(Photo:UFC.com)

This episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 hits the ground running with the usual recap from the past week and a bunch of the smack talk between Matthew Riddle and the winner of that bout, Tim Credeur.  I don’t know if the show has provided a solid look at some of the fighter’s personalities yet this year… or maybe there are just a few less crazy guys on TUF 7 than normal.  In a touching moment after the fight, Credeur tells Matt Riddle that he made him a better fighter and was one of the toughest kids he has fought.  Credeur promises to buy Riddle an X-Box 360 with some of his Burger King 5 grand for finishing the fight and Riddle seems pleased as punch.

After the fight recap, the focus is back on the house and it seems that I spoke too soon.  Jeremy May, who has been running his mouth a bit about Riddle’s performance has apparently irritated a few people in the house with his behaviour.  Jesse Taylor is particularly upset and is warning May to give it a rest as Jeremy is throwing things at him.. childish behaviour for sure, as described by the other house guests.  But hey, sometimes it’s just fun to irritate people.

Leaving the nonsense behind, it’s off to the Team Rampage training session.  Rampage is serious about training and being concerned about being behind on the win column, he brings in his friend Michael Bisping to train with the boys and give them a pep talk.

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(Photos: WEC.tv)

The fight card for WEC ‘Faber vs . Pulver” has been officially announced and includes several intriguing matches.  The obvious and main event bout is a Featherweight battle between current Champion, Uriah Faber and veteran MMA talent Jens Pulver.  The fight will be a defining one for both fighters as they look to cement themselves as the best Featherweight MMA fighter in the world.

For Pulver, it would be the realization of a dream to return to MMA and become a Champion, while Faber has an opportunity to take down an icon of the sport and a fighter who is undefeated at Featherweight, further legitimizing his recognition as one of the sports absolute elite fighters.

“Razor” Rob McCullough also returns to the cage for the first time since losing his Lightweight title to former UFC fighter Jamie “The Worm” Varner.  The fight against Varner was a barn burner and although McCullough got caught in the third round, he still looked great in the fight.  His opponent, Kenneth “The Machine” Alexander looks to be outmatched considering he has only one prior fight in the WEC and he lost that one by first round submission to Donald Cerrone.  Well actually, it is officially a No Contest result, as Cerrone later tested positive for a banned diuretic substance and was stripped of the win. More important than the substance abuse storyline is the fact that this is a rematch from a 2002 bout that McCullough lost to Alexander early in his career.  This is a fight that McCullough obviously would like to get back, while Alexander will want to prove he deserved the win over the former champ.
 
Jeff Curran also returns in an under-card appearance against a very game Mike Brown.

This should be a great card overall, with lots of wide open fighting to entertain the fans.

Full Fight card details are included below:

Main Event
JENS PULVER  vs.  URIAH FABER

Main Card
MIGUEL ANGEL TORRES  vs.  YOSHIRO MAEDA
ROB MCCULLOUGH  vs.  KENNETH ALEXANDER
MARK MUNOZ  vs.  CHUCK GRIGSBY

Under-Card 
DONALD CERRONE  vs.  RICHARD CRUNKILTON
JEFF CURRAN   vs.  MIKE BROWN
TIM MCKENZIE  vs.  ERIC SCHAMBARI
ALEXANDRE NOGUEIRA vs.  JOSE ALDO
DOMINICK CRUZ   vs.  CHARLIE VALENCIA

WEC “Faber vs Pulver” will air live on VERSUS, June 1st  from the Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA.

 (Photos: Dream.com)

Canadian Mixed Martial Arts fighter Denis Kang was in action today for the opening round of Dream.2’s 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix.  The highly respected Kang drew a tough opponent in the 21-2-1 Armenian fighter, Gegard Mousasi, but was unfazed, noting that the high level competition fueled his training and preparation for the fight. Prepared or not, Kang fell victim to the highly skilled Mousasi, who was able to take the win by tap-out due to a triangle choke in the first round. 

