Angle to Face Couture in Submission Bout

It's been confirmed that Kurt Angle will face AWOL UFC Heavyweight Champ Randy Couture in a modified submission only bout. It's not exactly MMA but might be a step in the direction Dana White has been pushing the 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle says the bout should take place sometime in the late summer or early fall.

"I've always wanted to do (MMA), from after the Olympics, and I just never got the shot," Angle said. "I've been keeping myself in really, really good shape, but not in the fighting shape you have to be in to go into MMA."

After the match, Angle will continue to pursue a transition into MMA, something the 39-year-old has been trying to do for several years. Angle has had contract negotiations with several organizations, including the UFC, though none of those discussions led to a deal.

Thales Leites vs. Nate Marquardt Set for UFC 85

Visa issues forced Thales Leites (12-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) to cancel a scheduled October 2006 bout with Nate Marquardt (26-7-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC), and then a broken hand forced him out of a second attempt at the fight last month at UFC 81. However, the two UFC middleweights will give the fight a third try at UFC 85 in London.

The fight has been accepted and Marquardt has signed a bout agreement.

UFC 85 takes place June 7 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Chuck Liddell meets Marquardt's training partner, Rashad Evans, in the night's main event.

With the UFC's middleweight division short on contenders, the winner of the Leites-Marquardt bout could inch very close to a potential title shot.

After Leites pulled out of the UFC 81 fight, Marquardt instead took on late replacement and veteran fighter Jeremy Horn. Marquardt dominated the fight and earned a second-round victory after securing a guillotine choke. It was the 28-year-old's seventh victory in his past eight fights, with the only loss coming in a title shot with Anderson Silva at UFC 73.

Leites, a 26-year-old Brazilian, made his UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale and dropped a unanimous decision to middleweight standout Martin Kampmann; it was the first loss of his career. Leites has bounced with a three-fight winning streak, which includes victories over Pete Sell, Floyd Sword and Ryan Jensen.

Chuck Liddell Willing to Fight for Heavyweight Title

First things first: Chuck Liddell wants to remain at 205 lbs. so he can reclaim his light heavyweight title. However, the former champ says he's willing to move up to the heavyweight division to fight interim champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira if the UFC makes the request.

Liddell talked about the possible move while a recent guest on Fight Network Radio.

"That's a possibility if they want to do it," Liddell told host Mauro Ranallo when asked about the fight with Nogueira. "If they want to set it up. I'm willing to do it."

Nogueira, the former PRIDE heavyweight champion, made his UFC debut in 2007. After a victory over Heath Herring, he took on Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 and won the organization's interim heavyweight title with a third-round submission.

UFC hall-of-famer Randy Couture is the organization's current heavyweight champ, but he resigned from the organization in October after a dispute with key UFC executives. The UFC maintains that Couture, in fact, retired from the sport, and UFC president Dana White said he won't strip him of the title until Couture fulfills the terms of his contract (fighting twice more in the UFC). Couture and his lawyers maintain that he's free to fight for other organizations when his contract expires in October. The matter will likely be determined by the courts.

In the meantime, the organization is moving forward with Nogueira -- for all intents and purposes -- as the UFC's current heavyweight champion. Fabricio Werdum was expected to get the next title shot, but rumors are circulating that he'll be fighting Brandon Vera at UFC 85 in June.

The UFC has yet to schedule Nogueira for his first title defense.

Liddell, meanwhile, will fight Rashad Evans in UFC 85's main event. With a victory, he hopes he'll get a third shot at Quinton Jackson, who took his belt this past May at UFC 71, if he gets by Forrest Griffin in July (at UFC 86).

"I would definitely like it to happen before the end of the year," Liddell said. However, he's not ruling out a fight with Nogueira.

"Honestly I would like to get my title back at light heavyweight and then talk about moving up," he said. "But if that came up, (that) too is a possibility."

As it stands, there may be no better time than now to move up since the UFC's heavyweight division is in a bit of disarray. A year ago, the division never looked so stacked. However, Couture recently resigned, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic suffered back-to-back losses and left the UFC, former champ Tim Sylvia lost to Nogueira in February, one-time contender Gabriel Gonzaga has lost two fights in a row, fringe contender Cheick Kongo was recently stopped by Heath Herring, and former title-holder Andrei Arlovski may be on his way out of the organization now that he's a free agent.

There is, however, a strange rumor that Liddell would even like to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Liddell has stated that he matches up against the former Pride Phenom, saying Fedor doesn't trade well and he'll be able to stuff Fedor's takedowns. That fight would be much better than Fedor and Couture.

Herman vs. Maia Set for UFC 83

The UFC today made official the long-rumored UFC 83 bout between middlweights Ed Herman (14-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Demian Maia (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC). With the booking, UFC 83 now features a total of 11 bouts.

UFC 83 takes place April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal; it'll be the UFC's first-ever event in Canada. UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra meets interim champ Georges St. Pierre in a title-unification main event, and former middleweight champ Rich Franklin meets "The Ultimate Fighter 4" winner Travis Lutter in a co-main event.

The 27-year-old Herman, one of the most experienced fighters cast for the third season of "The Ultimate Fighter," made it to the show's finals but lost to Kendall Grove. In his very next fight, he was quickly submitted by Jason MacDonald for his second straight loss, but the Team Quest fighter quickly turned things around. First came a first-round submission of Chris Price at UFC Fight Night 8, then came a second-round submission of Scott Smith at UFC 72. He most recently earned a third-round knockout of veteran fighter Joe Doerksen -- the first knockout of his career -- this past November at UFC 78.

Herman now faces an undefeated Maia, who's racked up a 6-0 record since turning pro in December 2006. The 30-year-old made his UFC debut at Cincinnati's UFC 77 event, where he submitted Ryan Jensen with a first-round rear-naked choke.

Although Maia hasn't fought the biggest names in MMA, every fighter the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has beaten currently has a winning record. Five of the six victories have come via first-round stoppages.

UFC events have traditionally featured nine fights, but with approximately 250 fighters signed to contracts, the organization has been booking a growing number of bouts for each event. UFC Fight Night 13, for example, will likely feature 12 fights next month.

The Ultimate Fighter 7 to kick off with sixteen bouts

The seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter, coached by UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and season one winner Forrest Griffin, will begin with a total of 32 middleweights, Spike TV has confirmed.

But the number of middleweights competing for the six-figure UFC contract will be cut in half by the end of the second episode. A total of 16 elimination bouts will air, mostly through highlights, in the first two episodes to narrow down the field of contestants.

According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports, this season's cast includes:

David Baggett (4-2), Steve Byrnes (6-1), Paul Bradley (5-0), Matt Brown (4-2), Erik Charles (0-0), John Clarke (5-2), Daniel Cramer (0-0), Tim Credeur (9-2), Mike Dolce (3-4), Clarence Dollaway (0-0), John Hall (3-3), Gerald Harris (6-2), Nick Klein (3-0), David Mewborn (0-0), Mike Marrello (7-1-1), Jeremy May (5-5), Prince LaDonas McLean (4-5), Aaron Meisner (2-0), Reggie Orr (4-5-1), Matthew Riddle (0-0), Jeremiah Riggs (1-0), Dante Rivera, (10-2), David Roberts (5-7), Nick Rossborough (0-0), Amir Sadollah (0-0), Patrick Schultz (0-3), Brandon Sene (2-0), Dan Simmler (0-0), Jesse Taylor (6-2), Cale Yarbrough (0-0), John Wood (6-3) and Luke Zachrich (7-1).

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest premieres April 2 at 10:00pm ET and will air every Wednesday until the season finale on Saturday, June 21 from the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The first episode directly follows a live broadcast of the Kenny Florian-Joe Lauzon headlined UFC Fight Night in Broomfield, Colorado.

'Cro Cop' draws new opponent for March 15 DREAM

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (22-6-2) will now take on Tatsuya Mizuno (3-2) on March 15 at the inaugural DREAM event at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, promoters announced today.
"Cro Cop" was previously slated to face fellow PRIDE veteran Yoshihiro Nakao. It is unknown why there was a change of opponent.

Mizuno, a member of Kiyoshi Tamura's U-FILE camp, will be competing for the first time outside of Pancrase, where is he currently ranked third in the promotion's light heavyweight rankings. The 26-year-old Judoka's two losses were both against UFC veterans in Assuerio and Thiago Silva.

Following back-to-back losses in his most recent two fights with the UFC, "Cro Cop" announced in February his return to the country he's had the most success in his career. "Cro Cop" expects to fight three times for DREAM before returning to the Octagon to resume his goal of winning the UFC heavyweight championship.

CAGE RAGE 25 REVIEW

Cage Rage 25 played out to a full house of 8,300 people at the Wembley Arena who witnessed a blinder of a card featuring the legend Ken Shamrock fall to the hands of Robert “Buzz” Berry via first round KO. Berry has cemented his place into British MMA history with the win and appeared to be ecstatic with the victory.

I just watched the main event on the internet and it appears that Shamrock needs to hang it up.

From early on in the round it appeared as though Shamrock was tentative and unwilling to fully commit to a striking offence. When he did step in, he had to deal with a larger deficit in reach as well as an opponent who wouldn't be drawn into a brawling exchange. Berry had instead preferred to circle and pick off 1-2 combinations; a tactic that gained effectiveness as the fight wore on.

Shamrock appeared to catch a few shots on occasion, forcing him to try and close the distance. But, it appeared as though Berry had the advantage in strength and was able to avoid being drawn to the canvas. 3:26 into the first round and a big hook off the back of a knee sent the UFC Hall of Famer crashing to the canvas and out of the contest.

His son Ryan didn't fare any better as he was advised not to continue for the 2nd round when he broke his hand in the first round while fighting Giorgio Andrews. The fight was a brawl for the entire first round and both fighters looked awesome. The doctor stopped the fight after examining Shamrock's hand giving the fight to Andrews via TKO. Actually Ryan did fare much better than his dad as he put on an awesome fight.

Ken, however, needs to do some serious pondering of his future. I doubt EliteXC is gonna feature him in any more fights, especially main events. You can also kiss the Kimbo-Shamrock rumors goodbye.

If he continues to fight, he's just risking injury. He's not even competitive anymore either and has only 1 win in about the last 9 years and that was over Kimo who was also at the end of his career. Yet he just said how he was healthy for the first time in years and we were gonna see a new and improved Ken Shamrock. Let's be honest, he got the main event only because of his name and that's all. Now he's not going to able to use his name anymore. He's a legend and his legacy is getting tarnished every time he enters the cage.

His son might have a great future in MMA though. He looks like he's a great athlete and if he has any of his fathers heart, he could be s force someday.

Evans steps up to fight Liddell at UFC 85

The Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Rashad Evans will take up the challenge of standing opposite former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell at UFC 85.

Evans is stepping in for Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who was forced to withdraw from the UFC 85 bout due to a ruptured ACL in his left knee. Rua had undergone surgery on the same knee shortly after UFC 76 will once again have to go under the knife.

Evans (6-0-1 UFC, 11-0-1 overall) will enter the the O2 Arena undefeated in his eleven professional bouts. His only nonvictory was a draw to former champion Tito Ortiz.

Chuck Liddell (16-4 UFC, 21-5 overall) jumped back on track towards a shot at reclaiming his UFC belt when he won a unanimous decision over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79.

UFC 85 takes place Saturday, June 7 in London, England, two weeks after UFC 84 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Shogun Re-Injures Knee, Forced to Withdraw From UFC 85

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (16-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has re-injured his knee and has been scratched from a UFC 85 main event with Chuck Liddell (21-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC). The news comes from Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com.

According to the report, Rua ruptured the ACL in his left knee, which is the same injury that forced a surgery after a UFC 76 loss to Forrest Griffin.

UFC 85 takes place June 7 at the O2 Arena in London. The UFC will announce a replacement for Rua "shortly."

The 26-year-old made his octagon debut at UFC 76 and suffered an upset submission loss (via rear-naked choke) to Griffin. Prior to the bout, the Brazilian PRIDE veteran had won 12 of 13 fights. He recently underwent knee surgery but had returned to training earlier this year.

Rua will again go under the knife and there's no timetable for his return to the UFC.

Liddell, who won the UFC's light-heavyweight title at UFC 52, made four successful title defenses before a loss to Quinton Jackson this past May. He then dropped a split decision to Jardine in September for the first back-to-back losses of his career. However, he rebounded for a unanimous-decision victory over Wanderlei Silva in the co-main event of UFC 79 back in December.

There's still plenty of time to find an opponent that's more than just a journeyman. Certainly Liddell wants to get a revenge match against Jardine but he's scheduled to fight Wanderlei Silva at UFC 84. The division is sort of thin at the moment. Had Lyoto Machida not been scheduled to fight Tito Ortiz he could have been a formidable opponent. They could have also plugged in Stephan Bonnar had he not had to have such an extensive rehab for his injured knee.

Nothing has even been discussed but this blogger thinks it could be Rashad Evans stepping in against Liddell.

Dana White: Randy Couture Offered to Fight Antonio Nogueira

Even though the court papers are flying regarding this situation, i.e. the UFC just filed an injuction against Xtreme Couture of the IFL preventing him from being affiliated with the event held in New Orleans on Friday night, thus having to name the team 'Team Tompkins', the UFC has offered Randy Couture a fight with interim heavyweight champion Antonio Nogueira. I'm not sure if he's sitting by the phone but White might be waiting for a long time to hear from Couture.

Ok that was a major run on sentence, but so is the Couture-UFC situation. This is one instance where I don't blame Dana White. Couture only wants to fight Fedor but seriously, do you think Randy Couture can defeat Fedor Emelianenko? Yeah I know, don't ever doubt 'Captain America' and what Couture has done is pretty remarkable but c'mon.

This is an easy one to figure out. Couture is probably a bit worried about his legacy (which he shouldn't be), that he probably knows that the other heavyweights would fare pretty well against him.

I don't think you can say that Couture is that invincible in the current UFC heavyweight division. I'm sure he has his doubts that, at his age, he can defeat Big Nog and in his mind, that would tarnish his legacy a bit. Not only that, throw Tim Sylvia against him again and I bet it's a different fight. Even Andrei Arlovski, in his timid ways, still has a chance against Couture.

At this point, Couture doesn't want to lose to mediocre talent. They're not mediocre talent but his reputation says they are.

Randy Couture has done some amazing things in his MMA career but defeating Fedor isn't going to be one of them. This fight, if it does happen, won't stand a chance in living up to the buildup simply because of the struggle it's going to take in order to put it together.

This is simply an opinion but if you feel different, please feel free to comment with your opinion. Even if you feel the same but for different reasons, let's hear your comments.