Quick Hits: Arlovski To Make Boxing Debut, Pulver Planning October Return, Fights Booked For Upcoming UFC Events, and More
By: Kris Karkoski | Jul 7, 2008
- Former UFC lightweight champion and current WEC featherweight Jens Pulver, who is coming off of a loss to WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, will likely return to the cage in October, possibly against Alexandre Franca Nogueira.
- The UFC is planning to hold an event in Chicago in October and in Boston in November and will also likely hold an event in Oklahoma City in the next six to eight months.
- Tennessee has passed legislation that will sanction mixed martial arts in the state.
- Filming for The Ultimate Fighter 8 concluded last week and three fighters from the upcoming season have now been confirmed. Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that lightweight Shane Nelson and light heavyweight Vinicius Magalhaes will appear on the upcoming season and Joe Duarte has announced that he will be appearing on the show.
- Welterweight challenger Jon Fitch, who takes on title-holder Georges St. Pierre next month at UFC 87, was recently awarded his jiu-jitsu black belt.
- UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre has been nominated for the 2008 Best Fighter ESPY. To vote for GSP visit espys.tv.
- The UFC has cut light heavyweight PRIDE veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura. Nakamura was 0-2 inside the octagon including his most recent loss to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC 84 in May.
- WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber will likely fight again in September at WEC 36 against Mike Brown.
- Josh Thomson took home $35,000 for his main event unanimous decision victory over Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce 10. Melendez earned $50,000 in the loss and Bobby Southworth received $25,000 for his successful title defense over Anthony Ruiz. Also, all fighters from the event tested clean for performance enhancing drugs and drugs of abuse.
- Edwin Dewees will replace Vernon White against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at Affliction “Banned” on July 19th.
- UFC 89, which is headlined by a clash between rising middleweight contenders Michael Bisping and Chris Leben, will likely be shown on tape delay on Spike TV.
- The Association of Boxing Commissions has passed revised Universal Rules of Mixed Martial Arts at their annual conference in Montreal. Most notably, the revised rules more specifically define illegal strikes to the back of the head and make downward elbows, which were previously banned, legal.
- Anderson Silva wants to fight three more times before the end of the year including his July 19th light heavyweight debut against James Irvin on Spike TV. If Silva emerges victorious (and relatively uninjured) from the main event bout he plans on fighting at UFC 88 on September 6th in Atlanta as well as in November or December. Next up for Silva is 185-pound number-one contender Yushin Okami followed by Patrick Cote.
- Welterweights Ryo Chonan and Roan Carneiro will clash at UFC 88 on September 6th in Atlanta. The fight, which was originally set for UFC 85 in June but postponed due to an injury suffered by Chonan, is a rematch of a February 2005 bout which Chonan won via third-round TKO due to a cut.
- Andrei Arlovski will make his professional boxing debut on September 13th in the opening bout of the Casamayor-Marquez HBO pay-per-view. No opponent has been named for the bout.
- EliteXC has applied for a Nevada promoter’s license to hold events in the state, most likely in Las Vegas. Affliction has not yet filed an application for a Nevada promoter’s license.
- Lightweights Sam Stout and Paul Kelly will square off at UFC 89 on October 18th in Birmingham, England.
- UFC 86 drew an official attendance of 11,172 for an official live gate of $3.2 million.
- Forrest Griffin took home an official purse of $250,000, including a $100,000 win bonus, for his unanimous decision victory over Quinton Jackson in the main event of UFC 86. Jackson received $225,000.
Andrei Arlovski boxing sounds interesting enough for me to want to see. I just hope he fights a legit boxer rather than a bum.
UFC in Chicago, finally!
What weight class would Andrei be in? Heavyweight?
If so wouldn’t mind seeing him go toe to toe with David Haye
andrei could be a really good boxer would love for him to be sucessfull in boxing and mma
yeehhaa
Good to see forest take home a nice payday.
Ill be in Chicago watchin for sure. Hope they bring some good fighters here. Maybe Hughes vs Serra…ill take that one!
Just read Ibarra is filing a complaint. I know why he’s doing it(protecting his fighter,positioning the rematch on the calendar etc)but it damages his stock a little in my opinion. The preferred response might be “Saturday belonged to Forrest. We look forward to having our day sonner rather than later…” Something that doesn’t make you look bad. Counter opinions?
Dietrich,
I think Ibarra’s pride took a hit when he said he would retire if Forrest beat Rampage.
Rydawg,
I think you are right about that. I respect Juanito, he is truly gifted as a trainer and I know this is a big hit and I expect alot of the man outside the cage. I think he should go rent “The Fog of War” . One of Robert Mcnamara’s rules to life was Never say Never.Its amazing how often we speak in absolutes and we are shocked when the result we spoke of doesn’t occur.
juanito ibara looks like an idiot! who files a complaint??! that was a good fight and i don’t care what anyone says, aside from that big knockdown in the first round, forrest controlled pretty much that entire fight. rampage just didn’t do enough.
Dietrich,
Ibarra should’ve known better than to guarantee anything he has only so much control over, don’t get me wrong he’s an outstanding trainer but Rampage didn’t need that added pressure and it looked like it took a toll on him. Hats off to Forrest he followed his gameplan and now he is the champion, it doesn’t seem so controversial to me Rampage didn’t fight with urgency and it doomed him.
rampages trainer should file a complaint, the fact that all three judeges gave forrest the first round was just bull ****, forrest did not win the fight, thats why the ****in crowd was booing when they gave him the mic, cuz they know he didnt win
Hey jordan down This is a web site that kids could look at and i would just appreciate the curse words to stop please please and thank you if u do!
Personally to me, Rampage won the fight. Im a big Forrest fan but Saturday was bittersweet, I dont want him to have the belt if he didnt truly earn it. I had the bout even at 47-47. That would mean Rampage would retain. Regardless they need to have a rematch ASAP. I gave Rampage round 1. The fight was even then Jackson dropped him. I don’t see in any way how Forrest won the 1st round. Round 2 I gave to Forrest 10-8. He controlled the entire round. I think Rampage recovered in 3 and 4 and won them both 10-9. Then I gave Forrest #5 10-9. Regardless I think the judges pulled another Bisping-Hammill and gave this fight to the wrong guy.
I thought Rampage won too. Forrest connected on very little strikes. His leg kicks were excellent…but Rampage was connecting great with his punches. How did any judge give the first round to Forrest?
when you’re fighting AS a champion, then you have to fight LIKE a champion. rampage tried to pull a tim sylvia and kind of hang back and pick his power punches. he didn’t push the pace like he normally does by throwing big bombs. don’t get me wrong, he did throw a couple of big shots EVERY NOW AND THEN, but he just didn’t fight up to par. i recorded it and watched it couple of times, trust me, FORREST WON THE FIGHT.
i recorded it too and rampage landed more so wat if he wasnt the agressor who landed more rampage u gotta land shots to win a fight i agree it was 47-47 shouldve gone to a sixth sudden victory round
JMP
david haye is the man ide love to see him fight mma he would probley kill somebody with that right hand of his only bisping could take him ;}
Kelvin,
I could’nt agree w/ you more bro, I watched it a second time and thought it was all tied up going into the 5th and Forrest was attacking Rampage pretty much the whole round and that was the difference….I got the feeling Rampage was fighting as though there was no way that the judges would give a decision to Forrest and it f’d him.
It would be kind of funny if out of instinct he kicked some guy in the head durring a boxing match.
man he is making some serious money that is forsure. arloski a pro boxer lol. elite xc is trying????
Rydawg is right. Juanito needs to handle this behind close doors.
Any news on WEC 36?
rampage won a split in my view but if dana doesnt give rampage another shot it better be machida then…..but knowing dana he will probably give te next shot to liddell if he wins and even if he does beat rashad two wins in a row do not validate a title shot and it should be liddell vs silva 2
How many of you watched the Forrest vs Rampage fight more than once? I don’t give a **** what excuse the crowd has for booing! It is disrespectful to the fighters who train hard and risk their lives for our entertainment. I’ve watched the fight again and again and again……I feel the same way I did after watching it live. Rampage did not sucessfully defend his title. It was a terrible, horrific, ugly, lacked champion desire…..it’s the epidamy of all title defenses. That is why Rampage is no longer champion. I feel people are stuck on this, “you have to beat the champ” UNofficial rule. Well, watch again, Forrest beat him. Those of you giving Rampage the first round are giving him the round for ONE punch that knocked Forrest down. Other than that, what did Rampage do to solidify the round? He didn’t even attempt to G&P aside from one very inaccurate haymaker. Then Forrest managed to stand up from his back with Rampage clinching and pushing against him. Forrest threw and connected more kicks than Rampage did all his strikes put together….therefore Rampage cannot take the round based on striking. Forrest pushed the pace, attacked more, made several submission attempts and caused damage with his kicks. Forrest did more work and it paid off. Forrest WON! YEAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
Johnboy
Ha Ha, for sure mate, even David Haye couldn’t handle Bisping. I’m glad you mentioned that buddy, as its been at least 1 day since anyone posted anything about Mr UFC, I was beginning to worry that he had retired.
Forrest won. 2 of the judges had it right at 48-46.
Jens Pulver versus Alexandre Franca Nogueira should be a pretty good match up. Nogueira looked like a world beater prior to his arrival to the WEC. He got upset in his WEC debute unfortunately. Both he and Jens are coming off losses and both are decent size names in the game and should make for a good match.
It will be interesting to see Arlovski in a boxing match. He has good hands, hand speed and power. Besides, the HW Boxing division needs some fresh new faces and some new exciting fighters and I think Arlovski could be just that. Plus, he brings a fairly decent following from MMA along with him to boxing which is good!
Now that Tennessee is on board with MMA, it would be cool if the UFC set up a card in Memphis so that Rampage can fight in front of his home town. Either one of the following matches would easily sell out in Memphis: Rampage-vs-Vanderlei 3 or Rampage-vs-Shogun 2
Wattup I would like to retract my earlier entry. I said that I saw the fight 47-47. But yesterday after the Warped Tour on Sunday I got to watch the fight again. I give the fight to Forrest 48-46. Rampage still won round one 10-9, theres no changing that and I dont see any reasoning otherwise, Forrest got round 2 10-8 total domination, Round 3 is the round Im changing, I give it to Forrest 10-9, but that round was the closest in my opinion, Rampage gets #4 10-9, and Forrest #5 10-9. I think Nelson Hamilton, scored it this way. His was the only sensible judging. But regardless since the fight was a very close fight I and I think many of us would Love to see a rematch to settle the score.
KOuch,
I watched the fight 3 times already and still have the same outcome as the first time I watched it Forrest 3 rounds to Rampage’s 2, the judges got it right. This doesn’t even compare to the judging blunder from Hamill vs Bisping, Hamill owned him!