The win extends Mousasi’s win streak to 9 fights, with his last loss being at the hands of Akihiro Gono almost 2 years ago.  For Kang, the fight was his second consecutive loss and his third in his last four fights. The 30 year old Kang still has tonnes of potential though, and with wins over Murilo Rua and Akihiro Gono he has shown well rounded skills that still make him a serious threat and a tough fight for any Middleweight in the world.  

Another big win was earned by Shinya Aoki in a Lightweight rematch with “JZ”Calvancante.  The fight was a redo from the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix in March, where bout was ruled a no contest when Calvancante injured Aoki with elbow strikes to the head which are illegal under the Dream rules. 

Full results from the event are posted below, courtesy of Sherdog.

Round 2 for the Middleweight Grand Prix will be held on June 15th at Dream.4

For additional details, you can check out the official Dream website, although be warned that it is not exactly an English friendly experience.
 

 (Image: IQMMA)

Iroquois MMA has completed their third event in Ohsweken (near Hamilton), Ontario.  The event was a relative success, but not without challenges. The organization was hit with a significant blow when the main event bout between Brett Bergmark and Shonie Carter was derailed when Carter suffered an injury during training. That stumbling block was overcome when Jesse Juarez stepped up to take the fight against Bergmark. 

 The next issue was that charges were laid against the event promoters for their first event, dating back to November of 2007.  As reported in various news agencies, Six Nations police laid charges against 5 men associated with each being charged under section 83 of the Canadian Criminal Code which prohibits prize fighting events.
That battle is a larger one in terms of MMA as a recognized sport and it’s expansion in Ontario.  The publicity associated with the charges will likely be an accelerant to the MMA fire, with the results of the charges setting precedent for future events.

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(Photos: Sherdog.com)

MMAWeekly has reported that Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian have confirmed they are scheduled to fight at UFC 87, in Minneapolis, Minn. The August 7th bout will be huge in terms of determining the number one contender to challenge for the Lightweight Title following UFC 84, where BJ Penn and Sean Sherk will face off in a title match.
Kenny Florian has been very vocal about wanting to face the best competitors in the division en-route to another opportunity at the Lightweight title and he will certainly be facing one of the best in Roger Huerta. Florian and Huerta have both been very active, with Huerta racking up 5 wins in a 10 month period and Florian taking 4 wins in just under 12 months.

Florian commented on the importance and quality of the match, stating; 

“It’s kind of rare when you get two guys who are positively number one and number two in the division that are actually going to fight to be the number one contender to fight for that belt later on. I think it will be great for both of our careers, and it’s the biggest fight you can put together in our division.”

It is a great fight and it should be very telling as far as ranking the fighters in the division.

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 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

Spencer “The King” Fisher will look to get back to his winning ways when he make his return to the Octagon on June 21st. Fisher is scheduled to appear on The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale card at the Pearl at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  His opponent will be the always game Jeremy Stephens which should make for an interesting Lightweight showdown. 

 Fisher is coming back from a unanimous decision loss to Frankie Edgar late last year while Stephens is looking to extend a hot streak to 3 consecutive victories in the UFC Octagon.  Stephens debuted in the UFC against veteran Din Thomas and held his own until getting caught in a deep arm-bar that left no options for escape.  Both fighter’s like to strike, although Fisher would likely have an edge on the feet.  His striking against Sam Stout in their rematch was among the quickest and sharpest I can recall seeing in the UFC period.

While Fisher has been viewed as a possible contender due to experience and some great performances, his exposure by a strong wrestling game was made very clear in his bout against Edgar.  But then Edgar was absolutely bullied on the ground by a much bigger Gray Maynard in his last effort, which doesn’t make Fisher’s defeat to Edgar look any better on his resume.  It has the potential to hurt his reputation as a real contender, which maybe it should.

