Pena injured following "assault", Pennington now faces andrade at ufc 171

Raquel Pennington vs Jessica Andrade now set for UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

Earlier this week reports came out that The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 women’s champion Julianna Pena had suffered a knee injury ahead of her scheduled fight against Jessica Andrade at UFC 171. At the time no details emerged of how the injury happened that was until Dana White tweeted last night

What happened to @VenezuelanVixen at "her gym" is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard. Ranked #10 out for 2 years. #leavethatgymnow
— Dana White (@danawhite) January 30, 2014

The extent of Julianna Pena's injury is a torn ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus. Though how it happened at Sik-Jitsu Fighting Systems, where Pena trains in Spokane, Washington is still a bit of a mystery and during the UFC 169 pre fight scrum Dana added what he has been told about the incident.

"It’s the worst injury I’ve ever heard of, ever, in this sport, and you hear about those types of injuries in football," he said. "Apparently, when she came into the gym she was training in her gym and one of her training partners, a guy, was saying to her, ‘oh, you’re wearing your Ultimate Fighter shirt, we’re real scared.’ He says that and was talking smack to her and then basically attacked her.

"He jumped on her back, started cranking her neck, and the way she fell her knee blew out. The most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard in my life. A year-and-a-half to two years she’ll be out, and I told her to leave that disgusting gym and go somewhere else with new coaches, new training partners, whatever. And that’s all I know."

All White knew was that it was a man that caused the injured but he didn't know who but in his opinion it sounded like assault.

"It sounds like assault to me, but how do you consider it assault in a gym? You know what I mean?"

When Dana was told of Rick Little's version of events he was shocked at how different it was from what he was told. Little said that Pena didn't do her proper warm up and was training with some guys before he arrived when the injury happened.

"That’s so far from the story she told me right after she was completely hysterical and crying, completely opposite," he said. "Completely different story from what she told me. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth."

Pena will travel to Los Angeles next week to undergo surgery and hopefully repair her knee.

With the injury to Pena, Jessica Andrade was left without an opponent. That was until Pena's fellow TUF season 18 housemate Raquel Pennington stepped up and will fill in against the Brazilian Andrade.

Pennington defeated Roxanne Modafferi in November in her UFC debut, while Andrade got back to winning ways picking up her first win in the UFC against Rosi Sexton in October following a loss to Liz Carmouche in her UFC debut.

Davey Grant vs Roland Delorme set to face off at UFC Fight Night 37

TUF 18 Finalist Davey Grant returns home to fight at UFC Fight Night 37 in London

by Ben Heather @benheather

On Monday evening it was announced that Davey Grant's wishes had come true.

Ever since Davey Grant (8-2 MMA 0-1 UFC) missed out on being crowned The Ultimate Fighter back in December he had called to be a part of the UFC's return to England. On Monday it was announced by the UFC UK twitter account that this would happen.

By the time this fight takes place it will be close to 18 months since Davey Grant last fought in England. His last fight in England was back in October 2012 when he defeated Danny Welsh at M4TC 7 and I can tell you one thing, he will be supported by a lot more fans this time out as he walks out to the Octagon at The O2 Arena in March.

Davey Grant will face off against Roland Delorme (9-2-1 MMA 3-1-1 UFC) and like Grant the UK fans should be familiar with Delorme after his stint on The Ultimate Fighter: Bisping vs Miller. A member of Team Miller on the show, Delorme lost his place on the show when he was defeated by TJ Dillashaw. After the show has won 3 and lost two, although his KO loss to Francisco Rivera was later ruled a no contest when Rivera failed a post fight drugs test. His last fight was against Alex Caceres at UFC 165 and he will be looking to get back to winning ways as he fights outside of North America for the first time in his career.

Is Ronda Rousey Unstoppable?

Who's up next for Ronda Rousey and who's '0' will go?!

by Tommy Strong @strong_tea

Ronda Rousey proved again at UFC 168, that it will take something or someone very special to pull off a victory against her. With another stunning performance defeating Miesha Tate 58 seconds into the 3rd round via her trade mark 'arm bar' to retain the women's bantamweight title.

Though Ronda didn't have all the things her own way, Miesha put up a valiant performance in the first and second round even escaping from a deep arm bar and then rocking Ronda a few times whilst the fight was standing.

Tate made a few errors in the fight, and I was slightly bemused by her fight plan. Trying to take Ronda down and beat her at her own game? Sorry, but this was a massive mistake. You could see when the fight was standing, Tate got the better of the striking, landing some crisp powerful shots that were hurting Ronda. But critically, then wasted heaps of energy trying to take down a former Olympic Judo bronze medallist to the ground.

With Tate having little success other than when the fight was standing, Ronda showed her true skills. Sweeping Tate and landing some powerful takedowns. Once down Ronda looked in her comfort zone and was only a matter of time being the inevitable happened.

Going into the third round with Tate running out of ideas and energy the end was nigh. It wasn't long before Ronda secured the take down and locked in the arm bar forcing Tate to tap right away. There wasn't any danger this time of Tate seeing her arm hyper extended once again.

With the fight over and Tate offering her hand to Ronda in congratulations it was Ronda that snubbed the opportunity to settle the beef and instead turned her back and refused.

I don't want to get into a debate about whether it was good or bad for the sport as that's another topic. Though I do think we as fans get suckered in by a hatred between fighters, only to be put behind them once the fight is over. You know with Ronda, if you piss her off its a grudge match you're going to loss!!

Who's Up First For Ronda?

Shortly after the fight, the UFC were quick to announce that UFC 170 will be headlined by Ronda Rousey and unbeaten fighter Sara McMann (7-0) which will take place on the 22nd February 2014 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay.

With the exception of Cat Zingano, who was originally scheduled to be TUF 18 coach and go head to head with Ronda but was forced to pull out due to a knee injury that needed surgery, forcing Miesha Tate to step in as a late replacement.

This is the next best fight the fans would like to see!

With the champion being an Olympic Judoka bronze medallist and McMann being a Olympic Wrestler silver medallist, both not blessed with the same striking skills. This will be a fight of who can dominate on the ground. Can McMann stop the arm bar? can Ronda take McMann down? who will be the stronger? Or will the fight negate itself and we see a stand up fight for 5 rounds?

All these questions will be answered come 22nd February, though I for one am a lot more excited to see this fight than I was the Tate rematch.

Cat Zinagno:

Cat Zinagno (8-0) has been promised by Dana White, that she will get the chance to fight the winner of the Ronda vs McMann, and rightfully so in my eyes.

She's been very unfortunate with the knee injury that caused her to miss out being a TUF coach. Not only for that, but also for people to see more in the spotlight and get to know her a little better over the weeks of the TUF series to gather more fans.

Being out for this time she is being a forgotten fighter, though I'm sure if she ends up fighting Ronda or McMann we will be in for a real treat.


Finally with Ronda only fighting twice last year, the news she will be back so soon and be more active in 2014 is not only great news for the UFC but also for the fans.

With GSP taking an indefinite leave of absence and Anderson Silva suffering a horrific leg break against Chris Weidman on Saturday night, I can see the UFC trying to push her as hard, and as fast as they can, to be the new face of the promotion.

A second TUF champion added to fight at UFC 171

Julianna Pena vs Jessica Andrade set to battle at UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

After the recent announcement that the TUF 17 champ Kelvin Gastelum will face Rick Story at UFC 171 it has today been announced that he will be joined by the TUF 18 champ Julianna Pena will also fight on the card.

The first ever female TUF champion. Julianna Pena (5-2 MMA 1-0 UFC) is set to face Jessica Andrade (10-3 MMA 1-1 UFC) in her first UFC fight outside of the ultimate fighter tournament. Pena won the most recent series of The Ultimate by defeating Jessica Rakoczy by first round TKO after coming in to the tournament as team Tate's number 1 pick.

Her opponent at UFC 171 Jessica Andrade is very familiar to the UK fans after her one sided victory in her most recent fight against Rosi Sexton at UFC Fight Night Machida vs Munoz in Manchester this past October. In that fight she showcased her skills as a great martial artist, at just 22 and if it was not for the heart and determination of Rosi Sexton she would have won by TKO. I believe if she put the beating she did that night on anybody else, other than Rosi Sexton she would have been able to finish that fight but not that night in Rosi's hometown. Before that Andrade lost via TKO to Liz Carmouche in her UFC debut.

UFC 171 is headlined by the battle for the vacant UFC Welterweight Title between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler.

Nate Diaz vs Gray Maynard III set for TUF 18 Finale

Diaz and Maynard Square Off For The Third Time!!

by Tommy Strong @strong_tea
 

The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale, will see top lightweights Nate Diaz take on Gray Maynard for the third time of asking.

Though only officially the second time on record, as the first encounter was in 'TUF' 5 where both men would meet in the semi-finals with Nate Diaz submitting Maynard and then going onto be the winner of "TUF" season 5.

The pair would meet again in January 2010, at UFC Fight Night 20, but this time it would be Maynard who would take the win via split decision.

