Viewing 1 - 6 out of 6 Blogs.

Another Link in the Chain
by Greg Pomfred


Alexandre 'Vaca' Moreno strengthens the Team Link


Living in the United States for a few years, the brown belt in Judo and black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Alexandre 'Vaca' Moreno has integrated into his new home with Team Link and already thinks of his next fight. "I did some training here and I could see the quality of the work that they have here. It will be a pleasure to share a home with this team of tough athletes here in Ludlow, I am going to defend my belt representing Team Link", affirmed Alexandre Moreno.



Team Link already with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga, the WEC champion Paulão Silva, Gabriel Gladiator and Fábio "Jungle Boy" Serrão, in its team prepares its welcome of Alexandre Moreno. “'Vaca' did some hard training this week and with an incredible will of becoming better than ever. He is going to compete in the NAGA Absolute on the 23rd of February and intends to defend his WFL belt in March", stated the leader of Team Link BJJ Black Belt Marco Alvan.



Alexandre 'Vaca' has accumulated a series of titles in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, among them are the World Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Champion in blue belt and in purple belt divisions, and in NAGA with and without Gi. In MMA, 'Vaca' has the WFL belt in the light heavyweight division with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss.. 'Vaca' also intends in fighting in even bigger events.



"With certainty I will achieve my goal to get into the bigger events as WEC and UFC. I will be training daily for that,” concluded Moreno.

After an opening round of the Grand Prix tournament to crown the first ever champions in the organization, the International Fight League decided to pull original lightweight finalist Wagnney Fabiano out of his slot and place him in line for a newly created featherweight title. His previous opponent, Chris Horodecki, is now on his third opponent in as many weeks.

Commissioner Kurt Otto addressed the reasoning behind pulling Fabiano, who went undefeated at lightweight last season for the IFL, and creating a featherweight division for the Grand Prix finals.

“Wagnney is a lean guy. He’s a small guy,” said Otto. “He wished that we had a 145-pound weight class, but because we didn’t, he was forced to fight at (155 pounds). Granted, he was finishing everybody in under one minute, but still this is a situation where who knows? That fight could happen in ‘08 between Wagnney and Chris Horodecki if we want that to happen, if that makes sense.”

He expressed the promotion’s desire to crown a featherweight champion now as opposed to create a weight class for next season and then crown a titleholder during the season.

“Why would we have a guy fight for a belt, and let’s say he wins the 155-pound belt, why would we have him fight when he’s going to a different weight class and then establish a new title fight?” Otto stated. “Let’s do it now. Let’s establish it so we can start with a clean slate.”

Apparently, Fabiano had voiced his desire to drop to a lower weight and fight, but until now, the IFL has not had a 145-pound division.

“At the end of the day if Wagnney’s intentions were to fight at 145 because he knew we were switching to that format, (and) he said ‘guys I want to fight where I’m comfortable and these guys after they weigh in are 170 pounds, I’m still 144 pounds, it’s a little unfair for me. I mean I’m doing my best, but I would prefer being at 145.’”

Since Fabiano has been rescheduled to fight for the new featherweight championship, a replacement fighter has been hard pressed to stay healthy as the IFL is now on its third opponent for Horodecki to face for the lightweight title.

“First we went with Shad Lierley. He broke his toe. His bone went through the skin,” said Otto about the first replacement for the fight. “Then we had John Gunderson who had an existing hand injury. He assured us he was good to go, re-injured that hand during practice preparing for the fight. And then the next guy in line with our seeding was Ryan Schultz, who took the fight in a heartbeat and he’s healthy and ready to go.”

Chris Horodecki is now set to face Ryan Schultz for the first ever IFL lightweight title, while Wagnney Fabiano will square off against L.C. Davis for the featherweight championship at the finals for the IFL Grand Prix set for Dec. 29 in Connecticut.

The real life animosity between Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweights Rich “No Love” Clementi and Melvin Guillard came to a boiling point when the two finally met inside the Octagon last Saturday night at UFC 79.

 

The end result was Clementi pulling off a submission win forcing a tap out from Guillard by way of rear naked choke, and after the fight was over the two were still going at each other, which verified the dislike was mutual and very real.

 

“I think that was quite obvious to just about 100% of the viewers,” said Clementi about the obvious tension between the two fighters.

 

Before the fight ever started, the Internet was a buzz about the long rivalry between the two fighters, but Clementi insisted on staying quiet beforehand and letting the fight speak for itself.

 

“To be honest, it’s not me,” he said about his lack of trash talk before the fight. “I’m smart enough to know that anything can happen in this game and when you talk like that and it doesn’t come out your way it just makes you look like an idiot.”

 

Clementi implemented a very strong game plan, taking the fight to the ground early where he was able to dominate and lock on the fight ending submission.

 

“I’m a true MMA fighter,” he stated. “I can stand-up and bang with the best and my wrestling is complete and my jiu-jitsu’s there, so that’s what makes a guy like me a little bit dangerous. I’m going to take a fight where my opponent is the weakest no matter where it is.”

