Brian Stann Getting Much Respect Ahead of UFC 136 Contenders Bout With Chael Sonnen

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Brian Stann probably should get used to this kind of treatment from his opponents.

Stann thought he had a fight against former Pride middleweight champ Wanderlei Silva earlier this year before Silva begged out - thanks-but-no-thanks. And then came Chael Sonnen, one of the most outspoken trash talkers in the sport. Sonnen fights Stann in a middleweight contenders bout Saturday at UFC 136 in Houston.

Sonnen said fighting Stann is something that simply has to be done - but admits he wishes he didn't have to face the surging war hero, and thinks the same goes for the rest of the middleweight pack.

"Nobody wants to fight Brian, but somebody's got to," Sonnen said on a UFC 136 media call last week. "Our paths have to cross. We're just in the same weight class, it's not that big of a pool and he keeps whipping everybody. If he quit beating everybody, I wouldn't have to fight him. But he decided to go out and become one of the top guys."

Stann (11-3, 5-2 UFC), a former light heavyweight champion in the WEC, could punch his ticket to a title shot against UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva with a win over Sonnen, who is looking for a rematch with the record-setting titleholder.

But as for Sonnen's famous mouth, which was on full display prior to his fight against Silva last year, Stann isn't surprised it didn't come out for this fight.

"I told everybody from the start I didn't think (the trash talk) was going to happen," Stann said. "I said this a couple times. I believe Chael is very genuine when he says if he has a problem with somebody, he'll speak it. If he doesn't have a problem with somebody, he won't. ... And I wouldn't have taken it personally, anyway. I really think that our skill sets and the way that we fight has generated all the hype it needs."

Stann has won three straight fights, all in dominating fashion. After a decision loss to Phil Davis at UFC 109, in which he was taken down all three rounds and dominated on the ground, Stann has been on a tear.

He submitted Mike Massenzio and UFC on Versus 2 last year, winning Fight of the Night. In January, he ran through Chris Leben on his way to a first-round TKO. The only other fighter to stop Leben with strikes? Anderson Silva. And in May, at UFC 130, Stann picked up another Fight of the Night check with his second-round TKO of the highly touted Jorge Santiago.

The UFC putting Stann in position to earn a title shot seemed natural. And Stann found out that at this level of the game, options for opponents start to thin out.

"This is the first fight where I just got a phone call and was told who I was fighting," Stann said. "Normally, there's a process, and my manager throws out a couple names and (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva throws out a couple names. We were in that process, and all of a sudden after UFC 132, when Chris Leben knocked out Wanderlei Silva, it was 48 hours later that I got a phone call: 'This is who you're fighting. Here's the bout agreement.'"

But even though Sonnen has admitted to a bit of reluctance to fight Stann, who has become one of the UFC's biggest fan favorites, Stann doesn't think Sonnen will hold anything back on Saturday night.

"I don't think it's something where Chael's going to go lay on me Saturday," Stann said. "I still fully anticipate the best Chael Sonnen in the Octagon, and a guy who's going to to double-leg takedown me and try to push my head right though the canvas."

To prepare for Sonnen's elite-level wrestling, something he struggled with against Davis, it's not surprising that Stann has been working on his own wrestling game. The Greg Jackson-trained fighter has honed his entire game in Albuquerque, N.M., but it's wrestling he's had to work on the most.

"What happens in fighting is, early in my career I had a very limited skill set," Stann said. "But I was very comfortable with that skill set, so I could fight 100 miles an hour. When you can go somewhere where you're introduced to 1,000 new skills, you become OK at all 1,000 of them and you try to do way too much in the cage and you fight now at 70 miles an hour. It took me some time to get comfortable with all these new skills, and now I can go 100 miles an hour again. ... I've been training in wrestling for a long time now, but since that Phil Davis fight it's been something I've spent most of my time on over the last three or four fights."

If he can succeed against Sonnen where Silva failed for four and a half rounds last year (though a Silva rib injury also may have played a part in that), Stann could get his own shot at gold.

Stann and Sonnen fight on the main card of UFC 136 on Oct. 8 at the Toyota Center in Houston. The pay-per-view is headlined by a pair of title fights - the lightweight title rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, and a featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian.

 

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MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Dominick Dominates the Class

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One of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz's dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He has already handily beaten most of the best 135-pound fighters in the world, and there aren't a lot of big fights for him out there.

Cruz's latest conquest was Demetrious Johnson, and that fight went a lot like most of Cruz's other fights: It wasn't a vicious, violent beatdown, but it was a one-sided display of technical dominance, a fight in which we knew within the first minute or two that we were going to see Cruz win a unanimous decision.

As much as MMA fans recognize Cruz's skill, it's going to be hard for the UFC to get the general public excited about his fights because the public likes guys who destroy their opponents better than guys who win through their technical mastery. Still, there's no doubting that Cruz is by far the best in the bantamweight division: He's already beaten most of the other Top 10 bantamweights, as you'll see below.

Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA
(Number in parentheses is the fighter's rank in the last bantamweight list.)

1. Dominick Cruz (1): One of the really impressive aspects of Cruz's current run is the quality of the competition he's facing. As we'll discuss below, there are a lot of really good bantamweights in the UFC right now -- Johnson, Joseph Benavidez, Brian Bowles, Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen -- and Cruz has beaten them all handily.

2. Joseph Benavidez (2): Benavidez is 15-0 when he's not fighting Cruz, and 0-2 when he is fighting Cruz. If the UFC ever adds a flyweight class, Benavidez could easily make the cut to 125 pounds and would likely be the division's first champion. Instead he languishes as the second-best fighter in a division where he's already lost twice to the best.

3. Brian Bowles (3): After losing the bantamweight belt to Cruz in March of 2010, Bowles missed a year because of injuries. Now he's 2-0 in 2011, and if he makes it 3-0 by beating Faber at UFC 139, he'll probably get another shot at Cruz.

4. Urijah Faber (4): If Faber gets by Bowles at UFC 139, the UFC will probably give him his rubber match with Cruz. But that says more about Faber being the UFC's most marketable bantamweight than it says about Faber's chances of taking the bantamweight belt from Cruz: The way Cruz beat Faber at UFC 132 leaves little doubt that Cruz would be a heavy favorite if they fight again.

5. Bibiano Fernandes (NR): The former Dream featherweight champion, Fernandes is now fighting at 135 pounds in the Dream bantamweight tournament, and he looks great there: He's better off fighting at a lower weight. He's the best bantamweight outside the UFC, and he could be a great future opponent for Cruz if the UFC ever signs him.

6. Demetrious Johnson (5): Mighty Mouse is undersized at 135 pounds, and he would benefit from a move down to flyweight. The UFC has been talking about creating a flyweight class for a long time (and the WEC talked about it for a long time before that), and with guys like Johnson and Benavidez around, there's no better time than now.

7. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen was thoroughly outclassed by Cruz last year, but he bounced back with a big knockout win over Ken Stone in June. He draws Jeff Curran next at UFC 137.

8. Miguel Torres (7): The former WEC bantamweight champion, Torres is the best UFC bantamweight who hasn't yet fought Cruz. I also think Torres could be an interesting opponent for Cruz because he has height and reach that match up well with Cruz, and because he's good at fighting off his back, and Cruz showed against Johnson that he can at times be sloppy on top. Torres is coming off a loss to Johnson, and he probably needs to go on a two-fight winning streak before the UFC would give him a crack at Cruz. He can start that streak at UFC 139, when he fights Nick Pace.

9. Brad Pickett (8): After putting together some very impressive performances in the WEC, the British Pickett will finally make his UFC debut on his home turf at UFC 138 in Birmingham, England, where he'll face ...

10. Renan Barão (9): Barao is on an incredible run, having won 26 straight fights (with one no contest) since dropping his professional MMA debut in 2005. However, all but the last three of those fights have been against little-known opponents on small Brazilian shows. Going to England to face Pickett represents a big step up in quality of competition for Barao, and the fight represents a very good match-up to determine which one of them really deserves to be considered a Top 10 bantamweight.

 

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Dana White Talks UFC 136 Storylines, Jon Jones and Spike Countering FOX Debut

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HOUSTON -- MMA Fighting spoke to Dana White following the UFC 136 press conference on Wednesday. The UFC president talked about the third meeting between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, the latest on Gilbert Melendez, his thoughts on Kenny Florian fighting for another title, the return of Chael Sonnen, his recent meeting with Jon Jones and Spike TV countering the UFC's debut on FOX with their own UFC programming.

 

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TUF 14 in-depth: Dillashaw glad he didn?t have to babysit Caraway

TUF 14 in-depth: Dillashaw glad he didn?t have to babysit CarawayT.J. Dillashaw may be the brightest prospect in the entire cast of Season 14 of "The Ultimate Fighter." How he'll come off during the show is anyone's guess. You can never predict which fighters and personalities will strike a chord with the show's producers.

He's a former elite college wrestler who works under Urijah Faber and Team Alpha Male, one the leading gyms when it comes to producing elite bantamweights and featherweights. If Dillashaw isn't featured beyond his fighting, it looks like we'll at least get a good look at his personality in his weekly blog on Heavy.com.

The 25-year-old bantamweight landed with Team Michael Bisping. Dillashaw got a along with the brash Brit, but he could see why some people aren't big fans of the middleweight contender.

"I was a little afraid to be on Bisping's team because of the way he's portrayed in the past to be a jerk and no one really liked him that much ? which he is. He really is a jerk, but he wasn't like that with the team, so it's really not that big a deal," Dillashaw wrote on Heavy.com.

