Rachelle Leah to Return to Octagon @ UFC 111
For one night only!!! Rachelle Leah will return to her Octagon duties at UFC 111: St. Pierre vs Hardy as announced by UFC.com.
Lookoutawhale Hat Thieves Video
Stephan Bonnar Loses UFC 110 Appeal
The fight between Stephan Bonnar and Krzystztof Soszynski had made it into the third round when an accidental clash of heads resulted in a viscous cut on Bonnar’s forehead. Even with the conclusive evidence that the cut was caused with an accidental illegal blow the New South Wales Combat Sports Authority decided that the decision was appropriate as rendered by the referee:
“A review was held … and the Combat Sports Authority of NSW did not seek to interfere with the referee’s decision,” wrote Craig Waller, Executive Director of the Combat Sports Authority of New South Wales, in an email sent to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) late Tuesday night.
Bonnar will be getting a rematch at the Ultimate Fighter season 11 finale which is scheduled to take place June 19 in Las Vegas. While the rematch wont get rid of the ‘L’ in Bonnar’s record it will give him a chance to redeem himself.
In Depth UFC 111 Preview – St. Pierre vs Hardy
UFC Tops 2009 PPV Numbers
Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports today released the estimated figures for UFC PPV buys during the year of 2009. He also compared the buys to those of boxing and the WWE and it turns out that the UFC holds six of the top ten spots.
1. UFC 100: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, July 11 – 1.6 million
2. Boxing: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto, Nov. 14 – 1.25 million
3. Boxing: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, Sept. 19 – 1.05 million
4. UFC 94: Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn, Jan. 31 – 920,000
5. UFC 101: B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian/Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin, Aug. 8 – 850,000
6. Boxing: Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton, May 2 – 825,000
7. UFC 107: B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez, Dec. 12 – 650,000
7. UFC 97: Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites/Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua, April 18 – 650,000
9. UFC 98: Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans/Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra, May 23 – 635,000
10. Wrestling: WWE WrestleMania 25, April 5 – 582,000
Also in the article Meltzer mentions that the UFC did over eight million buys total which is amazing. At $45, which is the lowest price, the UFC made over $350,000,000. Of course the UFC is a private company so we can never know how much they actually made. If I was to make a decent guess though I would go with PPV revenue being somewhere around $450,000,000 total due to bar purchases and HD buys. Once again though I have no idea how much a bar pays so the figure is probably no where near what the UFC actually made from sales.
Also it is worth noting that PPV buys are not the sole source of the UFC’s revenue stream. The UFC also makes money on merchandising including clothing, training gear, video games and even its own gyms in California. Then there is also the sponsorship money the UFC takes in from all of those ads placed in and around the cage. I figure if you take all this into account it isn’t extreme to think that the UFC pulled in over $750,000,000 last year.
Martin Kampmann is out of UFC 111 with Nasty Cut
This is without a doubt the worst cut I have ever seen and it is no wonder why he pulled out of his fight against Ben Saunders. Kampmann sent out the pic via twitpic earlier today.
UFC 110: ‘Nogueira vs Velasquez’ 10 Minute Preview
Chuck Liddell Will Kill Tito Ortiz
Chuck Liddell clearly got pissed off by the remarks that Tito Ortiz made in regards to Liddell’s alcoholism.
UFC 109: Sonnen Defeats Marquardt in Dominating Fashion
Chael Sonnen was wasting no time in this fight, he went right after Marquardt and then took him down, he did fall right into a guillotine but managed to get out. Sonnen then postured up and began unleashing some thunderous shots while Marquardt was against the cage. Marquardt managed to get standing a threw a flying knee but was took right back down by Sonnen. Chael Sonnen easily took the first round in a dominating fashion, 10-9 Sonnen.
The second round started the exact same as the first, Sonnen went right in there and put Marquardt on his back. Sonnen continued to control the round but midway through he began to bleed quite a lot from a cut that was in the middle of the forehead. Sonnen still dominated the round and took it 10-9 in my book.
Chael Sonnen took Marquardt down again to start the third round. Sonnen continued to control Marquardt until two minutes were remaining and Marquardt was able to get back to his feet, Sonnen immediately went in for the takedown and Marquardt got the guillotine choke locked in. Sonnen held on though until Marquardt released the choke. With a minute left in the round Marquardt showed up to the fight; it wouldn’t be enough for the victory though as Sonnen won via unanimous decision.
UFC 109: Thiago Defeats Swick via Darce Choke
The third fight of the evening at UFC 109 was Mike Swick against Paulo Thiago. The first round had some mixed striking from both fighters, Thiago really seemed to be favoring the kicks and was sometimes catching Swick off-guard. Swick got a takedown towards the very end of the round. I would of given Swick the round 10-9 even though the round was not really that engaging at all.
About two minutes into the second round Mike Swick went after Thiago and got caught with a counter left hook which sent him to the mat. Unlike most fighters Thiago went for the submission instead of trying for the TKO victory, Thiago got the win via darce choke at 1:54 of round number 2.