DFN Sports MMA Blog

The UFC’s first full event on Fox takes place on Saturday, January 28th marking their second appearance on network TV overall after the UFC Heavyweight title fight which took place last November. Our partners at ProFighting-fans.com provide their UFC preview & predictions for the event which will be held at the United Center in Chicago, IL. For more on UFC events on Fox, FX & Fuel TV look to ProFighting-fans.com and DFN Sports.

UFC on Fox 2 Main Event – Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis

Former Michigan State wrestler Rashad Evans (16-1-1) will try and earn a Light Heavyweight Title Bout when he meets former Penn State wrestler Phil Davis (9-0) in the UFC on FOX 2 main event.

Evans, 32, is a New York-born mixed martial artist who now fights out of Florida at Imperial Athletics. The former Spartan made his MMA debut in 2004 and won his first five bouts while fighting for Gladiators Challenge and Dangerzone Promotions. Evans earned a position on The Ultimate Fighter 2 and battled his way through his Heavyweight opponents claiming the title in the Live Finale. Evans won five in a row before fighting Tito Ortiz to a Draw at UFC 73 in July 2007. The hard-hitting Evans followed his DRAW with three straight victories including a UFC 92 Light-Heavyweight Title clinching win over Forrest Griffin. In his first title defense, Machida defeated Evans via TKO at UFC 98. After giving up his title at the May 2009 bout, Evans has responded by winning three in a row including his most recent win at UFC 133 this past August over Tito Ortiz.

Davis, 27, is a Pennsylvania-born mixed martial artist who now fights out of California with Alliance MMA. Davis made his professional MMA debut in 2008 and won his first four before landing in the UFC in February 2010. Davis defeated Brian Stann in his UFC 109 debut and followed with submission victories over Alexander Gustafsson and Tim Boetsch and decision victories over Rodney Wallace and Antonio Rogerio Noguiera. His most recent victory came this past March at UFC Fight Night 24 defeating Noguiera by decision.

PREDICTION – EVANS UNANIMOUS DECISION

The UFC’s first full event on Fox takes place on Saturday, January 28th marking their second appearance on network TV overall after the UFC Heavyweight title fight which took place last November. Our partners at ProFighting-fans.com provide their UFC preview & predictions for the event which will be held at the United Center in Chicago, IL. For more on UFC events on Fox, FX & Fuel TV look to ProFighting-fans.com and DFN Sports.

Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping

After some major card shuffling, perennial contender Chael Sonnen (26-11-1) will face Michael “The Count” Bisping (22-3) in a #1 contender’s bout at UFC on FOX 2. The winner of this co-main event will go on to face Anderson Silva later in the year for a chance at the 185-pound title.

Sonnen, 34, is an Oregon-born mixed martial artist who fights out of Team Quest. The former United States Olympian made his MMA debut in 1997 and fought 17 times in small organizations before landing in the WEC in 2004. One year later Sonnen found himself in a three-fight stint with the UFC. After winning only one of the three UFC bouts, Sonnen was released and bounced around the Bodog Fight organization before returning to the WEC in 2007. Sonnen was beginning to make a name for himself in the WEC winning two of his three bouts before returning once again to the UFC in 2009. This time around Sonnen has seen much better results winning four of his last six inside the octagon. After dominating Champion Anderson Silva but losing via submission at UFC 117, Sonnen rebounded to pull off his own submission victory over Brian Stann at UFC 136 this past October.

Bisping, 32, is a Cyprus-born mixed martial artist who fights out of the Wolfslair MMA Academy now located in California. “The Count” made his professional debut in 2004 and won his first 10 bouts in England before earning a position on The Ultimate Fighter 3 in 2006. Bisping went on to win TUF 3 as a LHW and four of his first five in the UFC as a 205-pounder before deciding to drop down to middleweight. Bisping saw success right away winning three in a row as a 185-pouner. But, after facing top level competition and losing two of his next three against Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva, Bisping had to make changes. Around this time, he moved his Wolfslair MMA Academy team to California and the results have been successful. Bisping has won his last four defeating Dan Miller, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Rivera, and Jason Miller to earn his #1 contender’s bout. “The Count” has also enjoyed successful stints as TUF 9 and TUF 14 coaches.

PREDICTION – SONNEN DECISION

The UFC’s first full event on Fox takes place on Saturday, January 28th marking their second appearance on network TV overall after the UFC Heavyweight title fight which took place last November. Our partners at ProFighting-fans.com provide their UFC predictions for the event which will be held at the United Center in Chicago, IL. For more on UFC events on Fox, FX and Fuel TV look to ProFighting-fans.com and DFN Sports.

Demian Maia vs. Chris Weidman

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist Demian Maia (15-3) will meet undefeated Chris Weidman (7-0) in a middleweight bout that is one of three featured fights on the UFC on FOX 2 main card.

Maia, 34, is a Brazilian-native who fights out of the Wand Fight Team. The submission expert made his professional debut in September 2001 but didn’t fight again for over four years. Overall, Maia won his first six fights while competing in Brazil before advancing into the UFC in 2007. Once his entered the UFC, Maia defeated the first five opponents inside the octagon including Chael Sonnen at UFC 95. Maia won six of his first seven under the UFC banner to earn a title opportunity against Anderson Silva at UFC 112. But, after losing to Silva at UFC 112, he rebounded to win three of his next four and climbing back into the title picture. His most recent fight took place at UFC 136 last October defeating Jorge Santiago by way of decision.

Weidman, 27, is a New York-based mixed martial artist who fights out of Serra-Longo Fight Team. The former NCAA Division I wrestler made his professional debut in February 2009 and won his first four bouts while competing for Ring of Combat. Before beginning his UFC career, Weidman had to give up his Ring of Combat middleweight title. In March 2011 at UFC on VS 3, he defeated Alessio Sakara by unanimous decision in his octagon debut. He followed with submission victories over Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 131 and Tom Lawlor at UFC 139.

PREDICTION – WEIDMAN DECISION

MMA news & fan site ProFighting Fans has expanded their popular MMA rankings section to include rankings for the Bellator Fighting Championships. Bellator, the seeming #2 MMA promotion behind the UFC, has built their name over the past few years with a tournament style format that eliminates much of the matchmaker role. The promotion chooses 8 fighters to battle over a 3 month season schedule with the winners getting a title shot at the existing champion in their respective weight class, something that has gotten Bellator a lot of positive attention. The promotion televises their events on MTV2 with plans to move to SpikeTV in 2013 and will begin their 6th season on Friday, March 2nd, 2012.

A popular search for MMA fans across the globe, ranking MMA fighters is often times subjective, much like ranking college football or college basketball teams. However, with many of the fighters facing off at some point in the past or having fought like opponents, these rankings give fans perspective as to where their favorite fighters fall into the national picture for the specific MMA promotion, in this case Bellator. Fans can find more coverage of Bellator, as well as complete MMA news coverage, online at ProFighting-fans.com.

Bellator’s Season 5 is just a few weeks from being complete with just three more events planned in 2011, and with that the finals of their Welterweight, Middleweight, Bantamweight and Heavyweight Tournaments are all set.

The Welterweights began Season 5 with an impressive week one of the season in early September and the big name in the tournament, former UFC standout Ben Saunders, is right where he expected to be – in the finals. Saunders will face off with Douglas Lima, who scored an impressive win over Chris Lozano in the semifinals, with the Saunders/Lima winner at Bellator 57 facing Ben Askren for the Bellator Welterweight title.

In the Middleweight Tournament much of the talk remains not around submission specialist Vitor Vianna’s KO of Bryan Baker in the semifinals on October 15th, but of the fight between Alexander Shlemenko and Brian “The Predator” Rogers on the same night. After Rogers scored a decisive 1st round his long hair seemed to plague him as Shlemenko took advantage, albeit illegally, grabbing Rogers’ hair to land multiple knee strikes and score a TKO win. The Middleweight Tournament final will pit Shlemenko vs. Vianna against on another at Bellator 58 on November 19th in Hollywood, Florida.

The Bantamweight Tournament featured a night of exciting knockouts at Bellator 51 in Canton, Ohio before two close split decisions in the semifinals at Bellator 55. The finals pit Alexis Vila and Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 59 in Atlantic City as both look to duplicate their opening round KO performances and not their semifinals round split decision wins.

Finally the Bellator Season 5 Heavyweight Tournament has been an adventure and its two surprises against each other in the finals in Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos. Prindle scored a 1st round KO of Ron Sparks at Bellator 56 while Santos scored a 1st round submission of Neil Grove putting Grove at 0-2 in this season’s tournament. Prindle vs. Santos will take place at Bellator 59 along with the Bantamweight tourney final in Atlantic City.

As the unsexy on paper UFC 137 fight card played itself out into an entertaining event last Saturday night, two of the more notable storylines that came out of the event were the announced retirements of both Mirko “Crop Cop” Filipovic and BJ Penn. While time will tell if both stick to their decisions, they certainly made for interesting TV with Joe Rogan.

First came Cro Cop who reportedly told Jacob “Stitch” Duran backstage that his fight with Roy Nelson would indeed be his last as a pro. Following a TKO loss Cro Cop said that he had planned this to be his last fight in his interview with Joe Rogan. More about Crop Cop and his legendary career in MMA can be read at ProFighting-fans.com.

Meanwhile BJ Penn looked solid in round 1 of his main event fight with NIck Diaz, but as the fight wore on Diaz simply out-boxed the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champions. Penn, who seemed to speak based on emotion when he said he was done in speaking wit Joe Rogan in the post fight interview later released a statement on BJPenn.com that he was instead taking some time off to reflect and spend time with his family. BJ Penn’s legacy in the world of MMA as a former UFC champion in two weight classes is hard to argue no matter what he chooses to do next.

So what will the future hold for Cro Cop and Penn? If I had to bet I believe Crop Cop is indeed done while Penn will make a “comeback” in the next year.

UFC 137 is just around the corner set for Saturday night October 29th on a card that has seen a lot of changes at the top. Gone is Georges St-Pierre vs Carlos Condit after St-Pierre was originally scheduled to fight Nick Diaz, as GSP had to pull out of his fight due to a knee injury. Now sitting atop the card is BJ Penn vs Nick Diaz in a welterweight battle with a possible shot on the line. The UFC 137 predictions show the stacked card with two exciting heavyweight battles scheduled for the televised PPV main card and two great Spike TV match-ups including Bart Palaszewski vs Tyson Griffin in a featherweight battle, the featherweight debut for both fighters, and Donald Cerrone vs Denis Siver in a lightweight battle. Meanwhile, the Facebook.com broadcast fights include notables Brandon Vera as well as the return of Chris Camozzi.

While much has been made of the relationship between the UFC and Spike TV, the forgotten name in the MMA world is the Bellator Fighting Championship, widely regarded as the largest MMA promotion in the world not owned by Zuffa. Bellator, a company now using the slogan “where title shots are earned, not given” which is an obvious jab at the UFC, is now broadcasting their preliminary fights online at Spike.com. Of course the UFC has taken their shots at Spike TV, their partners for many years and the company that helped make the owners of the UFC multi-billionaires.

Impressive in this new addition of streaming the preliminary fights for Bellator is not only the growth they show by now having all prelims available for fans online, but also the great quality of the broadcast. See below for the online broadcast.

Bellator’s Season 5 is now underway and with their 9 pm ET broadcast on MTV2 they will begin their Welterweight Tournament, one of four weight classes with a tournament this season with Bellator.

ProFighting-fans.com and DFN Sports have teamed up to provide fans with some of the best Bellator Fighting Championship MMA coverage since the early days of the Bellator promotion. A leading provider of MMA news, Pro Fighting Fans previews Bellator 49 which will take place on Saturday, September 10, 2011 in Atlantic City, NJ and featured four opening round bouts in the Bellator Season 5 Welterweight Tournament.

