UFC Fight Night 22 | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

Hunt vs. Bigfoot Fight-Picking Contest: Win a Sakuraba T-Shirt From Scramble!

We still have a couple of those awesomely official Kazushi Sakuraba t-shirts from Scramble laying around, so how bout we put ’em up for grabs in one more fight-picking contest? This weekend in Brisbane, Australia, hard-hittin’ heavyweights Mark Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva will meet in the five-round main event of UFC Fight Night 33. Also, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua returns against James Te Huna, Pat Barry slugs it out with Soa Palelei, and Ryan Bader faces Anthony Perosh. (Are you noticing an Oceania vs. The World theme, here?)

To make things a little more interesting for this contest, we’re going to tweak the rules a little bit: Instead of having you submit predictions for the main event only, we’re going to allow you to submit a prediction for any fight on the card. The two closest guesses will win the Saku shirts. Your picks should be in this format…

We still have a couple of those awesomely official Kazushi Sakuraba t-shirts from Scramble laying around, so how bout we put ‘em up for grabs in one more fight-picking contest? This weekend in Brisbane, Australia, hard-hittin’ heavyweights Mark Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva will meet in the five-round main event of UFC Fight Night 33. Also, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua returns against James Te Huna, Pat Barry slugs it out with Soa Palelei, and Ryan Bader faces Anthony Perosh. (Are you noticing an Oceania vs. The World theme, here?)

Mark Hunt def. Antonio Silva via KO, 3:31 of round 3
or
Pat Barry def. Soa Palelei via submission (guillotine choke), 1:58 of round 1
or
Bethe Correia def. Julie Kedzie via split-decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

In other words: Winner’s name first, and include the method of victory, time of stoppage, round of stoppage, or the judges’ scores if you think the fight will go all five rounds; we’ll need that in case of a tie-breaker. Please submit your picks to the comments section by Friday night at midnight ET. Winners will be announced the following Monday. Only one entry per person, please. Any questions, let us know in the comments. Good luck everybody, and visit ScrambleStuff.com to keep on top of Scramble’s latest sales and one-of-a-kind grappling/MMA gear.

Wanderlei Silva Offers Chael Sonnen a Lesson in Respect, But Will It Take?

Filed under: UFC

If you’re like me, you’re instantly interested once you hear Wanderlei Silva start a sentence with, “In Brazil, we have a saying…” You add the fact that he happens to be speaking to Chael Sonnen when he says it, and you’ve got your…

Filed under: UFC

Here’s the scene in a video put out by Silva’s Wand Fight Team this week: while in Austin, Texas to do some promo work surrounding UFC Fight Night 22 last Wednesday, Silva and Sonnen find themselves riding in the same UFC van. They talk about Sonnen’s next fight, which at the time was a scheduled rematch with middleweight champ Anderson Silva (this is before Sonnen got some bad news from the CSAC, remember) and it prompts Wanderlei to give Sonnen, who makes for an uncomfortably captive audience, a little unsolicited advice.

And Now He’s Fired: Efrain Escudero

(Poor kid. He didn’t even get a chance to go on a three-fight losing streak. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)
Following his submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 22, TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero has been released f…

(Poor kid. He didn’t even get a chance to go on a three-fight losing streak. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

Following his submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 22, TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero has been released from his UFC contract. Escudero confirmed the news last night via Twitter, writing "I was released by the Ufc today speaking to strikeforce and bellator. Taking a week off and make my way back!!!!!"

Escudero becomes just the second Ultimate Fighter-winner to be pink-slipped in the show’s five-and-a-half-year history; TUF 4‘s Travis Lutter got canned in April 2008. TUF winners tend to get a lot of leeway in their UFC careers — check out the spotty records of guys like Mac Danzig and Kendall Grove — but missing weight and garbage-ass performances will get you on the UFC’s bad side no matter who you are. Escudero struck out big time last week when he missed weight by an unacceptable four pounds, then lost to an up-and-comer in a fight that was entertaining despite Efrain’s best efforts to stall.

We’re sure Effy will land on his feet, and may even battle his way back to the UFC one day. But between this and Todd Duffee‘s firing two weeks ago, it seems like the UFC is becoming less interested in giving second (or third) chances to fighters who aren’t performing up to expectations.

Even Rousimar Palhares’ Coach Thinks He Acted Like An Idiot Against Nate Marquardt

("Stop it? My naughtiness, I thought you said, ‘Snap it.’"
When Rousimar Palhares inexplicably stopped to tell the ref that he thought Nate Marquardt’s leg felt greasy in their Ultimate Fight Night 22 bout Wednesday night, armchair fighters, …

("Stop it? My naughtiness, I thought you said, ‘Snap it.’"

When Rousimar Palhares inexplicably stopped to tell the ref that he thought Nate Marquardt’s leg felt greasy in their Ultimate Fight Night 22 bout Wednesday night, armchair fighters, referees and coaches alike collectively yelled, "What the hell are you doing?" at their television screens.

It turns out, they weren’t the only ones yelling.

Palhares’ longtime Brazilian Top Team trainer and coach, Murilo Bustamante told Tatame that he too was screaming from the sidelines for his charge not to let up and says that they have learned from the rookire mistake that may have cost Rousimar a title shot in the near future.

“We’ve talked about it a lot, he knows what he did wrong. I guarantee it won’t happen again, he learned the lesson on the worst possible way, paying for his distraction and lack of naughtiness," Bustamante explained. "Maybe the other fighter could stop to see what it was about, but Nate kept on going and didn’t do anything illegal. It was a lesson learned. It happens.”

UFC Fight Night 22 Live Blog: Cole Miller vs. Ross Pearson Updates

Filed under: UFCThis is the UFC Fight Night 22 live blog for Cole Miller vs. Ross Pearson, a lightweight bout on tonight’s UFC on Spike TV event from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

Pearson (11-3) was the winner of season nine’s The Ultimate …

Filed under: UFC

This is the UFC Fight Night 22 live blog for Cole Miller vs. Ross Pearson, a lightweight bout on tonight’s UFC on Spike TV event from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

Pearson (11-3) was the winner of season nine’s The Ultimate Fighter and is so far unbeaten in his UFC career. Miller (16-4), who is returning from an injury which forced him out of a planned bout in March, was last seen inside the Octagon in January in an impressive submission win over Dan Lauzon at UFC 108.

The live blog is below.

Cole Miller Submits Ross Pearson in Great UFC Fight Night 22 Battle

Filed under: UFCFormer Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson fought a good first round against Cole Miller Wednesday night at UFC Fight Night 22, but a good first round wasn’t enough.

Miller turned the fight around with a sensational comeback in the se…

Filed under: UFC

Former Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson fought a good first round against Cole Miller Wednesday night at UFC Fight Night 22, but a good first round wasn’t enough.

Miller turned the fight around with a sensational comeback in the second, winning a great fight to start off the night’s televised card, and he said afterward that he was proud to have finished his fight.

“I’m just happy I came out here and did what I said I was going to do,” Miller said. “I see all these wrestlers, point fighting strikers and lay and pray jiu jitsu guys all doing the same thing. Nobody tries to finish, pass guard, mount, nothing, just control the clock. This ain’t football. People got to come in here and fight.”