September 12th, 2007
You are currently browsing the articles from MMA Factor written on September 12th, 2007.
The former number one middleweight contender, Nate Marquardt, is looking to return to action in January 2008 UFCmania.com has learned.
No opponent has been named at this time.
“We’re waiting for a ‘big’ fight in January,” said the soft-spoken member of Team Greg Jackson. “The list is small,” Marquardt quipped when pressed for possible names.
More than likely the next month will determine his adversary, considering there are three match ups lined up that include some of the top fighters in the division.
- Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin (UFC 77)
- Yushin Okami vs. Jason MacDonald (UFC 77)
- Terry Martin vs. Chris Leben (UFC Fight Night 11)
Some simple analysis shows that Marquardt will almost certainly not get an immediate opportunity against the champion, Silva — Marquardt got taken out in the first round via technical knockout by “The Spider” his last time out at UFC 73.
If Silva defeats Franklin in their rematch and Okami topples MacDonald then it would seem that Okami would earn the next shot at Silva (Okami already owns a win — albeit controversial — over the Brazilian).
Silva-Okami would be a great showdown … but how hard would that be to market here in the United States? Eek.
Patrick Cote has already called out the winner of Martin-Leben. And the last time a Canadian fighter did that he got his wish. See Jonathan Goulet.
So, conventional wisdom suggests that Marquardt will face either Franklin (if he loses), Okami (if he loses) or MacDonald (if he loses).
This division is a real mess right now. Perhaps the best thing to do is bring in Dan Henderson and clean it up.
He can put the “big” in big fight.
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on UFC Middleweight Division and Nate Marquardt and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA.
Mark Cuban conducted both a press conference locally in Dallas this morning and also a conference call for the national media soon after. The press conference and the conference call was to announce the formation of HDNet Fights that will be televised every Friday on Cuban’s high-definition subscription cable channel, HDNet.
HDNet already televises MMA content but today’s announcement confirmed recent reports of an extension of MMA coverage on the network with fights being offered every Friday night. The plan is to offer 24 MMA event telecasts in the upcoming year. Additionally, a new magazine-style program called “Inside MMA” that will also air every Friday and be hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten. The show debuts this week.
HDNet Fights will be working with other promotions such as the IFO and Art of War, however, Cuban’s new group will promote cards of its own. The first Cuban-promoted card is scheduled for October 13 from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX.
Guy Mezger, who is essentially Cuban’s day-to-day MMA operations manager, was on the call and announced several matches.
They are as follows:
- Main event: Erik Paulson from Shooto fame will be taking a break from his training duties and coming out of retirement to fight 5-time kickboxing champ Jeff Ford. This will be a light heavyweight matchup.
- Former UFC heavyweight title contender Justin Eilers will be taking on Justin Howard.
- Freddie “Speedy” Espiricueta will fight Jason House
- Former UFC fighters Pete Spratt (of Houston) will be taking on Sammy Morgan
- Sean Salmon will be fighting Leopoldo Serao
- T.J. Walberger will go against Anthony Lapsley
- Justin McDowell will fight Ivan Jorge
- In a battle of super heavyweights, Joel Traves will do battle with Sunia Filikitonga
Other fighters are listed on the promotions web site (HDNetFights.com) so I’m assuming there will be more matches.
Highlights of the press conference include:
- There was talk of Fedor but nothing new to report. Cuban confirmed they’ve offered some things that interest Fedor’s camp and that the UFC has offered Fedor’s camp some things that interest them.
- I asked Mezger about other big name free agents. He wouldn’t get into specifics but I asked him if they’d be interested in Josh Barnett. He not only said that they’re interested but that discussions have taken place. He mentioned that if they were to sign Fedor, they’d need someone to fight him and that a lot of people aren’t willing too. We all know that Barnett would be willing too.
- A lot of fighters signed for the first card are on one-fight deals. Mezger is exploring possibilities with certain fighters who could fit into a situation where they’d be signed to multi-fight contracts.
