Just found this article on the local Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph.

Some interesting quotes from Dana White but it's mainly PR. Goes into the Boxing vs. MMA excitment/value for money story. How Dana swears and does fight bonuses - used the Pat Barry example - so the UFC aint all that bad, right? Also goes on the quote MMA as the fastest growing sport in North America, how the events always sell out...

It's just interesting that Paul Kent has taken a different point of view with this article from the eye gouging, biting and kicking-like-girls the Telegraph usually write about CFC (the local MMA promotion). Makes you wonder what happened. Did someone get flown over to the USA as part of junket, that the UFC paid for, to get the local media on side? Either way, good luck to Paul, I'm just jealous.

At last count the article had 122 comments. Some are in favour, some not.

Just got the press release from CFC today and it appears to be all about the main event. Hector Lombard will return to the CFC and defend his middle weight title against Kalib Starnes on the 20th of November in Sydney, Australia. Remember him? Been a while since Starnes bothered anybody over at the Sherdog Figthfinder too. By their records it looks like Starnes hasn't fought this year.

The undercard so far includes:

Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne Vs Willie Moon,

Matt Cain Vs Jade Jordan,

Robert Lisita Vs Tony Ourico

Hugh Cameron Vs Ashley Powell.

I'll update if they send through anymore fight-card details or if I can get their poster to load properly.

You can get tickets at the door or buy online with Ticketek.com.

You gotta love Jackson. Nobody, apart from maybe Tito, can keep himself in the media spot light for a longer period of time. From dancing in the street on YouTube, dry humping a young lady during an interview to trash talking with Evans. You get it all with Jackson.

So start at the beginning: Jackson is a coach of the TUF Series 10, going to fight Evans in his hometown then he is going to get his belt back by winning a title fight against Machida (depending on injuries). Everybody understand, everybody happy? Good. The UFC is going to make money so White is ecstatic, Jackson is going to fight in front of his hometown so he's happy and Evans is over the moon because, finally after all the trash-talk, he'll get the opportunity to spoil Jackson's plans and win.

Then comes the rumors about the A-Team which throws everything against the wall.

Continue reading this post »

via www.cfcworld.com.au

CFC have announced their next instalment of MMA will take place for the first time in Queensland, on the Gold Coast. It's going to be held at the Carrara Indoor Stadium on July the 11th which I've never attended however it looks like it holds 3000 seats and can only imagine is a decent venue. Once again, looks like a decent fight-card including the semi-finals in the LHW tournament and the LW title fight on the line.

So far it's shaping as -

Main Event - LW Title fight:

Rob Hill vs Adrian Pang.

Main Card - LHW Tournament:

Priscus Fogagnolo vs Jamie TeHuna

Anthony Perosh vs Dave Frendin

Undercard:

Jai Bradney vs Rodney Rhoden

Shane Wudenberg vs Evan 'Insert Surname when CFC update their Homepage' (Yes, I meant that.)

I have been holding off posting because I was waiting for CFC to update with more fights but at this stage it would appear they only have 5 confirmed fights. Not to worry, they will have more so if your are in the area check it out. CFC usually put on good shows and will be worth a look if you are an avid MMA fan. For the record CFC # 10 will take place on August the 21st back in Sydney which will feature the final for the LHW tournament

via www.cfcworld.com.au

Cage Fighting Championship has release their fight-card for CFC #8 which will take place on the 22nd of May, this Friday. Interesting that the LHW Tournement seems to be shaping up quite well too.

I have to admit - I honestly thought the promoters where going to stack the card in the favour of the local boys but that doesn't seem to be the case with only one Australian guaranteed of making the second round. Plus, it has me trying to remember when was the last time Australian MMA fans could possibly see four very decent fights on the one night. Might catch the flight up to Sydney after all.

Preliminary Fight card

Fight 1 - U84kg	Tony Ballout Lion’s Den Academy	Vs	TBA
Fight 2 - U77kg 3 x 5 min	Tony Ourico Roots	Vs	Ian Bone Body Torque Fitness, QLD
Fight 3 -+ 105kg 3 x 5 min	Lucas Browne Penrith Elite	Vs	Tui Wright SKAMMA Gym, VIC
Fight 4 -U77kg 3 x 5 min	The Bull Lion’s Den Academy	Vs	Jon Leven Team CFS
Fight 5 -U77kg 3 x 5 min	Luke ‘Duke’ Picklum Black Belt Gracie Jiu Jitsu	Vs	Matt Cain Integrated/ Fairtex MMA QLD

 

Light Heavyweight Grand Prix

Fight 6 -U93 kg 3 x 5 min	Matthew Dwight Black Belt Gracie Jiu Jitsu Australia	Vs	Dave Frendin Central Coast Australia
Fight 7 - U93 kg 3 x 5 min	Priscus Fogagnolo Cazalay’s Fitness Australia	Vs	Antonio ‘Samuray’ Mendes Europe Top Team Brazil
Fight 8 - U93 kg 3 x 5 min	Jamie Tehuna Penrith Elite N.Z.	Vs	Antony Rea Team Quest France
Fight 9 - U93 kg 3 x 5 min	Anthony Perosh SPMA Australia	V	Nate Carey KOTC U.S.A

CFC has announced their next upcoming event will take place on the 22nd of May. This time they are running with a 8 man Light-Heavy Weight tournament featuring some pretty decent fighters. It's going to be a elimination style system to take place over 3 events with the final to be completed August the 21st.

The fighters competing will include: Anythong Perosh, Jamie Tehuna, Priscus Fogagnolo, Matthew Dwight, Dave Frendin. There are a few internationals coming in as well: France's Antony Rea, Brazil's Antonio Mendes and from the USA Nate Carey.

The tournament will take place over three events with the final to take place August the 21st. CFC #8 will include a few other fights featuring: Matt Cain vs. Luke Picklum, Jon Leven vs. Lucas Browne and apparently a few more which they their haven't figured yet or it all got too hard for them to write on their webpage.

Gotta say I'm happy to see the return of Perosh, TeHuna and Fogagnolo. Personally depending on the draw I think one of those three should win the final.

Every once and a while I come across a piece of media that makes me smile. First, because it shows the Australian mainstream media for the bunch of hypocritical people they are and secondly, because it's all one can do when faced with the obstacles that MMA (as a sport) face in Australia.

Bit of background for you: Howard Sattler (don't worry the contact details are at the end) is a radio commentator in Perth, Australia on a News Talk station called 6PR. Justin is the promoter for XFC, a reformed MMA promotion company that has been 'double booked' at local stadium on the 14th of March. Long story short, Howard gets given enough rope by Justin, and Howard hangs himself with it. Gets interesting at the one minute mark. That makes me smile.

Now the helpless, bitter smile i was talking about. The same Justin as above sent me an email yesterday explaining/asking for help because one of his Co-main event fighters gym was fire-bombed. Yep you read it correctly. Some person fire-boomed Brian Ebersole's training facility 11 days before he had to fight.

If you got a minute to send Howard Slatter and is radio station a friendly email.
And I know this is a long shot: but if you are in the Perth, Australia Metro area and think your training facilities might be of help Brian out. Drop me a line and I'll be happy to pass them along to Justin/Brian.

Howard Backpedals

Lawrence KO's Howard Sattler

CFC have posted their official fight results on their homepage along with some fight photos and fight breakdowns.

CFC # 7 Official Event Results.

Middleweight World Title Fight

Hector ‘Shango' Lombard def Ron Verdadero

Rnd 2 Stoppage due to Strikes   

Lightweight World Title Fight

Rob Hill def Bernardo Trekko

Rnd 2 Referee stoppage strikes

Main card

Adrian Pang def Denis Kelly
Rnd 1 Referee stoppage due to strikes

Richie Vas def Ross Macleod
Rnd 1 KO

Jon Leven def Chris ‘White Sniper' Johnson
Rnd 1: Submission

Jason Harris def Tony Ourico
Unanimous Decision

Lucas Browne def Jeff King
Round 1 Referee stoppage strikes

Kian ‘Karnage' Pham def Phil Lai
Round 1: Submission

Rawdon Lee def Hohepa Ngarimu
Round 1: Submission 

Some great action was seen the other night and forgive the late posting. Been on the road.

Interesting things to note: Lombard demonstrated some new-found wrestling skills from ATT. He picked up Verdadero in huge suplex and slammed him like a rag doll. Coupled with Lombard's size and strength he is going to be dominating this weight class for as long as he wants in Australia. Be interesting to see how he goes in the USA or Japan.

It got ugly with the Light Weight championship fight. A KO that didn't look like a KO from my angle, some corner men waving their arms and a ref saying 'flash KO' but a web-page saying TKO... does anyone else smell rematch?

Richie Vas has a huge right hand. Opponent was down within 15 seconds. Like to see if he can fight or if it was a fluke. But yeah, huge over-hand right.

While Leven looked at home on the ground Johnson looked bad. I know Johnson's thing is kickboxing but he gave up his back twice in the first round. Someone please send him to BJJ class soon.

Lucas Browne is a beast. Big guy that works well in clinch and seems to have a good clue about the ground game. Message to other fighters: Browne will spike you to get out of an armbar. If it works, Browne is going to be dropping some bombs on your head.

The show was to a good standard, great crowd good venue. As usual, little time between the fights and all but one of the fights even made the third round.

Keep you posted on their next event.

Couple things you should know. First the conversion for fighters weight divisons is Kg = pounds X 2.2. Second, UFC 17 is about to start in Australia and I know if I don't post this soon i won't get it done before the weekend ends. 

There will be a total of nine fights - including two title fights - ranging from HW to LW. Nobody jumps out at me, if anything a few people are missing, from this care besides Hector and Bernardo I'm surpirsed. Maybe the XFC have made some signings...

CFC #7 Fight Card

Middleweight World Title Fight

U84kg Hector ‘Shango' Lombard   Vs       Ron Verdadero

Lightweight World Title Fight

U70kg    Bernardo Trekko   Vs       Rob Hill

U70kg    Adrian ‘The Hunter' Pang Vs       Denis Kelly

U65kg    Richie Vas  Vs       Ross McCleod

U77kg    Jon Leven   Vs       Chris ‘White Sniper' Johnson

U70kg    Tony Ourico            Vs       Jason Harris

105kg    Jeff King      Vs       Lucas Browne

U62 kg   Kian ‘Karnage' Pham       Vs       Phil Lai

 U93kg   Rawdon Lee           Vs Hohepa Ngarimu

Saturday the 14th of March will see the return of XFC and the Soa ‘The Hulk' Palelei to the Australian MMA community. Apparently the event is the result of collaboration between XFC and the Department of Sport & Recreation (DSR) in Western Australia which could be very good news for the long term future of MMA in Australia. 

The fightcard so far includes: UFC veteran, Soa Palelei vs. New Zealand  champion & former K1 star, Leamy Tato. While American Brian Ebersole will take on a Muay Thai champion Shannon Forrester from Queensland. Jamie Tehuna looks to be on the card as well but no opponent has yet been named. I'll keep you guys updated as the news comes though.

It's unclear if XFC are going to eventually try their hand in the East but as a fight fan (living on the East coast) it sucks that they have their first event in Perth. Sure the Co-main events are excellent but the cost to make the trip across the country will be too much for most fight fans.

Couple things to note: Ebersole usually fights with the CFC so he might have just penned a new contract with the XFC and Ebersole is meant to be dropping a weight division for his fight. If` he can make the cut and not gas he will be a very dangerous fighter at 155.

If you have been living in Perth and haven't seen these guys fight before I would highly recommend it. The event will be held at the Challenge Stadium and the promoter is expecting tickets to go on sale next week with Ticketmaster.

Until then: Fingers crossed XFC can make it to the East coast soon.

The Guys at CFC have annouced that their next MMA event in Sydney will take place on Friday the 20th of February at Luna Park. Featured on the card so far include the LHW title fight between Bernardo Trekko and Rob Hill. Hector Lombard (recent US signing last time I heard) will fight Hawaiian Ron Verdadero for the MW title on the same card.

Other fighters are on the card include: Adrian Pang, Kian Pham, Jai Bradney, Jon Leven. No news on other fighters or the bouts yet but I will update accordingly.

