Sylvia earned a first round knock out over the relatively inexperience Jason Riley. After peppering him with combinations and strikes in the clinch, Sylvia finally felled Riley with a left hand that led the referee to stop the bout.

Alexander also earned a first round knock out over his opponent, Sherman Pendergarst, though his was a little quicker. Alexander opened the bout with leg kicks, then finished off Pendergarst with a series of knees to the body.

Videos of both Sylvia’s and Alexander’s bouts can be found below. The full results for the event were:

• Tim Sylvia def. Jason Riley via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:32
• Houston Alexander def. Sherman Pendergarst via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:51
• Jeremy Lang def. Matt Delanoit via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
• Alonzo Martinez def. Ryan Williams via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Joe Vedepo def. Webster Farris via KO – Round 1, 0:14
• Forrest Petz def. Chad Reiner via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:28
• Jimmy Seipel def. Bob Tuttle via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:59
• Jordan Johnson def. Ryan Shell via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Dakota Cochran def. Bill Holcumb via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:25
• Todd Meneely def. Cory McDonald via submission (Americana choke) – Round 2, 1:38
• John Hanson def. Dean Bradley via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 1:19
• Danny Black def. Matt Bentley via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 1:49
• Marcos Marquez def. Dustin Smith via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:22

Tim Sylvia vs. Jason Riley

Houston Alexander vs. Sherman Pendergarst

Spike TV announced on Friday that it will air Efrain Escudero vs. Cole Miller and Drew McFedries vs. Tomasz Drwal from the UFC 103 undercard during a live, one-hour, commercial-free broadcast beginning at 9pm ET on September 19 leading up to the UFC 103 pay-per-view.

Pictured: Anderson Silva

Mark Bocek will face Doug Evans at UFC 79. Evans confirmed the bout to MMAFrenzy.com earlier today.

I went to Las Vegas yesterday only for the day because there was a mandatory UFC meeting for all fighters. Basically they had different aspects of the corporation represented, including the Nevada State Athletic Comission, doctors, lawyers, production and public relations, etc.

Anyway I emailed the matchmaker to see if I could get on the Dec. 29th card when Matt Serra defends his belt. Unfortunately they have filled all the matches up so I’m on the waiting list in case someone gets injured. I’ll be taking over for Ray Longo a little while he’s out in Vegas with Matt. Then once my schedule changes I’ll start fight training and look to book something for early-ish 2008.

• Sean Sherk’s appeal has been scheduled to continue on December 4th.
• Middleweight Nate Marquardt will reportedly be returning to competition on February 2nd at UFC 81. A report earlier this week in the Houston Chronicle indicated Marquardt had not received word on his next fight because he has just one bout remaining on his current contract though he is now working with the UFC towards re-signing.
• The Ultimate Fighter 3 castmember Ross Pointon will face Marios Zaromskis at Cage Rage 24 in December. Drew Fickett will face Mark Weir at the event.
• Some reports suggest that Tim Sylvia will face Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81 in February for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
• UFC vet Jonathan Goulet will face Dan Chambers in the main event of Ring Xtreme Challenge II. The event is November 24th in Victoriaville, Quebec.
• The UFC has announced that they will be holding an open casting call for The Ultimate Fighter 7 November 19th in New Jersey. Interested middleweight participants should show up at the Newark Airport Hilton Hotel at 8am and can sign up in advance at UFC.com.
• A new report at Sherdog connects Xyience with UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and also discusses recent reports of fighters turning down sponsorship by the company due to non-payment.
• Mike Swick will reportedly be returning in January 2008, presumably at UFC 80 in England.
• Forrest Griffin will be appearing on Law and Order: SVU on November 20th.
• In a recent interview Martin Kampann indicated that he hopes to return in early-2008.
• Suspensions for UFC 77 have been handed out. Rich Franklin, Kalib Starnes, and Eric Schafer all received 30-day suspensions while Forrest Petz received a 60-day suspension.
• This weekend UFC veteran and fan favorite Nick Diaz will face KJ Noons in the main event of EliteXC: “Renegade”. The event will air live on Showtime on Saturday.
• The WEC has officially announced four fights for it’s December 12th event including the return of former UFC champion Jens Pulver:

Featuring WEC Featherweight Champion “The California Kid” Urjiah Faber against Jeff “Big Frog” Curran, “The Rhino” Doug Marshall defending his Light Heavyweight title against Cuba’s own Ariel Gandulla, Paulo Filho returning to the Cage to defend his WEC Middleweight crown, and former UFC® Lightweight Champion Jens “Lil’ Evil” Pulver making his WEC debut at 145 lbs. against rising star Cub Swanson, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will be rocked off its foundations by the most explosive MMA action of 2007.

The main event will feature a rematch between Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin in a title bout for the UFC Middleweight Champion. This should make for a great fight especially since Franklin has chosen to isolate himself to seriously focus on training for this fight.

The co-main event will mark the return of both Tim Sylvia and Brandon Vera. Sylvia has not seen any action since undergoing surgery after losing the Heavyweight belt to Randy Couture back at UFC 68. Vera makes his return to the Octagon, putting his perfect MMA record on the line after nearly a year of absence. Both fighters are known to love to stand and trade so this one should be a dandy. Expect some fireworks to go off in this bout.

Main card:

• Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva (Middleweight Championship Match)
• Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera
• Eric Schafer vs. Stephan Bonnar
• Alan Belcher vs Kalib Starnes

Undercard:

• Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami (swing bout)
• Alvin Robinson vs. Jorge Gurgel
• Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
• Matt Grice vs. Jason Black
• Demian Maia vs. Ryan Jensen

First on their journey throughout the gyms of southern California, Chambers and Duff meet up with the always charismatic Bas Rutten, who tells them who they will be facing off against at the end of the show. After that, we see the two grappling with Josh Barnett and practicing some “sprawl and brawl” with UFC contender Forrest Griffin. The duo then hit Eddie Bravos 10^th planet jiujitsu school to train ground fighting, and they even manage to get some quality time in with Randy Couture at his Las Vegas training facility. But no MMA preparation would be complete without striking sessions of course, and at one point we see Duff and Chambers practicing kick combinations with famed kickboxer and undefeated MMA fighter, Cung Le.

At last, we are treated to the two amateur fights for the bottom ten minutes of the show. Jason Chambers was up first against IFL fighter Connor Heun. Chambers managed to get Heun on the ground and ultimately submit him with a tricky little jiujitsu move called a twister. Chambers second round triumph also marks the first victory for either of the Human Weapons hosts so far. On a side note, I must add that about half of my friends believe this fight was rigged and claim that “Jason Chambers sucks #!$*” but I can’t confirm any of that.

Eventually, Bill Duff had to step into the cage with who but Ricco Rodriguez. For fans that are familiar with Ricco, I ask you just as I asked myself at the time, is this really fair? Sure Duff trains throughout the Human Weapon series and has a half decent wrestling background, but can he really compete with the experience of a seasoned veteran like Rodriguez? Looking just a little soft at 300 plus pounds, Ricco’s build is nothing to write home about, but his career still includes wins over the likes of Randy Couture, Jeff Monson, Andrei Arlovksi, Gary Goodridge, the list goes on.

Personally, I would rather have seen Duff battle an unknown, up and coming fighter to make a more even and exciting match. I don’t mean to take anything away from Bill Duff, but I’m pretty sure that Rodriguez went easy on him throughout the bout which I suppose is okay, since the show doesn’t want their host to get hurt or anything. But don’t try to pass this off to the viewers as a real fight, especially since we can’t even see most of the bout due to editing. During their match, it definitely seemed as if Ricco let Duff get to his feet from the ground game and never sunk in a submission when he likely could have. Big John McCarthy served as the only judge as well as referee for the match, and ultimately declared the fight a “draw” after three rounds.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think I’ve seen a draw called in an MMA fight in a long time, a very long time. So it’s likely that McCarthy deemed it a draw to be nice, knowing that Rodriguez could have taken advantage of the less experienced fighter if he wanted to. As for jiujitsu brown belt Jason Chambers, his opponent could probably have been a bigger name in mixed martial arts. Even if Chambers would have lost that fight, at least the MMA fans watching would get something more out of it. To be honest, the type of opponents for the shows hosts should have been reversed, with Chambers facing the more experienced fighter. I understand Bill Duff is a big guy and has to fight someone comparable to his size, but there are plenty of other heavyweights who would step in with him that aren’t former UFC champions. Besides, its not like they made Chambers fight anyone with the kind of reputation Ricco Rodriguez has.

