HT: AOL Fanhouse

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the UFC has informed them that UFC 90 will be held on October 25 in Chicago at Allstate Arena and will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between current champion Anderson Silva and challenger Patrick Cote. Silva was originally supposed to face off against Yushin Okami but Okami broke his hand in training and Cote has been moved up into his spot. Patrick Cote, in comments made to the Sun-Times, is already starting the trash talk:

‘‘I’m telling all my friends to bet on me,’’ Cote said, ‘‘because they’re going to make a lot of money.’’

‘‘This guy will need 10 punches to my face to knock me out, and I’ll just need one,’’ Cote said. ‘‘I have a good chance. He won’t exchange with me, and I’m not scared of him.

‘‘He wins a lot of his fights before they start because his opponents are intimidated and scared of him. I’m not scared of anyone in my weight class, especially him.’’

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the man that Silva just annihilated, James Irvin, have something similar to say? Something about “I’ll take 30 of his punches to land 10 of my own”? A word of advice for Patrick Cote: let sleeping dogs lie, my friend. If there’s one thing in the UFC’s middleweight division that you do not want to do, it’s piss off Anderson Silva. We saw Silva pissed off at the beginning of the second round of his fight against Dan Henderson because Henderson more or less layed on him for the first round. Silva didn’t like that, and in response, he went to work on Henderson with a barrage of strikes before choking him out. I understand that Cote wants to talk a big game to put hype behind a fight that otherwise has no hype around it, but I have a feeling that he will learn a serious lesson inside the cage.

Ken Pavia, the agent for UFC welterweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, recently revealed that he will be filing a formal appeal as a result of Johnson’s TKO loss on Saturday during UFC Fight Night 14.

During the bout, Johnson had been on the receiving end of several eye pokes from his opponent, Kevin Burns. In spite of multiple warnings, Johnson still received a severe poke during the third and final round of the fight. After taking the finger to the eye, Johnson retreated to the canvas and covered up. Referee Steve Mazzagatti then called a stop to the fight and later ruled Burns the winner via TKO.

I would be remiss if I didn’t file a complaint and seek recourse for the outcome of the Anthony Johnson  fight results this weekend,” Pavia stated during a forum post in the Underground forum at MixedMartialArts.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

I still have not seen UFC Fight Night 14 in its entirety, however, I’ve been able to view a good chunk of it. The biggest storylines of the night were obviously Anderson Silva’s dominant debut at 205 pounds as well as Brandon Vera’s successful debut in the same weight class.

But a big storyline that hasn’t gotten as much play as it deserves, and likely because MMA media sites only have so much staff and space to devote to coverage, is Kevin Burns’ controversial third round TKO victory over Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.

First, the fight between Burns and Johnson was excellent. Burns proved his win over Roan Carneiro was no joke and that he belongs in the UFC. Credit goes to UFC V.P. of Talent Relations Joe Silva for unearthing yet another diamond in the rough.

That said, the outcome of the bout should be appealed by Johnson’s camp and overturned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

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MMA Mania is reporting that a welterweight match-up between Anthony Johnson (5-1) and Kevin Burns (6-1) has been signed for July 19th’s, UFC Fight Night 14.

Both fighters are coming off very impressive victories in their most recent outings. Anthony Johnson destroyed TUF 6 finalist, Tommy Speer at April’s UFN 13 via first round highlight reel knockout. Kevin Burns on the other hand came out of nowhere to submit BJJ specialist, Roan Carneiro earlier this month at UFC 85: Bedlam.

The UFC has done some impressive scrambling so far to put together a decent looking fight night card. Currently, the card looks like this;

• Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin
• Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy
• Hermes Franca vs. Frankie Edgar
• Jake O’Brien vs. Cain Velasquez
• Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns

Read more UFN 14 content at FiveOuncesOfPain.com

MMAWeekly.com is on the ball with some new UFC match announcements.

First, UFC 76 will be a full nine-match card after all. Fresh off his IFO win earlier this month, Rich Clementi is back in the UFC and back in action against Anthony Johnson. The two will face off on the UFC 76 undercard on Sept. 22 in Anaheim, Calif.

That’s a pretty damn good last-minute addition match.

It also looks like another match has been added for UFC 78. While not official, it has appeared in the MMAWeekly.com rumors section and that rumors section is pretty damn good. According to the site, David Terrell will finally return to the UFC and will be taking on Ed Herman.

Hey, it’s no main event but it’s pretty damn interesting.

I’m really looking forward to UFC 78 on Nov. 17 in Newark because it’s not all that far from Philly (where I live) and having the UFC back in the Northeast has been a long time coming. The card itself isn’t all that bad, either.

Here’s what we could be looking at:

- Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans (hasn’t been officially announced but a recent newspaper report indicated it’s going down)

- B.J. Penn vs. TBA (my money is on Joe Stevenson for the title)

- Karo Parisyan vs. TBA (could be Hayato Sakurai, could be Hector Lombard, could be someone else)

- Spencer Fisher vs. Frankie Edgar (Dana should give them the match of the night bonus right now)

- David Terrell vs. Ed Herman (rumored)

- Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt (according to Reinhardt)

Tito, B.J. and Karo all on the same card offers a lot of star power to the Philly, New York, and Jersey fanbase. This part of the country loves recognizable stars. If you’re not a known quantity, you might not get much attention. If I go to a concert in Philly everyone marks out for the headliners. But the opening band could be the greatest in the world but if the people don’t know their name, the crowd seems pretty bored.

Hey, what does a guy have to do to get a Big Nog vs. Andrei Arlovski match added to this card?

Lee Whitehead of MMAWeekly.com is reporting that Anthony Johnson is no longer scheduled to face Jess Liaudin during the preliminary portion of UFC 75 in London on September 8. According to Whitehead, Liaudin’s new opponent will be Anthony Torres.

You can read the report by clicking here.

According to The Fight Network, Anthony Johnson (3-0) has been named as Steve Bruno’s replacement against Chad Reiner on this Tuesday’s UFC Fight Night card at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.