MMA - News & Updates 26 July, 2010

 

 

WEC 51 -- The long-awaited rematch between World Extreme Cagefighting rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone is set for WEC 51 on September 30, a major fight card that will demonstrate the WEC's ability to put on big events.

Featherweight champion Jose Aldo, universally recognized as the number one ranked lighter weight fighter in MMA, makes the second defense of his crown against judo ace Manny Gamburyan.

Fight Card

Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan

Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia

George Roop vs. Chan Sung Jung

Mark Hominick vs. Leonard Garcia

Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone

 

As expected former UFC light-heavyweight champions Lyoto Machida (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-8 MMA, 5-2 UFC) have agreed to meet for an upcoming fight. UFC 123 takes place Nov. 20, and the Machida vs. Jackson fight is expected to headline the show.

 

After he was forced off next month's UFC 117 event and a fight with Rodney Wallace, undefeated UFC newcomer Stanislav Nedkov (10-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) now meets fellow light heavyweight Steve Cantwell (7-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at UFC 120.

UFC 120 takes place Oct. 16 at The O2 in London, England.

The unofficial fight card now includes:

MAIN CARD

Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Michael Bisping

Carlos Condit vs. Dan Hardy

John Hathaway vs. Mike Pyle

Travis Browne vs. Cheick Kongo

Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton

PRELIMINARY CARD

Claude Patrick vs. James Wilks

Tom Blackledge vs. James McSweeney

Cyrille Diabate vs. Alexander Gustafsson

Rob Broughton vs. Vinicius Kappke de Quieroz

Steven Cantwell vs. Stanislav Nedkov

 

Veteran fighter Duane "Bang" Ludwig hit the bag today for the first time since he suffered a grisly broken leg in a first-round loss to fellow lightweight Darren Elkins at UFC on Versus 1 on March 21, 2010. Ludwig will moving to welterweight.

 

UFC 117 -- Ultimate Fighting Championship - August 7, 2010 - Oracle Arena, Oakland, California, United States

 

Fight Card

UFC Middleweight Championship

Anderson Silva (No. 1 MW, No. 1 PFP) vs. Chael Sonnen (No. 2 MW)

Jon Fitch (No. 2 WW, No. 5 PFP) vs. Thiago Alves (No. 3 WW)

Clay Guida vs. Rafael dos Anjos

Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida

Junior dos Santos (No. 7 HW) vs. Roy Nelson

Thiago Silva (No. 9 LHW) vs. Tim Boetsch

Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story

Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft

Johny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman

Ben Saunders vs. Dennis Hallman

Rodney Wallace vs. Stanislav Nedkov

 

Strikeforce Challengers 9 – July 23 -- the Kaufman vs. Modafferi fight. In her first title defense, Kaufman scored a slam-KO that knocked her opponent out cold. The finishing move earned the No. 4 spot on ESPN "SportsCenter's" Plays of the Week.

 

July 23 -- Shane Del Rosario is still undefeated after easily beating yet another overmatched opponent Friday night, beating Lolohea Mahe by first-round TKO on another Strikeforce Challengers card. "I've been working really hard," Del Rosario said afterward. "It's finally paying off."

 

Sengoku 14 -- Akihiro Gono will move down to lightweight for his next fight against Jadamba Narantungalag at Sengoku 14 on Aug. 22 in Tokyo. The move comes after 16 years and 54 fights in the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

Fight Card – (reverse order)

Sengoku Middleweight Title

Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki

Lightweight Bout

Akihiro Gono vs. Jadamba Narantungalag

Welterweight GP

Taisuke Okuno vs. Nick Thompson

Kenta Takagi vs. Yasubey Enomoto

Motoki Miyazawa vs. Takuya Sato (Reserve)

Asia Bantamweight Tournament

Jae Hyun So vs. Hirokazu Nishimura

Wataru Takahashi vs. Tatsuya So

Shoko Sato vs. Takuya Eizumi

Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Kil Woo Lee

Bellator 28 -- NEW ORLEANS, La. (July 22, 2010) - Bellator Fighting Championships will bring its action-packed brand of mixed martial arts to the Big Easy this fall during a nationally-televised show at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in downtown New Orleans on Thursday, Sept. 9th.

The show marks the first time that a major MMA promotion has traveled to New Orleans in nearly 10 years and the first time that the 36-year-old theater will host a professional sporting event.