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Stephan Bonnar video on the road to UFC 94 Jon Jones fight Posted: 20 Jan 2009 08:14 AM CST

Bellator Fighting Championships announces signing of Wilson Reis Posted: 20 Jan 2009 08:12 AM CST Los Angeles, Calif. — Bellator Fighting Championships, a first of its kind Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion, officially announced today the exclusive signing of elite grappler Wilson Reis. Reis will enter the inaugural season as a member of the Featherweight (145 lb.) division of Bellator's tournament style events, premiering on ESPN Deportes April 4, 2009. A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) phenom moved to Philadelphia in 2007 to further his career in MMA. Upon arriving in the United States, Reis kept his nose to the grindstone, earning his black belt from BJJ instructor Roberto Godoi. After just over a year in the U.S., Reis has built an unblemished 6-0 record while not only training himself, but also instructing other fighters at Daddis Martial Arts, one of Philadelphia's most respected MMA schools. Reis' stellar achievements include becoming the EliteXC Bantamweight Champion and the World Champion Black Belt from Brazil. "Wilson has unlimited potential at 145," said Bjorn Rebney, CEO of Bellator Fighting Championships. "He has a terrific grappling pedigree, an unbelievable work ethic and he's getting better every time he fights. He's exactly the kind of fighter we're looking to showcase at Bellator Fighting Championships." Bellator Fighting Championships' premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events to be broadcast weekly in primetime on Saturday nights. The nationally televised events will feature a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature bouts. There will be four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season #1 over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.), Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.) divisions. Bellator's interactive Web site, www.bellator.com, featuring event and fighter information, behind the scenes video footage, fight clips and live interaction with Bellator fighters will go live in late January 2009. About Bellator Fighting Championships Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bellator's founders, Bjorn Rebney and Brad Epstein, are experienced sports and entertainment professionals with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships' executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production (including Rob Beiner, winner of 12 Emmy awards for sports programming), fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations.

UFC Quick Quote: Jon Fitch focused on UFC 94 fight against Akihiro Gono … not television line up Posted: 20 Jan 2009 08:06 AM CST “[Akihiro Gono] is a very seasoned veteran man. He's a slick fighter and he knows his way around a fight. He's been fighting for like 15 years I think. So that is ridiculous. He has had a ton of fights and has only lost a handful of them and has only been finished four times in his career. To be finished four times in 15 years is super impressive. He's got good leg kicks and kick defense and good wrestling even. His ground game is kind of under rated because he is a good grappler as well. So, he is going to be a tough opponent…. You know I'm not going to let anything outside of the fight [i.e. being on the untelevised prelim portion of the card] itself worry me. I'm there to fight Gono whether it is the main event of the card or the first fight of the night, and whether it is a sold out venue to just ten people in the stands it really doesn't matter to me. All that other stuff is just outside crap and I am just focused on the fight it's self and beating Gono and that is all that matters.” – Former number one welterweight contender Jon Fitch talks to MMANews.com about his upcoming fight against Akihiro Gono at UFC 94: “St. Pierre vs. Penn 2″ at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 31, which is scheduled to headline the non-televised under card. Fitch is coming off a five-round unanimous decision loss to 170-pound champion Georges St. Pierre in August 2008. It was the main event. He is still among the top players in the division, making his appearance in a preliminary match puzzling.

BJ Penn vs Georges St. Pierre UFC 94 video fight talk Posted: 20 Jan 2009 07:55 AM CST Check out what UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre has to say after the jump.

