HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (June 9, 2010) — On the eve of Bellator Fighting Championships much-anticipated show at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the fighters competing in tomorrow’s event participated in an official weigh-in earlier this evening.
Bellator 21 will be broadcast live in prime time nationwide on Thursday on FOX Sports Net and during special Bellator highlight shows this Saturday night on NBC, Telemundo and mun2.
The official results of the weigh-in are as follows:
MAIN CARD:
Pat Curran (155.5 lbs.) vs. Toby Imada (155.5 lbs.) @ 155 lbs.
Megumi Fujii (118.5 lbs.) vs. Sarah Schneider (119.5 lbs.) @ 120 lbs.
Mike “300” Hayes (235 lbs.) vs. Steve Banks (265.25 lbs.) @ 265 lbs.
Eric Luke (137.5 lbs.)* vs. Zach Makovsky (135.5 lbs.) @ 135 lbs.
LOCAL FEATURE FIGHTS:
Jose Figueroa (155.5 lbs.) vs. Luis Palomino (153.75 lbs.) @ 155 lbs.
Sabah Homasi (174.5 lbs.) vs. Frank Carrillo (175 lbs.) @ 175 lbs. (previously negotiated CW)
Chris Boffil (184 lbs.) vs. Moyses Gabin (184.5 lbs.) @ 185 lbs.
Brian Eckstein (136 lbs.) vs. Mitchell Chamale (136 lbs.) @ 135 lbs.
The weigh-ins for the latest installment of Bellator Fighting Championships upcoming Bellator 21 event were completed on Wednesday evening.
Thursday’s event will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. and will be shown live on Fox Sports Net, and its regional sports network affiliates, with a highlights package airing on Saturday on NBC, Telemundo and mun2.
Only one fighter failed to make weight on his initial attempt but headliners lightweight tournament finalists Pat Curran (155.5) and Toby Imada (155.5) both made weight for their match.
Also featured at the event will be a womens bout between undefeated female fighter Megumi Fuji, who puts her undefeated record against Sarah Schneider.
Tournament bouts
-Lightweight Final: Pat Curran (155.5) vs. Toby Imada (155.5)
Non-Tournament bouts
Televised bouts
- Women’s (120 lbs) bout: Megumi Fujii (118.5) vs. Sarah Schneider (119.5)
- Heavyweight bout: Mike Hayes (235) vs. Steve Banks (265.25)
- Bantamweight bout: Eric Luke (137.5)* vs. Zach Makovsky (135.5)
Non-Televised Bouts
- Bantamweight bout: Brian Eckstein (136) vs. Mitchell Chamale (136)
- Middleweight bout: Chris Boffil (184) vs. Moyses Gabin (184.5)
- Catchweight bout (175): Sabah Homasi (174.5) vs. Frank Carrillo (175)+
- Lightweight bout: Jose Figueroa (155.5) vs. Luis Palomino (153.75)
All 16 fighters competing in Thursday's Bellator 16 event today weighed in for the show, and only one fighter missed weight on his initial attempt.
However, headliners Pat Curran and Toby Imada, who both weighed 155.5 pounds, are good to go for their lightweight tournament finale.
Bellator 21, which also features the promotional debut of undefeated Japanese female standout Megumi Fujii, takes place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
A.J. Benza, UFC - It is 1993. The big dream machine, that is Hollywood, has moved its huge production to a tiny, one-story town outside Albuquerque, New Mexico to shoot a gory scene for an upcoming Oliver Stone film. The producers set the action inside a pharmacy where the two villains are in desperate search for some anti-venom to a deadly snake bite. Outside the drug store, yellow tape surrounds the area to keep the looky-loos at bay.
A bantamweight battler between submission specialist Zach Makovsky and Florida native Eric Luke is now
official for Thursday's Bellator 21 event, and the nine-bout fight card
is complete.
Makovsky and Luke meet in one of the evening's "local feature" fights.
Headlined by the season's lightweight tournament final between Pat
Curran and Toby Imada, Bellator 21 takes place June 10 at the Seminole
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., which has played host to
several Bellator events. As with all Bellator shows, Bellator 21 airs
live on FOX Sports Net, and highlights packages from the show air the
following weekend on NBC and Telemundo.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 7, 2010) — Japanese MMA sensation Megumi Fujii, widely regarded as the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, will make her U.S. television debut on Thursday night on FOX Sports Net as part of the LIVE broadcast of Bellator 21 from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
The judo and jiu-jitsu black belt will take on 9-3 Kansas City product Sarah Schneider in the hopes of improving her unblemished pro MMA record to 20-0 and notching her 17th career submission win during what will be her first major-promotion fight on U.S. soil.
Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.com and at the Hard Rock Live box office.
The 36-year-old Fujii is also one of four confirmed participants in Bellator’s forthcoming Season 3 Women’s Tournament along with 11-1 British tae-kwon-do black belt Rosi Sexton (the world’s No. 1-ranked 125 lbs. female fighter), 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward and 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene. The tournament kicks off in August.
“With our Season 3 Women’s Tournament now just three months away, this fight between Megumi Fujii and Sarah Schneider on Thursday gives U.S. MMA fans their first opportunity to see the woman many believe is the best female fighter in the world,” Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “This fight will be a tough test as she prepares for an extremely strong tournament field. As a fan, I can’t wait to watch on Thursday and in August.”
Fujii was trained in MMA by Shooto veteran Hiroyuki Abe and top heavyweight Josh Barnett and is known for her quick takedowns and skilled submissions. Remarkably, only three of her 19 victories have come by decision with the rest coming via a wide variety of submissions – most frequently the inazuma toe hold, which has been dubbed the “Megulock.”
Fuji said through her translator that she is ecstatic to be fighting under the Bellator banner.
“Bellator is a great organization and they have some excellent competition,” she said. “I’m looking to stick to my game plan, get submissions and win the tournament. That’s my only goal.”
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.
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bellator’s founder/CEO, Bjorn Rebney, is an experienced fighting sports and entertainment professional with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production, television production, fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations.
Bellator XXI takes place Thursday, June 10, 2010 live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL. The event kicks off the Season 2 finals pitting Toby Imada and Pat Curran in a lightweight match up. Imada has battled his way back to the finals in season 2 in impressive fashion, while Curran stunned the MMA world with his opening round victory over odds on favorite Roger Huerta.
Bellator has made the “Bellator Road to the Finals” available to the public. The show chronicles each tournament fight in season 2 and catches viewers up to speed on anything they may have missed.
Bellator XXI will broadcast live on FSN this Thursday at 8pm ET. ( check your local listings for times in your area)
LOS ANGELES (June 3, 2010) – An excellent lightweight (155 pounds) scrap between former world champion KJ Noons (8-2) of San Diego, Calif., and Conor “The Hurricane’’ Heun (8-3) of Hollywood, Calif., by way of Boulder, Colo., will round out the televised portion of fights on SHOWTIME® when STRIKEFORCE steamrolls into Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Wednesday, June 16.
The first-ever STRIKEFORCE event scheduled for mid-week will take place in the midst of the E3 Expo, the premier trade show for computer and video games. During E3 Expo 2010 at the L.A. Convention Center, EA SPORTS™ will exhibit its highly anticipated title, EA SPORTS MMA, in which STRIKEFORCE is featured as a premier league.
Tickets are on sale at STAPLES Center box office, all Ticketmaster locations (800) 745-3000, Ticketmaster online and STRIKEFORCE’S official website. Tickets will also be sold at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE box office on days when events take place there.
In other televised matches, hard-hitting “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (17-5) will collide with ex- STRIKEFORCE light heavyweight (205 pounds) champion Renato “Babalu’’ Sobral, at a catch weight of 195 pounds, DREAM belt-holder Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis (13-4) will face Evangelista Cyborg (17-13) in a welterweight (170 pounds) contest and American military hero, Tim Kennedy, will take on the dangerous Trevor Prangley in a middleweight match.
The SHOWTIME broadcast will begin at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast). Doors at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE will open for the event at 6:15 p.m. PT. The first non-televised preliminary bout will begin at 7 p.m. and the first main card fight will begin at 8 p.m.
Noons will be making his STRIKEFORCE debut and fifth start on SHOWTIME. He has won four consecutive fights and is 7-1 in his last eight outings. His last defeat came to Charles “Krazy Horse’’ Bennett on Feb. 10, 2007, in the opening bout on the historic first MMA fight card ever broadcast on network premium television (SHOWTIME).
A confident, prolific striker, Noons is the last fighter to defeat current STRIKEFORCE welterweight champion Nick Diaz. In a thrilling, bloody fight on Nov. 10, 2007, Noons won by first-round TKO when a cageside doctor stopped matters after the round due to excessive cuts around Diaz’ eyes.
The 5-foot-11, 27-year-old Noons won his three ensuing fights after the setback to Krazy Horse – all by knockout — over Edson Berto (KO 3, knee) on July 27, 2007, Diaz and Yves Edwards (TKO 1, punches and elbows) on June 14, 2008.
Following a near-two-year respite to continue a boxing career, Noons returned to MMA and won a decision over Andre Amado at DREAM 13 last March 22.
“They’re a lot of good fights out there for me in STRIKEFORCE,’’ said Noons, a former EliteXC 155-pound titleholder. “I’m looking forward to getting a good win and moving on to bigger and better things. Fighting in Los Angeles is very cool. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of friends and fans there rooting for me.’’
The boyishly handsome Noons, who was born and raised in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, has been fighting for more than 20 years.
“My father was a professional kick boxer so I’ve been in martial arts since I was five or six years old and boxing and Muay Thai since I was eight or nine,’’ he said. “I’ve been doing this forever and finally it’s my time to shine again and I’m ready.”
Heun, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt who prefers to kickbox in the cage, is a superb athlete and former IFL and EliteXC fighter who turned pro in 2006.
The 5-foot-10, 30-year-old Eddie Bravo-trained fighter is competing for the first time since losing his STRIKEFORCE debut on a decision in one of the most entertaining brawls of the year to Jorge Gurgel during a STRIKEFORCE: Challengers event on June 19, 2009.
The setback in a fiercely contested, electrifying slugfest between two ground fighters that gave the fans a kickboxing exhibition stole the show. At the conclusion of a grueling, non-stop-action encounter fought at a catch weight of 160 pounds, they got a standing ovation.
Bloodied and battered, the athletes “put on a fight for the ages at 160 pounds,” SHOWTIME announcer Mauro Ranallo commented during the telecast.
“I may go home a couple of bucks shorter and with some scrapes but that was the most fun I’ve ever had. I live for those 15 minutes,’’ said Heun, who was the stronger fighter at the finish despite coming up short by the scores of 29-28 and 30-27 twice.
The loss ended a three-fight winning streak for the aggressive-minded Heun, who entered the bout, his first in nine months, having won seven of eight.
Heun is anxious to put together another winning streak, beginning on June 16. “I’ve been eyeing a fight like this, and have been calling out Noons for a long time,’’ Heun said. I’m beyond thrilled this fight was made. If Noons thinks this is going to be easy, he is in for the surprise of his life. This is my time’’
Before turning to MMA, Heun was a former Division III National Qualifier wrestler at the University of Ithaca where he majored in English. After graduating, Heun did not enter MMA immediately. Instead, he went into the corporate world and even owned his own clothing apparel line. He would later leave Colorado and move to California where he began to work as a dental assistant. A little more than a year ago, Heun beat up a bully MTV’s “Bully Beatdown.”
Doors at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE will open at 6:15 p.m. PT. The first preliminary bout will begin at 7 p.m.
The undefeated Japanese submission specialist widely believed to be the pound-for-pound best female on the planet will be making her first return to the United States since March of 2007 when she faces off with the durable veteran Sarah Schneider at Bellator 21.
The bout between the pair will be contested at a catchweight of 120 lbs., where Fujii normally competes at the 115 lb. mark.
Bellator 21 is set to take place this upcoming Thursday evening, June 10, from the Seminole Hard Rock Resort & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net, while highlight shows are set to air on Saturday evening via the NBC, Telemundo and Mun2 networks.
Female MMA’s equivelant of Fedor Emelianenko, the battle-tested Fujii stands alone in her division with an impressive record of 19-0 that has spanned over the last six years. With a reputation as one of the fiercest submission finishers in the sport today , “Mega Megu” has finished 16 of her 19 victims via tapout.
Already having tested herself against some of the best female MMA has to offer, Schneider holds impressive wins over the likes of Kaitlin Young and Julie Kedzie, while coming up on the short end of the stick in recent bouts against the likes of Strikeforce 135 lb. female champion Sarah Kaufman, and most recently, Andrienna Jenkins.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (June 9, 2010) — On the eve of Bellator Fighting Championships much-anticipated show at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the fighters competing in tomorrow’s event participated in an official weigh-in earlier this evening.
All 16 fighters competing in Thursday's Bellator 16 event today weighed in for the show, and only one fighter missed weight on his initial attempt.
A bantamweight battler between submission specialist Zach Makovsky and Florida native Eric Luke is now
