MMA Coverage

If you roll up your sleeves to give blood today, you’ll get the chance to shake hands with an Ultimate Fighting Champion.

Jacob “Tito” Ortiz, also known as the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” will be at Glendale Community College today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. signing autographs at the “Ultimate Blood Drive II.” Ortiz is a mixed martial-arts champ and a former light-heavyweight champ in the UFC.

The event is meant to bolster Arizona’s blood supplies, which usually shrink up to 25 percent over Labor Day when people usually leave town for the extended weekend.

Tags: Tito Ortiz by MMACoverage
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Having high hopes that an agreement could be reached this week that would place Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC, the Russian heavyweight’s managers — Vadim Finkelstein and Apy Echteld — returned to Europe Friday without a deal in hand, according to Sherdog.com

The website suggested that the UFC deal has been the most lucrative thus far, but there were still a number of “road blocks” standing in the way.

Tags: Fedor Emelianenko, UFC, Bodog Fight by MMACoverage
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Chris Anders loves hip-tossing his opponents. Tom Mejia goes for submission holds. Darren Malynn just wants to get back into fighting shape.

But they have one thing in common: As much as they love mixed martial arts, known as MMA, they’re going to keep their day jobs.

The three men are part of a growing number of everyday people who have recently caught the MMA, or ultimate fighting, bug. Rising television ratings, the excitement of combat and muscular hotheads bellowing out interviews like professional wrestlers have fueled MMA into a popular spectator sport. Sports talk radio callers and hosts now drop names such as Randy Couture, the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion.

Tags: Randy Couture, UFC by MMACoverage
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Scattered across a mat-covered floor, a dozen figures are locked in combat.

One pair — Cpl. James Tomko and Spc. Josh Winter — are a frenetic whirl of movement. Feet and fists weave a chaotic tapestry of arm bars, submission holds and leg locks.

They’re hitting each other, but they’re not boxing. They’re grappling, but it’s not exactly wrestling. What they’re doing is not like any specific martial art, either.

Winter goes for a combination: arm bar to triangle to oma plata.

Tomko counters by stacking, passing the guard and changing angles.

Tags: WEC, Chuck Norris, Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, Urijah Faber, UFC 66, UFC, Randy Couture, The Ultimate Fighter, Royce Gracie, Chuck Liddell by MMACoverage
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