Lightweight contender Tyson Griffin has paid his dues since entering MMA professionally over four years ago. Hours of training and dedication leads him to his next bout against Marcus Aurelio at UFC 86 this weekend. He has done what it takes to be a true champion in the sport, even the dirty work, literally. (Read More…)

The California State Atheletic Commission has released the fighters’ salaries, official attendance and drug test results from last weekend’s Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson event. Former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez walked away with the biggest payday even though he lost his title to Josh Thomson last Friday night. (Read More…)

MMAWeekly.com is reporting that Top UFC Welterweight contenders Thiago Silva and Diego Sanchez will be facing each other at UFC 89. It was confirmed to the website by a source close to the situation that both fighters have already verbally agreed to the match up, which will be help on October 18th in Birmingham, England. Contracts should be signed within the coming week. (Read More…)

It is being reported by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports that Dana White and the UFC are considering merging the WEC’s Middleweight and Light Heavyweight divisions into the UFC and keeping the lighter weight classes in the WEC. This is a move that has been rumored in the past, but this time Dana White himself spoke to Iole about the possibility. (Read More…)

The rumor began earlier last week and now it’s official, Rich Franklin is moving back up to the weight class that he started in when he made his UFC debut. His return to the Light Heavyweight division will take place at UFC 88 against a very tough Matt Hamill. MMARated confirmed the news earlier today after speaking to sources close to the situation. (Read More…)

With only eighteen days before “Affliction: Banned” airs on Pay-Per-View, the people over at Affliction Entertainment have started to ramp up their marketing train. As you can see from the photo above, Affliction has paid for a billboard to be put up in New York City’s Times Square. With Donald Trump in their corner, there’s no telling what else the marketing machine will come up with before fight time. (Read More…)

According to ESPN, the UFC’s very own Georeges St. Pierre’s 2007 performance was worthy of a top five nomination for the ESPYs’ “Best Fighter” category. GSP is the only MMA fighter nominated for the category; the remaining four contestants are boxers. (Read More…)

Underdog for Life - For much of his life, Forrest Griffin has been an underdog. Expectations were never too high for the former Ultimate Fighting Season 1 Champion, and that has been the primary reason for his success.  He flew underneath the radar on the hit reality show, only to walk away as the winner. In that epic final against Stephan Bonnar, Griffin showed the heart and grit that it takes to one day be a champion. That fight was three years ago, and it is just now that he is finally on the doorstep of a title bout. (Read More…)

Setanta Sports in the UK is reporting that Michael Bisping and Chris Leben have agreed to fight at UFC 89 in the UFC’s return to England. The fight was originally scheduled for UFC 85 earlier this month, but because of a probation issue that had Leben incarcerated, Jason Day was signed to replace him. It looks like the UFC is starting the Bisping vs. Silva propaganda as current UFC Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva is also rumored to be headlining the card against Yushin Okami. (Read More…)

Preliminary Bouts:

Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins
Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno
Justin Buchholz vs. Corey Hill
Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver
Cole Miller vs. Jorge Gurgel

Main Bouts:

Marcus Aurelio vs.Tyson Griffin
Chris Lytle vs. Josh Koscheck
Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Ricardo Almeida vs. Patrick Cote
Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson ( UFC Light Heavyweight Champion)

UFC Fight Night 14
When: July 19, 2008
Where: Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
How: SpikeTV
Who:

Preliminary Bouts:

Jesse Taylor vs. C.B. Dollaway
Dale Hartt vs. Shannon Gugerty
Rory Markham vs. Brodie Farber
Dale Hartt vs Shannon Gugherty
James Giboo vs. Brad Blackburn
Jake O’Brien vs. Cain Velasquez

Main Bouts:

Nate Loughran vs. Johnny Rees
Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns
Reese Andy vs. Brandon Vera
Hermes Franca vs. Frankie Edgar
James Irvin vs. Anderson Silva

UFC 87 - Seek and Destroy
When: August 9, 2008
Where: Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota
How: PPV
Who:

Preliminary Bouts:

Andre Gusmao vs. Tomasz Drwal
Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory
Demian Maia vs. Jason McDonald
Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida
Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins
Steve Bruno vs. Chris Wilson

Main Bouts:

Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson
Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evensen
Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring
Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta
Jon Fitch vs. Georges St-Pierre (UFC Welterweight Champion)

UFC 88
When: September 6, 2008
Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia
How: PPV
Who:

James Lee vs. Tim Boetsch
Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Karo Parisyan
Rousimar Palhares vs. Dan Henderson
Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill
Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell

UFC Fight Night 15
When: September 17, 2008
How: Spike TV
Who:

Main Bouts:

Tamden McCrory vs. Luke Cummo
Ed Herman vs. Alan Belcher
Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer
Joe Lauzon vs. Kyle Bradley
Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida
Josh Neer vs. Nate Diaz

The Ultimate Fighter 8 Debut
When: September 17th How: Spike TV
Who:

This season will feature Light Heavyweights (205) and Lightweights (155) contestants, and the coaches will be Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir.  The two coaches will face off for the title after the conclusion of the show.

The season finale is tenatively scheduled to air in December of 2008

UFC 89
When: October 18, 2008
Where: NEC Arena in Birmingham, England
How: PPV
Who:

Dan Hardy vs. TBD
Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago Avles
Chris Leben vs. Michael Bisping
Yushin Okami vs. Anderson Silva (UFC Middleweight Champion)

Showtime:
Rafael Feijao vs. TBD
Wilson Reis vs. TBD
Antonio Silva vs. Justin Eilers (Open EliteXC Heavyweight Belt)

CBS:
Shayna Baszler vs. TBD
Thomas Denny vs. Nick Diaz 
Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson (Open EliteXC Welterweight Belt)
Scott Smith vs. Robbie Lawler (Middleweight Champion)

Stikeforce
When September 19, 2008
Where: Playboy Masion iN Los Angeles, California
HOW: TBD
Who:

Kazuo Misaki vs. TBD
Renato Sobral vs. TBD
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. TBD
Josh Thomson vs. TBD

Preliminary Bouts:

Leonard Garcia vs. TBD
Carlo Prater vs. Brock Larson
Todd Moore vs. Alex Karalexis
Kenji Osawa vs. Scott Jorgensen
Micah Miller vs. Josh Grispi

Main Bouts:

Damacio Page vs. Brian Bowles
Cub Swanson vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Jamie Varner vs. Marcus Hicks
Brian Stann vs. Steve Cantwell
Hiromitsu Miura vs. Carlos Condit

WEC 36
When: September 10, 2008
Where: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
How: Versus
Who:

Jens Pulver vs. TBD
Sonald Cerrone vs. Rob McCullough
Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber (WEC Featherweight Champion)
Chael Sonnen vs. Paulo Filho (WEC Middleweight Champion)

16 Man Lightweight Grand Prix - Semi Finals:
(Finals are scheduled to take place the same night)

Eddie Alvarez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki

Individual Bout:

Denis Kang vs. TBD
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. TBD
Joe Benavides vs. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto

DREAM.6
When: September/October 2008
Where: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
Who:

16 Man Middleweight Grand Prix - Semi-Finals:
(Finals are scheduled to take place the same night)

Melvin Manhoef
Gegard Mousasi
Zelg Galesic
Ronaldo Souza

Swing Bouts (Most likely won’t be televised):

Savant Young vs. Mark Hominick
J.J. Ambrose vs. Mike Pyle
Patrick Speight vs. Justin Levens
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Edwin Dewees

Preliminary Bouts (Airing free LIVE on Fox Sports Net at 8PM EST - “Affliction LIVE”):

Terry Martin vs. Vetor Belfort
Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

Main Bouts (Airing LIVE on PPV at 9PM EST - “Affliction Banned”):

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Fabio Negao vs. Matt Lindland
Pedro Rizzo vs. Josh Barnett
Ben Rothwell vs. Andrei Arlovski
Tim Sylvia vs. Fedor Emelianenko

Patrick Cote has been fighting MMA professionally for just eight years and due to nerves and inexperience he has bounced around from organization to organization for much of that time. He seems to have now conquered those demons as he heads into UFC 86 this weekend against Ricardo Almeida. (Read More…)

MMAWeekly is reporting that Antonio Silva and Justin Eilers have verbally agreed to face each other on EliteXC’s upcoming July 26th card on CBS. It is not certain whether or not the two will battle to walk away as the first ever EliteXC Heavyweight Champion or not. In addition to Silva, several of his fellow Brazilian Top Team fighters may be added to the second CBS card as well. (Read More…)

UFC Light Heavyweight contender Lyoto Machida is having a tough time finding a next opponent. You’d figure that a fighter who boasts a 13-0-0 record would be an easy target for a fight. Unfortunately for Machida though, his style is a very dangerous one for any fighter to deal with. Forrest Griffin recently told Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, “I want nothing to do with that guy.  Not at all.” (Read More…)

For much of his life, Forrest Griffin has been an underdog. Expectations were never too high for the former Ultimate Fighting Season 1 Champion, and that has been the primary reason for his success.  He flew underneath the radar on the hit reality show, only to walk away as the winner. In that epic final against Stephan Bonnar, Griffin showed the heart and grit that it takes to one day be a champion. That fight was three years ago, and it is just now that he is finally on the doorstep of a title bout. (Read More…)

Josh Koscheck first emerged onto the MMA scene over four years ago when he was a contestant on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. Since that time, he has complied an 8-2 record and was on the brink of a title shot before he lost to current UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.  Koscheck now finds himself on the long road back to the top, and his next challenge awaits him at UFC 86.

(Read More…)

Strikeforce fans waited a long time for the lightweight matchup that took place Friday night, however the storm only came from one of the competitors, and not the one that you would expect.  Defending Champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez is known for his nonstop aggression, however his inactivity this night cost him his belt to challenger Josh Thomson. (Read More…)

For the Love of Money - When the UFC announced they had officially acquired PrideFC over a year ago, many thought that those fighters were far superior than the talent that the UFC had available. Also, the only reason that the UFC fighters were even in the same league was because they were in the United States and the UFC had established a monopoly here. Unfortunately, most of those fighters haven’t panned out except for current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. (Read More…)

Josh “The Punk” Thomson entered Friday night’s title bout against Champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez as a three and a half to one underdog. But for those that had an opportunity to watch the fight, you would have thought it was the other way around. Thomson controlled the fight from bell to bell and walked away as Stikeforce’s new Lightweight Champion. (Read More…)

After becoming the first fighter to ever be kicked off of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series after the show had concluded, Jesse Taylor appears ready to get anothershot only months after his removal from the finale. It was Taylor who was supposed to fight Amir Sadollah at the TUF Finale, instead C.B. Dollaway fought his way back on and eventually fell victim to another armbar submission. (Read More…)

Strikeforce is officially underway at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, CA.  The card will be headlined by an electric Lightweight title bout between Strikeforce Champion Gilbert Melendez taking on top contender Josh Thomson. Light Heavyweight Champion Bobby Southworth will also be defending his title against Anthony Ruiz. The main bouts will be airing only on HDnet. If you are unable to watch the fights, no worries because 5thRound.com will be posting the results LIVE as they happen. (Read More…)