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UFC, WEC to Unite in 2011

Published at: 09:11 am - Tuesday November 02 2010

On Thursday, UFC President Dana White announced that ZUFFA would merge the WEC with the UFC in 2011.

White said during a conference call, “It’s time. As we continue to grow globally, we’re doing enough fights to fold [the WEC] into the UFC.”

White said, all WEC talent would be retained. At the promotion’s final event, WEC 53, in December, WEC featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo will be the new UFC featherweight champion, and the same will go for the winner of Dominick Cruz’s title defense against Scott Jorgensen.

But what about the WEC lightweights? Already, the UFC has its own 155-pound title and a lot of good fighters in that division. Unifying the two belts with a miniature tournament, White said he intends to fold all the WEC lightweights into the UFC.

Additionally, the UFC just penned a new contract with Versus to air four events on the network in 2011, announced White. While the loss of several WEC events on Versus actually decreases the total number of Zuffa-owned shows airing on the network, technically that doubles the number of UFC shows from 2010.

White said, “It’s a positive. We get [more] UFC on Versus. If you ask Versus, they were happy with the WEC’s ratings, but the UFC is going to pull bigger ratings.”

White said, Job security is not exclusive to the WEC’s fighters, as other WEC employees will keep their jobs.

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UFC 121: Middleweight bout: Court McGee vs. Ryan Jensen

Published at: 06:10 am - Tuesday October 19 2010

Spike TV will show two undercard fights from UFC 121 on Saturday, October 23. The second of the two fights will pit Court McGee against Ryan Jensen.

McGee will return to the octagon for the first time since winning The Ultimate Fighter this past June. He won the crown by submitting Kris McCray via rear-naked choke in the second round. The submission was also good enough to earn McGee “Submission of the Night.”

The win against McCray was McGee’s sixth in a row. He has amassed a 12-1 record in his career with six of his wins coming by submission. His lone loss was by unanimous decision against Jeremy Horn at the Ultimate Combat Experience in December of 2007.

Ryan Jensen has been competing in MMA since 1997. He has compiled a 15-6 record in the timeframe and is 2-4 in UFC fights. Jensen is 2-2 in his last four fights. He lost to Wilson Gouveia at UFC Fight Night 19 and to Mark Muñoz at UFC 108. Both losses came by way of submission. In his most recent fight, he defeated Jesse Forbes with a guillotine choke submission 66 seconds into the first round.

As the winner of a popular reality show, McGee comes into the fight with a lot of hype. Jensen isn’t concerned about the hype or about McGee’s strong record and believes he can win back-to-back UFC fights for the first time. “I’m not really worried about this dude at all technically,” said Jensen. “He hasn’t fought anybody tough.”

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MMA Profile: Jose Aldo

Published at: 03:10 pm - Thursday October 14 2010

Jose Aldo is a professional fighter and in the featherweight division, he fights in the realm of mixed martial arts (MMA). He is the champion of his weight class and he is currently fighting in the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion.

Aldo is only five feet, seven inches and weighs 145 pounds.

Aldo is currently 24 years old and he is from Brazil. He trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jistu and the Muay Thai realms. As he is a black belt, he is most achieved in the latter of the two.

To this point, Aldo has fought 18 fights and he has proven that he is as good as there is to be found in the WEC. He has managed to win 17, of his 18 fights and has only lost one.

The amount of power that Jose Aldo packs is one of the impressive things about him. Aldo power surprises many people, although he is undoubtedly sound in his technical and ground game. To this point in his career, he has ended 11 of his 18 fights by way of knockout. He has also won 4 by decision and another two by way of submission.

Aldo can make anyone pay as both take the ring with him and he really knows how to strike.

Just 2 years ago came his debut to the WEC. He has really been able to make his way up the charts, despite only being in the league for two years. He managed to obtain the belt, just one and a half years after his first fight. In his fighting, he was so good that he managed to win “Fighter of the Year” awards from a couple of different sources.

He will soon take on Manvel Gamburyan and to defend his belt, this will be another opportunity. At the end of September, the fight is scheduled to take place. As these two take the ring, Aldo will definitely be the favorite in the sports betting odds.

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UFC 122 Card Revealed: MMA

Published at: 11:10 am - Monday October 04 2010

On Nov. 13 at the Konig Pilsener Arena in Germany, UFC 122 will feature a welterweight bout between German fighter Peter Sobotta and The Ultimate Fighter” Season 7 winner Amir Sadollah in “Okami vs. Marquardt”, the UFC announced this week.

On Thursday, the UFC unveiled the entire 11-fight lineup for the event.

