MMA Europe

Welcome to the MMA Europe Blog.

On this blog I'm going to discuss MMA in general, news about MMA, results, video's, rumors and fights. I'm going to update this blog daily with all kinds of new stuff.

Latest News

Cris Cyborg declined fight with Ronda Rousey over money UFC Heavyweight Shane Carwin retires from MMA

Jon Jones moving up to HW after cleaning out LHW division UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II Extended Preview

I also want to tell about a great MMA group on Facebook.
It's the biggest MMA group on Facebook today, the name is "WE ARE ALL ONE" and I'm going to tell you guys what this group is all about.


The whole idea behind the group is to have a Facebook group where fans can discuss and make connections to improve the image of MMA. MMA is the most growing combat sport in the world but still has a negative image in Europe and some other places. In some countries they want to forbid it. Why? Because a lot of people don’t understand the sport.
It’s a mix from several Olympic sports, such as boxing, judo, wrestling, taekwondo. Different fighters are really smart guys with high education, such as lawyers or doctors, but also the casual husband, taxi driver or whatever can be a MMA fan or fighter.

A Dutch guy named "Hein van de Velden", who is the cousin of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Bas Rutten, started the group after he saw a picture of Genki Sudo with the "WE ARE ALL ONE" banner. He thought it was a great text to create a group with on Facebook.

He wants to show the world that "WE ARE ALL ONE" No matter what education,hometown you come from, we are all MMA fans and sportsmen! If they train MMA, they can lose all stress in training. If they don’t train MMA, there’s still a group where they can get a real good feeling being a part of "WE ARE ALL ONE".


He is now rounding up pictures of fans and fighters with the text "WE ARE ALL ONE!" so he could see how many people are supporting the group.

A lot of professional fighters support the group as well:
- Stefan Struve (UFC Heavyweight fighter)
- Remco Pardoel (ex-UFC fighter)
- Filip Verlinden (2012 Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam Tournament Final 16 fighters)
- Bas Rutten (former UFC Heavyweight Champion)
- Michael Kuiper (UFC Middleweight fighter)

You can view their photo's in the "WE ARE ALL ONE" album
This is my "WE ARE ALL ONE" picture :)


"WE ARE ALL ONE" also helped me to lose weight. I went from 206.8 lbs (on 06/29/2012) to 162.9lb now

So come on and help build the image of MMA and be a part of the facebook group "WE ARE ALL ONE".

Cris Cyborg declined fight with Ronda Rousey over money, not weight

Former Strikeforce Women's Featherweight Champion Cristiane 'Cyborg' Santos passed on a great opportunity to face UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda 'Rowdy' Rousey. At first the weight seemed to be an issue, but Mike Chiappetta says it was the money, not the weight that was a problem.

Mike Chiappetta from MMA Fighting revealed that Cris Cyborg and her manager Tito Ortiz passed on the chance to fight Ronda Rousey for the first women's fight ever at UFC 157. Mike Chiappetta (Bloody Elbow) explains what happened, because it had nothing to do with Cyborg not being able to cut to 135 lbs:

While (match weight) was at the center of most conversations in the media regarding the inability to make the Cyborg-Rousey fight, it was not the deal-breaker it's been reported to be.

During the ongoing negotiations, which lingered for about two months, the promotion agreed to pay for the services of a dieting and nutrition consultant like Dolce. But there were other points that the two sides could not agree on.

The biggest issue, according to Cyborg's management firm Primetime 360, was Zuffa treating Cyborg as a bit player rather than an event co-star.

Dave Meltzer also commented at Wrestling Observer:

The problem is, and this is huge, is that after Cyborg beat Carano, Cyborg's subsequent fights garnered very little interest. It surprised me seeing how big the Carano fight was, the reaction, the ratings, the attendance, etc. While Carano was clearly the star, one would have thought Cyborg would have come out of such a big win on the first women's main event that set record Showtime MMA ratings as a big star herself. There are obvious conclusions you can draw as to why that didn't happen, but I think UFC recognizes that it didn't.

Rousey vs. Cyborg can be promoted with the UFC's marketing behind it as the biggest women's fight in history and insiders may feel Cyborg is still the best fighter, although the steroid issue as it pertains to this fight is huge. Because women don't produce the level of testosterone as men, a woman on steroids has far more of a competitive edge against someone clean than a man would under the same circumstances. We can all play pretend, but Cyborg did fail a test, and even if she hadn't, photos of Brazilian handball star Cristiane Justino and fighter Cris Cyborg can challenge any before-and-after Barry Bonds photos.

