MMA gossip,10/12/07 Sherk,UFC79,TUF

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Sean Sherk Stripped of the UFC’s Lightweight Title[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
Posted by Dave Meltzer on December 9, 2007 at 7:00 am ET
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Without much fanfare, the Ultimate Fighting Championship stripped Sean Sherk of the lightweight championship. Company officials confirmed this information on Saturday before its event in Las Vegas.

Sherk, 34, had tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone, more commonly known as Decadurabolin, in his July 7 title defense in Sacramento, Calif. where he defeated Hermes Franca. Franca also tested positive for steroids during the fight. Sherk won via five round decision. The California State Athletic Commission, unlike Nevada, doesn’t have the legal authority to overturn a decision based on a positive drug test.

Sherk had appealed the test result, and on Tuesday the commission cut his one-year suspension to six months, but upheld the $2,500 fine. Sherk is eligible to fight again on Jan. 3.

Because the appeal verdict was that his test result was not overturned, it left UFC officials with little alternative, other than set a dangerous precedent had they not decided to strip Sherk of the championship, for a company that has stated a public hard line on steroid use among its competitors.

UFC president Dana White had already booked B.J. Penn vs. Joe Stevenson for the interim championship on Jan. 19 in Newcastle, England. Had Sherk been cleared, he would have faced the winner at the earliest possible date. Now the Penn-Stevenson winner would be the outright champion.

It has not been confirmed whether Sherk would still get the first shot at the winner.

Dave Meltzer covers mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports. Meltzer, who has published the pro wrestling trade industry publication the Wrestling Observer Newsletter since 1982, began covering MMA with UFC 1 in 1993. This story originally appeared on Yahoo! Sports and is syndicated on MMAjunkie.com as part of a content-partnership deal between the two sites.


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“[SIZE="7"][FONT="Century Gothic"]Countdown to UFC 79″ Debuts Dec. 26[/FONT][/SIZE]



Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva“Countdown to UFC 79,” the official preview show for the UFC’s Dec. 29 event, debuts Wednesday, Dec. 26 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV.

Replays of the show are set to air Thursday, Dec. 27 at 11 p.m ET/PT and Saturday, Dec. 29 at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT.

The 60-minute program will primarily spotlight the night’s main event, as well as a key main-card bout that fans have been awaiting for years.

Headlining the event is a fight between former UFC welterweight champs Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre. Hughes was originally scheduled to fight current champ Matt Serra, but he had to pull out of the event because of a herniated disc. St. Pierre stepped in as a replacement, and with Serra out indefinitely, UFC President Dana White opted to award the winner of St. Pierre vs. Hughes III the title of interim welterweight champion.

Hughes and St. Pierre met twice before; Hughes won the first match, and St. Pierre was victorious in the second.

In addition to that bout, future UFC hall-of-famer Chuck Liddell will take on former PRIDE champ Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79. The fight had been teased — and even officially announced — during the past couple years, but the fight never came to fruition.

However, soon after the UFC purchased (and disbanded PRIDE Fighting Championships), Silva was signed to a multi-fight contract with the UFC.

Both Liddell and Silva are coming off back-to-back knockout losses.

For the full 10-bout UFC 79 fight card, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
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UFC’s Special Announcement: “Rampage” and Griffin Are “TUF 7″ Coaches?[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
Posted by MMA Junkie on December 8, 2007 at 1:49 pm ET

Quinton JacksonThe UFC will make a special announcement at tonight’s “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra” live finale, and the news will likely be that current UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “The Ultimate Fighter 1” winner Forrest Griffin will be rival coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter 7.“

MMAjunkie.com (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) was the first to report that Jackson and Griffin were being considered for the coaching slots on the show. “The Ultimate Fighter 7,” the seventh installment of the UFC’s popular reality series that debuted in January 2005, begins taping in January. The season debut is set for April.

Although the upcoming season will feature middleweight fighters, Spike TV and the UFC have long planned to use notable light heavyweights as coaches — largely because the UFC’s 185-pound weight class is currently so thin.

We’ve been unable to confirm with the UFC or Spike TV that Jackson and Griffin are, indeed, the coaches, but numerous MMAjunkie.com readers have reported that UFC President Dana White made the announcement during Friday night’s taping of the 2007 Spike TV Video Game Awards in Las Vegas. (The show airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV.)

Additionally, UFC.com is now reporting that White will make a “special announcement” during tonight’s “TUF” live finale, which airs at 9 p.m. ET on Spike TV. The announcement of Griffin and Jackson as coaches will likely come sometime during the three-hour broadcast.

One thing we don’t know is if the Jackson and Griffin season of “TUF” will conclude with a fight between the two 205-pounders. Jackson hasn’t fought since a successful title defense over Dan Henderson in September, and if he doesn’t fight again until after “TUF 7” has run its course (in July), it will be a total of 10 months between title defenses.

Of course, that’s not to say that Griffin isn’t deserving of a title shot. After losing two of three fights (to Tito Ortiz and Keith Jardine), Griffin has posted a victory over Hector Ramirez and a shocking upset of PRIDE standout Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in September. He’s reemerged as a top-10 light heavyweight and had been considered a possible candidate to challenge for Jackson’s title sometime in 2008.

MMAjunkie.com will have live results and a full recap of tonight’s event — including the special announcement — posted later this evening.

(Touch of gloves: readers “David” and “Richard C.”)
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