Alright fight fans, here we are once again, celebrating and craving more of the fastest growing sports in the world: MMA. Fresh off the heels of a jammed packed UFC 144 card in Japan there is a lot of news to cover, ponder over, and get excited about.
First, I must lend out a heartfelt congratulation to the new UFC Lightweight Champion, Benson Henderson. Henderson put on a fabulous performance against Frankie Edgar on Saturday night to claim the UFC strap after a 25 minute war. The fight was close, but I clearly thought that Henderson won the fight. I also would like to congratulate Ryan Bader, Jake Shields, and Anthony Pettis. All three fighters won huge fights against top competition and really gave the MMA world good things to talk about. And to all the fighters that competed in UFC 144, thank you greatly for putting on a fantastic show. Keep working hard. Your fans, and even haters, recognize and appreciate all that you do. Cheers, guys.
Now on to today’s news…Let’s start with what I thought was the most exciting news today. First we found out that Yves Edwards was injured while getting ready for his upcoming fight with Donald Cerrone at UFC on FX 3 in May. The news was at first upsetting, as Yves is a brilliant veteran of the game that is extremely fun to watch, but the UFC reacted well, as they always do, and replaced the injured Edwards with the talented and always exciting, Jeremy Stephens. Now Cerrone and Stephens will meet at UFC on FX 3 on May 13th. Keep an eye on this fight. I’m promising fireworks.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani in Japan this past weekend Carlos Condit explained that he is going to sit out and wait for Georges St Pierre to recover from his recent ACL surgery. This will now freeze two welterweight belts in the UFC. I thought the whole idea behind having an interim champion was to keep a belt active until the original belt is back in service. I’m interested to see what the UFC is going to make of this, especially since GSP doesn’t want to “rush” (ironically) his recovery and comeback. Hmmm...
The UFC today released a roster of 32 lightweight fighters for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. TUF 15 will begin on March 9th and will be coached by UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and number one contender, again, Urijah Faber. The two will fight at the conclusion of the season to complete a very closely contested trilogy. The two have split the first two fights.
The first season of the Ultimate fighter abroad, “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil”, also broke through to the top news today. The season, which is being coached UFC middleweights, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva, will begin on March 25th. It was announced late today that FUEL TV will air the show in the U.S, although it is still unclear when. How strange it will be to have two different seasons of TUF airing at the same time…interesting. The coaches and the final’s contestants from this show are expected to fight on the UFC 147 card in Brazil. Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen are also expected to headline the card, although the fight is still yet to be announced. More news regarding TUF: Brazil will follow in the coming days.
The UFC announced today that fans are invited to a press conference next week to help promote May's UFC on FOX 3 event. The presser takes place March 6 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and includes many fighters from the card, including lightweight headliners Jim Miller and Nate Diaz.
Officials today announced that India’s Super Fight League has singed Todd Duffy, Trevor Prangley, and Baga Agaev all to four fight deals. This is a big day for that promotion as all three of those fighters have competed against top competition world-wide. We’ll if the addition helps the company expand.
After last week’s Cage Warriors 46 main-event victory, Andreas Kraniotakes will now fight recent Bellator competitor Mike Hayes for the organization's vacant heavyweight title. We’ll keep an eye on these two fighters as the heavyweight division continues to become more competitive and deep.
Bellator also announced its officially finalized 11-bout “Bellator 60” card. The card will air on MTV2.
An interesting quote came out today: UFC 144 winner, Tim Boetsch stated that he wanted to fight Dan Henderson next. He stated, “Honestly, the name that really pops in my head is Dan Henderson just because they’re wondering what to do with him. Dan Henderson has been a hero of mine since I started in this sport. I really admire the guy. He’s a great fighter, been at the top for a long time. I think part of taking that step to the next level is beating one of your hero’s and for me, that would be Dan Henderson. I think that would be interesting and very exciting.” This is interesting because Boetsch just defeated one of the top ranked middleweights in the world in Okami last weekend and Dan Henderson is sort of floating in limbo right now. The two would surly make for a great fight, so we’ll see if anything comes from Boetsch’s comments.
And in other news the build up for this weekend’s women’s Strikeforce title fight between Champion Meisha Tate and Ronda Rousey has continued, Thiago Alves said he’s going to break Martin Kampmann, and Jose Conseco tweeted that he wants to host an MMA tournament in Las Vegas with Mike Tyson, Herschel Walker, Shaq Daddy, and himself. Anyone think this will get an promotional bites?
And that wraps up today in MMA. For more in depth news, video interviews, and coverage check out BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45
Until tomorrow, fight fans, stay classy.
-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45
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