UFC 79: Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Hughes III & Chuck Liddell Vs. Wanderlei Silva

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes Vs. Team Serra. Welterweights this time.


Team Hughes:

Billy Miles (out)
Blake Bowman (out)
Dan Barrera (out)
Dorian Price (out)
Jared Rollins (out)
Mac Danzig (advances to quarter-finals)
Paul Georgieff (out)
Tom Speer (advances to quarter-finals)


Team Serra:

Ben Saunders (advances to quarter-finals)
George Sotiropoulos (advances to quarter-finals)
Joe Scarola (out)
John Kolosci (advances to quarter-finals)
Jon Koppenhaver (out)
Matt Arroyo (advances to quarter-finals)
Richie Hightower (advances to quarter-finals)
Roman Mitichyan (out due to injury)
Troy Mandaloniz (advances to quarter-finals)



Episode 1: Mac Danzig Vs. Joe Scarola - Mac Danzig wins by submission (triangle choke), 1st Round.
Episode 2: Matt Arroyo Vs. Dorian Price - Matt Arroyo wins by submission (rear naked choke), 1st Round.
Episode 3: John Kolosci Vs. Billy Miles - John Kolosci wins by submission (standing guillotine choke), 1st Round.
Episode 4: Richie Hightower Vs. Blake Bowman - Richie Hightower wins by TKO, 1st Round.
Episode 5: Paul Georgieff Vs. Troy Mandaloniz - Troy Mandaloniz wins by KO, 1st Round.
Episode 6: Ben Saunders Vs. Dan Barrera - Ben Saunders wins by unanimous decision.
Episode 7: Jared Rollins Vs. George Sotiropoulos - George Sotiropoulos wins by KO, 1st Round.
Episode 8: Jon Koppenhaver Vs. Tom Speer - Tom Speer wins by unanimous decision.


Quarter-Finals:


Team Hughes:

Mac Danzig (advances to semi-finals)
Tom Speer (advances to semi-finals)

Team Serra:

Ben Saunders (out)
George Sotiropoulos (advances to semi-finals)
John Kolosci (out)
Matt Arroyo (advances to semi-finals)
Richie Hightower (out)
Troy Mandaloniz (out)

Quarter-Final Matches:

John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig
Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz
Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos
Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer

Episode 9: John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig - Mac Danzig wins by submission (rear naked choke), 1st Round.
Episode 10: Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz / Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos - Matt Arroyo wins by submission (armbar), 1st Round. / George Sotiropoulos wins by submission (kimura), 1st Round.
Episode 11: Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer - Tom Speer wins by unanimous decision.


Semi-Finals:


Team Hughes:

Mac Danzig (finalist)
Tom Speer (finalist)

Team Serra:

George Sotiropoulos (out)
Matt Arroyo (out due to injury)
John Kolosci (replaces Matt Arroyo)

Episode 12: Semi-Final Matches. Mac Danzig Vs. John Kolosci / George Sotiropoulos Vs. Tom Speer - Mac Danzig wins by submission (rear naked choke), 1st Round. / Tom Speer wins by KO, 1st round.

ceg, releash, roland, lbc, and everyone...i hope you don't mind that i started a new thread due to the change in main event for UFC 79...just thought it might be easier this way.

SERRA OUT OF DEC. 29 BOUT WITH HUGHES
Friday, November 23, 2007
MMAWeekly.com


Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Matt Serra has had to withdraw from his Dec. 29 title defense against Matt Hughes due to injury.

UFC president Dana White announced the withdrawal via the promotion’s website early Friday morning. Evidently, Serra suffered a herniated disc in his lower back following a routine training session in his Long Island, N.Y. gym.

“This is devastating news because they were so looking forward to fighting each other," said White. “Unfortunately, injuries happen and I look forward to Serra recovering quickly, and to getting him back into the Octagon.”

Serra had just finished a Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling training session and was demonstrating a move when he fell to the floor in excruciating pain. He went to the hospital and underwent an MRI, which revealed the herniated disc in his lower back.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” said Serra. “I’ve never had a back injury before; I could hardly get off the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I’m devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes. All my training was going phenomenally until Monday – All I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible.”


http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=5127&zoneid=13

UFC 79: Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre III for Interim Title
November 24, 2007


Georges St. Pierre (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) will fill in for injured UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and fight Matt Hughes (41-5 MMA, 15-3 UFC) for the interim title at UFC 79.

The five-round title fight will headline the Dec. 29 pay-per-view event, which takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

The stunning announcement came Saturday evening from UFC.com. Hughes confirmed the fight on his official website, matt-hughes.com.

Additionally, a source close to the UFC today told MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) that St. Pierre showed no hesitation in taking the fight on short notice.

We passed along the news from early Friday morning that Serra had suffered a herniated disc. The injury occurred during a workout session earlier this week, prompting an announcement that the fighter would be unavailable to compete at UFC 79. Serra, who won the title by upsetting St. Pierre at UFC 69 in April, coached opposite Hughes on the current sixth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The show was supposed to build up to their title fight.

Serra doesn’t know how long the injury will keep him sidelined.

However, possibly fearing the worst, UFC President Dana White decided to book the interim title fight. Apparently, though, it didn’t come without a few stipulations from Hughes.

“I’ve asked for this to be for an interim title, and if Matt Serra can’t fight in a year, then this would just be the title fight,” Hughes stated on his site. “But I don’t know if that is going to happen right now. I will keep you all posted.“

Hughes and St. Pierre have fought twice before. Hughes won the first match-up at UFC 50 in 2004. Facing an undefeated French-Canadian who has just begun to garner some international fame, Hughes submitted his opponent in the final seconds of the first round with an arm-bar.

After reclaiming top-contender’s status, St. Pierre again took on Hughes at UFC 65 in November 2006, where he picked apart the longtime MMA veteran to score a second-round TKO.

However, St. Pierre would lose his belt to Serra in his very next fight. Serra had earned the title shot by winning the welterweight division of a special comeback season of “The Ultimate Fighter.“



Hughes rebounded from his loss to St. Pierre with a victory over Chris Lytle at UFC 68. The win guaranteed him a title fight. And while he and Serra filmed “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra,” St. Pierre got back into the title picture by scoring a unanimous-decision victory over Josh Koscheck at UFC 74, which earned him a title shot. His title shot was expected to come in March or April of 2008, when he’d face the winner of Hughes vs. Serra.

“Obviously, the loss of Matt Serra was brutal, but the great thing about the UFC is that we can put together great fights like Hughes-St-Pierre at a moment’s notice and bounce right back,” White stated. “I have the utmost respect for both Hughes and St-Pierre for stepping up for this fight, and not only are the fans going to see two of the greatest welterweights of all-time settle their score in a rubber match, but (they’re) going to do it in a five-round interim title fight, and the winner is going to face off next year against Matt Serra for the undisputed title.“

This is actually the second “interim” title White has created in the past two months. Sean Sherk, who’s currently awaiting an appeal of a failed UFC 73 drug test, will face the winner of an interim fight between Joe Stevenson and B.J. Penn when his suspension ends. White, saying he was fed up with the California State Athletic Commission’s handling of the appeal, recently decided to book the Stevenson vs. Penn bout for UFC 80, which takes place Jan. 19 in Newcastle, England.

http://mmajunkie.com/2007/11/24/ufc-79-matt-hughes-for-georges-st-pierre-iii-for-interim-title/

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

Thumbs up. The pulse of UFC right here...right now..

we're on the ball, roland!

shameless bump for new thread and new main event...

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Serra said in a statement on UFC.com. "I've never had a back injury before; I could hardly get off of the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I'm devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes (Pictures). All my training was going phenomenally until Monday. All I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible. (a subsequent MRI revealed the severity of the injury.)"

"I can't believe the position this puts me in," Serra said on UFC.com. "I'm actually rooting for Matt Hughes so I can beat his ass."

"I'm so excited to get this fight," said St. Pierre in a statement on UFC.com. "I'm fighting Matt Hughes (Pictures) for the interim title right now, and then after that I'm going to go after Serra. I've wanted that rematch against Serra, and this is the best scenario that can happen."


very much wanting to see this rematch.

i was kind of wondering how matt serra would react to this. he is the champion after all, and it's really the ufc's decision making process that stalled the title fight between him and hughes for the tv show, so i feel bad him and his bad luck with the injury. obviously he'd rather face hughes since that's what the focus has been on and he's already beaten georges...puts him in a tough spot when he likes georges and doesn't like hughes, yet has to root for hughes to win in order to get the match that was supposed to happen in the first place.

still...i can't wait to see the hughes / st-pierre match too, roland! i really hope hughes and serra meet at some point down the line so that serra has at least an opportunity to prove his doubters wrong. i guess if georges is determined enough and can beat them both when serra is well, maybe they will eventually have the hughes and serra match, but it will have lost some of the appeal by that time i'm sure.

the st-pierre / hughes fight seems to be the one that more fans wanted to see anyway.

i had to laugh when i read serra's comment about having to root for hughes so he could beat his ass.