So it’s more or less old news now that former middleweight title holder, Evan Tanner, was found dead Monday evening. Matt and I had just wrapped up the show an hour or so earlier, and I went through my usual news reads to see if anything interesting had happened over the course of the night… man oh man, little did I know!
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MMAMania.com is reporting that the Ultimate Fighting Championship will present a free rebroadcast of May’s UFC 84: Ill Will on SpikeTV to counter EliteXC: Unfinished Business, which will air on CBS on July 26. The card, which features an EliteXC Middleweight Championship bout between champion Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, will now go head-to-head with a UFC Lightweight Championship bout between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk.
As promised, here I am with my thoughts on the show.
Urijah Faber is pretty good.
-Man, what a fight! Faber and Jens Pulver really put it all out on the line and it showed. I thought Jens was in trouble when he got clipped and dropped, but he held on. Pulver’s chin really surprised me in this one. We’ve seen this guy knocked out by multiple competitors, most recently Joe Lauzon, but he really held in there with Faber and hurt him a few times. Obviously, we don’t know where Faber goes from here, but he has now, without a doubt, earned his status as the No. 1 featherweight in the world and the undisputed WEC posterboy.
I like Miguel Torres
-The WEC has a gem in Faber, but quite possibly an even bigger gem in Torres. This guy is without a doubt for real. He showed a dynamic game against Yoshiro Maeda and is probably the No. 2 star in the WEC right now. I would assume Manny Tapia will be up next for him, considering that fight was supposed to happen here. Maeda hung in there with Torres but good lord was that eye swollen.
Mark Munoz will be a player
-Age might be the only thing limiting Mark Munoz from superstardom. Munoz, a wrestling powerhouse, easily dispatched Chuck Grigsby in the first round with incredible guard-passing strikes that eventually led to a KO on the floor. With the WEC rumored to be giving up the 205-lb. class, it will be interesting to see where Munoz goes. I can’t imagine Zuffa would let him outside of its banner. Another win for Munoz and I see him fighting for the WEC Light-Heavyweight title later this year.
SITE NEWS
-Coming soon from Lights Out Radio: Updated rankings and our UFC 85: Bedlam Preview!
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