“Affliction Banned” (the fight card is stacked, the name is jacked) will hold press conferences in LA and NYC, May 20 and May 22 respectively. Both will be open to the public. From their latest press release:

WHEN & WHERE:
Tuesday, May 20 – 12:30PM/PT
Westfield Mall
in Century City (Food Court)
10250 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90067

Thursday, May 22 – 10:30 AM/ET
Trump Tower
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022

WHY: To formally announce and promote “Affliction Banned,” the monster mixed-martial-arts show presented by Affliction, the premier fashion label for men who love hard rock and fast living, July 19th on pay-per-view television, featuring the return of Russian combat fighting icon Fedor Emelianenko at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Fighters on the Affliction Banned card include:
FEDOR EMELIANENKO, TIM “Maine-iac” SYLVIA, “Big” BEN ROTHWELL, JOSH “The Babyfaced Assassin” BARNETT, PEDRO “The Rock” RIZZO, MATT “The Law” LINDLAND, FABIO “Negao” NASCIMENTO, RENATO “Babalu” SOBRAL, MIKE WHITEHEAD

Wow, this thing really snuck up on me which is surprising considering how decent the fight card is. Tonight the WEC will hold an event at the Hard Rock hotel in Vegas and will be broadcast on the Versus channel at 6PM/PT (See if you get the Versus channel here). Middleweight standout Paulo Filho will put his title and unbeaten record on the line against Chael Sonnen. The Urijah vs. Curran and the Swanson vs. Pulver (his first fight at 145lbs) fights should be fantastic and will continue to build on the solid Featherweight division.

145lb (Featherweight Title)
Urijah Faber (19-1-0) Vs. Jeff Curran (31-8-1)

145lbs
Cub Swanson (11-1-0) Vs. Jens Pulver (21-8-1)

185lbs (Middleweight Title)
Paulo Filho (15-0-0) Vs. Chael Sonnen (21-8-1)

205lbs
Doug Marshall (6-2-0) Vs. Ariel Gandulla (4-0-1)

170lbs
John Alessio (26-11-0) Vs. Todd Moore (9-0-0)

170lbs
Bryan Baker (5-0-0) Vs. Eric Schambari (7-0-0) (more…)

Today the UFC announced two more matches that will take place on the UFC 80 fight card, bringing the total number of confirmed fights up to six. Aside from the Joe Stevenson vs. BJ Penn fight and the return of Gabriel Gonzaga, there isn’t much on this card that has me too pumped. So far there are three fighters who will be making their very first appearance in the Octagon while four of the seven returing UFC fighters are coming off of losses. UFC 80 will be held in England (why do they always seem to get the crappy fight cards) and the line up thus far is as follows:

BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson
Wilson Gouveia Vs. Jason Lambert
Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Fabricio Werdum
Per Eklund Vs. Sam Stout
James Lee Vs. Alessio Sakara
Paul Kelly Vs. Paul Taylor

Until I get word from the UFC directly, I’m usually hesitant to report any rumored fights. In my experience, most of these fights fall through and never happen. However, MMA Mania has posted the Ultimate Fight Night 12 fight card and labeled it as “exclusive.” Maybe they know something I do not. The card looks intriguing enough that I thought it was worthy of sharing. The event isn’t until Jan. 23rd so we know a lot can/will change, however the Swick vs. Burkman fight would be a treat and the return of Corey Hill would be exciting.

Mike Swick (10-2) vs. Josh Burkman (9-4)
Corey Hill (1-0) vs. TBA
Thiago Tavares (13-1) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (4-5)
Kurt Pellegrino (10-3) vs. Alberto Crane (8-1)
Nate Diaz (7-2) vs. Alvin Robinson (9-2)
Patrick Cote (11-4) vs. Drew McFedries (6-2)

Source: MMA Mania

As of last week, there was only one official fight for this card listed on UFC.com. A check today shows that they have added a few other match-ups to the card. The Ultimate Fighter Finale will take place in Vegas on Dec. 8th and will be shown on Spike TV.

Roger Huerta vs. Glay Guida (Main Event)

Jared Rollins vs. John Koppenhaver

Troy Mandaloniz vs. Richie Hightower

Roman Mitichyan vs. Dorian Price

Paul Georgieff vs. Jonathan Goulet

Roman Mitichyan is the guy who broke his arm at the very beginning of the season. I’m looking forward to seeing him in action, especially against fellow hot-head Dorian Price.

Kimbo Slice is embracing the same training method used by Rickson Gracie, abstaining from sex before a fight. I’m sure Rickson wasn’t the first fighter to go sex-free in belief that I would help his performance in the ring, but he’s probably the most famous for it as he talked about it in his documentary Choke.

Kimbo is going one step further, he’s also cut out booze and smoking. Here is a quote from Kimbo in an interview with MMA Weekly,

“Every aspect of my training has improved. My whole life has improved. I don’t even smoke any more. I haven’t had sex in four months. I haven’t had a cocktail in five, six months. So I’m pretty pure and I’m backed up and I’m ready to fight.”

Does his reference to “smoke” mean cigarettes or the chronic I wonder?

Kimbo will be taking on Bo Cantrell tonigt at EliteXC Renegade. The fight card looks solid and it should be a good night of MMA. Also in action tonight,

Nick Diaz vs. Karl James Noons
Jake Shields vs. Mike Pyle
Antonio Silva vs. Jonathan Wiezorek
Seth Kleinbeck vs. Kyle Noke