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Frank Shamrock will fight Phil Baroni for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title on June 22 on pay-per-view on June 22.
Shamrock, a former UFC middleweight champ, will be fighting in his hometown of San Jose, Calif. He had won 10 fights in a row, including a win over Tito Ortiz in 1999, before getting disqualified against Renzo Gracie on Feb. 10.
Baroni (10-7) lost four UFC fights in a row from 2003-2005. He moved to Pride and rebounded by winning four of his last six fights.
Other bouts scheduled for the PPV include Murilo Rua vs. Joey Villasenor; Carter Williams vs. Paul Buentello; Cung Le vs. Tony Fryklund; and Charles Bennett vs. Victor Valenzuela.
Other undercard bouts will air on www.proelite.com before the PPV goes on the air.
Leanr more about the show at http://www.strikeforceusa.net/news.asp?ID=33.
DON’T FORGET – Tonight, you can get a double dose of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, starting at 10 Eastern. The winner’s of tonight’s semifinals will battle on the finale on June 23, along with a fight between coaches B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver.
The semifinalists are Gray Maynard, Manny Gamburyan, Joseph Lauzon and Nate Diaz.
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Sam Stout showed he has a strong chin, but he couldn’t withstand the onslaught of Spencer Fisher in the main event of UFC Fight Night 10 last night in Hollywood, Fla.
Fisher (21-3) was busted open in the first round. However, he came back to avenge last year’s loss to Stout (13-2-1) by scoring a unanimous decision victory.
In another lightweight bout, Thiago Tavares of Brazil improved his record to 16-0 with a dominating win over Jason Black (22-3-1). Tavares caught Black in a triangle choke at 2:49 of the second round.
Jon Fitch (19-2) continued to make noise in the welterweight division by defeating Roan Carneiro of Brazil. Carneiro dominated Round 1 by taking Fitch down twice. Fitch bounced back in the second round with some strong punches before winning the fight with the rear naked choke.
The undercard featured a pair of dynamic knockouts. Drew McFedries (6-2) clobbered Jordan Radev of Bulgaria in 33 seconds of a middleweight bout. Welterweight Anthony Johnson only needed 13 seconds to knock out Chad Reiner.
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“Hands of Stone” Sam Stout will take on Spencer “The King” Fisher in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Spike TV tonight at 9 p.m. This is a rematch from UFC 58: USA vs. Canada on March 3, 2006. Stout (12-2-1) won that fight on a majority decision.
Stout, a Canadian, lost his last UFC fight by tap-out to Kenny Florian one year ago. Fisher (20-3), a North Carolina native, lost by TKO to Hermes Franca on the Fight Night card in January. Both men need a win to get back in the hunt for Sean Sherk’s UFC lightweight title.
In the welterweight division, Roan Carneiro of Brazil (11-5) will battle Jon Fitch (18-2-1). This will be a battle of wrestling (Fitch) vs. Jiu Jitsu. Fitch has won five in a row, so another win tonight would make him impossible to ignore among the welterweights.
Bulgarian middleweight Jordan Radev will bring a 16-1 record into his fight against Iowa native Drew McFedries (5-2). Another top fight will feature Jason Black vs Thiago Tavares in the lightweight division.
This Fight Night card shows off the strength of the UFC roster. The company can give fans this level of talent for free and still expect them to pay for even bigger stars this Saturday night.
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Here is your guide to keep up this week’s hectic week in UFC:
UFC Fight Night will air on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Spike TV. The main event will be a battle at 155 pounds between Sam Stout (12-2-1) and Spencer Fisher (20-3).
Other featured fights include Jordan Radev (16-1) vs. Drew McFedries (5-2) at 185 pounds; and Jon Fitch (18-2-1) vs. Roan Carneiro (11-5) at 170 pounds. We will have a preview of the entire show tomorrow.
The Ultimate Fighter 5 will air back-to-back episodes on Thursday at 10 on Spike TV. The semifinalists ate Nate Diaz, Manny Gamburyan, Gray Maynard and Joe Lauzon.
Finally, UFC 72: Victory will air live on pay-per-view from Belfast, Ireland. Rich Franklin (23-2), the former UFC middleweight champion, will fight Yushin Okami (21-3). Other top fights.
