Season three middleweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), Kendall Grove (9-5), will return to action after a nine-month layoff to challenge Jason Day (17-7) at UFC 96, which is scheduled for the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on March 7, according to a recent 411Mania.com report.
“Da Spyda” has been out on the sidelines since winning his “Loser Leaves Town Match” against former 185-pound champion Evan Tanner at TUF 7 Finale via unanimous decision back in June 2008. It was a critical win — the Hawaiian was jeopardy of losing his third straight match.
Grove was stopped in back-to-back fights by Jorge Rivera and Patrick Cote, respectively, before getting back in the win column. He was on a three-fight win streak inside the Octagon before the two losses. The 6′6″ fighter will now look to put consecutive victories together once again to start the New Year.
Day was victorious in his debut for the promotion against Alan Belcher at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ in April, upending Alan Belcher via first round technical knockout. The Canadian product was then stopped himself in the same fashion less than two months later when he locked horns with Michael Bisping at UFC 85: “Bedlam.”
He was supposed to return against Jason Lambert at UFC 88: “Breakthrough” at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on September 6, but was forced off the card with an injury. Therefore, this will be the third fight for the construction worker in the UFC … and a very difficult one at that.
Grove poses serious challenges to anyone in the division because of his size and length. But others have proved that if they can get inside he can be finished.
To check out the latest UFC 96 fight card and rumors click here.
46 Comments »
i was wondering about these two when each will fight again
i doubt it will be on main card
Da Spyda needs to improve both his fighting and spelling before he can impress this cat.
Is Day fighting full time yet or does he still run his families construction company.
Damn, Kendalls fights arent even being televised anymore. He needs a Win badly, and in highlight fashion. Day is tough but he got steamrolled by Bisping. It will be interesting to see how this fight plays out!
BIG NEWS in the UFC middleweight DIVISION!!!!
Can you say, Welcome MR. Wanderlei SILVA to the middleweight division? Word around town is wanderlei is READY to make the drop down to 185 lbs.!
Also Cro Cop news:
He said this is going to be his last year of fighting.
He said he will do 3 fights in DREAM and then a last fight in the UFC as his farewell fight!
mirko and wand are half the men they used to be. wand needs roid rage and crooked refs to be a force and cro cop has had too many injuries over the years to compete with the younger talent.
cro cop should drop to 205 and see if he can ressurrect his career
Cro cop vs Chuck Liddell..
Kendall is the Roadwarrior Goulet of the middleweight division. Anyone with some power stands an excellent chance. And Guess what – Dooms Day has power and a decent clinch game.
John – Wand said he might do one last big fight @205 before the drop. Is that still true?
Cro Cop – Anyone see the similarities with Igor V.? Injuries and former shells of what they were.
I didnt hear about 1 last fight but it could be true
Wandy said a few hours after the rampage fight that he wants a rematch at the end of 09, but i once he goes down to MW i think he will stay until he retires unless its a huge right and he has cleaned some people out.
why do you doubt main card status? if massenzio vs dolloway is on a main card then so can grove and day.
off topic but Overeem will probably be attending UFC 93, lets hope that he somehow signs to the UFC.
I think he’s still under contract with Strikeforce. He might need to do finish up there since UFC contracts are exclusive. Also as a heavyweight only Affliction can offer him relevant fights for #1 ranking contendership.
When was the last time he fought for strikeforce? I think if he made it to the UFC in 09 they might put him against Kongo for a title shot, assuming that Gonzaga has already got his or loses against Carwin. This is all kinda wishful thinking. I dont think that Overeem would make it to the UFC before fall anyways, he also said he is taking a holiday until Feb so the earliest he would want to fight (for anyone) would be march/april. I really just want to see him whoop up on some people. It also wouldnt surprise me if he ends up at Affliction just because there are some good matchups for him. But i hope he does end up in the UFC
He beat buentello for the Strikefore HW title so i am figuring that there are contractual obligations that won’t allow him to vacate his belt but who knows. And i agree there are a lot of good matchups for him in the UFC. He’d probly be more successful in the UFC in terms of a title run and marketability. Also now people are questioning his weight gain, so that might also make zuffa hesitant even though he was clean last time he fought in the US.
True, forgot about the fight with Paul. If he is still under the strikforce then i would say he will go to affliction so that he can fight non exclusivly and may even still have some fights in japan and K1. But i would bet the house that he will pass a drug test, his brother is a huge monster too and for a dude with that frame its not that hard to put on muscle like that esp if you are in the gym 5 hours a day with all the supplements they take now. Granted its hard to put it on but these guys are pros and have nutritionists and all and i am not saying that he hasnt used roids but i bet he would pass the test.
