Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Rising stars Cory "The One" Devela (9-2) and Luke Rockhold (4-1) will face off with each other in a middleweight (185 pound) battle at the Strikeforce Challengers mixed martial arts (MMA) event at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington on Friday, June 19.  Devela scored a TKO over former UFC star Joe "Diesel" Riggs in the first round of their Strikeforce matchup at Tacoma, Washington's Tacoma Dome on February 28, 2008.  Rockhold, is a member of Team AKA, one of the country's most fearsome fight squads, and has proven to be a dangerous force on the mat, submitting each of his four victims to date within one round of battle. 

Wargods V will showcase the main event light heavyweight match-up of Vernon “Tiger” White (26-32-2) versus Lew Polley (9-2) at the Viejas Casino in Alpine, Calif., May 30.  Also included on the card is the first round of the promotion's lightweight tournament, including two tournament bouts, and one contest for the tournament alternate spot.  Four additonal fights round out the card.  Full details are below.

Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1) stated he will fight Vitor Belfort (18-8) at Affliction's third show in August. Mousasi made the comments during his Dream 9 post fight interview with M-1 Global.  However recent comments by Vitor Belfort deny the fight is confirmed, but that he is open to fighting Mousasi at 185lbs.

At the UFC 98 post-fight press conference, Dana White announced that UFC 104 will take place on October 24th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. This marks the sixth time the UFC has held an event in California.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Dream's ninth installment took place early this morning and included the second round of their featherweight tournament that began at Dream 7 in March. Also on the card were the opening bouts of the "SuperHulk" tournament with some of the largest competitors in the sport. In a highly anticipated lightweight exhibition, Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante took on Japanese superstar Tatsuya Kawajiri.  Headlining the event was the rematch from DREAM 4's middleweight tournament, where Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza edged Jason "Mayhem" Miller via decision.  This time, the bout was for the vacant middleweight crown, and as it proved, was not without controversy.  Continue reading for the recap and full results.

The most historic event in UFC just got bigger with the announcement that rap-metal pioneers Limp Bizkit are bringing the only performance in the US of their "Unicorns N' Rainbows" tour to Mandalay Bay Beach on Friday, July 10th to per- form in their first North American concert in eight years as a part of the UFC 100 weekend.

MMAJunkie has obtained the official salaries reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for "UFC 98: Evans vs Machida". The two top earners were Matt Hughes and Rashad Evans who each earned $200,000 for their fights.

The paydays do not include any bonuses given out by the UFC. As reported, UFC 98 had a live gate revenue of $3.4 million with 12,606 fans in attendance.  Full payouts below.

Matt Erickson of The Times of Northwest Indiana is reporting that WEC officials have requested to hold an event on Sunday August 9th the day after "UFC 101: Declaration". WEC 42 will take place live from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Nevada. A main event of Miguel Torres (37-1) vs Brian Bowles (7-0) is set to headline.

News recently broke linking Daley to Affliction and their third event. MMA Spot’s J. Andrew Yount caught up with the personable po- werhouse to discuss the Affliction news, his travels, and training. See what one of the best pound for pound strikers in the sport has to say about these and other topics.

The vision of Charles “Mask” Lewis, Jr. will live on as the TapouT con- tinues to develop its brand according to a variety of decisions made before their co-founder’s recent passing.  Just prior to his tragically fatal au- tomobile accident, Lewis revealed several far reaching plans for the organization aimed to develop and broaden the scope of the multi-million-dollar mixed martial arts clothing and lifestyle brand.

Monday, May 25, 2009

MMAJunkie is reporting that Dan Lauzon (14-2) and Chris Horodecki (12-1) have agreed to meet at Affliction's not officially announced third event. Horodecki and Lauzon were originally supposed to fight at "Affliction Day Of Reckoning" in January, however Horodecki failed to receive medical clearance in time.

HDNet will broadcast exclusive co- verage of "HDNet Fights Presents:  OLYMPIA DREAM 9 Featherweight Grand Prix, 2nd Round 2009," early Tuesday morning, May 26, at 5:00 a.m. ET LIVE from the esteemed Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan.