St. Pierre to Replace Serra at UFC 79 for Interim Title

Good news for UFC fight fans yesterday evening, George St.Pierre has agreed to step up and fight Matt Hughes for an interim Welterweight title. I was a little concerned when they made the initial announcement that Serra couldn't fight and no replacement fight was named. I thought they would let Serra heal up and reschedule the fight sometime in 08.

Despite the fact that I was seriously bummed about Serra having to pull out I will say that St. Pierre is an awesome replacement and UFC 79 is going to be an exciting card.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Serra out of UFC 79 Due to Injury

Disappointing news yesterday for Matt Serra fans, Matt apparently suffered a herniated disc in his lower back while training and will not be healthy for his fight on 12-29 against Matt Hughes.

I was so looking forward to this fight too... So far the UFC hasn't made any announcements as to whether that fight will be replaced by bringing 2 new fighters to the card, or moving a pair up from under card to the main event.

While that takes a little of the shine off UFC 79 it should still be a great card with the much anticipated Liddell vs Silva fight.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Mac Attack, Ultimate Fighter Episode 9

Mac Danzig is one cranky, moody guy but you can’t dispute his skills in the octagon, and who knows maybe that sour attitude adds to his skill set. He sure took it to John Kolosci by stuffing every takedown attempt and just whaling away on him the whole time with hard shots to the face and elbows to the ribs. It was just a matter of time before Kolosci couldn’t absorb anymore and gave up his back to Mac’s rear naked choke near the end of round one.

Matt Serra had to have 2 of his guys go over to Hughes’ team since he had so many fighters in the semis. Needless to say he and the team are not happy at all. None of his fighters are jumping up to go over the Hughes team and I think says a lot about Hughes.

Since Serra refuses to pick 2 guys to go over he will leave it up Dana and a coin toss. That toss results in Richie Hightower and Matt Arroyo being sent over to team Hughes.

I can understand Richie wanting to clear the air so to speak with the coaches but leave it up to jackass Hughes to dismiss and wave off their concerns. Plus he walks out of the room without so much as a hand shake, at least his coaches had enough class to acknowledge them. Personally I would have just rolled with the change and tried to learn as much as I could from Matt and his coaches, Hughes might be an ass but he is a pro.

So we’ll see what happens next week in a doubleheader episode…

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Dana White to Appear Tonight on Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller

Dana White will appear on the new Dennis Miller sports show "Sports Unfiltered" tonight at 10:30 on the Versus Network.

Kimbo Slice and KJ Noons Shine at EliteXC Renegades.

YouTube sensation and street fighter turned pro Kimbo Slice needed only 19 seconds to defeat MMA vet Bo Cantrell in last nights EliteXC Renegades event. Kimbo advanced steadily on Cantrell and scored a hard uppercut to the upper chest followed by a sweet elbow to the eyebrow area which the commentators seemed to miss. Cantrell went down at that point and was tapping almost as soon as he hit the ground.

KJ Noons had a great night picking up the EliteXC Lightweight Belt after defeating hard hitting Nick Diaz. Noons was able to land some big shots on Diaz including a devastating knee to the face served up when Diaz tried to shoot opening up a nice cut on his eyelid.

KJ went on to pound Diaz with more hard shots and the ringside doctor was forced to end the fight. Diaz was understandably upset and left the arena with a 2 finger salute for the doc and promoters.

All in all a pretty entertaining card and EliteXC production gets better with each event they put on.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Matt Serra "People's Champ", Gives Tips to Local Fighters

Thanks to Dan Magnie a member of my Yahoo UFC group for sharing this article on Matt Serra.

Check out Dan's MMA site Colorado Fight Events

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Lesner to Face Mir at UFC 81

In breaking UFC news it was announced that former professional wrestler turned MMA up and comer Brock Lesner will face former heavyweight champ Frank Mir February 2nd. Read more at UFC.com

More Randy Couture Post Press Conference Anaylsis

On one of the MMA Yahoo groups I belong to, Extreme Fighting Fan the group moderator Kensei Neiko posted some nice analysis of the fighter contract data that was released to the press:

Okay, so reading over a "standard UFC Contract for top guys" Randy is
screwed!!! Here is why:

First off we have that Retirement clause that some are saying is a
pain for Randy but more just a word challenge for him to over come:

Quote:
"If at any time during the Term, Fighter decides to retire from mixed
martial arts or other professional fighting competition," the clause
begins, "then ZUFFA may, at its election, (i) suspend the Term for
the period of such retirement; (ii) declare that ZUFFA has satisfied
its obligation to promote all future Bouts to be promoted by ZUFFA
hereunder, without any compensation due to Fighter therefore; or (ii)
elect to provide Fighter with notice of an Acceleration."
For all practical purposes, sub clause (i) allows Zuffa to retain the
rights to a retired fighter in perpetuity. Sherdog.com has confirmed
that this clause does not appear in every Zuffa contract; it is
believed to be reserved for top fighters.


In laymens terms if he "retires" Zuffa can extend the contract till
he comes back....No shocker here so lets move along!

Read more...

Couture "Grossly Misrepresents" Contract Figures says UFC's Dana White

At a UFC press conference this afternoon to address remarks made by Randy Couture, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta flatly refute the claims made by the Heavyweight champ. The details are certainly interesting for example the signing bonus.

Randy wanted a half mil signing bonus which the UFC wasn't ready to give up front in case of injury or something like that. Randy stated that he didn't get that bonus when in fact what Dana agreed to do was front 250k right then and the balance after the Sylvia fight which he got, that all works out to 500k. So it is indeed strange that he would claim not getting the bonus when he clearly did.

The press conference goes into a bunch more detail about the contract, meetings they had etc. There were also a number of interesting nuggets about the UFC like PPV buy numbers, fighter contract details, and fighter pay. I was surprised to hear that they pay discretionary bonuses to fighters also for excellent performance, great fights and the like.

Like Dana says, only time can tell how this one will turn out but for now he considers the matter settled and promises not to speak on it again after this press conference.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Ultimate Fighter Episode 5

Kind of a tame episode this week some of that due to Paul Georgieff getting news from home that his 19 year old cousin had died. I’m glad Dana didn’t make him sweat a choice between being there for his family and competing on the Ultimate Fighter. It was also nice see his team mates there to back him up and offer support.

Mac Danzig seems to have a problem with Blake Bowman and the fact that he hasn’t “sacrificed” himself with years of dedication to the sport and is a relative newbie. Why that makes any difference to Mac is beyond me, whether he belongs there or not was not his decision to make, that was done by Dana and the producers. Take comfort from the fact that one, he’s not on your level and two he’s already lost and injured to boot. What threat does he pose to you? Pipe down…..

Plus he was also pissed because his boy Andy Wang lost his fight against Blake’s boy Cole Miller and Blake was commenting on it. I thought Andy was a loser when he appeared on TUF and I wasn’t impressed with him at all.

So Dana will let Paul go home to attend services for his cousin and come back but he has to fight before he leaves. That puts Hughes in a pinch because he has to change his game plan at the last minute and they decide to put him up against Troy Mandaloniz.

I knew this was going to be trouble for Paul even if he wasn’t dealing with a death in the family. Troy has a ton of heart, heavy hands and an intense desire to win his fight. Once the fight starts Troy lands a couple shots and Paul pulls him down into guard.

Once in guard Paul made several good submission attempts including a triangle and a kimura that looked good for a minute until Troy got it loosened up. Troy brought the fight back up to their feet and within 30 seconds landed a couple hard shots and then one right on the button folding Paul up like and accordion.

Not to long after that we got to see Hughes acting like a jerk off. Paul is sitting in a chair in the octagon and Hughes is saying “Standing up with him wasn’t part of the plan, blah blah blah.” Then he was saying the same kind of stuff to his other fighters. How about nice try Paul you gave it your best etc etc. Dick….

However Matt Serra came up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder and some words of encouragement like the class act he is.

Looks like next week Matt Hughes will again take the loss out on his team instead of looking in the mirror where the problem really lies.

Couture to retire again and pursue an acting career.

UFC president Dana White announced yesterday that Randy Couture has resigned from the UFC as commentator and potential lobbyist and will retire again. Randy has decided to pursue a career in acting and is in Africa right now filming The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian.

