UFC News

This is an interesting signing. Everytime Denis Kang seems to rise up the ranks, he has a setback loss that brings him back down to ground zero. I only hope his win over Marvin Eastman will be enough to propel him towards stringing together a couple more victories and then a shot at Anderson Silva.

Kang has been a highly sought after free agent twice in the last 2 years. Once after Pride was bought out by Zuffa and the Canadian fighter opted to land with new Japanese promotion, Dream, while still fighting in his native land of Korea for the Spirit MC organization.

Just 2 weeks ago, Kang announced via MMAWeekly Radio that his contract with Dream was up and he was hoping to sign with a new promotion fairly quickly.

“If it’s going to be an exclusive contract then pay me something that’s going to make it worth my while to be exclusive and not fight anywhere else and not work anywhere else,” Kang said about whatever new promotion he signed with.

Unless something drastic changed, Kang will be with the UFC exclusively as the promotion is not usually in the business of signing open ended contracts.

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So that’s what happens when you run a shady organization. You go belly up, and the tenative house of cards you built comes crashing down like Kimbo’s career. The only sad thing about this, is the fighters that are effected. Where they will end up is anyones guess. For the main event stars, Kimbo Slice, and Gina Carano the future doesn’t look bright.

The only people clamoring for Kimbo, will be the leagues looking to make some noise and get their chance in the spotlight. Strikeforce fits this mold nicely. Less likely are the UFC and Afflicition. The UFC might want to pay Kimbo to stay out of the MMA spotlight, just so he won’t turn away any more legitimacy than he already has. Afflicition will be tempted, but here’s hoping they stick with marketing skilled fights, instead of circus acts.

We’ll get to see a good measure of Dana White’s tolerance and smarts, in the next few weeks with Gina Carano on the table. Dana can do what he’s done with MMA in general, by creating a Women division in the WEC. This is another area where Afflicition may want to step in, and is a better fit for them than Kimbo. Gina can draw a crowd, and a match against her and Cyborg is a big draw. If you can draw, and continue to promote legitimate competition, than it’s win freaking win baby.

In the end, it’s hard to find sympathy for EliteXC. Even the product we saw on CBS had a fair amount of sleeze on it. The only thing they accomplished was to make the sport look illegitimate, and we can only hope the UFC gets closer to making a network deal, because that is the true next step to taking the sport into the mainstream.

Here’s Anderson Silva’s manager Ed Soares, talking about the recent rumors of Silva retiring in the near future:

“Even before Anderson came into the UFC his goal has always been to retire at the age of 35,” Soares stated. “He’s actually talking about it much sooner than all of us would have liked, but the reality of it is that his goal it to retire at 35. He’s got 18 months before he turns 35 and it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to retire right when he turns 35, that it would just be his goal.”

“What I believe is going to happen is when he gets to 35 he’s going to see how he feels at that point in time. I told him, let’s achieve your goal of getting to 35 and being in a position where you could retire and at that point in time you make your choices. If you feel like you’ve got a few more fights in you then lets go a few more fights,” Soares commented.

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We can only hope that Anderson Silva will reevaluate his decision to retire early in life, because it would be a shame for him to cut his career short. On the other hand, it would be nice for someone to actually stick to their guns and retire when they chose to. We’ll see if Anderson can really get behind the scenes as a coach, and not get the itch for money and competition like so many others.

Chris Leben (186) VS Michael Bisping (185)

Brandon Vera (203) VS Keith Jardine (205)

Luiz Cane (206) VS Sokoudjou (205)

Chris Lytle (170) VS Paul Taylor (170)

Marcus Davis (169) VS Paul Kelly (169)

Akihiro Gono (171) VS Dan Hardy (169)

Neil Wain (254) VS Shane Carwin (264)

David Bielkheden (156) VS Jess Liaudin (155)

Sam Stout (155) VS Terry Etim (155)

Jim Miller (155) VS David Baron (155)

Per Eklund (156) VS Samy Schiavo (156)

Here’s the broken down points of Fedor’s new deal, provided by MMA Convert.com:

• First “joint venture” will likely take place on Jan. 24 at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The main event will feature Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski.
• Second “joint venture” will likely take place in April or May and feature Josh Barnett vs. Aleksander Emelianenko (unclear if this is planned as a main event). M-1 is confident Aleks will be issued a license to fight. His rumored medical issues have apparently been resolved. No indication if this card will include boxing.
• Fedor’s thumb is fully healed.
• M-1 confirmed Fedor will definitely NOT be fighting in Japan on NYE. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.
• Gegard Mousasi may fight in Japan on NYE, but remains “a very feasible” option for Affliction’s January event.
• Affliction and M-1 have signed an exclusive worldwide deal with Fedor. So definitely no Fedor vs. Randy in the UFC. (Like that was ever going to happen anyways)

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It’s looking like we may never see Fedor in the UFC, which is unfortunate, but if he beats Arlovski and Barnett, then there’s no real need to see him in the UFC. Fedor will have proved that he’s the number one heavyweight, and based on the outcome of Lesnar vs. Couture, they will have the only other claim at the rank.

Looking forward to this issue of playboy!

Brutal. You can see why Sean Sherk has no problems going 5 rounds, but you can also see why maybe he had the worst possible gameplan ever against BJ Penn. He might focus too much on cardio, and too little on the other aspects of the game. This is only one workout, so only so much can be gleaned from it. That doesn’t mean I can’t speculate though!

Jardine is claiming that he wants a rematch with the Axe Murderer:

He added: “Wanderlei caught me in a trap. He baited me into throwing a leg kick and he caught me with an overhand – he had a perfect game plan for that fight.

“I feel bad about it and I’m anxious to get back in there and show what I can do.

“There’s no question about it – I want a rematch with him.”

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Yeah, and Rich Franklin is really looking forward to a third fight with Anderson Silva. You know Jardine doesn’t want any part of a rematch with Wanderlai. Wandy made him look worse than he did against Houston Alexander. Jardine just can’t deal with the aggressive, heavy handed striker. He should consider a rematch against Houston Alexander, instead of one against Wandy.

Congrats to GSP:

It wasn’t just any given Saturday at the Tristar martial arts academy, in Montreal, Canada.

The Jiu-Jitsu class, with around 50 participants, was more crowded than usual. But the UFC welterweight champion, Georges Saint-Pierre, suspected nothing.

And he was moved when medical researcher and holder of several Jiu-Jitsu titles Bruno Fernandes promoted him to the status of black belt in Jiu-Jitsu.

“This was the high point in my career,” an emotional Saint-Pierre confessed, when laying out the three happiest moments of his life:

“When I received my black belt in karate, when I conquered the UFC belt, and today.”

The promotion echoed in New York and, Renzo Gracie, who has taught Jiu-Jitsu to the Canadian star in the past before his collision course with Renzo student Matt Serra, approved:

“He more than deserves it. This was excellent new for the fight world,” said the teacher to GRACIEMAG.com.

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We’ll probably be seeing this belt in use against BJ Penn soon enough.

Of all the luck:

contender Diego Sanchez has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 90 bout against Thiago Alves due to torn rib cartilage, but the October 25th co-feature bout is not lost, as standout 170-pounder Josh Koscheck has stepped up to face Brazil’s “Pitbull” in an equally intriguing welterweight matchup.

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I was so looking forward to this fight, and it’s not that the replacement is a bad one. It’s just I was so damn psyched to see Alvez vs. Diego. Koscheck is a beast, and he did get the best of Diego in there last fight, but DAMN. Oh well, you have to expect this sort of thing in MMA. Props to Koscheck on taking the fight.