Welterweight

UFC Confirms Dan Hardy Signing

The Ultimate Fighting Championship today confirmed their previously rumored signing of reigning Cage Warriors welterweight champion Dan Hardy.

Hardy has won eight out of his last nine fights, his lone defeat being a disqualification loss to fellow UFC newcomer Yoshiyuki Yoshida last December. Hardy most recently scored a TKO win over Daniel Weichel on May 3rd. The Nottingham native also stopped Chad Reiner with strikes at a Cage Warriors event last month.

“It means everything to finally be at the pinnacle of mixed martial arts,” Hardy said on the UFC’s official website. “Even kids who have never taken a martial arts class in their life dream about fighting in the UFC - it is the Premier League of MMA and there was nowhere else I wanted to be. I cannot wait to step into the Octagon and showcase myself on the biggest stage in MMA.”

According to our friends at MMA Junkie, Hardy has signed a four-fight deal with the promotion and is expected to make his debut in the fall.

“I feel I’ve come to the UFC at exactly the right time,” Hardy said. “Since the UFC came back to England last spring, everywhere I’ve gone people have asked me when I was going to sign with the UFC and why I wasn’t in the UFC yet.”

Paul Kelly Withdraws From UFC 85

Just one week after scheduled opponent Jonathan Goulet pulled out of his UFC 85: Bedlam bout against Paul Kelly due to conflicting reasons, Kelly himself has withdrawn from the event after injuring his right hand during training.

The news comes from MMA Weekly, which reports that Kelly originally injured a finger on his right hand three weeks ago before eventually discovering that he had pulled ligaments, which will now require a cast.

The cast will stay on Kelly for 3-4 weeks and physical therapy will then follow, knocking the part-time training partner of Michael Bisping out of action at least for the near future.

Goulet’s reasoning behind pulling out of the fight has varied in reports. The Victoriaville native first said that he was stepping away due to undisclosed health reasons, but reports have since said that Goulet may have backed out of the fight at the request of his training partners because a lack of adequate preparation time at the Tristar Gym, of which he recently aligned himself with.

Kelly remains undefeated so far in his professional mixed martial arts career. The exciting welterweight made his debut with the UFC in January, winning a unanimous decision over fellow Englishman Paul Taylor in what turned out to be UFC 80: Rapid Fire’s fight of the night.

Diaz Confirms Sakurai Title Bout

Following his impressive victory over reigning welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue, EliteXC’s Nick Diaz already has quite the test waiting for him following his scheduled fight against Muhsin Corbbrey in June - a DREAM title bout against Japanese veteran Hayato “Mach” Sakurai in July.

Diaz confirmed the potential matchup with Sherdog.com, stating that a fight against Sakurai would be one against a fighter that he looks up to.

“You know, there’s a lot of other people I’d like to fight, just considering Sakurai is a lot older than I am,” Diaz said in the report. “He’s probably in his late 30’s I’d imagine, so I’m going to have a lot of respect for him and everything he’s done. I tend to do better with people I have less respect for. To be honest, I’d rather be fighting Aoki or Kawajiri - somebody other than the guy that got knocked out by someone I already beat in Gomi.”

“But I think I match up very well against Sakurai,” Diaz continued. “I think he’s a little too short to reach me, and I think his ground game needs a lot of work and you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Like I said though, I’m not afraid to fight anybody, that’s not the issue. I’ll fight anyone you got. I’m here to prove I’m pound-for-pound the greatest fighter in the world.”

Diaz’s scheduled fight against Corbbrey in Hawaii will mark the second time that they were slated to fight. The two were set to clash this month but EliteXC’s island event was moved to June, forcing the fight to be re-signed.

The battle between Diaz and Sakurai will be for DREAM’s welterweight title despite “Mach” being upset by David Baron at a Shooto event on May 3rd.

Paul Daley Changes Mind Again

Despite announcing his intention to retire from mixed martial arts earlier this year at the age of 24, it seems that Paul Daley has pulled a Michael Jordan and wants to come back and fight after all.

According to MMA Mania, Daley, who served as a color commentator during the U.K. television broadcast of Cage Rage’s “Extreme” event over the weekend, revealed his desire to return to active competition to those in attendance.

Daley specifically called out newly crowned Cage Rage British welterweight champion Che Mills, who defeated Marius Zaromskis due to a nasty first-round cut to claim the belt that Daley had vacated last month. The two reportedly had a brief staredown and exchanged some words inside the cage.

Daley last stopped Sam Morgan, a former cast member on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, with strikes at a ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series event in January. Daley shook off a fast start by Morgan to land a devastating first-round elbow that put Morgan down for the count.

Horne Defeats Haynes in Indiana

Local Indiana product William Horne remained undefeated with an unanimous decision win over Josh Haynes, a former cast member on the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, at the latest edition of MMA Big Show at the Belterra Casino Resort & Spa Saturday night.

