Weekly Mixed Martial Arts & Kickboxing News – 03/23/2012
By PDG Staff
The Ultimate Fighter 15 Finale – Announced
Two top welterweights will wage war over five rounds in the TUF Live Finale main event, UFC President Dana White announced today. Verbal agreements are in for a June 1 matchup between Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann will take on Jake “The Juggernaut” Ellenberger. The fighters are coming off of sound wins in main events this winter; Kampmann submitted Thiago Alves in the final minute of their UFC on FX bout earlier this month, while Jake Ellenberger bested Diego Sanchez at UFC on Fuel TV in February.
Lion Fight Muay Thai VI: Schilling vs. Marcus II Announced
Off the heels of their winner-take-all showdown that began with fireworks and ended in controversy, WBC Light Heavyweight (175 pounds) Champion Joe “Stitch ‘Em Up” Schilling (12-2, 10 KO’s) of Los Angeles, Calif. and undefeated, bitter rival Simon Marcus (23-0, 18 KO’s) of Toronto, Ontario Canada have agreed to square off in a rematch in the main event of the next Lion Fight WBC championship full-rules Muay Thai event at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. on Saturday, May 12.
“I am really looking forward to the rematch. I think the first fight didn’t prove anything about who the better fighter is,” said Schilling. “I was obviously knocked out after Simon landed on my head and anything that happened after that was out of my control. Even after I was basically defenselessly standing there, Simon still couldn’t knock me out. I am very focused and motivated for the rematch.”
During their initial encounter at The Joint on Feb. 25, Schilling came out of the gates swinging, looking to score an early KO on Marcus. Poised and composed, Marcus weathered the storm for the most part and countered Schilling’s offense.
While the two were engaged in a clinch in the first round, Marcus executed a throw that sent both fighters to the canvas. Schilling landed head-first, on his back, and was badly hurt from the weight of Marcus crashing down on him.
Schilling slowly made it to his feet and, after the fight resumed, Marcus pounced on his opponent and sent Schilling to the mat once again. Using sheer willpower, Schilling beat the 10 count, but the referee, seeing Schilling unfit to continue, stopped the contest, giving Marcus the TKO victory and both fighters’ purses.
Instant replay showed that Marcus initiated the throw at the ankle line, with one of his feet behind Schilling, a technique that some governing bodies deem illegal under Muay Thai rules (Only throws initiated at the waist line and above are legal). The referee, however, determined that there was no rules infraction.
“Anybody who understands the sport of Muay Thai knows that it was a legal sweep because when I stepped, I did not use my heel to hook his leg. I threw him over my knee and he pulled me down and I landed on top of him,” explained Marcus. “If you pull somebody on top of you, you’ve got to defend yourself. I have no problems fighting Joe again, though. He wanted a rematch and it’s going to happen.”
“Because of the unorthodox and inconclusive manner in which the fight unfolded, it’s only fair to both fighters as well as the fans that an immediate rematch take place,” said Lion Fight Promotions CEO Scott Kent.
“This rematch between Joe and Simon will be one of the biggest, if not the biggest Muay Thai fight in history on American soil,” Kent continued. The skill and talent of the two fighters combined with the hostility between Joe and Simon make this one of the most anticipated Muay Thai fights of all-time in North America.”
Bellator 62 – Thiago Santos Overweight; Eric Prindle awarded Tournament Win
Thiago Santos weighed in at 277.8 pounds (limit was 265 lbs.) at Thursday’s Bellator 62 official weigh-ins and his season-five heavyweight tournament rematch with Eric Prindle was scratched. Prindle was declared the season-five tournament victor and will now meet Bellator heavyweight champion Cole Konrad at a later date.
UFC 148: Cruz vs. Faber 3 – Card Updated
The UFC 148 fight card continues to add muscle and not to mention international flair as there are now seven fights official for the July 7th event.
