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Brett Rogers vs Jon Murphy Elite XC on CBS fight preview Posted: 27 May 2008 10:21 PM CDT Elite XC “Saturday Night Fights” is set to go off live from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., this Saturday, May 31 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. To get us prepared for the historic event, we plan to showcase a daily feature for each main card fight leading up to the historic mixed martial arts debut on network television. These features will include information on the fighters, predictions, as well as training notes and quotes from each fighter. With the introduction out of the way, let’s kick things off with the heavyweight bout between Brett “The Grim” Rogers (6-0) and Jon Murphy (4-2), which is slated as the first fight on the televised main card. Here’s a little background on each fighter: Brett Rogers — “The Grim” is an undefeated fighter who has never been taken past the first round. His last two fights have both been inside the Elite XC cage. He beat Ralph Kelly with strikes at Elite XC: “Renegade” last November and knocked out the man who will fight Kimbo Slice in the main event on May 31, James Thompson, at Elite XC: “Street Certified” in February. At 6′5″ and 265 pounds, Rogers is as big as they come in the heavyweight division. He sports a Clubber Lang-style mohawk with devastating power to match. He’s only 27 years old and his combination of size and talent make him one hell of a prospect for Elite XC. Jon Murphy – A former starting middle linebacker for the Syracuse Orangemen (and a recovering alcoholic), Murphy has rededicated himself to a new sport and to a new substance-free life. After starting his MMA career with three straight wins against the likes of Jerome Smith, Carlos Cline and Sherman Pendergrast, Murphy then ran into a man named Houston Alexander at Extreme Challenge 76 last March. Alexander — as he’s known to do — stopped Murphy 56 seconds into the first round, handing him his first career loss. In Murphy’s defense, sometimes when you’re fighting in those Extreme Challenge shows you don’t know a whole lot about your opponent, and Alexander can definitely surprise you with his power and intensity if you don’t know much about him … just ask Keith Jardine. Murphy went on to fight less than one month later and dropped his second straight in a close two round decision to Chase Gormley at King of the Cage: “Sinister.” Determined to get back in the win column, Murphy trained hard for four months and earned himself a 2nd round KO win over Dave Huckaba at a Sho XC event. Training notes and quotes from each fighter: Brett Rogers — Rogers trains with Team Bison out of Minneapolis, Minn., alongside fighters such as The Ultimate Fighter TUF) season two alum, Sam Morgan, Cory “Hardcore” Walmsley, Brandon Foxworth, Jami Klair, TUF 6 alum Paul Georgieff, Paul Bradish, and many more quality fighters. I don’t know a lot about Team Bison, but they seem to have a lot of big heavyweights, which can only help make Rogers that much more prepared. Here’s a snip from Rogers via xlfights.com about specific training to become a better all around fighter: “I am trying to focus on the wrestling and jui-jitsu part of the game, basically anything that involves being on the ground. I think that my stand-up game is progressing really good right now but you can’t always rely on that, you know what I mean? So it is very important to work on the other aspects especially the wrestling. Besides the wrestling, the jui-jitsu training is going to be very important to work on before my next fight. In the case that I do end up on my back I need to have some kind of defense from the bottom. I am going to work really hard on that so that if I get an opponent that wants to take me down or stand-up and fight it won’t matter. From what I have been told so far, my next opponent is very good on the ground. So I need to make sure that I am well-prepared for that match up.” Rogers was also asked about how he felt about a fight against Kimbo Slice. Here’s what he had to say: “It is only a matter of time until that fight happens. I mean, I give Kimbo my respect for how he brings all of the fans but Looking at him as a fighter I see a lot of holes in his game. I am going to keep those a secret and not put them out on the line. I am always watching every fighter either above me or below me to look for the holes that I can expose in their game if we fight. Most fighters do the same thing every time they fight, so it becomes a habit. As a fighter, you need to find those habits and expose them when you are fighting that opponent. So I am definitely keeping Kimbo on my watch list because that fight is going to happen sooner than later.” If he continues on his current path watch out … Rogers is a lot to handle. Jon Murphy — Murphy