Costa Philippou meets Francis Carmont at UFC 165

Costa Philippou meets Francis Carmont at UFC 165

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Costa Philippou must have been a very frustrated man recently. He's almost the forgotten man in the middleweight title picture. He has quietly gone about his business and amassed a 5-0 winning streak. His opponent Francis Carmont strangely enough has also racked up a 5-0 steak but not even remotely in the same impressive fashion.

Philippou is the only top 10 middleweight who hasn't yet fought in 2013. He unfortunately had to pull out of a scheduled bout with Ronaldo Souza at UFC on FX 8 due to an untimely facial injury. Because of the lack of activity he has flown somewhat under the radar. Decision wins over Rivera, McGee and Fukada and KO wins over Harman and most recently Tim Boetsch has firmly established Philippou inside the middleweight top 10 rankings.

Recent, respective call outs of top middleweights although unsuccessful show the mans ambition. Philippou  campaigned for a main event slot against Michael Bisping at the upcoming UK event, a win here against Carmont could make that matchup viable for early next year. A decision win over Urijah Hall may also come back to look very good on the resume.

Ortiz vs Rampage Fight or Farce?!

Tito vs Rampage announced for first ever Bellator PPV

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

 When having trouble sleeping last night, I opened up my laptop and had a look on twitter for any latest news. And low and behold I saw something that had to be a joke? a dream? even a nightmare?! Well, it turns out it wasn't a joke, certainly not a dream, but a nightmare come true!

Now prepare yourself folks, this isn't easy to digest. Tito Ortiz will be coming out of retirement after almost a year to take on Rampage Jackson in Bellator's first ever PPV event on November 2nd 2013 which will take place at Long Beach Arena in Southern California.

Ortiz (16-11-1) an inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame, bowed out of the UFC when he fought and lost to Forrest Griffin in July 2012 after losing a unanimous decision. Leaving Ortiz with only one win in nine fights, it was clear that the former Light Heavyweight Champions career was coming to a close, and no longer had that edge to compete at the highest level.

Rampage (32-11) left the UFC at the end of his contract after losing his last bout to Glover Teixeira via unanimous decision in January. Finishing his UFC career (7-5). Rampage also a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion himself, won the belt in fashionable style knocking out the legend Chuck Liddell.

Tito and Rampage came head to head inside the Bellator cage to announce the fight. Both having a good relationship with each other, though they will be putting that to one side for this fight come November.

Tito went onto say "we're giving the fans the fight they want to see, and the best fight possible"  really Tito, really??!! If this fight took place 6/7 years ago, I'd probably agree with him. But in 2013, certainly not!

With both fighters way past their best. The only good thing I can probably take from this fight is that they will probably be evenly matched and may make for a competitive fight. Well, here's clutching at straws anyway!

I just hope Tito isn't coming out of retirement as he needs the $$$$, if he does its a sad state of affairs for once one of the highest ever earners in the UFC.

Hopefully this isn't the start of things to come from Bellator, with so many good fighters on their roster and they are relying on two MMA veterans to pull in a crowd for there first ever PPV event.

Shamrock, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman will all be dusting off their gloves just in case that call comes!

Cage Warriors 59 Bantamweight tournament pairings set

Bantamweight tournament pairings set

Photo: Dolly Clew | Cage Warriors

A four man tournament will take place at Cage Warriors 59 to determine a new CWFC bantamweight champion, and officials have today revealed details of the semi-final pairings.

Cage Warriors 59, which will also see Jim Alers defend his featherweight title against Martin Svensson, is set for Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on Saturday, 14 September, 2013.

To be contested on the night, the bantamweight tournament will feature David Haggstrom, Brett Johns, Martin McDonough and James Pennington (pictured), all of whom will be aiming to pick up the two wins required to clinch the vacant title.

Fighting in their native Wales, Johns and McDonough will feature in separate semi-finals, meaning an all-Welsh final is a distinct possibility. However, Sweden’s Haggstrom and Englishman Pennington will have other ideas.