After stuffing an early takedown attempt from Horne, Haynes swept his opponent to the mat and began to work some ground-and-pound from top position. Moments later, a scramble led to Horne taking Haynes’ back, forcing the UFC veteran to fight off several rear naked choke attempts until the final minute of the round. Both fighters returned to their feet, but Horne muscled Haynes to the canvas and took his back once again as time expired.

Horne nearly finished the fight early in the second round, dropping Haynes with a right hand seconds into the stanza. Haynes staggered to his feet but was subsequently caught by a knee and more punches. A failed takedown attempt forced Haynes to exchange with Horne on the feet but a body shot stunned Horne long enough to allow Haynes to take the fight to the ground and allow him time to recover.

The end of the second was a mirror image of the first. Horne was able to reverse position and takes Haynes’ back once again, attempting chokes from behind until the end of the round. The final five minutes of the fight featured an exchange on the feet followed by Horne once again putting Haynes in danger from his back.

Although Horne was unable to submit Haynes, he visibly did enough to earn the decision on the judge’s scorecards. An angered Haynes berated the referee after the fight for not standing the fight back up during non-active moments on the ground but his argument went on deaf ears.

Complete results (professional fights) from the event courtesy of Fighters.com:

William Horne def. Josh Haynes - Unanimous Decision
Dustin Winterhalt def. Nicco Boscarino - TKO (Strikes)
Brian Heden def. Rod Housley - KO (Punches)
Chad Hinton def. Mick Berwanger - TKO (Strikes)

Alvarez, Uno Score Upsets at DREAM

Eddie Alvarez and Caol Uno each pulled off surprising upsets in the second-round of DREAM’s inaugural lightweight grand prix tournament late last night in Japan to solidify their respective spots in the finals later this summer.

The 21,789 that witnessed DREAM’s third effort this year inside the Saitama Super Arena also saw Uno, who fought as a late-entrant into the tourney, overcome a ring-rust filled first round to eventually submit top-ranked Mitsuhiro Ishida with a rear naked choke in the second round.

The first minute of the fight had both fighters content to paw away with short jabs while measuring the distance between one another. Uno picked up the action in the form of leg kicks while Ishida attempted to counter Uno’s kicks with lefts. An errant kick to the groin by Ishida forced Uno to take some time to recover, but the veteran quickly got his bearings back and knocked Ishida down with a crisp right, opening a cut on the bridge of his nose that forced the ringside doctor to stop the clock for a quick check.

Ishida scored a single-leg takedown with about a minute left in the first stanza but Uno was able to reverse position and control his opponent from top position during the closing moments, potentially earning back the round in his favor. After another feeling-out period started the second round, a scramble on the ground saw Uno quickly take Ishida’s back and sink-in the fight-ending choke from behind.

“I know Ishida was eager to fight me,” Uno said after the fight, “He was aggressive and was obviously confident, but I’m the one going home with the win. I’m very happy to be advancing in the tournament.”

Continue reading "Alvarez, Uno Score Upsets at DREAM"

DREAM.3 Quick Results

Here are the complete results from last night’s DREAM.3 event, which took place at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

The event featured the second-round of the promotion’s inaugural lightweight grand prix tournament. Tatsuya Kawajiri, Eddie Alvarez, and Caol Uno all moved on. Nick Diaz and Jason “Mayhem” Miller were also victorious in their respective DREAM debuts. A full recap of the event will come later today.

Takeshi Yamazaki def. Shoji Maruyama - Unanimous Decision
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata - TKO (Strikes)
Melvin Manhoef def. Dae Won Kim - TKO (Strikes)
Daisuke Nakamura def. Bu Kyung Jung - KO (Punch)
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inoue - TKO (Corner Stoppage)
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Luiz Firmino - Unanimous Decision
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen - Unanimous Decision
Caol Uno def. Mitsuhiro Ishida - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

ProElite, DREAM Agree to Partnership

Elite Xtreme Combat parent company ProElite and Fight Entertainment Group’s DREAM yesterday announced a working partnership between the two promotions that will help bridge the once-distant gap between Japanese and American mixed martial arts.

The two sides made the official announcement yesterday at a pre-fight press conference for DREAM.3, which took place late last night in Japan. DREAM officials Keiichi Sasahara and Sadaharu Tanikawa were on hand to discuss details about the agreement along with ProElite’s William Kelly and ICON Sport promoter T. Jay Thompson.

“Last year’s Dynamite USA at the Los Angeles Coliseum was the largest attended mixed martial arts event ever in the USA,” Kelly said at the conference. “ProElite is delighted that we will be building on that by sharing fighters and referees and doing co-promotions in Japan and the US, and potentially the UK and Korea also. Japan is important to ProElite, and we have great US television partners, so we can bring DREAM to the American public.”

