Page 983 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

Champ B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk (for lightweight title) Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva evan vs thiago sounds fun

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Jaime Martinez: Are there any plans to fight in the U.S.? If so, with whom are you talking and when would that be scheduled? Fedor Emelianenko: “We are planning on having two or three fights this year. The first is scheduled for April 11th, and I’m not sure who I’ll fight yet. It will either be Jeff Monson or Pedro Rizzo.” At the end he said he'll try to win more often Probably got lost in translation and he meant fight, but I thought it was kind of funny

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The M-1 Global promotion, featuring top Heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, is looking to make it's US debut in April in either Rosemont, Illinois or at East Rutherford, New Jersey (the former Meadowlands). They passed on a Chicago date in February due to ongoing fighter negotiations.

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If I could only use one adjective to describe this past Saturday's UFC, it would be "incredible." Only one of the televised bouts went the distance, and that fight was exhilarating from beginning to end. Since the event was filled with fights that nearly all ended early and emphatically, Zuffa was able to squeeze in every single off-TV bout save for the Sam Stout - Per Eklund battle. The story of the night was without question B.J. Penn (Pictures)'s utter domination of Joe Stevenson. It was sheer wizardry: a dazzling array of strikes, agility, athleticism and, of course, magnificent submission prowess. It wasn't as if Penn fought some stiff that was pulled out of the crowd. Stevenson came into battle as prepared as he ever has been before and made it entertaining. He was able to pull Penn back to guard after "The Prodigy" achieved full mount with grapevines more than once. Even when B.J. dropped "Daddy" with a compact left uppercut seconds into the fight, a woozy and wobbly Stevenson regrouped and made things interesting.

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Undefeated Shane Carwin (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a three-time NCAA Division II All-American and national champ in wrestling and two-time All-American in football, has signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, reports the good folks at fiveouncesofpain.com. The signing was confirmed with Carwin himself. Not only does the deal bring some new talent to the heavyweight division (which, MMAjunkie.com believes, desperately needs it), but it also brings a veteran presence. Carwin debuted professionally in October 2005 and has fought for some of the country’s top regional promotions, including Art of War and the WEC. And quite simply, he’s dominated the competition. Carwin, who fights out of Colorado, trains with T’s K.O. Fight Club and High Altitude Martial Arts, where he’s a training partner of UFC middleweight Nate Marquardt. Of Carwin’s eight pro bouts, all eight were first-round stoppages (three by knockout and five via submission). The average time of each fight? Just 72 seconds.

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With his come-from-behind victory over Gabriel Gonzaga at Saturday’s UFC 80 event, Fabricio Werdum — who owns a mere 1-1 record in the UFC — has been granted a heavyweight title shot. He’ll take on the winner of an interim title fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia that headlines next month’s UFC 81 event. UFC Dana White confirmed Werdum’s upcoming shot at the belt during UFC 80, (The UFC, of course, is assuming that estranged heavyweight champ Randy Couture, who announced his resignation from the organization in October, will turn down the fight However, is Werdum really ready to fight for the title? Will UFC fans consider it a legitimate main event if the UFC gives the fight headliner status? So, why does he get a title fight so soon in the UFC? Honestly, there aren’t many other options. Couture appears finished with the UFC, Gonzaga already got his shot, Arlovski could be fighting for the final time in the UFC in March, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has been struggling and is unsure about his future in MMA (according to White anyway), Brandon Vera is coming off a loss, the world’s other top heavyweights (Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett and Aleksander Emelianenko, for example) don’t fight for the UFC, and the UFC’s other heavyweights (such as Jake O’Brien, Eddie Sanchez, Justin McCully and Antoni Hardonk) are far from ready.

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Tomasz Drwal (14-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has been scratched from next month’s UFC 81 event with an injured knee. The fighter’s manager recently confirmed the injury with our friends at the German site groundandpound.de. Drwal was scheduled to face fellow light heavyweight David Heath (7-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC), who’s fighting for the first time since a loss to Renato “Babalu” Sobral in August, at the SuperBowl weekend event. UFC 81 takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and airs live on pay-per-view. A replacement hasn’t yet been named; UFC.com still lists Drwal as a UFC 81 fighter.

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Las Vegas, NV (USA) – Fellow New Englanders and rising stars in the UFC® lightweight division, The Ultimate Fighter® alumni Kenny “Ken Flo” Florian and Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon will meet each other where the Ultimate Fighting Championship® all began, and headline the first UFC fight in the state of Colorado in 14 years live on Spike TV Wednesday, April 2 at 8:00 PM ET/PT.

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We now have confirmation of another Canadian fighter that’s been booked for the UFC’s first-ever show in Canada: Jonathan Goulet (21-9 MMA, 3-3 UFC). The veteran fighter will take on Kuniyoshi Hironaka (11-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at UFC 84, which is set for April 19 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Our Canadian friends at TKO Xtreme first broke news of the bout earlier today, and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) was able to confirm Goulet’s booking with a source close to the fighter.

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Bring out the blankets: Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski will return to the Octagon after almost a one-year layoff to fight Jake O’Brien at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” on March 1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, according to Yahoo!Sports.com. Here’s the snip: “… popular heavyweight Andrei Arlovski would fight at UFC 82 on March 1 in Columbus, Ohio. He said the opponent isn’t certain but is likely to be Jake O’Brien. Arlovski hasn’t fought since a lackluster win over Fabricio Werdum in April in Manchester, England.”

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After five years of training, Kim Couture, the wife of UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, will make her MMA debut next month. Couture will take part in a “smoker” event at the Xtreme Couture MMA gym in Las Vegas on Feb. 23. She says she’ll take on a female fighter who’s coming into town from Vancouver, Wash. Couture spoke about next month’s fight during Friday’s edition of “Inside MMA,” a weekly MMA news show that airs Fridays on Mark Cuban’s HDNet high-definition channel. Couture is the the vice president of the Xtreme Couture MMA. After spending time with notable EliteXC fighter (and current “American Gladiator”) Gina Carano, Couture said the spirit of competition led to the fight booking.

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TKO Xtreme has learned that Sam “Hands of Stone” Stout will face Rich “No Love” Clementi at UFC 84 on April 19 in Montreal, Quebec. Sam Stout, a native of London, Ontario, is the current TKO lightweight champion. Stout sports a mixed martial arts record of 13-3-1 with victories over notable names such as Spencer Fisher, Jay Estrada, Fabio Holanda, and Tyler Jackson. Rich “No Love” Clementi possesses a mixed martial arts record of 30-12-1. Clementi, a member of Team Voodoo, has been around mixed martial arts for nearly nine years and during that time he has scored victories over the likes of Naoyuki Kotani, Ryan Schultz, Fabio Holanda, and Ross Pointon. Clementi last fought at UFC 79: Nemesis submitting Melvin Guillard partway through the first round. UFC 84 is scheduled to take place April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. Check out our rumors section for the latest UFC 84 card.

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Each earned an additional $35,000 on top of his normal fight salary. Penn, who defeated Joe Stevenson for the UFC’s vacant lightweight title, earned the submission of the night award. Penn submitted Stevenson with a second-round rear-naked choke. On a fight card full of knockouts, Penn posted the night’s only submission victory. Gouveia, who stunned and dropped Jason Lambert with a looping left hook, was badly losing his fight before he connected on the second-round, bout-stopping punch. He was awarded knockout of the night, beating out five other fighters who scored KO victories, including Marcus Davis, Fabricio Werdum, Jorge Rivera, Antoni Hardonk and Alessio Sakara. Fight of the night bonuses went to Paul Taylor and Paul Kelly, two British fighters who kept a frantic pace throughout their three-round preliminary bout. In the end, Kelly earned the unanimous-decision victory, but as with all fight of the night bonuses, the fight’s winner and loser both received bonus checks.

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i agree with all of them...... also as a suggestion for the Playground, i think it would be a nice addition if you could choose what fight do you think its gonna be FOTN, sub of the night, and KO of the night......maybe make it sort of like the parlay system, where you will choose what you think the FOTN, etc.. will be and bet money on it, just tought i throw it out there

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Akihiro Gono was scheduled to face Jon Fitch at UFC 82 on March 1. Looks like those plans will have to be scraped according to translated blog: I have a pain in my righthand from November(UFC debut fight)So I could not train enough. I wondered about it. Doctor checked my hand again and this condition was so bad that the doctor ordered me to stop fight and all training. The operation will be done maybe in January. I am very sorry, my fans and John Fitch........I will announce operation schedule and come back time.

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Joe Rogan confirmed today at a UFC Q and A session that the UFC has been holding talks with with Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Takanori Gomi among others. He also mentioned that there nothing finalized at this point but that the discussions were ongoing.

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With the unfortunate cancellation Saturday of the World Cagefighting Organization show billed "The Return" many people were left scratching their heads wondering how the organizers of this event could let it happen. While many questions still remained unaswered at this point, MMANews.com had a chance to sit down and chat with WCO promoter Bruce Bellochi on Monday evening to discuss where things went wrong and to my surprise there appears more was going on behind the scenes than one may have expected.

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The Ultimate Fighter 1” winner Diego Sanchez (17-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) will look to reclaim his contender status in the UFC’s stacked welterweight division when he takes on Roan Carneiro (12-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC 82 — an event that takes place March 1 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Sanchez announced that the fight has been booked with a recent MySpace bulletin. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) left a message with Sanchez’s new management team but hasn’t yet received confirmation of the bout.

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As the Ultimate Fighting Championship looks to expand globally, President Dana White's first target is England. White is in England this week to preside over UFC 80, being held in Newcastle on Saturday. He took time away from lunch Thursday in London, where he was at a gallery showing of the book Octagon, to speak to me by phone about various issues both UFC 80 and non-UFC 80 related

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NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, England – Late last year, Evan Tanner announced that he had signed to once again compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Now there is a date and an opponent to round out his return. As part of a question and answer session on Friday, UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan stated that Evan Tanner will face Yushin Okami when the promotion makes its Canadian debut. That event will be headlined by a championship bout between current welterweight titleholder Matt Serra and interim champion Georges St. Pierre. It will take place on April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Joe Silva, UFC’s vice president of talent relations, confirmed Rogan’s comments about the fight.

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TNA has made a business deal with UFC regarding promotion of UFC's 2/2 PPV show, and in particular the Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir match. Details aren't known, but it is expected there will be heavy advertising of the next UFC during the TNA shows over the next two weeks. In addition, during the body of the shows will be hype packages to build up the match. Next week's Impact will include a Brock Lesnar training package, as well as a Kurt Angle interview, where he breaks down the Lesnar vs. Mir match. Great idea for UFC, TNA has 1.5 million wrestling fans watching every week. It's hard to say if it means anything for the future, but it may pave the way for that eventual Kurt v. Brock fight that was much talked about in the past.

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