- There was a lot of talk about the IFL. Ring of Fire, Art of War, and Richard Steele’s IFO will all be promotions that HDNet Fights will be working with but with 24 shows planned, they will need to work with more companies. The IFL’s HD rights for 2008 are not secured so there’s nothing to stop them from working with Cuban at this point in addition to their deals with Fox Sports Net and MyNetwork. Also, don’t rule out HDNet as a possible solution to the whole IFL live telecast issue.
- Josh Gross from Sherdog.com mentioned in an article today that Cuban has been talking to the WWE and Vince, Shane, and Linda McMahon. Gross didn’t offer much detail so I asked Cuban if he could elaborate. Basically, the McMahons aren’t looking to start an MMA promotion. However, they have existing PPV distribution and Cuban expressed an interest in talking to them about production since they are already doing so much of it.
- Justin Eilers dropped a nice little nugget of info. He’s training in Vegas now at the Vegas Fight Club where Tony Fryklund trains. Eilers actually trained in a boxing gym for a while in Iowa after leaving MFS. Apparently his decision to leave MFS wasn’t one that came on good terms. He reluctantly revealed that he had a beef with Tim Sylvia. Basically, when Eilers got the title shot against Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia didn’t feel like he deserved it and felt that the title shot should have been his. Instead of being a good teammate and sucking it up, he just refused to work with Eilers in helping him get ready for the match. You know, I’ve defended Sylvia in the past but that’s a bullshit move on his part.
- Right now HDNet has 6 million subscribers. It’s available to most people who have satellite. Technically, you don’t even need an HD set. You just need the HD box and you can hook it into the S-video connection of your TV and subscribe. It’s not available on Comcast but Cuban said they are working on that.
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on HDNet Fights and Mark Cuban and Guy Mezger and MMA.
Props: HDNet.com
Quoteworthy:
“Justin Eilers and Sean Salmon are former UFC veterans that always put on great fights. We also have several Dallas area fighters that will be fighting on the card, so we have something for everyone — all kinds of fighting styles and all brave warriors, ready to go on October 13.”
– The owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, announced today that his high definition network (HDNet) will enter the “mixed martial arts fighting circle” with the debut of “HDNet FiGHTS” in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m. The main event features former Shooto World Champion Eric Paulson taking on five-time World Kick Boxing Champion, Jeff Ford. The showdown will be one of 10 bouts scheduled on the card, which also includes former UFC fighter Sean Salmon against Leopoldo Serao (185 pounds) and another former Octagon warrior, Justin Eilers, against Justin Howard (Heavyweight).
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Justin Eilers and HDNet and Sean Salmon and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA.
Scott Junk (6-1) will make his Octagon debut against Christian Wellisch (7-3) at UFC 76: “Knockout” on September 22, replacing heavyweight fighter Justin McCully.
That’s the latest from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which did not mention a reason for the ‘enth-hour switch.
Here’s a snip from Junk:
“It’s 100 percent going to happen. It caught me off guard, but it’s good because I have been training this whole time.”
The article goes on to reveal that the winner of this fight will likely face former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir (It also mentions Brandon Vera as a possibility, but I just can’t buy that).
UFC 76 is just 11 days out, giving Junk very little time to prepare. Scrapping this bout was perhaps not an option after Wilson Gouveia recently withdrew from his scheduled light heavyweight bout against Jason Lambert that same night.
As it stands now UFC 76 will feature just eight bouts instead of the usual nine.
Junk has competed primarily in smaller shows such as Maximum Fighting Championships and Rumble on the Rock in his home state of Hawaii. He most recently stopped Jimmy Ambriz via technical knockout back in June for his sixth consecutive MMA win.
For the latest UFC 76 fight card click here.
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Christian Wellisch and Justin McCully and Scott Junk and UFC 76 and UFC Pay Per View (PPV) Events and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and UFC Heavyweight Division and MMA.
“I’m thinking about Tyson Griffin all day long. I lunch Tyson Griffin. I train Tyson Griffin. I dinner Tyson Griffin. I play video games against Tyson Griffin. He is my goal … and if God wishes, I will win.”
– Lightweight propsect Thiago Tavares talks about his mindset with Sherdog.com going into his sensational UFC 76: “Knockout” match up with fellow 155-pound standout, Tyson Griffin.
