Junior dos Santos is interviewed on Inside MMA along with Clay Guida and the manager of Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ed Soares, who also does the translating for him. "Cigano" discusses his previous profession, how long he's been training, and the Mirko CroCop fight at UFC 103.

I'm sure we've all encountered those people throughout our lives that just seem to be naturally "tough". 

The kind of people you hate to compete against, but love to have on your team; whether we're talking about MMA, basketball, football, dodgeball, badminton, or shuffleboard.  The type that you envision being born chewing on a piece of raw meat and challenging the delivering doctor to an armwrestling match.  Its not to say these people are unbeatable, but just that they may have a genetic predisposition to being genuinely pugnacious, scrappy, fiesty, and bellicose.

Or, in plain terms, the sort of person you don't want to fuck with unless you absolutely must.

Ricardo Mayorga is one of these people.  He's a Nicaraguan boxer who won my admiration by first TKO'ing Vernon Forrest in 3, and then enjoying a cigarette in the ring after beating Forrest via decision in a rematch on HBO.  Mayorga is a former WBA and WBC Welterweight champ who has seen action in the ring with such names as Ocar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Cory Spinks, and Shane Mosley, with his most significant wins being Fernando Vargas and Forrest.  

The announcement was made during the online pay per view of "Shine Fights II" last Friday night, an impressive new upstart promotion that featured a pleasantly surprising line-up that included Yves Edwards, Roan Carneiro, Luiz "Buscape" Firmino, and Micah Miller.  Although no timeline nor opponent were mentioned for Mayorga's transition to MMA, this new acquisition will do nothing but boost interest in Shine Fights and add to their startling momentum as the promotion continues to jump out of the gate in strong fashion.

 

Well, its short and sweet, but Forrest nails a nice takedown at the end of the video.  Of course, "trainin' ain't fightin'" and "what happens in training, stays in training", but I still love to see videos like this revealing a behind the scenes look at top MMA fighters honing their skills against one another.

Dennis Kang has apparently studied the tapes of Dan Henderson obliterating Michael Bisping at UFC 100 back in July.  Kang says he's going to come out and "throw bombs" at Bisping when they fight.  Check out this video interview of Kang by MMAbay.co.uk.

Here's a group picture of some of AMA Fight Club's pro fighters.  Can you name them all?

Jens Pulver is a funny guy.  He was mugging it up for the cameras at the NY MMA Expo that took place this past July 28th on Long Island. Lots of notables in this pic, including Andre Arlovski, Jens, Tim Kennedy and Chuck Zito.

Headed out to AMA Fight Club yesterday in Whippany, NJ and talked to the Miller brothers about their upcoming fights in September. Dan is fighting CB Dollaway at UFC Fight Night 19 on Sept 16 in Oklahoma City. Then 3 days later Jim takes on Steve Lopez at UFC 103 in Dallas, Texas. Also on the video is a little tour of AMA Fight Club, led by MMA impresario Mike Constantino. Also, a cameo appearance by none of than Mr. Big 1 himself, Jamie Cruz, AMA's BJJ instructor, who recently crossed over and joined the reptilian overlords in their never ending quest for world domination. Plus, a tardy Frankie Edgar shows up with Chris Liguori. Enjoy: