Liddell to Miss London

Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked light heavyweight “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-5) has been pulled from the 7 June UFC 85 main event by UFC President Dana White.

“Unfortunately, Chuck Liddell tore his right hamstring during training last week, and being the warrior that he is, he still wanted to fight, which is the reason why everyone in the world loves him,” said White at the UFC website.  “But, I wouldn’t let anyone fight with his leg looking that way.  Let him heal and come back and fight when he is 100 percent.”

A photo posted at the UFC website showed a deep crimson raspberry on the back of Liddell’s right leg.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had to pull out of a fight.  I’ve fought injured plenty of times,” a disappointed Liddell explained in a video at MMA Jacked.  “I was training and I popped my hamstring pretty bad.  I’ll be fighting maybe August, September.  We’ll see who they come up with.”

The UFC hasn’t announced a replacement to fight Liddell’s scheduled opponent, “Sugar” Rashad Evans (11-0-1).

“We’re adding fights to the card and rearranging it so the UK fans won’t have to worry, we’ll still be bringing an amazing card to London and the O2 Arena,” White promised.

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Starnes Requests Release from UFC

UFC middleweight Kalib Starnes (8-3-1) has requested immediate release from his UFC contract.

Saturday at UFC 83 in Montréal, Starnes lost a unanimous decision to “The Rock” Nate Quarry (10-2) after avoiding confrontation for three rounds.  After the fight, Starnes, a Canadian, was heavily chided by the Centre Bell crowd of over 21,000.

“Fuck you,” Starnes replied to his fellow Canadians amidst roaring boos.

Quarry won over the crowd with a vigorous performance and was cheered in Montréal.

“Joe Silva told me that he would [release me from my contract],” Starnes told Fighters.com, “but, that it would take a couple days for their legal department to complete the process and he would send me the appropriate forms once they were completed.

“I couldn’t be happier about being released from my UFC contract,” Starnes added.

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The Other 185-Pound Gorilla in the UFC

With all that’s been ballyhooed about what to do with Fighters.com’s ichi-ban at 185-pounds, UFC Middleweight Champion “Spider” Anderson Silva (21-4), another quagmire has manifest in the dust of 83 for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva: What to do with Fighters.com’s numero dos “Ace” Rich Franklin (23-3)?

I’ll fire my gun in salute of Anderson Silva.  How good is Silva?  He’s so good, you can match the last two fighters he’s obliterated in second-round stoppages in a UFC PPV main event.

In fact, two years ago Franklin versus “Hollywood” Dan Henderson (22-7) would’ve been an MMA fan’s wet dream to decide the top of the middleweight division.  I’d still buy the fight!

Franklin himself admits, “Realistically, another fight with Anderson wouldn’t be that interesting for fans,” after his two stoppages to “Spider”.  And, though there’s a ribbon of glory to be won for Franklin and Hendo’, it’s not the gold every fighter fights for.

But, Hendo’ has options at 205-pounds and a legit case for a Silva rematch down the line at middleweight.

Franklin, it seems, only has a role as gate keeper to Silva.  Even that, though, only feels lukewarm.

Franklin scored a UD over Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked middleweight “Thunder” Yushin Okami (22-4); but, it’s likely Okami is still going to get a shot at Silva due to lack of other viable options in the division.

So, short of creating an intercontinental consolation prize for the-best-of-the-rest, Franklin, why let him whither on the vine when his only crime is not being able to beat the most dominant champion in the last two years?

Send Franklin on a world tour; or, bring the world to Franklin.  Match Franklin versus the rest of the world’s top middleweights outside of the UFC.

UFC President Dana White has been burned twice by co-promotions.

In 2003, he entered then UFC Light Heavyweight Champion “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-5) in PRIDE’s 205-pound tournament with the intention to pair his champ against then PRIDE champ “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1) in the finale.  A top PRIDE contender you may have heard of, “Rampage” Quinton Jackson (28-6), foiled White’s plot, TKOing Liddell in the tournament’s second round.

In 2006, White tried again.  He announced live at UFC 61 that Liddell and Silva would finally fight in the cage; but, PRIDE and Silva pulled out of the fight inexplicably.

