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HDNet Fights has announced it’s intent to cancel it’s upcoming event scheduled for February 15th at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas according to a report from Loretta Hunt of The Fight Network.

HDNet Fights president Guy Mezger stated that the promotion plans to do some in-house work instead:

"We're taking the time to build a little more infrastructure that's all our own," said Mezger. "Right now, we share a lot of it with HDNet and the [Dallas] Mavericks."

So when will the next event take place? According to Mezger, it may be a little difficult to re-schedule for a couple of months based on the list of events going on at the arena:

"The availability of our venue is tough in March and April," says Mezger.

Mezger isn’t kidding. The arena’s official events calendar shows that the months are chock full with events already scheduled to take place. 

Beginning tonight and continuing into next week, we are going to experience something for the first time in history. It’s not really a big deal to anyone else, but it’s pretty big to those who follow mixed martial arts on a regular basis. The sport of MMA will be represented on mainstream reality television.

Photo courtesy of NBC.

Ortiz will be trying his hand on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC while Rodriguez will be checking into “Celebrity Rehab” on VH1. The connection between the two is quite obvious. They are best friends and former training partners under the Team Punishment banner.

Now the million dollar question - Will the sport of MMA be affected in a positive or negative way because of all this?

Continue reading "Tito and Ricco on TV: Good or Bad for MMA?"

Interested in owning a UFC championship belt like the one above? How about the exact one above? Got $30,000 to spare? Well former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez is selling the title he won from Randy Couture at UFC 39 on eBay in hopes of raising money for a school Rodriguez will be opening down south.

Tim Sylvia calls Fedor a bad word

Former UFC heavyweight champion had some choice words for Fedor Emelianenko during a post-UFC 79 interview with Gary Herman of CBS Sports. When asked about Emelianenko, Sylvia stated that he feels the former PRIDE champ is ducking top competition:

“I think he’s being a (expletive),” said Sylvia. “I think Fedor is very good, but you have to fight the top level competitors all the time to keep that status, and he is just not doing that.”

According to Five Ounces of Pain, the bad word had something to do with a pussy, whatever that is…

WCO Releases Complete Card for “The Return”

The World Cagefighting Organization has released the complete card for WCO: The Return, which is set to take place January 12th at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The event is headlined by a main event between former UFC light heavyweights Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Vernon White and includes many other notable fighters competing as well. The full card is below:

Renato Sobral vs. Vernon White
Ricco Rodriguez vs. Mike Kyle
Mark Kerr vs. Rick Roufus
Jimmy Ambriz vs. Wesley Correira
Joe Riggs vs. Gustavo Machado
Virgil Zwicker vs. David Mejia
Davis Loiseau vs. Leopoldo Serao
Tiki Ghosn vs. J.J. Ambrose
Fabio Costa vs. Carlos Fuentes
Georgi Karakahyan vs. Armando Sanchez
Tony Sylvestor vs. Cain Velasquez

Touch of gloves to MMA Junkie for that find.

Sakara Joins American Top Team

Alessio Sakara has joined the ranks of ATT according to a statement made on the team’s official website:

To start off the new year, American Top Team is pleased to announce UFC fighter Alessio “Legionarius” Sakara has joined our team!

We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Alessio, who is known for his explosive stand up style of fighting. We look forward to working with Alessio and help him improve his overall mma game and take him to the top!

Sakara returns at UFC 80: Rapid Fire later this month when he takes on newcomer James Lee. The fight is expected to be Sakara’s last at 205 lbs as he has expressed plans to move down to the middleweight division following the fight.

Miscellaneous Notes

We will have a brand new MMA on Tap Top 10 posted later today. Our rumors page has been updated. Randy Couture will be hosting a charity poker tournament at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on January 12th. Couture, Jamie Gold, and Dean Cain are all expected to participate. Leland Rolling takes a look at what’s next for Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva. A matchup between Jake Bostwick and John Phillips has been added to Cage Rage 25 according to The Fight Network.

Radio Schedule

12-1 PM EST - TAGG Radio
3-5 PM EST - The Jordan Breen Show”
3-4 PM EST - The Fight Network Radio
9-10 PM EST - MMAWeekly’s Sound Off
11 PM EST - Knockout Radio

Fightlinker was on BetUS’s radio show yesterday. Also be sure to check out the latest from Jarry Park - He's Just J-Lau From The Block

Georges St Pierre and Matt Hughes speak about their bout at the post-fight press conference.  Chuck Lidell after the jump.

Continue reading "St. Pierre, Hughes, Liddell Post-Fight Quotes"