 

The emotions ran high between the two fighters prior to, during and after the fight when Clementi made a gesture towards Guillard after the referee stopped the bout and separated the fighters. Clementi says he didn’t let the emotion play into the fight and instead used that tactic against his opponent.

 

“Not really much at all,” he said about emotion playing into his mindset going into the bout. “If anything I was using it against him. I look at it as kind of setting him up for failure.

 

“I think I put that in one of my UFC interviews is that you’ll probably see maybe about just a few seconds of that come out and that will be at the end of the fight and surely enough that’s what happened with me. The whole crotch shot thing and stuff, that was just the last bit of ‘now my emotion’s here’ and I displayed what I wanted to do and that type of deal.”

 

In the past, many fighters have been able to settle their differences inside the Octagon and walk away satisfied with a rivalry settled, but Clementi doesn’t expect any friendly situations with Guillard to arise in the near future.

 

“I’m absolutely sure we’ll never like each other, that’s the case why we had to fight.”

 

With a big win over Guillard now behind him, Clementi is now looking forward to a very busy 2008 and a stacked lightweight division to compete in.

 

“I love fighting in the UFC,” he said. “The UFC’s really taking care of me and I appreciate that, giving me an opportunity. Really what I would like to see for me is just consistency. I want another year of putting guys away and I’d like to put my name up there when guys talk about the upper echelon in that division.”

Having lost for the second time to Georges St-Pierre, the man that is largely considered the greatest welterweight champion in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Matt Hughes is left to ponder his future.

It’s a difficult position to be in. Most pundits believe that he is still a step above nearly everyone in the welterweight division, but in St-Pierre, Hughes has seemingly run into a puzzle that he can’t solve.

“I'm not gonna come out here and be somebody's highlight reel. It's just not me,” he said after Saturday night’s bout.

“I just have to go back to the drawing board and see what's going on, see what I want to do. I've got to see what my family wants to do and I've got to pray on it. Dana White and the UFC have treated me like family, so I've got to see what they want me to do and I've got to see where my heart is at.”

Asked his thoughts on Hughes’ future, UFC president Dana White was clear that he didn’t want the former champion going anywhere.

“Matt's future is, he's going to be with the UFC forever if that's what he wants to do. I've always named off a handful of guys that have been with me for seven, eight years and who've helped us build this business. Matt Hughes will be with the UFC as long as he wants to,” explained White. “As far as his fighting career, that's up to him. We'll sit down, we'll talk, and we'll see.”

Despite all the success that he has incurred since defeating Carlos Newton at UFC 38 in November of 2001, surprisingly, Hughes says that he never really considered fighting his career.

“I've looked at this sport as a sport and as a hobby. I've never really looked at it as a career to be honest,” he stated. “To be honest, this is just so fun. I walk into a gym twice a day... how can it be a career? Careers are supposed to be something that you don't want to wake up to every day.”

With all of the friction between Hughes and current welterweight champion Matt Serra, there are obvious questions about whether he could retire before that bout is able to take place, but he didn’t seem overly concerned.

“Do I want to fight Matt Serra? Yah, I do,” he said matter-of-factly. “But am I going to die if I don't get to fight him? No, not at all. There're bigger things out there than fighting Matt Serra.”

Although Serra doesn’t seem occupy the fore of his mind, Hughes was adamant about one thing: where his loyalties lie.

“One thing we can get straight. I am family with the UFC. I will never jump ship. I will never go to another organization,” he declared. “This is just a word for you guys out there, don't even come to me with offers because I am not accepting them. I won't fight anybody, anywhere else, unless the UFC wants me to.” White couldn’t have been more pleased saying, “I love when he says that.”

So while it remains unclear what direction Hughes’ fighting career takes, whether he decides to call it a day or return for another run at the belt, it’s clear that he is a company man that will be UFC forever.

Side Note:

Well, I hope he doesnt have to fight GSP Then he might win some fights, but I still want to see the Hughes Serra Fight .

Article found on MMA Weekly

Main Event:

UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva (20-4) vs. Dan Henderson (22-6)

Undercard:

185 lbs.: Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter
170 lbs.: Jon Fitch (15-2) vs. Akihiro Gono (28-12-7)*
170 lbs.: Josh Koscheck (9-2) vs. Dustin Hazelett (10-3)*
185 lbs.: Evan Tanner (32-6) vs. TBA*
155 lbs.: Jorge Gurgel (11-3) vs. John Halverson (16-5)*

The other day on UFC 79 I saw the New King of the UFC Welterweight Division be born in that of Georges "Rush" St-Pierre. I have always known him to be a good fighter, but his Ultimate Performance against Matt Hughes, whom I thought was the Greatest Welterweight pound for pound, was absolutely astonishing. He literally dismantled Matt Hughes at his own game while mixing in his own. Georges St-Pierre is the New UFC Welterweight King, and you should all bow in his presence.