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By Anthony De Franco  March 13, 2010, at 12:45 pm  Is the Iceman coming back sooner than we thought?
According to Fighters only, his return may be roughly a month away. Chuck would forgo his UFC 115 fight with Tito Ortiz to take on former middleweight champion Rich Franklin on April 15th. This, of course, is the same day that Strikeforce will be on CBS, with the main event being Dan Henderson v. Jake Shields.
Chuck Liddell will be fighting Rich Franklin in his next bout and not rival TUF 11 coach Tito Ortiz, Fighters Only has heard from a reliable source. The switch was initially reported to us just under two weeks ago but was only a rumour at that time.
However, the rumour hit message boards late last night and an industry source confirmed that Liddell will indeed be facing former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. The fight is to headline an April 17th Fight Night event which will counter Strikeforce’s show on the same date.
Bloody Elbow (which is just an awesome site) is quick to point out that Fighters only is credentialed by the UFC, which means that this claim probably has some legitimacy to it.
Let’s look at what this does for the UFC. First off, they will lose the UFC 115 main event between Ortiz and Liddell. This fight had a chance to be a big PPV moneymaker, so there are some who will question Zuffa’s logic. Instead, they will put the Iceman on free cable, and some that he draws some eyes over from CBS.
Inside the cage, this should be an interesting fight, and it’s a win-win for Dana White. If Liddell loses, he will likely retire, which Dana publicly said that he would like Chuck to. That would mean that Franklin is back on the map in the light heavyweight division with a win over someone who, at the very least, is still a name.
If Liddell wins, then Chuck will likely be given another fight, and that one would not be free. Even if Liddell isn’t a championship caliber fighter anymore, he is still a name that can make money.
It’s also an interesting test of Liddell’s drawing power. Can Chuck still draw like The Iceman could a couple of years ago or are people going to think of him like they do LaDanian Tomlinson nowadays and react with general apathy?
If this fight goes off, there are a lot of interesting dynamics involved
[Update: (1:37 PM) Okay, maybe not. MMA Junkie is now reporting that Liddell and Franklin will take place as the main event of UFC 115, not on a new card scheduled for April. They also are reporting some other strange news...]
By Jason Comack February 27, 2010, at 2:01 pm Last night in Wilmington Massachusetts Judo standout Rick Hawn notched his 4th MMA victory. At 33 years old Hawn might be too old to be considered a prospect but despite his age he has serious skills that make you believe he can make it to the next level.
Hawn is one of, if not the, most decorated judo practitioners on the MMA circuit. Check out Hawn’s judo resume.
Olympic Teams: 2004 (Ninth)
World Championship Teams: 2007
Pan American Games Teams: 2007 (Bronze)
Pan American Championship Teams: 2004 (Fifth), 2002 (Bronze), 1999
Hawn confirmed, according to a Sherdog.com report, that his next fight will be March 15th in North Carolina on the Shine Fights PPV, against Braulio Estima. Estima is a renowned submission grappler who will be making his MMA debut. While it’d be better for Hawn to take on more well rounded and experienced opponents it’s good to see him staying very active.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
Cole Konrad has his second career MMA fight tonight as he looks to improve his 1-0 record agaisnt Joel Wyatt and Matrix Fights 1 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Konrad, 25, is a decorated wrestler out of the University Of Minnesota. Konrad, while at the University Of Minnesota won two NCAA titles. The first came during an undefeated junior season of 2006 and he followed that up with another undefeated, title winning performance in 2007.
A decorated wrestler is always a very dangerous MMA fighter no matter how green they are. We’ve seen it with Brock Lesnar, Phil Davis, Muhammad Lawal and Josh Koscheck (in the beginning of his career.) Obviously there’s a whole lot to be intrigued about when talking about Konrad. He’s got the size of a modern day heavyweight, 6′5 265, and trains with a great camp at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts. For a guy who aspires to be Baby Brock who better to train with.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
Keep a close eye on Hawn and Konrad both have the skill sets to one day be champion.
By Anthony De Franco February 22, 2010, at 2:08 pm A long time ago, we were excited by the fact that Fathead has signed a deal with B.J. Penn. It was another step towards being recognized as a mainstream sport.
Well, get excited again. This time it’s the whole UFC. From MMA Junkie:
After announcing a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship earlier this month, Fathead has now rolled out seven featured fighters from its UFC line.
The popular wall-graphics company has selected four current champions and three top contenders whose lifesize likenesses are available for $99.99 each.
Fighters include heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, middleweight title-holder Anderson Silva and lightweight champ B.J. Penn, as well as contenders Jon Jones, Junior Dos Santos and Nate Marquardt.
