One more fight has been signed as according to sources, bantamweights Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez have recently signed to face each other at WEC 42, tentatively scheduled to take place sometime in August in Las Vegas, although no venue has been announced at the time of this posting.
Benavidez, a contender to Miguel Torres’ title belt, is undefeated in his 10-fight career, with his most recent victory coming over Jeff Curran at WEC 40. Meanwhile, Cruz has only been beaten once in his 14-bout career; he has put together a 4-fight win streak, with his most recent win being against Ivan Lopez – also at WEC 40.
The tournament finals for Bellator Fighting Championships are now set and will be contested over the next three weeks as the featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight divisions will be settled – with each winner earning $100,000, upping the fighter’s total winnings to $175,000 over a 12-week period.
The featherweight title will be determined on June 5 at Citizens Business Bank Arena while on June 12 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT, the welterweight title will be settled. Meanwhile on June 19 from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the lightweight and middleweight finals will take place. All of the Bellator Fighting Championships finals will be televised on a one-day tape delay on ESPN Deportes. Below are the bouts:
145-pound final: Yahir Reyes vs. Joe Soto on June 5
155-pound final: Eddie Alvarez vs. Toby Imada on June 19
170-pound final: Omar De La Cruz vs. Lyman Good on June 12
185-pound final: Jared Hess vs. Hector Lombard on June 19
Take it for what it’s worth, but it is appearing very unlikely that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will not take on Lyoto Machida as various sources state that it may very well be Mauricio “Shogun” Rua who will be Machida’s first opponent in defense of his Light Heavyweight title at UFC 103 in October 2009.
According to Jackson’s Twitter account, he appears to be leaning towards coaching on The Ultimate Fighter again. Should this be the case, that would seem to indicate that Rampage may opt to fight Rashad Evans instead, especially in light of their war of words that took place following Jackson’s win over Keith Jardine at UFC 96.
Meanwhile, Rua has been meeting with UFC brass in getting a contract extension hammered out; he is coming off a victory over Chuck Liddell and is gradually getting into the form that made him the #1 contender to the LH title at one time. Rua may have his difficulties as no one has yet been able to solve Machida’s style. Machida used to have a style, while effective, tended to lead to boring, uninspiring fights; but that may have changed with his last bout as he knocked out Evans.
While Rua is the obvious opponent for Machida here, I do not see how he can solve the Dragon’s elusive style – hell, no one else has been able to.
Four fighters earned $240,000 in bonus money during UFC 98 on Saturday for: Knockout of the Night, Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night. The four fighters are:
Knockout of the Night: Lyoto Machida ($60,000)
Submission of the Night: Brock Larson ($60,000)
Fight of the Night: Matt Hughes, Matt Serra ($60,000 each)
Proving once again that they are the preeminent MMA organization worldwide, the UFC, on Saturday drew solid numbers in Las Vegas for UFC 98; 12,606 watched Lyoto Machida knock out Rashad Evans with a very respectable $3.4 million gate, as announced by UFC president Dana White during the UFC 98 post-fight press conference.
Although the crowd numbers and gate receipts don’t come close to cracking the Top 5 in UFC history, they are above-average nonetheless. One could even make the argument that MMA is nearly recession-proof; although to be fair, the pre-Memorial Day crowd had to help boost the overall numbers and gate. All that aside, a solid event all around.
It looks like Southern California will host a UFC event in the fall of 2009 as it was announced by UFC president Dana White during the UFC 98 post-fight press conference that Los Angeles will host its first UFC event since UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie, back in May 2006. The event will take place at Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.
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