Rafael dos Anjos vs Tyson Griffin UFC Fight Night 18 bout in the works Posted: 19 Jan 2009 10:43 PM CST MMAmania.com can confirm that UFC lightweight contender Tyson Griffin (12-2) is being courted to return to the Octagon against promotional sophomore Rafael dos Anjos (11-3) at UFC Fight Night 18 in Nashville, Tenn., on April 1. Griffin is coming off a closely contested unanimous decision loss to Sean Sherk at UFC 90 last October in a scrap that awarded both men ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. The Xtreme Couture product seems to have a thing for being judged, going the distance in his last six fights and winning four of them. Prior to Sherk, he had strung together four straight victories after losing to Frank Edgar at UFC 67: "All or Nothing" in 2007, which was among one of the most exciting contests of the year. And that's the thing with Griffin -– fireworks always seem to follow him. In fact, he's been rewarded with several "Fight of the Night" bonuses in addition to one he nabbed at UFC 90. Perhaps the only thing keeping him out of serious title consideration is his inability to finish. There’s a chance that trend could continue against dos Anjos. The Brazilian is coming off the wrong end of a "Knockout of the Night" after Jeremy Stephens nearly air-mailed him back to Rio with a highlight reel Shoryuken in their lightweight battle at UFC 91. That’s not to say that dos Anjos doesn’t have skills. Aside from winning nine straight prior to UFC 91, the Gracie Fusion fighter was stifling Stephens for most of the bout until a thunderous uppercut put him to bed. He’ll have a chance to erase that memory if he can get past Griffin. Unfortunately that’s easier said than done. UFC Fight Night 18 will serve as the lead-in to The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 9 on Spike TV. The event has yet to be announced or made official; however, several bouts are also rumored for the show, including a match up between TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escuedero taking on Jeremy Stephens and Ricardo Almeida challenging Matt Horwich in a middleweight match. Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more announcements and news surrounding UFC Fight Night 18. For the latest fight card rumors click here.

Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto to miss DREAM Featherweight Tournament Posted: 19 Jan 2009 09:47 PM CST Sports Navi is reporting that featherweight superstar Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto will not be ready in time to fight in the upcoming DREAM Featherweight Grand Prix scheduled for this March. Yamamoto (17-1) is in the midst of a 14-fight win streak, but has been plagued with injuries that have kept him on the sidelines since demolishing Rani Yahya at K-1 Premium Dynamite in December 2007. He was expected to make his DREAM debut last July to face undefeated featherweight prospect Joseph Benavidez at DREAM 5. However three days before the fight while in training he attempted a flying knee maneuver and landed awkwardly on his right leg. This resulted in a partial tear of his anterior ligament that has kept him out of action ever since. "Kid" has stated that as of right now, he is only training lightly and doesn’t want to get back into action too soon as it could aggrevate his injuries. He also mentioned a March return is highly unlikely, meaning he will miss the opening round of the DREAM featherweight tournament. FEG will likely keep a place for him in a possible reserve bout further along in the tournament, should he recover prior to the finals. This is definitely not a good start for DREAM in 2009. Yamamoto would have no doubt been one of the main attractions of their featherweight tournament, which could of helped with the declining ratings they've recently faced. That said, they only have a short amount of time to pack the tournament with more stars and familiar faces. It could be a pretty tall order with both rival Sengoku and newly created Bellator FC also planning to hold featherweight tournaments early this year as well. In it's own right, the 145 lb class is a division with a deep talent pool. Unfortunately, a lot of that talent lacks the drawing power of someone such as Yamamoto. With two other mixed martial arts organizations scrambling for the best featherweight stars, it could be slim pickings for FEG.

Fedor Emelianenko is ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ on January 20 (Video) Posted: 19 Jan 2009 03:58 PM CST Tune in to Fox Sports Net on January 20 at 9pm ET for a closer look at Fedor Emelianenko as ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ prepares for his main event fight against Andrei Arlovski at Affliction ‘Day of Reckoning’ on Saturday, January 24

