Fightin' Words
A mixed martial arts blog about UFC, Strikeforce and other MMA promotions and fighters
Chael the champion? It almost happened at UFC 159
Photo credit: Newsday/Mario Gonzalez
NEWARK -- The man who used to call himself the champion and walk around with a championship belt without actually winning a title fight nearly earned the ability to rightfully call himself "champion."
Chael Sonnen was 27 seconds away from winning the light heavyweight title at UFC 159 on Saturday at the Prudential Center.
Not necessarily because he was dominating Jon Jones....
Read more »Jon Jones then: 'We won't be laughing'
Photo credit: Getty
Three months back, there were plates of chicken parm, Caesar's salad and other treats going around the table at Carmine's in Manhattan.
Assorted MMA media were there, as were Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen. The two UFC light heavyweights, there to promote the newest season of "The Ultimate Fighter" as coaches, were cordial and friendly.
There was even an amusing phone call that...
Read more »On Chael Sonnen, Uriah Hall and Anderson Silva
Chael Sonnen talks how he needs to talk when it’s time to talk.
Meaning, if it’s time to hype a fight, he’ll go to town with the commentary, wit and hyperbole needed to sell tickets and pay-per-view. If it’s time to chill, he can be chill.
And if it’s time to build up a fighter’s confidence, Sonnen can do that as well.
Here’s what Sonnen said to Uriah Hall as he prepared to fight...
Read more »Chael Sonnen's sonnet for UFC 159
Photo credit: FX/Robert Zuckerman
Chael Sonnen has a fight coming up, which means you'll be seeing plenty of outlanding headlines and sound bites from him.
Jon Jones will be the subject of most Sonnen's rants as their UFC 159 title fight in Newark approaches.
Here's the latest from Sonnen, who gets poetic on "UFC Tonight."
Newsday's mobile app users can view the video at http://youtu.be/B4nKgg_BbtM...
Read more »TUF 17/2: Just shut up and fight, please
Photo credit: FX/Robert Zuckerman
This comes with the understanding that pre-taped reality television shows such as "The Ultimate Fighter" are edited in such a way as to create "characters" and create/manufacture/manipulate drama.
And now, a note of the fighters on Jon Jones' team: Get over yourselves about picking fights and matchups. Just win your fight and shut up.
Seriously.
Bubba McDaniel...
Read more »Jones, Sonnen, chicken parm and the phone call
Photo credit: Getty
Above these words, on both the website and our apps, you'll see the first of our videos from Wednesday's sitdown with Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen. This particular video focuses on their time coaching fighters on Season 17 of "The Ultimate Fighter," which began airing this week.
But here's a fun little story from earlier that day.
During the informal lunch at Carmine's, a family...
Read more »'Ultimate Fighter' 17: The fights
Photo credit: Zuffa LLC
Season 17 of "The Ultimate Fighter" kicked off Tuesday night with 14 elimination-round fights. Here are some quick thoughts on each:
Adam Cella vs. Jake Heun
Cella withstood a wild array of punches and kicks from Heun, then held on through the slam and won by armbar submission. Impressive display.
Zak Cummings vs. Nik Fekete
Cummings threw one punch in the opening...
Read more »Ultimate Fighter contestants for Season 17
Photo credit: Getty
The already-recorded Season 17 of "The Ultimate Fighter" begins airing on FX on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m., as coaches Jon Jones (pictured) and Chael Sonnen get their first look at the contestants.
None of those contestants are from Long Island, but there is one with New York City ties: Uriah Hall.
Hall, 28, is a veteran of Ring of Combat, the regional MMA promotion based out...
Read more »Chael Sonnen on Jim Rome
Photo credit: AP
Chael Sonnen was a guest on Jim Rome's Showtime show and said a bunch of things. Some of those things were trite and commonplace for him, others were downright accusatory.
Watch and see.
...
Read more »UFC prelims, ratings, FX and main cards
Photo credit: AP
Multiple MMA sites reported the ratings for the UFC 154 prelims on FX last Saturday as 980,000 viewers, which is eighth best for the dozen prelim shows on Fox's primary cable channel in 2012.
That's a significant amount of homes tuned into a channel to consume programming, but it is still six digits.
There are plenty of outside ways to assign value to ratings numbers, both high and low....
Read more »