Since those incidents and with the growing dominance the UFC has gained over competing promotions, White has become increasingly isolationist.

But, what bigger “f-you” to the competition than, “Our number two can beat your number one.”  What more evidence would White need to convince the MMA universe that DREAM, EliteXC, Sengoku, Strikeforce, etc. are “the minor leagues”?

The tragedy for Franklin, who’s loyal to the UFC, is that there are good fights and plenty of glory outside of the Octagon.

Yoshihiro Akiyama (10-1) of DREAM, “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler in ExliteXC (15-4), “Grabaka Hitman” Kazuo Misaki of Sengoku (19-8-2), “Twinkle Toes” Frank Trigg (16-6) in HDNet Fights, and “Mayhem” Jason Miller (20-5) of EliteXC are all on Fighters.com’s top ten middleweight rankings, plus there are newly-crowned Strikeforce titlist Cung Le (6-0) and Icon champion Kala Kolohe Hose (6-1).  Finally, DREAm is holding a middleweight tournament featuring Denis Kang (29-9-1), Gegard Mousasi (20-2-1), and other tough fighters.

Here’s my game.  Franklin is a favorite to beat anyone on that list; but, so what?  He’s a favorite to beat the rest of the middleweights in the UFC too.  So, the difference between Franklin fighting “The Serial Killer” Travis Lutter (9-5) and Franklin fighting EliteXC Middleweight Champion Lawler is hype, gold, and glory.

That’s what this business is about.

Franklin fighting Lawler for the EliteXC title sells as a main event.  White could even convince EliteXC to do it in the Octagon; or, move-in on their network deal and put the fight on CBS for millions to see.

He only risks his division’s runner-up.  He gains a kind of second champion beneath the UFC banner.

The same goes for Franklin versus the winner of DREAM’s Grand Prix champion, Strikeforce Champ Le, or anyone I listed.

It’s a win-win for White, Franklin, and MMA fans.

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Barnett Added to 18 May Sengoku

World Victory Road has added Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “The Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (21-5) to their 18 May Sengoku card at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo.

No opponent has been named.

Also added to the line-up is a match-up between welterweights “Quicksand” Mike Pyle (15-5-1) and “The Handler” Dan Hornbuckle (15-1).

Heavyweights Roger Gracie (1-0) and “The Monster” Kevin Randleman (16-12) remain on the card without opponents.

At an 18 April press conference, WVR PR representative Takahiro Kokuho said, “At first we had one Japanese and one non-Japanese fighter ready to go [with Gracie]; but, because of injuries we are still in the process of deciding the opponent.  Roger’s side has been asking us to decide the opponent soon and for sure I would like to meet that request.”

Randleman recently cancelled a puroresu match in Inoki Genome Federation with an ankle injury, but Kokuho promised, “It has no relation to his MMA bout. We should be able to announce his card sometime next week.”

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UFC Officially Announces TUF 7 Finale

The UFC has officially announed the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 7 to be held 21 June live from The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

As reported by Fighters.com, the card’s main event will feature former UFC Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner (32-7), coming off of a knockout loss to Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked middleweight “Thunder” Yushin Okami (22-4).  He’s matched versus TUF 3 champion “Spyder” Kendall Grove (8-5).

The co-main event pits Fighters.com’s eighth-ranked welterweight and TUF 1 champion “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (18-2) versus American Top Team’s Luigi Fioravanti (12-3).

The event will also feature the final bout in the middleweight tournament on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter.

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Akiyama Bails on DREAM Grand Prix

Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama (10-1) has pulled out of 29 April’s DREAM.2 Middleweight Grand Prix in Tokyo.

The judoka re-injured a nasal fracture originally suffered in a New Year’s Eve No Contest with “Grabaka Hitman” Kazuo Misaki (19-8-2).

At a press conference in Tokyo Monday, DREAM’s producer Keiichi Sashahara announced, “Even a slight blow will cause such heavy bleeding that will have every doctor stop the fight.”