trains at Brad Daddis Training Center in Philadelphia, Pa. That’s one of the top level training centers in the Philadelphia area. Guys like Matt Makowski, Justin Greskiewicz, Aaron Meisner and Wilson Reis also train out of this gym. He originally trained some Tae Kwon Do and has been training Jiu Jitsu since 1994. At Daddis Training Center, Murphy is able to work with a solid group of instructors, including Rigel Balsamico and Daddis, who are helping Murphy get the most out of his natural athleticism while teaching him world class jiu jitsu and muay thai. Here’s Murphy in an interview with MMArated.com on how he thinks the fight will go: “I’m expecting him to come out guns blazing … looking for the knockout. His shtick is that he has real heavy hands and I’m gonna try not to get hit with them. I’m gonna fight a smart fight. I can’t tell you exactly how I’m gonna fight the fight, every fight is different. I’m training all areas of the game, trying to get good levels in every aspect. Whatever happens happens. I’m not afraid to stand there and slug with him, but I’m not gonna just let him hit me. I want to fight smart.” And more from an interview with FiveOuncesOfPain.com: “I know for a fact that I’ve yet to fight my best fight. I’ve yet to become the best fighter that I know I am capable of being…. People are going to see a whole different fighter. I can see judging off of the fight against (Dave) Huckaba fight (during August’s ShoXC), it was a knockout, but I watch it and there are some things that make me cringe because I know I am better than that…. But I’m happy to be the underdog.” Indeed, being the underdog is perhaps a blessing in disguise on such a big night — it will put more pressure (in theory) on Rogers to perform well and come away with the win. How the fight will go: I like Jon Murphy as a competitor and as a person trying to overcome personal adversity. However, Brett Rogers is a monster. He not only looks the part, but he acts it inside the cage. This is a tough fight for both guys, but I think Rogers will win. We saw James Thompson sprint at Rogers right out of the gate and score a couple takedowns in their fight in February, but each time Rogers was able to get right up. Even for a man pushing the limits of the heavyweight division himself, “The Colossus” still had trouble containing Rogers. That’s what was impressive about Rogers’ fight with Thompson. Sure, he knocked him out and it was fun to watch, but everybody knocks out James Thompson. The fact that Thompson couldn’t keep Rogers down on two separate occasions for even five seconds spoke volumes on Rogers strength and athleticism. Murphy is an intense fighter, and that’s one of his strengths, but he might want to slow this fight down a bit and look to extend it past the first round. Look at what happened to Murphy when he fought Alexander — he came out with his usual intensity and fell right into Alexander’s power game. And Brett Rogers is way bigger than Houston Alexander. Murphy can’t let that happen against Rogers or it’ll be a short night. Thompson proved you can’t just bull rush Rogers. Here’s what I see happening: Murphy will keep his distance early and try to avoid any big power punches. He’ll want to take this fight to the mat, but he will try not to be obvious about it. By attempting to establish himself on his feet, he’ll be trying to get Rogers comfortable and not thinking about getting taken down. That’s when he’ll shoot for the leg … probably sometime in the middle to late part of the round. When that shot is defended and brushed aside we’ll probably see a lot of clinching for the rest of the round. I think that will tire both guys out considerably, but Murphy will be the more frustrated fighter. In the second we’ll probably start to see the haymakers coming from Rogers and the takedown attempts coming from Murphy at a much higher rate depending on how tired they get. This is where the fight will be won. If Rogers can land one or two of those huge punches to a tired Murphy, he’ll definitely put him to bed. But if Murphy can tire out Rogers early and then win the second and third rounds with takedowns and ground and pound, he’ll win the smart fight he talked about in his interviews. In the end I’m picking Rogers to score the second round knockout. I’ve seen him get tired in the first round of his fights before, which isn’t a good thing. The good news is that he just keeps on throwing huge power shots one right after the other. If he’s able to keep throwing, eventually they’re going to land, and it’ll be hard for a tired Jon Murphy to withstand the punishment Brett Rogers can dish out. Final Prediction: Brett Rogers via knockout in round two Check back in tomorrow as we go in-depth with the middleweight match up between Joey Villasenor and Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni.

