Posts from — April 2008

Last night in HDNet’s Inside MMA it was announced that HDNet has teamed up with DREAM and will begin televising events in the immediate future.

DREAM, a Japanese-based MMA promotion founded by employees of K-1 and PRIDE Fighting Championships, will begin airing on HDNet during the first weekend of May as the channel presents DREAM 1 and DREAM 2 on May 2 and May 3 respectively with both broadcasts beginning at 10:30 PM ET.

HDNet will also air DREAM 3 on May 11, DREAM 4 on June 15, DREAM 5 on July 21 and DREAM 6 on September 23 live to American and Canadian audiences.

The Brantford Expositor is reporting that Six Nations police have charged the promoters of the Iroquois MMA Championship for hosting an illegal prize fight.

According to the report, Bill Montour, the president, director and secretary of the Grand River Athletic Corp.; James Procyk, the promoter of Iroquois MMA Championships; Dave Mair, head coach of Team Iroquois and Jason King, the commissioner of the Grand River Athletic Commission were the four charged.

The charges stem from the first event titled “Rumble on the Rez” which was held  on November 3, 2007. The card featured 8 fights with all but one ending in the first round. The report also indicates that Six Nations police are currently investigating the February event which featured UFC hall of famer Dan “The Beast” Severn.

Procyk was quoted in the Expositor saying, “The (Saturday) show will go on. There’s nothing we can do about the charges just now and we have a great program on Saturday. We’re hoping it’s our biggest turnout yet.”

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has officially announced that former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes will take on Thiago “Pitbull” Alves in the main event at UFC 85 in London, England.

“Obviously Chuck Liddell’s injury was a big blow, but as always our incredible fighters step up to give fans the best possible replacement,” said Dana White, UFC President. “Now we will see an explosive matchup between top ten ranked contender Thiago “Pitbull” Alves and two time former UFC World Champion Matt Hughes. Alves is an ATT trained Muay Thai wrecking machine coming off of five straight wins and Hughes is a powerhouse wrestler who was the most dominant welterweight champion in UFC history. These are two of the best athletes in the sport and we are thrilled to bring them to London for the UFC 85 main event.”

The UFC also officially announced that Michael “The Count” Bisping will face Chris “The Crippler” Leben and James “Sandman” Irvin will replace Chuck Liddell and face “Sugar” Rashad Evans.

UFC 85

Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben
Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick
Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin
Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera
Jorge Rivera vs. Martin Kampmann
Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
Nate Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Jason Lambert vs. Luiz Crane
Roan Carneiro vs. TBA
Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain

Cro Cop throwing a head kick at Cheick Kongo at UFC 85. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

MMA-Id.com is reporting that PRIDE and UFC veteran Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will take on K-1 veteran Jerome LeBanner at Dream 4 on June 16 in Saitama, Tokyo.

Cro Cop (23-6-2), a native of Zagreb, Croatia, is coming off a TKO victory over Tatsuya Mizuno at Dream 1 in March 2008. Cro Cop is looking to get his career back on track after dropping consecutive bouts to Cheick Kongo and Gabriel Gonzaga in the UFC.

LeBanner, a native of France, possesses a MMA record of 3-1-1. LeBanner, who hasn’t fought MMA since 2006, is currently riding a three-fight winning streak with victories over Jimmy Ambriz, Alan Karaev, and Yoshihiro Akiyama.

Tune in to HDNet’s “Inside MMA” tonight as they will be breaking news regarding a new blockbuster MMA partnership. Inside MMA airs tonight, April 25 at 9:30 PM ET.

Tonight, Bas and Kenny will preview the upcoming Dream 2 event and review SportFight XXII: Re-Awakening and UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre II. Finally, Bas will go “Toe-to-Toe” with viewer’s emails and the #3 fighter will be revealed for the “Inside MMA All-Time Top 10.”

Guests Include:

* Frank “Twinkle Toes” Trigg – MMA Fighter & Tagg Radio Host
* Toby “Tigerheart” Grear – MMA Fighter
* Joey “Coco” Diaz – Actor & Comedian

There is a preview of the show after the jump.

[Read more →]

The Fight Club has announced that it’s third installment titled “This Means War” will take place Saturday, May 31 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.

