LAS VEGAS – For the ninth straight event, the UFC will air preliminary card fights on its Facebook page.
Saturday’s live finale of Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter” will feature six bouts at the social networking online giant leading in to the main…
LAS VEGAS – For the ninth straight event, the UFC will air preliminary card fights on its Facebook page.
Saturday’s live finale of Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter” will feature six bouts at the social networking online giant leading in to the main card, which will air on Spike TV. The UFC made the announcement on its Twitter account an hour after Friday’s weigh-in event for the Saturday card.
Scott Jorgensen, in his first fight since losing a unanimous decision to Dominick Cruz in a December bantamweight title fight in the WEC’s swan song, returns to face Ken Stone. And Reuben Duran fights Francisco Rivera.
To gain access to the fights, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, viewers must “like” the UFC on Facebook. As of Friday afternoon, the UFC had more than 5.6 million fans at the site.
The UFC began streaming preliminary fights in January with its Fight for the Troops 2 show at Fort Hood, Texas. Since then, the promotion has included free Facebook fights for each event, regardless of the main card’s platform – be it on pay-per-view, Spike or the Versus cable station. For the historic UFC 129 card in Toronto in April, five prelims were aired on Facebook, followed by a pair on Spike leading into the pay-per-view – meaning for the first time, fans were guaranteed the opportunity to see each fight on the card. That continued for last week’s UFC 130 with three Facebook prelims, a pair of Spike prelims and a five-bout main card pay-per-view.
The main card for the TUF 13 Finale begins at 9 p.m. Eastern on Spike and features a main event between this season’s welterweight finalists, Ramsey Nijem and Tony Ferguson. In addition, a lightweight contenders fight between Anthony Pettis, the last 155-pound champion in WEC history before the merger with the UFC, and Clay Guida could determine the next challenger for the lightweight title – after champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard recover from injuries that delayed their scheduled rematch.
Say what you will about The Ultimate Fighter (not like you need an invitation), but the finale shows tend to be pretty damn fun. This season, we actually have two fairly solid finalists, a dynamite co-main in Pettis-Guida, plus a handful of other matchups calibrated for striking showdowns and crowd amazement.
Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of the fights scheduled for this weekend, with a few of those fancy moving pictures that you like so much. Who ya got?
Ramsey Nijem
VS
Tony Ferguson
Well, either this fight is the one you’ve been waiting for, or you’re just wondering what these two nobodies are doing on your UFC card. Tune in to find out which guy gets a contract with the UFC. (Spoiler Alert: It’ll be both of them.)
Dammit, who are all you guys again?
Say what you will about The Ultimate Fighter (not like you need an invitation), but the finale shows tend to be pretty damn fun. This season, we actually have two fairly solid finalists, a dynamite co-main in Pettis-Guida, plus a handful of other matchups calibrated for striking showdowns and crowd amazement.
Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of the fights scheduled for this weekend, with a few of those fancy moving pictures that you like so much. Who ya got?
Ramsey Nijem
VS
Tony Ferguson
Well, either this fight is the one you’ve been waiting for, or you’re just wondering what these two nobodies are doing on your UFC card. Tune in to find out which guy gets a contract with the UFC. (Spoiler Alert: It’ll be both of them.)
Anthony Pettis
VS
Clay Guida
If you aren’t looking forward to this fight, you just go ahead and get the hell out of our website. Neither dude is capable of being in a boring fight. Guida is confident that he’ll handle Pettis; meanwhile we’ve gotten reports that Showtime is practicing something called a “Shaolin-McTwist bicycle kick.” Now, maybe we made that up, but maybe not.
Fabio Maldonado
VS
Kyle Kingsbury
Maldonado (18-3) made his UFC debut in October last year, when the Brazilian boxer TKO’d James McSweeney in his hometown. Maldonado has hands of stone and a chin to match – he’ll want to sleepify Kingsbury standing. Kingsbury (10-2) has been tearing up the undercard scene ever since he lost to Tom Lawlor in the TUF 8 finals, plus he’s been getting some high-tech training. This one has flown under the radar, but it should be a good scrap. We got Kingsbu.
Ed Herman
vs
Tim Credeur
It’s been almost two years (and two surgeries) since Ed Herman’s injury TKO loss to Aaron Simpson. Of course, Short Fuse (19-7) is coming back better than ever — they all say that. His opponent will be Tim Credeur (12-3), who is taking a step up in competition after nearly two years away from the cage himself. We’re leaning toward Herman here, but after that long away from the cage, it comes down to who knocks off the ring rust better.
Chris Cope
VS
Chuck O’Neil
The two guys who lost in the semis will mix it up for third place, presumably for a smaller etched-glass thingie and a nice TapouT watch.
Danny Downes (8-1) v Jeremy Stephens (19-6)
Danny Boy Downes steps in on short notice to replace Jonathan Brookins for his UFC debut after going 2-1 in the WEC. He’ll look to match firepower with Jeremy Stephens in a knockout race, which we are totally fine with. Why yes, we would like some popcorn. Thank you.
George Roop (11-7) vs Josh Grispi (14-2)
George Roop has lost to the cream of the crop at 145 and 155, including Eddie Wineland, George Sotiropoulos, and Mark Hominick, so try not to focus on the numbers too much. On the other hand, his opponent is 22 year old Josh Grispi, who was in line for a shot at Jose Aldo before losing to Dustin Poirier at UFC 125. Expect Grispi to return to form Saturday night and finish the fight in the first round.
