Richie Hightower to fight in PFC welterweight title fight

The Ultimate Fighter season 6 contestant Richie Hightower will compete for the PFC welter weight title at Palace Fighting Championship 7 on March 20th. He is taking on Brian Travers.

This is Hightower's return to the PFC after being eliminated from TUF 6 when he lost a quarterfinal fight to George Sotiropoulous then losing by TKO in the first round to Troy Mandaloniz at the TUF 6 finale.

Here is the PFC 7 fight card:

Jeromy Freitag vs. Jorge Oliveira - 205 lbs
Richie Hightower vs. Bryan Travers - 170 lbs
Justin Levens vs. Phil Collins - 185 lbs
Jorge Evangelista vs. Enoch Wilson - 145 lbs
Glover Teixeira vs. Buckley Acosta - 205 lbs
Carlton Jones vs. Rafael Del Real - 265 lbs
Jeremiah Metcalf vs. Jimmy Dexter - 185 lbs
Ulysses Gomez vs. Greg McDowell - 135 lbs
Luis Gonzales vs. David Mitchell - 135 lbs
Danny Castillo vs. Andy Salazar - 155 lbs
Manuel Quezada vs. Sal Farnetti - 265 lbs
Robert Breslin vs. Brandon Jinnies - 145 lbs

UFC 84 : Ill Will

UFC officially announced UFC 84:Ill Will. The event will be on May 24th, 2008 from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event will be a lightweight championship bout between "The Prodigy" BJ Penn and Sean "The Muscle Shark"Sherk.

The fight card is as follows:

Main Event:

• BJ Penn (champion) vs Sean Sherk for the lightweight championship

Undercard:

• 205 lbs.: Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (12-0)
• 205 lbs.: Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1) vs. Keith Jardine (13-3-1)

Unconfirmed:

• 205 lbs.: Rashad Evans (11-0-1) vs. Thiago Silva (12-0)
• 205 lbs.: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7)
• 185 lbs.: Rousimar Palhares (7-1) vs. Ivan Salaverry (12-5)
• 205 lbs.: Goran Reljic (7-0) vs. Wilson Gouveia (10-4)
• 170 lbs.: Jon Koppenhaver (5-1) vs. TBA
• 170 lbs.: Dong Hyun Kim (9-1-1) vs. Jason Tan (5-2)
• 155 lbs.: Terry Etim (10-1) vs. Jeremy Stephens (13-2)
• 265 lbs.: Shane Carwin (8-0) vs. Christian Wellisch (8-3)

Mark Coleman in UFC hall of fame - will fight Brock Lesnar

At UFC 82 on March 1st, 2008 in Columbus, Ohio the UFC's very first heavyweight champion, Mark Coleman was inducted into the UFC hall of fame. Later in the evening it was announced that he will fight UFC newcomer and college and professional wrestling legend Brock Lesnar.

Coleman made it very clear in a quick interview with Joe Rogan at the pay-per-view event Saturday night that he is not retired and that he has been wanting to get back into the octagon and fight.

Coleman, now 43 years old, began a dominant run in the UFC back in 1996 winning the tournaments at UFC 10 and 11 then defeating Dan Severn for the heavyweight title at UFC 12. Coleman is 15-8 in his professional career and was an NCAA National Champion Wrestler at Ohio State.

Still, Coleman recognizes that he is the underdog against Lesnar but says, "Don't bet the house against me."

He took the fight with 5 months notice and the fight is scheduled to take place in August.

UFC 82 fight results

Here are the results from UFC 82 Pride of a Champion in Columbus Ohio on March 1st 2008.

Main Event:

• Anderson Silva submitted Dan Henderson at 4:52 of round 2 with a rear naked choke

Main Card:

• Heath Herring defeated Cheick Kongo by split decision
• Chris Leben defeated Alessio Sakara by TKO at 3:16 in round one
• Yushin Okami defeated Evan Tanner by knockout at 3:00 in round two
• Jon Fitch beat Chris Wilson by unanimous decision

Under Card:

• Andre Arlovski defeated Jake O’Brien by TKO (strikes) at 4:17 in round two
• Luigi Fiorvanti beat Luke Cummo by unanimous decision
• Josh Koscheck defeated Dustin Hazelett by TKO (strikes) at 1:24 in round two
• Diego Sanchez submitted David Bielkheden with strikes at 4:43 in round two
• Jorge Gurgel defeated John Halverson by unanimous decision

It was a great fight night overall as was expected. Dan Henderson took control of Anderson Silva in round one on the ground, not doing a lot of damage but frustrating him and grinding on him. Then in round two Henderson learned that standing in front of Silva wasn't the best strategy as it resulted in Henderson on the ground in defense mode as Anderson Silva worked his way to his back and finished him with a rear naked choke late in the second round.

Heath Herring surprised many and silenced some critics by defeating Cheik Kongo by split decision in a very close fight. The two big heavyweights spent quite a bit of time on the ground despite predictions that this would be a stand up war. Herring was without question in much better shape than he has been in the past. There's no doubt we'll be seeing more of both of these fighters in the UFC.

Chris Leben defeated Alessio Sakara in typical Chris Leben fashion. The two traded strikes early in the first round and Leben admitted that some of Sakara's strikes had him hurt. However Leben punched his way to another impressive TKO at 3:16 in the first round.

Evan Tanner's return to the octagon after a two year hiatus was not successful as rising star Yushin Okami was able to knock him out with a knee in round two, after repeatedly feeding him left hands.

To see the full rundown as always check out UFC.com.

MMA videos part 1

OK so I'm browsing Youtube looking for some MMA fight videos to share on my blog and I'm thinking blood, brutal knockouts, big slams... then I came across the MMA girls, Joanne and Lauren.

Not exactly the kind of knockouts I was looking for, but hey, it works for me :)

So basically these cuties started out on Myspace and Youtube and have been increasing popularity for a while. They make videos demonstrating MMA techniques and making fight predictions.

Cute girls + MMA = well I'm not very good at math but it seems like a pretty good combo to me. So I figure I'll post a few of their Youtube vids here since they seem to be so popular.

You can also check out more of the MMA girls at their site.

And here's one of their videos, MMA Girls Lesson #1

WEC on Versus

Starting in June Versus will be airing live WEC fights and highlight shows. Here is the current schedule:

• 6-3-07 8:00pm-9:00pm WEC highlights
• 6-3-07 9:00pm-11:00pm World Extreme Cagefighting
• 6-6-07 9:00pm-10:00pm WEC Highlights
• 6-13-07 9:00pm-10:00pm WEC Highlights
• 8-5-07 8:00pm-9:00pm WEC Highlights
• 8-5-07 9:00pm-11:00pm World Extreme Cagefighting
• 8-8-07 9:00pm-10:00pm WEC Highlights
• 8-15-07 9:00pm-10:00pm WEC Highlights
• 9-5-07 9:00pm-11:00pm World Extreme Cagefighting
  

The ongoing debate: boxing vs. mixed martial arts

Sympatico MSN
by Scott Carefoot

"Will boxing have to cede its place on the stage to other fighting forms, like mixed martial arts? Mixed martial arts is entertaining. The kind of skill level you saw in the ring tonight - there's nothing in mixed martial arts which is within light years of what Mayweather and de la Hoya are able to do with their hands."
– HBO boxing commentator Jim Lampley

Lampley gave that unsolicited opinion on mixed martial arts at the end of last Saturday's Super Welterwight boxing title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar de la Hoya, which Mayweather won by decision. For the most part, it was a 12-round snoozefest as Mayweather's admittedly superb defensive skill prevented de la Hoya from landing any significant shots, while Mayweather's lack of power meant that his punches inflicted minimal damage on The Golden Boy's mug. Looking at their faces after 36 minutes of this supposed fight, I couldn't tell if they'd been in a boxing ring or at a health spa.

Full Story >>

More about what MMA is all about

Here's some more general info about mixed martial arts from Wikipedia:

Mixed martial arts was originally based around the concept of pitting different martial arts and fighting styles against each other in competition with minimal rules, in an attempt to determine which system would be more effective in a real, unregulated combat situation. Modern MMA competition is an evolution of such events, but rules have been implemented to promote acceptance of the sport, while at the same time maintaining as much of the original no-holds-barred concept as possible. There is however no general sanctioning body for the sport, and the sets of rules vary according to the laws of individual organizations and localities (although there were attempts to make the sport, under the banner of pankration an Olympic sanctioned sport for the 2004 games in Athens).

The techniques utilized in MMA competition generally fall into two categories: striking techniques (such as kicks, knees and punches) and grappling techniques (such as clinch holds, pinning holds, submission holds, sweeps, takedowns and throws). Some unarmed hand to hand combat techniques are considered illegal in arguably all modern MMA competition, such as biting, eye-gouging, fish-hooking and small joint manipulation. Over the last ten years, strikes to the groin have become illegal in all sanctioned MMA organizations. The legality of other techniques such as elbows, headbutts and spinal locks vary according to competition or organization.

Victory is normally gained by judges' decision after an allotted amount of time has elapsed, a stoppage by the referee or the fight doctor (in the event that the competitor is injured or can no longer defend himself intelligently), a submission, by a competitor's cornerman (throwing in the towel), or knockout.

While MMA competition is occassionally depicted as brutal by the media, there has never been a death or crippling injury in a sanctioned MMA event in North America.

What is MMA?

What is MMA? Wikipedia defines mixed martial arts as follows:

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a combat sport in which two competitors attempt to achieve dominance over one another by using a wide variety of permitted martial arts techniques, including striking and grappling. Well-known MMA organizations include the Ultimate Fighting Championship and PRIDE Fighting Championships.

MMA has also been referred to as no holds barred (NHB) fighting, but this term is no longer considered an accurate description of the modern sport, with its formalized rules and banned techniques that have been developed for the fighter's safety. A common misconception is that the sport is called "ultimate fighting", due to the popularization of the sport by the UFC.

Later we will discuss general information about MMA and the history, current news and future of the sport.