On Saturday at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, Nick Diaz won the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship Belt in the main event of “Strikeforce: Miami”. He got victory by defeating Marius Zaromskis with the help of his unaccountable punches. Other winners include a 47-year old former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker who, in his debut batch, outclassed Greg Nagy with solid strikes and full control. While on the other hand, Bobby Lashley also made his Strikeforce debut with a win.
Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos got 145-pound women’s championship belt by defeating Marloes Coenen in the third round. In their match, Cyborg looked indefensible and her opponent did not get any advantage of her skills.
Melvin Manhoef who was looking good, earlier, lost his match immediately from Robbie Lawler after Lawler connected with an overhand right.
weigh-ins, but that doesn't mean nothing notable happened.
was on the scene at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., and we'll fill you in some of the details below.
-- Herschel Walker looks ridiculously good for a 47-year-old man. He's lost a little bulk since his NFL days, but he's still sculpted and muscular. We'll find out on Saturday whether he can fight, but we found out on Friday that he's in shape.
-- Walker's opponent, Greg Nagy, is pudgy and doesn't appear to be in particularly good shape.
-- There wasn't much space for fans in the room where the weigh-ins took place, but the few fans who did turn out were vocal in their support of Melvin Manhoef, who got the loudest cheer of all the fighters on the scene. Manhoef has fought almost all of his career in Japan and isn't known beyond the hard-core fans in the United States, but those hard-core fans love him.
-- After weigh-ins and medical examinations were completed, Marloes Coenen and Cris Cyborg had one final piece of business: A pregnancy test, which is the only additional step that female fighters must go through before they get licensed. The commission did not immediately release the results of the pregnancy tests, but there was no indication that either Coenen or Cyborg was pregnant so presumably they're clear to fight.
-- Coenen and Cyborg also provided the best staredown of the night. They looked intense.
-- Watching Nick Diaz and Marius Zaromskis standing in front of each other, it's plain to see that Diaz has a significant height and reach advantage. It's going to be awfully tough for Zaromskis to overcome that disadvantage and land one of his patented head kicksJOHN CLARK VS. JOE RAY
Strikeforce Weigh-in Results:
Frank Shamrock (180) vs. Nick Diaz (180)
Cristiane Santos (152)* vs. Hitomi Akano (143.5)
Benji Radach (184) vs. Scott Smith (184)
Gilbert Melendez (154) vs. Rodrigo Damm (154.5)
Brett Rogers (262) vs. Ron Humphrey (239)
Luke Rockhold (186) vs. Buck Meredith (185)
Eric Lawson (186) vs. Waylon Kennell (185.5)
Raul Castillo (183) vs. Brandon Michaels (187.5)**
The past few months in the mixed martial arts world have seemed frantic, as most of the biggest-name fighters have been out of action for a variety of reasons. But the opening months of 2010 could be looked back upon as the calm before the storm. The first weekend of March begins an eight-week period where almost every top fighter in the sport will compete, as they return from injuries, contract disputes and even movie sets.
Over an eight-week period between March 6 and May 1, as many as nine of the top 10 in the current Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings are scheduled to compete and the summer brings the return to the spotlight of superstars Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
Highlights of how the spring and early summer are shaping up:
March 6: World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Brian Bowles (No. 8 pound-for-pound) and the man he won the title from, Miguel Angel Torres (No. 9), face separate opponents at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on a WEC event promoted in conjunction with the annual Arnold Fitness Expo. Bowles defends against Dominick Cruz, while Torres faces Joseph Benavidez, likely leading to a showdown of the winners.
March 27: UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (No. 2) returns to action after eight-and-a-half months from a torn abductor muscle to face Dan Hardy in the main event of the show in Newark, N.J., that includes the Mir vs. Carwin fight. What is significant about this date is that it is the night before World Wrestling Entertainment’s annual WrestleMania, meaning it will be a weekend battle of what would likely be two of the biggest pay-per-view events of the year, assuming boxing can’t pick up the pieces and put together Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather later in the year.