Sadollah last appeared at UFC 114 in May, when he was beaten in a unanimous decision against undefeated South Korean judoka Dong Hyun Kim at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Sadollah is considered a late starter in mixed Martial Arts. with impressive wins over Phil Baroni, Bellator Fighting Championships veteran Brad Blackburn and Lions Den Scottsdale scrapper C.B. Dollaway, the 30-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. fighter has worked his way up the UFC rankings.

According to Sherdog.com, based at Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts in Las Vegas, Sadollah has never lost back-to-back fights.

Sabotta, 23, has not competed since UFC 115 in June and he will be trying to rebound from consecutive defeats, when at the GM Place in Vancouver, Canada, he dropped a unanimous decision to “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9 winner James Wilks.

Sobotta, a two-time national champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has delivered all eight of his wins by knockout, technical knockout or submission. In 11 professional appearances, he has been finished only once.

A showdown pairing the world-ranked Yushin Okami and the former middleweight King of Pancrase Nate Marquardt will headline UFC 122, along with a middleweight duel between the resurgent Jorge Rivera and American Top Team’s Alessio Sakara.

Here is the rest of the card:

Nate Marquardt vs. Yushin Okami
Alessio Sakara vs. Jorge Rivera
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Goran Reljic
Amir Sadollah vs. Peter Sobotta
Dennis Siver vs. Andre Winner
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Jason Brilz
Rob Kimmons vs. Kyle Noke
Karlos Vemola vs. Seth Petruzelli
Duane Ludwig vs. Nick Osipczak
Kris McCray vs. Carlos Eduardo Rocha
Pascal Krauss vs. Kenny Robertson

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UFC 119 Preview: Middleweight bout – C.B. Dollaway vs. Joe Doerksen

Published at: 07:09 am - Wednesday September 22 2010

C.B. Dollaway and Joe Doerksen will square off in a middleweight bout at the upcoming UFC 119 event. These two fighters are at different ends of their careers but will square off on the 25th of September.

Joe Doerksen is one of the most experienced fighters in the world at this point. Doerksen has won an incredible amount of fights to this point in his career, but he has really struggled ever since joining the UFC.

Amazingly, Doerksen has managed to win 46 fights in his career. Those 46 fights look great next to a relatively low number of losses (12). Since joining the UFC he has been thwarted. He has only won 2 out of his 5 fights in the UFC and he is on the preliminary card for this event. He may be on his way up however.

His last matchup was a last minute performance in which he stepped in to fight in UFC 113 on short notice. Despite having very little time to prepare he was able to come through with a convincing victory. That victory earned him another lease to continue on in the UFC.

Dollaway has only fought 12 career fights in the UFC, but he has spent half of those fights in a ring in the Octagon.
Dollaway has won 4 of his 6 fights in the Octagon and was a finalist on “The Ultimate Fighter 7.” He has great wrestling skills and will be a tough matchup for whoever he enters the ring with.

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UFC 119 Preview: Light Heavyweight bout – Antônio Rogério Nogueira vs. Ryan Bader

Published at: 07:09 am - Tuesday September 21 2010

Antônio Rogério Nogueira will fight against Ryan Bader at UFC 119. These two fighters will be a big part of the event that will take place on the 25th of September. Each of these fighters has had great success to this point in their careers.

Rogerio Nogueira, UFC lines favorite, is the more experienced of the two fighters. Nogueira has fought more than twenty fights in his MMA career and he has managed to win 19 of the 22 bouts that he has taken part in to this point of his career. He has not fought much in the UFC to this point though, and that is where many people find their downfall. He has fought just two UFC fights to this point, but he has performed very well in each of them.

Ryan Bader has only fought half as many fights in his career, but nobody doubts the talent that he has. He has never lost a professional fight to this point in his career and has won all four of his UFC matches. He has hopes to use this potential victory to get closer to the title.

Nogueira has been on fire as of late, winning 7 fights in a row. He will have all of his skills tested against Bader, who got his big name by winning “The Ultimate Fighter 8.”

Nogueira has been in two great fights to this point, winning a “Knockout of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” award in his two fights. He looks like he will be taking part in another solid matchup as these two fighters square off.

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Mike Pierce vs. Amilcar Alves – Preview – UFC 118

Published at: 03:08 am - Saturday August 28 2010

At UFC 118, Mike Pierce will take the ring against Amilcar Alves on Saturday in Boston (10 pm ET, PPV).

In the UFC to this point, Mike Pierce has had some success in his three total fights. Including his last match against another newcomer to the UFC, he has won 2 out of 3 matches. To the UFC, Amilcar Alves is a newcomer, but he should be a tough matchup.

Alves has had a lot of success in his MMA career and he is from Brasil. To this point in his career, he has fought 12 professional matches. He seems ready to move on to this level of fighting and he has only lost one of the matches. For Alves to see if he truly is prepared to take on UFC opponents, Pierce will be a good measuring stick.

This fight will need to be really good if the world is to know about it. This fight will take place during the untelevised portion of the event. These fighters may be able to move their careers towards the portions of the event that will bring them more publicity, if these fighters can put up a good match.

Alves as he has often in his career will be trying to stop the fight early. Within the first five minutes of the match, he has managed to win seven of his fights. He will bring it early and often to Pierce and he is the master of stoppages.

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Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis – UFC 118 – Preview

Published at: 06:08 am - Tuesday August 24 2010

In a MMA bout, Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis will square off at UFC 118. In a welterweight bout, these two fighters will take on each other. On the main card of the event, this bout is scheduled to take place. In Boston, Massachusetts, the event will take place.

Diaz couldn’t seem to snap out of his slump and he was recently on a poor streak. He had a lot of support and fanfare as he came along and he was the former winner of “The Ultimate Fighter 5”. Unfortunately, he went on a streak where he dropped 3 out of 4 fights, amid the fan fare. He recently decided to move up to a new weight class and to make a change. He made a splash in his new 170 lb weight class.

In the 170 lb weight class, in his first fight, he managed to get a first round TKO against Rory Markham. Since that victory, this will be his first fight, many people and bettors in UFC lines odds will be hoping to see him bring his game back up to the level that it was once at.

Recently, Marcus Davis had a similarly poor streak. It appeared he was on his way down and he had lost back to back fights. The doubt was managed to turn away by Davis. He managed to get a second round TKO over Jonathan Goulet in his last match. This victory put him onto the right path heading into UFC 118 and it snapped his streak.

As these fighters square off, do tune in and try to keep along the right path.

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UFC 118 Preview: Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard

Published at: 06:08 am - Wednesday August 18 2010

Kenny Florian is scheduled to take on Gray Maynard at UFC 118. These two fighters have been rumored to be in line to take on each other and it will happen soon. The UFC 118 event will take place in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kenny Florian has the most experience in the MMA realm out of the two fighters and he is also a favorite in UFC lines. He has won 13 of his 17 career fights and has been very impressive as of late. Florian has won his last two matches by way of rear-naked choke and has been a tough fighter to get in the ring with. Of his last 5 matches he has only lost one. That match was against B.J. Penn. We all know that B.J. Penn was fighting at a top level then and is still in contention for the title. Florian will be a tough matchup for whoever he enters the ring with.

Gray Maynard has had an interesting career to this point. While Florian seems to have nearly every fight decided by way of submission, Maynard just manages to stick it out until the very end.

Maynard has never lost a fight in his career to this point and has had some very impressive victories in the process. One particularly impressive victory was his win over Frankie Edgar. Edgar is currently the lightweight champion of the UFC.

If Maynard can win this fight he will certainly be in line to contend for the lightweight championship against the winner of the Edgar and Penn fight.

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Hathaway would fight Hardy – reluctantly

Published at: 10:08 am - Wednesday August 11 2010

British welterweight hope John Hathaway believes that if his and Dan Hardy’s paths were to cross in the future, both would be professional enough to fight each other.

In October, Hathaway and Hardy both compete on the UFC 120 card, after Hathaway takes on Mike Pyle, with Hardy facing Carlos Condit in the night’s co-main event. While Hardy remains a 170lb contender despite defeat to Georges St-Pierre, after taking Hathaway’s undefeated MMA record to 14-0 against Diego Sanchez, he is tipped for a bright future.

In the UFC, with No. 3 welterweight Jon Fitch not keen to face No. 2 competitor and AKA colleague Josh Koscheck, the team-mate vs. team-mate or countryman vs. countryman debate is an ongoing issue. In a long line of ‘fighter loyalty’ examples, the Fitch/Koscheck problem is just the latest, with Anderson Silva unwilling to fight Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans reluctant to meet Keith Jardine.

Hathaway said, “I think there are enough people in the welterweight division to keep us away from each other to a certain extent. But me and Dan are both professionals, I would consider him a friend of mine, but it’s our job at the end of the day. I guess we would compete against each other if we had to. I always take the fights that they give me, train for them and fight hard.”

Make sure you stay up to date on all things Mixed Martial Arts at the UFC betting blog

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