Yes, I was not a fan of the matchmaking of the last M-1 Global show in Atlantic City. Paul Andres (Raging Wolf) took over the book for the second show of the tournament series in June. That show featured 7 first round stops in 8 fights with 7 T/KO’s. Saturday night’s event, the tournament semi-finals, was much more inline with the type of quality that Raging Wolf fans have come to expect from the high-energy Anders. There were a couple outstanding fights on the 10 bout card with a couple decisions, a couple submissions, a couple knockouts and one walk-over. Overall, the quality was much improved, and has set up some very interesting matches for the September 18th Finals event at Bally’s on the AC Boardwalk. Continue Reading
Canada’s Rogers Sports Net is reporting that the UFC will open an office in Toronto Canada. The office, which will reportedly be run by former WWE Canada executive Carl DeMarco would be the latest volley in the fight to legalize mixed martial arts in the province of Ontario. The UFC will be in Vancouver, British Columbia next month, and Montreal’s Georges St-Pierre will be one of the coaches in the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, against Western PA’s Josh Koscheck. Popular speculation is that St-Pierre vs Koscheck’s season of TUF will be a Canada vs USA format. This move will be the first true step in the globalization of the UFC that Dana White has been talking about off and on for the last few weeks.
UFC 112 is over, and may go down as one of the most talked about cards in the company’s history. The big story for us is that Toms River NJ’s Frankie The Answer Edgar is your new Lightweight Champion, taking the win by decision over one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, BJ Penn. Harrisburg PA’s Phil Davis protected his perfect record with an anaconda choke in the closing seconds of round 1 to defeat Alexander Gustafsson in what you have to believe will be his last non-televised fight. Continue Reading
Just for the record, nobody covers the UFC as well as Ariel Helwani. If you don’t know who he is right now, your not a mixed martial arts fan. Dude gets more news worthy sound bites out of Dana White than any human being on earth. Plus, he handled that scumbag Bob Arum like a true champion. Continue Reading
To consummate the marriage of UFC and Flash Entertainment of Abu Dhabi, the UFC announced it would hold its 112th PPV event on high class tourist destination, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE. This will be the first major mixed martial arts event held in the Middle East, and the first UFC event held outdoors. According to TSN, the venue will be torn down next week to be rebuilt at a different location for a Tom Jones show. This will also be a big show for local fighters as Frankie Edgar challenges BJ Penn for the 155 strap, and Harrisburgh’s Phil Davis puts the 0 on the line against Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson. The show will air at its regular 10pm ET PPV timeslot, but will be shown on tape delay. No word on if SpikeTV will air prelims. If they do, Phil Davis’ fight is the lead-in to the PPV broadcasth, so that would be the 2nd Spike fight. Read Twitter at your own risk. Continue Reading
