Kendall Grove

TUF 7: Finale Live Results

Results from The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale:
Rob Kimmons def. Rob Yundt - Submission (Guillotine Choke)
Dean Lister def. Jeremy Horn - Submission (Guillotine Choke)
Matt Brown def. Matt Arroyo - TKO
Drew McFedries def. Marvin Eastman - TKO
Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough - Cancelled
Dustin Hazelett def. Josh Burkman - Submission (Armbar)
Matt Riddle def. Dante Rivera - Unanimous Decision
Spencer Fisher def. Jeremy Stephens - Unanimous Decision
Diego Sanchez def. Luigi Fioravanti - TKO
Amir Sadollah def. CB Dollaway - Submission (Armbar)
Kendall Grove def. Evan Tanner - Split Decision

Mini-commentary:
- Dollaway protested his loss, suggesting he didn’t tap out.  It did appear that he tapped once.  It resulted in a good-looking hanging armbar from Sadollah.
- Tanner could not solve Grove’s size.  He walked into a few punches, and looked surprised by the reach of Grove’s legs.  Tanner had a good third round, but nothing that compared to the first two, which easily went to Grove.  The split decision result was curious.

Live commentary:
Yahoo!
MMA Weekly
Bloody Elbow
Sherdog

Video Hype: Grove Talks “Must-Win” Bout

In the above video, Kendall Grove, the middleweight winner of the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, discusses his upcoming bout against former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner, which will take place this Saturday night at The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest Finale in Las Vegas, courtesy of ESPN. Grove also talks about his last two devastating losses at the hands of Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera respectively, as well as his decision to move back to his native state of Hawaii in order to train with current UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn.

Sadollah-Dollaway II Completes “TUF Finale” Lineup

Last night’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter” showed us that everything isn’t always set in stone, especially when it comes to who will be fighting to become this season’s winner.

After Amir Sadollah pulled off a third-round upset of highly touted wrestler C.B. Dollaway, he was set to join Jesse Taylor in the finals of the reality show’s middleweight bracket for this season. However when a few of the fighters opted to stay in Las Vegas following the filming of the show, Taylor’s infamous drunken escapades continued.

Taylor smashed a limousine window, upset guests at Palace Station, a casino owned by UFC co-owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, and then gave security all they could handle on the fighter’s final night in Sin City. UFC President Dana White had seen enough and ultimately decided to kick Taylor off of the show, additionally asking Dollaway and fellow semi-finalist Tim Credeur to fight in another exhibition bout to decide who would go on to fight Sadollah in the finals.

Dollaway used his wrestling skills to earn a hard-fought unanimous decision over Credeur, moving on to rematch Sadollah this Saturday night. This season’s finale will see the fewest amount of ‘TUF’ cast members in history - only seven from this season will be on the card. The remainder will have a slew of UFC veterans complete a stacked undercard.

The show will also feature a welterweight battle between Diego Sanchez and American Top Team product Luigi Fioravanti. Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner will collide with Kendall Grove, the middleweight winner of the show’s third season, in the night’s main event.

The complete card for the event is as follows:

Main Card:

Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove
Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti
Amir Sadollah vs. C.B. Dollaway
Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens
Matt Riddle vs. Dante Rivera

Preliminary Bouts:

Josh Burkman vs. Dustin Hazelett
Marvin Eastman vs. Drew McFedries
Dean Lister vs. Jeremy Horn
Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough
Rob Yundt vs. Rob Kimmons
Matt Arroyo vs. Matt Brown

Video Hype: Tanner Talks Showdown With Grove

In the above video, former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner discusses his upcoming fight against Kendall Grove, the middleweight winner of the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, courtesy of ESPN. Among the topic Tanner elaborates on was the reasoning behind his most recent loss to Yushin Okami in March, his training leading up to the fight, and why the loser of the fight might actually find their way out of the UFC.

Exclusive: Tanner-Grove Set for TUF 7 Finale

Update 8:00 PM: Kendall Grove has since posted information concerning the fight on the front page of his official website.

Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner will attempt to bounce back from a recent loss to Yushin Okami last month when he takes on Kendall Grove at the The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale on June 21st.

Sources close to the fight have confirmed to MMA on Tap that bout agreements have been signed. It’s unknown at this time whether or not the fight will be televised or serve as one of the event’s preliminary bouts.

Tanner’s loss to Okami was his first fight in nearly two full years after taking a hiatus from active competition in order to get away from fighting and deal with some personal needs. His break from fighting also involved yet another battle with alcohol addiction, a disease Tanner has been fighting for the majority of his adult life.

Even though Tanner’s anticipated return didn’t go as planned against Okami, the former Team Quest member admitted that he overcame a huge hurdle after the fight as he prevented himself from giving in to his personal demons after the fight.

He’ll take on Grove, who fell victim to an upset knockout at the hands of Jorge Rivera at UFC 80: Rapid Fire in January. It was Grove’s second consecutive loss in as many fights. The middleweight winner of the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, Grove will most likely have to defeat Tanner if he wishes to remain with the UFC.

Diego Sanchez is expected to take on American Top Team’s Luigi Fioravanti in a bout that will serve as the show’s main event.

Third Title Fight is a Charm for Penn

In a night of quick fights and surprising stoppages, one thing remains the same: B.J. Penn is still that damn good.

Penn submitted former Ultimate Fighter contestant Joe Stevenson with a rear naked choke in the second round to claim the vacant UFC lightweight title and become the second fighter in history along with current heavyweight champ Randy Couture to win championship gold in two different weight classes.

The lively 8,412 inside the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England saw Penn surprise Stevenson with an uppercut that sent the California native down to the mat in the opening seconds. Penn pounced on his opponent but Stevenson was able to maintain his composure and survive Penn’s initial assault.

