Author: Ray Hui

UFC Fight Night Results: Alan Belcher Returns in Impressive Fashion

Filed under: UFC, NewsMiddleweight striker Alan Belcher blasted Canadian Jason MacDonald with ground and pound strikes to win in his UFC return Saturday at UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans, La.

Fighting for the first time in 16 months due to a seriou…

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Middleweight striker Alan Belcher blasted Canadian Jason MacDonald with ground and pound strikes to win in his UFC return Saturday at UFC Fight Night 25 in New Orleans, La.

Fighting for the first time in 16 months due to a serious eye injury, Belcher showed little ring rust by forcing MacDonald to verbally submit at three minutes and 48 seconds into the first round.

“I didn’t know if I ever was going to fight again and I know tonight this is what I want to do,” said Belcher, who seemed a fight away from a title shot before the eye injury. “I want to pursue that belt and I’m back, baby.”


Despite carrying a five-inch reach advantage, MacDonald felt his best bet was to take the fight to the ground, pulling guard a minute-and-a-half into the fight. After shrugging off MacDonald’s intentions for a submission, Belcher punished MacDonald with left-right punches and right elbows. MacDonald attempted a kimura to stop Belcher’s flurry, but it also allowed Belcher to pass to side mount. Belcher tried for a crucifix which allowed MacDonald to escape back to open guard. But Belcher’s punches were too effective, as he would pass to knee on stomach and fire away for the finish.

Belcher improved his record to 16-5, while MacDonald dropped to 26-15.

 

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Bellator 50 Weigh-In Results

Filed under: Bellator, NewsOn Saturday’s Bellator 50, the promotion will host the opening round of its season five middleweight tournament featuring Jared Hess (pictured), Bryan Baker, Zelg Galesic, Alexander Shlemenko, Sam Alvey, Vitor Vianna, Victor …

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Jared HessOn Saturday’s Bellator 50, the promotion will host the opening round of its season five middleweight tournament featuring Jared Hess (pictured), Bryan Baker, Zelg Galesic, Alexander Shlemenko, Sam Alvey, Vitor Vianna, Victor O’Donnell and Brian Rogers.

All entrants made weight Friday as well as the remaining fighters on the non-tournament portion of the card. Check out the final lineup with weights after the jump.
Main Card Bouts – 7 p.m. ET on MTV2
Jared Hess (185.5) vs. Bryan Baker (184.5)
Zelg Galesic (184.5) vs. Alexander Shlemenko (185.5)
Sam Alvey (185.5) vs. Vitor Vianna (184.75)
Victor O’Donnell (185.5) vs. Brian Rogers (185.5)

Preliminary Bouts – 5 p.m. ET on Spike.com
Shah Bobonis (139.25) vs. Marcos da Matta (140.25)
Marcelo Goncalves (156.5) vs. Dietter Navarro (156.25) *both agreed to catchweight of 156 lbs.
Brian Van Hoven (155.75) vs. Rad Martinez (155.5)
Valdir Araujo (185.25) vs. Brett Cooper (185)
Ailton Barbosa (170.5) vs. Ryan Keenan (170.5)
Martin Brown (155) vs. J.P. Reese (155.75)
John Kelly () vs. Cristiano Souza () *were late for weigh-ins, but fight is on according to Bellator

 

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Daniel Cormier Confirms Broken Hand

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsA visit to the doctor Monday confirmed Daniel Cormier’s initial impression of a break in his right hand in his win Saturday against Antonio Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals in Cincinnati.

“Just g…

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A visit to the doctor Monday confirmed Daniel Cormier‘s initial impression of a break in his right hand in his win Saturday against Antonio Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals in Cincinnati.

“Just got done seeing doctor,” Cormier wrote late Monday on his Twitter. “Hand is broken [and I] will be on the shelf for a while. Still looking forward to finishing the tourney. Thanks for the support.”

Cormier will likely have enough time to rehab and train without the need to delay the tournament final since his fight against Josh Barnett is being targeted for early 2012.

With that said, Coker said on Saturday he would consider a replacement if Cormier was out for an extended amount of time past first quarter of 2012.

In his upset win, the former Olympic wrestler Cormier floored the 6-foot-4 Silva twice in the fight before finishing with hammerfists at three minutes and 56 seconds. According to Cormier, he felt something was wrong right early in the fight.

“The very first right hand, man,” he told MMA Fighting after the fight. “The very first right hand I hit him on the chin, he went down, and I went to punch him and I felt my hand crack a little bit under me.

Cormier improved his record to 9-0 with his win over Silva, setting up a meeting with former UFC champion Barnett (31-5), who advanced the same night with a submission win over Sergei Kharitonov.

 

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Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov Fighter Salaries

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsThe Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov fighter salaries are out and Josh Barnett received the biggest payday with $150,000 for his win over Sergei Kharitonov, $100,000, Saturday at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.

All …

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The Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov fighter salaries are out and Josh Barnett received the biggest payday with $150,000 for his win over Sergei Kharitonov, $100,000, Saturday at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.

All four of the Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinalists on the card earned at least six figures. On the other side of the bracket, Daniel Cormier was paid $50,000 to show and another $50,000 to win for a total of $100,000. Antonio Silva, who suffered a first-round TKO loss to Cormier, made $100,000.

Check out below the rest of the fighter purses, courtesy of the Ohio athletic commission.

Please note: The numbers below are the salaries Strikeforce reported to the commission and may not accurately reflect a fighter’s final earnings. Fighters earn additionally through sponsorships and possibly, other bonuses handed out by the promotion.

Showtime Bouts
Josh Barnett ($150,000) def. Sergei Kharitonov ($100,000)
Daniel Cormier ($50,000 + $50,000 win bonus = $100,000) def. Antonio Silva ($100,000)
Luke Rockhold ($25,000 + $25,000 win bonus = $50,000) def. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza ($70,000)
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal ($85,000) def. Roger Gracie ($80,000)
Pat Healy ($12,500 + $5,000 = $17,500) def. Maximo Blanco ($13,000)

Preliminary Bouts on HDNet
Mike Kyle ($22,000 + $22,000 win bonus = $44,000) def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima ($5,000)
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante ($30,000 + $30,000 win bonus = $60,000) def. Yoel Romero ($10,000)
Jordan Mein ($8,000 + $8,000 win bonus = $16,000) def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos ($20,000)
Alexis Davis ($3,000 + $3,000 win bonus = $6,000) def. Amanda Nunes ($7,500)
Dominique Steele ($3,000 + $2,000 win bonus = $5,000) def. Chris Mierzwiak ($3,000)

 

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Refereeing Was ‘Big’ John McCarthy’s Passion All Along

Filed under: Fighting”Big” John McCarthy considers refereeing MMA fights a passion and admits it was a mistake for him four years ago to leave officiating to become an analyst/commentator.

In an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, McCarth…

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“Big” John McCarthy considers refereeing MMA fights a passion and admits it was a mistake for him four years ago to leave officiating to become an analyst/commentator.

In an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, McCarthy discussed his purpose in the sport, just one of the many topics in his new autobiography Let’s Get It On! written with journalist Loretta Hunt.

“I thought [making the jump to television] was at the time what I needed to do,” McCarthy said. “But looking at it now, years later, I was wrong I think.

“I looked at how the landscape was and I read it wrong and I probably internalized things and looked at things a certain way that other people weren’t looking at,” he continued. “That’s just part of human nature and life, and you got to make decisions and you got to live with those decisions and move on from there and learn from them and that’s what I’ve done.”

In December 2007, McCarthy made the announcement that he would join Canada’s The Fight Network on a full-time basis as an on-air personality. Fans accustomed to seeing him overlook fights inside of a cage would now have to become more familiar with him through his new hosting and analysis duties.

During the announcement, it was declared that McCarthy would “retire” after 14 years of officiating fights, totalling 535. Turns out, that was not the way McCarthy would have liked to have handled his transition, and it was an early sign he would soon have regrets about his new venture.

“I did not want to do all the retirement stuff, that was The Fight Network wanting to do that cause they wanted publicity,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want any of that.”

Additionally, McCarthy considers the other mistake was the company he was joining. The impressions he had about the channel were different from what he would see in practice, citing specifically, backroom politics.

His stay would be short-lived. Just 11 months after the announcement of signing with The Fight Network, McCarthy returned to refereeing at a Nov. 21 Strikeforce event in San Jose. Taking the center of the cage that evening, McCarthy felt at home again.

“[Loving what you do] is the most important thing there is,” McCarthy said. “What makes people good at what they do, is loving what you do. I loved refereeing and I love refereeing now. That’s my passion.”

 

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Jeff Monson Says He’s Fighting Fedor on Nov. 12

Filed under: M-1 Global, NewsIn a Tweet sent out late Tuesday by the one-time UFC heavyweight title challenger, Jeff Monson says he’s “confirmed” to face Fedor Emelianenko at an M-1 event on Nov. 12 in Russa.

Last Friday, M-1 announced Fedor would fig…

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In a Tweet sent out late Tuesday by the one-time UFC heavyweight title challenger, Jeff Monson says he’s “confirmed” to face Fedor Emelianenko at an M-1 event on Nov. 12 in Russa.

Last Friday, M-1 announced Fedor would fight late fall in Russa, but didn’t reveal any further details. Messages left with M-1 seeking confirmation of the heavyweight tilt were unreturned as of Wednesday morning.

UPDATE: M-1 won’t confirm any details, but an announcement will be made soon.

A Monson-Fedor fight would be a showdown over four years in the making. After failing to take the UFC title away from Tim Sylvia at UFC 65, Monson went after a fight against then-PRIDE champion Fedor under the BodogFight banner that eventually fell through.

If the Nov. 12 date proves to be accurate, M-1 will have decided to run on the same day as the UFC‘s debut on FOX as well as the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez boxing fight.

Monson, 40, had an eight-fight win streak snapped by Daniel Cormier at Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum in June. Fedor, who turns 35 in three weeks, will be returning from Strikeforce losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson.

 

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