The ?24 hours of MMA? begins tonight with HDNet?s Titan Fighting

Football has to take a back seat this weekend. That's not entirely true, but it has some company with a jam--packed fight weekend. Outside of short break Saturday morning, there's live fighting on television from tonight at 10 p.m. ET until late Saturday night/Sunday morning.

The ?24 hours of MMA? begins tonight with HDNet?s Titan Fighting

Titan Fighting 20 - Kansas City (Friday 10 p.m. ET)

Brett Rogers make his return after serious issues outside the cage to fight UFC veteran Eddie Sanchez. Former lightweight WEC champ Jamie Varner is also back.

Strikeforce Challengers 19 - Las Vegas (Showtime 11 p.m. ET/PT)

The card features prospects like Lavar Johnson and Lorenz Larkin. Ryan Couture and veteran Jason High are also on the televised portion live from the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas.

The ?24 hours of MMA? begins tonight with HDNet?s Titan Fighting

DREAM 17 - Saitama, Japan (HDNet Saturday 3 a.m. ET/Midnight PT)

DREAM's had a light slate in 2011, but returns with a great card. It features the quarterfinals of a bantamweight tournament headlined by Bibiano Fernandez, Abe Cullum and Hideo Tokoro. Former WEC 135-pound contender Antonio Banuelos (18-7, 8-4 WEC) also makes his DREAM debut. Other feature fights include Shinya Aoki vs. Rob McCullough and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Joachim Hansen. Gerald Harris, Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa and Caol Uno are also fighting.

UFC 135 preliminary fights -Denver (Facebook 5:30 p.m. ET)

Junior Assuncao vs. Eddie Yagin
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Cole Escovedo
James Te Huna vs. Ricardo Romero

Bellator 51 prelims - Canton, OH (Spike 7 p.m. ET)

UFC 135 undercard fights -Denver (Spike 8 p.m. ET)

Tony Ferguson vs. Aaron Riley
Nick Ring vs. Tim Boetsch

The ?24 hours of MMA? begins tonight with HDNet?s Titan Fighting

Bellator 51 main card - Canton, OH (MTV2 9 p.m. ET)

Like DREAM, Bellator has its own 135 tournament kicking off. Joe Warren, the promotion's 145-pound champion, begins his quest for the bantamweight title as well. If he wins the tournament, he'll get a date with champion Zach Makovsky.

Joe Warren vs. Alexis Vila
Wilson Reis vs. Eduardo Dantas
Chase Beebe vs. Marcos Galvao
Ed West vs. Luis Nogueira

UFC 135 main card (pay-per-view 9 p.m. ET)

Jon Jones vs. Quinton Jackson
Matt Hughes vs. Josh Koscheck
Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton
Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi
Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/The-24-hours-of-MMA-begins-tonight-with-HDNet-?urn=mma-wp7164

Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott

UFC allows questionable music choices at UFN 25

UFC allows questionable music choices at UFN 25One of the fun parts of a live UFC event is the way fighters use music to pump up as they walk out to the Octagon, but two fighters made questionable choices in their walkout songs at Ultimate Fight Night 25. Those bad decisions were then repeated by UFC president Dana White, who approves every song that is used by fighters.

Ken Stone, who won via submission, walked out to the Prodigy song, "Smack My Bitch Up." The song repeats two lines, "Smack my bitch up, change my pitch up." When it was released in 1997, it was protested by women's groups as condoning violence towards women. MTV only allowed the song to be played late at night, and Wal-Mart and K-Mart pulled the CD from its stores. Prodigy released a statement that the song was not about violence, but that's not apparent from its lyrics.

The next bad decision was when Matt Riddle walked out to the Scorpions song, "Rock You Like a Hurricane." In most cities, it's the perfect song to walk out to, but these fights took place in New Orleans. That's a city that was literally rocked by a hurricane in 2005. Hurricane Katrina's effects are still being felt in New Orleans, as they struggle to restore their population and status as a tourist destination to pre-Katrina levels.

