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World Series of Fighting 2: Arlovski vs Johnson

9K views 64 replies 31 participants last post by  kantowrestler 
#1 ·
The full WSOF 2 card includes:

MAIN CARD (NBC Sports Network, 9:30 p.m. ET)

Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson
Marlon Moraes vs. Tyson Nam
Josh Burkman vs. Aaron Simpson
Dave Branch vs. Paulo Filho
Gesias Cavalcante vs. Justin Gaethje

PRELIMINARY CARD (Untelevised, 7 p.m. ET)

Kris McCray vs. Danillo Villefort
Igor Gracie vs. Richard Patishnock
Cameron Dollar vs. Waylon Lowe
Ozzy Dugulubgov vs. Chris Wade
Rick Glenn vs. Alexandre Pimentel

And it's at HW.

World Series of Fighting appears to have a running start this year for their organization. Following their largely successful debut event, which had fans and media alike singing their praises, we have been informed, via press release, that they have signed on with NBC Sports Network for a multi-year deal, and will offer up six cards a year, which will commence this March 23rd. I recently spoke with president, Ray Sefo, who gave me some insight to their first card, and future events.

Stephie Daniels: How was the reception from the executives at NBC Sports to your first event, and were they immediately on board to get this long term deal locked down?

Ray Sefo: It was definitely a smooth flowing deal. Right after the event, we ended up heading back to Caesar's Palace at one of the villas there, and kind of had a small after party with some of the execs. Everybody was super excited and very happy with the way the show turned out, and the way it looked. I think it just took a little extra time to close the deal because of the holidays, and we understood that. We are really happy with the way that the deal was worked.

Stephie Daniels: I saw the Nam / Moraes fight confirmed for your first card this year. Are there any other big fights inthe works?

Ray Sefo: I have some surprises for you. As a matter of fact, we have a verbal agreement for our main event. It's Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson. It will be at heavyweight.

Stephie Daniels: What are the plans for the six cards this year? Will they all be situated in Nevada, or are you planning to take them to other locations?

Ray Sefo: Well, I have another surprise. The March 23rd card will be at the Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Then, the next event will be back here, in Vegas. We're definitely going to be all over the country.

Stephie Daniels: You've been trying to remain active in your own combat sports career. Now that you have this deal with NBC Sports, and have several cards a year planned, will you continue that, or is retirement in your immediate future?

Ray Sefo: I absolutely plan to stay active. I still have the hunger to compete, along with the determination and motivation to train. I've always said that the day I'm unmotivated to go to the gym twice a day, will be an indication to me that it's time to hang it up. I'm still very active, in the gym six days a week. Obviously, my main goal is to get WSOF off the ground with a bang this year, but my other goal is to get seven fights under my belt and then look at retiring.

Stephie Daniels: What's happening with Extreme Couture?

Ray Sefo: You know, it's kind of crazy. Some guy wrote some sort of article about all our guys leaving Extreme, but that's completely fals and wrong. Mike Pyle, for example, had been talking about training over at The Syndicate for a while, because his striking coach was there, and his best friend owns the gym. There has been talk about Mike leaving for about a year, and there was no bad blood or any ill will.

About seven months ago, our guys all fought back to back, and then the holidays came along, so there was really nobody in the gym on the level of Evan and Jay for sparring, so some of the guys just went elsewhere for their sparring needs. That's pretty much it. Everybody is back in the gym now.

Stephie Daniels: Do you think that Randy's big announcement of working with Spike and coaching teams for Bellator might mean a resurgence of Extreme Couture?

Ray Sefo: That's very possible. Just like everything in life, we get older. These guys get older and move on, and then the young talent comes in to take their place. That's kind of what's happening at Extreme right now. There's a whole new breed of young guys in the pro class right now. The gym has an open door policy where people can come and go, and I'm sure that Randy will always keep it like that.

You can follow Ray via his Twitter account, @SugarRaySefo

Source
 
#13 ·
The two main event fighters respond to Dana White criticism:

World Series of Fighting 2 headliners and the promotion's CEO say a fighter should determine his or her own destiny. If they want to fight at a weight different than what they're known for, they should be able to do so.

In the case of Anthony Johnson (14-4), that means he should be able to fight heavyweight Andrei Arlovski (19-9), and the bout's legitimacy shouldn't be in question.

