UFC 98

Krzysztof Soszynski will fight Gusmao after coming off his recent win at UFC 97 over Brian Stann . Looks like Sosynski wants to make his name better known in the UFC…and get a paycheck while he’s at it.

Other replacements for UFC 98 are Chael Sonnen coming in to replace Yushin Okami , who tore his MCL. Sonnen with face Dan Miller who is currently on a 3 win streak.

Replacing James Irvin whom tore his meniscus, will be Xavier Foupa-Pokam . Xavier Foupa-Pokam will be fighting Drew McFedries .

Here is the updated fight card for the May 23rd event at the MGM Grand.

Main Card
Rashad Evans Vs. Lyoto Machida
Matt Hughes Vs. Matt Serra
Drew McFedries Vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam
Dan Miller Vs. Chael Sonnen
Sean Sherk Vs. Frank Edgar

Undercard
Brock Larson Vs. Chris Wilson
Pat Barry Vs. Tim Hague
Phillipe Nover Vs. Kyle Bradley
Krzysztof Soszynski Vs. Andre Gusmao
Yoshiyuki Yoshida Vs. Brandon Wolff
Dave Kaplan Vs. George Roop

(image: UFC 98 Press Release)

Post from: EveryJoe

UFC 98 Changes

First up, we saw an UFC and MMA Veteran lose his title to an MMA/UFC rookie with the Brock Lesnar Vs. Randy Couture fight. With the huge difference in weight between these tow fighters there has been a lot of people questioning if there should be a weigh class within the Heavyweight class. MMAWeekly.com presented this question to the Nevada Stats Athletic Commission. Their response was "This already exists", referring to the Super-Heavyweight class. Not really the answer they were shooting for, though. You can read what other SAC’s said at MMAWeekly.com.

This month also saw the dethroning of the WEC Featherweight Champ, Urijah Faber. Mike Brown caught Faber with a huge right in the first round of this highly anticipated fight and then capitalized on a stunned Faber and beat him in to a TKO (by punches, ref stoppage). Faber wants an immediate rematch in an attempt to reclaim his lost title, but we may see a Jens Pulver/Faber part 2 instead. I’d like to see someone else (like Leonard Garcia) face Mike Brown first, but Faber definitely deserves a shot again.

Within the last 2 months there has been more controversy with ProElite and EliteXC as ProElite shut down it’s operations leaving a lot of fighters in limbo and waiting to find out what the future holds for them. Will they become free agents or will their contracts be sold to another promotion?

Dana White has been running his mouth A LOT lately. Some say he’s become a huge ego-maniac and it’s bad for the sport. Being president of one of the biggest MMA promotion is a big responsibility. With the success of the UFC and Zuffa it’s tough for smaller promotions/competition to break through. With Dana White constantly talking trash and banning other promotions, clothing lines, etc. it doesn’t make it any easier. Is Dana burning too many bridges that he could possibly use in the future or is he just doing what the execs. at Zuffa tell him to? MMAFighting.com’s Friday Mailbag discussed a few of those issues.

Bobby Lashley, another Pro-wrestler gone MMA finds himself kind of in Limbo as the promotion he is currently signed with (Kentucky’s AFL), is in an unknown status. He’s bound to his contract but it seems that after the recent success this year of Brock Lesnar, other promotions are showing interest because of the big draw of the former pro-wrestling star. Until then, Lashley will have to ride out his contract. He recently spoke to TAGG Radio, a partner of MMA Junkie. It’s a great read and I think that Lashley could do well for himself in MMA. He big, he’s quick and he’s got good cardio. We’ll have to wait and see after a few fights.

After an extremely disappointing fight and an unprofessional turn of events for Paulo Filho this past WEC 36 with his bout with Chael Sonnen, the fighter was dropped from WEC. Though the WEC is dropping their middleweight division, Filho would have been a fighter considered for a move to the UFC next year. After his loss and not being able to make weight for his last fight it was bound to happen. Right now his management says that the priority for Paulo Filho is to get his life back in order and his mind focused.

Lastly, it’s been reported quite recently that Pat Miletich is getting back in to the ring next month. Miletich will face Tommy Denny at Adrenaline MMA’s second show in the Miletech Fighting System’s backyard of Moline Iowa. Read more on that at MMAWeekly.com.

Well that wraps things up here for the Month. Moving in to December we have a handful of great MMA fights coming up that you won’t want to miss.

All Image Credit: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

End Of Month MMA Wrap Up

Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen (non-title Middleweight bout)

Paulo Filho enter the ring to a lot of boos (and even more boos when introduced) and not looking in the best of shape. Sonnen showed some emotion during the pre-fight promo cuts and looked nervous and emotional coming to the ring. No title on the line due to Filho not making weight. Many say that this is unacceptable as a champion. Originally scheduled for 5 rounds, the fight was changed to a 3 round, non-title match.

Round 1 started with Sonne being the aggressor and throwing some punches but not connecting anything significant. Filho attempts a takedown but Sonnen defends it well. The rest of this round was spent with Filho on his back and Sonnen working with kicks to the leg and the occasional punch. Round 1 ends.

Round two showed Sonnen obviously wanting to keep it standing and caught Filho with a few good punches. When Filho went to his back Sonnen would back off to stand him up. Filho attempted another shoot to take Sonnen down but again, Sonnen defended it well. Sonnen still showed as the aggressor in round two and it ended with both fighters on their feet.

The third round was 99% stand up with Chael Sonnen throwing a lot of short jabs and not connecting very many. Filho looked like eh really didn’t want to be there anymore. Sonnen kept throwing short, soft jabs and connecting, scoring points every now and then and showed a little more aggression in the last 10 seconds. When the round was over Sonned shook Filho’s hand. It was a very strange fight and Filho didn’t look like much of a champion.

• After 3 rounds all three judges score the fight 30-17 and Sonnen wins by unanimous decision.

Post from: EveryJoe

WEC 36 Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen

MMArated.com, where I first heard the story has doubts that he will be able to cut the weight and if he does not, then WEC officials will "decide how to proceed with the scheduled title fight." That is a lot of weight to cut and if he does make weight it will most likely effect him both physically and mentally in his fight against Sonnen.

Update!!! Paulo Filho did not make weight the second time up and only shed 3 pounds. The 5 round Championship bout has now been changed to a 3 round non-title match. This is a Champion we’re talking about here! This is disrespectful to Chael Sonnen and disgraceful on himself. Way to go out as the last WEC middle weight champ, Filho. Real classy.

Other fighters weighed in over limit as well. Urijah Faber’s opponent, Mike Brown weighed in a half pound over and also has two hours to lose the weight but could probably urinate and lose that kind of weight.

Lastley, Rani Yaha weighed in a pound over the 135 limit but his opponent, Yoshihiro Maeda agreed to face him without forcing him to make the limit. Is that good sportsmanship, or a risk?

Source: MMArated.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Paulo Filho Weighs In 7 Pounds Over (Updated)

In WEC

Besides the usual re-airs of WEC Wreckage, we have the delayed and another highly anticipated fight this week on November 5th. WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber will defend his Featherweight title against Mike Brown in Brown’s home state of Florida. Mike Brown who took up MMA for love of the sport has spent 13 years in the MMA circuit working his way up to the big time, televised world of MMA.

Faber as usual is the favored fighter and hasn’t lost a fight in over 3 years when he defended his Bantamweight title against Tyson Griffin when he fought in Gladiator Challenge 42. Since his WEC debut, Urijah has fought 5 times and has won four of those fights by submission. His last fight with Jens Pulver proved to be one of his most challenging when he won by decision after 5 rounds. This was Urijah’s first fight in the WEC and first time in 13 fights that has lasted more than two rounds.

Mike Brown won his debut fight in the WEC against Jeff Curran by decision after 3 rounds. Jeff Curran’s last fight before that was against Urijah Faber and only lasted 2 rounds when he was submitted by Faber. Mike Brown has not lost a professional fight in his last 7 fights. That last loss also being three years ago.

In a co-featured fight, Middleweight Chael Sonnen takes on undefeated Paulo Filho. Sonnen lost to Filho once and is looking for redemption after a controversial ref stoppage when he was caught in an arm lock. Sonnen did not visually tap but the referee stopped the fight saying it was a "verbal submission". Sonnen claimed that he was trying to tell the ref not to stop the fight but later said that the ref made a fair call.

Jens Pulver is looking to work his way back up to a featherweight title shot by taking on Leonard Garcia. There are also other fights that may not be televised.

In UFC

We’re back to the lightweight fights this weeks The Ultimate Fighter 8 as either Dave Kaplan or George Roop from Team Mir takes on either Phillipe Nover or John Polakowski from Team Nogueira.

Image©JabandGrapple.com

Post from: EveryJoe

MMA On TV This Week 11/3

Last week’s WEC Featherweight Championship fight between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown has been postponed until November 5th. The fight was postponed last week due to Hurricane Ike and will be held at the same venue (The Seminole Hard Rock Cafe & Casino). The WEC has announced that ticket holders for the original event that can not make the rescheduled event can get a refund for their tickets at the point of purchase.

Full Fight Card For Nov. 5th   (Some Fights May Not Be Televised)

• Urijah Faber Vs. Mike Brown
• Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen
• Jens Pulver Vs. Leonard Garcia
• Danillo Villefort Vs. Jake Rosholt
• Rob McCullough Vs. Donald Cerrone
• Jose Aldo Vs. Jonathan Brookins
• Alex Schoenauer Vs. Steve Steinbeiss
• Ed Ratcliff Vs. Danny Castillo
• Johny Hendricks Vs. Alex Serdyukov
• Rani Yahya Vs. Yoshiro Maeda

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Faber Vs. Brown Postponed Until November 5th