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MMA Sports Nutrition

UK’s Premiere MMA Sports Nutrition Company MMA Sports Nutrition

Is proud to announce …

MAJOR NEW SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH FIGHT UK

MMA Sports Nutrition is proud to announce its partnership with Leicester based MMA Promotion FIGHT UK as a headline sponsor.

Formed in January 2010, FIGHT UK has quickly established itself as the Midlands’s leading promotion, with a strong fan following and commitment to developing fighters from amateur to pro. FIGHT UK 5 on November 19th will see the promotion moving into a new 2,000 venue, Athena Leicester. This event will be aired on Premier Sports (Sky Channel 433) marking FIGHT UK’s first step into broadcast.

Fight UK MMA.

Fight UK MMA Promoter David Ross said: ‘FIGHT UK is proud to welcome MMA Sports Nutrition on board as our headline sponsor. This is an exciting time for FIGHT UK with our move to a new venue and our first broadcast deal and it’s great to have the support of such a committed brand. With their values and dedication to MMA, they are our ideal partner as they support the fighter from Amateur, to Pro.’

Jimmy Caan, Director, MMA Sports Nutrition said: ‘We really respect the guys at FIGHT UK and like the way they do business. They’ve worked hard to build a solid brand and are now moving up to the next level. We’re proud to play our part in supporting them.’

As the UK’s premiere MMA supplement company, MMA Sports Nutrition boasts a range of eight key products developed exclusively with the MMA athlete in mind. From ‘Rage Glutamine’ through to ‘T.K.O Creatine’, MMA Sports Nutrition has a supplement catering to every stage of the MMA athlete’s training needs at an affordable price point.

FIGHT UK 5 Card:

Fraser Opie (Immortal MMA) v Marcin Zontek (Salford MMA) – Light Heavy Weight Title Fight
Craig Turner (Rough House) v Gavin Sterrit (Wolfslair)
Dean Truman (Bushido / Team Wallhead) v Martin Sheridan (Shudan)
Yannick Bahati( UTC) v Joe Deeney (Immortal MMA)
Josh Foster (Total Dojo) v Dan MonRoe (Eagles MMA)

Many more fights to be announced.

To find out more about Fight UK check out these links:

Website: www.fightukmma.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fightukmma
Twitter: @FightUKMMA
Youtube: www.youtube.com/fightukmma
FIGHT UK Team: www.fightukmma.co.uk/fight-uk-team

FIGHT UK is an MMA promotion based in Leicestershire, organising and promoting quality Amateur and Professional Mixed Martial Arts events.

Next event: Saturday November 19th, Athena,Leicester
Tickets: www.fightukmma.co.uk/tickets/

See below for further all the low-down on MMA Sports Nutrition:

Website: mmasportsnutrition.co.uk/
Facebook: on.fb.me/oMlsFk
Twitter: @FeedTheRageMMA

MMA Sports Nutrition is a unique supplement company providing a range of top quality MMA sports supplements, MMA sports nutrition and more at affordable prices in the UK. The products have been exclusively developed with the needs of MMA athletes in mind.

MMA Nutrition currently offers 8 key products:

• Ground & Pound Lean Mass Gainer
• Sprawl & Brawl Protein Fuel
• Knockout Whey Protein
• Guillotine Fat Burner
• Rage Glutamine
• T.K.O Creatine
• Rush Energy
• Re-charge Isotonic

UFC 134 -- Saturday August 27, 2011.

The UFC returns to the home of mixed martial arts -- Brazil, this Saturday when Anderson “Spider” Silva defends the middleweight gold versus Yushin “Thunder” Okami.

Anderson will have the pressure on him, defending his status as the number one middleweight on the planet, on home soil, facing the Japanese fighter who holds a disqualification win over the South American. It may only be a DQ win but it’s still a blip on Silva’s MMA fight record.

Catch UFC Rio live in the UK on ESPN, Saturday August 27, 2011.

