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This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Royce Gracie Turns 50
By: Brian Knapp
He was the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first household name, blazing a trail for all those who followed him. Three-time UFC tournament winner Royce Gracie will celebrate his 50th birthday on Dec. 12.
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David Bixenspan Joins Press Row
By: Jordan Breen
This week in “Press Row,” Jordan Breen and Wrestling Observer contributor David Bixenspan discuss the ratings success of Bellator 149, whether Herschel Walker is next for “Kimbo Slice” Kevin Ferguson and the future of freakshows in MMA. Follow the jump to listen and to download.
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Bellator 149 Unrivaled: Royce Gracie
Get an inside look at MMA's first superstar: Bellator 149's Royce Gracie.
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Video: Bellator 149 ‘Shamrock/Gracie/Kimbo/Dada 5000’
By: Sherdog.com Staff
Bellator MMA’s full-length preview special for its upcoming Bellator 149 examines the history behind the two grudge matches at the top of the card: Ken Shamrock versus Royce Gracie, and Kimbo Slice versus Dada 5000.
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Friday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Friday
5:30 a.m. ET Fox Sports 1: UFC Ultimate Insider
Michael Bisping
6:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Hendricks vs. Thompson – Prelims Noad Lahat vs. Diego Rivas, featherweight bout; Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins, flyweight bout; Damian Grabowski vs. Derrick Lewis, heavyweight bout; K.J. Noons vs. Joshua Burkman, lightweight bout. From Las Vegas.
8:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Hendricks vs. Thompson - Zach Makovsky vs. Joseph Benavidez, flyweights; Rafael Feijao vs. Ovince Saint Preux, light heavyweights; Jared Rosholt vs. Roy Nelson, heavyweights; Stephen Thompson vs. Johny Hendricks, welterweights. From Las Vegas.
11:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Reloaded
UFC 184: Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano - It's the biggest night in women's UFC history as female athletes get top and co-main billing. Women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey defends her crown for the fifth time, this time against No. 1 contender Cat Zingano.
3:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Unleashed
Stars of the Middleweight Division
4:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Reloaded
UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz From Montreal.
7:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Insider
Michael Bisping
10:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: World MMA Awards '16
10:00 p.m. ET AXS TV: AXS TV Fights
Best of 2015
11:00 p.m. ET SpikeTV: Shamrock/Gracie/Kimbo/Dada 5000
The stars of one of the biggest mixed martial arts cards of 2016 prepare for a night of grudge matches; Ken Shamrock will face Royce Gracie in a rubber match.
11:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Knockouts
Heavyweights - The greatest finishers from the heavyweight division including Cain Velasquez, Minotauro Nogueira, Junior dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski and more.
11:30 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Knockouts
Title Fight Knockouts - Featuring Chuck Liddell, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Cain Velasquez and more.
12:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Knockouts
Rare and Unusual Knockouts - Flying knees, spinning kicks and backfists are just a few of the methods used to end fights in this episode of UFC Ultimate Knockouts. Featuring Carlos Condit, Travis Browne, Dennis Siver, Renan Barao and more. Read more -
Saturday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Saturday
3:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Insider
T.J. Dillashaw, Chris Holdsworth and Matt Grice.
3:00 a.m. ET AXS TV: The Voice Versus
Frank Dux discusses his record in an underground fighting league and his work overseas.
5:00 a.m. ET AXS TV: The Voice Versus
Royce Gracie UFC Hall of Fame's Royce Gracie discusses his childhood, past career highlights and contributions to mixed martial arts.
9:30 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Tonight
Fighters Cut - Anthony Pettis Pettis relives his first round finishes.
10:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Brown vs. Silva – Prelims Johnny Eduardo vs. Eddie Wineland, bantamweight bout; Zak Cummings vs. Yan Cabral, welterweight bout; Darrell Montague vs. Kyoji Horiguchi, flyweight bout; Rafael Natal vs. Ed Herman, middleweight bout. From Cincinnati.
12:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Brown vs. Silva - Louis Smolka vs. Chris Cariaso; Ruan Potts vs. Soa Palelei; Tim Means vs. Neil Magny; Daron Cruickshank vs. Erik Koch; Lorenz Larkin vs. Costas Philippou; Erick Silva vs. Matt Brown. From Cincinnati.
3:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Unleashed
Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture; Mike Swick vs. Steve Vigneault.
