Watch the UFC 131 prelims right here at Yahoo! Sports

The UFC 131 preliminaries will show on Saturday night right here at Cagewriter. See Mike Massenzio vs. Krzysztof Soszynski, James Head vs. Nick Ring, Dustin Poirier vs. Jason Young, Joey Beltran vs. Aaron Rosa, and Darren Elkins vs. Michihiro Omigawa starting at 6 p.m. ET.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Watch-the-UFC-131-prelims-right-here-at-Yahoo-S?urn=mma-wp3251

Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin  Jason Hollywood Chambers Ryo Piranha Chonan 

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Still A Ratings Hit

Despite the long layoff, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix continues to be a big hit in the ratings department. Last Saturday’s Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” event finished second on the all-time Strikeforce/Showtime ratings list, only behind the first GP show featuring Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva, Sergei Kharitonov and Andrei Arlovski. MMA Junkie has the numbers: [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmaconvert/~3/W6JVz5_olq8/

Rodrigo Gracie Roger Gracie Rolles Gracie Royce Gracie

Injury to original opponent provides new nemesis for Rafael Natal at UFC 133

A knee injury brought on by a recent car accident has forced DEEP veteran Riki Fukuda out of a scheduled bout against Rafael Natal at UFC 133 though his absence from the event won?t prevent ?Sapo? from stepping into the Octagon on August 6, as it appears a replacement has already been found. According to [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/06/20/injury-to-original-opponent-provides-new-nemesis-for-rafael-natal-at-ufc-133/

Kendall Grove Clay Guida Jason Guida Melvin Guillard

UFC on Versus 4 Preliminary Card to Stream on Facebook

The eight-fight preliminary card from Sunday's UFC on Versus 4 event in Pittsburgh will stream live and free on Facebook.com/UFC, the promotion announced Monday. The prelims include Tyson Griffin vs. Manny Gamburyan, Joe Stevenson vs. Javier Vazquez, and Joe Lauzon vs. Curt Warburton.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/18923/ufc-on-versus-4-preliminary-card-to-stream-on-facebook/

Arman Gambaryan Manvel Gamburyan Sean Gannon Edgar Garcia

Five-round main events have their downside

Last week, the UFC announced that five-round fights would now happen for all main events. Yahoo! Sports' own Dave Meltzer wrote an excellent breakdown of why five-round title fights are a good thing. He discussed how many close, non-title main events have taken place and that five-round bouts will make the winner more obvious.

But there are downsides to this decision. Namely:

Not every fighter is ready for a five-rounder. The UFC's Ultimate Fight Night, UFC on Versus and "The Ultimate Fighter" finale events give the UFC a chance to promote up-and-coming fighters. The main events are often populated by fighters who will eventually be near a title shot, but they need time to grow. Pushing them into five-rounders too early could hurt their development.

A main-event injury could wreak more havoc on the cards than we've seen. Consider what happened with UFC 131. Just weeks before the fights, Brock Lesnar had to pull out of the main event, and Shane Carwin stepped in. If Carwin had to switch up for a five-round fight on short notice, then he (or any fighter) might not be able to prepare for a five-rounder in time. The fighters would be in a position to either go into a bout not as prepared as their opponent or turn down the opportunity to headline a card.

It takes away a champion's advantage. A champion has few advantages going into his fight, besides the cool walk-in with someone holding the belt over his head and the fact that to win the belt, he has been into deep waters before and knows just what those extra two rounds require. Now anyone who has been in a main event will have that experience.

25-minute fights will eat into a broadcast window. As Meltzer noted in his column, five-round fights means that in televised events, five-round fights will only allow for three other bouts within a broadcast.

It isn't the silver-bullet to end judging questions in close fights. Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar, and Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar all fought five-round bouts. Every one of those bouts were close, had controversial decisions and required a rematch. Those extra two rounds didn't decide anything.

