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By: Chris Park, MMATorch UK Specialist
It has been less than one week since it was officially announced that UFC 120 will take place at the London O2 Arena on October 16. Fan reaction has so far been indifferent towards the the main event match up between UK favourite Michael Bisping and Japanese star Yoshihiro Akiyama, with many calling for an "American star" to top the bill in the capital city.
While I can understand the frustrations towards Amkiyama’s involvement in the main event, considering he is coming in off a loss to Chris Leben – a man who Bisping holds a win over - the fight itself, and the entire card for that matter, looks set to be another action packed evening at the O2 Arena.
UFC UK President Marshall Zelaznik has this week spoken out to urge fans to keep faith in the event, which he believes will succeed in similar fashion to the last show the UFC brought to the English capital.
UFC 95, in February 2009, was headlined by Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson, and while on paper the card read more like a Spike TV Fight Night, it resulted in 3 hours of back-to-back entertainment.
In an exclusive interview with ESPN.co.uk Zelaznik said, “I understand people being disappointed at the lack of fighters that they may perceive to be their favourite fighters - I'm the same. I'd love to see Jon Jones in the UK because I think the people would love him.
“But the thing is that the biggest critics are the most likely ones to be buying their tickets for the event. They are the hardcore fans; which is why their opinions mean a lot to us, but we believe we're putting out the right card. Look back to UFC 95 and the criticisms we got prior to that card, but it turned out to be one of the best UFC events put on that year.
“There will be a lot of British fighters to get behind for the local fans, and I believe there will be one or two European fighters as well.”
Another report to come out of the UK office this week has been the intention to bring a series of up to six "Fight Nights" to these shores over the next twelve months. Zelaznik added, “We're working towards bringing together a series of UK and European Fight Nights. My hope is that, come October, we'll be able to put some real heat on this. Talks are underway."
I have said for a long time that regular “Fight Nights” would be the ideal way to bridge the gaps between main UFC shows in England by visiting some of our other major cities.
With home town fighters such as Terry Etim and Andre Winner on the UFC roster, either Liverpool or Nottingham would be the perfect stage for “European Fight Night I.”
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This Sunday night UFC will hit Versus for the second time with Jon Jones and Vladimir Matyushenko set to square off in the evening’s main event. The undercard will see Team Kaobon lightweight Paul “Tellies” Kelly back in action when he finally squares off with Jacob Volkmann. The Kelly vs. Volkmann showdown was originally scheduled for UFC 116 but was pushed back due to Kelly being struck with Visa issues.
After compiling a record of 10-2 Kelly gained his eleventh career victory over Matt Veach at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Veach came into this fight off the back of his first career loss at the hands of Frankie Edgar. While that defeat to Edgar resulted in "The Answer" being awarded his own title shot against B.J Penn, Veach looked to bounce back against Kelly, but was impressively submitted by the Brit in Abu Dhabi.
Jacob Volkmann comes into this fight with Kelly with a professional Mixed Martial Arts record of 10-2. While both of Volkmann's defeats came in the UFC, they were in the welterweight division to top contenders Martin Kampmann and Paulo Thiago; so it is clear that the Minnesotan has the experience at the top level to give Kelly a tough night.
Although the UFC have revealed there are no immediate plans to include Kelly in the UFC card in London, a win over Volkmann would make loud noises for Kelly and would push him further towards the top ten fighters in the Lightweight division.
While Paul Kelly does not fear any fighter at 155 lb. there is one man that the Brit wouldn’t be overjoyed about fighting, and that is former champion B.J Penn.
In an exclusive interview with Ben Blackmore from ESPN.co.uk, Kelly stated, “I'd find it really hard to fight B.J. He's the one guy I'd find really difficult to fight from a respect level.”
“I'm still pretty young and I'm learning my lessons and getting better, and hopefully one day I can get a title shot. But if it's against B.J., I'd find that really difficult. I need my opponents to be my enemies. I don't touch gloves with any of my opponents, and if I fought B.J. that would have to stay the same, but it wouldn't be out of disrespect.”
-Terrestrial channel Five changed hands this week as Express newspapers owner Richard Desmond took charge of the station.
Following the demise of Setanta Sports in June 2009, "Five" was one of the few contenders in the race to snap up the UFC. Despite missing out to sports powerhouse ESPN, Five and the UFC came to a separate agreement to bring “UFC: Main Event” to the British viewing public.
“UFC: Main Event” shows the main highlights of a UFC show in the weeks following ESPN’s live broadcast. While Five have also aired the last two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, on sister channel Five: USA, it is unknown at this point how prioritised the UFC will be under this new regime.
The Express is one broadsheet that has not really supported MMA, so it will be interesting to see what kind of backing the UFC will receive on Five once the Desmond era is in full swing.
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-Chris "The Crippler" Leben has this week offered a warning notice to Michael Bisping ahead of the Brit's UFC 120 clash with Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Leben dropped a decision to Bisping at UFC 89 but has since rebuilt his career, and has recently scored two victories in as many weeks. The second of those victories was over Akiyama, although it was anything but a walk in the park for Leben.
Having only been stopped once in his entire career, by Anderson Silva, it was something of a surprise to see "The Crippler" appear to be on the verge of a knockout loss as both he and Akiyama threw everything they had at one another.
Leben managed to clear his head, come back and submit Akiyama with a triangle choke with only a matter of seconds of the fight remaining. Leben now looks set to meet Wanderlei Silva when "The Axe Murderer" returns, but warned his former foe Bisping to be wary of the knockout power of Judo expert Akiyama when the two face off in London.
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Chris Park is the MMATorch UK Specialist and guest columnist at ESPN.co.uk. Please email any comments or questions to Chris at; mmatorchuk@gmail.com or look us up at http://www.facebook.com/mmatorchuk2 our new MMATorch Facebook home for UK Fans!
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