UFC News - Page 522

Mustapha Al-Turk (6-3) has vacated the Cage Rage British heavyweight title and signed with the UFC, we can exclusively reveal. He has signed a four-fight deal with the organisation and will make his debut before the end of the year, possibly against Cain Velasquez.

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UFN 15 served as a lead-in for the TUF premiere and aired live from 8-10 p.m. ET. Competing against ESPN’s telecast of Major League Baseball and ESPN2’s college football broadcast in the same time slot, UFN 15 outdrew both shows combined in the coveted young male demo. To be exact, the Spike telecast drew 913,000 men 18-49 and 465,000 Men 18-34. By comparison, ESPN’s telecast of the Red Sox vs. Rays and ESPN2’s Louisville vs. Kansas St. college football game drew a combined 858,000 men 18-49 and 373,000 men 18-34. Then, between 10-11 p.m. ET, TUF 8 debuted to a 1.2 household rating with an average audience of 1.6 million viewers. According to Spike, the show was number one in its timeslot on basic cable in the male 18-49 demographic, garnering a 1.5 rating. The premiere also drew a 1.5 rating in males 18-34.

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After the injury and the scrapped fight against Lyoto Machida, Thiago Silva now is focused on the back treatment, getting ready to go back to the octagon as faster as he can and keep the perfect 13-0 MMA history. “I’m doing the physiotherapy well to get better… I’m doing the medical treatment, following correctly, but I still don’t know when I’ll come back. Ultimate said that I won’t fight this year anymore, so I’ll probably be back in January, and I’ll be ready”, said the ATT fighter.

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From main event to undercard, perhaps no fighter has fallen so quick in the course of a single fight. Such was the situation facing UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon heading into his "UFC Fight Night 15" bout with Kyle Bradley. But Lauzon recently told the crew of TAGG Radio, the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com, he wasn't too disappointed at the change of position.

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Veteran UFC middleweight Jason MacDonald (21-10 MMA, 5-3 UFC) has signed a new four-fight deal with the organization. KO Dynasty, a sports management company that recently signed MacDonald, alerted MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) of the fighter's new deal. MacDonald is fresh off a solid victory over Jason Lambert at UFC 88 -- one that earned the 33-year-old fighter a $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus. MacDonald took the fight less than a month after his UFC 87 loss to Demian Maia. Terms of his new deal were not disclosed. MacDonald, a former Maximum Fighting Championships fighter, is 9-3 in his past 12 fights. He made his UFC debut in 2006 and garnered some early recognition by scoring submission victories over "TUF" notables Ed Herman and Chris Leben. Additional UFC victories have come over Rory Singer, Joe Doerksen and Lambert. The UFC has not confirmed when MacDonald could next return to action.

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n what was a baffling and undoubtedly rare moment for the media, Nate Diaz was short of salacious quotes about his latest win and opponent Josh Neer. Diaz’s time was limited in dropping four-letter bombs. Why? Because Nate had noly taken his seat in front of reporters at the post-fight press conference when his older brother Nick launched into a tirade that disrupted the interview and left the UFC staff with the unenviable task of keeping the Diaz clan from causing a scene

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I definitely want to fight Anderson. I don't know when I'm going to get that chance, but until then, I would like to fight Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping and anybody else out there that's a contender," stated UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt as he talked about his future plans.

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Much of the MMA world was taken aback when the Nevada State Athletic Commission recently elected to leave Kevin Burns' (7-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) controversial July TKO victory over fellow welterweight Anthony Johnson unchanged. After repeated warnings throughout the bout by referee Steve Mazzagatti for Burns to be cautious of repetitive eye pokes, a final third-round blow crumpled Johnson to the mat. Mazzagatti did not initially see the illegal strike, and Burns was awarded a much-maligned victory. But as Burns recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), regardless of the NSAC's opinion on the matter, the Iowa native is prepared to correct the matter in his own manner. "To be honest with you, I was kind of impartial," Burns said about Johnson's appeal with the commission. "[The NSAC] had the right and the ability to do what they wanted as far as making the appeal. I didn't have adverse feelings either way. "I guess what's really going to be the true-tell sign at the end of the day is when we meet in the cage again, and we have a chance to compete against each other. Then the fans will get to see what they wanted to see, and we'll get to make it right."

