Kang Looking To Deliver A Dream Knockout
(mmaweekly.com)Denis Kang returns to fighting after a six-month lay off to take on Gegard Mousasi in the first round of the Dream Middleweight Grand Prix. Kang, the No. 4 ranked middleweight in the world, is going to attempt to rebound from his last fight in October where he was knocked out.
“I'm training my butt off,” said Kang in a recent interview with MMAWeekly. “I've been training since my last fight in October, because I was under the impression I was going to fight on the Dynamite show (on New Year’s Eve), so I never stopped training.”...
Not So Fast, DREAM Still Has Network TV Deal
(bloodyelbow.com)Or so says their American rep to ADCC News:
FEG-USA top dog Mike Kogan contacted Kid Peligro and ADCC News regarding the rumors that DREAM had lost its TBS contract. Mike stated: "We're still with TBS and still have primetime slots. HEROS had 4 prime time slots with TBS, DREAM replaced HEROS and we are planning 7 events (6 in Japan and 1 in Korea) plus Dynamite. It was impossible to get that many prime time slots so we decided that we would have the first event on prime time, the next on one week delay. We will have the two Grand Prix finals and Dynamite on Prime time."
The rumors started recently when DREAM 2 was not scheduled for a primetime slot but rather pay-per-view, Mike explained: "Pay-per-view is a growing market in Japan and this actually is an additional revenue stream for us. I don't know where these people get these rumors but this was all negotiated last year so nothing has changed."
Mark Hunt Interview
(roguemag.com)
Won't let me copy and paste anything from the site. Good interview with some pretty nice details on what Dreams planning for it's heavy weight div.
HEAD OF THE CLASS: ASU WRESTLERS TAKE ON MMA
(mmaweekly.com)"Wrestlers have always had a special place in the world of mixed martial arts. One particular group of wrestlers from Arizona State University have made a mark lately, positioning themselves as the new breed of athletes competing in MMA.
While Arizona State has always been a top school for collegiate wrestling, it has also produced many top MMA fighters including Dan Severn, Dan Henderson, and Don Frye. Now, a new group of grapplers from Arizona State has proven the team still knows how to produce great fighters.
C.B. Dollaway, Ryan Bader, and Cain Velasquez were all a part of the Arizona State wrestling team. Recently, all three have made successful transitions into MMA..."
...
Gesias (JZ) complains partiality at DREAM
(tatame.com)
The polemical fight between Gesias Cavalcanti and the Japanese fighter Shinya Aoki at DREAM’s lightweight GP seems to have no end. After Aoki’s complaining about an elbow blow at his back of the head and the organization define another date for the fight, it’s time to Gesias complain about some partiality at DREAM’s GP. The next fight will happen at the Saitama Super Arena at April 29th, and the Brazilian fighter said that the organization is giving advantage for some athletes. “My fight was No Contest and the correct by the event rules was that I win, but now I’ll have to fight two times in two weeks”, said Gesias that complained about some advantages to other fighters.
“I’m not unsatisfied, but I think it’s a disrespect an event that is starting now with a 16 athlete tournament, but on the first stage only has 14. An athlete is on the second stage without passing trough the first fight, if I’m not wrong it’s Caol Uno, they didn’t announced that. I’m Hero’s champion and I’m asking for any privileges, I’m only asking for a fair game”, said the Gesias.
At last, Clementi gets his just due
(ufc.com)
No cuts on the face, check. No broken bones, check. Legs 100%, check.
Rich Clementi’s ready to go.
young guns in Sam Stout at UFC 83 on April 19th? When the call came for him to replace injured Rob Emerson against Terry Etim on May 24th in Las Vegas, Clementi didn’t hesitate to accept the bout, not when he’s in the groove he’s experiencing right now.
“From September to December of last year, I fought four times,” said Clementi, who won all four of those bouts, either by submission or TKO. “When I get in that groove and things start clicking and working right, that’s when I perform best.”
TKO signs Mark Hominic
(tkomma.tv)
Great news for Canadian MMA fans today as TKO announces the resigning of the greatest champion in the history of the organization, Mark Hominick for a long term deal! Hominick began his career in TKO and has fought a total of 15 times for the company. He is a two time TKO Featherweight Champion and has succesfully defended his title seven times - Hominick was involved in a total of 10 TKO championship bouts! "The Machine" also fought twice in the UFC, winning on both occasions.
UFC 85 To Be Aired On SpikeTV As Well as PPV
(mmanews.com)
"The UFC has announced that the June 7th UFC 86 card from London, England will now be a free TV event with Chuck Liddell pulling out from the card. The new main event sees Light Heavyweights Rashad Evans and James Irvin collide. This is the smartest move possible by the company as this show would have been lost on PPV being sandwiched between the May 24th card and the July 5th event with Quinton Jackson Vs Forrest Griffin. Do you realize this means there will be 4 UFC shows in a span of 6-weeks with UFC 84, 85, 86 and a TUF 7 finale?"
So the show airing live on PPV in the afternoon is safe to assume and then it will air on tape delay on Spike TV. Nice
James Irvin: Rashad Evans taking a ’step down’ at UFC 85
(mmamania.com)“I’m just so happy that he would even take the fight against me. I consider him an ‘A’ level fighter, and I consider myself a ‘C’ level fighter, maybe a ‘B’ level because I just beat Houston trying to claw my way up to the top. So for him to take a step down and fight me, I’m greatly appreciative of the guy, who is someone I look up to as one of those top tier fighters.”
James Irvin comments on his upcoming fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 85 in London, England on June 7, which was all made possible because of an injury to former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell. “The Sandman” sounds surprised (and excited) that Evans accepted the bout because, as he puts it, the two are on different levels right now.
Full interview
185 gets even stronger....
(fighters.com)
“The Serial Killer” Travis Lutter (9-5) announced on his MySpace blog this afternoon that his agent informed him yesterday he had been released from his UFC contract due to two consecutive losses.
Last week in Montréal Lutter was TKO’d on strikes by Fighters.com’s second-ranked middleweight “Ace” Rich Franklin (23-3).
In February 2007, Lutter tapped out amidst furious elbows launched by Fighters.com’s first-ranked middleweight “Spider” Anderson Silva (21-4).
Lutter weighed-in eight pounds overweight for his title shot versus Silva, which he won as a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback.
Travis Lutter cut from the UFC
(mmajunkie.com)UFC middleweight and "The Ultimate Fighter 4" winner Travis Lutter, who most recently suffered a second-round TKO to Rich Franklin at UFC 83, has been released from the UFC.
Lutter contacted fightticker.com with the news.
The cut is the latest from the UFC, which has been trimming its roster of fighters in recent months. As MMAjunkie.com previously reported, one of the highest-profile cases included Jake O'Brien earlier this month.
Carlos Condit signs WEC contract extension
(mmajunkie.com)World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight title-holder Carlos Condit (22-4), one of the few world top-10 170-pounders not fighting in the UFC, has signed a contract extension with the WEC.
The news comes from USATODAY.com.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed, though Condit confirmed that he had just one fight remaining on his previous deal.
Condit (22-4), who joined the WEC after fighting for organizations such as Rumble on the Rock and Pancrase, defeated John Alessio for the title at WEC 26 in March 2007. He's since made two successful title defenses -- against Brock Larson at WEC 29 and Carlo Prater at WEC 32.
He's now won seven straight fights, and none of his 22 victories have gone to decision.
Condit, who's been vocal about wanting to unify the WEC and UFC titles, has not been scheduled for his next fight.
Anyone live near Denver.....
(martialartsradio.com)Saturday May10, 2008 the 50th installment of the Kick Down
The Denver, Colorado based Kick Down fight promotion will celebrate it's 50th event since it's inception in February of 2002. 13 bouts
Front Row $50.00 2nd, 3rd, 4th Rows $35.00 Gen Admission $25.00
Seven Added to Complete IFL Mohegan Sun Card on May 16
(ifl.tv)
The added fighters include two – Danillo Villefort (Pompano Beach, Fla.) and Josh Souder (Mason, Ohio) who competed at IFL Draft events last September. Also added is Jim Miller (Sparta, N.J.), who is coming off an impressive victory in his IFL debut at the Izod Center in E. Rutherford, N.J. earlier this month.
Also newly named to the card are Lamont Lister (Philadelphia), Joey Guel (Olympia, Wash.), Fabricio Camoes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Nick Calandrino (Emerson, N.J.). The bouts involving the added athletes include:
Lister vs. Aaron Stark (Portland, Ore.), 205 lbs.
Calandrino vs. John Howard (Boston), 170 lbs.
Souder vs. Zac George (Norman, Okla.), 155 lbs.
Guel vs. Matt Horwich (Portland, Ore.), 185 lbs.
Camoes vs. Miller, 155 lbs.
Villefort vs. Mike Massenzio (Paterson, N.J.), 185 lbs.
As previously announced, three IFL Champions will put their respective titles on the line to headline the card
New Reality Series: "Fighting Fedor"
(mmaweekly.com)
The show, titled “Fighting Fedor,” will reportedly bring 16 heavyweight fighters from around the world to Saint Petersburg, Russia. According the M-1, “During the show, they’ll live and train in (the Red Devil sports club).”
Not coincidentally, the owners of M-1 also guide Emelianenko’s career and operate the Red Devil sports club and fight team, of which Emelianenko is a part of.
The fighters will “once in a while … be joined by well-known fighters to hold master-classes and training,” according to the report on the Mix-Fight M-1 website.
The fighters will compete against one another until only one remains. That fighter will then get an opportunity to face Emelianenko, currently ranked as the No. 1 heavyweight fighter in the world.
No details as to the time frame of the show, its casting, where it will be available for viewing, or when or where the bout with Emelianenko will take place was forthcoming in the announcement.
NABC Sues Mark Cuban’s HDNet For Theft
(fightopinion.com)
HDNet cable channel, should cease operations immediately because it was born out of a breach of trust, misappropriation of trade secrets, and other harmful actions on the part of HDNet, the North American Boxing Council (NABC) said in a lawsuit filed March 17th in the Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The eight count suit seeks to restore the rights ofthe NABC to its proprietary business and marketin gmodel for a unifying mixed martial arts organization, and to recover damages for the ongoing illegal torts committed by HDNet.
The complaint states the NABC’s confidential proposal for a unifying mixed martial arts organization was made to HDNet in January 2007. In response to the proposal, HDNet taped two NABC mixed martial arts TV events in Indianapolis in May 2007. HDNet began broadcasting the NABC mixed martial arts events in June 2007 and subsequently placed the events inregular rotation on the HDNet schedule. In August 2007, HDNet advised the NABC it had rejected the NABC’s proposal. However, that same month, HDNet secretly incorporated its own mixed martial arts organization, “HDNet Fights Inc”. HDNet proceeded to introduce “HDNet Fights” to the public beginning with press statements in September 2007 as a unique unifying mixed martial arts organization falsely representing it as the original product of HDNet.
The suit seeks to recover damages as determined by ajury trial.
BJJ Credentials in MMA
(onthemat.com)
But the Jiu Jitsu community in many ways is still a relatively small one and a close knit one. Through the grapevine among grapplers, there is a relatively honest and blunt assessment of skill among peers, and OntheMat has been at the forefront for over a decade now. So as a guideline to those who are introduced to these fighters through television, or for those of you who want to brush up on their knowledge, we’ve going through our archives and done some research to give you more of a grappler’s perspective on the “expert” status of many of the names you are now hearing about (unless you’ve been on OTM the whole time, in which case, many of these names you’ve heard about for years). We plan to make this a regular feature on OntheMat.com, and we will begin be looking over UFC 83 card, which in terms of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu credentials, competition record and if those BJJ skills have actually translated into success in the cage.
Cesar Gracie Interview
(graciefighter.com)Cesar Gracie
MMAYOU.com: Thank you Cesar for talking to us at MMAYOU.COM.
MMAYOU.com: Would you like to rematch Frank Shamrock? If you did fight again, what would be your strategy?
Cesar: I think every fighter would want to get another crack at a fight he lost. Get it to the ground and don't strike with a striker.
MMAYOU.com: The Machado brothers were your BJJ teachers for a time. What influence did they have on your game?
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