Hot heavyweight blue chip prospect Cain Velasquez (4-0) will likely return to action against Octagon newcomer Mustafa Al-Turk (6-3) at UFC Fight Night 16: “Fights for the Troops” at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., on December 10.
MMAmania.com recently learned of the possible match up between the future the division and the current Cage Rage British Heavyweight Champion.
Velasquez is an undefeated American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) standout who has won all of his UFC bouts (two), building a reputation as a dangerous opponent who many in the division would prefer to avoid. Brad Morris and Jake O’Brien weren’t so lucky, and the former Arizona State University wrestler stopped them both in the first round.
He is widely regarded as a future champion, a distinction his possible opponent already has locked down.
Al-Turk — who fights out of the famous London Shoot gym in the United Kingdom — reportedly just signed a four-fight contract to fight for the UFC after a successful run in Europe on the Cage Rage circuit. In fact, he has six wins in seven attempts for the promotion and is riding a two-fight win streak.
He is a pretty well-rounded fighter with serviceable boxing and solid grappling skills. However, he will need to polish his wrestling if he wants to stay in good positions against a stud like Velasquez.
UFC Fight Night 16: “Fights for the Troops” features two welterweight clashes between Josh Koscheck and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, as well as Mike Swick against Jonathan Goulet. In case your keeping score it’s an AKA attack on Fort Bragg and likely Spike TV — the bout between Velasquez and Turk would likely join these two bouts on the three-hour televised main card.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more updates and rumors regarding UFC Fight Night 16: “Fights for the Troops.”
35 Comments »
Kind of funny they would have a guy named Mustafa Al-Turk fighting against an american at a U.S. Army base. I wonder who the troops will be cheering for? I can hear chants of “USA” already.
“He is widely regarded as a future champion, a distinction his possible opponent already has locked down.” Ummm why is he considered a champion? who has he beat? this guy is gonna get owned by gonzaga or werdum if he ever gets to the top tier of the division
And most likely out wrestled by Lesnar.
haha. man i doubt you would talk all this shit if he were standing in front of you. i went to highschool with velasquez. he is the real deal. sophmore year i saw him beat the hell outa a guy who pulled a knife on him.
Mexicutioner ….YOU TWAT!!! get a life..looser cunt!!
That should be a nice morale boost. A guy with a terrorist name is going to get his ass whipped in front of the troops.
Velasquez wins this one easily, but Al-Turk is a good fighter, I aint taking anything away from him, just I think Velasquez is the next gen of HW fighters. I can see the UFC building up Velasquez slowly, cos he needs the experience
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Nice Vid Adam….however i think your must have forgotten about Mr International’s spining back fist! Or a soccer kick would have made up for it.
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wow great another tomato can for the overrated cain velazquez, when is this guy going to fight someone real?
If you paid attention you would know that nobody wants to fight Cain. He is too good, but doesn’t have a big enough name yet. Apparently the risk vs. reward was too much for most of the HW’s. Props to this dude for stepping up! He made me an instant fan the moment he pounded “the blankets” face into the canvas!
brendan, I dont know where you are from, but most “hardcore” MMA fans from Britain will have heard of Al-Turk. He gets quite a lot of rep from Fighters Only magazine (speaking of which, anyone from England seen the explosion in MMA mags here
Fighters Only, MMA Unlimited and now FightSport, I think FightSport is the best, but it will take a few issues to find its feet, best layout and approach to the mag industry out of the 3). While I still think Cain gets the win, it wont be as easy as many are making it out to be.
I also thought Al-Turk had some serious wrestling credentials - certainly better than college level championships. Valesquez is probly the best competitor will have faced though.
Correct! Cain would just steamroll over this terrorist octagon debutant and crush the jihad outta him…Anyway, we ain’t gonna go political and religious here. But Adam’s right. The UFC is definitely building up Velasquez slowly. It also used to be the same case for it’s other HW baby[Lesnar]but it all went out the window when LEsnar was fed to the wolves, for real! That is if you consider Couture a wolf. An old wolf that is! Hehe!
His first fight was against Mir, and his second was against Herring. Lesnar has had by far and away the toughest entrance into MMA of anyone. His fourth fight is against Couture. The UFC dropped him directly into the deep end. The only can he fought was for another organization.
I heard Lesner and Cain is gunna get it on soon, I dont know much about Cain, but you all are right, Lesner did get fed to the wolves, the loss against Mir was the best thing that could have happened to him, he trained his ass off for Heath and Randy, now he has the belt, we just need to see if he works as hard to keep the belt….So who do you all think would win the Cain/ Brock fight if it happens as soon as they are saying?
Negation and PW are obviously 2 very bright individuals. First of all if Al-Turk was a terrorist he would be fighting in the UFC. Your ancestors who started the slave trade are the mother of all terrorists. Just for the record Al-Turk is an average fighter who needs to improve rapidly if he is to beat Cheick Kongo. Then again you 2 knob heads might consider Kongo a terrorist as well as he is not a white man. peace.
you all ready went political,mustapha is a very dangerous fighter,his prev fight he won,the fighter sweeny,trained specially to counter mustaphas moves to no avail.if you have a hat i suggest u eat it now my friend.
lol, very ironic having a guy named Mustafa Al-Turk fighting for the troops. As for the rest of the show, Kos and Yoshida is a awsome fight, Goulet vs. Swick is interesting also.
I like the fights, but Swick vs. GOulet is just a crappy match up!
No one wants to see Mike “SWICKING OUT”!
Now if Joe Silva actually wanted to make an interesting match up, he owuld have bookled:
Swick vs. Rumble Johnson
I completely agree,how does Swick go from beating a contender like Davis to fighting Goulet.Makes no sense from a matchmaking perspective.I think Swick is a favourite of management and they are hopeful of seeing him get a highlight-reel finish.
I hope goulet shocks the world.
finally got power back after hurricane Ike
should be a good test for cain.mustafa is a good wrestler with good control and good gnp.and he was the first man to stop gary turner in his career and considering who smiler has been in with thats no mean feat.
Wow… hell of a fight.. Go Al-Turk!!!
hey john can you shed some light on the hate on cain?
mania i disagree, cain is not the future of the hw division. im pretty sure that freak lesnar would beat velasquez. i would rather see cain fight shane carwin they are both talented up and comers.
That makes no sense at this point. The UFC is going to build both of them up into household names, hopefully building to a No. 1 contender match with the winner fighting Lesnar for the title. No way they want to saddle one of them with a loss already.
As long as Big Nog is in the UFC, Lesnar is not going to be the champ.
I actually feel quite the opposite and think Cain is underrated. He’s only had 4 pro fights and all 4 were 1st round finishes.
1. Jesse Fujarczyk (3-1)
2. Jeremiah Constant (4-0)
3. Brad Morris (9-2)
4. Jake O’brien (10-1)
That’s a pretty tough lineup for your first 4 fights.
who the hell are all those guys?
Heh…That comment tells a story….
Yeah Brendan is a regular MMA knowledge warehouse.
Velasquez v Carwin will meet if they keep winning!
Does anybody know if the fight night 16 is open to the public to buy tickets or is it close to the troops only??
any input would be much appreciated.