The weigh-ins were held for UFC Live on Versus (Vera vs. Jones) yesterday and the mini event was exactly that, hyping up a great card of free fights on network television. The event is pretty stacked as the UFC looks to put on a solid show and make an impression through this new offering on Versus.
Hilights from the weigh-ins included
a typically pumped up Clay Guida (on the undercard?)
James Irvin making his UFC debut at 185lbs.
The main event staredown between Vera and Jones also got a bit energized as Jon Jones stepped up to Brandon Vera immediately after Vera got off the scale and got right in his face. White separated the fighters and waved Jones off from the photo op as he was clearly a bit too pumped up follow any direction.
Here are the official weigh-in results as posted by the UFC:
Main Event
Jon Jones (206) VS Brandon Vera (204)
Main Card Gabriel Gonzaga (255) VS Junior Dos Santos (238)
Paul Buentello (246) VS Cheick Kongo (237)
James Irvin (185) VS Alessio Sakara (185)
Prelims
Shannon Gugerty (155) VS Clay Guida (155)
Vladimir Matyushenko (205) VS Eliot Marshall (204)
Darren Elkins (155) VS Duane Ludwig (155)
John Howard (170) VS Daniel Roberts (169)
Chase Gormley (265) VS Brendan Schaub (245*)
Julio Paulino (170) VS Mike Pierce (170)
Jason Brilz (205) VS Eric Schafer (205)
* Schaub’s weight was initially announced as 264, which was incorrect.
Airing Sunday night (March 21st) at 9pm ET the actual event is taking place at the 1STBANK center in Broomfield Colorado.
How to watch outside of the USA: UFC® Live is airing on the following stations in these areas. Check your local listings.
Australia - ONE HD
Brazil - COMBATE
Canada - ROGERS SPORTS NET
Croatia - NOVA (website only)
France - RTL9
Germany - DSF
N. Africa/ Middle East - OSN (formerly SHOWTIME ARABIA)
Phillippines - BALLS
U.K. - ESPN UK
Jason MacDonald notched another win after taking a short notice, main event match at W-1 Bad Blood event on March 20th in Montreal. The win is another step in the right direction for MacDonald who continues to work at putting together a string of W’s and hopefully earning an invitation back to the UFC.
MacDonald will need to step up the competition and get some convincing wins to get that return offer. With the continued expansion of the UFC around the world and endless crop of young fighters who have grown up as MMA fans, the talent levels in the MMA world continues to increase.
The win over White makes it 2 in a row, following a December MFC victory over former Ultimate Fighter competitor, Solomon Hutcherson.
Dan Henderson’s departure from the UFC probably isn’t going to cost the organization viewers, but his move to Strikeforce certainly helps in adding another top level competitor network the mix. Strikeforce continues to sign solid talent and the Strikeforce Nashville event on April 17th is a great card that is (bonus $$) on CBS rather than PPV.
The card features MMA legend Dan Henderson vs Jake Shields, competing for the middleweight title and a solid co-main event of Gegard Mousasi vs Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal.
Check out the following interview with Dan Henderson regarding his game plan against Shields and his take on the new promotion and fighting on CBS.
Former UFC Middleweight fighter and well repected MMA talent, Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald will be headlining the W-1 (Warrior One) “Bad Blood” card scheduled for March 20th, 2010 in Montreal, Quebec.
Warrior One is a Toronto based MMA promotion that looks to highlight top (especially Canadian) talent while looking to provide a build a relationship with major MMA promotions (UFC, Strikeforce, etc) as a proving ground.
MacDonald, who could use a few solid wins to get an invitation back to the big show will face Vernon “Tiger” White as a late replacement for an injured Denis Kang, who was also recently released from the UFC.
Card also features former top level talent John Allessio and perrenial gamer and crowd entertainer, Shonie Carter.
Check out the Warrior One MMA site for more details on the fight card and the promotion.
For tickets to this event, please check out the following link.
Just catching up on a few newsworthy items…and this one is a first, where SpikeTV has released the full cast of their upcoming season of the Ultimate Fighter reality series.
The info below (pictures and bios) were provided through SpikeTV.com
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Liddell vs. Team Ortiz
RICH ATTONITO
Fighting out of: Deerfield Beach, FL / American Top Team
Record: 7-3
Age: 32
A 2001 graduate of Hofstra University in Long Island, Rich Attonito wrestled several different weight classes as a member of the Pride wrestling team including the 167lb. and 197lb. divisions. Attonito has been training with American Top Team since he moved to Florida in 2006. He is the strength and conditioning coach for UFC veteran Luigi Fioravanti.
SETH BACZYNSKI
Fighting out of: Canyon, AZ / Apex MMA
Record: 11-5
Age: 28
Training partner to TUF alums Santino DeFranco (season 9) and Efrain Escudero (season - at Apex MMA in Arizona, Seth Baczynski is a full-time water inspector at Liberty Water.
