Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

His injury’s not good. He can barely bend over and tie his shoe. He tore his leg real bad. It’s pretty nasty…. I know the doctor told him to kind of play it by ear. It’s one of those things that can heal in six days, or it could heal in 16 weeks. The doctor doesn’t really know. It depends on how fast Chuck can recover.” – UFC President Dana White talks with FOXSports.com about the hamstring injury that Chuck Liddell recently sustained training for his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 85: “Bedlam” in London, England, on June 7. He had to withdraw from the fight and there is no timetable for the return of the 39-year-old former light heavyweight champion. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua — who is also recovering from an injury — has encouraged “Iceman” to wait until he is 100 percent so the two can lock horns once and for all sometime in late 2008.

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Just a quick interview with Whitehead. Looks like hes a cool guy and I can't wait to see him and Babalu go at it!

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When Mark Cuban announced his intentions of promoting mixed martial arts, many people were excited about the possibilities the billionaire could bring to the sport. Since the formation of HDNet Fights last year, the Dallas based organization has held two events. It's been five months since they've put on a show, but HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon told MMAWeekly they plan on putting together "super-fights" in the future. HDNet started airing MMA with World Extreme Cagefighting, but has expanded their coverage to showing several regional events from around the country as well as Japanese promotions. "We have the ability to partner with pretty much any organization out there," said Simon. "And when the timing is right, you're going to see us promote again some super-fights." "We're going to be pretty opportunistic when we want to promote ourselves. We're in a little bit of a different position than everyone else. We have our own television network. We have our own arena in Dallas with the American Airlines Center, and we're not into it to just put on fights every month ourselves just because. I think you're going to see when we come back it will be a pretty big fight."

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Gilbert Melendez is feeling great and is ready to take the American lightweight scene by storm. After years of primarily fighting in Japan, “Ill Nino” is on the verge of his biggest showdown stateside, as he defends his Strikeforce title against top 155-pound contender Josh Thomson. The fight is the main event of the promotion’s June 27 fight card taking place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

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Las Vegas, NV (USA) – In yet another historic moment in the quest to conquer new territory and bring the best of mixed martial arts to fans around the globe, the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) organization today announced the first-ever UFC event to take place in Minnesota. In the main event, Brock Lesnar, fighting out of his hometown of Minneapolis, will return to the Octagon™ to face UFC Hall of Famer and former PRIDE® superstar Mark "The Hammer" Coleman, and in what many are calling the best lightweight fight of 2008, Kenny "KenFlo" Florian will square off against Roger "El Matador" Huerta in a battle that will move the winner one step closer to a 155-pound title shot. The Ultimate Fighting Championship will present UFC 87: SEEK AND DESTROY, featuring Lesnar vs. Coleman and Florian vs. Huerta, live from Target Center in Minneapolis Saturday, August 9, 2008. Im sure that'll piss off the purists that Brock on his second fight in the UFC and he's headlining especially after losing to Mir in his debut. I understand its down to the marketability of Lesnar, but surely Florian/Huerta is the true headline event for this card???

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It’s hardly a stretch to suggest that Kimbo Slice is the Mike Tyson of the 21st century. Tyson became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s with his intimidating visage, powerful punches and almost weekly appearances on ESPN. Slice shares the same intimidating look and powerful punching, but his vehicle to stardom was the Internet video-sharing site, YouTube. And while Slice struggles to be taken seriously as a mixed martial artist, calls are increasing for the pulverizing punchers of past and present to meet in a cage. Slice’s promoter, Gary Shaw, said he’s not encouraging such talk, given that Tyson is retired and hasn’t fought in three years. But Shaw said he owes it to Slice to consider the bout if Tyson, who appears to weigh nearly 300 pounds and hasn’t had a win in more than five years, would agree to it. “Call it a freak show or a circus or whatever you want, but it would be the most-watched pay-per-view event ever,” Shaw said. There’s little doubt of Slice’s importance to Elite XC, the mixed martial arts promotional company that Shaw runs.

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by MMAjunkie.com Staff on May 17, 2008 at 2:07 pm ET Sure, it may be a pipe dream -- the type of fantasy match-up that mixed-martial-arts fans can only dream about. So, when we posted our latest MMAjunkie.com/"Inside MMA" poll -- "Should the UFC allow a fight between Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva?" -- we were bracing for some of the most lopsided results in our polling history. Sure enough, the results were lopsided. But not in the manner we expected. Tens of thousands of votes were cast for the poll, and surprisingly, most of them were against the bout and didn't want to see the UFC's middleweight title-holder meet the UFC's welterweight champ. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the voters -- 72 percent -- don't think the UFC should schedule the St. Pierre-Silva fight, and only 28 percent were in favor of it. "I guess they don't want to see either one lose," host Kenny Rice concluded. The results baffled panelists Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge and Martin de Jong, as well. Granted, they didn't necessarily think the fight should be scheduled either -- but they assumed the MMA enthusiasts would want it. Give 'em credit them, though. The fans know that some things are better left to the imagination. WHAT DOES THE PLAYGROUND THINK?

