UFC Expects To Hold One, Possibily Two Cards In The UK This Year

Fans across the pond in the United Kingdom can expect to see the UFC in town later this year as UFC UK rep Marshall Zelaznik tells ESPN the company plans on coming back at least once this year but there is a possibility it could be more:<Br><Br> "There will definitely be one event this year, there is little doubt about that," Zelaznik said on the ESPN UFC Podcast. "It's looking very likely to be in the third or fourth quarter of this year.<Br><Br> "There's a slight, slight chance that we might also pull one off later this summer, a couple of things are floating around within our calendar that might allow us to do that. The likely locations in the UK are Liverpool and London. There should one event in one of those venues, if not two.<Br><Br> "It won't be a pay-per-view card; we've learned that the best way to maximize our business is to keep those pay-per-views at prime time in the US, which is our big pay-per-view market.<Br><Br> "My guess is it will be more like a UFC 105, which was the Randy fight in Manchester. We call them numbered specials, so they're not pay-per-views, they're not Fight Nights, but they're somewhere between the two. I'd expect a top notch main event with a solid undercard. The way Joe [Silva] puts these cards together, it all depends on what pieces are available."

Source: http://www.mmanews.com/home.php

Ishkhan Zakharian Roman Zentsov Zhang Chuanlong Zhang Tiequan

PENICK: Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz belong in the UFC after clearing out their divisions in Strikeforce

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Strikeforce Champions Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez have finished off the remaining challengers in the organization with their wins on Saturday night in San Diego, and the time is now for them to get their shot against the elite in their respective weight classes in the UFC.

With Zuffa purchasing Strikeforce, crossover fights are bound to happen sooner rather than later, but for these two particular fighters, there's simply nothing left for them inside Strikeforce's hexagon.

For Melendez especially, there are no top lightweights for him to face in Strikeforce that he hasn't already beaten. With his excellent performance against Tatsuya Kawajiri, there's one fight to make, and that's to pit him against the winner of UFC 130's Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard rematch.

The unification bout that he called for after defeating Kawajiri on Saturday night is, quite frankly, a more legitimate unification bout than the originally planned UFC vs. WEC title clash featuring Anthony Pettis. Pettis is a star in the making, for sure, and his win over Ben Henderson was incredible in December, but Melendez's career record would rightfully leapfrog him over Pettis for a shot.

Melendez's wins over Shinya Aoki and Kawajiri in the last year are bigger wins from a rankings standpoint than those of any other challenger in line right now, and with no legitimate challenges for Melendez in Strikeforce it's simply time for him to prove the spot he believes he's earned as the number one lightweight in the world.

For Diaz, a move right to a title fight in the UFC is not in the cards, but with Tyron Woodley being the only welterweight challenge left for him in Strikeforce, there are simply bigger and better fights for him inside the Octagon. That's not a slight to Woodley, who is a very talented welterweight prospect, but he's still just making his way up the ranks and isn't on the level of the many fights that could be made in the UFC.

There are just too many exciting possibilities as far as matchups are concerned for Diaz in the UFC. At the top of my list would be a fight with B.J. Penn that could be one of the more fantastic non-title welterweight fights in UFC history. But that's not the only option the UFC would have with Diaz.

The UFC's welterweight division is one of the deepest and most competitive divisions from two on down, as Georges St. Pierre's dominance in the top of the division has left a wide gap between him and the rest of the field. But outside of GSP's next challenger in Jake Shields, any of the top 10 fighters on the UFC's welterweight roster could make for extremely exciting and challenging matchups.

Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, Carlos Condit, Martin Kampmann, a rematch with Diego Sanchez, these are just a few of the possibilities bringing Diaz into the UFC would open up, and after his performance against Paul Daley all of them are sure to be immensely entertaining matchups.

The UFC isn't going to merge Strikeforce completely right away, and for a lot of the fighters in Strikeforce there is time to see where they stand throughout a number of fights over the next year. However, for Melendez and Diaz, there's simply no reason to have them continue to fight lesser competition now that they're under the Zuffa banner. They believe they're the best in the world in their respective weight classes, and there's no better time to give them the opportunity to prove it.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/penickstake/article_9032.shtml

Kotetsu Boku  Tony Bonello Stephan Bonnar Lorenzo Borgomeo 

Riki Fukuda vs. Rafael Natal Slated for UFC 133

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Middleweight Riki Fukuda and Rafael Natal have verbally agreed to square off at UFC 133 in August, MMA Fighting has learned from sources close to the fight.

While not officially announced by the organization, UFC 133 has been rumored to take place on August 6 at the Well Fargo Center in Philadelphia. News of the event was first reported by MMA Fighting.

Both Fukuda and Natal will be looking to pick up their first UFC wins when they meet.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/04/14/riki-fukuda-vs-rafael-natal-slated-for-ufc-133/

Kevin Kimbo Slice Ferguson Paulo Filho Mirko Cro Cop Filipović Luiz Buscapé Firmino

UFC 131 "Lesnar vs. Dos Santos" finally official for Vancouver's Rogers Arena on June 11

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Though it has been expected for some time, the UFC has finally made official the UFC 131 event on June 11 for the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The card has been filling up quickly with the UFC announcing several fights for the date, but the expected venue had yet to be made official until Monday.