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Thiago Tavares and Tyson Griffin and UFC 76 and UFC Lightweight Division and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and UFC Quick Quotes and MMA.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich recently signed into law a bill that sanctions the sport of mixed martial arts in the Prairie State, according to the Chicago Sun -Times.
That means that the organization can begin to schedule events for “The Windy City,” Chicago. In fact, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner, is quoted in the article that sometime in 2008 is a possibility.
Here’s a snip:
‘’We’re delighted. We want to come to Illinois very badly. They have mixed-martial-arts events now, but they’re not properly regulated. That’s why we’ve waited, to go through the state commission. We’ve already been in contact with the United Center and Allstate Arena…. Our goal is to get there in ‘08.”
According to the article, the earliest the UFC can stage an event would be mid- to-late 2008. However, if an amendment is passed beforehand the law could be effective on the first of the year.
Several fighters, including former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, as well as Terry Martin, Stephan Bonnar and others have Chicago roots.
The UFC would more than likely put together a card that includes these local fighters, as well as those from the surrounding area.
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Marc Ratner and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA.
The post-UFC 75 fallout continues with a lot of fighters and UFC reps going on the record. There are also some other interesting stories out there right now pertaining to upcoming UFC events.
Let’s run it all down at once:
– Michael Bisping has addressed Saturday’s controversial split decision win over Matt Hamill at UFC 75 via his web site at Bisping.TV. He seems to have calmed down and in addition to asking for a rematch, is giving Hamill the credit he deserves for his performance. I left a full post on the situation at MMAjunkie.com.
– Matt Hamill has addressed the current 10-point must scoring system and his feeling on how to rectify what he considers to be flawed criteria:
I think MMA is a great sport and I don’t believe in any kind of a fix. The two judges that scored the win for Bisping obviously need to re-evaluate the way they score a fight. You can’t win a fight when you run for three rounds. They need to study the criteria for scoring an MMA fight: effective striking, grappling, takedowns, aggression and control. Bisping did none of that in my opinion.
– There’s a ton of great audio clips on “Mr. Sunshine” Steve Cofield’s blog. UFC V.P. of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner spoke at length about to controversy behind the Hamill vs. Bisping decision. He said he was also proud of the job the fight promotion did when it came to the drug testing they performed. You can hear the audio by clicking here.
– Josh Burkman confirmed via a MySpace bulletin that he will indeed be fighting Forrest Petz at UFC 77 on Oct. 20 in Cincinnati.
– According to Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com, Wilson Gouveia suffered a broken nose and his match on Sept. 22 UFC 76 vs. Jason Lambert has been scrapped. The match will be re-scheduled for a later date and a replacement bout has not been announced. At such a late juncture, I’m not sure their will be because believe it or not, we’re less than two weeks away.
– MMAjunkie.com is report that the UFC rewarded Marcus Davis handsomely for his performance this past Saturday at UFC 75 in London. In addition to winning “Fight of the Night” he also won “Submission of the Night.” Each bonus was worth $40,000 so Davis walked away with $80,000 in total bonus money.
– Patrick Cote has spoken to The Fight Network and is campaigning to get on the UFC’s Dec. 29 card. He’s calling out the winner of the upcoming match between Terry Martin vs. Chris Leben at UFN 11 on Sept. 19 because he’s got beef with both:
Cote (11-4) is already familiar with one of his targets, having lost a close split decision to Leben (16-4) back at the first “Ultimate Fight Night” in Aug. 2005. The Quebec City native would like the chance to avenge that defeat.
“I just want to prove to everybody that I was robbed last time [against Leben],” says Cote. “I will not leave the fight in the judge’s hands next time.”
As for Martin (16-2), the Canadian middleweight’s motivation is really fueled by a genuine dislike for the Chicago resident.
“I just don’t like this guy,” says Cote. “He has a big mouth. Terry Martin has said he’s the next big thing at 185 and that he will be champion. He thinks he has heavy hands because he knocked out Jorge Rivera. But if you watch that fight, you see Rivera was already off balance and he caught him.”
Written by admin on September 12th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on UFC and MMA.