MMA News 6-30-08 (Bigfoot Silva, Franklin, Jesse Taylor...)

TFK · Jun 30, 2008

http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2008/06...ight-expected-to-be-finalized-this-afternoon/

Antonio Silva vs. Justin Eilers fight expected to be finalized this afternoon

June 30, 2008 By: Sam Caplan Category: Justin Eilers, Antonio Silva, EliteXC
(Pictured: Justin Eilers)

A verbal agreement for Antonio Silva to fight former UFC heavyweight title challenger Justin Eilers during EliteXCâ€™s second-ever CBS telecast on July 26 has been secured.

EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw revealed the news when contacted by FiveOuncesOfPain.com earlier this afternoon.

Five Ounces of Pain later contacted Eilersâ€™ manager, Monte Cox, who indicated that it is their intention to FAX a signed contract to EliteXC officials later today.

It is still uncertain whether the Silva vs. Eilers fight will be for the vacant EliteXC heavyweight title, but Shaw indicated a belt will more than likely be at stake when the two square off.

Other fighters such as IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson and Sergei Kharitonov had been rumored as potential challengers for a possible title fight vs. Silva. When asked about specific names, Shaw declined to answer, but he did state that EliteXC officials had contacted several other fighters in addition to Eilers in regards to fighting Silva. According to Shaw, the other fighters had either outright declined the fight or priced themselves out of the picture.

Eilers is perhaps best known to casual fight fans for his first round TKO loss against then-UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski in the main event of UFC 53 in 2005. He then returned to the UFC at UFC 57, where he was knocked out at 1:25 of round 1 against Brandon Vera. The loss to Vera dropped Eilersâ€™ UFC record to 1-3 and he was not brought back to the promotion. However, since leaving the UFC, he has won 10 of his last 11 fights and is on a current three fight win streak.

Eilers last competed at IFCâ€™s Cage Combat card on April 26, where recorded a TKO over heavyweight veteran Wade Shipp at 3:50 of round 4. Some of his more notable wins in his last eleven fights include victories over Matt Thompson, Sherman Pendergarst, Jimmy Ambriz, along with a previous win over Shipp.

Silva is 3-0 lifetime in EliteXC and holds a 10-1 overall lifetime record in MMA. A product of American Top Team in Florida, Silvaâ€™s most notable wins have been recorded against Tengis Tedoradze, Ruben â€œWarpathâ€ Villareal, Tom Erikson, Wesley â€œCabbageâ€ Correia, and former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez.

EliteXCâ€™s â€œUnfinished Businessâ€ on July 26 will emanate from the Stockton Arena in Stockton, Calif. and will be headlined by a rematch for the EliteXC middleweight title between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith. In a co-featured bout, Jake Shields is also scheduled to fight for the vacant EliteXC welterweight title vs. Nick Thompson.
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Jesse Taylor â€œvery likelyâ€ to be fighting for the UFC on July 19

June 30, 2008 By: Sam Caplan Category: Jesse Taylor
Several reports on the Internet have indicated that middleweight Jesse Taylor could make his UFC debut during UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source connected with the show would not confirm that Taylorâ€™s involvement was official, but stated to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that his involvement was considered â€œvery likely.â€

When contacted by Five Ounces of Pain for a comment as to whether there were any validity to the rumor, an official with Team Quest in Temecula, where Taylor trains, would only state that â€œnothing is finalized for him.â€ It should be noted that the source did not indicate whether Taylor was being considered or not.

Taylor was a member of the cast for the seventh season of â€œThe Ultimate Fighterâ€ and had qualified for the finals of the show against Amir Sadollah. However, he was removed from the finale after an incident was depicted on the show of an allegedly intoxicated Taylor kicking out the window of a limousine on Station Casinos property.
Station Casinos is owned by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who collectively own 90% of the UFC.

In addition to breaking the window, UFC President Dana White said on the show that a drunken Taylor verbally accosted several female patrons of the hotel and that when confronted by security, he remarked, â€œDo you know who I am? Iâ€™m a UFC fighter.â€
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TFK

TFK · Jun 30, 2008

Report: â€œBabalu,â€ Misaki to appear on next Strikeforce at the Playboy mansion card; event could air live on NBC

June 27, 2008 By: Adam Morgan Category: NBC, kazuo misaki, Renato Sobral, Strikeforce

MMA Rated recently conducted an interview with Scott Coker, the CEO of Strikeforce, regarding whatâ€™s ahead for the promotion. Coker had some very interesting things to say in the interview. Here are some highlights:

* There have been preliminary talks between Strikeforce and NBC to air a live event sometime in the future
* The next Strikeforce at the Playboy mansion show will take place the weekend of September 19th.
* Kazuo Misaki will be making his Strikeforce debut on the Playboy card. Also scheduled to fight at the mansion is Renato â€œBabaluâ€ Sobral, the winner of Thomson/Melendez and, assuming his visa issues are straightened, Evangelista â€œCyborgâ€ Santos.
* No word on which network will air the Playboy show but Coker did not rule out the possibility of it airing on the station that boasts a peacock as its logo.