UFC & MMA blog by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com

WHOA! TV deliver the goods once again:

Ahead of Jason “Shotgun” Young’s octagon debut at UFC 131 WHOA! TV take an exclusive behind the scenes look at one of the UK’s most talented prospects.

If you mentioned the name of Henry Cooper to anyone, more likely than not they’d reply with the words “our ‘Enry”.

Henry Cooper was regarded as a true gentleman of boxing. A former British, Commonwealth and European Heavyweight Champion Cooper was Britain’s best known heavyweight. This despite the fact that he only had one shot at the World title.

Born on May 3rd, 1934 along with his twin brother George, Cooper was a left handed fighter who, unlike other left handers, fought in an orthodox stance. After a successful amateur career which saw him win the ABA title and compete in the 1952 Olympics Cooper turned professional.

During a storied career he fought the likes of Ingamar Johannsen, Zora Folley, Brian London and Floyd Patterson. His most famous fights however were against none other than Muhammad Ali.

It was at Wembley Stadium in London in 1963 that Cooper first fought a young Cassius Clay. In the fourth round Cooper unleashed his trademark punch, “‘Enry’s Hammer”, a left hook that sent Clay crashing down to the canvas.

Legend has it that Clay’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, used a few tricks to buy his man some recovery time, such as cutting his gloves so he’d need a replacement. When the fifth round eventually began Clay hit Cooper with a hard right that opened up a nasty cut under his eye, and even though Cooper was ahead on points the referee stopped the fight, giving the TKO win to Clay.
Three years later Cooper challenged the now-Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight title at Arsenal’s Highbury stadium. Ali was now more weary of Cooper’s skills, although Cooper once again cut up badly as Ali was given another TKO win. Again, Cooper was ahead on points.

After losing to Floyd Patterson in his next fight Cooper went undefeated until March 1971, where he defended his British, European and Commonwealth titles against the young up-and-comer Joe Bugner. Bugner defeated Cooper on points, winning all three titles and ending Cooper’s career. Cooper was so beloved by the British public that they never took to Bugner afterwards, despite the fact that he twice challenged Muhammad Ali for the World title in the 70’s.

Along with his in-ring achievements, Cooper is one of only three people to have been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in 1967 and 1970. He was awarded an OBE in 1969, and knighted in 2000. He kept a high public profile after his retirement, most notably for his appearances in Brut aftershave commercials.

Cooper passed away this past Sunday at the age of 76.

Sir Henry Cooper will always be regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever sportsmen. He was always held in high regard not just by the fans but by his peers. In all my years of watching and reading about boxing I’ve never heard or seen a bad word about him. His death is a great loss to the sport he loved and served so well.

Rest in peace Sir ‘Enry.

It was a fight 18 months in the making as Ken Shamrock finally got his re-match against Royce Gracie, and also featured the return of the man who’d become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Dan Severn. It was April 7th, 1995, and Ultimate Fighting Championship 5: The Return of the Beast.

The show began with the first quarter final as Tae Kwon Do fighter Andy Anderson took on SAFTA stylist Jon Hess.

Hess came into this one with a huge size advantage, coming forward immediately with some wild blows and kicks. The fight went to the ground briefly but Hess soon returned to his feet, returning to his chose tactic.

Anderson soon went down, and a few stomps was enough for the referee “Big” John McCarthy as he stopped the fight, giving the win to Hess.

Quarter final #2 saw Jeet Kune Do fighter Todd Medina facing kickboxer Larry Cureton.

Although these two were known as strikers Medina quickly took the fight to the ground. From there he used ground and pound techniques, including head butts, to weaken his man, before getting the submission win using his left forearm to choke Cureton out.

Quarter final #3 saw Sambo man Oleg Taktarov tackling Kenpo Karate fighter Ernest Verdecia.

Surprisingly it was the striker who took the fight down as Verdecia scored with the early take down, and like Medina before him he connected with a couple of head butts.

But after that he hardly challenged Taktarov as the Russian bided his time before reversing the positions and getting the submission win with a neck crank.

