Page 508 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

Those MMA fans that saw Bellator lightweight Toby Imada (22-13) submit Jorge Masvidal (19-4) via inverted triangle choke knew immediately that they had witnessed 2009's "Submission of the Year." That belief was substantiated when Imada's slick finish earned that exact title at this past week's Fighters Only 2009 MMA Awards in Las Vegas. Now those that weren't lucky enough to see the exciting, three-round contest the first time will get a chance to see the two hook up again.

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Therefore, the Internet pundits and unlicensed medical experts who continue to state, imply and/or insinuate that Brock Lesnar's serious GI condition is related to past or ongoing anabolic steroid use are both reckless and stating unsubstantiated information as fact.

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The fight between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort is in works to take place at UFC 112, on April 10, at Abu Dhabi. Carlos Santos, leader of Emirates Team, revealed to TATAME.com that both fighters called him to train at his training center in Abu Dhabi in the days before the fight. This will be the first UFC event in Abu Dhabi, and will also have the UFC debut of the legend Renzo Gracie, against the five times welterweight champion Matt Hughes.

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When UFC light heavyweight Steve Cantwell was forced to withdraw from a UFC 108 bout in Las Vegas with Vladimir Matyushenko, most MMA observers simply chalked up the loss as another victim of the "curse" that plagued the card.But when UFC president Dana White said Cantwell was in danger of never fighting again, the concerns for "The Robot's" future quickly grew.

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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans talks about the close call he had in the third round against the dangerous Thiago Silva in the main event of UFC 108 back on Jan. 2. "Suga" almost dissolved in the third round after getting rocked by the Brazilian; however, Silva was either too gassed or too tentative to seal the deal, allowing the former TUF champion to recover and take home the unanimous decision win.Was the performance enough to convince you he'll be the better man in his eventual grudge match against "Rampage" Jackson? Or will the fighter currently known as BA Baracus send him back to the Spike TV fight nights?

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Despite several unsubstantiated reports stating otherwise, a rumored match-up between former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin and former number one UFC middleweight contender Patrick Cote at UFC 113 (May 1st, Montreal) is not happening according to both Franklin’s longtime manager Monte Cox and “The Predator."

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UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn expects his next bout to take place in April at a currently unannounced (but close to finalized) UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. However, in a short video bjpenn.com today released by the fighter, Penn said no opponent has been determined, and nothing has been signed. Penn most recently headlined UFC 107 in December and dominated top 155-pound contender Diego Sanchez with a fifth-round TKO victory in the Tennessee event's headline fight. Penn, arguably the world's top lightweight fighter and one of the sport's top pound-for-pound greats, will most likely fight either Frankie Edgar or fellow contender Gray Maynard (who headlines next week's UFC Fight Night 20 event againt Nate Diaz) in his next title defense. Although he's bounced between weight classes in recent years, his next fight should be at 155 pounds.

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With Strikeforce's first event of 2010 a little more than three weeks away, the fight card is nearing completion. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed with promotion officials the addition of three preliminary card matchups to the Jan. 30 "Strikeforce: Miami" event. And with Showtime committed to broadcasting five main-card matchups, a pair of high-profile fighters will likely be left off of the evening's premium cable broadcast – though it will not necessarily go unseen. The three official additions to the card include Pablo Alfonso vs. Marcos da Matta, Sabah Homasi vs. John Kelly, and David Gomez vs. Craig Oxley. Strikeforce is expected to add at least one more preliminary matchup to the card, bringing the total guaranteed bouts to a minimum of 10.

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Vancouver, B.C., get ready. The UFC is coming to town this summer. A well-placed UFC source told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the promotion has penciled in June 12 as the date for an event at the 19,000-seat GM Place. Back in December, the promotion cleared a legislative hurdle in holding an event within the city limits of the 2010 Winter Olympic host site; the Vancouver city council agreed to sanction events as part of a two-year pilot program.

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Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz confirmed the bout, and several others, to MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday.MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday reported former EliteXC champion Robbie Lawler would step in to face Melvin Manhoef on the Jan. 30 Showtime telecast. Afromowitz on Tuesday also made that bout official.

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I'm happy to fight again with (Machida), not because I think I won the first match but to have a new opportunity to fight for the belt. My big dream is to win the belt, so I want that fight again because it is a fight for the belt ... I can’t change a lot of my game because I’ve fought this way for 10 years, so I cannot totally change my game just because of Machida. Thank God I could annul his game, but unfortunately I could not win the belt. Now I have a new battle ahead, and I will make a new strategy.

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For starters, there's the production value you hear so much about. In Japan, they don't just introduce a guy and play whatever Tupac song he's chosen for his entrance music; they make a true multimedia presentation out of it. Perhaps no one made better use of this than Akihiro Gono, who, as we already know, loves to make an entrance. His walk-out this time was like a mini-concert, which is fitting since Dynamite's main ratings competition on Japanese TV is something called "The Red White Song Battle," -- essentially a free concert featuring famous musicians, couched as a competition between an all-male and all-female team of singers.

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Georges St. Pierre is not impressed with the way the media has reported his comments on potentially representing Canada in wrestling at the 2012 Olympics. The French-Canadian feels he has been misinterpreted after talking about the kind of preparations he would have to make. Randy Couture told the Las Vegas Sun that he “talked to him at length at an appearance this weekend and he's a little frustrated with the media, frankly, He said that they are blowing this whole thing out of proportion.

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UFC president Dana White’s stance on former UFC light heavyweight titleholder Chuck Liddell fighting again hasn’t changed. He still does not want to see his longtime friend competing in the Octagon again. “The thing that everyone loves about Chuck Liddell was he’s a fighter. That guys loves to fight. And when you’re walking out in that arena and 16,000 people are going crazy and yelling your name and (expletive), it’s hard to walk away from. I get it, but you know, he doesn’t have to do it anymore. He doesn’t,” said White to the media following UFC 108 on Jan. 2. Liddell will fight again despite White’s opposition, being named a coach on the eleventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” pitted against his arch nemesis Tito Ortiz. But White would rather provide a position within the organization for Liddell that doesn’t entail fighting.

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He may be the most underrated Top 10 featherweight in the sport right now, but Raphael Assuncao knows that everything he's done up till now has earned him the shot against Urijah Faber this Sunday night at WEC 46: Varner vs. Henderson in Sacramento, Calif. He also knows with one more win he will get a shot against champion Jose Aldo and the WEC 145-pound divisional title. Going 2-0 since making his move to the WEC, Assuncao has finally gotten the big fight he was gunning for since moving to the promotion. It's an opportunity he doesn't intend on wasting.

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Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day and two birthdays – UFC lightweight Evan Dunham trained through them all for his co-main-event fight against "The Ultimate Fighter" season-eight winner Efrain Escudero at Monday's UFC Fight Night 20 event in Fairfax, Va. He's given up a lot but said it's a small price to pay for victory. Training and personal time are the same thing.

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While former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva has Michael Bisping set in his sights for the time being, “The Axe Murderer” has already began to think about the future, and apparently current middleweight champion Anderson Silva has no part in it.

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"I just went straight back to it -- I didn't even take time off. I've felt worse before after losses -- I've gone into a depression before after losses. It's part of the game. I don't want to lose but I lost to a tough guy and I've just got to re-calculate things, figure out where my mistakes were and come back stronger. I know what went wrong. I changed my training a little bit. I changed my pace trying to be ready for five rounds, training more like a long-distance runner, and I sacrificed some of my power. I need to get back to becoming the kind of fighter who can beat someone in the first two minutes of the fight. I need to just go berserk."

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Well that didn't take very long. After UFC President Dana White vowed to make life miserable for the chiselers who stream illegal feeds of live UFC programming, the Boston Herald reports that the Zuffa legal team may have bagged their first casualty in the war on pirates. Zuffa is suing "The Draft" and its owner, Derek Brady, for reportedly allowing a patron to connect a laptop illegally streaming UFC 104 to one of the establishment's television sets for all the customers to enjoy. Bars and restaurants are typicaly required to purchase UFC events through an approved closed-circuit provider (for UFC events that's usually Joe Hand Promotions) and can pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for an event, depending on the circumstances. They didn't pay on Oct. 24, but they may pay in court -- to the tune of $640,000 plus legal fees if found guilty.

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"…That’s one thing I don’t like about the WEC, they put all their marquee dollars into Urijah Faber, so when Urijah lost his world title to Mike Brown, it’s like who is Mike Brown? And then I’m fighting the main event for this fight coming up, and you would have no idea that I’m the main event in Sacramento, cause all we’re doing is pumping up Urijah Faber. And the fight in San Diego, all they’re doing is pumping up Urijah Faber."

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