Iranians in MMA

[EKBATAN]

Daaamn thats too much shit talkin though. Tone it down a bit youre not even in top division yet. Lol

[The Farbod]

Daaamn thats too much shit talkin though. Tone it down a bit youre not even in top division yet. Lol

Sadly its necessary for promotion. Fighters that are loud and obnoxious sell more tickets. See McGregor.

[EKBATAN]

Sadly its necessary for promotion. Fighters that are loud and obnoxious sell more tickets. See McGregor.

ya but thats at a high level. i mean i dont follow this sport very closely so i dont know if this goes on all the time or not.

[The Farbod]

ya but thats at a high level. i mean i dont follow this sport very closely so i dont know if this goes on all the time or not.

Nah. Any level. You have to sell yourself. Its very much like WWE in that respect. Amir wants to get noticed by UFC and a great way to do that is hype. If they can use you to sell PPV then you are likely to get a contract. You can tell that Amir is a quiet guy but is being told by his management to act up and talk a lot of smack. His management are veteran UFC guys like Mike Swick and know the business very well. He's in good hands.

[EKBATAN]

Nah. Any level. You have to sell yourself. Its very much like WWE in that respect. Amir wants to get noticed by UFC and a great way to do that is hype. If they can use you to sell PPV then you are likely to get a contract. You can tell that Amir is a quiet guy but is being told by his management to act up and talk a lot of smack. His management are veteran UFC guys like Mike Swick and know the business very well. He's in good hands.

got it...makes sense lol

he still trains with Mark Hunt right?

[Tehranto]

got it...makes sense lol

he still trains with Mark Hunt right?

They are both with AKA - he was training with Amir, Mark even thanked him in a post-fight interview. Don't know how much training Mark Hunt's been doing recently after the steroid-jacked Brock Lesnar beat him.

[Tehranto]

2 big changes in Rizin tournament and one involes Aliakbari.

Shane Carwin is out and Aliakbari will be now fighting Heath Herring. King Mo is in the tournament now and will be replacing Wanderlei Silva, as he takes on Mirko Crocop.

[The Farbod]

Heath Herring is a joke. He wasn't very good even in his prime let alone after 5 years of retirement. If Amir doesn't murder him in the first minute than it will be a disappointment. King Mo is a monster. For my money the best fighter outside of the UFC. But he walks around at 215 pounds. Amir should beat him.

[Tehranto]

Bellator's 'King Mo' Lawal expects to meet Amir Aliakbari in Rizin FF tournament final

Muhammed Lawal is suddenly a very busy man, but that’s the way he likes it.

Not long after beating Satoshi Ishii at Bellator 169 this past weekend (check out the highlights of that win above), “King Mo” signed on to replace the injured Wanderlei Silva opposite Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic for the Rizin FF open-weight world grand prix.

No official reason was given for Silva’s withdrawal, but Lawal (20-5) said it was related to a bike accident in May that left the veteran with an injured shoulder and knee. He shared a conversation with Silva (35-12-1) about his replacement and said the former PRIDE champ encourage him to call out Filipovic (32-11-2).

“He’s still injured,” Lawal told MMAjunkie Radio. “He’s healing up, but he’s not Wanderlei- Wanderlei. He will be if you give him a little more time, but I think he’s still beat up.”

Filipovic was not as understanding about the withdrawal, and Silva promised physical retribution when the two met. Lawal isn’t looking for payback – he expects “The Axe Murderer” to follow through on his words.

“Wanderlei’s a man, so he’s going to do it himself,” he said. “He isn’t going to say nobody is going to do it – he’s going to do it himself.”

After a loss to current Bellator light heavyweight champ Phil Davis, “King Mo” wanted not only to get back to the win column, but fight a more active schedule. So he didn’t balk when Rizin offered him a spot in the tournament, which takes place over two days around New Year’s Eve.

“My main goal, if I can get six fights, I’ll love it,” Lawal said. “Minimum five fights a year. I asked for ‘Cro Cop.’ I could have been like, ‘I’ll do it if they redraw the bracket,’ but why? Everybody is training for their opponent.”

