Thread: Ufc news - july 19

There were some false starts last week, but it's official now that Jake Shields has signed his new deal to become a UFC fighter. He will debut later this year in the welterweight division.

The deal to get Shields into the UFC has been expected for some time now, but it was just a matter of getting the right deal done, and it has now been signed, sealed and delivered.

Shields left his Strikeforce middleweight championship behind, riding a 14-fight winning streak into the Octagon.

Shields also confirmed previous reports that he will indeed drop back down to the welterweight division, after spending the last three fights at 185 pounds while in Strikeforce.

His first fight will be at UFC 121 in Anaheim, Calif., against Top 10 welterweight Martin Kampmann, who last fought in June, winning a unanimous decision over Paulo Thiago.

Shields vs. Kampmann could end up being a top contender's fight with the winner getting a shot against the winner of the fight between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s31WkFooUs



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The Ultimate Fighting Championship took its Octagon to Australia for the first time on Feb. 21 with UFC 110. The event was an unabashed success with UFC president Dana White vowing to return, possibly making the land down under an annual stop.

White recently said the Las Vegas-based fight promotion will return to Australia in 2011.

“If you’ve ever known how we do it, when we come in and we’re as successful as we were in this market, we make it an annual event. So we’ll be coming back here obviously,” White said to the media at the UFC 110 post-fight press conference in Sydney. “Our first trip to Australia was very successful.”

Following UFC 116 on July 3, White stated, “We’ll be back to Australia next year.”

Australia will likely be one of the first international locations to land it‘s own “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show as well.

“We’re killing it in Australia,” said the UFC president. “Australia has become very, very good for us.”

It’s still up in the air whether the UFC will return to Sydney on its second trip to the Land Down Under, or if the Octagon might make its first appearance in Melbourne, another city the promotion has had its eyes on.


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t's been a while since Martin Kampmann has known what disappointment tasted like, but it happened when he got the word that he wouldn't get the fight against Dan Hardy in England as he originally had hoped.

The Danish fighter, coming off a huge win over Paulo Thiago in June, immediately called for a fight with Hardy at UFC 120 in October, but the UFC went with Carlos Condit instead.

"We were really hoping to get that Hardy fight in England," Kampmann's agent Ken Pavia on Tuesday. "We really wanted that fight and I don't know if it was partially Hardy, partially the England UFC, but they opted to go Condit.

"We lobbied hard. We felt like Hardy has been a No. 1 contender, went the distance with GSP, if we could compete favorably and even submit him, it would look great on Martin's resume, but they opted to go a different route."

With Kampmann getting married and about to take a trip home to Denmark with his new bride, it's just a waiting game right now for when he'll step foot back in the Octagon.

One fight that gets brought up quite often for Kampmann is a welcome to the UFC bout against Jake Shields. The former Strikeforce middleweight champion is on a fast track to end up in the UFC, and a bout between the two could determine a top contender in the welterweight division.

Kampmann is all for the fight, but no one is sure yet what weight class Shields will compete at when he comes to the UFC.

"I'm not so sure he's going to come back to 70," Pavia said about Shields. "It's a fight that we actually talked about in-house. Martin and I have talked about it, and Martin said he'd welcome that fight."

Back in the mix for a welterweight title shot, Kampmann is just about getting tough fights that will get him closer to his goal. From what his manager said, fans may see him back as soon as UFC 121 in Anaheim if everything works out.

"I'm hoping for a late October return for him," said Pavia. "We're talking about some stuff, but nothing's come up yet. That's kind of what we're shooting for."

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The death of Michael Kirkham on June 26, the second mixed martial arts death in a sanctioned event in U.S. history, has been a wake up call to the dangers of insufficient regulation, the ramifications of combatants not being forthcoming on licensing applications and the landscape of the sport where new states are approving and local promoters promoting when maybe neither fully understand the tragic consequences of cutting corners.

But UFC president Dana White insists mixed martial arts is not only safe, but the safest sport in the world when correctly regulated.

“This is the safest sport in the world when done properly,” White said when asked about the unfortunate passing of Kirkham.

Michael Kirkham died following his professional mixed martial arts debut on June 26 at the Dash Entertainment and King MMA co-promoted “Confrontation at the Convocation Center” event at the USC Aiken Convocation Center in Aiken, South Carolina. An autopsy determined that he died from subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain.

White acknowledged the potential recipe for disaster when smaller promoters jump into hosting mixed martial arts events without the financial security to ensure proper preliminary medical testing on the athletes.

