Overeem had one fight left on his current contract. He was not immediately available for comment. When contacted by MMA Fighting, Strikeforce officials would not confirm or deny Overeem’s departure from the organization.  The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Overeem was removed from the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix last week after he told Zuffa he wouldn’t be ready to fight Antonio Silva in the semi-finals on Sept. 10 due to scheduling and multiple injuries.

Overeem holds both the Pride belt and the K-1 belt so he is likely to continue to fight on the global scene.  It is a loss to UFC/Strikeforce who could pit Overeem against some of the best heavyweights for potential legacy fights.  UFC has complained about the amount of money paid to Overeem by Strikeforce prior to the merger with UFC.  This could be an easy excuse to remove Overeem due to this reason.  With a big win over Silva, the UFC would likely be forced to sign Overeem to a big money contract.  Regardless, Overeem will remain a notable champion on the glocal stage.

The Aldo-Hominick fight was a true championship caliber match as both fighters put their heart and soul on the line.   It looked like a typical dominant performance for UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo early in the UFC 129 co-main event Saturday night at Rogers Centre, but Ontario’s own Mark Hominick refused to go away, fighting off a series of facial bumps, bruises and cuts to finish strong and leave his own courageous effort as the lasting image of the 145-pound title fight, which was ultimately won clearly and unanimously by Aldo.

The most surprising match was Randy Couture versus Lyoto Machida.  It was only a few months ago when Anderson Silva showed up with Steven Seagal in tow to defend his middleweight title against Victor Belfort.  As you remember, Silva landed a front leg kick to the head of Belfort for a 1st round knockout.  After the fight, Silva acknowleged Seagal for teaching him the front kick.  Fast forward to the UFC 129 weighins and Machida has Seagall with his team on stage.  Immediately, you would think about what Seagall moves Machida was learning.  At the least, Coutures team should have mentioned to watch for the front leg kick that Silva had used previously.   However, Machida pulled out the front leg kick in the 2nd round to sent Couture to his back to end his legendary MMA career.

The UFC also announced Fight Night bonuses at the post-fight press conference. The bonuses were worth $129,000 each.

Pablo Garza took home “Submission of the Night” for the flying triangle choke he used to put away Yves Jabouin at the 4:31 mark of Round One of the very first fight on the card.

Lyoto Machida took home “Knockout of the Night” delivering a front kick that was equal parts Anderson Silva and Steven Seagals front leg kick, turning out Randy Couture’s lights at the 1:05 mark of Round Two.

“Fight of the Night” went to Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick. Hominick showed great heart and a no quit attitude in this bout, sustaining a huge hematoma on his forehead that had Joe Rogan remarking, “It looks like he’s got an extra head.”

Octagon Marriage in Toronto

GSP will enjoy massive support at UFC 129

Jake Shields has no illusions regarding the environment at Rogers Centre in Toronto this weekend when he challenges champion Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight title at UFC 129.  “Fifty-thousand people booing me,” Shields, the UFC’s No. 1 welterweight contender, described.  Shields is fighting in enemy territory unlike any UFC fighter has before. UFC 129 sold a record 55,000 tickets immediately. It’s expected that a vast majority of them landed in the hands of St. Pierre supporters.  St. Pierre, who is from Montreal, is beloved in his home country. He’s won the Rogers Sportsnet Canadian Athlete of the Year Award three straight times, beating out the likes of the NHL’s Sidney Crosby in the process.

 The raucous ovation from a then-record 23,152 fans for his last fight in Canada, a UFC 124 unanimous decision victory over Josh Koscheck in Montreal, floored St. Pierre. He said he couldn’t imagine what it would be like with more than double the attendance Saturday.  “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life,” St. Pierre said. “I think we’re both going to be in unknown territory.”  St. Pierre (21-2) was an obvious choice for the headliner of the UFC’s first stadium card. Shields (26-4) worked his way into the event by virtue of scoring a split decision victory over Martin Kampmann in a bout to determine the top 170-pound contender at UFC 121.

 Canada has become a hotbed for MMA in the last few years, with multiple UFC events selling out within minutes of tickets going on sale. But UFC could never hold a card in Toronto, Canada’s most populated city, because the sport wasn’t legal in the province of Ontario until late last year.  As soon as that news came to fruition, UFC began planning the biggest event in its history with St. Pierre at the center. St. Pierre, who has won eight fights in a row and 13 of his last 14, admits the attention heading into this bout is more taxing than any he’s experienced in his career.

 “If I would fight Jake in a basement where nobody is watching, maybe the pressure wouldn’t be that bad,” St. Pierre said. “Sometimes, it’s having people around and the entourage that makes it worse.”  Shields is counting on his own entourage for support. Two of his training partners at Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in San Francisco are fighting on the preliminary card, as Nate Diaz takes on Rory MacDonald and Daniel Roberts challenges Claude Patrick.  A handful of other people from his gym are also making the trek to the Great White North.

 “I’m going to be surrounded by like 20 guys coming up with us,” Shields said. “So, it’s not going to feel like I’m in such hostile territory because I’m going to have my group with me.”  St. Pierre sounds more concerned about the outside factors surrounding the mega card than Shields. St. Pierre said it would be “heart-breaking” if he couldn’t pull off a victory.  St. Pierre, whom many consider the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, isn’t talking like the massive 5-to-1 favorite he is in most sports books. Although he’s appeared in 10 championship fights against seven different opponents, St. Pierre says Shields presents the most daunting task yet.

 “I strongly believe that if I would put Jake against any of the other contenders that I have fought before, Jake would win the fight,” St. Pierre said. “That’s why this fight, this bar is raised higher than it’s ever been before. I’m not lying about it.”  St. Pierre said he had watched Shields’ career closely and had picked him to win when no one else was multiple times, such as last year’s Strikeforce middleweight championship bout against Dan Henderson. Shields won that bout as a 4-to-1 underdog.  Shields has notched 15 straight victories, but he arguably hasn’t faced the same level of competition as St. Pierre with only one career fight in the UFC. At the least, Shields isn’t used to the level of media demand that comes with fighting in the octagon against someone like St. Pierre.  “I looked at my schedule up there and they have me getting up at 7 in the morning doing interviews, which is 4:00 my time,” Shields said. “So this seems kind of ridiculous to me.”

 As a seven-year UFC veteran, St. Pierre said he knew what to expect during fight week and had learned how to manage his time.  Shields knows he’s at a disadvantage in that regard, but he’s not ready to pencil in fighting on St. Pierre’s home turf as a drawback.  “It’s one of those things that it could possibly motivate me to fight harder,” Shields said. “It could screw GSP up, maybe the crowd going crazy might make him nervous. You really don’t know what the factors are going to be.”

UFC Requests Monitors for Judges at UFC 130

Marc Ratner, the UFC’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, informed MMA Fighting that the organization has formally submitted a request to the Nevada State Athletic Commission to install monitors as a backup viewing option for the judges assigned to score the bouts at UFC 130.

“I’ve emailed [NSAC Executive Director] Keith [Kizer] and asked him to put the request on the next agenda. We believe these monitors will be another look to help with the judges,” Ratner wrote via e-mail.

Last week, MMA Fighting reported that no plans were in place in Nevada to place monitors for the judges to look at during fights.

According to the UFC, California is the only state to ever provide monitors for judges while scoring MMA bouts.

When MMA Fighting asked NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer if he would be open to the idea, Kizer replied, “Maybe.” He added that it was up to a promoter to formally ask for the monitors to be present.

“A promoter can petition (to allow judges to have personal monitors,) and we’d put it on the agenda,” Kizer told MMA Fighting last week. “The UFC is well aware of the process but has chosen not to ask in the past.”

The Sexiest MMA Bodies of All Time

They are the girls we have idolized since they first stepped foot into the MMA world. Some of them have graced the covers of magazines, strolled across the mats of the fighting rings, or even went onto win championships.  These sexy MMA girls are some of the many reasons why we are in love with the sport today.  From ring girls, to models, to fighters, they are not only some of the sexiest women in the sport, but some of the hottest women we have ever seen throughout our lives.  Not a big MMA fan like me? No worries, I’ve managed to compile a list that any fan or non-fan can be absolutely proud of.  While none of these girls are ranked in this walk through history, each one of them has made their mark on the sport by simply being beautiful.

Here are the sexiest MMA hotties of all time. Enjoy.

The Top 5 Georges St. Pierre Fights

The current Ultimate Fighting Championships Welterweight title holder has had a great career thus far. Georges St-Pierre has an overall record of 21-2, including a 15-2 record inside the Octagon. Most recently, fans have complained that his fights haven’t been interesting. He is known to hold fighters down on the mat for 25 minutes. But that’s not to say that he hasn’t had some great fights.

No. 1: Matt Hughes at UFC 65 – November 2006

This fight was for the UFC Welterweight title. In 2004, St-Pierre had an opportunity to take the belt away from Hughes, but instead, was forced to tap out. After winning five fights in a row, St-Pierre got another chance to dethrone the man who held the title for over two years.

In the second round of the fight, St-Pierre caught Hughes with a head kick which he then followed with several punches, causing the TKO stoppage to win the title.

No. 2: B.J. Penn at UFC 58 – March 2006

This was the first of two fights between these two men. The winner of this fight was next in line for a welterweight title shot. As Joe Rogan would say, these guys went to war with each other for three five minute rounds. It was the first time a fighter, other than Hughes had put up a legitimate challenge against the Canadian.

When the fight went to the judge’s scorecards, St-Pierre won via split decision.

