Zimooya

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

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida stopped Rashad Evans at 3:57 of the second round to win the light heavyweight title at UFC 98 on Saturday night.

Machida landed a barrage of punches that sent Evans reeling up against the cage and finished him off with a left hand that folded Evans backwards onto the canvas.

“I’ve tried all my life to become a champion and I am very, very happy,” a jubilant Machida said. “Now I’m going to keep this belt for a long time.”

The light heavyweight title has now changed hands four times in the last five title bouts.

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Source: http://mmajunkie.com/

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will scrap a UFC 101 bout between former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin (16-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) and top contender Thiago Silva (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) in favor of a Griffin vs. Anderson Silva (24-4 MMA, 9-0 UFC) match-up.

Sources close to the organization today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) a meeting was held last week to discuss the Anderson Silva vs. Griffin bout.

UFC President Dana White has since confirmed with Yahoo! Sports that the fight has been signed.

Anderson Silva, fresh off a heavily criticized title defense over Thales Leites at UFC 97, will now move up a weight class for the non-title fight with Griffin.

Although not officially announced by the organization, UFC 101 takes place Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. The event also features a UFC lightweight title fight between title-holder B.J. Penn and top contender Kenny Florian.

Rumors of the potential Anderson Silva vs. Griffin bout began showing up last week after some cryptic emails were sent to a variety of MMA news outlets. The flames were fanned when seemingly unsubstantiated reports of the rumored fight were posted on a few MMA message boards over the weekend.

Although the fight is now signed, a source close to Thiago Silva told MMAjunkie.com the fighter was unaware his fight with Griffin had been scratched. Even as of this morning, the fighter was apparently under the impression he was still scheduled to fight Griffin at UFC 101.

MMAjunkie.com first reported in March that the UFC had lined up the Thiago Silva vs. Griffin fight, which many considered a bout that would determined the light heavyweight division’s No. 1 contender after Quinton Jackson. Jackson is scheduled to fight the winner of a UFC 98 bout between current champ Evans and Lyoto Machida later this summer.

The source isn’t sure if Thiago Silva will remain on the UFC 101 card with a new opponent or if he’ll be shifted to another event.

As for Anderson Silva, UFC officials wasted no time scheduling him for his next fight. He most recently fought on April 18 as a headliner for UFC 97. He entered the fight as a significant favorite, and though he won a lopsided unanimous-decision victory, Anderson Silva was criticized for what seemed a conservative game plan in which he opted not to follow Leites, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, to the ground.

UFC President Dana White called the fight “embarrassing” and “disappointing,” and he openly questioned if Anderson Silva needed another challenge at 205 pounds. The fighter, who picked up a UFC record ninth straight victory with the Leites win, moved up to 205 pounds in July 2008 for a non-title fight with James Irvin, and the Brazilian striker has made no secret of his intentions to move up a weight class again in the future.

The UFC has obliged.