The former welterweight champion controlled Stevenson on the ground for the remainder of the first round, opening up a vicious cut in the middle of Stevenson’s forehead with just over a minute left in the round. Stevenson would end up donning a crimson mask for the rest of the fight.

The two had an even exchange on the feet to start the second stanza but that ended once Penn started to pick Stevenson apart with looping lefts and uppercuts. The bout was stopped at one point to have the doctor check Stevenson’s cut but the stream of blood avoiding Stevenson’s eyes already gave those watching the doctor’s answer.

Stevenson fell victim to another Penn (12-4-1) uppercut once the bout was restarted, signaling the beginning of the end for “Daddy.” Penn used punches and elbows to force Stevenson (28-8) out of position enough to be able to give up his back, which Penn quickly took without a second thought.

Penn was able to sink in a rear naked choke and Stevenson was forced to tap out without putting up much of a fight. The win finally gave Penn the UFC lightweight title in what was his third career attempt at the belt.

After the fight Penn acknowledged that he was trying to make his third try a successful one.

“Joe is a great guy,” said Penn. “I knew he was going to be tough, but I put everything into this. I wanted to make sure it was three times the charm and not three strikes you’re out.”

Penn also went out of his way to send former champion Sean Sherk a message now that Sherk will be challenging Penn in his first title defense later this year.

“Hey Sean Sherk, you’re dead,” Penn shouted during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

Sherk, who was cage-side doing color commentary on the bout along with Rogan and UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg, stormed into the Octagon and picked up a microphone right after Penn made his comment.

“That belt belongs to me,” said Sherk. “You’ve got one more fight before you can be called lightweight champ.”

Continue reading "Third Title Fight is a Charm for Penn"

UFC 80: Rapid Fire Live Results

We will be going live at 1:00 PM EST with live results of UFC 80: Rapid Fire, which will take place live from the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England.

UFC 80 features a lightweight championship bout between former welterweight title holder B.J. Penn and top contender and Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Joe Stevenson. Also on the card is a rematch between Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum and a welterweight clash between Marcus Davis and Jess Liaudin.

Be sure to leave comments throughout the afternoon and night.

Live results are shown after the jump. 

Continue reading "UFC 80: Rapid Fire Live Results"

UFC 80: Rapid Fire Weigh-In Results

The official weigh-in results for tomorrow afternoon’s UFC 80: Rapid Fire are below. All fighters successfully made weight.

MMA on Tap will start live coverage of the event starting at 1:00 PM EST tomorrow.

BJ Penn (154 lbs) vs Joe Stevenson (154 lbs)
Fabricio Werdum (247 lbs) vs Gabriel Gonzaga (255 lbs)
Jess Liaudin (170 lbs) vs Marcus Davis (169 lbs)
Wilson Gouveia (205 lbs) vs Jason Lambert (204 lbs)
Jorge Rivera (185 lbs) vs Kendall Grove (186 lbs)
Antoni Hardonk (244 lbs) vs Colin Robinson (238 lbs)
Paul Kelly (170 lbs) vs Paul Taylor (170 lbs)
James Lee (206 lbs) vs Alessio Sakara (206 lbs)
Per Eklund (155 lbs) vs Sam Stout (155 lbs)

CKA: Jan 10, 2008

MMA on Tap has learned that the father of former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin passed away yesterday due to a heart attack. All of us here would like to send our thoughts and prayers to Rich’s family and friends during this difficult time.

Diabate to Train with Team Quest

Cyrille “Snake” Diabate has announced that he will be spending some time in the United States to train with Dan Henderson and the rest of Team Quest’s Temecula, California franchise in preparation for his first fight on American soil.

Diabate is looking to improve his wrestling skills and takedown defense during his stay:

“This is exactly the kind of opportunity I need,” says Diabate. “America is where everything is happening right now, both fighting and training-wise. In the past I haven’t had to worry

about top level wrestlers trying to take me down. But now [with upcoming fights in American promotions], things will change.”

If Diabate is looking to improve his wrestling ten-fold, he certainly picked the right place…

Grove Fought High for First Six Fights

In a recent interview with Cage Potato, Kendall Grove admitted that he fought in his first six professional bouts high off of marijuana:

See, marijuana is a touchy subject. I’m a rock star — I’ve been smoking weed since I was in the 6th grade, I can openly say that. But I’m also clean when I fight. I cut that shit out — I’m a professional. Don’t get me wrong, my first six fights, I fought high, I fought stoned. But when you get to this level, you have to take responsibility. It’s your job. I stop doing that stuff three months out.

Thompson-Rogers, “Krazy Horse” Added to EliteXC Feb Card

ProElite’s Sam Caplan is reporting that a heavyweight bout between James Thompson and Brett Rogers has been added to the undercard of EliteXC’s next event on February 16th at the United Bank Arena in Miami, Florida.

Thompson will be making his EliteXC debut at the event. He was knocked out by Neil Grove in just 10 seconds at Cage Rage 22 in July. Rogers is coming off of a submission win over Ralph Kelly at EliteXC: Renegade.

Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett will also apparently compete on the undercard as well. Bennett has not fought since submitting Donnie Martinez with a rear naked choke at a KOTC event in October.

Miscellaneous Notes

Eric Bradley of Team Takedown fame is expected to sign with EliteXC according to Sam Caplan.  Rick Roufus has not been cleared by the California State Athletic Commission and will not fight Mark Kerr at WCO: The Return. Roufus has been replaced by Kauai Kupihea.

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Road to UFC 80: Joe Stevenson Episode One

Joe “Daddy” Stevenson discusses his upcoming UFC lightweight title fight against B.J. Penn at UFC 80: Rapid Fire, his childhood growing up, and how he renovated Marc Laimon’s house along with Kalib Starnes and Kendall Grove with RawVegas.