Spike TV will join in the celebrations surrounding July's historic UFC 100 event.
The UFC's cable broadcast partner will debut a five-part series entitled "UFC's Ultimate 100: Greatest Fights" prior to UFC 100, which takes place July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Fans can begin voting on the top 100 UFC fights of all time on May 1 at Ultimate100.spike.com, and highlights from the chosen bouts will air on the series, which debuts July 5.
That first episode airs at 9 PM ET/PT on Sunday. Subsequent episodes air in the same timeslot on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Prior to Saturday's series finale, Spike TV will re-air the other four episodes.
The UFC this week announced three official bouts for UFC 100, which is becoming the can't-miss event of 2009. UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar takes on UFC interim heavyweight title holder Frank Mir (in a heavyweight title unification bout) and UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre meets top contender Thiago Alves. Additionally, "The Ultimate Fighter 9" coaches Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson are also slated to fight at the event, and as revealed on this past Wednesday's episode "The Ultimate Fighter 9", Stephan Bonnar will take on Mark Coleman.
Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson's journey from YouTube sensation to CBS main event fighter was well publicized, and even though his career as a professional MMA fighter has been short and problematic, you had to expect others to follow in his footsteps.
Dhafir Harris, a childhood acquaintance of Ferguson and a reported member of his entourage at one time, began promoting backyard fights in the Miami suburb of Perrine where both he and Ferguson grew up. The fights were haled as no-rules, bare-knuckle affairs and were not sanctioned for obvious reasons. With no protective equipment or medical staff on hand, the fighters at these types of events knowingly place themselves in danger. Most say it's for pride, while others just need the money.
Harris' promotion may have already come to an end, but even if that's the case, it would be pretty naive to think that others like it haven't already sprouted under similar circumstances. Rakontur, a film company that specializes in producing edgy, compelling documentaries, spent some time filming Harris' fights last year and confirmed via email that they plan to create a full-length feature documentary on the subject.
Fans and members of the MMA community fear that exposure for backyard fighting will undo much of the work that MMA has done to repair the image created by its early years. Some worry that by depicting a bloody, unregulated style of fighting complete with bloodthirsty spectators, the anti-MMA crowd will gain additional ammo.
In reality, it's not very hard to explain the differences between the fighting that is depicted in Dawg Fight and the legitimate sport of MMA in its modern, sanctioned form. Anyone who tries to make a direct comparison is probably so bitterly opposed to the sport of MMA that nothing could change their mind anyway. Instead, I think Dawg Fight is going to address some incredibly interesting social dynamics. No, it's not the future of MMA, but Kimbo Slice may not be the last fighter to rise from similar beginnings and make a name for himself.
The UFC officially launched a new text alert service for mobile devices on Wednesday, giving fans the opportunity to receive UFC news, as well as event updates and other information about UFC.
Using the UFC web site, fans can indicate the specific kind of information they would like to receive via text messages, such as breaking news, event announcements, UFC programming reminders, UFC ticket presale opportunities as well notices of new UFC.com content, including unaired UFC bouts and other exclusive videos. The text message service is powered by 4INFO, the leading text message alert service company in the US.
To begin receiving UFC text messages, fans can visit UFC.com and click the Mobile link at the top of the page, or they can simply text the word "UFCNEWS" to 44636 (4INFO) from their mobile device to receive breaking UFC news alerts.
Users can choose to stop receiving text alerts at anytime by replying "STOP" to any message.
Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz will be streamed live on Saturday night from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, for a price tag of $24.95.
The online option is for those without subscriptions to Showtime, but an incentive to order the online stream is the options to choose camera angles and audio commentary.
Rage in the Cage (RITC) promoter Roland Sarria will make his mixed martial arts debut on Friday, April 17 in Phoenix, Arizona after 125 RITC events spanning over ten years.
45 year-old Sarria will take on Richard Frye in a middleweight bout. Sarria is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and the founder of the RITC Training Center. Joe Riggs and Edwin Dewees are among the UFC veterans who have developed through the RITC school and promotion.
RITC 126 will be headlined by Richard Hale will defend his RITC heavyweight title against Rich Beecroft. Also on the fight card will be five-time IFL competitor John Gunderson taking on Eric Regan in a welterweight bout.
On April 1 UFC President Dana White posted a video blog on the UFC's YouTube account called "Dana White Video Blog - Nashville". This is the last part of the video where he becomes power hungry and abusive. He's yelling at hard working female mixed martial arts journalist named Loretta Hunt.
The UFC removed the entire video the very next day on April 2. Since the video has been removed, White has stated publicly that he does not regret what he said to Loretta Hunt. He also refuses to apologize.
During this whole ordeal White has had his back up against the wall and not a single one of his employees, current UFC fighters, or friends are willing to help. True colors are shown when the tables are turned and many people who are associated with White are afraid of him.