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Both Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his brother have been very successful as trainers in the field of mixed martial arts and now the tandem is expanding into Texas with the opening of “Team Nogueira” Dallas, which will be located in the new Octagon MMA gym. The Nogueira brothers are hopeful to train new mixed martial artists while continuing to teach and broaden their Brazilian Jiu-jitsu education to new students in the Dallas area. “We are bringing the best mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training that most people in Dallas have not experienced before,” said Nogueira. “We’ve developed training programs for men, women and children, as well as competitive fighters.” Lead trainer, Greg Seal, owner of Octagon MMA, who is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt and who has trained with the Nogueira team for the past six years is very positive about bringing the popular fighter’s style to the Dallas based gym.

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Rich Franklin used to spend his days teaching math to high school students. Today, he spends his evenings in an octagon-shaped cage grounding and pounding fighters into submission in front of thousands of screaming fans. Wow, no MMA bashing, Im stunned....

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If you watched UFC Fight Night 15 or “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) 8 on Spike TV last night then there’s a good chance you saw the commercials showing that UFC 86: “Jackson vs. Griffin” will be replayed for free on October 4 on Spike TV beginning at 9 p.m. ET. That “coincidentally” happens to be the same date and time that Elite XC will air perhaps the most important event in its history, Elite XC: “Heat” on CBS. Of course, this isn’t the first time that Dana White and the UFC have attempted to sabotage the competition with counter programming. In fact, it was only two months ago when Affliction MMA was set for its first live pay-per-view (PPV) event. The t-shirt company turned MMA promotion had big plans to make a splash in the MMA world only to to have the UFC plan a free “Fight Night” on Spike TV the same night. To make matters worse (for Affliction) the UFC headlined the card with one of the most popular fighters on the planet, Anderson Silva. Apparently the plan worked because Affliction’s PPV buys did not reach expectations and the UFC’s free “Fight Night” pulled in better numbers. While this isn’t a live event being put on by the UFC, it’s still counter programming and there will still be fans who opt to tune in to the replay of a card headlined by one of the better fights of the year between Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin instead of eyeballing another potential disaster main event involving Kimbo Slice. It’s clear the UFC wants to clear the world of any and all competition. And if there’s an organization out there capable of pulling that off, it’s definitely the good ole’ Zuffa boys.

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Having been on the wrong side of a few controversial decisions during his time with the UFC, lightweight competitor Clay Guida worked as hard as ever to prove himself during his bout with Ultimate Fighter Season 6 winner Mac Danzig on Wednesday night at UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha. Guida kept up a very high pace during the fight with Danzig and when it was over he felt there was no doubt that he was the victor. “I felt confident in this one,” said Guida about the decision. “He’s got pretty good takedown defense, towards, up against the cage, he stopped it, he stopped my takedown a couple of times. But I stuck with it and put him down to his butt where I wanted it and it did feel good to come out with the decision.” In the end, Guida was able to dominate the ground portion of the fight, landing numerous takedowns while being cautious of his opponent’s considerable submission skills in the process.

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OMAHA, Neb. – Eric Schafer was almost a Division I college football player. But a hip pointer caused him to miss his senior high school season and the Big Ten conference teams that had shown interest in him as a linebacker suddenly began to encourage him to walk on. Then, he nearly became a doctor. He graduated magna cum laude with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. His medical school entrance test results were very high, enough so that he could have been accepted pretty much wherever he wanted. But what he wanted, really, was to fight. He bought the pay-per-views of most Ultimate Fighting Championship shows and quickly became enthralled. His first was UFC 8, when Don Frye won a tournament by beating Gary Goodridge in the final round. “Once I discovered MMA,” Schafer said, grinning, “I never thought about football for a minute again.” It’s hard to imagine a guy who looks like a grown-up Opie Taylor being a mean and snarling linebacker, so that was probably a good call. But, honestly, it wouldn’t be easy to guess Schafer’s profession now simply by looking at him. He took the first step toward establishing himself in the UFC when he submitted hometown favorite Houston Alexander with a slick arm triangle choke Wednesday at 4:53 of the first round at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

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UFC welterweight Dustin Hazelett was promoted to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Jorge Gurgel at Gurgel's gym Tuesday night in West Chester, Ohio. Hazelett, 22, began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in his junior year of high school and has been studying with Gurgel for the past 5 years and 10 months, according to the Team Gurgel website. Hazelett, who will be quick to remind you he’s not Jon Fitch, is 4-2 in the UFC and 11-4 overall in MMA. In his last fight, Hazelett won the Submission of the Night award with a second-round armbar win over Josh Burkman at “The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale” in June. Hazelett had to go under the knife to remove damaged cartilage under his nose after that fight, but he’s already back training for his next fight scheduled for Nov. 15 at UFC 91 “Couture vs. Lesnar” against Tamden McCrory.

