Hump Day Headlines with Stephanie Ann Cook

Ryan Couture’s serious staph infection cleared. He’ll be fighting again for Strikeforce Challengers 14 against Lee Higgins.
Fedor Emelianenko and his M-1 management demanding Olympic Style drug testing for the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix Tournament. *Note both participating Heavyweights, Josh Barnett and Emelianenko’s first opponent in the tournament, Antonio Silva have previously failed […]

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Ryan Couture’s serious staph infection cleared. He’ll be fighting again for Strikeforce Challengers 14 against Lee Higgins.

Fedor Emelianenko and his M-1 management demanding Olympic Style drug testing for the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix Tournament. *Note both participating Heavyweights, Josh Barnett and Emelianenko’s first opponent in the tournament, Antonio Silva have previously failed drug tests.

Tito Ortiz vs. Antonio Rogerio “Lil Nog” Nogueira set for Ultimate Fight Night 24 on March 24th.

Dave Branch replaces the injured Alexandre Ferreira to fight Rousimar Palhares at UFC on Versus 3.

UFC 126 Middleweight Champion Contender, Vitor Belfort parts ways with his coach, Shawn Tompkins weeks before his February 5th bout against Anderson Silva.

Confident after his 1st round TKO of  Chris Leben, UFC Middleweight Brian Stann now wants Wanderlei Silva or Michael Bisping.

Since being cut from the UFC, former TUF 8 winner, Efrain Escudero will now face Jeremy Larsen at Rage in the Cage 148.

‘MMA Live’ 1/14/2011

MMA Live welcomes UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to Bristol. Discussion on Brock Lesnar’s decision to coach on Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Junior Dos Santos. The UFC continues its push for MMA regulation in New York.
HT: E…

MMA Live welcomes UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to Bristol. Discussion on Brock Lesnar’s decision to coach on Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Junior Dos Santos. The UFC continues its push for MMA regulation in New York.

HT: ESPN.com

Tana Ashlee Busting Out of Her Shell to Bring You The Fix Friday Link Dump

Dana White calls Randy Couture vs Lyoto Machida a “done deal”: here.
Our friends a CagePotato attempt to make sense of Scott Coker’s announcements regarding the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament: here.
Royce Gracie says he’s in talks to join the UFC in Brazil card: here.
Watch a video of Brock Lesnar deer hunting: here.
The official UFC 127: Penn […]

Tuff-N-Uff Ring Girl, Tana Ashlee

Tuff-N-Uff Ring Girl, Tana Ashlee

Dana White calls Randy Couture vs Lyoto Machida a “done deal”: here.

Our friends a CagePotato attempt to make sense of Scott Coker’s announcements regarding the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament: here.

Royce Gracie says he’s in talks to join the UFC in Brazil card: here.

Watch a video of Brock Lesnar deer hunting: here.

The official UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch poster is revealed: here.

Junior Dos Santos makes no attempt at trash-talking his opposing TUF 13 coach and next match-up in the Octagon, Brock Lesnar: here.

Check out Jon Jones vs Thiago Silva outside of the Octagon: here.

With Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia II set for March, Phan wants to ensure the judging is done correctly this time around, so he’s offered the judges his instructional video: here.

More photos of the BabesofMMA “January 2011 Babe of the Month”, Tana Ashlee below:








Bring MMA To New York – UFC Press Conference 2PM EST

This afternoon the UFC will host a press conference from the Madison Square Gardens in New York City as part of their effort to ‘Bring MMA to New York.’ Hosting the press conference will be UFC President Dana White, UFC Lorenzo Fertitta, and UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
The UFC will be hosting it’s video […]

danawhite8xcThis afternoon the UFC will host a press conference from the Madison Square Gardens in New York City as part of their effort to ‘Bring MMA to New York.’ Hosting the press conference will be UFC President Dana White, UFC Lorenzo Fertitta, and UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

The UFC will be hosting it’s video stream at UFCLive.com beginning at 2PM EST (11AM PST).

Watch it LIVE at 2 pm ET/11 am PT on Facebook on AT&T U-verse’s UFC tab – http://uverse.us/UFCTab, then show your support by signing the petition at http://www.mmafacts.com/petition.

‘MMA Live’ 1/7/2011 The Envelope, Please

MMA Live unveils your choices for the 2010 Year-End Awards. We rack up the highlights from UFC 125. Brian Stann is in-studio to discuss his win over Chris Leben and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talks about the upcoming heavyweight tournament.
HT: ESPN….

MMA Live unveils your choices for the 2010 Year-End Awards. We rack up the highlights from UFC 125. Brian Stann is in-studio to discuss his win over Chris Leben and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talks about the upcoming heavyweight tournament.

HT: ESPN.com

Hermes França Still Calling For Investigation Into Controversial Decision; Detailed Report Released

(Post-fight video of the incident showing the announcer name Franca the winner then change it to Kheder after talking to an XVT official.)
Last month, former UFC lightweight Hermes França (19-11) went to Costa Rica on Dec. 19 to fight Ferrid Kheder in the main event of an Xtreme Vale Tudo 5 event looking to end […]

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Post-fight video of the incident showing the announcer name Franca the winner then change it to Kheder after talking to an XVT official.)

