TUF8 Finals Officially Set

The final two episodes of Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter aired on Spike TV tonight. With the series concluded we now know the finals match-ups.

The Light Heavyweight finals will see Ryan Bader(7-0) versus Vinny Magalhaes(2-2).

And the Lightweight finals will see Phillipe Nover(5-0-1) versus Efrain Escudero(10-0).

Magalhaes is the only finalist from Team Mir. Bader, Nover, and Escudero were all from Team Nogueira.

The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale takes place Saturday December 13 from the The Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada and airs live on Spike TV at 9/8C.

WEC 37 Results: Torres TKO’s Tapia

Here are the results from tonight’s WEC 37 card held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was broadcast live on HDNet.

Joseph Benavidez d. Danny Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27 across the board) - This fight saw Benavidez simply throw a lot more punches than Martinez to win it standing up. Not very much ground fighting at all. Pretty lackluster fight. Benavidez would throw four or five punches at a time. Lots of kicks from him as well. Martinez would only throw power shots, looking for the knockout. Clear desicion for Benavidez from the judges standpoint.

Brian Bowles d. Will Ribeiro via guillotine choke at 1:11 of round 3 - They were slugging it out to open the fight. Bowles almost finished Ribeiro late in the first round with a guillotine choke, but Ribeiro managed to fight out of it. Bowles took it to the mat in the second round. He maintained position for most of the round. So Bowles was clearly winning heading into round 3. As Ribeiro went in for a takedown he was caught in a guillotine by Bowles. Ribeiro didn’t have the ability to fight out of it this time and tapped. Bowles is likely the next in line for a Bantamweight title shot.

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UFC 92: In-Depth Preview

Here’s a 10-minute video clip breaking down the triple main event of UFC 92. The event takes place December 27th on Pay-Per-View.

CroCop-Overeem NYE Rematch Postponed

For whatever reasons, the Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic vs. Alistair Overeem rematch will not be taking place on New Year’s Eve as expected. FEG Executive Sadaharu Tanigawa announced at a press conference this week that the two will fight on a card in 2009 instead.

Their first fight at DREAM.6 in September ended in a No Contest when CroCop couldn’t continue following accidental knees to the groin from Overeem.

Overeem claims that CroCop didn’t want the fight.

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Bigfoot Working Around the System

Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva is currently serving a one year suspension by the California State Athletic Commission for a positive steroid test. The terms of the suspension prohibit him from fighting until July of 2009 in the USA. But nobody said he couldn’t fight in Japan.

World Victory Road announced today that Silva will be fighting on their January 4th Sengoku card. His opponent will be Yoshihiro “KISS” Nakao. Nakao is famous for getting knocked out by Heath Herring during their staredown after he kissed Herring.

If you’re wondering how Silva can take this fight despite the suspension it’s because Japan doesn’t have to honor anything set forth by American commissions. However, how this affects his chances of reinstatement in the U.S. remains to be seen.

UFC Cuts Sokoudjou & Jorge Gurgel

Not a very happy Thanksgiving for lightweight Jorge Gurgel and light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Both men were released from their contracts by the UFC today.

Fans have been waiting for Gurgel’s release for some time now. He simply didn’t improve from his UFC debut two years ago until now. He’s a black belt in jiu-jitsu, but always goes out wanting to box and it resulted in him losing a lot. He has already signed with StrikeForce.

The Sokoudjou release is due to him turning out to be a bust as a fighter. With his flash knockouts over Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in PRIDE in 2007, he was actually being talked about as the fighter of the year. Then he came to the UFC and got handled by Lyoto Machida. Bounced back with a win at UFC 84, but got handled again by Luiz Cane at UFC 89. Fans reacted to him like a star because of his unique look, unique name, and knockout power, he simply didn’t have the skills to back it up though. Expect him to end up in Affliction or back in Japan.

Photo of the Day: The Axe Murderer

Wanderlei Silva trains for his 3rd fight against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 92.

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