José Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis at UFC 163

Photo: MMA Carnival
According to Brazilian website Tatame.com, Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena will play host to August's UFC 163 that features featherweight champ Jose Aldo (22-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) defending his title against Anthony Pettis (16-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC).

When the fight was first booked this past month, UFC President Dana White said that sites in Texas, Chicago, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro were all under consideration to host the event.

UFC executives have yet to make an official announcement regarding the fight card's location, and multiple sources close to the event told MMAjunkie.com that contracts have not yet been finalized. Still, it appears Rio de Janeiro is the leading candidate to host the card. If finalized, UFC 163 would mark the promotion's fourth trip to the city in the past two years.

The bout marks Pettis' first fight at 145 pounds, as he drops down from lightweight for the promise of an immediate title shot.

The 26-year-old Pettis is best known for his December 2010 win over current UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson in the final event for the now-shuttered World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. In that bout, "Showtime" clinched a decision win by leaping off the cage wall and knocking down his opponent with a flying kick to the face. After dropping a decision to Clay Guida in his UFC debut, Pettis has since put together a three-fight win streak that includes back-to-back "Knockout of the Night" wins over top contenders Joe Lauzon and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone.

Meanwhile, Brazilian striker Aldo boasts a 15-fight win streak and has not tasted defeat since 2005. He's earned 11 career first-round stoppages and possesses some of the sharpest and most devastating muay Thai skills in the sport. Still, tae kwon do black belt Pettis believes he's capable of upsetting the 26-year-old champ.

Should the location be made official, Aldo will have pulled headlining duties in two of the UFC's trips to Rio de Janeiro, with Anderson Silva handling that role in the other two events.

Source: MMA Junkie

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Don Frye accuses Mir and Couture of throwing their fights against Lesnar

While attending the 2013 Arnold Classic, the living MMA legend managed to make headlines once again at the expense of former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar.

"The guy's a waste of flesh, I've never met such an asshole in my life," Frye told Casey Oxendine of MMA: Inside the Cage.

"I can't even formulate the words because he just pisses me off so bad. They wasted all that time bumping him up, and they hand fed him, you know, I think that Randy Couture and Frank Mir threw the goddamn fight. I know Randy is a much better wrestler than Lesnar ever thought about being, and Frank Mir could've been the greatest fighter of all time if he didn't get in that motorcycle accident. There's no way either one of those guys could've lost to Lesnar. I've had a couple of dinners with Lesnar, had a couple of drinks with him, and I found him to be a complete asshole."

According the former UFC veteran Don Frye, both Frank Mir and Randy Couture fights against Lesnar were throwed. Maybe Frank Mir was intentionally absorbing Lesnar's shots until his head almost got knocked off at UFC 100. I think it was pretty clear, in both fights, who was the better man and who got battered. Lesnar got more money out of his short term UFC career than Don Frye out of his whole career and he did a LOT more fights than Lesnar. Maybe that's on his mind when he think about ranting toward Lesnar.
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UFC 160: Junior dos Santos says Overeem is a joke

On 11/03/2013, Junior dos Santos told Tatame.com that his opponent for UFC 160 Mark Hunt is a very though and strong guy, and that he needs to be very careful. On the other hand, he doesn't have a lot of nice words to say about Alistair Overeem, the man he was supposed to meet.

After Junior dos Santos lost the belt in december 2012, to Cain Velasquez, he does not want to wait any longer to try and retake the title. Junior dos Santos was scheduled to meet Alistair Overeem at UFC 160 on May 25, 2013. But the Brazilian came close to being scrapped from the card, as his opponent Alistair Overeem was injured. But Mark Hunt was more than ready to accept on short notice, to replace the Dutch fighter.

Mark Hunt currently is on a 4 fight win streak, for now the longest win streak in the UFC Heavyweight devision. Hunt comes off victories over fighters such as Stefan Struve, Cheick Kongo, Ben Rothwell and Chris Tuchscherer. Three out of four fight ended by TKO. Junior dos Santos is coming of a title loss against Cain Velasquez.

When asked about the change of the opponents, the former Heavyweight Champion says that no fighter chooses his opponent and he thanked Mark Hunt for stepping in.

"I do not pick opponents, so for me it doesn't matter who I'll face. I just need to know a date to prepare for the opponent. When Overeem dropped out, the UFC quickly found an excellent opponent, because I can not wait for the fight. Overeem is not champion, is nothing. If he was champion, I would have waited."

I admire Mark Hunt very much for having accepted the fight, since he just fought against Stefan Struve. I admire and appreciate it because I want to fight May 25, 2013 and that will happen thanks to him."

In Mark Hunt's last bout he win with a spectacular knockout of Stefan Struve, where he broke the jaw of his opponent and racked up four consecutive wins in the UFC. Junior dos Santos is aware of the danger that Mark Hunt presents and he said he will have a strategy that will work to win.

"Mark is a very tough guy, beating strong. I have to be very careful. He has been champion in K-1, faced the best in the world and won exchangers. I will work hard to strategy, I have learned a lot in my career. I guess now I know see things a little better and hopefully I can use it in this fight."

Junior dos Santos has a lot to praise about Mark Hunt but he is not so nice when he talks about Alistair Overeem.

"I think this guy is a joke. It is a big guy who takes apra fighting pump, and is talking a lot of nonsense. I have nothing to do with him, that he follow their career and do what it thinks best. I'll follow mine and if one day we are bumping and he does not have any problem, we fight."

At the same event, Cain Velasquez will fight against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva for the UFC Heavyweight belt, and "Cigano" has his thought on who will win the bout.

"Bigfoot is a very close friend, he will win, will be UFC champion. I'm sure it goes up from Velasquez, vai to nullify his game and knock. That's what I wanna see. It's a guy who deserves much, a good person and I think good people deserve good. He is one of the guys that I admire and I really like to have as a friend. Go for it, Big Foot."

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