Loretta Hunt over at The Fight Network is reporting that Brandon Vera has signed an extension to his existing UFC contract and plans to remain with the UFC.
Heavyweight contender Brandon Vera has signed an extension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship with plans to complete the remaining fight on his existing contract with the Las Vegas-based organization as soon as he is able to.
Vera’s existing contract slated his last fight take place in May, but the fighter was granted the extension by Zuffa LLC., owners of the UFC, to work out legal issues with his current management. Vera, 29, plans to renew his contract with the UFC afterwards.
“I want to stay with the UFC,†the Virginia native said today. “They have some of the best fighters in the world. It’s an amazing stable of fighters and the who’s who of the MMA world. ‘Cro Cop’ [Mirko Filipovic] is a big factor for me wanting to stay. He’s the number-two guy in the world.â€
The story of Brandon Vera and his “holdout” with the UFC has been quite a large topic in the MMA community. Of course, the events of the past few weeks between Zuffa and Pride have greatly over-shadowed Vera and his contract status. But it appears now that Brandon Vera is working towards signing a fight contract with the UFC. Vera “resurfaced” this past Tuesday on the Sherdog.net Forums with the following post:
When someone lies to you… it becomes a fu*ked up thing. Then they start talking sh*t about your cuz thier wrong? It becomes something else. It is what it is… I’ve left City and am in process with the CSAC for my managerial contract. I WILL be fighting soon, and it WILL be a good one. Hope everyone the best. Yeah………. I’m training.
Vera also said “Ima still be with UFC.” He also relayed his desire to fight Mirko Cro Cop. Either way, it looks like the questions about Brandon Vera’s future have been answered for the time being and he will work out a deal with the UFC. Whatever happened between Brandon and his management at City Boxing is unknown, but now that Brandon has left his old management team, hopefully he will be able to work out a new deal with the UFC quickly.
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Ok so I see where you got lost in the translation. In that sentence I was not directly referring to Silva, but I was referring to any Pride fighter that enters the Octagon. I am saying that now, every UFC fighter takes a former Pride fighter seriously (in general) not Anderson Silva specifically.
And, from my interpretation…that is not what BV was saying. From my pov it seems like he was saying that Franklin did not take Anderson Silva seriously.
heh ok let me clear this up,
BVRASP : “I thik rich took the fight lightly and being the champ probably got to his head. I dont say this purely out of speculation tho, i have reasons for thinking this way.â€
(this was kind of my “intro” to what i wanted to focus on, i guess it didnt work cuz the intro seems to be what was focused on.)
BVRASP : “When rich was losing the war in the clinch, he didnt break the clinch, and this is NOT because he doesnt know how, or because anderson has some kind of magical clinch thats unescapable. Its because Rich didnt WANT to lose the war in the clinch, hes always dominated his opponents in the clinch. I think there was some ego there, and by the time he realized it, anderson had already hammered him to the body with those knees.”
(This was the main point i was getting at, Rich thought he would have dominated in the clinch and by the time he noticed he was wrong, it was too late.)
–> I certainly wouldnt suggest that Franklin didnt know who Anderson is, what hes accomplished and what hes capable of. For sure he studied the tapes and all that, especially as a champ, thats standard, if you didnt study your opponent during training, i suggest getting a new team of coaches and trainers.
This is why im saying underestimated Silva, or just over estimated himself, his game plan was obviously wrong and he hit a brick wall in the clinch.
Answer this question.. why didnt Rich break out of the clinch? if it wasnt about ego..
again I say……..off day.
Rich didn’t look like himself.
ill say this, its gon be a great fight next time. Rich will avoid the clinch situation and it will be a pure striking match. With the kind of skill and imagination and movement that both fighters have, Its gonna be craaaazy! very anticipated for that rematch!
The Hughes vs GSP too, that was another ego case, Why did hughes stand with GSP? cuz hes a moron and he didnt study his opponent? lol no.. Its because he wanted to stand with GSP..
As a general your supposed to use your strengths against your opponents weaknesses. This is assuming victory is your goal, but when your goal is not only victory, but glory, thats where you take unnecessary risks and you make yourself vulnerable. Its stupidity, but its willing stupidity lol
I definitely don’t think he was himself, he seemed exhausted and out of character but regardless…even if he was %100, I still do not think he could beat Anderson Silva. Are we going to keep saying these things about every fight? one guy didn’t seem right let’s let them fight 3 times to be sure…that’s not logical. Bottom line is, on the night Franklin needed to perform more than ever, he didn’t. Like almost every fighter, he had plenty of time to train, heal, whatever… I think many will agree that he still looked unimpressive against MacDonald…so it goes back to a discussion we had a while back about the welterweights where I was saying that a former champ should not get such an immediate rematch just because he was the champ. That was before the UFC even had Pride, now with even more fighters available, others need to be given the opportunity to prove themselves.
rich has been entering the ring exhausted for a while he aint the same anymore i dont know how hillbilly is taking riches side so sure that he will win sylvas standup is better than franklins and so is his ground games so even though any thing can happen in a fight hillbilly ur to sure and giving franklin to much credit and sylva not enough but u tend to do that
EXAMPLE
liddel vs rampage
now in my opinion a b list pride fighter could easily come to the ufc and make some noise or in other words anderson might not have done good in pride but its not cuz he aint good but cuz pride has better talent
I think we discuss fights because we can see what caused one fighter to win over the other, because theres ALWAYS a reason. Like he made a mistake or watever, just because someone loses a fight doesnt mean he “sucks”.
bvrasp i see what ur saying but some people on here have awesome opinions most of the time but then let some dumb sh*it pop out and i sit here and read and im like damn how can someone so insight full say something so fu*cken stupid
EXAMPLE
“along with his hard hitting strikes and a dvd player its easy to beat silva”
what the hell ur telling me rich “i was a math teacher college graduate”franklin wasnt smart enough to watch a couple of fights of silva ur nuts ur fu*ckin nuts he plain and simple got the sh*it beat out of him bad to me that fight was a discrace of a champion of the ufc any champ that takes any fight lightly is a discrace and deserves to get the azzz handed to them
Vera (or his manager) basically screwed up. Vera was in line for a title shot. Because of his hold out, he’s taken like 10 steps back in my opinion. Honestly I don’t even consider him in my Top 5 anymore.
If I were Dana, I’d send him to the WEC.
@richard
i think it amir just misinterpreted what i said about franklin, thats where the issue of him watching the tapes came up. Im sure nobody on this site believes that Franklin didnt watch the tapes, its crazy to think that.
Rich thought he had the advantage in the clinch, he underestimated Silva skills and learned the hard way. Instead of switching gears, he wanted to stay in the clinch when he could have escaped. I think the next fight will be MUCH more competative and either guy could win.
@Gatties or Dr.J
You guys know if Vera ever got his million bucks from that deal we were talking about when he left the UFC?
BVRASP
i wasnt talking about amir i was talking about hillbilly aka dennis he usually gots great things to say but then lets his azzzzz do the talking sometimes i have my favorites but i always try to look at were the other guy is coming from
alright guys im gonna play devils advocate but all this with vera is or was about money to say he belongs in the WEC is a little harsh the man can still fight and will still put azzzzz ezzzz in seats and is right up there in the lhw or the hw division just cuz he wanted more money doesnt make him a bad fighter right gatties u set me straight the other day when i was disappointed in franklin selling his stuff on ebay
i see a lot of you put a lot of stock in rich franklin and he is a great fighter but i dont think he is a better fighter then anderson. i read someone wrote franklin is stronger then silva and i just dont think that is true silva handled rich in the clinch pretty easy. i also read rich hits harder that could be true but not enough harder to make any real difference. i think the only way franklin can win against silva is to avoid getting hit by him at all costs but that will be hard to do against some who lands about 85% of the time.
@Diik
Here we go again. Seems I’ve been this way before!
Speaking about “talking out you az” Diik said…..and I quote,
“now in my opinion a b list pride fighter could easily come to the ufc and make some noise or in other words anderson might not have done good in pride but its not cuz he aint good but cuz pride has better talent”
So when a pot smoking, b level UFC fighter that dropped off the map, only surfacing to beat the shet out of the best Pride has to offer, I get it, that means Pride fighters are more talented….. my bad Gomi, I should have talked to Diik first to get the real scoop.
To anybody that hating on ACE, all I can say is you can’t judge a fighter so harshly for losing ONE FRICKIN FIGHT!
That goes for Matt too, remember he’s a LEGEND!
…one more thing…. allot of people seem to be all up Silva’s az.
Before you put him so high up on a pedastal where you can lick his balls, you should watch the Pirahna fight again.
Ryo looked like a kid in the ring with Silva, yet he “handled” Silva.
When Silva couldn’t out strike Chonan, he went for his now famous “hold on and knee” strategy, and what did it get him?
TKO: Pirahna……… easy victory. Silva didn’t impress me.
Beating Leben didn’t impress me.
Rich is a champion…. yet yall bust his balls for losing one fight. Who wants to bet on the rematch?
Hey Doc!
I love this shet!
bvrasp,
I haven’t heard but I seriously doubt he will get anything close to a mill to fight for the UFC.
@dennis
i wasnt trying to hate on rich franklin because he IS a top notch fighter i was just saying i dont think he can beat silva. and as far as the silva vs. chonan fight goes yeah i think you SHOULD watch it again because silva lost via submission not tko. its a bit odd that you lump franklin in with the legendary champs when he has only four ufc title fights (one he lost) and you call him a champion when the FACT is that anderson silva IS the ufc middle weight champ right now so that kinda makes him the best 185lbs. in the ufc right now and untill someone takes it from him thats were i stand on that. and i’ll take that bet on the rematch
@gatties
(as posted by Dr.J last month)
Brandon Vera and his camp shot back with a demand of a $1.5 million signing bonus with seven figures guaranteed per fight on a three fight deal, which was the same amount offered by Gary Shaw of Elite XC, as soon as Vera’s contract expires in September. The UFC thought the offer was laughable and turned it down without any thought at all. Gary Shaw did confirm to Meltzer the figures were accurate.
