WSOF

Anthony Johnson will be taking on Mike Kyle on Sept 14 at WSOF 5.  Bleacher Report spoke to him recently about that matchup and his fighting future. However, there were some good topics of conversation that were left out. We decided to include them in a bonus Q and A, rather than leave them on the cutting room floor. 

How do you feel about Ray Sefo fighting in WSOF even though he is the president?

Anthony Johnson: I believe in Ray. Ray is a great guy. I’ve watched him fight many years. I’ve watched the little Ray fight and I’ve seen the big Ray now. My teammate Tyrone even fought him and he took that fight on short notice and gave Tyrone a hell of a fight.

For him doing it for WSOF—just my own personal opinion—I don’t think he should. You never know what could happen. I’m not doubting his ability. Just in a fight you never know what could happen. If he loses it’s a bad look for the promotion. If he wins, where does that take us?

That’s not me putting him down, or the promotion down, or anything like that. That’s just me giving my own personal opinion. Either way, when you got a guy who is a Hall of Famer, a living legend and he still has that edge, he still has that fire in him; he wants to compete. 

He wants to fight, so more power to him, and good luck. I don’t doubt his ability or anything like that.

How about if Sefo wins, you return to heavyweight and fight him? How about that as a potential matchup? 

AJ: I haven’t even thought about it. If it happens, it happens, but that’s never crossed my mind actually. That’s my boss. He’s family to me. I know that wouldn’t happen.

I punch the dude that writes my checks, is that a good idea? I don’t think that’s going to work out.

  

What was your experience of being the character Orlando “Midnight” Lee in the movie Warrior like?

AJ: It was awesome, it was so awesome. Thanks to my boys at Tapout: Skrape, Punkass and my boy Mask. Without Mask, I wouldn’t have been able to be in the movie. So, all of my credit goes to him and the stunt coordinator J.J. Perry and of course Gavin O’Connor and his brother. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

People don’t realize it’s a lot tougher to act than it looks like, it’s a lot of work. You’ll be there on set for like 12 hours straight. I was on set a couple times like that. It’s a lot of work. It’s draining.

When you saw the finished project, did you feel the fight sequences looked realistic?

AJ: They did an excellent job. The O’Connor brothers—to me—are brilliant and smart and don’t get the credit they deserve.

What I respect about them—after every scene they would call the fighters over that were doing the scene—even fighters who weren’t doing the scene—they would call the fighters over and get our opinion on a scene, or this punch… ‘Hey, does this look realistic?’

JJ Perry, the stunt coordinator would ask us for our opinions, because we’ve been in there, we’ve seen it, we’ve experienced it. So they did a good job. They took our pointers and put them in the movie and it turned out great. 

My scene that actually made it in the movie, I got hurt during that scene. I can tell which scene was the one they took when I got hurt because I wasn’t faking it. I twisted my knee and tore my meniscus a little bit.

So, whenever you see it in the movie and I’m on laying the ground. That is one of the scenes where I am actually hurt. They took the real stuff and put it in the film. Those guys are great. I had so much fun, so much fun.

Michael Stets is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.  All quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

Anthony Johnson almost escaped his unanimous decision victory over Andrei Arlovski unscathed at WSOF 3 back on March 23. Unfortunately, he would break his right hand in the very last seconds of his heavyweight debut.

“In exactly the last 12 seconds of the fight I broke it,” Johnson told Bleacher Report recently.

“It was a clean break. I had surgery and they just set it back in place. It didn’t shatter, it just snapped, so they set it back in place. I’m good to go now.”

The former welterweight will need healthy hands at his disposal when he returns to 205 pounds to face Mike Kyle at WSOF 5 on Sept. 14. Kyle is known for his willingness to trade blows and for his knockout power. In addition to those attributes, he—like Johnson—also has experience fighting at heavyweight.

With over 20 knockouts between both fighters, this could be a highly entertaining slug-fest. How does Johnson feel about the matchup?

“I love it,” Johnson said. “Mike Kyle is a good striker. We’ll see what happens. He’s a good guy, a powerful guy. He’s tough. He’s with AKA, one of the top teams in the world so I know he will come ready. And there’s no doubt I’ll be ready to fight.”

Johnson has won five straight since being released by the UFC—where he failed to make weight several times. He will no longer have the luxury of not having to worry about cutting weight, like he had in his last camp.

After having surgery and being sidelined over two months, and an unwieldy cast limiting his activity, Johnson admits his weight went up due to inactivity and his appetite.

“I’m 240,” revealed Johnson. “I gained 10 pounds sitting on my ass basically because I didn’t train and stuff like I wanted to. Plus I was injured... You kind of have that attitude where you want to enjoy it while you can, and eat what you want. So I was doing that. Now I’m at the gym going all out.”

The gym that the 29-year-old fighter is referring to is the Jaco Hybrid Training Center, home of his team The Blackzilians. The heavily scrutinized team has endured its share of criticism, but lately they have been on a tear with huge wins from Vitor Belfort, Rashad Evans and a Glory 9 tournament championship from Tyrone Spong.

“I love my team to death, win, lose or draw," Johnson said. “Any battle that my teammate goes through, I feel like I’m in there with them. When they lose, I lose. When they win, we all win.”

Johnson said he’s been helping Spong train for his upcoming bout vs. Angel Deanda at WSOF 4 in August: “That dude is just a natural athlete. Show him something a couple of times and all of a sudden he has it. He understands the movement, you know?”

Last month, Evans told Bleacher Report it wouldn’t be fair if Spong went 100 percent when they sparred. Johnson, on the other hand, said he and Spong “go all out.”

“I don’t know if you’ve seen Instagram and stuff, me and him throw blows pretty hard at each other.”

When it comes down to who he trains with the most, Johnson said he trains with “Thiago Silva more than anybody. That’s like my right-hand man when it comes down for me to train with. He looked great in his last fight. He’s tough that’s for damn sure. He’s tough to spar.

"He helps me get better and I help him get better. We both have a lot of respect for each other. We push each other. He gives me pointers. I give him pointers on things, so we bond pretty good.”

The fighter known as “Rumble” has stability in his gym, his teammates and WSOF—who have placed him in the main event on back-to-back fight cards. However, after he fights Kyle at WSOF 4, he will be a free man.

“I had a three-fight deal with them [WSOF],” he said.

Johnson stated he will be “waiting until after the fight” to negotiate a new deal. “I’m not trying to put the cart ahead of the horse,” he continued. “I’m just going with the flow, but like I said, I plan on being with World Series of Fighting for a while.”

So with Johnson's intentions and WSOF taking place in September, rumors of him heading back to the UFC will have to wait a couple of months before they can start.

One thing Johnson is proud of and he feels has been one of the most beneficial things for him is that he has "matured. I take a lot of credit in that, in the cage and out of the cage.”

How about what he needs to build upon?

“The things I need to work on are to keep improving myself,” Johnson said. “Keep maturing, and getting better in every way that I can as a fighter, and as a man.

“When you mature everything just kind of works together anyway. Things fall into place. I’m just happy with the way things have been going lately. I have my family. I have my friends, my coaches, and my manager. Without them in my life at this period of time, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. They all came at the right time for me.”

Michael Stets is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.  

It took Josh Burkman just 41 seconds to not only beat former UFC welterweight contender Jon Fitch, but to pull off one of the quickest and nastiest walk-off submissions that has ever been done in MMA history.

Burkman rushed forward following a quick punch that stunned his opponent, and when the opening came for a guillotine choke, he grabbed onto Fitch's neck like a vice grip before falling to the mat. Fitch was unconscious seconds later, as Burkman rolled him over and stood proud over his fallen prey.

It was a huge win for the former Ultimate Fighter season two veteran, improving his record in World Series of Fighting to a perfect 3-0—two of those victories coming in the first round.

Following the fight, the natural question that came up to Burkman was about a possible return to the UFC, where he spent a big chunk of his career from 2005 to 2008.

Burkman was quite vocal during his time away from the promotion that he was working towards a return to the UFC and wanted to prove, after a multitude of mounting injuries kept him from fighting healthy for several years, that he could still compete against the best of the best in the welterweight division.

But with a new promotion pushing him towards a title shot in 2013, Burkman is happy right where he's at, even if the UFC comes calling.

"I have a great relationship with Dana White, and my goal originally was to go back to the UFC, but when World Series of Fighting called me and said 'hey Josh this is who we are, this is what we're doing,'  I had a really good feeling about them and where it could take me," Burkman recently told MMA's Great Debate Radio on Bleacher Report.  "I believe I have a really unique situation with World Series of Fighting. On NBC Sports, free TV, and I've said before that I wanted to be a featured fighter and I think now I've earned that spot."

Burkman's next fight for the promotion will be for the first ever World Series of Fighting welterweight belt later this year. He also knows he made a commitment to the organization when he signed his contract last year, and Burkman is nothing if not a man of his word.

"I have three fights left on my contract and I'm not going to try to get out of my contract. I'm going to fulfill my contract," Burkman said.  "We'll see what happens from there."

Loyalty in MMA sometimes comes down to the right paycheck, but Burkman felt gratitude when World Series of Fighting invested in making him one of the marquee names on their roster a year ago.

That doesn't mean the door is closed to a potential UFC return after the fights on Burkman's contract are finished.  If Burkman can win those final three fights on his current deal, he would be an enticing addition to the UFC's welterweight division in 2014.

Burkman isn't looking that far ahead right now. He's got to take some time off to heal an ailing hand—after hurting it during the fight with Fitch—and prepare for a title shot later this year.

"I hurt my hand against Aaron Simpson. I re-injured it against Fitch so I've got to go see the orthopedist this week.  Probably be about six to eight weeks, so I need the time off anyways," Burkman said.  "I believe with them behind me, and me behind them, we're going to make World Series of Fighting one of the top organizations in the world."

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

If everything goes to plan, the World Series of Fighting will crown its first champion before the end of 2013.

MMAFighting.com reported on Tuesday that the budding MMA promotion will be holding a four-man tournament beginning later this summer for the inaugural middleweight belt.

Participating in the tourney will be former The Ultimate Fighter veteran Jesse Taylor, UFC veterans Dave Branch and Danilo Villefort, and Elvis Mutapcic, who recently vacated his Maximum Fighting Championship 185-pound title to sign with WSOF.

The first semi-final matchup is set for WSOF 4 on August 10 at a yet to be finalized venue in California. The second semi-final bout will take place in September at WSOF 5, although the exact date and location have not yet been confirmed.

The winners, barring any unforeseen injuries or other issues, will square off sometime in December for the promotion's first ever championship belt.

Taylor has been on a tear as of late and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak, which includes a February victory over fellow TUF alum Kendall Grove. "JT Money" most recently defeated John Phillips to defend his Cage Warriors Fighting Championship middleweight crown.

Mutapcic is also on a bit of a hot streak, winning 10 out of his last 11 bouts. "The King" most recently took a unanimous decision over Sam Alvey to defend his MFC title this past February.

Both Branch and Villefort are coming off of decision wins at WSOF 2, which took place in Atlantic City this past March.

NBC Sports Network will once again broadcast these future WSOF cards and is set to air the entire tournament.

Be sure to like Matt on Facebook and follow @MattchidaMMA.

Update: Thankfully, the cage issue was resolved by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board just two hours before the first bout.

Bloody Elbow has the full details:

WSOF borrowed corner pads from local promotion CFFC to replace their own corner pads, which were not thick enough to meet safety standards.

They also had to replace their canvas, which was too short to meet approval. They flew in the [canvas] they used for their first event from Las Vegas. That canvas arrived this morning and was put on the cage.

For those looking to watch the live online prelims, you can find the stream at the WSOF official website. Afterward, the main card will start as scheduled at 9:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, broadcasting on NBC Sports.

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There may be trouble ahead for the World Series of Fighting, with the company's upcoming MMA event reportedly in danger of being cancelled just hours before it starts.

According to Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow, the WSOF cage has yet to be cleared for combat use by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.

(World Series of Fighting 2 is currently scheduled for Saturday, starting with online prelims at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the main card broadcast on NBC Sports at 9:30 p.m. ET.)

As Brookhouse notes, the current chain of events and tight deadline poses a good chance that World Series of Fighting 2 may simply be shut down:

From what we have been told, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board had not approved the WSOF cage for the event by late Friday evening. There are issues with both the corner pads and the canvas that are holding things up.

WSOF will apparently be borrowing corner pads from a local promoter and has a canvas being flown in from Las Vegas. The main issue is that if the canvas does not correctly fit the cage floor, it could lead to a situation where the cage will not be cleared which would almost certainly lead to the cancellation of the event.

Update: At the moment, this story is still developing, with conflicting reports being given by multiple sources via Twitter.

Apparently, the World Series of Fighting is sticking to their schedule, saying that the event will start on Saturday with "100 percent" certainty, although Nick Lembo of the NJSACB has confirmed with Bloody Elbow that there are problems with the cage.

Nick Lembo just told me "cage still needs togain approval. Has not yet. New canvas to be flown in and new post pads." — Brent Brookhouse (@brentbrookhouse) March 23, 2013

Regarding @bloodyelbow's report about WSOF 2 potentially being cancelled due to a cage issue, VP @alidominance says the show is 100% on. — Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 23, 2013

If the worst comes to pass and the event is cancelled, that could be catastrophic for the WSOF promotion, which debuted with their first card on Nov. 3, 2012, at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

For starters, that could leave 22 fighters without a promised match, including ex-UFC middleweight-turned-heavyweight Anthony Johnson and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski—the main event headliners for WSOF2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLTm76B_vP8

Other notable names on the card include former UFC fighters Dave Branch and Josh Burkman, as well as former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho.

Moreover, the cancellation of WSOF2 would leave NBC Sports with a huge chunk of empty programming to fill at the last minute, not to mention the stigma of a dropped event causing some backlash.

That also certainly wouldn't please the channel's advertisers nor the live crowd that's already paid for tickets.

Other problems have been noted for WSOF2 in the lead-up to the event, including the official weigh-ins being delayed by several minutes due to the fighters' paperwork being improperly filed, forcing the promotion to hold up their online stream.

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McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and tech writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld, PC World, 1UP, NVision, The Los Angeles Times, FightFans Radio, MMA Mania and Bleacher Report. Talk with him on Twitter.

Rick “The Gladiator” Glenn speaks softly. But he carries a big helmet.

“I kind of became known for wearing it while I walk out,” he said. “I didn’t want to come out with a sword or anything. I didn’t want to go too far over the top.”

An uncle gave Glenn the nickname years ago for a certain killer instinct displayed in a boxing ring (and presumably before Marlon Sandro hit U.S. soil). That’s an instinct Glenn hopes will shine through in Atlantic City this Saturday, when, after spending nearly a third of his life on MMA's smaller circuits, the 23-year-old debuts for the World Series of Fighting promotion on the WSOF 2 card.

If his body of work to this point is any indication, that hope could very well be realized. Despite his youth, Glenn already claims a 12-2-1 record as a featherweight, with every win but one by stoppage.

Observers who know him know his razor-sharp stand-up game, but Glenn has four wins by submission, too (not counting one tap to strikes). Perhaps the best harbinger for Glenn’s future, though, is that killer instinct his uncle saw in his teenage nephew: Glenn has dropped the curtain on his opponent six times in the very first round.

“I’m precise. I dissect the person,” Glenn said in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “I slowly break them down. And if the opponent comes at me and tries to hit me, they get hit harder.”

Outside the cage, though, or at least during phone interviews, “The Gladiator” is nowhere in sight. Glenn’s first impression is more Laconian than Spartan: A quiet, humble country boy from blue-collar Marshalltown, Iowa (perhaps also known to seamheads as the home of Cap Anson).

But don’t let those idyllic Midwestern archetypes blind you. Iowa may be far removed from the mean streets of Philly or the favelas of Rio, but some of its problems are not.

“I came from nothing, like a lot of people,” Glenn said. “There’s a lot of drugs where I come from, a lot of poverty.”

There’s no nice way to put it: Marshalltown is meth country. Farmers throughout the Midwest use anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer. Drug addicts use it as a key ingredient in one of the drug world’s most dangerous recipes.

“People would get ahold of anhydrous and make meth. There were a lot of tweakers,” Glenn said. ”I had a lot of friends and family members hooked on drugs growing up.”