April 10: UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn (No. 4), the only UFC champion who remained healthy during the second half of 2009, defends his title against Frankie Edgar. The front-runner location for this card is Abu Dhabi, but backup locations including Dublin and Manchester and Newcastle, England, are in discussion if the Abu Dhabi deal isn’t finalized. Middleweight champion Anderson Silva (No. 1) may also return from surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow to face Vitor Belfort. The latter fight is not official for April 10 but has been the date under discussion.
April 17: Fedor Emelianenko (No. 3) returns from hand surgery on a CBS show. The date has not been officially announced, but the promotion has told fighters involved the event will be held on this date. He would face, most likely, Fabricio Werdum on the same show that Dan Henderson (No. 10) challenges Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields. This would be Henderson’s first fight in more than nine months, between his contract expiring with UFC and the two sides talks of a new deal falling apart, and Henderson signing with Strikeforce. No location has been announced for the show.
May 1: Lyoto Machida (No. 5) and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (No. 7) have a rematch in Montreal after the most disputed decision of 2009, when Machida retained his UFC light heavyweight title on Oct. 24 in Los Angeles. The six months break between fights happened because Machida had surgery on his left hand. The show also features a grudge match coming off Season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” with former light heavyweight champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Rashad Evans.
Jackson will be returning after a 14-month layoff caused by the filming of “The Ultimate Fighter” and then shooting the role of B.A. Baracus in “The A-Team” movie. The winner of that match is likely to be next in line for a title shot, and the grudge match nature of Jackson vs. Evans combined with the heated title rematch puts this show as the front-runner for the biggest pay-per-view event of the early part of the year.
The lone top 10 pound-for-pounder not fighting during that window is WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo Jr. (No. 6), who will be defending against former champion Urijah Faber in what will likely be promoted as the biggest featherweight match in MMA history. At last word, WEC was trying to secure a pay-per-view date for the match, which conceivably could come as early as April or May.
Another major return on the books is Chuck Liddell, who at 40 is still probably one of the three most popular fighters in the sport. Liddell, who was on the fall season of “Dancing with the Stars,” will be seen as a coach, with longtime rival Tito Ortiz, during Season 11 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which debuts March 31 and airs through June. Liddell hasn’t fought since an April first-round knockout loss to Rua, which at the time looked to be his final fight. The Liddell vs. Ortiz match, a rematch of a 2006 match which is still one of the three biggest pay-per-view events in MMA history, will take place at the end of the season.
Lesnar’s return still a question
Of the sport’s biggest players, the only two major question marks as to when they will fight next are UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and the most popular women’s star, Gina Carano.
Lesnar remains on the sidelines after a series of health complications. UFC president Dana White, at the request of Lesnar, has refused to talk about his biggest drawing card’s health situation since Lesnar got an update from his doctor Jan. 5. Lesnar suffered an attack of diverticulitis, essentially a perforated intestine, in November after two months of various health issues.
White had noted before the appointment that if Lesnar needed major surgery on his intestines, a strong possibility, it would put him out of action for more than a year, perhaps end his career and force him to vacate his championship. If he didn’t need surgery, he would likely fight much sooner.
The UFC has already announced a Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin match on the March 27 show at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., for the interim heavyweight championship. If Lesnar is going to fight in the next six months, the winner of this match would be the obvious choice in opponent, in what would likely be one of the most successful pay-per-view matches in company history.
While not discussing specifics of his health, one of Lesnar’s coaches, Greg Nelson, has said Lesnar would definitely return to fighting faster than people expect.
“Brock Lesnar is definitely coming back to fight,” said Nelson on in the Internet show MMA Live. “He’s just kinda coming up slowly, training, getting his body ready, and being smart with his recovery. He’s been going into the doctor and making sure everything is going well and he’ll make sure to go in for a couple of more tests to make sure he’s 100 percent ready to train when he starts up.”
Marty Morgan, who heads Lesnar’s camp and has worked with him dating back to college at the University of Minnesota, also said this past week that Lesnar would fight again but wouldn’t give a timetable as to when.
It is possible Lesnar could come out of his troubles healthier, because the disorder would force changes in his diet. Lesnar was never a stickler for what he ate, since he was notable for being a hard trainer dating back to college and could get away with eating what he wanted.