Shooto ‘Tradition 5’ results and quick recap Posted: 19 Jan 2009 03:51 PM CST Shooto got underway with their fifth installment of 'Tradition’ earlier yesterday from the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Shooto Pacific Rim Welterweight Champion Yusuke Endo and challenger Kotetsu Boku had a back-and-forth battle in a non-title bout that was very exciting and ended too close to call, leaving the judges no choice but to render it a draw. Both fighters were looking to possibly break out to one of the top tier Japanese organizations with a win. Boku in fact had his chance not so long ago when he competed for DREAM last March in an losing effort against highly regarded lightweight sensation Joachim Hansen. Endo has been turning out impressive performances on the smaller circuits, one of which is a win over UFC veteran Clay Guida. Perhaps Endo and Boku will duke it out again at a future Shooto event for a more decisive finish. At the midway point of the show, Shooto legend Rumina Sato announced that he would not be competing in either the DREAM or Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix’s as previously thought. Instead he announced that he’ll be trying his hand out at Shootboxing and would be participating at their next event to be held on February 11. Just like the Endo and Boku fight, the bout between Shintaro Ishiwatari and Michihiro Omigawa ended in a draw. However don’t let that verdict fool you. It was an action packed fight that went at a solid pace, with a good old fashioned stand-up war with no clear cut winner once the final bell rang. One of the few fights not going to the judges scorecards was the Junya Kudo and Takahiro Hoso blitzkrieg. Kudo proved to be to dominant in the stand up for Hoso, quickly landing a barrage of strikes that left Hoso out cold just 34 seconds into the second round. Another fighter who didn’t want to leave his fate in the hands of the judges was Akihiro Yamazaki. He was able to defeat the debuting Yon-Jae Jun. The Korean faired well in the first round demonstrating some decent stand up, however once the fight hit the ground in the second round, Yamazaki proved too good and mopped the floor with him, easily locking on a smooth triangle armbar that forced Jun to tap. Here are the official results for Shooto 'Tradition 5′: Yusuke Endo (12-2-2) fought Kotetsu Boku (13-5-2) to a draw Shinichi Kojima (9-3-5) fought Jesse Taitano (4-2-2) to a draw Hiroshi Nakamura (6-3-4) defeated Hayate Usui (10-7-1) via unanimous decision Shintaro Ishiwatari (6-1-3) fought Michihiro Omigawa (4-7-1) to a draw Ayumu Shioda (5-6) defeated Jin Akimoto (10-13-4) via unanimous decision Junya Kudo (7-2-2) defeated Takahiro Hoso (5-5-1) by KO (0:34-R2) Akihiro Yamazaki (11-2-1) defeated Yon-Jae Jun (0-1) by triangle armbar (1:39-R2) Sakae Kasuya (5-3-3) defeated Tomonori Taniguchi (4-6-2) via unanimous decision For previous Shooto results click here.

Jamie Varner: Donald Cerrone will ‘not survive if he goes toe-to-toe with me’ (Video) Posted: 19 Jan 2009 03:36 PM CST Reminder: Great fight — and WEC event — on Sunday. Don’t let it get lost in the shuffle!

James Irvin returns against Drew McFedries at UFC 98 Posted: 19 Jan 2009 02:18 PM CST James Irvin will return from a nine-month suspension at UFC 98, which will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 23, and shed 20 pounds in the process to compete at middleweight for the first time ever. MMAmania.com can confirm that “The Sandman” will challenge Drew McFedries, setting up a hard-hitting 185-pound match up. Irvin tested positive for Methadone and Oxymorphone after his first round technical knockout loss to Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19. "The Sandman" — who was nursing a broken foot just weeks before accepting the bout — claims that he used the banned substances to mask the pain associated with the injury. He has a split record (4-4) in eight fights for the promotion. Before the loss to Silva, Irvin rebounded from an injury-riddled and bizarre 2007 fight campaign, during which he blew out his knee in a loss to Thiago Silva and was knocked silly courtesy of an errant Luis Arthur Cane knee that resulted in a disqualification win, to knockout Houston Alexander in record time at UFC Fight Night 13 this April. But the momentum was cut short once again in 2008. And he’ll have to try get it going in 2009 against the Miletich-trained fighter. McFedries has also had a rollercoaster career inside the Octagon, winning every other fight and being unable to string together consecutive wins in six attempts with the promotion. That is until he locked horns with Thales Leites on short notice at UFC 90: “Silva vs. Cote” back in October 2008. “Massacre” dropped his second consecutive bout courtesy of a first round submission (rear naked choke). He lost to Mike Massenzio via submission (kimura) at UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Neb., on September 17, before the loss to the Brazilian. In short, he needs a win bad. The good news for him is that his stand up style matches up better with a power puncher like Irvin. Should be a solid scrap. Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on UFC 98.

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