At today’s Press Conference from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion would be returning to that country after an almost 13 year absence.
White confirmed the promotion would host a pay-per-view event on Aug. 27th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. It’s still too […]
At today’s Press Conference from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion would be returning to that country after an almost 13 year absence.
White confirmed the promotion would host a pay-per-view event on Aug. 27th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. It’s still too early for the UFC to name the event or to identify fighters who would participate on the card, but White assured reporters the event would be heavy with Brazilian talent.
Joining the UFC president at the press conference was UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, the Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes, UFC fighters Anderson Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Jose Aldo, Vitor Belfort, as well as BJJ legend and UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie.
Until today’s announcement, the first and only UFC event held in Brazil took place on Oct. 16, 1998 and was called “UFC Ultimate Brazil.” The event featured a UFC middleweight (The Light Heavyweight Title was known as the Middleweight Title prior to UFC 31) title match between champion Frank Shamrock versus John Lober as well as a middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva.
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture (19-10) posted this notice from his Twitter account on Tuesday evening. The former UFC light-heavyweight and heavyweight champ has been talking about retiring from the sport of mixed martial arts and making a move to acting full time.
No other word has come down from the 47 year old […]
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture (19-10) posted this notice from his Twitter account on Tuesday evening. The former UFC light-heavyweight and heavyweight champ has been talking about retiring from the sport of mixed martial arts and making a move to acting full time.
No other word has come down from the 47 year old but it seems in tune with talk as of late.
If this indeed is Couture’s official retirement notice, then he finishes his career on a three fight win streak having earned wins over Brandon Vera at UFC 105, Mark Coleman at UFC 109, and James Toney at UFC 118. He’ll now move on to make films and is set to act in the upcoming sequel to “The Expendables” next year.
The “Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine earned his first win in over two years after dropping five straight fights. Jardine participated in the main event of a Nemesis Fighting: MMA Global Invasion event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Monday against Francisco “Kiko” France.
Jardine would go on to win a unanimous decision over France […]
The “Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine earned his first win in over two years after dropping five straight fights. Jardine participated in the main event of a Nemesis Fighting: MMA Global Invasion event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Monday against Francisco “Kiko” France.
Jardine would go on to win a unanimous decision over France but the win comes with a storm of controversy over the fight and the event.
Cagepotato.com has the lead on the story, so we’ll summarize as best we can.
Bellator welterweight champ Ben Askren sent out a Tweet Monday night saying the event was a “complete mess” with no judges, bounced checks, and that Jardine was greased for the fight.
Just talked to kick he said nemesis was a complete mess. No judges. Jardine was greased. His check bounced. Doesn’t get much worse.
Jardine posted a message on his website (www.keithjardine.net) about how bad the event was saying it was “a big scandal” but had no comment about the greasing accusation.
Finally getting out of Dominican. Its looking like this thing has been a big scandal. Will be big news. Can’t wait to get back to USA and figure this out.
This wouldn’t be the first major event from this past year that has ended up in scandal, Impact FC anyone? It seems that some of these fly-by-night promoters looking to hold these big events outside of North America end up screwing fighters over. Hopefully this will stand as a shining example of why fighters, and fans, should be weary of these promotions holding events off the continent as there is little recourse in countries with little or no regulations for the sport.
Results from the Nemesis show via Cagepotato as follows:
– Keith Jardine def. Francisco “Kiko” France via unanimous decision
– Paul Buentello def. Kerry Schall via unanimous decision
– Eliot Marshall def. Chris Davis via submission (armbar), round 1
– Travis Marx def. Jeff Curran via unanimous decision
– Terry Martin def. Marcus Hicks via KO, round 2.
– Kyle Seals def. Dean Lister via TKO, round 2.
– John Dodson def. John Moraga via submission (armbar), round 2
(photo via Bellator.com)
Rising Mixed Martial Arts Organization Features Top Stars In Exciting Tournament Format MTV2 To Debut Live Matches in March 2011
New York, NY, December 14, 2010 – Bellator Fighting Championships, a growing force in the world of mixed martial arts, has a new television home, MTV2. It was announced today jointly by Bellator […]
Rising Mixed Martial Arts Organization Features Top Stars In Exciting Tournament Format MTV2 To Debut Live Matches in March 2011
New York, NY, December 14, 2010 – Bellator Fighting Championships, a growing force in the world of mixed martial arts, has a new television home, MTV2. It was announced today jointly by Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney and Eric Conte, SVP, Programming and Production, MTV2. The three-year deal will commence in 2011.
Featuring some of the sport’s top stars, Bellator brings a unique format of world-class fighting to fans with 12-week, eight-man tournaments in respective weight classes. MTV2, which features the highest concentration of M12-24 and M12-34 in television, will telecast two of these LIVE tournaments per year, plus a collection of special feature events. The first tournament will premiere in March 2011.
“MTV2 is the perfect home for the intense mixed martial arts action of Bellator,” Eric Conte, SVP, Programming and Production, MTV2. “MMA is at the top of our audience’s wish list, and partnering with Bellator to bring live events and specials to MTV2 made complete sense since our viewers are so hungry to see more MMA on-air.”
“We are thrilled to partner with MTV2 which has such a strong audience of hard-to-reach young guys,” said Rebney. “With a timeslot on a prominent nationally-distributed cable network aimed at young men, we now have the perfect platform to showcase our exciting, action-packed tournaments and fighters.”
