Thursday, September 24, 2009

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UFC blog for latest news, videos, results, betting odds, fighter interviews and MMA rumors - UFCmania.com

Tachi Palace Fights: War Machine, Joe Soto, Chad Mendes and more to compete Oct. 8

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 04:00 AM PDT

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Lemoore, Calif. — The Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino shocked the mixed martial arts community in Central California and throughout the state on Wednesday announcing that it had teamed with Ted Williams and Gladiator Challenge to develop a new promotion titled Tachi Palace Fights.

Tachi Palace Fights will debut on Thursday, October 8 at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino and feature a loaded 9-bout card that features an intriguing main event which pits Hanford, Calif. wrestling phenom Chad Mendes (4-0) against Yuma, Ariz.'s Chance Farrar (7-2). Mendes is the young protégé of Sacramento, Calif.'s Urijah Faber, who once fought Farrar for the World Extreme Cagefighting Featherweight strap.

Also, on the card is an exciting welterweight bout which pits Las Vegas, Nev.'s War Machine (10-2) against the up-and-coming star from Santa Rosa, Calif. David Mitchell (7-0).

The card also features Bellator Fighting Championship featherweight champ Joe Soto (7-0) of Porterville, Calif.

"This will be one of the most exciting and action packed fight cards to ever hit the Valley," Tachi Palace Fights matchmaker Richard Goodman said.

The Palace took several months to decide on a direction to head in for its future in MMA. The Palace is widely recognized as one of the premier properties in the country for MMA and was the birth place for two of the biggest and brightest regional MMA promotions.

"We worked very diligently to figure out what was the best direction for us to go in with mixed martial arts. Our Entertainment and Marketing Department and Tribal Management team put in hours and hours of hard work," Palace Entertainment Coordinator Jeremy Luchau said. "We received proposals and bids from all over the country and from some of the nation's top regional promotions, but at the end of the day we still wanted to do our own show and brand the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino," added Palace Interim Entertainment Manager Joey Perez.

Enter Ted Williams, who has been a mainstay in the MMA community on the West Coast for well over a decade.

Williams will help build the Tachi Palace Fights not only with his knowledge but also using his nearly 30 Gladiator Challenge shows over the next year as a launching pad into the Tachi Palace Fights.

Gladiator Challenge will virtually be a feeder program to the Tachi Palace Fights, which will utilize the California State Athletic Commission for its shows despite being on Tribal land.

"This is a great opportunity for us to brand the Tachi Palace and to put on some great fights. We are going to groom the next Rock Stars of the sport right here," Williams said. "I'm honored to be part of the team here at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino and to be able to utilize Gladiator Challenge as a tool in building Tachi Palace Fights."

Tachi Palace Fights will also feature action taking place within a cage and feature 5-minute rounds. Tachi Palace Fights will close the 2009 season with a show on Thursday, December 3 and then have five shows in 2010.

Tachi Palace Fights 1 Fight Card:

MAIN EVENT (Featherweights)
Hanford, Calif.'s Chad Mendes (4-0) vs. Yuma, Ariz.'s Chance Farrar (7-2)

CO-MAIN EVENT (Welterweights)
Santa Rosa, Calif.'s David Mitchell (7-0) vs. Las Vegas, Nev.'s War Machine (10-2)

Featherweights
Porterville, Calif.'s Joe Soto (7-0) vs. TBA

Light Heavyweights
Merced, Calif.'s Phil Collins (7-4) vs. Oakland, Calif.'s Leopoldo Serao (15-7)

Flyweights
Las Vegas, Nev.'s Ulysses Gomez (3-1) vs. Oakdale, Calif.'s Martin Sandoval (4-1)

Welterweights
Lemoore, Calif.'s Poppies Martinez (16-5) vs. Madera, Calif.'s Rolando Torres (4-7)

Middleweights
Lemoore, Calif.'s Mike Martinez (4-2) vs. TBA

Bantamweights
Oakdale, Calif.'s Michael McDonald (7-1) vs. Sacramento, Calif.'s Tito Jones (6-3)

Women's Flyweights
Las Vegas, Nev.'s Jessica Rakoczy (0-0) vs. TBA

Kimbo Slice vs Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson video preview for TUF 10 (Episode 3)

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 09:58 PM PDT

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

Big Beard versus Big Country — who ya’ got?

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 10: Episode 2 recap and discussion

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 07:01 PM PDT

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Episode two of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Season 10 is now underway and we start off with a shot of some tombstones, which I can only assume were put there to represent Rampage’s UFC career. Speaking of fighters on life support, “special attraction” Kimbo Slice muses about his short term future as an Ultimate Fighter.

