(“And stay outta mah goddamn onion patch!” / Photo via MMAFighting.com)
Bellator announced in a press release today that it has signed heavyweight striker Cheick Kongo, who will make his debut for the promotion this fall, and will be featured in its Season 9 Heavyweight Tournament. Kongo was released by the UFC earlier this year following a knockout loss to Roy Nelson at UFC 159. Since then, the 38-year-old has been keeping busy with his high-end clothing boutique in Los Angeles (seriously), but the lure of the cage was too great to ignore. As he explained:
“After my contract was up in the UFC, I really wanted to take some time and reflect on everything. After talking to the people around me, especially someone like my longtime friend in Rampage, he told me how well Bellator has been treating him and what we can do with Bellator, and after getting to know Bjorn Rebney, it just seemed like the right fit for me. I know I have plenty of fight left in me, and my fight in October is the first step to getting that Bellator Heavyweight Title.”
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney added: “If you’re an MMA fan, you’re a Kongo fan. No matter who he fights he’s always going to bring the fight and put on a great show, and he’s one of the best guys you’ll have the pleasure of dealing with in MMA.”
Holy crap, let me stop you right there…
(“And stay outta mah goddamn onion patch!” / Photo via MMAFighting.com)
Bellator announced in a press release today that it has signed heavyweight striker Cheick Kongo, who will make his debut for the promotion this fall, and will be featured in its Season 9 Heavyweight Tournament. Kongo was released by the UFC earlier this year following a knockout loss to Roy Nelson at UFC 159. Since then, the 38-year-old has been keeping busy with his high-end clothing boutique in Los Angeles (seriously), but the lure of the cage was too great to ignore. As he explained:
“After my contract was up in the UFC, I really wanted to take some time and reflect on everything. After talking to the people around me, especially someone like my longtime friend in Rampage, he told me how well Bellator has been treating him and what we can do with Bellator, and after getting to know Bjorn Rebney, it just seemed like the right fit for me. I know I have plenty of fight left in me, and my fight in October is the first step to getting that Bellator Heavyweight Title.”
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney added: “If you’re an MMA fan, you’re a Kongo fan. No matter who he fights he’s always going to bring the fight and put on a great show, and he’s one of the best guys you’ll have the pleasure of dealing with in MMA.”
Bellator can spin this one how they want, but hiring Kongo just seems like another example of Viacom picking up another aging leftover from the UFC in the hopes that MMA fans tune in and say “hey, I know that guy.” And God forbid Kongo actually goes on a little run and becomes Heavyweight Champion of Bellator. What message would that send about the talent level in Bellator in relation to the UFC?
The 24 fighters competing at tomorrow night’s UFC Fight Night 27 — including welterweight headliners Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann, as well as lightweight crowd-pleaser Donald Cerrone and TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum — will be hitting the scales today at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. Watch the action live in the streaming video-player after the jump; we’ll update this post with results directly afterwards.
The 24 fighters competing at tomorrow night’s UFC Fight Night 27 — including welterweight headliners Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann, as well as lightweight crowd-pleaser Donald Cerrone and TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum — will be hitting the scales today at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. Watch the action live in the streaming video-player after the jump; we’ll update this post with results directly afterwards.
MAIN CARD (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
Carlos Condit (170.5) vs. Martin Kampmann (170)
Donald Cerrone (156) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (155.5)
Kelvin Gastelum (170) vs. Brian Melancon (170)
Court McGee (170) vs. Robert Whittaker (170.5)
Takeya Mizugaki (135.5) vs. Erik Perez (135.5)
Brad Tavares (186) vs. Robert “Bubba” McDaniel (185)
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 2, 6 p.m. ET)
Papy Abedi (184.5) vs. Dylan Andrews (185)
Justin Edwards (170) vs. Brandon Thatch (170)
Darren Elkins (145) vs. Hatsu Hioki (146)
James Head (170.5) vs. Jason High (171)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 5 p.m. ET)
Ben Alloway (170) vs. Zak Cummings (170.5)
Roger Bowling (155) vs. Abel Trujillo (155)
Although it’s being headlined by a matchup that is equal parts garbage and ass, the rest of Bellator’s first ever pay-per-view card is really starting to come together. Not only does it feature two title-fight rematches in Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler (lightweight) and King Mo Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton (interim LHW), but Bellator officials announced earlier today that the much delayed featherweight title fight between Pat Curran and Daniel Straus will be joining the main card as well.
