HERO’S star Kazushi Sakuraba was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday following dizzy spells and vomiting during training. Sakuraba sustained damage to his vertebrobasilar system from his August bout with Kestutis Smirnovas. In a press conference held yesterday it was stressed that Sakuraba does not have brain damage, but the vertebrobasilar damage has prevented proper blood circulation in his head and neck, stopping blood from reaching the base of his brain. Needless to say, Sakuraba is officially off of the October 9th K-1 HERO’S 7 show.
Source: Sherdog.com
The November 2nd IFL TV taping that was originally scheduled to be in Atlantic City, NJ has been moved to the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The show features Bas Rutten’s Los Angeles Anacondas vs. Matt Lindland’s Portland Wolfpack and Pat Miletich’s Iowa Silverbacks vs. Carlos Newton’s Toronto Dragons.
The two advancing squads will compete in the World Team Championship, which is set for December.
In addition to the semifinal action, the IFL announced two single bouts for the card: Mark Kerr vs. Mike Whitehead (of The Ultimate Fighter 2), and Daniel Gracie vs. Alan Goes.
Sources: Sherdog.com, WrestlingObserver.com
October is batshit crazy with UFC specials on Spike TV, so here are some upcoming programming notes.
On Monday, October 2nd Spike TV will debut the UFC Octagon Girl Search special at 10pm. As you may remember, Maxim magazine set up an online poll this past June for fans to narrow down forty potential octagon girls to ten finalists. Now the ten finalists will compete to become the next UFC octagon girl. The special will run again on Sunday the 8th at 1am.
UFC will run a marathon of The Ultimate Fighter 4 from noon to 8pm on Tuesday the 9th, followed by another Live and Inside special at 8pm. Live and Inside will cover the weigh-ins for Ortiz vs. Shamrock III (a.k.a. Ultimate Fight Night VII). Spike TV will re-air the Tito Ortiz All Access special, filmed for Oritz vs. Shamrock II, at 8:30pm. At 11:30pm it’s the premiere of Countdown to UFC 64.
Spike TV will run a marathon of The Ultimate Fighter 3 on Tuesday the 10th from 9am to 8pm, building up to Ortiz vs. Shamrock III, which airs live at 8pm. Click here to check out the full card for the evening.
Of course, don’t forget UFC 64: Unstoppable will air live on pay-per-view on Saturday, October 14th at 10pm.