Roy Nelson wouldn’t mind being the first guy to get his hands on Kimbo, who has the ground game of a newborn calf. Rampage admits he sees some of himself in Kimbo.

Considering Slice was knocked out by a marshmallow fade-away jab via Seth Petruzelli, I can only hope he’s referring to his beard.

Team Rampage gets excited by Kimbo’s progress during a crash course in grappling, apparently forgetting that Bas Rutten already tried to teach him a ground game that went Colonel Braddock during his fight with James Thompson back in Elite XC.

Team Rashad gets their own workout in and Coach Evans doesn’t like that “Big Country” isn’t playing by his rules or accepting constructive criticism. Nelson doesn’t want anyone telling him what to do or how to train until the trainers remind him he was knocked out by Andrei Arlovski and that he should check himself.

It’s fight selection time and Coach Rampage calls out Evans’ number one pick James McSweeney and tries to clown him by calling him James McSwindle. Facing him will be “El Gigante,” also known as Wes Shivers.

McSweeney gets his time in front of the camera and drops some background on his skill set and MMA comeuppance. He feels comfortable as a fighter at age 28 and thinks Shivers will be at a disadvantage because of his bulky size.

Rampage shows up and boots Team Evans from the gym because he doesn’t want to be held up with any kind of Zen pow-wow that is vintage Greg Jackson. Evans won’t just roll over so he tells Jackson to cool his jets during yet another verbal spat.

Wes Shivers reminisces about his NFL time with the Titans and Falcons and despite some serious injuries throughout his college career, thinks he’s got a solid future in the fight game. Shivers also feels good about getting picked to fight so early and is banking on his power to overcome the skill of McSweeney.

Back at the house, Demico Rogers and Marcus Jones think McSweeney is in for a tough fight because as Shivers explains during a creepy third person voice-over, he’s got nothing to go home to. It’s beat McSweeney or bust. James thinks Shivers should go home and save himself a lot of pain.

Heavyweight elimination fight #2: James McSweeney (3-3) vs. Wes Shivers (2-0)

Round 1: Dana cameo! No glove touch. Shivers obviously learned from the Abe Wagner/John Madsen debacle. Shivers eats a low kick and rushes McSweeney, muscling him to the cage. Shivers forces a takedown. Shivers on top but looks lost until he gets an arm practically gift wrapped. He tries for a kimura but McSweeney uses the change in position to escape. McSweeney grazes with a head kick and then gets rewarded with an atomic nut mashing. Short recovery period and they resume. Shivers hulks up and swings like a gorilla. They hit the cage and break away. More punches from Shivers. McSweeney lunges and gets air. Two jabs land for McSweeney who also lands two hard low kicks. Then two more. Shivers is gassed and eats another leg kick. Superman punch by McSweeney is blocked. Some grotesque stand up on display. Action stalls until time winds down.

Round 2: McSweeney opens with a low kick. Shivers lunges with a right. Low kick lands for McSweeney. Shivers rushes but loses the takedown. He’s spent and has the reaction time of a Compaq 386. McSweeny kicks but gets his leg caught and Shivers flops down on top of him, too comatose to use the position for any offense. Shivers squats over him like he’s taking a dump and can’t figure out how to use a flailing arm or exposed neck to perform any kind of submission attempt. McSweeney escapes and they go back to the bad striking. Coach Evans is screaming his head off because McSweeney is not capitalizing on the gassed Shivers. This fight is a train wreck. Suddenly heavyweight TUF seasons are an endangered species. Rashad changes his strategy and yells “Please, James, please!” They exchange low kicks. Shivers eats a punch and then a kick and shoots but falls into a guillotine. McSweeney has it locked in but is too exhausted to finish it. Shivers escapes and the round ends with him on top, gently draping his elbow across McSweeney’s face. Pitiful.

Mercifully, we go to a decision. Referee Steve Mazzagatti lauds their performance as “an awesome fight.” I guess he was watching the replay of Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez from last June in between rounds.

James McSweeney defeats Wes Shivers via majority decision.

McSweeney lets out a “YEAH!” then collapses in the dressing room. This was their number one pick?

Afterward Shivers and Team Rampage mope over the loss. With Team Evans now in control, the question remains: How long until they pick Kimbo Slice to fight? Uh, right away! And they pick Roy Nelson to do the dirty work!

Stay tuned next week for the moment of truth! See you in seven!

