by: Jack Bratcher
Muhammed Lawal, affectionately known as “King Mo” is coming off his second win in five weeks after defeating Chute Boxe fighter, Fabio Silva at Sengoku 6 in Saitama, Japan on Saturday. King Mo is now 2-0 while his two opponents have over eighty fights between them.
The King walked through his opponents while main Read the story »
UFC lightweight sensation Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon fights once again in the main event February 7, headlining “UFC Fight Night 17” on Spike TV against Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Hermes Franca, live from the Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida.
Lauzon (17-4, 5 KOs, 12 submissions), star of The Ultimate Fighter 5 television reality show, last headlined April 2, 2008 when he suffered a disappointing loss by second-round TKO to fellow Massachusetts fighter, Kenny Florian on UFC Fight Night 13 in Denver.
“J-Lau” bounced right back this past September, registering an impressive second-round stoppage of Kyle Bradley (13-6) on UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Nebraska. Continue reading →
Bellator Fighting Championships is the first MMA organization to secure a TV deal with any member of the ESPN family of networks.
Beginning in April, Bellator will showcase their MMA fighters in a tournament format. The best will fight the best each week to determine who rises to the top and becomes Champion, and who collects the largest purses. And all of this will be available on free TV through ESPN Deportes.
Bellator has announced they signed American Top Team’s Hector Lombard, a former Olympic Judo competitor and Cuban national champion, to an exclusive fight contract. At 185 pounds, Hector has amassed a highly respectable record of 17-2-1 with his only losses coming by way of decision to Akihiro Gono and Gegard Mousasi in the PRIDE organization. Continue reading →
PRO MMA (http://promma.info) was notifed today that despite UFC fighter, Josh Neer’s recent legal issues, his upcoming fight at UFC Fight Night 17 is still scheduled to take place.
“Josh will be fighting Mac Danzig February 7th in the co-main event in Tampa as scheduled,” Neer’s manager stated in an email to PRO MMA. “Josh has been training very hard for this fight and is looking forward to putting on a great fight for the UFC and fans. Josh would like to once again thank his family, fans, friends, training partners, UFC, and everyone that has supported him through his career.”
Neer was arrested early morning on New Year’s Day in Des Moines, Iowa on charges of operating a vehicle while Intoxicated, eluding police, hit and run and other traffic violations. He was released on two bonds totalling $7,000.00. Continue reading →
We haven’t heard much from Daniel Barrera since his stint on The Ultimate Fighter 6. Like Chris Lytle, Barrera is a firefighter but he is also an instructor at SSF Submission Academy in Clarksville, TN.
Barrera lost to Ben Saunders at the Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale by decision in December of ‘07. That was his first professional MMA fight. Since then, Barrera has reeled off two straight victories, the most recent was on October 3, 2008 at Showcase of Strength in Shepardsville, KY.
Barrera will be stepping back into the cage on February 20th in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he will face Robert “Iron Man” Thompson at Xtreme Fighting Championship’s XFC 7: RETRIBUTION. With the UFC scheduled to land in Nashville just two months later, MMA promotions are taking full advantage of the state’s legalization of the sport, which came in 2008. Continue reading →
The third and youngest Rua brother is set to follow in the footsteps of his siblings. Twenty-two year old Marcos Rua, the younger brother of Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, is set to make his MMA debut in Brazil sometime in the near future.
Although youngest, he is the tallest of the three light heavyweights. Marcos, who currently has no nickname, was set to fight in ‘The Glory’ (a Brazilian MMA promotion) this month, but the event has been postponed until March.
“He’s well, training tough and very focused,” Mauricio Rua told Tatame. “He was due to fight at The Glory in January, but it was delayed to March. But we want to see him fighting before then.”
Dean Lister is the most recent MMA fighter to join the proverbial UFC graveyard. The 11-6 UFC veteran has been with the company since 2006. He was 4-2 in the UFC with losses to Nate Marquardt and most recently, Yusin Okami.
It was rumored prior to UFC 92 that Lister could be cut from the UFC if he lost his fight with Yushin Okami and unfortunately for Lister, he gave up a unanimous decision. Reports now state that he is “out of the UFC after asking to be released from his contract.”
A very talented and successful jiu-jitsu competitor, Lister has never been able to bring his striking up remotely close to the level of his grappling. Continue reading →
Here’s a new video interview with a local news station with Josh Neer about his recent arrest. He apologizes to his fans for making the mistake and talks about the possibility of being released from the UFC because of this.
It’s a special “Best of” edition of INSIDE MMA with the Nimble Ninja of Knockout and Kenny Rice. I absolutely guarantee you, you will be cracking up within the first five minutes or your money back.
The Day of Reckoning is upon mankind when fighters from the four corners of the globe will meet to test their mettle. Names like Barnett, Fedor, Arlovski, Babalu, Sokoudju, Horodecki, and more gather for one night to lay it all on the line. Less than three weeks away… Here’s a video from the recent press conference for Affliction: Day of Reckoning.
Nashville, Tennessee will finally get the event it has been looking forward to for years. The UFC will bring its promotion to Music City on April 1, 2009 for Ultimate Fight Night 18.
The event will broadcast live on SPIKE TV and will serve as prelude to episode one of The Ultimate Fighter season nine. This season of the Ultimate Fighter will feature Team U.K., coached by Michael Bisping vs. Team USA, coached by the UFC 93 winner of Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson.