No. 3: Matt Serra at UFC 83 – April 2008

When Serra shocked the world by taking the welterweight title away from St-Pierre at UFC 69, many thought St-Pierre didn’t take Serra seriously. That’s what I thought happened. A year later, after defeating Josh Koscheck and then Hughes to become the Interim Welterweight Champion, St-Pierre got another chance at Serra.

No. 4: Penn at UFC 94 – January 2009

St-Pierre-Penn 2 was billed as a rematch to remember. Instead, we saw St-Pierre destroy The Prodigy in Las Vegas. Penn was brutalized throughout the fight, causing his corner to stop the fight after the fourth round. It was St-Pierre’s second successful title defense.

No. 5: Koscheck at UFC 124 – December 2010

Writing about this fight makes me happy inside. During their season on The Ultimate Fighter as coaches, Koscheck, a guy I liked when he was a competitor on the show, proved that all he could do was talk. When it came time for fight night, Koscheck was forced to be a human punching bag.

St-Pierre dominated him for five rounds, easily winning a unanimous decision for his fifth title defense. It is because of this fight that any fighter, who gets their face busted up in a bad way, is known for receiving the Josh Koscheck facial treatment.

Source: Yahoo.com

Raquel Magdelano wins first MMA fight :09 seconds into 1st round

St-Pierre has been praised by many media outlets for his well-rounded skill and he is currently ranked by multiple MMA publications as the number-one welterweight in the world.  In 2008 and in 2009, he was named the Canadian Athlete of the Year by Rogers Sportsnet, as well as the 2008–2010 Most Outstanding Fighter by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Georges St-Pierre also won the Fighter of the Year award from the 2009 World MMA Awards.

At UFC 83 on April 19, 2008, St-Pierre fought Matt Serra to determine the undisputed UFC welterweight champion.  It was the UFC’s first event in Canada and was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Québec.  Instead of starting with strikes, St-Pierre pressed the action early with a takedown and then mixed up his attack, which never allowed Serra the chance to mount a significant offense.  In the second round, St-Pierre continued his previous actions and forced Serra into the turtle position and delivered several knees to Serra’s midsection.  Near the end of round two, the fight was stopped by referee Yves Lavigne with Serra unable to defend himself from St-Pierre’s continuous knee blows or improve his position.

St-Pierre’s first title defense since winning the belt back was against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. Fitch was on a 16-fight winning streak; a victory against St-Pierre would have been Fitch’s ninth consecutive UFC win, a new UFC record. St-Pierre defeated Jon Fitch by unanimous decision with scores of 50–43, 50–44, and 50–44, to retain his UFC welterweight title. He dominated Fitch, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will.

The win over Fitch set up one of the most anticipated rematches in UFC history, as BJ Penn stepped into the octagon after the fight to essentially challenge St-Pierre to a rematch of their bout at UFC 58 in 2006, which ended in a split-decision victory for St-Pierre. The rematch occurred on January 31, 2009, at UFC 94. The first round of the fight was somewhat even, with Penn exercising elusive head movement, fast hands and good take-down defense, thwarting all of St-Pierre’s take-down attempts while both exchanged punches. In the ensuing three rounds, however, Penn turned out a lackluster performance. St-Pierre scored his first take-down of the night midway through the second round and by the end of the round Penn was visibly tired. At the start of round three, St-Pierre landed a superman punch that bloodied Penn’s nose and shortly took Penn down again. From that point on, St-Pierre took Penn down almost at will, repeatedly passed Penn’s renowned guard and persistently punished the Hawaiian with a ground-and-pound attack.

Penn later admitted that he could not recall anything that happened during the 3rd and 4th rounds because “I was probably borderline knocked out or something.”  At the end of the fourth round, after more of St-Pierre’s ground-and-pound onslaught, Penn’s corner man Jason Parillo requested that the referee stop the fight.  Penn failed to attend the post-fight press conference due to having stayed in the hospital.  During the fight, Penn complained that St-Pierre was too slippery to hold, which led to suspicion about petroleum jelly being illegally applied to St-Pierre’s back.  The matter was formally investigated by the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission upon the request of the Penn camp.  Upon investigation, all claims were dismissed as false and warranted no disciplinary action or further investigation.

Prior to UFC 100, Beau Dure of USA Today stated that St-Pierre was possibly “the best in the world.”   At the event, St-Pierre defeated number-one contender Thiago Alves.  Alves showed promise on his feet standing up in the fight, but St-Pierre’s wrestling offensive, endurance and ground control proved too much for the challenger and put St-Pierre en route to a unanimous decision victory, despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the third round.  While St-Pierre said in his post fight interview that the injury was sustained in the third round, he later said on his blog that the injury in fact occurred in the fourth round.   On July 18, 2009, it was revealed that St-Pierre’s groin injury would not require surgery.