Last month, former UFC lightweight Hermes França (19-11) went to Costa Rica on Dec. 19 to fight Ferrid Kheder in the main event of an Xtreme Vale Tudo 5 event looking to end a four fight losing skid.

At the end of the fight he had his hand raised in victory, that was until an official from the promotion stepped in to declare Kheder the winner.

Mike Chiappetta, at MMAFighting.com, published an article Thursday morning recapping the entire incident, but I’ll provide a short breakdown for those not familiar with the incident.

I highly recommend checking out the article, it’s a bit of a long read but to fully understand the situation you need to read the whole article.

Basically Franca and his corner felt that he’d won the fight. The announcer named Franca the winner but the XVT official in the cage told the announcer to name Kheder as the winner.

Franca’s corner said they saw the decision card naming him as the winner despite the call and even spoke to two of the three judges, who all confirmed that they scored Franca the winner.

XVT officials refused to change the decision at the time and served Franca with his fifth straight loss.

After a lot of pressure since the incident, XVT officials have had the bout declared a no-contest and have offered Franca a rematch with Kheder. Their pitch does not sit well with Franca who has vowed to never fight for that promotion again and is campaigning to have the result changed to a victory in his name.

Franca has been posting notices on the Underground Forum board about the incident shortly after it took place looking for fan support to have the result changed.

On Wednesday night, Franca posted another update on the incident, offering up some gossip more than actual news. He posted this notice on the Underground Forums of this unsubstantiated rant from the XVT promoter Lu Dwyer’s Facebook page.

“THE GAME IS OVER”!!!! WITH REGARDS TO MY ‘XVT 5′ FIGHT CARD IN COSTA RICA AND COVERED ‘LIVE’ WORLD WIDE BY ‘SHERDOG’!! MY “PASSION AND HOBBY” IS THE MMA INDUSTRY AND “HELPING FINANCIALLY BURDENED” POTENTIALLY GREAT MMA FIGHTERS… NOT TO BE “CONFUSED”… WITH MY CORPORATION, TOTALLY NON-RELATED TO MMA!!! I AM A WELL “RESPECTED” P…ROFESSIONAL BUSINESSWOMAN IN MY TOWN… WHO “GIVES BACK” TO THE COMMUNITY AND HELPS OTHERS “LESS FORTUNATE”!! “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”!!! NOT “ONLY” WAS I AND MY PARTNER, FORMER OLYMPIC MEDALIST JUDOKA, SEVERAL TIMES AND BLACKBELT, BELLATOR, FERRID KHEDER… “SLANDERED” ALL OVER THE ‘WEBSITES’, ETC… ON MY “MAIN EVENT” BETWEEN HERMES FRANCA AND FERRID KHEDER… WHICH STARTED WITH ‘DAVE JANZEN’… WHO “CORNERED” HERMES FRANCA!!! I AM “NOT” THE JUDGE NOR REFEREE… TO HAVE “WARRANTED” SUCH “DISRESPECTFUL AND UNPROFESSIONAL” BEHAVIOR… WHICH “STARTED” ALL THIS CHAOS… BY POINTING HIS FINGER ON “MY” CHEST AND CALLING ME A “CROOK”, HAVING “FIXED” THE FIGHT, A “BLONDE BITCH” AND “OLD LADY”!!! YOU WANT TO SEE A “BLONDE BITCH” DAVE JANZEN?? “NEWS FLASH”… I CAN BE!!!! : ) THIS GOES TO ‘YOU’ , THE WEBSITES AND “REPORTERS”… “NOW”, CALLING MY CORPORATION FOR “COMMENT”!!!! “GOOGLE” MY NAME LU DWYER… AND LOOK AT ALL THE “DAMAGING UNFOUNDED GARBAGE” ALL YOU “IDIOTS” HAVE PRINTED, “DISTORTED” AND “TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT”… JUST TO MAKE YOURSELVES LOOK GOOD OVER YOUR COMPETITION!!!! I ALSO “WORKED IN MEDIA”… SO I KNOW HOW “YOU PLAY” YOUR GAME!!!! I “NEVER” STOOPED TO YOUR LEVEL AND MADE “HEADLINES AT SOMEONE ELSES EXPENSE”… AS YOU HAVE “MINE”!!!! YOU ‘ALL’ WANT A “COMMENT”?? “DON’T STIR THE HORNETS NEST MORE THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE”!!!! YOU WILL “ALL” HAVE THE “LARGEST LAWSUIT IN HISTORY” THROWN ON “ALL YOUR LAPS”!!!! I.E… “SLANDER, DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER, HARRASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION… YOU NAME IT!!!! PUT “THAT” UP YOUR A$$ AND SMOKE IT!!!! YOU WANT “BLOOD”?? GO TO “YOUR NEAREST BLOOD BANK”!!!! “NOT” A “THREAT”!! “IT’S A F@$#%@G PROMISE”!!!! “NO COMMENT”… MICHAEL CHIAPPETTA AND ALL THE REST!!!! MY “ONLY” COMMENTS WILL BE DIRECTED TO ALL “MY CORPORATE ATTORNEYS”!!!!

Now that a major News agency like FanHouse has picked up on the story, fans should expect something more substantial to happen concerning the incident.

I totally recommend reading Mike Chiappetta’s article “One Side Claims Fix, Other Cites Confusion in Controversial Decision” before reading Franca’s UG posts in order to give yourself a more informed view of the incident.