Zimooya

Source: http://mmawaves.com/

Former World Wrestling Entertainment pro wrestler Victoria, whose real name is Lisa Marie Varon, will be competing in mixed martial arts
in the next year, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Varon, who is 38 years-old, is also a former bodybuilding and fitness competitor, earning her IFBB pro fitness card in 1999.

She left the WWE earlier this year and joined its main competitor Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She currently wrestles under the ring name Tara.

TNA’s non-restrictive contract will permit her to both wrestle and compete in MMA at the same time.

Varon is one of several pro wrestlers to make the transition to MMA, including Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley.

“Obviously, with the exposure from the WWE, she already had the marquee value,” said her manager J.T. Stewart. “She has the name. Women’s MMA is just starting to peak, and with her built-in fan base, she’ll have lot of opportunities with endorsements, sponsorships, autograph signings and card shows. Plus, she’s also just very athletic. We’ve seen Lashley and Lesnar cross over and do very well in MMA. I’d expect no less from her.”

Stewart and Varon are looking at Strikeforce fighter Kim Couture as a possible opponent for Varon’s debut fight.

“That’s definitely a fight we’re interested in,” said Stewart.

Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/

THE CAST for season ten of The Ultimate Fighter has leaked – and SunSport can reveal who will pit their wits against Kimbo Slice.

With the ninth instalment of the show ending on Saturday at the TUF 9 Finale, mixed martial arts fans are already eager to find out which men will make up the roster for the next series.

We understand that the full list of the 16 heavyweights who will compete for a six-figure contract with the UFC will be:

KIMBO SLICE: The YouTube phenomenon and former Elite XC headliner will be the main attraction in the new season. UFC president Dana White has continually derided the 35-year-old, claiming “he would get killed in the UFC”. It will be interesting to see if he is proved right.

ROY NELSON: Boasting a 13-4 MMA record, the 32-year-old is a former Elite XC fighter who is perhaps best known for being knocked out by Andrei Arlovski last October.

WES SIMS: Formerly on the UFC roster, the 29-year-old was cut after just one year in the promotion in 2004 after losing three successive fights to Frank Mir (twice) and Mike Kyle.

MARCUS JONES: Former NFL defensive end for Tampa Bay Buccaneers between 1996 and 2002. Occasional guest on the popular American radio show Bubba the Love Sponge. Trained in MMA for just over two years.

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Source: http://weblogs.newsday.com/

Moments after eye-poking his way to victory over Mostapha Al-Turk at UFC 99 in Germany, Mirko Cro Cop bolted from the UFC to the Japan-based Dream, according to Yahoo! Sports.

“He didn’t keep his word,” UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! MMA writer Kevin Iole.

White said he’d had a two-hour talk with Filipovic on the day Filipovic texted and asked to be able to return. “He talked about honor and all this other [expletive] and he [expletived] me.

Pretty chump move to call White and beg for a one-fight deal — but only against a tomato can — then turn around and leave for another MMA organization. Should this be true, it looks like Cro Cop learned a lot from his time in Croatia’s parliament.

If it’s just a money move, I can’t blame Cro Cop since I’m fairly certain everyone of us would leave our current job if an offer to do the same thing for more money came along. Still, it comes off as sketchy, at best. It’s a WWE good guy turns bad guy move. Remember when The Rock joined the Corporation?

We’re predicting that Cro Cop winds up on the same side of Dana White’s brain as Tito Ortiz.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/

Mirko Filipovic joined the UFC two years ago amid more hype and expectation than perhaps any fighter in mixed martial arts history — and Cro Cop flopped.

After three desultory fights forced Filipovic into a yearlong retreat for mental adjustments and knee surgery, he returns to the octagon at UFC 99 on Saturday night in Cologne, Germany, against Mostapha Al Turk. The former anti-terrorist policeman in his native Croatia should have plenty of countrymen cheering the start of his second run toward the UFC heavyweight title.

And the 34-year-old Cro Cop insists he’s better prepared to put on the show many expected when he first joined the UFC. After tinkering with his training and clearing his mind, he’s ready to show off a new approach still built on the superb kickboxing and standup fighting that made him a star in Japan and an international attention-grabber.

“I’ve spent much time thinking about it,” Filipovic said. “Maybe I was empty after (Japan). Maybe I wasn’t adapted for the cage. Maybe I wasn’t hungry enough, I don’t know. I don’t mean blood for real, but I just couldn’t smell the blood as I could in my previous fights. I just wasn’t the old one.”

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