“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

Press Release

NEW YORK (May 26, 2010) – American military hero and up-and-coming middleweight, Tim Kennedy, will be opposed by the dangerous Trevor Prangley in one of the featured STRIKEFORCE Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Wednesday, June 16, on SHOWTIME®.

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 (www.ticketmaster.com) and STRIKEFORCE’S official website (www.strikeforce.com). Tickets will also be sold at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE box office on days when events take place there.

In other televised fights on SHOWTIME, hard-knocking, hard-hitting “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (17-5) will collide with former STRIKEFORCE light heavyweight (205 pounds) champion Renato “Babalu’’ Sobral, at a catch weight of 195 pounds in the main event and. DREAM welterweight champion Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis (13-4) will face Evangelista Cyborg (17-13) in a welterweight (170 pounds) contest.

A previously announced heavyweight match between Bobby Lashley and Ron Sparks will not transpire. Lashley suffered a knee injury during training.

Both 185-pound fighters – Kennedy (11-2), of Austin, Tex., by way of San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Prangley (22-5-1), of Couer D’ Alene, Idaho, via Cape Town, South Africa — have been impressive in recent starts.

The 5-foot-11, 30-year-old Kennedy, a United States Army Special Forces sniper with the 19th Special Forces outfit based in San Antonio, has toured the Middle East multiple times, and earned the Army’s Bronze Medal Star medal for valor under fire.

Inside the cage, Kennedy has won three in a row and 11 of his last 12. In his last outing, he submitted (north-south choke) Zak Cummings in the second round during a STRIKEFORCE Challengers event on Sept. 25, 2009.

Prangley, a six-foot, 37-year-old former South African national wrestling champion and Olympic alternate who turned to MMA after suffering a knee injury in college, is 11-1-1 in his last 13 fights. A five-fight winning streak ended Feb. 26, 2010, when a STRIKEFORCE: Challengers fight he seemingly was on his way to winning against Karl Amoussou ended in a technical draw at 4:14 of the first round due to an accidental thumb to Amoussou’s eye.

Kennedy has split two fights with Jason “Mayhem’’ Miller. Kennedy’s only other defeat came to Scott “Hands Of Steel’’ Smith in his pro debut on Aug. 31, 2001.

“I am fighting full-time and still in uniform, which is what I’ve wanted all along,’’ Kennedy said. “I am looking forward to fighting again against a good, solid wrestler like Prangley, who trains at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif.).

“He’s got heavy hands and a good chin. This will be a good fight for me.

Kennedy signed with STRIKEFORCE in 2009 after a two-year break the sport due to his military commitments. This will be his third start on SHOWTIME for the San Jose-based organization. Before walking through the previously unbeaten Cummings (10-0 going in) in Tulsa, Okla., Kennedy scored a second-round submission (punches) over former BodogFIGHT champion Nick “The Goat’’ Thompson at Kent, Wash.

“I want to keep winning,’’ Kennedy said. “STRIKEFORCE has a bunch of guys in my weight class who I match up very well with. I want to fight all of these guys and put on a good show for SHOWTIME and STRIKEFORCE.”

Prangley may not be the most feared fighter in MMA, but he is definitely not one many want to enter the cage with. He’s capable of besting anyone on any given night.

Since his pro debut (as a light heavyweight) in January 2001, Prangley has met some good ones, including “Babalu,, Jorge Santiago (his last loss) and Chael Sonnen. Prangley’s most significant victory may have come against Sonnen.

Prangley has fought for STRIKEFORCE in the past. Besides his last start against Amoussou, he also competed in STRIKEFORCE: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives, the first sanctioned MMA tournament in the state of California on November 16, 2007 and was victorious over Anthony “A Train” Ruiz by way of unanimous decision at the second STRIKEFORCE event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Sept. 20, 2008.

Doors at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE will open for the event at 5:15 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.

The event will be televised live on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Click here to view the embedded video.

UFC president Dana White’s second video blog for UFC 114. Follow White as he makes an appearance at Tuesday’s press conference and then gets on his way to New York to make an appearance on Late Night w/Jimmy Fallon, which airs tonight (Tuesday).

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.

Renzo Gracie will be holding a gi tournament in New York City. There will be no walk-in registration. Registration deadline is June 21.

The athlete will weigh in with his gi on before his first match.

Hunter College
68th Street & Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
MAP

More information on the official site.

The rules used in this event follow the traditional rules utilized by the IBJJF, with the greatest objective being to preserve the integrity of the competitors and to give our spectators a true show of the sport.

CUNY
94-20 Guy R Brewer Boulevard
Jamaica, NY 11433
MAP

More information on the official site.

Double elimination tournament.

Length Of Matches:
Children: 4 minutes
Teen: 5 minutes
Men Beginner: 5 minutes
Men Intermediate: 6 minutes
Men Advanced: 7 minutes
Men Masters: 5 minutes
Women: 5 minutes
Absolute: 10 minutes (no points scored in first 5 minutes; points and submission in second 5 minutes)

9am – 12pm Weigh-ins

12pm Tentatively:
Kids & Teens
Womens & Masters
Mens Advanced
Mens Intermediate
Mens Beginner

Chenango Ice Rink & Event Center
614 River Rd
Binghamton, NY 13901
MAP

More information on the official site.

NEW YORK, NY, May 19, 2010 – The live finale of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Liddell vs Team Ortiz” on Spike TV will include two bouts showcasing four of the UFC’s most exciting fighters. Emanating from The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday, June 19 at 9:00 PM ET, the fights announced today include a middleweight bout between Aaron Simpson (7-0) and Chris Leben (19-6), and a lightweight matchup pitting Dennis Siver (15-7) against Spencer Fisher (24-5).

Currently sporting a 7-0 record, with all but one of his victories coming via knockout, Aaron Simpson is a former All-American wrestler who is developing into a lethal striker. He left a lasting impression on the minds of fight fans with his 18-second knockout of David Avellan at WEC 36 in November 2008. After entering the UFC, he continued to display his devastating punching power, defeating Tim McKenzie and Ed Herman via TKO early in successive bouts, before running his UFC win streak to three with a decision victory over Tom Lawlor this past January.

Simpson’s opponent is the enigmatic Chris “The Crippler” Leben (19-6), who was one of the breakout stars from the historic first season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Leben’s UFC career began with seven straight wins over such notables as Jorge Rivera, Patrick Cote, and Luigi Fioravanti. Never one to back down from a challenge, Leben had his streak snapped in April 2006 by current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Since then, he has continued to take on all comers, and following a win over Jay Silva earlier this year, he hopes that a victory over the undefeated Sampson will further him on the path for a shot at the UFC middleweight title.

Hailing from Mannheim, Germany, Dennis Siver has 22 professional bouts under his belt, and only four have gone to decision. He made his UFC debut in 2007, but it was in January 2009 that he truly announced his arrival as he took home “Knockout of the Night” honors with a TKO victory over Nate Mohr at UFC 93, knocking out his opponent with a spinning back kick. After a win over Dale Hartt at UFC 99 in his native Germany, he once again scored a “Knockout of the Night” bonus with the same spinning back kick against Paul Kelly at UFC 105 in November 2009. He had his four fight winning streak stopped by Ross Pearson this past March, but will look to bounce back against his opponent, Spencer Fisher, on June 19.

North Carolina native Spencer Fisher has established himself as one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC over the course of his five year career with the organization. He holds wins over such UFC notables as Thiago Alves, Sam Stout, and Jeremy Stephens, and has twice won “Fight of the Night” honors for his relentless attack inside the Octagon™. Coming off of a tough loss to Joe Stevenson at UFC 104, Fisher hopes to have his hand raised at the end of what promises to be an exciting fight with Siver.

Other bouts, including the finals of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Liddell vs Team Ortiz,” will be announced at a later date. The two finalists will be competing for a six-figure contract with the preeminent mixed martial arts organization in the world, The Ultimate Fighting Championship®.

Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV’s press site at http://www.spike.com/press.