February 12th, 2008
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The WEC: “Condit vs. Prater” fighter weigh-ins took place on Tuesday afternoon and it was not all smooth.
American Top Teamer, Micah Miller, tipped the scales at 147.5 lbs — a pound and a half more than the featherweight limit. Micah was allotted some additional time to make weight and came in at 146 pounds on his second attempt.
Remember: All non-title fighters have a one-pound allowance for their matches while all championship combatants must make weight on the button.
Here are the complete results via WEC.tv:
170 lbs.: WEC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit (167.5) vs. Carlo Prater (170)
155 lbs.: WEC Lightweight Champion Rob McCullough (155) vs. Jamie Varner (155)
135 lbs.: WEC Bantamweight Champion Chase Beebe (135) vs. Miguel Torres (133.5)
135 lbs.: Antonio Banuelos (136) vs. Manny Tapia (135)
145 lbs.: Leonard Garcia (145) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (143)
145 lbs.: Mark Hominick (146) vs. Josh Grispi (143)
135 lbs.: Del Hawkins (135) vs. Coty Wheeler (134.5)
135 lbs.: Yoshiro Maeda (136) vs. Charlie Valencia (136)
145 lbs.: Chance Farrar (146) vs. Micah Miller (146)*
135 lbs.: Scott Jorgensen (136) vs. Damacio Page (135)
*Made weight on second attempt
This fight card, which includes three title bouts, takes place at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, N.M. and will be broadcast LIVE on the Versus on Wednesday, February 13 at 9 p.m. ET.
It’s going to be sick.
Written by admin on February 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Castmates on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6, George Sotiropoulos (8-2) and Roman Mitichyan (5-1), will meet in a welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night 13 on April 2 at the Broomfield Event Center in Broomfield, Colo.
The long-rumored clash has finally been confirmed on UFC.com.
Sotiropoulos was among the pre-show favorites; however, the Australian was derailed by Tommy “The Farmboy” Speer in the semifinals. He bounced back to submit Billy Miles via rear naked choke at TUF 6 Finale in the first stanza back in December 2007.
When TUF 6 wrapped, Sotiropoulos headed out to New York City to train with his coaches on the program, Matt Serra and Ray Longo, at Serra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Mitichyan is the unforgettable character who broke his elbow on the first episode of the mixed martial arts reality series and had a conniption when he was told he could no longer compete. The UFC was impressed with his desire to fight inside the Octagon and invited him back to compete at the TUF 6 Finale.
He didn’t disappoint, submitting Dorian Price via heel hook in less than 25 seconds.
This latest news indicates that there will be 10 fights slated for the SpikeTV special, which is a budding trend and departure from the traditional nine-fight cards. It will be a prelim bout that takes a back seat to some other fantastic match ups.
It’s still a solid showdown between two fighters who really want to shine inside the Octagon.
Written by admin on February 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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We threw out the idea last night off the cuff and the brass at Zuffa headquarters ran with our idea.
Not really … but it’s a nice thought.
Tim Boetsch (7-1) will step-up once again on short notice to replace the injured Stephan Bonnar and fight Matt Hamill at UFC Fight Night 13 on April 2 from the Broomfield Event Center in Broomfield, Colo., according to MMAWeekly.com.
Bonnar was scratched from the card because of a serious left knee ligament tear that will keep him out of action for at least six months.
That opens the door for Boetsch once again and there’s no reason not to think that he might just blast the damn thing off the hinges like he did against David Heath at UFC 81: “Breaking Point” on February 2.
It was he Octagon debut for which he had less than two weeks to prepare when Tomasz Drwal went down with a knee injury at the last minute.
Boetsch filled in and put on a dominating performance against Heath, tossing him around the eight-sided cage and basically having his way with the tough UFC veteran until the referee called a halt to the action late in round one.
Hamill is coming off of his first career loss against Michael Bisping at UFC 75: “Champion vs. Champion” in September 2007 via controversial split decision. He was supposed to get an instant rematch; however, Hamill underwent minor surgery on his knee and, in the meantime, “The Count” decided to drop down to middleweight.
The former contestant on season three of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) is an accomplished wrestler who will more than likely test Boetsch’s ground skills — something we didn’t get to witness during the “Breaking Point” pay-per-view (PPV).
Color me curious … it’s nice light heavyweight match up.
For the latest UFC Fight Night 13 fight card click here.
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“I’m off to Tokyo! A big announcement will come straight from Japan tomorrow (February 13). When the official part is done I’ll be able to provide more information about everything, and believe me, I have many things to say. What you could easily guess by now is that I won’t be retiring. I’ll keep on fighting, it’s my life, it’s what I do.”
– Mirko Cro Cop affirms via his personal blog that he wants to continue to fight (something we already knew) and that he’s headed to the “Land of the Rising Sun” to make a major announcement tomorrow. Has he agreed to a new fight? Has he been released from the UFC because he costs too much? Will he fight for another promotion? Is he a mopping mat rat on Fedor’s new television reality series (sarcasm)? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.
Update: Dave Meltzer from WrestlingObserver.com is passing along news that Cro Cop could announce that he will fight for a new promotion created by the owners of K-1. We’ll be all over this when the official word comes in.
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Mark Cuban’s HDNet Fights has been wheeling an dealing this entire month, securing partnerships to air high-profile mixed martial arts events on its growing network.
The latest news is a deal with the San Jose-based Strikeforce promotion under which the network will televise four events, beginning with “Strikeforce at the Dome” on February 23 from Tacoma, Wash. The main event of the nine-fight card features a superheavyweight clash between Bob “The Beast” Sapp and Jan “The Giant” Nortje.
Strikeforce also has the Frank Shamrock-Cung Le fight lined up in March. However, that event will more than likely air on Showtime because it is a joint effort with EliteXC.
In other news, HDNet Fights will also air the debut fight of Kim Couture — wife of Randy “The Natural” Couture. The boxing/muay thai “smoker event” will take place at the Xtreme Couture Gym in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 29.
The Kim Couture bout will air immediately after the live IFL event from the Orleans Arena, which is also slated to go down in “Sin City.” In fact, HDNet Fights will also broadcast the first three IFL events of 2008 under a new agreement.
There’s lots to watch for those fortunate enough to get the HDNet Fights network. Check local television line ups for more details.
Written by admin on February 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Fedor Emelianenko, once considered the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter, has agreed to face the winner of a 16-man tournament on a new reality show by M-1 Global titled, “Fighting Fedor.”
Here’s the video trailer:
In short, be prepared for fighting’s most embarrassing television moment since “Iron” Mike Tyson made a guest appearance on, “Who’s the Boss.”
It seems M-1 Global is indeed hell-bent on delivering MMA fans the matches we’ve all been screaming for. After all, why bother with the likes of Josh Barnett or Antonio Silva when you can steamroll an up-and-coming fighter in front of your hometown crowd?
Even more amusing is the hackneyed narrator trying to sell us the premise as “Groundbreaking” and “The likes of which have never been seen before on American television“.
Sixteen fighters compete against each other in a sequestered environment with the winner getting a title shot — yeah … that’s as fresh as they come.
I’ve always been a fan of Fedor Emelianenko and there is no questioning his accomplishments in this sport. But this new endeavor carries the foul stench of network entertainment.
Fedor will continue to grin and sleep soundly in his bed of cash. He may or may not face the best competition, but it’s his legacy to defend.
And he may choose to defend that legacy with little or no effort.
His fans, unfortunately, no longer have that same luxury.
Written by admin on February 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Gary Shaw fired another verbal cannonball across the Zuffa bow in a recent interview with FightHype.com.
This time, the EliteXC Live Events President thinks it was a blunder to match up former WWE wrestling sensation, Brock Lesnar, against Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, Frank Mir, at UFC 81: “Breaking Point” in his Octagon debut.
Here’s the snip:
“I like Brock, but it just shows that Dana doesn’t know what he’s doing. Every time he signs someone, they get beat right away. I guess if you want to get beat right away, you should go to the UFC. It’s like I said all along, Dana didn’t invent mixed martial arts, he doesn’t own the best fighters in the world and he doesn’t have the best fights in the world. He should come down and look at our show, although I’m sure he watches them free on Showtime. I feel badly because Brock could’ve been a star and he ruined him right off of the bat. It was a bad match-up.”
There’s no love lost between Shaw and White. The two have exchanged back-and-forth barbs and criticism throughout the past year.
Of course, this could all just be a ploy from Shaw to draw attention to his upstart promotion, which has a major event, “Street Certified,” scheduled this weekend.
And what better way to promote his company than to have the biggest name out there (the UFC) talking about it.
White takes the bait more often than not.
