Inside Fights will have live round-by-round updates of “The Event” pay-per-view, headlined by Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey from Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas. Coverage starts at 9 pm EST.

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Nowadays, a prospect will be spoon fed until a mega-payday and title shot against some paper champion comes his way. Then, and only then, will the world see if the young star truly has what it takes to be a world class fighter. That’s why we have guys like Andre Berto and Nonito Donaire sporting two and three year title reigns, respectively, without having faced more than one world-class challenger apiece.

Fights like Sonsona-Vazquez, where both young fighters have a ton to lose, just don’t happen all that much anymore. Lest we forget, though, that this is 2010, the contest is for the vacant WBO super bantamweight title. So, yeah, a bogus paper title is on the line. But, more importantly, this is a dangerous bout between two young, talented fighters just starting to realize their potentials.

After months of waiting, one of the hottest feuds in MMA will FINALLY come to a head. According to updates on their respective Twitter accounts, on May 29th, “Suga” Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will step into the UFC octagon with the intended purpose of destroying one another. The fight will headline UFC 114, and was originally scheduled for the PPV just after each fighter was a featured trainer on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, marks the first time in the cage for Rampage in 14 months, who left the promotion to film “The A-Team”.

Rumored UFC 114 Fight Card
(Courtesy of MMA Weekly)

Rashad Evans (14-1-1) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (30-7)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3) vs. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida (11-4) vs. Mike Guymon (11-3-1)
Chris Leben (19-6) vs. Aaron Simpson (7-0)
Melvin Guillard (23-8-2) vs. Thiago Tavares (14-3-1)
Luis Cane (10-2) vs. Cyril Diabate (15-6-1)

(Images courtesy of twitter.com/Rampage4real and twitter.com/SugaRashadEvans.)

Yusaf Mack (28-2-2, 17 KOs) has traveled down the old-school road of professional boxing. From club to club, undercard to undercard, he’s pulled himself to the upper ranks of the sport via hard work, dedication and a never say die attitude.

Now, he faces the defining fight of his career on February 5th against “The Road Warrior” Glen Johnson. The winner gets a shot at the IBF 175 lb. crown, the loser gets pushed back into the pile of contenders.

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Image courtesy: Skyscrapercity.com

It has been no small secret that UFC have been negotiating to hold an open air event in Abu Dhabi for some time. Today, it has been confirmed: UFC 112 will originate from the Concert Arena, Ferrari World, Yas Island on April 10th of this year. The historic card will feature two HUGE co-main events which will see Anderson “The Spider” Silva defending his UFC Middleweight Title against Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort while UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. “The Prodigy” Penn defends his strap against Frankie “The Answer” Edgar. Also on the card will be legendary welterweight Matt Hughes will take on Renzo Gracie.

Krzysztof Soszynski, the Canadian fighter who takes on the once promising Brandon Vera this Saturday at UFC 102, started his grappling career in a very different industry.

Although Brock Lesnar gets all the attention from fans and the media, Soszynski was also a wrestler in another life. Discovered as a massive 318 pound bodybuilder by promoter Tony Candelo, he was soon hopping around the ring and taking pratfalls all over Canada.

His career path seemed set when he encountered wrestling legend “Bad News” Allen Coage. Bad News Allen was more than a professional wrestler. He was also the 1976 Olympic Bronze Medalist in Judo.

Coage was the toughest man in a tough man’s business. As a black man in a notoriously racist industry, Bad News was continually forced to defend himself from insensitive and downright insulting remarks. Many black wrestlers were content to pretend not to hear the horrible slights on their person and their race. That wasn’t Bad News Allen.

In one famous incident, the monstrous Andre the Giant was making racist comments on a bus ride in front of all the other wrestlers. When Coage confronted him, Andre refused to stop. Allen walked to the front of the bus and asked the driver to stop. He stepped outside and challenged the 6-10 500 pound Giant to step outside with him. Andre refused. The next day at the hotel, Bad News renewed his challenge. Finally, the Giant backed down and apologized.

Even a monster wanted no part of Allen Coage.

“I met him after he had two hip replacement surgeries. He was still on the floor in his fifties, still grappling with the kids he was teaching. I could definitely imagine how tough he was back then and how well he would have done if the sport had been around,” Soszynski said. “He traveled extensively to Japan as well, learning Aikido and Jiu Jitsu. I had the privilege of meeting him during one of my circuits across Canada. He invited me out for a two-week camp at his place in Calgary and that’s where he showed me a Kimura and an armbar. I was hooked. Immediately after that two week training camp, I came back to Winnipeg, quit wrestling, and took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Six months later I had my first fight. So, he was very instrumental to me turning into a mixed martial arts fighter. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be doing something else.”

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Ultimate Fighting Championship understands their biggest fans and creates events with that audience in mind; whether tailoring an hour long Q&A session with Dana White himself into a sort of “MMA Town Hall” or putting 16 men into the same house with the hopes of duking their way toward a UFC contract, the Fertitta Brothers and White pride themselves on setting up fights that fans are interested in seeing.  It’s always been a recipe for success financially, but leads to some second-guessing down the line as many divisions might begin to show clear signs of dominance over one another; after Georges St. Pierre’s dominant title defense over BJ Penn, one could make the case that the Welterweight division has an edge over UFC’s Lightweight counterpart and with a win by Anderson Silva, Middleweight over Light Heavyweight as Silva picks apart his own division and now runs up against a former UFC champion in Forrest Griffin seemingly with more damage to inflict.

In professional wrestling, where the results are predetermined and the injuries are planned, fake or accidental, there is nothing wrong with a 250-pound man fighting a 155-pound man and it is believable that this would be a competitive encounter. In MMA, that’s not always the case and while match-ups can be set up “by popular demand,” much of what makes combat sports unique are those match-ups that cannot happen due to size disparities or via competing in another era, lead to speculation and an obviously hot debate. …read full article…

Props: CombatLifestyle.com (Click the link to check out the full gallery.)

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Manny Pacquiao scored three knockdowns en route a devastating second round knockout over Ricky Hatton to become the Junior Welterweight Champion.

After one month of voting, our readers have decided on a pound-for-pound champion. Click inside to see the results of the championship bout!