I have been to a couple of the CFC events in the past and I got to say they put on a good show. Little time between fights (once they start), decent crowd, and usually it's a packed house. If you are in Sydney I would highly recommend the night of fights.

The guys at CFC have release their full fightcard for their Nov. 7th promotion, CFC #6.

Please note that this fight card is subject to change without notice.

Perosh is over his Staph infection and Jamie Te Huna will make his belated CFC debut after being stoodup at CFC #5. Jamie will fight a guy by the name of Antony Rea who is billed as having fought - Eastman, Franklin and Belfort - all of which he lost to via KO or TKO, but hey, it sells tickets. And of course fan favourite Priscus is on the card too. Can't say it enough, watchout for this Priscus in the future.

Word of warning if you hit the link... CFC have confused the numberings on their own events. CFC # 5 happened back in September so this should be CFC # 6.

hope to see you there.

Continue reading this post »

The guys at CFC have announced the some details about their next event which will take place on 7th of November at Luna Park, Sydney, Australia.

On the card so far:

Shane Nix will defend his Welterweight title against Brian Ebersole. Anthony Perosh and Jamie Te Huna will both be taking on as yet un-named international opponents and Priscus Fogagnolo will battle Gordan Graf.

There is also a Lightweight 'Eliminator' between: Bernardo Trekko, Rob Hill, Adrian Pang and Ian Schaffa. I'm unsure if the winner will be crowned the lightweight champ that night and/or if these guys will fight more then once on the night, but the line 'war of attrition' leads me to believe the later to be true.

I wondered where Hector Lombard might have been in all this because he's usually a feature in all the CFC but it seems Elite XC have book him for there Nov. 8. show. Was gonna happen eventually.

The people at Cage Fighting Championship have just release a preliminary fightcard for their September 12th show, CFC # 5 ‘Showdown’. It’s obviously going to feature the above fight along with a couple others, namely Kyle Noke vs. Carlo La Torre and Jamie Tehuna vs. Davion Peterson. The Lombard and Ebersole fight will be for the Middle-Weight belt but the CFC haven’t mentioned any other fights as of yet. Will keep you posted.

At CFC 4 Kyle beat La Torre’s training partner, Yoann Gouiada, and the CFC are trying to spin some sort of angst between them now. The, Belgium, La Torre is now vowing to defeat Noke and avenge the loss sort of thing. Tehuna is debuting in the CFC along with the USA based, Peterson. If Jamie can stay injury-free, he is someone to remember.

From the second the ref raised BJ Penn’s hand against Sherk the writing was on the wall for Penn in the lightweight division. He put on a clinic against Pulver last year, made Stevenson’s question his will to fight back in January, and destroyed the wrestling machine Sherk, last month. So the question was always going to be: What’s the next real challenge for Penn? The way I see it, there are currently two choices.

1. Stay in a division he already owns.

2. Move up and fight at 175.

So let’s play it out.

If Penn stays he only has the winner of the upcoming fight between Ken Flo and Roger Huerta as competition. And after that; it’s slim pickings to say the least. Think about that, is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world really going to hang around waiting for a rematch with Sherk? He can’t, if he does, we’ll start to see the Penn that didn’t train properly a couple years back… nope, I believe Penn has learnt his lesson the hard way and won’t return to the bad old days and become stagnant again. Penn needs a challenge to keep the fires burning and he knows it.

So if Penn moves up does he get an immediate fight with GSP? Will it be a title fight? And what happens after the fight? If he wins, will Penn own two divisional belts at the same time? So then does he drop one title or try and defend concurrently? In an age were the TUF series is linked with the title defences, can the UFC seriously afford to tie up another title defence? And what if Penn did the unthinkable and lost to GSP? Would Penn be happy to go back down to the 155’s or try and make a home for himself, in the crowded 175’s, as some sort of Gatekeeper to GSP?

My money is on: Penn fighting the winner of Ken Flo and Huerta first, one tune up fight after at 175, and then GSP. This because the UFC has to look at getting as many fights out of Penn as possible, before he fights GSP, for fear that he might lose the fight. Then again, the UFC has found that Life’s script is often better then made up ones (Yes, you could see that as a slight dig at EliteXC) and this might work out for them especially if Penn can win their first rematch… Penn vs. GSP III.