What are your thoughts on five-rounders? Tell us in the comments or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Five-round-main-events-have-their-downside?urn=mma-wp3495

Karen Grigoryan Kendall Grove Clay Guida Jason Guida

More Money, More Problems: Random Drug Testing In Nevada Plus Strikeforce Implements "Sponsor Fee"

When most MMA fans think of MMA, they think of a legitimate sport with a proud history and several amazing fighters. However, like any sport, MMA is also a business. Without money to keep a promotion afloat, no one gets paid and the best fights simply never get the chance of happening. Recently, two interesting [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/06/20/more-money-more-problems-random-drug-testing-in-nevada-plus-strikeforce-implements-sponsor-fee

Kazuyuki Fujita Masakatsu Funaki Zelg Benkei Galesić Mauro Galvao

UFC 131 openers: Beltran wins brawl over Rosa, Elkins takes shaky decision from Omigawa

Joey Beltran and Aaron Rosa won't be modeling for a calendar anytime soon, but those big dudes can dish out some damage. They can also take a beating. The heavyweights, who clocked in at a combined 598 pounds, slugged it out until Rosa got drilled by a knee early in the third. Beltran turned up the heat and pounded out Rosa on the ground for a win at the 1:26 mark of the third at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

Beltran, a 237 pounder fighting out of San Diego, wins for the third time in the UFC. His killer instinct was impressive.

"To be blunt, I knew he was going to be tough as hell. I was able to land some big shots and I am really happy with this performance," Beltran said. "Putting away a tough guy like him is just a testament to how hard of a camp I went through to get ready for tonight."

Just 40 seconds into the third, Beltran (13-5, 3-2 UFC) worked head control and pushed Rosa down into a nasty knee. That seemed to change everything as Beltran scored an easy takedown.

With Rosa (16-4, 0-1 UFC) on his knees and covering up, Beltran landed some body punches and got off 11 shots to the head. Rosa rose to his feet, but was stunned. Beltran dumped him a few seconds later, and as he settled into half guard he came down with the full force of a right elbow to Rosa's face. Rosa was shot. The bigger man ate a flurry of punches. Two left hands through his arms ended things.

"I got tired, but I think I got hit in the back of the head after he took me down and that dazed me. When I got up, he hit me with more hard shots and I never recovered. He's tough and proved that tonight," said Rosa.

Beltran came to Alliance Training Center in San Diego weighing 300-plus pounds. He's slimmed down and looks better each time out.

"I think I'm barely starting to show the type of fighter I am. To succeed in the UFC, it takes a full team effort and my team did a great job preparing me for this fight," said Beltran.

After seeing both fighters sporting some extra beef around the middle, it looked like stamina might be an issue, but it wasn't. Rosa, who's fought in the past at light heavyweight, entered the fight at 261 pounds. He absorbed some huge right hands, body shots and a few good standing elbows through the first round and a half. Rosa came back towards the end of the second, but that big knee from Beltran in the third took away his chances to get a win in his UFC debut.

During the prefight, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva added the note that this was the first time two fighters of Mexican descent went head-to-head in the Octagon.

Japanese star Omigawa loses again in the UFC

This was another big night for Japanese MMA. Michihiro Omigawa, one of the top featherweights from Japan, needed a win after getting dominated by Chad Mendes at UFC 126. It looked like he did enough to take a 29-28 decision from Darren Elkins, but the judges disagreed. Even with multiple cuts on his face and a lackluster third round, Elkins took a unanimous decision from Omigawa, 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.

Elkins (12-2, 2-1 UFC) did some nice work in the opening round. Omigawa bounced around the cage and switched stances every few seconds, but it didn't allow him to land anything very solid.

In the second round, Omigawa landed some good shots around Elkins' right eye and opened two cuts. He also scored a takedown and blasted away at Elkins. In what appeared to be a one-sided final round for Omigawa, more cuts were opened on Elkins' face and he finished all bloodied up. It didn't impress the judges.

A former lightweight, Omigawa (12-10-1, 0-4 UFC) dropped to featherweight and went 8-2-1 before re-signing with the UFC. He's now dropped two straight.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-131-openers-Beltran-wins-brawl-over-Rosa-E?urn=mma-wp3360

Fedor Emelianenko Yasubey Enomoto Mark Epstein Tom Big Cat Erickson