A scheduled bout between Mike Swick and Martin Kampmann would have determined the number-one contender for the UFC Welterweight Championship.  In early September, Swick pulled out of the fight due to an injury, effectively cancelling the title elimination aspect of the fight. After Martin Kampmann lost to Paul Daley at UFC 103, a fight between Swick and Dan Hardy was announced for UFC 105, with the winner, Dan Hardy, earning number-one contendership for St-Pierre’s title.

St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title against Dan Hardy on March 27, 2010 at UFC 111 which took place in Newark, NJ.   St-Pierre dominated the fight with his wrestling.  He caught Hardy in the first round with an armbar, but Hardy refused to tap and eventually fought out of the hold.  In the fourth round St-Pierre caught Hardy in a kimura while in the reverse-mount position, but Hardy once again refused to tap and St-Pierre released the hold before causing any serious damage.  St-Pierre went on to win the fight by unanimous decision (50-43, 50-44 and 50-45).  After the fight, he stated that he was glad to win but was not impressed by his performance, stating that he wanted to finish the fight. He also gave credit to Hardy for his toughness.

St-Pierre’s next fight was a rematch against Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, where he won by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45).  St-Pierre once again dominated the fight, this time relying on superior striking, utilizing accurate boxing.  He landed a total of 55 jabs to Koschecks head. Joe Rogan stated it was “the most jabs I’ve ever seen in an MMA fight.” During the first round, Koschecks right eye became very swollen from one of St-Pierre’s jabs. By the end of the fight, his right eye was completely swollen shut and suffered a broken orbital bone. St-Pierre stated at the post-fight conference that he wanted to catch Koscheck off-guard by striking with him instead of wrestling.

UFC president Dana White stated that Jake Shields will be St-Pierre’s next opponent and confirmed that the two will meet in the main event of UFC 129 on April 30, 2011, in Toronto.  White has said that if St-Pierre defeats Shields, it could mark a move to middleweight and a superfight against Anderson Silva.

Source: Wikipedia

Main Card

Phil Davis def. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira via unanimous decision 

Anthony Johnson def. Dan Hardy via unanimous decision

Amir Sadollah def. DaMarques Johnson via second-round TKO 

Chan Sung Jung def. Leonard Garcia via submission (twister) 

Undercard

Mike Russow def. Jon Madsen via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) 

Mackens Semerzier def. Alex Caceres via submission (rear-naked choke) 

John Hathaway def. Kris McCray via split decision

Michael McDonald def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision 

Christian Morecraft def. Sean McCorkle via submission (guillotine choke) 

Johny Hendricks def. T.J. Waldburger via first-round TKO (punches) 

Aaron Simpson def. Mario Miranda via unanimous decision

Nik Lentz def. Waylon Lowe via submission (guillotine choke) 

Titan Fighting Championship 17 Results

Bobby Lashley def. John Ott via unanimous decision

Aaron Rosa def. Abe Wagner via submission (rear naked choke)

Phil Baroni def. Nick Nolte via unanimous decision

Eric Marriott def. Willian De Souza via unanimous decision

Alonzo Martinez def. Aaron Derrow by majority decision

James Krause def. Nathan Schut by 1st round TKO

Anthony Gutierrez def. Jon Hollis by 1^st round Submission (Triangle Choke)

Bellator 38 Results:

Tim Carpenter defeats Daniel Gracie via split decision.

D.J. Linderman defeats Raphael Davis via TKO (punches) at 3:40 of R3.

Richard Hale defeats Nik Fekete via technical submission (inverted triangle) at 1:55 of Round 1.

Christian M’Pumbu defeats Chris Davis via TKO (strikes) at 3:34 of Round 3.

Austin Lyons defeats Jimmy Van Horn via submission (armbar) at 2:10of Round 1.

Jake Underwood defeats Tim Galluzzi via submission (triangle choke) at 1:04 of Round 1.

Cody Donovan defeats Brian Albin via unanimous decision.

Blagov Imanov defeats William Penn via TKO at 2:58 of Round 1.

Amaechi Oselukwue defeats Abe Wilson via unanimous decision.

CageTop: MMA Knockouts from 2010

The court also considered Charley’s employment, and scheduled the remaining six days to report “in” and “out” of Corrections: on  March 7, at 6 p.m., to be released on March 10, 6 a.m.; March 15, 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. March 17; and March 22, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 23.

Charley admitted to having kicked his victim in the head, and damaging a vehicle owned by a couple, at Winchell’s in Susupe on Feb. 6, 2010.  

Upon completing his jail sentence, Charley will be placed on three years probation.  The court ordered Charley to write an apology to his victims, and not to have any contact with them during the term of his probation.  Charley was also ordered to pay $240 in restitution; a $200 fine within two years; a $50 court assessment fee within 30 days; and a $300 probation fee within two years.  Charley will complete 300 hours of community work service.