Tag: Calendar

One FC Announces Major Collaboration, Three Events in Three Countries in 2012

In what may be the biggest game changer in Asian MMA history, Singapore based upstart promotion One FC has recently announced a major partnership with over 15 smaller promotions spanning from Australia to India. One FC, who you might remember held a rather successful inaugural event back in September, released a list of the organizations they had gained exclusive partnerships with in a recent statement:

URCC (Philippines), Cage Fighting Championship (Australia), ROAD Fighting Championship (Korea), DARE Championship (Thailand), Team Lakay Wushu (Philippines), Tiger Muay Thai and MMA (Thailand), Tigers Gym (India), Evolve Mixed Martial Arts (Singapore), Legacy Gym (Thailand), Tough MMA (Taiwan), Synergy Jiu-Jitsu (Indonesia), Juggernaut  FC (Singapore), Fightworks Asia (Singapore), PAK MMA (Pakistan), Team Force (Korea), MuayFit (Malaysia), Leverage MMA (Malaysia)

Aside from this list, CEO/Owner Victor Cui announced that they would be adding 23 more gyms and promotions to their network in the following weeks in an effort to “unify Asian MMA and to build the sport that we all love dearly.” Cui continued:

In what may be the biggest game changer in Asian MMA history, Singapore based upstart promotion One FC has recently announced a major partnership with over 15 smaller promotions spanning from Australia to India. One FC, who you might remember held a rather successful inaugural event back in September, released a list of the organizations they had gained exclusive partnerships with in a recent statement:

URCC (Philippines), Cage Fighting Championship (Australia), ROAD Fighting Championship (Korea), DARE Championship (Thailand), Team Lakay Wushu (Philippines), Tiger Muay Thai and MMA (Thailand), Tigers Gym (India), Evolve Mixed Martial Arts (Singapore), Legacy Gym (Thailand), Tough MMA (Taiwan), Synergy Jiu-Jitsu (Indonesia), Juggernaut  FC (Singapore), Fightworks Asia (Singapore), PAK MMA (Pakistan), Team Force (Korea), MuayFit (Malaysia), Leverage MMA (Malaysia)

Aside from this list, CEO/Owner Victor Cui announced that they would be adding 23 more gyms and promotions to their network in the following weeks in an effort to “unify Asian MMA and to build the sport that we all love dearly.” Cui continued:

With today’s announcement, many of the top MMA organizations and gyms in Asia have joined hands. These strong partnerships will help to accelerate the development of Asian fighters and the sport of MMA in the region. Asian fighters need platforms to gain invaluable experience and to showcase their skills to the world.

Damn, playa. DW would be proud.

Since the fallout of Pride, there is little denying that the opportunities for Asian mixed martial artists have shrank considerably. Under this new deal, any fighter signed under One FC will be able to compete under 5 different smaller banners (Cage Fighting Championships, Road FC, URCC and Dare Championships) for the opportunity to be called up to OneFC based on their performances, in turn allowing One FC to promote upwards of 30 events in 2012.

And, proving the theory that people on that side of the world simply work more efficiently than us, One FC has already announced three events to transpire across three countries in 2012. Though no fights have been announced, the first event will take place on February 11th in Kelapa Gading Sports Mall in Jakarta, Indonesia. The second, at the 12,000 capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium on March 31st. The third, will be the first ever major MMA event held in Malaysia, and will go down at the Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur on April 27th.

With the DREAM promotion currently hovering between “sporadic” and “possibly going under”, it is great to see that there is hope for the face of Asian MMA, and with a CEO as ambitious as Cui, it seems the sky is the limit for One FC.

-Danga 

Mark Your Calenders: Bobby Lashley vs. Darrill Schoonover at Shark Fights on Nov. 11

(So close to validation, yet soooo far away…)

Former/possibly current professional wrestler Bobby Lashley returns to mixed martial arts action this November, taking on TUF 10 alum Darrill “The Boss” Schoonover for the Shark Fights Heavyweight title.

Since making his MMA debut in 2008, Lashley has put together a 6-1 record with notable wins over Bob Sapp, Jason Guida, and Wes Sims. Lashley’s hype train was derailed by Chad Griggs at Stikeforce: Houston however, where after a moderately successful first round, “The Dominator” gassed in the second and was unable to answer the third round bell. Lashley has since picked up a unanimous decision victory over journeyman John Ott at Titan Fighting Championships 17.

(So close to validation, yet soooo far away…)

Former/possibly current professional wrestler Bobby Lashley returns to mixed martial arts action this November, taking on TUF 10 alum Darrill “The Boss” Schoonover for the Shark Fights Heavyweight title.

Since making his MMA debut in 2008, Lashley has put together a 6-1 record with notable wins over Bob Sapp, Jason Guida, and Wes Sims. Lashley’s hype train was derailed by Chad Griggs at Stikeforce: Houston however, where after a moderately successful first round, “The Dominator” gassed in the second and was unable to answer the third round bell. Lashley has since picked up a unanimous decision victory over journeyman John Ott at Titan Fighting Championships 17.

Current Shark Fights heavyweight champ Darrill Schoonover made his name as the focus of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s verbal assault on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, so much so that he even challenged the former UFC light heavyweight champ to a fight after the show was over. What a mistake that would’ve been. Though Schoonover won his first fight on the show by choking Zak Jensen to sleep with a triangle, the man known as “Titties” ran out of steam in the quarterfinals, where he was knocked out by Marcus “Big Baby” Jones. Schoonover’s lone shot in the octagon was equally devastating, where he suffered a third round TKO loss at the hands of fellow cast mate James McSweeney at the TUF 10 Finale. 

One thing of note: After winning the title in 2009, Schoonover was called up to The Ultimate Fighter, and has yet to defend it. In the time since, he has compiled a less than stellar 1-5 record in various smaller promotions, most recently TKO’ing Adam Padilla in July.

Better Clear Out Your DVRs — the Summer MMA Schedule is Packed

Come on Internet, where are all the awesome fan-made promos? VidProps: mleqs

Damn, we’re glad we didn’t make plans this summer, because we’re going to be typing our hands off over the next few weeks. After the warm up-act of the TUF 13 Finale, we enter one of those fun times when there’s always another show coming up to talk about: we’ll have some big MMA event every weekend. That’s good for you, since we’re less likely to try something new and different. Also good for us, because ideas are hard.

This Weekend

Friday, 10 June — MFC 30: Up Close and Personal The biggest MMA promotion in Canada returns for action, featuring Drew Fickett vs Brian Cobb, Marcus Davis vs Pete Spratt, Thomas Denny vs Sheldon Westcott, and the other Lima brother in welterweight action. Stay tuned for a full preview of the card.

Saturday, 11 June — UFC 131: Carwin vs Dos Santos. More like UFC 131: Snakebit, right? (Just kidding. But seriously.) Carwin vs Dos Santos; plus a pretty nice list of compelling names, but not a lot of intriguing matchups (Poirier vs who?) On the other hand, we couldn’t agree on many predictions while discussing this for the Bum Rush, so no telling how the card goes. Plus, Nick Ring vs James Head jokes will write themselves for a week, easy. Success!


Come on Internet, where are all the awesome fan-made promos? VidProps: mleqs

Damn, we’re glad we didn’t make plans this summer, because we’re going to be typing our hands off over the next few weeks. After the warm up-act of the TUF 13 Finale, we enter one of those fun times when there’s always another show coming up to talk about: we’ll have some big MMA event every weekend.   That’s good for you, since we’re less likely to try something new and different. Also good for us, because ideas are hard.

This Weekend

Friday, 10 June — MFC 30: Up Close and Personal The biggest MMA promotion in Canada returns for action, featuring Drew Fickett vs Brian Cobb, Marcus Davis vs Pete Spratt, Thomas Denny vs Sheldon Westcott, and the other Lima brother in welterweight action.  Stay tuned for a full preview of the card.

Saturday, 11 June — UFC 131: Carwin vs Dos Santos. More like UFC 131: Snakebit, right? (Just kidding. But seriously.) Carwin vs Dos Santos; plus a pretty nice list of compelling names, but not a lot of intriguing matchups (Poirier vs who?) On the other hand, we couldn’t agree on many predictions while discussing this for the Bum Rush, so no telling how the card goes. Plus, Nick Ring vs James Head jokes will write themselves for a week, easy.  Success!

Next Weekend

Saturday, 18 June — Strikeforce: Werdum vs Overeem. Yeah, we may poke fun at Strikeforce, but there is no way we would miss this card: Werdum vs Overeem, Barnett (maybe) vs Rogers, Cormier vs Monson, Riggs vs Bro Overeem — stop, stop! you had us “Grand Prix”!   Side note:  Strikeforce has finally figured out that people are interested in the preliminary cards, and have begun to air those as well. You’ll be able to catch Justin Wilcox vs JZ Cavalcante and the rest of the prelims on HDNet.

Minor League Weekend

Friday, 24 June — Strikeforce Challengers 16. Ryan Couture returns for a Challengers card headlined by Caros Fodor vs. James Terry. We were a little puzzled to see Jason High vs Quinn Mulhern on the prelim: a Dream/Affliction/UFC vet vs a young KOTC champ is on the un-televised portion of a Challengers card? Just who the hell is running things over there?

Saturday, 25 June — Bellator 46. Bellator returns for their Summer Series run, kicking off an eight-man featherweight tourney to bridge the gap between seasons 4 and 5.  We’ll probably ignore it.

Sunday, 26 June — UFC on Versus 4: Marquardt vs Story. We wish the UFC would go ahead and buy a damn network and be done with it, these naming schemes are getting convoluted. Ultimate Fight Night, UFC on Versus, UFC Live, TUF Finale — why do you make us work so hard Dana?? Rick Story steps in on short notice to headline UFC Whatever against Nate Marquardt, plus our BFF forever Pat Barry vs guy that really hates us Cheick Kongo. (We got Barry in this one.)

July 4th Weekend

Saturday, 2 July — UFC 132: Cruz vs Faber 2. Why not UFC 132: Role Reversal? Cruz was the challenger and Faber was the champ four years ago at featherweight, when Cruz suffered his only loss to date.   Now Faber has followed Cruz down to 135 and looks to claim his title.  Damn, we should totally start making promos for these things. All we need is a cool movie voice guy. And some video editing stuff. Probably some talent would help. Anyways, this is a wildly stacked card for fans of the lighter weight classes, for everyone else there’s Wandy vs Leben.

After UFC 132, there’s a full twelve days of waiting until Dream.17 (which you probably won’t see in the states live), and a terrifying 28 days until Strikeforce: Hendo v Fedor. Yikes. Guess we haven’t seen the last of Keyboard Warriors yet after all.

[RX]

UFC ‘Lasts’

(The last time Big Daddy got paid on time and in full.)By Cage Potato contributor Chris Colemon
Only 17 years removed from its inaugural bout, the UFC is just now exiting its awkward teen years and developing into a suave, sophisticated adult. After an…

(The last time Big Daddy got paid on time and in full.)

By Cage Potato contributor Chris Colemon

Only 17 years removed from its inaugural bout, the UFC is just now exiting its awkward teen years and developing into a suave, sophisticated adult. After an extended bout of growing pains that at times threatened the sport’s very existence, MMA is finally coming into its own. Today’s fans witness seemingly daily achievements and milestones that speak to the sport’s rapid expansion. In 2010 alone, the UFC held its first events in Abu Dhabi and Australia, opened offices in China, set a new North American attendance record for an MMA event, crowned its first Mexican heavyweight champion, and launched their first attack in the Battle for New York.

But the UFC’s epic tale is not unlike any other in that each chapter begins where another one ends. For every historic first, there is an all but forgotten last.

Here is a short list of some of the UFC’s important lasts — the rules and regulations sacrificed in the fight for our sport’s survival.

Check them out after the jump.

read more

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UFC 125, Herschel Walker’s Return Headlines January’s MMA Calendar