Ronaldo Jacare, the newest member of the Xtreme Couture team, won his first round match in the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix. Jacare (Portuguese for Alligator) submitted Ian Murphy with a Rear Naked Choke at 3:38 of the very first round.
You can catch the fight and the rest of the star studded card featuring Sakuraba, Dennis Kang, and the rematch between J.Z. Calvancante and Shinya Aoki on HDNet Saturday May 3rd at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT.
We’ll have a post fight interview with Jacare when he returns Stateside.
Future MMA stars Giovani and Carlos Ruffo are making a splash in the Kids Amateur Wrestling World.
The boys recently competed at the “Cliff Keen Worlds” in Reno, NV. Its a 3-day wrestling tournament that attracts the top kid wrestlers in the country, including a lot of State Champs. Kids from 43 States made their way to Reno for the tournament. There were 3200 kids competing in the 10 and under bracket.
Carlos placed 3rd at 46lbs and Giovani placed 6th out of 25 kids at 37lbs. Very impressive for the duo. This is their first year competing in Wrestling Tournaments. Their mom says they caught the Wrestling bug, love it and plan to compete in Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu every year going forward. They’ve been training with Anthony Archuelta at Sharp Shooter’s Wrestling Club in Victorville when they aren’t here at the Vegas gym.
Next up for the boys will be Grappler’s Quest in May.
While at the Cliff Keen tournament, the boys got the chance to hit the mats with Wrestling Legend Danny Hodge.
It looks like MMA fans will have to wait awhile to see Roy Jones Jr take on Anderson Silva. But earlier today at the UNLV Boxing Gym IFL Welterweight Champ Jay Hieron mixed it up with former IBF and WBO Heavyweight Champ Chris Byrd.
Chris is moving to the Light Heavyweight (175lbs) division and will be the Main Event of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights May 16th.
Here is round 1 of 5. We’ll post the rest of the rounds soon.
Fans of Presidential Candidate Ron Paul are getting behind Jay Hieron big time as evidenced by this Youtube video:
Jay was sponsored by Ringside Revolution and the Ron Paul Revolution for his last fight against Mark Miller. To the best of our knowledge it was the first (and so far only) time a politician or political campaign has sponsored an MMA fighter. And they made an excellent choice. Jay dominated his fight and the words “Ron Paul” were right there for the world to see.
Please note that we at Xtreme Couture are in no way, shape or form trying to influence how you vote. Furthermore we do not want to have a political debate here on the blog.
Ariel Helwani of MMARated.com did a very good and very thorough intereview with Randy. Check it out here. In it Randy talks about his upcoming film projects, a TV Pilot for Spike TV, his book and about Fedor vs Tim Sylvia.
The Sports Museum of America a new Hall of Fame for all sports is opening in New York City this May. The Museum will include the shorts and gloves Randy wore in his second fight against Chuck Liddell. Randy is currently the only MMA fighter to be honored by the museum. His display will be alongside memorabilia from stars in baseball, football, basketball, hockey the Olympics and more.
Future MMA stars Giovani and Carlos Ruffo added some new hardware to their trophy collections. The boys put on a strong showing at the Warrior’s Challenge Youth Wrestling Tournament in Cerritos, CA.
Carlos won in the 46lb Freestyle and Folkstyle divisions and Giovanni won in the 37lb division.
The boys have been staying super busy and look for them to put on quite a show at the May3rd Grappler’s Quest.
Tuff-N-Uff Mixed Martial Arts put on the first sanctioned all amateur MMA show in the State of Nevada Saturday. Held in the Tropicana the show drew a huge crowd and featured 22 bouts. The rules for the amateur fights are the same rules you are accustomed to seeing in the UFC minus knees and elbows. Also the fights featured three 2 minute rounds.
Mark Phan, Justin Linn, Chance Torres, Eddislav Mighelov and Antonio “Kimo” Yadao represented the gym. The guys went 4-1 on the night and Chance Torres won the Fight of the Night (in this observer’s opinion).
Shawn Tompkins, Sam Stout, Mike Pyle, Ron Frazier and Phil Friedman cornered the guys. Jay Hieron, Gray Maynard, Mike Whitehead, John Gunderson and Kevin Randelman were all in attendance watching the fights.
The next Tuff-N-Uff show is in late May. It was an action packed night of fights and for the $20 ticket price you can’t go wrong.
