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By Anthony De Franco  February 3, 2010, at 6:07 pm  A little bit of matchmaking news before we go into full UFC 109 preview mode tonight. It starts with Diego Sanchez returning to the cage against England’s John Hathaway at UFC 114. From SB Nation:
After coming up short against BJ Penn in his Dec. 12 bid for the 155-pound crown, Diego Sanchez (21-3) will make his return to the welterweight division opposite John Hathaway at the upcoming UFC 114 pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, May 29.
Of course, this is Diego’s return to the welterweight division after getting crushed by B.J. Penn at UFC 107. Knowing that he has no chance to win the title at lightweight, he is moving back up to a division where…he has no chance of winning a title. Right.
Hathaway is 3-0 in the UFC, including a win over another prospect that I really like in Ricky Story. However, this is a huge jump in competition for the Brit. While I hope he wins, I expect Diego to triumph.
Also on the card headlined by Rampage and Rashad will be heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee fighting for the first time since the powerjab put Tim Hague out in seven seconds. He’ll be taking on Mike Russow. SB Nation again:
Heavyweights Mike Russow and Todd Duffee will meet at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, Caged In learned on Tuesday.
The UFC newcomers, both 1-0 in the promotion after wins on the same UFC 102 card in Portland in August, have verbally agreed to the bout, though agreements have not yet been signed. The news comes from a source close to Russow’s camp.
- The Times of Northwest Indiana’s Caged In blog reports on this heavyweight fight.
First things first, shout out to the Northwest Indiana Times for doing something that doesn’t involve Sean Sherk. Duffee is a hot prospect not just for that knockout, but a lot of people in the southern part of the US have been talking about him for a while. Expect him to walk through Russow.
By Anthony De Franco November 18, 2009, at 10:44 am The Brit is back.
Michael Bisping showed a drastically improved wrestling game in his victory over Denis Kang last saturday night, and finally has put the memory of Dan Henderson’s vicious knockout at UFC 100 behind him. As much as I want to put the video up here to remind everyone, I’ll contain myself as a congratulations to him.
Bisping is one of three MMA stars that is sponsored by mainstream magnate Mark Ecko. In fact, Ecko opened his own Ecko MMA brand that is behind Bisping, Frank Mir, and Miguel Angel Torres.
It doesn’t look Bisping-specfic; if it did you would imagine it would have a English flag on it somewhere. However, if you are looking for a more toned down MMA shirt that no one would even know was a fight shirt. This is the one for you.
MMA Warehouse has it for just 27.99.
For more UFC 105 walkout shirts, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco September 9, 2009, at 3:36 pm Oh baby. Let me tell you about how excited I am for this one. In one corner, you have “The Irish Hand Grenade” who is one of MMA’s best boxers with improved Muay Thai and excellent take down defense. In the other, You have “Killa B,” who was undefeated before getting swatted back down the welterweight ranks by Mike Swick in Germany at UFC 99. Saunders is an excellent striker and makes exciting fights with just about anyone.
Another reason that this fight is awesome is that both of these fighters need this fight. Davis also lost in Germany when he dropped a controversial decision to Dan Hardy. That loss was especially difficult for Davis, who was sick of Hardy running his mouth and was threatening to kill the Brit by the time they got in the ring. Before that loss, Davis had won 7 of his 8 UFC fights, with his only loss also coming to Swick.
Expect this fight to be a standup war. Saunders lost to Swick because he was staying in the pocket too much and got caught a bunch of times. If he does that with Davis, The Irish Hand Grenade might actually kill him.
Thanks to MMAWeekly For the Photo!
By Jason Comack September 5, 2009, at 6:33 pm From Matt Maiocco
49ers announce 20 cuts to get to 53-man limit
The 49ers reduced their roster to the 53-man limit just minutes ago, but that does not mean everybody with the team today will still be here on Sunday.
The 49ers released T Jacob Bender, T Alex Boone, WR Dobson Collins, DL Pannel Egboh, TE J.J. Finley, CB Eric Green, OL Kyle Howard, CB Terrail Lambert, FB Brit Miller, NT/OT Khalif Mitchell, LB Jay Moore, TE Bear Pascoe, WR Maurice Price, FB Bill Rentmeester, LB Justin Roland, RB Kory Sheets, OL Matt Spanos, OL Joe Toledo, LB Mark Washington and WR Dominique Zeigler.
Lot’s of surprises.
1) The one sure to have the fans upset is Kory Sheets. Sheets an undrafted rookie looked fantastic during pre-season/training camp. However lets face the facts; he was behind Gore, Coffee and Robinson…carries were going to be sparse. Secondly Thomas Clayton looked great every off-season that success never carried to the NFL. Hopefully he’ll slip through waivers and join the practice squad.
2) The bigger surprise to me was that Pascoe, Finley, and Miller were cut. I don’t buy that a team that says it’s committed to running the ball would only keep two tight ends and one fullback. Especially when you consider that Delanie Walker is more of a WR then tight end. I can guarantee the Niners are looking to find someone on waivers.
3) The cuts of Bender, Boone, Toledo and Spanos leave the Niners painfully think along the offensive line. By my count they only have 8 offensive lineman on the roster (Staley, Baas, Heitman, Richal, Synder, Wragge, Sims, Wallace.) Again expect a waiver pickup. Watch the Jaguars cuts closely and see if Tony Pashos is cut.
4) The fact that Ricky Jean-Francois and Diyral Briggs made the team shows the Niners are not confident about their pass rush. Francois is developmental but Briggs played his way onto the team with his strong play.
5) WR is still a cluster…you know what. Morgan, Bruce, Jones, Battle, Spurlock and Hill made the team. As did Allen Rossum as a KR. One of those guys is going when Crabtree signs and likely even sooner. Dominque Ziegler was a fan favorite but he got injured during the last preseason game. Hopefully he’ll clear waivers.
By Anthony De Franco July 21, 2009, at 2:54 pm It’s amazing how a weak card can become a strong one with the addition of one really good main event. Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson will have a rematch of their contreversial UFC 93 bout at UFC 103 in Dallas, Texas on September 19.
For those who missed the first one, Henderson won via split decision and Franklin was angry. The normally level headed former middleweight champ cursed and cameramen and locked himself in his dressing room after the fight.
Since then, Franklin took a unanimous decision over Wanderlei Silva in a catchweight (195) bout at UFC 99 in Germany. Henderson has also fought just once since, but his night has much shorter. In front of the biggest audience in UFC history, Henderson knocked out talkative Brit Michael Bisping in highlight reel fashion. That right hand may have put him in the same category as Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva and GSP in terms of being a main stream attraction.
Both of these fighters are at interesting places in their careers. Franklin is in the process of making the jump from the 185 lbs division to the 205 lbs division. That decision was most likely made in an attempt to keep Franklin away from middleweight champ Anderson Silva. However, Silva’s teammate, Lyoto Machida, is building a dynasty of his own at 205 lbs.
Henderson just won a fight that many thought would make him the number one contender to Silva, but the timing is off because Silva will be fighting on August 8th against Forrest Griffin at 205 lbs. Depending on what happened in that fight, Henderson could have been looking at a six month layoff before getting his title shot.
UFC 103’s other main card fights include Josh Koscheck taking on the returning Frank Trigg, and Mirko “Cro Cop” returning to the UFC to fight Junior Dos Santos.
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Condit Out of 108, Daley Has Harsh Words
If I was Dana White, I would curl up in the corner and cry. The best laid plans of mice and men continue to go awry for White and the UFC, as yet another injury has crippled the UFC 108 card. From MMA Unltd:
Condit is one my favorite “action” fighters. He’s nicknamed “The Natural Born Killer” for a reason. He possesses great standup and a decent enough ground game to compete in the UFC welterweight division. With this win over Daley, he could have gained some traction to start fighting tougher opponents, but now that has to wait.
Speaking of Daley, check out what he told Bloody Elbow about Condit:
And….you’re a moron. Daley has great standup and showed it against Martin Kampmann at UFC 103. Not to mention that his nickname, “Semtex” is also the name of my favorite grenade in Modern Warfare 2. However, I just can’t get on board with people telling people who are hurt that they are less than a man. At some point, Daley is going to have pull out of a fight, and I fully plan on turning this back around on him.
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