There are not a lot of big time kickboxing promotional organizations out there that look to the United States as a viable place to grow the sport. Glory is the one organization that does believe the sport can thrive here, and one of the best fighters is Brett Hlavacek.

Sporting an 8-1 record Hlavacek is getting ready to take on Paul Marfort (10-5) at Glory 9 on June 22^nd in New York, NY. With just about a month before the fight he is in training for the fight, but took some time to talk with Latenight Cageside on BJPENN.COM Radio.

Growing up Hlavacek was involved in Tae Kwon Do from an early age. The natural progression for every fighter is to grow and eventually will want to learn beyond one style. It took about 7-years for Hlavacek to know he wanted to learn more about Muay Thai.

“It was like a natural progression, when I was 4 I started Tae Kwon Do,” Hlavacek said. “By the time I was 11 I wanted to take a little bit more contact oriented.”

The sport of kickboxing is not growing at the pace of mixed martial arts, but there is an audience. Hlavacek currently fights under the Glory banner, and believes they are branding the sport in the US perfectly.

“Glory is bringing kickboxing to the United States and branding it as their own thing,” Hlavacek said. “It’s not Muay Thai, it’s not strictly kickboxing.”

“It’s a mixture of everything, and it’s definitely shorter rounds I think it will appeal to people,” Hlavacek continued.

At every MMA event you hear booing when fighters go to the mat. Even at the UFC on FX 8 event which took place in Brazil, home of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, when the fight became a grappling match the crowd rained down boos on the fighters. Striking is what fans want to see, so naturally Muay Thai would be the logical alternative. Unfortunately it’s not, and Hlavacek explains why that may be the case.

“The normal person in the United States isn’t going to watch Muay Thai, listen to this crazy music,” Hlavacek stated. “Some of the history behind it they can’t identify with it.”

Speaking of the UFC on FX 8 event, the Main Event featured Vitor Belfort. He has admitted to using TRT, and believes there is nothing wrong with what he is doing. Hlavacek does not see TRT, or any form of PEDs, as being a problem at professional kickboxing events…yet.

“It definitely seems it’s more involved in mixed martial arts,” Hlavacek said. “It’s definitely a little bit bigger of a stage.”

As the money starts to get bigger [in professional kickboxing] you may start to see a little bit more of that just to get that edge,” continued Hlavacek.

As there are advantages with the use of TRT and PEDs, Hlavacek explains that it won’t help you with your fighting abilities.

“There’s not one needle or pill that will give you better technique though,” Hlavacek said. “That’s something you got to do on your own.”

Hlavacek currently trains out of New York at The Wat with his Head Trainer being Phil Nurse. For those who don’t know about Nurse, he is a highly decorated Muay Thai fighter.(Watch and learn) Learning from one of the greats has been a great experience for Hlavacek.

“It’s pretty amazing,” continued Hlavacek. “He always has something to offer.”

If you watch Nurse’s highlights he is a flashy, confident and powerful fighter. The first two attributes have rubbed off on the young protégé.

“Some of those things you can’t teach,” Hlavacek said. “I naturally gravitated to that style of fighting.”

“You always root for the more exciting guys so I always try to put on a show,” Hlavacek continued.

The art of entertaining is not lost on Hlavacek. As he understands that you not only have to be good enough to win, but you also need to entertain while you win. Some fighters cannot do both.

His upcoming fight at Glory 9 against Paul Marfort should be on the entertaining side. Hlavacek expressed that even though he’s training for the fight he’s not thinking at all about what his opponent is going to do.

“I’m not too concerned about what he’s doing, I’m not watching tape every day,” Hlavacek stated. “The last two weeks that’s when we’ll start game-planning.”

Glory 9 takes place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, NY on June 22^nd. You can go here to find more information on the event.

Listen to the entire interview with Bret Hlavacek with the player below, and make sure to tune into Latenight Cageside every Monday night at 10PM ET. Follow the show on twitter @LN_Cageside, and the hosts @kampsmma and @chaseraymond.

Microsoft revealed their new video gaming system earlier today, entitled “Xbox One.” Among many other details disclosed about the next-generation console, Electronic Arts unveiled their 2013/2014 EA Sports product line: ‘Madden 25′, ‘FIFA 14′, ‘NBA 13′ and last, but definitely not least, ‘EA Sports UFC’.

The video shown above is the trailer that aired during the Microsoft Press Conference.

Electronic Arts unveiled a bit of ‘EA Sports UFC’ footage in the trailer. Although it is just rendered footage and not gameplay, it’s still exciting to see that they have finally announced the game. The release date is still up in the air, but it is confirmed to be coming out within the next 12 months.

UFC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson and Anthony “Showtime” Pettis are featured in the trailer, and we relive an important part of MMA history when Anthony Pettis clobbered Ben Henderson with the “Showtime Kick”.

With the video that was provided, it looks like the knockout physics are the same as they are in the Fight Night series.

Stay tuned to BJPenn.com for up-to-the-minute updates on the game!

After an injury forced UFC interim champion, Renan Barao, out of his second title defense in the main event of UFC 161 against Eddie Wineland, the UFC started to look for a suitable replacement.

Now, as confirmed by the UFC’s official twitter account, the former co-main event will take its place as a bout between Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson has been promoted to the main event of the card:

UFC 161 is set to take place on June 15th at the MTS Centre in Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. The new co-main event is Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogureira in a rematch of a classic Pride fight that saw Rua come out on top.

Here is the official fight card per UFC.com:

For the latest MMA news and updates on UFC 161 visit BJPENN.com

With the move came some rumors about Silva’s motivation for leaving American Top Team.  Thiago had voiced some displeasure with the camp, citing a lack of good coaching.  At the Blackzilian camp, he feels like he has found a place to come back to his winning ways.

“Man, I feel great at the Blackzilians right now.  They have a very good facility, very good coaches.  The teammates, we are very together, you know, we help each other.  I’m so happy, you know, it’s my dream come true… What can I say?  Everything is going perfect, nothing to complain about.”

One of the rumors surrounding Thiago’s departure from ATT centered around a dispute between him and a recent addition to the camp, Hector Lombard.  Silva said that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“No, of course not,” Thiago said of the dispute.  “I like Hector a lot, he’s a very good friend of mine.  Actually he was one of the best training [partners] I had when I was training there.  I just left American Top Team because the training over there wasn’t that good, like I expect[ed].  That’s why I left American Top Team, not because of Hector or something like that.  Like I said, I really like Hector, he’s a very good fighter and a very good person.”

All of the rumors, “that’s a lie, man, that’s a lie.  Hector, like I said, he’s a very nice guy, a very good friend.  I like him very, very much.  I have nothing to say bad against him, just good things.  He’s a very good guy, man.”

The nature of the rumors, Thiago said, could have come from people watching their sparring matches.  He said, “People who see me and him training, it’s like a live [fight], you know.  We [are] really training hard, we try to knock out each other.  Hard training is fight, if you train too soft, when you step into the cage you going to feel the pressure.  As much hard as you’re training, you’re going to be better when you fight.  That’s what I mean.  I think he has the same mentality, and when we used to train together we used to train very, very hard.”

In any case, Thiago Silva is training hard with the Blackzilians to bounce back from a frustrating past few fights.  He is certain, coming into this fight, that fans will see the Thiago of old.

“No, definitely you guys [are] gonna see the same Thiago Silva, but even more aggressive.”

Thiago will face Rafael Cavalcante at UFC on Fuel TV 10 on June 8 live from the Paulo Sarasate Gymnasium in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil.
Be sure to check out the first two parts to this interview, where Thiago goes in-depth about his next fight and talks about some hot topics in MMA today. You can listen to the entire episode of BJPenn.com Radio here or in the player below.

There is definitely no love lost between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk. When Sherk was suspended for a failed drug test by the California State Athletic Commission a war of words raged between the two that cultivated with their fight at UFC 84. Penn defeated Sherk by TKO to retain the UFC Lightweight championship. A rematch with Penn is something that Sherk would love to happen.

“I think that would be a lot of fun,” said Sherk. “But I think that would be pretty cool.”

The fight would most likely need to take place at Lightweight, and barring any other obstacles is a realistic notion. Both fighters are in the twilight of their career, and both are taking time off to allow their bodies to heal. The fact that both of them have fought, and beat, some of the very best fighters in their career also helps to make the sequel.

“A lot of factors would have to fall into play,” stated Sherk. “He’s beaten the best of the best, and obviously he beat me so you know that would be something that would be a lot of fun.”

Not a lot of men can say they have beaten Sherk, four to be exact, having compiled a career record of 36-4. Sherk believes once healthy that he has at least one more run to the title left in him.

“I think I match up great with every one of those guys, just like I always would have,” said Sherk when asked about how he matches up with the top fighters in the Lightweight division. He has been keeping himself busy as his body heals, but still takes time to notice who’s who in the division where he once reigned as champ.

“The guy that’s been most impressing me is Ben Henderson,” said Sherk. “He’s fought the who’s who of the division, and beat every one of them so far.”

Sherk mentioned Maynard, Edgar, and Thomson as other fighters he would like to face as they are tops in the division. Another fighter that has impressed him though is Gilbert Melendez. Even though he didn’t see the Melendez-Henderson title fight he gave his thoughts on the fight.

“If anybody in the division was going to potentially dethrone [Ben] Henderson it would have been Gilbert [Melendez],” said Sherk.

Once health catches up to him we will see Sherk enter the Octagon at least one more time. Who he fights is another question entirely.

Listen to this interview, and the entire BJPENN.COM Radio show, with the player below.

MMA judging can be maddening, laughable, and bewildering all at the same time. There is no real method to the madness that is standardized across the board. Do attempted submissions count, or are they the same as missed punches. Is controlling someone’s back without really coming close to finishing them worth more than a well-timed and spectacular reversal or escape. All of it is very subjective and controversial. How does MMA fix this problem as a whole?

Educating the new batch of judges is key. One thing they did in PrideFC so well is take the entire fight in to account. I am not saying do the same should be used in the UFC, but what I am saying is that this should be stressed to the judges on a round by round basis. Watch the round like a movie and judge it based on who did more damage or if it’s too close in that category – by who controlled the round, and directed traffic so to speak. If you have ever watched a fight you probably get a clear sense of who won the round by simply applying these two filters to your viewing.

Adding two more judges might help. A 10 point must system is best used when the fight is not left up to just
three judges. Most of the time it’s a best 2 out of 3 situation, but a 3 out of 5 might be better because there would probably be less chance for split decisions if the read the above paragraph. One of the main reasons that MMA has only three judges is that in MMA’s infancy no one had a clue what they were doing. They needed an odd number so they chose three. It didn’t help that at that time getting people to show up was near impossible, too. When I started announcing events around 2001 the judges were the local “Billy bad-asses” who claimed ridiculous 46-0 underground street fighting records, and still had all of their teeth. Judging has always been ‘entertaining’ to say the least.

The bottom line is that educating new judges matters. Teaching them what is considered significant and what should be taken in to account when scoring a bout is so crucial. Go watch Michael Bisping vs Matt Hammill, Jon Fitch vs. Jeff Joslin, Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra, and Mauricio Rua vs. Lyoto Machida 1. Do you agree with those outcomes?

What do you think would improve judging?

We all know the story, we’ve all seen the twitter posts, but here’s an update from Diaz himself in what can only be assumed as a response and sound off to Bryan Caraway yet again:

In an event that had without a doubt the KO of the year, so far, UFC on FX 8 wasn’t filled with superstar names but did offer entertaining fights none the less. Here are the three stars of the night.

3. Evan Dunham – He gets this for not going absolutely ballistic when the decision was announced. Fight Metrics shows that he had the advantage in the second and third rounds. MMADecisions.com shows that the media scored the fight in favor of Dunham, and fans overwhelmingly believed that Dunham won the fight. He put on a brilliant display of striking and takedowns in the second round, and followed that up with an equally impressive third round. After the fight, UFC President Dana White tweeted that Dunham got robbed. Dunham deserved the victory, but at least he gets the consolation prize of making the top three stars of the night.

2. Ronaldo Souza – Making his UFC debut this highly touted Middleweight dominated a very game Chris Camozzi. ‘Jacare’s’ submission game may be the best in the UFC, and seeing how quickly Camozzi went limp is scary. The Strikeforce veteran won submission of the night for the arm-triangle choke, and should be a force in the UFC. His next fight should be against a top-10 opponent.

1. Vitor Belfort – Forget about TRT this guy is a beast. He broke his own UFC record of finishes in the 1^st Rd, it’s now 11, and sent a message that he wants a rematch with Anderson Silva. After the fight he proclaimed that he was going to root for the Spider in his upcoming title defense against Chris Weidman at UFC 162. Since April of 2007 Belfort has lost to just two men; Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, and both of those were for the title. Also remember that in his last 11 fights, where he is 9-2, only one has gone to a decision. Nobody can argue that when ‘The Phenom’ enters the cage he’s there to finish his opponent.

Honorable Mention: Iuri Alcantara, Lucas Martins, and John Lineker

Who were your three stars of the night?

Following his first round victory over Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX 8, Vitor Belfort playfully lashed out at one of the reporters at the post-fight media conference for asking about his use of TRT.

After the majority of the MMA Media ran with the statements of Belfort, the Brazilian took to twitter to make nice and apologize publicly.