Official MMA News/Discussion Thread

[CaptainCharisma]

new on Fedor

Fedor Emelianenko , the consensus top fighter in the heavyweight division and widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the sport, has agreed to fight in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 3, sources inside the Bodog front office confirmed to Sherdog.com Friday.

With one bout remaining on his Dream Stage Entertainment contract, Emelianenko is scheduled to defend his PRIDE heavyweight belt in Japan versus Mark Hunt on New Year's Eve. While a clause in Emelianenko's current deal allows the Russian to compete in his home country, one Bodog source indicated that the well-financed company intends to sign Fedor to a long-term deal.

Considering Bodog's working relationship with Fedor's Red Devil Fight Team, from which eight fighters will compete on bodogFIGHT's initial pay-per-view Saturday in Vancouver, this revelation is not all that surprising.

At a minimum, Bodog has inked a deal with Fedor to fight March 3, likely versus recent UFC championship contender Jeff Monson. Also on the card, which will be broadcast on worldwide pay-per-view, both via the Internet and television, Sherdog.com was told that Aleksander Emelianenko will fight Antonio Silva, should the Brazilian heavyweight defeat Eric PeleSaturday.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

if anyone else is interested, Frank Trigg beat Jason Miller at the ICON show for their MW belt yesterday...Fuckin WOW

 

[onebigeric]

Seeing Twinkletoes come out of his self-imposed retirement to win something like that was awesome. Does anyone want to place bets on how long he'll last?

 

[CaptainCharisma]

i gotta admit, after seeing Trigg get tooled by Hughes and St. Pierre i forgot his ability, good to see him get a good win under his belt...but i still love Mayhem and im always gonna be a Mayhem Monkey

 

[JS316]

if anyone else is interested, Frank Trigg beat Jason Miller at the ICON show for their MW belt yesterday...Fuckin WOW

Damn thats huge alright... Mayhem is one of my fav fighters...im gutted..

Trigg is a good fighter all the same.. was very close to beating Matt hughes by choke..

 

[onebigeric]

He released that rear naked because, and I quote, "it was like wrapping my arm around a band of steel." Redneck defense came through; just hope he comes back hungry as well.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Translated BY: MN-CRO


Crocop considering offer from UFC

Mirko could 'throw away' PRIDES 'dres' in Sunday.

ZAGREB – the offer from american organization UFC exists, it's not about milions of dollars, final decission about continuing career will be known at Sunday. That's how cro ,master of mma Mirko answered to rummors that now for days are circling on internet forums, about him leaving PRIDE and coming to americam aremas.

Like every other fighter, I'm also on the market. UFC offer is financial a little better than PRIDE's one, but I still didn't decide to 'change dres'. Only thing I can say for sure is that I don't know if I'll fight in saitama arene on new year night, said Mirko and added that besides UFC offer he got one more offer from america.

Crocop didn't want to be precise which argument will prevail in his decission, but it will not be money. We can imagine that cro gladiator is 'sick of' or 'tired of' (or something like that) japanese rings and that he want to try something new. UFC offers a little weaker HW cometition, but has lot more of glamure, lights of Las Vegas, L.A. and fights in octagon, in which crocop doesn0t have expirience yet.

In background of Mirko9s decission will be brobably fact that PRIDE is for months in financial troubles. Main men of japanese organization lost big contract with TV and they don9t manage to get new one. Besides that, there are rummors that Fedor is leaving Pride too, and with his leaving, Mirko will lost one more motiv to continue fight for japanese organization.

First UFC event, at which Mirko could participate will be 3th of February in Las Vegas.

PLEASE come to UFC Mirko...we NEED you to pwn Timmeh

 

[onebigeric]

^Fact. Please! Mirko would dominate the HW division, pure and simple. I wonder if other PRIDE fighters will be nervous about their parent orginization and make the hop? If so, Dana will really have to up the ante as far as pay goes, but the additional revenue brought in by said fighters should make up the difference.

 

[fallen]

I think he would be a great addition to the HW division in the UFC and it would be great to get to watch him fight on a regular basis

 

[JS316]

If it happened they could give him one fight LW against Chuck since he fights at about 213lbs. (I know I'm dreaming, it wouldn't happen).. I just see that as a better fight than most of the UFC heavyweights vs Mirko .

Thanx for the update!

 

[fallen]

I watched inside the UFC last night and it had Franklin on, he said that he should be cleared to spare next week and then will start back training for his next fight. One interesting thing he said was that he has not watched the fight with Silva yet and doesn't plan to until he is ready to start training. I think that this is a great move by Rich. Why both letting it get you down while you are healing and relaxing, take your time off and enjoy it then when its time to train deal with it then with a clear vision of what went wrong.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Rich is a champ, i know he'll be back better than ever...he looks like Jim Carrey so he can't fail.

 

[fistacuffs]

^^ CC - You probably can't wait for the next UFC PPV so you can rid yourself of that location!

 

[CaptainCharisma]

bastard

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Mirko Cro Cop will make up his mind today about if he's going to the UFC or not...whether he announces it today or not is a totally different story apparently

 

[onebigeric]

Good things like that are worth waiting for though. We'll have to see how PRIDE's secure future affects his decision.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

From official Mirko's site : "Mirko off the NYE card!

It was confirmed today that Mirko won't be fighting at PRIDE's NYE event.
"I still can't kick like I want to. It's the best that we give more time to this injury to heal. I want to be in perfect shape for my next fights."

But there's one far more important question lately - in which promotion will Mirko fight in the future? The big decision was made and the official statement will follow soon.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

December 02nd, 2006
Is Mirko going to UFC? Apparently UFC is offering Mirko million $ for just signing a contract, 1.2 million for first two fights and another 2 millions for 2 more fights. It sounds unbelievably, especially because UFC HW champion Tim Sylvia earned around 120.000$ for his last fight.
Mirko said: Whoever saw this contract offer was probably mistaken by one zero in the numbers. That are big numbers, even boxers dont get that amount of money today. UFC is interested in me but i didnt sign or oblige for anything yet.

Hold on to your nuts guys, Cro Cop may just come to the UFC (knock on wood)

 

[CaptainCharisma]

UFC BOUGHT WFA!!!!!

It was billed as the “ultimate” competitor. Yet in the end, the revamped World Fighting Alliance will be remembered as little more than a splattered bug on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s broad windshield.

On Monday, as first reported by the Wrestling Observer, it was revealed the WFA had unloaded fighter contracts to the organization it intended to compete with head to head, thus completing a thin chapter on what mixed martial arts promoters should not do: overpay fighters, inflate revenue and pay-per-view estimates, and under-staff the front office.

During the short time WFA reappeared on the MMA landscape, the promotion repeatedly reminded anyone who would listen that it was home to Quinton Jackson (Pictures) and Lyoto Machida — fighters with little in common besides owning wins over UFC stars.

Less than 10 months after the WFA announced its return, Jackson and Machida now have a much larger and more secure roof over their heads. And instead of hearing about their accomplishments versus Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and Rich Franklin (Pictures), we may now actually get to see how they stack up at this moment against the current and former UFC champs.

Having recently added World Extreme Cagefighting to its promotional umbrella, Zuffa — apparently out of necessity as well as a desire to quash the WFA for good — jumped at the opportunity to expand its bursting fighter roster by about 30, adding some of the biggest names in the sport in the process.

How did it happen?

Spurred on by last Wednesday’s revelation that WFA CEO Jeremy Lappen was suing the company’s owners Ross Goodman and Louis Pallazo for breach of contract, the demise of the WFA was kick-started from idle to sixth gear.

Friday, two days after the WFA delivered letters to fighters in its stable informing them they remained bound to the company through “MMA Participation Agreements,” Lappen and the WFA settled for an undisclosed sum — a clear sign that something was in the works.

Before the weekend was over, Zuffa had capitalized and the WFA was officially dead.

Now what? Will every fighter whose contract was purchased by the UFC have a spot in the rapidly expanding fight organization? And what role could the WEC play in all this?

Several sources informed Sherdog.com that the UFC plans on deciding in the next day or two exactly which fighters it will keep, and moreover, what the Las Vegas-based organization will do with the ones they holdover.

An option being considered, one source said, could see the UFC split its new acquisitions between the UFC and WEC, which will likely be showcased on HBO presuming the long-anticipated deal gets done.

With the UFC committed to Spike TV, Zuffa is apparently planning on promoting WEC as a separate brand, and as such, it wouldn’t be entirely unexpected if several of the highly-regarded additions — Jackson, Machida, Jason Miller, Urijah Faber (Pictures), Heath Herring (Pictures), among others — end up fighting under the WEC banner.

The belief is White moved to purchase WFA properties to gain the rights to Jackson so he could promote a rematch with Chuck Liddell (Pictures), not to mention prevent the selling of WFA contracts to Showtime and Pro Elite, which are set to hold a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles to announce plans for 2007.

Jackson’s contract, a one-year, three-fight deal that expires in March of ’07 (though there is an option for a second year), does guarantee the former PRIDE star a percentage of pay-per-view proceeds. In the case of Jackson’s lone WFA bout — a decision victory over Matt Lindland (Pictures) — his chunk of the pie was significantly smaller than expected, as one source with close ties to the now dead WFA front office told Sherdog.com the “King of the Streets” card pulled in fewer than 50,000 buys.

In the case of UFC stars such as Liddell, Tito Ortiz (Pictures) and Randy Couture (Pictures), pay-per-view-induced revenue has been extremely kind to their bank accounts. As such, there is speculation that the UFC could circumnavigate paying Jackson hundreds of thousands if not millions of additional dollars by placing “Rampage” on HBO-televised cards.

What that might do to a second Jackson-Liddell showdown is unknown, but it’s highly unlikely the fan-favorite light heavyweight would fight in Zuffa’s house without facing the “Iceman” in his first few tangles.

Other matches of intrigue were born out of Monday’s news as well, yet one man who will remain absent from the UFC, at least as a result of this deal, is Lindland.

The middleweight star informed Sherdog.com via e-mail Monday evening that he was not bound to the WFA in any capacity, and was therefore not among the group of fighters acquired by the UFC.

Much remains to surface in the wake of Zuffa’s quick purchase of the WFA. However, White and company must feel good about themselves knowing another big-talking challenger crashed and burned, and a year’s worth of quality fights have fallen into their laps.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Official WFA purchase announcement from UFC:

Las Vegas, NV – A subsidiary of Zuffa, LLC, which owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship® brand, announced today that it acquired select assets from the World Fighting Alliance (WFA) organization. WFA Enterprises, LLC, a subsidiary of Zuffa, purchased select fighter contracts and the trademarks and other intellectual property of World Fighting Alliance, Inc., a corporation owned by Las Vegas attorneys, Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo. The acquisition further solidifies Zuffa as the preeminent fight promoter in the world and infuses the organization with more of the world’s top MMA fighters.

Dana White, UFC President and Zuffa co-owner said, “Zuffa is committed to giving our fans the best fights between the best fighters in the world. This acquisition helps us continue fulfilling that goal.” White also said, “Goodman and Palazzo were working towards building a strong promotion. But bringing the WFA fighters into the Zuffa family is the best thing that could happen for the fighters – and for the fans.”

The WFA organization held four events, the most recent in July at the L.A. Forum with a solid fight card that was shown on pay-per-view television. “This is an exciting time for MMA as evidenced by the 60 Minutes story last night and we are glad that the WFA has played a leading role,” said Ross Goodman, President of the WFA. “This business opportunity presented itself and it made sense for everybody to make this transition.”

Under the terms of the purchase, World Fighting Alliance, Inc. will cease all operations.

About The Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship® brand is the world’s leading professional mixed martial arts organization and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., the UFC® organization produces approximately eight live pay-per-view events annually that are distributed through cable and satellite providers. In addition to its U.S. distribution, UFC fight programs are distributed throughout the world including broadcast on WOWOW, Inc. in Japan, Globosat in Brazil and Bravo in the United Kingdom. For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit www.ufc.com.

Ultimate Fighting Championship®, Ultimate Fighting®, UFC®, The Ultimate Fighter®, UFC® Fight Club™, Submission®, As Real As It Gets®, Zuffa™, The Octagon™ and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC or other respective owners

This means the UFC now has guys like:

Ricco Rodrigues
Matt Lindland
Ryoto Mahchida
Heath Herring
RAMPAGE JACKSON!!!!!