Official MMA Thread

[NCRadioMan]

Hughes re-ups with UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championships has signed a new contract with the man who has more title defenses than anyone else in the promotion's history.

Matt Hughes, facing camera, has seven successful UFC title defenses, with the last one coming against BJ Penn in September 2006 at UFC 63.

Welterweight former champion Matt Hughes has a new multifight deal with UFC, he announced on his blog today. Hughes described the agreement as "much like my last contract."

That previous deal ended with Hughes' fight against Matt Serra at UFC 98 in May.

Hughes last held the 170-pound division's belt in 2006. He has gone 2-2 since losing the title to Georges St. Pierres in November of that year, but Hughes remains a formidable presence — the USA TODAY/SB Nation rankings currently list Hughes in the No. 4 spot.

UFC's new agreement with Hughes marks the promotion's second move in less than a week to lock up a former champion. Last Saturday, six-time champion Randy Couture signed a deal that added six more fights to his UFC tenure, following his UFC 102 bout with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

The new contract with Hughes apparently gives him room to pursue some outside interests.

"I also brought up the fact that I wanted to do a hunting show and they thought that would be a good thing," Hughes wrote on his blog.

His next opponent hasn't been determined yet, although UFC officials mentioned the possibility of "a person I've never fought before," Hughes posted.

That leaves a wide range of names. Among the 19 UFC fighters in the consensus top 25, more than a dozen have not fought Hughes, who started his mixed martial arts career in the late 1990s, years before UFC's current owners got into the business.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...ups-with-ufc/1

[NCRadioMan]

Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans Fight At UFC 107 Canceled

One of the most heated rivalries may remain unsettled . . . at least for the time being. As noted earlier today, UFC president Dana White officially announced that the light heavyweight championship bout between champion BJ Penn and top contender Diego Sanchez will be taking place at UFC 107 in Memphis, Tennessee. MMABay.com is reporting that the bout will be replacing the Quinton "Rampage" Jackson - Rashad Evans bout as the main event of the show.

The fight has been scrapped due to Rampage's commitments to filming "The A-Team". Rampage plays B.A. Baracus in the movie, a role immortalized by Mr. T, and will be working alongside cast members Liam Neeson and The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper who will be playing Col. John "Hannibal" Smith and Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, respectively. Starring in the big-budget Hollywood feature would have left him with no time to adequately prepare for Evans.

Jackson and Evans will be opposing coaches on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, and the show was supposed to lead into UFC 107, whick takes place in Rampage's hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. White had noted that the hatred between the two had developed into one of the craziest seasons of the show yet.

“Anytime these guys got within two inches of each other at the show, it’s bad,” White recently noted. “They really don’t like each other and these two really want to fight. Season 10 is probably some of the best television we’ve ever done. It’s crazy.”

Season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter premieres September 16th on Spike TV. The season features former EliteXC star Kimbo Slice and a slew of ex-NFL heavyweights, who will be competing for the title of “The Next Ultimate Fighter” and a six-figure contract with the UFC.

Meanwhile, fans will probably have to wait until next year before they can see Rampage and Evans finally clash.

http://www.fightline.com/news/mma/20...on/index.shtml

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15 M-1 Fights to be Streamed Free on Saturday

M-1Global.com users will be treated to a free 15-bout card Saturday night when the M-1 Selection returns to Russia.

The 15-bout card, which is scheduled to kick off at 20:00 local time and will be streamed live on M-1Global.com and Mixfight.ru, will feature home town fight gym Gorec defending its turf against Russia Legion. In addition to Gorec vs. Legion, there will be a second best-of-five team challenge matchup between Red Devil and Sochi Star, along with five “ratings” fights.

The M-1 Selection is a year long competition featuring the top fight gyms in Russia vying for the right to represent its home country in the 2010 M-1 Challenge. Two of the more notable fighters to be featured during tomorrow’s stream are Radmir Gabdullin and Kirill Sidelnikov of Red Devil.

Both Gabdullin and Sidelnikov are veterans of the M-1 Challenge and are frequent training partners of former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko.

Gabdullin, 4-2, is coming off a recent loss in July to USA West middleweight Giva Santana. Despite being one of the most talented up-and-comers training in the Red Devil gym, Santana capitalized on his experience and submitted Gabdullin at 3:47 of round 1.

Sidelnikov, 6-3, is often referred to as “Baby Fedor,” a nickname bestowed upon him as he is viewed as one of Red Devil’s future stars. Despite being just 20 years of age, Sidelnikov made his United States debut this past January during Affliction “Day of Reckoning.” Facing former Strikeforce title challenger Paul Buentello, Sidelnikov was TKO’d at 4:18 of round 3.

Below is the complete lineup (along with weigh-in results) for tomorrow’s free M-1 Selection stream, courtesy of our Russian-language partners at Mixfight.ru:


Ratings Fights:

1. Shamil Abdulragimov vs. Alexander Volkov
2. Oleg Belenky vs. Alexander Kosarev
3. Shahbulat Shamhalaev vs. Radzha Hizriev
4. Evgenie Solonsky vs. Ahadov Aloes
5. Michael Tigunov vs. Shahmurad Shamhalaev

Team Challenge Fight #1: Sochi Star (Left) vs. Red Devil (Right):

6. Magomed Aliomarov vs. Dzhamal Kurbanov
7. Pasha Bamatov vs. Alexey Nazarov
8. Magomed Rabadanov vs. Radmir Gabdullin
9. Rasul Magomedaliev vs. Victor Nemkov
10. Ibragim Ibragimov vs. Kirill Sidelnikov

Team Challenge Fight #2: Legion (Left) vs. Gorec (Right):

11. Zagalav Mahachev vs. Shamil Abdulkerimov
12. Alexander Tokarev vs. Gasanali Gasanaliev
13. Ruslan Hashanov vs. Magomed Sultanahmedov
14. Rasul Magomedov vs. Hanilav Hanilaev
15. Gadzhimurad Nurmagomedov vs. Ibragim Magomedov

http://www.m-1global.com/lang/en/200...-m-1globalcom/

[yachties23]

Kinda pissed about the Rampage/Evans thing getting pushed off. After the 'Page/Jardine fight I was hoping Evans and Quinton would just throw down, now we have to wait another 6 months or so.