Urijah Faber vs Jens Pulver WEC fight video: ‘You need to watch this’ Posted: 27 May 2008 07:44 PM CDT More vids of the big featherweight fight on June 1 after the jump. Life or death: Just another day at the rodeo:

UFC 81 DVD for ‘Breaking Point’ Posted: 27 May 2008 06:25 PM CDT UFC 81: Breaking Point took place on February 2, 2008 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is now available for purchase on DVD. The main event features Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia, in perhaps his final UFC appearance taking on former PRIDE heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira for UFC's Interim World Heavyweight Championship. In addition you will see the much-anticipated UFC debut of former WWE Champion and NCAA national wrestling champion, Brock Lesnar fighting former UFC heavyweight champion and submission specialist Frank Mir. UFC 81 Fight Card: Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar Ricardo Almeida vs. Rob Yundt Nate Marquardt vs. Jeremy Horn Tyson Griffin vs. Gleison Tibau David Heath vs. Tim Boetsch Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley Marvin Eastman vs. Terry Martin Keita Nakamura vs. Rob Emerson UFC 81: Breaking Point is available for purchase in our DVD store for $19.99 by clicking here. To check out our massive library of MMA DVD titles, including PRIDE DVD and UFC DVD click here. We also have Elite XC, WEC, Cage Rage, IFL, King of the Cage and other products for sale in our store. Looking for a title but don't see it in our store? Email us and we'll be happy to check its availability. Please keep in mind that we are only able to ship within the continental United States at this time.

Matt Hughes: ‘It’s going to get rough for Thiago’ Alves at UFC 85 fight (Video) Posted: 27 May 2008 03:52 PM CDT Props: UFC.com

Raw Combat: ‘Resurrection’ set for Calgary on June 20 Posted: 27 May 2008 12:46 PM CDT Former Hardcore Championship Fighting (HCF) co-owner Dave Houshiar is back in business with a co-promotion between Alberta-based Legacy Fighting Championships and his own Raw Combat company, according to MMACanada.net. This news was released by the Fight Network awhile back; however there was some confusion regarding the particulars, so we went straight to the source and interviewed Dave Houshiar regarding his thoughts on HCF and his new organization. HCF had staked itself as one of Canada's premier mixed martial arts promotions over the course of the past year with an impressive stable of fighters, including Aleksander Emelianenko, Mike Pyle, Jason Day, David Loiseau, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Joe Riggs, Gideon Ray, Hector Ramirez, Rob MacDonald and others. Unfortunately, Keith Crawford announced earlier this month that the organization was folding, ending months of speculation regarding a new investor. In Crawford's press release he did mention that he and Dave Houshiar would be continuing on in the business — albeit not together. Some of Dave's thoughts on the collapse of HCF: “To be honest, I don’t really consider it a collapse. If I had to put a label on it, I think I’d refer to it as being more along the lines of an evolution. HCF provided an excellent start point for me … I learned a lot about the sport and had an opportunity to develop many solid relationships with numerous key players. Overall, it was a great experience, but I do feel that I took the promotion as far as it could go. I’m now in the process of transitioning to the next level.” Dave was also cordial when asked about his status with Keith: “Keith is a very interesting guy. As far as status is concerned, we’ve both decided that it’s best to move forward in different directions at this point in time. I wish him all the best with his future endeavors.” After the dismantling of HCF, Dave has turned around quickly with an impressive card under the new banner. The card set for June is solid with quality UFC, WEC and Pride FC veterans such as David Loiseau, Hector Ramirez, Carlo Prater and Derrick Noble. When asked about the direction he plans on taking with Raw Combat, Dave responded: “…I can sum it up by saying that we intend to take the best elements of HCF and then crank the volume way up. I’m planning to go big with Raw Combat. We’re going to build a brand that will come to be known for showcasing the most exciting aspects of Mixed Martial Arts action…Things are about to start moving very quickly with Raw Combat.” The June 20 card is an impressive start for the promotions inaugural event. With world class talent promising an exciting night of fights, the Canadian MMA future looks bright. Check out the official card after the jump. Raw Combat: Resurrection June 20, 2008 Max Bell Centre, Calgary, Alberta Travis Galbraith vs Hector Ramirez Dan Hornbuckle vs Nabil Khatib - Raw Combat WW Title Fight Andrew Buckland vs David Loiseau Garett Davis vs Carlo Prater Jason Maxwell vs Derrick Noble Bibiano Fernades vs Juan Barrantes Kajan Johnson vs Ariel Sexton Marcus Vinicios vs Brandon MacArthur Myles Merola vs Kurt Southern Len Tam vs Chris Desaultels - LFC LW Title Fight Nathan Gunn vs Max Dalsin Adam Farr vs Dami Egbeyemi Mike Rowbotham vs Mike Zvonick It is interesting to note that UFC President, Dana White has acknowledged some interest in bringing back one time UFC middleweight contender, David 'The Crow' Loiseau, if he could string together some victories. David has dropped four of his last six fights and is coming off a unanimous decision win over Todd Gouwenberg back in March. To read the entire interview with Dave Houshiar click here.

