Mirko Cro Cop's tenure in UFC is officially over as he showed up at Wednesday's press conference at Hotel Metropolitan in Tokyo for the announcement of the debut of a new promotion.
Cro Cop was released from his UFC contract and said he would appear on the debut of a new group, a combined effort of K-1 and the former Pride promotion, which takes place on 3/15 at the Saitama Super Arena.
Staff from K-1 and the former Pride staff, led by K-1 head Sadaharu Tanikawa and Keeichi Sasahara, who was Nobuyuki Sakakibara's second in command in Pride, were at the event.
J.Z. Calvan vs. Shinya Aoki was the only match announced for the debut show.
Tanikawa announced that the Hero's promotion has closed and will be replaced by the new group, which would crown a lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight champion. He said a tournament would be started on the first show for the lightweight and middleweight titles. He said the heavyweight title would be a single match, likely involving Cro Cop.
Also at the press conference were the famous pro wrestler/fighters Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki, Minowa-man and Kiyoshi Tamura, who will be the top native stars along with Kid Yamamoto, Caol Uno, Hayato Sakurai and Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Videotape messages were played with Fedor Emelianenko and Royce Gracie saying they would fight with the new group, but didn't indicate they would be on the debut show. They announced a business relationship with M-1 Global to book Emelianenko.
The group plans to run six or seven shows in 2008.
I heard Kimbo Slice is fighting Tank Abbott this weekend? Is that true? If so Tank is going to get beat down I bet...
U.M.
Depends on how he trains, if he trains well he's more than a match for Kimbo.
but he never does so never mind
The UFC released cro cop? I mean i know he lost 2 in a row but still...hes a legend...
Didn't last even a half of a round. Tank didn't train enough I guess.
U.M.
http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f116/kasee03/?action=view¤t=pigslaughter.flv
Didn't last even a half of a round. Tank didn't train enough I guess.
U.M.
I'm confused? How did I stick my foot in my mouth? I didn't predict Tank to win... I predicted he would get beat down.
I'm confused? How did I stick my foot in my mouth? I didn't predict Tank to win... I predicted he would get beat down.
U.M.
"Chuck Liddell is set to return to action on June 7 as the former light heavyweight champion has officially signed to face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at an as of yet unofficially announced event in London, England. Liddell confirmed the fight to MMAWeekly.com on Saturday evening.
Earlier this month, MMAWeekly.com reported that Rua had signed a contract to fight “The Iceman” in May or June, and now Liddell has confirmed he has accepted the fight and signed the contract, although he stated the fight would take place June 7 as opposed to the previously reported June 14 date.
Rumors have recently circulated that Wanderlei Silva (31-19-1) will be fighting Keith Jardine (13-3-1) at UFC 84. Although not officially announced, both camps have hinted at the possible match.
“Wanderlei made the most of his holidays to rest his body and mind. But we’ve already done a bit of training this weekend and starting tomorrow things will pick up. As we only just got back now and today is a holiday here (Las Vegas) we can’t confirm anything about the next fight, if just because there is the chance Wand will drop down in weight. Every fight and adversary is different, which is why we have to wait to define our training plan. If he should drop to middleweight, we will work on his losing weight and preserving his muscle mass, losing only water and fat and not strength and size, since he normally weight 98 kilos. But nothing’s for sure yet, we’ll wait and see,” said Alejarra, who in January spent time in Cuba where he watched up close the training methods of athletes in the country."
Despite rumors to the contrary, fueled in large part by comments made in a recent interview by former UFC fighter Babalu Sobral, Tito Ortiz will face Lyoto Machida at UFC 84.
Sources close to Machida have confirmed that Joe Silva has a contract signed by both fighters and that the fight is a "go" for May 24 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Big thanks to Tagg Radio's The Lights Out Show for breaking the information
Early PPV buyrate estimates for UFC 81 (Brock Lesnar's debut) are around 600,000 domestic buys. If that figure is accurate, UFC 81 will be the 5th most ordered PPV event in company history. It is very possible that number could sell more domestically than the upcoming Wrestlemania XXIV show.
An interesting fact is that Brock Lesnar's UFC debut drew more buys than Wrestlemania 19, when Brock Lesnar wrestled against Kurt Angle in the main event. That show did a final number of 560,000 buys worldwide.
As far how much of an impact Lesnar had on the event's huge PPV success, industry sources estimate that the event would have drawn approximately 325,000 buys if Lesnar was not featured and Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo was the main attraction.
Lesnar received a lot of heat for the money he earned in his first UFC contest ($250,000). Now that the numbers are in, it's clear that he could have earned 10 times that amount and UFC would have still made a killing off his debut.
What I would like to see one day, is an open weight tournament style, nostalgic of the early days of MMA. Once a year, UFC could hold it, say every December and anyone who wants to participate, fights for a purse of say...1 million and each fight you're in on the way up you get 50 grand or something.
I'd like to see some of the smaller guys in our modern days of MMA take on the heavyweights. GSP, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Silva, Franklin, Marquardt, Horn, etc. etc.
Call me crazy
It's a nice concept, but I doubt it would ever happen. Back then, the money was nothing special and it was kind of a free for all because almost everyone was a big name. You could put up a purse of a couple hundred thousand back then and get any one of a dozen guys willing to step up to the plate. Now-a-days, the fighters would want waaaayyy too much money for even a single bout.....that is if you could convince anyone to fight? Most would be too afraid of injury, or damaging their long term prowess to ever consider it. Not to mention keeping their reps in tact. Could you imagine how many egos and reputations a guy like Sean Sherk could ruin in a contest like that?
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