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Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo Booked as Co-Main Event for Bellator’s May 17th PPV

(Look, unless somebody’s getting hit in the head with a hammer, I’m just not interested.)

In case you missed the announcement a couple weeks back, Bellator is going to attempt to put on a pay-per-view event once again, with a May 17th card headlined by the rubber-match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler. Today, Bellator sent out a press release confirming the venue — the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi, just a short drive from Memphis — and the co-main event, which will be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal in the finals of the Season 10 Light Heavyweight Tournament.

In terms of fake heat, Rampage vs. King Mo might even rank above Chael vs. Wandy on the bullshit scale. Then again, this is arguably the biggest fight that Bellator can throw together right now in terms of star power, and booking it for the promotion’s (fingers crossed) first PPV show only seems logical. No other fights for the May 17th card have been announced yet; we’ll keep you posted. Some notable quotes/exaggerations from Bellator’s latest press release are below…

(Look, unless somebody’s getting hit in the head with a hammer, I’m just not interested.)

Quinton Jackson: “I’ve been wanting to come back to Memphis for the last decade, and I’m finally getting that chance to fight in one of the biggest fights of my career for Bellator. After being part of the Bellator family for a while now, I feel like the old Rampage, and that’s not a good thing for Mo. I’m back, I’m a monster, and I’m looking to put on another entertaining fight for all my fans on May 17th.”

Muhammad Lawal: “When it comes down to it, this is a fight I’ve wanted for a long time, and I’m going to be able to beat his ass in his hometown, and everyone is going to respect me. Rampage is just a stepping stone in my way to get that title shot again and get that belt. It’s all I want, and after I beat Rampage, I’m going for that belt, simple as that.”

Bjorn Rebney: “We now have two fights on this card that are absolute fireworks. Like I said before, we have Alvarez and Chandler headlining a card that will end the best trilogy ever in MMA, and now we’ve added two more superstars to the mix with Rampage and King Mo. May 17th is going to be an absolutely huge night for Bellator, live on Pay-Per-View.”

Rousimar Palhares vs. Steve Carl Title Fight Booked for World Series of Fighting 9 Main Event

(Props: The UG)

After signing Rousimar Palhares in November, World Series of Fighting is fast-tracking the unpredictable heel-hook artist to a title fight against the promotion’s reigning welterweight champ, Steve Carl. MMAJunkie reports that Carl vs. Palhares will headline WSOF 9, March 29th at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The event will be co-headlined by the inaugural WSOF bantamweight title fight between Marlon Moraes and Josh Rettinghouse.

A former Bellator vet, Steve Carl has won his last seven fights including three consecutive submission victories under the WSOF banner. His fourth-round triangle-choke of Josh Burkman won him World Series of Fighting’s 170-pound title back in October.

Palhares, of course, is the Brazilian maniac who was fired by the UFC for holding onto Mike Pierce’s leg after the referee intervened at UFC Fight Night 29 — the final straw in a controversial UFC career that included a similar incident against Tomasz Drwal, an elevated testosterone bust, and repeated episodes of excessive flexing. World Series of Fighting has already warned Palhares that they won’t tolerate any crazy behavior on their watch. Unfortunately, Palhares has the mind of a jungle-native and the impulse-control of an excited five-year-old at California Pizza Kitchen.

Palhares’s upcoming fight against Carl will be a much-needed opportunity to prove that he can behave like a professional, and we truly hope he can straighten out his head. But either way, kudos to World Series of Fighting for getting us to actually care about a Steve Carl title defense. This one should be interesting, folks…

(Props: The UG)

Squash Match Alert: Holly Holm’s Next Victim Will Be a 40-Year-Old Woman With a .500 Record

(Yet another tragic defeat for the Zulu family. / Photo via Sherdog)

Look, we know it can’t be easy to find credible opponents for undefeated bantamweight Holly Holm (5-0, all wins by KO/TKO), who has deservedly picked up the unofficial title of Best Striker in Women’s MMA. Most of the top female MMA talent at 135 pounds is already in the UFC, with a couple of holdouts still working in Invicta. The fact that Holm isn’t already under contract with the UFC is by design: Her trainer Mike Winkeljohn says that he wants to build her name to the point where she can demand top-level money by the time she enters the Octagon, and walk straight into a super-fight. Until then, Holm will be padding out her record with whoever’s willing to take a beating.