In fact, he recently had this to say about Shaw and his “so called competition:”
“Gary Shaw is (an expletive) loser, if we were getting competition, it’s not coming from Elite XC and both of the people who are watching their shows. This guy is a low-level bottom feeder. He didn’t like MMA a few years ago, but when he finally couldn’t make money at boxing any more, he came over to this sport to try to leech money out of it.”
We all know White isn’t one to sit back and digest insults. It’s just not in his DNA — he has to fire back.
I wonder what kind of response he’s going to have for Shaw bad mouthing the handling of his new $250,000 man, Brock Lesnar.
This could get more interesting real soon.
Stay tuned.
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I used to have a lot of respect for [Machida] until he said that so I want to get back in there and fight him again. It kind of pissed me off, but this is the sport and you know you’ve got to respect people. You can’t just come up and disrespect people. You can go home with a win or a loss but you at least have to respect people. That’s not right. I used to have a lot of respect for the him and now I’m just not cool with the guy.
– “The African Assassin” Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou tells Jarry Park that he’s doesn’t appreciate the post-fight comments from Lyoto Machida (who referred to himself as the “Assassin Killer”) following his submission loss to the Brazilian enigma at UFC 79 back in December. Imagine how upset he’d be had he lost to someone like Tito Ortiz instead.
(Thanks to FiveOuncesOfPain.com for the assist.)
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Props: MySpace.com
Quoteworthy:
“Honestly, as much respect as possible to him, but I really don’t think he deserves to be in the UFC. I haven’t seen him win the fights or do what he has to do to prove himself at this level. You know, we’re going to pressure him and test him and I’ll tell you what , he has a pretty good opportunity to prove himself if that’s what he wants to do.”
“The Crippler” weighs-in on his upcoming opponent, Alessio Sakara, at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” on March 1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. This is the first fight on Leben’s new contract, according to the interview. There was some speculation that he would bolt from the organization. He is now on the 25/25 pay scale rather than the 10/10 ($25,000 to show, $25,000 to win). Leben did not reveal the length of the contract.
(Thanks to MMAmania.com reader “Mr. NC-17″ for the assist.)
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EliteXC: “Street Certified” is just days away, taking place this Saturday, February 16 at the BankUnited Center on the University of Miami campus. Remember that the televised portion of the card will be aired on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET.
However, the festivities leading up to the event begin as soon as tomorrow. In fact, main attraction, Kevin Ferguson (aka Kimbo Slice) will showcase his talents during a light open workout at 2:30 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale. He probably won’t be doing much that close to the fight, but it’s a great opportunity to see the street fighting legend up close and personal.
Hopefully, we can pass along some footage and details of the session.
The final press conference will then be held on Thursday, February 14 in South Miami. These are always interesting — it’s one of the last chances the fighters have to give their thoughts on their opponents and talk some smack.
Kimbo and his opponent, Tank Abbott, will almost certainly leave us with some solid sound bytes.
Finally, the official weigh-ins are slated for Friday, February 15 at 5 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Coral Gables. After that we’ll be a little more than 24 hours away from the fighters getting in the cage and handling their business.
The main event of the night is of course the highly anticipated heavyweight “battle of the beards” between Miami’s own Kimbo Slice and the original Huntington Beach Bad Boy, Tank Abbott.
Keep in mind there are also two other heavyweight fights on Saturday with future EliteXC championship implications.
The most obvious of those future contenders is the man EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw calls the “best heavyweight in the world,” Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. He’ll be mixing it up with former UFC heavyweight champ, Ricco “Suave” Rodriquez.
The other heavyweight clash is Englishman James “The Colossus” Thompson vs. undefeated Brett Rogers.
Along with the big boys, Miami will see the EliteXC debut of TUF 4 contestant Scott Smith. Smith takes on up and coming Australian fighter Kyle Noke in a middleweight scrap.
And finally rounding out the main card is what promises to be jiu jitsu war with excellent stand up between UFC veteran Yves Edwards and James Edson Berto. Both of these guys have been around the block and they know how to please a crowd.
The non televised portion of the card will include:
170 lbs.: Lorenzo Borgameo vs. Mike Bernhard
170 lbs.: Eric Bradley vs. Mikey Gomez
265 lbs.: Mario Rinaldi vs. Dave Herman
185 lbs.: Jon Kirk vs. Yosmany Cabezas
205 lbs.: Rafael Feijao vs. John Doyle
If you’re in the Miami area tickets are still available starting at a reasonable $35. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the first undercard fight will go down a half-hour later.
MMAmania.com will have complete coverage of “Street Certified” before, during and after the show — be sure to check us out.
Written by admin on February 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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