Featherweight fighter Leonard Garcia (14-6-1) has been removed from The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale for undisclosed reasons. Garcia had been scheduled to meet Tyler Toner (10-2) on the preliminary card of the free Spike TV broadcast, but will now be replaced by Ian “The Barn Owl” Loveland (13-7).
The news was first reported by Sherdog.com […]
Featherweight fighter Leonard Garcia (14-6-1) has been removed from The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale for undisclosed reasons. Garcia had been scheduled to meet Tyler Toner (10-2) on the preliminary card of the free Spike TV broadcast, but will now be replaced by Ian “The Barn Owl” Loveland (13-7).
The news was first reported by Sherdog.com on Thursday.
Garcia was to make his return to the UFC since his drop to featherweight in February 2008. He’s gone 1-1-1 in his last three fights, dropping a split decision to Mark Hominick at WEC 51, earning a split decision in his epic fight with Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48, and fighting to a draw with George Roop at WEC 47.
Toner will now open the first ever UFC featherweight bout against Loveland at the December event. Under Zufffa, Toner is 1-1 as a WEC fighter having lost to Diego Nunes by unanimous decision at WEC 51 and earned a first round TKO win over Brandon Visher in his WEC debut at WEC 48.
This will be Loveland’s first fight under Zuffa and had won six straight fights to earn a shot with the UFC. The Team Quest fighter has fought for various promotions across North America in his career. He’s earned 6 wins by T(KO) and 6 by submission, only once fighting to decision.
The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale is set for December 4th at The Pearl at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and will feature several matchups from this past season of The Ultimate Fighter.
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See More: Stephan Bonnar • Aftermath • lightweights • TUF 12
GSP coach John Danaher joins host Stephan Bonnar on the “Aftermath” along with fighters Michael Johnson and Kyle Watson.
Johnson and Watson discuss moving on to the semi-finals, while Danaher demonstrates the rear-naked-choke on Bonnar.
Another week down and another week of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series is in the books. This week the final two quarterfinal matches were decided with Kyle Watson taking on Aaron Wilkinson, while Michael Johnson battled teammate Alex Caceres for a spot in the semi-finals.
In the first bout, it’s the veteran Watson and the […]
Another week down and another week of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series is in the books. This week the final two quarterfinal matches were decided with Kyle Watson taking on Aaron Wilkinson, while Michael Johnson battled teammate Alex Caceres for a spot in the semi-finals.
In the first bout, it’s the veteran Watson and the UK’s Wilkinson squaring off, and Watson draws first blood with a takedown in the opening minute. Wilkinson tries to stay close to force a re-start, but the Team GSP fighter keeps working as he looks for a submission. With the three minutes left, Wilkinson is briefly able to get back to his feet, but Watson puts him down again, this time ending up in the mount position. Wilkinson turns to escape, but gives up his back. Moments later, Watson sinks in a rear naked choke that produces a tap and ends the bout.
Following the bout, Team GSP coach Georges St-Pierre brings in another special guest to work with his squad, renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach, the man behind Manny Pacquiao.
St-Pierre has made a decision regarding the final quarterfinal bout, opting to not corner either of his team members.
“Alex and Michael hate each other, and the best way to take care of that problem is to make them fight together,” said the welterweight champ.
A definite fan of Caceres is opposing coach Josh Koscheck, who tries to stir the pot by saying St-Pierre is using Caceres as the sacrificial lamb for his top prospect, Johnson. St-Pierre and Johnson laugh the barbs off though.
After some crisp exchanges to kick off the Johnson vs Caceres bout, Johnson scores a quick takedown. The fighters get back to their feet fairly quickly, and Johnson knocks Caceres’ mouthpiece out before putting his foe on his back again. Both fighters stay active, and in a scramble, Caceres stands and fires off some flurries. Caceres looks like he’s getting his rhythm, but as soon as Johnson gets him against the fence, he regains control. Caceres finishes the fast-paced round strong though.
Johnson gets the bout to the mat immediately in round two, and his superior wrestling is causing problems for Caceres. After pushing his opponent against the fence, Johnson works his ground strikes, giving Caceres enough space to get back to his feet, but only briefly. Another scramble finds Caceres on top, and he’s able to get some strikes off before the two stand, yet in the end, it’s Johnson with another takedown. With under a minute left, Caceres gets up, but he’s unable to mount a serious offensive charge, instead getting slammed to the mat and kept there to the bell.
Scores across the board were 20-18 for Johnson, who moves on to the semifinals.
To see who will square off in the semi-final matchups visit UFC.com.
Former World Jiu-Jitsu Champion André Galvão (5-2) is attempting to make the move from Strikeforce to the Ultimate Fighting Championship by earning a spot on the upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.
Galvão competed with about 300 other participants at the open tryouts for “TUF 13″ in Las Vegas last week. The upcoming […]
Former World Jiu-Jitsu Champion André Galvão (5-2) is attempting to make the move from Strikeforce to the Ultimate Fighting Championship by earning a spot on the upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.
Galvão competed with about 300 other participants at the open tryouts for “TUF 13″ in Las Vegas last week. The upcoming season was looking for fighters to compete in the welterweight and middleweight divisions.
It was pretty cool, there were many guys there, it was crowded. I don’t know, I think it’s a great opportunity of knowing who on these events, it was nice. We went through a test, we’ve shown some of our Jiu-Jitsu skills, they raffled some guys, and you had to do the grappling with the guy. I did it with an American, it was quick, about one and a half minute. Then we started to do gauntlet and then there was an interview. If you passed one test, they’d give you another one. On my group there were 20 people, and there were only 5 left for the interview. I was one of them, I was interview and they’ve approved me, but maybe they like other guy better on the interview… Now I don’t know if I made it or not. I’ll just have to wait for them to call me.
The BJJ champ is coming off a loss to Tyron Woodley in his last fight, having suffered a TKO loss at last months Strikeforce: San Jose event. The loss ended a two fight win streak that saw him compete at two other Strikeforce events, beating Jorge Pation by TKO in August of this year, and Luke Stewart by split decision in March.
Check out the entire interview with André Galvão at Tatame.com.
(Imagine a mugger trying to rob these three on their way home from the gym..)
Grappling star Andre Galvao revealed to Tatame yesterday that he is one step away from being on The Ultimate Fighter.
According to the Wand Fight Team lightweight, he is wai…
(Imagine a mugger trying to rob these three on their way home from the gym..)
According to the Wand Fight Team lightweight, he is waiting for word that he will be one of the hopefuls tagged to compete for the coveted six-figure contract next season and that the decision will likely hinge on how well the producers feel the 28-year-old Sao Paulo, Brazil native speaks and understands English.
"We went through a test, we’ve shown some of our Jiu-Jitsu skills, they raffled some guys, and you had to do the grappling with the guy. I did it with an American, it was quick, about one and a half minute. Then we started to do gauntlet and then there was an interview. If you passed one test, they’d give you another one. On my group there were 20 people, and there were only 5 left for the interview. I was one of them, I was interview and they’ve approved me, but maybe they like other guys better on the interview," Galvao says. "Now I don’t know if I made it or not. I’ll just have to wait for them to call me," he explains. "The interview is exactly about that, they want to know your English level. I speak English, I can get things, I can read, I understand what people say and I communicate well. They’ve approved me on the test and let’s see if they’ll let me get in there with my English level, but I can speak good English. There are guys there that can’t (laughs). I think I’m a purple belt on English, fourth grade on the purple belt (laughs)."
UFC and Spike TV have decided to give you a full week of free fights, leading up to UFC 122: Marquardt Vs. Okami this Saturday, November 13th. Because of the time change, this overseas fight which takes place in Oberhausen, Germany is one of the few fight cards that is not Pay-Per-View, that […]
UFC and Spike TV have decided to give you a full week of free fights, leading up to UFC 122: Marquardt Vs. Okami this Saturday, November 13th. Because of the time change, this overseas fight which takes place in Oberhausen, Germany is one of the few fight cards that is not Pay-Per-View, that is if you don’t consider you must pay for cable to watch it on Spike.
Included in Spike’s MMA action-packed week are the TUF 12 quarterfinals. Two bouts will take place in the show’s quarterfinals this Wednesday night. Team Koscheck’s Sako Chivitchian faces Team GSP’s Jonathan Brookins. Koscheck’s nemesis Cody McKenzie meets Nam Phan in the second quarterfinal match up.
Featherweight fighter Leonard Garcia (14-6-1) has been removed from The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale for undisclosed reasons. Garcia had been scheduled to meet Tyler Toner (10-2) on the preliminary card of the free Spike TV broadcast, but will now be replaced by Ian “The Barn Owl” Loveland (13-7).
