Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia (23-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) and former PRIDE heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (30-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) will meet at UFC 81 — for a five-round championship fight that earns the winner the UFC’s interim (not “vacant”) heavyweight title.

The announcement was made during Saturday’s UFC 79 pay-per-view broadcast. MMAjunkie.com first mentioned the rumored bout earlier this month.

UFC 81 takes place Feb. 2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. With the Sylvia-Nogueira booking now official, a heavyweight bout between former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir and UFC newcomer (and former WWE performer) Brock Lesnar has been bumped to co-main-event status.

The fact that the Sylvia-Nogueira fight is now for an interim title, rather than an interim belt, is surprising. Because current UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture has resigned from the organization and recently stated that he won’t fight again until his UFC contract expires, many fans expected the 44-year-old UFC hall-of-famer to be stripped of the title.

Perhaps UFC officials expect Couture to have a change of heart. Or more likely, they want to stick by their position that Couture can’t walk away from the contract — even with the expiration date — until he fulfills the terms of the deal, which means fighting for the UFC again.

Couture resigned from the UFC in October over what he perceived to be a lack of respect by the organization. He also cited issues with his pay and the organization’s inability to sign then-free agent (and top-ranked heavyweight) Fedor Emelianenko as a reason for the departure. He claims his fight contract expires in July and that his employment contract expires in October.

Sylvia, who won the heavyweight title at UFC 41 and regained it at UFC 59, bounced back from a UFC 68 title loss to Couture with a unanimous-decision victory over Brandon Vera in October at UFC 77. Nogueira made his UFC debut back in July at UFC 73 with a unanimous-decision victory over Heath Herring.

Although former WWE performer and NCAA Division 1 national wrestling champion Brock Lesnar has been prominently displayed in UFC 81 marketing materials, it appears the UFC has officially bumped another heavyweight fight into the night’s main event.

Former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia and former PRIDE champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who fight next month for the UFC’s interim heavyweight title, have been slotted for UFC 81’s main event, according to UFC.com.

UFC 81 takes place Feb. 2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and airs live on pay-per-view.

Lesnar, a highly sought-after free agent who inked a deal with the UFC in October, is set to face former champ Frank Mir at UFC 81. The two heavyweights have been featured prominently in recent advertisements for the event — even after the Nogueira-Sylvia fight was made official. However, the Lesnar-Mir fight has been bumped from the top spot on UFC 81’s events page for the first time.

Sylvia (23-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) , who won the heavyweight title at UFC 41 and regained it at UFC 59, bounced back from a UFC 68 title loss to Couture with a unanimous-decision victory over Brandon Vera in October at UFC 77. Nogueira (30-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a longtime PRIDE fighter, made his UFC debut back in July at UFC 73 with a unanimous-decision victory over Heath Herring.

Current heavyweight champ Randy Couture was originally offered the top spot at UFC 81, but the UFC hall-of-famer is currently on the outs with UFC management after what he perceives to be a lack of respect, as well as issues over his pay and the UFC’s inability to sign top heavyweight free agent Fedor Emelianenko — a competitor the 44-year-old desperately wants to fight before retiring from the sport.

UFC 81, which takes place the night before the SuperBowl, features other bouts such as Ricardo Almeida vs. Alan Belcher, Jeremy Horn vs. Nate Marquardt, and Tyson Griffin vs. Gleison Tibau.

Former WWE superstar and relative MMA newcomer Brock Lesnar (1-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is confident as he prepares for his highly anticipated octagon debut against former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir (10-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) at UFC 81. Lesnar discussed his preparation with the crew of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com) on Wednesday.

“I’m very excited,” Lesnar said. “Frank is more than a credible opponent for me, and it’s a true test for me. It’s a make-or-break opportunity for me to bust into the MMA world.“

The Lesnar-Mir fight is set for UFC 81, which takes place Feb. 2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The bout appears on the televised main card of the pay-per-view event.

Lesnar, a former high school and collegiate wrestling stand-out, said he would not hesitate to go to the mat with Mir, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.

