Sengoku 5 Results

Non Tournament Bouts:

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal def. Travis Wiuff via TKO (strikes) – Round 1

Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro def. Takashi Sugiura via TKO (strikes) – Round 3

Jorge Masvidal def. Ryan Schultz via TKO (strikes) – Round 1

Kiuma Kunioku def. A Sol Kwon via unanimous decision

Middleweight Tournament Results:

Siyar Bahadurzada def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos via TKO (elbow injury) – Round 1 – 22 Seconds!

Jorge Santiago def. Logan Clark via arm triangle submission in Round 2

Kazuhiro Nakamura def. Paul Cahoon via unanimous decision

Yuki Sasaki def. Yuki Kondo via rear naked choke submission  in round 2

Where The IFL Fighters Are Landing

The IFL’s demise is history.  Zuffa bought the former fight organization and its assets, but the biggest asset is the fighters.  Some of the contracts were believed to be taken by Zuffa, but apparently many were simply let go and became free agents.  Here are the former IFL fighters and their new homes. 

Fighter	New Organization
Roy Nelson*	Affliction
Vladimir Matyushenko*	Affliction
Jay Hieron*	Affliction
Dan Miller*	UFC
Ryan Schultz*	World Victory Road
Waggney Fabiano*
Chris Horodecki	Affliction
Mike Massenzio	UFC
Jim Miller	UFC
Bart Palaszewski	WEC
Rory Markham	UFC
Brad Blackburn	UFC
Andre Gusmao	UFC
Reese Andy	UFC
Danillo Vilefort	WEC
Ryan McGivern
Matt Horwich
Delson Heleno
Deividas Taurosevicious
Mike Ciesnolevicz
LC Davis	WEC
Mark Miller
Benji Radach
Pat Healy
Marcio Cruz	World Victory Road
Carmelo Marrero
Rafael Dias
Jake Ellenberger
Alexandre Ferreira

*Denotes a IFL title holder

The UFC, WEC and Zuffa have faired better than most people credit.  Affliction has just gotten the guys that didn’t make it in the UFC previously (Matysuhenko and Hieron).  Horodecki being one that I really feel the UFC missed out on, he would have been great for the WEC.  Also, I believe the big one will be Waggney Fabiano.  The WEC should go hard after him as he may be good competition for Faber. 

Best Non-UFC Fighters

Here are the best non-UFC fighters.  This shows where the UFC is stacked and where they lack.  There competition is mainly in Affliction at heavyweight and DREAM at lightweight.  Here are the best non-UFC guys that the UFC should look to sign if possible. 

Rank	Heavyweight	Light Heavy	Middleweight	Welterweight	Lightweight
1	Fedor Emelianenko	Antonio Rogerio Nogueira	Paulo Filho	Jake Shields	Takanori Gomi
2	Andrei Arlovski	Ricardo Arona	Matt Lindland	Carlos Condit	Shinya Aoki
3	Josh Barnett	Rafael Feijao	Robbie Lawler	Jay Hieron	JZ Calvancante
4	Tim Sylvia	Vladimir Matyushenko	Kazuo Misaki	Nick Thompson	Eddie Alvarez
5	Ben Rothwell	Babalu Sobral	Gegard Mousasi	Mach Sakurai	Mitsuhiro Ishida
6	Mirko Cro Cop	Tito Ortiz	Vitor Belfort	Mike Pyle	Joachim Hansen
7	Roy Nelson	Steve Cantwell	“Jacare” de Sousa		Tatsuya Kawajiri
8	Aleks Emelianenko	Brian Stann	Jason Miller		Josh Thomson
9	Antonio Silva		Melvin Manhoef		Gilbert Melendez
10	Alistair Overeem		Murilio Rua		Vitor Ribeiro
11			Cung Le		Jamie Varner
12			Denis Kang		Ryan Schultz
13			Joey Villasenor		KJ Noons
14			Frank Shamrock		Nick Diaz
15			Yoshihiro Akiyama		Caol Uno
16			Jorge Santiago
17			Chael Sonnen

UFC News: Zuffa Buys IFL

It has been rumored for a few weeks that Zuffa was going to buy the International Fight League (IFL), now it seems offifical.  we assumed it was going to happen with several clues.  First, came the announcment that the IFL was for sale for $1,000,000 and that Zuffa was the leading suitor.  Then came the July 19th card featuring IFL fighters such as Reese Andy, Brad Blackburn and Rory Markham.  Also, during the SPIKE telecast of the UFC Fight Night 14 card IFL footage was used and talked about openly, something the UFC had not done before.  Then came the rumor that  the UFC signed Jim and Dan Miller.  Here is a word from IFL Senior Vice President of Communications Joe Favorito:

I apologize for this mass email but I wanted to take a second to let you know that as of July 31 my role at the IFL will be no more as the company goes into its final stage of being sold and/or closed down. We are very proud of what we did here in just over two years, building a brand from nothing into something that people in the industry and outside of the industry actually noticed, and I enjoyed working with so many different people and helped tell some great stories. At the end of the day sometimes the finances don’t make sense, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. The good news is I think we have gotten all our good junior people placed in some great spots, so we are pretty proud of that. Even our interns landed in good places

That is nothing shocking.  Again, the focus now will be where do the 10-15 top guys from the IFL land.  There is some news on that front.  The IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz seems to have landed with World Victory Road, as he is slated to appear on their Sengoku 4 card, which is a lightweight grand prix.  That is a pretty good indicator that he will not land with Zuffa.  Also, MMAjunkie says that Chris Horodecki is in negotions with the American Fight League.  I am sure ZUffa will sign more fighters and they will go between the UFC and WEC.  I would imagine that means that the UFC will focus on Roy Nelson, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Jay Hieron, while the WEC has to crave Waggney Fabiano at 145 lbs.

UFC News: UFC Signs Dan and Jim Miller

This will fuel more speculation about the UFC’s purchase of the IFL.  It seems like a done deal.  The only question is where will the prized fighetrs fall.  It appears that Jim and Dan Miller will land in the UFC. 

International Fight League reigning middleweight champion Dan Miller (8-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and IFL lightweight Jim Miller (11-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) have both signed multi-fight deals with the UFC.  The AMA Fight Club’s Mike Constantino, the manager and one of the trainers for the fighters and brothers,  today confirmed the signings with MMAjunkie.com  Both of the fighters signed four-fight exclusive contracts, though financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Constantino declined to comment on the particulars of the negotiation process, and he had no comment on the UFC’s rumored purchase of the IFL. Constantino said no definitive dates have been determined for the Miller brothers’ UFC debuts, but he said they will be available any time the UFC needs them.  “If they told us to fight in two weeks, we’d be ready,” Constantino said. “We’ll fight as soon as possible. The guys are always in shape and in the gym all the time helping their teammates. We have about 20 guys at the gym who fight in pro organizations, so someone always has a fight coming up, and Dan and Jim are always there helping them out.”

Dan Miller is the IFl middleweight champion.  He recently took the belt from Ryan McGivern.  Jim Miller is a promising lightweight fighter, who was rumored to be on the cast of the Ultimate Fighter 8.  His lone loss was to UFC lightweight contender Frank Edgar. 

Both these guys should be a bolster to their respective divisons and we will inform MMA Blog readers of their debut as soon as we know of it.  Also, stay tuned for news of more IFL fighters.  It looks like they will fall between the UFC and WEC unless their contracts are non-transferable. 

Guys to look for:

1. Waggney Fabiano

2. Chris Horodecki

3. Jay Hieron

4. Vladimir Matyyshenko

5. Roy Nelson

6. Ryan Schultz

7. Matt Horowich

8. Ryan McGivern