Now that UFC 68 is out of the way, we have one full month before the Ultimate Fighting Championship bliztes us with not one, not two, bot three live cards in the space of 16 days (and on two continents). And not only that, but The Ultimate Fighter 5 debuts on April 5 as well.
First up is the lead in to The Ultimate Fighter 5, live on Spike TV.
UFC Fight Night 9
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Pearl at The Palms, Las Vegas, Nevada
Lightweights: Joe “Daddy” Stevenson (Las Vegas, NV, 26-7) vs. “The Young Assassin” Melvin Guillard (Baton Rouge, LA, 20-5-2)
Heavyweights: Antoni Hardonk (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 5-2) vs. TBD
Lightweights: Kenny “KenFlo” Florian (Boston, MA, 4-3) vs. TBD
Welterweights: Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura (Tokyo, Japan, 13-1-2) vs. Drew “The Master” Fickett (Tuscon, AZ, 27-5)
Man, that TBD is gonna be one tired bugger by the end of the night. Especially when he goes from 155 to 265. Stevenson/Guillard should be an interesting match. I’ll have more on The Ultimate Fighter 5 soon.
Next up, from my former residence of Houston, comes the first PPV of the month. If you’re going, and you’re downtown during the day, I recommend you check out Zydeco Diner. Some of the best Creole/Cajun food in the city for my money. I’d also recommend Thai Spice near The Village. Actually, I don’t think you can go wrong with the restaurants in The Village
UFC 69: Shootout
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Toyota Center, Houston, TX
Live Matches
UFC Welterweight Championship (5 rounds): (C) Georges “Rush” St. Pierre (Montreal, QC, 13-1) vs. Matt “The Terror” Serra (Long Island, NY, 7-4)
Lightweights: “El Matador” Roger Huerta (Minneapolis, MN, 16-1-1) vs. Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia (Plainview, TX, 9-1)
Potential #1 Contender Match/Welterweights: Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez (Albequerque, NM, 17-0) vs. Josh “Kos” Koscheck (Fresno, CA, 8-1)
Middleweights: Yushin Okami (Kanagawa, Japan, 19-3) vs. Mike “Quick” Swick (San Jose, CA, 10-1)
Middleweights: Alan “The Talent” Belcher (Biloxi, MS, 9-2) vs. Kendall “Da Spyder” Grove (Maui, HI, 7-3)
Dark Matches
Good Ol’ Boys Match/Heavyweights: “Hillbilly Hearthrob” Brad Imes (Sacremento, CA, 3-2) vs. “The Texas Crazy Horse” Heath Herring (Las Vegas, NV, 26-12, 1 NC)
Middleweights: Thales Leites (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 9-1) vs. Pete “Drago” Sell (Bayshore, NY, 7-2)
Call Homeland Security Match/Welterweights: “The Irish Hand Grenade” Marcus Davis (Bangor, ME, 10-3) vs. “The Secret Weapon” Pete Spratt (Sherman, TX, 15-7)
Damn, He’s Lost Weight Match/Welterweights(?): Josh “Bring the Pain” Haynes (Portland, OR, 7-7) vs. Luke “The Silent Assassin” Cummo (Long Island, NY, 4-4)
If you’re keeping track, that’s three Serra guys on the card. Why they think it’s a good idea to have a bunch of New Yawkers in H-Town is beyond me. Houston has a huge Hispanic population, so I expect that Diego will be a crowd favourite against Koscheck.
And then, in the northwest corner of England…
UFC 70: Nations Collide
Saturday, April 21,2007
M.E.N Arena, Manchester, UK
Live Matches
Heavyweights: Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Zagreb, Croatia, 22-4-2) vs. Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga (Ludlow, MA, 7-1)
Unofficial UFC Commonwealth Title Match/Light-Heavyweights: Michael “The Count” Bisping (Liverpool, UK, 12-0) vs. “The King of Rock ‘n’ Rumble” Elvis Sinosic (Sydney, Australia, 8-9-2)
Heavyweights: Andrei “Pit Bull” Arlovski (Chicago, IL, 10-5) vs. Fabricio Werdum (Zagreb, Croatia, 9-2-1)
Light-Heavyweights: Forrest Griffin (Athens, GA, 13-4) vs. Ryoto “Lyoto” Machida (Belem, Brazil, 9-0)
Liverpool is roughly an hour away from Manchester, so I’d expect Bisping to be a heavy fan favourite here. Unless he comes out wearing a Liverpool jersey, of course. And when they say “Nations Collide”, they’re not kidding. We’ve got a Brit born in Cyprus, an Aussie, a Croation, a Brazilian who lives part time in Croatia, a Russian based in Chicago, a Japanese-Brazilian fighter… and Forrest Griffin. That’s multinational, baby!
