The Rua family has already contributed two fighters in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Murilo “Ninja” Rua to the sport of mixed martial arts but a third Rua is now set to make his pro debut within the next several months.
The Brazilian MMA website Tatame is reporting that Marcos “Baby” Rua will be entering the profession of mixed martial arts in March, if not sooner.
Marcos, the 22-year old younger brother of Murilo, 28, and Mauricio, 27, had been scheduled to debut at an event in January that has now been postponed until March. However, it appears that his brother’s first fight can’t come enough for Mauricio.
[We thought] he would fight at “The Glory” [and] that [it] would happen at January, but was delayed to March. [However,] want to see him fighting before,” he is quoted as telling Tatame.
Marcos trains with both of his brothers at Universidade da Luta (which translates to “University of Fighting” in English) in Curitiba, Brazil and being the biggest of the three, appears ticketed for the light heavyweight division.
The youngest of the three fighting Rua brothers received a small amount of exposure in the United States when he traveled to South Florida to corner oldest brother Murilo for his EliteXC fight against Benji Radach on CBS.
Any question as to whether Marcos shares the same undying loyalty that Mauricio and Murilo have for each other was answered soon after “Ninja’s” second round TKO loss. While it was not visible on camera, he became so overcome by emotion by the condition of his fallen brother that he had to exit the cage.
While Marcos Rua awaits his MMA debut, the next member of the Rua family that is scheduled to fight is Mauricio, who will take on Mark Coleman at UFC 93 on January 17 in Dublin, Ireland.
Just when you thought it was safe to pull one over on the California State Athletic Commission, word comes down that Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva is getting slapped harder than Badr Hari after the K-1 GP Finals. According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports, the CSAC has not taken kindly to Silva’s blatant disregard for the steroid-related suspension he received this past summer, and as punishment are now looking to revoke Silva’s fighter license. The commission is even going an unprecedented step further, fining Silva’s manager (Alex Davis of American Top Team) $2,500 just for negotiating the Sengoku bout which Silva won only two days ago.
So how bad would a revoking of Silva’s license really be you ask? This bad:
“A license revocation would mean Silva, and his corner men, would be banned from fighting in all U.S. commission states until California granted him a new license, which would be no less than one year from the date of it being revoked. Such an action would force whatever form EliteXC that potentially resurfaces this year to strip Silva of the title.”
Well there’s always the land of the rising sun, right Antonio?
Given, Antonio Silva didn’t have to ignore the CSAC’s ruling to instead compete in the “we don’t care” island of Japan, but I do feel a little sympathy for the guy. The man has to eat just like anyone else and being suspended from your job for one year, especially in this economy, has to be difficult even for a mildly popular professional fighter. Not to mention the CSAC has its own ocean of problems which seem to bring down their credibility about every other week.
Any how, Silva will have his day in front of the commission on February 10th, where he and one can only imagine a variety of lawyers will be doing their best to mend fences with Bill Douglas and crew. Oh the suspense.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today confirmed several bouts for its SpikeTV telecast scheduled for February 7 at the University of Southern Florida (USF) Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida.
Fight Night 17: “Lauzon vs. Franca” features the lightweight showdown between former 155-pound contender Hermes Franca and The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 alum and BJ Penn pupil Joe Lauzon, as well as the highly anticipated showdown between lightweights Mac Danzig and Josh Neer.
In the only heavyweight battle of the evening, the oft-talked about Cain Velasquez will have a chance to introduce himself to the masses when he locks horns with Sarajevo native Denis Stojnic.
And TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah — who was forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout at UFC 91: “Couture vs. Lesnar” because of a leg infection — will finally get a chance to keep his momentum going when he tries to spoil the debut of Nick Catone.
UFC Fight Night 17 is scheduled to air only four fights — though I find it unlikely all four will go to a decision (especially with Velasquez competing). That should allow some of the undercard bouts (like Johnson vs. Fioravanti) to find their way into the broadcast.
Here is the official UFC Fight Night 17 line up:
Main event: 155 lbs.: Hermes Franca (19-7) vs. Joe Lauzon (17-4)
Main card: 265 lbs.: Cain Velasquez (4-0) vs. Denis Stojnic (5-1) 155 lbs.: Mac Danzig (18-5-1) vs. Josh Neer (24-7-1) 185 lbs.: Amir Sadollah (1-0) vs. Nick Catone (5-0)
Under card: 155 lbs.: Kurt Pellegrino (12-4) vs. Rob Emerson (8-6) 155 lbs.: George Sotiropolous (9-2) vs. Matt Grice (9-1) 185 lbs.: Alessio Sakara (13-7) vs. Jake Rosholt (5-0) 155 lbs.: Gleison Tibau (15-6) vs. Rich Clementi (32-13-1) 170 lbs.: Anthony Johnson (6-2) vs. Luigi Fioravanti (14-4)
A pivotal lightweight match-up has been added to the UFC 96 card in Columbus, Ohio, as Gray Maynard and Jim Miller will clash in a fight that could determine a top contender in the ever-growing 155-pound weight class. The fight was confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the fight on Monday.
Making his promotional debut at UFC 89 in England, former International Fight League lightweight Jim Miller let his presence be known when he submitted David Baron in the third round of a hard fought contest.
His next fight came on just over a week's notice as Miller stepped in to face Matt Wiman at the UFC Fight for the Troops show in December. Despite virtually no training camp and just coming back from his honeymoon, Miller defeated Wiman with a unanimous decision win.
Gray Maynard steps into the fight against Miller riding a four-fight win streak and still undefeated in his career (the only blemish being a no contest against Rob Emerson in June 2007).
The "Bully" has improved his overall game while training with the team at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. After handing Frankie Edgar the first loss of his career, Maynard came back at UFC 90 in October and picked up a unanimous decision win over Rich Clementi.
The fight between Miller and Maynard will likely end up on the main card, but the UFC has made no official announcement about the bout or the headliner for the show which remains a matter of speculation at this point.