The Fight is scheduled to be on the main card of what should be a ”free” Spike-TV event on June 21st, currently sharing the stage with veteran fighters Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti and  Kendall Grove Vs. Evan Tanner. One of the best bouts of the night is a scheduled match between super veteran Jeremy Horn Vs Dean Lister, which should be a ground fighting clinic for those that enjoy submissions and ground control .

The fights will be airing “free” on Spike TV on June 21st.  Check them out, the card is looking pretty good already,  

 (Photos: UFC.com/Sherdog.com)

 What do James Irvin, Rich Clementi and Michael Bisping have in common?  Not much … except for the fact that all 3 fighters are getting a chance to turn wins into increased opportunity with quick turnaround between fights.  Bispng is the latest fighter to get the quick call back, likely in an effort to build out the UFC 85 card which took a big hit with the departure of Chuck Liddell due to a hamstring injury.  Irvin was the fighter who actually stepped up to fill Chuck’s spot, but lacking star lustre, the UFC seems to be opting for their default British star, Michael “The Count” Bisping to pack in the fans for the recently shuffled UFC 85 card schedule for June 7th in London, England.

Bisping will be in for a bigger test in his sophomore effort at 185lbs, stepping into the Octagon with the very heavy handed, Chris “The Crippler” Leben in front of a home town crowd.  Bisping has made the physical transformation , dropping a weight class to maximize his potential in as an Elite MMA fighter while Leben has made lifestyle and mental changes to improve his game.  After dropping back to back fights against Canadians, Jason MacDonald and the now notorious Kalib Starnes, Leben has found new focus and has reaped the rewards with big wins over Terry Martin and Alessio Sakara. 

It will be interesting to see what game-plan Bisping brings to the fight.  Although Leben has shown constant improvement he is likely still  less well rounded than Bisping, but is the advantage enough to outweigh the killer power that Leben wields?  My betting money would say that Bisping won’t be able to take many lefts from Leben, so he will need to take “The Crippler” down early and try to work his Jiu Jitsu for a win.  With an 8-3 record in the UFC, Leben is certainly no joke and he is a decent step up for Bisping’s second Middleweight fight. 

It’s another day at the office for Bisping as the UFC’s British “poster boy” for the organization, stepping up to sell the sport of MMA to the British masses.  It’s not an easy fight to call, and Bisping looked good in his last fight against an outmatched Charles McCarthy in his last outing.  It really will depend on who can take the fight to their strength position and execute their game-plan. 

 (Photo:UFC.com)

Talk about hitting a guy when he is down…

In an ironic twist, the UFC teaches Lutter about how to cut weight by dropping his 185lbs in as much time as it takes to leave a voice mail.  Yes that’s right, a voice mail…. at least that’s the way that Lutter is describing the situation on his MySpace page.   Lutter left the following note to let fans know that he has been dropped by the organization following his UFC 83 loss to former Middleweight champion Rich Franklin,

“Friday afternoon I was told by my manager that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had left my him a message on his  phone that I had been released from my UFC contract because of my 2 losses in a row. “

It’s not entirely earth shattering news, as there has been widespread speculation that the UFC would be dropping a lot of fighters to lean out the divisions.  At the same time though, it seems to have caught Lutter by surprise and probably rightly so, when as a fighter looking for positives after losses, he can see that he had the two of the best Middleweight fighters in the world in trouble.  Lutter arguably had Anderson Silva as close to finished as any fighter in the UFC after failing to make weight for the freebie UFC 67 Championship bout which was a gift for winning his division on The Ultimate Fighter ‘The Comeback” series. 

Giving Lutter the UFC 83 bout against Franklin seemed to indicate that all was forgiven for the not making weight fiasco and an indication that Lutter was still a respected fighter in the division.  In a recent interview with Fight Ticker, following the loss to Franklin, he mentioned that he still had 4 fights remaining on his contract and didn’t worried about losing his position with the organization.  In fact he spoke of next steps and missed opportunities with a sense of realism;

“I think I can beat Franklin. I think I can beat Silva. I’m not lacking for confidence. I still think I can beat them. I’m going to train to fight my next opponent with the idea of hopefully getting in the ring with both of them again. I don’t have a vendetta against either one of them. I don’t give a crap about that. I just want to be considered one of the best in the world. Right now, I’m not on a good path for that.

