Boxing/MMA Fights - local, national, world

[burton2019]

Phil Baroni has verbally agreed to a contract with the UFC, according to a source close to the fighter. The veteran welterweight’s potential signing will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows as well as shed some light on the brewing feud between the UFC and rival promotion Strikeforce.

According to an MMAJunkie.com report, the UFC has also signed Dennis Hallman, another former Strikeforce fighter. A source close to the UFC intimated more signings might be on the horizon as fighters complete their Strikeforce contracts.

"We wish Phil the best of luck and hope he can revive his career,'' Strikeforce Founder and CEO Scott Coker said in a release Thursday. "If he can, maybe one day, he can return and fight for us."

Strikeforce consultant Bob Cook confirmed to Sherdog.com that Baroni was released from his Strikeforce contract in the past few days and would be free to sign with another promotion.

Baroni (13-11) dropped a unanimous decision to Joe Riggs in St. Louis in June. He had won three bouts in a row before the loss.

[Biggin]

will stirkeforce let jacare have a rematch with mousasi after mousasi's big win tonight?

gegard will shoot up the LHW rankings after tonight, he was big ballin haha

[burton2019]

The UFC will soon have a notable addition to its light-heavyweight division, according to former UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

During a media conference call to promote his upcoming UFC 102 main-event fight with Randy Couture, "Minotauro" Nogueira said his twin brother, Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira, will soon be announced as a UFC fighter.

Additionally, a source close to the fighter today told MMAjunkie.com "Little Nog" has been scratched from a Sept. 12 Bitetti Combat show, where he was slated to fight Alex Stiebling.

[burton2019]

Jason "Mayhem" Miller vs Jake Shields Possible for Strikeforce Interim Middleweight Title
by Kid Nate on Aug 17, 2009 10:49 PM EDT in News 29 comments

At the post-event press conference after Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and DREAM event producer Keiichi Sasahara discussed the possibilities of the Strikeforce/DREAM alliance.

As reported by MMA Junkie, Sasahara pointed out DREAM's contributions to the Strikeforce card:

"For this event, we have sent Ishida and Gegard Mouasi as fighters from Japan and DREAM," Sasahara said through an interpreter. "Not only these fighters, but we would like to send our champion-class fighters – and if Strikeforce will allow us, Strikeforce's champion-class fighters will come to Japan."

Scott Coker discussed serveral potential match-ups:

"I'd love to get (DREAM lightweight Shinya) Aoki to come here and fight Josh Thomson or Gilbert Melendez," Coker said. "I'd like to see Melvin Manhoef fight Robbie Lawler.

...
Coker said he was also targeting a bout between Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Jake Shields – a bout that could potentially serve as Strikeforce's promised interim middleweight title fight.

"The thing about 'Mayhem,' he's fighting in Japan and his contract allows him to fight in Japan with DREAM, but he also has a contract with Strikeforce," Coker said. "You will see him in Strikeforce, and whether he's fighting for DREAM or for us, 'Mayhem' Miller vs. Jake Shields, we're trying to put that fight together."

One flicker of trouble in paradise however:

Of course, DREAM was also trying to put together a third meeting between Miller and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. Coker said it wasn't completely determined how things would finally work out.

The Mayhem vs Jacare title fight has been snake-bit from the get go. The ugly No Contest at DREAM.9 satisfied no one and I don't know if there is even an appetite for a third match between the two. Now that match promises to get between Jake Shields and a credible drawing opponent for the Strikeforce interim belt.

I can't help but wondering if Mitsuhiro Ishida's accusations that Gilbert Melendez was illegally greasing before their lightweight interim title match Saturday will cause tensions between the California and Japanese camps.

As much as I have been rooting for World Victory Road's Sengoku promotion to surpass DREAM as the top Japanese promotion (or for either of them to become commercially viable), I have to admit that I am excited by the prospects of the matches Coker and DREAM are talking about.

More importantly, Mayhem Miller is one fighter who has the potential to be a bit of a breakout star for Strikeforce. If the cards lay out right for Coker and company, Miller is someone I can see as a credible draw in a feature fight (not a headliner, but the 2nd biggest fight on the card) on CBS.

HT MMA Supremacy's fan post.

[Biggin]

Lil Nog is gonna be a mind **** to the casual fan haha

they look exactly alike, hell their names are dangerously similiar.

all this MW title talk, when is Cung Le gonna fight again? he is their champ, but he jus doesnt seem to wanna fight anymore.
but mayhem vs shields would be interesting, if shields can improve his standup he would beat mayhem handily i think.

[burton2019]

Anderson Silva wants heavyweight paydays, more notes

by Josh Gross

Anderson Silva wants big-money event fights. And he's willing to work at heavyweight to make sure they happen.

Prior to Silva's flooring Forrest Griffin earlier this month in Philadelphia, SI.com confirmed that Silva's representatives had spoken with Zuffa about the heralded UFC middleweight champion moving up to heavyweight for the first time in his career.

Not only that, they already had an opponent in mind: Frank Mir.

Disinterested by middleweight contenders Nathan Marquardt, Demian Maia and Dan Henderson, and unwilling to fight close friend Lyoto Machida at light heavyweight -- where Silva could conceivably knock off challengers and make a disaster out of the UFC's marquee division -- "The Spider" needs new, challenging scenarios to stay motivated. A move to heavyweight would certainly achieve that, and according to Silva's manager Ed Soares, the UFC was receptive to the idea.

