UFC 125 To Take Place January 1, 2011 In Las Vegas, NV
At the end of the year, between Christmas and New Years, the UFC generally puts on one of its biggest shows of the year. This year the year end show will in face take place, umm, next year. UFC 125 will be in Las Vegas, NV at the MGM Grand as of right now no fights have been announced for the show.
UFC 125 will also mark the UFC’s first PPV card in Vegas since UFC 116 when Brock Lesnar unified the heavyweight title by defeating Shane Carwin in the second round. It is possible that the heavyweight title could be on the line in January as the next scheduled defense is in October. A quick turnaround would be needed for that to happen though.
Arianny Celeste Playboy Cover Girl in November
That’s right everyone. Following in the footsteps of Rachelle Leah, Arianny Celeste will appear on the cover of this November’s issue of Playboy Magazine. Dana White confirmed this in an interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting.
UFC 118: Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn Pre-Fight Interviews
Strikeforce: Houston Recap
First fight of the night. Arena ended up about 70% with 3/4 of upper section closed off.
Overall I believed that Strikeforce: Houston was a good show. There were some good fights on the undercard as well as some high quality bouts on the Showtime portion of the card. The one resounding problem with the show, for those in attendance as well as those at home, was the sub-par standard of refereeing.
There were multiple gaffs in the refereeing last night particularly on the main card. One that continues to stand out was when a gassed Bobby Lashley had mount on Chad Griggs and the fight was stood up. Or at least it seemed to have been stood up, Lashley had his eye checked by the ringside physician and instead of the fighters restarting with Lashley in mount the bout was restarted from standing. It could be argued that Lashley would have won the round and made it into the third if the referee was on top of his game.
Aside from the refereeing mistakes the fights were great, the crowd was really behind the Texan fighters initially, but as with all MMA events the crowd quickly jumped on the oppositions bandwagon as soon as it got rolling.
Bobby Lashley it turns out was “severely dehydrated” after his loss to Chad Griggs. I do expect to see him back in Strikeforce action. Hopefully next time he comes more prepared though, surely he should have known that Houston is one hot city and fluids should be overly consumed. I do believe that yesterday was one of the hottest days of the year also but that should be no excuse for an athlete in an air-conditioned building. All credit to Chad Griggs though; he withstood the early wrestling onslaught and came out of there with a TKO victory.
The KJ Noons, Jorge Grugel fight in my opinion was one of the best of the night. There were some moments during the fight that were a bit iffy. I’m talking about the after the bell shot and the knee to the head right at the end. Despite those two mishaps though Noons really did impress me. Here’s hoping he sticks with MMA this time instead of running away to do some other sport.
I may have been one of the few in the Toyota Center who was actually rooting for Souza to win against American fighter Tim Kennedy. As becomes the norm with these types of fights though we did have the standard “U-S-A” chant echoing throughout the arena. In my honest opinion I thought that Souza did win the fight. I figured he had the first round in the bag and took rounds 2 and 3 barely. Rounds 4 and 5 I knew would probably (I say probably because this is MMA judging) have gone to Kennedy so I was not disappointed in the result.
Ah the main event, King Mo with his WWE style entrance wearing a crown, walking to the cage with rose petals scattered at his feet. Give me a break this is MMA not pro-wrestling, get in there and fight. I don’t know how this fight came across on TV but to me Mo did seem really cocky, he looked like he was keeping his arms down way too much especially considering he is not one of the fastest light heavyweights. Aside from the suplex the first two rounds of that fight were boring to watch and people even got up to leave. I’m glad I wasn’t one of those who left though because Feijao turned up the heat and knocked King Mo down with a solid knee followed by a flurry of punches. I did feel that Big John let the fight go on way too long though, those elbows from Feijao were unnecessary and the fight should have been stopped before then.
I hope that Strikeforce does return to Houston sometime in the near future but based upon the commissions lack of drug testing and the complete mess of officiating that probably wont happen for some time. Come on Texas, get your mess sorted out!
King Mo’s Strikeforce VLog for Strikeforce: Houston
Make sure to check out Strikeforce: Houston tonight on Showtime at 10EST. For those without Showtime you can still check out some prelim action on Sherdog.com. Sherdog will be providing, for free, some heavyweight action between Daniel Cormier and Jason Riley as well as an all Brazilian affair between welterweights André Galvão and Jorge Patino.