It’s expected that ProElite will also attempt to put at least one of the co-promoted shows on network television in the form of CBS.

According to MMA Weekly, ProElite contracted fighters that were mentioned as potential DREAM participants in the future at the press conference included Kimbo Slice, Jake Shields, and Robbie Lawler.

EliteXC fighters Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, and Eddie Alvarez all competed at DREAM’s third show yesterday in Japan, unofficially beginning the sharing of assets between the two organizations.

Freeman Victorious in Return at Cage Rage 26

English mixed martial arts legend Ian Freeman was victorious in his return from a brief retirement Saturday afternoon, earning an unanimous decision over Paul Cahoon and taking the former champion’s Cage Rage British light heavyweight title in Birmingham.

Freeman saw very little trouble during the course of the bout with Cahoon, save Cahoon taking the veteran’s back on a pair of separate occasions, while using an effective ground-and-pound assault to keep Cahoon at bay and leaving him unable to mount a suitable amount of offense.

After the fight, Freeman assured fans that a return fight against Cahoon was not a one-time thing and that he would be back to defend his title.

“I’m 41 years old now and I have to say that I’m in the best shape of my life,” Freeman said during a post-fight interview. “The training leading up to this fight was very difficult but the end result was worth it. I feel younger than I did years ago. Going back into retirement isn’t an option at this point. I’m not going anywhere.”

Marius Zaromskis was unsuccessful in his bid to win the vacant Cage Rage British welterweight belt, suffering a nasty cut in the beginning of the first round of his bout against Che Mills that forced the ringside doctor to stop the action after the first five minutes, ultimately awarding Mills the championship.

Matt Ewin controlled Mark Epstein over three rounds to win an unanimous decision and successfully defend his Cage Rage British middleweight title. UFC veteran Ross Pointon submitted Ross Mason with a heel hook and James Zikic submitted Rodney Faverus, handing the former kickboxer his fifth straight defeat.

Complete results from the event:

Harvey Harra def. Gary Kelly - Submission (Triangle)
Chris Rice def. Edgeleson Lue - TKO (Strikes)
Popek Rak def. Kevin Simms - TKO (Strikes)
Brad Pickett def. Paul Reed - Majority Decision
Henrique Nogueira vs. Marc Goddard - Draw
Matt Ewin def. Mark Epstein - Unanimous Decision
Ross Pointon def. Ross Mason - Submission (Heel Hook)
James Zikic def. Rodney Faverus - Submission (Armbar)
Che Mills def. Marius Zaromskis - TKO (Cut)
Ian Freeman def. Paul Cahoon - Unanimous Decision

Ford, Gormley Victorious at MFC 16

Canadian welterweight prospect Ryan Ford remains undefeated after submitting Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran C.J. Fernandes with a first-round rear naked choke in the main event of Maximum Fighting Championship’s “Anger Management” show last night in Edmonton, Alberta.

The sold out crowd inside the River Cree Resort and Casino saw Ford swiftly take Fernandes’ just seconds into the fight. Fernandes’ experience played a big part in getting out of the dangerous position as he patently waited until he was able to reverse position and mount Ford on his back.

With the fighters too close to the ropes, the fight was moved back to center where Ford was able to take Fernandes’ back once again. The veteran fought off yet another choke attempt but Ford was eventually able to sink in his hooks and force Fernandes to tap.

The win has earned Ford a shot at the vacant MFC welterweight title at the promotion’s next event on July 25th. His opponent may be fellow undefeated rising star Matt Veach, who used superior wrestling and constant takedowns to hand Matt MacGrath his first professional loss in another featured fight on the card.

The co-main event saw California product Chase Gormley use dirty boxing techniques to keep BodogFight veteran Eric Pele against the cage and unable to mount any offense en route to a lackluster unanimous decision but the biggest win of his young career thus far.

Also victorious on the card was Aron Lofton, who bloodied and eventually submitted previously undefeated local prospect Jason Kuchera.

Complete results from the event:

Evan Sanguin def. Dave Nippard - TKO (Strikes)
Troy Sorenson def. Mike Tubbs - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)
Brandon Curts def. Sean Wright - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)
Mike Sorenson def. Jeremy Martin - Submission (Guillotine)
Gavin Neil def. Ryan McGillivray - Split Decision
Aron Lofton def. Jason Kuchera Submission (Guillotine)
Chris Camozzi def. Dwayne Lewis - Unanimous Decision
Ben Henderson def. Mike Maestas - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)
Matt Veach def. Matt MacGrath - Unanimous Decision
Chase Gormley def. Eric Pele - Unanimous Decision
Ryan Ford def. C.J. Fernandes - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)