THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
A light heavyweight bout between Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira looks to be on its way to UFC 114 in Las Vegas instead of UFC 113 in Montreal as originally planned. The card change was reported Thursday by MMAJunkie.com.
The report states that the fight may have always been targeted for this May 29th card, though it's not clear if that was the case. At any rate, with Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley getting co-main event billing at 113, this adds a big light heavyweight co-main event for 114 to compliment Rashad Evans vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Griffin, of course, is coming off of a rebound victory over Tito Ortiz following his loss to Anderson Silva last August. The former Light Heavyweight Champion will get himself closer to a return to the top of the division with a victory over Minotoro.
Nogueira made a successful UFC debut in November at UFC 106, knocking out Luiz Cane in the first round. After a lengthy and successful career outside of the UFC, he made a huge splash with that victory and will climb even quicker up the ladder with a victory over Griffin in this bout.
Penick's Analysis: It doesn't matter what card this one takes place on, it's simply a great match up. There are legit ramifications for the top of the light heavyweight division in this one, and the winner sets themselves up to be an even more featured attraction later in the year. This should definitely be a lot of fun and it's a great addition to the Vegas card. The Montreal fans will definitely miss out on this one live, but it will be a great fight for fans everywhere in May.
[Forrest Griffin art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP