Cage Fighting Direct

I am not sure how many people were able to watch UFC 100 this last Saturday but if you did you know what I am going to talk out.  For the most part, the show was awesome.  GSP put on a show that fighters will be emulating for years to come.  Dan Henderson showed how age doesn’t limit the abilities of those that have the discipline to continue in a sport they love. Frank Mir, though losing, showed total class in defeat and complimented “Butt Lesnar” on his performance and even after taking total insult while recovering.  Which leads me to “Butt Lesnar” When did Butt decided that he needed to act like the same fool he was in the WWE.  When did winning mean more than respecting the sport, the opponent, and the organizations that gave him the opportunity?  What the hell?  Oh, I forgot to mention the disrespect the main sponsor of the event, Bud Light.  The sport has taken a beating in the past and is early in its growth of becoming a mainstream sport and the last thing we need is a knuckle head bring all the hard work of many down to nothing.  As I have said before, Butt was brought in to win over fans from the WWE and maybe cross promote the sport but he doesn’t deserve it.  He didn’t deserve the opportunity to be in the organization let alone a title shot with 2 fights under his belt.  Oh yeah did I mention that out of his whopping record of 1-1, the lose came very quick in the first round.  What a joke.

Following the first back-to-back losses of his career, Jeremy Stephens (15-5 MMA, 3-4 UFC) will look to right the ship when he meets UFC newcomer and fellow lightweight Ronny Torres (14-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 19.

A source close to one of the fighters today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the bout is in the process on being finalized.

UFC Fight Night 19 takes place Sept. 16 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City and airs on Spike TV.

After winning four of five fights (which included a 3-1 mark in the UFC and a TKO victory over notable Cole Miller), Stephens headlined his first UFC card when he met Joe Lauzon in the main event of UFC Fight Night 17 back in February. However, Stephens, a replacement for his training partner Hermes Franca, suffered a second-round submission loss in the nationally televised event.

Fighting fewer than two months later, he then suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Gleison Tibau (a late replacement for Efrain Escudero) in the next UFC Fight Night installment.

The 23-year-old Iowan now takes on Torres, a Nova Uniao fighter who enters the octagon with an eight-fight winning streak. A veteran of the Brazil-base Jungle Fight promotion, Torres owns 12 stoppages in his 14 career victories, all of which have come in the past three years.

courtesy of MMAjunkie.com

One was perhaps the greatest light heavyweight of all-time, a feared striker who ruled the 205-pound weight class with an iron right hand and in doing so became mixed martial arts’ first crossover superstar. The other was his close friend, a visionary who helped create a brand that is now synonymous with the sport, but who did it not with a ruthless business sense, but with an infectious enthusiasm and an attitude that could light up a room.

On Friday, July 10th, the UFC Hall of Fame inducts its two newest members, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and TapouT co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis.

“I appreciate this gesture and I’m glad that people appreciate what I do and that they think that I deserve this, but I’m just one of the guys that fight out there,” said Liddell, who admitted that this crowning moment of his storied career does come with some bittersweet feelings due to the fact that he won’t be able to share it with his longtime friend Lewis, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in March. “It’s gonna be a little rough being that it’s Charles and me, but for us to go in together, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The official UFC Hall of Fame ceremony will take place at the UFC Fan Expo on Friday, July 10th at 6:30pm. Liddell and Lewis join Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Randy Couture, and Mark Coleman in the UFC Hall of Fame.(MORE)

Midwest Cage Championship (MCC), one of the Country’s fastest rising MMA promotions has joined forces with Mediacom to produce a several part mini series that focuses on two Des Moines based fighters in their quest to become the next MMA star to rise from the Midwest. (more)

Watching late night TV and this special was on about MMA.  I was really surprised that I never once saw any advertisements about it on the channel (NBC) or on any other sites.  I watched the special and something seemed a bit odd.  First there was information that was really outdated like Forrest Griffith loosing the championship belt Anderson Silva was referred to as “recent” and the interview of the Tapout crew included the Mask who recently was killed in a car accident.  I began poking around on the web to see if there was a version that I could embed on my site for all the visitors to see.  I did find a bit more information of support my feeling of this airing much earlier than the night I saw it for the first time.  It appears this airing was a re-airing of the clip and in  this later one, there were some details that were cut out that were very intriguing.  Take a look at the video and you make your decision and see what you think.