Longtime top ranked mixed martial arts veterans Josh Barnett and Karo Parisyan made successful returns to action in Australia as both fighters picked up decisive victories.

Barnett and Parisyan joined an all-star cast of MMA stars that included Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Jeff Monson and Carlos Newton in Brisbane, Australia during “Impact FC 1: The Uprising“.

Barnett had his hands full when he faced off with a much larger Geronimo dos Santos but unsurprisingly made quick work of the enormous Brazilian, dragging him to the canvas and spoiling his night with a healthy serving of good old fashioned ground and pound in the opening round.

Parisyan didn’t look as impressive as he would have hoped during the event, but the level of talent possessed by the UFC veteran would not be denied. “The Heat” managed to sink in a fight ending rear-naked choke on Ben Mortimer in the second round on his way to the submission victory.

Also looking impressive during the event was Monson, who utilized a superior ground game to grind out Ubiratan Lima Marinho via unanimous decision, and Sokoudjou, who pounded out Joaquim Ferreira via TKO on the canvas in the first round.

A full list of results from the event are listed below:

Josh Barnett def. Geronimo dos Santos via TKO (punches) – Round 1

Brian Ebersole def. Carlos Newton via unanimous decision

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou def.Joaquim Ferreira via TKO (punches) – Round 1

Jeff Monson def. Ubiratan Lima Marinho via unanimous decision

Thiago Meller def. Jai Bradney submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1

Fabio Fernandes def. Api Hemara via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1

Tom Waters def. Jacob Mahony via TKO (punches) – Round 2

Karo Parisyan def. Ben Mortimer via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2

A number of notable fighters made their way to Australia for the debut
event of the upstart Impact FC organization, and for the most part, the
favorites lived up to their expectations.

Josh Barnett, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Jeff Monson and Karo Parisyan
all had their hands raised in victory while fan favorite Carlos Newton
came up short in his bid for a much needed win.

The action all took place at Brisbane Entertainment Center in Brisbane,
Australia. The event was held on Saturday night in Australia, which left
most North American fans sound asleep as the action unfolded.

Click here to view the embedded video.

High level, but substance issued, heavyweight fighter Josh Barnett is set to take on Geronimo dos Santos at Impact FC in Australia. We’ll let Barnett do the explaining.

Two-time All-American collegiate wrestler Cain Velasquez (8-0) will get the chance to put his undefeated record on the line and for the UFC heavyweight title against the winner of this weekends bout between champ Brock Lesnar vs. interim champ Shane Carwin.

UFC president Dana White made the announcement during Thursday’s “UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin” press conference noting that the fight could happen “soon” if the winner comes out healthy.

“Probably as soon as possible,” White noted as to a time line concerning the fight. “Cain’s been waiting a long time. As long as one of these guys comes out healthy.”

Velasquez is undefeated in 8 professional fights and is 6-0 in the UFC having won every round in all of his bouts. He’s won 7 bouts by T(KO) and recently stunned Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira by knocking the former PRIDE heavyweight champ in the first round at UFC 110 in Australia. He defeated Ben Rothwell via TKO in October by T(KO) and earned a unanimous decision against Cheick Kongo at UFC 99, the first opponent to ever take Velasquez the full three rounds.

Press Release

SYDNEY, Australia (June 16, 2010) – The cage will be ablaze with non-stop MMA action for the “The Uprising” as former UFC Champion and Hall of Fame Member, Ken Shamrock returns to the ring to take on former UFC Champion, Hall of fame member and PRIDE Veteran, Pedro ”The Rock” Rizzo in an exciting PPV event on July 17. In the Co-feature, English MMA fighter, Paul Daley who is ranked as the #8 welterweight in the world by Sherdog.com and ranked #5 by MMA Weekly will do battle with Brazilian MMA fighter, Daniel Acacio who is most notable for his fights in PRIDE Fighting Championships and his aggressive fighting style.

Presented by Impact Fighting Championship (FC), bouts from two incredible fight cards from Australia will be included in the PPV event. The Uprising from Sydney, Australia will go live in the USA at 10:00pm on the East Coast (ET) and 7:00pm on the West Coast (PST) and Canada on July 17th with a card stacked full of action-packed bouts. In addition, the exciting main event from “The Uprising” series from the Brisbane Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia, July 10, featuring former UFC heavyweight champion, Josh “The Babyfaced Assassin” Barnett (25-5-0) and Jungle Fight veteran, Geronimo “Mondragon” Dos Santos (18-9-0) will also be included in the Pay-Per-View.

Impact FC has secured some of the world’s best fighters for these upcoming tournaments and will feature some huge names including Pride and UFC veterans. Fans will be thrilled to know that ‘Big John’ McCarthy, former head referee for the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be the referee for The Uprising series.

