TJ Grant

Report: Burns vs. Grant Likely for UFC 107

A welterweight bout pitting Canadian prospect T.J. Grant up against Iowa submission artist Kevin Burns is reportedly likely for UFC 107, which is currently slated to take place at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee on December 12.

According to MMANews.com, both fighters have agreed to the bout and are now awaiting an official announcement from the UFC. B.J. Penn is expected to defend his UFC lightweight title against Diego Sanchez in the show’s main event.

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All Fighters Make Weight for UFC 100

The official weigh-in results for UFC 100: Making History are in and all of the fighters successfully made weight in preparation for their bouts Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The card will be headlined by a UFC heavyweight title bout featuring champion Brock Lesnar taking on interim champion Frank Mir. UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will defend his title against Thaigo Alves as well.

Main Card:

Brock Lesnar (265 lbs) vs. Frank Mir (245 lbs)
Georges St. Pierre (170 lbs) vs. Thiago Alves (170 lbs)
Dan Henderson (185 lbs) vs. Michael Bisping (186 lbs)
Yoshihio Akiyama (185 lbs) vs. Alan Belcher (186 lbs)
Jon Fitch (170 lbs) vs. Paulo Thiago (170 lbs)

Preliminary Bouts:

Mark Coleman (205 lbs) vs. Stephan Bonnar (205 lbs)
Mac Danzig (154 lbs) vs. Jim Miller (155 lbs)
Jon Jones (206 lbs) vs. Jake O’Brien (206 lbs)
Dong Hyun Kim (171 lbs) vs. T.J. Grant (170 lbs)
C.B. Dollaway (186 lbs) vs. Tom Lawlor (184 lbs)
Matt Grice (155 lbs) vs. Shannon Gugerty (156 lbs)

Grant Tapped to Face Kim at UFC 100

Canadian welterweight prospect T.J. Grant will serve as a late replacement opponent for Dong Hyun Kim on the preliminary card of UFC 100. The historic event takes place on July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

The UFC officially announced the change this morning. Grant will be replacing an injured Jonathan Goulet, who suffered a dislocated shoulder during a recent training session in preparation for the fight against Kim.

Grant is coming off of a hard-fought, split decision win over Japanese veteran Ryo Chonan in his UFC debut at UFC 97 in April. Prior to that, Grant had won four consecutive fights in smaller Canadian-based shows. The streak included victories over UFC vets Chad Reiner and Forrest Petz.

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Loiseau Could Be Headed Back to UFC

If David Loiseau can defeat “Ultimate Fighter” alumnus Solomon Hutcherson in the main event of XMMA 5 this weekend, he may be finding his way back to the UFC, somewhere where he been dreaming of returning to and hasn’t fought in since losing to Mike Swick at UFC 63 almost two years ago.

From Fightlinker:

Now David’s got another chance to get back into the UFC. According to his manager Steve Claveau, the UFC will offer him a contract if he takes out Solomon Hutcherson this Saturday. If that name is ringing vague bells in your head, it’s because Solomon was one of the lesser known dudes on the 3rd season of TUF, getting the boot after losing to Rory Singer on the show and then Luigi Fioravanti on the finale.

I don’t think anyone would complain if Loiseau was invited back into the UFC. He always put forth effort and the majority of his fights were pretty exciting. Plus now that he’s with Greg Jackson‘s camp, we could see a different Loiseau altogether.

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Quenneville vs. Hioki Headlines TKO 35

TKO Championship Fighting today announced details regarding it’s latest event, “TKO 35: Quenneville vs. Hioki”, which will take place on October 3rd at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The show’s will be headlined by reigning TKO featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki returning to the promotion to defend his title for the first time against Thierry Quenneville.

Hioki defeated longtime featherweight title holder Mark Hominick at TKO 28 in February of last year via majority decision to win the belt. He has since fought exclusively over in Japan, racking up a record of 3-2-1 while fighting for the Shooto and HEAT organizations. Hioki most recently earned a draw against Hiroshi Nakamura earlier this month.

Quenneville enters the bout riding a two-fight winning streak. After winning a unanimous decision over Yoon Heo at TKO 31, Quenneville dispatched of skilled prospect Ben Greer to secure his shot at Hioki’s title. Quenneville stopped Greer with strikes in the third round at TKO 34.

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Weekend Recap: April 28, 2008

Here’s a little recap of what went on this past weekend, starting with Carlos Condit reportedly signing a contract extension with World Extreme Cagefighting according to USA Today‘s Sergio Non. The new deal comes after Condit’s most recent victory over Carlo Prater in February. The fight against Prater was Condit’s second to last fight on his previous deal. Condit expects the new deal to kick in with a potential fight in August against an opponent yet to be named.

The promotion also confirmed two additional bouts for their next scheduled event on June 1st in Sacramento, California over the weekend via their official website. A rumored bantamweight title bout between champion Miguel Torres and injury replacement Yoshiro Maeda has been made official as well as Mark Munoz’s WEC debut against fellow newcomer Chuck Grigsby.

UFC Releases Travis Lutter

Fresh off of his disappointing loss to former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 83 last weekend, Travis Lutter, the middleweight winner of the fourth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, has been released from his contract by the UFC. The news was first reported by Pramit Mohapatra of Fight Ticker and has since been confirmed by Lutter himself, who stated that his agent received a call Sunday morning informing him of his release due to consecutive losses in his last two fights.

Report: Southworth-Ruiz Rematch Possible for June

Bobby Southworth, one of the cast members on the original season of “The Ultimate Fighter” will attempt to avenge a recent loss to Anthony Ruiz at Strikeforce’s upcoming planned event in June according to MMA Mania. The two fought in November - Ruiz scored a TKO win over Southworth after the UFC veteran suffered a fight-ending cut over his left eye early in the second round.

However Southworth remains Strikeforce’s world light heavyweight champion due to the fight being a non-title bout. It’s unknown whether or not the belt will be on the line in June. Southworth has not fought since losing to Ruiz. Meanwhile Ruiz has recorded back-to-back wins over Jimmy Ambriz and Brad Imes since then.

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Riggs-Gates Cancelled Again

For the second time in four months, a scheduled bout between Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Joe Riggs and Mike Gates has been scrapped.

Riggs and Gates were slated to meet this Saturday at Phoenix Fighting Promotions “Street Justice” event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Riggs will be unable to make it to the event after learning that the Washington Department of Licensing for Professional Athletics declined to clear him due to insufficient evidence that he was medically fit to fight according to Sherdog.com.

Riggs and Gates were originally paired up for a King of the Cage event back in December but weather-related issues prevented Riggs from being able to make it to the event in time for the fight.

Saturday’s bout against Gates would have been Riggs’ first fight since re-injuring his surgically-repaired back against Cory Devela at “Strikeforce at the Dome” in February. Riggs underwent successful surgery to repair nerves that were pinched by a bulging disc just days after the event.

Gates, who most recently submitted Neil Berry with a guillotine choke at a Rumble in the Cage event in March, will now take on TKO Championship Fighting veteran T.J. Grant.

Landi-Jons Injury Gives Gassaway Win at TKO 32

Jose Landi-Jons suffered a brutal leg injury in the second round of his main event fight against fellow journeyman Brian Gassaway last night, handing Gassaway his third straight win under disappointing circumstances at last night’s TKO 32: Ultimatum.

The pleasant crowd inside the Bell Centre in Montreal, the same arena where the Ultimate Fighting Championship will travel to in April, saw Landi-Jons score early and often with a barrage of leg kicks in the first round. Gassaway responded with a straight left that momentarily stunned the former Chute Boxe co-founder but Landi-Jons will able to keep his composure and eventually take Gassaway down to the canvas.

Landi-Jons quickly transitioned to side control, where he was able to hold Gassaway down for the majority of the round. After an effective ground and pound attack slowed down to nothing, referee Yves Lavigne opted to stand the two up where they exchanged a mix of kicks and punches until the horn sounded.

The two went right back into exchanging at the start of the second round. However a checked leg kick ended up snapping Landi-Jons ankle, sending him crumpling to the canvas. Gassaway pounced on his opponent and landed a couple of unanswered rights before he noticed that Landi-Jons was injured. Lavigne moved in to stop the fight while Gassaway waved ringside doctors into the cage.

Landi-Jons was taken away on a stretcher but gave a thumbs-up while being wheeled out of the arena that the crowd enjoyed.

Jesse Bongfeldt retained his TKO welterweight title with a late submission of top contender T.J. Grant. The two engaged in an entertaining war that saw each fighter land hard punches standing and pull off aesthetically-pleasing grappling moves and holds throughout the course of the fight.

After coming out guns blazing to start the third round, the champion swung away with wild punches, allowing Grant to score an easy takedown. After landing a pair of right hands on his opponent, Grant ended up getting caught in an armbar and was forced to tap out in the middle of the final round.

Complete event results are below:

Brian Gassaway def. Jose Landi-Jons - TKO (Injury)
Jesse Bongfeldt def. T.J. Grant - Submission (Armbar)
Derek Gauthier def. Yannick Galipeau - Submission (Choke)
Samuel Guillet def. Jordan Mein - Submission (Kimura)
Stéphane Vigneault def. Daniel Ferguson - TKO (Strikes)
Guillaume Lamarche def. Justin Tavernini - Split Decision
Adrian Wooley def. Syd Barnier - TKO (Strikes)
Johan Croes def. Mark Fraser - TKO (Strikes)
Jeff Harrison def. Tyler Jackson - Submission (Guillotine)
Ben Gallant def. Scott Wright - TKO (Strikes)
Tim Wadsworth def. Brad Duguay - TKO (Strikes)
Christopher Hulme def. Vladmir Victor - TKO (Strikes)

Vigneault vs Greer Set For TKO 31

MMA on Tap has learned that Stephane Vigneault will face Ben Greer at TKO 31 on Dec. 14 at The Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.

Stephane Vigneault last appeared in the cage in January 2006 losing to Damaicio Page at TKO 24: Eruption. Vigneault is back and ready to make an impact in the TKO featherweight division. Vigneault was originally scheduled to return at TKO 30: Apocalypse but his fight was cancelled after it was announced he was suffering from a case of staph.

The native of Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec sports a TKO record of 9-4. “Simba” holds victories over the likes of Shane Rice, Stephane Laliberte, Greg Compton, and Phillipe Simoneau. Vigneault’s four losses came to the hands of Damacio Page, Mark Hominick, Stephane Laliberte, and J.F. Bolduc.

Vigneault’s opponent, Ben Greer, is currently ranked #5 in the TKO featherweight division. Greer sports a mixed martial arts record of 10-3 with victories over the likes of Thierry Quenneville, Randy Turpin, and Justin Tavernini. Greer made his TKO debut at TKO 30: Apocalypse suffering a TKO loss to the hands of former champ Mark “The Machine” Hominick.

Rumored TKO 31 Card:

Steve Bosse vs. TBA
Jesse Bongfeldt vs. T.J. Grant
Mark Hominick vs. Justin Tavernini
Chris Clements vs. Stephane Dube
Stephane Vigneault vs. Ben Greer
Lance Evans vs. Bob Landry