THE MMA NEWS ROUNDUP: 4/26/08

Posted on | April 26, 2008 | No Comments

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1.Leben vs. Bisping confirmed for UFC 85 by Dann Stupp [mmajunkie] (Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:05:56 GMT)

LEBEN VS. BISPING CONIFRMED

Just hours after the organization announced a UFC 85 main event of Matt

Hughes vs. Thiago Alves, the UFC also confirmed a main-card bout

between Chris Leben (18-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) and Michael Bisping (15-1 MMA,

5-1 UFC).

MMAjunkie.com mentioned the possibility of the bout

on Wednesday, and on Friday evening, the UFC made it official.

UFC 85, which also features a bout between former headliner Rashad

Evans and James Irvin (a replacement for injured Chuck Liddell), takes

place at the O2 Arena in London, England.

2.Matt Hughes Vs. Thiago Alves To Headline Ufc 85 (Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:35:00 EST)

HUGHES VS. ALVES STORY

[ ufc.com ]

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – On Saturday, June 7th, welterweight legend Matt Hughes begins his quest for an unprecedented third 170-pound UFC® crown when he battles Brazilian banger Thiago “Pitbull” Alves in the main event of UFC 85, which will be held at the O2 Arena in London, England.”Obviously Chuck Liddell’s injury was a big blow, but as always our incredible fighters step up to give fans the best possible replacement,” said Dana White, UFC President. “Now we will see an explosive matchup between top ten ranked contender Thiago “Pitbull” Alves and two time former UFC World Champion Matt Hughes. Alves is an ATT trained Muay Thai wrecking machine coming off of five straight wins and Hughes is a powerhouse wrestler who was the most dominant welterweight champion in UFC history. These are two of the best athletes in the sport and we are thrilled to bring them to London for the UFC 85 main event.”

3.Sandman Hopes To Put Evans To Sleep (April 26, 2008, 9:47 am)

IRVIN VS. EVANS PRE-FIGHT HYPE

[ mmaweekly.com ]

Before leaving for Thailand for a month long stay to prepare for his fight with Rashad Evans, “The Sandman” James Irvin stopped by MMAWeekly Radio to talk about the newly signed fight..

4.HDNet to air DREAM events in North America by MMAjunkie.com Staff [mmajunkie-staff] (Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:28:32 GMT)

HDNet HOOKS UP WITH DREAM

[ mmajunkie.com ]

HDNet, the all-high-definition cable channel owned by Mark Cuban,

announced on Friday that it’ll begin airing DREAM events for U.S. and

Canadian audiences.

The news was announced on the “Inside MMA” weekly news program.

DREAM, a Japanese-based organization born out of K-1 HERO’s (K-1’s

former MMA arm) and former staffers of the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting

Championships, can be watched on HDNet beginning this coming Friday,

May 2.

5.The UFC working on a deal with FOX

April 25, 2008 – 2:50 pm by fightlinker

UFC AND FOX IN TALKS

Now that Dana White has finally admitted that the HBO deal is dead (seriously, it was getting creepy, Lars and the Real Girl styles), he’s moved on to bigger and better things: a deal with the Fox network. To me, Fox makes sense because they’re actually known as a network that has balls (aka a degenerate network willing to do anything for ratings), unlike CBS and NBC who are all about pandering to stuffy old people and talking about “A fine tradition of quality television broadcasting” while sipping brandy by the fire. FOX also know how much a new cornerstone sport can help them: they only really arrived as a ‘real’ network after they stole the NFL rights from CBS.

6.Travis Lutter: MMA fans suck

April 25, 2008 – 1:35 pm by fightlinker

DON’T HATE ON FANS

Now I’m not an expert on getting people to like me. Actually, I’m pretty good at getting them to like me but then down the road it all goes Single White Female. But from what I know about likes and dislikes and getting people to dig you, I know one thing for sure: telling people they suck generally doesn’t work:

Lutter: The other crazy thing you didn’t bring up is – and you can post this or not post this – fans of this sport just suck.

Fight Ticker: Oh ok. Talk to me about that a little.

Lutter: In my interview on the Countdown show, I talked about people sending the guy hate mail and stuff like that and I got hate mail from that. You lose, you get hate mail. You say, “I think I can beat this guy” [and] you get hate mail.

It’s crazy. It’s literally – I don’t understand the people that are watching this. It’s a total lack of disrespect for the fighters. Some of them I wrote back, “What have you done? What have you accomplished with your pathetic life?” It’s not a nice thing to say but it just sucks having these guys write to you and say the things that they say. It’s crazy. It really is.

I’m not like Serra where you’re just – Serra could give a fuck. People suck. I think it’s amazing. I definitely don’t fight for those people. I fight for me. Use that in your article or not, whatever. But, fans suck.

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