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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Dana White giving the business to EliteXC.

Preach on!

In GSP’s latest blog, he talks about Gina Carano, Kimbo, Patrick Cote, and his recent signing to CAA.

Patrick looks better than I have ever seen — even though the odds are not in his favor, I would not be surprised to see him shock the world. It would be great to have world champions in Quebec!

Gina did a nice performance and I’m glad for her because she also represents the sport very well. The main event was obviously a tough situation because Ken had to pull out because of a cut… and I have a lot of respect for Seth & Kimbo to still go out and put on the fight for the fans.

I know a lot of people have been seeing on the internet that I signed with CAA — I think it is a very smart move from my manager to get me on board with CAA because they represent some of the greatest athletes in sports and in the entertainment industry. I’m glad and honored to be the first MMA fighter that they represent.

Read the rest here.

Here’s the announcement we’ve been waiting for, and it comes from MMARated.com:

MMARated.com has learned that WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko will face Andrei Arlovski at the upcoming Affliction show tentatively scheduled for January 24th in Anaheim, Calif.

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While I would have been interested in seeing a Arlovski vs. Barnett showdown for the number one contender spot, this news will work just fine. Arlovski is coming off of two knockdown defeats of IFL veterans, while Fedor is coming off of a first round destruction of Tim Sylvia. It will be interesting to see how this match plays out. Arlovski has looked prone to takedowns and Jiu-Jitsu, while also trying to shake the aura of having a weak chin. Fedor looked great against Sylvia, but didn’t look his best against Choi or Lindland.

MMAweekly.com caught up with Andrei, and he had this to say about his next opponent:

“Like I said before, if you want to be the best, you have to fight the best fighters,” he said. “Obviously, he’s the best fighter right now. Nobody (has) beat him yet, so of course I want to fight Fedor, or Josh Barnett. They’re both tough, they’re both great fighters. It’s up to Affliction. If my next fight will be against Fedor, great. Against Josh, same thing.”

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Either match would be great to see. I’m very interested in a Josh Barnett vs. Arlovski bout, because it would be a great test to see who is ready for Fedor. The long argument about who has the best chance to beat Fedor has usually ended up with one of two people: Randy Couture or Josh Barnett. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Fedor against another legitimate opponent in January.

Ken Shamrock posted an open letter on Thursday:

Over the years there have been many great times as well as disappointing times and I know Saturday the fans were as disappointed as I was. I was worked up so I decided to train with my partners in order to stay focused on the fight. I was just doing a light roll to check holds when I got caught by a head butt. It was a freak accident and I didn’t think anything of it until I saw drops of blood. It appeared to be a deep laceration so I had my physician look at it and we immediately went to the emergency room. When they said the cut would require stitches, my heart sank because I knew that the Florida Boxing Commission would not let me fight. I was disappointed because I knew this was an opportunity to give the fans, my friends, and my family something to cheer about.  It has been a hard couple of years for me, and for my fans.  I have suffered some disappointing losses.  I definitely regret my decision to train on the day of the fight.

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It’s only a regret when shit hits the fan. I’m sure a lot of fighters do this sort of training and get away with it, but sometimes shit just happens. I still think Ken should retire, because his best days are behind him, and his okay days are behind him, and his eh days are behind him. What I’m trying to say is, that he screwed up and it’s time to move on. Realistically no one is even talking about Shamrock anymore, since Kimbo got pummeled. So if he just lays low for a little while, people will probably just let him off the hook anyway.

Another report from The Fight Network:

“… Reports that Frank Shamrock volunteered that evening to fight Kimbo Slice are true,” Lappen is quoted as saying in the release. “Frank is a competitive fighter and he was willing to step up for his organization and the MMA fans. His offer was very greatly appreciated, but everyone in the room knew when he made the offer that it wasn’t a realistic possibility on such short notice.”

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Frank is a competitive fighter, but if this was Anderson Silva, there’s no way he’d be volunteering to take the fight. He volunteered because he saw opprotunity. The opprotunity to thrust his name into the mainstream, with an easy victory. Frank would have had Kimbo down and tapping in under a minute and he knew it. It’s a shame he didn’t get the chance to do so, because he could have done more with the spotlight than Seth will.

Here’s the great side of Dana White, when he’s saying exactly what everyone is thinking.

“It disgusts me,” White told the Herald. “I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues on the main event because they’re trying to compete with us, and he gets knocked out in (14) seconds by a guy who didn’t win ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and couldn’t fight in the UFC. Then the guy turns around the next day and says, ‘The promoters actually paid me to not go to the ground with this guy. They paid me to stand up,’ which I’m pretty sure is illegal.”

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And Dana is exactly right. The sport has come so far in the last five – ten years, and EliteXC is doing as much they possibly can to bury it. The UFC was right to say no to the CBS deal, especially with the way they’ve handled this situation thus far. Put on the circus, and only care about ratings.