MMAJunkie passes along Bjorn Rebney’s statement on what is quickly becoming one of the most stacked cards of the year. Yup, I just wrote that:
Pat Curran’s one of the best mixed martial artists we have in the game today. Before breaking his hand, Straus was a fixture in the top 10 rankings with a huge amount of talent. Curran vs. Straus is a fight I’ve wanted to see since Daniel won the tournament a year ago last May. This should be an epic world title fight and our pay-per-view provides the perfect stage.
As Rebney stated, Straus was expected to face Curran a little over a year ago after capturing the season 6 featherweight tournament, but was replaced by season 7 tourney winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev following a broken hand he suffered in training. Curran would go on to defeat the Russian replacement at Bellator 95 via first round guillotine choke.
Although it’s being headlined by a matchup that is equal parts garbage and ass, the rest of Bellator’s first ever pay-per-view card is really starting to come together. Not only does it feature two title-fight rematches in Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler (lightweight) and King Mo Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton (interim LHW), but Bellator officials announced earlier today that the much delayed featherweight title fight between Pat Curran and Daniel Straus will be joining the main card as well.
MMAJunkie passes along Bjorn Rebney’s statement on what is quickly becoming one of the most stacked cards of the year. Yup, I just wrote that:
Pat Curran’s one of the best mixed martial artists we have in the game today. Before breaking his hand, Straus was a fixture in the top 10 rankings with a huge amount of talent. Curran vs. Straus is a fight I’ve wanted to see since Daniel won the tournament a year ago last May. This should be an epic world title fight and our pay-per-view provides the perfect stage.
As Rebney stated, Straus was expected to face Curran a little over a year ago after capturing the season 6 featherweight tournament, but was replaced by season 7 tourney winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev following a broken hand he suffered in training. Curran would go on to defeat the Russian replacement at Bellator 95 via first round guillotine choke.
It should be noted that Curran, who will be making his third title defense come November 2nd, previously defeated Straus via KO at an XFO event in 2009. While Straus has gone 17-1 (!) since then, a year layoff will do him no favors against a fighter of Curran’s caliber.
It’s funny, three rematches and a headlining bout between two guys with a combined record of 3-8 since 2010 is arguably a more stacked card than 2 out of the last 3 UFC events. Dana, you got some splainin’ to do.
(“Your honor, I’d like to answer these charges through 45 minutes of interpretive breakdancing.” / Photo via Getty)
Troubled ex-MMA fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller attended an arraignment hearing yesterday in Orange County, California, where he pled not guilty to two felony counts of corporal injury of spouse, or domestic abuse, stemming from a pair of recentarrests. A reporter from SciFighting.com was on the scene and passed along details from the hearing, which apparently didn’t go so well for Miller. Here are some highlights…
– “As Miller was brought into the defendant’s cage, he looked wildly around the nearly vacant room with eyes full of confusion. His defense attorney approached him, and Mayhem stressed to her ‘I need to get out tonight, it’s imperative.’ Immediately following the interaction, his hands were photographed to show where his girlfriend allegedly bit him and took off large pieces of his skin.”
– “Mayhem Miller’s alleged victim, known to the court as Ana Pricilla (but known to Mayhem as Anna Stable), says that during the second assault case she was urinated on and choked until she fell on the floor, where she was punched and kicked viciously. In defense, Mayhem’s attorney stated that the victim was asked to leave the house, and Jason’s father witnessed her attacking Jason.”
– “At this point in the hearing, Judge Manssourian scolded Mayhem because he was making faces and nodding his head in every direction. The fighter apologized, explaining he is ‘an expressive person’ and that he’s ‘an artist’. The judge dismissed his statements, and advised him he is best served to be silent and allow his attorney to speak on his behalf.”
(“Your honor, I’d like to answer these charges through 45 minutes of interpretive breakdancing.” / Photo via Getty)
Troubled ex-MMA fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller attended an arraignment hearing yesterday in Orange County, California, where he pled not guilty to two felony counts of corporal injury of spouse, or domestic abuse, stemming from a pair of recentarrests. A reporter from SciFighting.com was on the scene and passed along details from the hearing, which apparently didn’t go so well for Miller. Here are some highlights…
– “As Miller was brought into the defendant’s cage, he looked wildly around the nearly vacant room with eyes full of confusion. His defense attorney approached him, and Mayhem stressed to her ‘I need to get out tonight, it’s imperative.’ Immediately following the interaction, his hands were photographed to show where his girlfriend allegedly bit him and took off large pieces of his skin.”
– “Mayhem Miller’s alleged victim, known to the court as Ana Pricilla (but known to Mayhem as Anna Stable), says that during the second assault case she was urinated on and choked until she fell on the floor, where she was punched and kicked viciously. In defense, Mayhem’s attorney stated that the victim was asked to leave the house, and Jason’s father witnessed her attacking Jason.”
– “At this point in the hearing, Judge Manssourian scolded Mayhem because he was making faces and nodding his head in every direction. The fighter apologized, explaining he is ‘an expressive person’ and that he’s ‘an artist’. The judge dismissed his statements, and advised him he is best served to be silent and allow his attorney to speak on his behalf.”
– “The hearing continued and the People then suggested that the judge take into account the bruises and lacerations that the victim allegedly had. Mayhem’s defense replied that ‘the victim trains (in) MMA’ as well, and would probably have those anyway. She did not go to the hospital or report these injuries the night of the conflict, instead opting to sleep at Jason’s house and report the event weeks later. It is also pointed out that not only does Jason have a restraining order against this woman, so do a few of her past boyfriends.”
– “The People cite evidence against Miller, including many [social] media posts made by him in the past. Apparently, Miller sent the victim Snapchats of her and her mother walking while he dubbed the words ‘Satan Satan Satan’ in the backround. Three different Twitter posts made by Jason were acknowledged as threatening to the victim, the first being ‘IF YOU ARE READING THIS WITH FEAR IN YOUR HEART, MAYBE’LL KILL YOU’ His twitter name is cited as ‘Maybe,’ and the defense stated that this could be directed at anybody, including Dana White (whom the court referred to as the ‘President of the WWF’). His second and third posts were ‘SOME PEOPLE PREFER PRISONERS OVER PARTNERS. IF THEY CAN’T HAVE YOU, NO ONE CAN. CAN’T KILL MAYBE’ and one simply stating ‘DIE DIE DIE’.”
– “To end the proceedings, the District Attorney and Judge Manssourian stated that Miller’s tweets deem him a threat to society, to which Mayhem loudly replied ‘Judge, I am an artist!’ He was quickly silenced by his defense attorney. The court placed a protective order on Ana Pricilla, and banned Jason Miller from owning firearms.”
Miller’s bail was re-set at $100,000 after the charges from his two August arrests were combined into one case. His pre-trial is scheduled for this Friday, August 30th, and his preliminary hearing is slated for September 9th.
(Look, you’re either with us or against us. / Colton Smith photo via kimurawear.com)
UFC officials have confirmed that a lightweight bout between TUF 16 winner Colton Smith (3-2) and TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa (9-1) has been added to UFC Fight for the Troops 3, November 6th in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On paper, the matchup might not blow your socks off — Smith is a methodical wrestler coming off a TKO loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 160, while Chiesa suffered the first loss of his professional career when he was submitted by Jorge Masvidal at UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Moraga. It’s safe to say that title contention won’t be on the line, here.
However, there is some relevance to Colton Smith being booked for the event, as he’s an Army Ranger and an instructor of hand-to-hand Combatives at Fort Hood. Clearly, he’ll play the role of fan-favorite for the military crowd, especially considering that Chiesa looks like a propaganda cartoon making fun of a dirty, draft-dodging pacifist and possible dope-fiend. PUT THE BOOTS TO HIM, COLT.
(Look, you’re either with us or against us. / Colton Smith photo via kimurawear.com)
UFC officials have confirmed that a lightweight bout between TUF 16 winner Colton Smith (3-2) and TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa (9-1) has been added to UFC Fight for the Troops 3, November 6th in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On paper, the matchup might not blow your socks off — Smith is a methodical wrestler coming off a TKO loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC 160, while Chiesa suffered the first loss of his professional career when he was submitted by Jorge Masvidal at UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Moraga. It’s safe to say that title contention won’t be on the line, here.