Lesnar has lost weight and hasn’t trained seriously since an episode that hospitalized him for two weeks. But if the remnants of the disease don’t allow him to regain the level of size and strength he had in the past, he would be in trouble because there is no major fighter in the sport so reliant on pure power and the ability to physically manhandle their opponents through wrestling than Lesnar. As a heavyweight who competes at around 280 pounds, Lesnar’s size, strength and wrestling ability allowed him to beat Randy Couture for the heavyweight title in only his fourth professional fight, and then stop former champion Mir in his fifth.
As for Carano, Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker said that the woman who put women’s MMA on the map, who is currently shooting the lead role in the Steven Soderbergh movie, “Knockout,” will likely return during the second quarter of the year.
Nate Diaz won Season 5 of "The Ultimate Fighter" but he's clearly been passed by a guy that he beat earlier on the show. Gray Maynard was no match for Diaz's submission skills in the middle of 2007 and couldn't impede his trip to the TUF 5 Finale. Now the tables are turned. Maynard hasn't lost in UFC tries and now it's Diaz (11-4, 6-2 UFC) trying to stop his opponent's trip to what could amount to a 155-pound division finale. With a win in The Ultimate Fight Night main event, Maynard (8-0, 6-0 UFC) could earn a shot at UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn.
Today's weigh-in at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., went off without a hitch. Not a single fighter had an issue making weight. The only drama came when Rick Story got a little froggy in the face of his opponent Jesse Lennox. Dana White, donning a slick bomber jacket, had to play on-stage security guard.
Cagewriter will have full coverage of the WEC lightweight title fight between Ben Henderson and Jamie Varner from Arco Arena in Sacramento. WEC 46 also marks the return of former featherweight champs, Mike Brown and Urijah Faber. With Faber, a Sacramento-native on the card, the WEC expects a crowd in excess of 9,000.
"I feel like I am a little bit faster, and a little bit all over stronger," Faber told News10 in Sacramento. "But for me it is more than just being big, it is about being athletic."
Faber is returning from a seven-month absence. He suffered a broken right hand and a dislocated thumb on his left hand in a loss at WEC 41 to Mike Brown.
Jamie Varner (155) v. Ben Henderson (154.5) - WEC lightweight title
Raphael Assuncao (146) v. Urijah Faber (145.5) - Featherweight
Dave Jansen (156) v. Kamal Shalorus (155) -Lightweight
Mike Brown (146) v. Anthony Morrison (146) - Featherweight
Mackens Semerzier (144.5) v. Deividas Taurosevicius (146)- Featherweight
NON-TELEVISED UNDERCARD
Akitoshi Tamura (135) v. Charlie Valencia (134) - Bantamweight
Wagnney Fabiano (136) v. Clint Godfrey (135.5) - Bantamweight
Bryan Caraway (146) v. Mark Hominick (146) - Featherweight
George Roop (135.5) v. Eddie Wineland (135.5) - Bantamweight
Will Campuzano (136) v. Coty Wheeler (136) - Bantamweight
One of the greats of the Ultimate Fighting Championship had yet another superb night Saturday at UFC 108 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
He was on top of his game, though the critics were out in full force beforehand, predicting his decline.
He came up with a superstar performance on a night when many were expecting little more than yawns.
Joe Silva, the UFC’s frequently badgered matchmaker, proved Saturday that he’s one of the company’s most valuable assets by putting together a sensational card of fights that frequently left the crowd of 13,255 delirious with excitement.
UFC 108 was decimated by nearly a dozen fighter injuries and illnesses, forcing Silva to rework the card multiple times. Enough guys dropped off the card to field a football team, there were replacements for the replacements and many critics were howling, predicting a disastrous card and calling for a cut in the pay-per-view price.
The critics would have been correct if the card ended after the first fight, a lightweight match between Rafaello Oliveira and John Gunderson that was a dull, desultory affair that Oliveira won by decision.
After the opener, though, fight after fight was a jaw-dropper, making it clear that Silva is still pretty good at what he does.
The main event, in which Rashad Evans defeated Thiago Silva on a unanimous decision, was a quality fight but seemed like a letdown after the series of other A-quality bouts.
“The show speaks for itself,” said Sam Stout, whose lightweight war with Joe Lauzon will be among the contenders for 2010 Fight of the Year some 363 days after it occurred. “Everyone who fought put on an impressive performance.”