"Anthony is his own man and can fight at whatever weight he wants to fight at," WSOF CEO Ray Sefo told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "If he wants to fight at 205, great. If he wants to fight at heavyweight, great. Who are we to say where he fights at?"

WSOF 2 takes place Saturday at Revel Atlantic City in Atlantic City, N.J. The event's main-card airs live on NBC Sports Network following prelims on Sherdog.com.

One influencer already has given his say: UFC President Dana White, who this past weekend said the WSOF 2 headliner wasn't a legitimate bout because Johnson was a welterweight under his promotion's banner. Johnson hasn't fought at 170 pounds in more than a year, moving from middleweight to light-heavyweight, and for the Arlovski bout, to heavyweight.

"What Dana said was his own opinion," Johnson said. "It didn't really bother me. But to me, this is a legitimate fight. I have no hard feelings toward Dana for whatever he said. I don't even think it was meant in a harmful way toward me or Arlovski. It was just his opinion.

"But I don't know why he said welterweight, when I haven't fought welterweight in over a year. I mean, get with the program, you know what I mean? I fight at 205. I'm fighting heavyweight for this fight. Stop living in the past, when I used to fight at 170. This is totally different. People change, and some people change for the better, and that's what happened to me. So let's not even talk about 170. Let's talk about 205 and heavyweight."

Arlovski, whom White praised at the same time he said the fight wouldn't spur a UFC return, backed Johnson's desire to fight at a heavier weight.

"It doesn't matter what weight he wants to fight; it matters what he's going to bring to the table," Arlovski said. "He trained hard for this fight. It might be an easy fight, or it might be the hardest fight in my MMA career.

"It doesn't really matter, and everybody has their own opinion. I'll bring something to the table, and Anthony will bring something to the table, and we'll see who was right and who was wrong. It's only about the fight."

Although Sefo disagreed with White's assessment of Johnson's choice, he differentiated it from fans who disparaged fighters' performances.

"What gets me the most is if you've never been in that cage and experienced what it's like, if you've never experienced training camp, what these guys go through and the sacrifices they have to put in to be ready for the 23rd, if you've never known what that feels like, then you shouldn't really be disrespecting any of these guys," he said. "It makes me really upset.

"I get it – if you want to criticize something, OK, fine, whatever. But it's one thing to give an opinion – it's another to disrespect. And it really burns a fire underneath me when people who have never been in that cage or ring disrespect the fighters. But at this point, it's just a matter of educating them and saying, 'Listen, maybe go to a gym and experience what it's like for a couple weeks,' and then you'll understand what these guys go through."
http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/...iticism?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
 
#20 ·
The main event will be entertaining but won't really answer many questions. Rumble has said in the past, he isn't sticking around at HW too long. So this fight at HW is for the sake of fighting at HW and against a named opponent.

Arlovski is esentially fighter an opponent who has so place being at that weight, if he wins it's against a bloated MW/LHW, if he loses he loses to a bloated MW/LHW.

Makes no sense and is an unnecessary risk, but will be awesome to watch while it lasts!
 
#21 ·
The main event will be entertaining but won't really answer many questions. Rumble has said in the past, he isn't sticking around at HW too long. So this fight at HW is for the sake of fighting at HW and against a named opponent.

Arlovski is esentially fighter an opponent who has so place being at that weight, if he wins it's against a bloated MW/LHW, if he loses he loses to a bloated MW/LHW.

Makes no sense and is an unnecessary risk, but will be awesome to watch while it lasts!
Johnson missed weight TWICE in a row at MW, he has no business there. He is a big LHW at best and maybe even feels uncomfortable to cut down to 205. I guess he walks around not much less than Dos Santos or Verlasquez.
 
#22 ·
Regarding Johnsons true weight.

Looking at the weigh-ins against Arlovski we can say that Rumble is not a true HW and to be perfectly honest he didn't really look like a huge LHW either.

205lbs is a great weight for him, however i have a feeling that if we see him back in the UFC he may cut to 185lbs if it doesn't start well for him.
 
#28 ·
If fatty KOs Arlovski I will cry :(

AA by brutal Pitbulling however. He should take this easily. Just can't leave his chin out there.
 
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