“I’m not afraid to take this fight to the ground,” Lesnar said. “The key for me is to be able to control his hips on the ground… and in the meantime put as much leather on his face as possible.“

In just his second professional MMA fight, Lesnar recognizes that Mir will have the edge in overall cage experience, but he doesn’t see many other factors in Mir’s favor.

“I don’t think Frank is going to be able to overpower me,” Lesnar said. “If he does get his hands on me, I don’t think he’s going to be able to finish it. And I’m very confident in my stand-up game… I plan to be in his face the whole time and break him. I’m going to push the pace of this fight to a limit he’s not going to be able to hang with. I do believe that.“

Lesnar has been training at the Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy, the home gym of former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk. Lesnar also credited Shooto veteran Erik Paulson for being the training partner most able to emulate the style of Mir in sparring sessions.

And while Lesnar admitted to the importance of this fight for his budding career, saying that he has “all to gain and everything to lose,” he’s not focused on the fact that he’s actually considered a small favorite to defeat a former champ so early in his career.

“I don’t have any added pressure,” Lesnar said. “I’ve got one plan, and that’s to go out and perform to the best of my capabilities and to win this fight.“

We have learned that UFC and TNA Wrestling have reached a deal regarding promotion for the UFC's February 2nd show featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir.

Sources are saying that there will be heavy advertising of the next UFC during the TNA shows over the next two weeks. The TNA shows will also hype packages to build up the match.

Next week's TNA iMPACT! will include a Brock Lesnar training package, as well as a Kurt Angle interview, where he breaks down the Lesnar vs. Mir match.

I am praying to god that this gets shown on Bravo over here. I need to see Brock Lesnar make his debut! He was a f'ing powerhouse in WWE, but that was fake. Time to see what he's really made of!

Well Sentanta just signed a deal to show all UFC events in 2008 and 2009 so not sure when that starts.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC) organisation and Setanta Sports have announced a multi-year deal to make Setanta Sports 1 the exclusive home for all of the UFC’s big UK and US fights plus all other UFC programming, in Britain and Ireland.

The deal will see Setanta Sports broadcasting all the UFC UK fights in 2008 and 2009 and later in July 2008 all other cards will be available exclusively live on Setanta. As such, Setanta subscribers in 2008 will be able to see at least four UK live events and after July, all other US live events.

UFC fans should note that all the UFC supercards will NOT be available on a pay-per-view basis, but only to Setanta Sports subscribers at just £9.99 a month, reinforcing Setanta’s position as premium sports broadcasters offering great value to sports fans.

For more information on UFC, visit our dedicated microsite here.

Frank Mir Knows He Must Finish Lesnar Early Or Lose

If you haven't heard, Brock Lesnar makes his UFC debut Saturday night at UFC 81: BREAKING POINT. Both men have their strengths in a fight that analysts are calling "too close to call".

Just days before the big showdown, Frank Mir spoke to MMAWeekly and gave some insight as to his strategy and what he must do to win:

“… in this fight it looks like I’m going to be able to use a lot of half guard and closed guard maneuvers, because that’s his style. And no matter what training he’s done, even if he tries to throw punches and back up to use his wrestling to counter my takedowns, eventually he’s going to take me down…. Definitely a finish cause that’s the only way I’m going to win. I’m not going to out-wrestle Lesnar for 15 minutes and put him on his back and hold him down. So for me to win I either have to take his arm or neck, or knock him upside his head.”

Anbody catch this?
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/fightscience/

The analyze the force that the MMA fighters have in their punches and kicks as compared to boxers - the MMA guys blow the other types out. Definitely check it out if you can.

Despite just one professional MMA fight to his name, Brock Lesnar (1-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will earn a guaranteed $250,000 in tonight’s UFC 81 fight with Frank Mir.

The news was reported by Dave Meltzer in a column for Yahoo! Sports. (We’ll have that column posted here on MMAjunkie.com shortly.)

The Lesnar-Mir fight is the co-main-event of tonight’s pay-per-view show, which takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Tim Sylvia meets former PRIDE stand-out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the UFC’s interim heavyweight title in the night’s other marquee attraction.

According to Meltzer, Lesnar will get $250,000 “to show” for tonight’s fight. However, he could earn an additional $200,000 — $450,000 total — as a “win bonus” if he’s victorious.

