McDojoDelux

2007 August Week 2 Recap [Headline One]: UFC 74 Recap & Results Fedor defeats Gonzaga via UD decision to secure title-shot against Couture Critical Rating: 74% / Commercial Rating: 91% Attendance: 10,383 ($2.3 Million) Venue: MGM Grand (Nevada, Las Vegas) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Fedor Emelianenko def. Gabriel Gonzaga via UD (29-28x2, 30-27) [Fight Rating: Great] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Wanderlei Silva def. Forrest Griffin via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 1:46) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Sam Strout def. Clay Guida via UD (29-28x3) [Fight Rating: Good] Melvin Guillard def. Caol Uno via TKO [Punches] (R2 - 0:39) [Fight Rating: Decent] Mark Hunt def. Pedro Rizzo via KO [Punch] (R1 - 1:46) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Fabricio Werdum def. Roy Nelson via UD (29-28, 30-27, 30-26) [Fight Rating: Good] John Kolosci def. Edilberto de Olivera via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 4:07) [Fight Rating: Average] Chris Horodecki def. David Baron via TKO [Punches] (R2 - 2:27) [Fight Rating: Average] Mac Danzig def. Andy Wang via UD (29-28x3) [Fight Rating: Decent] Paul Taylor def. Jason Gilliam via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 0:49) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fight of the Night - Fedor Emelianenko vs. Gabriel Gonzaga Knockout of the Night - Mark Hunt & Wanderlei Silva Submission of the Night - N/A rodrigoviolim - (9/10) correction predictions Fedor Emelianenko would fend off Gonzaga for the majority of the fight to win a comfortable unanimous decision but to say it was an easy fight wouldn’t do it justice as Gonzaga briefly looked like he would pull off another all-time upset for the record books. Round 1 saw Fedor easily out-wrestle Gonzaga over the course of the round as Gonzaga was mauled from full-guard for practically the full 5 minutes. Round 2 Fedor looked to apply the same wrestling heavy game-plan by faking a jab then going for a double-legged takedown but a brilliant scramble by Gonzaga saw him on top in north-south side control. Fedor did a good job depending on some elbows plus other wild ground n’ pound from Gonzaga but briefly gave up his back which allowed the Brazilian Heavyweight to lock in a relatively deep rear-naked choke for a while it looked like Gonzaga was gonna get back to back HUGE upset win the crowd was on their feet going wild but none where more wild than commentator Joe Rogan screaming at the top of his lungs 'it's deep Mike [Goldberg] it's in deep oooooh'. But Emelianenko was able to calmly escape after that brief moment of fright the two started scrambling again until the two got up to their feet Fedor would start to gain momentum back by completely outclassing Gonzaga who tried to set-up fight-ending head kick much like he did against Mirko Cro Cop but he couldn’t mask any of his strikes as Fedor would see everything coming mostly via some great head movement. Fedor would find a home for the jab; his solid boxing start also allowed him to unload with a few straights plus some bodywork with hooks. Round 3 would be a repeat of round 1 as Fedor would get Gonzaga to the ground then keep him there to get the decision. Fedor called for his well-deserved title-shot at Couture to prove who is the greatest Heavyweight in UFC history, Couture was on the broadcast being previously scheduled to fight Fedor before an injury sidelined him gladly accepted as the two-faced off inside the octagon. Wanderlei Silva would announce his return to form with a co-knockout of the night by brutally finishing the fan-favorite Forrest Griffin the fight started exactly the way fans wanted with the two trading leather at an alarming pace. Silva started the bout with a glancing head kick that opened a cut on the forehead of Griffin who responded with a clean double-jab plus a straight. “The Axe Murderer” after parrying a jab from Griffin blasted him with a cross but the overhand was ducked which led to Griffin countering with a slitting leg kick followed by a jab then circled out. Griffin looked like he was starting to exploit Wanderlei’s lack of leg kicking defense as Griffin continued to land leg kicks at will but Griffin would start to become more relaxed when throwing them which to his defeated as after missing a leg kick a lightning-fast right-hook that put Griffin down as hammer fists finished him off. In his post-fight interview Wandereli circled out both Chuck Liddell plus Tito Ortiz who was in attendance, Silva expressed how he wanted to “avenge” his loss to Tito by putting him in a “grave”. “I’ll rip his [Tito Ortiz] head off, he thinks he can say anything he wants but he never backs any of it up he lost to Chuck [Liddell] and he’ll lose to me when we rematch”. - Wanderlei Silva Two new Lightweight contenders would emerge within the two Lightweight fights on the main-card as Sam Strout and Melvin Guillard picked up the wins. Strout defeated Clay Guida after a very poor opening round that saw Guida dictate the pace by pressure grappling with Strout in the moments of round 1 the two exchanged some brief dirty boxing before Guida grabbed hold of a single-leg driving Strout to the cage before dragging him down. Guida would burst to life by grabbing full-mount fast nearly finishing Strout with some fast ground n’ pound but Strout would survive the round by reaming on the bottom for the rest of the round, but during the start of the 2nd Strout would rock Guida with a quick head kick after Strout missed the set-up one-two this would cause Guida to enter a warlike state of mind hellbent on knocking Strout a decorated kickboxer out. As the result shows it didn’t go well despite his coaches pleads to take the fight back to the ground Guida would sling out over hands none of which really came close to hitting Strout who started unloading with kicks to the legs to stifle Guida’s movement then transitioned his kicks to the body by the 3rd round. Throw in some nice 1-2-3 straight punch combinations that consistently landed throughout both rounds and Strout would take home the decision win as for Melvin Guillard he showed a distinct difference in power right from the opening round against Caol Uno. They started hand fighting at close-distance with each other which favored Uno early on as he slipped a short hook from Guillard to come over the top with a lead elbow then committed to a single-leg takedown, Guillard defends well hopping on one-foot but Uno put Guillard up against the fence in which Uno would grab the collar-tie to unload some quick bus-driver-uppercuts. Guillard tried to use his pure strength advantage to get out briefly turning around Uno to the cage but Uno would use his grappling advantage to get back to the dominator position then went all in for a double-legged takedown again Uno came very close but he just couldn’t get it after a brief few seconds of stalling Uno decided to disengage that would ultimately cost him the fight because as Uno started moving backward Guillard perfectly split open Uno’s guard with an overhand that landed right on Uno’s chin sitting him down. Guillard’s follow up ground n’ pound couldn’t finish it as Uno sprawled well to get back to his feet but was immediately sat back down as Uno rushed in to get the fight back to some hand to hand pressure grappling fight but Guillard would excellency plant his feet to drive home a right cross on Uno’s chin, the ground n’ pound nearly finished Uno off this time as the rest of the round was spent with Guillard on top in full-guard mostly. Despite not getting the finish in the 1st Guillard wouldn’t take long to get the finish early in the 2nd as Melvin used his lead hand to fake that he was going high but went to the body with a one-two then launched a close-quarters uppercut that sent Uno down to the mat for the finale time as referee Herb Dean saw enough. To finish off the main-card Mark Hunt would quickly end his heated feud with UFC vet Pedro Rizzo with a devastating first-round knockout early on Rizzo was doing a good job parrying Hunt’s jab leaving Hunt unable to find the distance as he was struggling Rizzo started unloading with some solid leg kicks landing 3 in the first minute of the fight plus a solid hook the body. Rizzo went to the leg again with another kick but by this time Hunt quickly switched his stance then put Pedro Rizzo’s lights out with a quick lead one-two for the walk-off knockout. During his post-fight interview, he said he gladly would accept Fabricio Werdum’s challenge as he called out “The Super-Samon” after defeating Roy Nelson in the head-liner of the prelims. Nelson was largely outclassed by Werdum as the Brazilian showed some great conditioning for a Heavyweight constantly using weird head-movement to confuse “Country” Roy Nelson, Werdum would quickly establish a close-quarters fight often peppering his opponent with quick short punches with some hand to hand fighting in Round 1. The 2nd would see Werdum seriously hurt Nelson as he faked coming in for more close-quarters hand-to-hand pressure fighting to mask a cracking right-hook that wobbled Nelson all the way to the cage. Werdum grabbed the collar-tie hitting Nelson with 4 knees to the body then 1 to the head which broke Nelson’s nose, Fabricio then dragged Nelson down to the ground with a single-leg nearly submitting him with two armbars. By the 3rd round, Werdum possibly to preserve stamina or to prove he can strike opted for a stick n’ move game-plan offered Nelson a chance to ko the Brazilian but with his constant head-movement Nelson wouldn’t find his opening until there were only a minute and a half left in the round. Faking a one-two Werdum dipped to the right side which Nelson predicted finally hitting the Brazilian clean with a looping right hook as Werdum quickly put his card up Nelson sliced through it with a cross then planted his foot for a one-two but Werdum ducked to secure a double-legged takedown as the fight ended on the mat. Like mentioned before he took his time to call out Mark Hunt after his recent remarks about all Brazilian fighters being on steroids during the post-fight press conference Dana White remarked about the success of the event, “Fedor [Emelianenko] fought a good fight and proved a lot of people mostly wrong and I hope this shuts up some idiots who think he [Fedor Emelianenko] doesn't deserve a shot at Randy [Couture]. As for how we did it was a big one even without the main-event we stacked this card and I’m very happy” - Dana White ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: WEC 29 Recap & Results Aldo survives late-rally from Brown to take home the Unanimous Decision Critical Rating: 72% / Commercial Rating: 31% Attendance: 939 [$152,352] Venue: Cox Pavilion (Nevada, Las Vegas) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Jose Aldo def. Mike Brown via UD (29-28x3) [Fight Rating: Great] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Donald Cerrone def. Todd Moore via TKO [Head Kick & Punches] (R2 - 3:53) [Fight Rating: Decent] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Dominick Cruz def. Charlie Valencia via SUB [RNC] (R1 - 1:42) [Fight Rating: Good] Cub Swanson def. Mark Hominick via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 0:52) [Fight Rating: Good] Masanori Kanehara def. Cody McKenzie via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Good] *Justin Robbins pulled out via hand injury 1 week before the event* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims JJ Ambrose def. Eric Reynolds via SUB [RNC] (R1 - 4:13) [Fight Rating: Good] Danny Batten def. Josh Grispi via UD (29-28x3) [Fight Rating: Great] Mitsuhisa Sunabe def. Antonio Duarte via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Good] Tommy Lee def. Akiyo Nishiura via KO [Head Kick] (R1 - 1:41) [Fight Rating: Good] *Masanori Kanehara pulled out via leg injury 2 weeks before the event* *Shad Lierley pulled out via weighing cutting issues during weigh-in* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jose Aldo ‘Junior’ has defeated Mike Brown in a very solid fight that saw ‘Junior’ get the nod via a unanimous decision in the Brazilians first real test against the top competition in the Featherweight division. Round 1 saw Aldo a fast start keep the fight at long range with a quick 4 to 5 straight punch combination only ever throwing hooks occasionally to the body to keep Brown away to make it harder to wrestle, it was clear Jose Aldo held the speed plus overall boxing technique which let Brown only able to offer a few flick jabs plus hooks which barley landed but Aldo notorious for slowing down after some explosive opening minutes was starting to gas. This seemed to be apart of Brown’s gameplan to tier his opponent out as Brown who was on the backfoot was starting to meet a fading Aldo in the middle near the end of the round Brown ate a one-two but was able to slip the body shot then set his stance from a solid right cross that landed directly on the chin of Aldo a little dazed he then landed a solid head kick right on the dome then locked in a deep single-leg takedown but Jose defended it brilliantly using a lot of spinning techniques and control from his back against the cage to end the round. Despite probably losing the first Mike Brown had a lot of momentum heading into the 2nd round but that would all come crashing down as Jose surprisingly dominated the 2nd round by implementing leg kicks into the fight. Aldo started the round by feinting the set-up jab allowing him to hit a kick roundhouse kick to the body then unloaded with all the remaining energy he had into an 11 straight unanswered combination starting with a leg kick then jab, leg kick, then jab, straight then another leg kick followed by three hooks to the body than a leg kick. Brown started walking with a noticeable limp as well as bleeding everywhere with a broken nose plus some swelling around the eyes from what was later revealed to be an orbital fracture, Jose continued to punish Brown from long range with even more leg kicks but the combination started to come to a stop as an exhausted Jose Aldo could only ever muster 2 to 3 punch combinations throughout the rest of the fight. Aldo’s guard also started to become non-existent as Brown was occasionally able to land a few stiff well-timed jabs by faking the uppercut or by faking he was going for the takedown speaking of which Aldo would also defend all 3 of Brown’s takedown attempts during the round. As the round came to a close Brown was actually able to land his first combination of the round starting with a leg kick of his own then ducking the counter right hook to land a cross over the top then hook to the body but Aldo was able to time a perfect head kick that wobbled Brown as he wasn’t to get his guard back up in time, stumbling all the way to the cage Aldo was able to grab the Muay-Thai clinch to launch a brutal knee to the head which was just blocked as the round came to an end. The pace for the third slowed considerably for the last round of the fight as Aldo possibly being too tired of maybe not really caring since he had two rounds in the bag was taken down twice during the round being controlled on the ground for 4 of the 5 minutes the most significant part of Brown’s top controlling coming when he was able to get side-control to land some slicing elbows which opened a small cut on the side of Aldo’s right eye, the Brazilians biggest moment in during the round coming near the end of the entire fight as he was able to nearly drop Brown with a lethal right hook then a clean uppercut but Brown was able to respond with a crisp one-two then pull counter. The rest of the event was majority filled with dominant performances starting off with the co-main as Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone put on a masterclass against Todd Moore using his superior kickboxing to brutalize Moore who was just a sitting duck to the jab of Cerrone which he often used to create a variety of combinations of punches and kicks while mixing it up with the Muay-Thai to hammer his face with elbows and body with knees. Moore simply couldn’t find his range although he was able to connect on a clean one-two by the end of the 1st which would be his only notable strike. ‘Cowboy’ ultimately ended the fight in the 2nd after slipping a right hook he would unleash a brutal head kick as his foot would smash directly into Moore’s face sending him to the canvas, Cerrone finished the fight with punches from side control after some brief grappling between the two. Dominick “The Dominator” Cruz in his Bantamweight debut got a quick first-round submission bouncing back from a devastating loss to the current WEC Featherweight champion Urijah Faber who finished Cruz also in the 1st round via submission. The way both men applied their submissions were actually quite similar as Valencia like Cruz in his last fight rushed in for the single-takedown without much technique looking to overpower the skinner Cruz although able to secure control against the cage “The Dominator” showed excellent technique plus footwork switching the position then sweeping Valencia’s legs from under him with a sweep, Valencia would attempt to get back up but while doing so gave up his back allowing Cruz to lock in a stand rear-naked choke as Valencia didn’t seem to know what to do after the submission was applied tapping rather quickly. Cruz said he felt “better than ever” at 145 saying he would “conquer” the division then move up to challenge Faber in a rematch sometime in the near future. Cub Swanson, a fellow Featherweight contender might have just secured his own right to challenge Faber for the Featherweight strap after disposing of Canadian Mark Hominick in just 52 seconds making this the first time Hominick has been finished via strikes the finish came after Swanson countered an ill-timed uppercut from Hominick by dipping his head to the right then landing a lethal body shot that hurt Hominick as his legs become stiff then Swanson set his feet as the Canadian was trying to back off but with his movement was compromised so he couldn’t get away in time as Swanson landing a ducking overhand to put his opponent down then finish him with hammer fists immediately calling out Urijah Faber in the post-fight interview. “Urijah [Faber], your time is up, no more ducking, no more easy fights, your title reign is coming to an end. You know I’m the new champion so just gimme my belt already”. - Cub Swanson

2007 August Week 1 Recap [Headline One]: Strikeforce announces Royce Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock for Sep Week 3 “After I take out big brother [Royce Gracie], I’ll go after the little one [Renzo Gracie] then I want Rickson [Gracie]” - Frank Shamrock ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Middleweight: Frank Shamrock (22-8-2) vs. Royce Gracie (13-2-3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Middleweight: Cung Le (3-0) vs. Phil Baroni (10-7) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Middleweight: Riki Fukuda (8-2) vs. Jamie Jara (15-4) Heavyweight: Jeff Monson (24-6) vs. Siala-Mou Siliga (2-0) Heavyweight: Assuerio Silva (13-6-1NC) vs. Tim Hague (4-0) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Lightweight: Billy Evangelista (3-0) vs. Scott Henze (19-7-2) Women’s Featherweight: Adrienna Jenkins (11-2) vs. Ediane Gomes (0-0) Women’s Bantamweight: Debi Purcell (4-1) vs. Michelle Ould (1-0) Heavyweight: Antoine Jaoude (7-2) vs. Mike Kyle (10-5-1) Welterweight: Steve Carl (5-1) vs. Victor Valenzuela (5-1-2) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Strikeforce comes home to their base in California with a very fan-friendly card with a legendary main-event as the Gracie and Shamrock family will once again do battle with each other with Royce Gracie taking on Frank Shamrock. In his most recent fight, Shamrock has suffered his first defeat since 1997 with a very controversial disqualification via a headbutt loss to Renzo Gracie that has many fans clowning the Gracie family as “cowards”, many believe Renzo was faking how hurt he was as the two were grappling on the mat and Renzo was on the one on top while Frank was on his back. Some question how Frank could generate that much power on the ground at such a close range, after the bout Frank Shamrock has been a vocal critic of the Gracie family which has led to their most famous fighter in Royce Gracie accepting a fight with him to settle the score once and for all. Frank hasn’t held anything back with quotes about he wants to “destroy the Gracie family name” targeting multiple Gracie’s demanding a rematch with “the p***y, Renzo Gracie” after he puts on a “masterful destruction of epic proportions” on Royce then he wants a crack at the undefeated and most accomplished Gracie BJJ student in Rickson Gracie described as easily the greatest BJJ fighter in the history of MMA. He is also rumored to be 100-0 in submission grappling but his record is unknown but currently being retired it is unlikely he will be goaded out of retirement but the possibility is on the table. While some fans are excited others are pointing out how Royce Gracie is currently 40 years old compared to Frank who is 34 plus Gracie hasn’t won a fight since 1995, but the name value of both fights plus it being another tale in the Shamrock vs. Gracie rivalry is bound to grab some attention. With some doubt that the main-event is actually a fight and more of a spectacle, the co-main event has quietly been building itself up as the people's main-event that see’s Cung Le a SanShou fighter that is a form of MMA that relates back to the old Chinese Kickboxing techniques that haven’t yet been seen in MMA particularly his use of feints and kicks his chin has been questionable tho and could be cracked against such a durable fighter in Phil Baroni. He can box and wrestle but prefers to trade it out on the feet this will be Baroni’s first fight since his canceled bout against Jason “Mayhem” Miller, the tone from that fight to this fight is a complete switch as both Lee and Baroni have huge respect for each other. Heavyweight Jeff Monson has made headlines for his cringe-worthy trash talk releasing an online video bashing his opponent Siala-Mou Siliga an Asan Samon kickboxer turn MMA fighter he is very much like Mark Hunt look for one shot to end the night with a walk-off KO with also an iron chin to go along with it. Monsoon has declared he will “smash this Australian bum and make him go oi, oi, oi only on pay-per-view” it should be noted the entire event is on free tv. Monson promises a stand-up war but expects him to mix in some wrestling which will test Siliga’s takedown defense. Continuing with some overlooked fights on the card staying in the Heavyweight division undefeated Canadian standing at 6’4” Tim Hague, fellow Canadian GSP has said he can see Tim Hague becoming a real pioneer for Canadian MMA. “He has a real chance at being a great champion, I’m a huge fan and can’t wait to see what he does for MMA here in Canada”. - George St-Pierre His opponent the very experienced Assuerio Silva a former UFC fighter is the first step up in competition for Hague’s. Silva has good hands, savage kicks, slick Muay-Thai and has yet to suffer an actual KO/TKO loss (his one TKO loss comes from a cut not via actual punches, kicks, knees &, etc). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: Pancrase sign Paul Daley, Ricco Rodriguez, Murilo Rua & others “They [strikeforce] low-balled me so I left” - Paul Daley Only a couple of weeks have gone by since Paul Daley claimed the vacant Strikeforce Welterweight championship and now the title will once again be vacant as now former Strikeforce champion Paul Daley has signed a 5-fight deal with Pancrase one of the least standing nationally recognized MMA organizations that in Japan. They have made headlines by signing Brock Lesnar and other big-name opponents but with Lesnar yet to be booked most of their events have been passed by with little coverage, but that hasn’t stopped Pancrase excess from scouting the market for new talent a signing like Daley is bound to get the promotion back in the spotlight. For Strikeforce it’s a crushing blow to the organization, even worse Daley has criticized the promotion of their business ethics and has gone in on promoter Scott Coker. “[scott] Coker is a low-balling lying c**t, I’m a champion in your division in your organization and I’m offered barley $5 thousand a fight? Bulls**t. I knew I was done with them as soon as they offered me that it’s a f**kin disgrace man”. - Paul Daley Coker made brief comments thanking Daley for his services but wished he was more professional and not lie about how much they offered to say he was “pushing his value way too much for what he is really worth”. Other signings include (26-6) Ricco Rodgriuez a teammate of former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, he like Tito likes to wrestle who also has some below-average striking but with it being Heavyweight he is able to make up for his lack of technique. Finale noteworthy fighter who has inked a deal with Pancrase is Murilo Rua who was recently dominated by Strikeforce with very little interest for him but he has decided to go back to Japan as he has stated his love for Japan and the fans over there as he hopes to bounce back from a devastating lopsided defeated to “The Gracie Hunter”.

