Troy Mandaloniz vs. Paul Kelly Signed For UFC 95
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jan 1, 2009 at 12:15 pm ET65 Comments
Troy Mandaloniz
“The Ultimate Fighter 6″ cast member Troy Mandaloniz (3-1) will make his welterweight debut at UFC 95 on February 21st in London against Britain’s Paul Kelly (8-1), according to MMA Weekly.
Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson headlines UFC 95, which also features Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia, Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham, and Stefan Struve vs. Junior Dos Santos.
sounds bad ass to me
I think Kelly will like pick up the win here. Mandaloniz wasn’t anything special, and he hasn’t faught since 2007.
go paul kelly, cant wait to see dos santos again hope he doesn’t turn into the next alexander, nate will destroy gouveia i hope he gets okami after or even the next shot
Oh yeah, didn’t even catch Dos Santos on there. Looking forward to seeing him again. I’m with you johnboy, definitely don’t want to see him as the next Houston Alexander…but I don’t think that will be the case.
“rude boy” made his welterweight debut in the ufc when he fought richie hightower i thought as his whole season of TUF was 170? i only see mandaloniz having a punchers chance if he cant land that big shot i see kelly winnin by UD or GnP. although he does train wit bj so mayb hes slick off his back mayb.
I’m goin Paul Kelly for sure.
test
^^^^^
Did u pass??
Neer pulled a Rampage
I really don’t have a hangover which is amazing
Kelly wins this fight
dos Santos trains with Silva/Machida/Big Nog, he has to have enough talent to not just be a striker
Houston Alexander is in awesome fights and he just needs to get a ground game..
and chin… lol
Paul Kelly all the way, dude.
this card is kinda weak imo….
weak card indeed. still dont understand how diego can be a ‘headliner’. he hasnt done anything.
are you retarded?!? he might not be main event worthy but dude im actually looking forward to the fight.
tjack…are u retarted?!?!?
nobody said anything bout not lookin forward to it…were just saying its not main event worthy…ayy tonto!
seemore…
exactly!
diego and stevenson are not worthy of this main event match…maby on a “fight night” event…this reminds me of the ufc 89 main event with bisping and leben…that is not main event worthy!
thank god this card is free!
kelly in tnis 1 4sure kellys wrestling is great stand up good, troy has a chin ok strikes trainin wit B.J. prolly good jitz i think kelly is aggresive & will overwhelm troy, again troy always has a punchers chance
By that era I mean the time wher he was beating Salaverry, Bustamante, ect
re: fr702
I’d say Lindland did quite well in the UFC (10-3). He is a darn good fighter, to even be able to hang with Fedor is something that a lot of fighters could only dream of, especially giving up as much weight as he did was. Belfort for sure is going to be a tough test for him. I think there are a lot of guys at MW in the UFC he would beat.
In regards to correcting you…the funniest part is I put “Its” when technically it should be “It’s” so even I botched the grammar on my correction, but when I caught it I was too late.
D’oh did.
That didn’t work the way it was supposed to, did was supposed to be marked out because I didn’t mean to include it in the previous post. Let me try that again:
D’oh
did.Just watched the Fedor fight. I think that would have been a different fight if Fedor hadn’t grabbed the ropes long enough to get his feet under him to reverse Lindland. In the UFC the ref would have stopped it and taken a point from Fedor with that many warnings about grabbing the fence.
Ok did u just correct yourself 3 different times? Any rate Linland has beaten in the UFC~ Doerkson, Lutter, Vitale, Baroni 2x, Salaverry, Miletich, Almeida, Anjo
Lost to ~ Terrell, Vitale, Bustamante
So I guess my point is that there are some good opponents he has beaten in there, then there is some guys your like huh well ok a W is a W, o and I only counted 9 victories in the UFC soo maybe I missed one
Also about the rope grab, let’s just say I can see that was a factor, I also believe that eventually Fedor most likely would have won, and if that were under “UFC rules” well I get what u mean by that statement, yet Bodog Fight rules are different to a point… Again another reason why MMA should be done in the octagon, not the squared circle (which that sayin doesn’t even make sense) soo ya cheers
What I did was, I corrected myself, but I typed in the wrong html tag to do what I wanted to do, so then I corrected that.
Yeah, AA I don’t see in the top 3 HW, maybe not even top 5. Barnett, definitely top 5 maybe top 3. Fedor, top 3. But then who do they have? A bunch of guys that are outside the top 10.
They are certainly far from the glory days of Pride, Dream might be the closest to that. Besides, PRIDE put on more than 2 shows a year.
And the fighters come out with all they’ve got, this a battle to say the least it reminds me of Don Frye v Yoshida, just an all out brawl who shall be the victor??
This is slightly entertaining to say the least and soo let’s see how it ends up
Not sure it will end…
decision? really? it wont go past the 2nd ***IF*** it makes it that far… his battle againt lytle shows he has a great chin and isnt afraid to throw power into his shots… troy i dont believe will be able to handle this…
See in my little town which census says is 504k or something close we have one university that gets most of the attention, we also have the Fresno Grizzlies (aaa of the Giants) which get little love it seems, except on $2 dollar tuesdays (taco’s and beer) we hardly ever sell out the stadium, it seems as tho unless we have a big college football game people don’t go to events… Hell we won the college baseball world series and I doubt we will sell out ten games this year…
We however are crazy about our MMA, shows here sellout quick, like really quick and there are “MMA gyms” shooting up here and there, most people seems to be some what knowledgeable about the sport and when people protested an event here in town the city council saw that 13,000 people in two events (both sellouts) can’t all be wrong, these events didn’t have much promo either.. Soo hopefully we can get a large promotion to come here we have quite a few venues to sell out, I would like to see StrikeForce come out here… It just seems that we don’t promote the good events in this town and that’s a damn shame.. O and be careful of going by a gym that has “multiple styles” most of those type places I’ve notcied have been just there for that quick buck, hell we have a Gracie JJ school in Clovis (sister city 5minutes away if that) and not many people have ever seen a Gracie stop by, soo kinda they rent the name and cash that check (no disrespect attended to the Gracie family, but it is what it is)
Not sure what the census is for Raleigh, but the thing is Durham is 30 minutes away, Chapel Hill is 40 minutes away, and then there’s a ton of cities/town that are essentially bedroom towns for Raleigh within 30-40 minute drive, which you would have to take into account in regards to sports events.
About that gym there site is here. I met the Chris Bright guy at the mechanic where I was getting my wheels aligned. I started talking to him because he was wearing a Pendergrass BJJ hoodie and hat. I understand what you’re saying about the Gracie JJ school, but at the same time we have CrossFit, which has Muay Thai and other stuff in one place, that is a “Team R.O.C.” member and just recently held a seminar taught by Royce. Also, Chris said he had rolled with Serra, and that they had thought about trying to get him to come down for the Grand Opening which was yesterday (I believe).
On Overeem…I bet he’d want a lot more money to come defend that StrikeForce belt, plus they’d have to find a real opponent for him at this point. The man has been on a tear as of late. Has he said that he won’t fight for the UFC? (I think I read that somewhere.) That’s interesting that he’ll be in attendance at UFC 93 while he’s on holidays, I wonder if they’ll put him on Camera if he’s actually there.
their site*
As far as Overeem goes, he maybe already contracted in with StikeForce, I dunno
That’s cool about meeting that guy and talking with him, I’m just saying a lot of places are about the money, I’m not saying specifically this place.. U still pondering training somewhere?
And having the large neighboring communities help a lot with local sports forsure but we just don’t promote properly what we have to offer as far as local franchises and that’s sad, it seems that is problem, Bobby Lashley is fighting in the valley in Febuary and I doubt that will be promoted an awful lot
Justin - You need to scope out the schools in the area so you can tell me where I should be training when I get down there
That Rapid Fitness place seems solid.
Kris,
Dietrich actually seems to have a decent handle on that situation. I know CrossFit is well respected… LA Boxing is part of a chain, this new Rapid Fitness place I may actually check out. There is (or at least used to be) a Lion’s Den academy in Durham, which Frank has been to. So, where you end up going may depend on which part of town you end up in. LA Boxing is literally 3 minutes from where I live, Cross Fit is on the other side of Raleigh from me (20-25 minutes), and RapidFitness is kinda in between (15-20 minutes depending on traffic). The Lion’s Den place is about 35-40 minutes away from me.
Yeah I’ll be hitting up you and Dietrich when I get down there to figure out what places are recommended, though area will definitely be a big factor. I’m planning on visiting a few of them when I visit sometime just to kind of get a feel for them, make contacts, etc.
Kris, 1) what type of training are u looking to do, have u trained before, I don’t know of places in the Rally area just creating conversation I guess 2) I thought when I saw you had posted in here u were going to have it out for me and such thought it was kinda funny, but hey I guess we resolved it with warnings from u soo that’s bueno cheers
Just looking for a general MMA facility with ground work, striking, cardio, etc. I’ve trained a little bit here in Erie but there are next to no options and the one gym I do go to was solely jiu jitsu, though they added a couple boxing classes recently. Just learning the basics and getting in shape, though I’d like to at least do submission tourneys and amateur in the next few years.
No worries about the argument. Doesn’t seem ban worthy for anyone as it was taken care of without me intervening which is great.
WOW this is funny ,I was reading the Titles of each blog I’d missed from today and yesterday then I read Diego Sanchez vs Joe Daddy was main event for this card, I was Laughing at the Main Event and said this must be another England card because the UFC mainly gives them the Blockbuster fights. The only problem I have with Diego Headlining is that he’s up against Stevenson who just lost to Ken Flo, If he’s up against Sean Sherk / or Ken Flo you have a real explosive main event.
Personally I wouldn’t main if it was
Diego Sanchez vs Sean Sherk as {Main event}
Tyson Griffin vs Joe Stevenson as {Co main event}
By the way ,the only reason I’m watching this event is for Marquardt/Sanchez/Dos Santos
I just would like to point out the irony of your name being “ufcmanz” and yet you’re one of the most frequent UFC critics on the site.
lol
Justin, Come on by and check the place out bro. We are having Guy Mezger and Babalu down on April 24th and 25th for the GO party to do seminars. email me at brightmma[at]hotmail.com when you get a chance.
(I edited the email address so you don’t get picked up by spam crawlers. -Justin)
I may do that.
i agree…i don’t think nate vs wilson is even good enough for co main event!!!
So, the UFC has 6 events between December 27th and March 7th a total of ten weeks. They’re going to Ireland with Hendo v. Franklin in two weeks. Now you’re saying that Diego v. Joe Daddy as a main event shows the weakness of the roster? Name me any other organization that could put on 3 shows in ten weeks, let alone six, in three different countries.
The last statement was well thought out Just nicely done…
My 14 pennies, Affliction has the oppritunity to be a decent promotion if they stick to putting on 4 shows a year, the only reason I say a decent promotion is because they have Fedor, AA, Josh Barnett, Babalu ect… Is their HW division stacked, well yes and no you have the above mentioned names and the u have Pedro Rizzo, Gary Goodrige, Yvel,
Big Country, Big Ben compared to the UFC up and comers this list doesn’t seem very strong.. Soo Affliction is that stacked in the HW division that I believe everyone thinks
Babalu, won the StrikeForce LHW championship because why??? Ya he cut open Southworth and they called the fight after the first, but furthermore Babalu needed to fight “make ends meat” and since Affliction canceled their show in october he had to go and fight for a different org…
Soo when big named employee’s are going to work for your competition because u can’t cut a check to him or give him enough work to keep one occupied that’s not a good sign, also when your “partnering” company (goldenboy) is putting on a show on the same night 14 miles away that’s not too cool either
Affliction in no way could put on 3 shows in ten weeks they don’t have the depth of talent, they don’t have the resources, nor do the have the leadership of their company to pull it off…
With the exception of Fedor and AA, I would say their roster is a who’s who of UFC washouts,dropout,never was, and coulda beens
I will watch the fights buts comparing Affliction to the UFC is assanine
Sooo if this UFC event (that is free) is headlined by two guys that aren’t PPV caliber headliners soo be it, its free, and in noway can Affliction do what UFC can do, hell they haven’t even had their second show and the UFC is putting on two in January alone..
