As if the barrage of fight announcements last week wasn’t enough to keep every MMA fan busy in the coming months, even more fights have been revealed for upcoming cards.The biggest reveal of the week came in regards to the UFC’s next event on network t…
As if the barrage of fight announcements last week wasn’t enough to keep every MMA fan busy in the coming months, even more fights have been revealed for upcoming cards.
The biggest reveal of the week came in regards to the UFC’s next event on network television. Headlining the Jan. 28 in Chicago will be light heavyweight contenders “Suga” Rashad Evans and Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis.
In some disheartening news, former cast member of The Ultimate Fighter season one, Chris Leben, was suspended for an entire year by the UFC following a positive drug test at UFC 138 in November.
Finally, the promotion announced that an event will be coming to Fuel TV in February and will be headlined by a welterweight collision between red-hot Jake Ellenberger and TUF winner Diego Sanchez.
Rob Tatum is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. You can also find Rob’s work at TheMMACorner.com. For anything related to MMA, you can follow Rob on Twitter @RobTatumMMA.
Many fans were expecting to see Chael Sonnen face Mark Munoz on UFC on FOX 2 card in March, but according to Sonnen that fight will not be taking place. Mark Munoz is on a roll lately that does not look to be stopping anytime soon. Fresh off of hi…
Many fans were expecting to see Chael Sonnen face Mark Munoz on UFC on FOX 2 card in March, but according to Sonnen that fight will not be taking place.
Mark Munoz is on a roll lately that does not look to be stopping anytime soon. Fresh off of his win against Chris Leben at UFC 138, the Filipino Wrecking Machine stated that he was ready for a title shot. Soon after, however, it appeared he would instead meet Chael Sonnen for a shot at the UFC middleweight title.
Chael Sonnen is the only man to push Anderson Silva to his limits. He won the first four rounds, and on some score cards, the fight was scored 40-34 entering Round 5. In the fifth he tapped out after Silva locked in a triangle and after the fight Sonnen was suspended for a year due to abnormally high testosterone levels. After a few court hearings, with his future in possible jeopardy, all his issues were handled and he returned to face Brian Stann.
Sonnen would go on to defeat Stann by arm-triangle in very dominating fashion in his return fight. After the fight he called out Silva for their rematch, but Silva is hurt and my not return until June.
Chael Sonnen hosted the 2011 Fighters Only MMA Awards, and when asked about his upcoming fight with Mark Munoz, in an interview with FIghtHubTV before the show, he replied “I have no fight with Mark Munoz, my next fight will be based on…I don’t know how much I can say, but I will be watching the TV Saturday night. Put it that way.”
That being said, it appears that he would be facing the winner of Bisping vs Miller, with the winner possibly getting a shot at Anderson Silva.
Chael Sonnen hosts thes 2012 Fighters Only World MMA Awards tonight. How many attendees will he piss off? Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis to headline UFC on Fox 2. UFC on FX: Melvin Guillard vs..
Chael Sonnen hosts thes 2012 Fighters Only World MMA Awards tonight. How many attendees will he piss off?
Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davisto headlineUFC on Fox 2.
UFC on FX: Melvin Guillard vs. Jim Miller hits Nashville on Friday, January 20th.
Thiago Alves vs. Martin Kampmann announced for UFC on FX 2.
Evans is currently riding a three-fight win streak, including decisions over Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson, and a second-round TKO of Tito Ortiz, who came in as Davis’s short-notice injury replacement. Davis has gone 5-0 in the Octagon, most recently out-pointing Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in March. You’d have to assume that if Evans manages to deal “Mr. Wonderful” his first loss, he’ll be awarded a title shot against the winner of Jones vs. Machida — but considering Suga’s run ofbad luck when it comes to that sort of thing, anything’s possible.
In other UFC on FOX 2 booking news…
(Let’s just hope this fight doesn’t affect their friendship.)
Evans is currently riding a three-fight win streak, including decisions over Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson, and a second-round TKO of Tito Ortiz, who came in as Davis’s short-notice injury replacement. Davis has gone 5-0 in the Octagon, most recently out-pointing Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in March. You’d have to assume that if Evans manages to deal “Mr. Wonderful” his first loss, he’ll be awarded a title shot against the winner of Jones vs. Machida — but considering Suga’s run ofbad luck when it comes to that sort of thing, anything’s possible.
Coincidentally, Einemo lost his UFC debut to Herman in June, and his only win in the last five years came at a show in Bosnia that’s not even recognized by MMA databases. In other words, Russow vs. Einemo is a bit of a squash match; if Russow was hoping for a step up in competition for his next outing, this ain’t it.
Filed under: UFC, News, UFC on FOXA light-heavyweight match pitting former division champion Rashad Evans and rising contender Phil Davis will take place at the upcoming UFC on FOX 2 show in January, sources told MMA Fighting on Wednesday, confirming a…
A light-heavyweight match pitting former division champion Rashad Evans and rising contender Phil Davis will take place at the upcoming UFC on FOX 2 show in January, sources told MMA Fighting on Wednesday, confirming an overnight report from ESPN.
Late on Tuesday night, UFC president Dana White told MMA Fighting that he could not yet confirm the show’s main event. But while the promotion has yet to announce the pairing, barring any unforeseen setbacks, it is expected to be made official within days and is likely to serve as the headliner.
Evans (16-1-1) lost out on a pair of possible title shots against current champ Jon Jones due to respective injuries to both men over the last few months. At UFC 133, he was nearly set to face Jones until a hand injury sidelined the champ. Evans was then paired with Davis, but a knee injury scuttled that fight as well.
Instead, Evans ended up facing and defeating Tito Ortiz in a second-round TKO.
Unfortunately for Evans, he injured his hand during the fight and could not take a December 10 date with Jones either, allowing Lyoto Machida to step in and fight for the belt.
If Evans wins, the UFC will once again attempt to set him up for another title shot, this time against the Jones-Machida winner.
To do so, he’ll have to get past the unbeaten Davis, who has not fought since earning a unanimous decision victory over Antonio Rogerio Nogueria in March. At 9-0, Davis has cracked the top 10 of most light-heavyweight polls, but the former Penn State collegiate wrestling All-American faces a big step up in competition against Evans. His knee now healed, he’s being asked to jump right into top competition.
The UFC on FOX 2 card takes place at Chicago’s United Center on January 28 and is the official kickoff to the seven-year deal signed between UFC and FOX in August. A one-hour teaser event held in November drew an average of 5.7 million viewers, with 8.8 million watching Junior dos Santos capture the heavyweight title by knocking out Cain Velasquez.
Welcome back, Jon Olav Einemo.MMA Fighting reports that the now 6-2-0 heavyweight, who was last seen at UFC 131 in a back-and-forth battle with one Dave Herman, is not only returning to the UFC after a highly controversial release from the promoti…
Welcome back, Jon Olav Einemo.
MMA Fighting reports that the now 6-2-0 heavyweight, who was last seen at UFC 131 in a back-and-forth battle with one Dave Herman, is not only returning to the UFC after a highly controversial release from the promotion, but he also draws Mike Russow as his opponent for the UFC on Fox 2 fight card live from the United Center in Chicago on January 28th.
The split between the UFC and Einemo, which included the questionable releases of Alistair Overeem, Marloes Coenen, and Valentijn Overeem—and raised some speculation as to whether highly touted Siyar Bahadurzada would ever set foot in the Octagon—came as a result of a dispute between the Golden Glory management team and the UFC.
Now that it seems that Einemo will be paying his managers and not the other way around, Einemo’s task at hand is the insanely durable Russow, who stands at 14-1 in his career with a no contest in his second career bout.
Sergei Kharitonov was the last man to beat Russow, but since that loss, Russow has rolled 10 fights deep in victory, including his third-round knockout of Todd Duffee and his TKO-by-doctor stoppage against Jon Madsen at UFC Fight Night 24.
The smart money is that Russow might desire to either stand and trade with the game Einemo, or perhaps wear him out against the cage, but in either event, Einemo will not be a rag doll for Russow to toy with.
Let’s not forget that Einemo traded with Herman and engaged in one of the more underrated heavyweight thrillers of 2011 before Herman earned the second-round TKO.
On paper, this heavyweight bout has the potential for an early Fight of the Night contender, but if it looks good on paper, die-hard fight fans and patrons of pugilism alike would do well to wait until January 28th for what could be one of the most high-tempo heavyweight bouts in recent MMA history.
Many fans were expecting to see 
A light-heavyweight match pitting former division champion