Considering the relative success of Strikeforceâ€™s Saturday night show given the time slot, itâ€™s not hard to imagine them being on national television sooner than later. Coker knows what heâ€™s doing. Heâ€™s running the only promotion outside of the UFC right now thatâ€™s in the black.

Everyone else is bleeding money. He knows a good thing when he sees it and he has solid matchmaking to boot. Another promotion getting onto national television, especially one with Coker at the helm, can only put more pressure on the UFC to get a television deal done.
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Rich Franklin likely to return at UFC 88

by Dann Stupp on Jun 30, 2008 at 3:16 pm ET
Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will restart his quest for another title shot this fall -- most likely at a UFC 88 event in Atlanta -- though it won't necessarily come at 185 pounds.

A source closed to the Sept. 6 event tells MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Franklin has been targeted for the event, and the search for an opponent "is in full swing."

However, when contacted for comment, J.T. Stewart, Franklin's business manager, said nothing definitive has been decided and that he had no other comment.

UFC 88 currently features a main event between Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans, and the winner could be in line for a title shot with either current light heavyweight champ Quinton Jackson or Forrest Griffin, who headline this weekend's UFC 86 event in Las Vegas.

Franklin will likely be slotted for UFC 88's co-main event.

Franklin, who lost his title and a subsequent rematch to current middleweight champ Anderson Silva, most recently scored a second-round TKO of Travis Lutter at UFC 83. After the victory, Franklin told MMAjunkie.com that a third fight with Silva probably wouldn't be marketable. Many have suggested that a move to the light-heavyweight class could open some new possibilities, though Franklin has been quick to dismiss the suggestion.

However, according to our source, he and the organization are now considering a move to 205 pounds, though it wouldn't necessarily be a permanent move and could simply depend on whether or not he thinks the match-up makes sense.

Although he's one of the sport's bigger middleweights and sheds considerable weight to make the 185-pound limit, Franklin recently told MMAjunkie.com that his body is better suited for the middleweight division.

"I've been at 185 (pounds) for several years," Franklin said in April. "I think that over the past couple years, I've really changed my body composition. It used to kill me to make weight, but now it's much easier than it was three years ago, and I think it's because my body's changed a lot. I just don't think I'm big enough to compete effectively as a light heavyweight anymore."

Franklin last competed at 205 pounds at The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale in April 2005. He called it a "special case" since the first-ever Spike TV broadcast would reach millions of viewers and could catapult his popularity. After defeating Shamrock, the victory did just that.

Franklin said if a similar opportunity presented itself, he may be inclined to take it.
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Pulver aims for October return, fight with Nogueira

by Steve Sievert on Jun 30, 2008 at 6:05 pm ET
Jens Pulver can sum up his performance against Urijah Faber last month in a single word â€“ slow.

The former UFC lightweight champion was beaten for the first time at 145 pounds., when Faber scored a unanimous decision in Sacramento June 1 in World Extreme Cagefighting's biggest event to date.

"I spent so much time working on getting well-rounded, I never sharpened anything," said Pulver (22-9-1). "It's still a work in progress for me. He's fast, and he's a great champion and a great fighter. People got on me because it seemed like I never tried to hurt him. I thought I hurt him, but then he'd come back firing, so I didn't know if I had him hurt. After the second round, I was a little loopy."

Faber had Pulver in some trouble in that second round, connecting first with a short left to the head and following up with a barrage of shots to the back of the neck, but Pulver's trademark toughness pulled him through the onslaught. Pulver come out of the fight with some damage to his right eye, but an elbow injury proved to be more severe.

"The eye was big, but I went to the hospital that night to get the 180-day (medical suspension) lifted and had an MRI that showed nothing was broken; it was just a lot of swelling," Pulver said. "But, I cracked my elbow in the second round."

Pulver had surgery two weeks ago to repair the elbow, which will relegate his training primarily to cardio until mid-July. Despite the setback of both the loss and injury, Pulver refuses to dwell on what might have been.

"I can't be discouraged," he said. "The truth is I gave it 110 percent. I got beat. He was bigger, he was faster, but I think I showed a lot of people a lot of things in the aspect of my heart and my desire to keep fighting. I wasn't owned in any kind of submission. I wasn't wrecked in takedowns. I was stopping takedowns. I showed a lot of people that I can compete against the best guys out there. I know there are little things I need to work on, but I left everything out there."

Pulver says he will be ready to fight again in October, and while he's quick with the obligatory "I'll fight anybody they put in front of me," he has an opponent in mind. He believes a match-up against Alexandre Franca Nogueira makes sense for both fighters.

"He's been in a lot of wars and has been around for a long time," Pulver said. "He's still a top fighter, and with both of us coming off losses, it's a perfect fight for one of us to get right back up there in the division and one of us becomes a journeyman."

Nogueira (13-5-2), a Shooto veteran, made his WEC debut on the June 1 card. Brazil's Jose Aldo stopped him by TKO in the second round.
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MMA News 6-30-08 (Bigfoot Silva, Franklin, Jesse Taylor...)

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