FR,
Whose last statement?
Which category does Matt Lindland fall under? Washout, drop out, never was, or coulda been? (I’m guessing the last.)
Good comment, well done.
p.s. Its “make ends meet” not “meat”
Justin your last statement the one before mine and then the last one u did now mine again
O and don’t correct me u know how sensitive that makes me
Jk
Lindland is a special little guy isn’t he? Has beaten most top grapplers of that era, hell even fought the great Fedor and some say he was winning til he lost.. He did ok in the UFC and did pretty good other places, is he an HOF caliber fighter I’m not sure yet I will say that he has foughten and beat some tough guys, he is a smart guy and I hope he does well….
1. I thought they were showing a re-air of UFC 91, not fight for the troops. Fight for the troops was a good card and if I hadn’t seen it, I would find a way to watch both. Put it this way though, I will be watching Affliction right here on my computer, I pay for UFC.
2. Cro Cop is out for six months and would likely come back to the UFC if given the opportunity over signing with Affliction, also not convinced he’s better than anyone in the top 6 of the UFC at this point. Antonio Silva is suspended, and still in ProElite limbo, not sure he’s better than anyone in the top 6 of the UFC. Rothwell not better than anyone in the top 6 of the UFC. Werdum, not better than anyone in the top 6 of the UFC, and already got turned down by Affliction. Kimbo, not better than anyone in the UFC, but would have a punchers chance against some of the cans they bring at HW.
Also, there is a huge difference between having actual signed contract depth, which the UFC has, and having *potential* depth but you’ve only got 5 or 6 people actually signed.
If you’ll kindly look just above your comment right here you’ll see that I said, “Also, there is a huge difference between having actual signed contract depth, which the UFC has, and having *potential* depth but you’ve only got 5 or 6 people actually signed.”
Just because they have non-exclusive contracts doesn’t inherently mean that people will sign them, or that people would be interested in fighting for them.
UFC HWs:
Randy, Brock, Mir, Nog, GG, Dos Santos, Carwin, Al-Turk, Kongo, Wellish, Velasquez, (11 off the top of my head). Pat Barry, Hardonk, Herring, Sanchez, O’Brien, McCully, Dan Severn. (UFC.com)
First, no. Second, watch the personal attack. I know that my last statement in my previous comment could be construed as a personal attack, but it was not meant as insult so much as a statement of fact generally intended to point out that you are wrong about this whole Affliction thing and apparently unwilling to admit it. Also, it was in no way a libelous.
Your assertion that gunslinger and myself are sleeping together is clearly intended as an insult. It is libelous on many counts. It is a clear logical fallacy and clearly demonstrates that you have lost the argument but are unwilling to admit that you are wrong.
But the facts you are trying to support your opinion with are wrong.
Affliction does not have a deeper roster than the UFC at any weight class.
Affliction is not capable of putting on three events in ten weeks let alone six events in 10 weeks.
The fact that Affliction has non-exclusive contracts does not mean they have a bigger talent pool.
And to go all the way back to the beginning:
“This card does not impress me and shows the Fertitas aren’t going to push the boat out when the UFC goes outside the US. I mean there was talk of Silva vs Liddel for this event, how can that be replaced by Joe Daddy and Diego Sanchez? Does this show the weakness of the UFC roster?”
No, it doesn’t show the weakness of the UFC roster because at least they have a big enough roster (real roster with actual signed contracts not hypothetical maybe if they really wanted to they could do because they have non exclusive contracts roster) to put on six events in ten weeks, this one included. No other promotion is capable of this, with any caliber of fighters, especially if you were to add in the stipulation that they had to be able to do it with people already under contract. The UFC is capable, and they’ve proved it.
So on all of those counts you are wrong. And, as a side note, opinions can be wrong. You can have an opinion, but if the facts don’t support that opinion the opinion is wrong. You could have the opinion that the Detroit Lions were the best team in the NFL this year, but the facts that they went 0-16 prove that opinion wrong.
I just have to say this, because its logical, but sounds quite childish…
It is my opinion that your opinion is wrong, so how dare you declare that I can’t declare that you are wrong!
Sorry couldn’t resist
Maybe it will end here, back to the libel, I’m done with that.
in your case** silly iPhone.
J/k I was waiting for a response to that but not so much, I’m going to go back to my day and not be bothered by you and your sense of humor which I cleary understand is um a bit moronic in nature, and its not an english thing either I have a lot of english friends and their humor is actually funny.. Anyways do whatcha u want but when people attack back you will know why… Unfortunately you are losing crediability as the day goes on…. Enjoy and hahahaha to what ever u say next to me because it will be funny right!?!
Na that didn’t take too much thought, its kinda my standard for dealing with douchebaggery, the cat flu thing was off the top of my head as well… No need to call me a sad act, it benefits no one… But u will continue to throw insults and I will continue to not back down to a 13 year old douche who thinks he is end all be all of MMA knowledge…
“Cat catches the bird flu and ****tts in your mouth while you sleep next to you daddy after he has got done rapping you with no lube” or some **** like that I dunno I do agree it could have been better but hey its been a hell of a day… And u calling me sweetheart now are u trying to get in bed with me too?? Are u willing to travel all the way over here for some snuggle action? You know u wanna
Hahaha, that’s funny stuff
Ofcourse no worries
mmmm… Olives are tasty, especially black ones that come in salad at Olive Garden…
But yeah, peace it is, then.
BTW ‘Canes won for anyone that cares. ( hopefully “hockeysucks” doesn’t pop up )
Yeah, hockey live is great. I enjoy it on TV as well, but not nearly as much. The local team has been up and down this year, they started off the season well, but went into the tank. Then they fired the coach and re-hired the guy they had fired to bring in the guy they were firing. They’ve looked better since then, but still have a long way to go. I tend to treat hockey similar to the way I do baseball (which I don’t watch at all until *maybe* the playoffs or world series), I watch some in the regular season, and then watch a lot in the playoffs, and always watch the cup, regardless of who’s playing.
My “local team” who was in first place, the owners gave up on the team allowed it to go bankrupt and it was like nobody in this town knew what has been going on… Soo essentially a team who has been in town since the 80’s (I think) is no longer here the Fresno Falcons es no mas gotta love Fresno they don’t promote shhhit in this town, hey we have a AAA baseball team a beautiful stadium and we can’t come close to filling it, this town is horrible in attempting to get people to go out watch the local professional teams..
That sucks. The team here came from Hartland, CT and were operating in the negative until they won the Stanley cup in 2006. Tonight most of the upper level was pretty well filled, the lower levels a bit less filled. The place holds over 20k, but prolly 14-15k there tonight, I would guess. We have a AAA baseball team nearby, and a AA baseball team also nearby. Both are capable of sellouts on the weekend, but during the week struggle heavily, despite recent championships in their respective divisions. Part of the problem is we have three major universities that sell out nearly all of their basketball games, and two of the three sell out nearly all of their football games. So, its hard to get people to pay for stuff year round. The hockey coverage on local sports talk, and other radio shows has helped make it popular, and keep it successful. Now we just need people around here to get interested in MMA, which I think is happening, I just met a guy Wednesday that is opening up a gym with Sambo, BJJ, Muay Thai, Sando, two other things, and potentially Krav Maga in the future, making the second MMA gym in Raleigh, third within 20 minutes of each other (if you count LA Boxing).
BTW, the Overeem v. Badr Hari is on my gravatar, it was too big to upload here, so now that I logged in, that’s why the avatar change.
I know that feeling with the gravatar/avatar
Did u see where Overeem said he will in the crowd at UFC 93 on vacation (holiday), I also sent an e~mail to that gent at StrikeForce to see if they were going to employ their HW champ in the next event, I have yet to hear back from him…