Prior to the card, UFC president Dana White vigorously defended the quality of the show and went on the offensive against those who were critical of the matches.
Much is made on Internet bulletin boards of a perceived lack of respect that White shows fighters, but White got the last laugh Saturday. He wound up turning the critics’ words against them.
“All these guys (on the Internet) are always talking about respecting fighters,” White said. “But more disrespect was thrown at the fighters than ever. Listen, I think they were trying to take shots at the UFC, but what they’re doing is taking shots at the fighters.
“I go out and we put together the best fights we can and we go promote it. Saying that this card sucked, or that it was lackluster, or that it didn’t live up to being a New Year’s Eve card, well, I said it at the (pre-fight) press conference: These guys always deliver.”
Well, not always, but Silva comes through more often than not. On Saturday, there were at least a half-dozen mind-blowing moments.
The submission that Cole Miller slipped on Dan Lauzon in their lightweight fight was so incredible and came from out of nowhere that the UFC ought to consider adding it to the highlight reel they play in arenas before each show.
Stout and Joe Lauzon put on a battle for the ages, highlighted by a sequence in the first round in which they rolled across the cage as Stout attempted to work his way out of a kimura attempt by Lauzon.
Jim Miller also pulled off a brilliant submission, but he did so after playing Duane Ludwig’s game. He knocked down Ludwig, who seemed to have a striking advantage, with a clean shot and then immediately went about pulling off his submission.
Paul Daley bragged for weeks that he would knock out Dustin Hazelett, then he went out and did just that.
Heavyweight Junior dos Santos continued his ascent toward stardom, blowing away Gilbert Yvel.
There were many such moments throughout the night.
One of the reasons that cards that are panned turn out to be good is that the ones that are being ripped are generally the ones without the biggest stars.
When the big names fight, the matchups usually dictate themselves. In that instance, Silva doesn’t have the ability to influence the card.
But on cards like Saturday’s, where there are more mid-tier fighters, Silva can play with the matchups and arrange the bouts so the styles produce the most fireworks.
“He’s the best in the business,” White said of Silva. “… Joe Silva is awesome and he does a fantastic job. He’s the best.”
Jim Miller said he wasn’t surprised the card turned out the way it did. He was irked, as were many of the fighters on the show, by the constant flood of Internet whining about the quality of the show.
He had two other opponents who fell out before Ludwig took the bout. He said he was geared for a prime performance, believing an impressive win could vault him into the top 10.
“Everybody stepped up and it was a great night of fights,” he said. “People don’t understand that injuries happen in this sport. If they don’t believe it, they ought to get on the mat and train. We train harder than any other athletes on the planet. Guys are going to get hurt.”
And yet, there is always something going on. On Saturday, former heavyweight boxing champion James Toney was hanging around the press room, begging White for a fight, which White said he’d consider.
There were smiles all around, as White obviously was pleased by what he’d seen after what he’d heard for months.
“At the end of the day, if you’re a fight fan, you put your money down because you want to see great fights,” he said. “Sometimes, we have a card filled with our big names, like UFC 100, and they put on a show. And sometimes, we have guys who get hurt or have something go on in their lives and they can’t make it. But we are fight promoters and this is what we do. This is why we have so many guys under contract. We’re in the fight business and at the end of the day, if you come to one of our shows, you’re going to get a kick-ass night of fights.”Rashad Evans spent the first two rounds in his UFC 108 main event with Thiago Silva implementing a specific game plan. He’d move forward, throw a few punches to get Silva off balance, and explode with a takedown.
While he was unable to finish Silva, who was coming off a knockout win over one of Evans’ best friends and training partner Keith Jardine, he largely shut Silva’s offense down completely for two rounds and seemed on the verge of an easy decision.
Then, in a split second, things changed. Evans was caught with a punch and put down. Silva had him in trouble, but then held up and Evans had a chance to recover.
It became a battle, both with a clock ticking away and with both men’s conditioning as Evans tried to hold on. But Evans, in his first match back since dropping the UFC light heavyweight title to Lyoto Machida, survived the third round to win the unanimous decision by straight 29-28 scores on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“I said to myself, `No, this isn’t going to happen again,’” said Evans (14-1-1). “I was thinking, `Keep your composure,’ and I was talking myself through it. When I get rocked with a good shot, I talk with myself. My legs felt a little loose so I was going to try and tie him up.”
