Page 1007 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

A three-hour, year-end special entitled “UFC: Best of 2007” airs Tuesday, Dec. 4th at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV. The special, which re-airs on Saturday, Dec. 15, features highlights from the 2007 fight season, as well as a handful of never-before-seen match-ups that took place on the undercards of Spike TV fight events.

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TOKYO, Nov. 27 -- Newly formed mixed martial arts promotional company World Victory Road Inc. officially announced its first show for the new event "Sengoku" will take place March 5, 2008 at the Yoyogi First National Gymnasium. Fighters who will be participating in the Sengoku show in March were in attendance. Among those were Hidehiko Yoshida, Sanae Kikuta, Makoto Takimoto, and Ryo Kawamura.

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The JJ and Judo blackbelt, Paulo Filho will travel December 8th to USA to make his first title defence against Chael Sonnen, at WEC 21, which will happen in Dec. 12th. In an exclusive interview for TATAME, Filho told us his preparation for the fight, and about his invitation to train Chuck Liddell for his fight with Wanderlei Silva. "I would never train an American to fight against a Brazilian. I am not a slut, or a prostitute" said the WEC champion. Translated from: Most know that Brazilians are verrry patriotic, surprised he said it like he did lol.

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In this video, you see Chuck Liddell starring in a Dell Computer commercial, trying to sell computers to parent looking for presents for their kids.

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The Japanese press is excited to have discovered who Fedor Emelianenko’s adversary will be at the M-1 Global event to take place in Japan in partnership with former Pride employees on December 31. The name to have surfaced this week is Hidehiko Yoshida. According to the Japanese site Sportsnavi, there is a good chance the judoka will be called up to face the Russian.

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Promising lightweights and former collegiate wrestlers Gray Maynard (3-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Matt Grice (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will likely square off at a UFC Fight Night 12 event that takes place Jan. 23. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first learned of the potential bout last week from a source close to Maynard. Additionally, while a recent guest on ESPN’s “Between Rounds” radio program, Maynard confirmed with show host Ken Gonzalez that the UFC planned for him to return at the upcoming event, though he didn’t mention an opponent. (ESPN’s “Between Rounds” is a content-partner site of MMAjunkie.com.) Calls to Grice were not immediately returned. If officially booked, the Maynard vs. Grice bout could end up on the televised UFC Fight Night 12 main card, which airs on Spike TV. Maynard, a Randy Couture-trained fighter who’s part of the Xtreme Couture team in Las Vegas, appeared on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The 28-year-old posted victories over Wayne Weems in a preliminary fight and Brandon Melendez in the show’s quarterfinals, but he was halted (via guillotine choke) in the quarterfinals by eventual show winner Nate Diaz. Maynard, who wrestled with Rashad Evans at Michigan State Univerity, was then scheduled to fight Rob Emerson at The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale in June, but the fight was ruled a no-contest when Maynard slammed his opponent to the mat. Emerson worsened a pre-existing rib injury and was forced to verbally submit, but Maynard temporarily knocked himself out in the process, prompting a ruling of a no-contest. Maynard, though, rebounded for an impressive nine-second KO of newcomer Joe Veres at UFC Fight Night 11 in September. Maynard’s next likely opponent, Grice, is a former University of Oklahoma wrestler who rebounded from a submission loss to Terry Etim at UFC 70 with a split-decision victory over Jason Black at UFC 77 last month. Grice’s collegiate wrestling career was cut short by injuries he suffered in a car accident prior to his freshman year of college. However, when his health improved, he gave professional MMA shot, and the 26-year-old has now lost just once in 10 pro fights. UFC Fight Night 12 also features bouts between Cole Miller and Jeremy Stephens, as well as Patrick Côté vs. Drew McFedries. Potential headliner Mike Swick is rumored to be fighting Josh Burkman at the event, though Burkman was being considered for an upcoming fight with a UFC newcomer earlier this month.

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UFC 79 on Dec. 29 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas took a huge hit when UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra was forced to pull out of his fight against Matt Hughes after injuring himself in training on Thanksgiving, but UFC president Dana White quickly bounced back by bringing in Georges St. Pierre to face Hughes for the interim title on Saturday.

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Listen to the entire conference call with Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes and Dana White talking about the fight at UFC 79. The call is pretty long and its broken into two parts. The first part is about 25 minutes and the second part is about 30 minutes.

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Corey Hill (1-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a promising skyscraper of a lightweight who appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter 5,” will make his long-awaited official UFC debut against Joe Veres (4-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 12. Veres’ agent, Ken Pavia, today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the fight had been offered to Veres and that bout agreements have been signed. UFC Fight Night 12 takes place Jan. 23 and airs on Spike TV. Hill, a 6-foot-4 155-pounder from Brooksville, Fla., appeared on the lightweights-only season of “The Ultimate Fighter” earlier this year. On the reality series, he admitted he lied about his past experience to get on the show. He had just one professional fight, though he told show producers he had a few more. Hill eventually defeated Rob Emerson in a preliminary bout but lost to Nate Diaz in the quarterfinals. Despite the 29-year-old’s inexperience, the MMA world has been abuzz about his potential — thanks largely to what is a 8- to 10-inch height advantage (and major reach advantage) over most of his fellow 155-pounders.

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MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) learned late last week that Dustin Hazelett (10-3) has been approached about taking a fight with Josh Koscheck (9-2) at UFC 82 at the Nationwide Arena on March 1 in Columbus, Ohio.

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Platinum Fighting Productions, Asia’s leading promoter of mixed martial arts events, has announced the final card for its “Ring of Fire” show on Sunday, Dec. 9 at Araneta Stadium in Manila, Philippines. Two teams of world-class fighters are coached by Gokor Chivichyan and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett. Team Barnett vs. Team Gokur Koji Oishi vs. Karen Darabdeyan Yuki Kondo vs. August Wallen Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Rodney Faverus Jeff Monson vs. Hakim Gouram Ginele Marquez vs. Amanda Buckner

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"I think my next fight is going to happen in January." Heavyweight Mirko Cro Cop speculates via his personal Web site that he will return sometime in January (no opponent was named). UFC 80: “Rapid Fire” — scheduled for January 19 in Newcastle, England — would appear to be the most likely event in which the Croatian would participate. That card, according to our UFC 80 fight card, is at eight bouts and is awaiting the final piece of the puzzle. This could be it.

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A UFC 79 fight between Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre — a fight booked late last week because Matt Serra was injured and unable to fight Hughes — came about for a simple reason: St. Pierre asked for it. In a story posted today on MMAjunkie.com’s content-partner site, Yahoo! Sports, Dave Meltzer reports that St. Pierre asked for the fight as soon as he heard of Serra’s herniated disc and subsequent withdrawal from the UFC 79 main event. BUT according to a new blog post on matt-hughes.com, Hughes states that he, in fact, requested the fight with St. Pierre — largely because he wanted to avoid their inevitable showdown from happening in St. Pierre’s native Canada.

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Mike Swick is in talks to make his long-awaited welterweight debut against Josh Burkman at UFC Fight Night 12 on January 23, according to MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) sources.

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Not sure if this has been posted yet. Just found it.

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After being KO'd in a recent fight, fighter Sammy Vazquez is in critical condition in a hospital and is fighting for his life. His current prognosis is not good. It seems that the inevitable first MMA-related death may be upon us, but hopefully he finds a way to pull through.

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November 24th, 2007 I’m going to fight Georges St. Pierre on December 29th. I’ve got a couple reasons why I’ve made this decision and I will share those at a later time. I’ve asked for this to be for an interim title and if Matt Serra can’t fight in a year, then this would just be the title fight; but I don’t know if that is going to happen right now. I will keep you all posted. -Matt go GSP !!!

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Spike TV’s UFC Fight Night 12 event set for Jan. 23 has two more rumored fights: “The Ultimate Fighter 5” cast member Matt Wiman (8-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) vs. UFC newcomer Justin Buchholz (7-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), and lightweights Kurt Pellegrino (10-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) vs. Alberto Crane (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC).

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Lightweight contender Kenny Florian reveals that he could possibly fight an opponent based on what happens in the next two weeks. Roger Huerta and Clay Guida will scrap during the main event at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6 Finale on December 8, which would set up a great 155-pound clash in 2008 (UFC 81 or UFC 82) and possibly determine a number one contender if the Sean Sherk situation continues to stall.

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The season five winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), Nate Diaz (7-2), will return to the Octagon against Alvin Robinson (9-2) at UFC Fight Night 12 on January 23. The Caesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu-trained Diaz is fresh off a submission win (guillotine) over Junior Assuncao at UFC Fight Night 11 in September. It was his first bout since defeating Manny Gamburyan at the TUF 5 Finale to become the 155-pound winner of the mixed martial arts reality series that airs on SpikeTV. Robinson bounced back from a punishing loss to Kenny Florian (verbal submission) in his Octagon debut at UFC 73: “Stacked” to beat Jorge Gurgel to a bloody pulp at UFC 77: “Hostile Territory” last month en route to a unanimous decision win. Both Diaz and Robinson are well known for their submission games; however, the edge on the ground would have to go to Diaz in this one — he’s very crafty. “The Kid,” on the other hand, is very strong and powerful.

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