Scott Jorgensen (11-4) v Ken Stone (9-2)
Damn, Ken Stone gets Slampaged at the last-ever WEC show, and his return fight is Scott Jorgensen? That just doesn’t seem right. Jorgensen is going to make an impression in his UFC debut, especially after that frustrating loss to Dominick Cruz. We’re looking for Jorgensen to score a submission win over Keith Stone’s little bro.
Clay Harvison (6-1) vs Justin Edwards (6-0)
Justin Edwards didn’t last long in TUF, suffering a KO loss to Tony Ferguson in the first round of fights. That’s the risk you run when you’re an offense-first kind of guy. Edwards has never been to a decision, and a fight with Clay Harvison is likely to be the first. Expect a brawl … and a knockout. We’re thinking Harvison, if only because he seems to have a better chin.
Shamar Bailey (13-6) vs Ryan McGillivray (11-4)
McGillivray is the guy that Mike Russel referred to as “the Canadian guy”, while Shamar Bailey has a vanity website. The Canadian guy lost to finalist Tony Ferguson in the quarterfinal round, while Sham-Wow got sniped off by Chris Cope. If one of them pulls of a spectacular finish, you can expect to see him around. Otherwise, expect them to pick up some wins in the minors before getting an invite back.
Francisco Rivera (5-1) v Reuben Duran (7-3-1)
Both coming off losses in their debut fights under the Zuffa banner, Rivera and Duran both need to impress some people if they want to stay on at the big show.
Our host, Steve Cofield has a little fun cozying up to George Roop in his hotel bed and talks a do or die performance against Josh Grispi this weekend at the TUF 13 Finale as.
Our host, Steve Cofield has a little fun cozying up to George Roop in his hotel bed and talks a do or die performance against Josh Grispi this weekend at the TUF 13 Finale as his future in the UFC may depend on a win. Showing his lighter side, Roop tells shows us that the only chicks you can pick up in Vegas with a neck beard are the kind you gotta pay for. Watch the exclusive video below:
UFC Featherweights, George Roop and Josh Grispi are both determined to put their recent losses behind them by battling each other June 4th at the TUF 13 Finale.
Grispi suffered a stunning loss to virtually unknown, Dustin Poirier who took their UFC 125 fight on short notice when Grispi’s slated title-fight against champion, Jose Aldo was scrapped […]
UFC Featherweights, George Roop and Josh Grispi are both determined to put their recent losses behind them by battling each other June 4th at the TUF 13 Finale.
Grispi suffered a stunning loss to virtually unknown, Dustin Poirier who took their UFC 125 fight on short notice when Grispi’s slated title-fight against champion, Jose Aldo was scrapped due to a neck disk injury incurred by Aldo. Many expected Grispi who was 4-0 in the WEC to walk through Poirier and were shocked when Grispi was manhandled for 3 rounds and dropped a Unanimous Decision to Poirier who had been 1-1 in the WEC. Now Poirier is on the fast-track as a contender to beat in the Featherweight division and Grispi is likely a few fights away from getting back into title-shot contention.
Meanwhile, George Roop who faced Mark Hominick back in January at UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 and was looking to ruin plans for a UFC 129 co-headlining event of Hominick vs. Aldo was devastated when his fight against Hominick was stopped due to TKO punches in the first round. Roop had been on an impressive streak of his own with a Fight of the Night match against brawler, Leonard Garcia that ended in a Draw and a subsequent KO victory over Chan Sung Jung.
Now both Roop and Grispi find themselves hungrily in the middle of the pack of UFC Featherweights as former Lightweights Tyson Griffin and Kenny Florian move into their division and this is no one’s fight to lose.
(Video courtesy Sportsnet)
During last night’s episode of Sportsnet’s MMA Connected, the show’s host "Showdown" Joe Ferraro revealed that if Mark Hominick handily beats George Roop at UFN 23 and comes out of the fight without injury…
(Video courtesy Sportsnet)
During last night’s episode of Sportsnet’s MMA Connected, the show’s host "Showdown" Joe Ferraro revealed that if Mark Hominick handily beats George Roop at UFN 23 and comes out of the fight without injury, he will fight Jose Aldo at UFC 129 in Toronto on April 30.
"If London, Ontario’s Mark Hominick can defeat George Roop and come out unscathed at UFC Fight Night 23, look for "The Machine" to earn a title shot versus featherweight champion Jose Aldo," Ferraro stated.
Hominick was supposed to fight Aldo for the newly-minted UFC featherweight strap at UFC 125, but he was forced to pull out of the bout when the broken hand he went into his WEC 51 fight with Leonard Garcia with didn’t heal in time for him to resume training. He was replaced by Josh Grispi on the card, but after Aldo bowed out of the fight with a neck injury, the 22-year-old lost his place in line for the title shot when he dropped a unanimous decision to the champ’s replacement, relatively unknown fighter Dustin Poirier.
A veteran of 27 MMA bouts, Hominick’s only losses in the past six years have come at the hands of three highly-touted fighters: Grispi, Rani Yahya and Hatsu Hioki. His second bout with Hioki, which he lost by a razor-thin majority decision and was contested under the TKO banner is widely regarded as one of the greatest featherweight fights in Canadian MMA history.
For an idea what Aldo-Hominick might look like, check out that fight after the jump.
LAS VEGAS – For the ninth straight event, the UFC will air preliminary card fights on its 