The card will feature Vancouver native Marcus “The Loudmouth Assassin” Hicks (8-10) taking on UFC veteran Solomon Hutcherson (9-4) in a middleweight affair. IFL veteran Claude Patrick (6-1) will make his return to the ring for the first time since September 2006 when he takes on Tim “Shady” Smith (4-3). Also on the card will be rising star Nick Penner, Kevin Dolan, Brent Haley, Kyle Cheyne, James McCutcheon and Travis Wayland.

In total the card will have 8 mixed martial arts bouts along with 4 Muay Thai battles. The Muay Thai main event will slate Edmonton’s Levi Kump (17-6) against Calgary’s Sokhim Or (29-6). Check out our rumors section for the latest TFC 3: This Means War card.

Tito Ortiz and Tiki Ghosn. Photo property of Punishment Athletics.

With the final fight on his UFC contract only a month away, Tito Ortiz is set to announce a major sponsorship deal with former UFC corporate partner, Mickey’s, according to mmajunkie.com.

The agreement comes on the heels of the UFC’s new partnership with the largest advertiser in sports, Bud Light.

As was astutely pointed out by mmajunkie, Mickey’s is owned by the Miller Brewing Company; a major rival of Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch.

Therefore, it must be noted that while this new sponsorship could be the last ditch effort of Ortiz to stick it to UFC brass (subtitle: Dana White) it may not have the desired outcome.

The company has recently flexed their muscles over which corporate logos can be worn by their fighters, as evidenced by the ban on Affliction clothing.

In fact, Georges St-Pierre was the last UFC fighter to wear Affliction gear in his UFC 79 victory over Matt Hughes.

The ban did not, however, prevent fans in Montreal from donning the clothes this past Saturday night, as the town was virtually flooded with Affliction clothing.

Sherdog.com is reporting that UFC veteran Joe “Diesel” Riggs will no longer be fighting at Phoenix Fight: Street Justice after the Washington Department of Licensing for Professional Athletics declined to clear him as they didn’t feel he was medically fit to fight.

The issue stems from Riggs’ February 23 bout with Cory Devela where he was thrown to the canvas and upon impact his back gave out leaving him in a world of pain. Riggs was carried out of the venue on a stretcher and underwent a procedure to freeze three nerves in his spine.

Replacing Riggs will be TKO welterweight contender T.J. Grant. Grant (9-2) is coming off a submission loss to Jesse Bongfeldt at TKO 32: Ultimatum.

In other news, Thierry Quenneville and Steve “The Snake” Claveau were also removed from the card after it was announced they did not complete their paperwork in time.

Mike Gates vs. T.J. Grant
Rowan Cunningham vs. Stephan Lamarche
Peter McGrath vs. Syd Barnier
Craig Skinner vs. Tim Skidmore
Richard Arsenault vs. Jason Rorison
Vartan Pour Nick vs. Devin Henry
John Hache vs. Jeff Lundberg
Francis Thibault vs. Scott Levesque

This is just a pointer to a great article by Mike Strobel of Sun Media.

What are we, wusses?

Ontario’s ban on mixed martial arts (MMA) looks wimpier and wimpier every day.

Only Vancouver is in it with us.

Just us and the lotus eaters. Pass the milk and honey.

So Montreal got to host the big Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) shindig last weekend.

The Bell Centre sold out in a flash, no one died and Georges St. Pierre reclaimed his title.

Actually what I find really funny, is that Montreal had riots in the streets after the Habs eliminated Boston, but nothing of the sort happened with 22,000 screaming and rejoicing MMA fans after George’s win.

Head over here for full article.

The Fight Network is reporting that Strikeforce veteran Wayne Cole will step in for Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge and face Eric “Big” Pele at MFC 16: Anger Management.

As we reported earlier this week, Goodridge was forced to pull out of the bout due to a back injury which required surgery.

Wayne Cole (11-6) is currently riding a three-fight winning streak with stoppage victories over Izzy Johnson, David Tichit and Mike Kyle. It’ll be interesting to see how Cole, who last weighed in at 209 lbs, handles the weight of Pele who in the past has tipped the scales at 350 lbs.