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UFC and MMA News

Total news: 621
Last news: November 24, 2010 00:03:19

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva could soon relinquish the 185-pound title he currently holds to remain at light heavyweight, where hes 2-0 with back-to-back first-round knockouts of James Irvin and Forrest Griffin. According to a Yahoo Sports report, Silvas manager, Ed Soares, approached UFC President Dana While following Silvas KO of Griffin at Saturdays UFC 101 event in Philadelphia about a long-term move to 205. - [Read more]

Rumors circulated on Sunday that Forrest Griffin’s run from the Octagon following his first-round knockout loss to Anderson Silva on Saturday at UFC 101 was due to a broken or dislocated jaw. However, according to Joe Ferraro of Sportsnet’s “MMA Connected”, Griffin’s jaw is “fine”:

Source has confirmed that the reports that Forrest has a broken jaw and was the reason he ran out of the octagon are false. His jaw is fine.

At the post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White said he hadn’t seen Griffin following the knockout and had no idea where he’d gone or why he left, though White added that he believed Griffin simply bolted from the Octagon as a result of his being an emotional fighter.

What injuries Griffin suffered in the defeat, if any, are not yet known as the card’s medical suspensions have yet to be released, but should be available in the coming days.

Click here for more UFC 101 coverage.

Some news and notes from the UFC 101 post-fight press conference:

• The official attendance for UFC 101 was 17,411. UFC President Dana White (pictured) said there were 11,000 fans for first prelim, the most-ever and the arena was nearly full at 16,500 midway through preliminary card.
• The live gate for UFC 101 was $3.55 million, the biggest in Pennsylvania history.
• The UFC awarded $60,000 fight night bonuses for UFC 101, with BJ Penn getting “Submission of the Night”, Anderson Silva getting “Knockout of the Night”, and Silva and Forrest Griffin getting “Fight of the Night”.
• White said he hadn’t seen Griffin since he ran out of the Octagon following the loss to Silva and that he “could be in Georgia for all I know”.
• Silva will return to 185-pounds for his next fight to defend the middleweight title against Dan Henderson.
• The UFC’s lightweight champ Penn will next fight Diego Sanchez.
• Anderson says a fight with light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida will never happen due to their friendship.
• White said the UFC will return to Philadelphia for a future event and is also looking at holding a future card at Fenway Park in Boston.

UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn retained his title on Saturday in the main event of UFC 101, submitting Kenny Florian in the fourth-round of their championship headliner to cap off the pay-per-view event, which took place at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. In the UFC 101 co-headliner, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva returned to the light heavyweight division and silenced his critics, following up back-to-back lackluster wins with a first-round knckout of former 205-pound champ Forrest Griffin. - [Read more]

WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres and challenger Brian Bowles, who meet in the main event of Sundays WEC 42 card in Las Vegas, successfully made weight on Saturday for the headliner. The rest of the 11-bout card also successfully made weight with the exception of lightweight Marcus Hick - [Read more]

Welcome to MMAFrenzy.coms live coverage of UFC 101: Declaration, which takes place today at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and is co-headlined by BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian and Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin. The 11-bout event is set to get underway just before 8pm ET, with the pay-per-view main card beginning at 10pm. MMAFrenzy.com will have live UFC 101 results and updates beginning at 8pm ET so stay tuned all evening for live event coverage. - [Read more]

Immediately after tonight’s UFC 101 event concludes, MMAFrenzy.com will be live-streaming the post-fight press conference from the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Watch live as UFC President Dana White (pictured) and many of the nights winners discuss the card.

Click here to watch the post-fight press conference, which is expected to begin around 1am ET.

Don Frye (pictured) has withdrawn from a matchup against Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal which was to headline M-1 Global’s August 28 “Breakthrough” event after the card was recently moved from Los Angeles to Kansas City.

Lawal announced Frye’s withdrawal and the location change in a recent video blog on YouTube.

