Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown slotted for UFC 111
A welterweight bout between Ricardo Almeida (11-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) and Matt Brown (11-7 MMA, 4-1 UFC) reportedly will take place in March at UFC 111.
MMAjunkie.com (
http://www.mmajunkie.com) first reported Almeida's likely UFC 111 participation last month, and ESPN's "MMA Live" program today reported the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace has agreed to fight the well-rounded Brown.
UFC 111 takes place March 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., with a pay-per-view championship double-header.
Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre meets Dan Hardy in the headliner, and Frank Mir and Shane Carwin clash in a five-rounder that's currently billed as an interim heavyweight title fight.
After suffering a disappointing split-decision loss to Patrick Cote in July 2008, Almeida, who's now in his second stint with the UFC, has since bounced back with back-to-back wins over Matt Horwich and Kendall Grove. The former middleweight now heads to the welterweight division with nine wins in his past 10 fights.
Brown, meanwhile, recently scored a TKO victory over "The Ultimate Fighter 9" winner James Wilks at UFC 105. The "TUF 7" cast member is now 4-1 in the UFC, and the lone loss came to undefeated Dong Hyun Kim via close split decision.
The latest UFC 111 card now includes:
* Champ Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy (for welterweight title)
* Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir (possibly for interim heavyweight title)
* Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch*
* Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown*
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Bonnar vs. Soszynski set for UFC 110 prelims
A bout between veteran light heavyweights Stephan Bonnar (11-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) and Krzysztof Soszynski (18-9 MMA, 3-1 UFC) officially has been added to the UFC 110 fight card.
The bout, which MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) reported back in November, is slated for the night's un-aired preliminary card.
UFC 110 takes place Feb. 21 at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia. The night's main card airs on pay-per-view.
Bonnar, who joined the UFC after a runner-up finish on the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter," looks to rebound from the second set of back-to-back losses in his past six fights. The Xtreme Couture fighter recently followed a unanimous decision loss to Jon Jones with another decision defeat to Mark Coleman at UFC 100 in July.
Prior to the defeats, Bonnar had posted back-to-back wins over Mike Nickels (submission) and Eric Schafer (TKO).
Soszynski returns to the cage for the first time since a disappointing decision loss to Brandon Vera at UFC 102 in August. "The Polish Experiment" took the fight on short notice for an injured Matt Hamill. Soszynski, who advanced to the semifinals on "TUF 8" before a loss to Vinny Magalhaes, was on a roll prior to the loss with six straight wins (three in the UFC) and a pair of Submission of the Night bonuses.
The latest UFC 110 card now includes:
MAIN CARD
* Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez
* Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva
* George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Stevenson
* Ryan Bader vs. Keith Jardine
* Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Ben Rothwell
PRELIMINARY CARD
* Chris Haseman vs. Elvis Sinosic
* Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
* C.B. Dollaway vs. Goran Reljic*
* Brian Foster vs. Chris Lytle*
* James Te Huna vs. Igor Pokrajac*
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UFC sells percentage of company to Sheik Tahnoon
FiveOuncesofPain.com has recently received reports from multiple sources extremely close to the situation indicating that the UFC has recently sold a minority percentage of the company to Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the former United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Sheik Tahnoon is well known throughout the grappling community as the founder of the no-gi submission Olympics, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club. Himself a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie, Shiek Tahnoon has been a long time supporter and practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu.
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trainer: Brock will fight again
"Though he may not fight again this year, UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar “will fight again,” according to his trainer, Marty Morgan, who provided the update in a speech at “The Clash” wrestling tournament in Minnesota.
Lesnar had a bout with a bacterial infection in his intestinal tract in November and now we’re working our way back to where we need to get back to to fight,” said Morgan. “I don’t give more answers than that, Brock doesn’t give more answers, and his agents don’t give more answers. There’s only a handful of people that know where we’re at. We’ve always just kept quiet with what’s going on. He will fight again, I know that. It’s just a matter of the public finding out when.”
On Thursday, UFC President Dana White had “no comment” on Lesnar’s status."
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Strikeforce officials has been very aggressive in growing their roster ever since striking a multi-year agreement in early 2009 to provide mixed martial arts events on both Showtime and CBS. And they’re not slowing down.
Now promotion officials are in talks with two more high profile fighters in Roger Huerta and Josh Barnett.