» Fighter: Chris Horodecki

Lightweights “Polish Hammer” Chris Horodecki (13-1) of Canada and Anthony Njokuani (10-2) of the USA will matchup at WEC 45 in Las Vegas December 19, the WEC confirmed Thursday.

Read More About WEC 45: Chris Horodecki Versus Anthony Njokuani Official…

Affliction lightweight “Polish Hammer” Chris Horodecki (12-1) will match-up versus Hiroki Shishido (0-0) in the first round of S-Cup 2008, Shootboxing’s eight-man, one night tournament in Saitama, north of Tokyo, 24 November.

Shootboxing is like MMA without the ground game.  Strikes, throws, and standing submissions are permitted, but fighters don’t fight on the mat.

Horodecki is scheduled to fight “The Upgrade” Dan Lauzon (10-2) at Affliction’s Day of Reckoning in Anaheim, east of Los Angeles, 24 January.

Lauzon will also fight “Sledge” Justin Hammerstrom (7-7) at World Championship Fighting before he and Horodecki stand across the ring from each other in Anaheim.

Fighters.com’s Heavyweight Champion and WAMMA Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) and third-ranked “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (14-5) will headline Affliction: Day of Reckoning, which will take place 24 January at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, the organization confirmed on their official website.

Emelianenko versus Arlovski had been reported previously, as well as the date of the event, but Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio last week would confirm neither the main event, the date, nor the venue for their second show.

Other fighters on the card are sixth-ranked heavyweight “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5), “Minotoro” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (14-3), “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3), “Babalu” Renato Sobral (30-7), “Phenom” Vitor Belfort (17-8), “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5), and the IFL’s Jay Hieron (16-4) and Chris Horodecki (12-1).

The match-ups have not yet been announced.

Chris Horodecki (12-1) will face Dan Lauzon (10-2) at Affliction’s January event, and will not fight “Punk” Josh Thomson (16-2) at Strikeforce next month, according to MMA Weekly Saturday.

Horodecki’s management team confirmed the lightweight bout with Lauzon, who was his original opponent for Day of Reckoning on 11 October before the event was postponed.

Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz confirmed that Horodecki will not be on the Destruction card on 21 November.

Horodecki said, “I’d like to fight Thomson, but now I’m thinking about November and Affliction.”

Horodecki is also considering a November fight in Japan’s Shoot Boxing organization.

Fighters.com has confirmed with sources that Strikeforce is in negotiations with both Affliction and K-1 to find lightweight champion “Punk” Josh Thomson’s (16-2) first title defense in San Jose 21 November.

According to Fighters.com’s source, Strikeforce has narrowed their list of opponents to up-and-coming Chris Horodecki (12-1) and veteran “Uno Shoten” Caol Uno (25-11-4).

Twenty-one-year old Horodecki won a UD over Nate Lamotte (6-3) in East Rutherford, west of New York City, 4 April, then signed with Affliction and agreed to fight on Affliction’s 11 October event before it was rescheduled.

A veteran of Shooto, UFC, K-1 Hero’s, and DREAM, Uno lost a UD to Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked lightweight “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (18-3) in the semi-finals of DREAM’s Lightweight Grand Prix in Osaka 21 July.

Read More About Uno, Horodecki on the Punk’s Short List…

Affliction on Wednesday confirmed a middleweight bout between “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5) and “Phenom” Vitor Belfort (17-8) and announced a heavyweight match between “Headhunter” Paul Buentello (26-10) and Roy Nelson (13-2), and to take place in Las Vegas 11 October.

Belfort must first be cleared to fight by a doctor.  He is currently serving a 180-day medical suspension.

Buentello won a unanimous decision over “Big Daddy” Gary Goodridge (23-18-1) at Affliction: Banned in July.

Nelson, the IFL Heavyweight Champion, most recently won via first-round TKO over “Hillbilly Heartthrob” Brad Imes (11-5) in May.

The Buentello-Nelson match is part of the preliminary card which will air on HDNet before switching to the main card on pay-per-view, according to MMA Junkie.

Affliction also announced that IFL lightweight Chris Horodecki (12-1) has signed a three-fight deal with them and will make his Affliction debut at the October event.

No opponent has yet been named for Horodecki.

Not participating in the event is Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3), who is still dealing with licensing issues.

He was denied a license by the California State Athletic Commission for his scheduled fight in July.

Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight,current UFC co-Heavyweight Champion, and UFC Hall of Famer “The Natural” Randy Couture(16-8) spoke exclusively with Fighters.com from his Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas Monday afternoon.

Couture graciously confronted and answered questions about his beef with the Zuffa, LLC and UFC President Dana White and third-ranked “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia’s (24-4) and his own prospective fight with sixth-ranked “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (27-1), shared opinions about fifth-ranked welterweight Matt Hughes (42-7), “Kimbo Slice” Kevin Ferguson (3-0), and Brock Lesnar (1-1), and made picks on future fights.

Fighters.com: You’ve said you’ve accepted that you might get a bad court ruling and not fight again. Have you lost some competitiveness from being inactive for so long?

The Natural: I still want to compete. I’m still in training as much as I can be with all this other stuff going on. I still seem to be able to hold my own, even with the lack of serious, hardcore training, with all the top guys that I have in the gym. I’m having fun being in the gym learning new tools, new skills and being there with a lot of the other guys that have been there for me, so I’m not too worried about that. The courts are going to do what the courts are going to do. We’ll deal with it when it comes in.

Fighters.com: Not many fighters have wives who also train. Does that give you both a different perspective and more understanding?

Read More About Fighter of the Month: Randy Couture…

Three IFL title-holders tightened the straps on their belts in the Izod Center just through the Lincoln Tunnel from New York City Saturday night.

“The Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3), Wagnney Fabiano (10-1), and Jay Hieron (15-4) all defended their respective titles with knockouts.

Lightweight standout Chris Horodecki (12-1) picked up a unanimous decision, while one-time top 155-pounder “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski (28-11) continued his slide with a loss by unanimous decision.

Featherweight Fabiano set-up a right slobber-knocker to Shad Lierley (2-2) with just his reputation as a submission specialist.

“People think I’m just a jiu-jitsu fighter,” Fabiano explained after the fight.  “Today I knew he would expect me shooting, so I changed my game plan.”

The KO came after just 37 seconds.

Hieron, an Xtreme Couture 170-pounder, dispatched Mark Miller (8-3) in just 2:10.

“It went quicker than I thought, but man it was not easy,” said Hieron after his right hook set-up a single-leg takedown leading to a G’n'P finish.

“The Janitor” had the toughest time of the IFL’s three defending champions.

Hometown Jamal Patterson (4-2), who’s won exclusively by submission, cranked up striking flurries in the first round causing Matyushenko to duck-and-cover.

But, Matyushenko handed Patterson his ass in the second with a ground’n'pound barrage the required the ref to wave the fight finished at 3:35.

IFL newcomer Jim Miller (11-1) ran “Bartimus” ragged for three rounds, dumping the winless-in-three lightweight at will and filing through submission attempts like he had an extra limb.  Palaszewski fought back valiantly with several crafty escapes, but Miller took all of the cards in his IFL debut.

Horodecki had a handfull named Nate Lamotte (6-3) to contend with in Horodecki’s return from his first loss to “The Lion” Ryan Schultz (19-9-1) in IFL’s Lightweight Grand Prix final.

Lamotte delivered some vicious G’n'P when he was able to catch Horodecki, but the IFL vet kept Lamotte at bay with a snapping jab and pin-pointed punches to take a UD by 29-28 times three.

And the rest of the story saw light heavyweight “Shark” Emyr Bussade (11-5) win his IFL debut with a kneebar of Jesse Lennox (6-1) at 1:25 of round two.

“Bad” Brad Blackburn (12-9-1) TKO’d “Pe de Chumbo” Delson Heleno (13-5) at 1:50 of the third round of a welterweight matchup.

Featherweight LC Davis (10-1) kicked Rafael Dias (10-4-1) in the head for the KO “W” at 3:56 of round three.

Xtreme Couture middleweight Alex Schoenauer (13-9) eeked out a split decision over Brendan Barrett (3-3).

Finally, heavyweight Miletich fighter Mike Ciesnolevicz (13-3) cut Kongo-conqueror “The Fury” Carmelo Marrero (7-2) with an unintentional headbutt in a fight declared a No Contest after 1:37.

The IFL returns 16 May in at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.