Fight Card:
Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber (UFC Bantamweight Championship)
Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le
Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Demian Maia vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Tim Boetsch vs. Michael Bisping
Renan Barao vs. Ivan Menjivar
Riki Fukuda vs. Costa Philippou
The UFC & WTA Collide as Evans meets Azarenka
Former UFC light heavyweight champion and current No. 1 contender, “Suga” Rashad Evans took time from training for Jon Jones to meet Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) World No. 1 superstar Victoria Azarenka. The top athletes visited the MMA Masters facility in Miami and traded tennis and UFC gifts and expertise. Evans showed Azarenka some moves in the cage while Azarenka shared a few tennis tips with Evans. The Belarusian beauty is currently in Miami playing in the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament.
In a few weeks, the most bitter and long-running UFC feud since perhaps Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz II in 2006 will come to a dramatic conclusion. In the main event of UFC 145, undefeated UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones collides with former friend turned bitter rival ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans. UFC 145 goes down on April 21, live on Pay-Per-View from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
[hana-flv-player video=”http://videos.punchdrunkgamer.com/videos/145-EVANS-VIKA-MEET-UP.flv” width=”550″ height=”430″ description=”” player=”4″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”false” /]
M-1 Challenge 32 headed to Moscow on May 17th; Alexander Emelianenko in the Main Event
Right after action-packed and sold out M-1 Challenge 31 tournament, M-1 Global announces its next big tournament M-1 Challenge 32 that will take place on May 17 at Crocus City Arena, Moscow.
Once again Russian popular heavyweight Alexander Emelianenko (19-5) will be the headliner of the tournament. Alexander won his last fight against Tadas “Lithuanian Bear” Rimkevicius on M-1 Challenge 31 by TKO. The names of Alexander’s opponent and other participants will be announced later.
Super Fight League 2 – Duffee vs. Grove, Shlemenko vs. Minowa & Kelly vs. Ruediger
Following the sell out success of SFL 1, India’s first MMA Organization Super Fight League is proud to announce the following fights have been confirmed for SFL 2 taking place on Saturday 7th April: Todd Duffee vs. Neil Grove, Paul Kelly vs. Gabe Ruediger and Alexander Shlemenko vs. Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa.
Once again, fans from all over the world can tune in and watch the event live and free on the official SFL YouTube channel: YouTube.com/SFL.
Todd Duffee is a veteran of the UFC and DREAM and still holds the distinction of the fastest ever knock out victory in UFC history when he beat Tim Hague at UFC 102 in 7 seconds. A fearsome striker and talented wrestler, Duffee brings his explosive style to India for the first time and will need all of his skills when he faces UK based South African Neil “Goliath” Grove at Super Fight League 2. A Bellator Season 5 Heavyweight tournament semi finalist and former UCMMA Heavyweight champion, Grove also holds a victory over James “Colossus” Thompson, who beat Bob “The Beast” Sapp at SFL 1. His impressive record features 11 victories, all of which have come via KO or TKO. While nothing is ever certain in MMA, you can bet on fireworks when these two heavy handed fighters meet inside the O-Zone.
Former WEC Lightweight champion Gabe Ruediger had it all, lost it then through grit and determination got himself back to where he wanted to be. Winning 9 straight fights to take the WEC title, Ruediger missed weight on the Ultimate Fighter reality show and left the UFC under a cloud. He went on to put together 6 fight win streak to force his way back into the UFC and proved his doubters wrong. A BJJ black belt and renowned submission specialist, Ruediger also has a number of TKO victories on his record making him a very dangerous man no matter where the fight goes. Two time “Fight of the Night” winner while with the UFC, Paul Kelly doesn’t know how to have a boring fight. The native of Liverpool in England always brings a fearsome edge with him to his fights and likes nothing more than a tough, brutal war with his opponents and revels in pleasing the fans almost as much as he enjoys winning. Previously due to meet at UFC 123, an injury to Ruediger forced the bout to be cancelled. Now they will finally meet under the Super Fight League banner, where Ruediger vs. Kelly promises to be a high class technical battle packed full of excitement and explosiveness.