A fight between The Ultimate Fighter season 8 lightweight winner, Efrain Escudero, and Jeremy “Lil’ Heathen” Stephens has been confirmed for the Ultimate Fight Night 18 card in Nashville. Stephens, who is coming off a KO win over Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 91, also has a win over Cole Miller at Ultimate Fight Night 12. Continue reading →
2008, as far as competition goes, was a great year for MMA. Some of the old guard was forced to step aside as the next generation of talented fighters made their mark. Out of all the action, some fighters and fights were more memorable and significant for various reasons. We have tried to recognize those special moments and fighters from the past year.
These are the official 2008 PRO MMA AWARDS as voted on by the staff here at PRO MMA (http://promma.info). Do you agree or disagree with our picks? Let us know. Maybe we overlooked or forgot something.
PRO MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR: Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda at WEC 34 on 6/1/2008
KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR: Rashad Evans’ KO of Chuck Liddell at UFC 88 on 9/6/2008 Continue reading →
Stay tuned to PRO MMA (http://promma.info) as we bring you live play by play coverage for SENGOKU “SEVENTH BATTLE” from Saitama, Japan.
Here’s the lineup:
Lightweight Championship bout: Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Middleweight Championship bout: Kazuo Misaki vs. Jorge Santiago
Light heavyweight bout: Sanae Kikuta vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
Heavyweight bout: Antonio Silva vs. Yoshihiro Nakao
Lightweight bout: Sergey Golyaev vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
Heavyweight bout: Dave Herman vs. Choi Mu Bae
Light heavyweight bout: Muhammed Lawal vs. Yukiya Naito
Lightweight bout: Maximo Blanco vs. Seigo Inoue
Light heavyweight bout: Hidetada Irie vs. Minoru Kato Continue reading →
Former WWE pro wrestling star, Bobby Lashley, will reportedly have his next fight with the Palace Fighting Championship promotion. Lashley, 1-0 in his mixed martial arts career, will fight on the PFC’s February 6th card in Lenore, California.
Although an opponent has not been named, a list of fighters Lashley could face to possibly build up his fight resume has been sent to him for review.
Lashley attended Missouri Valley College, where he won three national amateur wrestling championships between 1996 and 1998 and placed fourth in 1995. Throughout 1997 and 1998, he was the National Association of Inter-collegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Wrestling Champion. Lashley later joined the United States Army, where he continued to wrestle. Continue reading →
The popularity of MMA in Japan continues to decline. The sport seemed on top of the world in Japan during the days of PRIDE. Even though there are many similarities between today’s top Japanese MMA organizations and PRIDE, there is something amiss.
This fact was shown no more clearly than it was on what should have been MMA’s biggest night of the year in Japan, the New Year’s Eve Dynamite!! event.
Here is a report on the television ratings for this year’s Dynamite!! card. Here are the numbers broken down into three parts: Continue reading →
On December 31, 2005, the last right hook of a devastating combination landed and ended the night for Hayato Sakurai. With the victory, Takanori Gomi, “The Fireball Kid,” was declared the Pride 2005 Lightweight Grand Prix Champion. His impressive journey to the championship cemented him not only as one of the top lightweight fighters, but also as a top pound for pound fighter. Despite only being three years ago, that night seems like a distant memory.
Fast forward to now and Gomi is hanging on to just a thread of respectability. Last November, Sergey Golyaev finished what Nick Diaz started. Although controversial, Golyaev took the decision victory and pushed Gomi that much closer to the edge. Many thought that Gomi had done enough to take the decision over the unknown Golyaev, but unlike in Las Vegas, this time luck was not on his side. Continue reading →
World Victory Road’s SENGOKU “Seventh Battle” takes place tonight at 1:00 a.m. CST in Saitama, Japan. We here at PRO MMA (http://promma.info) will be providing real time round-by-round coverage of the event. It will host the creation of the first two Sengoku champions.
Sengoku 7 is headlined by “The Fireball Kid,” Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka for the Sengoku Lightweight Championship. Gomi will have his hands full against the undefeated submission specialist who has put away such MMA greats as Carlos Condit, Kurt Pellegrino, and Paul Daley. Continue reading →
Rich Franklin will face Dan Henderson in the main event on January 17, 2009 at UFC 93. At the moment, Rich is the underdog. This will be his toughest fight since facing Anderson Silva and it will set the pace for his future in the light heavyweight division. In this interview, he says the UFC told him he no longer really had a place in the UFC middleweight division. He knows Henderson holds the wrestling advantage but he also says he has an answer for wherever the fight may go. Good luck Rich!
According to Demian Maia’s personal website, his next fight will be against Chael Sonnen at UFC 95, in London, England.
Since making his debut in the UFC, Maia has proven to be a force in the 185-pound division, reeling off four straight wins over solid competition. His most recent win was over former “Ultimate Fighter” competitor, Nate Quarry at UFC 91 in November.
Sonnen’s most recent fight was a dominating performance over former WEC Middleweight Champion, Paulo Filho in November, that saw the Team Quest member avenge a previous loss to the Brazilian from 2007. Continue reading →
Days removed from his victory over Hong Man Choi at K-1 Fields Dynamite!!, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic announced his outlook for 2009 and retirement appears to be in this plans.
In a recent interview with a Croatian newspaper, the PRIDE FC and UFC veteran mentioned he would like to fight one more time in the UFC.
“I believe that during 2009 I will fight three more times for Dream, then I hope for a farewell fight in the UFC.” Continue reading →
