Archive for June, 2009

rightfully considered to be hallowed ground for the warriors of the Ultimate Fighting Championship®. Today, UFC® is pleased to announce a television deal with Inner Mongolia Television that will mark the first time in history UFC will be seen on TV in China, continuing the global expansion of the premier brand in mixed martial arts. “Obviously China is a huge market and the Chinese understand the martial arts probably better than anyone else in the world. It’s a no brainer that UFC programming will be appreciated in China, and will become a big hit for the NMTV network,” said Dana White, UFC President. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rory Tulloch – BAMMA (British Association of Mixed Martial Arts) is a new British promotion running a tournament to crown their first champions of their respective divisions, dubbed “The Fighting Premiership”. The first set of semi-finals, containing bouts at Lightweight, Welterweight and Middleweight took place Saturday night at the prestigious “Room by the River”. A second set of semi-finals are to take place August 15th with the Featherweights, Light-Heavyweights and Heavyweights before the finals taking place September 26th. The tournament is being broadcast in the UK by digital satellite channel Bravo. Read the rest of this entry »

By Christopher Salute — Let’s get past the super-cool nicknames on this one and try to forget that Tom Lawlor did in fact urinate in his own fruit salad to keep his housemates out of it. This fight is a perfect match-up between two The Ultimate Fighter alums on very similar rungs of the totem pole. CB Dollaway and Tom Lawlor both fought on their Ultimate Finale shows. Dollaway was a finalist but lost the bout to Amir Sadollah, a very impressive fighter. And, Lawlor fought and won an undercard fight against Kyle Kingsbury.

The deciding factor will be what both fighters have done since those Ultimate Finale fights. Dollaway has won his last two UFC fight cards via a submission and a TKO. Lawlor, on the other hand, has moved down to Orlando, FL, to train with American Top Team, which consists of fighters like Thaigo Alves and Mike Brown. Chuck Lidell recently trained with them, as well. He has also dropped down from the 205 lb Light Heavyweight class to a more lean 185. Doing so should make him a very powerful middleweight fighter. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rory Tulloch – Former pro-wrestler and undefeated MMA fighter Bobby Lashley (4-0) has cemented himself as one of MMA’s top heavyweight prospects after an impressive victory over K-1 and Pride veteran, Bob “The Beast” Sapp (10-5-1) on the headliner of Saturday’s “Ultimate Chaos” Pay-per-view. In a bout that was dubbed “Battle of the Giants”, Lashley picked up the win just 3:17 into the first round when he dominated “The Beast” taking him down to the ground early, before forcing him to submit after an onslaught of strikes. Read the rest of this entry »

By Christopher Salute – With UFC 100 coming up on Saturday, July 11th, I think it’s only appropriate that we begin counting down by of the fights you can expect to see, that evening. With 11 fights on the card and exactly ten weekdays between now and the event, we’ll need to get a move on it:

Matt Grice Vs. Shannon Gugerty Preview

Matt “The Real One” Grice last fought in FCF (Freestyle Cage Fighting) in Oklahoma before starting with the UFC. With an 8-0 perfect professional record, he was handed his first loss by Terry Etim at UFC 70. Now, over 2 years later, with a 1-2 record in the UFC, Grice needs a win against Gugerty to keep his UFC dreams (and career) alive. With a strong wrestling background, Grice’s first thought may be to take this fight to the ground. Grice has split his wins between TKOs, submissions, and decisions. So, it’s tough to say how he’ll be looking to beat Gugerty. Read the rest of this entry »

Popular Bobby Lashley took super heavyweight Bob “The Beast Sapp to the mat right off the opening bell and used his improved ground-and-pound game to win by first-round submission in the main event on the “Ultimate Chaos” pay-per-view event, presented by Prize Fight Promotions and Fight Force International, last night at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 27, 2009 World Championship Fighting presented what many fans are calling their best fight card ever, live from the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA. While there was no marquee main event featuring fighters who already have national recognition, the card was filled with fighters ready to break into the national spotlight. As usual for WCF, the crowd was filled with a who’s who of MMA stars. UFC Fighters Jorge Rivera and John Howard joined Mark DellaGrotte, Sean Gannon and former Middleweight Boxing Champion Dana Rosenblatt were in attendance, along with actor Kevin James, who is filming a movie locally. Read the rest of this entry »

FightZone TV is proud to announce that they will once again be providing national television coverage for World Fighting Championships “Battle of the Bay 8,” an action-packed Mixed Martial Arts extravaganza at Tampa’s USF Sundome to be held on Friday, July 10, 2009. The taped event, featuring cageside commentary by Fight Zone’s Jay Adams, will be aired nationally at a later date by FightZone TV to over 21 million homes on Fox Sport Net’s (FSN) affiliates SunSports, SportSouth, and nationally on DIRECTV, The Dish Network and AT&T U-verse, reaching over 20% of US homes with cable TV. Read the rest of this entry »

By Christopher Salute – June 20th, Las Vegas, Nevada- During the Spike TV Season Finale of The Ultimate Fighter: Team USA vs. Team UK at The Palms, U.F.C. President Dana White commented, again, on the retirement of Chuck Lidell. “I’m not his father, he can do whatever the hell he wants to do. I’m his friend and I care about him a lot, and I’d never like to see him fight again.”

This stance seems a little less definite then White’s UFC 97 proclamation that we would “never see Chuck Lidell on the canvas again.” This came after a knockout loss to Mauricio Rua. That loss, White said, needed to be a one-sided win for Lidell if he planned to fight again.

White isn’t being malicious when he aggressively stands between Lidell and the cage. If anyone understands Lidell, it’s him. Dana White started his career with the UFC as the manager of Tito Ortiz and Chuck Lidell. It was through these connections that he found out the organization was looking for buyers, which is what started his campaign to find investors, purchase, and become President of the organization. So, when White says that he cares about Lidell, we can believe that he genuinely does. Read the rest of this entry »

Now on newsstands, the UFC 100 commemorative magazine will take you closer to the Octagon than ever before. Featuring an exclusive in-depth breakdown of July 11th’s UFC 100 event with UFC President Dana White, the magazine also contains interviews, never before seen photos, articles on the 20 Greatest UFC fights and 5 biggest blood feuds, as well as fight tips, advice from Rachelle Leah, and much, much more. Don’t miss this soon to be collector’s item. Read the rest of this entry »

The history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship® is filled with stories of legendary fights and athletes who built a sport behind skill, heart, and determination. On July 10th and 11th, just before the lights go down and the first bell rings for July 11th’s historic UFC 100 event, fans will have the opportunity to meet and greet the fighters who made mixed martial arts what it is today, as well as the ones carrying the flag for the next generation, all under one roof at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center during the UFC® Fan Expo™. Read the rest of this entry »

By Christopher Salute - The Mixed Martial Arts community has been pushing for the legalization of MMA in New York State for quite some time. Unfortunately, they will not see the fruits of their labor for another year.

On June 23rd, the New York State Assembly left bill A.2009-B on the table, meaning that it will not have another chance to be discussed until January 2010.

“Essentially, we just ran out of time,” said one representative from Assemblyman Steve Englebright’s office. Englebright is the New State House sponsor of bill A.2009-B and an advocate for MMA in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

Watching Fedor Emelianenko “made me nervous tonight,” said Josh Barnett about Fedor’s bout with Andrei Arlovski at Afflictions “Day of Reckoning”. Barnett will face Fedor on August 1st at Affliction M-1 Global’s “Trilogy.” He is probably wondering, like all fight fans and fighters on earth: can Fedor be beaten or is he invincible? The single loss on Fedor’s record is often disregarded as evidence of his vulnerability, since it was due to a cut resulting from an accidental (and illegal) elbow by Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. Even with this one debatable blemish on his record (he went on to later beat Kohsaka in a follow-up match), Fedor is the most revered heavyweight in the world by fighters and fans alike.

Fedor is one of those rare fighters that has staying power who consistently outperforms his competition. One of the things that makes Fedor a legend is his resilience. Fedor takes a beating and keeps on beating his opponents-he has been dazed by Kazuyuki Fujita’s right hook, broken his hand on Gary Goodridge’s head, been suplexed by Kevin Randleman, fought off the impressive ground skills of Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, recovered from Mirko Filipovic’s brutal lefts to the face, endured Mark Hunt’s keylock, reversed Matt Lindland’s attempted bodylock takedown, overcome the giant Tim Sylvia, and survived the boxing skills of Andrei Arlovski. In the end, whether or not he has taken some blows, Fedor prevails over his opponents and deals out the final punishment. Read the rest of this entry »

Fitness and mixed martial arts training fans met the new standard in equipment and training techniques this weekend when the new TapouT Research & Development Training Center held the grand opening of its new 18,000-square-foot facility on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20. The schedule also included the U.S. debut of the Professional Arm Wrestling League. In that competition, John Brzenk, the world’s number one ranked arm wrestler, retained his title with a 5-1 victory over Denis Cyplenkov, the world’s number two ranked arm wrestler. Read the rest of this entry »

Christopher Salute: There’s a new heavyweight joining the ranks of Mixed Martial Arts. In this corner: EA Sports! For those who are not up on their video game news, EA Sports has plans to enter the ring (or octagon, for that matter) to battle “THQ for the Best MMA ” Title, this coming year. The move was announced in the beginning of June. While the news, itself, shouldn’t shock (it was only a matter of time before they entered the world of MMA), the fighters rumored to be in this game are sure deliver a few blows to the current MMA Videogame Champion. That champion is UFC: Undisputed. Read the rest of this entry »