Lots of news and nuggets for you to look at, so let’s get started
MMAJunkie.com (nee UFCJunkie.com) obtained a copy of the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra, where apparently Matt Hughes plays some head games with Matt Serra. Based on reading the article, I have a lot of trouble believing that Serra would fall victim to Hughes psychology, but I give him credit for pulling it off. Also, you’ll notice that they’re not using a number to denote the season this time around. Yes, that’s right – in the UFC, there is no number 6.
Speaking of The Ultimate Fighter, here’s the lineup for UFC Fight Night 11, which immediately precedes episode 1 (lineup from the official UFC site):
TELEVISED
- Kenny Florian vs. Din Thomas
- Junior Assuncao vs. Nate Diaz
- Chris Leben vs. Terry Martin
- Nate Quarry vs. Pete Sell
UNTELEVISED
- Edilberto Crocota vs. Luke Cummo
- Leonard Garcia vs. Cole Miler
- Gray Maynard vs. Joe Veres
- Thiago Alves vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
- Jonathan Goulet vs. Dustin Hazelett
Goulet goes from main event to curtain jerker. That has gotta suck. But that’s a solid group of B-Show guys on the televised portion of the card. Cecil Peoples better not be reffing the Quarry/Sell match though.
Sam Caplan’s Five Ounces of Pain blog has a recap of Mark Cuban’s press conference launching HDNet Fights on, oddly enough, HDNet. Of interest is that Guy Mezger is running the show, there will be 24 events in 2008, the first card will take place next month at American Airlines Arena (home of Cuban’s Mavericks) and that Bas Rutten will co-host a weekly magazine-style MMA program. I guess Bas was sitting at home thinking that he didn’t have enough on his plate?
Anyways, the fight card is as follows:
- Erik Paulson vs Jeff Ford
- Justin Eilers vs Justin Howard
- Freddie “Speedy” Espiricueta vs Jason House
- Pete Spratt vs Sammy Morgan
- Sean Salmon vs Leopoldo Serao
- T.J. Walberger vs Anthony Lapsley
- Justin McDowell vs Ivan Jorge
- Joel Traves vs Sunia Filikitonga
Not too many household names, but I wasn’t expecting Fedor or anything. Also of note was that Cuban was talking to WWE, which Caplan speculates was about doing production. This does make sense, since WWE has some of the best production values out there. Interestingly, the “E” doesn’t actually have any broadcasts in HD yet.
The IFL has released Anacondas coach Shawn Tompkins, according to MMAWeekly.com. apparently because of the demands on Tompkins as a trainer (head heads up Team Tompkins in London, ON and is a lead trainer at Xtreme Couture, co-owned by Bas Rutten and Randy Couture). I have to wonder if this will cause Chris Hordecki to leave the IFL once his contract expires. I’d love to see him take on some quality competition, whether it’s in WEC or UFC.
ProElite.com, the company for whom The Apprentice 2 winner Kelly Perdew is president, is making more waves in the MMA community. After purchasing UK promotion Cage Rage last week, they’ve now gone and bought King of the Cage, which has been a proving ground for many fighters now in the UFC. I’m not really sure what to think of this, but hopefully this will mean that they’ll start using a common cage for all their EliteXC events now.
And finally, Dave Meltzer weighs in on the judging issue at foxsports.com. I think it’s a well balanced article, and Meltzer certainly has a unique view for this having been a judge for UFC events in the past. Have a look and let me know what you think.
