Showtime Hits With UFC-Strikeforce Purchase, Misses With In-Cage Action

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Gegard Mousasi and Keith Jardine battled to a draw at Diaz vs. Daley.Saturday night's Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley card was the first major event on Showtime since the UFC purchased Strikeforce, and it was a good opportunity to see how Showtime would handle its MMA broadcasts now that the premium cable channel is in business with a promotion that had previously been a rival.

Overall, I thought Showtime did a solid job of handling the UFC's purchase of Strikeforce. But once it was time for the fighters to step into the cage, the coverage of Saturday night's biggest controversy -- the Gegard Mousasi vs. Keith Jardine draw -- left something to be desired.

Let's start with the good: Showtime handled the UFC's purchase of Strikeforce appropriately by tackling it at the outset. It's a major story that deserved the upfront treatment it got.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/04/10/showtime-hits-with-ufc-strikeforce-purchase-misses-with-in-cage/

Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin Jason Hollywood Chambers Ryo Piranha Chonan

Monday morning knockout: Freire’s knee at Bellator

As Cofield wrote about, Patricky Freire knocked Toby Imada out, as well as out of the tournament, with a devastating knee at Bellator on Saturday night. Take a look for yourself.

Imada was dazed the second that knee hit him, but he held on for a few seconds before dropping to the floor. After a mere 2:53 worth of work, Freire moves onto face the winner of Michael Chandler/Lloyd Woodard in Bellator's lightweight tournament.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Monday-morning-knockout-Freire-s-knee-at-Bellat?urn=mma-wp897

Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic Luiz Buscapé Firmino Spencer Fisher Jon Fitch

UFC on Versus 4 official for Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center on June 26

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The city of Pittsburgh will get their first UFC event ever on June 26, as the UFC today confirmed that they will be running their UFC on Versus 4 event from the city's Consol Energy Center.

It will be only the second event the UFC has run in the state of Pennsylvania, having previously brought UFC 101 to the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. That card, headlined by B.J. Penn's UFC Lightweight Title victory over Kenny Florian and featuring Anderson Silva's matrix-like destruction of Forrest Griffin, brought in over 17,000 fans and a little over $3.5 million at the gate.

The Consol Energy Center, host of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, is a brand-new 19,000 seat venue in the city that opened just prior to the start of the 2010-2011 NHL season last August.

The UFC has not booked a headlining fight for the event as of yet, but four bouts have been confirmed. Pat Barry vs. Cheick Kongo, Rich Attonito vs. Matt Brown, Manny Gamburyan vs. Tyson Griffin and Joe Stevenson vs. Javier Vazquez will all take place on the card, with Griffin and Stevenson each making their featherweight debuts in their respective bouts.

The UFC has run three previous events on the Versus network, with now UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones headlining two in 2010 and the most recent taking place last month, when Diego Sanchez edged out Martin Kampmann by split decision in Louisville, Ky.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8988.shtml

Kazuyuki Fujita Masakatsu Funaki Zelg Benkei Galesic Mauro Galvao

Weekend Results: Patrick Cote, Josh Neer, Efrain Escudero Score Wins

Former UFC middleweight title contender Patrick Cote (14-7) registered a win this past Saturday, taking a successful first step in his campaign to return to the UFC.

In the main event of Ringside MMA 10 in Montreal, Cote outpointed Kalib Starnes 29-28 on all three of the judges' scorecards for the unanimous decision. Cote, who was cut last fall by the UFC after three straight losses, earned his first win since UFC 86 in July 2008.

Let's take a look at some of the other results on the local circuit from this past weekend.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/04/11/weekend-results-patrick-cote-josh-neer-eduardo-pamplona-score/

Robert Berry David Bielkheden Michael Bisping Dan Bobish

Monday morning knockout: Freire’s knee at Bellator

As Cofield wrote about, Patricky Freire knocked Toby Imada out, as well as out of the tournament, with a devastating knee at Bellator on Saturday night. Take a look for yourself.

Imada was dazed the second that knee hit him, but he held on for a few seconds before dropping to the floor. After a mere 2:53 worth of work, Freire moves onto face the winner of Michael Chandler/Lloyd Woodard in Bellator's lightweight tournament.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Monday-morning-knockout-Freire-s-knee-at-Bellat?urn=mma-wp897

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama Gilbert Aldana José Aldo

Ben Askren, Jay Hieron and Michael Chandler Win at Bellator 40

by Michael David SmithBellator welterweight champion Ben Askren won a one-sided unanimous decision in a non-title match, and Jay Hieron and Michael Chandler advanced to the finals of their respective Season 4 tournaments on Saturday night at Bellator 40.

As is so often the case, Bellator put on an entertaining show on MTV2, but it will be largely overlooked because it took place on a night when there was a bigger MMA event going on in the Strikeforce card on Showtime. That's a shame for Bellator, which is putting good fighters in the cage consistently.

Askren is one of the best wrestlers in MMA, and it was no surprise that he completely dominated Nick Thompson. All three judges scored the fight 30-27 for Askren, who's the best welterweight outside the UFC and Strikeforce.

 

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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/04/09/askren-hieron-chandler-win-at-bellator-40/

Jeff Big Frog Curran Dai Shuanghai Mac Danzig Karen Darabedyan

Solving Aldo: Tompkins says Hominick won’t back up

Jose Aldo is as dominant as anyone in the sport right now. The 25-year-old Brazilian just about swept every round he's fought under Zuffa management. Is he that good or is that a sign that the 145-pound division is still very much a work-in-progress.

SB Nation's Luke Thomas is one media member who believes Aldo is a bit overrated, there are many more in the fight game who hold the same belief. One of them is trainer Shawn Tompkins, who'll be cornering Mark Hominick as he challenges Aldo later this month.

In this video with RawVegas.tv, Tompkins says Hominick is the first guy Aldo's faced in a long time who'll move forward. He also wonders how Aldo will deal with 55,000 enemy fans in Toronto.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Solving-Aldo-Tompkins-says-Hominick-won-t-back-?urn=mma-wp930

Zelg Benkei Galesic Mauro Galvao Mixed Martial Arts News Josh Barnett