MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2010 – Round 5, a leader in producing mixed martial arts collectible figurines, today released images of several prototypes of its “Versus” line, pairs of distinctly new figures highlighting battle scenes from great UFC matchups.  The prototypes were first seen at the Round 5 booth at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas in May.

The “Versus” series includes collectibles representing the following bouts:  Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva (UFC 92), 12-27-2008; Forrest Griffin vs. Jackson (“The Ultimate Fighter 7”); Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar  (UFC 100), 7-11-2008; and Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell (UFC 66), 12-30-2006.

The “Versus” line, scheduled to hit Toys“R”Us stores in the fall and other retailers later in the year, will be accompanied by an Octagon segment display.

Round 5 UFC “Ultimate Collector” Series 1 and 2 are now available at leading retailers across North America.  A list can be found at www.Round5MMA.com.

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – As the world prepares for the greatest heavyweight title fight of the past two decades, the Ultimate Fighting Championship® made a stunning announcement today that will undoubtedly have a global impact. UFC President Dana White confirmed that vuvuzelas, pesky noise makers used infamously by South African fans at this year’s World Cup, have been banned at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas this Saturday.

Thus, when UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar enters the cage to battle interim beltholder Shane Carwin in the most important heavyweight fight since the Ali era, fans will have to rely on their voices, hands, and feet to root on their favorite athlete.

“This decision was pretty simple for me,” White said. “Vuvuzelas make the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard. I’d rather let Brock punch me in the face than hear 15,000 people blow on those things. This is the biggest heavyweight fight we’ve ever done. We’ll make enough noise this weekend when Brock and Shane finally step inside the Octagon.”

The UFC has a widget on their homepage that displays the latest tweets from UFC fighters. If you look closely, you will see a tweet from BJ Penn that links to a photo gallery promoting this weekend’s Strikeforce card:

MMA NEWS “Image Gallery: Strikeforce Fedor vs. Werdum Media Workout” on BJPENN.COM: http://ning.it/bmzDe0

Here is how this happens. BJ Penn has a blog on his website, bjpenn.com . His blog contains a lot of press releases, and some of those press releases come from the UFC’s competition. I am sure BJ could care less about a STRIKEFORCE press release, but will have them posted in an effort to get more MMA related content on his website. This type of content will  drive more traffic and create a higher page rank in search engines. In order to get more attention to his blog, BJ Penn links his blog RSS feed to his twitter account. What does that mean? Every time he creates a blog post, his twitter account will automatically be updated with a link to the blog and all 46,956 (as of 6/24/2010) of his followers have direct access to the blog URL.

Because the UFC promotes UFC fighter twitter accounts on their homepage, BJ Penn’s tweets will appear on UFC.com , and, inadvertently, the UFC and BJ Penn help promote this weekends STRIKEFORCE card.

Gotta love the world of social media!

for anyone who care i am gonna fight again aug 14th

No other details at this time.  I don’t see any major MMA organizations with fight cards on August 14th. A little research shows that Cage Rage is putting on a show August 14th, so I would bet that is where Pulver will end up.

What I found in that article is continued ignorance from New York  government regarding mixed martial arts.

“We’re not teaching young people how to be adults,” said Sen. William Larkin, R-New Windsor, Orange County. “We’re teaching young people how to be hoodlums. Look what they do on this show: pound one another, kick one another.”

“I don’t think there is anything sporting about Ultimate Fighting,” Savino said. “It is barbarism portrayed on television for people so that they can watch it and be entertained.”

First off, there is no such thing as “Ultimate Fighting”. What Diane Savino is trying to reference in her quote is a sport called Mixed Martial Arts. I find it humorous that these government officials have so little information going into an important vote like this.

As far as there being “no sport” in mixed martial arts, that is ludicrous. Teaching young people to be hoodlums? Really?

I challenge these uninformed Senators to go to any MMA  gym, strap on a pair of boxing gloves and shin pads, and throw some punch kick combinations. Then hit the mats and learn how to apply an arm bar, follow that up with one hundred double leg take downs, maybe a few sprawls. After that workout, tell me how you feel about MMA not being a “sport”. You would realize the discipline it takes to successfully execute these maneuvers, and I don’t see how that would teach anyone to be a “hoodlum”.  Training mixed martial arts teaches you discipline, an acquired character trait that carries over into every aspect of life.

Anyway, the Assembly vote is important. I will be keeping a close eye on this, and hopefully the MMA bill passes there as well.