In comparison, Mir will get $40,000 to show and $40,000 as a win bonus for the fight. However, MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) was recently told that Mir will get a “locker room” bonus that will will likely nearly double his base salary. Those additional bonuses are often paid to the UFC’s bigger stars — such as Mir — and oftentimes, are quite substantial. UFC President Dana White and co-owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta are said to be quite generous with the bonuses — especially after exemplary performances in the cage.

Lesnar, a former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion, was a performer for World Wrestling Entertainment before he decided to give professional football a try. He caught on with the Minnesota Vikings and played in a few preseason games, but he ultimately was cut from the team.

Lesnar then transitioned into MMA. He made his debut this past June and defeated Min Soo Kim via stikes in just 69 seconds. A few months later, he signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC.

WTF he earns more then Chuck...

lesnar lost and chuck is still the most paid fighter he gets like 400 000 plus just to show

Brilliant stuff from Mir. I'm still shocked just how many shots he took! Anyone else would have probably fallen to the shots. Brock was landing some major bombs, but he was maybe too confident. In landing those bombs he was way too complacent almost getting caught in 2 armbars and instead got the 1st footlock attempt by Mir.

Glad to see we don't have Sylvia at the top again. Question is, why is Big Nog the Interim Heavyweight Champion? Are they just gonna make him (or whoever beats him) undisputed in October? Back to the fight though, I've only seen Bog Nog's 1st fight and now this and well, I dunno if he always cuts it that close, like in Round 1 when Sylvia almost knocked him out - Just like Heath Herring did. If they give him Mir next, it'll be a very interesting fight!

Shame for Brock, all his buddies there to see him get beat. (Stone Cold, Undertaker, Kurt Angle and of course, the Mrs!) Maybe he won't run his mouth so much from now on. Bring on CroCop I say. Still I have to say for all that I've bashed him he impressed me with those super shots!

The heavyweights took center stage in tonight’s UFC 81 co-main events, and two fighters on the brink of defeat stormed back for the improbable and stunning victories.

The come-from-behind wins capped off Saturday’s nine-fight UFC 81 event, which took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The event aired live on pay-per-view.

In the night’s main event, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) made mixed-martial-arts history and became the first MMA fighter ever to win titles in both the UFC and PRIDE by defeating Tim Sylvia (24-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC).

With current heavyweight champ Randy Couture on the outs with the UFC and his future in the organization uncertain, UFC officials opted to award an interim title.

Sylvia, hoping to become the UFC’s heavyweight champion for a record third time, dominated the first and second rounds of the fight. Just minutes into the five-round battle, the Team Miletich fighter connected with an uppercut and a left hook that dropped his opponent. Sylvia continued the assault on the ground, and with Nogeuira bloodied and bruised, he told the wounded fighter to stand back up, wanting to avoid the ground with the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. The assault continued for more than two rounds.

Although Nogueira never fully regained his composure, he was relentless with his takedown attempts. He finally scored one in the third, swept his opponent, and then locked in a guillotine choke that forced the stoppage in a matter of seconds.

“That’s Mioutauro Nogueira,” Sylvia said, almost in disbelief. “Every fight he’s in, he gets his ass kicked for the first 10 minutes. You start getting comfortable fighting him, and next thing you know, he catches you. The guy’s a legend in this sport.“

Although he was in trouble throughout the fight, Nogueira finally felt in control in the third round.

“Once I got to the ground, I was comfortable,” Nogueira said. “I was ready for him”

With the belt strapped on, Nogueira made no secret of his wishes for a next fight.

“If Randy Couture — in the future — if he can come back to the UFC, I’d love to fight against him,” Nogueira said. “Please Randy, fight me.“

The defeat was tough to swallow for Sylvia. Never has a fighter come through the UFC who appreciated his champion status more than the Maine native. And never has a fighter so easily and sometimes inexplicably drawn the wrath of fight fans. Just when things looked like they might improve for the beleaguered giant, disaster struck again for Sylvia.

