Press Release: The Utimate Fighter 16 cast unveiled by FX

Today the full list of all fighter participants for The Ultimate Fighter: Season 16 were announced by FX, courtesy of UFC.com. Featuring an initial cast of 32 fighters who will fight their way into the house of 16 spots, all will be competing at Welterweight this season. As has been hyped in recent months, the two teams will be coached by massive Heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, who will face off at season’s end. Roy Nelson has started up some intial controversy with some Zuffa-banned participants

Alistair Overeem: Junior dos Santos is afraid to fight me

This past weekend at a press conference following UFC on Fox 4, UFC President Dana White broke the news that Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has requested to fight Alistair Overeem instead of Cain Velasquez.On this week’s UFC Tonight, guest host Karen Bryant conducted an exclusive interview with Overeem, where he confided that dos Santos really does not want the fight to happen at all. He accussed dos Santos of being all talk: “First he wants to fight Cain (Velasquez), now he wants to fight

Junior dos Santos: Overeem is a punk and I want to knock him out now

Junior dos Santos is the UFC Heavyweight Champion. It has been presumed that dos Santos would face Cain Velasquez in a title defense, but the champ has another fighter in his sights. Allistair Overeem was originally scheduled to fight the champion as the headline fight for UFC 146 before Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone that led to his eventual removal from the card, and a suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Overeem is out until December 27, 2012 and dos Santos is

Brandon Vera on possible title shot: This is like winning the lottery twice

UFC held a media conference call today in advance of UFC on FOX 4: Shogun vs. Vera which takes place this Saturday, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.Headlining is “Shogun” Rua, a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion. He won the title in 2010 but lost it in 2011 to Jon Jones. Since losing the belt, he had the 2011 “Fight of the Year” against Dan Henderson who will be fighting Jon Jones at UFC 151 in Las Vegas for the title. He is facing Brandon Vera for a match which now has title

Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson gets his coaches approved for The Ultimate Fighter

Roy “Big Country” Nelson is slated to be a coach on the newest installment of The Ultimate Fighter against Shane Carwin, which begins taping in a few days for a September broadcast. Unfortunately for Nelson, he had been having a hard time getting his coaches approved.Nelson told MMAWeekly: “I’m excited. I’m just over here hoping that I can actually bring all my coaches that I want to be my assistant coaches and bring on. I might just have to do it myself. You never know. I don’t

Carwin and Nelson to coach next season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX

UFC Heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin will serve as coaches on the 16th season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), culminating in a season-ending fight between the two in the show’s finale. UFC President Dana White revealed the news as an exclusive to USA Today Sports, this morning.According to White: “This is going to be a very interesting dynamic between these two heavyweights. They both have huge punching power and great chins, but outside of the octagon, they couldn’t be any more different. These two

Chad Mendes: A second fight against Jose Aldo would be completely different

UFC Featherweight Chad Mendes was the last man to face class champion Jose Aldo, and while that fight did not go exactly how Mendes had planned, it has given a wealth of valuable MMA title fight experience. The KO loss to Aldo remains the only blemish on Mendes’ 11-1 record, and he seeks to rebound strongly at this Saturday’s UFC 148 in Las Vegas. Facing Cody Mackenzie in preliminary card action, many believe Mendes will find himself in another Featherweight title fight one day. Speaking to Fightline.com,

Randy Couture: Silva vs. Sonnen II features a reverse in strategy

Former UFC multi-class champion Randy “The Natural” Couture weighs in on next weekend’s blockbuster Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen rematch. He goes into detail by noting that the strategy in the fight will only be a reverse from their first outing, stating the following:
“It’s kind of odd. Normally I would say that the onus is on the guy who won the first fight to anticipate the changes the loser is going to make and get the same outcome. If you look at Anderson and Chael, Anderson won by triangle choke

Gray Maynard: I’m back and shooting for the belt

Gray Maynard will return to the Octagon against Clay Guida this weekend, ending a layoff that stretched back to UFC 136 last October. In a video from FuelTV.com, UFC Lightweight contender Gray Maynard details the laborious process he underwent to make changes to his training camp and overall fight game. He went to Brazil and assisted UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo with his wrestling. It was there he found hungry, young fighters that reinvigorated him. Maynard then made the move from Las Vegas to