Special thanks to Oliver Chan and photographer Rick Albrecht for the photos.
If there’s one thing that I took away from last night’s World Series of Fighting card, it was that even a high profile promotion that puts on a night of entertaining fights is going to encounter some hiccups during its second event. Join us as we relive the highs and lows from WSoF 2.
The Good:
Anthony Johnson looked legitimate at heavyweight: Heading into last night’s main event, a lot was riding on Anthony “Rumble” Johnson actually fighting like a true heavyweight and not just looking like one. With all of the focus from fans and pundits alike on the “former UFC welterweight” issue, a poor showing from Johnson could have caused many fans to dismiss WSoF as an organization of squash matches and freak show fights. Fortunately for the organization, last night Rumble proved that his fight against Andrei Arlovski didn’t deserve freak show status. Johnson was too quick for Arlovski early on, and almost finished the fight before the end of the first round. He may have gassed out early – that’ll happen when you take a knee to the juevos during your first fight as a heavyweight – but at least he demonstrated that he’s capable of being a competent heavyweight if Ray Sefo needs him to be one again.
Special thanks to Oliver Chan and photographer Rick Albrecht for the photos.
If there’s one thing that I took away from last night’s World Series of Fighting card, it was that even a high profile promotion that puts on a night of entertaining fights is going to encounter some hiccups during its second event. Join us as we relive the highs and lows from WSoF 2.
The Good:
Anthony Johnson looked legitimate at heavyweight: Heading into last night’s main event, a lot was riding on Anthony “Rumble” Johnson actually fighting like a true heavyweight and not just looking like one. With all of the focus from fans and pundits alike on the “former UFC welterweight” issue, a poor showing from Johnson could have caused many fans to dismiss WSoF as an organization of squash matches and freak show fights. Fortunately for the organization, last night Rumble proved that his fight against Andrei Arlovski didn’t deserve freak show status. Johnson was too quick for Arlovski early on, and almost finished the fight before the end of the first round. He may have gassed out early – that’ll happen when you take a knee to the juevos during your first fight as a heavyweight – but at least he demonstrated that he’s capable of being a competent heavyweight if Ray Sefo needs him to be one again.
Marlon Moraes Proves his Win Over Miguel Torres Wasn’t a Fluke: Marlon Moraes vs. Tyson Nam was a battle between two fighters that many fans aren’t familiar with, but should be. Just 2:35 into the first round, “the guy who beat Torres” finished ”the guy who beat Bellator’s champion“ with a devastating head kick. Moraes vs. Nam proved to be an entertaining co-main event that established Moraes as a legitimate bantamweight contender. As an added bonus for WSoF, Marlon Moraes is essentially a “home grown” prospect, in the sense that unlike Arlovski, Torres, Fitch and Johnson, Moraes isn’t already known for his previous work in a different major promotion. It’ll be interesting to see who the promotion will find to challenge Moraes next.
Josh Burkman’s Knockout Over Aaron Simpson: There may not have been a lot of action leading up to it, but Burkman’s knee to Simpson’s head was a great finish. Burkman now improves to 7-1 since being released from the UFC in 2008, and a rematch against Jon Fitch appears to be inevitable.
The Bad:
Where Does Andrei Arlovski Go From Here? Arlovski may be 4-1 with one no contest in his last six fights, but I think it’s safe to say that last night’s performance proved that his days as anything more than a Sylvia-esque sideshow are limited. I hate to sound be so negative, but let’s face it: Arlovski is a mid-level heavyweight at this point of his career. An accomplished one who can still beat the not-quite-readies and never-weres of the division, but one nonetheless. His loss to Anthony Johnson demonstrated that his days as a major organization’s champion are clearly behind him. Even when he was awarded the final round, it felt like Arlovski won it because Johnson was too tired to do so himself. So now the question is, what does WSoF do with him? Do they continue to pay him former heavyweight champion money to crush cans? Do they sacrifice him to a promising upstart? Or do they just throw dignity to the wind and bring in Tim Sylvia?
Cage-Gate: Believe it or not, up until two hours before the preliminary fights, there was the possibility that there wouldn’t be a World Series of Fighting II. Up until then, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board had issues with the corner pads and canvas WSoF initially planned on using in the cage and refused to approve it for competition. You can read more details on the almost-catastrophe here, and feel relieved that your Saturday night was not ruined by sloppy event planning. Of course, that wasn’t the only case of minor league shenanigans to come from the event…
The Ugly:
Sweet Gloves, Bro. I Bet You Trane UFC:
Now that’s some minor league, Mickey Mouse bullshit. You would think that someone at World Series of Fighting – or NBC, for that matter – would have bought the guy a different pair of gloves instead of putting their faith in a strip of tape.
Whatever Paulo Filho Did for Three Rounds: There are two very good reasons no other semi-legitimate promotion on the planet wants anything to do with Paulo Filho. For starters, despite having all of the necessary skills to be a great fighter, Filho’s life is such a tragic whirlwind of addiction, insanity and unreliability that he’s a headache for promoters. If that doesn’t scare you away from signing him, then know that he couldn’t give less of a fuck about fighting, even when he’s locked in a cage with someone trying to hurt him. When he unretired (*sigh*) to kick Ninja Rua’s ass one last time, World Series of Fighting apparently saw something that led them to believe that he could be placed on the main card of WSoF 2 without making a mockery out of the organization. Predictably, if the pre-fight panic-attack wasn’t enough to make Sefo and co. regret their decision, the three rounds of bullshit against Dave Branch probably was. The saddest part here is that Branch looked great – or at least I think he did – but it’s impossible to put too much stock in a victory over a guy who doesn’t want to even be in the cage.
JZ Calvalcante’s Face After His Fight Against Justin Gaethje:
Entering the bout, the 7-0 Justin Gaethje showed a lot of promise, but like most young up-and-comers, held zero notable victories to his name. Well, unless you count his unnecessarily sad knockout over the troubled Drew Fickett, in which case, we might not have the same definition of “notable.” Gaethje kicked off the main card by butchering JZ Calvalcante’s face on the way to a doctor’s stoppage. Early stoppage? I don’t think a cut above the eye is something to take lightly, but I also wouldn’t be opposed to a rematch, either.
Our man Oliver Chan is on the scene tonight at the Revel Casino, where he and photographer Rick Albrecht will be posting round-by-round updates, commentary, and visual aids after the jump, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest from the NBC Sports Network main card broadcast, and let your voices be heard in the comments section.
Our man Oliver Chan is on the scene tonight at the Revel Casino, where he and photographer Rick Albrecht will be posting round-by-round updates, commentary, and visual aids after the jump, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest from the NBC Sports Network main card broadcast, and let your voices be heard in the comments section.
Please stand by.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I would like to wish myself a happy 32nd birthday on this lovely Saturday evening where I am sitting cage-side at the World Series of Fighting 2 coming at you LIVE on NBC Sports. We’ll be bringing some of the action to you live on CagePotato as well. But first, here are the prelims:
Frank Buenafuente vs. Bill Alego
Alego wins by Rear Naked Choke at 4:26 in the 2nd round
BrensonHansen vs. Tom Marcellino
Hansen wins by KO at 3:24 in the 2nd round
Chris Wade vs. Ozzie Dugulubgov
Ozzie (yeah, not attempting that name again) wins by Unanimous Decision
Igor Gracie vs. Rich Patishnock
Rich Patishnock wins after doctor stoppage (athough Igor clearly had won the round)
Waylon Lowe vs. Cameron Dollar
Waylon Lowe wins via 1st Round KO
Rick Glenn vs. Alexandre Pimentel
Rick Glenn wins via KO at 1:51 in the 3rd round
Danillo Villefort vs. Kris McCray
Villefort via split-decision
Main Event Coming Up!
JZ Calvalcante vs. Justin Gaethje
Well, for this fight, I will definitely be referring to these fighters by their first names.
Round 1
Justin comes in with a couple of leg-kicks. JZ shoots for the takedown, but Justin defends connects with some heavy fists. Justin gets JZ against the fence and hits with some more combos. JZ eats some knees from the clinch. Justin slips after some monster knees and a series of punches in bunches, JZ takes the action to the center of the ring. Justin gets JZ back against the fence and delivers some bone-crunching elbows to the face. JZ struggles to get off the fence as Justin continues to deliver powerful uppercuts to the face of JZ who is now bloody.
Ref halts the action to have the doctor examin JV’s face which has a rather large gash above the eye. Doctor comes in to check out the wound and calls the fight.
JZ is pretty pissed that the fight was stopped, understandably since he can still continue, however that giant gash above his eye will only get worse if they continue.
Justin Gaethje wins by Doctor’s Stoppate at 2:27 of the first round
Josh Burkman vs. Aaron Simpson
Simpson coming out to Quiet Riot.
Josh Burkman Twisted Sister. Lot of 80s hair-band music… We are SO in New Jersey right now.
Round 1
Simpson ties up Burkman against the fence. Burkman reverses. The two separate and square off again. Simpson is bleeding from the mouth. Burkman drops Simpson to one knee with a vicious right hook. The two square off again. Nasty leg-kick by Burkman. He unleashes on Simpson! Gets him against the fence KNEE TO THE HEAD! Simpson is down and the ref jumps in to end it.
The round started off pretty slow, but ended with a huge exclamation point.
Final decision coming up.
Burkman wins by KO 3:04 in the first
Burkman: “Jon Fitch needs to earn his title-shot”
Paulo Filho vs. David Branch
Branch channeling his inner Wandy with his entrance music.
Round 1
Branch pops Filho with a few jabs before taking hi down to the mat. He’s in Filho’s half-guard looking to ass. Branch works some GnP from the half-guard.
There’s certainly some Brooklyn fans here.
Branch is landing some hard shots to Filho’s mid-section. While in the half-guard.
And there’s a failed attempt to start a “U.S.A.” chant.
Branch passes the guard into the mount, but Filho is able to get Branch in his full guard before any damage can be done. Branch works some body shts from the guard. He has Filho up against the cage. Filo attempts some sweeps from the guard. Branch is able to defend and works some shots from the guard.
Yep… Here come the boo-birds… Like they can do better.
Branch lands some more shots now from the guard as the round ends.
Round goes to Branch 10-9.
Round 2
The two square off in the center. Branch drops FIlho with a kick to the midsection. Filho scrables up and Branch lands some strong combos. FIlho lands an overhand, but Branch drops him to the knees. Filho gets up, Branch lands the double leg and pins Filho to the cage. Filho stands up, but is tied up against the cage. Ref separates them.
Filho with a left hook. Branch ducks, double leg into side control. Branch in the mounted crucifix. ands some shots to Filho’s head a la Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn. Filho attempts to rll into Branch. Filho is looking tired. Branch flattens Filho out and keeps popping Filho in the head. Branch attempts to transition into the mount, but goes back to side control. Filho attempts to hip out, but Branch again flattens out his shoulders. Branch lands some elbows to the face and body from side control. Now adding knees into the mix. Branch gets the knee on belly, but moves back to side control. Branch goes to north-south and lands more body shots to Filho’s midsection. End of round 2.
Branch dominates the second round. Easily another 10-9 to the Renzo Gracie fighter.
Round 3
Filho attempts a spinning back kick, but it’s stuffed by branch who gts into th mount and lands some vicious ground and pound. Filho gets Branch into his half guard as Branch continues to land some powerful elbows. Filho can’t seem to get out of the bottom position as Branch continues to land some powerful body shots while in the half guard. Filho gets Branch into the full-guard and lands some elbows, but Branch continues to control Filho from inside the guard.
