Click here to view the embedded video.

Former WEC champion Miguel Torres would like to fight Urijah Faber but feels the timing isn’t right currently and say’s both men should have met a year ago. Torres also talks about training with Firas Zahabi who is based in Montreal and is best known for mentoring Georges St-Pierre.

HT: ChicagosMMA.com

UFC middleweight fighter Joe Doerksen (45-12) was the only Canadian fighter to walk away with a victory in Montreal at UFC 113 last month. He stepped in for an injured Tim Credeur at the event and defeated Tom Lawlor by submission in the second round of their preliminary card fight.

Doerksen had already made a previous agreement to appear at a Canadian Fighting Championship 5 in Manitoba before the Montreal event. The UFC has allowed Doerksen to honor his previous agreement and will now face Shawn Marchand in the main event of the Canadian show.

Here is the press release.

It’s Fight Week For CFC 5

There is less than a week before CFC 5 and fans are excited to see one of Canada’s top promotions live on June 4th. With no MMA in Manitoba the past few months, fans are anxiously awaiting the chance to see the best fighters that Manitoba has to offer including Joe Doerksen.

Joe Doerksen is coming off his victory of Tom Lawlor at UFC 113. Doerksen submitted Lawlor in the second round and was the only Canadian out of seven to win in UFC Montreal this year. Incredibly, the UFC has allowed Doerksen to honor is agreement to fight on CFC 5 and fans will be the ones to benefit. Doerksen will be taking on Shawn Marchand in the main event. Marchand is an up and coming Canadian fighter who already is the Middleweight champion from a maritime promotion. Doerksen should not overlook this Ontario fighter as Marchand has not lost since 2007 and is looking at this fight as his opportunity to knock off a UFC veteran.

Not only will Doerksen be fighting in his hometown, but “Fight of the Night” Eric Perez will be in the Semi-Main Event of CFC 5. Perez has been victorious in the three CFC fights that he has appeared in and he has also walked away with a Fight of the Night performance on each occasion. “I like a war,” says Eric Perez, “I want this one to go three rounds and I knock him out late in the third.” Perez is not the only one who likes to put on a show. Former Ballroom Zombies singer, Robin Black is no stranger to entertaining fans. Black is coming back to Winnipeg to challenge Perez in a fantastic Bantamweight matchup.

In another battle of Bantamweights, Winnipeg’s Roland Delorme will put his undefeated record on the line against Regina’s Sean Quinn. This fight has not received as much attention as the previous mentioned fights, but, rest assured, this one has Fight of the Night written all over it. This is a battle between two nationally ranked fighters in their weight division. Delorme has come off two consecutive victories over Remi Morvan – the last one at CFC 4. Quinn is a tough fighter who has also appeared in the Canadian Fighting Championship. Quinn took out the tough Francois Lacombe at CFC 3 last year. Expect big things from these two fighters!

Fan favorite Lance Cartwright will also be returning to the Steel Circle. The Snake is fresh off his supporting actor appearance in the prison-based action movie “Locked Down” and promises to bring his crowd-pleasing brand of MMA back to the CFC. He will be facing Steve Skinner, who like the previously mentioned Marchand and Black, is an MMA champion of a Moncton promotion. The Snake will have his hands full on June 5th.

Fans can purchase tickets to see Joe Doerksen, Robin Black, Eric Perez and the rest of the CFC 5 fighters this Friday, June 4th for as little as $40. You can get VIP seats by calling 772-2599 or General Admission through Ticketmaster.Remember that this event is now open to fans sixteen years old.

The rest of card will be just as entertaining with local Winnipeg fighters Dominick Blais, Mark Durant, Dwight Sutherland, and Agostino DeNatale returning to action. Ronson Sabourin and Travis Gervais will also make their hometown CFC debut.

Here is the full card for the event:

Main Event

Joe Doerksen vs Shawn Marchand

Semi-Main Event

Robin Black vs Eric Perez

Roland Delorme vs Sean Quinn

Lance Cartwright vs Steve Skinner

Dominick Blais vs Matt Spisak

Mark Durant vs Jesse Ronson

Dwight Sutherland vs Guillaume Fortier

Ronson Sabourin vs Chris Myra

Agostino DeNatale vs Kyle Anderson

Travis Gervais vs Justin Bloomer

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Filthy” Tom Lawlor imitated Dan Severn during the weigh-ins of his last fight at UFC 113 in Montreal. He’s not 100% sure what he’ll do for his next octagon appearance but he’s prepared to perform harakiri (seppuku or Japanese ritual suicide) in the cage if he loses one more bout.

HT: Fight! Magazine

“The New York Badass” Phil Baroni (13-12) will return to the middleweight division against John Salter (5-1) at the end of August.

UFC 118 is slated for Aug. 28 at the TD Garden in Boston, Mass. It will feature a main event rematch between lightweight champ Frankie Edgar vs. former champ BJ Penn, and a co-main event heavyweight match between UFC hall of famer Randy Couture vs. boxer turned mma fighter James Toney.

Baroni’s fought his last few fights at welterweight made his return to the UFC in his last bout, dropping a unanimous decision to Amir Sadollah last November at UFC 106. Another loss for the New York native would certainly spell the end of his career under the UFC banner.

Besides dropping the fight to Sadollah, Baroni was defeated by Strikeforce welterweight Joe Riggs last summer at the Strikeforce – Lawler vs. Shields event. Before those losses, he’d won three straight under various promotions.

Salter is coming off a TKO victory over Jason MacDonald in Montreal at UFC 113. MacDonald suffered a broken leg after falling awkwardly in the first round. Before that bout, Salter had made his UFC debut losing to Gerald Harris at UFN 20 by TKO. That loss marked the first loss of his career and an end to his four fight win streak.

HT: MMAWeekly.com

Paul “Semtex” Daley say’s that money will speak louder than his actions once fan pressure builds. He feels the UFC will have to take a hard look at him and the amount of money they could make from his return once he’s won the fans back and put together a successful win streak.

“I’m just going to be me now. When people say why am I not in the UFC I’ll say the same thing as ever. If you’re winning fights and a lot of people are talking about you… whether Dana White likes it or not, he’s all about the money,” he says.

“If I can bring money to the UFC, everybody’s talking about Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley, how much better he’s got since the Koscheck fight, all these top names he’s beaten outside of the UFC, Dana’s got to respond to the fans at some point.”

“…my intention is just to get better as a fighter anyway. I’m not looking to get back into the UFC. Obviously if they offered me I wouldn’t say no. I just want to keep fighting, keep winning and getting better.”

Daley was released by White after he punched opponent Josh Koscheck in the face after the bell sounded to end their fight at UFC 113 in Montreal.

The British welterweight is scheduled to appear at an Impact Fighting Championships event in Australia on July 3rd against an unnamed opponent.

HT: FightersOnlyMagazine

Today’s big news from the Ultimate Fighting Championship was the announcement that the promotion would be opening a full time office in Toronto, which will be headed by ex-Canadian Football League Commissioner Tom Wright.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta made the announcement today at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he was accompanied by UFC president Dana White.

Wright served as the Commissioner for the CFL from 2002 to 2006 helping to increase television revenues and sponsorship for the league. He’s also served as president for Adidas Canada, Spalding Canada, as well as being the president and CEO of Salomon North America. His last post saw him acting as the Managing Director of LEVEL5 Strategic Brand Advisors in Toronto. He will start his new job with the UFC on Monday.

“The reality is, is that Canada is an important market for us,” Fertitta said. “If you look at Toronto, which I believe is the fourth-largest commercial business area in North America behind New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. So it obviously makes sense from a business standpoint. Plus the fact that a lot of our partners that we deal with from a television standpoint and other areas are based here in Toronto. So physically doing business in Toronto is important for us.”

“When we thought about what we had accomplished in the U.S. … we decided we had a product we really wanted to take global,” Fertitta said. “Obviously things have gone well for us in the U.K. and Europe.

“As we sit here today, our focus is now Canada.”

No exact location for the office was identified but it will house a staff of 12-15 employees and will be just the second UFC office outside of the US, with the other being the UK office in London.

The UFC will host their next Canadian event on June 12 in Vancouver with UFC 115 and finished their last Canadian show in Montreal just a few weeks ago with UFC 113. The other Zuffa owned mma promotion, World Extreme Cagefighting get’s set to host their first Canadian event in Edmonton on June 20th with WEC 49.

White has coveted the city of Toronto as one of the biggest untapped markets in North America but current laws classify mixed-martial-arts as prize fighting, illegal in the Province, so the door remains closed to the sport for now.

A full time office in Canada, run by a Canadian, will help to open doors allowing the UFC to lobby the various Provinces which have not sanctioned the sport of mma.

Note: After the press conference White flew immediately to New York so he could appear on tonight’s episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC.

The show will air at 12:35 a.m. ET/PT.

The UFC will is holding a press conference on Tuesday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada this coming Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT). Speaking will be UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC President Dana White.

The UFC has long coveted Ontario as one of the last bastions to be conquered in the drive to bring their brand of MMA to North American fans. With highly successful shows in Montreal, ranking in top five for gate and attendance records, as well as the upcoming UFC 115 event in Vancouver next month, which sold out in record time, an event in Toronto could break all previous marks held by other UFC events.

Currently mixed-martial-arts is illegal in Ontario and the UFC has been lobbying hard to have the Criminal Code changed to legalize the sport. UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was a recent spokesman for the promotion in helping to lobby the Provincial Government to change the law.

In a recent article from Sportsnet.ca, sources informed them that the UFC has tentatively booked the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jay’s baseball team, for an event on March 26th.

Numerous sources have informed me that the organization has reserved Saturday March 26th, 2011 as their first foray into the province of Ontario. This will also mark the UFC’s first event to be held inside a stadium.

The Rogers Centre, with it’s retractable roof, can seat over 46,000 fans for baseball and football, but when floor seats are added, the number dramatically increases to over 65,000. The current record for paid attendance is 68,237, set by Wrestlemania X8, on March 17th, 2002.

Adding more speculation is a recent message from the Canadian based Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich, who stated on his Twitter page that his organization is looking to book an event in early 2011.

The Maximum Fighting Championship Canada’s leading Mixed Martial Arts Organization would like to announce a tentative date in Ontario in Late February 2011. It’s not sanctioned yet but we will just let everyone know we will be there when it is.

Tuesday could be a very exciting day for mixed-martial-arts fans in Canada.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Legalize MMA Part 3 (Toronto)
HT: EkkoMMA.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre squared off against former NHL tough guy Goerges Laraque on Friday on a special episode of ‘Off the Record’ on the Canadian sports network TSN.

Both men squared off at the Tristar gym in Montreal in a friendly grappling match that pitted the 190 pound champ against the 275 pound hockey player.

In the end the UFC champ proved too much, taking down his fellow Quebecer at will, winning the battle of the two Georges on Friday night.

“I was surprised,” St. Pierre admitted. “He’s better than I thought he would be. I respect him a lot because he showed up. A lot of guys talk but don’t show up.”

Laraque, who was noticeably winded following the skirmish, was noble in defeat.

“That’s much harder than an NHL game or a hockey fight,” Laraque told Landsberg following the tilt. “It’s unbelievable, I couldn’t imagine fighting someone my own size.”

HT: TSN.ca

Former NFL fighter and “TUF 10″ alum Matt Mitrione (2-0) will be taking it relatively easy over the next few months as he’ll be limited on the type of training he can do.

Mitrione broke his left foot a few weeks ago against “Kimbo Slice” at UFC 113 in Montreal. Posting a message from his Facebook site, Mitrione noted that the injury wasn’t serious enough to require surgery but he’d be have to wear a “boot” for a few months.

Well, I’ll be on the shelf for a bit. Doc didnt have great news for me. Broken left navicular bone. In a boot for 2 months but it doesnt need surgery. Guess that means I’ll be doing all kinds of upper body conditioning.

First kick of the fight = broken left navicular (foot bone). My intsep bounced off of Kimbo’s head and it broke. Occupational hazard.

The heavyweight fighter earned a second round TKO victory over “Slice” at the Montreal event.

Mitrione also noted in a recent interview with The State Journal-Register that a rumored bout between him and Joey Beltran at UFC 117 were false.

“There was a rumor bouncing around I’m going to fight Joey Beltran at UFC 117, and the guy who started it e-mailed me to apologize. He said he had no idea it would pick up steam the way it did. There’s no truth to that whatsoever,” Mitrione said.

He still feels that he has a long way to go even with his dominating performance at UFC 113, that he’d be honored to face a Top Ten heavyweight but needs to improve and finish fights before he’ll accept a fight of that magnitude.

“The only heavyweights I know are the top 10, the top 15. I’d be shocked if they asked me (to fight one of them), if they thought I was that caliber. This is just me speculating, but I think the UFC sees that I’m athletic, I’m game, willing to compete and I’ve got good raw ability,” Mitrione said. “But the way I missed those four or five submissions, they see I’m still very, very green and developing.

“If I were to miss even one submission on a top-10 guy, that could be the fight. I could lose or put myself in a very dangerous situation.”

Fresh from his victory this past weekend, Marcus the “Irish Hand Grenade” Davis (17-6) may step back into the octagon as soon as August against Nate Diaz (12-5).

UFC 118, not officially announced, is expected to take place on Aug. 28 at the TD Garden in Boston, Mass., the first visit by the UFC since state officially sanctioned MMA earlier this year. The event headliner should be a title rematch between champion Frankie Edgar and former champ B.J. Penn.

Both fighters have agreed to the bout and agreements are expected to be signed shortly.

Davis defeated Jonathan Goulet this past weekend at UFC 113 by TKO, erasing a two-bout losing slide. With losses to Ben Saunders and Dan Hardy, Davis could have been looking at the end of his time with the UFC if he had been defeated by Goulet in Montreal, instead he’ll have one more fight at least with the promotion.

Meanwhile, Diaz made his move to welterweight in his last bout against Rory Markham at UFC 111. Markham failed to make weight and both fighters agreed to a catchweight bout of 177 pounds. Diaz went on to win the match handily, earning a TKO victory at 2:47 of the first round.

Diaz is also awaiting word from the Tennessee Athletic Commission on a possible suspension and/or fine for his actions at the “Strikeforce: Nashville” event. Diaz participated in a brawl that broke after middleweight Jason “Mayhem” Miller called out Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields in the wake of Shields’ victory over Dan Henderson at the April 17 event.

HT: MMAjunkie.com