Coming off her LFC 24 demolition of some woman named Nikki Knudsen, Holm will return to the cage on December 6th in the main event of Fresquez Promotions: Havoc against — get this — Angela Hayes, a 40-year-old bantamweight from Colorado Springs who carries a career record of 6-6. Hayes boasts four wins by guillotine choke, four losses by armbar, and hasn’t competed in two years. She sounds perfect.

“Havoc” will take place at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which means that Holm will have home-town advantage as well. Good grief. By the way, I tried to Google ‘Angela Hayes’ to find out more about her, and most of the results were about the Mena Suvari character in ‘American Beauty’. Not that I’m complaining.

(Yet another tragic defeat for the Zulu family. / Photo via Sherdog)

Ranking the Newest Additions to the UFC ‘Fight for the Troops 3? Card, By My Interest Level

(This photo of Ronny Markes was included to show Paulo Filho in happier times, and the shorts he bought at the Walmart across the street from this event when he realized he left his gym bag at home.)

Over the past twenty-four hours, ‘Fight for the Troops 3’ has seen several bouts added to a card that will be headlined by the middleweight debut of Lyoto Machida. Some of these fights are worth getting excited about (such as the Jorge Masvidal vs. Rustam Khabilov bout), while others, well, the Facebook preliminary card needs something, I guess. The following bouts are also set for the event, loosely arranged in order of how interesting they are on paper.

Nik Lentz vs. Dennis Bermudez – Lentz has been on a tear since dropping to featherweight, having won all three of his fights in the weight class. I guess I should also point out that he’s currently the #8 ranked featherweight in the UFC, in case it matters to anyone reading this. Bermudez, meanwhile, has won four in a row since being armbarred by Diego Brandao during the TUF 14 Finale – including a Fight of the Year candidate and a Submission of the Night earner at UFC 150.

Over the past twenty-four hours, ‘Fight for the Troops 3′ has seen several bouts added to a card that will be headlined by the middleweight debut of Lyoto Machida. Some of these fights are worth getting excited about (such as the Jorge Masvidal vs. Rustam Khabilov bout), while others, well, the Facebook preliminary card needs something, I guess. The following bouts are also set for the event, loosely arranged in order of how interesting they are on paper.

George Roop vs. Francisco Rivera – This bout was originally scheduled for UFC 166, but was moved to this card to make room for Sarah Kaufman vs. Jessica Eye. Some fun facts about this fight: George Roop will be entering a fight riding back-to-back victories for the first time since 2008 for this one, and if Rivera didn’t piss hot after UFC 149, he’d be riding a five fight winning streak. It’s never a smart idea to bet money on a George Roop fight, but I think we’re in for a fun scrap.

Ronny Markes vs. Yoel Romero – Former Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero will look to follow up his devastating UFC debut with an impressive performance against a fighter who is 3-0 in the UFC and hasn’t lost since 2010. Sign me up.

Chris Camozzi vs. Lorenz Larkin – Yeah, I know, both guys are coming off losses. But before accepting a fight against Jacare on short notice, Camozzi was riding a four fight win streak that included victories over at least three guys you’ve heard of. Likewise, you can make the argument that Lorenz Larkin should still be undefeated; his loss against Francis Carmont this past April was debatable, to say the least. It’ll make for a decent midcard fight.

Neil Magny vs. Seth Baczynski – It’s win or go home for both fighters. That should at least provide a dramatic finish to a fight I otherwise wouldn’t be able to care less about.

Colton Smith vs. Michael Chiesa – The two TUF champions you don’t remember (HINT: They won the seasons you didn’t even pretend to watch.) will square off in a bout that you won’t care about for the honor of fighting more bottom-shelf lightweights.

‘Fight for the Troops 3′ will go down on November 6, 2013 in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

@SethFalvo

Paulo Filho Booked for WSOF 2, Totally Plans on Showing Up

(According to legend, the million-dollar-bill-pitbull is a symbol representing the eternal struggle between Brazil’s elitist class and the unappreciated proletariat. Or it’s just something you get done when you’re really, really, high on shrooms.)

