The MMA Update for Thursday May 31st 2007
Written by: Chris Howie
Welcome to the first edition of The MMA Update. All unforseen circumstances aside this will be a daily article on MMANews.com covering all the news from the day. The Monday edition will cover the weekend and also give out awards for the previous week so make sure to check back Monday for that edition. So without futher ado lets kick this into overdrive and rundown the news!
K-1/EliteXC “Dynamite!! USA” Finalized
For today anyway. This show has had so many changes happen in the last few weeks one has to wonder what could happen with two days left until the show. Fans can be relieved that the main event of Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba has finally been given the green light and will be a go come Saturday evening. This one was up in the air until yesterday when the CSAC announced that Sakuraba had been cleared to fight. Thank God. Had that fight been called off there would have been very little attraction to this show in my opnion. Lesnar making his debut will garner interest from pro wrestling fans I'm sure so if nothing else it may bring some new fans over to the sport. Everyone take a second and cross our fingers that nothing else happens that can mess up this event.
UFC Breaks Records and Tops Lists Everywhere
It was bound to happen eventually. The UFC is finally starting to go through the roof. Roger Huerta graces the cover of the latest Sports Illustrated, UFC was tops on the Yahoo! buzz list, UFC.com went through the roof and broke a traffic record for that site. Say what you will about Dana White, the man has taken this company and made it a money making machine and it's only getting started in my eyes. By the end of 2007, MMA will be one of the biggest sports in the world. I live in Canada and after last weekends UFC 71, I noticed almost every Canadian sports channel had results all over their programs. To add to it, when I checked the websites the next day www.tsn.ca and www.sportsnet.ca added MMA sections to the site. This has to make any MMA fan a little bit excited.
Warner to Release IFL DVD in September
Now I'm not overly sure how many people really watch the IFL but it's good that they will be hitting the DVD market so fans that want to take a look at the product can go and pick up a DVD and see what they think. The DVD will be called “IFL: Greatest Knockouts & Extreme Action” and will be released September 18th. Not too shabby.
Whats Happening Around MMANews.com
With the line up of MMA events over the next few months MMANews.com will be a busy place. Make sure to check back daily for news updates and interviews.
For a really good take on UFC 71's main event between Quinton Jackson and and Chuck Liddell, check out Rich Davidson's article: “Where Do We Go From Here?” from his column The Way It Is (And Not Much Else) at this location https://www.mmanews.com/ufc/Where-Do-We-Go-From-Here-Liddell-Rampage-II-Aftermath.html
Also we have had a few interviews come out this week with Spencer Fisher, Joe Lauzon, and Mike Swick. It is particularly interesting to check out the Fisher and Lauzon interviews as they both call each other out (completely randomly). Make sure to check back this week for interviews with Strikeforce Middleweight Cung Le, Ultimate Fighter 3 alum Rory Singer and former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
The new and improved MMANews Radio should be kicking off this week where myself, Thomas Caldwell and Justin Bullock will give our takes on UFC 71 and preview the K-1/EliteXC show this weekend. Check out the forums where you can ask questions that will be read on air and we'll do what we can to give you an answer.
Make sure to check us out on the boards at forums.mmanews.com.
To close this out i'd like to ask some people to send me questions that I can add into the daily post. Send your questions to [email protected]
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