All in all, the episode was still highly entertaining and provided a nice introductory course for those who aren’t as familiar with Mixed Martial Arts. I’m really looking forward to the next Human Weapon which explores China and the art of Kung Fu, though according to the shows website this will not air until October 19^th.

Coming into his bout with Fitch, Fioravanti was riding a 4 fight win streak including UFC victories over Solomon Hutcherson and Dave Menne. A rear naked choke in the second round of his UFC 68 fight ended his win streak.

Fioravanti will be looking to rebound against a more experienced Forrest Petz (1-2 UFC) who fell to Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC Fight Night 9 via unanimous decision. Petz debuted at UFC Fight Night 6 with a win over Sam Morgan but fell in his last two fights to Marcus Davis and Hironaka. Without a win Petz may not find himself in the UFC much longer.

Main Event Fighters

-Joe Stevenson: $32,000 (5th fight in UFC; defeated Melvin Guillard)

-Melvin Guillard: $7,000 (5th fight in UFC; lost to Joe Stevenson)

Main Card Fighters

-Kenny Florian: $16,000 (6th fight in UFC; defeated Dokonjonosuke Mishima)

-Dokonjonosuke Mishima: $8,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Kenny Florian)

-Antoni Hardonk: $6,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Justin McCully)

-Justin McCully: $6,000 (1st fight in UFC; defeated Antoni Hardonk)

Preliminary Fighters

-Drew Fickett: $20,000 (7th fight in UFC; defeated Keita Nakamura)

-Rich Clementi: $12,000 (4th fight in UFC; lost to Roan Carneiro)

-Kurt Pellegrino: $12,000 (3rd fight in UFC; defeated Nate Mohr)

-Kuniyoshi Hironaka: $12,000 (2nd fight in UFC; defeated Forrest Petz)

-Wilson Gouveia: $12,000 (3rd fight in UFC; defeated Seth Petruzelli)

-Thiago Tavares: $6,000 (1st fight in UFC; defeated Naoyuki Kotani)

-Roan Carneiro: $6,000 (1st fight in UFC; defeated Rich Clementi)

-Seth Petruzelli: $5,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Wilson Gouveia)

-Keita Nakamura: $4,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Drew Fickett)

-Forrest Petz: $4,000 (3rd fight in UFC; lost to Kuniyoshi Hironaka)

-Naoyuki Kotani: $3,000 (1st fight in UFC; lost to Thiago Tavares)

-Nate Mohr: $3,000 (1st fight in UFC; lost to Kurt Pellegrino)

Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $174,000

Petz began his MMA career in January 2002 and made his UFC debut at Fight Night 6 in August. Winning his debut fight against Sam Morgan via unanimous decision Petz next faced Marcus Davis at Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3. Petz lost late in the first round of his second UFC bout via submission.

Petz’s opponent talked about the change with Sherdog.com:

“Hironaka elated some excitement in the switch from the very well-rounded Joslin to the striking-oriented Petz, saying that he was excited to have an opponent who would definitely rather strike with him, and that he hoped to show off his own striking abilities in the cage.”

From the sounds of things and these fighters’ history it looks like both with be aiming for a knockout when they step into the octagon.

Here is the now completed fight card barring any further injuries:

Main Card:
Joe Stevenson vs. Melvin Guillard
Kenny Florian vs. Dokonjonosuke Mishima
Antoni Hardonk vs. Justin McCully

Preliminary:
Drew Fickett vs. Keita Nakamura
Wander Braga vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Forrest Petz
Wilson Gouveia vs. Seth Petruzelli
Naoyuki Kotani vs. Thiago Tavares
Roan Carneiro vs. Rich Clementi

Technorati Tags: ufc, mma, fight+night+9