Would could've guess that Brandon Vera is a comic-nerd?  He showed up at the Comic-Con in San Diego and looked like he had himself a great time.  Things are going pretty well for Brandon right now.  He's back in the UFC and is looking to once again become a "force" in the organization.   And he's tall enough to be a stormtrooper!

The title of this article does not refer to Ken Shamrock's "living death" beatings that he gives to people.  It refers to a new movie called Monster Brawl that is coming out soon.  The blurb goes a little something like this here:

Eight legendary monsters pitted against each other in a fight to the death to determine the most powerful monster of all time.Starring Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall), Robert Maillet (300, Sherlock Holmes), Art Hindle (Porky's, The Brood), Herb Dean (MMA Referee), Jimmy Hart "The Mouth of the South", with Kevin Nash (The Punisher), and featuring the voice of Lance Henriksen (Aliens). It's the Ultimate Fight of the Living Dead!

Here's the trailer for the movie:

A new music video I did in anticipation of the Fedor vs. Hendo fight, which is a throwback to the Pride era.  Pride Never Die!

Note: The article below comes from the Bangkok Post and was written by Patrick Cusick.  Professional Muay Thai makes its debut in New Jersey tomorrow night!  Click on the poster for details on how to attend this historic event.

Over the past two decades, the extreme take-down cage rules of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) have become the most popular combat technique for Americans of a younger generation.

Over the past year, however, there has been a resurgence in stand-up ring rules and Muay Thai is poised to implode into the mindset of fight fans across the US.

Three major Muay Thai events will be held in Nevada, New Jersey and California over the next two months that will give the Thai martial art unprecedented traction on American soil.

History will be made when the first full rules Muay Thai contests take place in New Jersey on July 23 after being approved by the New Jersey State Athletic Control and sanctioned by the World Boxing Council.

Anthony Sansonetti is the owner of Tiger Martial Arts in Levittown, Long Island, and head trainer of its competition team, Team Renegade.  To say that Sansonetti is passionate about martial arts is an understatement.  He began studying Kempo Karate at the young age of seven.  Over the years he’s studied “everything under the sun” including but not limited, to Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, shoot wrestling, Thai Boxing, Okinawa weaponry, Jiu Jitsu, Kung Fu, and of course Sambo, the style that he is most known for.

Sansonetti exudes a contagious energy and it is impossible not to get excited when he speaks about his journey through martial arts.  It makes you appreciate all of the opportunities that are available today to those who want to study and train.  Sansonetti explained that back in the early 1990’s if you wanted to train “you turned to martial arts magazines; that’s where you got your information because there was no internet.”

He studied Aikido for a year and in 1992 found a local school and began training in Thai Boxing. Shortly after that, the first UFC came out.  His father, an excellent wrestler, had been extolling the benefits of wrestling for years.  But Sansonetti had never seen that level of grappling before.  “There you had this little Brazilian guy covering the range like a wrestler, and taking the guy down and applying an arm bar like a Judo guy.”  He was determined to learn it.  But “back in 1994 there were no BBJ schools, there were maybe two Thai Boxing schools, a lot of Kempo and a lot of Tae Kwon Do.”  He found the closest thing in Judo and Japanese Jiu Jitsu. He would eventually train in shoot wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as well.

Dan Henderson talked about his upcoming fight against Fedor Emelianenko next week on today's Strikeforce conference call.  He talked of his excitement about fighting Fedor and also about why he got into the sport of MMA.

Did Pride ever try to make a fight with Fedor?

It's never been offered to me before.

Who has the better right hand?

(Laughs).  I don't know.  I guess we'll find out in a little over a week.

If Fedor just another name, another opponent, or is this something special for you?

I don't think Fedor's just another name. It definitely excites me, the opportunity for me to be able to fight him.  I'm ready to go and just waiting to get in there at this point.

How did you get into MMA?

I guess probably two weeks before my first fight I thought that I was gonna maybe try fighting.  When it got offered to me, before that I'd seen it on TV and thought that maybe I'd like to do that.  But I didn't want to fight the big 300 pounders that were in it back then, or 400 pounders.  MMA wasn't around when I was a kid.  It was after two Olympic teams that I decided to give it a try.

 

Fighting wasn't around when I was growing up.  MMA wasn't, anyway.  I was just a wrestler and was focused on just trying to make Olympic teams and continue my wrestling career.  Then I had a call to fight an MMA fight and two weeks later I fought.

I just needed the money.  I didn't really give a whole lotta thought about whether it would be fun or not.  I just thought I'd try it.  I was just a wrestler at that point.

Dan Henderson is much more than just a wrestler now.  He, like Fedor, is a legend in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

This is a possibility for the former Light Heavyweight champion. Which is crazy to think after Ortiz was fighting Ryan Bader at UFC 132 to save his career. Some MMA news sites were saying it was going to be Tito's last fight. But a submission victory in the first round over Bader, and now taking a fight on short notice vs Former Champ Rashad Evans, can land "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" in the #1 contender slot and a chance to be the champion in the 205 lbs division again.

Ortiz and Evans have fought before, fighting to a draw at UFC 73. Tito was deducted a point for grabbing the cage as Evans was trying to take him down. That was followed by three losses by Tito to Lyoto Machida,  Forrest Griffin and Matt Hamill. Tito really needed the win over Bader, it saved his job in the UFC and got him a contract extension. As Tito was resting after his enormous win he got a call from Dana White UFC president saying that, Phil Davis who was scheduled to face Evans was hurt during training and would not be able to fight on the UFC 133 card scheduled for August 6th. He asked Tito to step up and take the fight.  At first Tito declined stating that he wanted to rest and spend time with family. Dana then ask Lyoto Machida who was willing to fight but for much higher of a price; Mr. White was not a fan of that.  Vladimir Matyushenko was a non sexy plan C when Dana was contacted by Tito Ortiz again who had a change of heart and wanted to step up and help the company he works for and to solidify his tenure in the UFC.