Johns (7-0) will face Haggstrom (7-1-1) in one semi-final, an intriguing bout given that Haggstrom’s only professional loss came at the hands of Johns’ team-mate Dino Gambatesa back in July 2011.

In the other semi-final, two of the UK’s top-10 bantamweights will collide when McDonough (11-4) takes on Pennington (8-1), a meeting which will also carry added interest in the context that McDonough last tasted defeat in October 2011 against James Brum, a team-mate of Pennington’s.

Each semi-final bout will consist of two five-minute rounds and an additional overtime round will be contested in the event of a draw. Five five-minute rounds will be scheduled for the final.

The semi-finals will feature on the night’s preliminary card, with the final forming part of the co-main event. A reserve bout will also be added to the card in order to facilitate any enforced withdrawals.

Many more fights are still to be announced for Cage Warriors 59.

Cage Warriors 58 adds four more bouts including first heavyweight fight of 2013

Cage Warriors 58: Fight card update
  

The bill for Cage Warriors 58 has today been boosted by four additional bouts, including the first CWFC heavyweight fight of 2013. Cage Warriors 58, which is set for Saturday, August 24, will take place at the Olympisk Arena in Grozny, Chechnya.

A meeting of two exciting heavyweight prospects will feature, with Ion Cutelaba and Michal Andryszak set to clash.

Following their recent meeting at Cage Warriors 57 in Liverpool, both Matt Inman and Mohsen Bahari will make swift returns to action, while the card will also include the featherweight comeback of Alex Enlund.
Cutelaba (4-1) has attracted much attention in Europe since making his professional debut last year at the age of 18.

With a background in judo and combat sambo, the Moldovan youngster has taken three of his four wins in less than a minute, while his only loss came via a controversial TKO stoppage.

“I’m really happy to be competing for such a prestigious organisation as Cage Warriors,” said Cutelaba. “This will be the biggest test of my career but I will look to put on a big performance.”

Andryszak (9-3-0-1), a 21-year-old Pole, comes with a similarly impressive reputation having taken all nine of his wins by stoppage, eight of which came inside the first round. He said:

“This is between two young guns and I think we’ll put on an entertaining fight because my opponent is a tough fighter, like me. Fighting on Cage Warriors is a big opportunity for me and a great honour. I really want to take this chance.”

Elsewhere, having submitted Mohsen Bahari via heel-hook after just 44 seconds of their CWFC 57 meeting, Matt Inman (11-5) will aim for his third consecutive Cage Warriors win when he takes on Russian 22-year-old Eldar Eldarov (4-1), whose only loss to date came at the hands of unbeaten UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Bahari (5-1), who saw his undefeated streak ended by Inman, will be keen to returning to winning ways against Alexander Voitenko (9-3), a 26-year-old welterweight from Ukraine who disposed of Dan Hope by third-round TKO at Cage Warriors 46.

Meanwhile, following a bantamweight defeat to CWFC title challenger Martin McDonough at Cage Warriors 52, Alex Enlund (7-2-0-1) returns to the 145lbs division for a meeting with 23-year-old Polish prospect Sebastian Romanowski (7-1).

More fights are still to be announced for CWFC 58.

UFC 166 Fight Card Grows By The Hour

Boetsch vs Rockhold and Gonzaga vs Jordan added to UFC 166

by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh

The UFC 166 fight card booked for October 19th in Houston Texas is growing fast with two new fights added to the card.
First is a heavyweight bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and Shawn Jordan. Gonzaga (15-7) is in his second UFC tour, having won three of the four bouts since returning to the promotion at UFC 142 in January last year.
Shawn Jordan (15-4) is also on a run of a 3-1 in the Octagon, his last fight was a win over Pat Barry at UFC 161. Both fighters will be looking to make an impression on the already stacked Heavyweight division knowing that a win here could pit them against the elite of the division next time out.
Also added to the Houston fight card is Luke Rockhold vs. Tim Boetsch. Rockhold (12-2) is former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and made the move to the UFC in January when Strikeforce closed its doors. He was welcomed to the octagon by Vitor Belfort on May 18, 2013 in the main event at UFC on FX 8. He lost the fight via a brutal spinning headkick knockout in the first round, after being caught with a spinning heel kick to the face.

