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Last night the UFC and Spike aired Fight for the Troops, a very honorable benefit for the US armed forces. Despite the constant nagging for donations (I wish there was some way to turn that off after you donated), the event was very exciting. The memorable and very thrilling fights of the night were:

Ben Saunders def. Brandon Wolff by TKO – 1:49 Round 1

Saunders put a hurting on Wolff, effectively using the muay thai clinch, even better than Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin 1, and constantly landing solid head kicks when Wolff was able to escape the clinch.

Steve Cantwell def. Razak Al-Hassan by sub (Armbar) – 4:04 Round 1

Ever see a made break his arm completely backward at the elbow joint?  Well if you saw the Cantwell vs Al-Hassan fight, you would have.  I don’t know if it was due to complete stubbornness or somehow the inability to tap either verbally or physically, but Al-Hassan didn’t tap while in the armbar and well, tap it or snap it.

Mike Swick def. Jonathan Goulet by KO – 0:33 Round 1

Another Quick Swick KO, 10 seconds to drop Goulet, 23 more seconds of pounding.

Josh Koscheck def. Yoshiyuki Yoshida by KO at 2:15, R1

Koscheck has really stepped up his stand up.  Koscheck landed a brutal KO on Yoshida, first stunning him / partial KO leaving Yoshida standing up and then bam! One more solid punch to leave his twitching on the mat.  Brutal!

This Wednesday night the UFC will be hosting a fund raising event to build a special brain trauma treatment center for the US Troops. Among the fighters that will be fighting on Wednesday is Mike Quick Swick vs Jonathan Goulet, a fight that I’m particularly looking forward to.  I particularly feel that he’s a fighter that we don’t see enough of.  It’s been 6 months since Swick has fought at UFC 85 against Marcus Davis and he’s ready to enter the Octagon again against Goulet.  Swick feels that Goulet is an excellent fighter and it will be a great fight.  To prepare himself for the fight he’s been training with Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, among many great up and coming fighters at AKA (American Top Team).  In the past Koscheck has fought and defeated Goulet, however, Swick is focusing more on the past few fights rather than Goulet’s past history.

Regarding the Fight for the Troops, Swick is very excited for this card, his biggest regret in life is having not joined the military himself.  Swick has a lot of respect for the Military and also gets a lot of feedback from Military fans.

Finally Swick has talked about his new hobby of snake and alligator handling in Thailand, the video which is available below – “The Deadly Snake Pit”

So what did you think about Ultimate Fight Night 12 that recently aired on Spike TV?  Some good fights right? The Mike Swick vs Josh Burkman fight wasn’t exciting, but Swick should be happy with his performance.  I know that he looked a bit bummed after the fight.  He’s use to having some insane victories, like the time he knocked out Gideon Ray, or the time he submitted Joe Riggs, or the beating he put on David Loiseau.  However, although nothing exciting happened, Swick put up some great defense against a guy who’s known for big take downs / slams.  Not being taken down once, that’s something to be proud of.  So what was all of the booing for?  Both fighters were swigging for the fences… simply nothing connected for a big KO.

Although the Swick vs Burkman fight wasn’t that thrilling, The Patrick Cote vs Drew McFedries fight was exciting an a bit of an upset, Alvin Robinson vs Nate Diaz?  Nate Diaz really surprised me, his ground game is highly unrated.  Nate was extremely fast on the ground and continuous tried to catch Alvin in a different submission.

Overall the event was entertaining, thanks to Spike and the UFC for putting on another great, free performance.  Looking forward to Fight Night 13 in Colorado, where the two Bostonian badasses, Joe Lauzon and Kenny Florian will face off.

Tomorrow Night, Spike TV will host UFC Fight Night featuring Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman. The event will be featured live at 9:00PM ET/PT from the Pearl Palms Concert Theater – Las Vegas, NV.

In addition to Swick and Burkman squaring off, Patrick Cote will take on Drew McFedries, Alvin Robinson will face off with Nate Diaz, Michihiro Omigawa will fight Thiago Tavares, Alberto Crane will battle Kurt Pellegrino, Dennis Siver will get beat by Gray Maynard, Jeremy Stephens will fight Cole Miller, Joe Veres will fight Corey Hill and Justin Buchholz will duke it out with Matt Wiman.

Thursday morning / afternoon tickets for Ultimate Fight Night 12 go on presale for UFC Fight Club Members at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Followed up with a newsletter presale on Friday and a general ticket sale on Saturday. The Ultimate Fight Night will take place at The Palms in Las Vegas Nevada on January 23rd 2008. The featured Welterweight fight will be between Josh Burkman and Mike Swick, while the featured middleweight fight between Drew McFedries and Patrick Cote. Also fighting that night, Thiago Tavares and Michihiro Omigawa, Cory Hill and Joe Veres, among others that will be announced.

The UFC announced that Mike Swick had to withdraw from Ultimate Fight Night 11 (UFN 11) due to a rib injury.  Swick was scheduled to fight Jonathan Goulet at the upcoming event.  Welterweight Dustin Hazelett will take Mike Swick’s place for this fight.  For those of you who are not familiar with Hazelett, he is currently a 9 and 3 fighter.  He has fought in 3 UFC events, loosing only his first event to Tony DeSouza back in 2006.  We’ve included a video of Hazelett fighting Chad Reiner at the end of this post.  The quality isn’t great, but better than nada.

“The welterweight debut of Mike Swick will have to wait after the former middleweight contender was forced to withdraw from September 19th’s UFC Fight Night show in Las Vegas with a rib injury.  Stepping up to the plate to face Jonathan Goulet at The Palms will be up and comer Dustin Hazelett.  UFC Fight Night, which features the lightweight battle between Din Thomas and Kenny Florian, airs live on Spike TV beginning at 9pm.” Source – UFC.com

 

The rumors are out about Ultimate Fight Night 11 and if they are true, expect to see one of the best Ultimate Fight Nights to date. The match ups are rumored to be:

1. Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet
2. Chris Leben vs. Terry Martin
3. Gray Maynard vs. Joe Veres
4. Din Thomas vs. Spencer Fisher
5. Nate Diaz vs. Junior Assuncao
6. Luke Cummo vs. TBA
7. Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Thiago Alves

UFN is scheduled for September 19th 2007. If these match up prove to be true.. I don’t know how much better these UFN’s can get?

Rumor has it that Mike Swick will be rematching Chris Leben for UFC 76! Swick is expected to drop down to welterweight. For those of you who WEC 9 back in 2004, Leben dropped Swick in the second round with a straight left. Swick has improved greatly since this fight in 2004, so expect a battle. In the mean time, check out this WEC 9 Leben vs. Swick Video below.