Cyborg did pass all her tests prior to her Invicta fight last month, and she was tested during some of her other fights. But given the nature and limitations of testing when you know in advance when you are tested, that doesn't mean a whole lot.

Today, Cyborg on the outside is not nearly the star that Liz Carmouche or Miesha Tate are. But if she signs with UFC, she will be. One can only argue, and this is a valid one, that her management should have come up with a long-term battle plan for her to naturally get her bodyweight to 145-150, where the cut to 135 wouldn't be harsh. She would lose muscle and strength, but that's part of the game, and it's hard for people to have sympathy because of the belief of how she got that much muscle and strength. I can recall talking to Marloes Coenen, after she had come-from-behind to beat Carmouche, and she was remarking that Carmouche was deceptively strong. "But not Cyborg strong," noting Cyborg had the strength of the male fighters she's trained with.

Hopefully this fight will still happen as it would be a great fight!

Other News

• UFC Heavyweighy Shane Carwin retires from MMA
• Rich Franklin not retiring just yet, wants Michael Bisping next!
• UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II Extended Preview Video
• UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis Promo
• Jon Jones moving up to HW after cleaning out LHW division

UFC Heavyweight Shane Carwin retires from MMA

Former UFC Heavyweight Interim Champion Shane Carwin has announced his retirement today on Twitter.

It's not really a shock that UFC fighter Shane Carwin retires from the sport, it has been almost 2 years since he last fought in the UFC. He announced his retirement on Twitter.



He ends his career because after enduring several injuries since his last fight in June 2011 he hasn't been able to fight. He ends his career with a professional record of 12-2 with all first round finishes of his opponent, both by KO and Submission. Before Shane Carwin lost in his title fight against Brock Lesnar he was 4-0 in the UFC and 12-0 in general. He had impressive wins over Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir and Gabriel Gonzaga on his resume. After his fight with Brock Lesnar, the injuries were starting to come, he was scheduled to fight Roy Nelson at UFC 125 but pulled out due to a back injury. He was also scheduled to fight Roy Nelson but a knee injury forced Carwin off the TUF 16 Finale.

Although he doesn't specifically says what he's retiring from, but with all his past injuries and so on, it looks like we never going to see Carwin in the Octagon again...

Other News

• Rich Franklin not retiring just yet, wants Michael Bisping next!
• UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II Extended Preview Video
• UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis Promo
• Jon Jones moving up to HW after cleaning out LHW division
• Tito Ortiz may have to come out of retirement to beat Jon Jones

Rich Franklin not retiring just yet, wants Bisping next

Rich Franklin finally decides what's next for his career 6 months after the devistating KO loss to Cung Le. He's not planning on retiring just yet, and he plan on fighting Michael Bisping next.

Rich Franklin talked to Ariel Helwani on last week's episode of The MMA Hour and he says he has no plans to retire just yet, dispite his KO loss to Cung Le last November at UFC: Macao:

I haven't been sitting on my end thinking about retirement. I don't want any of the fans out there to think: Oh, Rich is just out there contemplating retiring.

The loss to Cung was a big setback for me. Unexpected in my camp, I'm kind of sitting here thinking what's my next move going to be. And I realized I'm 38 years old and my time is limited in the sport. I know that I'm not going to be fighting another 10 years. I have to start think about the things that I'm doing outside of MMA.

His remaining time in the UFC is going to be limited, like he said. And Franklin already knows what's next for him: Michael Bisping. Even though the fight doesn't make, because Franklin just came of a KO loss and Bisping just had a great win over Alan Belcher at UFC 159 but Franklin sees it differently:

I look at my Twitter and a lot of people talk about Michael Bisping. That would be an exciting fight and something the fans would want to see. I’m an exciting fighter, he’s an exciting fighter, and we both like to throw down.

Other News

• UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II Extended Preview Video
• UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis Promo
• Jon Jones moving up to HW after cleaning out LHW division
• Tito Ortiz may have to come out of retirement to beat Jon Jones
• UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen Post Fight Media Scrum

UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 Extended Preview

Other News

• UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis Promo
• Jon Jones moving up to HW after cleaning out LHW division
• Tito Ortiz may have to come out of retirement to beat Jon Jones
• UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen Post Fight Media Scrum
• UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen post fight press conference