UFC Quick Quote: Rashad Evans will fight Rampage Jackson for free

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 01:47 PM PDT

Rashad Evans UFC

“Rampage is a very emotional fighter, a very emotional person, and he just let his emotions take over his rational thinking. I think that him and Dana White just probably need to talk it out, and get past it. I think it’s just a breakdown in communication. Dana’s the kind of guy who is going to say what is on his mind, maybe without thinking it through all the way, before he said. Rampage is a hothead, as well. You get two tempers like that, go at each other like that, it makes the situation hard to work through. I’d be disappointed not to fight him. It would be a good fight, a fun fight, but mostly because he talked trash. He got me really angry, and I want to fight him just because of that alone. It’s a fight that people want to see. You get your mind wrapped up, and you get your mind so psyched up about fighting a fighter, and then it doesn’t happen, it’s disappointing. That’s why I hate making a fight personal. At the end of the day, we’re professional athletes, and we get paid to do a job. But when you get to fight someone you really want to fight, that’s like a bonus. You’d almost do it for free…. I would have loved to punch him in the face for free.”

– Rashad Evans — the man caught in the middle of the controversy between UFC President Dana White and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson — tells CageWriter.com that at this point he’d fight the former light heavyweight champion for free if he could. Evans and Jackson are opposing coaches on this season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) who were supposed to settle their grudge match in the UFC 107 main event at the FedEX Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 12.  But that bout, which would have been in front of Jackson’s hometown crowd, was recently postponed when Jackson accepted the role as B.A. Barracus for the “A-Team” feature film that is currently in production. Then the fight was scrapped altogether when Jackson yesterday announced via his personal Web site that he was leaving the fight game indefinitely because of White’s less than supportive comments regarding his decision. That now leaves Evans in the lurch, but perhaps hungrier than ever to get his hands on Jackson once and for all. Will it happen when the dust settles or will Evans move on to bigger and better things sooner rather than later?

Wanderlei Silva video blog (Episode 2) dishes the dirt on his new reality show

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 10:52 AM PDT

Tokyo Drift: Ameba Blog updates from UFC Japan

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 10:51 AM PDT

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) continues to creep into the Japanese market after partnering with Japan’s number one social networking and blog site, Ameba Blog, to create UFC/WEC fighter blog pages.

MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Ameba … get those bookmarks organized folks.

Though you must be able to read Japanese to comprehend the content of these blogs, the non-Japanese fans can nevertheless get a glimpse of the day-to-day happenings and musings of the fighters, as a lot of the entries include pictures.

As anyone who frequents MMA news sites would know, Sexyama fever has swept the cyberspace. During Yoshihiro Akiyama’s entrance at UFC 100, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg made sure to introduce the casual MMA fans to Akiyama’s moniker. Also, during the broadcast of DREAM 10, HDNet Fight announcer, Mike Schiavello referred to Akiyama by the nickname, as the camera spotted the Korean-Japanese MMA star/model/pop star in the crowd.

Due to his Korean ethnicity, he boasts immense popularity in South Korea: It looks like no amount of nyquil can alleviate the Sexyama fever there. After his foray as a pop star and TV appearances on numerous occasions, Korean fans and media cannot get enough of him, as evidenced by the following photos:

Eat this energy bar for lean, mean, and sexy physique a la Sexyama.

Sexyama featured on the cover of the Korean edition of Men’s Health.

According to Akitoshi Tamura’s blog entry on Sept. 16, Tamura has apparently withdrawn from his scheduled bout with Damacio Page at WEC 43 on Oct. 6 due to rib injury. His injury and subsequent decision of withdrawal have either been unreported or fallen through the cracks: Neither WEC nor any major MMA news site has broken the news. Perhaps the news is awaiting confirmation from sources close to Tamura.

The WEC 43 bout, scheduled for maincard, will have been his second fight as a bantamweight. Prior to WEC 40, he spent an entire career as a featherweight during which he captured the Shooto title. Upon his submission loss to Wagnney Fabiano in his WEC debut at WEC 37, he dropped to bantamweight. In his bantamweight debut at WEC 40, Tamura triumphed with a unanimous decision victory over the former title challenger, Manny Tapia.

Caol Uno’s future remains up in air — no news regarding his UFC tenure or his bout schedule has surfaced. Uno made his UFC return at UFC 99 in Germany and dropped a unanimous decision against Spencer Fisher. Browsing through his blog, it appears that he has been training as usual with no injuries of note. Since departing his long-time home of Wajyutsu Keishukai, he has been trotting through various gyms, including Akiyama’s newly opened gym.

Thus, come fight time, he should have no problem procuring quality trainers and training partners. The question is, of course, when, where, and whom he will fight next. On a completely unrelated note, he has recently ditched faux mullet (!?) for short, bleached blonde hair.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Ameba-UFC connection as more fighters sign on — or in the best case scenario, the UFC finally makes its return to Japan.

