UFC signs Krzysztof Jotko; Doo Ho Choi deal reportedly close

It’s not all bad news for MMA fans this week as the UFC has looked to do a little fall housekeeping. As fighters make their way out the door of the world’s largest MMA promotion there are a few making their way in as well. Polish MMA site, MMA Rocks, has the scoop on the UFC’s most recent signing Krzysztof Jotko.

Jotko is an undefeated middleweight prospect competing out of Poland and Germany with a 13-0 record. His wins are fairly evenly split, with 7 decisions, 4 TKOs, and 2 submissions. He’s won a couple of one-night tournaments, most recently a 4-man competition, Fight Night Merseberg 5, but he also has a one-night 8-man tournament  under his belt (something of a rarity these days) from when he defeated three opponents at ZSSC: Martial Arts Night 4 in 2011.

Watching him fight, his striking is awkward and low-powered, but rangy. He’s got good size for middleweight at 6′ 1″ and at only 24 years old, plenty of time to develop in terms of skill and physique. He’s definitely more comfortable on the ground and throws a decent left high kick to close distance on his low single attempts, but he’ll need more varied wrestling and striking down the road. No official announcement has been made of Jotko’s signing and no debut date is known.

In addition to the news on Jotko, sources close to highly touted Korean featherweight, Doo Ho Choi, report that he may be close to signing with the UFC. The 22 year old Choi, a Deep product, is 11-1 with 8 wins coming by way of KO/TKO. His signing was announced today via The Fight Nation, but conflicting reports suggest that the UFC is in fact still in negotiations with the fighter as he is still under contract to Deep and would have to negotiate his way free of the Japanese promotion. He is currently expected to appear on the January 4th show in Singapore.

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Here’s a video of one of Jotko’s more recent fights (the second half of a one-night four-man tournament). Jotko is in the white trunks:

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Nam Phan dropping to Bantamweight, meets Mizugaki at Fight Night 33

After strong back-to-back-to-back wins (even as split decisions) over Bryan Caraway, Erik Perez, and Jeff Hougland, Takeya Mizugaki finds himself on the first win streak of his long Zuffa career. Not since his time among the ranks of Greatest Common Multiple and Shooto has the Hakkei Gym product seen this level of sustained success. For a fighter just reaching his career peak it couldn’t come at a better time. Bleacher Report announces that Mizugaki will look to continue his run of strong performances against Nam Phan in Phan’s bantamweight debut.

Mizugaki rose to fame early in his WEC run with an incredible performance against then WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres (who at the time was considered one of the top P4P fighters on the planet). For three years following that fight Mizugaki alternated wins and losses, dropping decisions to Scott Jorgenson, Urijah Faber, Brian Bowles, and Chris Cariaso, while beating Jeff Curran, Rani Yahya, Reuben Duran, and Cole Escovedo. Recently, however, Mizugaki has looked to be tightening his game up a bit and now sits comfortably on a 3-fight win streak. With another couple of good performances he could see himself in title contention as he has yet to face either of the current champions.

Looking to stand in his way will be a new arrival to the division, former featherweight Nam Phan. Phan gained entry to the UFC as a contestant on the Ultimate Fighter Season 12: GSP vs. Koscheck where he advanced to the quarterfinal round before being eliminated by Michael Johnson. He’s spent the last three years at featherweight going an unspectacular 2-3 (including a widely panned decision loss to Leonard Garcia), but following a strong showing against Cole Miller was utterly dominated by Dennis Siver at UFC on Fox 5. At only 5′ 6″ bantamweight may be better suited to his physique, but I wonder how well he matches with Mizugaki’s polished boxing and quick footwork. Neither fighter is known as a spectacular power puncher, so I expect 3 rounds of high intensity action that may see Mizugaki’s superior pace and conditioning make the difference.

UFC Fight Night 33: Hunt vs. Silva takes place on December 7 in Brisbane, Australia and will feature a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Antionio Silva. Here’s a look at the card so far:

Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva
Maurício Rua vs. James Te Huna
Pat Barry vs. Soa Palelei
Dylan Andrews vs. Clint Hester
Ryan Bader vs. Anthony Perosh
Nick Ring vs. Caio Magalhaes
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Nam Phan

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UFC releases former middleweight title contender Yushin Okami

In what has to be the most surprising release since Jon Fitch, the UFC has cut former middleweight title contender Yushin Okami. MMAjunkie confirmed the news with UFC officials. Okami had a 3-2 record since losing his title shot against Anderson Silva at UFC 134.

Prior to his title fight the UFC was billing Okami as “the best fighter to ever come out of Japan.” It’s high praise, and while maybe somewhat exaggerated, he certainly has a claim for being in the top 5. Before his loss to Ronaldo Souza at UFC Fight Night 28, Okami was on a three fight winning steak with decision victories over Alan Belcher and Hector Lombard and a TKO win over Buddy Roberts. However each of his recent losses have come by TKO, and while they were all against top competition it’s apparent that the UFC felt that this was a sign that he was generally on the downside of his career.

It’s hard not to mirror this release to that of Jon Fitch, who was released after a decision loss to Demian Maia despite a 14-3-1 record with the promotion and a perennial slot in the welterweight top ten. Okami has been a top ranked fighter since 2007 when he beat Mike Swick. Even right now the UFC has him listed at no. 6 in their own system. It’s hard to justify cutting a top fighter, even one who’s never proven himself do be an exciting performer, or top draw, but it’s a precedent that the UFC has now clearly set and is looking to reinforce.

What do you think? Does letting go of Thunder make sense? Is the UFC making a shrewd business decision? Or is this just another sign that they are fighting the wrong battle between sports and entertainment?

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UFC Profiles removed for Benny Alloway, Papy Abedi, and James Head

Not a lot of surprises in this round of apparent UFC releases. The active UFC roster has gotten three names shorter with the removal of James Head, Papy Abedi, and Ben Alloway.

James Head was one of the largest fighters in the welterweight division, standing 6′ 2″. And while he has a notable win over Brian Ebersole to his credit, his only other UFC victory comes against another name on today’s docket, Papy Abedi. At 29 years of age it looks like Head will exit the UFC with a 9-4 record on the receiving end of a two fight losing streak. Both losses come by way of first round stoppage with a TKO loss to Mike Pyle and a submission loss to Jason High. Head is young enough to turn his career around in the next couple of years and make it back to the UFC, but as a fighter who still has a very limited amount of experience I expect he’ll have to put together a healthy winning streak before getting the call again.

For Papy Abedi, his probable exit from the UFC marks the bust of one of the more notable prospects to enter the Octagon. Considered one of the top middleweight prospects in 2011, Abedi entered the UFC unbeaten with all 8 of his career victories by knockout or submission. Unfortunately, and despite his obviously high level Judo game, he was unable to find comparable success in the UFC. He lost his first two fights at welterweight via submission, to Thiago Alves and James Head, and after winning a lackluster split decision over Besam Yousef attempted to recapture his early career form with a move to Middleweight. He dominated TUF 17 fighter, Dylan Andrews, for the better part of two rounds before being knocked out brutally in the third. At 35 I don’t expect there’s much prospect of seeing him back in the UFC, but he could be a late replacement on a future Sweden card.

Finally Benny Alloway appears to have exited the UFC on back to back losses to Ryan LaFlare and Zak Cummings. His win over Manuel Rodrigues was decent (although Rodrigues is no longer with the promotion either) but LaFlare earned a fairly dominant, grappling heavy decision, and Cumming blasted him with a first round submission. The UFC makes a yearly habit of putting on events in Australia, however, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see him on a future card with a couple wins.

That’s all the roster moves for now; stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more fight updates, card announcements, and all your other combat sports news.

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Dana White says Ken Shamrock owes him $175,000 in attorney fees

Dana White and the Shamrocks haven’t exactly had a warm and sunny relationship over the years. While Frank has been on the receiving end of much of that for vacating a UFC title, and for his relationship with former UFC promotional rival Strikeforce, it appears that Dana has recently turned his attention to Ken. Following a slew of tweets and statements from Ken Shamrock about the UFC’s current levels of fighter pay, and more personal attacks on Dana White for his perceived treatment of former UFC fighters, Dana hit back with a message for Ken via Fight Hub TV:

I don’t even want to mention this guy’s f***ing name, but it’s just, like, Ken Shamrock burst back on the scene. “Hey everybody I’m here to save everybody,” or whatever. No, you’re trying to become relevant again is what you’re trying to do. Let’s not forget that Ken Shamrock tried to sue us, that he said that his contract… Ken Shamrock owes me $175,000. And I’m coming for it Ken; I’m coming for the f***ing money you piece of s***.

You should have f***ing stayed wherever you were, hidden under the f***ing porch somewhere. The guy owes me $175,000 because him and his f***ing scumbag lawyer put together some phony lawsuit that he lost. And he owes me $175,000 in attorney’s fees. And he’s out there talking about what he doesn’t have and what guys aren’t getting and all this s***. He’s trying to make himself relevant again and if anybody can’t see that, you’re just f***ing stupid.

I don’t know if there will be any direct fallout from this. If true it seems like a somewhat bizarre incident for Dana White to have been leaving on the back burner. Has he really not been pursuing Ken for this money until Ken called him out publicly? Perhaps he has and this is the trigger for him to start putting the pressure on Ken to pay up. If so that spells trouble for Shamrock, who was recently in the news for pulling out of a planned career comeback fight at age 49. Most likely there’s more to this situation than that, but either way it’s a damning bit of information made public by the UFC’s president of operations.

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UFC 165 Results: Official Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson scorecards released

There was a lot of talk, after UFC 165’s main event, about what some considered to be curious scoring on the part of the judges for Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson. Now, MMAjunkie has gotten a hold of the official judges scores to pull back the curtain on the round by round winners. At the final bell Jones took the fight on all three cards, 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.

Judge Richard Bertrand, who scored the fight 48-47 for Jones, gave him rounds 2, 4, and 5, scoring 1 and 3 for Gustafsson. Judge Doug Crosby, who also scored the fight 48-47 for Jones, had the champion winning 3, 4, and 5, giving Gustafsson rounds 1 and 2. And finally, judge Chris Lee, who scored the fight 49-46 for Jones, only awarded Gustafsson the first round, awarding 2, 3, 4, and 5 to Jones. All Judges agreed that Jones won 4 and 5 and that Gustafsson won round 1, it was only the middle two that saw them divided in their scoring.

It was somewhat surprising to me, personally, that only one judge awarded Gustafsson round three, as it was the round that I felt he most clearly won. But I suppose that only goes further to show the difficulties in scoring this fight. What do you think? Did the judges get it right? What rounds did you have Jones and Gustafsson winning?

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UFC 165 results: Despite fears, Jones and Gustafsson escape UFC 165 largely uninjured

All potential punning aside there’s good news surfacing for fans of UFC 165’s electric main event. We may not have to wait too long to see both fighters back in action. After rumors surfaced, stemming from this tweet from Jones’ coach Mike Winklejohn, that Jones may have severely broken his left foot early in the fight, there was some legitimate hand wringing that we may be left without seeing the Light Heavyweight champ for some time, let alone the possibility of an instant rematch. However it now appears that those initial reports were unfounded as Jones has been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, or at least as clean as possible.

MMAjunkie has the report that Jones has been released from the hospital with no broken bones, or even major injuries to speak of. Miraculously Gustafsson seems to have avoided long term damage as well and given Dana White’s post-fight comments this could mean that a rematch is in the works.

“We’ve got to see how these guys feel, if anything is wrong with them, and then go from there,” White said following the event. “When you see two guys get busted up like they did tonight, they don’t even want to talk about fighting for a few weeks. You’ve got to let them heal up, go home, spend some time with their family and start to get that itch again. Then, they’ll be ready to talk.”

It’s the best news possible for the UFC following what may be the most exciting title fight in promotional history. Hopefully after a little time off to heal up superficial cuts and bruises the UFC will find a way to get these two back in the cage and facing off once more.

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Report: UFC releases Mizuto Hirota and Azamat Gashimov, signs Bruno Santos and Alexandra Albu

Some times a few things fall through the cracks and with the biggest boxing title fight of the year just a week ago and a big UFC title fight just this weekend a some news was bound to go by the wayside. So here’s all the lastest UFC roster info.

First off, for the confirmed news, Combate reports that the UFC has signed Brazilian middleweight Bruno Santos, also known as Bruno “Carioca.” Carioca, age 26 last fought for Bellator in March of 2012, defeating Giva Santana by unanimous decision. But a shoulder injury sidelined the prospect and although it’s not fully healed it would appear that the time out of the sport has given him a chance to wait out his Bellator obligations. He’s undefeated at 13-0 but only has two finishes to his record with all other wins coming via decision.

He’s built like a tank, but his striking is pretty basic and he doesn’t appear to have much of a submission game, mostly he’s a power grinder, similar to Ronny Markes. He’s fairly young and a Nova Uniao product, however, so perhaps he’ll improve with time and more seasoning. With wins over Daniel Acacio and Vitor Nobrega he’s not untested (in fact his record is remarkably un-padded), so I don’t expect him to be out of place in the UFC; I just wouldn’t expect much in the way of excitement either. He’s still out with a lingering shoulder injury so there’s been no debut date announced.

The second signing is a report from Russia that the UFC has picked up a new women’s bantamweight. Alexandra Albu is 5-0 fighting out of team MMA Kegi and almost entirely an unknown commodity. According to MixedMartialArts.com She has a black-belt in Karate and has earned several titles in Karate and Judo competition. She also has a background as a professional body builder and if you do a little searching you’ll find plenty of photos of her showing off her physique. Her management, Red Fury, reports her at 5′ 2″ which will leave her dreadfully undersized at 135. She has the muscle to keep from being overpowered, but she’ll need to present a very technical skill set to overcome her natural disadvantages against the bigger women in the UFC. Her signing has not been officially announced, so there’s no potential debut date in sight.

For the bad news the UFC appears to have released Mizuto Hirota, his profile was dropped from the UFC.com rosters last week. It’s no surprise as he’s been riding a three fight losing streak, his most recent a split decision to Rodrigo Damm. Hirota is another in a long line of decent Japanese fighters to fizzle under the spotlight of the UFC and with a string of underwhelming performances in which he’s failed to show any real dominance, it was time to let him go.

The second fighter that no longer appears on UFC.com as of last week was Russian flyweight Azamat Gashimov. Gashimov was something of a surprise signing with his underwhelming 7-1 record going into the UFC and while his release at 0-2 seems premature for as thin a division as flyweight, he had thus far failed to show any competitive skills, losing to Ivan Menjivar by quick submission and John Lineker via brutal second round TKO. At only 23 he’s got a ton of time to improve on the regional circuit and make it back to the UFC. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on an upcoming European event next time Zuffa crosses the Atlantic.

That’s it for last weeks missed roster movement. As always, here are a couple videos to get familiar with the new fighters before they debut:

Burno Carioca:

Alexandra Albu:

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Bellator 100: Lima vs. Saunders 2 – gifs & results

Bellator 100 featured a long delayed tournament finale bout between Ben Saunders as well as this seasons Welterweight tournament semi-finals. There was a ton of exciting action with plenty of KO’s, some great submissions and a few fun scraps check out all the highlights thanks to our own Zombie Prophet.

Welterweight: Douglas Lima def. Ben Saunders via KO (head kick) at 4:33 of Round 2

Saunders and Lima traded at range for the first round with neither of them landing any significant offense. In the second Saunders looked to get his clinch game going, but got tagged and dropped with a hard uppercut coming in. He was able to recover well enough to go for a heel hook that drove Lima to his feet. Saunders got to his feet and was pressing the action until Lima landed a left hook right high kick combo that put Saunders out cold.

Saunders gets dropped in round 2:

Lima catches Saunders with a great combo and knocks him out flush:

Welterweight: War Machine def. Vaughn Anderson via Technical Submission (RNC)

After a brief exchange on the feet War Machine grabbed a double leg. War Machine landed a bit of ground-n-pound but most looked to keep top control. War Machine grabs mount but Anderson bridged out and reversed to gain guard. War Machine eventually got back to his feet, but gave up an ankle pick takedown. Anderson looked to try and get fancy with his top control and let War Machine up. Anderson looked gassed and started getting hit hard at the end of the round.

War Machine gets a takedown off an Anderson kick to start the second and lands some GNP. War Machine stands and delivers a huge left hand on his way back to the mat, where he gets Anderson in a mounted crucifix. Anderson makes it to his knees but War Machine takes his back and after some scrambling locks in the RNC.

War Machine grabs the mounted crucifix:

The technical sub finish:

Welterweight: Rick Hawn def. Herman Terrado via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Hawn looked to control the action in the clinch in the first round, but failed to get anything going. Terrado was able to separate off the fence a couple times, but couldn’t put together meaningful offense once he was on the outside. Hawn clinched and ground out the last minute of round one.

In round tow Terrado stayed on the outside. He threw a couple hard shots early in the round, but looked exasperated and tired as the round went on. Hawn hit a decent foot sweep and a Judo throw, but was unable to follow up on either. He did look to be opening up his boxing late. Hawn really started timing Terrado in the third and looked to be hurting him in every exchange. The finished the third at a low simmer with Hawn generally getting the better of the round.

Welterweight: Ron Keslar def. Luis Melo via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Melo and Keslar clinch against the fence for the first round. In the second Keslar lands a huge right hand that dazes Melo. Keslar takes his back and rides him for most of the round.  Melo starts striking Keslar with Keslar on his back and is frustrated by the position, but can’t break it. At the start of the third Melo locked in a tigh guillotine for 30 seconds but couldn’t finish. Surprisingly when he let go Keslar seemed more spent and Melo started teeing off with strikes. He went for the armbar but couldn’t get it and gave up his back in the process. The round ends in back control.

Hard shot drops Melo in Round 1:

Melo showing his lack of fear for Keslar’s RNC attempt:

Melo takes the wind out of Keslar’s sails with a deep guillotine attempt:

Welterweight: Brent Weedman def. Justin Baseman via Submission (armbar) at 3:20 of Round 1.

Weedman landed a couple hard shots early that drove Baseman back into the cage. From there he was able to secure the trip takedown and after landing a bit of ground and pound hit a deep armbar. Baseman defended valiantly but Weedman started chaining armbar attempts before finally going belly down and landing it.

Bantamweight: Travis Marx def. Brandon Bender via KO (knee) at 4:28 or Round 2

Marx hit Bender hard and shoots for a takedown. Bender locked in the D’Arce choke and Marx came incredibly close to tapping. Bender stayed on his back where he spent the rest of the round hand fighting for the RNC. In the second Marx was able to keep the fight standing and pot shot Bender from distance. Marx really turned it up late and teed off on Bender before landing a big knee to finish the fight.

Lightweight: LaRue Burley def. Bubba Jenkins via TKO (punches) at 3:40 of Round 3

Burley surprised Jenkins with a hard shot early and had an opportunity to do some damage but tried to grapple with Jenkins. Jenkins got in on his hips for the takedown, but Burley bridged out before Jenkins could do any damage. On the feet again Jenkins hit a strong double and landed some heavy ground and pound. Burley finally made his way to his feet and exploded out of the clinch. He tried to open his striking briefly, but Jenkins shot in again and landed some more heavy ground and pound. Burley got to his feet again and got thrown on his head. The two scrambled with Jenkins taking the back and looking for the RNC. Burley burst back to his feat again and tried to strike but got taken right back down. Burley shucked him off his back and landed some GNP of his own to close out the round.

Burley hit a hard superman punch to open the second and started to land hard shots at range. He stuffed a shot and is hurt Jenkins on the ground. An eyepoke stalled the action and another bad illegal knee call slowed it even further.

In the third both fighters looked tired, with Burley having the advantage. Jenkins got a sloppy takedown and Burley cage walked for a great sweep to land some hard GNP. He switched between chokes and punches and finally decided to step out and stand up from back mount to get more leverage on his strikes for the TKO win.

Big suplex from Jenkins:

Jenkins maintaining back control:

Second bad illegal knee call of the night:

Burley teeing off on Jenkins:

The fight started to get a little weird late:

Burley stands from backmount to secure the TKO victory:

Light heavyweight: Clifford Starks def Joe Yager via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Starks came out strong, throwing hard and forcing Yager to try and shoot. Yager finally worked the fight into the clinch against the cage but Starks reversed and grabbed a low single for the takedown where he rode out the rest of the round. They started the second feeling out the range, until Starks landed a couple of huge shots. Yager can’t find his way into the clinch. After a bit of circling Starks shot in for the double, ate a knee, but got it. After a stand up Yager went for an ineffective shot, the fighters seperated and started trading sloppy blows. Third round started slow with neither fighter wanting to get hit. They clashed with hard shots about a minute in, but separated back to tentative circling. Starks eventually went hard for a double leg and after some cage grabbing got Yager down. Starks got nothing going on the ground though and after a standup from the ref went straight back for another takedown. Yager got back up, Starks took him down again and rode him out for the rest of the round.

Light Heavyweight: Liam McGeary def. Beau Tribolet via KO (punch) at 0:27 of Round 1

McGeary came out using his incredibly reach advantage to pot shot Tribolet. He hit a nice double jab with a straight right that sent Tribolet crashing and walked off before the ref could step in.

Heavyweight: Mighty Mo Siliga def. Dan Charles via TKO (punches) at 1:26 of Round 3.

Charles came out looking to trade with Mighty Mo and got hit hard. He immediately went into desperation takedown mode, but Mo defended well. Charles looked to work clinch knees but threw a low blow halting the fight for a few minutes. Mo recovered and found his range, shucking takedowns and landing hard shots. Charles tried to clinch up and Mo lifted him off the ground with a knee to the groin. On the restart Mo looked to be slowing and got clipped by Charles. Charles tried for a standing guillotine late, but didn’t get it.

The second round was spent almost entirely against he cage with Mo delivering hard body shots in return for soft knees to from Charles. Charles tried to get the takedown but got reversed and ended up on the bottom late. They went back to the knee for punch trade in the third, and Mo tried for a low single. They clinched again and on the separation he started hitting vicious hooks on the break and delivered about 20 unanswered blows before the ref stepped in.

Charles complaining about some legit body punches:

The really delayed TKO finish:

Welterweight: Adam McDonough def. Johnny Buck via TKO (punches) at 4:50 of Round 1

Buck looked pretty foot slow to start the fight. He was looking to engage in a clinch, takedown game, but didn’t have the speed to close the distance. McDonough fired away with big hard shots and good variety. McDonough looked close to finishing the fight with a knee to the head against the cage, but the ref mistakenly called Buck down and the strike illegal. After a brief stop to check Buck the fight was restarted and McDonough was able to use his crisper striking to continue blitz Buck and put him away with only ten seconds remaining.

McDonough with a nice combination:

The first bad illegal knee call of the night:

A really nice (and long) series of strikes for the finish:

Other Results:

Efrain Escudero def. Zack Surdyka

That’s all for this weeks Bellator action. Be sure to check back with Bloody Elbow for all the news on UFC 165, and all the world’s biggest combat sports events.

The UFC adds two new heavyweights to it’s roster with Jared Rosholt and Walter Harris

There’s no doubt that heavyweight is a thin division, but more than that it’s just a strange space; sort of a “Mystery Spot” on the MMA landscape in which the normal laws that bind MMA divisions no longer apply. Who will the next great heavyweight be? Will it be a collegiate wrestling star, a former professional kickboxer, an NFL washout? Could it possibly be Jared Rosholt or Walter Harris? These two new UFC heavyweights are set to face off at the Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale this November.

Rosholt, as many may recognize, is the brother of former UFC fighter Jake Rosholt. He’s a hulking heavyweight at 6’2″ 243 lbs (in his last fight) and has run up a decent record of 8-1 with his sole loss coming to current UFC fighter Derrick Lewis. At age 27 and with only two years of pro MMA experience he’s an exciting prospect to watch. He’s riding a four fight win streak into the UFC with his last two wins coming via first round KO. He was a three time all American at Oklahoma State as a collegiate wrestler, a record which puts him among the highest decorated wrestlers in the UFC. He announced his signing via Twitter:

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His opponent, MMAJunkie announced, will be another UFC newcomer, Walter Harris. Harris is a former college basketball player, and something of an unknown as an MMA prospect. At 30 years old his professional record is 6-1, with his only loss to MFC title challenger and heavyweight prospect Chris Barnett in a fight in which Barnett came in 29 lbs overweight. Since dropping a decision to Barnett, Harris has won five straight with all his wins coming by way of first round knockout. At 6’4″ 240 lbs Harris has a huge frame, even for a heavyweight. With his basketball background he’s also reasonable light on his feet. He’s working with Jeff Mayweather and appears to have decent striking and good hand speed and given the nature of heavyweight competition being 30 doesn’t mean much for his competitive ceiling. This is still very much Rosholt’s fight to lose as he has the obvious skill advantage, but I expect to see a lot more from Harris down the line.

The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale takes place on November 30th and will be headlined by a Flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. As with all debuting fighters I write about here’s some footage from their recent fights to get us acquainted.

Walt Harris:

Jared Roshalt:

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