Alexander Schlemenko has 44 wins despite being only 27 years old. The Bellator Season 5 Middleweight tournament champion has won fights by almost every method there is, with KO victories littering his record alongside several submission victories too. Primarily a striker, Schlemenko has no fear of the ground either, winning the Bellator season 5 tournament by beating 2 time BJJ world champion Vitor Vianna. Currently riding a 7 fight win streak the Russian is only just entering his prime fighting years despite already having more wins than fellow Russian and MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko. Japanese MMA legend Ikuhisa Minowa or “Minowaman” as he is better known, knows no fear, regularly competing in open weight bouts where his opponents vastly outweigh him. Despite being a natural Middleweight, Ikuhisa, a veteran of 93 bouts, entered and won the DREAM “Superhulk” tournament, beating 330lb SFL 1 headliner, Bob “The Beast” Sapp, in the opening round, 7 foot giant and K-1 striker Hong Man Choi in the semi final and then Pride FC legend Rameau Thierry Sokoudjuo in the final to take home the belt. A legend in Japan and beloved by the fans, Minowaman has incredible grappling skills to go with his fearsome stand up. Schlemenko versus Minowa promises to be a thrilling showdown between two of the most experienced and athletic fighters currently competing in mixed martial arts and one nobody will want to miss.
UFC on FX 3 – Card Update
“On June 8, Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall will rematch and settle one of the year’s most controversial fights.” – UFC president Dana White
Johnson and McCall put on a Fight of the Night-winning performance at UFC on FX earlier this month in Sydney in the UFC’s first-ever flyweight bout.
UFC on FX 3 Fight Card:
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall
Dustin Pague vs. Jared Papazian
Mike Pierce vs. Eduardo Rocha
Buddy Roberts vs. Caio Magalhaes
Eddie Wineland and Scott Jorgensen
Final Fight Card for Saturday’s BAMMA 9 from Birmingham
Europe’s leading Mixed Martial Arts promotion, BAMMA, is proud to announce the updated fight card for BAMMA 9: Watson vs. Marshman, which takes place at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena this Saturday 24th March. BAMMA 9 is proudly sponsored by Go Daddy, the world’s largest provider of Web hosting, domain name registrations and new SSL Certificates.
Misfortune has struck at the last hour, with both Fraser Opie and Matt Howard forced to withdraw from their scheduled fights due to injuries sustained during the last leg of training.
Patrick Valle (7-2-0) will now replace Howard to face dangerous Spennymoor warrior, Andrew Punshon; who is renowned for fast, first-round, submission finishes, as well as his devastating knock-out power. That Valle has stepped up to the challenge of Punshon at three days’ notice is a testament to his strong heart and to the calibre of fight that fans can expect to see from the French athlete. Fighting out of Haut Tension, and training partner to Bellator competitor and Dream vet, Karl Amoussou; Vallee matches Punshon with his penchant for dramatic finishes. With wins via KO, TKO and submission (with 3 via Rear Naked Choke), Vallee looks set to push this bout in any number of directions. Expect the unpredictable in this pacey, neck-to-neck and ultimate test of speed, power and prowess, in a match that promises to be unforgettable.
BAMMA 9 – Final Fight Card:
Jack Marshman vs. Tom Watson (BAMMA Middleweight Title Bout)
Jason Ball vs. Colin Fletcher
Przemyslaw Mysiala vs. Jason Jones
Jake Murphy vs. David Round
Andrew Punshon vs. Patrick Vallee
Mark Tucker vs. Tom Breese
Antanas Jazbutis vs. Dale Hardiman
Matt Ewin vs. Leeroy Barnes
Robert Truesdale vs. Sam Mensah
Marc Godbeer vs. Catalin Zmarandescu
Lee Johnson vs. Luke Barnett
The Ultimate Fighter ‘Brasil’ Debuts Sunday night March 25th
For American and Canadian audiences: All 13 episodes of the first international edition of TUF will air on TUF.tv Sunday night at midnight ET / 9:00 p.m. PT. Champions Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos and Jose Aldo and former champions Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua all make appearances.
