Tickets for UFC Fight Night 19 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Sept. 16, are scheduled to go on sale to the general public on Saturday, July 11 at 10 a.m. CT.

UFC Fight Club members and UFC Newsletter subscribers, naturally, will be able to scoop of tickets prior to them being available for public consumption.

UFC Fight Night 19 is expected to feature a lightweight rumble between Roger Huerta and Gray Maynard. Both fighters appear to be headed in different directions — “El Matador” has expressed a desire to pursue an acting/modeling career outside the Octagon and the “Bully” is quietly moving toward the top of the talent-rich division.

Whether or not those current paths change when the 155-pound scrap is over remains to be seem.

Here is the UFC Fight Night 19 tickets sales schedule (all times are CT):

Continue reading ‘UFC Fight Night 19 tickets at Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Sept. 16 on sale soon’

Props: Fighters Only

Quoteworthy:

"I see myself ready to fight for the belt. I would go at Anderson and it would give him the chance of knocking me out or give me the opportunity to finish the fight. That’s what I expect. I’m not saying I will win, but I will fight to end the fight before the judges decision. I want to do an aggressive fight and expose myself more. The UFC were waiting on the result of Anderson-Thales match to see what to do with me. They told me they were planning to give me the chance in August but because of their performance the UFC decided not put Silva in a main event very soon. Then they matched me and Nate Marquardt to find out the next challenger for the belt."

Top undefeated middleweight contender Demain Maia looks to assure skeptics that he would not be content with a decision win over the middleweight champion, which is currently none other than Anderson Silva. His remarks come on the heels of Thales Leites’ uninspiring losing performance against “The Spider” at UFC 97: “Redemption” last month. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt seemed more concerned with surviving the 185-pound contest rather than winning it, which did not go over well with the fans or UFC brass. In fact, it prompted UFC matchmaker Joe Silva to book Anderson against a light heavyweight, Forrest Griffin, at UFC 102 on August 8, rather than have him defend his title against another ground specialist such as Maia. He’ll more than likely earn a crack at the belt if he can topple Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 at the end of August, but he’ll have to get in line behind the winner of the fight between Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping. And he can thank Mr. Leites for essentially delaying his opportunity at championship glory … whenever that may be.

Fans attending the first ever UFC Fan Expo will get a chance to see their favorite fighters enshrined in plastic as JAKKS Pacific debuts its first two waves of action figures during the UFC 100 fan extravaganza.

Included in the series is current UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, middleweight
champion Anderson Silva, former UFC light heavyweight champions Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson as well as the man who started it all, Royce Gracie.

Several of the fighters are scheduled to be in attendance to check out their new figures before they hit retail shelves this Fall and are expected to meet and greet with fans at the JAKKS expo booth.

Available for purchase will be a special limited edition platinum Chuck Liddell figure located at the JAKKS booth inside the expo. Sequentially numbered 1:500, the first 250 units will go on sale at 10:00 AM on Friday with the next 250 units available Saturday, also starting at 10:00 AM.

The JAKKS display is located at booth #427 inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Bayside Hall B on 3950 Las Vegas Blvd South in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The UFC Fan Expo is a two-day fan exposition of mixed martial arts activities that starts on Friday, July 10.

In addition to the meet and greets with legendary UFC and WEC fighters, MMA demonstrations, fan-inspired special events, training and development sessions, and other exciting opportunities and entertainment, UFC officials plan to enshrine two more of its greatest stars in the Hall of Fame, coinciding with the colossal pay-per-view (PPV) event scheduled for Saturday, July 11.

For more on UFC 100 and everything else that’s going on next weekend click here.

Props: MMAWeekly

Quoteworthy:

“We thought that [a win over Akiyama] would give me a shortcut to the top. This is one where I can really show myself to a lot of new fans, and show people that think I’m the top contender that I really am. I’ll throw straight, crisp, technical strikes, and he’s kind of wide. I’m getting offensive with my jiu-jitsu. The Kang fight was probably the first time that I felt comfortable in attacking and not trying to stand up, so it gave me a lot of confidence to know where I’m at on the ground. Every time I’m getting more aggressive and letting it go, so I’m going to try to finish him and be really mean and aggressive. I’m definitely not going down as someone’s stepping stone.”

Alan Belcher will look for his third consecutive win inside the Octagon when he takes on Japanese import Yoshihiro Akiyama in a middleweight tilt at UFC 100 on July 11. “The Talent” is coming off an impressive come-from-behind victory over Denis Kang at UFC 93 last January and is now 5-3 overall under the Zuffa banner. Does a dominating win over “Sexyama” put Belcher against a top middleweight contender? Or will the Duke Roufus-trained striker need to create a more consistent body of work? None of that really matters unless he can deport the 12-1 master Judoka waiting for him at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Will he or won’t he?

“In a similar situation in the future, it would probably be better just to give them the money and be done with that. Obviously, I had much better (fighting) skills, but is it worth the risk? They could have had a gun, other knives, who knows? But I’m stubborn. And I fight to earn my money and that’s a hard way to make a living. And I’m not just going to give it away to guys like that. I believe if you can do something to help someone else, you should. We’re all here and we should all try to help each other if we can. It’s the right thing to do. I just did what I thought was right. Really young guys, and I think they were probably on drugs or something. It’s too bad. But I didn’t think it was right just to stand by and do nothing.”

– UFC heavyweight and ex-kickboxing instructor Antoni Hardonk talks crime and punishment with Yahoo Sports after putting a little Dutch fear into the hearts of some wannabe LA thugs. The 6′4″ 245-pound Hardonk rebuked the would-be attackers when they demanded his wallet and then watched the goons try their luck against a hapless pedestrian. The former K-1 fighter sprung into action and clowned the hoodlums — who decided to drop the wallet and run rather than stick around and get Zulu’d.

Sengoku and Strikeforce middleweight standout Kazuo Misaki will still do battle with Japanese Judoka and PRIDE veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura at Sengoku 9 from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on Aug. 2.

The bout was in jeopardy after Misaki recently found himself on the wrong side of the law.

On March 19 of this year, “The Grabaka Hitman” was driving while also talking on his cell phone. A passing police officer noticed this and asked him to stop immediately, which prompted Misaki to refuse and attempt to flee from the scene.

In doing so his wing mirror also struck the police officer’s wrist, causing injury.

Misaki was not picked up and arrested for the offense until earlier this May. He recently admitted to the charges leveled against him and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

He was handed a three year suspended sentence and in the process escaped a 14 month stint in the slammer.

World Victory Road (WVR) officials were up until now contemplating if his Sengoku 9 fight should take place and held a meeting recently to discuss the future of the bout. Their verdict was that it will still go ahead but Misaki will be suspended indefinitely after the bout has taken place, starting August 3.

Also he will apparently fight without pay and battle Nakamura for free at Sengoku 9, with all of Misaki’s purse supposedly going to charity.

The bout was being billed as a title eliminator bout, with the winner going on to face Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago somewhere down the line for a crack at the gold. However should Misaki win he will no longer be next in line for a shot at the title, though if Nakamura is victorious he will advance to the number one contender slot.

For more on Sengoku 9 click here .

Henderson seems like the popular pre-fight prediction … for now:

“We’re waiting for the belt all the time… I made five fights there and won all of them well, so I think I’ll have the opportunity. If they give me, I’ll train very hard and focused for the fight…. The fans are excited… Every fight that I do there, we’re gaining more and more fans. I like it a lot! The guys love my aggressive style, we get there and try to do the best for the public…. I fought [at 135 pounds] in the past and, if I could, I would fight [Miguel Torres]. But, now, I prefer to take the belt of my category, earn it, and then yes (I’d fight him). If I’m well and with the belt, I’d go fight with him…. He already said he wanted to fight with me… I have nothing against him, but I think it would be a good fight. I would look for the standing fight and, if it goes to the ground, I would show my jiu-jitsu. He has a good jiu-jitsu too, but I guarantee myself in mine.”

– Electrifying World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) featherweight (145 pounds) fighter Joe Aldo talks to Tatame.com about the possibility of dropping 10 pounds to battle bantamweight (135 pounds) champion Miguel Torres. “Junior” is interested; however, he’d like to first test his skills against featherweight champion Mike Brown if the promotion grants him a title shot. It’s hard to deny Aldo the opportunity — the Brazilian smashing machine is now undefeated (5-0) in the WEC with five straight (technical) knockout victories. He recently scored a crushing win over Cub Swanson at WEC 41, ending the fight in just eight seconds with a slick skin-splitting flying knee. It would appear that a shot at championship glory would be a no brainer. Perhaps the only thing standing in his way is his Nova União teammate, Wagnney Fabiano, who is also among the top 145-pound fighters in the world. If Aldo were to somehow capture the title it would dash Fabiano’s championship hopes because the pair would more than likely not fight one another. It sounds like 135 might be a better spot for Aldo in the long-term … and it might even mean better fights for us fans.