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I've argued for a while that Fedor's previous failure to draw on PPV had to do with the lack of effective marketing around him and not with any inherent resistence to Fedor on the part of American MMA fans. I refuse to believe that the archetype Fedor represents -- the implacable, seemingly unfeeling, and virtually invincible Russian -- isn't still planted deeply in the American psyche.

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Dave Meltzer from Yahoo!Sports.com breaks it down as Tito Ortiz possibly heads into his last fight inside the Octagon against Lyoto Machida at UFC 84: “Ill Will” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 24: “Ortiz has had more fights (21) in the Octagon than any man in history. He was the longest-reigning champion in company history, a three-and-a-half year run as light heavyweight champion from 2000-03.

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As MMA's May 31 network-television debut draws closer, CBS has focused the entirety of its marketing campaign on Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. But the bout that most hardcore MMA fans are anticipating is the EliteXC middleweight title fight between champion "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler (15-4) and Scott Smith (13-4).

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Wanderlei Silva has predicted a ‘fast knock-out’ when he attempts to shatter Keith Jardine’s title dreams at “UFC 84: ILL WILL”. “The Axe Murderer” is box office, win or lose, as he proved against Chuck Liddell in his last fight – arguably the greatest collision ever witnessed in The UFC (Good, but i'm not too sure that's accurate).

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As one of the top prospects in mixed martial arts’ most high-profile division, light heavyweight Matt Hamill has proven that being deaf isn’t a handicap, but instead, a mere obstacle to be overcome on the way to bigger and better things.

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The sports landscape in Seattle, Washington has drastically changed over the past few months. First, reports surfaced that the city’s professional basketball franchise was considering a move to Oklahoma City. In search of a new arena for Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant and the Sonics, the owners of Seattle’s NBA franchise decided that the coastal port city could no longer harbor basketball hardwood.

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At a time when boxing can't find a heavyweight coordinated enough to step between the ropes without tripping, mixed martial arts is overrun with quality heavyweights.

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Dear CanadianMMA Fan, The following is an important letter we recently sent to the Ministry of Health Promotion (MHP) of Ontario. As you may already be aware, our application for Amateur MMA is currently under review by the MHP. The purpose of the letter below is to further emphasize the safety of our proposed Amateur MMA rules. As always, stay tuned to www.canadianmma.com for the latest information about MMA happenings in Ontario, Canada. We very much appreciate your continued support and we believe that as painstaking as this process has been we will achieve our goals of legalizing MMA in Ontario. Also, be sure to tune to Global TV tomorrow night, Saturday, May 17 at 7pm to watch a new documentary called "The Real Fight Club" which touches upon some of the legalization issues surrounding MMA in Ontario.

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Here’s an excerpt from the recent UFC 84: “Ill Will” pre-fight press conference call during which BJ Penn questions (antagonizes is perhaps a better word) Sean Sherk directly about his use of steroids: You guys should defiantly listen to this!

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett is getting ready to take on his former training partner and friend Jeff Monson on Sunday. World Victory Road will be staging its second event at Sengoku II in Tokyo. Barnett recently explained his preparation for his fight with Monson. “Things are going pretty well,” said the Babyface Assassin. “Here I am taking another fight. Not real close from the last one, as far as time goes, but it's pretty quickly. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I just pro wrestled recently. I'm in good shape. It's just right.” In WVR’s first event, Sengoku, Barnett defeated Hidehiko Yoshida via heel hook. That fight was Barnett’s first fight in more than a year, so he naturally had some criticism about his performance. “I know there were things I could have been sharper at. Some of that had to do with the availability of sparring partners and what kind of workouts I was getting in prior.” Most Americans prefer to fight in their native land; however, fighting in Japan does not bother Josh Barnett one bit. “I love working in Japan,” he commented in a recent interview on MMAWeekly Radio. “For me, it's like being at home. It's no big deal for me to go out there.” One of the biggest reasons Barnett enjoys fighting in Japan is because of the differences in the rules as opposed to rules imposed in the United States. “You can't soccer kick, stomp or knee someone in America. They won't let you wear shoes anymore. If you want to go and fight under the more dynamic rule set, then you have to go out to Japan to get it done. I really like to have the freedom in the ring to do the techniques and kinds of things that are available to you as a martial artist.”

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EliteXC President Gary Shaw made it clear Thursday that he would like to bring former UFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz into EliteXC. "I think I can reincarnate Ortiz," said Shaw. "He is a talented fighter and has all the mechanisms that you need to make someone a superstar."

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‘The Legend’ Frank Shamrock recently took some time to talk with PDG about his recovery from arm surgery, his fight with Cung Le, the future of mixed martial arts and the extension of his career as a fighter. PDG: Let's start with your arm injury, how is the recovery coming? Frank: The arm is very good. I had a checkup yesterday and the doctors said that they will most likely remove the plate in about seven more weeks. If everything works out I will be back training again in 10 weeks.

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Josh Barnett takes on his former training partner Jeff Monson The origanal web link did not work sorry,but sounds like a personall fight. I did not know him and Monson trained together. This might belong in a different forum.

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