Bellator which is Latin for “Warrior,” is based in Chicago, IL and was founded in 2008 by Rebney. The stable of fighters include some of the most exciting in the sport including Eddie Alvarez, Hector Lombard, Joe Warren, Ben Askren, Zoila Frausto and Roger Huerta, once featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Bellator events are held in venues all across the country. Their fights have previously aired on Fox Sports Net, NBC, bi-lingual channel Mun2, ESPN Deportes, and the Score.
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company headquartered in Chicago. Bellator’s Founder/Chairman & CEO, Bjorn Rebney, is an experienced fighting sports and entertainment professional with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production, television production, fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations. For more information go to www.Bellator.com
About MTV2
MTV2 is a man’s best friend, available in nearly 80 million homes and with the highest concentration of males 12-24 and 12-34 on TV today. A vibrant mix of music, lifestyle and action sports programming, MTV2 has reflected the habits and behavior of young people since its launch in 1996. MTV2 is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom, one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship made the headliners official for UFC 127 when the promotion returns to Australia.
The release from Monday confirmed the main event bout between former UFC champ BJ Penn (16-7-1) and top ranked welterweight Jon Fitch (23-3). Co-headlining the event will be a middleweight bout featuring Michael “The Count” Bisping (20-3) and […]
The Ultimate Fighting Championship made the headliners official for UFC 127 when the promotion returns to Australia.
The release from Monday confirmed the main event bout between former UFC champ BJ Penn (16-7-1) and top ranked welterweight Jon Fitch (23-3). Co-headlining the event will be a middleweight bout featuring Michael “The Count” Bisping (20-3) and Jorge Rivera (18-7).
The UFC will return to the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia on February 27th.
The events main card will air on pay-per-view which will air on the 26th of Feb. in North America due to the time difference.
Other bouts confirmed/rumored for the Australian card include George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver, Alexander Gustafsson vs. James Te-Huna, Nick Ring vs. Japan Riki Fukuda, Carlos Condit vs. Chris Lytle, Spencer Fisher vs. Ross Pearson, Kyle Noke vs. Chris Camozzi, and Kurt Warburton vs. Maciej Jewtuszko.
At a press conference on Monday in Tokyo, Japan five more bouts were added to the upcoming New Year’s Eve “Dynamite!! Power of Courage 2010″ event, which includes a DREAM welterweight title bout between champ Marius Žaromskis and Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba.
Making the announcements were FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa, DREAM Executive Producer Keiichi Sasahara and […]
At a press conference on Monday in Tokyo, Japan five more bouts were added to the upcoming New Year’s Eve “Dynamite!! Power of Courage 2010″ event, which includes a DREAM welterweight title bout between champ Marius Žaromskis and Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba.
Making the announcements were FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa, DREAM Executive Producer Keiichi Sasahara and the newly announced Dynamite!! Executive Producer Antonio Inoki. Inoki is a big name in professional wrestling and by bringing him on board should help to bring more attention to an event that is badly in need of fan interest.
Also made official for the event was the special rules bout (MMA/K-1 mix) between DREAM lightweight champ Shinya Aoki vs. Yuichiro “Jienotsu’ Nagashima, the lightweight match featuring Josh Thomson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri, a featherweight bout between Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Cao Uno who will drop to 145 lbs for the first time, and a kickboxing match between lightweights Tetsuya Yamato vs. Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura.
There are still a few rumored bouts out there that could really boost the events status if they happen.
It had been reported that K-1 legend Jérôme Le Banner would face Tatsuya Mizuno under an MMA rules bout but now there is some doubt if the fight will happen or if he’ll even face Mizuno. Ikusa.fr (via NightmateofBattle.com) is reporting that Le Banner has a choice between Mizuno or Judo Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii at the event.
Meanwhile Zach Arnold at the FightOpinion.com, has some interesting gossip for the event. He hints that fans might expect to see Josh Barnett on the card against Alistair Overeem, who said he wants to fight for the DREAM heavyweight title at the event. With Barnett’s licensing in the States still up in the air, it would give him a chance to get back into the cage in a meaningful fight.
For Žaromskis this will be his first DREAM title defense since winning the title in July 2009. Since then he’s gone 1-2-1 in his last four, earning a “No Contest” against Waachiim Spiritwolf after accidentally poking him in the eye last month at a Strikeforce Challengers 12 event. Žaromskis hasn’t done well under the Strikeforce banner losing to Evangelista Santos in June and to Nick Diaz in a welterweight title bout last January.
The 41 year old Sakuraba isn’t being thrown in to a title fight because he’s been winning fights, going 2-4 in his last six and is on a two fight losing skid at this time, but is most likely being given the title shot to create fan interest for the event. Sakuraba was submitted by Jason “Mayhem” Miller at DREAM.16 in September and lost a unanimous decision to Ralek Gracie at DREAM.14 in May of this year.
Little news of how exactly the “special rules” bout between Aoki and Nagashima will happen but most likely the first round should begin under the K-1 rules then move onto MMA afterwords. Nagashima has little chance of lasting a round against the submission expert in an mma match, and Aoki is more likely to survive a K-1 round.
At today’s Press Conference from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion would be returning to that country after an almost 13 year absence.