Tim Boestsch (16-6) comes in to this fight having lost his last two fights, before that he had been on a four fight win streak. His most recent loss was to the returning Mark Munoz at UFC 162 in July.

Both fighters could be fighting for their jobs given that there are still too many fighters on the UFC’s books so will be looking to put on the performance we all know they can and have in the past.
UFC 166 is headlined by the trilogy fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.

Chael Sonnen was never the shy and retiring type

Chael Sonnen signs new contract and will drop to middleweight after fight against Shogun

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

The UFC has confirmed Chael Sonnen has signed a new deal, the deal will coincide with his return to the middleweight division.

Sonnen confirmed a 5 fight deal which will kick in after his August 17 fight with Shogun Rua which headlines the first UFC on Fox Sports 1 event. Sonnen also told of a move in his training camp to help with the drop back to middleweight. He has moved to California to train at Mark Munuz's 'Reign'.

With the former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight contender known to talk his way into several huge fights there is no shortage of opponents for him. Vitor Belfort is stuck in a bit of a no mans land at the minute and has asked for the fight at the massive end of year ppv on Dec 28th.

Wanderlei Silva is another possible opponent. First and foremost though Sonnen has to deal with a very tough opponent in Shogun Rua who certainly can't be taken lightly.

Schaub vs Mitrione and Makdessi vs Forte added to UFC 165

UFC 165 adds Schaub vs Mitrione and Makdessi vs Forte

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

UFC 165 will now see the rescheduled match up between two heavyweights Brendan Schaub vs Matt Mitrione in Toronto on September 21st 2013. The original bout between the two had been set for the last weeks UFC on Fox 8 card in Seattle, which saw Demetrious Johnson retain his Flyweight belt to John Moraga in a stunning 5th round submission.
Though two weeks out from the event, Mitrione had to pull out citing an injury forcing the fight to be pulled from the card. Luckily the injury for Mitrione wasn't as bad as first thought and the UFC have taken the initiative to reschedule the fight between former TUF cast members.

Matt Mitrione (6-2) maybe counts himself a little fortunate to still have a job after his comments made about transgender fighter Fallon Fox, which earned the American a suspension for his comments. After losing back to back fights against Cheick Kongo and Roy Nelson, Mitrione had it all on the line going in against Britain's Phil De Fries who he easily dispatched within 19 seconds.

Brendan Schaub (9-3) also rebounded from consecutive losses inside the first round via knockout first against Antionio Rodrigo Nogueria and then too Ben Rothwell. Schaub went onto fight Lavar Johnson at UFC 157 in February where he grinded out a unanimous decision win.

Also confirmed for UFC 165, we have a lightweight bout between John Makdessi and Renne Forte.
Makdessi (11-2) is currently on a two fight win streak after defeating Sam Stout and Daron Cruickshank via decision will be looking to get himself in the top 10 of the lightweight division with a win over Forte.

Renne Forte (8-2) competed on season 1 of TUF Brazil, where he fought at Middleweight. Having made it into the house, he lost his first round fight to Daniel Sarafian via submission.

Forte made his UFC debut in the Welterweight division in October 2012 at UFC 153 when he took on fellow Brazilian Sergio Moraes in which he lost via submission. After his defeat to Moraes, Forte decided to drop another 155lbs to make his lightweight debut in London England, when he fought and defeated the highly rated Terry Etim at UFC on Fuel 7 at Wembley Arena taking a very impressive unanimous decision win. 

UFC 165 will be headlined by the much anticipated match up between Light heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and Number 1 contender Alexander Gustafsson, Jon Jones will be looking to defend his belt for a UFC Light Heavyweight record sixth consecutive time.