How awesome is this? Really, there is a good chance of a 6′4 light heavyweight impersonating Bruce Lee being on my wall pretty soon.
By Anthony De Franco February 11, 2010, at 6:27 pm Vitor Belfort appears to be injured and is off of the UFC 112 card in Abu Dhabi, according to Kevin Iole’s twitter:
Vitor Belfort is injured (shoulder) and off #UFC 112 title fight with Anderson Silva. Confirmed by @danawhite More details to come.
Normally, having the challenger in a championship fight miss the card would be a disaster. However, UFC 112 is so stacked that there is another championship fight on the card that can slide right into the main event slot. The question becomes what to do with Silva. Does Chael Sonnen jump ahead of Belfort and get his title shot? That might be a little bit difficult considering that he is suspended until March 9th. That would give him approximately 30 days to train rather than the full six weeks.
The other option is to match Silva up with a light heavyweight at UFC 112. While it’s possible, I just don’t see who you could possibly throw him in there against. Our very own Joe Silva, Jason Comack came up with a few possibility. Thiago Silva could possibly get in there, as could Luiz Cane. Both would be cases of muay thai/BJJ top-15 light heavies that are both coming off losses.
There are some other middleweight options, but I don’t think that Alan Belcher or Sexy-yama is jumping ahead of Sonnen or Vitor for title shots.
Hopefully, we’ll get word on what the plans for Silva are soon.
By Anthony De Franco February 10, 2010, at 8:37 pm Wow. Dana White is doing some clear cutting, huh?
Both Frank Trigg and Mark Coleman have also been cut. This is in addition to Phillipe Nover and Tim Hague, both who bit it earlier in the day. From MMA Junkie:
It’s two and out for UFC welterweight Frank Trigg after his Ultimate Fighting Championship return.
After posting a 6-1 record to earn his way back into the organization and signing a new deal with the UFC in 2009, Trigg was notified on Monday that he had been dropped from the UFC after a knockout loss to Matt Serra at this past weekend’s UFC 109 event.
Trigg confirmed the news with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Wednesday. As MMAjunkie.com reported earlier today, the UFC also dropped UFC 109 headliner Mark Coleman and heavyweight Tim Hague following the Feb. 6 event. Phillipe Nover’s termination has also since been confirmed.
Trigg isn’t surprising since he’s fought a total of two UFC rounds and been knocked out twice. Good luck to Frank. Here’s a hint: You are a really good broadcaster. Work with it.
As for Coleman, that’s a bit perplexing to me. Sure, he looked old against Randy Couture, but he was still fighting Randy Couture. There are other fights for him out there. It’s shocking that the UFC cut him so quickly.
By Anthony De Franco February 7, 2010, at 2:28 am Stock Up
- Chael Sonnen – Fuck. The UFC’s newest super-villian seems to actually have something behind his insane rants. We all knew he could wrestle, but no one expect Nate Marquardt to be taken down so easily. Sonnen said that both the flying knee and the guillotine by Nate almost put him out. Best case scenario: Anderson Silva defeats Vitor Belfort and then ends Sonnen’s life with Muay Thai knees.
- Paulo Thiago – Thiago had Swick timed so quickly that the American Kickboxing Academy student couldn’t land anything. Thiago is no joke in welterweight division, and don’t be surprised if he gives up his police job to start training full-time. For some reason, Jason and I both agree that we see him getting the Paul Daley v. Josh Koscheck winner.
- Randy Couture – Obvious? Listen, we all knew that Randy was going to win this fight. It was designed for him to win. The next big fight at 205 is Machida and Shogun. If Machida wins, don’t be surprised if we see Randy get his shot for another light heavyweight championship.
Stock Down
- Nate Marquardt – My bad. I wrote a whole article about how Nate was the next big thing at 185, and then he loses. The sad part? I still beleive it. Take some time to go and train takedown defense against Georges St. Pierre and then come back in a couple of months. My only concern is that someone like Nate who relies so much on knees and kicks will always be susceptible to takedowns.
- Frank Trigg – It’s been fun Frank. This is likely a career for the Rochester, New York native. He said that he would quit if he was cut from the UFC, and after being knocked out by Matt Serra, he’s likely to be cut. Frank should head back to the broadcast booth. He’s better than most out there right now.
- Mike Swick – That’s two losses in a row for Swick. I think that we’ve seen that Swick just isn’t championship material. While his striking is excellent, he just lacks the overall level of skill necessary to really make a mark at 170. Swick can still carve out a career hanging around the top 10, but don’t expect him to get to the top of the mountain. Leave that to his teammates, Koscheck and Jon Fitch.
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