This is an honest question, but who have we seen that moved up from 205 that actually seemed like they wanted to stay at HW and tried to put all that bulk on?
i forgot about the fight with Paul, if strikeforce does still have him under contract then he will prolly sign with affliction because they will let him fight anywhere still. He said that he is going on holiday until feb so that means he wont fight until march or april so that gives plenty of time for him to decide what to do.
I would bet that he would pass a drug test, his brother is huge and i am sure that if i was in the gym and had the people behind me that he does i could put on 20-30 pounds of muscle in a lil over a year. He may have used roids in the past but i bet he doesnt now. This is an honest question, has anyone seen anyone move up from LHW with intentions of only staying there and putting on that much muscle. I bet he is just in the gym pumping massive weights and that may be why he kinda gasses because he is doing high weight low reps. Just a guess
im surprised they are putting kendall against day. it shows where the ufc brass thinks he is at right now. i did not like kendall until he beat ed herman, now i will forever pull for him in any fight.
It will be interesting to see what Day can do when he’s fighting wih a full training camp instead of as a last-minute replacement.
he already had a full camp against bisping and we all remember what happened.
he was a late replacemnt against Bisbing. He stepped in when Leben went to jail.
He had a 5 week camp after fighting Belcher in Montreal. He took two weeks off and then jumped at the opportunity to fight a guy like Bisping. Didn’t work out as planned but I see a 2W/1L UFC record in his future after he disposes of Grove.
UFC 96 is kinda of looking like a big zero so far. Other than Carwin v. Gonzaga, of course…
that’s gonna be a sick fight!
let’s only hope gonzaga will be in shape.
Does anyone know what took Grove so long? He’s been off for about 9 months and I have no clue why.
i know he he got a girl pregnant but i don’t know if that had anything to do with it.
he opened a gym in with his Troy Mandiloniez too
9 months off with a pregnancy . . . are we sure we know which one got knocked up?
what would be the next fight of patrick cote? hey any news of ricardo almeida??
Can’t wait for this. HaHaHaHaHaHaHaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Kendall Grove never gets me excited to watch.
i think his most exciting fight was against ed herman
well jason day will probably get the tko
Kendall is an idiot. The seplling of his name alone makes me think of how the 10 year old girls spell things on You Tube while commenting on a new rap song. And when I think of the “team dagger” nonsense from his TUF days I go from nausiated to full-hatred. I can’t root for an idiot. I hope Jason Day makes quick work of him.
This time Grove will leave after he loses (i hope)
Kendall FTW!!
All you idiots that think that BROCK is the greatest thing because he’s so “BIG” are in for a surprise. This guys the white version OF KIMBO. He’s a fake. The guy is so BIG, you guys sound like you should drop to the knees and get to suckin’! who the F^ck is great because there so “BIG. its f^cking annoying.
how is he the white kimbo, kimbo got ko’d by a guy 40 pounds lighter. lesnar has been dropping top competition every fight. and kimbo couldn’t even knock out james thompson. lesnar knocked out couture.
I dont think he is that great, so maybe you should suck my dick. The facts of the matter are that he is huge, he is fast, he is agile and he is an experienced wrestler that beat the shit out of Randy……easily, plain and simple. These are the facts. Are you uneducated cause your comments would point in that direction? Your right he is huge and you know what he will probably win that fight against Mir. He gets better with every fight. Brock is not some nobody trying to make a name for himself, he is a freak thats why he got a title shot so quickly, it wasnt unjust either cause he beat Randy (like a rented mule, sorry Randy I luv you man) and took the belt from him, it wasnt lucky or flukey. He is a massive man that knows how to use his size, dangerous combo for anyone put infront of him.
he’s just hating cuz he probably beat his favorite fighter
Brock did not knockout couture….he hammerfisted the shit outta him,but couture wasn’t even that bad….watch the fight again
Grove won his fight against Tanner via split decision not unanimous decision. Though he really did clearly win all three rounds. What that one judge was thinking who actually gave Tanner the fight I’ll never now. When I heard those scores I was like, wooh.
I hope he has a big gym with lots of paying fighters to train because he’s about to be retired from the UFC. No way “da spyder” (clever spelling moron) does a damn thing once “Dooms” Day breaks through his reach or his lazy guard,
KENDALL!! KENDALL!! KENDALL!!
I for one, can’t stand Kendall Grove. I forsee Jason Day bustin through his weak guard and finishing the fight in the first round via submission or ref stoppage.