Three days before his fight with Marisuz Pudzianowski at Moosin: God of Martial Arts, former UFC heavyweight champion, Tim “the Maine-iac” Sylvia, is already planning his next move. While a return to the UFC isn’t out of the question, Sylvia has his sights set on Strikeforce.

“I would imagine Strikeforce would be better for me because they would be a little more lenient with me instead of locking me down, there is a lot of things you can’t do when you fight for the UFC. With Strikeforce I could probably fight more often, the UFC has so many top guys now that they are only fighting twice a year and I don’t want to do that. I want to fight (Alistair) Overeem, Fedor (Emelianenko) again, (Fabricio) Werdum is a good fight and me and (Brett) Rogers would be a good fight. (Andre) Arlovski I think would be [like our fight] number three again, me knocking him out. I think I ruined the poor guy, since I knocked him out he hasn’t been the same.”

Before the Miletich fighter can pitch his services to Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker, he must first deal with Pudzianowski this Friday. The five-time World’s Strongest Man is fairly new to MMA, but his muscular stature and brute strength cannot be overlooked. Nevertheless, Sylvia was not impressed after watching video of his upcoming opponent.

“We actually thought he would be better than he was, because he is taking this fight (with me). He is not going to get any better in the next two [days], so… we’ll see.”

To prepare for the bout, Sylvia brought in guys weighing over 300 pounds to simulate the size of Pudzianowski. While “the Maine-iac” focused on his ground game for the upcoming battle, he expects the Polish newcomer to fold quickly.

“I think when I hit him with a left hook or a straight right he will crumble. I don’t think he has been hit.”

Moosin: God of Martial Arts will air live at 9pm EST on Friday, May 21 via pay-per-view.

(Source: Fighters Only)

The heated battle between UFC light heavyweights, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and, “Sugar” Rashad Evans, reached a boiling point during the UFC 114 conference call. With the fight less than two weeks away, both men are clearly itching to get their hands on each other.

At first, the call started off normally. UFC President, Dana White, confirmed that the winner of the Jackson vs. Evans matchup would get the next title shot against current champion, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Then things got out of control. During various points in the conversation, both men were yelling at each other so much that majority of their comments were drowned out.

After the usual fight promotion hyperbole, the talk became more personal and insulting. At one point, Evans accused Jackson of presenting a negative image of himself as an African-American by dumbing down his intelligence.

“He does his little sambo thing,” Evans said. “He says, ‘Oh black-on-black crime,’ and ‘Oh, you can’t use big words. I’m stupid.’ Come on, I’ve talked to the dude. He’s pretty smart. He knows what’s going on. He says it’s comedy? Why perpetuate the stereotype you’re stupid? You’re not stupid. Why perpetuate the stereotype that you can’t think, you can’t understand big words? You can’t read. All that stupid stuff.”

Jackson retorted with his own prejudicial viewpoint.

“I never said all that,” Jackson said. “That’s another angle for you to try and talk smack. Go ahead. I do what I do, you do what you do. Why act all cocky and fake and play with your nipples and look all gay? Why do you do that? Why do you go that way? Why do you portray the stereotype of a black gay man, if you want go that way? Play with your nipples and act all gay, wear those little, tight shorts.”

“That’s what I wear,” Evans said.

“I know, because you’re gay,” Jackson said.

Trying to regain control of the conversation, White put on his promoter’s cap and continued to hype the main event.

“The WWE stuff is when the guys try to hype it up and make it look that way. These two don’t like each other,” White said. “It doesn’t get any more real than this. It’s a fight. I think people enjoy that, when two guys generally want to fight each other.”

Despite the immature back-and-forth between Jackson and Evans, a bit of the history behind their distaste for one another was revealed.

According to Jackson, back in 2004, he attended a fight between his teammate, Hector Ramirez, and Evans. “Sugar” won the bout and, in the middle of celebrating, walked over to “Rampage” and asked to train with him. Apparently, Jackson considered the timing to be disrespectful. Evans said Jackson was his favorite fighter and he simply wanted to introduce himself. Fast forward to 2009 and the animosity grew after Evans reportedly confronted Jackson backstage after “Rampage” defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 96.