He blamed the knockdown and the period when he was in danger of losing to getting tired after pushing the pace heavily, as well as a mental lapse causing him to do exactly what he had been drilled in training not to do.
“I know he’s a pretty good striker but I didn’t think he had the power, the one-punch power, even though he knocked out Jardine (Evans’ good friend and training partner),” said Evans after the fight. “I wasn’t too afraid of his power.
I would go to implement my game and break him down with pressure. In the third round, I got a little bit tired. I don’t know if I got lazy, and he got me with a shot.”
“My coaches told me, `Don’t fade away after somebody throws a jab,’ and that’s exactly what I did,” Evans continued. “He slipped a right hand in there and it caught me. It landed, and I thought I rolled with the punch. I tried to move my legs. But my legs were gone, so I grabbed him and tried to recover.”
The key moment where Silva (14-2) let Evans off the hook was when, a moment after his big shot, he started playing to the crowd, which fired up the crowd, but gave Evans a chance to recover.
Silva had been taunting Evans, putting his hands down and inviting Evans to throw, and waved to get the crowd to react, but Evans ignored getting shown up.
“He was giving himself a chance to recover,” he said. “I felt him breathing. After we got done with that exchange he was breathing really hard and he was doing everything he can to motivate himself.”
“It didn’t affect me at all. He was trying to excite himself and he was trying to rest a little bit. It’s not my first fight. I’m not going to get goaded into somebody waving his hands and saying ‘come get me.’
“A fight is a strategy,” he continued. “He was trying to get me to lose my head. There’s a saying, if you lose your head, your ass goes with it. You can’t fault him for trying to get me out of my element and to open up so he can catch me.”
The score was obvious, as there was little question Evans won the first two rounds, that Silva won the third, and that Silva didn’t follow up his advantage and do enough damage to earn a 10-8 third which would have made the fight a draw. Still, most of the crowd announced at 13,255 fans, heavily pro-Silva from the start, booed the decision heavily.
The win will lead to a much-anticipated match with Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, which UFC president Dana White said he’s hoping to put together on the scheduled May 1 show in Montreal.
The match has been the source of a lot of controversy. The two were opposite coaches on season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, which ended early last month, which featured a number of confrontations ending with Evans vs. Jackson being one of the most anticipated matches in company history.
But Jackson pulled out of the original Dec. 12 fight date in his hometown of Memphis to take a lead role as the B.A. Baracus character in “The A-Team” movie. At one point, mad at White being critical of him for taking the movie role, he said he was quitting the UFC. Most recently he said that he didn’t want the fight if Evans were to lose to Silva.
“I don’t have any messages for Rampage,” said White. “This fight should have happened a few weeks ago. I’m over it, I’m past it. It’s time to do this fight when he’s done with the movie.”
Evans noted that his coaches wanted him to implement a new fighting strategy and feels he needs another fight to get it down before facing Machida.
“Sticking to a game plan is always hard, especially when your opponent is trying to stop you,” said Evans. “I said it time and time again before the fight, I said that I was going back to wrestling. I wanted to throw hands but my corner warned me against it. They told me not to get into a battle where it’s Russian Roulette and whoever gets the punch wins.”
Still, Evans admitted disappointment, even though he beat one of the top names in the division, and avenged the loss of his teammate. “Overall, yeah, I was happy to get the win, but I really wanted to go out there and be really impressive,” he said. “I worked really hard and I integrated stuff that I really don’t do. I was moving forward and I usually stay on the outside.
Moving forward with Thiago you put yourself in the line of fire. It’s hard to stick to the game plan when you’re used to doing things one way. But I’m disappointed I got tired in the third round.”With UFC post-fight bonuses consistently hitting the high five figures, the promotion’s athletes are constantly gunning for the honors… and the bonus check. Saturday’s UFC 108 roster was no different, and they didn’t make it easy on UFC brass. Seven of the night’s 10 bouts ended via submission or knockout.
