Nokaut Fighter to Pride
It is heavily tipped that Team Nokaut’s Damir Mirenic has signed the deal that will take him to the major leagues of Pride Bushido.
Mirenic, is tipped to make his Bushido debut on August 26th at Pride Bushido 12.
Damir Mirenic is a classic Croatian striking specialist but also has a submissions pedigree.
Wanderlei Silva is not the only Pride FC superstar to come to the UFC.
Wanderlei Silva is not the only Pride FC superstar to come to the UFC. According to Pride’s own official website www.PrideOfficial.com , Kazuyuki Fujita could also be due to make an appearance at UFC 63 in November.
Fans could draw several possible conclusions from this:
1, Pride and UFC are relaxing the gates, allowing their exclusive fighters to more freely cross the Pacific and fight on “the other show.�
2, After it’s recent and well publicised problems, Pride are struggling and finding it difficult to retain full exclusivity over their biggest fighters.
Or simply:
3, After Chuck Liddell fought on Pride Final Conflict 2004, Pride owe one to the UFC in the form of Wanderlei Silva. Fujita’s move to the UFC could be simply because he is a free-agent.
We are very unlikely to be given a definitive look inside Pride and UFC’s business, so will probably never know the motivations of these rival companies.
However, we hope that one day we could see the likes of Tito, Chuck, Randy (?), Hughes, Franklin and Arlovski taking on the best in Pride.
Chris Leben back in the Cage
Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM” By Sherdog.com Staff
Returning to the cage for the first time since a stunning loss against Anderson Silva in June, Sherdog.com has learned Chris Leben will fight Jorge Santiago August 17 at the newly opened Red Rock Casino
Chuck Liddell returns for UFC 62
You can officially pencil in the UFC return of Light Heavyweight champion Chuck “Iceman” Liddell, as he returns from injuries to defend his title for the first time since UFC 57: Liddell vs Couture 3 back in February.
Liddell will meet number one contender, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, who is 10-0 in his last 10 fights, 3-0 in his last 3 UFC appearances with his last fight being a first round submission victory over the durable Mike Van Arsdale, also in February of 2006.
The two will meet in the main event of UFC 62: Liddell vs Sobral on August 26 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
WFA President Thrown Out of UFC 61
I got a call this afternoon from an MMA insider who told me that the UFC kicked Jeremy Lappen, the CEO of the World Fighting Alliance, out of last night’s show. So, I decided to call Lappen to get confirmation and find out what he did to get kicked out. “I had just sat down in the front row seats given to me by Ken Shamrock and security told me I had to leave,â€? Lappen told me. “I showed them my ticket and asked why I was being kicked out. They said it was because I did not have a credential. I told them that nobody in that section had a credential, but a UFC official and 3 security guards escorted me out of the venue, out of the casino and into the cab line. They put me in a cab and made me leave the casino.â€? That’s it. According to Lappen, he did not do anything other than use a ticket given to him by a headliner. Well, actually, Lappen did do something else. He signed Quinton “Rampageâ€? Jackson, Bas Rutten, Matt Lindland, Kimo Loeplodo, Jason “Mayhemâ€? Miller, Lyoto Machida, Ricco Rodriguez, Ron Waterman, Vernon White and “Razor” Rob McCollough to fight in the WFA’s July 22nd card. Plus, the WFA has the nerve to be on the verge of signing a deal with Showtime to air its fights. In light of this incident and the UFC’s lawsuit trying to shut down the IFL, it seems painfully clear that the UFC is deathly afraid of competition. Not surprisingly, Lappen agrees. “I have been told that [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva is calling our fighters telling them to leave us,” Lappen said. “They are so scared of the WFA, they are so freaked out by what we are doing that they can’t have me in their venue. Look at the Wanderlei/Chuck announcement. That would never have happened if the WFA was not around. We have caused Pride and the UFC to work together to stop us.â€? When I asked Lappen if any of this has put a dent in the WFA’s upcoming show he replied, “No, the preparation is going real well. We are gearing up for the final two weeks of promotion, we have the count-down show on Showtime and it’s going to be a great event.â€? So, it looks like the UFC topped off last night’s poor show with continued poor management style. Poorer than most people know since Lappen is not the only ticket holder rudely booted out of last night’s UFC show. The UFC better hope that it becomes a raging, unstoppable success becase this kind of arrogant management style will only be successful for as long as the UFC remains close enough to a monopoly that people have to accept its bullying. But, at some point you have to believe that the competition will catch up enough that the UFC will be able to use a helping hand from the same people it is stepping on right now. Will it get that helping hand? It remains to be seen what will happen, but I would not expect to see the MMA community go too far out if its way to help the UFC.
Cage Warriors Change Strike Force 7 Date Due To A Clash With Cage Rage.
Taken from the Cage Warriors site
A message from Cage Warriors President Dougie Truman
Through it is no-one’s fault another important date clash has occurred involving 2 of the UK’s largest MMA events, ourselves and Cage Rage. I have spoken with Dave O’Donnell (Cage Rage co-promoter) and he is very apologetic about this and we knew it could not be helped, due to the availability of dates from Wembley Arena.
Ordinarily we feel at Cage Warriors that date clashing is not a major problem and both organisations can survive with their own local respective attendances.
However in this case, we felt that CR’s commitment to raising the bar for UK MMA since moving to the Arena was more important for the growth of the sport along with their continued investment in the sport.
So as a result we have decided to cancel our 30th September date, to allow Cage Rage every opportunity for continued success.
As of yet we have not re-scheduled our dates, but please be assured we will let you all know the revised Cage Warriors calendar as soon as possible and would like to remind our fans that we still have 2 more dates in September in Portsmouth (2nd September) and Sheffield (15th September)
We at Cage Warriors would like to wish the Cage Rage team a long and continued success at Wembley and wish them all the best for September 30th.
QUOTES FROM THE TITO V KEN SHAMROCK UFC 61
Some post-fight notes and quotes:
Tito Ortiz: “I was three elbows away from finishing him off. I dominated the fight. I think there’s no question I won … Maybe next time, if you thought the fight was stopped short, next time you can bring a stretcher and a bunch of doctors and we can have the first death in the history of UFC. Is that what you want?”
Ortiz, on making grave-digging gestures after the fight: “After the first fight, I was respectful to him, and he basically spit in my face. Then after Ultimate Fighter he basically bumped into me with his shoulder, like something out of junior high. He said he was praying to God. I never heard that from him before. Did God have mercy on his soul? I guess, since they stopped the fight quick.”
Dana White, on the stoppage of the Ortiz-Shamrock fight: “You have to remember the referees have two people’s lives in their hands every time they step into the octagon. Even if I don’t necessarily agree with their call, I respect their judgment.”
Tim Sylvia: “Andrei has always fed off of being the big bully. I don’t think he knows how to react when someone stands up to him. It was like someone standing up to the bully.” As for whether the fight was considered boring: “I’m a standup fighter. I’m going to fight my game. I’m not going to go for a shoot.”
Dana White was a bit vague in talking about the Wanderlai Silva-Chuck Liddell fight, saying he’d have more details next week. He did say Silva is contracted for three fights and that UFC will be able to use PRIDE footage to promote the show.
When asked about PRIDE, Sylvia said: “Bring ‘em on. All I ever hear about is people b—ing that the UFC heavyweight division is weak. I want to take on Fedor, I want Cro Cop, I want Sapp. Fedor has never fought someone my size who’s primarily a standup fighter. I think this is great, bring it on.”
Arlovski was taken to the hospital after the fight to stitch up his cuts; Shamrock did not show for the press conference.
Melvin Manhoef Highlight video
More Pride fighters entering the Octagon this November
According to a popular mma news site, Pride heavyweight Kazuyuki Fujita will be making his debut in UFC in November.
He’ll be matched up on the same card as the potential Wand/Chuck fight. There are also rumours of Baroni being on the card.
Cage Rage 17 on Sky Sports 3 Tonight
Tune in on Sky Sports 3 tonight (Thursday) at 11pm and 2am for Cage Rage 17. I was there and what a night of fighting, watch out for the Rob Broughton and James Thompson (Pride star) fight. That was amazing!, anyways I wont spoil any more. Tune in and watch this great event.