Main Card Welterweight Bout: Paulo Filho (185 lbs) vs. Aaron Riley (166 lbs) Heavyweight Bout: Sergei Kharitonov (240 lbs) vs. Brandon Lee Hinkle (235 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Andre Dida (165 lbs) vs. Rumina Sato (165 lbs) Heavyweight Bout: Roy Nelson (265 lbs) vs. Alexey Oleynik (155 lbs) Preliminary Card Heavyweight Bout: Valentjin Overeem (235 lbs) vs. Wes Sims (260 lbs) Lightweight Bout: David Baron (165 lbs) vs. Antonio McKee (165 lbs) Welterweight Bout: Daniel Acacio (185 lbs) vs. Satoru Kitaoka (166 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Luiz Azeredo (165 lbs) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (146 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Sergey Golyaev (165 lbs) vs. Evan Dunham (165 lbs) Middleweight Bout: Andrei Semenov (205 lbs) vs. Vinny Magalhaes (205 lbs) Welterweight Bout: Delson Heleno (185 lbs) vs. Tim Boetsch (185 lbs) Featherweight Bout: Milton Vieira (145 lbs) vs. Bibiano Fernandes (145 lbs)

2007 July Week 4 Recap [Headline One]: UFC 73 Recap & Results Sherk edges out Franca with a controversial unanimous decision to defend Lightweight title Critical Rating: (78%), Commercial Rating: (65%) Attendance: 5,682 (Gate $875,028) Venue: Indiana Farmers Coliseum, (Indiana) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Sean Sherk def. Hermes Franca via UD (49-46, 48-47x2) to retain UFC Lightweight title [Fight Rating: Fantastic] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Frank Trigg def. Anthony Torres via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Good] *Brandon Vera pulls out with a foot injury at the weigh-in* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Mike Swick def. Thiago Alves via TKO [Head Kick & Punches] (R2 - 3:57) [Fight Rating: Great] Gleison Tibau def. Terry Emit via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Decent] Tim Kennedy def. Tamdan McCory via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Average ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Vladimir Matyushenko def. Luiz Cane via TKO [Ground & Pound] (R2 - 2:31) [Fight Rating: Great] Rich Clementi def. Luiz Firmino via UD (30-27x2, 29-28) [Fight Rating: Good] Shinya Aoki def. Vitor Ribeiro via UD (29-28x3) [Fight Rating: Average] Joachim Hansen def. Mitsuhiro Ishida via UD (30-27x2, 30-26) [Fight Rating: Decent] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fight of the Night - Sean Sherk vs. Hermes Franca Knockout of the Night - Mike Swick Submission of the Night - N/A Sean “The Muscle Shark'' Sherk has successfully defended his Lightweight championship getting the unanimous decision victory over challenger Hermes Franca but despite the win, some media outlets are calling it an early robbery of the year candidate. The fight started out with some beautiful boxing from Franca throughout the first two minutes he was tagging Sherk with the one-two keeping him at a distance to prevent him from wrestling then started to implement hooks to the head plus body whenever Sherk was able to put Franca on the backfoot. The next two minutes of the fight was mostly spent with the two tradings in middle with Franca landing more often while also having a brilliant guard to nullify Sherk’s punches but the champ was finding success with leg kicks which started to destroy the balance of the challenger his biggest moment of the round coming as Sherk was able to land a huge right overhand while faking a takedown but Hermes Franca would respond with a five punch combination that started with a one-two, double-jab then finished with an uppercut but after the combo, Sherk landed a well-timed leg kick which briefly hurt the challenger. Seeing the window of opportunity Sherk rushed in and picked up Franca to complete a big double-legged slam takedown but the challenger did well to prevent Sherk from transitioning into any dominant position like full mount and whenever Sherk fired off any ground and pound it was mostly blocked but the champ was able to land some knees from side-control. Round 2 and 3 were clear rounds for Hermes Franca as he made the adjustments to check all of Sherk’s leg kicks throughout the two rounds which left the champion largely without any type of consistent offensive he was able to occasionally land a left-cross from time to time but often he was one and done with striking and wasn’t able to find a way to get the fight to the mat as he went 0-3 on combined takedowns through rounds 2 and 3. Meanwhile, Franca was starting to put it on the champion showing some real killer instinct as his crisp boxing was starting to tag “The Muscle Shark” consistently this caused Sherk to start backing up to the cage in which Franca was able to pepper him with a flurry of hooks that usually finished with uppercuts. In round 3 while up against the cage Franca landed 4 out of 5 flurries of hooks but instead of finishing with an uppercut, he went over the top with a led elbow that slicked open a huge cut above Sherk’s right eye. With seemingly three rounds in the bank for the challenger, the champion started to come alive during the 2nd half of the fight starting off with hitting a beautiful left-cross then hook the body following a missed one-two from Franca who was starting to gas but he wouldn’t back down but wasn’t necessarily putting the pressure on Sherk like in rounds 2 & 3 as the two meet in the middle and started trading. The two exchanged one-twos with each other with Sherk slipping an uppercut to counter with a clean two hooks to the body then leg kick, the two then clinched exchanging some nice dirty boxing Franca was able to open up another cut on the forehead of “The Muscle Shark” with an array of elbows while Sherk himself landed some nice knees to the body. As the two exchanged in the final minute of the fight through the clinch Sherk was able to secure a slick one-legged takedown which might have won him. The two came out swinging for the start of the 5th as Franca started out hot early landing a straight then a quick left before landing a flush overhand the champ responded with a hard jab then right hook but was then met with a one-two then uppercut which briefly rocked him but a tired Hermes Franca couldn’t find the finishing punch. A desperate Sherk was able to get a desperation takedown and control the rest of the round securing 3 takedowns total in the round with some decent dirty boxing against Hermes up against the cage throughout the round. As Sherk was declared the winner by unanimous decision there was definitely a mixture of boos and cheers just looking at the two side by side shows Sherk bloodied by the two large cuts with some serious bruising while Franca has some minor swelling on his leg with some redness to the body. Franca felt he had ‘won rounds 1, 2, 3, and maybe 4’ when interviewed by Joe Rogan but said he would take this loss like a ‘professional’ and ‘not complain about it’. Sherk meanwhile was rushed to the hospital but the head coach of Minnesota Martial Arts Academy said while the fight was ‘close’ they felt they ‘won rounds 1, 4, and 5’. Other victories on the main-card like Frank Trigg, Gleison Tibau, and Tim Kennedy all put on wrestling clinics for some decision victories. Mike Swick would get an impressive victory over Thiago Alves plus picking up an extra $50K, the first round belonged to Alves who was able to get the better of Swick with multiple Muay-Thai clinches which resulted in knees and elbows the 2nd round was also going the way of Alves as he was once again easily able to grab the Muay-Thai clinch while also able to unload with kicks to the body and leg. Swick had some moments as he was doing some fine bodywork in rounds 1 and 2 but “Quick” was really able to turn the fight around once he noted Alves dipped his head to the right whenever the two disengaged from the clinch. After he once again went into the clinch after landing a beautiful straight then a brief elbow in the clinch a monstrous right head kick wobbled Alves as a quick one-two then right hook put Alves down then ground and pound ended the fight. The rest of the fights that were on the prelims followed pretty much the same result as the main-card with mostly dominant wrestling clinics that led to some decision wins or late stoppages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: Couture strained rotator calf, Gonzaga steps in on 2 weeks notice “I’m disappointed, but we still have a fantastic card with a fantastic main-event” - Dana White Sometimes you just can’t have good things in MMA it's a cruel sport that has more sad moments than happy, this is of course one of those sad moments for fans around the world as Heavyweight champion Randy Couture has announced he has pulled out of his scheduled bout with Fedor Emelianenko a super-fight to determine who is the greatest Heavyweight and possibly fighter of all time which will now be put on hold or permanently tainted. Gabriel Gonzaga who was supposed to fight on UFC 73 but didn’t due to his opponent [brandon Vera] pulling out will now fight Fedor in a 3 round main-event at UFC 74. The two actually have a mild rivalry between them as Gonzaga has made it clear he feels snubbed and disrespected by the UFC fully placing the blame on Fedor. Previously Couture was scheduled to fight another Heavyweight legend Mirko Cro Cop but due to injury Co Cop was rescheduled to fight Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70, Gonzaga won via first-round head kick knockout to dash the legendary match-up could Gonzaga pull off another upset and ruin another legendary Heavyweight bout to secure himself a title-shot? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Three]: UFC Fight Night: Mir v. Overeem set for August Week 4 Alistair Overeem set to make UFC debut against former-champ Frank Mir ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Heavyweight: Frank Mir (9-3) vs. Alistair Overeem (24-10) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Lightweight: Leonard Garcia (9-2) vs. Kenny Florian (6-3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Welterweight: Anthony Johnson (3-0) vs. Dan Hardy (15-5-1NC) Middleweight: Ivan Salaverry (13-6) vs. Ryan Jensen (11-1) Light-Heavyweight: James Irvin (12-4-1NC) vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (17-7-1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Lightweight: Mark Bocek (4-0) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (11-2) Middleweight: Scott Smith (12-3) vs. Drew McFedries (5-2) Lightweight: Jess Liaudin (13-8) vs. Tyson Griffin (8-1) Heavyweight: Mike Russow (5-1-1NC) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (13-0-1NC) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another longtime main-staple in the PRIDE roster making his transition to the UFC with the demise of PRIDE will make his debut for the company in Alistair Overeem quite possibly the most skilled fighter in the division Overeem versatile skill set makes him the (-200) betting favorite but one area where he has struggled in is wrestling and submission defense areas that his opponent former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir excels at. Also, Mir has some underrated power in his hands Overeem has had his fair share of knockout losses but so does Mir but Overeem with his K1-kickboxing experience should theoretically have the advantage on the feet but with only 4-ounce gloves, anything can happen. Moving to the co-main the always exciting brawler Leonard Garcia takes on the tactical Kenny Florian who if he can stick to the right game-plan can dismantle Garcia, Florian has already pointed out Garcia vulnerability to leg kicks as well as commenting how he will make him tired with wrestling early then finish him with later in the fight. While a good plan in theory Florian can’t allow Leonard Garcia to dictate the pace of the fight by backing him up as Garica is always at his best when marching through his opponent’s strikes then throwing haymakers as his opponent is trapped against the cage. The rest of the card was quickly put together with some promising prospects particularly a prospect versus prospect fight with the Brit Dan “The Hitman” Hardy taking on Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. “Rumble” hits like a truck with a very solid wrestling base but due to some intense weight cutting has seen his insane power declined as he has missed weight multiple times now, one must question if a possible move up in weight will take place soon as Johnson has commented he’d like to do so sometime by the end of the year. Before he moves up Johnson is taking one last fight in the Welterweight division against Dan Hardy as the two have been jawing back and forth for the past few months the two have promised a stunning knockout of the year candidate. Much like Florian, Dan Hardy is a very smart high IQ fighter while “The Hitman” isn’t as well rounded but with his very technical kickboxing he can very much out-point Johnson but the main question is how much will the weight cut effect “Rumble”? Ryan Jensen is the latest prospect out of Jackson Wink MMA a high IQ BJJ fighter with ever-improving stand-up he fights veteran Ivan Salaverry who also likes to roll as well rough his opponent up with dirty boxing as well as hit some nasty knees and elbows in the clinch. The last fight on the main-card looks very promising as James Irvin a very fan-friendly fighter who likes to throw heavy hands with heavy kicks liking to constantly move forward putting the pressure on his opponents faces Poland's Krzysztof Soszynski a very experienced fighter who has developed some slick boxing but hasn’t really developed an elite or high-level status in anywhere else in his game as he is pretty mediocre everywhere else but in what is probably going to be a stand and bang battle that could be all he needs.

2007 July Week 3 Recap [Headline One]: Strikeforce: Sakuraba vs Rua Recap & Results Sakuraba dominates Maurilo Rua to win vacant Strikeforce title Critical Rating: (66%), Commercial Rating: (64%) Attendance: 4,041 (Gate $835,275) Venue: Amarillo Civic Center, (Texas) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Kazushi Sakuraba def. Murlio Rua via UD (50-45x3) to win vacant Strikeforce Middleweight title [Fight Rating: Decent] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Paul Daley def. Mike Pyle via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 1:55) to win vacant Strikeforce Welterweight title [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Paul Buentello def. Maurice Smith via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 1:02) [Fight Rating: Good] Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Alex Schoenauer via SD (29-28x2, 28-29) [Fight Rating: Poor] Josh Thomson def. Adam Lynn [Rear-Naked Choke] (R3 - 4:45) [Fight Rating: Good] *Jason Miller pulled out due to weigh-in issues* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Ronaldo Souza def. Sanae Kikuta via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Good] Ryan Bader def. Alexandre Ferreira via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Good] Jan Nortje def. Carter Williams via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 0:36) [Fight Rating: Good] Jae Suk Lim def. Eddy Ellis via SUB [Armbar] (R1 - 2:09) [Fight Rating: Great] Seth Klienbeck def. Anthony Ruiz via TKO [body Punch] (R1 - 2:05) [Fight Rating: Great] Falaniko Vitale def. Jason Von Flue via SUB [Armbar] (R1 - 2:31) [Fight Rating: Great] *Billy Evangelista hand-injury pulled out 2 days before event* *Jorge Santiago hip-injury pulled out 1 week before event* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fight of the Night - N/A Knockout of the Night - Paul Daley & Paul Buentello Submission of the Night - Josh Thomson The Gracie Hunter has sent a resounding message across the world that he is still able to compete at the highest level after securing a very dominant victory to secure Strikeforce’s Middleweight championship. His keys to victory was high-volume constant forward pace he gave Rua no chance to breathe when it came to striking as “The Gracie Hunter” constantly had his opponent on the backfoot, overwhelming Rua with kicks to the body plus punches in bunches while also putting on a wrestling clinic whenever he decided to take the fight to the mat with a perfect 5 for 5 on takedown attempts. The newly crowned Welterweight champ Paul Daley also had a very impressive performance taking less than two minutes to finish Mike Pyle, the fight started off slow with Pyle working with leg kicks from long range with a couple of straights to the body while Daley was waiting for that one perfect counter to end it all that came when Plye decided after landing one of those leg kicks plus a straight to the body to go up top with a one-two but Daley ducked countering while a looping right-hook on the button which wobbled Plye then a left-hook to the back of his opponent's ear as the two separated which put him down with ground and pound finishing him off. Outside the main and co-main other main takeaways was the amount of injuries as 3 fights where pulled from the card in less than a week the biggest being Jason Miller was pulled from the card by the Texas Athletic State commission due to extensive weight cutting while a massive setback both Royce Gracie and Phil Baroni didn’t pass up the opportunity to take some pot shots at Miller after multiple alterations between the three. Performance wise it was filled with a lot of quick finishes or dominate displays prospects like Josh Thomosn and Ronaldo Souza walking away with huge victories as well as Maurice Smith walking away with another brutal knockout loss as Paul Buentello landed a beautiful counter right-hook off an ill-advised leg kick then uppercut to finish the former UFC Heavyweight champion. The only close fight was Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeating Alex Schoenauer via a split decision in a snoofest of a grappling match that had little submission attempts or technique to write home about. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: UFC 75 announced for September Week 3 in Brazil “Rampage” Jackson to defend Light-Heavyweight championship against Mauricio Rua in rematch ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Light-Heavyweight: [CHAMP] Quinton Jackson (27-6) vs. Mauricio Rua (16-2) [Jackson's First Attempted Title Defense] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Middleweight: Viktor Belfort (15-8) vs. Chris Leben (16-4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Middleweight: Paulo Filho (14-0) vs. Chael Sonnen (19-8-1) Light-Heavyweight: Houston Alexander (8-1-1NC) vs. Lyoto Machida (10-0) Lightweight: Gesias Cavalcante (11-1-1) vs. Joe Lauzon (14-3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Middleweight: Demian Maia (6-0) vs. Ed Herman (14-5) Light-Heavyweight: Thiago Silva (10-0) vs. Jamal Petterson (3-1) Lightweight: Thiago Tavares (11-0) vs. Clay French (10-2) Light-Heavyweight: Glover Teixeira (5-2) vs. Jason Brilz (13-1-1) Lightweight: Marcus Aureilio (14-4) vs. Abdul Mohamed (13-4-2) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After dethroning the beloved Chuck Liddell with a brutal first round knockout Light-Heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is currently riding a 5-fight win-streak the last person to defeat Jackson was Mauricio Rua back at “PRIDE: Total Elimination 2005”. A former pupil of Wanderlei Silva, another heated rival to Jackson, Mauricio looks to move past the Anderson Silva drama which has plagued his career the last couple of weeks after the two had a falling out. A salivating co-main event see’s two axe murders take each other on as former UFC Light-Heavyweight champ Viktor Belfort moves down to the Middleweight division in his return fight to the promotion taking on Chris Leben a participant on the 1st season of The Ultimate Fighter. Belfort could possibly utilize his superior BJJ to tire out Leben but that depends really what type of game plan or mentality Belfort will have coming into the fight with, Leben has the slightly better boxing with power being pretty even but Belfort's background in Taekwondo could even out the stand-up. The rest of the main-card is solidly stacked with two top Middleweight contenders in undefeated Brazilian BJJ black-belt Paulo Filho takes on all-American wrestler Chael Sonnen who has the ability to maul Filho with his high-pressure style of wrestling but he has been vulnerable to many submissions in the past most notably the triangle-choke. Going back to the Light-Heavyweight division Houston Alexander asked for and has received a match-up with the undefeated Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida whos karate style with illusive feints and footwork have left his opponents with very little in terms of strikes landed. Machida hasn’t yet faced the top fighters of the Light-Heavyweight division Houston Alexander is riding a very impressive knockout victory over Mat Hamil at UFC 72 a month and a half ago. Alexander has some extreme knockout power with an ever-improving stand-up game but has gassed in the past, if Machida can implement the same gameplan he will walk out of the fight from prospect to contender. To round out the rest of the card a whole crop of Brazilian prospects it littered throughout the card as every fight involves a fighter from Brazil these include Gesias Cavalcante a very well rounded MMA fighter with only one loss to his name, Glover Teixeira a sparring partner to former Light-Heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell another well rounded fighter who has a background in Taekwondo, along with three undefeated Brazilian fighters in grappling specialist Demian Maia, Thiago Tavares another sensation grappler with a deadly guillotine and finally Thiago Silva a headhunter with powerful punches plus kicks. Thiago Silva is currently one of the most inspiring fighters in the UFC coming up from a very rough upbringing running away from home at 13 to escape his abusive father leaving behind his beloved mother and young brother which he has unfortunately never seen again. He would live in the slums and attend high-school at night as he had to support himself with a day job once he graduated turning 18 he started training in MMA coming from an athletic background being very skilled in soccer he quickly picked up MMA and now is on the cusp of possibly gaining UFC gold as he looks for an impressive victory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Three]: MMA Rivalries Wanderlei Silva lashes out at Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, Dan Henerson, and Quinton Jackson in venomous interview “The Axe Murder” Wanderlei Silva in a recent interview with reporter Ariel Helwani has fired many shots at many fighters during his brief time on the UFC roster in just this week alone he has ranted on four of the most popular fighters in the Light-Heavyweight division. Let's start with his upcoming opponent in Forrest Griffin while many fans love Griffin for his goofy persona plus just down to earth personality Wanderlei has label Griffin a ‘disrespectful clown’ who doesn't ‘respect’ the sport of MMA and is running it with his behavior. Most fans have labeled Wanderlei a ‘buzzkill’ but that hasn’t stopped him from continuously complaining about his opponent for the upcoming UFC 74, Griffin has taken the criticism in a classic Griffin way joking about how his opponent is so ‘mean and angry’ hoping this dosen’t led to him getting ‘viciously knocked out’. During that same interview Helwani asked Silva on his thoughts about the current state of the Light-Heavyweight division on where he thought he was currently in the mix, Wanderlei expressed even though he is on a 2-fight skid he still thinks he is the best Light-Heavyweight in the world calling for a rematch with Dan Henderson calling his knockout a “fluke”. “If you look at how the fight was going I won every second of it then he landed a very lucky punch that I don’t think will ever land again so in my opinion it was a fluke. A rematch between us will probably go how the Anderson [silva] fight went with me leaving him brutally knocked out”. - Wanderlei Silva “The Axe Murder” wasn’t done yet taking some more shots at fighters he didn’t think very highly off the heated rivalry between the current champion Quinton Jackson the twos beef goes all the way back to when PRIDE was still running if any wondered if tensions have cooled between the two the answer is a very simple no. “He isn’t a champion in my eyes [Quinton Jackson] I am, I’ve defeated him twice in the two times we have fought. I’m the better fighter so to me I’m the champion, I only have respect for a few fighters like Chuck Liddell and [Lyoto] Machida the rest I don’t think very highly of”. - Wanderlei Silva The last fighter Silva mentioned has been very vocal himself in Tito Ortiz who is making his return after his 2nd loss to Chuck Liddell after Wanderlei signed with the UFC the former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion was quick to mock Silva as Ortiz defeated “The Axe Muder” in a one-sided unanimous decision to win the Light-Heavyweight belt before Wanderlei went on his legendary run in PRIDE in one of the more forgotten matches in UFC history no doubt the rematch between the two would do much better numbers now that they are both more established but both would need to gather a few more wins under their belt before a match-up between the two is even considered. Tito argued that Silva wasn’t really (31-7-1-1NC) but really “(0-7-1-1NC)” as he mocked the former PRIDE champion for being a “paid actor” in “scripted fights”. These comments have led to a bitter back and forth battle of verbal jabs between the two with Ortiz accusing Silva of steroids while Wanderlei has mocked his two losses to Liddell plus Frank Shamrock talking about how he will put on a ‘much worse beating’.

Middleweight Bout: Kazushi Sakuraba (185 lbs) vs. Vitor Belfort (205 lbs) Middleweight Bout: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (205 lbs) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (205 lbs) Welterweight Bout: Kazuo Misaki (185 lbs) vs. Sanae Kikuta (185 lbs) Welterweight Bout: Akihiro Gono (171 lbs) vs. Makoto Takimoto (185 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Tatsuya Kawajiri (160 lbs) vs. Caol Uno (160 lbs) Welterweight Bout: Yuki Kondo (185 lbs) vs. Evangelista Santos (185 lbs) Heavyweight Bout: Kazuyuki Fujita (240 lbs) vs. Ricco Rodriguez (245 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Daisuke Nakamura (160 lbs) vs. Alexandre Franca Nogueira (155 lbs) Middleweight Bout: Ryuta Noji (205 lbs) vs. Roger Gracie (205 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Akitoshi Tamura (155 lbs) vs. Jong Man Kim (155 lbs) Heavyweight Bout: Roy Nelson (265 lbs) vs. Yusuke Kawaguchi (255 lbs) Lightweight Bout: Eddie Alvarez (160 lbs) vs. Tomonari Kanomata (160 lbs)

2007 July Week 2 Recap [Headline One]: UFC Fight Night: Franklin v. Bisping Result & Recap Franklin secures title-shot with an impressive come from behind 2nd round knockout Critical Rating: (69%), Commercial Rating: (58%) Attendance: 1,146 (Gate $171,900) Venue: Hirsch Memorial Coliseum, (Louisiana) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Rich Franklin def. Micheal Bisping via KO [Punch] (R2 - 3:14) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Cain Velasquez def. Cheick Kongo via TKO [Punches] (R3 - 2:31) [Fight Rating: Great] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Junior Assuncao def. Alvin Robinson via SUB [Guillotine] (R2 - 1:17) [Fight Rating: Decent] Justin Buchholz def. Manny Gamburyan via UD (30-27x2, 29-28) [Fight Rating: Average] Tom Speer def. Luke Cummo via TKO [Punches] (R3 - 0:42) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Dorian Price def. Matt Arroyo via SUB [Rear-Naked Choke] (R2 - 4:09) [Fight Rating: Decent] Roan Carneiro def. Jon Koppenhaver via TKO [Knees & Punches] (R2 - 0:44) [Fight Rating: Decent] Luke Caudillo def. Rob Emerson via SD (28-29, 29-28x2) [Fight Rating: Great] John-Olva Einemo def. Justin McCully via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 1:45) [Fight Rating: Good] George Sotriopoulos def. Diego Saraiva UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Decent] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fight of the Night - Cain Velasquez vs. Cheick Kongo Knockout of the Night - Rich Franklin Submission of the Night - Junior Assuncao A decent fight-card has wrapped up in Louisiana as Rich Franklin only a year removed from losing his title to Anderson Silva at UFC 64 has fought his way back to the mountain top to challenge Silva in an eventual rematch either later this year or early 2008. But by the start it looked like “The Count” Michael Bisping would pull off the upset early on as round one saw Bisping come out bouncy using excellent footwork to come in close and dart out dictating the pace of the fight for practically the entire round as the former champion seemed absolutely clueless at times. Whenever Franklin advanced he ate an array of leg kicks plus straight punches then whenever he backed up or decided to stay stationary Bisping was able to rattle off 4 to 5 punch combinations easily, Franklin did have one moment in the first where he checked a leg kick then counted with a beautiful straight and right hook both landed cleanly but Bisping shook it off coming back with a solid uppercut than landed cleanly before following up with two hooks to the body then a leg kick to finish the round. Round two starts it's the same story for the first minute with Bisping darting in and out as Franklin couldn’t seem to find the mark at all one thing he did notice was “The Count” had ended particularly all his combos with a leg kick whenever Franklin tried to advance forward so when the two fighters met in the middle after another combination from Bisping which saw him land a double-jab ducking the right hook of Franklin coming over the top with a hook of his own which just grazed the forehead as excepted Bisping ended the combination with a leg kick. A hard check from Franklin saw him briefly grab the mauy-thai clinch to land a huge knee to the head that opened a cut above the right eye of Bisping his once fluid long stance footwork was now upright plus stiff “Ace” had him hurt but was patient in his attack waiting until Bisping launched his own attack as he cracked “The Count'' again with a counter right-hook then straight followed by another hook making it the first three punch combination Franklin had landed in the fight. Bisping retreated to the cage in desperation he started throwing with some wild intentions but a calm Franklin wasn’t harmed by any of these rapid flurries after the end of one of these flurries Rich Franklin faked going for a takedown causing Bisping to completely lower his guard to stuff it, this fake attempted masked Franklins true attack in an overhand right landing straight on the chin causing the previously undefeated fighter the lay down stiff against the cage in humiliating defeat. The walk off KO reminded many of Silva’s previous walk KO against Dan Henderson at UFC 72 igniting the interest for a possible rematch the two men after the bout were nothing but class with Bisping giving an honest assessment of what went wrong. “My attack become to predictable I started to throw the same sh** over and over again it was a terrible mistake by me. Franklin adjusted put me to f**kin sleep nothing else to say I will be back I won’t quit, I’ve never feared losing I’ve lost plenty of times both in and out of the octagon. This hurts like f**k I can’t lie, this is a huge setback for me but I’m not ashamed of myself I did my best so did Rich [Franklin] I hope he gets his belt back he deserves it”. - Michael Bisping The co-main event would win Fight of the Night honors as well as being Cain Velasquez’s start off to contender ship in the UFC’s Heavyweight division. Velasquez started off the first round nullifying Kongo’s superior stand-up with close range dirty boxing often battering up Kongo with elbows, bus driver uppercuts, and knees to the body. The huge advantage is weight plus more experienced wrestling allowed Cain to smother his opponent for the entire round successfully landing 2 out of 3 takedowns nearly finishing his opponent in the last 20 seconds of the round with ground in pound from full guard as an elbow from up top opened a significant cut under his right eye. Round two starts with an another immediate clinch started from Velasquez two big bus driver uppercuts hurt Kongo followed by an elbow on the right dome of his head as they separated marching down his opponent Velasquez goes for and gets a big doubled-legged slam at as Cheick Kongo was recovering lying against the octagon cage. More big ground and pound nearly finished Kongo off as he gave up his back nearly getting submitted via a rear-naked choke twice before a good sprawl saw the two stand-up after 3 minutes on the ground. With two left and a whole lot of energy used up Cain was more laxed not pushing the pace as he previously was this to a flew exchanges from the two fighters but nothing significant landed to the head but Kongo was starting to find the body as he let loose with an array of hooks to the body. After landing three straight hooks to the body with his guard lower a one-two wobbled Velasquez in a panic Cain would rush to get back to wrestling his opponent but Kongo predicted this landing a clean 4 punch combination that started with a counter straight then three hooks with the last one landing behind the ear Velasquez was nearly dropped to the canvas but stayed upright surviving the last 30 seconds to the end of the round. After a successful end to the 2nd round Kongo was feeling pretty good so at the start of the 3rd he rushed his opponent to finish him off but missed baldy and was dragged down to the mat, Kongo now starting to gas out himself couldn’t shake off his opponent with Velasquez grabbing full mount he was pounded out. It would be hard to also not only mention the 2nd greatest upset this year (according to betting odds) as Luke Caudillo a (+720) underdog scored a split decision victory over Rob Emerson (-920) favorite. This fight had barely any buzz of analysis draw towards it mainly due to such the huge betting favorite but to summarize it shortly Emerson is an experienced Vale Tudo fighter with excellent wrestling with good enough stand-up, Caudillo is a heavy hitting boxer who is an awful wrestler with even worse takedown defense plus submission defense it was expected to be a quick show up n’ tap type of fight but Caudillo cracked Emerson early in the fight with a slick counter right hook to the body after ducking a jab then floored him with an uppercut. Spending most of the round off his back Emerson went on to take some serious punishment as Caudillo was landing some brutal ground and pound for the majority of the round. Round two comes around with Caudillo piercing up Emerson on the feet as he couldn’t find a way to get in for the takedown as straight punches plus leg kicks kept him at bay for the first 4 minutes but eventually the back pedaling Caudillo was trapped against the cage then promptly takendown immediately his lack of ground game showed as Emerson grabbed mount and pounded away for the rest of the round opening up his opponent on the right side of his head with an elbow the fight arguably should of been stopped but referee Mario Yamaski didn’t intervene. Last round and first thing to happen was another immediate takedown from Emerson but maybe from fatigue or to recover from the damage he had taken in the opening rounds he just laid on stop of his opponent for three minutes offering only a few punches leading to the ref standing the two up as soon as they stood up Caudillo rocked Emerson with a straight then one-two dropping him with another uppercut but a good sprawl from his opponent prevented him from finding the finish blow with one minute left Emerson was actually now starting to outland Caudillo as he found a home for his one-two through the dying seconds of the fight. But despite outlanding his opponent significantly in round 3 the brief knockdown sequence was enough for Caudillo to be rewarded the decision, one fighter not impressed by his performance plus the fight as a whole was Justin Buchholz after dominating his fight where he stuffed 10 out of 10 takedowns with some media members rewarding him a 30-25 card with how dominate he was told Joe Rogan. “I saw [Luke] Caudillo and [Rob] Emerson fight what a travesty that was. Vale Tudo and he doesn't even attempt one f**kin submission in the entire fight? Like seriously are you that f**kin stupid? I’ll correct the result of that one. Give me Caudillo, he's a complete bum”. - Justin Buchholz Junior Assuncao won submission of the night with a nice standing Guillotine after rocking his opponent with a flurry of hooks while he recovering against the cage, the young Welterweight Tom Speer picked up a TKO win advancing to 12-1 he has be dubbed by Joe Rogan a ‘sleeper prospect’ as he trains out of the same gym as Brock Lesnar and UFC Lightweight champion Sean Sherk. Speer already had some high-level wrestling but now that he is starting to better his stand-up maybe he will slide into title-contentions in the near future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: EliteXC: Silva vs. Thompson Recap & Results EliteXC wow fans with two fight of the year contenders at EliteXC Silva v. Thompson Critical Rating: (84%), Commercial Rating: (44%) Attendance: 1,022 (Gate $140,832) Venue: Delmar Fieldhouse, (Texas) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Event Antonio Silva def. James Thompson via (SUB) [Armbar] (R2 - 1:32) to win vacant EliteXC Heavyweight title [Fight Rating: Fantastic] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Co-Main Josh Rafferty def. Joey Villasenor via UD (48-47x3) to win vacant EliteXC Welterweight title [Fight Rating: Great] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Main-Card Nick Diaz def. Antoni McKee via KO [Knee & Punches] (R3 - 4:19) [Fight Rating: Good] Jonathan Goulet def. Bobby Volelker via TKO [Eblows] (R3 - 1:21) [Fight Rating: Fantastic] Robbie Lawler def. Steve Steinbeiss via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 0:45) [Fight Rating: Good] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelims Jake Rosholt def. Jason Day via SUB [RNC] (R2 - 1:32) [Fight Rating: Great] Joe Pearson def. Johnny Beford via SUB [Triangle-Armbar] (R2 - 1:35) [Fight Rating: Good] Bobby McMasters def. Daniel Pineda via TKO [Knee’s] (R2 - 0:45) [Fight Rating: Average] Jennifer Tate def. Mika Harigai via SUB [Guillotine] (R1 - 1:48) [Fight Rating: Good] Dave Huckaba def. Jared Hamman via KO [Punch] (R1 - 0:10) [Fight Rating: Good] Jesse Bongfeldt def. Steve Heath via UD (30-27x3) [Fight Rating: Decent] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ rodrigoviolim - 7/11 correct predictions Fight of the Night - Antonio Silva v. James Thompson & Jonathan Goulet v. Bobby Volelker Knockout of the Night - Dave Huckaba Submission of the Night - Jennifer Tate You know the saying the “great cards are often the least hyped” really shined tonight as while only a little over a thousand people attended tonight's EliteXC event with disappointing TV numbers those who watched saw some of the best MMA action all year with two Fight of the Year contenders on one card a Knockout of the year contender as well as the fastest knockout in Heavyweight history in MMA an upset of the year candidate (being the biggest betting upset in the history of MMA) plus one of the most anticipated grudge matches in recent memory it's hard to know where to begin but we will start with the main-event. Round one was the type of round that doesn't exist in real life and probably shouldn’t yet it happened as the two fighters decided to reenact fight scenes from the Rocky movies as the two stood and traded heavy shots for the entire round. With the threat of the takedown being so high Thompson always had his hands low making it easy for Silva to find the target but that being said the Englishmen also tried to knockout his opponent to prevent the fight from ever hitting the mat. Here are some notable moments throughout the round the start saw Silva establish a consistent jab feeling confident after land 5 consecutively came over the top with a lead right elbow clashing against the dome of Thompsons head quickly grabbing the mauy-thai clinch landing three knees two the body one to the head but as they separated Thompson faked a jab to land a jaw crushing straight while Silva eat it at the time the shot did indeed reveal a fracture in Silva’s jaw sensing momentum was on his side Thompson threw two venomous right hooks both where blocked so he jumped back a little Antonio thinking Thompson attacking was over lowered his guard but would eat a fast head kick that landed clean on his dome that started a small cut. This led to a wild exchange Silva started it off landing a big one-two but his lead elbow was slipped this time as Thompson landed a huge right hook right on Silva’s chin he followed it up with two busdriver uppercuts as the two briefly clinched. The pacing of the fight didn’t stop as the two stood in front of each other looking for the knockout Silva had the better head movement but Thompson counter striking seemed to be doing more damage as a hard jab followed by a looping hook crush Silva’s nose but Silva also did his fair share of damage too as Thompson eat a two hook then uppercut combination which led to a leg kick which roughed up the Brits leg. Noticing this new way of attack Silva started to empathize leg kicks into almost every attack he would land 4 leg kicks in the round. Another wild exchange led to the first takedown of the fight as Silva after blocking a head kick landed a four punch combination of jabs n’ straights then easily secured the double-legged takedown but with only 20 seconds left Thompson survived. As round two started it was clear Silva’s corner got to him as they yelled for the takedown to stop this rock em sock em robots battle on the feet which he was at risk of being knocked out but the first minute was relatively the same as the entire first round the two traded big hooks which lead to a wild exchange as Silva landed a nice uppercut followed by a lead elbow but after was meet by a looping hook behind the back of the ear plus a leaping flying knee straight to the body but Silva would grab this knee and drag his opponent down to the mat. Securing mount he rained down some punishment before locking in an armbar to secure the victory and the championship in an all out Heavyweight war. It would be hard to top that but the Welterweight bout between Jonathan “The Road Warrior” Goulet v. Bobby “Vicious” Volelker bout depending on your own opinion could be better or a very close 2nd behind it as the best fight on this card. The fight started with the two fleeing each other out for the first 30 seconds trying to figure out the distance the first to strike was Voelker and it was infatic a nice jab was followed by a straight snapping Goulet’s head back but before he would counter attack another jab landed plus a clean head kick followed by another jab then a one-two then leg. Living to his “Vicious” nickname he was looking for the finish blow but missed baldy one a straight leaving him open to a hard overhand by “The Road Warrior” who roared his way back into the fight throwing a lead knee to the body that led to a clinch where he roughed Voelker up against the cage with some dirty boxing for the next minute. After circling out the two took turns exchanging some brief jabs and leg kicks until Volelker again launched another wild combination of strikes at during the finale 30 seconds of the round landing a one-two then roundhouse kick followed by an uppercut then right hook all strikes landed and if there were 10 seconds left in the round we might of seen a 1st round TKO or knockout. But the fight went into round two with Volelker looking to overwhelm his opponent with more wild combinations as he looked as if he wasn't tired at all but he a threw a rather predictable one-two then leg kick all where slipped then check allowed a solid three punch combination from Goulet as he landed another signature lead knee the body followed by a straight then hook but Volelker answered back with a hook of his own took. The next few minutes of the round were more feiting and single strikes but Goulet was able to again clinch up with Volelker allowing for some more dirty boxing against the cage before being dragged down to the mat. It looked like it was all over as Goulet immediately got side-control to secure a Kimura submission that was dangerously close but Voelker showed the heart of a lion by not tapping and find a way to get out but using up all his energy still being stuck in side-control he again was nearly finished as “The Road Warrior” blooded him up with elbows from up top for the last 20 seconds of the round these elbows opened up a cut on top and below his right eye. By the third round it seemed the damage was starting to get to “Vicious” as he threw a very sloppy one-two the was ducked then counter with a straight to the body then hook up top which made Voelker wobble to the cage trying to stay in the fight he threw a head kick in desperation but missed baldy and was takedown then promptly pounded out from full guard as he simply couldn’t take anymore damage. Moving on let's talk about the biggest upset on the card and possibly the biggest upset in the sport of combat as Josh Rafferty has won the vacant Welterweight title via a unanimous decision (48-47) on all three judges scorecards as the (-1130) Joey Villasenor would be defeated by the (+900) underdog Josh Raffery. Many excepted a one-sided beatdown and for the first two rounds we got exactly that as Villasenor was lighting up Rafferty who had no answers for Villasenor striking that being said his striking was fairly basic plus repetitive constantly throwing one-twos then a straight but it working as Rafferty had no answers for it until Villasenor told his corner he had broken his left hand in round two after punching Rafferty so many times this led to a brand new plan of attack from Villasenor he would throw jabs just jabs and only jabs nothing else. Maybe because his basic attack on straight punches was working so well he thought he didn’t need a new plan of attack to be fair this just jabs plan was working for the first 2 minutes as he kept Raffery at a distance with decent footwork plus fients which led to Raffery being peppered with jabs after jab but eventually he finally found a way throw this genius strategy was able to trap Villasenor against the cage and easily get the takedown as Villasenor didn’t really commit to stuffing them that much with a broken hand opting to just hold onto his opponent until the red stood them up. Huge mistake on his part as Rafferty despite some truly awful stand-up has some of the best top control plus ground in round in the world he is a surprisingly very busy fighter on top as Villasenor couldn’t find a way to stop him from transitioning at will ground full mount, to full guard, to side-control and even took his back at some points battering up Villasenor with ground strikes Villasenor was nearly submitted via an armbar from full mount but survived as the clock expired. Round 4 and 5 were practically the same round with Rafferty rushing at the start of the round for the takedown getting it and keeping it on the mat as Rafferty kept busy nearly finishing Villasenor in the 5th late in the round with another armbar but again the lock expired. While Josh Rafferty may not be the most feared champion he might be someone EliteXC can get behind, he is one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the sport and he could help rip off the “boring” label which is associated with wrestling. Joey Villasenor would not take to loss well in a post-fight interview he was memed by fans for his sour response to questions seeming to play the injury card a bit too much. “I broke my hand. That win is not legitimate, I was beating him badly for the first two rounds. He is not the champion in my eyes you can’t be with such a tainted victory. I deserve a rematch which I’ll win easily like I was winning easily until I broke my hand. I don’t fear him [Joe Rafferty] at all. I'm the better fighter. What do I have to fear?”. - Joey Villasenor Did the broken hand change the fight? Yes it undoubtedly did but it was up to Joey Villasenor to fight through adversity which he simply did not as Rafferty rallied after being down two rounds and losing the third to win the fight to become the EliteXC Welterweight champion. Now time for what was the people's main-event in Nick Diaz versus Antonio McKee after the infamous press conference between the two with Diaz threatening McKee after he made comments about his little brother Nate the old Diaz brother totally dominated the entire fight from start to finish. His crisp boxing was on display as McKee could only land 11 punches throughout three rounds compared to Diaz’s 100+ in one of the most lopsided punch counts in MMA history McKee could never even attempt a takedown as he was under constant attack from Diaz who showed techniques like the spinning back fist plus some taekwondo kicks he had never publicly used in fights before. After cracking McKee with an uppercut Diaz would quickly grab the mauy-thai clinch to land a huge knee to the head then knockout McKee with a swift one-two which sent Antonio to the canvas. Now time to mention the four first round finishing including a knockout of the year contender the 2nd bout of the entire card including Dave Huckaba who weigh in at 265 pounds but would probably around 280 by fight night against Jared Hamman who weight in at 215 pounds and probably was the same weight coming into the fight the huge size advantage is already clear but that doesn't take away from the beautiful knockout sequence Huckaba pressured Hamman straight away looking to take advantage of his size he would fient a jab causing Hamman to go left where he was meet by a excellently place left overhand knocking him out instantly as Huckaba was one and done only threw one punch and won with that one punch. Jennifer Tate submitted Mika Harigai in the only female fight on the card Harigai rushed in for the takedown but was submitted with a slick Guillotine, Jake Rosholt would also waste no time submitting Jason Day with a rear-naed choke securing the takedown within 10 seconds then used excellent wrestling technique to submit him and to open the main card Robbie Lawler got a 45 second TKO by using his power advantage to land a devastating right hook plus hammer fists to win with a quick and convincing night at the office.

