When fans tell James Irvin that they saw him on TV, he asks who got
knocked out because it seems it’s always one or the other.
“I seem to have the brightest highlights and the biggest down-lows,”
Irvin today told MMAjunkie.com.
Irvin had another “down-low” in his most recent performance, but he’s
literally re-arranged his life for his next, and perhaps final, UFC
opportunity when he faces Igor Pokrajac on Aug. 1 at
“UFC on Versus 2: Jones vs. Matyushenko.”
Light heavyweights Kyle Kingsbury and Jared Hamman are expected to clash in a preliminary card bout at
UFC Fight Night 22.
MMAjunkie.com
learned the news today from sources close to the event, who said that at
least one fighter has signed off on the fight.
UFC Fight Night 22 takes place Sept. 15 at the Frank Erwin Center in
Austin, Texas, and airs live on Spike TV, though the promotion has yet
to officially announce the event.
Former lightweight champion Sean Sherk is expected
to clash with fast-rising prospect Evan Dunham at
UFC 119.
News of the impending match-up was relayed today to MMAjunkie.com by sources close to the promotion, who said that
both fighters have agreed to the matchup and are expected to put pen to
paper shortly.
UFC 119 takes place Sept. 25 at the 18,000-seat Conseco Fieldhouse in
Indianapolis and airs live on pay-per-view.
In our latest installment of HDNet Fights Video Vault, we take a look at
a recent bout between Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya at May’s
DREAM.14 event.
In our weekly reader-fight-of-the-week feature, Hansen and Takaya go
toe-to-toe while each looking to snap a two-fight losing streak.
The fight took place inside “The White Cage,” DREAM’s twice-used caged
fighting surface.
It appears Nick Catone will stay at middleweight for now.
Not long after the New Jersey native told MMAjunkie.com that he wants to drop to welterweight, sources close
to the promotion today said Catone will stay in the
185-pound division to fight Tomasz Drwal at UFC
Fight Night 22.
UFC Fight Night 22 is expected to take place Sept. 15 at the Frank Erwin
Center in Austin, Texas, and air live on Spike TV, though the promotion
has yet to officially announce the event.
While Bellator Fighting Championship’s second season recently wrapped
up, the third season is just a little more than a month away, and plans
for the promotion are being quickly finalized.
The promotion recently revealed that it will return to the Chicago
Theatre in Chicago on Aug. 19 for Bellator 25 before making a return
trip to Kansas City’s Power and Light District on Aug. 26 for Bellator
26.
Tickets for both events are expected to go on sale soon.
The UFC’s first fight card in Indianapolis is still without a main
event.
MMAjunkie.com’s Dann Stupp first reported on Monday
that both Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin had been
approached prior to their UFC 116 headlining contest (won by Lesnar)
about the possibility of returning to action at UFC 119, which takes
place Sept. 25, to face top contender Cain Velasquez.
UFC president Dana White has since informed multiple outlets that the
Lesnar vs. Velasquez bout will not take place at UFC 119, though he has
yet to name an official date for the heavyweight title fight.
Strikeforce’s long-rumored Texas debut will take place Aug. 21 at the
Toyota Center in Houston.
Strikeforce officials today announced a July 13 press conference to
officially announce the event, and the featured bouts of “Strikeforce:
Houston” are expected to be revealed at that time.
Tickets for the Showtime-broadcast event go on sale to “Strikforce
Insider” e-newsletter subscribers on Tuesday, July 13, while the general
public can purchase tickets beginning Thursday, July 15.
UFC 116 winner and former MMAjunkie.com blogger Brendan Schaub joins
today’s edition of MMAjunkie.com Radio.
Schaub calls in to discuss his 67-second TKO win over Chris Tuchscherer.
The former cast member of “The Ultimate Fighter 10″ now has a two-fight
win streak that has required just 114 seconds of total cage time.
MMAjunkie.com Radio airs from 12-2 p.m. ET (9-11 a.m. PT) live from the
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. Listen to and
watch a video stream of the two-hour show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio.
After earning an impressive 1.6 million viewers for its UFC 114
broadcast, Spike TV’s “UFC Prelims” broadcast for this past weekend’s
UFC 116 event dipped slightly for an average of 1.3 million viewers, MMAjunkie.com today
confirmed with an industry source.
The three-fight July 3 broadcast, which featured Brendan Schuab vs.
Chris Tuchscherer and Ricardo Romero vs. Seth Petruzelli, as well as a
bonus fight of Gerald Harris vs. David Branch did peak with 1.5 million
viewers in the final quarter hour.
Additionally, the July 2 broadcast of the UFC 116 weigh-in ceremonies,
the first-ever such broadcast for Spike TV, drew 645,000 viewers.