Marine Corps veteran Brian Stann added another line to his impressive resume this month, as the Silver Star recipient, mixed martial arts champion, UFC and college football commentator, Hiring Heroes CEO and real-estate executive rejoined the cage-fighting club via the front office of the Professional Fighters League. Stann will serve as head of the fighters and competition/rules committee for the PFL, playing a key role in the organization’s plans to become a “fighters first” league, according to a news release. A PFL primer for non-MMA addicts: The group will kick off what amounts to a series of yearlong tournaments next month,…
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Ten quick hits’ worth of military-related sports news before Congress tries to make all the academy football teams wear the same uniform (non-football news after the jump): 1. Bobsled-bound? Option quarterbacks need to be versatile, but former Army signal-caller Trent Steelman is taking things to a new level. Already under contract with the Baltimore Ravens, Steelman’s now in the running for a spot on the U.S. Olympic bobsled team, according to Army football guru Sal Interdonato. Steelman’s father told Interdonato that the Army officer performed well in the U.S. Bobsled Combine recently and will be participating in further qualifying events…
Forget the Navy — if you want to see the world, join the UFC. Former Marine Brian Stann will fight his third consecutive bout outside the U.S. on March 3, traveling to Saitama Super Arena, north of Tokyo, to face Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva in a 205-pound headliner for UFC on FUEL TV 8, according to our good friends at MMAJunkie.com. It’s a one-time-only return light heavyweight, the former WEC 205-pound champ tweeted early Thursday morning. (He’ll be fine for the cut back down to middleweight; he knows a guy.) More from the MMAJunkie report: It’s a homecoming of…
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.…
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…