Maynard (11-2-1) went onto to beat Kenny Florian to earn himself a title shot at the Lightweight belt at UFC 125 when he took on Frankie Edgar, in what would end up being the fight of the night and year! In an epic back and forth battle the judges couldn't split the pair with the outcome being a draw (48-46, 46-48, 47-47) The pair would meet again 9 months later in a rematch that didn't disappoint. Though this time it was Edgar that managed to take the win via an emphatic 4th round KO.

Since then Maynard is (1-1) beating Clay Guida via split decision, and then losing to TJ Grant inside the first round in a lightweight title eliminator fight.

Diaz (16-9) since his loss to Maynard, decided to move back up to Welterweight which he had mixed fortunes going 2-2.

At UFC 135 Diaz returned back to Lightweight and went on to win three fights in a row beating Takanori Gomi, Donald Cerrone and then handing Jim Miller his first ever submission loss to earn himself a title shot against Benson Henderson.

Diaz is currently on a two fight losing streak, having lost a one sided fight in his title shot against Benson Henderson and more recently losing to Josh Thomson via TKO. In that fight Josh Thomson became the first fighter to knockout Diaz.

With so much on the line and the way both fighters like to fight, we could be in for a real treat! (touching wood)

Miesha Tate: An unwanted surprise in to face Ronda Rousey

Miesha Tate replaces injured Cat Zingano for coaches role on TUF 18

by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh

Filming for season 18 of TUF Rousey vs. Zingano began on Tuesday but there was a huge shock in store for UFC women’s champ Ronda Rousey. Cat Zingano blew her knee out while training on May 16th.
Rousey did not know about Zingano’s injury... nobody did, it was a very well kept secret by the UFC and when Miesha Tate walked out in the UFC training centre she was clearly shocked and stormed out of the gym looking for UFC President Dana White. She later said she was angry because she thought she was the one being replaced, apparently?

Rousey, though, was pleased with the change.
“This is what we really wanted all along,” Rousey told Yahoo! Sports. “Everyone said an Ultimate Fighter between me and Miesha would be the best. We have a personal history with each other and this is a personal show. For some reason, me and Miesha are intertwined in fate like Ali and Frazier or something like that."

“I think people will look back at this as one of the monumental rivalries and look back at this as one of those things that really cemented women’s MMA.”
Tate said she was disappointed that it had took an injury to Zingano to get the spot on the show but felt she was winning the fight with Zingano when referee Kim Winslow stopped the fight. A lot of people agree with Tate it was a fight full of controversy that we at Kingdom MMA took time to discuss – http://www.kingdommma.co.uk/2013/04/kingdom-mma-roundtable-on-talking.html

Tate said she was thrilled to not only get the spot on the show but also the shot at the tittle and to see Rousey get visibly angry when she appeared.
“It was rewarding to see that,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yay! This is getting good.’ I watched her go to her corner and her corner was up in arms. I was just sitting there in the doorway thinking, ‘This is awesome.’"
“I felt I was cheated a little in that fight with Cat. I had two solid rounds and one not-so-good round. Either way, I felt I was meant to be here and it’s come full circle.”

Season 18 of TUF will be on our screens in September and is part of the new Fox Sports 1 channel in the states, I believe this will be on BT Sports in the UK as part of the new TV deal. The coaches are slated to fight December 28th and that fight could turn out to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year.

This is also the first season to feature women coaches with men and women’s divisions in the competition.
Added to that the rivalry between the two coaches, these two really don’t like each other and have history as Rousey took the title from Tate under the now defunct Strikeforce promotion in 2011. It was that fight which got UFC president Dana White’s interest in women’s fighting. To that point, White had maintained that the UFC would be men-only.

Zingano underwent surgery on her right knee on Tuesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, as well as to clean up other damage. She said she injured the knee as she came down after clearing a short hurdle.

“I was doing my regular routine, my strength and conditioning,” Zingano told Yahoo! Sports by telephone shortly before she was wheeled into surgery. “I was jumping over tunnels that were about 12 inches high. I’d jumped over them like 10 times already. This one time, I jumped up and my left knee came down right on track and my right knee bent outward."

Zingano said she will be able to resume training in six to nine months. She said the most crushing part of the injury is that she will lose the opportunity to fight Rousey for the belt. She said White promised her she would have the first shot at the Tate-Rousey winner.

Dana white said it made more sense for Tate to fill the spot on the show rather than one of the others in the UFC’s women’s division.
“But with Miesha, she and Ronda already had a great fight and they have a history together. They don’t like each other. We’ll make it work. We always do. You know how I say every day when I wake up, I know some bad [expletive] is going to happen? Well, this was one of them, but we’re doing the best we can here.”

Expect an explosive season with these two coaching and the men and women competing on the show all living under one roof.