After entertaining 13,255 fans at the MGM Grand Arena, pulling in a $2 million gate, according to UFC officials, the award winners at UFC 108 took home bonus checks of $50,000
Paul “Semtex” Daley kept blazing up the UFC welterweight trail on Saturday night, and he did it in stunning fashion. Dustin Hazelett, whose forte is grappling, showed admirable stand-up abilities, but he stood just a split second too long, eating a left hook from Daley that sent him crashing to the mat, lights out. It was another highlight reel finish for Daley that also earned him the Knockout of the Night.
Cole Miller found a way to survive after being dropped by a Dan Lauzon overhand
left, but he didn’t stop there. In a tremendous display of jiu-jitsu, he locked on an inverted triangle then finished Lauzon with a Kimura shoulder lock for the Submission of the Night.
Sam Stout was cut open and nearly submitted in the opening round, but somehow escaped Joe Lauzon’s submission attempts to come back and batter him. They fought on through rounds two and three, Lauzon searching for a way to catch Stout in a submission, but Stout continually staying a step ahead, outstriking the
elder Lauzon brother. For their efforts, both Stout and Lauzon went home with an extra $50,000 and Fight of the Night honors. yahoosports.com
$500 bounty on Dana White in free online poker tourney
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2010
DUSTIN HAZELETT vs. PAUL DALEY
JOE LAUZON VS. SAM STOUT
JIM MILLER VS. DUANE LUDWIG
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS VS. GILBERT YVEL
MARTIN KAMPMANN VS. JACOB VOLKMANN
COLE MILLER VS. DAN LAUZON
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO VS. STEVE CANTWELL
MARK MUNOZ VS. RYAN JENSEN
MIKE PYLE VS. JAKE ELLENBERGER
RAFAELLO OLIVEIRA VS. JOHN GUNDERSON
Live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena – Tickets on Sale Now
Las Vegas, NV (USA) – With the pivotal light heavyweight war between Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva already slated to headline the card, The Ultimate Fighting Championship®(UFC®) confirms the remaining bouts for UFC 108: EVANS VS. SILVA, which is presented by “Bayonetta” on Saturday, January 2, 2010 and live on pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Starting off the New Year in style, UFC 108 will feature a card stacked with explosive battles such as Dustin Hazelett vs. Paul Daley, Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout, Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig, Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel, Martin Kampmann vs. Jacob Volkmann, Cole Miller vs. Dan Lauzon, Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Steve Cantwell, Mark Munoz vs. Ryan Jensen, Mike Pyle vs. Jake Ellenberger and Rafaello Oliveira vs. John Gunderson.
Tickets for UFC 108 are priced at $600, $400, $300, $200, $100 and $50, not including applicable service charges, are on sale and are available at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at UFC.com, www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
UFC 108 will be available live on pay-per-view on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, BellTV, Shaw Communications and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.95 ($49.95/Canada) for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).
On an impressive submission streak, Dustin Hazelett (fighting out of Cincinnati, Ohio/14-4 professional record) followed up his brilliant flying armbar victory over Josh Burkman with another win by armbar against Tamdan McCrory at UFC 91. Now the 23-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and Louisa, Kentucky native will look for his sixth UFC win while testing his standup skills against devastating striker Paul Daley (fighting out of Nottingham, England/22-8-2). A World Muay Thai champion with a tremendous international resume, the 26-year-old “Semtex” blasted his way into the UFC with a thunderous first-round TKO against welterweight contender Martin Kampmann at UFC 103 and he plans on a repeat performance against Hazelett.
After arriving on the scene in 2006 with a 48-second dismantling of MMA legend Jens Pulver in his UFC debut, Joe Lauzon (fighting out of Bridgewater, Mass./17-4) has gone on to win four of his next five Octagon bouts. The 25-year-old lightweight has finished Kyle Bradley and Jeremy Stephens in his last two bouts and now faces skilled striker Sam Stout (fighting out of London, Ontario, Canada/15-5-1). The 25-year-old “Hands of Stone” has three UFC wins in his career and is coming off a unanimous decision victory against the durable Matt Wiman at UFC 97.