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“The crowd was so loud that I couldn’t hear my corner. If I heard them and knew, you know, there are 10 seconds left, five seconds left, whatever, I would have tried to hung in there a little longer and survived. But it was so loud and these people were supporting me so much, I couldn’t hear and I had to tap.” – Houston Alexander tells Yahoo!Sports.com that if he knew how much time was left in the first round (seven seconds) he perhaps would have tried to last until the bell rather than tap because of an Eric Schafer arm triangle at UFC Fight Night 15: “Diaz vs. Neer” last night. Alexander is from Nebraska and had his hometown crowd vociferously rooting him on until the waning seconds of the opening frame. The loss is Alexander’s third straight, pushing his record inside the Octagon below .500 (2-3).

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Following UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Neb., Ultimate Fighting Championship officials informed MMAWeekly.com of the fighter bonuses as handed down by the promotion after the event’s conclusion. Each fighter was handed a $30,000 bonus for their efforts including Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night. “Ultimate Fighter” season 5 winner Nate Diaz pulled off a split decision win over a very game opponent in Josh Neer and both fighters were rewarded with a Fight of the Night bonus. Alessio Sakara sent a message to the middleweight division that he will always bring the fight as he finished off newcomer Joe Vedepo with a vicious head kick that earned him a Knockout of the night. Wilson Gouveia made an impressive debut in the 185-pound weight class with a slick armbar submission, picking up the win over Ryan Jensen, and a $30,000 Submission of the Night bonus as well. UFC FIGHT NIGHT 15 AWARDS AND BONUSES: Fight of the Night: -Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer Knockout of the Night: -Alessio Sakara Submission of the Night: -Wilson Gouveia

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The Ultimate Fighter 7 runner-up CB Dollaway (7-1) will make his third straight Octagon appearance when he takes on UFC veteran Jorge Rivera (15-7) at UFC 92 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on New Year’s Eve weekend according to WrestlingObserver.com. “The Doberman” was unsuccessful in his bid to win it all at the TUF 7 finale on June 21, but he was able to rebound and score an impressive submission victory over Jesse “Yellow Submarine” Taylor less than a month later at Fight Night 14. Facing him will be a very tough albeit inconsistent fighter in Rivera. “El Conqistador” came up short against Martin Kampmann at UFC 85 after a very impressive KO victory over Kendall Grove at UFC 80. This should be a good test for Dollaway. Rivera has knockout power and has ended 10 of his 15 wins by (T)KO. No doubt Dollaway will try and utilize his wrestling to keep things on the ground until he can find a submission against the crafty veteran.

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With a perfect MMA career after eight wins in eight fights, Demian Maia remains unbeatable after three submission victories in UFC’s octagon, and he’s already training for his next bout. The UFC 91’s most important fight will be Randy Couture’s back to Ultimate against an young Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title, and Demian Maia will face Nathan Quarry, at November 15th. Against the new opponent, Demian keeps training hard in Brazil, still without a specific training for Nate.

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Sherdog talks the win over Mac Danzig with Clay Guida. Way to go Guida! He's always putting on exciting fights and he's always respectful. Definitely one of my favorite fighters to watch.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced during the broadcast of Wednesday night’s Fight Night that the 9th installment of the “Ultimate Fighter” would feature middleweights and welterweights in a battle of the United States against the United Kingdom. UFC announcer Mike Goldberg mentioned the newest season of the popular reality show during the Mac Danzig and Clay Guida fight, also saying that auditions would be held in both Chicago, Ill, and London, England in the upcoming month. The latest season of the “Ultimate Fighter” featuring the U.S. versus the U.K will be the first such “international” version of the show, pitting two countries fighters against each other. While no other details were released about the 9th season of the show, it seems popular British fighter, Michael Bisping, would almost be a shoe in to be involved with the U.K. team, but he first has to battle Chris Leben in his home country on Oct 19.

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