Quarter final #4 saw UFC 4 finalist Dan Severn going up against Judo man Joe Charles.

The best fight of the round saw Severn take control early on with a take down, but unlike the previous tournament Severn had added a few strikes to his game. Charles briefly went for an arm bar but Severn quickly re-established control, taking Charles’ back and locking in a rear naked choke, with the referee stepping in to stop the fight.

Semi-final #1 saw alternate Dave Beneteau, a judo fighter and a wrestler, replacing the injured John Hess against Todd Medina.

Medina’s swollen left eye was a target as Beneteau took the fight to the ground early on, connecting with a series of head butts and strikes. As the fight neared the two minute mark Medina’s corner had seen enough, throwing in the towel.

Semi-final #2 saw Oleg Taktarov going up against Dan Severn.

The most intriguing fight  of the round saw Severn taking control early on the ground, once again using strikes allied to his already impressive wrestling skills.

Taktarov had his moments, but while he went for an arm bar Severn connected with a series of knees to the head, opening up a nasty gash on his forehead.

It wasn’t long before the referee stopped the action, and after checking Taktarov’s cut he called the fight off, giving the impressive win to Severn.

Then was saw a first as Ken Shamrock went up against Royce Gracie in the UFC’s first ever Superfight.

I’ve heard a lot about this one of the past few years, and most of it wasn’t exactly complimentary.

Personally I found it to be a very intriguing battle as they went to the ground after just thirty seconds, with Shamrock taking the guard and Gracie putting in some great defensive work, negating Shamrock’s attacking instincts.

It may not have been particularly explosive or attractive to some but it was certainly interesting.

After 31 minutes and 6 seconds (the time limit was meant to be 30 minutes) the referee stood the fighters up, officially starting the overtime period. Shamrock connected with a blow that swelled Gracie’s right eye before the inevitable return to the ground.

Shamrock suddenly upped his game, targeting Gracie’s eye with lefts and head butts, but once again Gracie went into defensive mode, and it was enough to negate Shamrock as the overtime period came to an end, with the fight being declared a draw.

A very intriguing and interesting fight, although if you used today’s judging criteria then Shamrock would probably have taken the win, mainly because of the damage he caused to Gracie’s eye in the overtime period.

Then it was on to the tournament final between Dave Beneteau and Dan Severn.

On paper, given the respective credentials of these two this looked like a pretty even fight. Both men grappled for position up against the cage until Severn managed to get the take down.

The Best immediately went to work, delivering a couple of rights to Beneteau’s head before synching in a key lock for the submission win.

In conclusion – when you go back to these old UFC shows you get to see just how the sport of mixed martial arts has progressed since those early days.

UFC 5 is a great example of this. Whereas in previous events the fighters stayed in their particular style in UFC 5 we saw the beginning of the progression, with strikers adopting grapping techniques and grapplers using strikes.

As for the fights themselves it was another great performance from Dan Severn. As the NWA World Champion it was interesting to see that he could go from professional wrestling to shoot fighting with relative ease.

It does seem a shame though that this was Royce Gracie’s final UFC appearance until his fight with Matt Hughes at UFC 60. Rumour has it that the clan were worried about the rising standard of competition, and while I don’t know if that’s the case if would have been interesting to see Gracie against the likes of Marco Ruas, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Tank Abbott and Don Frye, and perhaps a third outing against Ken Shamrock.

So in all UFC 5 gets the thumbs up here as another great lesson in the history of mixed martial arts.

It was meant to be the big homecoming, the hometown boy, the World Champion, coming home to pay tribute to his thousands of fans while defending his title. But it’s kind of gone wrong for Amir Khan in the last few days.

This coming Saturday night Khan is set to defend his WBA Light Welterweight title against Paul McCloskey at the Manchester Evening News Arena. The experts predict that the “W” will go against Khan’s name.

However, he won’t be doing it in front of an extensive television audience.

