MMA Universe

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - After extending UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva the five round distance for the first time this past April, Thales Leites will waste no time stepping back into the Octagon to begin on his road back to a title shot as he takes on hard-hitting Alessio Sakara in preliminary action on August 8th's UFC 101 card at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

Bellator does it again:

The Wargods V event went down last night (Saturday, May 30) from Viejas Casino in Alpine, California.

In the evening’s main event, former UFC light heavyweight contender Vernon “Tiger” White came up short against former collegiate Division 1 wrestler Lew “The Titan” Polley.

Polley used his wrestling to suffocate any offense by White and controlled the match from the opening bell. Aside from a bizarre referee stand-up towards the end of the second round that may have saved “The Tiger” from a pending Kimura, Polley had everything going his way.

Pancrase veteran Steve Magdaleno, who stepped in to replace a limp Andy Wang, dominated Carlos Garsas, who ironically had to replace Wang’s original opponent Kit Cope.

While Cope was advertised on the main card, some undisclosed funny business took place behind the scenes that Kope says left a lot of fighters with the impression that the show had been canceled.

As a result, Kope’s teammate Lucas Gamaza, also did not participate. He was replaced by Mike “Showtime” Aryano, who was quickly submitted in the first round by Tarec Saffiedine.

Check out the complete Wargods V quick results after the jump:

Lew Polley defeated Vernon “Tiger” White by unanimous decision
Steve Magdaleno defeated Carlos Garsas via submission (armbar) R1
Joe Duarte defeated David Gardner via TKO (strikes) R1
Bryan Travers defeated Tom Belt via unanimous decision
Tarec Saffiedine defeated Mike “Showtime” Aryano via submission (keylock) R1
Rick Slaton defeated Salah Zabian via TKO (strikes) R1
Bailey Byrne defeated Mentoa McKenzie via submission (triangle choke) R1
Leland Gridley defeated Jorge Sanchez via submission (armbar) R2
Gareth Joseph defeated Jose Diaz via TKO (strikes) R1

For more on Wargods click here.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today announced the final 11-fight line up for its first-ever trip to Pennsylvania, which is scheduled for Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009.

UFC 101 will feature a main event between lightweight champion BJ Penn and number one contender Kenny Florian. In addition, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva will step up once again to compete at light heavyweight against former 205-pound champion, Forrest Griffin, in a three-round, non-title special attraction.

Here is the complete UFC 101 fight card:

Main event:

UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian

Main card (Televised):

205 lbs.: Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva
185 lbs.: Amir Sadollah vs. Johny Hendricks
185 lbs.: Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida
155 lbs.: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Josh Neer

Under card (May not be broadcast):

155 lbs.: Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley
170 lbs.: John Howard vs. Tamdan McCrory
185 lbs.: Alessio Sakara vs. Thales Leites
170 lbs.: Matt Riddle vs. Dan Cramer
155 lbs.: George Sotiropoulos vs. Rob Emerson
170 lbs.: Danillo Villefort vs. Jesse Lennox

MMAmania.com will provide LIVE blow-by-blow, round-by-round coverage of UFC 101, beginning with the pay-per-view (PPV) telecast at 10 p.m. ET. In addition, we will deliver up-to-the-minute quick results of all the under card action on fight night.

We’re still a few months away from showtime; therefore, feel free to share your thoughts and predictions on “Declaration” in the comments section below. And remember that MMAmania.com will be the spot for the latest news and event-related highlights before, during and after the event.

For everything you need to know about UFC 101 feel free to also hit up our event archive right here.

Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review Journal takes to task the meat market aspects of amateur MMA. The Las Vegas Sun gives a more positive spin on the same promotion.

Chuck Liddell and John Hackleman open up a new gym in Arroyo Grande.

Pat Miletich’s gym and the story of its’ fighters are profiled by the Kansas City Star.

Shark Fights has been promoting MMA cards down in Texas, now they look to get into the retailing end of MMA.

