Page 978 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

ProElite.com (SamCaplan.ProElite.com) has confirmed through Strikeforce Vice President Mike Afromowitz that BodogFIGHT lightweight competitor Jorge Masvidal is under consideration to receive a shot at the promotion’s lightweight title currently held by Gilbert Melendez on March 29 in San Jose at the HP Pavilion. I have been hearing rumors that this fight is taking place on the March 29th card for the last few days, and now that this is announced I am fairly certain it will.

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Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - Unbeaten UFC newcomer Rob Yundt (6-0) has stepped in on short notice to replace middleweight up and comer Alan Belcher against Ricardo Almeida on Saturday night's UFC 81 card in Las Vegas. Belcher was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a severe case of bronchitis. Their is no article about it. It is on the front page.

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Earlier this month the Nevada State Athletic Commission issued a memo detailing new drug-testing procedures — procedures that could have a major impact on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by MMA fighters. Keith Kizer is the executive director of the NSAC, which is generally considered the most powerful state athletic commission in all of combat sports. His memo sent a very clear message: MMA fighters are subject to drug testing at any time — for just about any reason — throughout the year, regardless of whether or not the fighter is scheduled for an upcoming event. Basically, testing is now done year-round, and a missed test is treated as a failed test.

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A Feb. 22 Maximum Fighting Championship event headlined by Pete Spratt (17-10 MMA, 3-4 UFC) and Ryan Ford (4-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will be broadcast live on HDNet, the high-definition cable station today announced. The event takes place at River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton. The show will be one of four MFC events that HDNet will air in 2008. “This partnership with MFC helps to expand HDNet Fights outside the U.S., and to bring new fighters into the fold,” Andrew Simon, CEO of HDNet Fights, stated in today’s release. “We’re looking forward to traveling to Canada to bring our viewers this exciting event.“ Three cheers for more live MMA!

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Xyience has been a ubiquitous presence during the UFC breakout that began in 2005. Whether in the center of the Octagon, on fighter's trunks, in television commercials or on cans during post-fight interviews, the supplement maker was everywhere the UFC went.

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It's fairly safe to assume that former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir has never fought anybody as strong as Brock Lesnar. He's probably never trained with someone of that ilk either. Mir has also never found himself in this situation: If he wins, it's no big deal, and if he loses, he could be letting down the entire MMA universe. Without question, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner is marred in a precarious position whether he wants to admit it or not.

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UFC co-founder Bob Meyrowitz announced Tuesday a new mixed martial arts league called YAMMA Pit Fighting. As CEO of Semaphore Entertainment Group, Meyrowitz produced UFC events from 1993 through 2000. Now he has formed a company, Rope Partners, that plans on reviving the tournament format and using a new fighting surface, known as "The YAMMA."

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Evangelista Santos, better known as "Cyborg," has a tough fight on Friday against Gegard Mousasi at the Hardcore Championship Fighting event in Calgary, Canada. After that bout, the Chute Boxe athlete will fight twice in March and has eight fights total already scheduled. Sherdog.com recently caught up with "Cyborg" to discuss his busy schedule.

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The International Fighting Championship has teamed with Ice Cube and DJ Pooh to launch a 24-hour, seven-day a week mixed martial arts channel on Cube's Internet television network, UVNTV.com. According to an announcement released Tuesday, My MMA Network will be the exclusive MMA channel on UVNTV, which currently hosts "about 12 channels while in beta mode," including channels for Snoop Dogg and P Diddy.

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Brock Brock Brock. Brock Brock. Brock. Enough Brock Lesnar for you? No? OK, I thought that might be enough, but somehow it seems like everybody is very interested in this guy. Hell, so am I.

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Although we will not release any fight results from the show (we never post fight spoilers), we will reveal a fairly significant change in the way this season works. According to a source close to the show, “The Ultimate Fighter 7” will start with 32 cast members — not the usual 16 — and every one of them will have to fight as soon as the show begins. The 16 winners earn a spot in the house, and the 16 losers are sent packing for home. The likely format change should be warmly received by critics of the show who complain that the series focuses more on the drama and in-house antics than it does training and the actual fights. Additionally, many of the show’s weaker cast members will likely be eliminated before they’re even technically a part of the cast, assuring that only the cream of the crop are in the house for the duration of the show Unfortunately, we have no information on how the initial match-ups might be determined

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Keeping with the Canadian flavor of UFC 83, Kalib Starnes (8-2-1) — a product of Surrey, British Columbia — will take on Nate Quarry (9-2) at the Bell Centre in Montreal on April 19, according to a report picked up by MMAonTap.com. Good fight imo.

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Josh Hall and Jesse Taylor, 2 fighters from Team Quest, have been confirmed as participants on The Ultimate Fighter 7. This brings the total list of confirmed fighters up to 14 as of 1/30/08.

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Brazilian fighter Rousimar Palhares (7-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will make his UFC debut vs. Ivan Salaverry (12-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at a May 24 event in Las Vegas. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the fight with Salaverry’s camp, which received the fight offer just this afternoon. However, the fight was first reported by Sherdog.com, which mentioned the fighter’s likely signing last week.

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Winning an Ultimate Fighting Championship title could be considered the greatest achievement for any fighter, but for Frank Mir, working his way back to the top of the heavyweight ladder could eventually be seen as his greatest achievement after a motorcycle accident almost sidelined his career altogether. The former champion will hope to put his name back into contender’s status when he faces former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar on Saturday night at UFC 81. With Lesnar set to make his UFC debut, the majority of the attention on the upcoming fight seems to lie primarily on the former WWE wrestler, but Mir understands the importance of a fight of this magnitude, which played into why he accepted the fight against Lesnar in the first place.

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Multiple sources are indicating that UFC 83 — which was originally supposed to go down on March 8 in Newcastle, England — has been scrapped altogether and the UFC 84 event booked for April 19 in Montreal, Canada, will now be referred to as UFC 83.

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A Houston Alexander (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) vs. James Irvin (13-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) fight originally expected to take place at a March 8 event in England has instead been added to the UFC Fight Night 13 televised card; additionally, a lightweight battle between Clay Guida (22-9 MMA, 2-3 UFC) and UFC newcomer Samy Schiavo (10-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will also take place at the event.

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Bob Meyrowitz, the founder of the world-famous Ultimate Fighting Championship, is starting a new fight league called YAMMA Pit Fighting (YPF) that will focus on tournament-style events, the organization today announced. The first event, which airs on pay-per-view, will takes place April 11 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. Tournaments require winning fighters to compete at least twice per night. The format was popular in the early days of the UFC but eventually fizzled out due to fighter safety and pressure from state athletic commissions. However, back in November, Strikeforce held the first-ever tournament sanctioned in California and promised future ones in 2008 Tournament idea sounds great, a moving surface sounds way too gimmicy, hope they don't go that way. If they did it would ruin the legitimacy of the promotion, for me anyway.

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http://mmajunkie.com/2008/01/29/quinton-jacksons-buddy-david-roberts-picked-for-the-ultimate-fighter-7/ The man who introduced Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to the world of mixed martial arts could now find himself being coached by the UFC light heavyweight champion. Nearly nine years after he first debuted with the UFC, David Roberts (5-7 MMA, 0-1 UFC) will make a return to the organization — this time as a cast member for “The Ultimate Fighter 7.“ A source close to the fighter told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Roberts was offered a spot on the cast and recently headed to Las Vegas to tape the upcoming season.

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According to Jake O'Brien's camp, the agreement for a fight with Andrei Arlovski at UFC 82 has been signed and thus the fight is now official. This likely will be AA's last UFC fight as it's the last of his contract.

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