Chris Lozano vs. Brent Weedman

Season 4 Welterweight Tournament participants Chris Lozano (8-1) and Brent Weedman (18-6-1) will meet at Bellator 49 in Atlantic City, NJ in the quarterfinal round of the season 5 WW Tourney.

Lozano, 28, is an Ohio native and former NCAA division 1 wrestler who fights out of the Strong Style Fight Team. Lozano made his professional debut in the summer of 2009 and went on to win five consecutive, all via TKO/KO, while fighting for NAAFS in his home state. Lozano defeated UFC veteran Yoshiyuki Yoshida at the September 2010 Bellator 31 event in his promotional debut that earned him a chance to fight in last season’s welterweight tournament. The KO expert lost to Lyman Good in the quarterfinals but won back to back bouts for NAAFS to re-establish his position in the Bellator 170-pound division. He will be sponsored by both Intimidation Clothing and DOM Fight Gear, two long time sponsors of Lozano, and he will wear Intimidation’s MMA board shorts in his fight with Weedman.

Weedman is a six-year mixed martial arts veteran who fights out of the Louisville, Kentucky based Team Haycraft. After a 2005 professional debut, Weedman won fourteen of his first twenty bouts while competing throughout the southern United States regional scene. It was time to step up in competition, which he did when signing with Bellator in 2010. Weedman won bouts over Rudy Bears, John Troyer, and Jacob McClintock to earn his way into last season’s Welterweight Tournament. In March of this year, Weedman won a decision over Dan Hornbuckle in the quarterfinals round but lost a Bellator 40 semifinal bout against Jay Hieron this past April to end his immediate title hopes.

Prediction – Lozano TKO

ProFighting-fans.com and DFN Sports have teamed up to provide fans with some of the best Bellator Fighting Championship MMA coverage since the early days of the Bellator promotion. A leading provider of MMA news, Pro Fighting Fans previews Bellator 49 which will take place on Saturday, September 10, 2011 in Atlantic City, NJ and featured four opening round bouts in the Bellator Season 5 Welterweight Tournament.

Luis Santos vs. Dan Hornbuckle

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist Dan Hornbuckle (22-4) will try to capture his first Bellator Welterweight Tournament in his third attempt when he meets longtime mixed martial arts veteran Luis “Sapo” Santos (49-6-1) at Bellator 49 in a 170-pound quarterfinal bout.

Santos is a Brazil native who fights out of his own Sapo Fight Team. “Sapo” began his professional career in 2000 and went on to win his first 18 bouts while competing throughout the regional scene in his homeland. However after losing a June 2005 bout, he went on to win 11 consecutive and continued this trend throughout his career putting together long winning streaks. The well-rounded Santos won his only Bellator bout to date when he took a decision from Nicolae Cury at Bellator 45 this past May. Since his Bellator debut he fought one time in his native Brazil where he battled his opponent to a Draw. He is currently on a nine fight unbeaten streak and will be wearing Intimidation MMA fight shorts in the battle with Hornbuckle.

Hornbuckle, 30, is an Illinois native who fights out of Florida at the American Top Team. Hornbuckle began his professional career in 2006 and won a quick 15 of his first 16 official bouts competing on the mid-major circuit in organizations like Hook n Shoot, Bodog Fight, and HCF. The submission specialist began to gain notoriety in 2008 when he started to compete in Japan for Sengoku where he defeated two of his three opponents including Akihiro Gono and Nick Thompson. He was also a participant in the season 2 Bellator Welterweight Tournament where he made it to the finals but lost a decision against current Champion Ben Askren. Following the loss to Askren, he defeated UFC veteran Brad Blackburn to earn his way into the season 4 170-pound Tournament but lost in the Bellator 35 quarterfinals against Brent Weedman this past March.

Prediction – Hornbuckle TKO