What’s been a busy month so far for military mixed martial arts news was supposed to peak Saturday night with the UFC debut of a former Army sniper. Why that didn’t happen, plus some notes you may have missed from the military MMA scene over the last few days: Todhunter ‘feeling better’ after missing UFC 188 The 40-pound weight cut faced by Andrew “The Sniper” Todhunter to make 170 pounds for first UFC fight took such focus that preparing for his opponent, Russian Albert Tumenov, was a secondary — if that — concern. The former soldier told Army Times he was “in the 180s” on Wednesday afternoon, but by…
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Service members around the globe will be able to watch events from the Bellator mixed martial arts promotion on American Forces Network in June, beginning with a “heavyweight superfight” that may interest longtime MMA fans … even if it’s a few years past its use-by date. Bellator announced the deal on Memorial Day, offering few details on time slots or AFN channels but promising that the network will carry Bellator 138, a June 19 card in St. Louis that will feature Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice in a heavyweight main event. Shamrock, 51, fought on the first Ultimate Fighting Championships card…
Army Sgt. 1st Class Tim Kennedy will fight in front of a decidedly friendly crowd tonight at Fort Campbell, Ky., in the main event of the third UFC “Fight for the Troops” card. Kennedy (16-4) will battle fellow 185-pounder Rafael “Sapo” Natal (17-4-1). That’s “Natal.” With a “T”: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOTscXtjK0k[/youtube] Honest mistake — after all, Kennedy’s been busy in the run-up to tonight’s fight, continuing his stellar history of media-darling-ness: After his initial opponent, Lyoto Machida, was moved off the card to replace the injured Michael Bisping in an earlier event, Kennedy Twitter-bombed nearly the entire UFC roster, seeking a replacement.…
The third in our series of Tim Kennedy posts will be the shortest: The soldier-grappler was to fight former 205-pound UFC champ Lyoto Machida in the main event of “UFC Fight Night 31: UFC Fight for the Troops 3” at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Nov. 6. Then an injury to another fighter shuffled the UFC’s schedule, and Kennedy was left without an opponent. That triggered a series of Tweets from Kennedy that called out a good chunk of the UFC’s 185-pound division. Eventually, matchmakers selected Rafael “Sapo” Natal, according to our good friends at MMAJunkie.com — who’d been ID’d previously…
Wanted: Middleweight martial artist willing to step into cage in front of loud group of soldiers at Kentucky military installation, fight Texas National Guardsman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and hasn’t been knocked out in 20 professional bouts. Experience a plus. Medical insurance probably also a good idea. Tim Kennedy had been set to headline “UFC Fight Night 31: UFC Fight For the Troops 3” at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Nov. 6 against Lyoto Machida, a former 205-pound champion set to drop to 185 pounds in what would be the biggest fight of Kennedy’s career. But late last week,…
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 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…
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…
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…
