Wanderlei to open MMA School in Las Vegas

After receiving numerous requests from fighters wanting to join Team Wand in Vegas, Wanderlei Silva announced on his blog that he is currently accepting resumes for review early next year. He is currently focused on training for his matchup against Chuck Liddell on December 29th at UFC 79. He hopes to have on-site dorms, complete with a restaurant (to presumably help control the diets of Team Wand fighters?).

Serra out, GSP steps in VS Hughes

So, by now, the whole world knows that the much hyped fight between Matt Serra and Matt Hughes is not going to happen. Two painful herniated discs during a routine training session for Serra have put an end to months of training, and a ton of marketing. Marketing that included the primary focus of this season's The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show.
Seems to be about par for the course for UFC President, Dana White, this year. With major upsets that have had matchmakers scratching their heads and more fights going to the judges scorecards, 2007 is winding down to be a pretty major letdown. Yeah, we've had some pretty great fights this year. But this was going to be THE ultimate year. With the acquisition of PRIDE, the UFC seemed poised to provide the matchups that dreams are made of.

Instead, George St Pierre has stepped up to the plate with barely a month's notice, for Hughes/GSP III. Trilogies are about as exciting as rush hour traffic, but don't get me wrong. I wanted this matchup, but not until we had a better idea of who was the better fighter between Hughes and Serra.

All in all, there is a lot of pressure for 2007's last UFC event to be a huge success. The fans want $80 worth of entertainment in this PPV (perhaps $120, unless you call Tim Sylvia's UFC 77 decision win entertainment, or expected a different outcome of Anderson/Franklin II).
Wand/Liddell better be a war!

Fedor to fight in Japan on NYE

MMAWeekly is reporting that this is now confirmed. Fedor will be fighting in Japan on NYE.

Choi squaring up against Brock Lesnar (told you he was huge).

image hosted by SHERDOG.COM

Full Story:

Less than a week after word leaked out on the Russian Mix-Fight Championship website that Fedor Emelianenko would be fighting on New Year’s Eve and then a subsequent denial by one M-1 Global official, the situation has come round full circle.

Monte Cox, M-1 Global’s president and CEO, confirmed on Monday that Emelianenko will indeed be fighting on New Year’s Eve after all.

“Fedor will fight Dec. 31,” he said. “We made a deal with a Japanese organization to loan him out.”

He also confirmed information first reported by Greg Savage of Sherdog.com, that Emelianenko’s opponent will be 7’2” Korean Hong Man Choi.

The rumors of a New Year’s Eve bout for the Russian fighter actually began when Emelianenko published a letter to Japanese fans on the Mix-Fight website saying, “Your wishes come true when you ask for them come New Year's Eve,” and later continued, "I contacted M-1 Global management and received their complete support in my desire to continue the tradition of fighting in Japan on New Year's Eve."

Cox, who at the time stated, “No, it’s not going to happen,” quashed that initial rumor. “There was an offer. We looked at it. We tried to see if it was possible. But in the end, there just wasn’t enough time to pull it off.”

Then came last week’s report on the Mix-Fight website that purported the new rumor and the subsequent denial by M-1 Global vice president Brian Patton, who said, “The team is in Japan right now, but it is in regards to a fight in the spring. To my knowledge, Fedor is not fighting in Japan in December. Unless things have changed since our last conference call…”

And that leads us back around to now, where things most definitely have changed with Cox confirming the fight.

Emelianenko will fight Choi, according to Cox, as part of a show being organized by the promoters of the Japanese professional wrestling organization Hustle. Several of Hustle’s employees were involved in operation of the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships.

Emelianenko was the final Pride heavyweight titleholder and is currently ranked as the No. 1 heavyweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly.com.

Randy "The Natural" Couture offered fight with Nog in UFC

MMAJunkie.com reports that Randy "The Natural" Couture was offered a fight against the former Pride Heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira.

During an Oct. 30 press conference, MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) reported:

Despite the current situation, White said that Couture will be offered the opportunity to return to the octagon in early 2008. After all, White said, you can’t resign from a contract.

"We’re going to offer Randy a fight with (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) probably in February," White said. "As far as I’m concerned, Randy Couture is our heavyweight champion right now."

No word yet on if the current UFC heavyweight champ has responded to the offer.