It doesn’t take William Faulkner to draw a straight line from Glenn’s hometown—unassuming on its surface, more complex and dangerous below—to Glenn himself. But Glenn isn’t telling the story for street cred or sympathy. He’s simply relaying facts. It’s the same tone he uses when recounting his decision to take up MMA. Fighting was not necessarily a way out. It just was.

“I always had an interest in fighting,” Glenn said. “I didn’t wrestle in high school, but I started boxing when I was 14. But then the gym closed. For a while, I’d travel an hour and a half just to get to practice.”

That devotion took on a new dimension when he left home, moving 70 miles away to attend community college in Cedar Rapids. In short order, Glenn found an MMA gym there, and in that gym found another young Iowa featherweight on the rise. His name was Erik Koch. 

“I knew he was training with some good guys,” Glenn said.

If you haven’t caught on by now, Glenn deals in understatement like Steven Seagal deals in danger. Those “good guys” are the guys of Roufusport, one of the premier gyms in all of MMA. For years now, Glenn has called the Milwaukee gym his home base, working with head coach Duke Roufus and current standouts of the sport like Koch, Anthony Pettis, Pat Barry and Ben Askren.

“I like the creativity of the coaches and everyone else,” Glenn said. “It’s the experience of Duke and [striking coach] Scott Cushman and Anthony, and just the way they can teach. I call them mad scientists. Ben Askren helps us all out a ton. He’s made my wrestling way better.”

This Saturday, Glenn takes on undefeated Brazilian veteran Alexandre Pimentel, a 34-year-old grappler with six of 12 wins by submission. If the matchup concerns Glenn, he, rather predictably, isn’t showing it.

“He looks mainly like a jiu-jitsu guy,” Glenn said. “I won’t want to go to my back, but that’s like in any fight.”

Understatements aside, it’s clear Glenn wants the moment and has labored for years to get it. After all, WSOF is the seventh promotion of his 15-fight career, which itself dates back to 2006. Just because he’s now on one of the sport’s bigger stages, though, don’t expect that Midwestern work ethic to fade.

“Seems like I haven’t fought in a bit, so I’d like to fight four times this year,” said Glenn, who last fought in October. “If World Series of Fighting wants to do a championship fight with me, I’d like to be the 145-pound champ.”

Bottom line: How would Glenn sum up his path to this point? He considers the question for a moment.

“It took a while,” he said. “But here I am.”

The Beaten Path is a new article series profiling MMA prospects. Read the previous installment here. Scott Harris is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report. Find him on Twitter @ScottHarrisMMA. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Just a little over two weeks after being let go from the UFC in a shocking series of roster cuts, former welterweight contender Jon Fitch has found a new home.

According to MMA Fighting, Fitch's next bout will be in the World Series of Fighting promotion, possibly on its June 14 card:

According to [WSOF vice president] Abdel-Aziz, Fitch is expected to debut for the promotion at its third event on June 14. He could face the winner of Aaron Simpson vs. Josh Burkman, which will take place at WSOF 2 on March 23, but that has not been set in stone just yet.

Bleacher Report MMA's Damon Martin confirmed earlier with Ali Abdel-Aziz that Fitch will indeed face the winner of Aaron Simpson vs. Josh Burkman.

Fitch's sudden dismissal from the UFC (via MMA Fighting) came as a shock to much of the MMA community, as the American Kickboxing Academy star had been a firm staple in the company's ranks since October 2005.

During the last seven years, Fitch has been a perennial contender, defeating the likes of Thiago Alves, Ben Saunders, Mike Pierce, Diego Sanchez and prospect Erick Silva while amassing an impressive 14-3-1 record in the UFC.

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for him to secure his job.

Often criticized by MMA fans and pundits alike for his "boring" top-heavy wrestling game, Fitch arguably has little drawing power compared to the likes of more successful welterweights like Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks.

When Fitch (currently 35 years old) heads into his first professional bout with WSOF, he'll be riding a 2-2-1 stretch in his last five fights.

But regardless of his recent struggles, Fitch is likely the highest-ranked at MMA welterweight outside of the UFC right now, even with his crushingly one-sided loss to surging contender and jiu-jitsu ace Demian Maia during UFC 156.

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McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and tech writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld, PC World, 1UP, NVision, The Los Angeles Times, FightFans Radio, MMA Mania and Bleacher Report. Talk with him on Twitter.