Ref stands the up and the crowd cheers.
Branch gets Filho into the clinch against the fence and lands some knees. The separate and a left kick by Branch. Branch gets Filho against the fence again, knees to the face and body. Branch gets the double leg and some more ground and pound and the round ends.
Branch easily takes the third once again 10-9.
Official decision: David Branch wins by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
Tyson Nam vs. Marlon Moraes
Moraes coming out to some 90s Nirvana. I like.
Round 1
Tyson and Moraes feel each other out for a bit. Moraes starts to throw some heavy hands, but does not connect. He lands a strong leg kick on Nam. Nam comes in with a cross, Moraes steps away and lands a hard body kick. Morares and Nam exchange a few punches. Moraes with a nice combo. Moraes takes Nam down, but unable to capitalize as Nam quickly gets to his feet. Moraes lands a ROUND HOUSE Kick to the head and Nam is OUT!!!!
Official Decision: Moraes wins by KO 2:35 in the 1st Round
Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson
Get ready for the main event. Quick note, thanks to CagePotato for this opportunity to come to the fights in person. Been here since 6 and been running on coffee and EBoost all night.
A quick shout-out to the comment section specifically “Thumblaster” for the comment that made me chuckle: “Rumble got his nickname because that’s what his stomach always used to do when he would fight welterweight”. Congrats. You win my approval.
Rumble Johnson coming out to some more Nirvana! This time it’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I’m pumped! Looking at Rumble one must wonder how he once fought at 170!
Andrei is coming out to “Eye of the Tiger. The crowd here is definitely pumped now!
Round 1
Rumble comes in with some heavy hands and kicks. He is definitely pushing the pace and looking good. Rumble lands a nice combo. Andrei returns with a strong jab. Rumble throws to head-kicks, but fails to connect. Rumble with a nice body-kick. Andrei with a few body jabs and has Rumble backing up a bit. Rumble comes in with a combo, goes for a double leg and has Andrei against the cage. Andrei has the overhook, but Rubmle continues to press him against the cage. Rumble throws a few knees to Andrei’s legs. Ref separates.
Andrei with a nice combo. Rumble goes for the single-leg, but Andrei defends and now has Rumble against the cage. Andrei throws a few knees as the two pummel. Again, the Ref separates and the two are squaring off throwing punches in the center.
Rumble knocks Andrei down. Lands a few punches. He has Andrei against the cage as the bell rings.
Solid round by Rumble 10-9.
Round 2
Both fighters connect with some powerful shots to the head. Rumble has Andrei against the cage looking for a take-down.
Once again, the ref moves them to the center of the ring and they square off. Andrei lands some nice jabs.
Rumble comes in with a few overhands and connects. Andrei counters with a nice uppercut. Some front kicks to Rumble’s body. The two exchange some more. Rumble goes for the take-down, Andrei sprawls and the two press up against the cage. Andrei reverses and now has Rumble against the cage. The two exchanges some knees and continue to pummel. Andrei catches Rumble in the jewels with a knee and a Rumble is given some time to recover.
Rubmle is back up, they touch gloves and back at it. Rumble comes in with some strong overhands shoots in for the take-down and once again has Andrei against the cage. Rumble gets the take down. Andrei rolls out, Rumble has control of his back. Andrei is back up against the cage. Rumble going for the take-down as Andrei lands some hammer-fists. Andrei sprawls, defending the take-down and Rumble presses him against the cage. Round 2 over.
Bit closer round. I’m going to side with Andrei on this, but it could go either way. 10-9 the Pitbull.
Round 3
Rumble goes in for an overhand and Andrei counters. The two exchange punches and now Rumble has Andrei against the cage. Andrei lands some strikes to the boy. The Ref resets once again.
Rumble with a nice head-kick. Andrei answers with a front kick to the body. Rumble lands a nice cross to Andrei’s chin that definitely would kill a normal man. Rumble has Andrei pressed against the cage… Just waiting for another reset now. Andrei reverses and has Rumble pressed against the cage. The two exchange knees to the boy. The two make their way to the middle. Some hard hits are exchanged and Rumble has Andrei against the cage. Andrei reverses and the two make their way back to the center. More hard hits are exchanged. Andrei’s mouth is open ans he connects with some nice body shots and one to Rumble’s Chin. Rumble goes for the single-leg, but gives up on it. Goes for another one and the two are against the cage. Andrei with some body shots and that’s the third round.
A close round, but I think Andrei landed the better shots. Tough one for me to call, but I’m leaning to Andrei in a close 10-9 round. Official decision coming up now.
Official Decision: Anthony Johnson (29-28 all)… I was waaaaaaaaay off!
Well, folks, thank you for joining me on my birthday (although technically now it isn’t my birthday anymore). Great fights put together by the WSOF. Hopefully more to come. Thanks to Ben and the rest of the CP staff for giving me this opportunity. Thanks to my Rick Albrecht for his great photog work. Thanks to EBoost for keeping me going for 6 hours straight. Don’t forget to donate to Nick Newell’s favorite charity, Tap Cancer Out, by visiting my fundraiser page at www.stayclassy.org/oliverchan
(I believe that’s the universal puppy expression for “get me away from this crazy fucker.” / Photo via: sportv.globo.com)
World Series of Fighting took a major risk by putting Paulo Filho on the main card of its “Arlovski vs. Johnson” event this Saturday. Eccentric at best and tragically troubled at worst, the Brazilian cautionary tale has suffered countless career setbacks due to drug addiction, emotional breakdowns, and simple clerical errors. So maybe we should start preparing for the possibility that his scheduled match against David Branch might not happen. Let’s just call it a hunch — a hunch based on the fact that Filho missed his flight to Atlantic City on Tuesday due to a panic attack.
MMAFighting passed along that news last night, adding the following: “On Wednesday, though, Filho confirmed that he was on a plane headed to New Jersey, so as of Wednesday night, the Filho vs. Branch fight is still on.” Oh, Filho confirmed it? Well, then. Crisis averted. I’m sure he’s not hiding in an underground bunker somewhere deep within the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by boxes and boxes of sleeveless flannel shirts.
We’ll keep you posted if we hear more. I think at this point, a blown weigh-in and distracted performance would be a best-case scenario. The smart money’s still on “no-show,” though.
(I believe that’s the universal puppy expression for “get me away from this crazy fucker.” / Photo via: sportv.globo.com)
World Series of Fighting took a major risk by putting Paulo Filho on the main card of its “Arlovski vs. Johnson” event this Saturday. Eccentric at best and tragically troubled at worst, the Brazilian cautionary tale has suffered countless career setbacks due to drug addiction, emotional breakdowns, and simple clerical errors. So maybe we should start preparing for the possibility that his scheduled match against David Branch might not happen. Let’s just call it a hunch — a hunch based on the fact that Filho missed his flight to Atlantic City on Tuesday due to a panic attack.
MMAFighting passed along that news last night, adding the following: “On Wednesday, though, Filho confirmed that he was on a plane headed to New Jersey, so as of Wednesday night, the Filho vs. Branch fight is still on.” Oh, Filho confirmed it? Well, then. Crisis averted. I’m sure he’s not hiding in an underground bunker somewhere deep within the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by boxes and boxes of sleeveless flannel shirts.
We’ll keep you posted if we hear more. I think at this point, a blown weigh-in and distracted performance would be a best-case scenario. The smart money’s still on “no-show,” though.
So I guess it should come as no surprise then that according to Dana White, Vince McMahon once challenged him to a fight. As he told the media leading up to tonight’s UFC 158:
(I have nothing funny to say, so instead I’ll remind everyone that this guy was an ECW champion, and that makes me feel empty inside.)
So I guess it should come as no surprise then that according to Dana White, Vince McMahon once challenged him to a fight. As he told the media leading up to tonight’s UFC 158:
I’ve never said this before ever in an interview, anywhere. If Vince hears this, he’s going to go nuts. Vince is too old. He’s too old, which he won’t think he is, and he’ll go crazy. He wanted to do that one time. Vince wanted to fight me. Swear to God. Called me up and said, ‘Let’s do it. We can either do it in the UFC, or let’s do it at Wrestlemania [Author Note: It would have been at Wrestlemania 27].’ And I said, ‘You are crazy, man!’ Vince is- look, a lot of people talk about Vince- I’ve always said it, and I’ll say it again: I respect Vince very much. But Vince is too old to be fighting anybody.
Wait, you mean the world almost lost Snooki: Professional Wrestler just so Vince McMahon could promote a boring, “normal” fight against Dana White? THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN…well, okay, I could have lived with that. And not that it matters, but McMahon once featured Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn during Wrestlemania, so the blatant publicity stunt wouldn’t have been the first “real” fight featured on the WWE’s biggest annual pay-per-view.
Interestingly enough, Dana White also spoke about the upcoming WSoF bout between Anthony Johnson and Andrei Arlovski, and let’s just say he isn’t a fan of the match. Via MMAMania:
“The problem with that fight is, it’s not a legitimate fight to me. For Arlovksi to want to get back into the UFC, he’s a heavyweight fighting a 170-pounder, you know what I mean? “Rumble” has trouble making weight, but he’s not a heavyweight. I don’t know man. I just don’t know. I like Andrei Arlovksi and when he left the UFC, there were no issues whatsoever. We respect him, his management. The way that they handled everything back then — there are a lot of guys who leave and do it the wrong way and burn bridges and stuff like that. Like Tim Sylvia. Lot’s of people talk about Tim Sylvia. Tim Sylvia couldn’t have been a worse fucking guy when he was here and how he left and how he did it and everything else. Then you look at a guy like Arlovski who couldn’t have left the company in a better way. Just because you leave, doesn’t mean it’s on bad terms. I just don’t know if Arlovski is at that level and a fight against “Rumble” Johnson isn’t going to make us go, ‘holy shit, Arlovski is going to be back in the UFC.’”
I’m not sure I agree with the notion that a guy who is the same size as Andrei Arlovski isn’t a real heavyweight because he used to destroy his health by cutting to welterweight, but then again, I’m also not expecting Dana White to compliment his competition, either.
Make sure to come back tonight for coverage of what we can all agree are real fights, as we liveblog UFC 158.
In a relatively surprising turn of events, 11-fight UFC veteran Aaron Simpson — whose contract expired with the promotion following his second round KO loss to Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 5 — has not been offered a new contract and has subsequently left the UFC.
The two-time All American out of Arizona announced his drop to the welterweight division in April of 2012 following a 6-3 run at middleweight and was expected to face Jon Fitch at UFC 149. Fitch was forced to bow out with a knee injury shortly thereafter and Simpson was eventually paired up with Kenny Robertson at UFC on FUEL 4, a fight he ended up winning by way of unanimous decision. In his next fight, Simpson squared off against the aforementioned perennial welterweight contender in Pierce. After dropping Pierce in the first round, Simpson would unfortunately find himself KO’d for the first time in his career* following a beautifully placed counter right hand on Pierce’s part early in the second.
But it’s not all bad news for Simpson, who has already signed a four fight deal with upstart promotion World Series of Fighting according to Ariel Helwani. And in an ironic twist of fates, Simpson will find himself competing at the promotion’s upcoming second event scheduled for March 23rd. “A-Train” will be stepping in against fellow UFC veteran Josh Burkman, who was expected to face undefeated prospect Ryan LaFlare at the event before LaFlare jumped ship to join the UFC.
In a relatively surprising turn of events, 11-fight UFC veteran Aaron Simpson — whose contract expired with the promotion following his second round KO loss to Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 5 – has not been offered a new contract and has subsequently left the UFC.
The two-time All American out of Arizona announced his drop to the welterweight division in April of 2012 following a 6-3 run at middleweight and was expected to face Jon Fitch at UFC 149. Fitch was forced to bow out with a knee injury shortly thereafter and Simpson was eventually paired up with Kenny Robertson at UFC on FUEL 4, a fight he ended up winning by way of unanimous decision. In his next fight, Simpson squared off against the aforementioned perennial welterweight contender in Pierce. After dropping Pierce in the first round, Simpson would unfortunately find himself KO’d for the first time in his career* following a beautifully placed counter right hand on Pierce’s part early in the second.
But it’s not all bad news for Simpson, who has already signed a four fight deal with upstart promotion World Series of Fighting according to Ariel Helwani. And in an ironic twist of fates, Simpson will find himself competing at the promotion’s upcoming second event scheduled for March 23rd. “A-Train” will be stepping in against fellow UFC veteran Josh Burkman, who was expected to face undefeated prospect Ryan LaFlare at the event before LaFlare jumped ship to join the UFC.
(Anthony Johnson, back in his “How in the actual f*ck does that guy make 170??” days.)
After going 3-0 as light-heavyweight last year — with no weigh-in mishaps whatsoever — ever-expanding slugger Anthony Johnson is making his next jump up the scale. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the former UFC welterweight contender is slated to face former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski at heavyweight in the main event of World Series of Fighting 2, which goes down Saturday, March 23rd, at Revel Resorts & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Both men scored easy first-round knockouts at WSOF’s debut event in November, so hell, why not make ’em fight each other? Though “Rumble” won’t have a size-advantage to rely on this time, his powerful fists could spell doom for Arlovski’s fuzzy chin.
But that’s not even the biggest WSOF-related news we have to share. According to a press release distributed today, WSOF 2 will mark the first live event in a new three-year broadcast partnership with NBC Sports Network, which previously aired the promotion’s first card. Here’s the important stuff:
The agreement calls for a minimum of six live events annually on the national television platform that reaches over 80 million homes. Additionally, later this year, NBCSports.com will live stream World Series of Fighting events via TV Everywhere.
(Anthony Johnson, back in his “How in the actual f*ck does that guy make 170??” days.)
After going 3-0 as light-heavyweight last year — with no weigh-in mishaps whatsoever — ever-expanding slugger Anthony Johnson is making his next jump up the scale. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the former UFC welterweight contender is slated to face former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski at heavyweight in the main event of World Series of Fighting 2, which goes down Saturday, March 23rd, at Revel Resorts & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Both men scored easy first-round knockouts at WSOF’s debut event in November, so hell, why not make ‘em fight each other? Though “Rumble” won’t have a size-advantage to rely on this time, his powerful fists could spell doom for Arlovski’s fuzzy chin.
But that’s not even the biggest WSOF-related news we have to share. According to a press release distributed today, WSOF 2 will mark the first live event in a new three-year broadcast partnership with NBC Sports Network, which previously aired the promotion’s first card. Here’s the important stuff:
The agreement calls for a minimum of six live events annually on the national television platform that reaches over 80 million homes. Additionally, later this year, NBCSports.com will live stream World Series of Fighting events via TV Everywhere.
“We are thrilled to call NBC Sports Network the home of World Series of Fighting,” said World Series of Fighting President and six-time world kickboxing champion, Ray Sefo. “This partnership will allow us to build the World Series of Fighting brand of world-class MMA competition before a dedicated national audience of passionate sports fans and place our athletes on the big stage that they deserve.”
Six events a year on cable TV? Just like that, World Series of Fighting has already become the #3 MMA promotion in the U.S. Their primary challenge now is to build up their roster so that not every main event is a moneyweight freak-show. (Not that we’re complaining.) To that end, WSOF has been busy behind the scenes in recent months, signing guys like Paulo Filho and Dany Lauzon. Can they make a dent in an already crowded market?