The fight was originally scheduled to be broadcast on pay-per-view on Sky Box Office, but the powers that be at Sky began to have concerns about the undercard. They viewed it as a pay-per-view event, in the same way that professional wrestling and mixed martial events are portrayed. Khan disagreed, saying that his fight was enough to pull in a television audience.

Sky disagreed, and came forward with another business proposal, suggesting that they broadcast the fight on Sky Sports 3 instead.

Khan disagreed again. If his fight was to air on Sky’s normal channels then he wanted it to air on their flagship Sky Sports 1. The only problem was that Sky had scheduled La Liga’s El Classico match between Real Madrid and Barcelona for that spot, and it was something that they weren’t prepared to move.

So Khan, guaranteed an estimated television audience of up to 600,000, took his ball and went over to the Primetime pay-per-view channel, average recent audience 8,000.

Amir Khan may be one of Britain’s best fighters at the moment, but it seems like he’s kind of shot himself in the foot. It’s certainly going to hit him in the pocket. Originally Sky had offered him £1.5 million for the pay-per-view fight, dropping to £150,000 when they wanted to switch the fight to Sky Sports 3. Now, because of his desire to be known as a pay-per-view fighter, and because the fight is now being shown on the less well-known Primetime channel he could be earning less than McCloskey.

His reported earnings, after expenses, could be nothing. A big fat zero.

I can certainly see Sky’s point of view here. After the Audley Harrison/David Haye debacle they were afraid of getting burned again, and with fighters like former World Heavyweight Champion Hasim Rachman pulling out the whole event became slightly less attractive in their eyes.

But by refusing Sky’s offer to put the show on their normal channels Khan has come across as big headed, as egotistical. He thinks that television fans should pay extra to see him in action, despite the fact that Sky subscribers already pay a monthly fee for the sports channels. This despite reports that Sky had only received about 50 customer enquiries before they pulled out of the event.

So this Saturday night, probably around 10pm, Khan will be stepping into the ring for what could be his last fight on British soil for quite a while. There will, no doubt, be a packed house there to watch his efforts, and they’ll most certainly will outnumber those watching on television.

So for the sake of his public image and his ego, Amir Khan, the pay-per-view quality fighter, has cost himself thousands of pounds and thousands of fans. He has, well and truly, shot himself in the foot.

British Association of Mixed Martial Arts.

There’s a good chance by time you read this you’ve heard the huge story in the mixed martial arts industry – UFC buying out Californian based competitors Strikeforce. From what I’ve heard so far Zuffa (UFC parent company) is not planning amalgamate Strikeforce with Ultimate Fighting Championship, instead the established brand popular with fans will co-exist as a feeder fight promotion, keeping all branding in place.

“The Bear” beats “The Beast” -- as Stav “Crazy Bear” Economou TKO’s combat sports legend Bob Sapp, yesterday (March 11, 2011), in Abu Dhabi. Congratulations Stav, a big international win for a UK fighter.

The contest was part of the Open Weight Grand Prix for promoters Abu Dhabi Fighting Championships.

The bout originally was being promoted by BAMMA in the UK, but the fight card got cancelled due to the extreme weather.

UFC & MMA blog by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com

"The Prince of Jiu Jitsu" - Carlson Gracie Junior.

Some exciting news for Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts in south west England, “The Prince of Jiu Jitsu” – Carlson Gracie Junior of the legendary Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu clan,  is coming to Bournemouth hosting a special one day seminar courtesy of The Desouza dojo at Phoenix MMA:

The Desouza dojo at Phoenix MMA Bournemouth is pleased to announce that we will be holding a three hour seminar with the legendary Carlson Gracie Junior.

See http://carlsongraciefederation.com/ for more information.

The seminar will take place at our academy situated at:

http://phoenixmmauk.co.uk/contact/

The seminar will take place on April 16

The time will be 11am until 2pm:

Pre-booked places will cost £40

On the day price £50

Dont miss this rare opportunity to train with the great man.

For tickets or further info please call Jimmy on 07545 568778 or email jimmybjj@hotmail.com

Be sure not to miss this great opportunity.