Dillashaw was impressed with Bisping's work in the corner of Marcus Brimage during the show's first Round of 16 fight. All in all, he thought Bisping was a good coach.

"If you're on his side, he's got you all the way. He really cared about us. He cared about how we did in the competition, he made sure that we had everything that we needed. He's a really good guy," said Dillashaw.

Featherweight Bryan Caraway, another Team Alpha Male fighter, landed on Team Jason Miller. Dillashaw wasn't surprised the show focused on the "Nervous Nancy" angle for Caraway. He's been around the 27-year-old and knows how much Caraway struggles mentally during the prefight.

"Getting back to the point of Bryan being on the other team, it was actually kind of nice because he couldn't rely on me for all his stability, me giving him confidence and whatnot. He had to get that from his team, and I didn't have to be bothered with it. I got to worry about myself, and what was going on in my situation," said Dillashaw.

Caraway took out Brimage in fight No. 1. The match up itself was chosen by Caraway. The rest of Team Miller decided they had to ease Caraway's panic by allowing the fighter to choose his destiny. He picked the right opponent.

"[Brimage] as an MMA fighter, he's a little ignorant to everything that goes on in the background. It's not just all about the skills; it's the lifestyle, the diet, and the mentality of knowing that you've got to be disciplined at all times," said Dillashaw.

Dillashaw gave credit to Bisping for going the extra mile on Brimage's weight cut. The fighter weighed 157 afternoon before the fight, and Bisping's weight-cutting methods helped him dropped 11 pounds in one night.

It looks cutting weight may be a common thread throughout the show. There was tons of risky food available to the fighters. Dillashaw said some of the featherweights were as high 178 before their fights.

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TUF 14 in-depth: Dillashaw glad he didn?t have to babysit Caraway

TUF 14 in-depth: Dillashaw glad he didn?t have to babysit CarawayT.J. Dillashaw may be the brightest prospect in the entire cast of Season 14 of "The Ultimate Fighter." How he'll come off during the show is anyone's guess. You can never predict which fighters and personalities will strike a chord with the show's producers.

He's a former elite college wrestler who works under Urijah Faber and Team Alpha Male, one the leading gyms when it comes to producing elite bantamweights and featherweights. If Dillashaw isn't featured beyond his fighting, it looks like we'll at least get a good look at his personality in his weekly blog on Heavy.com.

The 25-year-old bantamweight landed with Team Michael Bisping. Dillashaw got a along with the brash Brit, but he could see why some people aren't big fans of the middleweight contender.

"I was a little afraid to be on Bisping's team because of the way he's portrayed in the past to be a jerk and no one really liked him that much ? which he is. He really is a jerk, but he wasn't like that with the team, so it's really not that big a deal," Dillashaw wrote on Heavy.com.

Dillashaw was impressed with Bisping's work in the corner of Marcus Brimage during the show's first Round of 16 fight. All in all, he thought Bisping was a good coach.

"If you're on his side, he's got you all the way. He really cared about us. He cared about how we did in the competition, he made sure that we had everything that we needed. He's a really good guy," said Dillashaw.

Featherweight Bryan Caraway, another Team Alpha Male fighter, landed on Team Jason Miller. Dillashaw wasn't surprised the show focused on the "Nervous Nancy" angle for Caraway. He's been around the 27-year-old and knows how much Caraway struggles mentally during the prefight.

"Getting back to the point of Bryan being on the other team, it was actually kind of nice because he couldn't rely on me for all his stability, me giving him confidence and whatnot. He had to get that from his team, and I didn't have to be bothered with it. I got to worry about myself, and what was going on in my situation," said Dillashaw.

Caraway took out Brimage in fight No. 1. The match up itself was chosen by Caraway. The rest of Team Miller decided they had to ease Caraway's panic by allowing the fighter to choose his destiny. He picked the right opponent.

"[Brimage] as an MMA fighter, he's a little ignorant to everything that goes on in the background. It's not just all about the skills; it's the lifestyle, the diet, and the mentality of knowing that you've got to be disciplined at all times," said Dillashaw.

Dillashaw gave credit to Bisping for going the extra mile on Brimage's weight cut. The fighter weighed 157 afternoon before the fight, and Bisping's weight-cutting methods helped him dropped 11 pounds in one night.

It looks cutting weight may be a common thread throughout the show. There was tons of risky food available to the fighters. Dillashaw said some of the featherweights were as high 178 before their fights.

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UFC 136 Press Conference Video

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Dana White and the topUFC 136 stars will answer questions from the media Wednesday afternoon. A star-studded UFC 136 press conference on Wednesday will feature lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and No. 1 contender Gray Maynard, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 contender Kenny Florian, and middleweights Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann. We'll have them all live right here at MMAFighting.com.

The press conference will also feature UFC President Dana White, who will preside over the festivities at the Toyota Center in Houston.

The UFC 136 pre-fight press conference begins at 12 p.m. ET and the video is below.

 

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