UFC 61 Officially Labeled “Bitter Rivals”
It’s a fitting name, to say the least. Heavyweight superstars Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia and Andrei “Pit Bull” Arlovski will attempt to set the record straight on July 8 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. This will be the third and probably final meeting (at least for a year or two) between these two great warriors. In their first showdown back at UFC 51 (2/5/05), Arlovski submitted “The Maine-iac” with an ankle lock to capture the “Interim” Heavyweight Championship. Sylvia got his revenge at UFC 59 when he TKO’d Arlovski at 2:43 of the first.
The featured undercard bout of the evening might be more anticipated than the headliner. Arch rivals and TUF3 coaches Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock will try and settle the score once and for all. Their feud stems back to UFC 19 (3/5/99), when Tito defeated Lion’s Den fighter Guy Mezger. After the fight, Tito wore a shirt that read “Gay Mezger is my bitch.” Shamrock got in Tito’s face about it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In other action, Joe “Daddy” Stevenson is set to battle Yves Edwards in a lightweight (155 lbs) contest. Joe is coming off an upset loss to Josh Neer at Ultimate Fight Night (4/6/06). We last saw Yves at UFC 58 when he suffered defeat at the hands of Mark “The Machine” Hominick.
Many other rumors are floating around, including Frank Mir vs. Dan Christison and Jeff “The Snowman” Monson against an opponent to be announced
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