UFC News - Page 248

A good deal just got even better. UFC officials today announced than a planned Facebook.com stream for Saturday's "UFC Fight Night 23: UFC Fight for the Troops 2" event will now feature four bouts instead of just two. The new additions to the stream include Mike Brown vs. Rani Yahya and Willamy Freire vs. Waylon Lowe. The stream now begins at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) and precedes the night's Spike TV broadcast of the five-fight main card. The two new bouts join previously announced matchups of former U.S. Army and National Guard member DaMarques Johnson vs. welterweight Mike Guymon and lightweights Cody McKenzie vs. Yves Edwards. To access the stream, viewers must visit the UFC's official Facebook profile (www.facebook.com/ufc) and push the "Like" button for the page. This now means only 2 fights are not scheduled to be streamed or aired on Spike.

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"Bruce Leroy" is coming to Seattle. UFC executives officially announced that "The Ultimate Fighter 12" cast member Alex Caceres is dropping to 145 pounds and faces WEC import Mackens Semerzier at "UFC Fight Night 24: Ortiz vs. Nogueira." The 22-year-old Caceres makes his official UFC debut after an often-controversial run on "The Ultimate Fighter 12: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck." While the athletic Caceres looked impressive in two submission wins while in the house, his brash, cocky attitude often drew the ire of his housemates. Caceres ultimately was eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual finalist Michael Johnson. Nevertheless, Caceres showed enough promise to warrant a return call from the UFC, and he was expected to face Nam Phan on the season's live finale, though an injury suffered in training forced him to delay his octagon debut. Meanwhile, Semerzier enters the UFC on a rare three-fight losing streak under the Zuffa banner.

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After formerly subpoenaing the live-streaming site, officials from the Ultimate Fighting Championship today announced they officially have filed suit against Justin.tv in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Zuffa LLC alleges copyright and trademark infringement due to the site's "rampant and illegal uploading" of live UFC pay-per-view events. An attorney for Zuffa LLC said the organization gave the website a chance to comply. "Zuffa has attempted to work on numerous occasions with Justin.tv over nearly a two-year period to encourage it to prevent or limit its infringing activities," Zuffa's Las Vegas attorney, Donald J. Campbell, stated in a press release. "Regrettably, Justin.tv has not only turned a blind eye to the massive online piracy occurring on its website, we believe it has actually induced its users to commit copyright infringement thus leaving Zuffa no alternative but to take this fight to the courts."

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When preparing for a fight with Pat Barry, opponents usually find few (if any) training partners that can mimic the noted striker's unique and challenging style. Joey Beltran, though, recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio he found just the man he needed. Beltran, who meets Barry on the Spike TV main card of Saturday's "UFC Fight Night 23: UFC Fight for the Troops 2" event at Fort Hood in Texas, employed Lew Polley. Or, as Beltran calls him, "BlackBarry."

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Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is rarely rested, careless by nature and often in range of people with questions and notebooks. So he says a lot, and a great deal of what he says makes no sense...

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Eight-month-old Tuptim Jadngooluem has been given a second chance at life after she successfully underwent surgery at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok yesterday. Tuptim, who was diagnosed at three months with a terminal liver condition known as biliary obstruction, has spent over a month in hospital awaiting a parental donor liver transplant to save her life. To keep her baby alive, Tuptim’s mother, Nit, donated part of her liver during yesterday’s operation, performed by Bangkok-based specialist Dr Sumate Teeraratkul. After 18-hours of surgery involving mother and daughter, both are today recovering in Ramathibodi Hospital and are said to be doing well.

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Johny Hendricks and Paulo Thiago have been targeted to meet at UFC on Versus 3. Verbal agreements are in place, paperwork pending. It's unknown whether Hendricks vs. Thiago will replace a scheduled welterweight bout between Matt Brown and Matt Riddle that was thrown into the lurch when Riddle injured his right hand and was forced to bow out.

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Matt Brown (11-10 MMA, 4-4 UFC) has been left to wonder once again. Matt Riddle (5-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC), who was expected to face Brown at March's UFC on Versus 3 event, injured his right hand in training and has been forced to withdraw from the matchup. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed Riddle's withdrawal, which was first reported by Versus.com. Brown now awaits a new opponent. It's the second time this month Brown has found himself without an opponent, as Riddle replaced an injured Mark Scanlon one week ago. Brown has yet to be officially announced as a UFC on Versus 3 event by UFC brass. An eight-time UFC veteran and cast member of "The Ultimate Fighter 7," Brown finds himself in desperate need of a victory.

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“All I can simply say is it has finally been settled, and we’ll all just live a happy life because of the legal system in Las Vegas,” Nelson told MMAWeekly Radio on Monday. While the UFC seemed rather concerned about the legal situation stemming from the contract issues between Nelson and Square Ring, the Las Vegas based fighter didn’t believe it was a huge ordeal to begin with.

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According to a press release, "They felt they had a different vision for the future of Georges' career and it was best to remain close personally but dissolve their business relationship." St-Pierre signed with Spencer in 2007 and has since become one of the most recognizable MMA athletes in the world, signing endorsement deals with blue-chip sponsors Gatorade Canada and Under Armour. "Shari has been very valuable to me and my career over the last several years. We broke through a lot of barriers together and so I will always be grateful to her and call her my friend," St-Pierre stated.

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But it was a close call for Jones, who was fortunate to not be injured in the accident. The other driver was not so fortunate as Jones explains. "I just got into a car accident, police said it wasn't my fault.. I walked away without a scratch, GOD IS GOOD.... Hopefully, I get blessed with one of the fight bonuses, my insurance hasn't kicked in yet and I may have just taken a major loss… Everyone's okay, me and some teammates were on our way to the dog park in between practices, good thing we were all wearing our seatbelts. I refuse to allow this situation to steal my joy, the fight will go on."

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MMA Payout had the opportunity to talk to Safe Auto Insurance about its recent move to become an official sponsor for the UFC. Safe Auto Insurance is the only insurance company that is a sponsor of the UFC. As MMA Payout reported last year (here and here), Safe Auto Insurance began sponsoring fighters in late 2010 and discussed with the UFC about the possibility of becoming an official UFC sponsor. Elie Deshe, Vice President of Emerging Media for Safe Auto Insurance stated that it paid a fee to the UFC to become an official sponsor but the partnership with the UFC is worth it. The official sponsorship deal began January 1st at UFC 125 and covers all of 2011. Safe Auto will appear on mats and pole pads on eight of the upcoming UFC cards. Most of the appearances would be on UFC Fight Nights although Safe Auto’s presence would be at UFC 127...

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Renzo Gracie pupil Dave Branch will step in for Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira to take on leg lock specialist Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares at UFC Live 3 “Sanchez vs. Kampmann.” The news was first reported by Heavy.com on Wednesday morning, and Sherdog.com has confirmed the switch with a source close to one of the fighters. Ferreira reportedly withdrew from the bout due to losing family and friends in the massive floods affecting southeastern Brazil. On Tuesday, Chute Boxe Academy founder Rudimar Fedrigo told Brazilian website R7.com that Ferreira had been dismissed from his team. The event, which takes place March 3 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., will be headlined by a welterweight scrap between Danish striker Martin Kampmann and the resurgent Diego Sanchez. The main card will air live on Spike TV.

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Brian Stann also seems to have Michael Bisping in his sights, and he thinks he could even take that other Silva at Middleweight. "Hopefully, my next fight will be Wanderlei Silva, who is obviously a legend in the sport, and it would be an honour to fight... Michael Bisping, an amazing fighter who has truly distinguished himself in the weight class. I think Bisping will get a title shot. He has proved himself to be an exciting, all-round fighter and has the ranking. Guys like Michael Bisping and Wanderlei have what I want in the sport - the respect and the rankings, and that's where I want to be. They always put on exciting fights, and that's very important to the UFC. Yes, I think I have the skills to compete with Anderson Silva. He is a few levels above the rest of the division and I'm a fight or two away from that. People wonder if I have a ground game, too. I do. It's just that a lot of fans haven't seen it. Me against him (GSP)? I'd knock him out, before he puts me on my butt three times. I've trained with GSP, and he's a great guy and great for the sport."

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The former UFC Champoin recently updated his health via the TATAME, revealing that he's had not two, but THREE surgeries so far. "I’m doing my third surgery within a month. There were three injuries that I had: my knee, my right hip and my left hip. I have these injuries for eight year, but about three years ago it started blocking me of training hard. I handled it, but I couldn’t do my last fight and really, if you can’t train 100%, you won’t do a good fight. I did these surgeries on the right time and I’m treating myself with the greatest hip doctor of the world, the guy guarantees I’ll be 100% for the second semester. If I can fight on UFC Rio it’ll be perfect, but if not I’m sure that in September I’ll be prepared to fight. I’ve fought the best of my division, I didn’t have an easy opponent. I really am one of the guys who fought great guys, but I have much more to show you, I am not done yet."

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The fight card for March's "UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans" event is now set. Officials today finalized the two remaining bouts for the March 19 event, which takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The additions to the 12-fight lineup include preliminary-card bouts of welterweights Mike Pyle vs. Ricardo Almeida and middleweights Nick Catone vs. Dan Miller.

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Fitch spoke to USA Today back in November and when he was asked if he thought he had to finish fights more often he replied, “Yeah. I basically feel like I haven't done the appropriate job of putting the exclamation point at the end of my sentences. I take that as a personal challenge to myself, because as a martial artist, I need to be evolving and getting better. If I keep winning fights the same way, I don't see myself as evolving. If we're not evolving in martial arts, then we're dead.”

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While recent UFC preliminary-card specials have been slotted for ION Television, Facebook and UFC.com, Spike TV is still in the mix. Sources close to the organizations today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Spike TV's popular "UFC Prelims" specials will return in 2011, and the first will air next month as part of UFC 126. The Feb. 5 broadcast is expected to feature lightweights Donald Cerrone (13-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) vs. Paul Kelly (11-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) and featherweights Chad Mendes (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (12-8-1 MMA, 0-2 UFC).

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The opportunity to watch two live prelim fights for free from UFC® Fight For The Troops 2 is now only a click away. The Ultimate Fighting Championship® announced today that fans will have the ability to watch two exciting UFC contests on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT by simply clicking the “Like” button on the official UFC Facebook page. By liking Facebook.com/UFC, fans will gain access to a live stream of the lightweight battle between Cody McKenzie (12-0) of The Ultimate Fighter® and veteran Yves Edwards (39-16-1), as well as a pivotal welterweight clash pitting TUF alum DaMarques Johnson (16-8) against Mike “The Joker” Guymon (13-4-1). Fans that do not have a Facebook account are encouraged to sign up at www.facebook.com. “I’m always looking for ways to give fans fights for free and this is just another example of that,” UFC President Dana White said. “Facebook is such a great tool for people to stay connected and we’re excited to put two live fights on our UFC page for free.”

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Something had been missing in the two years since Pat Barry gave up his K-1 dreams and decided to become a ninja. Or a mixed martial artist. One of the two. Maybe both. Barry was doing everything he needed to become a well-rounded fighter, which in his case was a near-daily regimen of wrestling and jiu jitsu with his stablemates at Roufusport Academy in Milwaukee. He toiled on the mats learning about the completely different application of leverage and balance. He learned about how to get out of bad situations and how to get back to his feet. He got tapped, a lot.

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