In a battle of light heavyweights, Forrest Griffin (13-4) will fight Hector “Sick Dog” Ramirez (6-2-1). Also, Canadian middleweight Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald (19-8) will take on Rory “Outburst” Singer.
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Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz advanced to the semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 last night on Spike TV. Let’s look at the fighters who have qualified for the Final Four.
Gamburyan (5-2 entering the competition) defeated Matt Wiman in the quarterfinals. Gamburyan, a Hollywood native, has been a nationally ranked judo competition for eight years. Gamburyan missed 18 months of action before TUF 5 when he dislocated both of his shoulders.
Diaz (5-2) knocked off Corey Hill in the other quarterfinal. The younger brother of Nick Diaz has been concentrating on an MMA career since 2003.
Joe Lauzon (13-3) entered the competition as a favorite, because he holds a victory over one of the coaches, Jens Pulver. Lauzon, a computer network administrator from Massachusetts, has been studying jiu-jitsu for six years.
Gray Maynard (3-0) is from Lakewood, Ohio. He is a three-time college All-American wrestler at Michigan State University, where he was a teammate of TUF 3 winner Rashad Evans. Maynard helped BJ Penn train for a fight before entering the octagon himself. Maynard trains in Las Vegas with Randy Couture.
The TUF 5 finale will take place on June 23 In addition to the final fight, the show will feature a battle between coaches Penn and Pulver.
Learn everything about TUF 5 at www.theultimatefighter.tv.
The Ultimate Fighter, UFC
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We’ve talked about UFC, Pride, IFL and WEC – now let’s not forget about Bodog. This promotion tapes many of its first in Costa Rica and held a pay-per-view in Russia in April.
The most recently edition highlighted the welterweight division. Bodog aired a pair of fights that were won by champion Eddie Alvarez and top contender Nick “The Goat” Thompson. Then, Bodog aired the title fight between the two from the April pay-per-view. Thompson won the title in the second round via TKO.
This made for an action packed episode, but I have to question the wisdom of airing a title fight on free TV two months after asking viewers to order it on pay-per-view.
One unique aspect of Bodog is that it sometimes features female competitors. This is refreshing considering that women are often used as eye candy in just about every other promotion.
Bodog airs on the Ion group of local TV stations on Tuesday and Saturday nights at 11 p.m. Get all of the details at www.bodogfight.com.
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World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) made a strong debut in its first national TV show on Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network). The formerly independent WEC is now owned by UFC, and it specializes in the lighter weight classes.
The top star in WEC is featherweight champion Urijah Faber. In a battle of 144-pounders, Faber improved his record to 19-1 with a win over Chance Farrar. Faver forced a tap-out with a rear naked choke in 3:19.
Carlos Condit, the welterweight (170) champion, was unable to compete on Versus due to an injury. His would-be opponent, Brock Larson, pounded Kevin Knabjian to improve his record to 21-1.
In other results, Brian Stann beat Craig Zellner by TKO; Alex Karalexis beat Josh Smith by unanimous decision; Rani Yahya beat Mark Hominick with the rear naked choke; and Josh Alessio beat Alex Serduykov with the guillotine choke.
WEC will air again on Versus tonight with a show called WrekCage from 8-10 Eastern. You can learn everything about WEC at www.wec.tv.
MMA, WEC
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One of the cool things about ultimate fighting is that all weight classes are treated with importance by the fans and promoters. Let’s take a look at the five title holders in UFC.
Randy Couture (15-8) is the UFC heavyweight champion at the age of 43. He won a unanimous decision over Tim Sylvia at UFC 68: The Uprising on March 3. This represented a big comeback for Couture, who was knocked out by Chuck Liddell in his previous fight 13 month earlier.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (27-6) is the UFC light heavyweight champion. He upset Liddell with a TKO in less than 2 minutes to win the belt on May 26. Jackson, a former PRIDE competitor, is 2-0 since jumping to the UFC promotion.
Anderson Silva (18-4) is on top of the UFC middleweight division, which tops out at 185 pounds. He won the title from Rich Franklin on Oct. 14, 2006 and retained it on Feb. 3 with a win over Travis Lutter.
Matt “The Terror” Serra (15-5) became the new UFC welterweight champion when he scored a TKO over Georges St.-Pierre on April 7.
Sean Sherk is the UFC lightweight champion (155 pounds). He has a sparkling record of 35-2-1. The UFC didn’t have a champ in this division for four years until reinstating the title in October 2006, when Sherk won a decision over Kenny Florian.
UFC, Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson, Chuck Liddell
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Brock Lesnar, the former NCAA and WWE wrestling champion, made a solid transition to mixed martial arts with a quick win over Min Soo Kim on June 2. Lesnar took Kim down, pounded him and forced a tap out in 1:09.
The fight headlined the “Dynamite USA” pay-per-view, which was co-promoted by K-1 and Elite XC.
After the fight, Lesnar declared himself ready for big-money fights and heavyweight title shots. It’s hard to tell if Lesnar is ready for this, because Kim didn’t really test him. It will take a couple more fights to determine whether Lesnar will rise to the top of MMA in the same way he did in college and pro wrestling.
Another former pro wrestler, Bill Goldberg, provided color commentary for the event.
The other top fight was a battle of MMA legends, as Royce Gracie battled Kazushi Sakuraba. After the first round, the action really slowed down and the fans booed. Gracie won a unanimous decision.
Former football player Johnny Morton didn’t have as good a debut as Lesnar. Bernard Ackah knocked Morton cold in 38 seconds.
In other results, Mighty Mo beat Ruben “Warpath” Villareal by TKO in 1:33; Dong-Sik Yoon beat Melvin Manhoef with an armbar in Round 2; and Hideo Tokoro beat Brad Pickett with an armbar in 2:41.
Brock Lesar, Royce Gracie, Bill Goldberg
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If you missed any part of the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter, it’s time to fire up the TiVo. Spike TV will air all nine episodes of the series on Saturday, June 2, from 2-11 p.m.
Spike TV boasted in a recent press release that the May 24 episode of TUF 5 drew more than double the viewers of the first game of the Stanley Cup hockey finals on May 28.
The Ultimate Fighter has been a huge success for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) promotion. It has been a breeding ground for future stars. The show also gives fans a weekly dose of MMA action without giving away anything that would draw on pay-per-view.
As far as “training to break into a sport” reality shows go, The Ultimate Fighter has been a much bigger hit than The Contender (boxing) or Tough Enough (wrestling).
Last night, Gray Maynard defeated Brandon “The Murderer” Melendez in a quarterfinal bout. One week ago, Joseph Lauzon also earned a spot in the semifinals with a TKO win over Cole Miller.
The other quarterfinal fights will be Nate Diaz vs. “The Real Deal” Corey Hill; and “Handsome” Matt Wiman vs. Manuel “The Pitbull” Gamburyan.
The fighters are divided into two teams, coached by UFC veterans B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver.
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Brock Lesnar has a new opponent for his MMA debut on Saturday. Instead of facing “The Techno Giant” Choi Hong-Man, Lesnar will battle judo expert Kim Min-Soo.
As you can see, the promoters are still hoping for a strong turnout from the Korean community in Los Angeles.
K-1 needs a strong performance by Lesnar to establish him as a Pay-Per-View attraction, considering how UFC got even more powerful last week with the acquisition of Pride.
The other big match on the PPV is a battle of legends between Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba. K-1 must hope these two have some gas left in their tanks. If this match flops, it could sour fans on buying future K-1 pay-per-views.
Former NFL star Johnnie Morton is questionable to fight on this show. His opponent may not be licensed by today’s deadline, according to a report by The Wrestling Observer.
Other bouts on the PPV include Ruben Villareal vs. Mighty Mo; and Yoon Doon Sik vs. Melvin Manhoef.
Before the PPV begins, Showtime will be live with a pair of preliminary bouts. They are Tim Persey vs. Jonathan Wiezorek; and Jake Shields vs. Ido Pariente. The Showtime portion of the show will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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UFC president Dana White announced that his company’s long-rumored purchase of its top competitor, Pride, went through late last week.
Pride lost its TV clearance in Japan last year, which weakened the company financially. However, Pride still has a ton of strong talent. So now White has to choose from two ways to make a lot of money:
1. World Series. Keep the UFC and Pride talent separate, and have an annual supershow where the champions collide.
2. Bring all of the top stars of Pride to UFC. It looks like that’s what White is planning to do. He’s already begun setting up Pride light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson as the next challenger to new UFC champ Quentin Jackson.
White also talked about promoting another interpromotional battle, between UFC’s Chuck Liddell vs. Pride’s Wanderlei Silva. The thinking is that these matches are possible now, so why wait?
The problem with herding all of the top talent to UFC is that it makes Pride either a clear No. 2 promotion or totally obsolete. Here’s what I would do:
In each weight class, I would have an eight-man Pride tournament to earn a shot at the UFC title, and vice versa. I would also do the World Series show with neither title on the line. This way, both promotions would survive and look like major leagues – just like the American and National leagues in baseball.
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Mixed martial arts is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity right now. Sports Illustrated recently ran a huge cover story called “Ultimate Fighting: Too Brutal or the Future?”
The article went on to say that “The future” is winning out over “Too Brutal.” In fact, SI writer L. John Wertheim makes the point that MMA is safer than boxing. When one fighter is getting clobbered, the ref stops the fight. He doesn’t take head shots for 10 rounds, as he would if he were a boxer.
ESPN is covering MMA more than ever before. The last two UFC shows that featured Chuck Liddell had enormous media coverage.
The question is … can it last? Is MMA destined to be the fad of this decade, like roller derby was in the Seventies? Or, will MMA take root as a major sport with a passionate following, like NASCAR?
It’s too soon to tell, but I am going to say the latter. MMA may not become as big as NASCAR, but it should be a thriving mainstream sport for years to come. A huge number of young people are interested in MMA, and many athletes are getting into MMA when their sporting careers would otherwise be over. So, there will always be a plentiful supply of talent available to move up to the top of the sport.
It was a big deal when MMA was featured in Sports Illustrated. Someday, an MMA fight will be featured on the cover of SI, and it won’t be a big deal. That’s when you’ll know that MMA is here to stay.
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Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is the new top man in UFC after blasting Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell at the UFC 71 pay-per-view in Las Vegas on Saturday Night. Liddell’s four-year winning streak is over, and Jackson is the new light heavyweight champion.
Jackson floored Liddell with right to the jaw in the first round. Jackson seized the advantage and pummeled Liddell until referee John McCarthy stopped the fight.
Dan Henderson appears to be next in line for a title shot, as UFC announcer Joe Rogan invited him into the ring to talk about a possible bout against Jackson.
In other featured fights, Karo Parisyan won a unanimous decision over Josh Burkman. Karo then challenged the winner of the upcoming Matt Hughes-Matt Serra fight for the welterweight title.
Houston Alexander made a strong UFC debut by knocking out “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine in 48 seconds.
Also, Terry Martin won by TKO over Ivan Salaverry; Kalib Starnes beat Chris Leben by unanimous decision; and Din Thomas made Jeremy Stevens tap out to an armbar.
Next up is UFC 72: Victory in Belfast, Ireland, on June 16. The main event will be Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami.
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Tomorrow night’s UFC 71 pay-per-view fight between Chuck Liddell and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is building up a good amount of mainstream press attention. Sports Illustrated finally gave the sport of MMA some play, which is only fair after its recent cover story on boxing.
Jackson (26-6) has a good chance to win the UFC light heavyweight title, since he is the last fighter to defeat Liddell (20-3). However, that was in 2003. If you go undefeated for four years, you must be doing something right. I expect Liddell to come out on top.
In a welterweight fight, Karo Parisyan (24-4) will battle Josh Burkman from Season 2 of The Ultimate Fighter. Burkman is 19-3, and a win over the veteran Karo would be a huge boost for him.
A pair of middleweight veterans will clash as Ivan Salaverry (12-4-1) takes on Terry Martin (17-2). Also“The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine (12-3-1) will compete in a light heavyweight bout against Houston Alexander, who is making his UFC debut. Alexander is 6-1 in smaller MMA promotions.
The weigh-in will take place today at 3:50 p.m. on ESPN News and www.ufc.com, while the pay-per-view starts on Saturday at 10 p.m.
UFC, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson
