The UFC makes their first trip to pay-per-view in over a month this weekend, and it features the most anticipated welterweight matchup of the year. Long-time champion Georges St-Pierre makes his return to the cage his Saturday night, and his first oppo…
The UFC makes their first trip to pay-per-view in over a month this weekend, and it features the most anticipated welterweight matchup of the year.
Long-time champion Georges St-Pierre makes his return to the cage his Saturday night, and his first opponent in over a year will be current interim champion Carlos Condit.
Riding a nine-fight win streak and a stretch of eight straight wins in title fights, St-Pierre is one of the most popular and successful fighters in the history of the sport, and his already-unprecedented resume would get another boost if he added Condit to his list of victims.
Condit has been building quite the resume over the last few years, taking out highly touted fighters like Rory MacDonald, Jake Ellenberger and Nick Diaz, but if he truly wants to be considered among the elite fighters in the sport, “The Natural Born Killer” will need to find a way to send St-Pierre home with his first loss in over five years.
The UFC makes its third trip to Canada this weekend, and the country that has been called the “Mecca of Mixed Martial Arts” is privileged enough to host one of the most anticipated fights of the year. After 19 long months away from the cage…
The UFC makes its third trip to Canada this weekend, and the country that has been called the “Mecca of Mixed Martial Arts” is privileged enough to host one of the most anticipated fights of the year.
After 19 long months away from the cage, MMA superstar and Montreal’s own Georges St-Pierre makes his return to the Octagon on Saturday night, as he looks to unify his UFC welterweight title with the interim belt Carlos Condit won during his absence.
Co-headlining the card is a possible No.1 contender’s bout between Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks, both of whom are riding strong with winning streaks over high-level competition and looking to get their first shot at UFC gold at some point in 2013.
Outside of the two welterweight clashes, the rest of the card has been filled in with a number of Canadian fighters and UFC veterans, and the lineup promises quite a few potential barnburners.
Fight Night awards and the bonus checks that go with them are always highly coveted by everyone competing on fight night, but with so many great matchups set for UFC 154, the competition is going to be tough.
For months it’s been speculated that Strikeforce was on the brink of shutting down, and after two straight cancelled events, it appears that Zuffa and Showtime are finally pulling the plug on the promotion. Much like Pride FC and WEC before it, S…
For months it’s been speculated that Strikeforce was on the brink of shutting down, and after two straight cancelled events, it appears that Zuffa and Showtime are finally pulling the plug on the promotion.
Much like Pride FC and WEC before it, Strikeforce didn’t last very long after being purchased by Zuffa before it was purged for talent by the UFC, and the loss of top stars like Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem made the promotion feel even more like the minor leagues than it already did.
Once the UFC raided the promotion for talent, they may as well have placed Strikeforce on life support. The fighters left had little in terms of credible opponents, and the few world-class fighters left on the roster made it known that they would have rather moved to the UFC with the rest of the top talent.
Luckily for those fighters, their wait is almost over.
After two cancelled events ended 2012, it was obvious Strikeforce was running on fumes, and the promotion has now booked their final card set to take place in January.
The lineup is stacked with three title fights and the return of Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier, so while Strikeforce has struggled to put together meaningful fight cards over the last year, they are guaranteed to make headlines one final time in early 2013.
Once that event is in the books, the fighters that the UFC deem worthy enough of a roster spot will officially become UFC employees and the fans will finally get a chance to see some fights that were once thought of as impossible.
After holding events everywhere from Sweden to Japan over the course of 2012, the UFC makes another first time stop this weekend, breaking into China for the UFC on Fuel TV 6 fight card. With the main card kicking off Saturday November 10th at 9 a.m. E…
After holding events everywhere from Sweden to Japan over the course of 2012, the UFC makes another first time stop this weekend, breaking into China for the UFC on Fuel TV 6 fight card.
With the main card kicking off Saturday November 10th at 9 a.m. ET, only the most committed of UFC fans will likely catch the card live, but those that do should find the missing hours of sleep worth it.
While the card isn’t exactly stacked from top to bottom, it features some particularly intriguing fights, especially on the main card, headlined by a middleweight clash between Rich Franklin and Cung Le.
With other notables such as Thiago Silva, Takanori Gomi and Mac Danzig competing on the card, this has the feel of one of those underrated events that will deliver in action what it lacks in big time bouts.
The UFC has delivered a legitimate super fight for Super Bowl weekend. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo will attempt to defend his title for the fourth time under the UFC banner, and he’s guaranteed his toughest test to date against Frankie Edgar…
The UFC has delivered a legitimate super fight for Super Bowl weekend.
Featherweight champion Jose Aldo will attempt to defend his title for the fourth time under the UFC banner, and he’s guaranteed his toughest test to date against Frankie Edgar.
Edgar is a former UFC lightweight champion in his own right, and is making the cut down to 145 for the first time in his career to attempt to strap a UFC belt back around his waist.
UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar will take place in Las Vegas on February 2nd, as announced Tuesday on UFC Tonight.
This fight was originally set to take place at UFC 153 earlier this month, but an injury to Aldo forced the bout to be postponed.
Aldo has dominated each of the fighters the Zuffa brass have put in front of him, and the reigning featherweight champion has gone undefeated during his time in the WEC and UFC with an 11-0 record.
After dispatching Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian in back to back grueling decision wins, Aldo earned the highlight moment of his career in his last bout when he knocked out Chad Mendes with a huge knee as time expired in the first round.
The ensuing celebration that saw Aldo race out of the cage and into his hometown crowd was one of the most memorable moments of the year.
Edgar’s featherweight debut comes on the heels of back to back decision losses to Benson Henderson in February and August of this year. The first loss to Henderson ended Edgar’s lightweight title reign—which featured two straight wins over future Hall of FamerBJ Penn and a couple of barn burners with Gray Maynard (the first of which earned Fight of the Years honors from the World MMA Awards).
UFC 156 will serve as the first numbered PPV event of 2013, and it looks like the UFC is kicking things off in a big way.
When The Ultimate Fighter finally dies, it’s going to be a bittersweet day for MMA. Most fans think the show is irrelevant, the level of talent has gotten noticeably worse over the last few years, and the format as a whole has become stale. But n…
When The Ultimate Fighter finally dies, it’s going to be a bittersweet day for MMA.
Most fans think the show is irrelevant, the level of talent has gotten noticeably worse over the last few years, and the format as a whole has become stale.
But no matter how bad it gets, there is always going to be that group of fans (including myself) that got their first taste of MMA due to the show.
No one can deny the impact the show had on the sport, and that’s likely one of the reasons the UFC seems determined not to let the show die.
With ratings hitting an all-time low, the UFC and FX are doing everything possible to ensure that TUF makes a full comeback when it returns to television next year, moving the show off of Friday nights and booking a duo of coaches in Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen that are guaranteed to get fans talking.
Next season could easily see a nice boost in both ratings and hype due to the amount of promotion that will likely go along with the high-profile coaches, but after Jones and Sonnen finish up their rivalry, the UFC is going to need to make sure the next coaches they select have something that will draw in viewers.
The UFC has plenty of fighters that can move the needle in terms of ratings, but most of those guys have been on the show before, and in all honesty, TUF needs all the new blood it can get.
Here are a few fighters who would not only be coaching on the show for the first time, but would be interesting enough to draw some viewers in the process.