With a full card that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats, the slate of Uprising match-ups include, Pride K-1 and MMA legend Bob Sapp in a fight for dominance over Australian star and UFC veteran Soa “The Hulk” Palelei, DREAM Middleweight Champion, Paulo Filho will face dangerous striker, Denis Kang, Elite XC Champion and Pride veteran Murilo Ninja Rua with square off against former Ultimate Fighter Jeremy May, former UFC Champion and Pride veteran Murilo Bustamante will battle Jesse Taylor from the Ultimate Fighter, Australian kickboxing legend Peter Graham will fight the #1 ranked Heavyweight MMA fighter in Australia, Jim Yorke, popular MMA star Glover Teixeira is pitted against Croatian fighter from Perth Marco Peselj, Australian surfer and MMA star Richie “Vas” Vaculik is matched with local Australian fighter Luke Hume, and Australia’s rising MMA star Shane Nix will face Sydney’s own Manuel Rodriguez.

Headliner Kenneth (The World’s Most Dangerous Man) Shamrock, (27-13-2) is a UFC Hall of Famer as well as a professional wrestler. One of the biggest stars in MMA, he has headlined over 15 main events and co-main events in the Ultimate Fighting Championships and Pride Fighting Championships and has broken numerous pay-per-view records with his strong fan appeal.

The first UFC Superfight Champion, Shamrock also holds the title of the first MMA Heavyweight Champion in Japan, winning the title of King of Pancrase. During his reign as the UFC Superfight Champion, he was widely considered the #1 MMA fighter in the world.

Brazilian Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo (18-9-0) recognized as one of the best strikers in the business was born to fight. Having returned to the basics, Pedro is training at Claudio Coelho’s gym, has simplified his regimen and is back in top shape, with renewed energy and excitement heading into this fight. The former professional kick boxer was a four-time Brazilian Muay Thai champion. Rizzo won his MMA pro debut via a first-round knockout of Eric Labaille on October 26, 1996. He extended his win streak to nine, including notable triumphs against David “Tank” Abbott (KO1) in UFC: Ultimate Brazil and Mark Coleman (DEC1), before dropping a 5-round decision to Kevin Randleman in their 2000 UFC heavyweight championship fight. “The Rock” responded with back-to-back wins versus Dan Severn (SUB1) and Josh Barnett (KO2), setting up a UFC heavyweight title fight against legendary Randy Couture, who won a decision and six months later, Couture stopped Rizzo on strikes in the third-round of their rematch for the title.

In 2002, Rizzo put Andrei Arlovski to sleep on punches in the third round, but Pedro dropped consecutive fights to Gan McGee (TKO1), and Vladimir Matyushenko (DEC3) to start 2003. A key victory came against MMA veteran Ricco Rodriguez (DEC3).

In a fight against Jeff Monson on September 1, 2007, Rizzo registered a third-round win, in the first pay-per-view event promoted by Art of War. On July 19, 2008, Rizzo fought Josh “The Babyface” Barnett in Affliction Entertainment’s Day of Reckoning and lost, 2nd round 1:44 KO (Punch) .

The main event for the “Uprising” series in Brisbane is a much anticipated event. Josh Barnett is a highly tactical, sound fighter whose world-class submission wrestling skills are notorious. Animated by his trademark humor and bravado, he is one of the top ten ranked heavyweights in MMA and a celebrated wrestling star in Japan. Although his grappling base comes from catch-wrestling, he has an evolved fighting style that combines a well-rounded standup and ground game. Barnett also has size, strength, and conditioning on his side. Barnett has fought in every major fight organization in the world and was scheduled to fight against Fedor for Affliction Entertainment’s Trilogy prior to being disqualified for failing his medical tests. This will be Barnett’s first fight since his disqualification in the U.S., while “Mondragon” has been training all of his life for this moment to take on “The Babyfaced Assassin.”

The 29-year-old “Mondragon” has an impressive record having taken down opponents in 23 professional fights. Prior to losing to Edson Conterraneo at Jungle Fight 17, Dos Santos finished off each of his previous seven opponents, the past three inside the first round. Dos Santos amazed the Brazilian mixed martial arts community when he stopped Assuerio Silva on strikes in just 61 seconds at Jungle Fight 15. He followed the performance with back-to-back first-round submissions against Douglas Humberto and Fabio Monstro.

“The Uprising,” is presented by Impact FC, Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT in the United States from local pay-per-view providers for a suggested retail price of only $29.95.

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - A training camp with renowned Milwaukee trainer Duke Roufus that will test your limits and get you ready for the biggest fight of your career = Eight weeks.
A flight from the States to Sydney, Australia to fight that fight against Mirko Cro Cop = 15 hours.

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - A training camp with renowned Milwaukee trainer Duke Roufus that will test your limits and get you ready for the biggest fight of your career = Eight weeks.
A flight from the States to Sydney, Australia to fight that fight against Mirko Cro Cop = 15 hours.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Update: Video of Paulo Filho’s fight with the 255 pound Daniel Gabriel. Fight starts at 2:35, and just a warning you’ll want to turn your speakers down.

For Paulo Filho (20-1), the last man to hold the WEC middleweight title, trouble and controversy have followed the fighter for some time now.

The fighter has had to withdraw from several fights in the past year due to various reasons such as visa problems and contract negotiations.

He was scheduled to face Yoon Dong-Sik on October 25, 2009 at DREAM.12 but failed to show up for that fight. He failed to show up for the weigh-ins against Yuki Sasaki in the main event of a Bitetti Combat MMA 6 event on February 25, 2010. And then backed out of a scheduled fight with Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight champ Hector Lombard in a non-title bout on May 13, 2010 at Bellator 18 due to visa issues, according to Filho.

So it was with some relief and trepidation that we learned the Brazilian would be competing on Friday night at a “Memorial Fight Qualifying” event in São Paulo, Brazil against a giant of an opponent from Chile, who weighed 255 pounds.

“I gotta fight. Time is going by and I can’t get stuck. This opportunity came at the right time. I don’t know anything about my opponent, all I want to do is fight,” Filho was quoted on the events official website.

Well would he or wouldn’t he? That was the question facing many Filho fans.

As it turns out, Filho did take the fight earning a first round submission victory over his heavyweight opponent. Filho brought Gabriel to the ground, passed his guard into mount position, and worked his ground-and-pound forcing his opponent to tap.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for the former WEC champ, with a record of 20-1, that loss being to Chael Sonnen at WEC 36 in 2008, mma fans should want to see a fighter of his skill in the ring.

Filho is scheduled to fight twice in July, both bouts will be in Australia as part of the Impact Fighting Championships upcoming events.

This will be the marker for fans to take note of, if he does show for these fights it could very well be the sign that he’s put his troubles behind him and is ready to move on with his mixed martial arts career, and only a short step from the octagon.

On July 10th Filho will face Keith Johnson (5-2) at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and just eight days later he’ll take on former PRIDE and UFC middleweight fighter Denis Kang (32-12-1) at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

HT: Tatame.com

Former PRIDE champion and current UFC heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović (26-7-2) commented on the amount of trash talk fighters do before a fight, likely in reference to last weekends main event bout between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans.

“I don’t like this tough guy attitude of fighting at the press conference, spitting at each other. This is just a sport and I like guys who act like a sportsman. He is a good fighter and a good striker, that’s what I like. I like to fight with the strikers, I prefer to stay in a stand-up position. Patrick will stay in the stand-up position, it will be a good stand-up war and the audience should be very satisfied with the fight.”

The Croatian fighter will be fighting Pat Barry this month on the pay-per-view card of UFC 115 in Vancouver, Canada and expects a lot of support from the Croatian community living in that part of the country.

“I think there will be many Croatian fans. There is a strong Croatian community there and there will be many Croatian flags. What fighter can wish more than that? A good opponent and an excellent audience. That‘s all I can wish,” he says.

Filipović is coming off a win over Anthony Perosh at UFC 110 in Australia earning a TKO victory. The former Croatian Cop has gone 3-3 in total under the UFC banner.

Former UFC middleweight fighter Paul “Semtex” Daley (23-9) will make his next appearance in Australia at an Impact FC event on July 18th. The promotion recently announced his opponent, Brazilian Daniel Acacio (21-9) a mma veteran and former PRIDE competitor.

Impact FC “The Uprising” is set to take place in Sydney, Australia on July 18th at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and will feature bouts between Ken Shamrock vs. Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson vs. Ricco Rodriguez, and Paul o Filho vs. Denis Kang to name a few.

Daley spoke recently to Fighters Only Magazine about his future, one that he hopes extends over the next ten years, and doesn’t see his firing by the UFC as the end of the line, just part of the journey.

“…And I said that in the Countdown [show]. The UFC is the pinnacle of the sport, it’s the WBC. Every fight’s a championship fight so once you’ve lost that title shot, what do you do after that? I’ve always thought that way and that’s why my career will go another ten years, still fighting, still making a hell of a lot of money and still having tons of fans, because of the attitude that the UFC is not the be-all and end-all.

“It is the pinnacle, but there are people up there on that same plane and there’s still money to be part of, and as long as you’ve got your fans you’ll be alright.”