UFC Quick Quote: Matt Hughes has no interest in fighting a ‘kid’ like Josh Koscheck

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 10:37 AM PDT

hughes-koscheck

“I find Koscheck calling me out kind of interesting and I actually don't know why he is doing that. I was used to kids doing this when I was the champ, but as you know I don't have the belt now and I'm puzzled as to why Koscheck wants to fight me and not the champion in the weight class. I have no interest in fighting Koscheck and, as he was showing everybody, he's just a kid. As of yet, the UFC has never come to me and asked me to fight him.”

– Former 170-pound division kingpin Matt Hughes breaks down UFC 103 on his official blog, including the comments made by welterweight contender Josh Koscheck. After disposing of Frank Trigg, “Kos” was asking for Matt Hughes in a future fight, perhaps so he can cement his status as a serious contender. Reverend Hughes however, can’t figure out what his beef is and chalks it up to him being ‘just a kid.’ What is Koscheck’s beef? Is it a compliment to call out a “legend” because it’s an honor to fight him? Or is he trying to push the once-great champ out of the picture? What’s your take, Maniacs?

Dana White: ‘Rampage Jackson is a grown man acting like a baby’

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 08:55 AM PDT

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Props: Carmichael Dave show (Sports 1140)

Quoteworthy:

“Because I got so pissed off at him pulling out of the fight with Rashad, I’m speaking my mind — he thinks I’m trying to ruin his movie career. It’s crazy. Listen, I have nothing bad to say about Rampage, he’s a grown man. If he decides he wants to walk away from guaranteed good money right now, he’s a grown man, he can do whatever he wants to do. What did I do to Rampage? I talked to him as a friend and tried to talk him out of making a bad decision. He doesn’t think it is, he thinks he’s gonna have a movie career but there’s so many fighters I’ve met over the years who thought they were gonna have movie careers. It’s not like he was going after Machida because he wanted the belt — he didn’t want the belt! He said the belt causes too many problems and he just wanted to fight and make money and feed his family — that’s exactly what he told me. All he’s been telling me since he got into the UFC is that he wants to fight in Memphis in front of his hometown. We make the fight in Memphis and then he pulls out of the fight because he wants to go make this movie because it has so much sentimental value to him. He’s a fighter, that’s what he does for a living. Now I’m going through all this crap where I got another fighter saying ‘You know what, this isn’t what I wanna do for the rest of my life, I wanna make movies, I wanna be a movie star, this is just a second career for me.’ Like I haven’t seen this one before. Rampage is a grown man. He’s acting like a baby right now but he’s a grown man. He wants to be in the movie business? Rampage, good luck to you man. I hope you make it big — and I’m not being sarcastic because Rampage Jackson is a guy that I do like. But Rampage Jackson is a guy that doesn’t always make the best decisions.”

UFC President Dana White responds to a recent blog post from former light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson, who abruptly decided to quit fighting to pursue a movie career. “Rampage” says he was mocked by White and got no support to fulfill the dream of playing B.A. Baracus in the new A-Team movie while Dana says he was just trying to help Jackson make the right decision by going with the guaranteed money in the fight game. What say you? Is there a right and a wrong side here — or is it just a matter of irreconcilable differences?

DREAM 12 video promo: The Cage of Rising Sun

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 07:13 AM PDT

UFC Quick Quote: Roger Huerta isn’t done with fighting — he’s done with losing

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 06:53 AM PDT

“I think [the Maynard fight] could have gone either way and it's my fault I let it go to the judges and I can't go out like that. I can't go out with two losses in a row. I don't think I'm going to call it quits anytime soon. I'm still open to acting. Hopefully we get something going with that, but I'm not going to prioritize (acting) now. I'll still prioritize fighting. If the UFC wants me back, I'd be willing to go back. I think this last fight was probably the best fight I've ever had, the most focused I've ever been. I didn't know how crucial that Kimura was until I saw the video. I was going to let him break it. I really was. That's the competitive blood in me. I've never given up on anything, and I guess that's back in me now.”

– After a year on the sidelines in pursuit of an acting career, lightweight sensation Roger Huerta tells Sherdog.com that he’s gotten the fighting spirit back following his split decision loss to undefeated contender Gray Maynard at the Sept. 16 UFC Fight Night 19 event in Oklahoma. “El Matador” satisfied the remaining fight on his UFC contract after turning down an extension last year that would have kept him inside the Octagon. So if Huerta does comes back, where does he fit within the division? Opinions please.
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