Paulo Filho is kind of like the Lindsay Lohan of MMA. Sure, there was a time back in the early-to-mid 2000’s when he showed the potential for greatness (or at least mediocrity), but since then, it’s been a steady mixture of cocaine, terrible tattoos, and a series of cancelled fights punctuated by depressing performances in the ones he actually managed to show up for. Substitute “fights” with “films” and you’ve got yourself one surprisingly accurate comparison.

But just as Lohan continues to get acting gigs (this is acting, right?), Filho continues to convince fight promoters that he is a reliable human being in the loosest sense of the word. So despite the many, many warning signs, Filho has recently been booked against UFC veteran Dave Branch on the main card of the second World Series of Fighting event set to transpire March 23rd. As much as we’d like to believe Filho truly does have his shit together this time around, we simply can’t be burned by this flake again. This…this will not end well.

Paulo Filho is kind of like the Lindsay Lohan of MMA. Sure, there was a time back in the early-to-mid 2000′s when he showed the potential for greatness (or at least mediocrity), but since then, it’s been a steady mixture of cocaine, terrible tattoos, and a series of cancelled fights punctuated by depressing performances in the ones he actually managed to show up for. Substitute “fights” with “films” and you’ve got yourself one surprisingly accurate comparison.

Featuring a headlining heavyweight matchup between Andrei Arlovski and Anthony Johnson, WSOF 2 has also recently booked a pair of familiar faces against a couple unknown, undefeated prospects. Starting off in the welterweight division, newly revived UFC veteran Josh Burkman will be looking to improve on his WSOF 1 victory over Gerald Harris when he squares off against Ryan LaFlare, a 7-0 up-and-comer who has secured all of his victories under the Ring of Combat banner and via stoppage.

At lightweight, Strikeforce vet Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante has been booked to take on Justin Gaethje, also 7-0, who is perhaps best known for needing just twelve seconds to dispose of whatever was left of Drew Fickett last October. We’ve placed a video of that fight below, because there’s something sickly entertaining about watching a ring announcer put more effort into his job than one of the fighters he is being paid to hype up.

Oh, and Igor Gracie has been booked against a yet-to-be-named opponent. Who is Igor Gracie, you dare ask? Well, you fools, he’s the Gracie who kind of looks like Michael Phelps. Glad we could clear that up for you.

(The fight starts around the 4:40 mark.)

–J. Jones

Report: Robbie Lawler to Make Octagon Return Against Josh Koscheck at UFC 157

(“Damn it. I know I came in here for something…” Photo via Strikeforce)

As if we needed any more evidence that Strikeforce is shutting down after their next event, check this out: Orange County Register reports that veteran banger Robbie Lawler will make his first UFC appearance in over eight years when he faces Josh Koscheck in a welterweight bout at UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche (Feburary 23rd, Anaheim). The fight will also mark Lawler’s first match at 170 pounds since his knockout loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 47 in April 2004.

Though Lawler’s recent stint in Strikeforce suggested that the HIT Squad member’s best days are behind him — he won just three of eight fights for the promotion since 2009, and is coming off a decision loss to Lorenz Larkin — “Ruthless” hasn’t lost his savage knockout power, which helped him earn classic victories over Melvin Manhoef and Matt Lindland. (Fun fact: Since leaving the UFC after a middleweight loss to Evan Tanner at UFC 50, Lawler has earned all of his 11 victories by stoppage, with 10 coming via KO/TKO.)

(“Damn it. I know I came in here for something…” Photo via Strikeforce)

Josh Koscheck is coming off a loss as well, dropping a split-decision to Johny Hendricks in May, but he’ll surely be considered a strong favorite in this matchup, as he’s remained competitive with the top welterweights in the UFC — not to mention the fact that Lawler’s drop to his old weight class could wear him out before the fight. So is Robbie dead meat, or is Kos going night-night?

UFC 157 will feature all these people, plus Brendan Schaub vs. Lavar Johnson, Josh Neer vs. Court McGee, and TUF Live winner Michael Chiesa vs. Anton Kuivanen.