffin had other plans. Requesting a shot at Rua with the aim of catapulting himself towards the top of 205, Griffin made the most of the opportunity he desired and choked out “Shogun” in round 3 via rear naked choke. “I didn’t think I’d be able to submit the cat”, admitted Griffin afterward. “He gets tired, he still comes forward. I thought maybe there would be a little more clinching.”

Requesting this fight, Griffin obviously had a beat on his opponent. “I knew he’d come forward, I knew he’d cut angles, and throw a 2-3-2, come forward and throw a high kick, pull out of the clinch, turn, cut angles”, noted Griffin. “I had a lot of plans, I worked a lot on the neck tie, I worked a lot of neck strength stuff, I worked a lot of defending against knees and stuff like that.”

As far as future bouts, the light heavyweight division is wide open now and many potential matchups loom in the future for Griffin. A rematch with Jardine, a battle with Houston Alexander, fighting Rua’s teammate Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Rashad Evans and a rematch with Tito Ortiz as well. Whoever it is, this victory over “Shogun” has upped Griffin’s confidence level to be ready compete with any of those names. “I want to fight all those guys, I really think I’m a pretty decent athlete, I enjoy fighting, I’ll fight anybody.”

Photo Credit: MeanJardine.net

With two hard hitters like Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine, few thought their battle last night at UFC 76 would go the distance. And other than a very select few, such as his team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, almost everyone was counting out Jardine in this light heavyweight battle. But a focused and determined Jardine stood with Liddell for the full fifteen minutes, outscored the former light heavyweight champ and even dropped “The Iceman” in the second round. “I saw him getting tired a little bit so I was confident going into the second round of that fight”, commented Jardine. “I was focused, I was locked in, I didn’t stop with that punch, I just kept moving forward and try to maintain my focus the whole time.”

Jardine remained in the zone despite the heavy barrage of punches flying his way from Liddell. While with ill intentions and great force, many of the fists of Liddell were not able to connect on Jardine’s head, which was an elusive target throughout the fight. However, Jardine knew what he was up against. “ I was like, ‘Man, he hits hard’, because every time he touched me, even if I blocked it I kind of zinged out a little bit”, noted Jardine. “But at the end of the first round I started to see some openings and I felt I started to turn the tide a little bit, just a couple little moral
victories.”

The victory in winning over the fans was a confidence booster in Jardine knowing he would come through when the final decision was announced. “Anytime it goes to the decision you should be nervous but I fought the best that I could fight with maximum efforts…and I really felt I won the last two rounds and I knew the first round was close, so I was pretty confident”, said Jardine. “When I saw the crowd change–I was booed and everything in the beginning and at the end when the crowd was cheering me when I raised my hand, I knew that they thought I won.”

Well known in Japan and in mixed martial arts circles, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is looking to make a huge impression on the mainstream UFC fans with a win tonight over Forrest Griffin. “I have watched a lot of UFC fights but I have never watched a live show so it will be interesting, but Forrest is very good, great endurance, very tough and he makes a fight very exciting”, Shogun told the Press Telegram. “Many people don’t know me in the U.S. but once I beat Forrest, they will recognize me.”

Photo Credit: UFC.com 

Keith Jardine did an interview with CBS Sports and noted that when he got the call to fight Chuck Liddell, he thought it was a joke. “I originally thought it was a joke”, comments Jardine with laughter. “They said, ‘Guess who you’re fighting. It’s going to be Chuck Liddell.’ I was like, ‘Shut up.’”.

Photo Credit: MeanJardine.net

Unhappy with disrespectful comments on message boards and other internet sites after his fight with Chuck Liddell was announced, Keith Jardine decided to consciously filter out any negative content in preparation for Liddell tomorrow night. Jardine explained to Yahoo Sports:

“I instituted a personal media ban. When they first announced the fight, I clicked around on the Internet a bit and saw some disrespect going on. So I decided I wasn’t reading any message boards or Web sites or anything like that until after the fight was over. I’ve got more important things to worry about than whether people think I can hang in a main event.”

For tomorrow night’s main event between Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine, BetUS currently has their lines at:

Chuck Liddell, -350,

Keith Jardine, +270,

Over 1½ -150

Under 1½ +130

                                                                                               Some fighters have trouble recovering from their first loss in MMA, while others slide back into the state they were in when being an undefeated competitor. Diego Sanchez is looking to become the latter tomorrow night, and American Kickboxing Academy’s Jon Fitch stands in his way. Looking for an opportunity to prove he is a top welterweight, Fitch is more motivated than ever. Sanchez himself feels that needs to reignite the intense hunger he had coming up the ranks and storming onto the UFC scene. It’s a hunger Sanchez feels faded as success and fortune flourished for him over the last year. He told the Canadian Press:

“It was like something that happened over time. I just got satisfied and was going through the motions. Wins were still coming and I had some great fights. But it’s all about the hunger. I look back to my days in King of the Cage (a smaller MMA circuit), when I was young and I didn’t have nothing. I was a young guy, no health insurance, no money, just grinding it. That toughness, that ‘I want this so bad, that nothing’s going to stop me getting this, I want this. I remember looking up at Matt Hughes as the champ and saying ‘I could beat this guy, I could do this.’ That is what inspired me. It motivated me, the hunger, and after a while, a little taste of fame, and famous lifestyle kind of took me away from that. I slowly was taking steps away from that, taking steps away from that tiger, that hungry tiger that just wants to eat. It took a loss for me to figure that out and accept it myself.”

Photo Credit: MeanJardine.net

Heavyweight turned light-heavyweight Keith Jardine is looking to use his power to score a KO over Chuck Liddell this Saturday night. “I’m going to dance with the tiger, I’m going to go toe to toe with him and I’m going to test his power and speed and everything”, Jardine stated to ESPN. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it went down too. Nobody has seen my Jiu-Jitsu, and no one has seen my wrestling and it’s a lot better than people think. So this fight can go anywhere but definitely without a doubt I’m going to test him standing.”