Perhaps the nail in Lutter’s coffin was a comment in the same interview stating that he believed Matt Lindland was the best Middleweight fighter in the world today.  Having fought Silva, Franklin and Lindland(losing to all), Luter has earned to right to an opinion, although picking the non-UFC fighter may not have been his best play after dropping his second consecutive fight in the organization.  Either way, there are a lot of fight promotions out there now and Lutter would be a big name for any of them, so fights and money shouldn’t be an issue.   Lutter also made reference to contacting some boxing coaches to improve his stand-up game.  Nothing is final in the UFC, so we may not have seen the last of Travis Lutter yet, although at 35 years old the odd certainly aren’t getting better for the struggling veteran.

   (Photo:Sherdog.com)

MMAWeekly has reported that Charles “Chainsaw” McCarthy  has officially announced his retirement from fighting.  The report comes only days after McCarthy lost in a blowout match against Michael “The Count” Bisping at UFC 83 in Montreal, Quebec.
There had been a lot of tension built between the two fighters leading up to the bout and McCarthy had gone as far as calling Bisping average and even stating that he felt he was the best BJJ talent in the division and felt he would be a good match for current Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

While there was a lot of chatter from McCarthy pre UFC 83, his statements around his retirement were entirely professional and likely a more accurate representation of his true personality,

“Thank you to all who have supported Mixed Martial Arts. You have helped me live out a childhood dream of being a professional athlete. I am proud to say that in some small way I helped to grow our great sport and entertain fans across the world. Some of the best friends I have made throughout my career I met on the other side of the cage. I would like to thank them for the opportunity to compete with them and entertain the fans.”
“We train so hard and we put so much time into it. I figure I’ve worked since November to do this and there’s so many other things going on in my life that I put on the back burner since November. You know, at the end of the day, that paycheck that used to be enough, isn’t enough anymore”

It is a big step for any professional athlete to announce their retirement from the sport and I will give the respect to McCarthy for making the move before being moved out of the UFC and trying to rebuild a career in smaller organizations. Going out with a blowout loss is even more difficult and many fighters would have tried to set up a win to at least go out on top, but apparently McCarthy is living by his statement that training fighters is his priority right now.

McCarthy will continue to be heavily involved in MMA and working to build future stars though his American Top Team  affiliated gym.   

Check out the entire MMAWeekly post here.

 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

In a nice development for the UFC 85 card, the UFC has added a welterweight clash between Matt Hughes and Thiago Alves as the main event after Chuck Liddell was forced to pull out of the card due to injury. Liddell was originally scheduled to face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event and after Rua was injured Rashad Evans stepped to the plate in the main event.  The UFC has replaced the injured Liddell with James Irvin who is fresh off a KO win over Houston Alexander.
Regardless of having fighters replaced, it seems the UFC didn’t feel a Rasad Evans vs James Irvin fight could carry the card and they probably made the right choice in calling in a favour from former champion Matt Hughes to help them out of a bind. Hughes has been in limbo since his loss to GSP, as far as making a definitive statement regarding his career and next steps.  Any comments that were made by Hughes were in discussions about his rivalry with Matt Serra and the fact that he was still looking forward to settling those differences in the Octagon.

Hughes confirmed the Alves bout on his website, where he was brief in his statement as it appears the whole thing came up on him pretty quickly,

“June 7th, in England, I fight Thiago Alves. The fight is confirmed, it will be the main event for the card. Dana just called me with the news. Chuck got hurt and couldn’t fight, so he needed a replacement and called me and I said yes. More news as I get it.”

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