Author: By E. Spencer Kyte

Putting this feature together from month-to-month is challenging, but this edition of The 10 easily takes the cake.How do you narrow a field of 60-plus fights over six events down to 10? How do you roll out a list of bouts that fans have to check out between the 1st and the 31st and leave out former champions like Cain Velasquez, Johny Hendricks and TJ Dillashaw, all three of whom compete at UFC 200, one of the six – SIX! – events on tap for the month of July?How do you skip over the Octagon debut of lightweight newcomer “Ill” Will Brooks, the return of Cat Zingano an … Read the Full Article Here

The back stories on the two women’s championship bouts set to take place next week during International Fight Week couldn’t be more different.On Friday night, Joanna Jedrzejczyk defends her strawweight title against No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha in a rematch of their December 2014 encounter, which the champion won by split decision. In addition to having a history together in the UFC Octagon, the tandem also spent six weeks together in Las Vegas earlier this year as opposing coaches on season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter.They have spent a great deal of time around each other and al … Read the Full Article Here

In this era of talking heads on sports television and social media existing as a perpetual room for debates, conversations surrounding elite level athletes these days often trend towards talk of legacies – where specific champions fall in the pantheon of all-time greats and how recent or future results will continue to shape and shift those assessments.The same holds true when those conversations shift from stick-and-ball sports and are applied to mixed martial arts. At the top level, fans and media are always infatuated with determining how the outcome of an impending clash will edit th … Read the Full Article Here

Roy Nelson has fought at home in Las Vegas a number of times, but for “Big Country,” the opportunity to do so never gets old.“Any time you can fight in Vegas, it’s the Fight Capital and entertainment capital,” Nelson said, “And it’s so much better to just roll out of bed and go to work versus someplace where it’s ‘I’ve never been here before’ or ‘What’s the food going to be like?’”The affable Ultimate Fighter winner shares the Octagon with Derrick Lewis on the July 7 card that kicks off three consecutiv … Read the Full Article Here

 Before International Fight Week comes into full focus and the trio of events set to take place in Las Vegas to kick off the month of July begins to dominate any and all MMA discussions, Victory Fighting Championship lands on UFC FIGHT PASS Friday night with a compact seven-fight event featuring a handful of familiar names.Here’s a look at the key matchups taking place at the Buccaneer Arena in Urbandale, Iowa.Robert Emerson vs. Shawn WestThe 34-year-old Emerson was a member of the deep cast on Season 5 of The Ultimate Fighter and logged seven Octagon appearances, compiling a 3-3 re … Read the Full Article Here

To say Skylar Astin is a UFC fan would be doing a disservice to his level of fandom.The 28-year-old actor, best known for his role as Jesse Swanson in “Pitch Perfect” and its sequel, isn’t just one of those celebrities that is shouting out the headliner and plugging that week’s hashtag on Twitter. Over the last several years, not only has Astin been in attendance at numerous live events, but he’s also fostered some relationships within the MMA community that have allowed him to begin his own adventure into the sport.“It’d be like getting to take batt … Read the Full Article Here