Leonard Garcia

Garcia vs. Gamburyan Possible for WEC 44

Former WEC featherweight title challenger Leonard Garcia could return to action at WEC 44, a yet-to-be-announced event slated for November 18 in Las Vegas, against “Ultimate Fighter 5” cast member Manny Gamburyan.

The news comes from Sherdog.com, which reports that the two fighters have verbally agreed to the bout. WEC 44 is expected to be headlined by Mike Brown defending his WEC featherweight title against rising top contender Jose Aldo.

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Quick Hits: Cro Cop Hospitalized, Mayhem-Jacare III Proposed for DREAM.10 & More

Here are your quick hits for the afternoon of June 19, 2009.

— Just days after leaving the UFC in favor of a new three-fight deal with Japanese-based DREAM, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has reportedly been hospitalized due to a possible case of of Salmonella according to Croatian news outlets. The former PRIDE Fighting Championships standout competed just one week ago at UFC 99, defeating Cage Rage product Mustapha al Turk via first-round TKO. [MMA Mania]

— DREAM officials have reportedly offered Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza a third bout between each other for the vacant DREAM middleweight title at DREAM.10 on July 20 in Japan. Miller revealed his intention to accept the bout earlier this week, but published reports quote Souza as saying that he has no interest in yet another meeting between the two. [MMA Weekly]

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WEC Announces Brown-Garcia, Condit-Larson II for March

Tickets will go on sale to the general public starting on Monday, January 19 at 10 AM CT. The public release of tickets will be preceded by a presale for WEC newsletter subscribers this Friday at 10 AM CT.

 

WEC 36 Post-Fight Press Conference Video

Here’s some video from the post-fight press conference for WEC 36. Former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber discusses his first-round TKO loss to Mike Brown at the event in the above video. After the jump are comments from Leonard Garcia and Chael Sonnen.

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WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown Live Results

We will be going live at 5:30 PM ET with complete results from tonight’s WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown event, which will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The show’s televised main card will air on Versus starting at 8 PM ET.

WEC 36 is headlined by Urijah Faber once again defending his featherweight title against gritty top contender Mike Thomas Brown. In addition, WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho will meet Chael Sonnen in a non-title rematch of their December 2007 fight and former UFC lightweight title holder Jens Pulver will look to get back on track against rising featherweight Leonard Garcia.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments throughout the evening. Detailed live results are after the jump. 

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Filho Misses Weight; Sonnen Fight Now Non-Title Affair

WEC middleweight title holder Paulo Filho came in an astounding seven pounds over the 185 lb. limit at the weigh-ins for WEC 36 on Tuesday afternoon, putting his championship rematch against Team Quest product Chael Sonnen in jeopardy.

After the two-hour allotted time limit, Filho was only able to cut down to 188 lbs, making his showdown against Sonnen a non-title affair. Sonnen will be awarded 25% of Filho’s purse.

In addition, featherweight title challenger Mike Brown came in a half pound over the featherweight limit and jiu-jitsu wizard Rani Yahya weighed-in one pound over the bantamweight requirements for his fight against Yoshiro Maeda. Brown was quickly able to shed the extra baggage while Maeda has agreed to face Yahya without forcing him to cut weight again.

Complete weigh-in results are after the jump.

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WEC Could Be Headed to Mexico City

If Urijah Faber and Leonard Garcia are victorious in their respective fights at World Extreme Cagefighting’s upcoming September 10 event in Hollywood, Florida, the two could potentially meet in a featherweight title showdown in Mexico.

Garcia revealed on today’s edition of TAGG Radio that the WEC has already scheduled a press conference featuring himself and Faber for the third week of September in Mexico City, where the WEC may be planning to hold a show in the near future.

“They’re flying me out six days after the (Pulver) fight to Mexico City to do a press conference and to make a huge announcement,” Garcia said on the radio show. “As I understand it, both Urijah and I are going…I think both of us just need to hold up our ends of the bargain on Sept. 10.”

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WEC Announces Full Card for Sept. 10 Show

World Extreme Cagefighting today officially announced the complete lineup of fights that will take place at the organization’s scheduled September 10th event in Hollywood, Florida.

The most notable bout made official today involves former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver looking to solidify himself as a contender once again in the WEC’s featherweight division as he will take on fellow heavy-hitter Leonard Garcia. The bout will be part of the event’s televised main card on Versus.

Pulver is coming off of a failed attempt to dethrone reigning 145 lb champion Urijah Faber while Garcia will be fighting for the first time since being charged and eventually cleared of involvement in a New Mexico drug ring.

Additional matchups announced for the card this afternoon included Rani Yahya vs. Yoshiro Maeda, Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone, Jake Rosholt vs. Danillo Villefort, Johny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov, Tim McKenzie vs. David Avellan, and Ed Ratcliff vs. Danny Castillo.

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Evening News and Notes - July 21, 2008

Couture Expecting Contractual Ruling This Week

Embattled UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture reportedly expects a Texas state court to rule this week on his contractual standing with the organization, potentially setting up an anticipated showdown between himself and heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko according to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com.

Even though a ruling may be made, Couture believes that his status won’t be completely finalized due to possible appeals from the losing party. However Couture remains confident that he will indeed face Emelianenko sometime before his impending retirement in the near future.

“When, where and with what promotion — we don’t know,” Couture said in the report. “It could happen in the UFC. We just don’t know. I want it to happen. Fedor wants it to happen. In some way, shape or form, we’re going to make it happen.”

Affliction: Banned Salaries and Numbers

The California State Athletic Commission today released the official fighter salaries, attendance numbers, and gate receipts for this past weekend’s “Affliction: Banned” event, which took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim in front of a crowd of 14,832. According to the commission, 3,590 complimentary tickets were given out and 740 tickets went unsold. The gate receipts turned in a reported $2,085,510. The complimentary and unsold tickets were worth 757,900.

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Leonard Garcia Talks Recent Arrest

World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight Leonard Garcia, who was recently arrested along with twelve other members of an alleged drug trafficking organization in Lubbock, Texas, claims that he is completely innocent and plans to fight the charges filed against him.

Garcia made the comments in a recent interview with our friends at MMA Junkie.

Garcia’s arrest came after a four-year investigation that found a cocaine ring spanning from El Paso to Lubbock. Federal indictments allege that all who were arrested conspired to sell cocaine for a period of time stretching back seven years.

However Garcia maintains that he was not involved in any wrongdoing.

“I am fighting it because there is nothing but someone saying I was involved,” Garcia said. “I hope to have a smile on my face after this is said and done, but I feel like I’m in a fight for my life. I’d like to tell my fans to stick with me and pray that the liar in this case tells the truth.”

Garcia was released from jail on bond but is required to return to court on May 5th. Three of those arrested could face up to 40 years in prison and up to a $2 million fine. The others could face up to life in prison and up to a $ 4 million fine.

Garcia is best known for engaging in a three-round war with lightweight phenom Roger Huerta in Garcia’s debut with the Ultimate Fighting Championship last April. The Jackson’s Submission Fighting product recently knocked out highly touted featherweight Hiroyuki Takaya at a WEC event in February.

His status with the organization is still unknown at this time.