Quick Hits: Horodecki Likely to Sign With WEC, Curran’s Strikeforce Debut Set for Nov. 7, Lawler Expects December Fight, and More
Posted by Justin H on Oct 20, 2009 at 5:23 pm ET19 Comments
Lightweight Chris Horodecki is expected to sign with the WEC very soon, according to his trainer Shawn Thompkins. If the deal goes through, the 22-year-old Canadian would enter the organization with a 13-1 record, having suffered his only loss to Ryan Schutlz in the IFL.- Jeff Curran’s next fight will not come under the WEC banner after four consecutive losses in the organization, but will instead be on the undercard of the November 7 “Fedor vs. Rogers” event after “The Big Frog” recently signed a two-fight non-exclusive deal with the promotion. Curran is also expected to compete in his own XFO promotion on December 5th against Tomohiko Hori.
- Robbie Lawler is expected to return to action in December, though no opponent has been finalized. MMA Fanhouse reports that Lawler has been offered both Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Nick Diaz as possible opponents for the Strikeforce event, but that Lawler’s manager, Monte Cox, is opposed to the idea of Lawler fighting Souza.
- Sean Salmon has been issued a one-year administrative suspension, and fined $2,500 by the Ohio Athletic Commission due to comments in a September column for MMAJunkie.com in which he hinted that he may have intentionally given up a submission in a June fight against Allan Weickert, which took place in Ohio.
- Middleweight combatant Xavier Foupa-Pokam is will headline the next edition of Tachi Palace Fights on December 3rd against California based fighter Mike Moreno. He is also scheduled to compete this coming Saturday in Edmonton, Alberta-based Aggression MMA’s inaugural event, where he will look to rebound from his 0-2 stint in the UFC against Chester Post, a fighter with a record of 6-17-1. Other bouts on the Aggression MMA fight card include Jason Lambert vs. Matt Horwich, Travis Fulton vs. Jason Fairn, and Cyrille Diabate vs. Marcus Hicks among others.
- Australian MMA Verteran James Te Huna is expected to make his UFC debut at UFC 110 in Australia after recently signing with the promotion.
- Dutch heavyweight Gilbert Yvel, under scrutiny due to his past unsportsmanlike actions, was recently granted a one-fight license by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, potentially opening the door for Yvel to fight in the UFC, though there have been no reports that he’s in talks with the organization.
- Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem’s manager, Bas Boon, recently stated that Overeem is looking to defend that title in late February or early March, matching the time line for his return that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker recently laid out for his return.
- Former UFC fighters Josh Burkman and Brandon Melendez will meet in the main event of “Throwdown Showdown” on November 20 in Orem, Utah.
- WEC featherweight Cole Province on Friday was issued a nine-month suspension and $4,000 fine by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive for anabolic steroids following his August unanimous decision win over Fredson Paixao at WEC 42, which has since been changed to a no contest.
- UFC welterweight Frank Trigg recently underwent successful knee surgery, but his plans to return in early-2010 remain unaffected with Matt Serra considered a potential opponent.
- Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira (18-6) is reportedly close to signing with the UFC after submitting Walter Mazurkievicz over the weekend at Jungle Fight 15.
Tags: Alistair Overeem, Chris Horodecki, Gilbert Yvel, James Te Huna, Jeff Curran, Mike Moreno, Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, Ryan Shultz, Tomohiko Hori, Xavier Foupa-Pokam
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-Horodecki is a super talented dude with loads of potential, i think it’s a great move for him to go to the WEC. He’s young and already has a load of experience and he has improved a lot since his days in the IFL. He’s only going to get better IMO.
-Jeff Curran, well the bes of luck to the dude, man 4 straight losses! I hope he does well in Strikeforce, i think he’s a good fighter but might need to tighten up some wholes but i hope the best for the dude.
-Robbie Lawlor vs. Diaz 2 would be awesome! I have been waiting for that rematch ever since the first fight. I think that Diaz would beat him a gain because Diaz is a more wll rounded fighter and Robbie Laowlor is pretty much hit or miss. I’ve always been a Lawlor fan win or lose and hope to see him fight soon.
-”Dutch heavyweight fighter Gilber Yvel, who is notorious for unsportsmanlike conduct” granted a one fight liscence????
-I hope that Proffesor X comes back to the UFC one day, i don’t think he’s all that bad and he’s still young so there’s room for improvement.
-Overeem needs to come to the UFC and show what he’s got IMO, the only legit fight i see him getting outside the UFC is Fedor period.
-Sean Salmon…WTF???? Still only and forever going to be known as Rashad Evans’ right kick ko victim.
Do you really think that Dana White would tolerate Alistair Overeem’s way-too-casual attitude towards fighting?
LOL. Way to casual attitude towards fighting?
The guy’s fighting like 6 times in a 11 or 12 week period. I’d say he fairly serious about fighting.
He just isn’t serious about fighting in the US, in the org he holds a title, to defend his title. Dana won’t go there. I figured you would be able to make that connection.
Yeah I know what he meant my friend, but my point is Overeem would never be able to be competing for a K-1 GP title if he were locked down by the UFC. Or fight in Japan on NYE.
Answer this question now when did you become so concerned with Alistair not defending his title? Was it about 6 months ago when he dropped out of his fight with Rogers/
Because he was healthy and ready to fight all of last year but had no fight scheduled in Strikeforce. Now he’s tied down in Japan and when his obligations there are done he’ll be back in Strikeforce.
Seems like people posting on blogs and forums are more concerned about it than Scott Coker.
Of course these people who’re so concerned with it also probably didn’t even know Alistair was the Strikeforce champ or that he hadn’t fought in Strikeforce since 2007 until Coker’s company bought out Elite and then emerged as the UFC’s number 1 target.
Now all of a sudden they’re bothered. Stop it.
If you want to see him fight in Strikeforce so bad Thursday night on one of the Showtime channels they’re replaying the event when he kneed Buentello’s guts in and won the title.
Watch and enjoy.
Is Gilbert Yvel really dutch?
Sure is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Yvel
Thanks he just doesnt look very dutch with all those tattoos
^lmao! r u sure its the tats?
Lawler vs. Diaz II would be sick and I hope to hell he lays off the weed long enough to make this fight happen.
They’re first fight was awesome and both guys are better now than they were then.
Add Radach/Smith II and Mo Lawal’s first fight for them and the Strikeforce card in December is going to be great.
I hope Horodecki makes it to the WEC afterall. Some good fights for him there. Kid was ridin a high note with the IFL and then it seems like he kind of fell off the map. Hope he is able to make waves in the WEC.
any idea wat weight horodecki will fight at?
Since he’s always fought at lightweight (to my knowledge) I assume that’s where he will stay.
- Horodecki + WEC = good fit, especially if he could make the cut to 145, where he could be a terror.
- Jeff Curran is a solid fighter, and I hope he can get this thing turned around in Strikeforce. Plus being on the undercard of the Strikeforce-CBS thing doesn’t suck even a little bit.
- Both Diaz brothers sort of give me p!ss chills, and I wish they’d find some other sport in which to earn their weed money and pay for those speech lessons that have to date failed miserably, but a Lawler-Jacare fight would make some of that money I send to the cable company for Showtime each month more worthwhile.
And oh yeah, Monte Cox needs to STFU and let this fight drop.
- Apparently Rashad Evans knocked Sean Salmon stupider than we thought if he’s admitted to a worked fight. For $2500 he got off cheap if he’s di<king around with our sport's integrity.
- Aussie fighters, Dutch fighters, Japanese fighters, Brazilian fighters, Canadian fighters…everyone getting a fair shake in the UFC except for former US Olympian Dan Henderson.
Seriously Dana, WTF?
- Nice that Alistair Overeem might find time in 5 months or so down the road to defend a title he won back in November of 2007.
- And suddenly Fredson Paixao's loss makes some sense.
- Lets hope that Trigg makes a swift recovery so that he's 100% for his "winner gets to keep his job" fight with Matt Serra…
Monte Cox just watched his fighter get subbed like a noob by Jake Shields, he’s probably trying to keep that from happening again against Jacare.
The Salmon fight wasn’t “worked” per se, he didn’t want to get hurt, and found himself caught in a sub, but rather than escape, which he says he could do, he allowed himself to be submitted.
Overeem defending the title in 5 months is what Coker said he wants, too. Again, not all Overeem’s fault.
Good point, Justin H.
I’ve been laying into Overeem for not defending his Strikeforce title, but the damned promoter should also take his share of the blame in this sad situation.
There is no sense in even HAVING a championship, regardless of weightclass, if it isn’t going to be defending with some regularity, otherwise, it’s just an annual tournament-type thing, wherein Overeem [or Cung Le] won the “2007 Strikeforce tournament” for that specific weightclass, and he’ll [Overeem] compete in the next one in 2010, if and when Coker gets his sh!t together…
Horodecki would do well there. I would be interested to see how he handles being in a cage as oppossed to fighting in a ring, wich he has done his whole career. It didn’t work out too well for Crocop.
A good rule of thumb for the whole “ring/cage” deal is that the stronger a wrestler a fighter is, the better he does in a cage. The stronger stand-up fighter does better in a pro wrestling ring, but of course there are always exceptions to ever rule…
Speaking of Horodecki, the WEC announced on Twitter that he is official.