UFC 84: Fighter paydays and salaries for ‘Ill Will’ Posted: 27 May 2008 12:31 PM CDT MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) has received the fighter payouts for UFC 84: "Ill Will" from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for the pay-per-view (PPV) event held on May 24 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. No surprise, BJ Penn was the top bread winner of the evening, raking in $250,000 for his 15-minute drubbing of Sean Sherk. Tito Ortiz was not far behind with a $210,000 paycheck for possibly his last appearance inside the Octagon. Wanderlei Silva, Lyoto Machida and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou also made out handsomely on a card that appears to have quite a few big earners (more than most). Here are all the UFC 84 payouts: B.J. Penn — $250,000 ($125,000 to show, $125,000 to win) Sean Sherk — $35,000 Penn defeated Sherk via technical knockout (strikes) in round three Wanderlei Silva — $150,000 Keith Jardine — $10,000 Silva defeated Jardine via knockout in round one Lyoto Machida — $100,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 to win) Tito Ortiz — $210,000 Machida defeated Ortiz via unanimous decision Thiago Silva — $50,000 ($25,000 to show, $25,000 to win) Antonio Mendes — $4,000 Silva defeated Mendes via submission (strikes) in round one Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou — $80,000 ($40,000 to show, $40,000 to win) Kazuhiro Nakamura — $20,000 Sokoudjou defeated Nakamura via technical knockout (strikes) in round one Rousimar Palhares — $10,000 ($5,000 to show, $5,000 to win) Ivan Salaverry — $20,000 Palhares defeated Salaverry via submission (armbar) in round one Goran Reljic — $6,000 ($3,000 to show, $3,000 to win) Wilson Gouveia — $18,000 Reljic defeated Gouveia via technical knockout (strikes) round two Yoshiyuki Yoshida — $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 to win) Jon Koppenhaver — $8,000 Yoshida defeated Koppenhaver via submission (anaconda choke) in round one Dong Hyun Kim — $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 to win) Jason Tan — $3,000 Kim defeats Tan via technical knockout (strikes) in round three Rich Clementi — $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 to win) Terry Etim — $10,000 Clementi defeated Etim via unanimous decision decision Shane Carwin — $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 to win) Christian Wellisch — $10,000 Carwin defeated Wellisch via knockout in round one Keep in mind the salaries listed above do not include fight bonuses, sponsorships, percentages and other unofficial payments. It also does not include deductions for expenses such as insurance, taxes, etc. For example, the UFC often hands out extra cash for "Fight of the Night," "Knockout of the Night" and "Submission of the Night." To check out these figures for UFC 84 go here. The total base fighter payroll for UFC 84 was $1.098 million. For complete results and coverage of the "Ill Will" click here.

Andrei Arlovski to Adrenaline MMA? Posted: 27 May 2008 11:56 AM CDT Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski is expected to announce his future fight plans at a press conference today in Los Angeles, Calif., according to several published reports. There’s speculation that the Chicago-based fighter will reveal that he has signed on with either Affliction or Adrenaline MMA and take on Ben Rothwell at the “Banned” event set for the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on July 19. Perhaps Adrenaline MMA gave us all the scoop before the big announcement — “The Pitbull” is listed on the fighter roster on the Web site. It might not mean he’s signed an exclusive deal, but it could mean something (Fedor Emelianenko is also listed and he’s fighting Sylvia on July 19; however, it’s unlikely that he is considered and Adrenaline MMA fighter). Regardless, expect a formal announcement one way or the other shortly. (Thanks to MMAmania.com reader “Carl” for the detective work.)

Adrenaline MMA to air on HDNet Posted: 27 May 2008 11:40 AM CDT Props: Adrenaline MMA Quoteworthy: “We want to be considered one of the top events in the country. In order to compete at that level, we have to have a television deal. This enables us to build a following not only in the cities we hold events, but also with fans around the country.” Adrenaline MMA President and CEO, Monte Cox, details the recent deal with the Mark Cuban-owned HDNet network to broadcast the first three Adrenaline MMA events live. The promotion will stage its debut show at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., on June 14. To check out the most recent fight card click here.

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