“As we go out there and get this thing sanctioned in all these different states, here’s the problem,” White began to explain. “I need these smaller promotions to exist but here’s the deal. If you can’t afford to do the proper medicals before the fight you don’t belong in this business.”

A fatality is a promotion’s worst nightmare, and the regulation of testing standards and promotion policing rests solely on the state commissions.

To fight in South Carolina, it isn’t required for a fighter to pass a full physical exam.

Asked about the South Carolina regulatory body’s responsibility, White said, “Yeah. Those are the medicals required in all the states. It should have been done. It should have been done.”

“The bottom line is I don’t care what state it is, what commission, if that company doesn’t have enough money to do the proper medical tests on the fighters before and after the fight, go open a (expletive) doughnut shop,” added the UFC president. “Go do something else. Open a laundry mat. This isn’t the business you should be in.”

White believes Kirkham entered his final bout with a pre-existing condition or injury that wasn’t detected.

“That fight lasted 22 seconds. It’s not like this was some three-round war where this kid took a lot of head damage,” commented White. "I’m no doctor, but I believe there was a pre-existing injury that they didn’t find in pre-fight medicals. And if you don’t have the money to do the proper medicals go get in another business. This isn’t the business for you.”

White may be right. Kirkham fought just 63 days before that fateful night on June 26, losing by technical knockout on April 24 in an amateur bout and was placed on the standard 30 day medical suspension with no contact, meaning no sparring with blows to the head.

On his pre-fight paperwork the 30-year old left blank the question that asked if he had ever been suspended in any state.

The UFC hosts more mixed martial arts fights than any other organization in the world and has not suffered a single death, and White attributes that statistic to appropriate pre and post-fight medical testing and proper regulation and maintains the precautionary measures save lives.

“The UFC has saved people’s lives,” stated White. “Guys have come on the show, for The Ultimate Fighter, with brain injuries and all these sorts of problems, and they’re detected. You get a CAT scan. You get an MRI. You get an EKG, a full battery of tests before you go in and compete. When that’s done you find the stuff that’s wrong.”

Thiago Alves, (who was not cleared for his scheduled UFC 111 rematch with Jon Fitch due to a brain abnormality) he’s fought in the UFC for a long time. Some freak, weird thing happens in his brain. If he was fighting in that South Carolina show they would have never found it.”

“No one has ever died in the UFC.”

Whether Michael Kirkham's fate would have been different had the pre-fight medicals been more stringent, we'll never know. But the implications that it may have been should raise some eyebrows within the sport, or we can only hope.

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir and former interim titleholder Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will rematch in the main event. Mir won their first go around becoming the first fighter to finish Nogueira. He scored a TKO stoppage in the second round at UFC 92.



Mir enters their rematch coming off of a TKO loss to Shane Carwin. Nogueira is also trying to right the ship after being knocked out by Cain Velasquez at UFC 110 in Australia.



“Ever since Frank Mir beat Nogueira for the (interim) heavyweight title in 2008, Minotauro has asked me for this rematch because he wants to prove that the first fight was a fluke,” said UFC President Dana White.



“On September 25, he gets his wish, and I don’t think there’s any fighter more motivated than he is to even the score. As for Frank Mir, he wants to get back in the title picture, and if I know him, he was the first man to knock Nogueira out at UFC 92, and now he’ll want to be the first man to make him tap out.”

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When the UFC bought the WEC some years ago, it was defined shortly thereafter that the WEC would become the home to the lighter weight classes. While the featherweights and bantamweights have taken center stage in the WEC, the promotion’s other divisions (light heavyweights, middleweights, and welterweights) have since been folded into the UFC.

The only remaining shared weight class between the two organizations is the lightweight division.

WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson has faced many of the top contenders in his promotion, and after his second win over Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, many theorized that it wouldn't be long until the promotion moved its champion, and the other top fighters at 155 pounds over to the UFC.

Not so fast.

The move has been talked about in the past by UFC president Dana White, but according to WEC General Manager Reed Harris, right now it's not realistic. The UFC already has a great number of 155-pounders on its roster with little room for more.

"Joe Silva's got a ton of guys at 55 that he's got to get fights for too. I don't think he'd be that excited about taking on all our guys," said Harris.

One possibility that could come up in the future is crossover super fights.

Harris said that everyone in the company has been excited about that possibility, and somewhere down the road fans could see a potential match-up between Ben Henderson and a top fighter in the UFC's 155-pound division.