Check this out ! UFC: Best Of UFC 2009 [Blu-ray]
Winner of four of his first five fights in the UFC, Jim Miller (fighting out of Whippany, N.J./15-2) is making plenty of noise in the lightweight division. In his last two fights, the 26-year-old Sparta, New Jersey-born fighter earned a unanimous decision victory against veteran Mac Danzig followed by a solid TKO win against Steve Lopez at UFC 103. Now Miller turns his attention to knockout artist Duane “Bang” Ludwig (fighting out of Denver, Colo./27-9). A veteran of two UFC fights, Ludwig turned heads with an 11-second destruction of Jonathan Goulet in 2006 and is aiming to keep his unbeaten Octagon streak going.
A fighter that is impressively tearing his way through the heavyweight division, rising star Junior Dos Santos (fighting out of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil/9-1) knocked out Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve before forcing a verbal submission due to strikes against feared mixed martial artist Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 103. Now the 25-year-old faces one of the toughest tests of his career against the experienced Gilbert Yvel (fighting out of Amsterdam, Netherlands/36-13-1, 1 NC). A respected PRIDE® veteran, Yvel has fought some of the best fighters in the world en route to 31 KOs in his 36 career wins.
A successful middleweight fighter that has found even greater success in the stacked welterweight division, Martin Kampmann (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev./15-3) earned a split-decision victory against former World Extreme Cagefighting® welterweight champion Carlos Condit last April after defeating some of the toughest fighters in the 185-pound weight class. But the 27-year-old might be meeting his match on the ground when he faces three-time NCAA Division I All-American Jacob Volkmann (fighting out of White Bear Lake, Minn./9-1). The 29-year-old former Big Ten collegiate wrestling champion will be seeking his first UFC win on January 2nd.
With four UFC wins already under his belt at age 25, Cole Miller (fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla./15-4) impressed many last year with his submission victory against MMA veteran and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Jorge Gurgel. The Augusta, Georgia native followed that up with another submission victory, this time against Junie Browning last April. Now the well-rounded lightweight will touch gloves with 21-year-old phenom Dan Lauzon (fighting out of Bridgewater, Mass./12-2). The younger brother of UFC veteran Joe Lauzon, Dan was thrown into the fire right away when he drew veteran Spencer Fisher as his first UFC opponent in 2006. Lauzon has learned plenty from the experience and will take that knowledge into the Octagon™ when he faces Miller.
There are few light heavyweights more experienced than Vladimir Matyushenko (fighting out of El Segundo, Calif./23-4). The 38-year-old Belarusian impressed many at UFC 103, returning to the Octagon for the first time in six years and earning a unanimous decision victory against Igor Pokrajac. But “The Janitor” will have his hands full when he squares off against UFC up-and-comer Steve Cantwell (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev./7-3). A former WEC® light heavyweight champion, the 23-year-old had three consecutive wins in the WEC before defeating Razak Al-Hassan by armbar in his UFC debut in 2008.
After making the drop to middleweight, Mark Munoz (fighting out of Vallejo, Calif./6-1) earned a split decision win against Nick Catone at UFC 102. A 2001 NCAA Division I national champion wrestler at Oklahoma State, “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” has worked hard to develop his entire game and looks to become a force in the 185-pound class. But the 31-year-old will need to get by Ryan Jensen (fighting out of Omaha, Neb./15-4) if he is to truly make some noise in the talent-rich division. Coming off an impressive first-round victory over Steve Steinbeiss, the 32-year-old Jensen is well-rounded and ready for a trip to the next level of the division.
Nicknamed “Quicksand,” Mike Pyle (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev./18-6-1) took his time against his September opponent, Chris Wilson, submitting the vet in the third round of their bout. Now the 34-year-old welterweight and Dresden, Tennessee-born fighter looks to get by 24-year-old Jake Ellenberger (fighting out of Omaha, Neb./21-5). Ellenberger, a retired Marine and former wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska, has 13 wins by KO/TKO and five by submission in his career.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with a 9-2 mixed martial arts record, Rafaello Oliveira (fighting out of Whippany, NJ) holds three wins by TKO and three by submission in his professional career. A lightweight making his UFC debut, John Gunderson (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev./22-6) is known for his sharp boxing skills but will need his complete fight game to be on point when he faces the grappling wiz from Brazil.
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