3:00 p.m. ET AXS TV: The Voice Versus
Frank Dux discusses his record in an underground fighting league and his work overseas.
6:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Tonight
UFC highlights, analysis and interviews.
7:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC: Miller vs. Diaz
Jim Miller vs. Nate Diaz; Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson; Josh Koscheck vs. Johnny Hendricks. From New Jersey.
7:00 p.m. ET Spike TV: Unrivaled: Michael Chandler
Examining Chandler's rise to become champion; his recent controversial setback and journey back to the belt.
7:30 p.m. ET Spike TV: Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed Lawal: Winner Takes All
Two of the top light heavyweights in the world over the past 10 years finally meet in the cage to settle a score that's been building for almost a decade.
8:00 p.m. ET Spike TV: Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed Lawal: The Prelims
The prelims before the grudge match between Rampage and King Mo featuring Cheick Kongo vs. Eric Smith in a heavyweight battle.
9:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Reloaded
UFC 149: Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao Interim bantamweight championship.
9:00 p.m. ET Sportsnet 360: UFC Unleashed
The best fights from the UFC archives Read more -
Friday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Friday
3:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 1: UFC Unleashed
Trilogy: Liddell vs. Couture Three classic fights between Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture.
6:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Tonight
UFC highlights, analysis and interviews.
7:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Prelims: Teixeira vs. Bader Ivan Jorge vs. Keith Wisniewski; Elias Silverio vs. Joao Zeferino; Junior Hernandez vs. Lucas Martins; Kevin Souza vs. Felipe Arantes. From Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
9:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: Best of PRIDE Fighting Championships
Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson, Mark Kerr vs. Igor Borisov, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring, and Josh Barnett vs. Mark Hunt.
10:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Reloaded
UFC 149: Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao Interim bantamweight championship.
6:30 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: The Ultimate Fighter
Season 19 Episode 5: Team Edgar vs. Team Penn: Too Salty Team Penn gets a lecture on over training.
7:30 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Knockouts
Fastest Knockouts Fastest finishes in MMA history.
8:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: Boxing
Antonio Orozco vs. Martin Honorio Orozco takes on Honorio in the main event. From Carson, Calif.
9:00 p.m. ET AXS TV: Inside MMA
EPISODE: 338 Bas Rutten and Ron Kruck discuss Bellator 120.
9:00 p.m. ET Sportsnet 360: UFC Unleashed
The best fights from the UFC archives
10:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Unleashed
Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture; Mike Swick vs. Steve Vigneault.
10:00 p.m. ET AXS TV: The Voice Versus
Royce Gracie UFC Hall of Fame's Royce Gracie discusses his childhood, past career highlights and contributions to mixed martial arts.
10:00 p.m. ET CBS Sports Network: Titan FC 28: Brilz vs. Davis
Jason Brilz vs. Raphael Davis main event. Also, Dave Herman vs. Kalib Starnes co-main event. From Kansas City, Mo.
11:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Ultimate Insider
T.J. Dillashaw, Chris Holdsworth and Matt Grice.
11:00 p.m. ET AXS TV: The Voice Versus
Frank Dux discusses his record in an underground fighting league and his work overseas.
11:00 p.m. ET SpikeTV: Unrivaled: Michael Chandler
Examining Chandler's rise to become champion; his recent controversial setback and journey back to the belt. Read more -
Plan Was for Rickson Gracie, Not Royce Gracie, to Fight in Early UFCs
By: Sherdog.com Staff
“No Holds Barred: Evolution” author Clyde Gentry, on “Rewind,” discussing how Rickson Gracie was originally expected to fight in the UFC instead of Royce Gracie:
“Make no mistake, Rorion [Gracie] controlled Royce. Even when I interviewed Royce, Rorion insisted on being on the line. Anything Royce said that he disagreed with or maybe he said something he didn’t really like, he wanted to move onto another question or something else. You’ve got to understand, Rorion came to this country. … Then of course as things started to develop, that’s where he brought over Royce to watch his kids and kind of help out with the gym and some of these other things. That’s where that trust developed, where Royce was looking at Rorion obviously for guidance.
“Now Rickson, on the other hand, was a whole other story and certainly had a lot more maturity and was certainly farther down the game than Royce was. I think part of it was control. Part of it was that Rickson really saw from a monetary standpoint, I should be the one in there. Art [Davie] so graciously detailed a meeting between himself, Rorion, Rickson and Royce. Royce basically, [Davie] said, really didn’t want to continue with the event and was really just kind of disinterested in the whole goings-on, as opposed to Rickson and Rorion really coming to blows, not physically mind you, just verbally, over the whole idea of Rickson stepping in and how much money he would make and that type of thing. ... Make no mistake, Rickson was the one at the very beginning. I don’t think there’s any kind of revisionist history that would tell me different.”
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Sunday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Sunday
9:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: King of the Cage
10:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Legends Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, and 'The People's Champ' Tito Ortiz.
10:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Legends II Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, and 'The People's Champ' Tito Ortiz.
11:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Welterweights The UFC's top welterweight fighters Renzo Gracie, George St.Pierre, B.J. Penn and Matt Serra.
11:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Welterweights II Jay Glazer sits down and gets personal with the UFC's top welterweight fighters.
11:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: Monster Knockouts
EPISODE: 8 MMA fan favorite Charles Bennett throws a nasty straight left; a boxer drops his opponent with a left hand bomb; two female fighters bring the pain.
1:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider
Fight Flashback; Shogun and Roach; GSP Commercial Demetrious Johnson puts his flyweight title on the line; Mauricio Rua trains at the Wildcard boxing gym; Behind the scenes access as Georges St. Pierre.
3:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung - Prelims
Ian McCall vs. Iliarde Santos; Sergio Moraes vs. Neil Magny; Amanda Nunes vs. Sheila Gaff; Vinny Magalhaes vs. Anthony Perosh. From Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
5:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Round
table Analysts FUEL TV's expert panel of analysts, Rashad Evans, Chael Sonnen, Kenny Florian and Brian Stann sit down with Jay Glazer.
5:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Analysts II FUEL TV's expert panel of analysts, Rashad Evans, Chael Sonnen, Kenny Florian and Brian Stann sit down with Jay Glazer.
6:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Legends Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, and 'The People's Champ' Tito Ortiz.
6:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Legends II Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, and 'The People's Champ' Tito Ortiz.
9:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Fight Night
UFC Fight Night 21: Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi in Charlotte, N.C.
11:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC: John Moraga vs. Demetrious Johnson
Jessica Andrade vs. Liz Carmouche; Bobby Voelker vs. Robbie Lawler; Jake Ellenberger vs. Rory MacDonald; John Moraga vs. Demetrious Johnson. From Seattle. Read more -
Thursday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Thursday
6:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider
Inside Jose Aldo's training camp; special Gracie breakdown of the Twister submission; Ricardo Lamas takes down the Aldo-Korean Zombie matchup; Phil Davis's live reaction to Glover Teixeira vs James Te Huna in Full Blast.
6:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Tonight
UFC 163: Preview for UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
7:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Countdown
UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung In-depth interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
8:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Fight Night
UFC Fight Night 24: Relive all the action from UFC: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Phil Davis in Seattle.
12:30 p.m. ET Sportsnet 360: UFC Press Conference
UFC 167 Georges St. Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks
3:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Tonight
UFC 163: Preview for UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
3:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider
Inside Jose Aldo's training camp; special Gracie breakdown of the Twister submission; Ricardo Lamas takes down the Aldo-Chan Sung Jung matchup; Phil Davis's live reaction to Glover Teixeira vs James Te Huna in Full Blast.
4:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Unleashed
The best fights from the UFC archives, featuring Jose Aldo vs Chad Mendes, Matt Hughes vs Josh Koscheck, Nam Phan vs Jimy Hettes, and Urijah Faber vs Brian Bowles.
5:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Reloaded
UFC Rio: Jose Aldo defends his Featherweight title against undefeated Chad Mendes.
7:00 p.m. ET Sportsnet 360: UFC Central
Hosted by "Showdown" Joe Ferraro. UFC highlights and news.
8:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Tonight
UFC 163: Preview for UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
9:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Countdown
UFC 163: Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung In-depth interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
10:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Unleashed
Featuring Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick and Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller.
11:00 p.m. ET SpikeTV: Fight Master: Bellator MMA
Season 1 Episode 6: Old School, New School Greg Jackson teaches his competitors the perfect strategy for victory; Joe Warren and Frank Shamrock help prepare for the cage.
11:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Roundtable
Legends II Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, and 'The People's Champ' Tito Ortiz.
12:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Unleashed
Featuring Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick and Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller. Read more