"Dana has mentioned maybe he'd like to do superfights; maybe we could see (Ben) Henderson against one of their guys or something like that. We're certainly open to all that," Harris stated.

For now the WEC will continue to run their lightweight division as is, and Ben Henderson will return to defend his title in 2010. The promotion is currently seeking out a new top contender, and will determine the top dog by the time the champion comes back later this year.

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19/07/10 - Dana gives his phone number to over 1 million fans

UFC president Dana White managed to accidentally tweet his direct office phone number last night as he attempted to send a private message to a fan regarding a UFC-related birthday treat.

White was attempting to arrange a tour of the TUF facility and UFC gym in Las Vegas for the fan and her boyfriend, who were heading to Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday. But he got it wrong and sent the message as a open tweet that could be read by any of his 1,127,759 follower.

A flurry of calls followed, as the number was endlessly retweeted and posted on various MMA forums. One message board user who rang the number very soon after it was posted reported having a “very confused sound[ing]” male answer the phone, who turned out to be Dana White.

Shortly after posting his number and fielding a number of calls - he chatted away to more than one fan - White switched the number to voicemail and made a follow-up Twitter post. “I fucked up and tweeted my number lol but I got to talk to a lot of cool people. Thank u all!” he wrote.

The error is almost an exact replica of one made by UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently. He manager to accidentally post his cell-phone number to over 100,000 followers and found himself taking numerous random calls from fans.


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It’s amazing that after nearly two decades of mixed martial arts in this country, reporters are still asking fighters who they want to face next. Really, has any one of these guys ever answered that question with anything other than some variation of “It doesn’t matter/Whoever the UFC wants me to fight next”? Take Vitor Belfort, who is now fully recovered from shoulder surgery and training in Las Vegas for a future bout with the winner of Anderson Silva’s UFC 117 title defense against Chael Sonnen on Aug. 7. You think Belfort is going to admit to Las Vegas Sun Reporter Brett Okamoto that he cares who emerges from that event with the middleweight belt? Fat chance.

"I'm the kind of guy who doesn't worry about what's going to come my way,” he says. “As long as I stay on my path, I'm not worried about who's in it.”

Of course what Belfort means to say is, he wants to fight Anderson Silva. Good thing for us, Shawn Tompkins is there to read between the lines. Good thing for Belfort, Tompkins also thinks he’s going to get his wish …

"I think Chael will try to pick a fight, but that's the only way he becomes popular or famous because we all know he's a boring fighter …,” Tompkins says. “Anderson is the man and we want to beat that man. I think that fight would mean a little more to us. And honestly, go ask the fans who they want to see fight. It's Anderson and Vitor."
…

"Nothing against Chael, but I think he talks better than he fights," Tompkins continues. "I'll be front row (at UFC 117) studying both of them because that's my job. I think Chael will talk himself into the fight but, ultimately, Anderson will knock him out."

Yep, nothing against Chael or anything …

Belfort and Silva have some history. They briefly trained together at Ed Soares’ Black House gym and at one time or another they were scheduled to fight each other at UFC 108, 109 and 112, before various injuries to both parties made those bouts impossible.

Also likely hoping Silva beats Sonnen (or at least actually fights the guy insteads of just dancing) could be the UFC. A Belfort vs. Silva match would indeed be a bigger deal and, if Silva comes away unscathed from UFC 117, the company could conceivably put that bout on its gala end-of-the-year PPV.

Do you want me to do post news in threads like this ?

or do news individually ?

or do big stories individually ? .. then weekly update smaller news in another thread

or should i just fucckk ooffff

Originally Posted by jeevan

Do you want me to do post news in threads like this ?

or do news individually ?

or do big stories individually ? .. then weekly update smaller news in another thread

or should i just fucckk ooffff

Originally Posted by jeevan

or should i just fucckk ooffff

Originally Posted by jeevan

just fucckk ooffff

Originally Posted by jeevan

fucckk ooffff

:laugh:

screw you imy

If anything maybe just post links to the website that has the story? That way the person that writes the article etc gets a hit on their site.

Just one mans opinion...:thumb

seconded - good suggestion

Really ?
So rather than being able to read the best news in one thread, you would rather go to the website and look at each news piece by piece ?

I though this was the easiest way for people get news

Anyone use the site on their phone ?
because it would takes even longer to do that if people are on their phones

Nope dude... lol, If ne thing smaller threads to long of a read. But a daily link would be good!