Reality TV pioneer Craig Piligian is profiled at Multichannel News. The piece takes a look at his career as a whole but a good part of the article discusses his efforts with the Fertittas, first with American Casino and then with The Ultimate Fighter. I’ll excerpt the portions that deal with the UFC:

And Piligian has proven he’s not afraid to tackle some touchy and controversial brands. He initially approached two Las Vegas-based casino owners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, about creating a reality series about the rough-and-tumble world of legal casinos. But it was another business that the Fertitta brothers had — the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed-martial-arts franchise — that caught Piligian’s keen development eye, according to UFC president and co-founder Dana White.

Despite negative publicity surrounding the UFC and mixed martial arts at the time — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) once referred to the sport as human cockfighting — Piligian decided to get into the ring with the Fertitta brothers and create a series pitting several up-and-coming UFC fighters living under one roof against each other in a week-to-week elimination tournament.

That was the beginning of the Ultimate Fighter, now Spike TV’s No. 1 show. The current season of UFC — a faceoff between U.S. and United Kingdom mixed martial artists — is averaging a hefty 1.6 million viewers.

Indeed, White — who also hosts the series — said the UFC franchise, which will distribute its 100th pay-per-view event in July, would not be where it is without Piligian, Spike TV and Ultimate Fighter.

“He’s a partner, he acts like and partner and he’s probably the best partner we’ve ever had,” said White. “In my opinion he’s the best reality show producer on television — he’s aggressive and he knows what he’s doing.”

White said part of Ultimate Fighter’s success is that Piligian puts the real in reality, allowing the action to flow seamlessly without staging or crafting situations to help draw ratings.

“You never have to watch the Ultimate Fighter and wonder if the action is contrived,” White said. “He lets the action run its course. I’m no actor, but the great part of doing the reality show is that he lets me be me.”

While Piligian may let his reality shows imitate real life, he’s never too far from the action. Piligian said he makes a point to remain an integral part of the day-to-day operations of all of his reality series, however grueling and time-consuming that may be.

“Think about all the shows that he produces, and yet he’s at every fight for the Ultimate Fighter,” White said. “He’s an animal — an absolute lunatic — he’s very aggressive and very good at what he does.”

Piligian was key in developing TUF and creating the concepts that have driven the show. He was instrumental in coming up with the concept along with Lorenzo Fertitta. Fertitta spoke with The Atlantic and detailed Piligian’s role in bring TUF to market:

So we had to take a step back. And we partnered up with Craig Piligian, the reality show producer, who we had originally met through UTA, and then that relationship went away, and then about I don’t know how many years later, let’s say two years later, he called and said he wanted to do a reality show about a casino, and the only person he knew in the casino business was me. And would I be interested. And originally I said ‘nah, I’m not really into that kind of stuff, I kinda have a low profile.’ But we started talking about it and I said, ‘You know what, it actually might help our business, and so for business’s sake, you know, we’ll talk about it.’ So we ended up doing a deal. American Casino went on the Discovery Channel. It actually did okay.

So I got on the phone with Craig one day. I said you know the Ultimate Fighting thing again, he says ‘yeah, we gotta figure a way to get that on.’ I said ‘yeah, but we met with everybody, and everybody’s turned us down.’ And just through talking to Craig, he goes, ‘you know another way you could do it, is you could just bankroll, and then go and sell to sponsors yourself to finance it.’ I go ‘wow, I didn’t even know that, I didn’t even think of that. Maybe that’s what we do.’ So that’s essentially what the strategy was. So we sat back down with Spike. And Spike wasn’t real enthusiastic about it, but after about 3 or 4 meetings, they’re like yeah, okay, we’ll do it.

Piligian built the relationship with Fertitta during their first reality experience and was able to revisit that for TUF, bringing a fresh perspective to getting the show on the air. He also made key production decisions like placing all the athletes in one house, for heightened drama. The UFC as it is currently constituted as a PPV powerhouse owes a debt to Pilligian. TUF may at times seem like a Faustian bargain, what with the Junie Brownings of the world that the show has foisted upon us, but the MMA landscape absent the reality show would be a vastly different, smaller scene.

The Sunday Times is reporting today that a stop gap measure to make ends meet for UFC UK broadcaster Setanta has been nixed:

Setanta’s financial position was so parlous this weekend that it asked arch-rival BSkyB, which is 39.1% owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Sunday Times, for a £50m advance payment on a deal that would have seen Sky wholesale Setanta to its own Sky Sports subscribers.

The proposal of an interest-free loan, which was rejected, would have bridged the gap left by private-equity backers Doughty Hanson, Balderton Capital and Goldman Sachs, which have so far offered to inject £50m into the company.

Setanta, which has 1.2m customers, must now return for crunch talks with rights holders, including the PGA golf tour. After initially asking for a 15%-20% reduction in terms, the broadcaster is seeking to negotiate some of its rights deals down by 25%.

The rights fee reductions look to be a cross the board and the UFC won’t be immune in this respect. The last hired first, fired concept applies in a lot of situations and I imagine that the UFC were one of the first properties to be approached for a cut. While MMA is growing in the UK, it is important to keep in proper perspective the engines that are driving the Setanta train (soccer, cricket, rugby, etc.). It is going to be incumbent upon Setanta to get these reduction deals done in order to remain afloat. The general feel I have gotten in reading over all the Setanta stuff is that the situation is quite perilous at this point. The rights fee payment to the FA that is prompting all of this scurrying about is due by June 15, so there should be some movement in the situation over the next few weeks.

Phil Lowe of iFight365 has been covering the Setanta issue closely and gives his take on where the situation may go from here:

As we reported back in March, Setanta Sports and the UFC signed a two-year agreement at the start of 2008 which saw Setanta Sports 1 become the exclusive home for all UFC programming.

While we don’t have confirmation on whether or not ongoing talks over rights include talks with the UFC, the ongoing problems with the broadcaster raises questions over the UFC’s future in the UK, who may find themselves looking for a new UK broadcaster in the next six months or so.

Providing the original deal is still in place, UFC’s contract with Setanta Sports would end in early 2010, making the New Year an even more interesting one for wrestling and MMA fans in the UK and Ireland.

Rob Maysey, founder of the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association, was the guest on this week’s edition of Carson’s Corner. Mr Maysey puts forth his case for forming an association of fighters to provide a revenue stream to the fighters that isn’t there currently. Definitely worth a listen.

Check out “The Fluke” after the jump.

Got Fight?: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat
by Forrest Griffin and Erich Krauss

Amazon.com gives us an apt description of the author and what the book entails:

Forrest came to the attention of millions of fans when he won the season finale of the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, the mixed-martial arts reality show that propelled the UFC into the pop culture mainstream (and that today draws more than 2 millions viewers an episode). The pages in this book will feature his boisterous personality and trademark sense of humour to demonstrate to readers that being a fighter takes more than simply an adrenaline rush - it takes focus, a little cunning, and the intelligence to know that the best way to avoid serious injury is to stay away from ‘Rampage’ Jackson’s right hand, bro.

Griffin will also be doing select dates for book signings for the launch of the book.

BOOK SIGNING DATES

June 1, 2009
Book Revue
313 New York Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
7:00 PM

June 2, 2009
Bookends
232 East Ridgewood Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450 7:00 PM

June 4, 2009
Barnes and Noble
2900 Peachtree Rd NE
Atlanta, GA
7:00 PM

June 9, 2009
Barnes and Noble
810 West Valley Parkway
Escondido, CA 92025
7:00 PM

June 12, 2009
Barnes and Noble
567 North Stephanie
Henderson, NV 89014
7:00 PM

MMACanada.net has the information on attendance, gate, and select salaries for the recent Maximum Fighting Championship MFC 21 card:

The attendance totaled a sold-out crowd of 2250 spectators plus another 1000 who were stationed in the River Cree casino.
Gate: $ 212,550

Bobby Lashley earned $30,000.
Mike Cook earned $4,000.

Trevor Prangley earned $14,000 for his win over Emanuel Newton
Emanuel Newton $7,000 His Win Bonus would have been another $7,000

Marvin “Beastman” Eastman $7,000
John Alessio $6,000

“Submission of the night” award went to John Alessio. The bonus totaled $1,000.

“Knockout of the night” was awarded to Dwayne Lewis.

It is interesting to take a look at the numbers for MFC. They are a mid-level promotion at this point with an eye towards continued growth and expansion. The gate figures are good, owing a large part to MFC’s deal with the River Cree Resort. Shows like this are usually “sold shows”, which helps a lot towards viability and profitability. The MFC looks to have a paid a bit of a premium over their normal salary range to bring in Bobby Lashley, but the press they received from the former WWE champ would seem to make it a good investment.

Props: The Sun

“Cain is from the new generation, he is young. He has a lot to prove but he looks very good … He needs heart to beat me. Lots of heart. He needs to be very careful … Maybe I am going to get a shot after this fight … I don’t make the rules on these things. I thought I was close before, but all I can do is fight and keep winning and training … I am more confident than ever. I am doing things in my fights that I have done in the gym for a while and I am getting better. I think I will be the UFC heavyweight champion.”

Cheick Kongo talks about a pending heavyweight showdown with Cain Velasquez at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany, at the Lanxess Arena on June 13. In short, he’s not scared of the highly-touted two-time All-American wrestler out of Arizona State University. Let’s just hope the “French Sensation” has polished his takedown defense since the loss to Carmelo Marrero at UFC 64: “Unstoppable” back in 2006.

A heavyweight fight between Paul Buentello and Tim Sylvia has been added to the upcoming Affliction: Trilogy fight card.

Sylvia has not fought since July 2008 where he was quickly defeated by Fedor Emelianenko in the first round. “The Maine-iac” is currently schedule to fight former boxing champion Ray Mercer in a “caged boxing” match next month on an Adrenaline fight card in Alabama.

Buentello last fought in January on the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card where he picked apart Kiril Sidelnikov for nearly three full rounds en route to a TKO victory.

Affliction: Trilogy is currently scheduled for August 1 in Anaheim, CA. The event will be headlined by the WAMMA heavyweight title fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett.
Also on the fight card are fights between Gegard Mousasi vs. Vitor Belfort, Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon, and Jay Hieron vs. Paul Daily.

“I went back and watched the Rashad fight again, and I think it comes down to bad coaching. In the prefight press conference, I heard Rashad say that he didn’t bring anybody in who would resemble Machida’s style. When I heard that, I knew that there might be some problems. That is probably a big reason why Rashad didn’t do very well in the striking area. I also think Rashad should have been coached on using his wrestling talent. He didn’t shoot one takedown that I can remember and he just made it a sparring match. If I was to coach Rashad against Machida, I would have told him to make it a fight, use his wrestling and groundwork to really dictate the match. Not just go out and spar with him. I think Rashad could have done a lot better in that fight. I’m not saying he should have won, but he’s a lot better than he showed on Saturday.”

– Matt Hughes shares his thoughts via his personal blog about the main event fight between Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida at UFC 98 on May 23. “The Dragon” looked phenomenal, taking out “Sugar” in the second round with a lethal explosion of strikes that separated the champion from consciousness for the first time ever in his previously unbeaten career. Hughes chalks the loss up to bad coaching and a poor strategy going into the fight. And he’s not the only one — Shawn Tompkins, the head trainer at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, told CageWriter.com that Machida is “far from unbeatable” and Rashad “gave Lyoto everything he needed to make himself look invincible” by failing to close the distance and use his strong wrestling skills. So is Machida really as good as he looked last weekend or does Evans’ head trainer, Greg Jackson, deserve some of the credit?

Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia (24-5) is indeed booked to return to action against Paul Buentello (27-10) at Affliction 3: “Trilogy” at the Honda Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 1, 2009.

The long-rumored bout was recently confirmed by MMAFanhouse.com with promotion officials.

Sylvia has been on the shelf since getting steamrolled by Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction “Banned” in July 2008. That’s more than a year of inactivity, which could be a factor when “The Maine-iac” finally steps back into the ring on fight night.

He will, however, have a little tune up before his meeting with Buentello … if that’s what you want to call it.

Remember that Sylvia has agreed to box former Olympic gold medalist and world heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer — barely one month after “Merciless” turns 48 years of age — at Adrenaline III: “Bragging Rights” in Birmingham, Ala., on June 13.

Sylvia is on a two-fight losing skid and has dropped three of his last four contests. He’ll need all the help he can get to ensure that he breaks out of his slump sooner rather than later.

Buentello was last seen using Kiril Sidelnikov’s face as a human punching bag for almost three full rounds at Affliction 2: “Day of Reckoning” earlier this year. “The Headhunter” went on to eventually score a late third round technical knockout over the Russian Sambo specialist, who later tested positive for having banned substances in his system after the match.

This will be Buentello’s third appearance under the Affliction banner — he outpointed last minute replacement Gary Goodridge on the judges scorecards to earn a unanimous decision victory in the promotion’s inaugural show in 2008. He was originally scheduled to face Aleksander Emelianenko, but the Russian was forced out of action after having trouble getting cleared by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC).

Over his past 13 fights Buentello has only dropped two contests — one was for a shot at Andrei Arlovski’s UFC heavyweight title back at UFC 55 and the other was at the hands of Alistair Overeem last November on a Strikeforce card.

Affliction 3: “Trilogy” will feature a main event between WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko and top-ranked division player, Josh Barnett. Former Dream middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi is also expected to make his fighting debut on American shores.

To check out the latest fight card and rumors for Affliction 3: “Trilogy” click here.

Props: Tatame.com

Quoteworthy:

“He offended me. I wanted to fight, he wanted to offend. He said that I hit my head on his and opened his face, but what opened his face was the first punch I gave. He has this habit, at the time of the interview he grows, but at the time of the fight he cried, apologized to his coach, then came toward my corner saying I was an idiot, and also apologized. He is proving that he isn’t a person of only one face, he is two-faced. Otherwise everything is alright, I’m not very worried about him. Dude, I already beat him once, was winning this one. For me, if I have to fight, I fight, if I don’t, whatever. The problem is his, he’s already lost once and at the second made this s**t. I don’t know what they’ll do. Honestly, I don’t know, they (FEG) didn’t say anything. I trained three months for this clown to come and do what he did, now I won’t fight in July, not for a while. I’ll take a rest and wait.”

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza provides an update following his middleweight title bout against bitter rival Jason “Mayhem” Miller at DREAM 9 last week. The second outing between the pair was halted early in the first round because of an errant blow from Miller to a downed Souza. The strike carved a deep laceration to Souza’s head, which forced ringside officials to call off the match prematurely because of its severity. The fight was ruled a no contest. Another rematch between the two to determine a more decisive ending seems to be the next logical step; however, it doesn’t appear the “Jacare” is thrilled with the idea at this moment after Mayhem’s latest in-ring shenanigans.

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - On Saturday, June 13th, at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany, two of the most popular and exciting fighters of this era, Rich "Ace" Franklin and Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva, will meet in the main event of UFC 99. To get ready for what should be a memorable battle, we've listed each fighter's defining moments. If you missed these the first time, here they are again.

Monroe, Louisiana — May 30, 2009 — In front of an electrified and vocal crowd in Monroe, Louisiana, Hector Lombard and Jared Hess put on dominating performances to earn their way to the first ever Bellator Middleweight world championship.

Opening the semi-final action was the Cuban Olympian and knockout artist Hector “Shango” Lombard taking on Army Ranger and combatives expert Damien Stelly. Out of the gates both fighters let punches fly with a go-for-broke start that ended with Lombard mounting Stelly and implementing a ground and pound strategy that eventually resulted in a referee stoppage.

While Stelly fought gallantly, he wasn’t able to break free from Lombard’s mount and the referee stopped the fight via TKO with the ultra tough Hector Lombard moving onto the finals in under three minutes.

Headlining the night, the Oklahoman all-around tactical machine Jared Hess faced the legend killer and unpredictably versatile Yosmany Cabezas. Nearly going the three round distance, this match demonstrated how tough both competitors are with Hess dominating the fight with ground and pound while Cabezas consistently looked for an edge on Hess.

Although Hess defiantly took the first two rounds with Cabezas physically showing signs of his beating, the Cuban powerhouse Cabezas never gave up even with fists showering upon him. With only 30 seconds left in the match, the referee called it a TKO victory for the relentless Oklahoman tornado Jared Hess. Both Hess and Lombard collected the $50,000 purse and will move onto the Bellator Middleweight world championship bout and compete for the $100,000 grand prize in Hollywood, Florida on June 19th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

All the Bellator Middleweight semi-final action can be seen on Saturday, May 30, 2009 exclusively on ESPN Deportes and on Bellator.com on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

“The Hector Lombard, Jared Hess final truly pits our two top Middleweights against each other. Lombard standing is an amazingly powerful force and Hess on the ground is non-stop action and strikes. This should be a great final,” remarked Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney. “This deafening Monroe, Louisiana crowd was treated to a fantastic night of action that was just a preview of the championship finals that these two powerhouses will demonstrate at Bellator XII in June.”

With the stunning undercard battles, Nick Ring returned to the cage after a three year hiatus, not showing an inch of ring rust, to submit Isidro Gonzalez in less than one minute via guillotine submission. Alex Andrade returned to Bellator action for retribution and got just that by dominating Christian Fulgram with a furious throwing of rights and lefts resulting in the referee to call it in just over two minutes.

In a battle of the heavyweights, LSU football star Shawn Jordan impressed his loyal fans by taking out fellow Louisianan Jayme McKinney in 30 seconds into the second.

The full fight card results are below:

Bellator IX Middleweight Semi-Final Tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Yosmany Cabezas (8-2) vs. Jared Hess (8-0-1) Hess by TKO at 14:26
185 lbs. – Damien Stelly (9-3) vs. Hector Lombard (19-2) Lombard by TKO (strikes) at 2:56

Bellator IX Non-tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Isidro Gonzalez (16-13) vs. Nick Ring (8-0) Ring by submission (guillotine) at 0:39
145 lbs. – Shad Lierley (5-2) vs. Nate Murdock (6-5) Lierley by unanimous decision
185 lbs. – Christian Fulgram (10-3) vs. Alex Andrade (8-5) Andrade by TKO at 2:01
HWT – Shawn Jordan (1-0) vs. Jayme McKinney (5-4) Jordan by submission at 5:30
175 lbs. – Dan Keenan (0-1) vs. Chan Leonhardt (3-1) Leonhardt by KO at 3:03
155 lbs. – Chas Skelly (3-0) vs. Mike Braswell (4-3) Skelly by split decision

All of the Bellator IX action will air on ESPN Deportes Saturday, May 30.

Bellator Fighting Championships’ premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events broadcast weekly in primetime on Saturday nights on ESPN Deportes. The English-language broadcast becomes available on www.Bellator.com each Wednesday. The nationally televised events feature a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature bouts. There are four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season one over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.), Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.) divisions.

For more information, visit www.Bellator.com. Bellator’s Spanish website is available at www.Espanol.Bellator.com. Please contact your local cable provider to learn more about viewing Bellator Fighting Championships on ESPN Deportes.

Monroe, Louisiana – May 30, 2009 – In front of an electrified and vocal crowd in Monroe, Louisiana, Hector Lombard and Jared Hess put on dominating performances to earn their way to the first ever Bellator Middleweight world championship. Opening the semi-final action was the Cuban Olympian and knockout artist Hector “Shango” Lombard taking on Army Ranger and combatives expert Damien Stelly. Out of the gates both fighters let punches fly with a go-for-broke start that ended with Lombard mounting Stelly and implementing a ground and pound strategy that eventually resulted in a referee stoppage. While Stelly fought gallantly, he wasn’t able to break free from Lombard’s mount and the referee stopped the fight via TKO with the ultra tough Hector Lombard moving onto the finals in under three minutes.

Headlining the night, the Oklahoman all-around tactical machine Jared Hess faced the legend killer and unpredictably versatile Yosmany Cabezas. Nearly going the three round distance, this match demonstrated how tough both competitors are with Hess dominating the fight with ground and pound while Cabezas consistently looked for an edge on Hess. Although Hess defiantly took the first two rounds with Cabezas physically showing signs of his beating, the Cuban powerhouse Cabezas never gave up even with fists showering upon him. With only 30 seconds left in the match, the referee called it a TKO victory for the relentless Oklahoman tornado Jared Hess. Both Hess and Lombard collected the $50,000 purse and will move onto the Bellator Middleweight world championship bout and compete for the $100,000 grand prize in Hollywood, Florida on June 19th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. All the Bellator Middleweight semi-final action can be seen on Saturday, May 30, 2009 exclusively on ESPN Deportes and on Bellator.com on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

“The Hector Lombard, Jared Hess final truly pits our two top Middleweights against each other. Lombard standing is an amazingly powerful force and Hess on the ground is non-stop action and strikes. This should be a great final,” remarked Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney. “This deafening Monroe, Louisiana crowd was treated to a fantastic night of action that was just a preview of the championship finals that these two powerhouses will demonstrate at Bellator XII in June.”

With the stunning undercard battles, Nick Ring returned to the cage after a three year hiatus, not showing an inch of ring rust, to submit Isidro Gonzalez in less than one minute via guillotine submission. Alex Andrade returned to Bellator action for retribution and got just that by dominating Christian Fulgram with a furious throwing of rights and lefts resulting in the referee to call it in just over two minutes. In a battle of the heavyweights, LSU football star Shawn Jordan impressed his loyal fans by taking out fellow Louisianan Jayme McKinney in 30 seconds into the second.

All of the Bellator IX action will air on ESPN Deportes Saturday, May 30. The full fight card results are below:

Bellator IX Middleweight Semi-Final Tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Yosmany Cabezas (8-2) vs. Jared Hess (8-0-1) Hess by TKO at 14:26

185 lbs. – Damien Stelly (9-3) vs. Hector Lombard (19-2) Lombard by TKO (strikes) at 2:56

Bellator IX Non-tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Isidro Gonzalez (16-13) vs. Nick Ring (8-0) Ring by submission (guillotine) at 0:39

145 lbs. – Shad Lierley (5-2) vs. Nate Murdock (6-5) Lierley by unanimous decision

185 lbs. – Christian Fulgram (10-3) vs. Alex Andrade (8-5) Andrade by TKO at 2:01

HWT – Shawn Jordan (1-0) vs. Jayme McKinney (5-4) Jordan by submission at 5:30

175 lbs. – Dan Keenan (0-1) vs. Chan Leonhardt (3-1) Leonhardt by KO at 3:03

155 lbs. – Chas Skelly (3-0) vs. Mike Braswell (4-3) Skelly by split decision

Bellator Fighting Championships’ premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events broadcast weekly in primetime on Saturday nights on ESPN Deportes. The English-language broadcast becomes available on www.Bellator.com each Wednesday. The nationally televised events feature a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature bouts. There are four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season one over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.), Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.) divisions.