The open-weight tourney’s open round takes place at Rizin FF 3 on Dec. 29 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Two days later, on New Year’s Eve, the semifinal round and tournament final take place at the same venue as part of Rizin FF 4.

For MMA observers who might dismiss his fight with Filipovic as an easy style matchup, given that he’s a stronger wrestler and could thus dictate where the action goes. To the people who think he will stand with Filipovic, he asks, “Well, would you want to stand with him?”

But then there’s the possibility that it’s not that open and shut.

“It’s MMA, and ‘Cro Cop,’ he’s not that easy to take down, especially in a ring,” Lawal said. “It’s easier taking people down in a cage than a ring. But I can mix it up on him.

“Obviously, I have to watch out for the left kick, body or head kick, but I can nullify that. I’ve got longer reach than him, so I can actually jab with him and touch his body. I’ve just got to keep him guessing, more than anything.

“I like challenges. My thing is that I like to box, so I’m going to box with him. If the takedown is there, I’m going to take him down. If the takedown isn’t there, I’m going to continue to box with him.”

Among the tourney’s other brackets is a fight between UFC and PRIDE vet Heath Herring (28-14) versus Amir Aliakbari (3-0). Herring hasn’t fought since 2008, when he was outpointed by Brock Lesnar at UFC 87. A former sumo wrestling champion, Kaido Hoovelson (2-0) meets Tsuyoshi Kosaka (27-18-2), and Fedor Emelianenko protege Valentin Moldavsky (5-0) meets KSW vet Szymon Bajor (16-6).

Lawal favors the less-experienced Aliakbari to meet him in the finals. And while he can’t predict whether he’ll need a few minutes to get there, or 15, he expects to close out 2016 on a three-fight winning streak.

For more on the upcoming MMA schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

[Tehranto]

Link for tonight's Rizin event:

https://eversport.tv/fight-sports/ri...-world-gp-2016

Starts at 1AM EST on Thursday.

[Ab-Gosht]

i guess amir needs to do well if he wantd to get a real contract, huge fights for him. bookies have amir basically 85/15 to win

[AranTZ]

What time will his fight be in CET?

[Karimi 8]

Amir won by decision. He was explosive the first round and absolutely dominated. But he completely gassed out the second round and was just holding on. He showed that he has a chin by taking some big shots. But he has to fight again in 2 days in the semi final and he really put it all in this fight. He doesn't have much of a ground game to be honest, he is just a really strong grappler with a powerful punch. Has a lot of work to do still to be a complete fighter.

[Tehranto]

Should have perhaps been a 3rd round - Heath was 20 pounds over Amir and that was going to lead to some exhaustion. Amir wins by unanimous decision. This really showed him that his stamina needs work. Needs the next two days to rest cause in two days, he has potentially two fights. Really needs to work on his BJJ (as a wrestler, probably has little to nothing here) cause he had an outlet to rear-naked choke him.

For those first 5 minutes though - Amir looked like a world beater. So, so impressive. He just needs to pace himself.

[The Farbod]

Should have perhaps been a 3rd round - Heath was 20 pounds over Amir and that was going to lead to some exhaustion. Amir wins by unanimous decision. This really showed him that his stamina needs work. Needs the next two days to rest cause in two days, he has potentially two fights. Really needs to work on his BJJ (as a wrestler, probably has little to nothing here) cause he had an outlet to rear-naked choke him.

For those first 5 minutes though - Amir looked like a world beater. So, so impressive. He just needs to pace himself.

No it shouldnt have. Do not listen to that moron Joe Warren. These fights are NOT judged per round. Amir dominated like 7-8 minutes of that fight. Hearing got a few shots in when Amir gassed but it really wasn't that close. Hearing has NEVER been knocked out. He has a monster chin and Amir learned the hard way that you will punch urself out if you keep peppering a guy that has an iron chin. Amir needed to work for better position instead of throwing punches from bad positions. Still a very dominant performance.