If “Rampage” is successful against Evans and moves on to fight “Shogun” for the title, will he call Rua “gay” for opting to wear his traditional vale tudo shorts? Let’s hope not. While hyping a fight is part of the game, Evans and Jackson both veered into unnecessary territory. Imagine the potential fallout if the NAACP or GLAAD were on the call for some reason? As MMA fans, most of us can differentiate between simple trash talk and hate speech, but a layman may take the words as a true testament of the sport as a whole. Some will say that people are becoming overly sensitive and this is a non-issue. Perhaps they’re correct, but, the point is, there will always be someone looking for a reason, any reason, to hold MMA back. Why give them fuel to add to the fire?

(Source: MMA Fighting)

Eric “Butterbean” Esch can see the end of the road. In a long and colorful career, “Butterbean” has implanted himself, for better or worse, in the consciousness of fight fans around the world. On Friday, at Moosin: God of Martial Arts, Esch may be throwing down for the last time.

Originally, the 43-year-old had no intention of competing in the event. He would have preferred staying behind the scenes as the co-promoter of the show. However, a challenge from Boston radio personality, Lyondon Byers, was too good to ignore. Lyondon, a former professional hockey player, offered to fight “Butterbean,” with their paychecks going to charity.

While he hasn’t officially announced his retirement, Esch has begun to devote more time to his two sons, both of which aspire to be fighters like their father.

“I’d really rather them not, but I’m very supportive of them now that they want to do it. I’ve had 200 fights and I can feel it. But you don’t think about it when you’re that age.”

Beyond his parental duties, “Butterbean” plans to continue promoting events. In fact, Friday’s fight card had an entirely different main attraction in mind. Moosin was originally planning on pitting James Toney against Houston Alexander. Everything was progressing nicely, until the UFC threw a wrench into the works.

“James committed to fight for us. He said, ‘It’s a done deal.’ He said, ‘I’m going in the morning to sign the contract with attorneys.’ Next day I talk to him he’s on his way to the attorneys; next thing I know he’s on an airplane going to meet Dana White in (Las) Vegas. [James] flew to Vegas to tell Dana White off, and where Dana can stick it. But I guess Dana got out the checkbook and James went crazy and Dana offered him … all this big money.”

Unexpected setbacks are simply part of the job. Despite the frustration, Esch wouldn’t want to do anything else. Up until this point, being a fighter sometimes got in the way of his other career goals. After this Friday, “Butterbean” may hang up the American flag shorts for good and move on to the next phase of his life.

“It’s time to slow down a little bit and let the younger guys do it, and give them a venue to fight in.”

(Source: MMA Junkie)

With UFC 114 nearing, it’s hard to believe that the verbal tirades between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “Sugar” Rashad Evans almost never happened. As the heated rivalry grew during the taping of The Ultimate Fighter 10, their eventual bout became one of the most anticipated of the year. After a long delay due to Jackson’s role in the upcoming film, the A-Team, the fight will finally commence on May 29 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Yet, the pairing of Jackson and Evans on TUF 10 wasn’t the organization’s first choice. Lyoto Machida was initially considered to coach opposite Jackson on the show, but the Brazilian’s underdeveloped English skills was perceived as a potential problem. As such, Evans stepped in and the animosity started almost immediately.

“I would have preferred to have done The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) against Machida to fix the problem back in the day, from square one, just ‘X’ Rashad out because he don’t got the damn belt, but Machida’s English is not so good so I get stuck having to fight Rashad and he’s all cocky thinking he did something good because he’s on The Ultimate Fighter but like dude, you just got knocked the hell out! You’re on The Ultimate Fighter by default because the dude that knocked you out don’t speak English bro. Don’t be coming here acting like that. This is the type of thing I’m dealing with. It’s just annoying actually.”

Frustration aside, Jackson will have the opportunity to finally get his title shot, only this time against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. However, he’ll have to get past Evans first.

UFC 114 will air on pay-per-view. Spike TV will broadcast select undercard bouts.

(Source: MMA Mania)