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Joe Lauzon vs. Jeremy Stephens UFC Fight Night 17 Video:

Rob Emerson vs Kurt Pellegrino UFC Fight Night 17 Video:

The UFC has released its fight card for UFC 95 event in London on Febuary 21. The main event will pit Diego Sanchez against Joe Stevenson.

Sanchez is dropping down to 155 to fight Stevenson. Sanchez has won hit last 2 bouts, howver Stevenson has struggled in his last few fight. Should be interesting to see is Sanchez can handle the drop in weight.

UFC 95 Main Card Bouts:
-Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson
-Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago
-Nathan Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia
-Chael Sonnen vs. Demian Maia
-Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham

UFC 95 Preliminary Bouts:
-Junior dos Santos vs. Stefan Struve
-David Baron vs. Per Eklund
-Justin Buchholz vs. Terry Etim
-Neil Grove vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz
-Paul Kelly vs. Troy Mandaloniz

Main card will be tape delayed in the United States on Spike TV at 9:00 PM.

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Joe Lauzon submitted Jeremy Stephens via an armbar in the second-round matchup, which headlined UFC Fight Night 17. The first round was close but J-Lau wore down Stephens with his technique and versatility on the ground. Referee Troy Waugh stoped the match at 4:43 of the second round, becuase he thought Stephen’s left shoulder had dislocated.

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Jake Rosholt had a lot of people in the MMA world thinking he had a bright future written all over him. But, a more experienced Dan Miller made him look bad in his first Ultimate Fighting Championship fight tonight at UFC Fight Night 17. Dan Miller needed just about a minute to submit Rosholt by guillotine. With the loss, Rosholt falls to 5-1 in his MMA career. Miller improves to 11-1.

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So what did we learn after this weekend? One lesson is that Affliction is quite a formidable foe for the UFC. All in all, Affliction’s fight card was a better all-round event than UFC Fight Night 14. Perhaps Dana White should now be a little bit worried. Granted, mma does look better inside of a cage than in a ring. Nonetheless, the better fights did take place inside a ring on Saturday evening.

Celebrities crowded into the arena to watch Affliction: Banned, the crowd seemed more raucous and even the fighters had more notoriety than the UFC fighters who participated in UFC Fight Night 14. Also, the mere presence of Donald Trump should send a tremor of fear down White’s spine. And need we remind you, Megadeth was on hand to perform. How can anyone expect to compete with that?

Notwithstanding the appearance of the leftover metal band from the eighties, Affliction did a stupendous job of hanging in with the elite mma organization during its first ever event. Sherdog has more on the promising young rookie better known as Affliction.

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Earlier this week, UFC President made some scathing remarks regarding Affliction’s latest attempt to join the growing contingent of mma organizations. Prior to that, White banned UFC fighters from wearing any Affliction attire whatsoever. And now, Affliction President Tom Atencio claims he wants to work in conjunction with the UFC.

Atencio recently told TAGG Radio that he could see Affliction and UFC putting together some sort of unified title event. However, he also didn’t hesitate to state that White is obviously threatened by Affliction.

So where does Atencio really stand on this matter? Is he offering White and olive branch in an attempt to have the two organizations work together or is it just nothing more than idle chatter?

Whatever the case, it could lead to an interesting future in the sport of mixed martial arts. In addition to watching fights inside the cage, fans could be treated to a war of organizations as well. Mmajunkie.com has more on Atencio’s latest comments.

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Much of the hype surrounding UFC’s July 19th fight card has centered around Anderson Silva. Making the jump to a higher weight class is never an easy task, however Silva’s dubbing as one of the best fighters in the world has enabled many to overlook that fact. But the man who will step into the octagon with Silva has not overlooked anything.

James “The Sandman” Irvin brings an impressive record of 14-4 into the fight and a 3-1 mark since joining the UFC. His lone loss came courtesy of a knee injury early in the first round during a match-up against Thiago Silva in May of 2007. The Sandman took a moment to share his thoughts on the upcoming fight with NBC Sports.

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UFC President Dana White is considering revamping the WEC. Recent reports have hinted that White may move the fighters in the 185 and 205 pound divisions from the WEC over to the UFC. The WEC would then be left with only four weight classes and will concentrate solely on the smaller fighters. Already without a heavyweight division, the WEC is a haven for smaller, quicker fighters. However, eliminating the middleweight and light heavyweight classes from the WEC might wind up imploding.

With so many new organizations sprouting up in the sport of mixed martial arts, it might be wise to keep a decent variety of fighters flowing through the WEC. Heavyweights are always a huge draw as audiences continued to be fascinated with the most gargantuan of opponents. That doesn’t mean that the WEC should go out and sign up a new gang of heavyweights nor does it mean that mma audiences do not appreciate its smaller combatants.

Yet, White should consider the fact that the WEC might have to compete with more organizations in the future. Keeping the WEC stocked with talent from the bantamweight to the light heavyweight divisions might just ensure that leagues like Strikeforce and EliteXC do not bypass the WEC and hone in on White’s baby, the UFC.

Another drawback of moving all those fighters over to the UFC would be an overflow of talent. If every 185 and 205 pounder were to migrate to the UFC, there wouldn’t be enough opportunities for all those fighters. That would lead fighters to begin an exodus to other organizations where they might be guaranteed more action. Losing out on that talent could hurt White in the long run as other organizations could begin to establish themselves.

White has already shown his competitive nature in scheduling UFC events directly opposite those of other organizations. His latest move came when he put together a free Spike TV event that will air opposite Affliction’s first ever pay-per-view event. Perhaps White should revisit that same mindset before he decides to flood the UFC with an excess amount of fighters.

The WEC is clearly the second most esteemed mma organization and White controls that as well. Why not capitalize on both organizations and continue to upgrade the class in the WEC just as he has done in the UFC? With more and more organizations rising up every month, it might be wise for White to fend off this new competition with the WEC before he has to resort to using the UFC to put down his opponents.

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UFC president Dana White threw a counter punch after Affliction decided to launch its first ever pay-per-view event. Now, Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio claims that he finds the move flattering. Flattering? That might not be the first word to pop out of someone’s mouth after being a hit by a much stronger opponent.

Atencio also made the claim that the UFC would not have made such a move if it didn’t see Affliction as a legitimate threat. With the popularity of mma continuing to climb comes the advent of more organizations there are and the better it bodes for the sport. That also means the UFC will have be in for more of a fight in the future.

The UFC threw a similar punch to the EliteXC back on May 31 when it countered EliteXC’s first network television event with a Chuck Liddell special on Spike TV. Regardless of how many people did tune in to watch that Kimbo Slice debacle, the EliteXC probably wasn’t very flattered by White’s move. MMAjunkie chimes in with the entire Atencio interview.

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