U.K.

Hey UK MMA fans, meet Bellator MMA – they’re coming to VIVA

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Viacom’s purchase of Bellator continues to take the once fledgling pro mixed martial arts promotion to new heights. Viacom’s popular U.K. television channel VIVA will begin airing live Bellator fights on Wednesday, June 19, as part of the MMA promotion’s Summer Series tournament.

Cage Contender VI hits Manchester with stellar main event between Gunnar Nelson vs. Danny Mitchell

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Just a month after producing the biggest event in European history, Cage Contender continues its expansion across Europe when the promotion lands in Manchester, England on August 28 with Cage Contender VI.

British welterweight star Jim Wallhead inks multi-fight deal with Bellator Fighting Championships

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"Judo Jim" is on a six-fight win streak.

CHICAGO, Ill. (December 21, 2009) – In yet another off-season coup, Bellator Fighting Championships announced Monday the acquisition of one of the top free-agent mixed martial artists in all of Europe, 18-5 British welterweight Jim Wallhead.

Wallhead-also known as “Judo Jim”-has won each of his last six fights and nine out of his last 11. He was recently lauded by Sherdog.com as “the top 170-pound fighter in Europe yet to be signed by a major promotion.”

With his signing, Wallhead has been invited to compete in Bellator’s upcoming eight-man welterweight tournament, which commences during Bellator’s Season 2 kickoff on April 8, 2010. Bellator will also conduct tournaments at 145, 155, and 185 lbs. with the winners of this year’s tournaments being declared No. 1 contenders to Bellator’s current roster of champions.

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Halloween treat – Neil “Goliath” Grove KO’s Martin Thompson (video)

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Last weekend at Ultimate Challenge UK – Dynamite in London, Neil “Goliath” Grove (UFC 95 vet) took on Martin Thompson in the main event. Grove is a very large heavyweight at 6’6″ and 265 lbs. All eight of Goliath’s wins have come by knockout and Thompson was no exception. As a special Halloween treat we … Read more

The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs U.K. episode 5 recap

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In this episode USA lightweight Santino Defranco (13-4) gets selected to fight Englishman Andre Winner (9-2-1).

Tempe, Arizona’s Santino Defranco reveals he originally tried out for TUF season 2 but was sent home because he had two brain aneurysms. Now he is back, all healed up, fighting for his chance to win a contract with the UFC.

(LW) Santino Defranco vs. Andre Winner
Rd.1 – Santino throws a couple of leg kicks. Santino shoots but gets stuffed. Andre lands a shot to the mid section. Santino gets stuffed again. Andre throws a few punches but nothing really connects. Leg kick Santino, and another. Andre swings, lands a body shot. Santino shoots and pulls guard as Andre sprawls. Santino uses rubber guard to control Andre. Andre slips out, stands up and pounds out Santino until the ref is forced to stop it. Andre Winner defeats Santino Defranco by TKO in round 1.

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The ‘British Fighting Championship’ tournament draw results

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PRO MMA (promma.info) reported to you a couple of weeks ago about a new U.K. MMA coalition that was formed entitled the ‘British Fighting Championship’. Multiple small MMA promotions across England came together to unify all of their respective championship titles.  These promotions include  Cage Warriors, AMMA, FX3, Ultimate Force, and the Ultimate Warrior Challenge. 

On Friday Feb. 13, at the Ultimate Training Center in Birmingham, England, the drawing was held for the inaugural British Fighting Championship tournament. The drawing determined the fight match-ups for the BFC’s first event in April. UFC Alums, Paul Taylor and Dan Hardy were the guests of honor and actually were the ones who drew names literally, from a hat. Results are as follows:

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The British Fighting Championship is formed

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Multiple small UK based MMA promotions have come together to create the British Fighting Championship. The smaller promotions include Cage Warriors, AMMA, FX3, Ultimate Force, and the Ultimate Warrior Challenge. They will unify all of their respective championship titles and plan to hold twelve events per year. They will have seven men’s weight classes as well as two for women.

The BFC will try to make MMA more profitable for the fighters as well as making MMA more of a high profile sport in the United Kingdom. With fighter’s purses as high as 250,000 pounds ($368,625 US) and live events available on live internet web stream and British Cable Television, they should have success at becoming more popular in the UK and around the world.

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Wolf’s Lair drug tests their own fighters – Cheick Kongo envies Brock Lesnar’s title

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Here’s an interesting video about the Wolf’s Lair, the new home of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Cheick Kongo in England. Apparently the Wolf’s Lair does drug testing (steroids, etc.) on their own fighters to avoid any surprises. This weekend will give us a better idea of how effective their training has been on Rampage.

Kongo envies Lesnar’s title after the jump…

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UFC 92, Ultimate Talk – Setanta Sports (video)

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Here’s the newest edition of Ultimate Talk from Setanta Sports Network in the U.K.. It’s similar to Inside MMA except only focused on the UFC. There’s some good stuff in here as they talk about UFC 92 and discuss Forrest vs. Rashad, Mir vs. Nogueira, and dissect the the Rampage vs. Wanderlei Silva fight. There … Read more