The UFC generally controls their brand very tightly, and UFC officials confirmed to Cagewriter that White approves every walkout song. He has vetoed songs in the past. It's surprising that the UFC would let these two songs slip through.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-allows-questionable-music-choices-at-UFN-25?urn=mma-wp6987

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger 

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?It's week two of "The Ultimate Fighter," the episode where the fighters get their teams, their home for the next six weeks and we figure out which fighters will get the most air time. Who will be in the first quarterfinal fight of the season? What will the house look like? How will Jason "Mayhem" Miller creatively use a heap of tires? Join me for a recap and spoilers, won't you?

Reality TV show cliche of the week: The fighters moved into their house, shocked by the digs and availability of food. Then they eat. A lot. Remember that these are featherweights and bantamweights who will all need to weigh in for their fights soon. Foreshadowing?

Team picks of the week: Michael Bisping won the coin toss and chose the first pick instead of the first fight. The teams are (with some identifiers):

Team Bisping
Bantamweights: Louis Gaudinot (the guy with the green hair)
T.J. Dillashaw (Team Alpha Male guy)
John "Prince" Albert
Josh Ferguson (Guy whose brother didn't make the show)

Featherweights: Diego Brandao (Jackson's guy)
Akira Corassani (Best name in the house guy)
Marcus Brimage
Stephen Bass

Team Miller
Bantamweights: John Dodson (Team Jackson guy)
Johnny Bedford (Texas bro)
Dustin Pague (Heel-clicking dude, A.K.A. Ron Santo)
Roland Delorme (Canadian bro)

Featherweights: Dennis Bermudez (Maury Povich guy)
Bryan Caraway (Miesha Tate's boyfriend)
Dustin Neace
Steven Siler

Bisping claimed that Miller didn't take a single fighter who he wanted. Miller said that he chose based on his coaches' strengths. As they were leaving, Miller remarked that Bisping's fighters didn't look happy to be on his team. To the cameras, Bisping said, "Why wouldn't they be happy? I won the Ultimate Fighter. I've won 17 fights in the UFC. He's the Strikeforce reject."

Technology of the week: Miller stopped by the fighters' house to bring compression suits for each fighter to wear to recover from each practice. Something tells me these pieces of technology will be floating in the pool soon.

Fight pick of the week -- Bryan Caraway (Miller) vs. Brimage (Bisping): Brimage was already concerned about cutting his weight to 145 lbs., as he sat at 157 lbs. Bisping taught Brimage some of his weight cutting tricks, and both fighters made weight on their first try.

Prank of the week: Miller and his boys filled Bisping's room at the training center with tires. When Bisping did get into his room, he had to knock down the door, giving this season its first door casualty. R.I.P, TUF door.

Showtune of the week: As Caraway and Brimage faced off at weigh-ins, Corassani led Team Bisping in a chant that pumped up Brimage, but just made Team Miller laugh. "That was ADORABLE," Miller said.

Fight of the week -- featherweights: Bryan Caraway (Team Miller) vs. Marcus Brimage (Team Bisping)

Round 1: Caraway quickly went to his strength, wrestling, by taking down Brimage. He controlled him on the canvas, took his back and put his legs in. Brimage's active arms made it difficult for Caraway to slap on a choke, as he kept Caraway's hands from his neck and also landed enough punches that Caraway's eye swelled up. This is how the entire round went.

Miller and Bisping traded barbs in the first round. First, Miller laughed at Bisping's instructions in grappling, and when Miller said, "He's panicking," Bisping yelled back, "We're panicking!?!"

Round 2: Brimage came out with fast striking to start the round, but Caraway again answered with a takedown. He took Brmage's back with ease, but this time Brimage could get back to his feet. Caraway shot in a few more times, and when he was able to get him down, Brimage was able to get out. Halfway through the round, Caraway took Brimage down and landed a nasty elbow. He took Brimage's back, and this time was able to finish the rear naked choke.

Caraway is our first winner, but the two gave viewers a fun, active fight. This season is already shaping up to be an upgrade.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/What-you-need-to-know-from-this-week-on-The-Ult?urn=mma-wp7485

Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague

Alexis Vila?s long road to Bellator includes defection, prison

Alexis Vila?s long road to Bellator includes defection, prison

Cuban wrestler-turned-fighter Alexis Vila became a well-known name in MMA on Saturday, when he knocked out fellow world-class wrestler Joe Warren in the opening round of Bellator's bantamweight tournament. Before starting in MMA and putting together a 10-0, Vila's past includes an Olympic bronze medal, a world silver medal, a defection to the United States from Cuba and a stint in prison.

Vila was once part of Cuba's dominant freestyle wrestling team, winning a bronze at the 1996 Olympics. He defected to the U.S. in 1997, leaving behind his family and country, and began coaching at Michigan State where he worked with future UFC fighters Rashad Evans and Gray Maynard. Then, he got into a car accident that changed his life.

Just three years after September 11, Vila crashed his car into a terminal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. No one was hurt, but authorities thought he was attempting a terrorist act and charged him with airport violence. He could have gone to prison for 20 years. Vila plead down for a three-year jail sentence.

He talked about his time in prison on the MMA Hour:

"I was in prison for three years," Vila said. "It's no good. I'm a little guy so people who don't know me try things all the time. So I fought a lot. They didn't believe that I could fight. I said when I get out and I fight I'm going to be the champ."

At five-foot-four, Vila doesn't have an imposing figure, but he does have the kind of cauliflower ear that can only be earned through years of brutal training. His tormentors in prison likely learned the same lesson as Warren did on Saturday night: You don't mess with a little man with a bad left hook.

Next, he'll take that striking and world-class wrestling to Arizona, where he'll fight Marcos Galvao in the Bellator semifinals on Oct. 22.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Alexis-Vila-s-long-road-to-Bellator-includes-def?urn=mma-wp7441

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

TFC 20: Varner and Rogers lose, Whitney scores dynamite flying knee KO

TFC 20: Varner and Rogers lose, Whitney scores dynamite flying knee KOJamie Varner and Brett Rogers must've thought a few fights in the minor leagues would be fine on their way back to the bigs. That's not the way it's working out for the former WEC and Strikeforce stars. Both Varner and Rogers lost last night at Titan Fighting Championship 19.

Varner looked sluggish throughout his fight against Dakota Cochrane. He leaned too heavily on his takedown game and couldn't control Cochrane on the ground. Cochrane (11-1) was the much better fighter on the feet taking a unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards.

Varner, the former WEC lighweight champ, is now 1-4-1 in his last six. He's only 26, but has battle hand problems and other injuries for the last few years. Before the fight, Varner talked about his goals of a Zuffa return.

"I literally just took some time away from actual competition," Varner told the Kansas City Star. "I was still training and working out often. I took some fights last year that might have been (after) a little too quick of a turnaround. I needed my body to fully heal. I also took some college classes so I can have different opportunities in a few years down the road after my MMA career. For now I am 100 percent committed to MMA and getting to the UFC."

MMAjunkie says Varner was hinting at retirement on Twitter after the fight. It appears he deleted the tweet. Cochrane was  a late replacement on this card. His victory shows just how sick the depth is around the country in all weight classes.

Rogers (11-4) was facing a better known entity in former UFC fighter Eddie Sanchez and result was the same. Rogers was a top-rated heavyweight for Strikeforce and even gave Fedor Emelianenko a run for his money during their 2009 fight.

Against Sanchez, he looked tentative and exhibited little growth in his game. Rogers never put his punches together and appeared unable to check a kick. Sanchez beat up his lead leg for 15 minutes. Sanchez took a split decision, 30-27, 28-29 and 30-27, from Rogers, who's now lost 4-of-5.

The best moment of the night came fromn Andrew Whitney. He and Laramie Shaffer engaged in a slugfest for two-plus rounds, but that all changed when Whitney delivered a picture perfect flying knee.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/TFC-20-Varner-and-Rogers-lose-Whitney-scores-d?urn=mma-wp7220

Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo 

Exclusive pictures from Ultimate Fight Night 25

Check out Tracy Lee's exclusive pictures from Ultimate Fight Night 25 in New Orleans. See Jake Ellenberger's quick win,  Alan Belcher's return and more from the UFC's first trip to Louisiana.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Exclusive-pictures-from-Ultimate-Fight-Night-25?urn=mma-wp7032

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean AmasingerÂ