Carlos Condit just wants to watch his cooking shows

Carlos Condit spends most of his time on MMA. From training rabidly for this weekend's interim welterweight championship bout with Nick Diaz to reviewing tape to conducting media interviews and making sponsor appearances, Condit's life is full of MMA.

When he gets home, he wants to shut MMA out, and indulge in some cooking shows. Condit says he is quite the cook. However, Condit told the Orange Country Register that he married an MMA fan and doesn't have control of the remote.

"Sometimes after a long week of training I don't want to watch a Strikeforce card or whatever UFC Fight Night is on. I've been doing it all week and I don't really want to think about it. She's all about watching every single fight card. She gets what she wants and she wants to watch fight cards. I watch a lot of Food Network," Condit said. "I'm a food junkie."

Happy wife, happy life, Carlos. Watching the fights with your wife is a smart move, even if you are missing the latest "Cupcake Wars."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/carlos-condit-just-wants-watch-cooking-shows-133135250.html

John Hathaway Mike Pyle Travis Browne Randy Couture

Watch Lavar Johnson knock out Joey Beltran

If you don't have Fuel TV, you didn't see Lavar Johnson's Knockout of the Night. The first Strikeforce heavyweight to cross over the UFC used crushing uppercuts to take out Joey Beltran.

Johnson's last two bouts were submission losses in Strikeforce: Challengers, but on Saturday's UFC on Fox 2 card, he showed that his striking is ready for the UFC.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/watch-lavar-johnson-knock-joey-beltran-140342502.html

Mike Pyle Travis Browne Randy Couture Jake Shields

Georges St-Pierre answers questions on Nick Diaz, changing weight classes and a spinning back kick

LAS VEGAS -- Georges St-Pierre has been in the cage with some of the world's most fearsome fighters over the years, from Matt Hughes to B.J. Penn to a whole host of others.

But the most fearsome strike he's seen was one thrown by someone who sits outside the Octagon.

In a Q & A session for UFC Fight Club fans Friday afternoon at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, St-Pierre said he's never seen anything like UFC color commentator Joe Rogan's spinning back kick.

Speaking about time spent training at Eddie Bravo's gym, St-Pierre said "Joe Rogan was helping me out with the spinning back kick. Joe Rogan has the best spinning back kick I've ever seen in my life. It's incredible. If he was in a fight, if he hits anyone with the spinning back kick, I don't care who he is, he's going down. I don't care who it is, how big he is, it's amazing."

Mike Goldberg, the Q & A's MC, stepped in at that point and told people to check it out on Youtube, so we did, and it's pretty awesome.� Don't believe us? Watch it yourself.

[ Video: Watch UFC 143 live on Yahoo! ]

Rogan's back kick was just one of many topics covered by St-Pierre -- who incidentally is now the second-longest reigning champion in UFC history, having surpassed Tito Ortiz's light heavyweight title reign -- in a half-hour question and answer session done in front of what seemed to be a majority of Canadian fans:

On his UFC Primetime comment that Nick Diaz is "fake crazy:" "What I believe is, he's a very smart guy. He knows what he's doing. He would not be able to do what he's done in his career if he wasn't smart. I do believe maybe he has some mental issues ... I do not believe he is a bad human being. Truth my eyes, because he has been very disrespectful to me and because maybe we'll fight, he's disrespectful, but to you guys, I'm sure if you saw him and asked him for an autograph he'd give it to you.

What if Carlos Condit beats Diaz on Saturday? "I wouldn't be surprised at all if Carlos Condit wins. I would not be surprised if Carlos spoils the whole thing. If he wins, you know, that means he's the best man, and I want to fight the best man. That means Nick Diaz would be out of a title shot and I want to go against the winner."

On whether Hughes should keep fighting: "Matt Hughes is an amazing fighter. It's just, at one point, I'm just concerned about his motivation, if he still has the fight. I'm concerned about Matt Hughes. Physically, Matt Hughes still has the skills, he can still kick ass. It's just up to him, does it still excite him, does he still have the motivation. I think he still can be one of the top guys."

And of course, there were the usual array of questions about fighting somewhere other then welterweight:

On the oft-discussed superfight with Anderson Silva: "It depends on the outcome on all the fights. Maybe if I beat the winner of Condit-Diaz, there will be another up-and-comer for me to fight, that everyone wants me to fight. Maybe Anderson won't be the champion anymore, maybe I won't be the champion. It depends on the outcome."

From a clearly inebriated fan who asked him if he'd fight at 205: "I do training with bigger guys, but a fight is different than training. If I would go [straight to 205 from 170], it would be the stupidest thing I've ever done. It's like you're asking me who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman."

On going down to 155: "If I go down to 155, Frankie Edgar will kick my butt."

Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/georges-st-pierre-answers-questions-nick-diaz-changing-001335716.html

Dan Hardy Carlos Condit Michael Bisping John Hathaway

Plenty of outrage over Diaz-Condit decision, winner defends his approach

Defense is an underrated aspect of mixed martial arts. That's unless you're a judge.

Carlos Condit picked his spots and had Nick Diaz whiffing with his punches for much of the night at UFC 143. His strategy and executed resonated with the judges, who scored it 4-1, 4-1 and 3-2 in favor of the new UFC interim welterweight champ. But Condit's ring generalship didn't go over well with many fans.

Here's sampling of tweets from fights fans who thought Condit simply ran the entire night.

Condit didn't see it that way.

"I was pretty confident that I had won the fight. I landed a lot of effective strikes. I stuck to my gameplan. I did what I went in there to do. I punched him in the face. Kicked him in the face. You know, landed more effective strikes than he did in the fight," Condit said. "That's what it boiled down to. If I sat there and fought Nick Diaz's fight, it'd probably be him sitting here with this belt instead of me."

UFC president Dana White agreed.

"The fans are mad about the way Carlos Condit fought ... too [expletive bad]. You're mad at the way he fought? He went in there and he fought a great fight," White said. "He stuck to his gameplan. Nick Diaz is the master of getting you to fight his fight. [...] Carlos Condit kept his cool tonight. He fought a perfect fight."

Condit said when did Diaz did catch him, the shots were weak.

"They weren't all that effective. For the most part, if he did hit me with anything, it was kind of past the power zone. They didn't have a lot on them," said Condit.

Condit thought his kicks paid dividends later in the fight.

"Chopping his legs and affecting his mobility from the very start was working," Condit said. "You don't see the effects of that until later on in the fight. But he stopped coming forward on me."

As Diaz began to talk trash, Condit also stayed under control. He recalled one funny line when Diaz responded to one of the 10-plus spinning backfists and elbows that Condit threw his way.

"We're throwing spinning [expletive] now?," Condit said repeating what Diaz said in the cage. Condit wasn't about to play Diaz's mind games.

"I planned for that. I knew that I to be mentally prepared as well as physically prepared to face Nick Diaz," Condit said. "That's something I had in my mindset as well as the talking and the taunts and stuff. I just needed to stay focused and execute my gameplan. No matter what he said or no matter how many punches he took from me, I couldn't let my focus stray."

What's next for Condit is anyone's guess. The fighter and promotion were non-committal on when he gets back in the Octagon. The champ Georges St-Pierre is hoping for a November return from ACL surgery. Nine months is a long time for the top of the 170-pound division to stay dormant.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/plenty-outrage-over-diaz-condit-decision-winner-defends-105756633.html

MMA Fighting Brock Lesnar Cain Velasquez Dana White

Ed Herman continues win streak with UFC 143 win

LAS VEGAS -- If there was ever any doubt that Ed "Short Fuse" Herman was back, he likely erased them with his victory over Clifford Starks at UFC 143 on Saturday night.

Herman missed all of 2010 after a knee injury. But he won both of his bouts in 2011 and looks ready for a step up in competition in the middleweight division after finishing Starks.

Herman (20-8) absorbed several big right hands from Starks in a first round that was mostly a tight positional battle. But in the second round, "Short Fuse" found his opening, scoring a trip and using textbook positioning to get Starks' back and sink in a rear-naked choke. Starks tried to roll out of it, but Herman tightened his grip and Josh Rosenthal called off the fight at 1:42.

"You know, he was landing some good right hands on me," said Herman. "Luckily, I've got a strong chin. I pulled it off."

Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/davedoylemma

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ed-herman-continues-win-streak-ufc-143-win-034423563.html

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Rampage Jackson Not Excited With Matt Hamill for UFC 130

by Michael David SmithAfter some shuffling around of the upcoming UFC 130 fight card, Rampage Jackson has gone from taking on Thiago Silva in the co-main event to fighting Matt Hamill in the main event. He's not particularly thrilled with the change.

"Thiago Silva is the type of guy I would love to fight because he has great stand up and he comes to fight most of the time, so I was looking forward to fighting a guy like that," Jackson said on The MMA Hour. "Matt Hamill wasn't on my radar at all. I wasn't excited at all. But then again, not a whole lot gets me excited."

Jackson's comments about not being excited for the fight stand in contrast to the comments of Hamill, who said he plans to break Jackson's will. But Jackson says that the difference between their public comments is simple: Hamill needs to convince himself that he can beat Jackson, while Jackson already knows that he can beat Hamill.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/17/rampage-jackson-not-excited-with-matt-hamill-for-ufc-130/

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ESPN E:60 debates potential UFC 'monopoly'

Source: http://www.mmamania.com/2012/1/11/2700459/ufc-espn-e60-video-monopoly-lorenzo-fertitta-ken-shamrock

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