Author: Ray Hui

Rory MacDonald to Meet Brian Ebersole at UFC 140

Filed under: UFC, NewsVerbal agreements are in place for a UFC 140 encounter between Rory MacDonald and Brian Ebersole on the Dec. 10 Toronto card, UFC president Dana White recently revealed.

Having fought on the UFC’s first card in Ontario at UFC 129…

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Verbal agreements are in place for a UFC 140 encounter between Rory MacDonald and Brian Ebersole on the Dec. 10 Toronto card, UFC president Dana White recently revealed.

Having fought on the UFC’s first card in Ontario at UFC 129 this past April, British Columbia’s MacDonald (12-1) will compete in his home country while shooting for his third consecutive win. The 22-year-old standout bounced back from a tough loss to Carlos Condit last year by putting in dominant efforts this year against Nick Diaz and Mike Pyle.

It took nearly 11 years for Ebersole (48-14-1) to finally receive the chance to step inside the UFC cage, but he’s made the most of every moment with wins over Chris Lytle and Dennis Hallman at UFC 127 and UFC 133, respectively. He’s also taken the spotlight in these fights for his up-arrow chest hair and most recently, a $70,000 bonus for as White put it, “getting [Hallman’s] horrifying shots off TV” award.

With UFC 140 still three months away and plenty of cards in between, the only bouts leaked so far for the card are Rich Attonito vs. Claude Patrick and John Cholish vs. Mitch Clarke. No main event has been announced.

UFC 140, happening a week after the TUF 14 Finale and three weeks before the Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem showdown, will take place at the Air Canada Centre.

 

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ONE FC Results: Kwon vs. Folayang, Baroni vs. Yoshida, More

Filed under: Results, ONE FCMMA Fighting has ONE FC results of A Sol Kwon vs. Eduard Folayang, Phil Baroni vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida and the rest of the inaugural ONE FC event on Sept. 3 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.

In the main event, lig…

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MMA Fighting has ONE FC results of A Sol Kwon vs. Eduard Folayang, Phil Baroni vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida and the rest of the inaugural ONE FC event on Sept. 3 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.

In the main event, lightweight Kwon aims for his seventh straight win against the Martial Combat veteran Folayang.

For live round-by-round updates, click here.


ONE FC results are below.

Eduard Folayang def. A Sol Kwon via unanimous decision (live blog)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida def. Phil Baroni via unanimous decision (live blog)
Eric Kelly def. Mitch Chilson via Technical Sub (Rear-Naked Choke) – Round 1, 3.10
Gregor Gracie def. Seok Mo Kim via Unanimous Decision
Zorobabel Moreira def. Andy Wang via TKO (Knees) – Round 2, 1.49
Eddie Ng def. Yuan Chun Bo via KO (Punches) – Round 1, 0.45
Radeem Rahman def. Susovan Ghosh by TKO (Punches) – Round 1, 3.18
Vuyisile Colossa def. Ma Xing Yu by KO (Punch) – Round 1, 0.49
Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai def. Daniel Mashamaite via TKO (Knee) – Round 2, 0.14
Leandro Issa def. Soo Chul Kim via Unanimous Decision

 

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UFC on FOX Fight Card: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos

Filed under: UFCThe UFC on FOX 1 fight card will be headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos on Nov. 12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The heavyweight title fight was actually slated for the Nov. 19 UFC 139 event in San Jose, but with…

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Cain Velasquez will defend his UFC title at UFC on FOX 1.The UFC on FOX 1 fight card will be headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos on Nov. 12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The heavyweight title fight was actually slated for the Nov. 19 UFC 139 event in San Jose, but with an opening for UFC’s first live fight on national television, champion Velasquez and challenger Dos Santos were quick to accept fighting a week earlier than planned. This fight will be the only live fight on the one-hour broadcast, but an entire card will be filled out for the live audience in attendance.
FOX Bout
Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos

Preliminary Bouts
Pablo Garza vs. Dustin Poirier

 

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Kikuta vs. Yamamoto to Headline ‘Grabaka Live! First Cage Attack’

Filed under: News, JapanGRABAKA, the Japanese gym and now MMA promotion, will go old school for its first MMA card, announcing recently a main event between Japanese MMA icon Sanae Kikuta and former UFC title challenger Kenichi Yamamoto for the Oct. 15…

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GRABAKA, the Japanese gym and now MMA promotion, will go old school for its first MMA card, announcing recently a main event between Japanese MMA icon Sanae Kikuta and former UFC title challenger Kenichi Yamamoto for the Oct. 15 event in Tokyo.

Both fighters are making rare in-ring appearances for this “Grabaka Live! First Cage Attack” event in association with DEEP. Kikuta, who will turn 40 in just over a week, has fought less frequently, having only accepted four fights in the past five years. Meanwhile, Yamamoto, 35, will be fighting for the first time in five years.

Kikuta (29-7-3), who began MMA in March 1996 and was a competitor on the second PRIDE card, is recognized as one of the sport’s pioneers. In 2000, he founded the GRABAKA gym best known for developing future PRIDE stars Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki. The former Pancrase and ADCC champion Kikuta made a stop last October on the star-studded DEEP 50 anniversary event, beating Lee Sak Kim by TKO.

Yamamato (5-9-1) has been far less successful in MMA, but can say he once challenged for the UFC middleweight title. Back in UFC 23 in November 1999, Yamamoto beat Daiju Takase and Katsuhisa Fujii in a single-night tournament to earn a title shot. However, Yamamto would fall short at UFC 29 via guillotine choke to Pat Miletich.

Other matchups official for the card are Yutaka Ueda vs. Ryuki Ueyama and Shigeyuki Uchiyama vs. Tomoaki Ueyama. If the name Shigeyuki Uchiyama sounds familiar, he was the guy who lost his ear in a Pancrase fight last year.

 

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Bellator 52 to Kick-Start Season Five Heavyweight Tournament

Filed under: Bellator, NewsRon Sparks, Mark Holata, Neil Grove, Mike Hayes, Thiago Santos, Blagoi Ivanov, Eric Prindle and Abe Wagner are the eight powerhouses set to compete in Bellator’s season five heavyweight tournament to determine a No. 1 contend…

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Ron Sparks, Mark Holata, Neil Grove, Mike Hayes, Thiago Santos, Blagoi Ivanov, Eric Prindle and Abe Wagner are the eight powerhouses set to compete in Bellator‘s season five heavyweight tournament to determine a No. 1 contender to face champion Cole Konrad.

The tournament starts with the quarterfinals at Bellator 52 on Oct. 1 at the L’Audberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La. An early look at the matchups after the jump.

Neil Grove (11-3-1) vs. Mike Hayes (15-4-1)

As the only returning heavyweight tournament entrant, Grove was the season three runner-up losing in the finals to Konrad. At 40, Grove isn’t going to light the heavyweight world on fire, but he’ll always be a fan favorite for his guns blazing style of fighting, as he displayed in a ridiculous fight against Zak Jensen at Bellator 47 last month. Impressively, all 11 of Grove’s career wins were (T)KOs within the first two rounds. Hayes joins the field this year coming off three straight wins. Because of the lack of depth in the regional heavyweight circuit, Hayes hasn’t been fighting solid competition and Grove should be one of his more competitive fights.

Thiago Santos (8-1) vs. Blagoi Ivanov (4-0)

As the only Brazilian in the tournament, the BJJ black belt Santos will be fighting on American soil for the first time. His opponent Ivanov is most known for beating Fedor Emelianenko en route to winning the World Sambo Championships in 2008. Capitalizing on the notoriety, Ivanov made the full-time jump to MMA and is slowly trying to establish himself through Bellator. If there’s a breakthrough fighter coming out of this tournament, it’ll likely be Santos, but the fight itself carries the most significance of the four tournament bouts, as both Santos and Ivanov are young with untapped potential.

Eric Prindle (7-1) vs. Abe Wagner (10-4)

Though he only has eight fights under his belt, Prindle started fighting MMA back in May 2004 before taking a three-year break after his first two fights. As one of the lesser recognizable names in the field, this Death Clutch member will be looking to catch his big break. Wagner is a former Ultimate Fighter contestant who resuscitated his career earlier this year when he stopped Tim Sylvia in 32 seconds.

Ron Sparks (7-0) vs. Mark Holata (11-2)

Sparks, a two-time Bellator winner, is a heavy-hitter with only one of his fights going the distance. The rest were closed out within halfway through the first round. Holata has done well for himself fighting locally in the Midwest as well as winning his two Bellator fights. Sparks-Holata, along with Grove-Hayes, are almost guarantees to end quickly.

 

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Pat Healy to Face Maximo Blanco at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsUndefeated in two Strikeforce fights this year, lightweight Pat Healy will look for the hat trick against Maximo Blanco (pictured) at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov on Sept. 10 in Cincinnati.

Strikeforce’s recent co…

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Undefeated in two Strikeforce fights this year, lightweight Pat Healy will look for the hat trick against Maximo Blanco (pictured) at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov on Sept. 10 in Cincinnati.

Strikeforce’s recent confirmation of Healy’s entry to the televised card comes a week after word came out that former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson would be out of the Blanco fight due to a foot injury.

Coincidentally, Healy is replacing the most recent person to hand him a loss. But ever since that rear-naked choke submission fall to Thomson in June 2010, Healy has scored two unanimous decisions over Lyle Beerbohm and Eric Wisely on Challengers cards. Healy, who turned 28 a month ago, holds a busy 27-17 record and has competed in the past for just about every significant North American promotion in the UFC, IFL, WEC and MFC.

Healy will welcome former Sengoku star Blanco to America. Blanco (8-2-1) is a dangerous striker who won the lightweight Pancrase crown in August 2009 and then continued his tear with five straight Sengoku wins. Having signed with Strikeforce in May after the collapse of Sengoku, this will be Blanco’s first fight of 2011.

Note: During Tuesday’s Strikeforce conference call, Scott Coker announced Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak for the undercard.

Showtime Bouts – 10 p.m. ET
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco

Preliminary Bouts on HDNet – 8 p.m. ET
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Alexis Davis vs. Amanda Nunes
Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak

 

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