Dan Henderson Knocks Out Babalu Sobral

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Dan Henderson is back, and he has his first win as a Strikeforce fighter.

Henderson, the former UFC star and Pride two-division champion who had a disappointing Strikeforce debut in April, looked sensational in defeating Renato "Babalu" Sobral on Saturday night's Strikeforce card. Henderson landed five vicious right hands to Babalu's head on the ground to knock Babalu senseless, forcing referee Big John McCarthy to step in and stop it.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/12/04/dan-henderson-knocks-out-babalu-sobral/

Joachim Hansen Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy Lee Hasdell

Strikeforce Preview for Henderson-Babalu Rematch, Lawler-Lindland, Daley-Smith, and More

On Saturday night, a rematch many years overdue will occur when Renato "Babalu" Sobral faces Dan Henderson in Strikeforce's Showtime-televised main event in St. Louis. Their first bout was a razor thin decision in a fight that could have gone either way. That fight happened almost 11 years ago, but the fact remains that these are two of the most dangerous light heavyweights not in the UFC.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/16723/strikeforce-preview-for-henderson-babalu-rematch-lawler-lindland-daley-smith-and-more/

Mark Munoz Tom Murphy Lee Murray Gary Myers

UFC NEWS: Paul Kelly vs. Sam Stout coming to UFC 126 in February

By; Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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A lightweight bout between Paul Kelly and Sam Stout is headed to the preliminary card of UFC 126, according to multiple published reports.

Kelly makes a quick turnaround after securing a TKO victory over T.J. O'Brien at UFC 123 last weekend. The Brit has alternated wins and losses in the UFC's lightweight division, and is 5-3 in the organization overall.

Stout has split results in ten appearances inside the Octagon, but bounced back from his most recent loss with a decision win over Paul Taylor at UFC 121 in October, and he is 3-1 over his last four fights. With the exception of a submission loss to Kenny Florian, all of Stout's UFC bouts have gone the distance.

UFC 126 is expected to take place from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on February 5, headlined by the Middleweight Championship bout between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

Penick's Analysis: They've taken a few fights off of this card and shuffled the lineup a bit, so this is a good fill in for the preliminary card. I wouldn't expect this fight to make the televised broadcast, but it will be a highly competitive fight, likely to go to the judges. These two just don't have a history of finishing fights. They both can, they just haven't done it in the Octagon all that often, and they're both extremely tough fighters to finish themselves, so a decision victory for either of them seems most likely.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_7648.shtml

Fabiano Scherner Semmy Schilt Alex Schoenauer Ryan Schultz

Hallman quickly TKOs Parisyan to end the UFC 123 undercard

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Dennis Hallman made quick work of Karo Parisyan to finish off the undercard at UFC 123 on Saturday. Hallman knocked Parisyan down with a left and then a right, then finished with six unanswered punches. The fight was called at 1:47 of the first round.

This was Parisyan's first bout back since leaving the UFC on bad terms last year. He was welcomed back but didn't give a particularly inspiring performance. MMA veteran Hallman improved his record to 66-13-2. Parisyan's is now 26-6.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Hallman-quickly-TKOs-Parisyan-to-end-the-UFC-123?urn=mma-287717

Scott Lighty Jae Suk Lim Daniel Lima Matt Lindland

?UFC 124: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck 2? Fight Card Finalized

With welterweight king Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck hoarding all the pre-UFC 124 headlines, it’s easy to forget the fight card is stacked with potential thrillers. Just hours before “The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale” jumps off in Las Vegas, the world’s premier mixed martial arts promotion released the complete roster for their December 11th event. GSP [...]

Source: http://www.5thRound.com/60645/ufc-124-st-pierre-vs-koscheck-2-fight-card-finalized/

Luciano Azevedo  Ba Te er  Ryan Bader  Siyar Bahadurzada

Brookins philosophical about opportunity in front of him

You're not going to hear anything about "going to war" or "ripping someone's head off" when Jonathan Brookins discusses his approach to fighting. Nor is he going to brag about his abilities. He certainly can, though, after emerging as one of the top prospects on Season 12 of "The Ultimate Fighter" along with Michael Johnson, his opponent Saturday night.

Brookins admitted that he got matched up with the right coach on TUF 12. Georges St. Pierre's thinking man's approach meshed nicely with his game.

"I think what was starting to happen is like we were starting to kind of be – you know you're kind of locked up, and we were beginning to kind of be [cultured] from these people from all over the world. And it became kind of like, you almost didn't want to brag to the other team, you almost kind of had something to brag about," Brookins said during the TUF 12 teleconference.

St. Pierre brought in American boxing trainer Freddie Roach, French muay thai savant Jean-Charles Skarbowsky and his jiu-jitsu expert John Danaher, a Brit, who was heavy on the cerebral side of fighting. 

"What these guys would kind of start to notice real fast that like they're getting the same guys from, you know, one school, and there's no variety," said Brookins.

Josh Koscheck's team worked exclusively with fighters and coaches from the San Jose-based American Kickboxing Academy.

"And so you can kind of tell kind of quick that we were getting a better coaching staff than the other team."

It only added to Brookins' unique view of the sport.  

"I think the biggest thing that I took from it was just my mental outlook towards fighting. You know everything that I learned is going to – you know, on the physical front, you know, I realized after the show is going to take me years to kind of perfect and to really kind of understand, because that's how long it kind of takes, but – you know, but the way that I perceive the sport, the way I go about it, was changed completely by that set of coaches, and I was really thankful for that," said Brookins.

After the taping of the show, Brookins returned home to Orlando to train out of Gracie-Barra Academy. Johnson took a different approach bouncing around a bit. He spent three weeks at Jackson's Submission Fighting in Albuquerque and got the chance to work with experienced fighters like Donald Cerrone, Diego Sanchez and Carlos Condit.

Video courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Brookins-philosophical-about-opportunity-in-fron?urn=mma-291661

Sean Salmon Diego Sanchez Jorge Santiago Evangelista Santos

UFC NEWS: Dana White says no rematch necessary between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida after split decision at UFC 123

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Although both Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida felt an immediate rematch may be in order following the split decision result of their bout at UFC 123 on Saturday, UFC President Dana White says the fight warranted no immediate rematch.

When asked at the post-fight press conference whether an immediate rematch was necessary, White was clear.

"No," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, and apparently, as far as the judges are concerned, Rampage won that fight."

For White, based on the way MMA fights are scored under the Unified Rules, Rampage won and there's not any controversy about it.

I call 'em like I see 'em," White said. "Rampage Jackson won two rounds. It's a three-round fight. You won two of them, he won one of them. You're the winner."

But what is next for either fighter has not yet been decided, and it will likely remain undetermined until a few more fights take place in early 2011.

Penick's Analysis: I don't think the immediate rematch is necessarily warranted, nor do I think it's something a ton of fans will line up to see after the way the first two rounds went down on Saturday night, so I was glad to hear White say that he doesn't think it's needed either. I'd much rather see Rampage against the winner of one of the two main light heavyweight fights coming to UFC 126, and I think the UFC will choose which of those winners to put against Jackson based on how those fights play out.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_7595.shtml

Allan Goes Takanori The Fireball Kid Gomi Akihiro Gono Gabriel Gonzaga