Based on longevity and dominance, the label of MMA's best fighter has arguably belonged to Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko for the past few years. However, the gap between Emelianenko and Silva has closed to a photo finish. And if the UFC can be convinced tha a move to heavyweight is the right plan as 185 sorts itself out, Silva could set himself up to supplant Emelianenko as the sport's best.

It would indeed be impressive for a former world champion at 167 pounds to climb all the way to heavyweight. If he gets his way and beats Mir, that would set up blockbusters against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, or, dare we say it, Brock Lesnar, a fight Silva would accept if the money is right.

Beyond legacy issues, which media and fans tend to focus on more than fighters, the move up could drastically improve Silva's paydays, which would increase with the size of his opponents and corresponding pay-per-view numbers.

For all those reasons, I like the move.

Sure, the organization's middleweight division features several threats. But outside of Maia, we've already seen Silva brush most challengers aside. Silva's team argues that Henderson, Marquardt and Maia aren't deserving. They want the Marquardt-Maia winner to fight Henderson to establish a true contender in the division. I don't think it's a terrible idea. There shouldn't be any disagreement that Marquardt or Maia against Henderson would be a perfect bout to use the Nevada option of five-round non-title fights (more on that to come).

Otherwise, the one challenger rarely mentioned these days is Yushin Okami, whom Silva should fight before he leaves the division for good. Outside of that, you're talking about Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva, both great names and potential draws who are just emerging at 185.

The best bouts might come at light heavyweight -- Silva vs. Rampage; Rashad; Shogun; and down the road, Jon Jones or Gegard Mousasi -- but with Silva and Machida refusing to fight, an extended stay at 205 doesn't make sense. By the sound of things, the talented Brazilians won't compete no matter how much pressure comes down from Dana White and the UFC.

"I'm gonna say there's no way they fight," said Soares, who also manages Machida.

What does that leave? Heavyweight.

Who wouldn't want to see whether Silva at his walk-around 215 to 220 pounds is good enough to defeat opponents regardless of weight? Pound for pound personified, I say. A win or two in the division would embolden fans and media with enough hope that Silva could be the one to stop Lesnar.

The pound-for-pound king an underdog? Imagine that.

(Special thanks to e-mailer Jared for the tip.)

Nevada leads the way
As a close observer of state regulators since I began covering MMA more than nine years ago, I've always been impressed by the speed with which Nevada could enact rules changes. Perhaps that had more to do the approach of my home state of California, which works a bit like a tortoise negotiating a minefield, but still, Nevada deserves credit for following through on several changes to its regulations on Wednesday.

I've long been an advocate for five-round non-title main events, especially when championship caliber fighters were in the mix. Actually, I've proposed pushing title fights to seven rounds, but that debate has lost steam over the years. Twenty five minutes should be enough time to resolve a fight. Fifteen minutes? Not really. We're talking clashes between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson and Keith Jardine. Even something like Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann would qualify in my book.

Now, promoters in Nevada can push a non-title headliner to five rounds, providing world class fighters a real opportunity to finish bouts instead of the inevitable race to a decision. Let's hope other regulators follow suit.

I'm less excited about the prospect of instant replay to check on the validity of an outcome. Depending on how it's used, of course, it can be a great tool. But not all events will be broadcast. What about those? Either way, it'll be a neat experiment.

And finally, the commission took steps towards addressing the GSP-Penn "Greasegate" controversy that followed the pair's January fight. Language now exists that makes the use of foreign substances on the body that "could result in an unfair advantage" illegal. Hard to believe it wasn't before.

Georges St. Pierre, of course, was never reprimanded for doing anything wrong during a fight he dominated. But the specter of shadiness was reason enough to clarify the rule.

Kudos to Keith Kizer and the NSAC.

Congrats to HDNet's Inside MMA
I've had the good fortune of appearing on HDNet's "Inside MMA" more than a handful of times. This Wednesday, the weekly mixed martial arts news program taped its 100th episode, a special retrospective featuring Kenny Rice, Bas Rutten and Ron Kruk looking back on some of the show's greatest guests (of which I'm sure I made the cut), and moments. Catch it if you can. As always, the show airs on Friday

[burton2019]

looks like lesnar/carwin and cain/rothwell



"On the heels of Shane Carwin being scratched from UFC 104 to challenge Brock Lesnar for the division title in November, MMAmania.com (UFC blog for UFC news, results, videos, rumors, fights, pics and tickets — MMAmania.com) can confirm that former IFL and Affliction heavyweight standout Ben Rothwell has agreed to step in for “The Engineer” versus Cain Velasquez on Oct. 24.

Rothwell is coming off a dominating TKO win over Chris Guillen at Adrenaline II back in December 2008. Prior to that, “Big” was riding a career high 13-fight win streak before running into former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski in July 2008 during the inaugural Affliction event.

Before the loss, he had defeated former UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 8 standout Krzysztof Soszynski, Roy “Big Country” Nelson and others.

The Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS)-trained fighter was on course to throw hands with Chase Gormley at the same event however, the UFC quickly shuffled the deck after Carwin’s departure.

The winner will likely be next in line for a title shot pending the outcome of UFC 106."

[MikeJones]

I read Arlovski is gonna be on Bully Beatdown. LOL

[Biggin]

and eddie alvarez

[MikeJones]

Jake shields was on it the other day I think. Or I dreamed I watched it one.