Ben Saunders, who fought as a welterweight, has been cut from the UFC according to his own post on FaceBook:

Sorry everyone I tried to fight my best these past two fights but ended up getting outworked. The UFC has officially cut me. The good news is they told me to work on my wrestling and ground game and then come back. So that is all I am going to be doing, improving dramatically and show them I belong. Much respect to Swick, Fitch, and Hallman as they were the better men on those nights and have my full respect. To fight such names is a true honor.

The 8-3-2 fighter competed on The Ultimate Fighter and lost his last two bouts to Jon Fitch and more recently(UFC 117) Dennis Hallman. His last win inside the Octagon came at UFC 106 against Marcus Davis and overall he had four wins to his three loses with the promotion.

Damian Grabowski

CHICAGO (July 8, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that the nationally televised mixed martial arts promotion will return to the Windy City for a Season 3 event at the historic Chicago Theatre on Aug. 19th.

Bellator 25 will mark the Chicago landmark’s second-ever mixed martial arts event — the first being Bellator 14 which took place on April 15, 2010. The Bellator 25 card will feature two quarterfinal fights in both the Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship tournaments.

Headlining the Fox Sports Net event will be undefeated heavyweight sensation Damian “The Polish Pitbull” Grabowski who will make his U.S. debut in a quarterfinal heavyweight world championship tournament fight against knock-out artist Scott Barrett.

Grabowski, who was considered one of the top heavyweight free agents in the world before signing with Bellator, boasts a perfect 13-0 pro record. The Polish Pitbull has not only finished each of his opponents by TKO or submission, but not one of his opponents has yet to see the third round of a fight. His spectacular tenacity was on full display in April 2009, when he competed in a one-night, 16-man heavyweight tournament in an Austrian promotion that featured no-time-limit bouts. Grabowski dismantled each of his four opponents, winning the tournament with his longest fight lasting only 3:48 into the second frame. In his most recent fight last month Grabowski TKO’d the highly regarded heavyweight Michal Kita in the first round.

Barrett, who owns a four-fight win streak coming into the tournament, fought earlier this year at Bellator 19 where he knocked out formerly undefeated Ty Lee just 2:25 into Round 1.

Bellator 25 will also include an opening-round fight in Bellator’s World Championship Women’s Tournament featuring Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto and the world’s No. 6-ranked flyweight, undefeated Jessica Pene.

Frausto was added to the tournament after she shocked the MMA world recently at Bellator 23 with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton. Sexton was subsequently forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. Pene debuted for Bellator in May 2009 with a first round TKO against Tammie Schneider at Bellator 5. Her unblemished record also features a submission victory over fellow tournament participant and No. 8 world ranked 115 pounder, Angela Magana.

In other action, Aisling Daly, the best female mixed martial artist in Ireland and the world’s No. 3-ranked 125 lbs. woman, will drop down to 115 lbs. to face 13-5 submission ace and No. 3-ranked flyweight Lisa Ward in the opening round of the World Championship Women’s Tournament. The 22-year-old Daly will make her U.S. MMA debut backed by a pristine 9-0 record, while Ward enters the fight with one win already coming under the Bellator banner. Just two weeks ago at Bellator 22, she dismantled Stephanie Frausto with a slick rear naked choke 2:01 into the first round.

The Bellator Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship Tournaments begin Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.

Tickets are priced at $100, $75, $50, and $35, and go on sale at Ticketmaster.com beginning this Saturday, July 10th, at 12 noon.

Former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson thinks that UFC champion Brock Lesnar only has a puncher’s chance of beating Cain Velasquez, who is a teammate of his at AKA in San Jose. Thomson, who’s coming off a submission victory over Pat Healy despite breaking two ribs early in the bout, recently used Facebook to express his thoughts on the upcoming(though there’s no date decided) heavyweight bout:

“Cain is wrestling every day with this years NCAA Div 1 national champ from MO. who is about 280lbs and let me tell you that Cain coming off a knee surgery 4wks ago is getting takedowns just fine as well as not losing any. Cain is a better wrestler/striker/MMA fighter than Brock but like you said, Brock is bigger with a huge punch. That is the only chance I give Brock though is a punchers chance cuz I don’t see him holding Cain down “IF” he can get the takedown.”

Lesnar vs. Velasquez should be an interesting fight, with MMA fans lining up to tout the virtues of both fighters. No official word on when it will take place, with UFC hoping for September but Lesnar seeming to want to take some time to be with family, and for farming. We’ll keep you up to date.

Former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson thinks that UFC champion Brock Lesnar only has a puncher’s chance of beating Cain Velasquez, who is a teammate of his at AKA in San Jose. Thomson, who’s coming off a submission victory over Pat Healy despite breaking two ribs early in the bout, recently used Facebook to express his thoughts on the upcoming(though there’s no date decided) heavyweight bout:

“Cain is wrestling every day with this years NCAA Div 1 national champ from MO. who is about 280lbs and let me tell you that Cain coming off a knee surgery 4wks ago is getting takedowns just fine as well as not losing any. Cain is a better wrestler/striker/MMA fighter than Brock but like you said, Brock is bigger with a huge punch. That is the only chance I give Brock though is a punchers chance cuz I don’t see him holding Cain down “IF” he can get the takedown.”

Lesnar vs. Velasquez should be an interesting fight, with MMA fans lining up to tout the virtues of both fighters. No official word on when it will take place, with UFC hoping for September but Lesnar seeming to want to take some time to be with family, and for farming. We’ll keep you up to date.

Martins Denis, UFC - "Don't regret your past… learn from it, regrets just make a person weaker."
That phrase seems to be a perfect one for Croatia's Goran Reljic, who faces Kendall Grove at UFC 116 in Las Vegas on July 3rd. In fact, it's so perfect that the 185-pound prospect has posted it on his personal Facebook page.

CHICAGO, Ill. (June 28, 2010) – Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto, who shocked the MMA world with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton at Bellator 23 last Thursday, has been added to Bellator’s upcoming Women’s Tournament.

Frausto, a 26-year-old Central California native who improved her pro MMA record to 7-1 with the highlight-reel knockout, replaces Sexton, who was forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority.

Frausto joins seven other female fighters who are all ranked among the world’s 10 best in their respective weight classes.

The others are Japanese MMA sensation and the world’s No. 1 pound-for pound female fighter, Megumi Fujii, 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward, 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene, 8-4 New Mexico-based submission specialist Angela Magana, 5-1 Las Vegas-based powerhouse Lynn Alvarez, 9-0 Irish sensation Aisling Daly and 8-4 American Top Team product Jessica Aguilar.

Overall, the eight women boast a career winning percentage of .835 (76 wins and 15 losses).

“With a highlight knockout that’s already generated over 70,000 YouTube views, Zoila stamped her ticket to our women’s Tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “The purpose of our women’s tournament is simply to determine the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, and with such a dominant performance against the worlds’s No. 1-ranked 125 pound fighter, there was no way to not include Zoila in this line up. She earned her place by beating the best.”

Frausto’s shocking knockout – which can be seen here- came roughly two minutes into Round 1 of her fight against Sexton.

The left knee to the chin knocked Sexton her unconscious and dropped her to the canvas before the referee stoped the fight when Frausto delivered three right hands to the jaw. It was just the second career loss for Sexton in 12 pro MMA fights.

“I saw the opening and I just threw the knee up,” Frausto said after the fight, adding that she thinks she now deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the world at 125. “I’ve been shooting for No. 1 since I got into the sport. This is exactly why I got into MMA.”

The tournament begins on Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator. Tickets are available at www.Ticketmaster.com.

CHICAGO, Ill. (June 28, 2010) — Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto, who shocked the MMA world with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton at Bellator 23 last Thursday, has been added to Bellator’s upcoming Women’s Tournament.

Frausto, a 26-year-old Central California native who improved her pro MMA record to 7-1 with the highlight-reel knockout, replaces Sexton, who was forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority.

Frausto joins seven other female fighters who are all ranked among the world’s 10 best in their respective weight classes. The others are Japanese MMA sensation and the world’s No. 1 pound-for pound female fighter, Megumi Fujii, 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward, 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene, 8-4 New Mexico-based submission specialist Angela Magana, 5-1 Las Vegas-based powerhouse Lynn Alvarez, 9-0 Irish sensation Aisling Daly and 8-4 American Top Team product Jessica Aguilar. Overall, the eight women boast a career winning percentage of .835 (76 wins and 15 losses).

“With a highlight knockout that’s already generated over 70,000 YouTube views, Zoila stamped her ticket to our women’s Tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “The purpose of our women’s tournament is simply to determine the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, and with such a dominant performance against the worlds’s No. 1-ranked 125 pound fighter, there was no way to not include Zoila in this line up. She earned her place by beating the best.”

Frausto’s shocking knockout — which can be seen here— came roughly two minutes into Round 1 of her fight against Sexton.

The left knee to the chin knocked Sexton her unconscious and dropped her to the canvas before the referee stoped the fight when Frausto delivered three right hands to the jaw. It was just the second career loss for Sexton in 12 pro MMA fights.

“I saw the opening and I just threw the knee up,” Frausto said after the fight, adding that she thinks she now deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the world at 125. “I’ve been shooting for No. 1 since I got into the sport. This is exactly why I got into MMA.”

In an interview with MMAjunkie.com on Friday, Frausto reiterated her desire to fight in the tournament.

“I’ve been doing this to fight the best, and I just beat one of the best,” she said. “So hell yeah, I want that spot.”

The tournament begins on Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator. Tickets are available at www.Ticketmaster.com.

Normally, fighting with your friends on Facebook is frowned upon, but in MMA
Pro Fighter, it's encouraged. Since launching this past December, Digital
Chocolate's virtual slugfest has exceeded one million monthly users.
And that was in March.

The premise behind MMA Pro Fighter is simple: Build an MMA fighter and
train to become the best by fighting your way to the top.

Fighters are entirely customizable - from their hairstyles to their
gloves to their shorts. However, looks are one thing; skills are another. And this is where
things get cool.

Tired of everyone else playing your copy of UFC Undisputed 2010? Having to go over to your friends place every time you want to play the game? Or maybe your mom got you UFC 2009 Undisputed instead of UFC Undisputed 2010 for your birthday?

Well here’s your chance to win your very own copy on us.

The MMA News will be giving away two copies of THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2010. We have one copy for the Xbox and one copy for the PS3 (which includes the coupon code to unlock TUF 10 fighters Roy “Big Country” Nelson, James McSweeney, Brendan “The Hybrid” Schaub and Marcus Jones).

Were also announcing our official partnership with MMAFans.net who will now host our official forums board.

MMAFans.net is a brand new forum board that provides MMA fans a chance to talk about the latest fights, fight news, as well as a wide range of other subjects.

So help us kick off our partnership with MMAFans.net with a bang by signing up and speaking out on the forum boards.

We’ll be giving away one copy of UFC Undisputed 2010 on our FaceBook page and the other on MMAFans.net. We’ll announce the winners on July 11th 18th.

To enter the draw on FaceBook, simply become a fan of The MMA News, post your favorite fighter and preference for gaming platform (Xbox or PS3) on our discussion board.

Contest notes for The MMA News Facebook page:
- We’ll handle the shipping costs for North America. If anyone wins living outside of NA, you’ll be contacted to discuss shipping and handling.

Contest notes for MMAFans.net:
- Sign up on the forum board and start posting.
- You’ll have to reach a minimum number of posts on the site to qualify and will include everyone who signs up between now and July 17th. They’ll be monitoring for anyone who is just spamming to make the number of posts.

That’s it, good luck everyone and we’ll be including a few extras for the winners which we’ll announce later.

UPDATE: Sorry folks the wrong date was posted as the 11th when it should have been the 18th!!!!

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (June 24, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships concluded its hugely successful second season with two more thrilling upsets on Thursday as middleweight Alexander Shlemenko scored a stunning TKO and featherweight Joe Warren won a hard-fought split decision to emerge as the Season 2 Tournament Champions in their respective divisions.

The sold-out event at Louisville’s Fourth Street Live downtown entertainment district tied a ribbon on Bellator Season 2 in fitting fashion as fans were once again treated to a full card of electrifying fights that also included shocking upsets at bantamweight and in a Women’s Feature Fight.

But the night undoubtedly belonged to Warren and Shlemenko, whose victories earned them $100,000 in prize money and the chance to fight reigning Bellator World Champions Joe Soto and Hector Lombard, respectively, in world title fights this fall.

Shlemenko, a 26-year-old army combat fighter known for his reliance on spinning back-fists and leg kicks, came out swinging in his typical style from the opening bell. But it was a far-more-conventional right hook to the jaw that eventually finished the heavily favored Bryan “The Beast” Baker roughly mid-way through Round 1.