Though DREAM continues to list an opening round Grand Prix match-up between Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked 185-pounder “Twinkle Toes” Frank Trigg (16-6) and “Jacare” Ronaldo Souza (7-1), Trigg denied to MMA Junkie that he’s agreed fight for DREAM.

With both Fighters.com top ten middleweights pulled from the Grand Prix, the favorite to win is Canadian Denis Kang (29-9-1); but, Kang is 1-2 in his last three fights.  In the first round, he battles surging Armenian Gegard Mousasi (20-2-1), who has won seven straight.

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Adieu Serra, Bienvenue St. Pierre

Canada welcomed in the UFC Saturday night in Montréal; and, the UFC welcomed back in Canada as “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (16-2) avenged his loss to “The Terror” Matt Serra (9-5) by second-round TKO to capture sole possession of the UFC welterweight title before his countrymen and fellow Quebecois.

Former UFC Middleweight Champion and Fighters.com’s second-ranked 185-pounder “Ace” Rich Franklin (23-3) also found the land of maple leaf friendly in a second-round TKO of “The Serial Killer” Travis Lutter (9-5).

TUF Champions “The Count” Michael Bisping (15-1) and Mac Danzig (18-4-1) debuted in new weight classes with stoppages.

Les habitants “The Athlete” Jason MacDonald (20-9), “Dooms” Jason Day (17-5), and Jonathan Goulet (22-9) also had success for the home team, while “The Rock” Nathan Quarry (10-2), Demian Maia (7-0), “No Love” Rich Clementi (31-12-1), and Cain Velasquez (3-0) scored wins as visitors to the true north, strong and free.

Though seven of the 11 duels on 83’s lineup featured St. Pierre’s fellow countrymen, this French-Canadian bon soirwas entirely the Quebecois phenom’s. He entered the Octagon blazing a crimson gi with the strength of 22,000 at the Centre Bell.

Serra had played a clever villain during the event’s promotional tour, but had no quips for “Rush” as St. Pierre packed him into the mat upon stuffing Serra’s initial shot.

St. Pierre mauled “The Terror” with short, sharp elbows as Serra pedaled through guards, all passed by St. Pierre. Serra finally crawled up the cage to his feet.

In the center of the cage, St. Pierre blasted Serra with a Superman punch, setting up a double-leg takedown near the end of round one.

Serra, a mouse puffing beneath his right eye, emptied his tank about 90 seconds into round two as “Rush” tagged “The Terror” with five snapping jabs before planting him back onto the mat with a double-leg takedown.

St. Pierre’s G’n'P onslaught poured on, driving Serra into turtle guard. A series of unanswered rib-rattling knees persuaded referee Steve Mazzagatti to end the fight at 4:45.

“I tired him out,” explained the best 170-pound fighter in the world.

Serra countered, “I ended up coming up short, no pun intended.”

Welterweights Goulet and Kuniyoshi Hironaka (11-5) both pocketed 75 grand for battling the “Fight of the Night” in the card’s opening bout.

Goulet got the worst of it in the punch-up’s first round. Attempting to press his striking advantage, Goulet got tagged with a short Hironaka left hook. The Japanese fighter fell the Canadian and followed with a mix of fists and elbows to close the round.

“He tried to finish me,” Goulet admitted after the fight, “but he got too excited. I was careful because of my experience.”

The two fighters traded evenly to open the second before Hironaka was stunned with a punch that backed him to the cage. Goulet stalked with a flurry that dropped his opponent for a TKO at 2:07.

In the co-main event, Franklin also rebounded from a lost first round in which Lutter took the former champ to the mat and worked his jiu-jitsu juju. Franklin was nearly tapped in an armbar before he countered in a nifty maneuver that rolled him into Lutter’s full guard.

Lutter had worn himself weary by the second round and got caught with head kick as he shot for single-leg takedown. Franklin hammered “The Serial Killer” and motioned for the referee to stand him up. “Ace” picked Lutter apart on their feet with a combination of slick boxing and knees until the referree stopped the fight at 3:01

Danzig predicted to Fighters.com that Mark Bocek (5-2) is susceptible to a knee and the debuting 155-pounder delivered three big knees to set Bocek up for a rear naked choke submission at 3:48 of the third round.

“I paced myself, and I needed that; because, if I didn’t pace myself I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did in the last round,” Danzig said.

His fellow TUF Champion Bisping debuted at 185-pounds with a dominant TKO “W” over “Chainsaw” Charles McCarthy (10-5), who was unable to continue due to an arm injury after round one.

“Charles couldn’t get up,” “The Count” expalined after the fight.

Middleweight Quarry chased down a timid Kalib Starnes (8-3-1), who probably ran himself out of the UFC, for a unanimous decision.

Middleweight MacDonald added $75,000 to his bank balance with a “(T)KO of the Night” versus Joe Doerksen (39-12) at 54 seconds of the second round.

Middleweight Maia also earned 75 grand for “Submission of the Night”, a triangle choke of “Short Fuse” Ed Herman (14-5) at 2:27 of round two.

Middleweight Day made a successful UFC debut with a 3:58 TKO of “The Talent” Alan Belcher (12-5).

Lightweight Clementi ruined Canadian “Hands of Stone” Sam Stout’s (13-4-1) homecoming with a split decision victory.

Finally, touted heavyweight Velasquez only spent 2:10 in his Octagon debut before TKOing Brad Morris (9-3).

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Lindland Confirms Fight on Affliction Card

“The Law” Matt Lindland (20-5) confirmed that he’ll fight on 19 July’s Affliction card in Dallas tonight at SportFightXXII broadcast on HDNet Fights.

The card will debut popular MMA apparel maker Affliction’s live events promotion.  Currently, a main event between Fighters.com’s third- and fifth-ranked heavyweights, “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-4) and “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (27-1), is in negotiations.

The middleweight doesn’t have an oppenent signed, but said he’d like to fight former UFC champion Murilo Bustamante (14-7-1) or “The Soul Assassin” David Terrell (6-2).

Another heavyweight fight between Fighters.com’s sixth-ranked heavyweight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski and Miletich fighter Ben Rothwell (29-5) is likely on the card.

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Details of Shamrock v Zuffa Lawsuit Revealed

“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” Ken Shamrock (26-13-2) filed a lawsuit against Zuffa, L.L.C., the parent company of the UFC, in the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nevada Tuesday 15 April.

If Zuffa’s legal tangles with “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-8) can be described as Couture wanting leave the UFC without retiring, Zuffa’s latest court battle will be because allegedly Shamrock retired without leaving.

The suit seeks retribution for breach of contract under terms similar to those being hashed out with Couture.

Shamrock claims that after losing controversially to “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) at UFC 61, the UFC approached him with a two-fight contract. The first fight would be a rematch with Ortiz, which took place on SpikeTV 10 October, 2006.

After losing the rematch, Shamrock retired.

Shamrock insists the UFC invoked the same clause that the UFC claims preserves their right to Couture through Couture’s refusal to fight, which the UFC calls “retirement” and Couture calls “resignation.” The clause suspends the remaining term of the contract while the fighter is in retirement.

Shamrock alleges he came out of retirement in June 2007 and informed the UFC he was training to complete his contract.

According to the lawsuit, UFC President Dana White informed Shamrock’s agent that the UFC was changing it’s election to suspend Shamrock’s contract to another election provided for in the contract which would terminate the contract.

Shamrock claims that the UFC could have changed their election during Shamrock’s retirement, but not after his return from retirement, at which time Shamrock alleges he would’ve still been under contract to the UFC due to their original election to suspend and not terminate the contract.

Shamrock seeks damages in excess of $10,000.

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Sylvia v Emelianenko Not Official…Still

Despite “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko’s (27-1) official website claim that he has signed a contract to fight Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-4), the fight is not yet official.

Emelianenko, Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked heavyweight, must repay the $1.5 million signing bonus to the group that formed M-1 Global in October 2007 before he is officially released from the agreement he made with M-1 Global.

That M-1 Global group has since formed Adrenaline MMA.  Andrenaline MMA’s Vice-President Brian Patton said today, “[Emelianenko and his management] have only paid part of [the debt] and are not released yet.”

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