Seven years after its debut in the United States, in 2005, the first international edition of the famed reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter begins in Brazil. Co-produced by Brazilian production company Floresta, the inaugural Brazilian version of the show is the first time a TUF series was filmed outside of the United States.
The Ultimate Fighter – Brasil features UFC legends Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort as the coaches of the first season, which features both the featherweight (145 lbs) and middleweight (185 lbs) divisions. As is standard on this series, the coaches will face-off in a highly anticipated live rematch in June for the grand finale.
The Premiere episode will showcase elimination bouts, narrowing down the initial group of 32 fighters to the final 16 who will move into the TUF house. From there, they will be split between “Team Vitor” and “Team Wanderlei” and face weekly eliminations until the finale, where a winner from both weight classes will be declared The Ultimate Fighter and win an international UFC contract.
The highly anticipated Premiere is scheduled to air Sunday night, March 25, on Rede Globo in Brazil after the Big Brother finale. All 13 episodes will first air on Rede Globo in Brazil Sunday nights and then on TUF.tv in the United States and Canada at midnight ET / 9:00 p.m. PT.
Alistair Overeem makes debut at SENI for MMA Weekender
Alistair Overeem, one of the world’s leading UFC athletes will make his debut at the MMA Weekender at SENI, the biggest combat sports expo on the planet.
Currently ranked #3 heavyweight mixed marital artist in the world, he will join the likes of UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie and the UK’s very own Michael “The Count” Bisping combat and strength sports show SENI.
Overeem will join the line up of interactive seminars and workshops at 3pm on Sunday 3rd June for a super seminar.
The Dutch fighter, originally from Harlsden, London returned to the UK last year for a seminar tour with Fighters Inc (the sports management and exhibition company behind SENI). The tour was a great success and he promised to return to the UK if he schedule allowed.
At the time he wasn’t signed to UFC, but shortly after his UK seminar tour he made his UFC debut against former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar in what ultimately turned out to be Lesnar’s final mixed martial arts fight. Overeem defeated Lesnar and was awarded a 1st round TKO victory.
He fights heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos for the title shot just one week before SENI in Las Vegas. 2012 may be the first year that SENI welcomes the current heavyweight king.
SENI 2012 promoter Joe Long said: “I visited Alistair and his team a few weeks ago in Holland, the deal was if I go and watch him fight for the title he will be at SENI 2012. I’m looking forward to watching him fight and welcoming him to SENI.”
UFC is the world’s leading MMA organisation and have played a big part in SENI over the years. The largest combat and strength based show on the planet has welcomed huge names including Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, Royce Gracie and Anderson Silva. Overeem can be seen making a cameo in LMFAO music videos “Sexy and I Know It” and “Sorry for Party Rocking”.
This is Mixed Martial Arts – Highlight by DDevil
[hana-flv-player video=”http://videos.punchdrunkgamer.com/videos/[ddevil]mma.flv” width=”550″ height=”430″ description=”This is Mixed Martial Arts – Highlight by DDevil” player=”4″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”false” /]
From the PunchDrunkGamer Forums:
* Glory World Series – March 23rd *Results*
* Ultimate Fighter Season 15 LIVE Discussion, Rumors & Results
* Inside the Fight: USA vs. Thailand – Documentary
* Titan Fighting Championship 22 – Announced
* Buakaw is back with and he has a new sponsor Yokkao!
* UFC Announces Three Canadian Events in 2012
* UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans – Extended Preview Video
Post your comments directly below! You can also discuss the latest MMA & Video Game News in the PunchDrunkGamer Forums and don’t forget to Follow PDG on Twitter @PunchDrunkGamer and Like the PDG Official Facebook Page!