“I just started getting the fans going my way, and I come out here and lose the damn fight,” a remorseful Sylvia stated. “Hopefully, I’ll be back here real soon (anyway).“

Nogueira, though, wasn’t the only fighter who rebounded from near-certain defeat.

The traditionalists and the hardcores will consider it a win for the sport of MMA, but even with the loss, former World Wrestling Entertainment performer Brock Lesnar (1-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) should have the UFC’s fellow heavyweights taking notice. Frank Mir (11-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) won the fight, but Lesnar made a much bigger statement.

Lesnar, a former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion with just one professional MMA fight to his name, scored the quick takedown of Mir and unleashed a brutal barrage of punches and hammerfists. Mir couldn’t defend himself, and when the referee jumped in to halt the bout, it looked like Lesnar’s first fight in the UFC would be a quick one. Steve Mazzagatti, though, wasn’t stopping the fight to award Lesnar a victory — and instead, issued him a one-point deduction for illegal strikes to the back of Mir’s head.

The fight was quickly restarted, and Lesnar again dropped Mir with a combination of punches. He continued the ground-and-pound assault, and Mir was turtling up to protect himself. With Mir battered and bruised, Lesnar stood up from inside his opponent’s guard and looked to rain down the final, fight-ending knockout punch. Instead, Mir grabbed his opponent’s leg, tripped Lesnar, and cranked his knee. He tried to fend off the submission, but the torque became too much, and Lesnar was forced tap out at 1:30 of the first round.

“We questioned his heart, and I was just trying to get a lot of shots in on him,” Lesnar said. “There’s no excuses. He’s a top-notch jiu-jistu guy, and he got me tonight.“

Despite the rookie mistake, Lesnar impressed with his athleticism and power. Mir is one of the sport’s bigger heavyweights, and Lesnar tossed him around easily. He was aggressive, and his strikes were powerful and precise. However, the otherwise stellar performance was marred by that gaffe — the type of frustrating, yet forgivable, mistakes that will disappear with time and experience.

OTHER MAIN-CARD BOUTS

In his first fight since a July 2007 loss to middleweight champ Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt (26-7-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) looked sharp as he controlled veteran Jeremy Horn (79-17-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) throughout the first round, scoring big punches from inside his opponent’s guard. Marquardt’s only real danger came toward the end of the first round, when Horn secured an arm and nearly forced a tap-out via omoplata.

However, after Horn took him down early in the second round, Marquardt quickly returned to his feet and sunk in a standing guillotine choke. Feeling the effect of choke with the the additional neck crank, Horn was forced to tap out — for only the third time in his past 42 fights (a stretch of seven years).

Although he ended the fight via submission, Marquardt did a lot of damage with his striking. He peppered Horn with a series of punches and then cracked him with a knee to the head halfway through the first round. However, the aggression did have a drawbreak: Marquardt was cut above his right eye while shooting in for a takedown early in the second round. The cut could have presented problems had he not secured the choke just minutes later.



For Marquardt, a member of the resilient Team Jackson, it was his sixth win in his past even fights — and a big step toward another shot at the middleweight title.

Ricardo Almeida (9-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) showed no ill effects from a nearly four-year layoff as he quickly disposed of UFC newcomer Rob Yundt (6-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC).

Yundt, a veteran of the Alaskan Fighting Championship, filled in for Alan Belcher (bronchitis) on just three days’ notice, and he just wasn’t prepared for Almedia, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whiz. Yundt appeared to sting his opponent with an early uppercut, but Almeida threw a body punch and then scored a quick takedown. After whiffing on an elbow strike, Almeida then locked in a guillotine choke. Yundt tried to slam his way out of it — actually doing a full front flip in the process — but Almeida wouldn’t break the hold.

Yundt was forced to tap out just 68 seconds into the first round.

Tyson Griffin (11-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) pushed the pace and continually looked for the knockout punch, but in the end, he had to settle for the shutout unanimous-decision victory over Gleison Tibau (15-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC).

Griffin wanted to keep the fight standing, and he used leg and body kicks to tag Tibau to set up punches to the head and body. Tibau continually scored takedowns throughout the fight, but Griffin easily escaped before any damage was done.

Perhaps used to Griffin’s consistent fight-of-the-night performances, the crowd actually booed the decision, prompting the youngster to apologize for the performance — despite winning 30-27 on all three judges’ scorecards. The victory also snapped Tibau’s three-fight win streak in the UFC.

PRELIMINARY FIGHTS

Longtime fighter and professional boxer Chris Lytle (25-15-5 MMA, 4-7 UFC) made short work of newcomer Kyle Bradley (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who managed to fire off just one punch. Lytle countered with a jab and a series of hooks before his opponent tumbled to the canvas for a knockout loss just 33 seconds into the first round.
UFC newcomer and former IFL fighter Tim Boetsch (7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) made the most of his opportunity in the UFC and delivered fellow light heavyweight David Heath (7-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) his third consecutive loss. Boetsch set the tempo in the first round, showing phenomenal balance as he frustrated Heath with straight kicks and body punches. Eventually, though, he used the Thai clinch and a knee to the face to score the TKO victory at 4:52 of the first round.
One of the sport’s hardest-working men finally got his first UFC win as Chicago-area prison guard Marvin Eastman outscored Terry Martin (16-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC). Expected to be a slugfest, the pace of the fight was at times gruesome as both fighters continually clinched and waited for the referee to separate them. In the end, though, Eastman took it by scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27.
“The Ultimate Fighter 5” cast member Rob Emerson (7-6 MMA, 1-0 UFC) registered his first career UFC win by registering a close split-decision victory over Keita Nakamura (14-3-2 MMA, 0-3 UFC). Two refs had it 30-27 for Emerson, and the third had it 29-28 for Nakamura. With his third straight defeat in the UFC, Nakamura is unlikely to compete in the organization again anytime soon.

I agree give him a few more fights and he will be back up there...theres talk now of Mir vs Big Nog which might be good.

That might be a good fight. I'm just not much of a Mir fan and don't care to watch him for much longer tbh.

Yeah Nog was lucky I thought because Sylvia had his number in the first round!

I have not seen the Mir/Lesner match. But, knowing that you can lose quick even while "putting up a good fight", did Lesnar at least make the bout respectable? Understanding that in a second you can make an error that can end the match, did he at least look like he belonged there?

He certainly looked the part from the get go first few seconds infact Mir was taken down wrestling style by Brock so he knew what he had to do and he just laid the beat down on Mir and you could tell because Mir's face was cut bad but he just left his legs open Brock and once Mir saw that he just locked in the knee bar and Brock tapped quick. But Brock will be champ one day just needs more experienced but it was good by the UFC to shove him in there with someone good real quick.

Despite suffering a first-round submission loss to Frank Mir on Saturday, Brock Lesnar collected a cool quarter-of-a-million dollars in his UFC debut.

The former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion and World Wrestling Entertainment performer was the highest-paid fighter at UFC 81, according to paperwork acquired by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

UFC 81 took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired live on pay-per-view.

Mir earned a base salary of $80,00 for the fight — which was the fourth-highest behind Lesnar and main-event fighters Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ($200,000) and Tim Sylvia ($100,000).

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $892,000.

The full list of salaries included:

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ($200,000) def. Tim Sylvia ($100,000)
Frank Mir ($80,000) def. Brock Lesnar ($250,000)
Nate Marquardt ($52,000) def. Jeremy Horn ($25,000)
Ricardo Almeida ($40,000) def. Rob Yundt ($5,000)
Tyson Griffin ($36,000) def. Gleison Tibau ($11,000)
Chris Lytle ($24,000) def. Kyle Bradley ($4,O00)
Tim Boetsch ($12,000) def. David Heath ($6,000)
Marvin Eastman ($14,000) def. Terry Martin ($12,000)
Rob Emerson ($16,000) def. Keita Nakamura ($5,000)


All the winning fighters received pay that awarded 50 percent “to show” and 50 percent as a “win bonus” — except for Lesnar, who would have earned a $200,000 win bonus.

Now, the usual disclaimer: the figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter’s income. They also do not include any other “locker-room” or special bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays.

In other words, these are simply base salaries reported to the NSAC and do not represent the total amounts earned by each fighter