Donald Cerrone Moves Up to Welterweight for UFN 82

Recent UFC Lightweight challenger and perennial contender, Donald Cerrone, will be making his UFC Welterweight debut against tough Welterweight stand-out, Tim Means, in Pittsburgh in the main event of UFC Fight Night 82. Donald Cerrone has had great success in the lightweight division, both in the UFC and the WEC. It is unsure as to whether this is a permanent move or a temporary move to get back in the cage sooner.

Benson Henderson debuted in the 170 lb weight class last year and was able to get a win. I believe that Donald Cerrone posses to defeat "larger" opponents with his tremendous Muay Thai and submission talents. I don't think it would benefit him to permanently move to welterweight, but one fight won't hurt.  I still believe that Cerrone has the tools to be a UFC champion at some point before his career is over.  He gets so close to the title then has some setback. Recently he finally got his title shot, but suffered a TKO loss to the champion, dos Anjos. This should be an interesting match to see what Cerrone is capable of.

Munoz and Mousasi Set for Battle in May

UFC Middleweight contenders, Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi have been scheduled to face each other in a headline bout against each other on May 31.  The two men will square off in a five round fight that will headline a UFC Fight Night Card (UFC Fight Night 41) in Berlin.

Both men share a common link in their most recent outings.  Both men have been the victim of Lyoto Machida's drop down to the Middleweight Division.  Lyoto Machida dropped down to Middleweight after losing a controversial loss to Phil Davis at UFC 163.  Since dropping down to Middleweight, Machida has defeated Mark Munoz and then followed that performance with a win over Gegard Mousasi.  Both men will need to get a win to stay relevant in the title picture.  Both men are high level athletes who have lost to a superior athlete in the form of Lyoto Machida.  It will be interesting to see who will win this showdown and potentially stay in the mix at the top of the 185 lb weight class.

UFC Fight Night 40 Main Event Announced: Brown vs. Silva

We have had knowledge of a UFC Fight Night Card being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, but it wasn't until now that a main event has been announced.  The Fox Sports 1 event will feature a fight in the UFC's Welterweight Division between top contenders Matt Brown and Erick Silva.  Both men are tremendous and diverse competitors who always put on exciting fights.  Both men have scored TKO victories in their last outings in the UFC.  Matt Brown is riding a six-fight win streak while Erick Silva has been juggling wins and losses since he debuted in the UFC in 2011.

This is likely going to be an entertaining fight and has the potential to gain Fight of the Night.  I would prefer to see Matt Brown against a higher ranked opponents seeing that he's ran through his last six opponents, but from an entertainment stand point I am more that willing to watch this fight.  Both men are explosive and entertaining and this fight has fireworks written all over it.  I see Matt Brown coming out as the victor, but Erick Silva could pull off the win and get himself in the mix with a few more wins.

Below is the current fight card for UFC Fight Night 40:



Justin Salas vs. Ben Wall
Ed Herman vs. Rafael Natal
Soa Palelei vs. Ruan Potts
Manny Gamburyan vs. Nik Lentz
Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Darrell Montague
Chris Cariaso vs. Louis Smolka
Yan Cabral vs. Alexander Yakovlev
Johnny Eduardo vs. Eddie Wineland
Daron Cruickshank vs. Erik Koch
Lorenz Larkin vs. Constantinos Philippou

UFC Fight Night 33 Results

Main Card:

Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva majority draw
Mauricio Rua def. James Te Huna via first-round KO
Ryan Bader def. Anthony Perosh via unanimous decision
Soa Palelei def. Pat Barry via first-round KO
Clint Hester def. Dylan Andrews via  TKO (doctor's stoppage)
Bethe Correia def. Julie Kedzie via split decision

Preliminary Card:

Takeya Mizugaki def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision
Caio Magalhaes def. Nick Ring via unanimous decision
Justin Scoggins def. Richie Vaculik via first-round TKO
Krzysztof Jotko def. Bruno Santos via unanimous decision
Alex Garcia def. Ben Wall via first-round KO

Shogun at Middleweight

Maurico Rua is considering a future in the UFC's Middleweight Division if he were to lose his match at UFC Fight Night 33 this Saturday against James Te Huna in Australia.  Former UFC Light Heavyweight and Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Champion, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua thinks that a loss at UFC Fight Night would be what would push him to go to 185 lbs after many have felt that he already needed to be there.

Shogun Rua is 5-6 in the UFC and hasn't completely lived up the hype that he built as he was coming over from Pride FC.  He came into the Octagon with notable wins over men such as Alistair Overeem, Akihiro Gono, Cyrille Diabate, Quinton Rampage Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ricardo Arona and Kevin Randleman.  He was a man on a path of destruction who had a bright future in the UFC.  Shogun eventually went on to take the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship belt from Lyoto Machida by way of knockout.  Rua was unable to defend his belt as his first title defense was against a man named Jon Jones who would take the title from Rua and set a new record for the most UFC Light Heavyweight title defenses.

After losing the title to Jon Jones, Rua was never able to truly bounce back from the defeat. He went on to TKO Forrest Griffin in his next match, but would go 1-3 after the Griffin fight.  Shogun has looked terrible in his last two fights which he lost to Jon Jones' last two title challengers, Chael Sonnen and Alexander Gustafsson.  I feel that a move to Middleweight would be very beneficial to the former champ.  I think that Rua has the ability to make 185 lbs considering that he doesn't carry around a lot of muscle like some of the other guys who compete at 205.  We will just have to see what happens at UFC Fight Night 33 to see what Rua's fate will be.  I think he should make the cut down to Middleweight no matter the outcome.

Should Mauricio Shogun Rua make the move to Middleweight?--Tough Spar MMA

Yes, it would be a smart move

No, he belongs at Light Heavyweight

He needs to be cut from the UFC if he loses two Te Huna

Other

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Why Palhares Was Banned for Life from the UFC

Earlier today we reported the release of UFC Welterweight and long time Middleweight, Rousimar Palhares.  In case you missed the submission from last night below is the notorious submission that got him fired.

In case you've not been a fan of the UFC for a while here is the time before that in which he held on a little too long as well:

If those two incidences of holding onto a submission after a tap wasn't enough, in his previous fight against Hector Lombard, Palhares tested positive for high testosterone levels.  This is a justifiable release for the UFC.  Palhaes' behavior is unacceptable and can not be ruled as an accident considering that this has happened now a second time.  The UFC is making a smart decision by releasing Palhares before he continues to jeopardize not only limbs but the careers of more of the UFC's roster.

Julie Kedzie to Face Aleksandra Albu in Australia

The UFC has announced today that they will be adding a Womens' Bantamweight clash to the Australian card at UFC Fight Night 33 in December. Julie Kedzie will be returning to the Octogon for her second bout in the UFC to face Aleksandra Albu in her UFC debut. Julie Kedzie made her debut in the UFC against Germaine de Randamie in which she lost a decision to de Randamie. Aleksandra Albu is 5-0 in her professional career. Albu signed with the UFC back in September and is finally getting her first UFC fight in December. The fight will be featured on the same card as the Mark Hunt-Antonio Silva fight on UFC Fight Night 33.

Jacare's Camp Interested in Bout with Davis

After his recent victory at UFC Fight Night in Brazil, Former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza stated that he will take any fight that his employer the UFC puts in front of him.  Though he will do what his employer tells him to do, he expressed some interest in the UFC's 205lb weight class to take on some new challenges.  The name that his camp has expressed the most interest in is Phil Davis, the UFC's #3 Light Heavyweight.

So far there has not been a response from Davis' camp.

I think that this yet another good fight to test both athletes.  It will be a good fight for Souza if he wants to move up to 205 for a fight.  Davis is a little larger than Souza at 205, but not too large where it will be a huge problem.  Also if Davis can beat Souza, who is an elite UFC Middleweight, he can probably erase the doubt that he has left in the MMA community that his judges' decision over Machida was inaccurate.  It is a HUGE statement of one man can beat the other.  Both men are excellent at grappling and use their superior grappling to overwhelm their opponents.  I personally think that the UFC could've put Glover Teixeira against Davis and let the two of them battle it out for the next title shote, but that's another story for another day.

Boby Green vs. James Krause Heads to UFC Fight for the Troops 3

Strikeforce Lightweight standout, Bobby Green is scheduled to meet  James Krause on the UFC Fight for the Troops 3 in November. This card is being headlined by a fight with Tim Kennedy facing Lyoto Machida in his Middleweight debut since his decision loss to Phil Davis.

UFC Fight Night 27 Weigh In Results

MAIN CARD

Carlos Condit (170.5) vs. Martin Kampmann (170)
Donald Cerrone (156) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (155.5)
Kelvin Gastelum (170) vs. Brian Melancon (170)
Court McGee (170) vs. Robert Whittaker (170.5)
Takeya Mizugaki (135.5) vs. Erik Perez (135.5)
Brad Tavares (186) vs. Bubba McDaniel (185)

PRELIMINARY CARD

Dylan Andrews (185) vs. Papy Abedi (184.5)
Justin Edwards (170) vs. Brandon Thatch (170)
Darren Elkins (145) vs. Hatsu Hioki (146)
James Head (170.5) vs. Jason High (171)
Zak Cummings (170.5) vs. Ben Alloway (170)
Roger Bowling (155.5) vs. Abel Trujillo (155)

Ladies and Gentlemen, we will witness an amazing card tomorrow evening.

Chael and Kenny's UFN 27 Predictions

Kenny Florian and Chael Sonnen weigh in on the coming UFC Event this Wednesday.

Sarah Kaufman Dropped From UFN Aug. 28

After reporting earlier this month that Sara Mcmann would no longer be competing August 28th at UFC Fight Night, we have learned that the UFC hasnt been able to find a new opponent for Sarah Kaufman.  With no opponent for Kaufman, they have decided to completely scrap Kaufman from the event. There is no word on whether or not the UFC will be rescheduling Mcmann vs. Kaufman.

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A Chael Sonnen Interview is Never Dull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs68YQN9hq0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My Fight Predictions

Got the main event right but that was about it.  I didn't get to see the event but,  I knew Mauricio Rua was not going to pull it off tonight.

October 9th is the Date

As we posted earlier, Jake Shields and Demain Maia are set to fight later on this year and now we have more details. The date is October 9th. They will be headlining UFN 29.

Ready for the Happy Days to Begin

After a mediocre event this fight weekend, I must say that I'm ready to see if the coming Fox Sports 1 cards are going to deliver upon the hype.  I really believe that they can  but more importantly I believe that they have to.  The last two UFC events (UFC on FOX 8 & UFC 168) have not lived up to their potentials.  As I posted earlier this week. The Bellator 97 event that aired on Spike in my opinion had more engaging events than this past weekend which shared the same week as a UFC Pay-Per-View.  Exceptions to the mediocre label would be Demetrious Johnson's performance over John Moraga.  That fight was my favorite of the Fox event.  Sergio Moraes and Amanda Nunes also put on excellent performances at the most recent UFC 168 event.  I think that the Fox Sports cards are put together well and have the potential to be HUGE.  I just hope that the same hype that I've had for fights such as MacDonald/Ellenberger, Machida/Davis & Aldo/Jung isn't crumbled by dull performances.  The fight that I'm most anticipating is the bout between Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann.  I feel that it is a very important fight for both men, especially Condit.  Condit really needs a win over Kampmann to solidify that he is still a top contender in the Welterweight division.  His last two performances were great but not enough to pull off a victory.  I think that both of the top contenders need a very impressive win to get back in the title picture.