Shark Fights 13: Bas Rutten, Don Frye and Ron Kruck Named for Broadcast Team
Shark Fights is all set to make its PPV debut next month with a packed card and now a packed broadcast team to go along with it. Inside MMA hosts Bas Rutten and Ron Kruck will be joined by MMA vet. Don Frye. Here is the current fight card for Shark Fights 13:
- Champ Trevor Prangley vs. Keith Jardine (light-heavyweight non-title fight)
- Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Houston Alexander
- Paul Daley vs. Jorge Masvidal
- Drew McFredries vs. Joey Villasanor
- TBA vs. TBA
- Champ Douglas Evans vs. Ronnie Mann (featherweight title fight)
- Brock Larson vs. TBA
- Dave Herman vs. Aaron Rosa
- Karen Darabedyan vs. Marcus Hicks
- Eric Davila vs. Pete Spratt
As you can see there are some pretty big names fighting on the card including Paul Daley who was released by the UFC for an after the bell punch against Josh Koscheck.
Shark Fights will be taking place in Amarillo, Texas. For those wanting to watch at home it will be aired live on PPV September 11th at the price of $29.95.
WEC 50 Salaries and Fighter Bonuses
WEC 50 last night on Versus once again delivered. It was an awesome night of fights which was action packed from start to finish like we have come to expect from the WEC. Scott Jorgensen led the payroll last night with his $25,000 with only one other fighter breaking the $20k mark, that being main event winner Dominick Cruz. Here is the full list of fighter salaries courtesy of Sherdog.com:
Dominick Cruz $22,000 ($11,000) defeated Joseph Benavidez $17,500
Anthony Pettis $12,000 ($6,000 show/win) defeated Shane Roller $16,000
Chad Mendes $11,000 ($5,500 show/win) defeated Cub Swanson $11,000
Scott Jorgensen $25,000 ($12,500 show/win) defeated Brad Pickett $7,000
Brad Palaszewski $16,000 ($8,000 show/win) defeated Zach Mickelwright $3,000
Maciej Jewtuszko $6,000 ($3,000 show/win) defeated Anthony Njokuani $7,000
Javier Vasquez $16,000 ($8,000 show/win) defeated Mackens Semerzier $4,000
Ricardo Lamas $14,000 ($7,000 show/win) defeated Dave Jansen $4,000
Fredson Paixao $6,000 ($3,000 show/win) defeated Bryan Caraway $4,000
Danny Castillo $19,000 ($9,500 show/win) defeated Dustin Poirier $3,000
As is traditional with Zuffa events the fighters also got some bonuses, I would hate to be the guy who had to chose but Fight of the Night went to Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett who each received an extra $10,000. Also bolstering their paychecks were Maciej Jewtzusko and Anthony Pettis who took home the extra $10k for Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night respectively.
*These salaries do not include “locker room bonuses,” sponsorship income or any other incentives the WEC fighters may have been offered. They are simply the numbers provided to the NSAC by WEC in accordance with state publishing requirements. It should also be noted that fighters also have to pay taxes like the rest of us and in some cases give up a significant amount to their gym/coaches/teammates etc.
Clay Guida’s Greatest Burps
Lookoutwhale bringing you another classy video!
Anderson Silva Will Not Return Until 2011 With Broken Ribs
Looks like Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen will be waiting a while to see who is next up for the title shot. Anderson Silva is going to be out of fighting until March 2011 according to Brazilian jiu jitsu coach Ramon Lemos in an interview he did with a Brazilian MMA news site, Tatame.com. Fortunately for those that don’t speak Portuguese, like myself, Fighter Only has provided us with a translation:
“After the first round he [Anderson Silva] said he broke his ribs. He said told me he could not breath because of the rib. I told him to forget the rib and work the movement of legs and he would get the triangle… After the fight he went to the hospital and did an x-ray and the doctor said he did not break it, it was just a crack…Anderson is expected to return in February or March.”
I guess the excess downtime of the champion will allow the UFC brass to figure out what they actually want to do. Right now they have Vitor Belfort who has yet to make his UFC middleweight debut. The other option would be a rematch with Chael Sonnen. The extra time would also allow a TUF season to be put together featuring Sonnen and Silva as the coaches.
The TUF option is my favorite right now, I would prefer that Belfort at least have a fight at 185lb before he starts running his mouth for a title shot.