The devastating punch left Baker (13-2) dazed and slowly crumpled him to the canvas before Shlemenko moved in for the finish with a flurry of punches. Referee Jason Herzog stopped the fight due to unanswered blows at 2:45 into Round 1.

It was just the second time that Baker had suffered a loss as a pro with the other coming at the hands of UFC star Chael Sonnen more than two years ago.

“We had heard that Alexander Shlemenko was one of the best middleweights in Europe and he definitely proved that here tonight,” Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said afterward. “He beat a very, very talented fighter in Bryan Baker and he’s more than earned the right to face our champion Hector Lombard later this year.”

Shlemenko, for his part, said the win was also a statement on behalf of all pure strikers in MMA today.

“This victory means that strikers soon will be all over MMA and that Bellator Fighting Championships will be owned by the strikers,” he said through his translator.

Warren, meanwhile, took a far-more-circuitous route to his title. The 33-year-old former NCAA all-American and Greco-Roman wrestling world champion, appeared to be all but finished near the end of Round 1 when his opponent, the previously undefeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Patricio Pitbull, dropped him to the canvas with a right cross and then began a vicious ground-and-pound before Warren was saved by the bell.

But Warren rebounded in remarkable fashion during Rounds 2 and 3, digging deep and using his world-class wrestling skills to score points with a series of takedowns that were each followed by relentless ground-and-pound attacks punctuated with sharp elbows and stiff forearms to Pitbull’s head.

The split decision victory was even more impressive given that Warren spent much of the day battling a stomach virus that left him unable to keep food down or maintain his balance.

“I feel tired but I’m very happy now,” he said after the fight. “I fought a great fighter in Pitbull and now I’m the champion. I’m the baddest man on the planet!”

Rebney agreed, saluting Warren’s resilience and his will to win even in spite of his illness.

“He showed up tonight with a sickness that would have put a lot of people in the hospital and beat a world-class fighter and put on the kind of performance that you just can’t script,” he said. “What he did tonight was just epic and very, very impressive.”

Earlier, in the first televised fight of the night, Fresno, Calif.-based striker Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto scored a huge upset with a first round knockout of the world’s top-ranked 125-pound female fighter, England’s Rosi Sexton.

At just two minutes into Round 1, Frausto (7-1) landed a left knee to Sexton’s chin, knocking her unconscious and dropping her to the canvas before finishing her with three straight right hands to the jaw. It was just the second career loss for Sexton in 12 pro MMA fights.

“I saw the opening and I just threw the knee up,” Frausto said afterward, adding that she thinks she now deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the world at 125. “I’ve been shooting for No. 1 since I got into the sport. This is exactly why I got into MMA.”

Also Thursday, in what was billed as an “Eliminator Bout” to determine the latest entrant into Bellator’s forthcoming Season 3 Bantamweight Tournament, two-time Wyoming state high school wrestling champion Nik “Garfield” Mamalis scored his second consecutive Bellator victory to improve his pro MMA record to 10-4 and punch his ticket into the tournament’s eight-man field. The soft-spoken Mamalis used an aggressive attack to neutralize L.A.-based rising star Albert Rios (12-5) via TKO at 4:40 into Round 1.

Afterward, Rebney said that Mamalis had more than earned his place in the Bantamweight Tournament draw.

“That’s what Bellator’s all about,” Rebney said. “it’s about giving a guy like Nik who hasn’t had a chance on the big stage the opportunity to that and then he takes that opportunity by the throat.”

The evening also played host to four non-televised “Local Feature Fights” showcasing top rising stars from Louisville, Cincinnati and Southern Indiana. The results of those fights are as follows:

- Brent Weedman def. John Troyer via armbar submission – Round 1, 4:55
- Daniel Straus def. Chad Hinton via unanimous decision
- Stoney Hale def. Mike Fleniken via rear-naked choke – Round 2, 4:20
- Kurt Kinser def. David Overfield via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:30

Bellator returns to TV in August for its much-anticipated third season, which will feature eight-man tournaments at bantamweight and heavyweight as well as a first-of-its-kind Women’s Tournament showcasing eight female fighters ranked among the top 10 in their respective weight classes.

Each fight will once again be broadcast LIVE in primetime on Fox Sports Net and during special taped highlight shows every Saturday night on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit www.Bellator.com follow us on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Bellator.