(that was what i was talking about, i guess he never got that from eliteXC, they also said, the UFC offered him 200K per fight??? dam thats a kings ransom right there!)
@RJ
I have to disagree with you on that one, when you say you dont think Rich can beat Anderson. I definately think he can beat him, not to say one guy is better than the other, theyre both great fighters and theyre very closely matched in my opinion. I say its anyones fight, and it will be alot more competative next time hehe.
hillbilly
come on nick diaz might have been a a b list fighter but took sachez to decision karo to decision sherk to decision the kids an animal ok he didnt win but these guys are guys that finish fights but they couldnt finish diaz so i would say he wasnt a b list more like a A- hillbilly.Now u keep on mentioning the rio chonan fight likes its some kind of holy grail for beating silva thats the only time in mma history probably that someone landed a flying ankle lok one time in a million
Yea…….. but it was beautiful….
More impressive though, was Pirahna’s striking ability, and his….
Clinch Defense!
@RJ
yes I know, only the most impressive scissor lock in I’ve ever seen!!
@Diik
Not hating on Nick…. in fact I like the kid……he’s good, but the fact is ….he was cut loose, which doesn’t put him on the A-Team….
Showtime don’t either.
Gomi pulled a franklin and grosselly underestimated his opponent and payed diaz just needs to put it all together and hell be the best in the world franklin had it all together and got his azzz handed to him bad to be honest it wasnt even a fight
yea i think everyone expected Chonan to get knocked out but he snagged anderson with that dirty flying heel hook. You guys have to admit, it WAS beautiful man hehe hes a crafty fighter, he even beat my boy Carlos Newton.
dont sleep on Chonan man, he might surprise you hehe
but wasnt it a one in a million move to land in a real mma fight
i lost a little respect for gomi after losing to Diaz. Not because he lost, but because he gassed out in the first round!!! and hes a lightweight!!!! and hes the champ!!! WTF HAPPENED???
Gomi, you need to get your mind right! it was embarassing the way he went out. Especially with the weight they place on Honor in japan, it was disgraceful, i hope his sensei kicked his *** after that!
yea richard, it was definately a low percentage move, which can really hurt you if you miss, leaving you on your back. But he went for it and it payed off, now it will always be a highlight reel on the best submissions in pride.
oh for sure ive seen that move at least ten times its awesome
Even without the long shot move, Ryo was out-striking Silva, and rendered his clinch harmless, took his knees out of play. Silva was useless in the ring.
Chonan had his #……. period!
I just wanted to say that I am outraged at the UFC and what I believe to be false ticket price advertising. UFC 71 prices are listed in the $50-$750 range. There are no tickets any less than $200 starting in the nose-bleeds. I think this is a terrible way to attract fans to the sport. To pay upwards of $1000 for measley seats is pitiful on their part, where as, any other mainstream sport does not charge nearly that much money for such horrible seats.
If that’s true Amir, I got your back man…..
I’m very frustrated…but I have just bought 2 tickets for $200 each…They are not the best at all…but regardless, this is extremely exciting…I would understand some jealousy on your part Dennis..lol but I will be sure to think of all of you guys when I am there, will try to get as many pics and autographs as I can and will definitely post some threads about my experiences at the event. I think I’m still in shock that I am actually going.
good lookin out amir! ive never been to a UFC event, and i probably wont until theyre allowed to come to toronto. Im not much on road trips hehe. Its gon be a great fight chuck vs rampage hehe
@AMIR,
if you do get some good photos (and even if you don’t) I’d love for you to send them to me and maybe writeup your “thoughts” on the event after you go. I’d be happy to post some of your photos and thoughts on UFC 70.
Thanks Amir, I knew I could count on you.
For what you say?
The second ticket of course.
@Dr. J
I was thinking of wearing an MMAHQ.COM T-Shirt, if you make one up and send it to me, I’ll be glad to do it. What do you think? great exposure for the site, especially if I get on camera somehow.
@Amir,
Excellent idea man. I’m flattered that you consider doing that. I don’t have any kind of MMA HQ shirt designed, but I can try to whip something up.
For all you regulars here at MMA HQ, why don’t we have some kind of logo contest or t-shirt design contest. Whoever comes up with the best logo/t-shirt design for MMA HQ will… win. haha. I don’t know what you’d win. At least a free t-shirt with your logo, hopefully I can come up with something else too. If anyone is intersted, leave a comment here and send your designs/logos to me at drj[at]mmahq[dot]com. I’ll make a new page here on the site to post all the designs and we can all vote on the best one.
@dr j
this is an awesome idea and if you make shirts i will buy one. when the ufc comes to montreal (and i hope thats soon) i will be there and i will wear a MMAHQ shirt even if i have to make up my own.
id buy one but u got to make them in 6XL or maybe 7XL im a big guy