Thursday, July 09, 2009

The organization that changed the fight business forever, and the brand that delivers the most ex- citing live event around the globe, the Ultimate Fighting Champion- ship, announced today that it has signed a major new multi-faceted television agreement in Mexico with the world’s largest Spanish-speaking media company, Grupo Televisa, S.A.B

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

A report from insidefights.com is claiming that the reasoning behind Junior dos Santos’ being pulled from his fight with Justin McCully at UFC 102 on August 29 in Portland, OR is that Dos Santos will now be headlining UFC 103 on September 19 in Dallas, TX. The report alleges that he will be in the main event alongside none other than Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović. UFC newcomer Mike Russo has step- ped up to face McCully in Portland.

GoDaddy.com is embarking on a whole new sponsorship endeavor and this one involves Go Daddy Ring Girls. The world-leading domain name registrar and Web hosting company has signed on as a marquee sponsor for one of the world's fastest growing sports, mixed martial arts, also known as MMA. Go Daddy's MMA deal takes the company into uncharted territory, as far as sponsorships. The Internet giant, known for putting millions of people online with domain names and Web sites, has sponsored athletes or events in other sports such as IndyCar, NASCAR, PokerStars and LPGA, but never MMA.

For the first time in 15 years, the UFC® is on its way back to Oklahoma. Not since UFC 4 saw the legendary Royce Gracie defeat fellow Hall of Famer Dan Severn in 1994 has the world’s greatest mixed martial arts organization put on a show in the Sooner State, and now the premier athletes in the sport will be featured in a nationally televised UFC® Fight Night™ event live on Spike TV Wednesday, September 16 at 8:00p.m. CT from the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.  

In anticipation of UFC 100, Fight- Metric, the world's first compre- hensive mixed martial arts statistics and analysis provider, announces the completion of the most ext- ensive statistical breakdown of UFC fights in existence. "We are very proud to announce the com- pletion of our modern UFC database," said FightMetric creator Rami Genauer.  "Every relevant offensive or defensive maneuver to ever take place since UFC 28 has now been documented. As MMA grows and becomes more mainstream, we're proud to offer statistics on par with the best stats that exist for traditional sports like baseball and football."

Sovereign Nations Boxing Council (SNBC) cruiserweight champion Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey defends his belt against Shawn “The Sioux War- rior” Hawk in a battle of full-blooded Native Americans on this week’s ESPN2 Friday Night Fights at The Arena in Philadelphia.  Sovereign Na- tions Mixed Martial Arts (SNMMA) heavyweight champion Chris Tuch- scherer is also in the news having secured a fighting position in the coveted Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC). Chris makes his UFC debut August 29 in “UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueora” against Gabriel Gonzaga in Portland, Oregon.

Anchor Bay Entertainment today announced it is joining forces with the world’s fastest growing sports organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship to distribute UFC brand releases on DVD and Blu-Ray formats.  The historic UFC 100 event taking place Saturday, July 11 will be one of the first new titles UFC and Anchor Bay will release later this year on DVD in the United States, with Canada set for DVD distribution in first quarter 2010.  

“All my focus is on Gegard Mousasi,” asserts current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral (32-8-0) about his upcoming bout with the fast rising star. “He is a huge challenge for me. I look forward to stepping in there against a former Dream Middleweight Champion. This fight will be champion vs. champion.” 

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Just one month removed from sig- ning 2008 Olympic Judo gold med- alist, Satoshi Ishii, World Victory Road and their Sengoku brand ha- ve succeeded in signing 2004 Oly- mpic Judo silver medalist, Hiroshi Izumi. Izumi was rumored to be signed late last fall, but pen had not met paper until earlier today. Izumi's debut has yet to be announced, but may very well be later this year. The news of his signing is expected to bolster interest in Sengoku's up coming events.

With UFC 100 less than a week away the last minute demand is proving that mixed martial arts, namely the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is recession-proof. A ringside seat for this weekend’s centennial attraction at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada is going for a cool $45,000.00. While tickets can still be found between $250-$1,000, the asking price is seemingly going up by the minute.

It seems that top lightweight Gesias ‘JZ Calvan’ Calvancante (14-3-1) has now found himself without an opponent for the as- yet-announced Dream 11 event in Japan. Eddie Alvarez (18-2), his original opponent who was rec- ently crowned Bellator Fighting Championships first lightweight champion, made it abundantly clear that due to his contractual obligations to the company he has no intentions of fighting for Dream any time soon.

Already in Las Vegas for her newly-premiered and well-received production at Planet Hollywood called “Peep Show”, Holly Madison expressed interest at a recent Ultimate Fighting Championship event that she wanted to take a spin around the Octagon for UFC 100 this Saturday night. Holly Madison joins the lovely posse of Octagon Girls known to their UFC fans as Arianny Celeste, Edith Labelle and Logan Stanton.