Fight Talk

Bobby Jones, who played football for the New York Giants, will make his mixed martial arts (MMA) debut for Fightfest on Aug. 24 at the Canton Civic Center.

Jones (6-foot-5, 265 pounds) played football and wrestled at Wadsworth High School and Penn State University. He was a two-time All-American selection in wrestling at Wadsworth.

In Canton, Jones will battle Jamie Sams from Washington Court House as Fightfest presents its “Night of the Heavyweights.”

Five other heavyweight fights will be on the Canton card, including a title defense by Fightfest heavyweight champion Tony Sylvester. He is a former Ohio State wrestler who has compiled a 9-0-1 record.

Akron boxer Joe McCall (2-0) will compete in another heavyweight fight.

Other local favorites on the show include Frank Costanzo, Justin Simms, Chase Minor and Brian Hensley.

Fans will get a chance to meet the fighters when Fightfest sets up the cage at Belden Village Mall near Macy’s on Aug. 17 and 18 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and at the Civic Center box office. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the action will start at 7.

The show will be a live taping of the Fightfest TV series on SportsTime Ohio.

Jaime Jara made the most of his chance as a substitute when he beat Jeremiah Metcalf to become the Elite XC middleweight champion.

Showtime aired the fight card as part of its new series featuring rising MMA talent.

Jara (16-4) stepped in for the Aaron Weatherspoon, who didn’t get medical clearance, to battle Metcalf for the vacant title. Jara won on a first-round knockout.

The main event saw K.J. Noons (5-2) knock out Edson Berto (11-4) in the third round.

In other fights, Scott Jorgenson beat Chris David by unanimous decision, Aaron Rosa beat Jefferson Silva on a first-round TKO; and Muhsin Corbbrey beat Lee Gibson by unanimous decision.

“Sho XC” will debut on Showtime on tonight at 11 p.m from Santa Ynez, Calif. The main event will be K.J. Noons (4-2) against Edson Berto (11-3-1).

Jeremiah Metcalf (5-2) will take on Jaime Jara (15-4) for the Sho XC welterweight title.

Lee Gibson (10-1) and Aaron Rosa (8-0) will also try to add to their reputations on the show.

Elite XC is the company that brought us the Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni fight on pay-per-view last month.

After the main event, the undercard will air live on www.elitexc.com.

The opening fight on this week’s Bodog TV show featured the lighter (125-pound) women’s division, with Carina Damm of Brazil (5-3) taking on Molly Helsel (3-5). After a grueling, trash-talking battle, Damm won by majority decision.

The other fight marked the return of MMA pioneer Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons (22-12), a Cuban who was raised in Brazil. He battled Mitch McElroy (3-0) of Orlando, Fla.

Landi-Jons used his Muay Thai skills to score with some big kicks in round 1. Pele then surprised McElroy with a kneebar for the submission at 1:18 of Round 2.

You can learn more about Bodog at http://www.bodogfight.com.

Randy Couture will defend the UFC heavyweight championship against Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event of “UFC 74: Respect” on Aug. 25.

Couture captured the title from Tim Sylvia on March 3, while Gonzaga earned the title shot with a stunning upset over Mirko Cro Cop.

Former welterweight champion Georges St.-Pierre will battle Josh Koscheck, while Sports Illustrated cover boy Roger Huerta will battle Alberto Crane in a lightweight battle.

Other fights on the PPV will include Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote (middleweights); and Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino (lightweights).

Gregg Doyel recently wrote a great column on sportsline.com about steroids in the sport of mixed martial arts.

UFC recently suspended its lightweight champion, Sean Sherk, for testing positive for steroids after his successful title defense over Hermes Franca on July 7. Here’s the kicker: Franca tested positive, too!

I don’t understand why fighters are sometimes busted for steroid use. They are always fighting someone who is their own weight. They are tested for drug use very often. It doesn’t make sense.

Doyle makes the point that steroid use will keep mixed martial arts from breaking through as a mainstream sport. He said sports like baseball and football can survive steroid scandals because of their rich histories.

Actually, he has it backwards. MMA is so new on the national scene that the mainstream media isn’t looking at it that closely. Performance-enhancing drugs have made such big headlines in baseball, football, track and pro wrestling that nobody is paying that much attention to the issue in MMA.

Decide for yourself – check out Doyel’s column at http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10265381

In the final IFL match of the regular season, Ken Shamrock’s Nevada Lions downed Don Frye’s Tucson Scorpions 4-1. Both teams had already been eliminated from the playoffs, but individual fighters were gunning for spots in the Grand Prix tournaments.

Nevada jumped to an early lead when Dan Molina won the middleweight fight over Seth Baczynski of Tucson. Molina made coach Shamrock proud by using the heel hook for a tap out at 1:32.

Pat Healy extended the Nevada lead by winning the welterweight fight on a split decision over Mike Guymon.

John Gunderson clinched the victory for Nevada with a win over Gabe Casillas. Gunderson clamped on the rear naked choke to win the fight in Round 2. Gunderson also qualified for the lightweight Grand Prix.

Nevada’s victory was in hand, but the Lions didn’t stop winning. Roy Nelson qualified for the heavyweight Grand Prix with a unanimous decision victory over Shane Ott of Tucson.

The Scorpions managed to salvage the light heavyweight fight as Mike Whitehead defeated Vernon “Tiger” White on a TKO early in the second round.

Of the 12 IFL teams, Nevada finished in a tie for fifth, while the Scorpions finished in a three-way tie for last place.

Fight fans won’t have to pay to see the UFC light heavyweight title fight between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Dan Henderson.

UFC has decided to air the fight on tape delay on Saturday, Sept. 8, rather than expect fans to watch the London event during the afternoon.

This is a great idea, as the UFC will be able to draw in a lot of new fans to one its biggest fights.

Jackson will defend his UFC light heavyweight championship against Henderson, who will defend his PRIDE title in the unification match. As you can see, PRIDE is slowly being absorbed into the UFC.

Other top fights on the show will include Mirko Cro Cop vs. Chieck Kongo; and Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill in a battle of undefeated The Ultimate Fighter 3 contestants.

UFC president Dana White announced yesterday that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would make his UFC debut on Sept. 22 against Forrest Griffin in Anaheim, Calif.

Rua, a 201-pound Brazilian fighter, is 16-2 and has won his last four fights for PRIDE. Another PRIDE competitor, Dan Henderson, will debut in UFC earlier in the month.

Griffin (14-4) is from Athens, Ga., and he is coming off a unanimous decision win over Hector Ramirez at UFC 72: Victory on June 16.

The New York Pitbulls locked up the final spot in the IFL playoffs with a 3-2 win over the Toronto Dragons on last weekend’s IFL TV show.

The series began when Brent Beaupartlant won the middleweight fight for Toronto. His opponent, Fabiano Leopaldo, suffered a separated shoulder.

New York evened the series when light heavyweight Andre Gusmao (4-0) beat Wojtek Kaszowski at 3:53 with the rear naked choke.

Toronto went back up 2-1 when lightweight Wagnney Fabiano defeated Erik Owings, but New York welterweight Delson Heleno tied the score on another injury stoppage. This time, it was Gideon Ray of Toronto suffering a dislocated right elbow.

It all came down to the heavyweight fight between Rafael Feijao of Toronto and Marcio Cruz of New York. Cruz got the win on a disqualification after Feijao was called twice for using knee strikes on his downed opponent.

In the IFL semifinals, the Pitbulls will take on the Tokyo Sabres. The regular-season champion Los Angeles Anacondas will face the Quad Cities Silverbacks in the other semifinal. Both team series will be taped on Aug. 2 in East Rutherford, N.J.

Bodog crowned its first middleweight champion on Saturday night as Trevor Prangley of South Africa downed Japanese veteran Yuki Kondo in Trenton, NJ.
Prangley (16-4) opened a cut under the left eye of Kondo (49-20-6), and the doctor stopped the fight between the second and third rounds.
Welterweight Eddie Alvarez (11-1), who hails from nearby Philadelphia, pleased the fans with a unanimous decision victory over Matt Lee (9-6-1) of Korea.
Tara LaRosa improved her record to 14-1 by outlasting the previously undefeated Kelly Kobald. LaRosa was in trouble early, but she persevered and defeated the tiring Kobald late in Round 4 with an armbar.
In other top bouts, Blair Tugman defeated Dawn Hawley; and Nick Agallar beat James “Binky” Jones.

The welterweight fight between Eddie Alvarez and Matt Lee will headline the live Bodog show on Saturday night at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J.
Bodog will also crown a new 135-pound ladies champion as Kelly Kobold takes on Tara LaRosa for the vacant belt.
Other top fights on the Trenton show included Yuki Kondo vs. Trevor Prangley (middleweight), Nick Agallar vs. James “Binky” Jones (lightweight); and Dan Hawley vs. Nick Cottone (bantamweight).
This week’s Bodog’s TV show featured a bout between LaRosa and Shanya Baszler. LaRosa improved her record to 13-1 with a TKO win in Round 2.

Eric “Butterbean” Esch will take on Stefan Gamlin at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., on Aug. 17.

Butterbean (10-3-1) is coming off a big win at PRIDE 34 in April, when he defeated Wagner da Conceicao Martins of Brazil with a keylock submission.

Gamlin, a 362-pound former pro wrestler, is 0-3, but his losses have come to the likes of Jason Miller, Sam Greco and Bob Sapp.

Wes “The Project” Sims will fight Jeff Monson. Mark “The Titan” Kerr will try to break a five-fight losing streak when he faces former WWE wrestler Sean O’Haire.

You can learn more about this show at www.globalfightingchampionships.com.

“The Immortal” Matthew Brown advanced to the welterweight tournament at Fightfest’s first visit to the House of Blues in Cleveland on July 6.

Brown used a belly-down armbar to defeat Dan Kolbasowski, who wore a sling on his arm after the fight. Brown will move on to face Matt Shaw in the finals.

The welterweight bout will wrap up a series of tournaments that have aired on Fightfest’s TV show, which began airing in September on Sports Time Ohio.

The other tournament finals took place on May 3 in Canton, as Fightfest crowned its champions: Brandon Garner (145 pounds), Alonzo Martinez (155 pounds) and Matt Masterson (185 pounds).

You can learn more about this Ohio-based promotion at www.fightfest.tv

The Los Angeles Anacondas defeated the Seattle
Tigersharks to clinch a spot in the IFL playoffs. The team matchup aired on “IFL Fight Night” on July 6.
The Anacondas won the opening battle of middleweights when Benji Radach knocked out Bristol Marunde.
Lightweight Chris Horodecki (9-0) upped the Los
Angeles lead to 2-0 with a unanimous decision over Shad Lierley. The fans gave both men a standing ovation after the action-packed first round.
This put the Seattle Tigersharks in a must-win
position, and welterweight Brad Blackburn came through by walloping Jay Hieron of Los Angeles in 40 seconds.
However, Los Angeles clinched the victory when light heavyweight Alex Schoenauer knocked out Allan Goes in three minutes.
Seattle won the heavweight fight when Reese Andy downed Krzystof Soszynski by split decision.
Next week’s IFL show will feature the New York
Pitbulls vs. the Toronto Dragons.