“Don Frye pulled out because he didn’t like the location of the fight,” said Lawal. “It was originally supposed to be in Los Angeles, but I guess they moved it to Kansas City or something. I’m trying to still get that payday, so they’re going to find a replacement to take his spot.”

A new venue has not yet been announced for the HDNet-televised event and an opponent is currently being sought to take on Lawal in the evening’s main event.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest MMA news and MMA rumors.

[HT: MMAjunkie]

A middleweight matchup between Tim Kennedy and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos has been announced to headline a September 25 Showtime-televised “Strikeforce Challengers” event at the SpiritBank Event Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Kennedy (10-2), who recently joined the Texas National Guard after serving six-years with the US Army, returned to action in June after sitting out all of 2008, knocking out Nick Thomson in the second-round of their Strikeforce Challengers bout. A veteran of the IFL,  Kennedy’s lone career losses came at the hands of notables Scott Smith (due to cut) in his pro debut and Jason “Mayhem” Miller in 2007, the latter of which snapped an 8-fight winning streak.

Santos (16-13), the husband of top female fight Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, also last fought at the June Strikeforce Challengers show, losing to Joey Villasenor in the card’s headliner, his second-straight loss and fourth in his last five fights dating back to 2007.

Check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section for the latest Strikeforce rumors.

Pictured: Tim Kennedy

Middleweight Wilson Gouveia (pictured) has withdrawn from his UFC 102 matchup against Ed Herman after suffering a back injury that will sideline him until at least October.

MMA News first reported the injury on Friday just days after Herman was tapped to replace an injured James Irvin and take on Gouveia at the August 29 event in Portland.

Though the UFC could keep Herman and the card and seek a replacement for the 185-pound fight, the promotion is expected to scratch the bout entirely and instead add Herman to one of its other upcoming cards against an opponent to-be-determined.

Prior to accepting the fight against Gouveia, Herman had been set to fight Aaron Simpson on September 16 at UFC Fight Night 19 in Oklahoma City, but it was reported earlier Friday that Simpson would instead fight Dan Miller at the Spike-televised event. Whether that fight will be altered following Gouviea’s injury is not yet known.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC news and UFC rumors.

More light as now been shed on rumors that M-1 Global may have misled Gegard Mousasi in negotiations with the UFC before the light heavyweight signed with Strikeforce as CBS Radio host Carmichael Dave recently spoke to UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva on the subject of Mousasi and M-1, and later posted a transcript of that conversation to the Sherdog Forums: “Gegard called me about a week ago. He asked if it was true that the UFC offered 40/40 (40k to show, 40k bonus to win), Silva said. “I told him no, because we never actually made an offer. Not only did we not make an offer, but we would’ve assumed his Affliction contract and its terms. So whatever Affliction was paying him, that’s what we would’ve honored, and it was considerably more than 40/40.” - [Read more]

Edith Labelle is out as one of the UFCs Octagon Girls, replaced by Natasha Wicks (pictured), who won the Octagon Girl search at UFC 100 last month. "Something happened," Labelles manager James Leinhos told Fanhouse of his clients departure from the UFC on Friday, "but at this time, I can only confirm that Edith no longer works for the UFC." - [Read more]

A middleweight matchup between Dan Miller and Aaron Simpson, which was first reported early last month, is now back on for UFC Fight Night 19 after a fight between Simpson and Ed Herman was scratched from the card when Herman was tapped to replace an injured Jame Irvin at UFC 102 earlier this week.

The former IFL middleweight champ Miller (11-2) won three-straight bouts over Rob Kimmons, Matt Horwich, and Jake Rosholt to begin his UFC career, extending his unbeaten streak to ten-straight, but suffered a unanimous decision loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC 98 in May, his first loss in over three years.

Simpson, who trains at Arizona Combat Systems, made his WEC debut late last year with an 18-second knockout of David Avellan. After the promotion’s middleweight division was shut down following his win, Simpson made the jump to the UFC, defeating Tim McKenzie via first-round TKO in April.

UFC Fight Night 19, which takes place on September 16 in Oklahoma City, is co-headlined by Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard and Roger Huerta vs. Gray Maynard. Click here to check out the latest fight card for the Spike-televised event.

Pictured: Dan Miller

All 22 UFC 101 fighters hit the scales on Friday at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia to weigh in for their Saturday bouts, and the entire card, including headliners BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, Anderson Silva, and Forrest Griffin, successfully made weight. The UFC lightweight champion Penn and challenger Florian both tipped the scales exactly at 155 pounds, while UFC middleweight title-holder Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin both weighed in at 205 for their light heavyweight matchup. - [Read more]

All 22 fighters set to be in action tomorrow at UFC 101: Declaration, including headliners Anderson Silva, Forrest Griffin, BJ Penn, and Kenny Florian, will hit the scales today to weigh-in for Saturday’s matchups.

The UFC 101 weigh-ins will be streamed live on MMAFrenzy.com from the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia today beginning 4pm ET/1pm PT.

Click here to watch the weigh-ins live on MMAFrenzy.com beginning at 4pm ET, or click here to check out the event’s official card.

Pictured: Forrest Griffin

• Strikeforce made no major announcements during a media conference call on Thursday, declining to announce an opponent, date, or location for Fedor Emelianeko’s first Strikeforce bout. Among the noteworthy bits from the call were Showtime saying that Fedor is at least 6 to 9 months away from fighting on pay-per-view, M-1 Global and Fedor saying the UFC’s offer wasn’t as good as reported and that they don’t like the way the UFC treats its fighters, and it was confirmed that the UFC did take action to prevent Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral from taking place at Strikeforce’s August 15 event, but the fight will go on as scheduled.
• UFC President Dana White was unsurprisingly vocal during today’s final pre-fight press conference for Saturday’s UFC 101 event, calling Strikeforce “Strike-farce” and saying that Fedor will “put them out of business”.
• The UFC today announced a licensing agreement between JAKKS Pacific and Round 5 that will see new UFC action figure lines.
• UFC welterweight Yoshiyuki Yoshida will participate in the famed ADCC grappling competition on September 26 and 27 in Barcelona, Spain.
• Tito Ortiz’s training for a likely fight against Mark Coleman will include sessions with popular boxing trainer Freddie Roach and UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre.
• Strikeforce has signed undefeated middleweight prospect Zak Cummings.
• Joe Riggs remains hospitalized after suffering a reaction to a prescription medication that forced him to withdraw from an August 15 matchup with Nick Diaz, but will reportedly be released next week and hopes to return to action as soon as possible.
• A lightweight championship bout between title-holder Joachim Hansen and Shinya Aoki has been officially added to DREAM 11 on October 6 in Kanagawa, Japan.
• Edith Larente’s days as an Octagon girl may be over, as she’s been removed from the official list of Octagon girls following the addition of Natasha, who won the Octagon girl search last month at UFC 100.
• Hiroshi Izumi, Makoto Takimoto, and Kazunori Yokota have been added to the card for Sengoku 10th Battle, which takes place on September 23 in Saitama, Japan.
• The UFC has released lightweight Dale Hartt to reportedly make room on its roster for fighters signed from Affliction.

Pictured: UFC President Dana White

M-1 Global’s recently-announced “Breakthrough” event, which was to take place on August 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will apparently take place at another location to-be-determined after the promotion declined to approach the California State Athletic Commission about the card.

SI.com’s Josh Gross first-reported the news on his podcast on Wednesday.

Nevada was reportedly under consideration as the event’s new location, but MMAjunkie reports that M-1 had not applied for a promoters license in the state and was unlikely to be approved in time to hold the event in the state.

According to Gross, the event is now likely to take place at a venue to-be-announced in Oklahoma.

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (pictured) vs. Don Frye and Nick Thompson vs. Karl Amoussou are among the fights slated for the HDNet-televised card.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest MMA news and MMA rumors.