Combat fighting legend Bob "The Beast" Sapp is firmly stationed in the corner of www.FightEngine.com, the newly launched state-of-the-art website that's revolutionizing the way mixed-martial-arts fighters market themselves, promoters and managers scout talent, and fans become real matchmakers.
"I've seen too many greedy promoters during the time I've been involved in fighting," Sapp explained why he's involved in Fight Engine. "Every fighter wants to be a star and each promoter wants to take advantage of fighters. Nobody was really helping fighters. We've decided to stimulate that effort through fightengine.com. The body has several features like arms, legs, etc. We've chosen the hand to demonstrate Fight Engine's philosophy.
On our logo, fighters are represented by fingers, and together they form a strong fist. Fight Engine is a sign of the times with all of the latest technology enabling promotional companies to search worldwide for their next stars, while spending little money and without leaving the comforts of their offices. In the future, we hope to offer retirement and health packages. This is the first union of MMA fighters, but we have to take things one step at a time. Our early success rate has been very positive.
"For MMA fans, we took fantasy fighting - like fantasy football - into reality through Fight Engine because they can vote for whom they want to watch fight, passionately discuss potential fights with other fans, and determine the people's fighters, top entertainers and champions all in one. People are not just spectators because, through Fight Engine, they pick fights they want to watch, as opposed to boring fights or mismatches that have, unfortunately, become the norm today."
FightEngine.com works for a nominal fee with any and all MMA promoters and fighters to gain International notoriety. Registered fighters from around the world, whether a veteran or novice, may post his or her video and challenge other registered fighters, allowing each participant to accept or deny challenges, as well as express their semi-uncensored opinions about any posted challenges.
FightEngine.com is non-discriminatory, providing male and female fighters, as well as ring girls, opportunities to gain invaluable exposure on the website. Promoters and managers are already closely monitoring fightengine.com to scout for their next street fighting prospect.
In a similar manner by which Kimbo Slice went from underground Internet legend to a high-profile MMA fighter, fightengine.com offers an opportunity for some selected MMA fighters to earn a guaranteed five-figure purse, sign a potential six-figure promotional contract, paid travel expenses and, in the not too distant future, hopefully, other life-changing benefits through membership.
Fans can get in on the action, for free, simply by registering on the website to become quasi-matchmakers, picking fighters they'd like to watch in matches, in addition to commenting about fights other spectators propose.
A thermometer can be found on the right-hand side of the website, which will illuminate on a rising basis, according to the amount of registered fighters, and subsequently fights will be arranged when the thermometer reaches its apex.
Once there are enough fighters and fans registered on the website, FightEngine.com will serve as a tool to arrange fights on a super card, guaranteeing purses of $10,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000.
FREE OFFER: The first 100 applicants who register on www.fightengine.com are eligible to receive a complimentary posting of their 5 MB videos for the first six months.
Future plans include a "KO the Pro" section where a top level fighter will be posted as other fighters vie for selection in a "KO the Pro" match-up. "The initial 'KO The Pro' is me, 'The Beast,' and anyone who wants an opportunity to fight me must submit their videos and let the web-voting audience decide if you are tough enough to take me on," Sapp concluded.
A superfight between UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar (3-1) and UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir (12-3) will headline UFC 100; perhaps the most anticipated UFC event in the history of the storied MMA organization.
Headlining an event of this magnitude would appear to be quite an honor, but to listen to Lesnar tell it, he'd rather be watching from the front row.
"I'm a little disappointed that it got pushed back," Lesnar said in a recent appearance on HDNet's "Inside MMA". "In my mind, is Frank really hurt, or is he just scared?"
Mir was forced to undergo knee surgery due to an injury sustained in practice, which pushed the highly anticipated unification tilt from UFC 98 to UFC 100.
"(Frank Mir) won a make-believe belt from (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira," said Lesnar. "He is a former champion. But there's no ifs, ands or buts about it, I'm the current champion."
Mir was able to defeat Lesnar in their first fight, after sustaining serious damage via viscous ground-and-pound, before catching the former WWE superstar in a kneebar and forcing him to tap. Lesnar believes he rushed the fight and got caught making a rookie mistake.
"The biggest thing was that you've got 15 minutes," Lesnar said. "As soon as I entered the Octagon, there were a few other key factors that played into why I rushed the fight. But those would be just plain old excuses. I lost the fight fair and square. I had him up against the fence, and believe I was winning the fight. But, I made a rookie mistake and he capitalized on it. I'm looking forward to this upcoming fight with Frank."
As for a prediction, the ever confident Brock Lesnar had this to say:
"I don't think it's going to change much in the second (fight), (but) with a different outcome for sure."
Spike TV will join in the celebrations surrounding July's historic UFC 100 event.
