| Thursday, 24 December 2009 00:00 |
![]() JAPANESE NEWS King of the Cage: Toryumon on January 30th focuses on Japan vs USA at the Okinawa Convention Center in Japan. The main event features SHOOTO legend Mamoru Yamaguchi (22-5) vs American Frank Baca (6-0) for the King of the Cage World Junior Flyweight Championship [Strawweight]. The co-main event features Japan's Kotetsu Boku (15-6) vs USA's Tony Hervey (11-6) in a lightweight bout. Another bout worth mentioning is Japan's Kiichi Kunimoto (8-3) vs USA's Toby Imada (22-13). Should be a fun night. Kamipro's Twitter says the UFC has been offered a High Dollar UFC Contract to Takanori Gomi (31-5). Nothing is official yet but the former Pride Champion and #1 Fightbomb Lightweight Free Agent would most likely get at least one fight before a showdown with UFC champion B.J. Penn. This fight would finally fused the PRIDE/UFC lightweight champion to one, despite Gomi's recent struggles. Gomi and Penn originally fought in 2003 where Penn won but Gomi says he hardly trained for that fight due to his own ignorance and over-confidence. UFC RELATED The UFC did 620,000 PPV buys for UFC 107. This is impressive and beyond expectation. It's the 8th MMA show in a 5 week span and proves that over-saturation in MMA is not an issue. Frank Mir has risen to new heights as a top draw for PPV sales and his outspoken nature & ability to back up trash talk have been vital to building his fan-base. In February of 2008, Frank Mir vs Brock Lesnar [Nogueira vs Sylvia Main Event] did 600,000 buys.. fast forward to now --> Frank Mir vs Cheick Kongo [Penn vs Sanchez Main Event] breaks that. It may be time for Frank Mir to headline shows. Todd Duffee Training Footage & He's Got Jokes: "The ladies want to romance me and the boys want to bro-mance me." Muscle Juice? Bob? Duffee's skit is amusing and his return to the octagon has heavy eyes waiting for a matchup to be created. He was suppose to fight Paul Buentello at UFC 107 but an injury forced him off the card. Stefan Struve replaced him and ending up winning a controversial decision over the "Headhunter" Buentello. Brian Foster (13-4) has replaced an injured Dong Hyun Kim on the UFC 110 fight card against Chris "Lights Out" Lytle [which has been confirmed by Lytle's manager, Ken Pavia. UFC 110 takes place on February 21, 2010 in Sydney Australia. Foster is a H.I.T. Squad team member and trains with Matt Hughes/Robbie Lawler among others. New UFC 108 Video Preview with AC/DC for an instrumental. Nice little creation. Check it out. Phil Baroni taking time off but still likely for UFC 111 in New Jersey. Baroni has been in Hawaii, training with Satoshi Ishii. He did just lose to Amir Sadollah in his return to the octagon at UFC 106 but Dana White claims he will give the "New York Badass" another shot. Several reports have indicated that Baroni will fight Marcus Davis at UFC 111 on March 27, 2010 and this should still go according to plan. Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center is only a little over an hour away from Phil Baroni's home town in Long Island. Expect him there for sure. Jon "Bones" Jones has Lost His Appeal with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Referee Steve Mazagatti's decision will be upheld as Matt Hamill remains the victor due to illegal downward elbows from Jones. Jason Genet [manager of Jones] confirmed the news and explained the ruling against Jones was upheld largely due to Hamill sustaining a shoulder injury and not being able to continue. Wasn't this injury due to the judo throw by Jones? Isn't that unrelated to the 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock illegal elbows? History was set however.. remember.. Mazagatti became the first referee to utilize instant replay during this event during the Jones vs Hamill fight. Diego Sanchez Has Plastic Surgery after the beating by the hands of B.J. Penn at UFC 107. "I'm 90% healed with no scar." 11 days ago he had a deep & ugly laceration so props to his surgeon. Diego is expected to face Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, or Frankie Edgar when he gets back into the octagon. STRIKEFORCE RELATED Roger Gracie Interview: plans on fighting at Light Heavyweight in pending Strikeforce debut. His contract is non-exclusive and has the ability to fight in Japan aswell. He is debut was American-soil debut was suppose to take place in 2009 but injuries and a new baby have postponed prior attempts. He is the grandson of Carlos Gracie for all you not in the know of who this is. "there is nothing more to prove with the Gracie name.. I'm not here for the glory of the Gracie name because it doesn't need any glory.. it spoke for itself years ago." Strikeforce Challengers VI Not Happening on January 22, 2010 despite last Saturday's "Strikeforce Evolution" advertising that it would. Strikeforce Director of Communications [Mike Afromowitz] says that Strikeforce will focus all its attention on their January 30th Showtime broadcasted event from Miami, Florida. He says the event was never "set in stone" and the advertising was premature. When the next Challenger Series show will air has not been pinpointed but it is certain that the January 30th broadcast will most likely get the advertising right this next time around. K.J. Noons Says He's A Champion. The former Elite XC champion is set to compete in the Strikeforce lightweight division [walks around at 185lbs] and has turned his back on progessing his boxing career in favor of setting himself up for full time in mma. "In my eyes, I'm still the Champ." OFF-TOPIC BUT MMA RELATED The Karate Kid Remake Movie Trailer stars Wills Smith's son Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan as the Mr. Miagi-esque sensei. Releases June 11, 2010. Gina Carano via Twitter wants you to feel the love of Christmas. Dana White gave all his fighters Christmas presents which are Flip Ultra HD cameras. Nice little gift from the big guy. These little camcorders retail for $189.00 and have 2 hours of HD recording time. Looks like he wants more fighter blogs. And this means, we'll probably get them. Good thinking. UFC legend Don Frye says he's buying UFC 109! The main event is Randy Couture vs Mark Coleman. Frye fought Coleman twice during his 13 year career [going 0-2] and is apparently a fan of Coutures. "This might be the first UFC I buy and actually watch in about 10 years, you know?" Frye said. "These two guys, it's going to be one hell of a barnburner. They’re going to show these new guys how to fight." |