David “The Crow” Loiseau lobbied the MMA organizations, hoping for the UFC of course to step up and put him on a card in a “charity match” where all profits earned by Loiseau would be donated to help with the Haitian Earthquake relief efforts. Loiseau, who is of Haitian heritage, was unsuccessful at convincing the largest MMA organizations, but did land a fight on the MFL 2 :Battleground (Mixed Fight League) event which took place this past Saturday, February 27th, in Montreal.
Loiseau was originally scheduled to fight Isidro Gonzales but ended up in a late replacement match against Chester Post. Loiseau was able to walk away with this one, “Post”ing a first round TKO over his opponent. The win is not going down as one of Loiseau’s most challenging bouts considering Post’s 6-19-1 fight record and the fact that this was his tenth consecutive loss, dating back to Nov. 2007.
All the cynicism aside though, both men stepped up to make this charity fight happen and Loiseau has followed through on his commitment to help the Haitian people the best way he can….through fighting.
TOPPS has recently released a new UFC trading card set and as part of the promotion around the product, there have been some special, golden triple autographed cards (Tito, Chuck and Dana) inserted into random packages that will turn out to be a big bonus to the lucky individual who is first to find one and get in touch with the UFC to claim the prize.
Dana White( playing Willy Wonka) and TOPPS had this to say about the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory type promotion;
The first collector to find one of the 10 randomly inserted triple autograph cards featuring Dana White, Chuck Liddell, and Tito Ortiz and email Topps at UFCprize@topps.com will win a never before offered unique opportunity.
The winner and a guest will receive an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas to be Dana White’s guest at the UFC Training Center. While there you will tour the gym, meet the coaches and contestants from hit Spike TV show, The Ultimate Fighter Season 12, and sit cage side with Dana during one of the TUF preliminary matches.
The other 9 lucky collectors will receive a pair of UFC gloves signed by Dana, Chuck, and Tito.
Well…so much for second place. This looks like a first or basically nothing type deal when you compare the prize levels.
Mike Swick recently posted this video from a trip to Thailand… in this clip Swick and Huerta are at some sort of Snake farm and getting some exposure to some real venomous ones. The clip is pretty long, the end is pretty entertaining.
As per the UFC.com news item posted today, the organization has come to an agreement with NCM Fathom to screen UFC PPV events in movie theatres nationwide. This is certainly another way to market the events and presents an entertaining option for those who may be too young to enjoy the fights in a typical bar type environment. Always hustling… Dana White stated;
“This is an opportunity to provide our fans with another cool way to watch UFC programming on the big-screen, live, in high-def and in surround sound,” said White. “UFC 111 has a stacked undercard and St-Pierre vs. Hardy and Mir vs. Carwin are both title fights, so this is the perfect event to kick off our new deal with NCM Fathom.”
Check out the promo for this new UFC event product that is set to have UFC fighters hosting at least some of the first events.
Tickets are available to this special in-theater event at www.FathomEvents.com and presenting theater box offices. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, please visit the web site (theaters and participants are subject to change).
UFC 110 is underway with a pretty solid card lined up for the first trip to Australia for the UFC and the crowd looks really pumped up.
Jumping right into the action…
Anthony Perosh vs Mirko Cro-Cop:
Round 1 -Cro-Cop basically stalks Perosh in circles around the Octagon while inflicting significant if not fight ending damage to Perosh on the feet. Perosh, a BJJ specialist repeatedly attempts to shoot in on Cro-Cop for the take-down to work from his strength, but Mirko is very effective at stuffing the take-down attempts. In addition, with every stuffed shot, Cro-Cop lands a few hammer fists and head shots to inflict what is sure to be incremental damage to Perosh as the fight goes on.
Round 2 -See round 1 - except for in the final minute, Cro-Cop intentionally enters Perosh’s guard and drops an elbow that immediately looks to be a fight ender due to the blood. The doctors’ step in and give Perosh the opportunity to continue if he wants…he chooses to keep going. He ends up on the ground again a few seconds later and is close to getting finished by big left hands from Cro-Cop as the round ends.
Round 3??- Nope - The doctors stop the fight after taking another look at the still gushing cut to Perosh’s forehead in between rounds.
A very dominant performance for Mirko Cro-Cop and is his post fight interview he is very humble…thanking Perosh for taking the fight on short notice and commenting on Perosh demonstrating Croation courage by continuing after the cut. (Perosh is an Australian of Croation heritage)
Ryan Bader vs Keith Jardine:
Round 1 - Bader comes out pretty strong and looks to control Jardine on the feet while Jardine has that typical gorilla style striking that is hard to anticipate. Baser is swinging a bit wild, looking to get the big KO, but Jardine is countering pretty well each time. After 2 minutes of trading on the feet, Bader gets a nice takedown and Jardine may not be able to get up for the rest of the round. Jardine has a half guard as Bader works him pretty effectively with strikes.
with 40 seconds remaining in the round, Jardine gets a good guard in place and the ref stands the fights up. They both windmill some big shots that don’t connect very well for the last few seconds as the round ends.
Round 1 goes to Bader for the takedown and control.
(Photo:UFC.com)
at Apex MMA in Arizona, Seth Baczynski is a full-time water inspector at Liberty Water.
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