Just like on Mr. Kotter welcome back! We’ll be looking at the week that was in MMA from 4/7-4/14/2009. This was kind of a light news week but let’s start with the aftermath of the Strikeforce event this past Saturday:
Strikeforce: Shamrock v. Diaz a Success:
This past Saturday saw Strikeforce return to action for the first time since November 2008. It also marked the beginning of Strikeforce 2.0 after the acquisition of EliteXC which happened to include a television deal with Showtime (and its parent company CBS).
The show boasted some of the best fighters across weight classes and genders including: Frank Shamrock, Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, and “Cyborg” Santos among other talented fighters. Whether the fighters won or lost this was a solid return for the logical closest competitor to the UFC (at least in the U.S.).
The show drew a great crowd of 15,211 spectators to the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA the home of both Frank Shamrock and Strikeforce HQ. Strikeforce saw a gross gate of a respectable $750k.
The only notable fighter pay out was to Frank Shamrock who made $370k in his loss to Nick Diaz. The closest fighter (Scott Smith) didn’t come within $300k of Shamrock’s pay out.
Misc. Strikeforce News
It was confirmed this week that former Pride and UFC veteran Fabricio Werdum is moving over to Strikeforce after being unceremoniously dropped by the UFC after his KO loss to, then unknown, Junior Dos Santos. This seriously beefs up Strikforce’s HW division and presents an interesting match up for current champ Alistair Overeem.
It was also confirmed this week (after much speculation due to his appearance at the Strikeforce event on Saturday) that Tito Ortiz is currently in talks to join Strikeforce. This would bolster the thin LHW division for Strikeforce. Their only LHW with any name recognition is current LHW champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral.
It was also announced that Benji Radach shattered his hand in his bout with Scott Smith on Saturday. Radach underwent surgery on his right hand immediately after the fight. It is unknown how long he will be out of action.
UFC 99 and 100 Shaping Up
With only two months until UFC 99 and three until UFC 100 both fight cards have suddenly come into focus very clearly. UFC 99 will officially have 12 bouts on the card broken up as follows:
Prelims:
John Hathaway v. Rick Story
Mostapha Al Turk v. Todd Duffee
Denis Stojnic v. Stefan Struve
Paul Kelly v. Roli Delgado
Paul Taylor v. Peter Sobotta
Denis Siver v. Dale Hartt
Terry Etim v. Justin Buchholz
Main Card:
Spencer Fisher v. Caol Uno
Marcus Davis v. Dan Hardy
Mike Swick v. Ben Saunders
Cain Velasquez v. Heath Herring
Rich Franklin v. Wanderlei Silva
UFC 100 also has many confirmed fights including the following:
Frank Mir v. Brock Lesnar
Georges St. Pierre v. Thiago Alves
Mike Bisping v. Dan Henderson
Yoshihiro Akiyama v. Alan Belcher
Jon Jones v. Jake O’Brien
Dong Hyun Kim v. Jonathon Goulet
CB Dolloway v. Tom Lawlor
Matt Grice v. Shannon Gugerty
Stephan Bonnar v. Mark Coleman
Mac Danzig v. Cole Miller is unsigned but is very close to being official. Outside of the Mir v. Lesnar and St. Pierre v. Alves bouts as part of the co-main event and Bisping v. Henderson on the main card the order of the show has not been made official.
Misc. UFC News
Junie Browning’s brother will make his debut on TUF 9 this week as an injury replacement for the U.S. team after one fighter at 155 lbs was sent home due to medical issues (infectious skin lesion). Rob Browning still has to fight his way in to the house. However, based on trailers previewing the remainder of the season it appears as though Browning wins his fight.
It was also revealed this week that Anderson Silva had some harsh words for friend and former training partner Wanderlei Silva since Silva is attempting a move down to MW. W. Silva’s next bout at UFC 99 will be at a catch weight of 195 lbs to ease him into the MW division.
Silva called the move “pretentious” and had other tough words for Silva and his new training partner and fellow MW title contender Demian Maia. Silva was quite venomous for someone who also just recently changed weight classes moving up to 205 lbs which he confirmed he is interested in doing again.
Last but not least the rumored Brandon Vera v. Matt Hamill bout for UFC 101 is now rumored to have been moved to UFC 102. No reason was given.
MMA Mash Up
In other news around the MMA world it is rumored that the WEC, off the success of their last show in Chicago, is planning to put on a show in Ohio. Zuffa, owners of the UFC and parent company of the WEC, have had great success in the Buckeye state having put on shows in Columbus the last three years and a show in Cincinnati. There was no time table on which show it would be or when it would take place.
The Adrenaline 3 event featuring a main event boxing match between Ray Mercer and Tim Sylvia has added a new twist to cross promoting MMA and boxing. Since every other fight on the card is an MMA bout the promoter (Monte Cox) has decided to let the boxing match take place in the cage.
The last event to co-promote MMA and boxing (Roy Jones Jr.’s “March Badness”) was not a resounding success. It will be interesting to see how much interest this card gins up based on the fighters in the main event and the twist of a boxing match in an MMA cage.
DREAM announced their second round match ups for their FW Grand Prix to continue at DREAM 9. The bouts are as follows:
Abel Cullum v. Hideo Tokoro
Masakazu Imanari v. Bibiano Fernandes
Yoshiro Maeda v. Hiroyuki Takeya
Norifumi Yamamoto v. Joe Warren
“Kid” Yamamoto makes his debut appearance in the tournament after getting a first round bye due to injury.
That’s for No News Barred this week. Until next time,
Enjoy the fights!
