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
Welterweight prospect Ricardo Funch has been forced out of his UFC 111 bout with Matt Riddle according to a report from MMAJunkie.com. His reasoning for pulling out of the bout was not known at the time of the report.
Stepping into his spot is UFC newcomer Greg Soto, a 7-0 professional who is a training partner of UFC fighter Kurt Pellegrino. A Brazilian jiu jitsu brown belt out of Kurt Pellegrino's Mixed Martial Arts academy in New Jersey, Soto has picked up five submission victories in his seven fights.
Riddle is 3-1 in his professional career, all of his bouts have come in the Octagon. He debuted with the organization as a member of the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter, and posted three straight decision victories before losing his first bout to Nick Osipczak at UFC 105.
UFC 111 takes place from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, on March 27th on pay-per-view, headlined by a Welterweight Title bout between Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy.
Penick's Analysis: Soto is an exciting undefeated fighter coming in with some definite buzz behind him, and it should make for an entertaining debut against Riddle on this undercard. With seven of the fights already guaranteed to air, he'll have a great chance to get his debut on either the Spike or pay-per-view broadcast. This 111 event has been hit by a couple of injuries, but all in all it's the best top to bottom card the UFC has had in 2010.
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