Randy was looking to fight Pride’s Fedor Emelianenko but the UFC was unable to bring Fedor into the fold and he has now signed with some nebulous Russian MMA organization. Since Randy wasn’t going to be able to fight who many consider the best heavyweight fighter in the world this was a good time to bow out and concentrate fully on an acting career.

More details can be found on the UFC website here, and the Sports Illustrated site here.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

The Ultimate Fighter Episode 3 Bye Joey

Well it went down much like I thought it would Joey Scarola couldn’t take the cameras couldn’t take being away from his girlfriend of 6 months so he bailed. Matt Serra did everything he could to try and convince him otherwise and so did Dana White but he quit anyway.

Now you know that Joey wanted to be in the UFC bad, I’m sure he begged Matt Serra to get him on the show and in turn Matt put in the good word for Joey with Dana. For him to then turn into a whiny ass quitter is so lame and pathetic I can hardly find the words to describe it.

Matt even told Joey, “Look if you leave you are going home to no job because I can’t have quitters teaching at my school” and he’s totally right. After seeing this show who would want to get involved with Serra’s school when they may end up being taught by a quitter. Dana went even further when he said if you walk out that door you will never be in the UFC.

Trashing a tight friendship with Matt and blowing ANY opportunity with the UFC seemed to be of no concern to Joey who only wanted to go home to his girls and lick his wounds…. Well you got plenty of time now loser.

Enough of that….

It was a quick fight at the end of the show last night after Billy Miles succumbed to first time Octagon pressures and let himself get locked into a John Kolosci standing guillotine choke. Billy seems like a good guy with the right skills and I think he’ll bounce back once he gets another shot probably on a UFN under card.

Next week looks interesting with Dorian Price’s aggressive antics towards the TUF film crew possibly getting him booted from the show. Until then…

The Ultimate Fighter Episode 3 Tonight

I’m going to go out on a limb here (not) and predict that tonight is the night that Joe Scarola gets booted or chooses to leave the show. This kind of thing seems to happen every season of TUF, there is one guy that looks like a grown man but is actually little girl in disguise. Can you say Gabe Rudiger?

I guess it makes for a good show since I do find my self yelling “Man up you wuss!” to my flat screen. But really, look what a pansy this kid is, he gives up with 10 seconds left in his fight with Mac Danzig to a triangle choke that he should have easily been able to counter being a BJJ black belt.

That was bad enough but to then mope around like a baby whining that he wants to leave and he needs to call his girlfriend is pathetic. In the previews we see Dana talking to him and telling him that “you don’t want to go out like this”, all I can hope is that Joey takes Dana’s advice and sticks it out for the full 6 weeks and retain some of his pride. But I have a feeling he wont….

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Great Week For UFC Fans

MMA Fans get a big fix this week from the UFC with 3 upcoming events. Tonight is Ultimate Fight Night Live followed by the season 6 premier of The Ultimate Fighter and then to top the week off Saturday night is UFC 76 Knockout.

If the previews tell us anything this season of TUF promises to be the wildest one yet and I for one am looking forward to it. I like Hughes but I root for the underdog a lot so I'm pulling for Serra to win the team competition and successfully defend his title when he meets Hughes in the ring.

Tonights UFN card has some great fights that I'm looking forward to, Florian vs Thomas is one of them. Florian gives up a huge edge in experience to Thomas but Kenny has looked very impressive in his last 2 wins after rededicating himself to the fight game.

Another match up I can't wait to see is Nate Quarry vs Pete Sell which promises to be an exciting fight. Quarry hasn't fought since he became highlight reel material when Rich Franklin crushed his nose and then laid him out flat. Now that he's recovered from back and nose surgery Nate's back in the Octagon to make his way back up the middleweight ranks.

I'll post my thoughts on UFC 76 later this week. Until then MMA fans.....

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

UFC Welterweight Champ Matt Serra at the NYS Fair

On September 1st I got a chance to meet UFC Champ Matt Serra at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. I'm originally from there and live in Raleigh NC now but I had planned a vacation to see some family when a friend told me he would be there.

Needless to say I'm pretty stoked as I love the UFC and I also like Matt, not to mention this is the first UFC fighter I've ever met in person. My wife and I got there 15 mins early and were the 3rd people in line.

So Matt gets there and says hello to everyone (about 30 people by this time). He was very friendly and approachable and spent a few moments with each fan for pictures, autographed photos and few words. It was the highlight of my vacation. By the way the UFC belts are heavy, each of the pieces you see on there are what seem to be solid brass, very solid.



The pics above are of me and my wife and the ones below are of a couple other people that were in line.

Crazy Finishes at last nightsTUF 5 Finale

In an already exciting card at The Ultimate Fighter 5 finale there were 2 very unexpected finishes. Manny Gaburyan was controlling Nate Diaz for all of the first round and round quickly started with more of the same. But just 20 seconds into the 2nd Manny went for the shot on Diaz dislocated his shoulder and immediately tapped making Nate the Ultimate Fighter Season 5 contract winner.

On the stranger side was the bout between Gray Maynard and Rob Emerson. Gray was overpowering Emerson the whole first round and Rob was in pain from a rib injury. Maynard came in hard and grabbed Emerson up for a slam, when they came down Gray took a rocking shot to top of the head and went limp.

Emerson had tapped right after being slammed but it was clear that Gray Maynard was seeing tweety birds and no clue what was happening right then resulting in the Nevada State Commission to rule the bout a no contest.

Good show, now I'm looking forward to UFC 73 Stacked!

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Last nights TUF 5 episode

I am firmly convinced after last nights show that Gabe Ruediger is a little bitch. I didn't like him from the get go, talk talk talk talk is all he did, inserting himself and his opinion into areas that didn't concern him like with the whole "Suck it team Pulver" graffiti incident.

I couldn't agree with Dana more, fighters that can't make weight are pathetic. This is the chance of a lifetime for these guys, Gabe got selected over another fighter for the show and then totally blows it by acting more like a woman than a full grown man, I mean whats with the crying? Man up for god sakes!

I'm soooo glad he's gone the only thing that would have been more satisfying would have been seeing Corey pound him in the cage.

At least we get to see 2 great fights next week!

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

UFC 68, one for the record books

The fans really got their $50 bucks worth for UFC 68! There was no way this could be a bad card with the likes of Hughes, Franklin, Sylvia, and Couture all on the same night.

All of the stars showed up to fight... Matt Hughes takes a hard earned 3 round decision to Chris Lytle. The majority of the fight was spent on the ground with a lot of good grappling and jiu jitsu skills on display.

Rich Franklin defeats Canadian Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald for the win after Jason’s team throws in the towel at the end of round 2 after Franklin delivered MacDonald and end of round beating.

Surely the best fight of the night had to be Couture VS Sylvia. The performance that 43 year old Randy Couture put on last night in his complete domination win over Tim Sylvia was amazing to say the least.

For a man of his age to come out of a years retirement and utterly overwhelm a fighter that’s taller, heavier, and stronger than him was simply stunning.

Hardly anyone knew what to expect from Couture going into this fight, he had so many challenges stacked against him. But challenges can be overcome with a good fight plan and that’s exactly what Randy did. Tim even said afterwards that Randy had kept him guessing the whole fight.

The most prominent feature of the fight was Couture’s ability to land strikes at will on Sylvia. Randy also successfully employed a bob and weave upper body movement to keep Sylvia’s big hands off his face.

The striking, effective ground and pound and a smart fight plan employed by Couture is what won him this fight. That fight will have to go down as the greatest UFC fight of 2007 and certainly one of the top matches of all time.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

EliteXC Xtreme Combat premiers tonight on Showtime

A new MMA organization will have it’s first televised event tonight at 10pm est. on the Showtime cable network. The headlining fight on the card will be Frank Shamrock vs Renzo Gracie these rivals should bring a lot of exciting action in their bout tonight.

This evenings event will also feature a fight between 2 female combatants Julie Kedzie and Gina Carano. You wouldn’t think either of these hotties could be dangerous at first glance but have no doubt these ladies are all business and they do kick ass! I'm looking forward to this matchup.

EliteXC is also doing some cool stuff in terms of fan interaction with their events. You can stream the undercard bouts live on ProElite.com which I am watching now. EliteXC is an organization I’ll be watching every chance I get.

Mike (MMA Fanatic)