Love to know how many fights BJ Penn has left on his contract.

Carlo Lattore has been forced to withdraw, after breaking his hand, from his fight this Friday night with Kyle Noke. Also, Emerson Rushing has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Anthony Perosh after contracting a staff infection in his leg.

Yoann Gouiada, a training partner of Carlo Lattore, is stepping up to the plate to fight with Noke. A New Zealand fighter, Kaota Puna, was going to be a replacement for Rushing till Perosh also had to withdraw with an injured knee. No news if there is going to be another fight or not but at this late notice I would presume not.

They also have a short interview with Fabiano Capoani on the CFC homepage. It’s short, but it mentions him helping Rodrigo Nogueira before a fight back in the Pride days. Capoani (4-3-1 via Sherdog) will be fighting Lombard for the vacant CFC middleweight title.

http://www.cfcworld.com.au/index.php

This update from Australia promoted by Kid Nate. Thanks for the news from Downunder, Ronnie!

The people at CFC have announced their fightcard for the upcoming promotion on May the 23rd with a somewhat interesting line-up. Recent EliteXC signee, Hector Lombard and Kyle Noke will be fighting separate opponents on the same night. Interesting because I would have thought EliteXC would have wanted Lombard on one of their fightcards ASAP instead of `risking' him with another promotion. Also, Noke fighting Downunder too? Has his contract expired (and not been renewed) or are we starting to see a sort of cross promotion co-operation between EliteXC and CFC in the beginning stages?

Nice to see Lombard is not doing a cut-and-run with his fans Downunder. Thanks Hector.

Full Card below.

Continue reading this post »

This diary entry was promoted to the front page by Luke Thomas.

It was announced on infinitemma.com yesterday that local Aussie HW, Brad Morris has signed with the UFC. No news on opponents or which fightcard he'll be featured but will keep you posted when news comes through.

Brad holds a 9 - 2 record with wins over Kristof Midoux at the Bodog - Vancouver and another win over Masayuki Kono at the Warriors Realm 12 held in Sydney at the end of last month.

Interestingly back in 2002, Brad's lost to another MMA debut by the name of Soa Palelei. Check the Youtube link below at around the 2:40 mark (for this fight) and watch him scramble to get out of the armbar. Wasn't the best example by Soa but you got to admit in Brad's first fight, he did give his all.

That will make three Aussie heavy weights that have been signed by Danna in recent years. Perosh, Palelei and now Morris. Ask me and any MMA fan in Aust., we appreciate the support Dana has shown by taking the risk on signing our fighters in the last two years. I know it suits Dana's own purposes with the HW division starting to thin out but still... anyway, good luck Brad.

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Just a quick note before I get into the fight summaries. It was announced by ringside that Hector Lombard is now an Australian citizen. While local fight fans are excited (because we can claim him as ours), all it really means is Lombard can now get a working Visa on his Australian passport to fight in the USA. Yes, this is guy that couldn't get into the USA to fight at UFC 78 (Karo Parisyan) because he was born in Cuba. I'd expect to see him fighting in North America soon.

Fight results.

Hector Lombard vs. Tristan Yunker - Winner: Lombard - 1st  round (3:10) - Corner Stoppage

Anthony Perosh vs. Moise Rimbon - Winner: Rimbon - 1st round (4:11) - KO (Knee)

Dylan Andrews vs. Brian Ebersole - Winner: Ebersole - 2nd round (4:26) - KO (GnP)

Bernardo Trekko vs. Gustavo Falciroli - Winner: Trekko - Unanimous Decision

Shane Nix vs. Brad Thompson - Winner: Nix - 1st round (4:01) - TKO (GnP)

Nick Pudney vs. Alex Shevtsov - Winner: Shevtsov - 1st round (0:42) - Submission (Armbar)

Gerald Burton-Batty vs. Francis Carmont - Winner: Carmont - 1st round (1:53) - KO (GnP)

Andy Kappas vs. Matt Burcher - Winner: Kappas - 1st round (1:50) - Submission (RNC)

Rob Hill vs. Jai Bradney - Winner: Bradney - 1st round (2:14) - TKO (GnP)

Continue reading this post »

Seems the good people in Aust. Customs are conspiring against the local MMA fans here in Australia. According to the CFC Homepage, Jordan Radev, has had an issue obtaining a Visa to enter Australia. Tristan Yunker has stepped in as a last minute replacement and to be honest I don't know anything about Tristan except what can be found on Sherdog. Tristan has lost his last two fights and will be up against it in fighting Hector Lombard on the maincard.

The people at CFC are being their usually non-cooperative selves before their February 15th event and not answering email enquires so unfortunately this is lifted pretty much straight from their homepage with additional comments made where necessary. (http://www.cfcworld.com.au/index.php)

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We have all seen the results of so many MMA fights go an unexpected way. I'm not going to name any; to do so would invite debate in an area I'm trying to avoid.

Instead, I'm looking at how judges score an event, and why I can watch a fight and say: close fight, so-and-so should have it in the bag though... and then bang, nope, it went the other way. By majority, too? Sometimes, it blows my mind and I know it upsets other MMA fans. So let's have a look at it.

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Interesting local report from a reader in Australia. Promoted from the diaries by Kid Nate

Earlier today the Sports and Recreation Minister James Merlino said he would NOT follow the lead of other states and allow cage fighting in Victoria, Australia:

Well that's a relief. And here I thought you could just randomly run down the street and kick people in the head as opposed to sucker punching them like Danny Williams did last year in a rugby league game. Yeah, yeah I know, we've been down this road before and you don't want to hear another fan explaining the reasons why it's safer then most other contact sports. Cool.

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Xplosion has just release it's fight card for the Gold Coast, Australia event scheduled for this weekend. While you can't help wondering why it took so long, it does feature the usual international fighters and the mixed rules (Muay Thai and MMA) fights. It looks promising if you can sit through a few Muay Thai fights.

The promoters say the event will be broadcast via the XPLOSION.TV website (http://xplosion.tv/english) and they are promoting it as free. Could be worth a look.

Fight card as follows:

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Alex Prates (4-2-0) vs. Tim Burner
WINNER: Alex Prates via NC

Henry Culque (2-0-0) vs. Jared Weston
WINNER: Henry Culque by decision

David Tong vs. Aaron Ryan (2-2-0)
WINNER: David Tong by Ref stoppage

Hugh Cameron vs. Francis Macdonald
WINNER: Hugh Cameron via Choke

Matt Burcher (1-1-0) vs. Jacob O'Connel
WINNER: Jacob O'Connel via submission

Scott Benson vs Andrew Gorton
WINNER: Scott Benson via Ref Stoppage

Felipe Bolzonni vs. Api Hemara (6-3-1)
WINNER: Felipe Bolzonni via Decision

Sydney, Australia played host to CFC#2 this month and while this was only the CFC's second event it was pretty good. Decent fight card, held at a central location and the promotion standards were up there.

Rumour to come out of the event? Hector Lombard will make his debut at a UFC event in Europe soon. Nothing concrete except a couple of people talking and some Australian MMA websites, however it would make sense with Hector's visa issues (he's Cuban). Be a nice solution for the UFC if they were thinking that way.

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Round of fights for Saturday the 30th of November.

Under 155 pounds fights:
Alex Prates (3-2-0) vs. Tim Burner
Henry Culque (1-0-0) vs. Jared Weston
David Tong vs. Aaron Ryan (2-2-0)
Hugh Cameron vs. Francis Macdonald

Under 170 pounds fights:
Jason Harris (0-1-0) vs. Scott Benson
Matt Burcher (1-0-0) vs. Jacob O'Connel
Under 185 pounds fights:
Andrew Gorton (1-1-0) vs. Brett Fitzpatrick
Jamie Rae vs. Hohepa Ngarrimu

Under 210 pounds fights:
Felipe Bolzonni vs. Api Hemara (6-2-1)

Must be a busy month for Api Hemara, just fought last weekend with the CFC.

Hector Lombard (12-2-1) vs. Jean Francois Lenogue (9-8-2)
WINNER - Hector Lombard - Judges Decision
Dylan Andrews (4-0-0) vs. Api Hemara (6-2-1)
WINNER - Dylan Andrews 2st Round - Submission (RNC)
Shane Nix (2-0-0) vs. Ian Bone (1-1-0)
WINNER - Shane Nix 1st Round - Submission (RNC)
Jim Kendrovski (2-2-0) vs. Bernado Trekko
WINNER - Bernardo Trekko - Judges Decision
Kian Pham (1-1-0) vs. Rick Aitkens
WINNER - Kian Pham 1st Round - Submission (Guillotine Choke)
Tony Ballout vs. Kahu Cooper (0-2-0)
WINNER - Tony Ballout - Judges Decision
Dave Frendin (6-12-2) vs. Kym Robinson (6-3-0)   
WINNER - Kym Robinson 1st Round - Submission (Arm Bar)

Hector Lombard, the guy taken off the UFC 78 (against Karo Parisyan) because of visa issues entering the US, will be fighting for the CFC Middleweight Title against Jean Francois Lenogue later this month. Back in July, at the first CFC event, Lombard fought to a draw against Kyle Noke.

Also on the fight card is Priscus Fagagnolo (the website for CFC is wrong, it should be Fagagnolo, I don't care what they say), is on the Australian Judo Team and has won a few national judo titles. He is someone to watch out for if he can make the transition to MMA successfully.

CFC 2 will be held - 23rd of November 2007 - Sydney, Australia.    

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In the world of MMA the UFC is the pinnacle of the sport, but do you ever get the feeling the UFC might have painted itself into a corner recently?

Let's break it down some:

1. According to Ken Shamrock, Dana left Ken with one fight left on his contract. The UFC has shown a habit of making their ageing fighters fight on with injuries, regardless of how bad it could be for their long-term career. When those same warhorses get defeated, they get shown the door. Don't think it happens? Ask Shamrock after Tito destroyed him.

Come on, you don't think Tito backed out recently because he needed another pile of money to jump over? Kidding, he was worried he would have to run to M1 or the IFL for a job.

2. Unless the UFC and Randy come to some agreement soon they just lost their biggest international selling card. Sorry, but I don't care what you say about Chuck, Hendo or even Fedor. You live outside of North America and have been following MMA, Randy is your man. Chuck has lost two in a row and looks the victim at fights end, Henderson is ex-Pride with a limited profile outside Japan and Fedor hasn't fought a televised event since I can't remember when.

Randy portrays an honest, hardworking, down to earth individual. You could have a quiet beer with Randy, talk about the - well, who cares what, something? Now imagine trying to have that same beer with a howling Rampage, slapping the barmaid's rump as she puts down two cold beers at your table.

The UFC have not only have lost their champion, they lost a person that people around the world wanted to meet. They lost someone that made my father start watching MMA. Big call, but true. Plus, if they let Randy go fight Fedor in M1 then other fighters may start to `resign' from the UFC. The UFC have to fight this in court or bite the bullet and pay him what he is worth. They have no choice. If they put him on ice, like Arlovski, then they risk a MMA fan backlash.

3. The question of payment for other fighters. Is Randy the second highest paid UFC fighter? I don't really care. But UFC77 took in over two million dollars and the fighters took home about six and a half hundred thousand dollars. The UFC made how much with selling advertising, and PPV and the UFC can say fighters get bonus but still... I'm not saying pay them as much as some of the boxers get, but there has got to be a happy medium.

Right now the UFC is taking a beating. It lost money in the UK. Their middle weight division is looking very one-sided with Silva as champion and the Randy contract is going to make them swallow some pride to get him back. Their ageing fighters are starting to say, `I ain't nobody's fool' and ducking the fights they used to once take. They lost Fedor because they wouldn't let him fight sambo, and to a bad quote `Those crazy Russians' which Fedor took exception too. Go figure, call someone crazy and they take offence?

I know it's easy throwing stones, but wake up. M1 is going to sign up people like Lindland and Nick Diaz because they are good fighters and fans want to see them fight.

Randy left the ball in the UFC's court when he said it's not a negotiation unless you are prepared to walk away. I'm not sure how Randy can `resign' from a contract but both parties seem willing to talk. So talk guys... come on, you can do it.