Well Episode 5 of TUF 17 did not disappoint. Jon Jones training partner Bubba McDaniel was going up against Kelvin Gastelum. McDaniels who is probably the most experienced fighter and talker in the house, had in many people’s minds the easy task of taking on the far less experienced Gastelum. Gastelum had a little extra motivation when Ronda Rousey told him that she would come out to Vegas to teach a lesson if he defeated McDaniel, and that’s exactly what he did. In a back and forth match, McDaniels snagged a rear naked choke and submitted McDaniels for the upset. This episode showed that this seasons TUF is full of entertaining twists, and also is appealing to the mainstream eye by including Ronda Rousey, and Mickey Rourke who showed up to chat with the fighters.

In other MMA News, several fighters were cut from the UFC this week, including Jon Fitch and Vladimir Matyushenko.

In addition, almost every fighter that was a loser at UFC on Fuel TV 7 was let go. Guess they need to make way for the lighter weight classes, and female fighters that will soon be a part of the crop. Anderson Silva has stated that he would be willing to drop to 170 lbs to have a superfight with GSP, and he said making the weight would be no problem. I’m sure Georges St-Pierre is happier than shit about this, yeah right.

Remember Josh Barnett rejected the offer the UFC made him. Well he’s finally come out and said why he rejected the contract, and why he will no longer be facing JDS at UFC 160. Barnett said it had to do with the legal battle between Bellator (Alvarez’ former employer) and the UFC over Eddie Alvarez services, which became public record. The UFC was offering a $250,000 signing bonus and a percentage of pay-per-view earnings if Alvarez fought for the UFC title or captured the belt.

Barnett, speaking via MMAJunkie, said:
“I was excited to fight Junior. I thought he was a favorable match up for me, but Zuffa was unwilling to give me something that they gave Eddie Alvarez. No disrespect to Eddie, but I felt it was fair to give it to me as well. Although things seem to be working out well for me, I feel bad for the fans. They wanted me to fight certain guys in the UFC and I really wanted to give them those fights. Once we get the deal we are working on done, the fight the fans scream for will be lost forever.”

We at FightMatrix are constantly working to improve the site.  However, this is not our full-time gig, so we are also constantly looking for ways to make the site more profitable, which will ultimately allow us to apply more focus to the site and improve it even more.

We are bouncing around the idea of a paid feature, which will allow fighter managers or representatives to “own” a fighter in our database.  This will allow them to publish contact info in the “hover over” record within the ranking pages, so that other reps can contact said fighters for fights.  Of course, we also plan to add additional features to support this:

• An extended profile page with the ability for managers to add “additional information” regarding fight bookings — desired weights and locations for example.
• A small logo on the ranking pages to show that manager/rep info is available.
• Filter on the ranking pages to show only fighters with manager/rep information.
• Filter on the ranking pages to show only fighters with a home location (configurable by the manager/rep) in X miles of a set location in an attempt to make it easier to fill local fight cards.
• A “holding pen” to allow support for unranked and inactive fighters.
• Some other stuff we haven’t thought of yet….

As far as pricing goes, we’re looking at somewhere in the vicinity of $15-$20/year for the first fighter and slightly less for each additional.  Perhaps we will also sell in blocks of 5 or 10 for more savings.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome:

In Episode 11, John Manley took home an uninspired majority decision win over his teammate Joey Rivera. In the remaining quarter-final bout, Mike Ricci dominated Mike Hill for a unanimous decision.

The final win tally is Team Carwin 5, Team Nelson 5 in head-to-head matchups. With the two semifinals bouts set up to be teammate-vs-teammate, the finals will serve as a tie-breaker. And with Matt Mitrione stepping up to fight Roy Nelson as a replacement for the injured Shane Carwin, the question remains if the coaches will face off somewhere down the line.

The semi-finals will air on the next week’s episode:

[#164 LW] Mike Ricci vs [#327 MW] Neil Magny
[#496 WW] John Manley vs [NR] Colton Smith

Here’s who remains:

Keep Reading

This past weekend at SUPER Heavyweight…

[#325] Dave Bautista (1-0-0)  W-TKO(1)  [#498] Vince Lucero (22-23-1)

That’s right… former multiple time WWE Champion Dave “Batista” Bautista is now fighting in pro MMA.  Even though he supposedly cut some muscle, he still weighed in at 265.5 lbs.  Lucero on the other hand, was a not so solid, 300 lbs.

You can watch the fight video on YouTube.

[poll id=”13″]

[poll id=”9″]

Featherweight (145)
[#13] Daniel Straus (19-4-0, 146.0lb) vs. [#14] Marlon Sandro (22-3-0, 145.8lb)
Marlon Sandro is the All-Time #7 ranked Featherweight fighter.

Last 3 Fights: Daniel Straus (3-0-0)
2012-04-13: W vs. [#42FW] Mike Corey (12-3-1) via UD (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
2012-03-09: W vs. [#56FW] Jeremy Spoon (12-1-0) via UD (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
2011-10-15: W vs. [#579LW] Jason Dent (21-12-0) via UD (50-45, 50-45, 48-47)

Last 3 Fights: Marlon Sandro (3-0-0)
2012-04-06: W vs. [#50FW] Alexandre Bezerra (13-2-0) via SD (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
2012-03-09: W vs. [#96FW] Roberto Vargas (12-2-0) via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) in 3:35 of round 1
2011-11-19: W vs. [#248FW] Rafael Dias (15-9-2) via Submission (Arm Triangle Choke) in 3:56 of round 1

Days Since Last Pro Fight: Daniel Straus 28, Marlon Sandro 35
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: Even: Both have 1 win(s) against common opposition.
.

Bantamweight (135)
[#11] Marcos Galvao (11-5-1, 136.0lb) vs. [#43] Travis Marx (19-3-0, 135.4lb)
Marcos Galvao is the All-Time #20 ranked Bantamweight fighter.

Last 3 Fights: Marcos Galvao (2-1-0)
2012-04-13: W vs. [#48BW] Ed West (17-7-0) via UD (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
2011-10-22: L vs. [#13BW] Alexis Vila (11-2-0) via SD (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
2011-09-24: W vs. [#53FW] Chase Beebe (19-8-1) via SD (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Last 3 Fights: Travis Marx (3-0-0)
2012-04-06: W vs. [#53BW] Masakatsu Ueda (15-2-2) via UD (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
2011-09-09: W vs. [#389BW] Mikey Lovato (10-3-0) via Submission (Punches) in 1:38 of round 1
2011-07-09: W vs. [#433BW] Ray Robinson (6-10-0) via Submission (Choke) in 0:56 of round 1

Days Since Last Pro Fight: Marcos Galvao 28, Travis Marx 35
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: Travis Marx leads 1-0
.

Heavyweight (230)
[#49] Seth Petruzelli (15-7-0, 225.5lb) vs. [#58] Carmelo Marrero (14-5-0, 230.0lb)

Last 3 Fights: Seth Petruzelli (2-1-0)
2011-08-20: W vs. [#139HW+] Ricco Rodriguez (48-18-0) via TKO (Punches) in 4:21 of round 1
2011-04-22: W vs. [#341MW] Dave Mewborn (8-4-1) via TKO (Punches) in 3:06 of round 1
2010-11-13: L vs. [#99MW] Karlos Vemola (9-2-0) via TKO (Punches and Elbows) in 3:46 of round 1

Last 3 Fights: Carmelo Marrero (2-1-0)
2011-10-21: W vs. [#103HW+] Scott Barrett (12-3-0) via UD ()
2011-01-29: L vs. [#96HW+] Mark Holata (11-3-0) via UD ()
2010-10-09: W vs. [#157HW+] Steven Banks (6-7-0) via Submission (Guillotine Choke) in 2:33 of round 2

Days Since Last Pro Fight: Seth Petruzelli 265, Carmelo Marrero 203
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: No common opposition or both are winless against common opposition.
.
Keep Reading

If you’ve been paying attention to our MMA Records & Statistics page, you already know that Alexander Sarnavskiy holds the current record for most career wins without a loss — 18.

Some facts about Sarnavskiy:

• Currently ranked #62 in the Lightweight division.  He’s come ever so close to getting into the Top 50.
• He’s only 23 years old and is averaging almost 6 fights per year.
• His last five opponents average a pre-fight record of 10-5, which is actually pretty good.  For comparison sake, Khabib Nurmagomedov, his near equal, is at 8-5 and this includes his UFC debut.

If you train, be sure to pick up some mma head gear. Repeated blows to the head can cause repetitive head injury syndrome. Stay safe, protect your head – you’ll need it!  Some headgear also provides a face shield or full face protection to protect your nose, from bruises, cuts and breaks if that’s a concern.

Cyborg, who took 2nd in our Women’s Fighter of the Year standing for 2011, just tested positive for stanozolol.  Although a positive steroid test does not disqualify you from our awards, this also rendered her only 2011 fight a “no contest”.

As such, Tate will be moved up to #2, and Sarah Kaufman will move in at #3, for the third consecutive year.

In other award-related news, due to recent data changes at Sherdog, we re-assigned the men’s rookie of the year to Sultan Aliev.  Sorry, Levan.

Maybe next year, we’ll wait a little longer to dish out these awards.