However, there is some relevance to Colton Smith being booked for the event, as he’s an Army Ranger and an instructor of hand-to-hand Combatives at Fort Hood. Clearly, he’ll play the role of fan-favorite for the military crowd, especially considering that Chiesa looks like a propaganda cartoon making fun of a dirty, draft-dodging pacifist and possible dope-fiend. PUT THE BOOTS TO HIM, COLT.
The mixed martial arts career of Henry Cejudo is off to a promising start, to say the least. Already holding the honor of being the youngest American wrestler to ever take gold in the Olympics, Cejudo made the switch to MMA last March and has already reeled off four first round finishes in the time since. And while his opponents haven’t exactly been the caliber of, say, Ronda Rousey’s first few, comparisons between the two are being made nonetheless.
And now, it appears the bantamweight prospect will be thrust back into the limelight once again (albeit a much dimmer one), as word broke yesterday that the Olympian has signed with well known Texas-based promotion Legacy FC. In addition, Cejudo is primed to make his debut on Oct. 11 against 4-1 Ryan “Riptide” Hollis at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas. The event will air live on AXS TV.
The four time high school state wrestling champion spoke elatedly with MMAJunkie:
It was very important to me to join a professional organization that will allow me the opportunity to continue to grow as an MMA athlete. It was equally important for me to partner with an organization that has an established track record of helping fighters grow into world-class athletes and champions. I want to fight for a credible organization and face high-caliber opponents. Legacy is that organization and has made that commitment to me.
After the jump: Cejudo’s aforementioned victory over Matsunaga in the Beijing games, a brief glimpse at Cejudo’s MMA skills via some Spanish news site and a video of Hollis’ most recent performance.
The mixed martial arts career of Henry Cejudo is off to a promising start, to say the least. Already holding the honor of being the youngest American wrestler to ever take gold in the Olympics, Cejudo made the switch to MMA last March and has already reeled off four first round finishes in the time since. And while his opponents haven’t exactly been the caliber of, say, Ronda Rousey’s first few, comparisons between the two are being made nonetheless.
And now, it appears the bantamweight prospect will be thrust back into the limelight once again (albeit a much dimmer one), as word broke yesterday that the Olympian has signed with well known Texas-based promotion Legacy FC. In addition, Cejudo is primed to make his debut on Oct. 11 against 4-1 Ryan “Riptide” Hollis at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas. The event will air live on AXS TV.
The four time high school state wrestling champion spoke elatedly with MMAJunkie:
It was very important to me to join a professional organization that will allow me the opportunity to continue to grow as an MMA athlete. It was equally important for me to partner with an organization that has an established track record of helping fighters grow into world-class athletes and champions. I want to fight for a credible organization and face high-caliber opponents. Legacy is that organization and has made that commitment to me.
After the jump: Cejudo’s aforementioned victory over Matsunaga in the Beijing games, a brief glimpse at Cejudo’s MMA skills via some Spanish news site and a video of Hollis’ most recent performance.
After defeating Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga to secure the gold in the Beijing 2008 games, Cejudo failed to make the cut in 2012. As a result, he ceremoniously took off his shoes, unceremoniously threw them into the crowd and retired from the sport. Because, let’s be honest, how embarrassing would it be if someone made the universal gesture for retirement only to accept a fight a few weeks later?
In any case, Cejudo announced that he was making the transition to MMA earlier this year. It would appear that he is a fast learner.
Being that his first four opponents hold a combined record of something between Kenneth Allen and Jason Reinhart in the UFC, it’s nice to see that Legacy will be giving Cejudo no easy test in Hollis for his promotional debut. Then again, Hollis is a natural flyweight whose 4 victories (2 TKO, 2 Sub) have come over similarly outmatched opponents. Opponents like the 8-12 Randy Villareal, who Hollis recently defeated via upkick KO at Big Dawg Promotions (*shudder*) in March. A video of said KO is below.
An impressive KO for sure, and one made all the more impressive by the fact that Villareal was apparently “being a butthead the whole time before the fight!” so sayeth the Youtube uploader. Surely Ruben, Chief of the Villareal tribe, will not stand for this act of disrespect.
Does anyone see Cejudo using his grappling background to notch another quick victory, or will Hollis prove too much for the Olympian in his (semi) mainstream debut? While you discuss that, make sure to also harass Sherdog — who mislabelled the above KO as the result of a “Punch” — via the social networking site of your choice until they give Hollis his due credit.
