Yael Grauer is a freelance writer who’s been working with independent media since 1996. She writes regularly for Sherdog, and her work has been featured in Ultimate MMA magazine, T-Nation, Spezzatino, Bitch magazine, and the Performance Menu: Journal of Health and Athletic Excellence, where she also serves as the Managing Editor. Yael trains in no-gi submission grappling and Brazilian jiu jitsu. Find her on the web at yaelwrites.com

Zuffa announced their latest batch of Twitter bonus recipients on Tuesday night. Fighters were divided into 4 divisions based on the number of followers, selecting winners for most creative tweets (according to Dana White), the highest percentage of new followers and the most followers gained for the quarter. The winners for the most followers in [...]

You can bet Miesha Tate’s been working on her armbar defense in preparation for her fight against “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. Check out this video of her demo-ing some armbar escapes with Pat Barry on Breakdown With Bas.

The internet exploded after UFC 143′s fight between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz. Many fans were upset with the decision, to put it mildly, and Diaz’s talk of retirement in his post-fight interview made the eagerly anticipated grudge match with GSP seem less and less possible for the future. Fight fans who were upset with [...]

Don’t they hire people to make sure the cage doors are closed? How hard can it be, really? Word on the street is that the door hinges were damaged in a previous fight and were not repaired. Watch Braedon Ward and Brandon Bishop take their fight outside of the cage in some double KO action.

We’ve made it to the midway point: the fifth event of MMA Playground’s season 12: The Dirty Dozen is in the books, and our welterweight team’s current season rank has dropped from #53 to #59 in the Welterweight Division. As a team, we went 5-4-1. We called Diaz/Condit wrong and did not think Barão was [...]

The fourth event of MMA Playground’s season 12: The Dirty Dozen is in the books, and our welterweight team’s current season rank has moved us all the way up from #70 to #53 in the Welterweight division. As a team, we went 7-3; we were collectively wrong about Wiedman, Michael Johnson and Lavar Johnson. 70% [...]

The February 2012 Women’s MMA rankings have been released, reflecting fights taking place through January 31st. In the strawweight division, Michelle Waterson came in at #3 with her comeback win over Diana Rael, who drops to #4. Harris drops off of the rankings. In bantamweight, Sara McMann comes up to the #5 spot after her [...]

We reported last October that the UFC has signed an agreement with Cinedigm to bring four UFC events to theaters in 3D in 2012. The first of these events will take place on February 4th, and will be shown at 120 theaters. UFC originally broadcast an event in 3D on March 3rd, 2011. “Multiple 3D [...]

The third event of MMA Playground’s season 12: The Dirty Dozen is in the books, and our welterweight team’s current season rank has moved us all the way up from #83 to #70 in the Welterweight division. As a team, we went 5-3-1. The majority of us called Jim Miller, Josh Neer, Brenneman and Easton. [...]

Beauty and skills; choreography and character. At least, that’s what I was hoping for when I attended a special early screening of Haywire. The movie was ostensibly designed to help former MMA fighter Gina Carano shine in the spotlight, showcasing the kickboxing skills (and striking beauty) that she’s known for. Unfortunately, the movie falls short. [...]

Eric ‘Red’ Schafer will be facing Jorge ‘El Conquistador’ Rivera at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller in Nashville, Tennessee this Friday. Schafer, who will be fighting on the undercard on Fuel TV, has been working on his footwork and speed. Special thanks to Nathan Schafer for the video. Rivera holds a record of 19 [...]

The second event of MMA Playground’s season 12: The Dirty Dozen is in the books, and our welterweight team’s current season rank has moved up from #86 to #83 in the Welterweight division. We went 7-2 as a team. Not bad. We were correct about Aldo, Belfort, Barboza, Pyle, Tavares and Gonzaga, ranging from 56 [...]

The January 2012 Women’s MMA Rankings have been released, reflecting fights taking place through January 7, 2012. In the strawweight division, the previously unranked Sachiko “Sachi” Yamamoto comes in at #6 due to her defeat of Tamada, who is now ranked #7. Jennifer Berg falls off the rankings. In the flyweight division, Hamasaki (previously #9) [...]

It is nearly impossible not to root for Kaitlin Young. As a professional writer, I try my best to maintain at least an appearance of neutrality when covering events. And although the local fight community in Minneapolis knows Young as one of the hardest working fighters training at the Academy (which, of course, is one of [...]

Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. She’s not the first fighter to test positive for the substance. That honor (sarcasm) goes to Phil Baroni, who tested positive after fighting Frank Shamrock at Strikeforce: Judgement Day in June 2007. K-1 fighter Zabit Samedov tested positive for stanozolol a few months later. Tim [...]