2007 July Week 1 Recap [Headline One]: The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 “Lightweights” Announced BJ Penn and Jens Pulver to act as coaches for the season The Ultimate Fighter returns with a whole crop of impressive up and coming talent UFC president Dana White described this seasons cast as the “most skillful and battle ready cast” the Ultimate Fighter has ever seen, “When you look at the past season and even I will admit that some people just don’t deserve to be there and are only filling in a roster spot this season, anyone can win it this time around which just makes it way more exciting. It’s still the same old Ultimate Fighter but with the most skillful and battle beady cast we’ve ever seen can’t wait for a great season”. - Dana White The coaches for this season are top contending Lightweights BJ Penn and Jens Pulver the two have a recorded hatred for each other nothing personal per say more like a very harsh competitive rivalry as Jens Pulver has been openly bragging about holding a victory over Penn's head while BJ Penn himself has called Pulver's win a “bulls**t decision" and plans to “plunge Jen’s career into irrelevancy” with a big win on the show and in their eventual rematch later this year. As proven before on the show hatred sells and these two are already doing a fantastic job hyping it up and viewers haven’t even met the cast speaking of which lets introduce them. Nate Diaz (5-2)/ Age: 22/ Height: 6’0”/ Style: Boxer/BJJ Frankie Edgar (7-0)/ Age: 25/ Height: 5’6”/ Style: Boxer/Wrestling Corey Hill (1-0)/ Age: 28/ Height: 6’4”/ Style: Wrestling Allen Berube (1-1)/ Age: 32/ Height 5’8”/ Style: Wrestling Dennis Siver (10-4)/ Age: 28/ Height: 5’7”/ Style: Kickboxing Jeremy Stehpens (12-2)/ Age: 21/ Height: 5’9”/ Style: Wrestling Matt Gracie (9-1)/ Age: 25/ Height: 5’8”/ Style: Wrestling Matt Wiman (6-3)/ Age: 23/ Height: 5’10”/ Style: Mixed Martial Arts Michihiro Omigawa (4-4)/ Age: 31/ Height: 5’6”/ Style: Judo Alberto Crane (8-0)/ Age: 31/ Height: 5’9”/ Style: BJJ Brian Geraghty (17-10-1)/ Age: 26/ Height: 5’7”/ Style: Submission Wrestler Gray Maynard (2-0)/ Age: 27/ Height: 5’8”/ Style: Wrestling Cole Miller (11-2)/ Age: 23/ Height: 6’1”/ Style: BJJ Joe Veres (4-1)/ Age: 30/ Height: 5’6”/ Style: Wrestling Nate Mohr (7-4)/ Age: 24/ Height: 5’9”/ Style: Hybrid Fighter Naoyuki Kotani (17-6-5)/ Age: 25/ Height: 5’8”/ Style: BJJ More information about how they are and what happens to each fighters will be explored in each episode currently the favorites to win the show include Frankie Edgar, Nate Diaz, Gray Maynard, Jeremy Stehpens and a dark house candidate that Dana White himself named is Corey Hill. “He’s very big and strong got one hell of a work ethic but he is also very raw which means he has a lot of polishing which he can do with how hard he works. I think he is a dark horse to win it all”. - Dana White ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Two]: WEC Fight Announcement WEC 29 to be headline by Jose Aldo and Mike Brown in a non-title fight main event for August Week 2 Main-Event Featherweight: Mike Brown (16-4) vs. Jose Aldo (9-1) 3 Rounds Main Event Co-Main Lightweight: Donald Cerrone (6-0) vs. Todd Moore (10-0) Main-Card Bantamweight: Dominick Cruz (9-1) vs. Charlie Valencia (8-2) Featherweight: Cub Swanson (10-1) vs. Mark Hominick (13-6) Featherweight: Justin Robbins (7-2-1) vs. Ryan Schultz (16-9-1) Prelims Featherweight: Masanori Kanehara (9-3-4) vs. Cody McKenzie (3-0) Lightweight: JJ Amrose (7-2) vs. Eric Reynolds (3-0) Bantamweight: Tashiro Nishiuchi (7-5-7) vs. Darren Uyenoyama (3-0) Featherweight: Danny Batten (11-5-3) vs. Josh Grispi (8-1) Bantamweight: Antonio Duarte (6-1) vs. Del Hawkins (21-11) Featherweight: Tommy Lee (19-6-1NC) vs. Akiyo Nishiura (6-2) Featherweight: Masahiro Osihi (14-10-7) vs. Shad Lierley (2-0) Who will challenge the WEC Featherweight champion Urijah Faber (19-1) after his impressive 1st round submission victory over Rani Yahya (11-3) at WEC 28 just last week in June Week 3? Well the main-event looks to produce the next eventual challenger for “The California Kid” as both Brown and Aldo have the abilities to be the toughest challenger for the champ with a possible victory. Mike Brown is the pinnacle of an all-round fighter he does everything at a high-level also offering up excellent strategies in fight he has the potential to be a long reigning champion hitting the prime age of 31 we could could possibly see the best version of Mike Brown in the next couple of years which with how well rounded he already is spells disaster for the rest of the division. His opponent the 20 year old from Brazil Jose Aldo the next generation of Featherweight fighters what stands out most about Aldo is his leg kicks and insane takedown defense, Aldo current has a 95-98% takedown defense rate never being taken down more than once during a fight ever in his career he keeps the fight standing to launch with some crisp boxing plus devastating leg kicks which often leave his opponents unable to walk. The betting odds reflect how many fans feel for this upcoming bout as both are (-110) a 50-50 betting line exactly what fans see a true 50-50 fight one that will shape the future of the division as rumors' of a WEC and UFC merger continues to swirl. Two undefeated Lightweights meet in the co-main as Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone decorated for his mauy-thai, kickboxing, and BJJ off his back takes on the vicious ground and pound machine in Todd Moore a possible fight of the night contender along with another bout on the main-card is Cub Swanson and Mark Hominick a for sure banger of a fight will see two fringe Featherweight contenders rise up to a possible title-shot while neither will get one with a win it does put the possible winner in the right direction. The last noteworthy fighter to mention is Dominick Cruz dropping down to Bantamweight after suffering his first loss to Featherweight champion Urijah Faber, despite the devastating 1st round submission loss many experts are still very high on Cruz due to his unique footwork, head movement and his fluid punches in bunches. The event will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino with exclusive broadcasting rights being air on My Network (TV). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Headline Three]: UFC Signings UFC signs Viktor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, Josh Barnett and Alistar Overeem The UFC welcomes the return of former UFC champions in Viktor Belfort (15-8) and Josh Barnett (23-5) both previously competed in PRIDE when it was the clear number one promotion in the world but now find themselves back in the company they were both champions in earlier in their career. Barnett currently holds the record for being the youngest champion in UFC history defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36, Belfort would also defeat Couture at UFC 46 to win the Light-Heavyweight championship due to a very controversial doctor's stoppage 49 seconds into the fight with a cut on the eye. Both have also proclaimed their want to reclaim their championship while the other signings in Chael Sonnen (19-8-1) plus Alister Overeem are also just as vocal about getting a title-shot. Built like a Roman statue the Heavyweight Alistar Overeem (24-10) nicknamed “The Demolition Man” looks to demolish all opponents in his way on his way to a championship when asked if he is impressed with any fighters in the UFC’s Heavyweight division he seemed to take to question as a type of insult, “Seriously? No one in this division has any skill; they just swing rapid punches then gas out after throwing it, no one has the striking or wrestling to compete with me. I personally don’t have high opinions of anyone on this roaster”. - Alistar Overeem

2007 June Week 4 Recap [Headline One]: UFC 72 Results and Recap Anderson Silva defeats Dan Henderson with a chilling knockout for the first defense of his Middleweight title Critical Rating: (78%), Commercial Rating: (80%) Attendance: 6,130 (Gate $1.9 Million) Venue: Oracle Arena, Oakland (California) Main-Event Anderson Silva def. Dan Henderson via KO [Flying Knee] (R3 - 1:11) To Retain UFC Middleweight Title Co-Main George St-Pierre def. Josh Koscheck via KO [Eblows] (R3 - 4:53) Main-Card Jason Tan def. Roman Mitichyan via UD (29-28x3) Joe Stevenson def. Dim Thomas via UD (30-27x3) Houston Alexander def. Matt Hamill via KO [Punch] (R2 - 0:29) Prelims Eddie Sanchez def. Christian Wellisch via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 0:25) Ricardo Almedia draw. Steven Bruno (28-29, 28-28, 28-28) Thales Leites def. Rory Singer via TKO [Head Kick & Punches] (R1 - 4:57) Jason Reinhardt def. Jorge Gurgel UD (30-27x3) Hector Ramirez def. Kalib Starnes via TKO [Punches] (R1 - 1:42) Fight of the Night - Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson Knockout of the Night - Anderson Silva & Houston Alexander Submission of the Night - N/A In a great scrap Anderson Silva defeated Dan Henderson to cement himself as the best Middleweight on the planet as Silva picked up his 2nd win of 2007 and his 1st title defense of his UFC championship. The fight started in favor of the challenger as Henderson was capitalizing on a slow start from Silva who was trying implement his usual counter strike game plan using slick head movement and kicks, Henderson did an excellent job throwing the two jabs to the body followed by a hook up the top which he landed at will throughout the first. Silva meanwhile seemed content with landing only one or two strike typically some slick shots to the body but by the end of the round Henderson had a significant advantage in total strikes landed to Silva but a huge bright spot early on for the champ would be his impressive takedown defense stuffing 3 takedowns one in particularly near the end he was able to drag “Hendo” into the clinch to land a deflating knee to the body. Start of the 2nd it looked to be all over for the champ as Henderson once coming in with another combination starting from the body then transitioning to the head saw his trademark "H-Bomb" land directly on the chin of Anderson the same shot which knocked out one of his mentors Wanderlei Silva the power punch made Anderson do the chicken dance all the way to the cage in which Henderson started to unload with some heavy hooks and tried to land another overhand to finish the fight. Silva survived using his slick head movement plus some footwork to circle out to the middle of the cage but Henderson wasn’t backing off furiously running after Silva in an attempt to land the finishing blow while charging at Silva the champ unleashed a wicked front kick to the face which sent Henderson to the canvas. The Oracle crowd began to live up to the “roar-acle” nickname as the fans was on their feet screaming as Anderson tried to finish off Henderson with elbows from the mount, Henderson would survive a vicious beating from Silva to the end of the round but the third round would be the end for him as the start of the round saw Silva starting to throw combinations of jabs, straights, hooks and uppercuts mixed in with an array of head kicks for good measure Henderson in desperation shot for the takedown from way outside he was meet by a flying knee from Anderson Silva which knocked Henderson cold as he fell face first onto the canvas. With his hand raised by referee Herb Dean an emotional Silva admitted to Joe Rogan that with the in camp drama plus rib injury combined to make this the “hardest and most mentally exhausting” fights of his life but also is a “great relief” to have it all over with. Silva has now become the first person to ever finish Henderson via strikes and speaking of Henderson he has been slapped with a 7-month medical suspension so we probably won’t be seeing “Hendo” until 2008. GSP would get back on the winning track against the cocky Josh Koscheck fighting in front of his hometown crowd although you probably couldn’t tell due to the boos, Koscheck prediction of a first round finish would almost come true except it was GSP who nearly finished him as to start the round St-Pierre landed a quick jab, straight then superman punch to drop the mouthy Welterweight 20 seconds into the fight. The rest of the fight would be a typical GSP performance with strong wrestling controlling his opponent from the top and when the fight was on the feet St-Pierre was able to pepper his opponents with jabs and a few creative karate kicks to the leg n’ body. Koscheck would have his leg chewed up as he could barely stand at times which resulted in some bad footwork which allowed GSP to floor him again late in the third with a question mark kick to the head, a patient St-Pierre would get the mount and rain down some brutal elbows to open up a massive cut these elbows around the near shut right eye key of his Koscheck this would also KO him 7 seconds before the end of the fight. Despite the easy victory GSP would come out with a 7-month medical suspension as the California State Athletic Commission revealed George had suffered multiple tears in his wrist, knee, and foot which is a shame as George would call out Matt Serra to a rematch but most likely he’ll have to fight another time before he can get a crack at the title due to such a long layoff but on the bright side an extremely injured GSP still battered his opponent from start to finish, Koscheck would also receive a 7-month medical suspension to heal from a broken orbital he got during the fight as well as the swelling on his legs. Going down the rest of the card Joe Stevenson would dominate Dim Thomas completely out grappling him in all 3 rounds nearly submitting him with an Armbar in the 1st and RNC in the 3rd. Houston Alexander had a beautiful knockout sequence which rivaled the likes of Silva’s walk off flying knee KO tonight, it started after Alexander slipped 5 punches from Hamill ducking the one-two and slipping all three following hooks Alexander would land a flush counter hook which wobbled Hamill then feinted an uppercut before laying Hamill as stiff as a board with a looping overhand right on the button both Alexander and Silva would win Knockout of the Night mainly due to no one winning Submission of the night with no submission finishes on the card. A hyped up Houston Alexander took the mic from Joe Rogan to announce his next fight, “I want the dragon! I want Lyoto Machida! I’ll go face him Brazil or America anywhere he’s undefeated 10-0 and I’d love to be that 1 next to his name”. - Houston Alexander The “Dragon” Lyoto Machida (10-0) is quickly rising through the UFC’s Light-Heavyweight division his karate base style has left him untested a fight against a technical power puncher like Houston Alexander would be a good test to see if his style of fighting can translate to the top contenders of the division. Machida who was in attendance to cheer on his friend Anderson Silva told reports he’d “glady” fight Alexander. As for other noteworthy Jason Tan upset the (+300) favorite and third degree black-belt in Judo Roman Mitichyan by stuffing 4 out of 5 takedowns exposing Roman’s truly awful striking there were also 3 first round finishes on the prelims as Eddie Sanchez, Thales Leites, and Hector Ramirez pick up some quick cash as the UFC looks to book all three on them soon on a quick turnaround. All in all UFC 72 was a definitive success a very entertaining crowd with a main-event super fight that lived up to the hype now lets see if the UFC can keep up this level of entertainment to keep the spot of the “No.1 MMA promotion in the world” Dana White proclaims it to be. Nothing else really happened no fight announcements, big signings, rivalries, just UFC 72 as the whole Mixed Marital Arts world witnessed Anderson Silva become undoubtedly the best Middleweight on the planet and the man to beat from here on out.

UFC Fight Night: Serra vs. Hughes For UFC Weltereweight Championship Bout Matt Serra (10-4, 6-4 UFC) vs. Matt Hughes (42-5, 15-3 UFC) For UFC Lightweight Championship Bout Sean Sherk (33-2-1, 5-2 UFC) vs. Hermes Franca (18-5, 5-2 UFC) Heavyweight Bout: Andrei Arlovski (12-5, 9-4 UFC) vs. Gabriel Gonzaga (8-1, 4-0 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Kenny Florian (6-3, 4-2 UFC) vs. Jens Pulver (21-7-1, 6-1-1 UFC) Welterweight Bout: Josh Koscheck (9-1, 7-1 UFC) vs. Jon Fitch (16-2-1 NC, 5-0 UFC) Welterweight Bout: Chad Reiner (13-2, 0-1 UFC) vs. Roman Mitichyan (4-1, 0-0 UFC) Light Heavyweight Bout: Keith Jardine (13-3-1, 4-2 UFC) vs. Eric Schafer (8-2-2, 1-1 UFC) Middleweight Bout: Nate Quarry (8-2, 3-1 UFC) vs. Ed Herman (14-5, 1-2 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Gleison Tibau (18-3, 0-1 UFC) vs. Matt Grice (9-1, 0-1 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Luke Caudillo (15-9, 0-0 UFC) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (11-2, 1-1 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Thiago Tavares (11-0, 1-0 UFC) vs. Corey Hill (1-0, 0-0 UFC) Middleweight Bout: Floyd Sword (10-2, 0-0 UFC) vs. Kendall Grove (8-3-1 NC, 3-0 UFC) Heavyweight Bout: Christian Wellisch (7-3, 1-1 UFC) vs. Eddie Sanchez (6-1, 1-1 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Melvin Guillard (21-6-2-1 NC, 3-2 UFC) vs. Junior Assuncao (5-2, 1-1 UFC) Light Heavyweight Bout: Kalib Starnes (8-1-1, 2-1 UFC) vs. Matt Hamill (4-0, 3-0 UFC) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UFC 72: Silva vs. Henderson For UFC Midleweight Championship Bout Anderson Silva (20-4, 3-0 UFC) vs. Dan Henderson (22-5, 2-0 UFC) Heavyweight Bout: Brock Lesnar (0-0, 0-0 UFC) vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (29-4-1 NC, 0-0 UFC) Light Heavyweight Bout: Rashad Evans (10-0, 5-0 UFC) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-1, 0-0 UFC) Middleweight Bout: Michael Bisping (13-0, 3-0 UFC) vs. Rich Franklin (23-2-1 NC, 8-1 UFC) Welterweight Bout: Thiago Alves (12-5, 4-2 UFC) vs. Diego Sanchez (17-1, 6-1 UFC) Light Heavyweight Bout: David Heath (9-1, 2-1 UFC) vs. Hector Ramirez (6-2-1, 0-1 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Joe Lauzon (14-3, 1-0 UFC) vs. Jess Liaudin (13-8, 1-0 UFC) Welterweight Bout: Jason Tan (4-1, 0-0 UFC) vs. Martin Kampmann (12-1, 3-0 UFC) Light Heavyweight Bout: Alessio Sakara (12-5-1 NC, 2-2-1 NC UFC) vs. Jordan Radev (11-1, 0-0 UFC) Welterweight Bout: Ben Saunders (4-0-2, 0-0 UFC) vs. Keita Nakamura (15-2-2, 0-2 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Leonard Garcia (9-2, 0-1 UFC) vs. Joe Veres (4-1, 0-0 UFC) Middleweight Bout: Thales Leites (10-1, 1-1 UFC) vs. Steve Bruno (12-3, 0-0 UFC) Heavyweight Bout: Daniel Puder (5-0, 0-0 UFC) vs. Colin Robinson (8-3, 0-0 UFC) Lightweight Bout: Jorge Gurgel (10-2, 1-1 UFC) vs. Jason Black (23-2-1, 0-0 UFC) Middleweight Bout: Wilson Gouveia (9-4, 3-1 UFC) vs. Ryan Jensen (11-1, 0-0 UFC)

2007 June Week 3 Recap Headline One: (UFC Fight Announcement) UFC announce Heavyweight super fight between Randy Couture v. Fedor Emelianenko for UFC 74 in Las Vegas Main-Event Heavyweight: (CHAMP) Randy Couture (15-8) vs. Fedor Emelianenko (27-1-NC) For UFC Heavyweight championship [Couture 1st attempted Defense] Co-Main Light-Heavyweight: Forrest Griffin (13-4) vs. Wanderlei Silva (31-7-1-1NC) Main-Card Lightweight: Sam Strout (11-2-1) vs. Clay Guida (21-7) Lightweight: Melvin Guillard (21-6-2-1NC) vs. Caol Uno (23-9-4) Heavyweight: Mark Hunt (5-3) vs. Pedro Rizzo (15-7) Prelims Heavyweight: Roy Nelson (8-2) vs. Fabricio Werdum (9-3-1) Welterweight: Edilberto de Oliveria (8-1-1) vs. John Kolosci (8-4) Lightweight: David Baron (13-2) vs. Chris Horodecki (10-0) Lightweight: Mac Danzig (16-4-1) vs. Andy Wang (5-6) Welterweight: Paul Taylor (8-1-1-NC) vs. Jason Gilliam (11-1) Finally after much speculation and rumors' the Heavyweight super fight for the UFC Heavyweight championship between defending champion Randy "The Natural" Couture one of all time greatest fighters in mma history will go up against what many consider the greatest fighter in mma history Fedor Emelianenko. The champion Couture is hot off winning the title in a dominate unanimous decision in which he won every single round against former champion Tim Sylvia in March earlier this year (UFC 68) in one of greatest feel good moments in what is a pretty merciless sport, the challenger Fedor Emelianenko looks to dethrone him with only one lose to his name due to a 17 second stoppage due to a minor cut many consider Fedor undefeated and rightfully so. The former and last PRIDE Heavyweight champion he holds wins over Mirko Cro Cop, Antonio Nogueria, Mark Hunt, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, and Heath Herring some critics have pointed out however, Fedor has fought a lot of ‘cans’ that have no business fighting him one of these many critics was Dana White and in the UFC 72 presser for Silva v. Henderson told reporters. “I’ve been on his case for years about the level of his competition and now he has the chance to shut me up, this is a one of a lifetime type of fight this the Muhammed Ali vs. Joe Fraizer of mma a can’t miss fight even if you're a fan or not. The whole world will be watching so it’s time to see if he really is the ‘greatest fighter in the world’ as the media keeps telling me he is” - Dana White If we quickly analyze this fight both are pretty evenly matched while Fedor probably has a slight advantage in terms of striking Couture showed how crisp his boxing is in the Sylvia fight their wrestling seems even but Couture has wrestled at the Olympic level for years so maybe he has the slight edge, Emelianenko will enjoy a pretty reasonable size advantage but again going back to Couture's fight with Tim Sylvia who probably weigh-in about 280-300 pounds that night while Couture weigh-in at 225.5 pounds "The Natural" won every single round by out-striking and out-wrestling the bigger man. All the X’s and O’s show this should be on paper on of the most even fights in UFC history but much if we are to go back one finale time to UFC 68 against Tim Sylvia Couture is 43 years old while Fedor is 30 what many consider the prime of people's life, Couture didn’t look like he was 43 but you never know when the body will just suddenly come to a halt. With the massive implications of what this fight means to the history of mma the UFC has stacked the card with must see tv fights on the pay-per-view, all five of these fights can headline a Fight Night card or even other a few PPV's. The co-main event see’s the UFC debut of the legendary Wanderlei Silva who holds the record for the most wins under the PRIDE banner while he is currently riding back-to-back BRUTAL knockout losses to the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and Dan Henderson a bout in which he lost his PRIDE Middleweight title, hardcore and even casual fans will always tune into “The Axe Murders” fights. His opponent fan favorite and the winner of the Ultimate Fight season one Forrest Griffin his blood and guts all out style has many excited for this fight many actually have this circled as a possible Fight of The Year contender. Many are slightly disappointed that Wanderlei isn’t fighting “The Ice-Man” Chuck Liddell and Dana White addressed why that fight wasn’t taking place he told fans that Liddell already had a fight scheduled beforehand just that it wasn’t publicly announced yet, Liddell v. Silva is a fight many fans have salvated for years and now the two finally both fight under the UFC banner it’s quite possibly the most anticipated fight the promotion can put on right now and a loss for Silva would no doubt be devastating for him going on a 3-fight skid plus the promotion. Two exciting Lightweight bouts are also on the main-card as another fan favorite blood and guts axe murder fight in Mevlin Guillard takes on Caol Uno, Guillard was originally suppose to be on UFC Fight Night Franklin vs. Bisping as he was going to fight in front of his hometown of Louisiana against Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez in a reported co-main event but before the fight could materialize Sanchez would suffer a foot injury and no other fighter could be found to fill in on time. Instead Guillard finds himself on one of the biggest card’s of the year against Lightweight legend Caol Uno who fought in the first ever Lightweight championship fight against BJ Penn the fight ended in a draw but ever since then Uno has stayed relatively near the top of the food chain as he looks to once again challenge for the championship. It’s the basic heavy handed striker versus submission wrestler so the path for victory should be clear for both Sam Strout meets Clay Guida in the other Lightweight bout on the main-card while the opening Heavyweight fight between Mark Hunt and Pedro Rizzo has recently made headlines after Hunt’s choice words about PED’s in the world of MMA targeting fighters from Brazil especially. “I’m sick of fighting these steroid cheating s**ts, their ruining the sport by doing what they do and all the damn fighters from Brazil every single one of them is on the juice just look at them”. - Mark Hunt In fairness Hunt has fought a lot of fighters that were probably juicing but to lash out at the entire mma scene in Brazil seems a bit cold blooded but if it was meant to offend it definitely did a lot of Brazil fighters from Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, the Nogueira brothers, Jose Aldo and practically every fighter from Brazil including his opponent Pedro Rizzo is no exception. Labelling a Hunt a “sore loser” who “makes excuses because he isn’t skilled enough to compete” the already exciting slugfest the UFC has marketed this fight as just got a whole lot more excitement backed behind it. Another Heavyweight Brazil who voiced his anger out at Hunt’s statement would be Fabricio Werdum who would headline in prelims against “Country” Roy Nelson with an iron chin, god given power, and a solid wrestling base plus an ever improving stand-up Nelson will really have his BJJ tested if the fight ever hits the mat as Werdum is easily the greatest Heavyweight BJJ fighter in the entire world. Werdum has told reporters he intends to “test” Nelson's “gas tank” as he plans to make him tired before going in for the finish. Also Nelson should be worried about the mauy-thai clinch as Werdum has some devastating knees but if he keeps the fight standing it should be his fight to lose. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Two: (Cage Warriors Signings) Cage Warriors sign Carlos Condit, Renzo Gracie, Bob Sapp, and many other fighters to deals The relatively small region British promotion has recently made some huge splashes by signing multiple decently big named free agents their most prized signing being Carlos Condit (20-4) consider an elite Welterweight in the world he last held the WEC Welterweight title at WEC 26 and is now confirmed to be fighting for the Cage Warriors Welterweight strap sometime in July-September he currently signed for 4 fights with the promotion. Another two solid signings are two Bantamweight in Renan Barao (8-1) and resigned Brad “One Punch” Pickett (10-3) both fights are on a three-fight deal, Barao has quickly become one of the better Bantamweight in the world on at the age of 20 his creative and dynamic striking mixed with deadly BJJ has lead some possibly circle him as a pound-for-pound king meanwhile Pickett is a anywhere anytime fighter who loves to brawl it out his ground game is questionable but he has been working on his wrestling plus BJJ recently. In terms of popularity however, the regional promotion is probably most excited about signing Renzo Gracie (13-6-1-1NC) a prominent member of the Gracie family to a 7-fight deal although at the age of 40 it’s highly unlikely he will fulfill all 7 of those fights but just the fact he signed the dotted line with Cage Warriors is seen as a pretty huge win despite some naysayers pointing out his age being 40 years old. Also a big signing who is on the older side of things is the 41 year old Heavyweight Garry Goodbrige (23-15-1) and 34 year old Bob Sapp (8-2-1) both are pretty similar fighters both are huge who love to stand and bang but the ground game is pretty below average. Both have been labeled glass cannons as neither can take a lot of damage due to some brutal finishes mainly to Goodrbige but he is currently riding a 4-fight win streak all first round finishes so maybe he is starting to find his form as he hits the end of his career. Sapp has recently expressed he’d actually like to fight Goodbridge in his debut for Cage Warriors and talked about the transition from PRIDE to Cage Warriors. “I think a fight between me and Garry [Goodbridge] would be fun I don’t think it’d last long but it would fun, going from America fighting in regional promotions to fighting in Japan with Pride and now I’m here in England it’s gonna be an adjustment but I love England and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t worth my time” Bob Sapp Besides that quick soundbite the rest of the signings gave fairly generic answers wanting to fight whoever and whenever for their debut, according to Blurcats Micheal Hughes the promotion isn’t done signing a whole new crop of fighters and are current in discussion to sign Lightweight Eddie Alvarez (10-1), Middleweights Gegard Mousasi (15-2-1) and Melvin Manhoef (17-3-1) mostly known for his epic 18 second knockout of Heavyweight Mark Hunt and are officially near a deal with Heavyweight legend Dan Severn (85-15-7). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Three: (EliteXC Fight Announcement + Rivalry) Antonio Silva and James Thompson booked for Heavyweight championship in July + Nick Diaz challenges Antonio McKee to “street fight” after heated press conference Main-Event Heavyweight: James Thompson (14-6) vs. Antonio Silva (8-1) For Vacant EliteXC Heavyweight Championship Co-Main Welterweight: Joey Villasenor (23-5) vs. Josh Rafferty (7-5) For Vacant EliteXC Welterweight Championship Main-Card Welterweight: Nick Diaz (14-6-1NC) vs. Antonio McKee (19-3-2) Welterweight: Jonathan Goulet (17-7-1NC) vs. Bobby Voelker (12-2) Middleweight: Robbie Lawler (14-4) vs. Steve Steinbeiss (1-1) Prelims Heavyweight: Jake Rosholt (0-0) vs. Jason Day (13-6) Bantamweight: Johnny Bedford (2-4-1) vs. Joe Pearson (17-8-1) Lightweight: Bobby McMaster (5-1) vs. Daniel Pineda (2-0) Women’s Featherweight: Mika Harigai (5-18-1) vs. Jennifer Tate (2-0) Heavyweight: Dave Huckada (4-1) vs. Jared Hamman (6-0) Middleweight: Steve Heath (11-4) vs. Jesse Bongfeldt (14-6) It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the California based promotion EliteXC after missing out on many major signings most notably going all in to try and sign Brock Lesnar only to fall flat the roster is relatively unchanged with the only notable signing be the undefeated (3-0) Middleweight Brian Stann their announced fight card for July originally wasn’t going to be incorporated into the weekly recaps simply due to how uneventful the card was sure the main-event is interesting as two powerhouses in James Thompson and Antonio Silva fight for the vacant EliteXC Heavyweight title with both having a lot of the line with a potential win. For Thompson he becomes the first fighter from Great Britain to win a championship in a regionally recognized mma organization meanwhile a win for Silva gives him a huge boost in popularity as he is on the final fight on his deal with EliteXC and can except a huge payday when he enters free agency. Besides the main-event only two one other fight stands-out with Nick Diaz bout with Antonio McKee mainly due to the notorious bad boy reputation of Nick Diaz also worth noting besides the main-event this is the only fight that doesn't have a massive favorite as McKee is a (+150) favorite many other fights have (+300-1160) favorites particularly the Welterweight championship bout on the card which has Joey Villasenor a (+1160) favorite. Like stated originally this relatively lackluster event on paper wasn’t going to be covered knowing that the card didn’t really have a lot of hype around it the promotion held a last minute press conference but knowing the four fighters challenging for the vacant titles aren’t known for making the most headline catching statements so it was no a brainer to invite Nick Diaz and his opponent. Classic Diaz was 10 minutes late for the press conference but before he showed up reporter Ariel Helwani asked McKee opinion on Nick Diaz’s little brother Nate Diaz asking his thoughts on Diaz brothers and if he expected Nate to do well on the UFC’s Ultimate Fighter? “I think both fighters are average, both their records suggest they win some and lose some look at my record. I have won 19 out of my 24 fights. As for Nate I think he lives in the shadow of his brother he tries to be his brother too much he isn’t his own man”. - Antonio McKee After Diaz showed up Helwani told the Stockton native about McKee’s comments this instantly put Diaz into a rage telling McKee to “keep my brothers name out of your mouth motherf**ker!”. McKee said he only answered the question “honestly” and told Nick “the truth hurts”. Diaz got up from his chair making a b-line for McKee but promoter Benjamin Cooper plus security separate the two Diaz would flip McKee the double bird while shouting at him to a “street fight like a real f**kin man, you fake motherf**ker!”. So now the card which had no interest whatsoever has the entire fanbase of the mma landscape waiting in anticipation for its arrival as this nuclear rivalry between Diaz and Mckee has lifted this event to new heights.

Ayeee, can already tell this this is gonna be a great read

2007 June Week 2 Recap Headline One: (Fight Announcement) Two vacant Strikeforce titles up for grabs as Texas to host next Strikeforce event headlined by Kazushi Sakuraba and Murlio Rua for the Middleweight strap and Paul Daley vs Mike Pyle for the Welterweight championship on July Week 3 Main-Event Middleweight: Kazuish Sakuraba (21-9-1-2NC) vs. Murilo Rua (13-7-1) For Strikeforce Middleweight Championship Co-Main Welterweight: Paul Daley (14-6-2) vs. Mike Pyle (12-4-1) For Strikeforce Welterweight Championship Main-Card Heavyweight: Maurice Smith (12-13) vs. Paul Buentello (24-9) Middleweight: Phil Baroni (10-7) vs. Jason Miller (23-5) Light-Heavyweight: Alex Schoenaur (13-7) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (12-3) Prelims Lightweight: Josh Thomson (12-2-1NC) vs. Adam Lynn (11-7) Middleweight: Ronaldo Jacare (5-1) vs. Sanae Kikuta (26-6-3-1NC) Light-Heavyweight: Ryan Bader (2-0) vs. Alexandre Ferreria (13-5) Heavyweight: Carter Williams (3-1) vs. Jan Nortje (1-5) Welterweight: Jae Suk Lim (12-3) vs. Eddy Ellis (12-15-1-1NC) Light-Heavyweight: Seth Kleinbeck (6-3) vs. Anthony Ruiz (15-10) Middleweight: Falaniko Vitale (22-7) vs. Jason Von Flue (12-7-1) Lightweight: Billy Evangelista (3-0) vs. Chris Cariaso (4-0) Middleweight: Trevor Prangley (15-4) vs. Jorge Santiago (12-7) Perhaps not the card many fans were expecting but still a very fun night of fights with 15 fights in total on the card as many of the old guard taking on new rising prospects from fan favorites to hated heels of the sport take center stage in Texas. "The Gracie Hunter" Kazushi Sakuraba challenges for the vacant Strikeforce Middleweight title against a dangerous in his prime Murilo Rua in the main-event of the evening first off we must mention the 10 year difference in age (Sakuraba is 37 while Rua is 27) as well as how much damage has Sakuraba taken over the past few years. His 9 losses include 3 brutal knockout losses to Wanderlei Silva with a knockout loss to Mirko Cro Cop on top of that one must question where Sakuraba chin is at as well as how much will age play a factor in this fight? Will we see a vintage performance from Sakuraba? "The Gracie Hunter" doesn't seem to believe in the word ‘vintage’ himself leading up to the fight. “I don’t get the word ‘vintage’? Maybe I can’t take as many clean shots as I once did and I am old trust me but my skills haven’t declined if you look at most of my wins I won when I turned them into a contest of skills not raw power. I think the age gap favors me because as I’ve got more fights, I’m only getting more technical and skilled which should make me the favorite”. - Kazushi Sakuraba Murlio Rua probably mostly known for being the older brother of the winner of the 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix now current UFC Light-Heavyweight Maurico Rua, Murilo is a very solid fighter in his own right the Brazilian has devastating legs with a solid chin plus a good mauy-thai base in which he loves to throw elbows from as well as a lot looping strikes but realistically this should be a fight Sakuraba win if "The Gracie Hunter" delivers on his promises for a technical and skillful masterclass key word being 'should'. This is a massive gamble for Strikeforce if Sakuraba loses potential match-ups including him won’t generate the same amount of buzz however a win for Sakuraba against a legit threat will only strengthen their Middleweight roster and who knows maybe Sakuraba will jump around from division to division like he did in PRIDE. Strikeforce will also crown a new Welterweight champion as powerhouse kickboxer Paul Daley will take on the well rounded Mike Pyle, but unlike the main-event this bout has seemingly flew under the radar even being overshadowed by some other match-ups on the main-card as the two kept it surprising respectful between each other opting to focus more on training than hyping the fight. The path for victory is pretty clear for both Daley must keep it standing to finish off Pyle with his overwhelming power advantage for Pyle, mix it and keep the fight in a short boxing range so Daley can’t generate as much power. Daley has lately been working on his BJJ particularly working on off his back armbars to possibly expect a lot of dirty boxing from Pyle instead of all out wrestling. Stealing all the headlines this week Jason "Mayhem" Miller has come at guns-a-blazing offending and insulting pretty much everyone on the Strikeforce roaster still looking to angle a potential clash with the legendary Royce Gracie after their brief scuffle at a now infamous introduction press conference. "Mayhem" has gone on to completely dismiss his opponent and his skills comically calling him a ‘bum’ over and over again, Phill Baroni in an interview has expressed some serious bad intentions leading up to the fight. “I have never in my life ever hated a man as much as I hate him [Jason Miller], I don’t only want to hurt him but embarrass him. Make him bleed, make him pay for all the disrespect he has shown me and many fellow fighters this beating isn’t just for me but the entire world”. - Phil Baroni As for the rest of the cards the hardcore MMA fans are in for a treat as Strikeforce has implemented an array of young prospects like Josh Thompson, Ronaldo Jacare, and Ryan Bader all three are praised to be possible “wolrd championship material” by Coker himself. Further reports and questions were asked if and when Strikeforce would hold its next Grand Prix/ Tournament this year but Coker again flirted with the idea but didn’t really answer any questions at the same time very much dancing around the subject. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Two: (Drama/Rivalry + Injury Report) Mauricio Rua and Anderson Silva come to blows after training session got “way too personal”, Silva's team announces a reported 'bruised' rib due to the incident Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Nogueira have announced that they and both of their gyms will no longer be training or associate themselves with Mauricio Rua after he reportedly went “too far” during training earlier this week. According to Wandeleri a long time mentor for many current Brazilian MMA fighters Rua was brought in to help Anderson Silva train for his upcoming title defense against Dan Henderson, according to Wanderlei plus many others a frustrated Rua after being dominate during sparring threw a few shots to the body after the round ended which lead to a brief fight between the two before being separated. Nogueira has gone on to heavily criticize Rua for his behavior while Mauricio himself has called out many of his fellow teammates and friends for picking favorites. “They won’t mention [Anderson] Silva taunting me and trashing not only me but my family while we're fighting. We are supposed to be brothers but what he did was unforgivable, my fellow teammates are picking favorites there siding with the golden goose just because he has a big name.” - Mauricio Rua Anderson himself has received a reported bruised right rib after the punches thrown after the bell but said he will continue to fight on and will still be facing Dan Henderson by the end of the month. One person not buying the 'reported' injury and drama down in Anderson's camp as a whole is Henderson himself the challenger and the former PRIDE Welterweight plus Middleweight champ said, “I dunno if I buy it….. I mean we I look at the whole situation I think it’s being romanticized I’m not gonna say he [Anderson Silva] is faking an injury but I do think he’s already giving out excuses which is annoying but what can you do” - Dan Henderson These comments have gone onto sour the mutual respect between the two while this is disappointing to some it also generates more hype for the fight these brief comments have gone onto be marketed like hot cakes by the UFC marketing team leading up to UFC 72. In only a week Silva has developed two heated rivalries one being a former training partner and friend the other an opponent he had the utmost respect for, will this affect Silva’s performance or possibly enhance it with a rage and aggression generally never seen before in an Anderson Silva bout. Also worthy noting is the older brother of Mauricio Rua in Murilo Rua has cut ties with each other as Murilo has gone onto side with Anderson but hopes his younger brother will come to his senses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Three: (Fight Announcements) UFC announce two shows in UFC Fight Night: Franklin v. Bisping and UFC 73: Sherk v. Franca for the Month July Main-Event Middleweight: Rich Franklin (22-2-1NC) vs. Michael Bisping (13-0) Co-Main Heavyweight: Cain Velasquez (2-0) vs. Cheick Kongo (10-3-1) Main-Card Lightweight: Alvin Robinsion (8-1) vs. Junior Assuncao (5-2) Lightweight: Manny Gamburyn (6-1) vs. Justin Buchholz (7-1) Welterweight: Luke Commo (5-4) vs. Tom Speer (11-1) Prelims Welterweight: Matt Arroyo (2-1) vs. Dorian Price (8-3) Welterweight: Roan Carneiro (11-5) vs. Jon Koppenhaver (4-1) Lightweight: Luke Caudillo (15-9) vs. Rob Emerson (7-6) Heavyweight: Justin McCully (9-3-2) vs. John-Olva Einemo (6-1) Lightweight: George Sotiropoulous (7-2) vs. Diego Saraiva (10-7-2) It’s been a busy week for the Ultimate Fighting Championship as Dana White and the promotion has gone on to announce two shows will be held in the month of July and with another two being rumored for August and possibly three shows the month after that. The first show announced will take place in Louisiana as top Middleweight contenders Rich “Ace” Franklin (23-2-1NC) looks to once again become champion with a win over the undefeated Michael “The Count” Bisping (13-0), “The Count” comes into the fight as a (+340) underdog to the (-430) favorite Franklin these betting odds have been disputed by both Bisping and Dana White “You seen the betting odds for this one? Crazy thing is I think a lot of people agree with those odds, Bisping ain’t no joke I know the American audience hasn’t seen much of him but he’s a fantastic kickboxer he throws combinations at a high pace with an endless gas tank plus is a very underrated mixed martial artist. I definitely think Bisping is gonna surprise a lot of people not saying he’s gonna win because Franklin being a former champion himself you know is a beast he wants that title back so bad this is one of those fights that can be the co-main or even main event a pay-per-view but f**k it it's free just for the fans”. - Dana White When asked if the winner would get a title-shot at the winner of Anderson v. Henderson bout White said there was a “very high chance” of the winner securing a title fight with a victory. The two are pretty similar fighters both are well rounded who prefer to stand the difference is Bisping likes to throw combos while Franklin is more of a spinner striking wise, many expect Bisping to win the fight in the early stages of the fight before Franklin adjusts for a late finish or decision win. The overall card leans towards the hardcore MMA fans as a not a lot of fights stand out besides the main and co-main as a classical old vs new match-up between prospect Cain Velasquez (2-0) and Cheick Kongo (10-3-1) in the Heavyweight division. Velasquez a high pressure fighter likes to box in close quarters a dynamic attacker who switches between his stand up to wrestling he keeps a high pace for every single second of the fight and is yet to be even taken past the 1st round although he has only 2 fights to his name. Kongo has stated “experience” and differing “levels” as the key advantages to this fight saying how Velasquez constant aggression will only work to his disadvantage this fight as Check is a very skilled kickboxer with some serious knockout power, possibly the hardest hitting Heavyweight on the UFC roaster. “It’s easy to look good against lower level competition, I feel he’s being pushed too soon he has championship material for sure but he isn’t ready yet. I’m just too experienced for him and too skilled I’m defined while he’s still developing”. - Cheick Congo Some names to look out for on this card that many horncores have singled out is Alvin Robinson (8-1) a high-level wrestling coming out of the state of Colorado making his UFC debut, Tom Speer (11-1) a very physically strong fight with powerful stand-up who has a particularly love of slamming with some brutal (often sloppy) ground and pound. A sleeper Fight of the Night contender on this card has to be Manny Gamburyn (6-1) a black-belt in Judo who loves to brawl v. Justin Buchholz (7-1) a very smart fighter who often uses high-level tactics to defeat his opponents he is also credited with some very good kicks to his game. Main-Event Lightweight: (CHAMP) Sean Sherk (33-2-1) vs. Hermes Franca (18-5) For Lightweight Championship Co-Main Heavyweight: Gabriel Gonzaga (8-1) vs. Brandon Vera (8-0) Main-Card Welterweight: Frank Trigg (15-6) vs. Anthony Torres (5-0) Welterweight: Mike Swick (10-2) vs. Thiago Alves (12-5) Lightweight: Glesion Tibau (18-3) vs. Terry Etim (10-0) Prelims Middleweight: Tamdan Corey (8-0) vs. Tim Kennedy (7-1) Light-Heavyweight: Luiz Cane (7-0-1NC) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (17-3) Lightweight: Rich Clementi (27-12-1) vs. Luiz Firmino (11-3) Lightweight: Roger Huerta (17-1-1-1NC) vs. Shinya Aoki (13-2) Lightweight: Joachim Hansen (15-5-1) vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida (14-3-1) The next pay-per-view event for the UFC will be held in Indiana at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum the six-thousand and five hundred arena will have the reigning defending Lightweight champion Sean “The Muscle Shark” Sherk (33-2-1) will attempt to make his 1st title defense after winning the belt against Kenny Florian at UFC 64 last year. The challenger is the high-level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under the legendary Renzo Gracie in Hermes Franca (18-5), in many ways Franca is very similar to current Welterweight champion Matt Serra both have solid stand-up that have power in their hands both are high-level in BJJ but Franca has shown a much higher fight IQ fighting off his back being very skilled with armbar submissions but has been outwrestled before with smarter wrestlers. Sherk loves to wrestle and is currently Brock Lesnar's wrestling coach after Lesnar announced he would join the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy team. Another Heavyweight match-up will act as the co-main event with Gabriel Gonzaga (8-1) taking on the undefeated Brandon Vera (8-0), Gonzaga is hot off a huge knockout victory over Mirko Cro Cop and is fuming after being passed up on for a shot at the Heavyweight title telling reporters, “They wanted to make [Mirko] Cro Cop vs [Randy] Couture but I took that fight away by knocking Cro Cop out, now I’m being punished for winning that fight. I can’t believe it, I respect Fedor [Emelianenko] but he has done nothing to earn a title-shot” - Gabriel Gonzaga These comments lead to a brief arctic cold response from Fedor himself when reporters told him about Gonzaga’s recent comments saying “I don’t care”, a mild rivalry has grown between the two but it’s nothing personal. The card is also littered top to bottom with top-notch fights as Frank Trigg (15-6) a two time challenger for the UFC’s Welterweight championship looks to get a third crack at the title with a win against Anthony Torres (5-0) an undefeated prospect which specializes in BJJ with fairly below average striking and decent mauy-thai. It’s a classic old versus new guard with Trigg coming off a brutal knockout loss to Robbie Lawler the UFC could be angling to set-up Trigg for a triumphant return to form or have Torres gain momentum off a Welterweight main staple. Staying in the Welterweight division a strong contender for Fight of the Night is Mike Swick (10-2) v. Thiago Alves (12-5), Swick a contestant on the first ever season of The Ultimate Fighter is slick combination striker with an accomplished background in kickboxing. Meanwhile his opponent Thiago Alves is a brutal axe murder with razor sharp creative striking he also has a tendency to lean on the mauy-thai clinch as he loves to throw a lot of elbows and knees overall. To round out the rest of the fights here are some fighters/ lesser known fights to have an eye on the opening bout of the pay-per-view is an interesting Lightweight bout between Glesion Tibau (18-3) a big 155er battles undefeated British prospect Terry Etim (10-0), Etim much like his fellow brit Michael Bisping is a huge betting underdog coming into this fight at (+330) both are considered pioneers for the mma scene in Britain but both aren’t really expected to be anything more than fringe contenders or gatekeepers. “I think it’s just bias, no one wants to believe the mma takeover in Britain but it’s gonna happen me and [Michael] Bisping are gonna be world champions. I’m only 20 and I’m already very close to a shot at the title, I believe in myself to get the job done. I expect complete domination on my part. It's only a question of which round will I make him [Glesion Tibau] quit?”. - Terry Etim It’s clear Etim doesn't lack much confidence but he isn’t far off what many expect from this fight and that is ‘domination’ as Tibau a notorious low-risk grinder will be looking to do just that but the Liverpool native has a deadly guillotine choke so possibly Ertim can catch Tibau in a submission off his back but Tibau himself is a black belt in BJJ and as Dana White often says "Who the f**k knows what's gonna happen in that fight?". Remember if you want you can download the mod and play it yourself at: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...d.php?t=550134 And in the words of the great Anderson Silva "I back" (for now at least)

Thanks for all your hard work my man really fun mod, inspired me to start up another dynasty thread for those interested here's a link if you wanna check it out. Link: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2473666#post2473666

2007 June (Week 1) Recap Headline 1 (Fight Announcement): Dana White announces UFC 72 to be headlined by Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and challenger Dan Henderson at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Los Angeles on June Week 4 Fight-Card: Main-Event Middleweight: (CHAMP) Anderson Silva (20-4) vs. Dan Henderson (22-5) For UFC Middleweight Championship Co-Main Welterweight: Josh Koscheck (9-1) vs. George-St Pierre (13-2) Main-Card Lightweight: Jason Tan (4-1) vs. Roman Mitichyan (4-1) Lightweight: Joe Stevenson (27-7) vs. Din Thomas (23-6) Light-Heavyweight: Matt Hamill (4-1) vs. Houston Alexander (7-1-1) Prelims Heavyweight: Christian Wellisch (7-3) vs. Eddie Sanchez (6-1) Middleweight: Ricardo Alemia (8-2) vs. Steve Bruno (11-3) Middleweight: Thales Leites (10-1) vs. Rory Singer (11-6) Lightweight: Jason Reinhardt (18-0) vs. Jorge Gurgel (10-2) Light-Heavyweight: Hector Ramirez (6-2-1) vs. Kalib Starnes (8-1-1) Breakdown: Current UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva (20-4) is set to take on former PRIDE double-champ Dan Henderson (22-5) the last PRIDE Middleweight and Welterweight champion before PRIDE ceased operations earlier this year. Silva looks to make the 1st defense of his title after defeating former-champion ‘Ace’ Rich Franklin in less than 3 minutes (UFC 64 in October 2006) with some devastating knees from the clinch he’d have an attempted defense earlier this year at UFC 67 but his opponent Travis Lutter would miss weight Silva would defeat him via TKO in the 2nd round with ease. Dan Henderson comes into this fight the betting favorite (-150) to (+110) and you can’t really argue with those odds after his recent run of success koing the seemingly invincible PRIDE Middleweight champion plus a mentor to Anderson Silva in Wanderlei Silva with a signature H-Bomb to put the Brazilian to sleep Henderson’s stock is at an all-time high. ‘Hendo’ also holds wins over Vitor Belfort, Murilo Bustamante (x2), Antonio Nogueira, Kanzo Misaki, Murilo Rua, Renato Sobral as well as a long list of accolades like the previous mentioned PRIDE Middleweight and Welterweight belts along with being a tournament winner for PRIDE’s 2005 Welterweight tournament plus the UFC’s 17 open weight tournaments as well looking to add UFC undisputed gold to his name he has also stated his intentions to challenge for the Light-Heavyweight belt after he ‘defeats’ Anderson Silva ‘with a knockout in the 1st round’. The co-main event sees the return of former UFC Welterweight champion George-St Pierre (13-2) after his 1st round knockout loss to current Welterweight champion Matt Serra at UFC 69 George explains the quick turnaround after such a brutal loss is mainly because he wishes to ‘wash the bad taste’ of the loss out of his mouth after ‘the most embarrassing moment of my life’. Koscheck pulled no punches when asked about GSP taking multiple digs at his loss to Serra “He’s [GSP] a coward he gave up, he wasn’t hurt at all he just got scared and pretended to be rocked. Saw a way out and took it Matt Serra has no power in his hands; he can’t knock out anyone if he does; he probably paid them off which I wouldn’t be surprised if George accepted some cash under the desk. He [GSP] probably spent all his money gambling it away and he needs some more money, this is his last UFC fight because I will knockout GSP he is a disgrace to the division the universe is gonna correct that mistake with me” - Josh Koscheck As for any other fights worth mentioning on the card the opening PPV Light-Heavyweight bout between Matt Hamill and Houston Alexander is an interesting powerhouse striker in Alexander versus a strong wrestler in Matt Hamil a win for either would turn these prospects into a contender but a loss will see a long way down the rabbit hole of an ever-evolving Light-Heavyweight division. Also, Joe Stevenson winner of 8 out of his last 10 fights riding a 3 fight win streak that includes a 27-second guillotine submission win over Melvin Guillard in his last outing has his sights set on the Lightweight title, Din Thomas also rides a 3 fight win streak his last few outings includes wins over Jeremy Stephens, Clay Gudia and UFC Welterweight champion Matt Serra. Both have similar fight styles so no surprise the betting lines are an even (-110) each no doubt a big win puts them both firmly in title contention so look for both fighters to put it all on the line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Two (Signings): Pancrase signs WWE superstar Brock Lesnar to a three fight-deal as well as MMA legends Ray Sefo, Don Frye. After multiple meetings with the UFC, Strikeforce, DEEP, and EliteEC Heavyweight Brock Lesnar (0-0) one of the most popular WWE wrestlers in the world is set to make his MMA debut under the Pancrase banner it’s widely speculated that Lesnar’s first fight will be at the Saitama Super Arena an arena that holds a maximum 36 and half thousand fans. To strengthen their Heavyweight division Pancrase have signed legends of the fight game in Ray Sefo known for his K1 kickboxing career with epic battles against Mark Hunt, Mirko Cro Cop, Bob Sapp, and Jerome Le Banner now (1-0) in MMA Sefo after being approached by both Strikeforce and Pancrase has decided to stay in Japan as he feels he has a larger fanbase in the region. Previous PRIDE Heavyweight also staying in Japan is Don Frye (18-6-1-1nc) fondly remembered for the number of barnburners he produced under the PRIDE banner with his wars against Ken Shamrock and 2005’s Fight of the Year against Yoshihiro Takayama the proud patriotic American looks to continue to wow Japanese audiences across the continent. The question remains will Lesnar have is debut fight against the two or someone already under the Pancrase banner is yet to be seen but former CEO of PRIDE and DREAM Nobuyuki Sakakibara has repeatedly said he has ‘very big plans’ for Pancrase in the upcoming future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Three (Signings + Rumours): Strikeforce inks deal with ‘The Gracie Hunter’ Kazushi Sakuraba, Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Mark Kerr, Jason Miller, and Carlos Newton. Also, announce a possible Grand Prix date for November or December. Scott Coker would hold a huge six-man press conference to introduce and welcome their six newly added fighters to their rooster, Strikeforce this week has signed a reported 32 fighters to contracts this week and looks to possibly hold a HUGE event sometime in July next month three possible locations emerged in Florida, Texas, or at Strikeforce’s home base in California. The six fighters on stage are some of the largest names amongst the MMA landscape certainly increasing the value of Strikeforce first to arrive was the legendary ‘Gracie Hunter’ himself Kazushi Sakuraba (21-9-1-2nc) would compete for the first time on American soil, “Of course this is a huge change for me, I’m moving base to America. I've been training at AKA with Javier Mendes for a while, he'll definitely be in my corner. I’m just grateful for everyone who has supported me and will continue to support me it’s time to show the American public what I’m about” - Kazushi Sakuraba Sakuraba has said he’d compete at any weight class from Heavyweight to Welterweight as well confirming reports that he was interested in competing in a possible July event if reports are true. Also on the presser was a who's who of MMA legends from Ken Shamrock (26-12-2) to Mark Kerr (13-6-1nc), Royce Gracie (13-2-3) as well as the crazy wild card Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller (23-5) to a former UFC Welterweight champion Carlos Newton (14-12). Many reporters were wondering if Cocker was angling for Ken to fight his adopted brother Frank as both were now signed to the promotion Cocker offered a ‘we’ll see what happens’ while Ken felt ‘uncomfortable’ answering a question about Frank in which he called him ‘the scum of the earth, I’ve never seen a bigger p**k’. The press conference would also spawn an early rivalry this year as classic Jason Miller would call out Royce Gracie while the two were up together on the presser, “I’m trying to be like this man [Kazushi Sakuraba] right here he destroyed a family name all by himself had Rickson scared sh**less to fight him, I mean look at what he did to him [Royce Gracie] look at his face straight up a travesty no one can love that face his own family exiled him because he got his beat by Sakuraba. Look at him got nothing to say pulling the no English card huh?” - Jason Miller “I don’t even know who this guy is and what he’s doing here. I honestly thought the local crackhead broke in through the back and now I’m told he’s a fighter?” - Royce Gracie Miller got up and so did Gracie's security would be called to separate the two as the press conference was immediately called off as Cocker would end it there no doubt with money on his mind and fights to make. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline Four (Signings + Rumours): UFC signs Fedor Emelianenko to an 8-fight deal bout with Couture rumored for August in Las Vegas. Gomi, Randleman, Hunt, and many other free agents also sign the dotted line with UFC. A record 30-50 fighters have signed with the UFC but none bigger than arguably the greatest fighter in the world Fedor Emelianenko (27-1-1nc) the last PRIDE Heavyweight champion and the winner of the 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix Emlianeko with his wins over Mirko Crop Cop and two wins over Antonio Nogueira his only loss coming via a cut because the organization had a rule that if you get cut you immediately lose is basically undefeated. While the relationship between Fedor and UFC president Dana White is quite frankly terrible, both seem to have a strictly business approach to the additions of Fedor to the roster. Fans are salivating for a fight between him and the current UFC Heavyweight champion plus Joe Rogan's hero Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture (15-8) just recently defeating Tim Syliva for the Heavyweight championship at the age of 43 this is a legacy fight to determine who is the greatest Heavyweight of all time? But not only has the UFC struck gold by signing the Russian Heavyweight they have added multiple fan favorites to their rosters with Takanori Gomi (27-3-1nc) plus an array of fan favorites like Heavyweights Mark Hunt (5-3) and former champion Kevin Randleman (16-12), Vitor Belfort (15-8), Mauricio Rua (16-2), Leonard Garica (9-2), Roy Nelson (8-2), undefeated Middleweight Paulo Filho (14-0), Chael Sonnen (19-8-1) and many others. “It’s an exciting time to be a UFC fan. We've got the Ultimate Fighter about to start-up as well as a massive event in L.A. also as of right now we're trying to have 1-3 events per month hopefully start weekly shows in the next 5 years it’s amazing. We're not gonna stop we don’t wait for anyone or anything lets f**kin go already”. - Dana White Remember if you want you can download the mod and play it yourself at: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550134 Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.

Hello everyone this thread is brought to you by OldSchoolMMA’s latest mod which takes us back to the year 2007, PRIDE has been bought out and discontinued by Zuffa the UFC thinking they secured an array of fighters quickly realized they had bought just a fight library plus just a name in ‘PRIDE’ as the fighter contracts where all open-checkbook meaning the lucrative fighters under the PRIDE banner are all free agents now. With PRIDE gone the spot for the No. 1 MMA organization is up for grabs while the UFC currently lays claim to that title other organizations like Strikeforce, WEC, EliteEC are all making plays of their own to take the top spot. With eventual MMA organizations like Bellator, ONE Championship, and many others yet to open up the landscape of MMA is about to get quite interesting. For those wanting to download the mod themselves here's the link, it is getting constantly updated as we speak, and once again a huge thank you to OldSchoolMMA be sure to check it out and give him thanks: http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550134 Also, I will still be continuing my Rewriting MMA History thread but I’ll be switching between these two depending on which one I want to play. Posts will come out when I generally feel like it in all honesty I might update each thread once per week or a couple of times a month only time will tell for now. This thread will be kinda similar but not as in-depth as my previous thread I'll still romantic the rivalries and fights as well but not as much. Posts on this thread will recap a whole week or possibly month of MMA similar to how I did the end-of-year recaps in the previous thread but just instead it's an end of week or month recap including news like signings, fight announcements, rivalries, and of course event recaps. Thank you all and again a big thank you to OldSchoolMMa for the mod I hope everyone has a wonderful day, night, or afternoon wherever you are, and hope you enjoy the thread.

This is looking really good can't wait for more <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

UFC Fight Night 1: Matt Serra vs. Chris Lytle January Week 2 (2005) Build-Up: After the success of The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series, SpikeTV would sign a 3-year broadcasting deal to produce two more seasons of the reality tv show the contact also included terms that the UFC would broadcast the prelim fights of their pay-per-views exclusively on their network and where to also start up a new exclusive show called the UFC Fight Night. Fight Night would just like any other UFC event instead of being on PPV it would be on free cable TV, the first-ever UFC Fight Night would be headlined by a highly anticipated Welterweight match-up with HUGE title implications between Matt Serra (9-2) and Chris Lytle (11-2-3). With the newly crowned champion, Mike Swick sidelined for a year with a torn ACL the UFC has set up an unofficial Welterweight tournament as the winner of tonight's main event will face the winner of Georges St-Pierre and Nick Serra at UFC 65 with the victory eventually facing former champion Matt Hughes for the interim championship. Matt Serra who isn’t much usually much of a talker has been making some big statements in the media recently, while it’s not necessarily trash talk as some would put it Serra hasn’t been shy about his plans heading into 2005. “I want to knock him out or choke him out. It doesn't matter to me, I’m gonna win this fight no doubt about it. I know he’s a great boxer and wrestler but I have more power in my hands eventually I’ll land and it’ll be all over. If he takes me to the ground I’m a black belt under Renzo Gracie he’ll get choked out unless he just lays and prays but the ref will eventually stand it up. No question I’m gonna win this fight. The only question is how long can Chris last? That’s the only thing I’m wondering about heading into this”. - Matt Serra Lytle whenever asked about Serra’s comments seemed genuinely amused claiming Serra to only be a ‘gatekeeper’ who got ‘lucky’ because Matt Serra currency holds a 56 second knockout over the newly crowned champion Mike Swick. “It’s funny really, Matt’s a funny guy. You know this fight was booked to happen before Swick won the title before that he [Matt Serra] didn’t have s--t to say now he seems to think he’s the next big thing. I can outclass him wherever this fight goes I will not lose a second of this fight. I have a 13-1-1 boxing record and have never been knocked down or out in both sports. I’ve been wrestling since highschool and I got my blackbelt a year ago so join the f--kin club you have a blackbelt only belt he’ll have since he’s never gonna touch the actual belt. He’s a gatekeeper who got lucky that fight [against Swick] was 2-3 years ago they fight right now Swick kicks his a-- all over the octagon!”. - Chris Lytle With the UFC holding their 65th PPV event the very next week the entire card of fights was kinda lackluster in terms of promotional value but there were a lot of competitive fights that the hardcore fans could enjoy as the co-main event would see the debut of one of the most hyped prospects to come out of Brazil Murilo Rua (9-0) the younger brother to Mauricio Rua, Murilo has been dubbed the next ‘great Middleweight’ fighter by his team which includes the likes of Anderson and Wanderlei Silva with Wanderlei calling him the ‘greatest’ fighter in the world. He’d face the twin brother of former Welterweight champion Matt Hughes in Mark (5-3) while the betting odds have Murlio as a HUGE favorite Hughes has strung up a 4-fight win streak recently coming off a big upset win over Matt Lindland as a (-700) underdog Lindland via a 3rd round RNC Lindland was on a five-fight win streak himself and was likely on his way to a title shot. The UFC had always viewed Mark as a gatekeeper but with a win of a legitimate contender, he is now knocking on the door of an actual shot at the Middleweight title. Evan Tanner (22-5) would also be making his return getting back on the horse after a brutal loss to Rich Franklin under a brand new camp joining The Pit to train alongside Chuck ‘The Ice-Man’ Liddell he would fight former PRIDE Middleweight mainstay on a 5 five-winning streak being 3-0 in the UFC so far Tyrone Roberts (16-2-1), the final noteworthy fight comes in the main card opening bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira twin brother to former PRIDE Heavyweight champion Rodrigo Nogueira (3-2) makes his UFC debut along with his fellow training partner Murilo to the states, when asked about why both he and Murlio left PRIDE in favor of the UFC Nogueira said, “Anderson [silva] has concurred Middleweight, Wanderlei [silva] Light-Heavyweight and my brother will conquer Heavyweight again. We all plan to be champions for a really long time and none of us want to fight each other, plus if we have champions in both the number one and two promotions in the world it’ll help inspire more and more young Brazilians to take up martial arts hopefully at our gym”. - Antonio Rodrigo Nogeira Also making his broadcasting debut for the promotion would be Bas Rutten joining Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan the three would be the official commentary for the next few years to come for the UFC. Rutten was recently fired by PRIDE citing ‘person interest’ and ‘creative disagreements about the commentary’ while many are sad to see the legendary color commentator go; he was quickly picked up by the UFC looking to hire a former fighter with a lot of personality and deep analysis. As for who would replace Rutten for PRIDE’s english dub commentators that is unclear but will soon be announced. Main-Card Fights: Main-Event Welterweight: Matt Serra (9-2) vs. Chris Lylte (11-2-3) Co-Main Middleweight: Murilo Rua (9-0) vs. Mark Hughes (5-3) Main-Card Middleweight: Evan Tanner (22-5) vs. Tyrone Roberts (16-2-3) Welterweight: John Lewis (5-3-3) vs. Brain Gassaway (15-13-1) Light-Heavyweight: Antonio Rodrigo Nogeira (5-2) vs. Aaron Brink (7-6) Bas Rutten’s + Joe Rogan’s Fight Analysis: Serra vs. Lytle “Ever since his loss to Matt Hughes for the Welterweight championship Matt Serra has vowed to become the best striker in the Welterweight division if he has really improved his boxing like he said he has with the power in his hand this could spell danger for Chris Lytle”. - Bas Rutten “Couldn't agree more Bas the keys to victory for Lytle has to be a dynamic game-plan. Mix it up between striking and grappling if he stays on the feet too long he runs the risk of getting knocked out by in my opinion the heaviest hitter in the 170-pound division keep him at range with long straight punches maybe a few kicks in there then take him down as Serra takedown is a real weakness”. - Joe Rogan “Correct! Has Serra been focusing on to much on his boxing and not his takedown defense as Matt Hughes was a perfect 8 for 8 in takedowns plus while Serra is definitely a black-belt on top but on his back he isn’t really that much of a threat as he gets easily smothered. BUT! Lets not forget Lytle has had his condition checked as a weak spot if he gets too tired to takedown Matt Serra he could be forced to stand and while he is a fantastic boxer with smaller gloves it makes it harder to cover-up”. - Bas Rutten Rua vs. Hughes “Moving to the co-main Mark Hughes is quite possibly the strongest 185-pound fighter in the world no one has ever had to deal with this type of strength before, it makes it hard to clinch and take him down but that being said he isn’t really skilled in any area of fighting”. - Joe Rogan “Yes and that's not a dig at Hughes but it's simply true his style of fighting is to act as a human punching bag once he gasses out his opponents he explodes for the takedown to get the RNC. In all his five wins he was losing until he won via a last round RUNC submission because his opponents were too tired. He has already taken so much damage you have to wonder with a complete mixed martial artist like Murilo Rua who has devastating leg kicks, a deadly mauy-thai clinch, he’s a venomous striker and if you manage to take him down he might just make you tap truely a next generational fighter”. - Bas Rutten Tanner vs. Roberts “I love this fight its a key bout for the Middleweight division because it’s the most creative striker versus the greatest defensive fighter in the division. Evan Tanner has lethal elbows he’s a pioneer in MMA with his elbows strikes which are simply amazing”. - Joe Rogan “Like fighting a swarm of razor blades Joe, ever since moving to The Pit training with monsters like Chuck Liddell he has better knowledge of striking and all-rounded movement, his fients are excellently timed he’s even starting to incorporate kicks with more spinning attacks”. - Bas Rutten “Yet he’s a fighting a defensive wizard in Tyrone Roberts who excels at covering up even with small gloves, parrying jabs, with top notch submission and takedown defense. Surprisingly fast hands for his size plus a solid wrestling background base”. - Joe Rogan “Let’s not forget Tanner is an excellent submission grappler but let's stop beating around the bush. The big question is how will Tanner’s chin hold up? He’s 3-3 in his last six fights all three loses coming by DEADLY knockouts is his chin shot? Can he really take a punch? What happens when Roberts connects? A lot of questions for Tanner coming in and we’ll get those questions answered right now”. - Bas Rutten Fight Play-By-Plays UFC Rules: Title-Fights are 5rdsx5mins Non-Title-Fights are 3rdsx5mins Non-Title-Fight Main-Events are 3rdsx5mins Rounds are Scored on a 10-Point Must System All forms of Soccer Kicks are Forbidden Knees to the Head of a Downed Opponent are illegal Stomps to the Head of a Downed Opponent are illegal All forms of Elbows are Legal Evan Tanner vs. Tyrone Roberts Round 1 Tanner connects on a spinning wheel kick to the body to start the fight which sets the tone for the first minute of the fight as Tanner looks extremely loose, quick, much slimmer than he was in past fights as he circles away after connecting on the wheel kick quick throws a lead uppercut then goes to the body with another flashy kick this time hitting a spinning hook kick. Tyrone tries to grab a hold of Tanner but buys on a feint while backing him down leading to a Tanner connecting on a right hook turned into an elbow at the last minute right landing DIRECTLY on the chin. Tanner is constantly moving around feinting with his hips while some of them may not be big movements he keeps Roberts guessing not wanting him to close the distance to clinch. A jab lands for Tanner followed by a one-two which fails to connect Roberts tries to rush in to clinch but is met with a fast leg kick which slightly BUCKLES Tyrone. Tanner jabs then hit a solid overhand followed by a right hook to the body, moving in and out Tanner hits two back to back leg kicks but while going for a third gets CLIPPED by a fast straight followed by a series of RAPID punches by Roberts a clean right hook lands before he finally gets a hold of Tanner backing him up to the cage. Roberts gets some solid short punches in before disengaging while backing off he masks a BEAUTIFUL overhand CLIPPING Tanner behind the ear!!! TANNER FALLS!!! Roberts gets a top of Tanner but can’t land any finishing shots on the ground but while on the canvas the clear difference in weight shows itself as Tanner is getting smothered his deadly submission grappling is being completely nullified by the weight plus position ability of Tyrone Roberts. A relatively uneventful minute passes before Roberts nearly gets the mount but instead settles for side control getting a few solid shots to the body as the round comes to an end. Round 2 Tanner comes out spinning again despite being down he’s recovered well a spinning back kick to the body lands to the body as well as a follow-up leg kick. Tanner uses feints with his hip to suggest he’s about to throw another spinning kick to the body he goes to block it lowering his hands but instead Tanner goes upstairs with a SPINNING BACK ELBOW!!! CONNECTION RIGHT ON THE BUTTON!!! Roberts falls face-first he’s STIFF!!! DOWN AND OUT!!! “IT IS ALL OVEEEER! Evan Tanner by a spectacular knockout here in round two WOW. And if my facts are indeed correct Bas, Joe, that is the first spinning elbow knockout in UFC history absolutely incredible”. - Mike Goldberg Official Result: Evan Tanner KO’s (Elbow) Tyrone Robert (R2 - 0:34) Murlio Rua vs. Mark Hughes Round 1 SAVAGE leg kicks by Rua buckle Hughes early on after three lands he can barely walk Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua fakes then goes up high with a head kick twice both Mark eats it continuing to come forward as best he can on a limp. A DEFLATING body kick seems to have stunned Hughes for a brief moment as he grapes his body allowing Rua to land clean hooks to the head of Hughes seeming unfazed. Hughes quickly grabs Rua who lends in a little to much and landing a solid single fast bus driver uppercut he finds Murlio is quickly able to out grapple him getting a dominant position in the Muay-Thai unleashing three straight knees to the body followed by an elbow to the forehead before two more knees to the body. Hughes gives up his back in the Muay-Thai clinch as Rua gets both hooks in he attempts a rear-naked choke!!! Hughes looks to power his way out of it purposely falling back first jumping into the air in a kind of back slam to the canvas!!! IT DOESN'T WORK!!! AS RUA MAINTAINS THE RNC!!! Seeing no way out Hughes taps. Official Result: Murilo Rua SUBS (RNC) Mark Hughes (R1 - 3:53) Matt Serra vs. Chris Lytle Round 1 No touching of the gloves as ref Steve Mazzagatti tells them to “hook 'em up” while there might not have been any visible bad blood it's clear the talk has somewhat gotten to the both of them. The two engage with some looping strikes but nothing significant lands Serra continues to fling shots while Lytle backs off and ends up backing Lytle to the cage but runs straight into a single-leg takedown attempt which Lytle gets with very little resistance. ‘Lights Out’ Lytle throws a few shots to the body while on top in guard before trying to transition to mount Serra scrambles but ends up giving his back in the process, nothing comes off it tho as Serra does well to defend and get Lytle back into half-guard. Lytle again tries for the mount but Serra scrambles yet again but can’t escape the ground as Chris grabs side control some short elbows SLICE open a cut under the right eye of Serra but besides that nothing really significant lands as the round ends. Round 2 Serra is pumping that jab out more, it looks crisp, and fast as he lands a few to open the round Serra hits another jab then a beautiful straight Lylte comes back with a lead right hook plus a leg kick. Serra throws a HUGE overhand but it's duck by Lyte who lands a hook to the body than another leg kick, Matt Serra is starting to take some deep breathes he might be starting to tire a bit. Lytle pumps up a jab then a right hook Serra WOBBLES backing up against the cage, Lylte peppers Serra with a three punch combination with two punches to the body then uppercut to the head. Lytle successfully gets a double-leg takedown but Serra does well to keep Chris Lytle into a stick-guard as he excellently uses his legs to push Lytle away and get back to the feet. Serra misses the superman jab in the center of the octagon allowing Lytle to get another single-leg takedown, MOUNT for Lytle HUGE ELBOWS!!! BIG GROUND AND POUND!!! Serra just holding on looking to survive it’s a rough 45 seconds but a bloody Serra holds on to see the third round. Round 3 Ray Longo is irate yelling about how this was ‘not the game plan’ pleading with Serra to go all out to ‘punch a hole in his f--kin chest’. Serra doesn't have any huge cuts but has an array of small opens all over his face, his most notable being three cuts under his left eye and one on the top of his nose. Lytle throws a vicious one-two then cracks Serra with a flurry of four hooks followed by a straight but runs into a HUGE right hook by Serra causing him to back off and settle for a few jabs plus leg kicks for a while trying to shake off the cobwebs. Serra looks to capitalize he might of serious hurt Lytle but the leg kicks plus being gassed can’t get him to close the distance, a leg kick KNOCKDOWN but Lytle can only offer a few punches to the body from the stick-gaurd before disengaging letting Serra back to his feet. Lyte drives two hooks to the body then briefly grabs Serra to get off a bus driver uppercut, Serra throws a sloppy overhand which is easily ducked by Lylte who commits to a double-leg which pushes Matt Serra to the cage. An excellent trip of the legs leads to a HUGE judo throw slam the last minute and a half of the fight is spent with Lyte slicing up Serra further with elbows and punches to cap off a dominant mauling. “Ladies and gentlemen after three rounds we go to the judges scorecards for the decision the judges score this contest. 30-27, 30-26, and 30-26. To the winner by UNANIMOUS DECISION CHHHHHHRRRRRIIIS ‘LIGHTS OOOOOOUT’ LYTLE” - Bruce Buffer Main-Card Results: Main-Event Chris Lytle def. Matt Serra via UD (30-27,30-26x2) Co-Main Murilo Rua def. Mark Hughes via SUB (RNC) (R1 - 3:53) Main-Card Evan Tanner def. Tyrone Roberts via KO (Elbow) (R2 - 0:34) Brian Gassaway def. John Lewis via UD (30-27x3) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Aaron Bink via UD (30-27x2, 29-28) Post-Fight Press Conference/ Interview: Chris Lytle wasted no time in calling out Matt Hughes who was in attendance even entering the octagon the two had a brief face-off before Hughes was given a mic. “You put on a great performance tonight. I want to regain my championship and to do that I need to fight the best Welterweights in the world for the interim title. I think you're one of them. I'd love to fight you let's get to it”. - Matt Hughes Murilo Rua challenged Rich Franklin to a fight in a very respectful call out praising Franklin hoping he brings a ‘war’ like wants. But outside of that nothing really noteworthy happened, Evan Tanner gave a pretty generic thank you to the fans and 'I’ll fight whoever they give me'. Matt Serra was hospitalized after a brutal beatdown in his first interview since losing the fight he summed up the experience pretty well in a very short soundbite “He wiped my a-- for fifteen straight minutes nothing else to say”. - Matt Serra

End of Year Recap (2004) The sport of MMA had really started to grow within the United States with solid regional organizations like the WEC and ICON Sports transitioning to nationally recognized MMA organizations with the UFC arguably having the best year in the companies history in terms of financial income. The Ortiz and Frank Shamrock trilogy along with the Heavyweight trilogy between Josh Barnett and Pedro Rizzo had rapidly increased the companies popularity as well help establish a solid dedicated fan base of fight fans. PRIDE meanwhile had seemed to have come to halt due to the fumbling of many match-ups as Quinton Jackson had become publicly displeased by the companies blatant ‘freak-show’ match-ups. While some freakshow match-ups can be quite fun Jackson claimed PRIDE did it to ‘protect’ their Light-Heavyweight champion Wanderlei Silva who's next bout would be against Mario Sperry (12-3) famous for being on the wrong end of a 22-second walk-off KO by Chuck Liddell l as well as being flatlined by Alistair Overeem in less than a minute as well. Sperry after winning his debut for the organization got a title-shot while Jackson and other top Light-Heavyweights like Kazushi Sakuraba (15-2-1NC), Dan Henderson (10-2), Forrest Griffin (5-2) were passed upon for what many perceive to be a stepping stone to help hype up Wanderlei even more with a vicious knock-out. Jackson himself was booked to fight Overeem on the same exact as Silva card acting as the co-main event so a possible win for each fighter could finally see the nuclear rivalry between Jackson and Wanderlei Silva’s entire camp finally come to blows in the ring. "Let's f--kin go already! After I beat Overeem and he [Wanderlei Silva] crushes another can he has to fight me, Wanderlei can't run forever evenutally the golden gouse will have to fight me. No more bull---- it's time". - Quinton Jackson The nuclear rivarly that has developed between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva's entire team has been well docuamtned many rember the backstage brawl between Anderson Silva and Jackon at PRIDE 31 but to go into further detail would require another post for when the fight hopefully happens. Robbery of The Decade Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture (UFC 59) UFC 59: ‘Heavyweight Trilogy’ cemented itself in the history of MMA mainly for being the first trilogy fight in a major organization as Josh Barnett and Pedro Rizzo battled for the 3rd time for the Heavyweight championship. But the event also became notorious for what many consider to be the greatest robbery in the history of the sport as the co-main event saw Chuck Liddell return after a one-year PED suspension layoff to face former Heavyweight champion, Randy Couture, making his Light Heavyweight debut for the promotion. Couture came into the bout off a one a one-sided beatdown to Pedro Rizzo losing his championship belt via a huge unanimous decision loss (50-44x3) despite the two having a victory over each other a trilogy fight was shot down with just how dominantly Pedro dispatched of ‘The Natural’. Two weeks after the fight Couture announced the move to Light Heavyweight, “I come into fights 220-230 pounds? I was about 226 for my last fight while Pedro was around 240 to the 265-pound limit. Frankly, I’m tired of fighting guys with a huge weight advantage over me and most Light Heavyweights walk around the same weight I do so I think it’ll be a perfect fit. I’m not ruling out a return to Heavyweight hell I might go right back up if things don’t as I want them to but I just need this break”. - Randy Couture A win for Liddell means he can wash away the taste of his drug violation and best case scenario add another brutal knockout to his highlight reel. A win for Randy then he can lay claim to challenge for the Light Heavyweight championship, while Dana White denied the bout as a title-eliminator it was more than likely the winner would get a crack at Ortiz as the other top contenders like Vitor Belfort and Jeremy Horn were both on two-fight skids. It turned out to be a decent fight (simplifed verison of the fights play-by-play) Round 1 Couture is constantly moving forward dictating the pace with Liddell primarily being a counter puncher himself he allows this but is put into a short boxing range with Randy’s constant aggression meaning ‘The Ice-Man’ can’t get enough pop behind his punches to seriously hurt Couture and those that do get enough swing are to predictable as Randy easily doges them. Liddell isn’t making his intentions a big secret he is head hunting trying to snipe Couture with one big shot but is getting badly outstruck to the shock of many onlookers for the first three minutes of the round. A successful feint by Liddell allows him to land a hard straight on the chin of Couture but Randy shoots for the takedown and while he can’t get it he does trap Liddell against the cage using an array of elbows, shoulder strokes, plus some knees to end the round. Round 2 Randy comes out fast again briefly clinching with Liddell getting off an elbow while they separate while Liddell gets off a quick overhand which just knicks the side of Couture’s head. Liddell’s corner demanded more set-up strikes before he goes all out with a fight-ending blow but while going a three punch set-up strike with two jabs then a check right hook before going all out with a THUNDEROUS uppercut!!! In which all attempted punches aren’t even close Randy counters able to CRACK Liddell with a hard one-two ‘The Ice-Man’ WOBBLES on ONE LEG before getting some UNSTABLE footing under him his knees are shaking as he backs up to the cage of the octagon. PERFECTLY PLACES FLYING KNEE KNOCKDOWNS LIDDEL AGAINST THE CAGE!!! Couture opens up some BRUTAL GROUND AND POUND against the cage but Liddell survives only for minutes later while on the ground to see Couture in full mount unloading with some BRUTAL ELBOWS!!! Chuck’s left eye is nearly shut and a cut on the edge of his forehead has his face dripped in blood but he lives to see the end of the round. Round 3 A pretty boring and initiative round neither got any decent shots off only punches barely hitting their opponents, Couture shot for three takedowns but Liddell showed off some excellent takedown defense much improved from his last few fights. Couture was again the aggressor throwing a lot missing a lot but is pushing the pace Liddell’s sniper-like mentality left him only throwing 19 punches in the last round landing 5 of them. Despite this Couture landed more punches while pushing the pace which probably secured him the round as a lackluster round with a lot of feints and sloppy short-ranged boxing came to an end. After a pretty dominant display from Couture proving he can even stand-up with the most feared striker in the division, his efforts were met with a UD loss as all three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Liddell. A somewhat confused Liddell tried to win back the booing fans in attendance by thanking them for coming but it was all in vain, Couture wasn’t bitter about the loss saying that judging is a part of the sport but also said the judging was flat out wrong as he thought he won every single round with a possible 10-8 for the 2nd round. When asked about the decision Dana White had some choice words, “None of us are judges, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. Is it unfair maybe but it’s a part of what you sign up for, it's what you sign the contract for you knew if you don't finish a fight this could happen you should have finished him but you can’t so that's what happens. Our opinion doesn't matter; the three professionally trained opinions do”. - Dana White Many saw this as White protecting the golden goose of the Light Heavyweight division as Liddell and Dana’s friendship with White being the former manager of Liddel before becoming the president of the UFC is well documented. White wouldn’t reveal who he thought won the fight but made it clear what's next for Liddell “The rematch between Tito [Ortiz] and Chuck [Liddell] is next. It makes sense Liddell won against a former Heavyweight champion tonight, showed improved takedown defense but also some ring rust in terms of his striking so who knows what happens. Fights like these are fights everyone drops to watch. It'll make a tone of money and will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fights of all time”. - Dana White Most of the fans and media pundits had it 30-27 or 30-26 for Couture, this fight along with the equally controversial Jake Shields vs. Luiz Santos' fight had really put into motion about what the scoring criteria for MMA should be and if the 10-point-must system is fit for MMA for not. One thing for certain though the rules and judging for MMA are about to change drastically over the next couple of years. Champions (Nationally Recognised Organisations) What’s Next? (Early 2005) A serious dislocated leg injury has left the UFC Middleweight champion Nate Marquardt (13-1) on the sidelines he returns in the UFC's first PPV of the year against ‘Ace’ Rich Franklin who had cleared out the Middleweight division in the champs absence defeating the likes of former champions Murilo Bustamante, Jose Landi-Jons by first-round knockouts, then pitching a shutout (30-27x3) decision victory over fellow rising prospect Paulo Filho before ending the year with another first-round knockout against Evan Turner who was riding a 3 fight winning streak himself. The UFC has also signed multiple Middleweight like the trash-talking pro-Chael Sonnen (10-5), Lee Murray (12-3), and Murilo Rua (9-0) older brother to Mauricio Rua to add to their Middleweight division, Rua who comes into the UFC with a lot of praise from his teammates in Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva. “He’s [Murlio Rua] the best fighter in our camp, he's just a natural in MMA. I’ve seen naturally great football players, basketball players but never MMA no matter what aspect the game throws at him he is elite at. He’s going to dominate”. - Wanderlei Silva “Great teammate and friend but an even better fighter. His knowledge of the game is what makes him so great. He's always helping me and everyone else during training as well as in our fights he’s like the co-leader behind Wanderlei”. - Anderson Silva But before UFC 65 the first show of the year would be the debut of UFC Fight Night on Spike TV headlined by Matt Serra and Chris Lytle in a possible title-eliminator match. This would also mark the first time the UFC has held multiple events in one month as for other nationally recognized organizations like PRIDE and the WEC they would take a brief haitus from booking any shows. Icon meanwhile also had a show booked for early February as Jake Shields would rematch against Luiz Santos in a surprisingly quick turn around as the Alabama athletic commission handed out a short 2-week medical suspension to Shields and only 6 days to Santos. When asked about the quick turnaround Shields explained how the last fight put a ‘bad taste’ in his mouth and wanted to get right back in the cage with Santos. “I respect [Luiz] Santos but I feel I should have dominated him, no dig at all but I want to prove I’m still the greatest Welterweight in the world and I feel great despite the injuries I wanna get right back in there”. - Jake Shields To give a brief recap on how the fight went down Santos battered Shields in the first two rounds breaking multiple bones in his face as well as causing multiple cuts it was a miracle the doctors didn’t stop the fight. Most consider both rounds one and two as 10-8 rounds for Santos with Shields winning rounds four and five with a competitive round three that could of gone etheir way. How will Shields's chin hold with such a quick turnaround? Will Santos be able to finish Shields this time around and if not can he conserve his energy for the later rounds as Luiz promised a more ‘patience’ style of fighting this round? Only time will tell. To finish off the year Dana White had some pretty harsh words for some of the rival MMA promotions around the world, commenting on how PRIDE and the WEC were taking a brief hiatus. “We don’t stop where a machine guys sign to fight and we give them that, we aim for a minimum of a card per month and look to make it two then three then possibly four every month with a few short terms breaks maybe a week or two in between not these month-long breaks leaving the fans high and dry. There's a reason PRIDE is losing fans they barely put on shows as it is and their ‘supershows’ are supers--t most of them are mismatches”. - Dana White

Quick Update: Hey everyone been a while hope you're all doing well just wanted to announce I'll be returning to posting on this dynasty very soon but in the meantime I recently acquired photoshop and have been experimenting with it for a while now. Here's a sneak peek at some of the images I've created to use in some of the upcoming posts, I'm still very new to photoshop so sorry if it's rough on the eyes but I hope you all enjoy and see you then . *contender

Definitely gonna be keeping up with this thread

UFC 64: Leave No Doubt Josh Barnett vs. Kevin Randleman II December 2004 (Week 3) Build-Up + Breakdown: The UFC would host the final MMA event of 2004 with the UFC Heavyweight champion Josh Barnett (12-2) taking on another former UFC Heavyweight champion himself Kevin Randleman (13-5). Barnett is hot off a trilogy fight with Pedro Rizzo in which he won the trilogy (2-1) at UFC 59 with a 2nd round Knockout, Randleman himself has most recently ended the Frank Mir hype train with by Knocking him out in a minute and nine seconds. Despite being 1-2 in his last 3 fights the fact that Randleman one already has a victory over Barnett and two the UFC Heavyweight division being so shallow ‘The Monster’ was awarded the title shot. When discussing the first fight leading up to their second Barnett chalked the loss up to a ‘lack of experience’ a fair comment as Barnett has improved in all areas of fighting from his stand-up to his grappling. The only real weakness is his lack of checking leg kicks and body shots preferring to keep his guard high Barnett was also recently given his black belt in Brazilain jiu-jitsu but he does show a tendency to struggle when put on his back but his excellent takedown defense often prevents this but with a strong wrestler like Randleman who was able to take him down three times in their last bout the possibility is there. In the end Barnett told reporters he thought Randleman had already ‘hit his peak’ as a fighter and wasn’t ‘getting any better’ just staying the same fighter he was in years past ‘time doesn't go back and history always favors the younger fighter’. Kevin Randleman of course disagreed with the champ's assessment calling out Barnetts ‘tunnel vision’. “He doesn't know a thing about my training camps, the fact that he thinks I’m just doing the same thing over and over again. It’s tunnel vision only focusing on himself and that's what's gonna cost him again this time around he clearly isn’t studying his opponent properly”. - Kevin Randleman UFC Welterweight champion Matt Hughes (21-1) would take on surging contender Mike Swick (10-3) in the co-main event. Every MMA fan around the world practically knows how Hughes fights at this point a strong countryside wrestler infamous for his double-leg takedown slams with some very good dirty boxing, rear naked chokes, plus some serviceable jab and straight punches. Hughes particularly likes to favor the jab to the head then body combination which he often uses as set-up strikes to get the double-leg take down or at least grab a hold of them so he can drive them to the cage while some have wisened up to Hughes tactics the long-reigning UFC champion strength often proves to be too much plus he has also started to incorporate more feints into his game after moving camps to Greg Jackson’s MMA. Swick on the other hand is a high-level kickboxer his educated feet could prove to be the deciding factor as the past five years Hughes has been battling multiple leg and body injuries which has limited Hughes to mostly fighting once, sometimes twice during the last five years. Mike is also very skilled at escaping the clinch as well as the ground being a very slippery fighter to keep down which might force this fight on its feet longer than Hughes could possibly like. Only four fights would be on the main-card as many fights throughout the card were scrapped due to injury as only eight fights would be done on the night. Former PRIDE Middleweight Lee Murray (11-3) makes his UFC debut a strong striker who likes to throw punches in bunches but typically underutilizes his kicks with some real concerns being raised about his chin after the Silva loss as his defensive skills as a fighter has deteriorated considerably. Opening the main-card are two Heavyweight prospects in Tim Sylvia (5-2) versus Antoine Jaoude (1-2). Main-Card Fights: Main-Event Heavyweight: (CHAMP) Josh Barnett (12-2) vs. Kevin Randleman (13-5) UFC Heavyweight Championship Bout Barnett’s 2nd Attempted Title Defense Co-Main Welterweight: (CHAMP) Matt Hughes (21-1) vs. Mike Swick (10-3) UFC Welterweight Championship Bout Hughes 4th Attempted Title Defense Main-Card Middleweight: Lee Murray (11-3) vs. Jorge Rivera (7-2) Heavyweight: Tim Syliva (5-2) vs. Antoine Jaoude (1-2) UFC Look To Cap Off Stellar Year With Another Great Show In The Mandalay Bay Center (Sherdog.com) + All Fighters Successfully Make Weight Fight Play-By-Plays: UFC Rules: Title-Fights are 5rdsx5mins Non-Title-Fights are 3rdsx5mins Non-Title-Fight Main-Events are 3rdsx5mins Rounds are Scored on a 10-Point Must System All forms of Soccer Kicks are Forbidden Knees to the Head of a Downed Opponent are illegal Stomps to the Head of a Downed Opponent are illegal All forms of Elbows are Legal (CHAMP) Matt Hughes vs. Mike Swick UFC Welterweight Championship Fight Tale Of The Tape Age: (31) ------ (25) Height: (5'9") ------ (6'1") Record: (21-1) ------ (10-3) Nickname: ('N/A') ------ ('Quick') Style: (Wrestling) ------ (Kickboxing) Betting Odds: (-200) ------ (+270) Round 1 Swick lands a quick left hand but eats a one-two after failing to get off an uppercut immediately head coach Greg Jackson calls for a level change Hughes fakes going for another one-two before diving for a double-leg takedown Swick does well to defend before being driven to the fence as Matt Hughes is able to get both hooks in to get Swick to the ground. Matt smothers him but Swick does well to prevent Hughes from passing his guard into full mount even landing some decent shots off his back, Hughes slightly disengages getting into a stacked guard raining down punches to the body. Swick uses his legs to push off Hughes and get back to his feet a stiff jab SNAPS the champs head back this leads a four-punch combination with a double jab that leads to a hook then a leg kick all strikes but the leg kick misses. Round 2 Right hook NEARLY DROPS HUGHES!!! Mike Swick goes in for the kill practically LEAPING at Hughes with a superman jab!!! BAD DECISION by Swick as Hughes easily grabs a hold of him to scoop him up for the SLAM!!! Hughes grabs side-control starting to unload with some knees to the body, Hughes grabs full mount but Swick sprawls well but ends up back in side-control. The rest of the round is spent with Hughes transitioning from side-control and full mount. Round 3 A double jab then straight lands for Hughes he uses this combination to grab a hold and drives Swick to the cage. Hughes traps Swick to the cage for the next two minutes getting the double underhooks, Hughes drives multiple knees to the body during that time plus a few elbows which bruise Swick’s face a little but eventually Swick slips away. While backing off Swick launches a head kick that's blocked leading to a single-leg attempt by Matt Hughes!!! But some nicely aimed elbows while clinching from Swick force Hughes to back off. Swick starts darting in and out of range really well, starting to use his length more as a flurry of four hooks all land three to the head and one to the body, Hughes looks to grapple but Swick backs away. Hughes feints to try and traps him against the cage but eats a HARD straight for his efforts then another right hook. Leg kick from Swick is slightly CAUGHT by Hughes but he can only grab him into the Muay-Thai clinch landing four knees to the body the horn signals the end of a GREAT round. Round 4 Hughes peppers 'Quick' with an array of jabs to start the round before putting everything into a straight that misses but he keeps charging at Swick looking for the takedown but a BIG KNEE by Mike ‘Quick’ Swick CRACKS Hughes he doesn't fall but is wobbling BADLY quick three-punch flurry to the body lands before ahead kicks NEARLY DOWNS HUGHES AGAN!!! Hughes, despite being rocked, looks to grapple no matter what the cost is, Hughes, ducks the hook and grabs the hips driving Swick once again to the cage. Although he has a dominant position in the clinch Hughes appears to be resting commentator Joe Rogan theorizes that the amount of shots Hughes has absorbed still has him dazed. Referee Mario Yamasaki separates the two for inactivity Swick backs the champion down as now he has him trapped against the cage, again the in and out movement is done beautifully by Mike Swick coming in with a five punch flurry before slipping away before Hughes can respond. Hard straight by Swick is followed left then right an uppercut HUGHES ISN’T RESPONDING!!!! He looks OUT ON HIS FEET!!! Another RIGHT HOOK ROCKS HIM followed by another left then right hand Hughes shows the heart of the champion surviving the round. Round 5 Two quick leg kicks by Swick starts the finale round Hughes jabs but another leg kick BUCKLES HIM!!! HUGHES CHARGES AT SWICK!!! Showing off his strength advantage by trapping him against the cage and fires off a few knees as well as uppercuts. Hughes is REALLY pushing himself to his limits being urged by his corner to stay active so the referee does not separate them. Hughes does well to keep Swick against the cage but eventually ‘Quick’ is able to slip away but only has a minute left in the fight. Swick goes up top with a jab the uppercut then lanches a leg kick, SWICK WOBBLES A LITTLE!!! HE’S HAVING TROUBLE PLANTING HIS RIGHT LEG THAT KICK HE LAUNCHED MAY HAVE BACKFIRED!!! Hughes dives and easily gets the takedown as the horn sounds signaling the end of the fight. The replay shows Swick’s right leg hyperextended while he kicks Matt Hughes in the leg he needs to be held up by his corner as he can’t stand or walk as the decision is being finalized. “An unfortunate end to the fight for Swick. We hope he’s okay and has a speedy recovery whatever his injury is. But the official decision is in here is Bruce Buffer”. - Mike Goldberg “Ladies and gentlemen after fire rounds we go to the judges' scorecards for the decision. The judges score this contest 48-47 Hughes 48-47 Swick And 48-47 to the winner by SPLIT DECISION ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND NEEEEEEEEEEEEW Undisputed UFC Welterweight Champion of the World Miiiiiiiiike ‘Quick’ Swiiiiiiiiiick”. - Bruce Buffer Official Result: Mike Swick def. Matt Hughes SD (47-48, 48-47x2) Mike Swick wins the UFC Welterweight Championship (CHAMP) Josh Barnett vs. Kevin Randleman UFC Heavyweight Championship Fight Tale Of The Tape Age: (25) ------ (32) Height: (6'3") ------ (5'10") Record: (12-2) ------ (13-5) Nickname: ('The Baby Faced Assassin') ------ ('The Monster') Style: (Catch-Wrestling) ------ (Wrestling) Betting Odds: (-150) ------ (+110) Round 1 Barnett comes out with a mummy guard which is mainly used to stop Randelman to use any straight punches like jabs but leaves his body open, however, with Barnett being the longer plus bigger man it also makes it harder for Randleman to get in and wrestle as whenever he tries Barnett threatens to pull him into the Muay-Thai clinch by grabbing a hold of his head. This makes the first three minutes of the fight fairly inactive as the only notable strikes are some jabs from Barnett a frustrated Randleman is exclusively head hunting looking for the knockout. An overhand by Ramdnelamn misses for his efforts Barnett lands a lead knee to the body allowing him to get the Muay-Thai clinch!!! DEVASTATING KNEE’S TO THE BODY SLIGHT WOBBLES RANDLEMAN!!! Randelam escapes but eats a PERFECTLY TIMED ELBOW HE’S DOWN!!! HAMMER FISTS that then leads to FULL MOUNT which then leads to some SLICKING EBLOWS OPENING UP CUTS AROUND BOTH EYES OF RANDLEMAN!!! But he survives to see the second round. Round 2 A jab is parried by Barnett countering with one-two then straight then hits a roundhouse kick this opening allows Randleman to score his best strike of the fight so far with a HARD hook as the roundhouse kicked open the champs guard too much. Randleman looks to pick up the pace and gain some momentum a flurry of five punches is thrown with all but one decent left hook missing another two punch combination by Randleman is blocked. Now Barnett is turning it out sensing that ‘The Monster’ might have spent a little too much energy!!! A one-two backs up Randleman then after missing a jab FLOORS HIM WITH A POWERFUL RIGHT HOOK!!! RANDLEMAN GOES DOWN HARD!!! But the horn sounds saving him from a most likely finish. Round 3 Barnett starts off the round with a roundhouse kick with his guard again open Randleman throws EVERYTHING into an overhand but comes up short breathing heavily. Randleman runs in and lands his first straight punch of the fight but also rushes into a FLUSH STRAIGHT OF BARNETT’S ANOTHER KNOCKDOWN THAT’S BARNETT’S THIRD!!! Randle looks DONE he doesn't even cover up as Barnett hits him with some SICKENING shots to the face as ‘Big’ John McCarthy stops the fight. Official Decision: Josh Barnett TKO’s Kevin Randleman (R3 - 1:18) Josh Barnett Defends UFC Heavyweight Championship Main-Card Results: Main Event Josh Barnett def. Kevin Randleman via TKO (punches) (R3 - 1:18) Barnett Retains UFC Heavyweight Championship Co-Main Mike Swick def. Matt Hughes via SD (47-48, 48-47x2) Swick Wins UFC Welterweight Championship Main-Card Lee Murray def. Jorge Rivera via TKO (punches) (R1 - 2:11) Tim Sylvia def. Antoine Jaoude via KO (punch) (R1 - 3:00) Post-Fight Press Conference/Interview: "Hey everyone, of course the question on everyone's mind is how is Mike Swick? Well we had him checked out with the doctors in the back he's currently in the hospital right now and.... It looks really bad. What we can say is he'll be out a year he completely blew out his ACL and even slightly tore his MCL as well. Of course, this is devastating news we wish him a speedy recovery". - Dana White After a dominant display by Josh Barnett many wonders who could potentially challenge the now (13-2) champion? Despite the UFC’s Heavyweight division being relatively shallow for the past few years, the promotion has recently been scouting around the world signing a new crop of Heavyweight fighters to add to their roster some of these new signings where former PRIDE fighter and RINGS Heavyweight champion Dutch Muay-Thai/Kickboxer Gilbert Yvel (25-7) who after a falling out in PRIDE signed with the UFC. Undefeated Brazilian (16-0) Renato Sobral coming off an excellent year submitting fan-favorite Tank Abbott and getting a surprising TKO victory against Heavyweight prospect Ben Rothwell (6-2) with 2 minutes inside the first round. The company also made sure to round up the division with a slew of prospects in the previously mentioned Ben Rothwell, Tim Syliva, and Frank Mir UFC president Dana White said he expected a ‘golden age’ to start within the division. But the big question on everyone's mind was what to do in the Welterweight division? With Swick out for a year, an interim title is a no-brainer but who would fight for interim gold? With Hughes being a longtime champion along with it being such a close fight it was only fair to give Hughes another chance to possibly get his belt back. As for who he should fight Dana White announced a mini Welterweight tournament as Chris Lytle (13-2-3) would take on Matt Serra (9-2) in the first-ever UFC Fight Night card. Lytle is currently hiding a 10 fight win streak and in terms of being a Mixed Martial Artist Chris ‘Lights Out’ Lytle could very well be the best Welterweight in the world skilled in all areas of MMA with no clear weakness to his game Lytle may very well be holding interim then soon undisputed gold by 2006. Matt Serra on the other hand already holds a victory over Mike Swick being Swick’s only loss in the UFC with power in his hands plus being the first American blackbelt under Renzo Gracie, the first time Serra challenged for UFC gold was against Matt Hughes at UFC: 57 despite all three judges scoring the fight 50-45 Matt definitely had his moments in the fight. Serra hurt Hughes on many occasions in the first, four, and fifth-round as well as also getting a quotient submission in the fifth as well, now that Serra has moved camps to AKA under Javier Mendez the former title challenger could possibly take his striking to a whole new level. The other match-up would be two rising prospects within the division in BJJ specialist who recently received his blackbelt under Eddie Bravo Nick Serra (9-1) vs GSP (7-0) ‘Rush’ has finished six out of seven opponents coming off two knockout wins the Karate base now turned into a Taekwondo fighter under Duke Roufus. The winner of each fight would then go on to face off with each then would proceed to face Matt Hughes for the interim title before getting a crack at Swick for the undisputed Welterweight championship. Who will emerge as Swick’s next opponent and will the newly crowned champion ever be the same after such a devastating leg injury? 'I Wish Him A Speedy Recovery May God Bless Him And His Family' Matt Hughes All Class In Defeat (MMAFighting.com)

Ariane LIPSKI v. Polyana VIANA MOTA Paul FELDER v. Mairbek TAISUMOV Lucie PUDILOVA v. Antonina SHEVCHENKO Darren TILL v. Derek BRUNSON Johnny WALKER v. Luke ROCKHOLD

ICON Sports: Shellshocked Jake Shields vs. Luis Santos November 2004 (Week 2) Build-Up: The ICON Sports Welterweight Champion Jake Shields (16-0) is widely considered the greatest pound-for-pound Welterweight in the world as many MMA media websites like Blurcat and Sherdog have him ranked as the number one Welterweight in the world, dethroning the previous perceived number one in the UFC’s Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes (21-1). Shields world-class grappling plus victories over high-level opponents such as Roman Mitichyan (6-3) a Judo black belt in a fight he completely out grappled him in, two similar grappling clinch victories over Chris Lytle and Jason Von Flue both are top UFC Welterweight contenders, former Shooto Lightweight champion now turned Welterweight Tetsuji Kato a top tier Mixed Martial Artist with a record of (19-4). Shields is hot of a trilogy fight with the native Japanese mixed martial artist ending the series a perfect 3-0. Two legitimate criticisms of Shields's legendary career is his lack of finishes with only one TKO and one submission (rear-naked choke) plus the fact that he has never faced an elite stand up fighter all of his opponents were either grapplers or decent mixed martial artists who preferred to grapple. Luis Santos (9-3) despite being a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu prefers to keep the fight standing opting to use his high-level Kickboxing and Muay-Thai coming off three straight first-round knockouts in which he knocked out every opponent in under a minute Santos presents a style of fighting Shields has surprisingly never faced before. The two were relatively respectful towards one another as both praised each other's style while also remaining confident that they will be the one to get their hand raised and leave with the ICON strap. The co-main event, on the other hand, will see two of the most nuclear rivals in Nick Diaz (10-2) and Paul Daley (4-0) face off the rivalry started back in September when Diaz defeated Jeremy Bennett via a 3rd round submission Daley was in attendance talking A TON of trash to both fighters looking to fight the winner. After Daiz was victorious he took the mic to call out Daley who to the shock of many started to leave the arena looking disinterested this led to a legendary line by Diaz yelling ‘Where are you going? Where you at Daley?’. The line has since become an inside joke inside the MMA community Diaz would release a clothing line with ‘Where you at Daley?’ being posted on a simple black t-shirt. When asked why he left Daley said, “As soon as he [Nick Diaz] took the mic, he started talking and he was putting me to sleep. I can barely understand a word he says, he's only twenty right? F--k he already been hit that hard he ain’t gonna last long with me. He’s flat-footed with subpar boxing easily hittable. I'll knock him out in the first easy”. - Paul Daley The rest of the main card remains fairly lackluster but there is a very intriguing Welterweight match-up between two former opponents of Shields in Tetsuji Kato taking on Roman Mitichyan the winner getting another possible crack at the winner of tonight's main event as the president of ICON Sports John Perretti thought both Paul Daley and Nick Diaz needed a bit more experience dubbing them ‘not ready’ for a title fight ‘yet’. Main-Card Fights: Main-Event Welterweight: (CHAMP) Jake Shields (16-0) vs. Luis Santos (9-3) ICON Sports: Welterweight Championship Bout Shields 7th Attempted Title Defense Co-Main Welterweight: Nick Diaz (7-2) vs. Paul Daley (4-0) Main-Card Welterweight: Tetsuji Kato (19-4) vs. Roman Mitichyan (6-3) Featherweight: Noboru Asahi (24-7-5) vs. Koji Takeuchi (5-5-1) Welterweight: Takuya Wada (4-6) vs. Brad Jones (5-2) Shields Tops Welterweight Pound-For-Pound Rankings On Blurcat & Sherdog (Sherdog.com) + All Fighters Successfully Make Weight Fight Play-By-Plays: ICON Rules: Title-Fights are 5rdsx3mins Non-Title-Fights are 3rdsx3mins Non-Title-Fight Main-Events are 5rdsx3mins Rounds are Scored on a 10-Point Must System All forms of Soccer Kicks are Forbidden Knees to the Head of a Downed Opponent are illegal Alls forms of Stomps are illegal All forms of Elbows are Legal Tetsuji Kato vs. Roman Mitichyan Tape Of The Tape Age: (26) ------ (27) Height: (5'7") ------ (5'10") Record: (19-4) ------ (6-3) Nickname: ('N/A') ------ ('The Emperor') Style: (Mixed Martail Arts) ------ (Judo) Betting Odds: (-350) ------ (+270) Round 1 Roman starts the contest by diving for a double-leg takedown Tetsuji Kato does well to stuff the takedown but after thirty seconds Kato is driven to the cage allowing Mitichyan to get into a more dominant position allowing Roman to EASILY lift and SLAM Kato to the mat. Roman TAKES HIS BACK both are hooks are LOCKED IN he NEARLY gets the neck crank but Kato is able to get out but after spending A LOT of energy to get out Tetsuji is barely able to offer any defense allowing Roman to ground and pound Kato with little to NO DEFENSE!!! Referee Herb Dean got in there a little late Kato definitely took a few too many shots to the head before the fight was called off. Official Result: Roman Mitichyan TKOS Tetsuji Kato (R1 - 2:11) Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley Tape Of The Tape Age: (20) ------ (21) Height: (6'0") ------ (5'9") Record: (7-2) ------ (4-0) Nickname: ('N/A') ------ ('Semtex') Style: (Boxing+BBJ) ------ (Kickboxing) Betting Odds: (+110) ------ (-150) Round 1 Nick Diaz offers a REAL MEAN MUG he doesn't stop staring down Daley during the twos introductions before referee Steve Mazzagatti can single the fight to begin Daley flips Diaz the bird before the fight starts. Diaz comes out practically running in offering Daley two birds in response right up in his face before circling away the crowd is chanting ‘Daiz’ their really into this fight now. Diaz is pressuring Daley making this a phonebooth fight as neither fighter is able to get enough pop on their shots to generate enough power, Daley hits a short left hook on the temple of Diaz's head before going to the body with two more hooks. Diaz pressuring Daley trapped against the cage a flurry of eight punches by Daiz is OVERWHELMING DALEY six of the eight punches land an UPPERCUT NEARLY TAKE HIM OFF HIS FEET!!! Daley dives for a single-leg takedown Diaz looks to defend but changes his mind midway LOCKING IN THE ARMBAR WHILE ON HIS BACK!!! DALEY TAPS OUT!!! Official Result: Nick Diaz SUBS Paul Daley (R1 - 2:23) (CHAMP) Jake Shields vs. Luis Santos ICON Welterweight Championship Tape Of The Tape Age: (25) ------ (24) Height: (6'0") ------ (6'1") Record: (16-0) ------ (9-3) Nickname: ('N/A') ------ ('Sapo') Style: (BBJ) ------ (Muay-Thai) Betting Odds: (-700) ------ (+500) Round 1 The bout starts off relatively slow as the first thirty seconds are spent with the two circling around the center of the cage Shields is looking to dive in for a takedown off a Santos miss while Luis is looking to land a BIG shot early. The first strike is finally thrown when Santos fakes a hook to the body to come upstairs with a JAW SHATTERING head kick!!! SHIELDS IS DAZED BARELY ABLE TO STAND UP AS HE STAGGERS BACK TO THE FENCE OF THE CAGE!!! Santos UNLOADS looking for the finish a jab lands flush followed by a flurry of seven hooks all of them land with three to the head and four to the body. ANOTHER HEAD KICK LANDS!!! Shields is wobbly but is still firing back and offering some defense as he hits two front kicks to the body but it STILL TRAPPED against the cage. A straight CRACKS SHIELDS AGAIN!!! Two jabs find home followed by a BIG right hand Santos grabs a hold of Shields looking to UNLOAD with some knees. He lands only one before finding himself being OUT GRAPPLED by Shields who gets the single-leg takedown quickly grabbing side-control. Shields looks for a kimura but Santos doesn't allow it to get applied as the round comes to an end. Round 2 Santos rolls with a Shields jab before CRACKING HIM AGAIN WITH AN OVERHAND!!! AN UPPERCUT FINALLY PUTS SHIELDS DOWN!!! BIG GROUND & POUND but Shields does well to hold on but he gives up full mount with leads to some HUGE SLICING ELBOWS FROM LUIS SANTOS!!! Shields is showing some real heart barely surviving a BRUTAL onslaught from the challenger. The rest of the round is spent with Santos on top continuously landing some HARD shots from the top mixing it up with elbows and punches. After two rounds the damage seen on Jake Shields's face is absolutely BRUTAL a cut over the right eye is bleeding like a damn waterfall as well as some obvious facial fractures. It looks like a possible broken orbital on the same right eye as well as some swelling around both his cheeks, one of the ICON commentators is in awe of the POWER coming from Santos. Round 3 Santos comes out with another head kick which slightly hits the head of the champion but some sloppy technique on the end of Santos leaves him exposed to a STRONG double-leg takedown attempt by Shields. After being driven to the fence Jake extends his leg to sweep him onto the ground Santos grabs the cage out of desperation!!! But referee Mario Yamasaki didn’t see it!!! Shields still has a hold of Santos but can only offer some shoulder strikes as well as a few short punches to the body. Santos escapes and circles away with thirty seconds left he lands a lead left hook then a SHARP leg kick, Shields responds with two jabs on the backfoot to end the round. Round 4 Santos starts the round unable to land a few set-up strikes as well as missing the jab then lead leg kick a HUGE GASP for air shows Luis is low on energy. Santos simply has to answer for a slick single-leg takedown that leads to side-control from Shields he again goes for the kimura but the black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu Luis Santos excellently defends it. But he can’t defend against Shields taking his BACK this could be trouble!!! But Santos does well to prevent Shields from getting any hooks in as the rear-naked choke attempt fails as the champion can’t get it under the chin. Seeing this Shields instead tries for a possible neck-crank submission but again Santos calmly deals with whatever submission attempt Shields throws his way. Round 5 Santos comes out with a fast flurry of punches throwing a one-two then straight followed by a heel kick none of them land however due to in part to some real exhaustion from Santos and some decent head movement from Shields. Despite this Santos has once again trapped Shields against the cage. What follows is some phone booth fighting as Santos nails a one-two then a lead knee to the body coming in, Shields knowing he doesn't have the power to fight at this distance desperately tries to get into the clinch. He is successful in grabbing into a dominant position in the Muay-Thai clinch what follows is three straight knees to the body then a footstomp. Santos tries to get free but Shields has a firm grip on him as he pushes Santos to the fence of the cage as the fight comes to an end. After five hard-fought rounds, the ICON Sports broadcasting crew are informed that announcer Joe Martinez has the official scorecards here he is now. “Ladies and gentleman after five rounds we go to the judge's scorecards the totals are 49-46 scored for Luis Santos 47-47 and another 47-47 The official decision is considered a MAJORITY DRAW!!!” - Joe Martinez Official Decision: Jake Shields DRAWS with Luis Santos Shields Defends ICON Welterweight Championship Main-Card Results: Main Event Jake Shields DRAWS. Luis Santos (46-49, 47-47x2) Shields Retains ICON Welterweight Championship Co-Main Nick Diaz def. Paul Daley via SUB (Armbar) (R1 - 2:23) Main-Card Roman Mitichyan def. Tetsuji Kato via TKO (ground-&-pound) (R1 - 2:11) Noboru Asahi def. Koji Takeuchi via SD (27-30, 29-28x2) Takuya Wada def. Brad Jones via UD (29-28x3) Post-Fight Press Conference/Interview: ICON's last show of the year definitely had its share of controversy mainly due to the draw in the main event. The question of ICON’s judging criteria and how to judge an MMA fight was the main center of talk around the event. In terms of a round by round system Shields definitely won at least three rounds but never put Santos in any type of danger as no submission attempts were close to submitting his opponent. In terms of damage, Santos dominated that area of the fight as Shields looked like his face had been through a woodchipper while Santos had no scratches on him as round one and two were both clearly his. The question of what is a 10-8 round was the main takeaway as the general feeling was the first two rounds where both a 10-8 for Santos while the last three were probably won by Shields the 49-46 score for Santos also raised many eyebrows but what's done is done and while it may not be a victory Shields has successfully defended his belt for the 7th time the most defenses by a champion in an nationally reconsigned MMA organization. As for post-fight interviews, Jake Shields was rushed straight to the hospital were it was revealed he suffered a broken jaw, nose and right orbital bone the talk of a rematch was quick to emerge as a possible candidate for Shields and Santos next fight by ICON president John Perretti saying he’ll 'definitely look into it’. While the disappointment was clear on Santos' face he told media members he understood why the result was a draw but said he felt like he ‘won’ the fight due to the first two rounds which is a very fair point. One very vocal critic of tonight's ICON Welterweight Championship fight is UFC president Dana White who in the UFC 64 pre-fight press conference told reporters, “This is the guy [Jake Shields] the media says is the number one welterweight in the world…. Yeah, he definitely looked like the best welterweight in the world f--kin dreadful! He could barely throw a jab, has no high-level submissions, no strength, no one-punch knockout power he has nothing. When people now ask why he isn’t in the UFC, that performance right there is why he isn’t good enough the level here is much higher than the regional circuit“. - Dana White Dana White Not Impressed With Shields 'F--kin Dreadful' Performance (Blurcat.com)

<p>Lucie PUDILOVA v. <strong>Ashlee EVANS-SMITH</strong></p><p> <strong>Abusupiyan MAGOMEDOV</strong> v. Scott ASKHAM</p><p> Vinny MAGALHAES v. <strong>Ivan SHTYRKOV</strong></p><p> Donald CERRONE v. <strong>Rafael DOS ANJOS</strong></p><p> Johnny WALKER v. <strong>Ryan BADER</strong></p>