Our friends over at MMA News had an interview with UFC fighter Kenny “Kenflo” Florian yesteday to talk about his upcoming fight against Din Thomas at UFC’s Ultimate Fight Night 11 on September 19th as well as his take on the UFC Lightweight Division.  It’s a nice article you can read in its entirty here at MMANews.com.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Kenflo is very much prepared for his fight and matches up well against Din
• Anything worrying Kenny about Din?  Not really.
• His advantages over Din?  Kenny believes he is better conditioned and Din won’t be able to push the pace like he’ll be able to. He also believes he has an advantage in all aspects basically: striking, wrestling, on the ground.
• Florian predicts that BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will fight for the Lightweight Title if Sherk’s one-year suspension holds up.
• Some of his favorite MMA fighters to watch include Fedor Emelianenko, BJ Penn, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, and Dan Henderson

For the full interview at MMA News click here.

In the spirit of upcoming UFC 75, we selected this photo of Pride champion Dan Henderson with his son Reese.

Henderson is family man and one heck of a classy fighter.  He’s one of the hardest working fighters out there and is a great representative of the world of mixed martial arts.

Can you say, future UFC champions?

Or, said another way, not worth the amount of money he thinks he deserves as reported by Steve Sievert at Chron.com. 

Andrei Arlovski only has one fight left on his contract with the UFC and is currently in the midst of a contract re-signing negotiation.  Even though he has been UFC Champion, has an amazing looking girlfriend, and could have some celebrity appeal, the UFC doesn’t seemed overly concerned with retaining the Pitbull.  Maybe Arlovski isn’t as “Hollywood” as he thinks?

Sievert recently spoke with UFC match-maker Joe Silva who more or less said that the MMA juggernaut doesn’t “need” the former champ and he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.  Pretty harsh words, but Arlovski has dug his own grave with his last four unimpressive fights (Arlovski vs. Sylvia 3 being one of the worst fights of 2006).  Although we’d like to see him resign with the UFC, if he does he needs to grow out the beard and chest hair and become the beast that he was back in 2005.

A few weeks ago Sherk’s lawyer made some official statements proclaiming that the UFC’s Lightweight Champion innocent of all charges made against him by the California State Athletic Commission.  (Click here to watch that video)

Channel 13 Action News caught up with Sherk and grabbed a quick video interview.  Sherk says that he’ll continue to appeal his failed drug test. 

Click to view video

Dana White’s take on steroids in MMA and Sherk in particular,

I’ve known Sean Sherk for a long time. He’s a really good man. He trains hard and has worked hard to get where he’s at. You and me probably have six nanograms [of the steroid Nandrolone] in our system; he had 12. Other guys who’ve been busted for the same steroid have had over 50 nanograms in their system. What my experts tell me is, there’s no way that he would only have 12 in his system. I’m not his father. If he did it, he’ll have to face the consequences. People make mistakes. If your life was over every time you make a mistake, that’s pretty f—ing harsh. How many times do I have to tell people not to use steroids? It’s to the point where it’s just stupid. (Source: ESPN.com)

MMA Today caught up with Forrest Griffin as he prepares for his upcoming battle against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and scored this nice video interview. During the interview Forrest takes a few minutes to discuss his game plan against Rua at UFC 76 as well as provide some insight into his training methods.

Griffin makes it clear that he has done his homework and plans to press the pace against Rua and move forward on on him. It almost seems like a tactic taken from the book of Gabriel Gonzaga when he moved forward against Cro Cop to neutralize his offense. A planned out strategy against such a versatile MMA fighter like Shogun is a step in the right direction, but Forrest will definitely have his work cut out for him against the Pride Grand Prix winner at UFC 76.

Thx2 MMA Today

That’s the way financial-backer Chuck Norris positions the fighting league, called the World Combat League.  For those not familiar, it’s similar to the IFL in that there are teams, but what is different is that it takes place in a ring, not a cage, and there is no ground fighting.  Norris has tried to differentiate it from mixed martial arts, making statements such as “Most of our fighters don’t want to get into the ground-and-pound of mixed martial arts, they want to stand up and knock their opponent down.” Norris, who touts martial arts as a positive force in troubled lives, said he hopes the league will appeal to a family audience and carve out a niche for the fighting style that made him famous.

The premise of the league sounds intriguing… (more…)