Quick Hits: Dan Hardy, Rory Markham, Danillo Villefort, Jeremy Horn, Rousimar Palhares, Jorge Gurgel
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Nov 27, 2008 at 10:58 am ET29 Comments
Recently on MMAFrenzy.com:
- Affliction will likely book heavyweight prospect Brett Rogers (8-0) to face Josh Barnett (25-5) at Affliction: Day of Reckoning on January 24th in Anaheim, California.
- Lightweights Joe Lauzon and Hermes Franca are likely to meet at UFC Fight Night 17 on February 7th in Las Vegas.
News and Notes
- A former sparring partner and kickboxing protege of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Mirko Borkovic, was arrested yesterday in Croatia on 25 counts of armed robbery.
- Dan Hardy will reportedly face Rory Markham at UFC 95 on Febraury 21st in London.
- Danillo Villefort will drop from the 185-pound middleweight division to the 170-pound welterweight division to remain in the WEC.
- UFC 91, which was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, reportedly topped 800,000 pay-per-view buys, which is good enough for the second-most purchased event in UFC history, trailing only UFC 66.
- In case you didn’t notice, the Ultimate Fighter was on hiatus this week for Thanksgiving, but will air back-to-back episodes next Wednesday, December 3rd.
- Jeremy Horn and Rousimar Palhares have agreed to clash at UFC 93 on January 17th.
- Former UFC champion Carlos Newton will return to action for the first time in a year and a half on March 28th against Nabil Khatib at W1: Inception in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.
- As anticipated, Jorge Gurgel has been released by the UFC and has already signed with Strikeforce.
Links
- Cage Potato lists 15 of the stragest results in Sherdog’s Fight Finder.
- Fightlinker “takes an axe” to Strikeforce’s recent offering.
- A playlist of some of the best MMA knockouts.
Videos
Ricardo Arona plans 2009 return:
it must be nice to ricardo arona.
i hope he comes to the ufc and whoops sokajeu’s a$$. i dont care if i spelled his over rated a$$ right.
I would like to see Arona back in the UFC as well. Sucks about Gurgel getting dropped, but it was time. The guy refuses to do what he’s best at and keeps losing because of it, time to get out of the UFC. Could see a future stand up war b/w him and Thompson though, that would be nice. Horn and Palhares will make a good fight, likely a ground war.
Wow about time i got sick of Gurgel use your f***ing Jiu Jitsu instead of banging you Muppet
I am pleased to see my feelings with Jorge are not alone. I’ve been sick of his Rich Franklin ball suckin ass for a long time now. He is not good enough for the UFC. Not a contender or gatekeeper. Hardly a worthy opponent for the greatness that is the UFC’s LW division. Jorge’s UFC background may help him in StrikeForce for a while but I do not see Jorge succeeding there either. Gilbert Melendez will even give Jorge a very hard time in the cage. There could be some good matches for Jorge if he gives his JJ a try but the competition will still be tough.
Palhares vs horn is a great matchup, cant wait to see that grappling match. Hardy vs markham has alot of potential also, markham showed some real explosiveness with that last ko of brodie farber.
My sentiments exactly. Jorge “the human punch-bag” Gurgel simply refuses to play to his strengths, and as a result his exit from the UFC was inevitable. If he can learn to execute a smart game-plan then hopefully he’ll earn a re-signing. Until then, though, the UFC is just a bridge too far for Jorge.
But who am I to criticise? I mean, it’s not as if I could do any better! ;P
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone…
Gurgel to StrikeForce is pretty good, perhaps he can use his BJJ one and awhile
Arona, well I hope he signs with the UFC either that or immediately rematches Fedor
Happy thanksgiving to you as well sir. And to all the other amrican frenziers.
I agree you justin and kouch. God knows why he doesnt use his JJ. Thats like a cheetah not using his speed. I do hope he does well in Strikeforce but I cant see him moving up the ranks at all unless he changes his tactics.
bad cro cop buddy bad
Ricardo Arona one of my favorite fighters when I watched PrideFC. He is a beast , In my opinion the only guy to truly beat Fedor {If you haven’t seen that fight check it out} ,Just over all I think he is only matched by Dan Henderson in Wrestling in the 205 division. True Ground and Pounder
I really like the quick hits Kris.
Happy Turkey Day…I’m laying on the floor hoping to fall into a food coma…i hurt
i agree with u all, gurgel should use his jiu jitsu but why complain when he stand n trade punches, isnt that what we all want, a good stand up battle?
Happy Thanksgiving to all fo you in the USA. Down here in Canada were celebrating the dismissal of Gurgel, i wonder if he continues to fight standup in Strikeforce or decides to practice what he preaches.
Turkey, pumpkin pie, quick hits, nice. Keep up all the good work Kris, and happy holidays to everyone.
Glad you like them surfingk5, the plan is to do one every day to cover all the news that is worth reporting but that I don’t have time to write into a full post.
I enjoy the quick hits… Kris is there any truth that Soko got cut too??
He sure did. So weird, I didn’t expect him to get cut unless he lost his next fight. I’ll be posting about it soon.
Ok Kris, thank you sorry if I jumped the gun on that one… Hope ypur thanksgiving was a wonderful time, and I’m not too suprised he didn’t do the best in the UFC he did gass against Cane he was suppose to be a beast now not so much, he will be back tho imo
Happy Thanksgiving All! And good luck to any brave souls venturing into black-friday madness…
Eric, happy turkey day to u, and you would have to be crazy to get inbetween people and their shopping agenda’s… I don’t nor will I venture out in the black friday masses, its the worse possible decision that any man willingly would make… Cheers to you
Getting ready to head out into the Black Friday madness…its a big deal with my wife’s family, so she’s going out with them, and I’m not going to let her do that alone…. :/
lol, Whats “Black Friday”? I guess its an after Thanksgiving day thing but I never heard of it. Is it sales in the stores or something?
Gurgel is riding Franklins coat tails for way too long, its about time he was let go.
ryanmoney,
black friday is the start of Christmas shoping in the good ole USA,
or a Megadeth song which ever you prefer. I prefer Megadeth myself.
On my way to the Backyard Brawl. Lets go PITT.
Ahh, I see timcat.
A good day to stay at home then for you guys!
ryanmoney,
They do “big sales” at all the stores, and people get up early and go wait in line at 4am to get into the stores. Wal-Mart had discounts on HDTVs, and usually all the stores have discounts on GPS (sat-nav) systems. I actually picked up a Garmin Nuvi 200 for $100, and another store had New Balance running shoes for under $30 (normally $50+).
GUMBY GUMBY!!! jeremy horn i think he is going to pull off an upset!
gurgel trains franklin! he just fights in a tough division
Gumby, it’s hard not to like the guy, he’s beaten a list of my faves and i wouldnt be surprised if he finds Palhares back too. Its funny a guy with his body type compared to some chiseled guy, it doesnt mean a damn thing in the world of MMA.