The rematch between former DEEP champ and PRIDE fighter Ryo "The Shark" Chonan and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard Roan "Jucão" Carneiro originally scheduled for last month's UFC 85 card will now take place at September's UFC 88 in Atlanta, GA, Tatame.com reports. Chonan was forced off the June card due to a rib injury, leaving Carneiro to face UFC newcomer Kevin Burns, who stunned the highly-favored black belt with a second round triangle choke submission.

The first fight between Chonan and Carneiro took place at DEEP's 18th Impact card in 2005 and ended in a controversial third round stoppage when Carneiro suffered a cut on his right eyelid due to a flying knee. That match came less than two months after Chonan's shocking flying heel hook submission of Anderson Silva at PRIDE Shockwave 2004. However since signing with the UFC nearly a year ago, Chonan has fought only once, dropping a lackluster unanimous decision to Karo Parisyan at UFC 78 last November.

In other UFC 88 news, the manager of Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares has confirmed to Tatame that the match between Palhares and former PRIDE welterweight and middleweight champ Dan Henderson will take place on the card, despite Henderson denying the bout last week.

I've gotta give props to Affliction.  It looks like they wont take this battle with the UFC lying down.  I'm amazed that the Fertittas and Mr White allowed this to happen in "THEIR TOWN."

Affliction to air across the street from UFC: Silva vs. Irvin

<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <!-- AddThis Button END -->Posted by MMAFighting.com 07/03/08—7:49 PM

Featured Story:  No The battle for viewers between "Affliction: Banned" and "UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Irvin" continues.

Affliction announced Thursday that its "Banned" event on July 19, which takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, will air live on closed circuit television at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, directly across the street from the Palm Hotel & Casino, the site of the UFC Fight Night special headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin.

The viewing at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino will begin with the Fox Sports Net broadcast at 5pm PT followed by the pay-per-view broadcast at 6pm PT.

Affliction: Banned
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Honda Center in Anaheim, CA

Pay-Per-View Card:

265 lbs. | Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
265 lbs. | Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell
265 lbs. | Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
185 lbs. | Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
205 lbs. | Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Fox Sports Net Card:

265 lbs. | Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
185 lbs. | Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin

Undercard:

205 lbs. | Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Edwin Dewees
145 lbs. | Savant Young vs. Mark Hominick
205 lbs. | Justin Levens vs. Patrick Speight
170 lbs. | Mike Pyle vs. JJ Ambrose

On the same day that the Association of Boxing Commissions passed a revised set of unified rules for MMA at their annual conference in Montreal, MMAJunkie's Steve Sievert spoke with Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer -- who quickly squashed the hopes of fans wishing to see the rule changes implemented right away.

While Kizer is a proponent of consistency and uniformity of rules for the sport, he doesn't expect the NSAC to adopt the revised regulations immediately. The NSAC typically reviews rules on an annual basis, with the next assessment expected next year.

Kizer also expressed some doubts over the modified weight classes, which would have light heavyweight division ranging from 205 to 225 lbs., and heavyweights from 225 to 265.

"I don't get that one," Kizer said. "I'm surprised by it. I need to understand the reasoning behind the change. I didn't think there was a big concern over how the weight classes were structured. This change creates a significant weight differential in the division and leaves only a 40-pound gap at heavyweight."

Nevada and California -- despite being two of the most active regulatory bodies for MMA in the States and two states which the UFC has frequented for events -- did not send representatives to the ABC conference.

Almost done now.  Y'know until Saturday when all of these become outdated.  Anyway, here are the Welterweight standings:

It's pretty hard to beat 8-0 over a three year period.  Hey look, two lightweights tied for ninth at welterweight.  And who is that tied for 83rd?  Why, it's B.J. Penn.

Fronted by Luke Thomas and hoping the author of this post updates his work when he gets a chance.

Opinions and observations now added; click through to view

It's a glorious, sunny day outside as I look north up the strip from my 29th floor room in the Mandalay Bay. My laptop reports the outside temperature as 34 Celsius - a touch warmer than the 16 Celsius that I'd be enduring back home in Scotland.

In just two hours, I'll be in down in the events centre taking photos for ESPN at the pre-fight press conference for UFC 86.

Attendees are Dana White, Quinton Jackson, Forrest Griffin, Patrick Cote, Josh Koscheck, Ricardo Almeida, Chris Lytle, Joe Stephenson and Tyson Griffin. There'll probably be a few other fighters from the card milling around in the room even if they're not on the roster for interviews.

Now as a photographer, I'm no journalist - but I'll do my best to write up any interesting comments or anecdotes from my viewpoint once the conference has wrapped.

Oh, and if there's any BE readers in the area, be sure to drop me a line.

Continue reading this post »

I assume at th point you've already seen my explanation for the standings here and here, so without further ado:

EDIT: “Fights Back” is just “Games Back” like you’d find in the standings of any other sport in the newspaper. The equation is (FighterAWins – FighterBWins + FighterBLosses – FighterALosses) / 2. That’s the determining factor because it in my opinion it doesn’t make sense for 1-0 to trump say 3-1.

With all the bashing he gets, one forgets just how many fights Chris Leben has won in the UFC.  I mean, with the amount of crap he takes some places you'd think he was Pete Sell.

Jason Perkins of www.fightline.com has the news:

UFC 87 will go a long way towards determining BJ Penn's future opponents. Penn recently told Fighters Club TV that he is set to move up to 170 to face the winner of UFC 87's Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch contest. The fight, contingent on the health of the victor, will take place at the UFC's annual New Year's Eve card this December 27th in Las Vegas.

Penn also plans to retain his lightweight title and will likely face the winner of Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta, which also takes place at UFC 87, at a later date.

Penn also left open the option of moving up to middleweight after cleaning out the light and welterweight divisions.

I'm all for the best fighter's fighting one another.  However, I'm also not a fan of fighter's moving between weight classes...especially if they are the champ.  It just causes alot of problems as far as stability/rankings within weight divisions.  If Penn were to beat the winner of Fitch/GSP...he would then be the champion of two weight divisions at the same time...ala Dan Henderson in PRIDE.  I would like to see Penn fight the winner of Huerta/Florian first, and if he won that fight...then relinquish the LW belt to move up and challenge GSP/Fitch.  Until then...let's see how this story unfolds.

Information courtesy of Kevin Iole at Yahoo Sports: 

“A lot of guys, they get off the show and they’re embarrassed by what they’ve done. And think about this: I’ve faced a lot of challenges since we’ve had the UFC, but I have a kid (Taylor) who pissed his pants on television and now I have to turn him into a star.”

“Without a doubt, the kid deserves another chance,” White said. “He made himself look like a fool, and he’s aware of that, but everyone deserves another opportunity and we’re going to give it to him. He acted like a moron. He’s embarrassed by it, which he should be, but what he did doesn’t amount to enough to ban him forever. Come on. He was just young and stupid, but at least he seems to have learned from what he did.”

According to the article, Jesse Taylor enrolled in Alcoholic's Anonymous after being embrassed by his behavior after the last season of TUF ended.  I have to say that I can't fault White for giving the kid another chance.  Three months or more is enough time for a young man to reflect on his mistake and realize the opportunity that was pissed away.  The guy DID earn his way into the TUF finals.  Most people seem to forget that tapings for TUF actually ended months ago...although because the incident happened at the end of the show it would seem Taylor's return to the octagon is premature. 

Another nugget from the interview is in regards to the fighter's behavior in the house.  Many people have suggested that Zuffa has influenced what the fighter's do while in the house.  White's response...

“Whoever told you we encouraged them to tear up the house is (an expletive) liar,” White said. “Nobody ever told them what to do on the show.

According to Iole the repairs to the staircase which was destroyed during the last season cost $70,000 to repair.  Any damages done to the house during the filming of the upcoming season will have to be paid for by the fighter's.

According to MMARated:

MMARated.com has learned that Rich Franklin will face Matt Hamill at UFC 88 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, GA on September 6, 2008. This fight will mark Franklin's return to the 205 lbs division.

MMAJunkie.com first reported that Franklin was considering moving up to the light heavyweight division yesterday. Today, MMARated.com was able to confirm the switch as well as his opponent.

Seems like a fairly easy showcase fight for Rich.  Hamill is a fairly one-dimensional fighter who has cardio issues.  He might be able to take the first round with his wrestling, but as the fight goes on, I expect Rich to be able to keep it standing and dominating with strikes.

Rob Maysey of MMAFA.tv thinks so in a very long article...but it's definitely a good read...here's some of the highlights

The following response is to a statement made by Makan Delrahim a lobbyist hired by Zuffa:

Is it really a “whole different story?”  Should the Muhammad Ali Act apply to MMA?  In May of 2008, even Marc Ratner, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Zuffa stated that there “is absolutely no reason that the sport should not be regulated along with the sport of boxing.”5

Does this matter to mixed martial artists, and should they care?  In short, the answer is yes.  The activity undertaken by Zuffa “to do everything they possibly can to not be listed under the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000″ is directly hostile to the interests of mixed martial artists, and the stakes are enormous.6

The following quote from the article talks about Zuffa's exploitative business practices and other defects in how MMA fighter's are affected:

What actions constituted “exploitative business practices,” and what is meant by increasing “honest competition and the integrity of industry?”  The Senate Committee Report details each of these items:

1. long-term promotional contracts and options hurt the boxer and the sport;
2. organizations do not have credible ratings procedures;
3. organizations have inconsistent procedures, and state regulations do not adequately regulate promoter contracts;
4. difficulty for state commisssions to individually monitor promoter-boxer contracts, and necessity of a federal mechanism to prevent hidden agreements; and
5. promoters forcing boxers to give options in return for getting a title fight.

Each of the defects noted above applies in full to the current status of mixed martial artists.

As I stated it's a LONG article...and I simply couldn't post it all here...but feel free to check it out...and drop your thoughts.