CHICAGO, Ill. (February 24, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships put the final pieces in place for its much-anticipated Season 2 welterweight tournament today with the signings of knockout artist Brett Cooper (12-5)andUFC veteran Ryan “The Tank Engine” Thomas (10-3).
Cooper and Thomas are the seventh and eighth confirmed participants in Bellator’s eight-man 170 lbs. tournament, joining Ben Askren, Dan Hornbuckle, “Judo” Jim Wallhead, Jacob McClintock, Steve Carl and Sean Pierson. Overall, the group boasts a combined winning percentage of .816 (89 wins, 20 losses). [Read more →]
Bellator Fighting Championships put the finishing touches on its much-anticipated Season 2 featherweight tournament with the signing of 17-2 submission specialist Eric Marriott.
Marriott is the eighth and final confirmed participant in the tournament, which also features the likes of Georgi Karakhanyan, Sean Pierson, Patricio Pitbull, Bao Quach, Wilson Reis, William Romero and Joe Warren. All told, the group boasts a combined professional record of 83-18-2. [Read more →]
In case you were living under a rock, UFC 110 took place Saturday evening in Sydney, Australia. In terms of excitement and impact, it was definitely the best numbered UFC event of 2010 thus far. I’m very glad that I was lazy and didn’t do a predictions/preview post because I would have made a complete fool out of myself. I was only able to pick 2 of the fights out of 9 correctly when I was with my friends at the sports bar, and I was really working my fight analysis as hard as I could.
I also have to say, hats off to the Australia crowd, they were absolutely fantastic. I get frustrated by many crowds when they boo fights that go to the ground because the ground game is so important in mixed martial arts. But the Aussies were going wild with every sweep, submission attempt and advancement of position, it was thrilling to watch. UFC president Dana White said that the UFC is going to be holding at an event in Australia annually from now on, and he couldn’t have picked a better place to return to.
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 18, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships put yet another piece in place for its upcoming Season 2 featherweight tournament today with the signing of 5-2 Shad Lierley, a former International Fight League (IFL) standout and elite-level college wrestler.
If you were like me this week, you were breathing a sigh of relief when the heavyweight fight between Tim Sylvia and Wes Sims for Adrenaline MMA V in Youngstown, Ohio was cancelled.
Bernie Profato, the Ohio Athletic Commission executive director ruled the bout “non-competitive” and informed Adrenaline promoter Monte Cox that it would not be sanctioned. I salute Bernie with a golf clap. Most commissions would look the other way and let this kind of fight happen, but not the Buckeye State. They did their research, and they knew this wasn’t going to be pretty.
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 16, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that its reigning lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, the No. 2-ranked lightweight in the world, will square off in a non-title “Super Fight” with UFC veteran Josh “The Dentist” Neer under the Bellator banner this May.
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 16, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships, a first-of-its-kind mixed martial arts promotion that will debut its second season this April on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo, has announced a contest to recruit talented women to serve as the company’s official spokesmodels and round card girls – the Bellator Girls – in 2010.
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 12, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Champions will expand its reach internationally during its second and third seasons thanks to a new alliance with The Score Television Network, a preeminent source of sports programming in Canada.
Mike “Quick” Swick has been a part of the UFC ever since he premiered on season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter as an undersized light heavyweight. He earned his nickname by finishing his first 4 UFC fights in 5:20 combined. Swick was rolling through the middleweight division when he ran into Yushin Okami, who controlled Swick with his wrestling to earn a decision victory. During the fight, Swick repeatedly told his corner “He’s too big, he’s too strong” and the loss prompted his decision to move to welterweight.
In his bout for welterweight number one contender status, Swick simply didn’t have an answer for a hungrier and more powerful Dan Hardy. One loss isn’t a huge deal, but in Swick’s next fight, another loss to rising welterweight Paulo Thiago (this time by stoppage), it was pretty apparent to me that it was time to Swick to move back up in weight. Here is my proposal for Mike Swick returning to the middleweight class.[Read more →]
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 9, 2010) – Matt Major, the colorful and sometimes-controversial mixed martial artist known for his appearance on the TapouT reality show and his upset victory over UFC veteran Shonie Carter, has signed on to compete in Bellator Fighting Championships’ upcoming Season 2 middleweight tournament.
Stumble it!
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