The event is headlined by the heavyweight number one contender fight between Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos, a fight being bolstered by ten weeks of lead up on Spike TV during the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

All but two fights on the card are now official, as the UFC on Monday also officially confirmed two featherweight fights in Kenny Florian vs. Diego Nunes and Dustin Poirier vs. Rani Yahya. A lightweight bout between Yves Edwards and Sam Stout, along with a middleweight bout featuring Jesse Bongfeldt, are both also expected to be added to the official card soon. The full confirmed card is below:

Main Televised Card

* Brock Lesnar vs. Junior Dos Santos
* Demian Maia vs. Mark Munoz
* Kenny Florian vs. Diego Nunes
* Shane Carwin vs. Jon Olav Einemo
* Dustin Poirier vs. Rani Yahya

Preliminary Card

* Anthony Perosh vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
* Donald Cerrone vs. Mac Danzig
* Darren Elkins vs. Michihiro Omigawa
* Joey Beltran vs. Dave Herman

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8969.shtml

Dan Henderson Josh Hendricks Ed Herman Heath Herring

Strikeforce's Miesha Tate eyes summer return, concerned for future of women's MMA

On the mend from a knee injury that forced her out of a long-awaited title shot in March, Strikeforce top contender Miesha Tate now eyes a summer meeting with women's welterweight champ Marloes Coenen.

During Tuesday's guest-hosting stint on MMAjunkie.com Radio, Tate said she's healing up well from a knee injury and could be ready to fight again as early as July.

But given the UFC's recent acquisition of her current home, she admits she feels uncertainty about her Strikeforce future.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/Janjjwxpb1c/strikeforces-miesha-tate-eyes-summer-return-concerns-for-future-of-womens-mma.mma

Jan Nortje Phillipe Noer Jake O Brien Naoya Ogawa

Heavy on organization and rules, Ontario&#8217;s first MMA show deemed a success

The sport had to jump through plenty of hoops to get approval in Ontario, so it was good to hear the first MMA show in the Canadian province was run professionally. Trainers, fighters and media members in attendance said Saturday's "MMA: Day of Reckoning" at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, came off as a big-time show.

The main event featured former UFC fighter Josh Burkman. He gave props to the promoters and regulators.

"They were strict but they weren't overbearing by any means," Burkman told Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press. "They just make sure that the show's ran right and the fighters are taken care of.  And I have no problems with the way they do the testing and the physicals and the bloodwork. As a fighter, you want those things to be lined up the proper way so fighters are healthy and taken care off."

Misha Cirkunov, who also fought on the card, said it was clear that Ontario is going to ensure only qualified fighters step into the cage on their watch.

"It's very organized, it's very nicely done, it's very fair. But at the same time, it's not that easy to just be a fighter in Ontario. There are certain things you have to go through… . I've fought in many provinces before and it was much easier to go through all the medicals, all the tests, and all of that," said Cirkunov.

The commission also went the extra mile by bringing some of the more established referees in the industry. "Big" John McCarthy also thought the event came off as first-rate.

"It's time for MMA here and it's great that the Ontario Athletics Commission is now going to be running the events, sanctioning everything and showing everybody what MMA is really all about," McCarthy said. "It really doesn't matter what promotion it is or anything like that. It's about putting the right fighters together that put on great fights and I think in those two (main and co-main event) fights alone, you're going to see what MMA is all about."

Referees Yves Lavigne and Dan Miragliotta also worked the event.

Burkman lost his fight to 21-year-old Jordan Mein. Burkman is now 3-1 since being cut by the UFC. He was a cast member on "The Ultimate Fighter 2." Another UFC vet Chris Horodecki was victorious over David Castillo.

Davidson reported the show sold out with 5,000 squeezing into the casino's concert auditorium. The promoter Robert Waterman recently changed his focus from boxing to MMA. He saw immediate gains. His recent boxing shows at Casino Rama were only drawing 3,000.

SportsNet.ca did play-by-play for all the fights.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Heavy-on-organization-and-rules-Ontario-s-first?urn=mma-wp945

Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander

Thiago Silva&#8217;s deception requires NSAC to add &#8216;special&#8217; inspection

Keith Kizer didn't sign up for this. Thankfully, he's the boss, so he'll probably get someone else to do the dirty work now required because of Thiago Silva.

The UFC light heavyweight joined a short list of prominent athletes who tried to beat a drug test by submitting a false urine test. We should point out that it's a short list of athletes that have been caught.

Cagewriter first mentioned the rumors of a phony sample back on Feb. 25. The Nevada State Athletic Commission confirmed that Silva did submit a sample inconsistent with human urine. Silva  came clean taking full blame for trying to beat the system after his win over Brandon Vera at UFC 125.

We make decisions every day of our lives. Some are good, and some are bad. When you make a bad decision, you can either make the situation worse by trying to cover it up or lie about it, or just stick your head in the sand and refuse to acknowledge it even happened," Silva said in a statement to MMAjunkie. "Or you can own up to it with an honest explanation, accept the consequences of your actions, apologize to the people affected by it, learn from it and move on.

Silva said he felt pressure to use a banned substance after he re-injured his back just 45 days before the Vera bout.

Kizer dealt with the same situation back in 2006 with Kevin Randleman before a PRIDE card.

"What [Randleman] did was he grabbed the inner-thigh of his shorts, kind of pulled it open, stuck out what we thought was the tip of his penis ? it was the same color as the rest of his skin ? and then urinated in the cup and gave it to our inspector," Kizer said.

The executive director of the NSAC admits his staff will probably need to outright inspect the genitalia of fighters as they provide a sample.

"I we think might have to take it a step further … It might be a situation where inspectors have to go really close and look," said Kizer.

You love the fight game? Here's your chance to get close to the fighters. Plenty of applications available!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Thiago-Silva-s-deception-requires-NSAC-to-add-s?urn=mma-wp834

Ryushi Yanagisawa Yoshiaki Yatsu Hirotaka Yokoi Hidehiko Yoshida