Two-time Bellator Fighting Championships veteran Dave Branch, who signed with the UFC in May, now has his first opponent.

The UFC announced late Friday night that the Renzo Gracie product will be
welcomed to the octagon by fellow middleweight Gerald Harris at UFC 116.

MMAjunkie.com first reported Harris' involvement
with the July event, though "Hurricane" had been waiting on an
opponent to be named.

Press Release

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – For nearly four years, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has ruled the 185-pound weight class with an iron fist. On August 7th, at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, he will look to add to his record six title defenses when he takes on the one man brash enough to call him out, number one contender Chael Sonnen. This championship bout, which is the main event of UFC 117: SILVA vs. SONNEN presented by Tequila Cazadores, headlines the first UFC® event in Oakland.

UFC 117 also features former Ultimate Fighting Championship® welterweight champion and recent inductee into the UFC® Hall of Fame Matt Hughes against 170-pound contender Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida, and an explosive lightweight bout pitting Clay “The Carpenter” Guida against Rafael dos Anjos.

“When we offered Chael Sonnen this shot at the title, he promised us one thing: that he was going to make this a fight,” said UFC President Dana White. “I know he means it, and after beating three legit contenders in Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, and Dan Miller, he’s definitely going to bring the best out of Anderson Silva on August 7th. And as far as Anderson is concerned, he wants to remind everybody why he’s considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

“We are very excited about this event coming to Oakland and have been receiving many inquiries about the match,” said Mark Kaufman, SMG’s GM at Oracle Arena. “We anticipate seeing many more fights in years to come.”

Tickets for UFC 117 will go on sale Friday, June 11 at 10am PT and will be priced at $400, $300, $200, $150, $100 and $50. Tickets are available either online at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, by visiting the Oracle Arena Box Office or at any Ticketmaster outlet. The Oracle Arena Box Office is open Monday thru Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-2pm. Prices do not include service charges.

UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Wednesday, June 9 starting at 10am PT via UFCFightClub.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers on Thursday, June 10 starting at 10am PT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through UFC.com.

UFC 117 will be available live on Pay-Per-View on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, BellTV, Shaw Communications, Sasktel, and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.99 US/$49.99 CAN for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).

Undefeated in the UFC and one of the most dominant champions to ever grace the Octagon™, Anderson “The Spider” Silva (fighting out of Curitiba, Brazil / professional record – 26-4) made his sixth successful title defense against Demian Maia at UFC 112, a streak that dates back to July of 2007. Known for his striking abilities, Silva is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under the world-renowned Nogueira brothers and a dynamic fighter who can do it all in the Octagon. His length often causes problems for his opponents, as only two of his last 11 victories have gone to the scorecards. But the champion now faces a fighter that believes he has figured out a way to stop The Spider.

“Chael is a very good fighter,” Silva said. “I am training very hard with my team, and Minotauro Nogueira and Lyoto Machida, and I will be ready. This is a title fight and I expect him to be ready because I know I will be. If the guy wants to talk that’s fine. It’s a lot different inside the Octagon.”

Unbeaten in his last three UFC fights over top-level competition, Chael Sonnen (fighting out of West Linn, Ore. / 26-10-1) is an experienced fighter, with a high pedigree in wrestling. Sonnen is a former U.S. Olympic team alternate, as well as a two-time National Champion in Greco-Roman wrestling at the University of Oregon. Sonnen, who is known for putting constant pressure on his opponents, is coming off impressive wins over Dan Miller, Yushin Okami, and Nate Marquardt, and he wants to make it four in a row by adding the name of Anderson Silva to that list.

“He’s been ducking me for four years,” Sonnen said of the UFC middleweight champion. “This fight is a large part about the title and a large part about him. We’re not going to be friends. He’s not my kind of guy. But this fight is also to prove a point to the rest of the guys in the division. One guy has challenged him in four years and it’s been me.”

Matt Hughes (fighting out of Hillsboro, Ill. / 45-7) is perhaps the greatest welterweight the UFC® has ever seen, having defended the UFC® welterweight title an unprecedented seven times over two reigns. Hughes has beaten some of the biggest names in MMA, such as Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn and Royce Gracie, and is riding a two-fight winning streak with victories over Matt Serra and Renzo Gracie. One of Hughes’ strengths is his wrestling ability, stemming from his college career where he was a four-time collegiate wrestling All-American, and he will bring that talent to the Octagon to face Almeida in August.

After winning his debut fight in the welterweight division at UFC® 111 against Matt Brown, Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida (fighting out of Hamilton, N.J. / 12-3) looks to further prove he is a contender at his new weight. Almeida looked impressive with his submission of Brown, which is no surprise since he takes pride in his ground game. Along with that, Almeida is a third degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a four-time Brazilian national champion. Almeida has been victorious in his last three fights, but his match against Hughes will have added meaning given the fact that the former welterweight champion defeated his jiu-jitsu professor, Renzo Gracie, in April.

Known for his solid chin and relentless endurance, Clay “The Carpenter” Guida (fighting out of Johnsburg, Ill./26-8) has helped create some memorable fights for the UFC, garnering ‘Fight of the Night’ honors three times, most recently versus Diego Sanchez at The Ultimate Fighter®: US vs. UK finale. Every time Guida steps into the Octagon, he is almost guaranteed to be in one of the most exciting fights of the evening. The Illinois native has won four of his last six fights, with his submission victory over Shannon Gugerty being his most recent victory.

Rafael dos Anjos (fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/14-4) is riding a wave of momentum, having won his last three fights. The experienced Brazilian has fought five times in the UFC and has proven to be a worthy contender in the lightweight division, most recently defeating Rob Emerson, Kyle Bradley, and Terry Etim.

For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit UFC.com, UK.UFC.com, Germany.UFC.com, UFCJapan.jp or UFCEspanol.com. All bouts live and subject to change.

Nick Catone is regrouping at a new gym after
suffering three herniated discs in his back which forced him to withdraw
from a planned fight with John Salter at UFC 113.

The UFC middleweight told MMAjunkie.com that he has
joined the Renzo Gracie Fight Team out of UFC welterweight Ricardo
Almeida's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Hamilton, N.J., which hosts
around 25 fighters including UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

In the course of the move, the New Jersey native Catone decided he wants
to drop from the middleweight to the welterweight class.

Kyra Gracie, Rilion Gracie, and Renzo Gracie last year at the 2009 BJJ World Championship.

Careful observers of the jiu-jitsu competition scene could not have missed a new entity on the registration lists for the 2010 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship that takes place this coming weekend. Also known as the Mundial, the event is the most highly regarded competition in the gi and draws the planet’s best jiu-jitsu athletes, so fans take note when several highly regarded competitors’ affiliation this year was listed as Gracie Elite Team.

So what is Gracie Elite Team, and how did it come about? The FightWorks Podcast caught up with Cesar Gracie and got a few answers. According to Cesar, the new squad is comprised of athletes from Gracie family members Ralph, Renzo, Rilion, Ryan, and from Cesar’s own crew. The intention was to put together a more formidable team than they might individually, and “shake things up a bit”. The idea to create the new team was proposed about a month ago. When asked if this was a team that jiu-jitsu practitioners can expect to see for many years to come in high-end competitions like the World Championship or if this was just an experiment, Cesar replied that you never know and that they would just see how it goes.

Gracie Elite Team’s 2010 Mundials black belt competitors:

Black / Brown Belt Women:

• Kyra Gracie (Leve)

Black Belt Men:

• Caio Terra (Galo)
• Joseph Capizzi (Galo)
• Almiro Barros dos Santos (Pluma)
• Samir Chantre (Pluma)
• Caio Almeida (Pena)
• Celso Venicius Alves (Leve)
• Joao Paulo Bertuccelli (Leve)
• Alexandro Ceconi (Pesado)
• Luiz Gustavo Costa (Pesado)
• Marcel Fortuna (Super-Pesado)
• Gabriel Vella (Pesadissimo)

(If you’re still having a hard time remembering what the different weight classes are, here’s a list.)

Several of the competitors listed are regular winners of medals in events like the World Championship like Alexandro Ceconi, Kyra Gracie, Caio Terra, and Gabriel Vella. Expect to see similar results this weekend in Gracie Elite Team’s debut performance.

Now that he’s dropped to the welterweight division, Ricardo Almaida (12-3) can’t wait to face former champ and UFC hall of famer Matt Hughes in the octagon. He is not one to take losses lightly and will look to avenge a previous loss to Hughes in 2000 at an ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship event.

Almaida asked for the fight after watching his teacher Renzo Gracie lose to Hughes at UFC 112. He cornered UFC match maker Joe Silva and asked for the fight before Hughes was even declared the winner.

“I was like, ‘Please let me fight Matt Hughes,’” Almeida told MMA Fighting. “I said, ‘That’s the fight I want. If you guys think it makes sense, let’s do it.’”

“Honestly I never thought about fighting him in MMA before,” he said. “But after I dropped to welterweight, here we are.”

Almeida has taken a different approach to preparing for the fight and has actually increased in size for the fight at 170.

“I changed some things in my training,” he said. “I brought in a nutritionist and someone to watch over the weight cut, so when I fought Brown I was five pounds heavier than when I fought Kendall [Grove]. When I fought Kendall I was 187, when I fought Brown I was 192 walking in the ring. Ever since the Brown fight I’ve been lifting weights and working on things outside of martial arts training. I’m probably 198 right now. Matt is a strong guy and I don’t want to be outmuscled by him. Putting on a couple pounds I think is going to help me. We’ll see how I deal with the weight cut but I’m confident it’s going to be no problem.”

“It’s a chance to be in the spotlight fighting a legend like Matt Hughes and pushing my game to a whole new level,” he said. “He’s probably one of the best wrestlers ever, for sure one of the best welterweights ever, and I’m preparing to fight that guy, the guy that beat the who’s who of the division. I’m very excited about it.”

UFC 117 will take place on Aug. 7 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Cali. and will be headlined by a UFC middleweight bout between champion Anderson Silva vs. challenger Chael Sonnen.

HT: MMAFighting.com

Former two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes became the eighth man to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas on Friday. He joins fellow inductees Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell and Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr.

Considered the most dominant welterweight champion in UFC history, Hughes made his octagon debut back in 1999. Since then he’s tasted victory an incredible seventeen times, more than any fighter in UFC history. He also boasts the record for most successful UFC title defences of all time (seven) and most consecutive UFC welterweight title defences of all time (five).

Hughes last graced the octagon at UFC 112, defeating Renzo Gracie via third round TKO. He also holds notable victories over the likes of Sean Sherk, B.J Penn, Royce Gracie and current champ Georges St. Pierre.

Hughes is next scheduled to meet Renzo Gracie protégé Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117 on August 7 in Oakland, California.

Despite the fact that Ralek Gracie (2-0) has only two professional mma bouts under his belt and the fact that he hasn’t fought since June of 2008, he’s pretty optimistic about his upcoming fight against Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba (26-12-1).

Both men will meet this Saturday at the DREAM.14 event in the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the live broadcast beginning Saturday morning at 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT).

The 24-year-old Ralek doesn’t plan on following in the steps of Rolyer Gracie, Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie and Ryan Gracie, all of whom dropped bouts to Sakuraba. He feels that in this fight his speed will play a major factor and will allow him to win the fight.

The last time you participated in a Dream event was two years ago. What have you reinforced over the last two years?
Everything. I feel great. I feel strong and faster and I feel more comfortable. More training partners and better training partners. Just overall. Just everything.

Do you feel added pressure with Sakuraba being called “The Gracie Hunter” or is he just another opponent for you?
No. Not at all. I just feel like obviously he is someone who has fought against my uncles and cousins and done very well but I really feel like I have the tools. I’m not really concerned, more than anything I just want to get it over with.

What tools do you think you have over Sakuraba? Obviously he is a submission specialist and so are you so where do you think you have the advantage?
Overall, I feel faster. I feel like I’m more comfortable with my technique at this point to where if anything, he can’t beat me. You know, for him to catch me is going to be very difficult. If he can’t catch me, then I feel like I can only win and I can take my opportunity if he gives it to me. If not, hopefully I can just control the fight.

HT: MMAFighting.com

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.

Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (44-7) will return to the octagon as part of UFC 117 to face Ricardo Almeida (12-3).

Both men have confirmed the signing of bout agreements for the fight and will meet at the unofficially announced UFC 117 event on Aug. 7 ath the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.

Hughes confirmed the bout on his own personal website Matt-Hughes.com.

“The UFC hasn’t told me I can release this yet, but I’m going to go ahead and say that I’ve done my paperwork to fight Ricardo Almeida on August 7th, in Oakland, CA,” he wrote. “A lot of you know my history with the UFC, I’ve never turned down a fight and this is who they asked me to fight next.”

While Almeida confirmed his signing during a recent appearance on “The Daily Line” on the Versus Network.

Hughes has since come back from a 1-3 stretch that saw him lose the UFC interim welterweight title to win two straight bouts. He defeated Matt Serra at UFC 98, earning both men the “Fight of the Night” honor, and is fresh off his victory over Renzo Gracie at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Almeida, a former middleweight, has won three straight including his first win as a welterweight against Matt Brown at UFC 111 in his last fight. Almeida, who was awarded his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt by Renzo Gracie, asked for the fight after Hughes victory last month.

Both men have met once before but not in MMA, Hughes defeated Almeida during an ADCC grappling match in 2000.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (May 21, 2010) — A long-awaited match-up between two of the most exciting and best-known fighters from South Texas—Aaron Rosa and Robert Villegas—has been announced as the Local Main Event for Bellator 20 at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre.

Promoters have attempted for years to convince Rosa (12-3), a 26-year-old from San Antonio and Villegas (7-2), a 34-year-old from Corpus Christi, to face off in the cage, but Bellator 20 on May 27th marks their first-ever meeting.

Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster.com.

“Promoters from across Texas have been trying to get Aaron Rosa and Robert Villegas to fight each other for years, so it’s a great coup for Bellator that we’ve been able to finally make it happen,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Aaron and Robert are two of the best local fighters in Texas and both are looking to make their mark on the big stage. It’s going to be a great fight.”

The fight is one of four Local Feature Fights scheduled for the evening. Others include:

· Cedric Marks (27-20) of Killeen vs. Andrew Chappelle (7-6) of San Antonio;
· Brian Melancon (3-0) of Houston vs. Adam Schindler (6-1) of San Antonio;
· Humberto DeLeon (5-2) of Houston vs. Jimmy Flick (7-0) of Corpus Christi.

The Rosa-Villegas fight, however, is easily generating the most buzz.

“They’ve been trying to get us to fight for a long time,” Rosa said. “Now that it’s finally going to happen, I can tell you this much: We’re both gonna come out swinging and somebody’s gonna go down. It’s gonna be a great fight in front of my hometown crowd … I want everyone to show up.”

Rosa, a former football standout at Angelo State University in San Angelo, discovered MMA when a teammate showed him Renzo and Royler Gracie’s book, “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Theory Technique.” Since turning pro 4 ½ years ago, he has compiled an overall record of 12-3, with five of those wins coming via TKO.

“I’m a striker,” Rosa said. “I’m gonna go in there and punch him in the face and look for a knockout. That’s what I’m all about.”

Villaegas, for his part, says that he figures on taking Rosa to the ground, using the judo and jiu-jitsu skills that he’s honed over the last nine years at the MMA gym he owns and operates, Xtreme MMA in Corpus Christi. He holds black belts in both disciplines.

“I’m very picky about the fights that I take,” Villegas said. “I have to be inspired by a fight. I’ve had my ups and downs in MMA but this fight and being a part of the Bellator organization is a highlight. It’s gonna be a great show.”

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