Five quick shots of military-themed MMA news. 1. Kennedy’s next fight. Army sniper Tim Kennedy will return to the ring Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City to face Trevor “Hot Sauce” Smith under the Strikeforce banner, our good friends at MMAJunkie report. Kennedy (14-4) fell to Luke Rockhold in a Strikeforce middleweight title fight in July and looks to rebound against Smith, whose 10-2 record includes nine wins by submission. Smith dropped his last Strikeforce fight to Gian Villante in 65 seconds via TKO, but that was at the 205-pound class; he and Kennedy will square off at 185 pounds. 2.…
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Five quick midweek military sports links, starting with an appreciation: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCliUYT6PQc[/youtube] 1. NFL Films and sprint football. Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, son of its founder and one of the reasons so many people watch professional football on Sundays, died yesterday at 69 after a long fight with brain cancer. Read more about him from our friends at USA Today here. The video above, a 2004 NFL Films short on sprint football, features an Army-Navy showdown and showcases the NFL Films style football fans have come to love — up-close action, a soaring soundtrack, eyeball-gripping interviews, seamless edits, all…
A handful of quick military-sports hits for the middle of the week: Olympic fever. Want the basics on the military men and women who’ll compete in London beginning later this week? Click here for our OFFduty preview, including capsule profiles on all 16 of them, plus the dates they’ll compete. For a more complete view of the games, head to USA Today’s site here (and a full Olympic schedule here). The 2012 Summer Olympics kicked off today with women’s soccer contests — a perfect reason to catch this video Q-and-A with Navy women’s soccer coach Carin Gabarra, a member of…
UFC 149 aired Saturday night to a less-than-stellar reception — four of the five main-card bouts went to the judges, and the fifth featured a Canadian losing by submission, in Canada. When UFC President Dana White tells fans, “Listen, we’re going to have bad fights,” the promotion clearly could use a lift. How does a promotion put a bad fight night behind it and generate excitement? Hand a microphone to controversial middleweight Michael “The Count” Bisping. Even better, hand another one to his upcoming opponent — former Marine Capt. Brian Stann. That happened late Saturday night/early Sunday morning on the…
A dirty dozen military-themed sports links from a busy weekend (non-MMA notes after the jump): 1. Kennedy recap. Special Forces soldier Tim Kennedy lost in his second try at the Strikeforce middleweight title Saturday night in Portland, Ore., falling to Luke Rockhold via five-round unanimous decision — the same way he lost his 2010 title bout against Rolando “Jacare” Souza. Read the After Action review, with video, here. Click here for full coverage from our good friends at MMAJunkie. 2. Now what? Read Sherdog’s suggestions for Kennedy’s next fight, including what could be a make-or-break rematch with Souza. 3. From…
Five quick military-sports hits for a Monday morning: 1. Who gets ‘The Count’? While the smack talk between former Marine Capt. Brian Stann and Michael “The Count” Bisping has reached impressive proportions, it’s important to remember the proposed September middleweight clash between the two is still just that — proposed. Bisping’s initial blast called out both Stann and Alan Belcher, whose 18-6 record includes a four-fight win streak dating back to mid-2009. As usual, there’s no shortage of opponents eager for a piece of the controversial Bisping, and Belcher wants to be at the front, telling our good friends at…
On its surface, it’s the typical trash talk that surrounds UFC matchmaking: Middleweight Michael “The Count” Bisping lists Brian Stann as one of his preferred opponents for a September pay-per-view fight, and the former Marine captain fires back. And as such, it might be overshadowed by Saturday’s Chael Sonnen-Anderson Silva middleweight title fight. But what’s really happened here? On July 4, an English fighter nicknamed “The Count” threw out a challenge that a former Marine nicknamed “The All-American” accepted. Did Bisping pick Independence Day — or, as he and fellow Brits call it, “Wednesday” — on purpose? Probably not. But…
Three quick hits for a Wednesday morning, from Belgrade to Brian Stann to Big East football: 1. Pre-Olympic trip. Three Olympics-bound soldiers are among the seven elite U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers headed to Europe later this week for the Gedza International tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, according to TheMat.com. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers (120 kilograms), Sgt. Spenser Mango (55 kg) and Spc. Justin Lester (66 kg), all members of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, will make the trip; Mango and Lester will wrestle Friday, with Byers hitting the mat Saturday. At stake: A chance to fine-tune their mat game as…
Three quick hits for a Thursday while you review your summer swim safety techniques: 1. Stann speaks. Straight from “The All-American” himself: No one is more disappointed than I, meant the world to headline a UFC, seperated shoulder, rehab will start tomorrow, back asap, apologies — Brian Stann (@BrianStann) June 6, 2012 Stann will miss his scheduled main-event middleweight fight with Hector Lombard, set for Aug. 4 in Los Angeles. The UFC’s web site now lists Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera as the main event at 205 pounds. Reports have Lombard facing Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 in July,…
We point you directly to the experts: Our good friends at MMAJunkie.com are reporting that former Marine Brian Stann has been scratched from his upcoming middleweight bout against Hector Lombard, which was to be a five-round main event for the Aug. 4 UFC on Fox 4 card in Los Angeles. MMAJunkie did not report the nature of the injury. Ariel Helwani, a well-known MMA journalist and frequent TV interviewer/host/personality, reports at MMAFighting.com that Stann suffered a shoulder injury that will not require surgery, but could keep him out of the octagon for up to eight weeks. There has been no…
