Despite multiple lineup changes in the weeks leading up to tonight’s “HDNET PRESENTS: TITAN FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP 18,” (www.TitanFighting.com and www.HD.net) yesterday’s weigh-ins at the Argosy Hotel Casino & Spa in Kansas City, MO went off without a hitch.
Seven world class professional fights are confirmed for the show, which will air live on HDNet starting at 10 p.m. ET and will emanate from the historic Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS. The event will be headlined by former UFC lightweight champion Jens “’Lil Evil” Pulver in his continuing comeback attempt taking on renowned Taekwondo practitioner and Bellator Fighting Championships and Strikeforce veteran Brian “Mr. D” Davidson.
The 36-year old Pulver, who has competed in the past at 155 and 145 lbs. tipped the scales at a svelte 139 lbs. for the 140 lbs. catchweight affair. His opposition, the 35-year old Davidson, weighed 141 lbs. even. The matchup has begun to draw a great deal of praise both nationally and locally, with the cover of the sports page in the Kansas City Star featuring an article on Pulver’s remarkable journey in MMA.
“Jens is one of the most beloved fighters in all of MMA. People genuinely want to see him do well and return to the highest levels of this sport,” said Titan Fighting CEO Joe Kelly. “He is without question a true pioneer in this sport and he still has a place as an active competitor in this sport. Brian Davidson is without question a very exciting and challenging opponent and from a fight quality standpoint, I anticipate this matchup being the best main event we’ve done on HDNet.”
In addition to the Pulver vs. Davidson main event, Titan Fighting Championship 18 received additional momentum earlier in the week when it was learned that former Oklahoma State University wrestling standouts Jake Rosholt and Jared Rosholt had both been added to the show.
The elder of the Rosholt brothers, Jake, weighed in at 198.4 lbs. Fighting for the fifth time in 2011, Rosholt will look to run his record for the year to a perfect 5-0 when he takes on another wrestling standout, John Ott. Ott, who made national headlines earlier this year following a courageous performance against former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley, weighed in at 199.6 lbs. for their 200 lbs. catchweight contest. Ott is looking to put on more than just a courageous performance this time out, as he hopes to defeat the former three-time NCAA heavyweight champion and ruin Rosholt’s plans of returning to the UFC.
“Jake has stream rolled his opponents so far this year – not only winning but winning in dominant fashion,” said Kelly. “He’s without question ready to return to the UFC right now. However, Ott is going to be the toughest opponent he’s faced this year and Jake’s ticket to return to the UFC could be lost after the fight vs. Ott tonight.”
The card will also feature Jake’s 23-year old younger but bigger brother, Jared “The Big Show” Rosholt. The younger Rosholt is already 2-0 in his young MMA career and has been branded by several scouts and pundits as a future UFC heavyweight champion. Jared Rosholt weighed in at 258.8 lbs. while his opponent, Kirk Grinlinton, weighed in at 253.8 lbs.
“Since our alliance with HDNet, we’ve already seen Jason High and Aaron Rosa get picked up by Strikeforce and the UFC, respectively,” began Kelly. “The scouts from every major organization watch Titan Fighting events in hopes of bolstering their rosters. All eyes will be on Jared tonight in his first television appearance. A strong performance will no doubt put him on the fast track towards winning a major national title. However, Kirk has more fights under his belt and has been training MMA a lot longer. I fully expect Jared to be tested.”
Complete weigh-in results for Titan Fighting Championship 18 are as follows:
- Jens “’Lil Evil” Pulver (139 lbs./24-14-1) vs. Brian “Mr. D” Davidson (141 lbs./6-3)
- Jake Rosholt (198.4 lbs./11-3) vs. John Ott (199.6 lbs./8-8)
- Darryl Cobb (184.6 lbs./6-2) vs. Rudy “Bad News” Bears (184 lbs./12-7)
- Jared Rosholt (258.8 lbs./2-0) vs. Kirk Grinlinton (253.8 lbs./2-2) at 265 lbs.
- Joe “The Nose” Wilk (148 lbs./11-5) vs. Jesse Zeugin (153.2 lbs./5-1) at 145 lbs.
- “Super Duper” Bobby Cooper (176.2 lbs./5-3) vs. Nick Budig (176.2 lbs./5-1) at 155 lbs.
- Sean “P-Town” Wilson (156.2 lbs./27-15) vs. Deryck Ripley (155 lbs./11-19) at 155 lbs.
Here are selected clips from “Mastering The System: Episode 22.” “Mastering The System” is a reality web series created by 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Head Instructor Eddie Bravo. Each episode contains three separate 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu techniques with multiple transitions, comedy, skits, conspiracy theories, live rolling, and all the craziness that is 10th Planet Headquarters located in Hollywood, CA. Here are just a few of the people you will see interviewed, rolling, and hanging out at HQ in Episodes 1-22. Eddie Bravo, Chuck “The Iceman” Lidell, Georges St Pierre, Fabricio Werdum, Joe Rogan, George Sotiropoulos, Scott “Einstein” Epstein, Sean Bollinger, Denny Prokopos, Matt Horwich, Matt Mitrione, Junie Browning and many more. If that is not enough, we have some of the biggest names in the business coming up in future episodes! You won’t want to miss it!
Two last-minute, high-profile withdrawals from this Friday’s Titan Fighting Championship 18 (www.TitanFighting.com) event have sent organizers scrambling to re-stock the card. However, the efforts of Titan officials have led to the last-minute additions to a rising brother act in the sport of mixed martial arts in former Oklahoma State wrestling standouts Jake Rosholt and Jared Rosholt.
The decision to add the high-profile Rosholt Brothers to the card was necessitated after Titan officials were recently informed that both Rory Markham and Drew McFedries would be unable to compete this Friday on the HDNet (www.HD.net) televised card (starting at 10 p.m. ET) as had been previously scheduled.
Titan officials were notified late Monday night that McFedries had been hospitalized due to an infection and that Markham, who is pursuing a full-time career in film, had been offered a high-profile role that would require him to leave the country and report to the set in advance of Friday’s event.
“We were extremely disappointed when the management for Drew and Rory informed us of the news. However, this is the fight business and having promoted fights since the age of 24, I’ve dealt with a lot of hurdles in promoting shows,” said Titan CEO Joe Kelly. “While losing Drew and Rory from the show hurts, we took the news in stride I am very excited that the fans in attendance at Memorial Hall and those watching live on HDNet are going to see two future stars in this sport step up on short notice and test themselves.”
The two future stars that Kelly references are former three-time NCAA heavyweight champion Jake Rosholt and his younger brother, former NCAA finalist Jared “The Big Show” Rosholt.
Twenty-eight year old Jake Rosholt began his MMA career after not only winning three NCAA titles in two separate weight classes, but also having earned a Big 12 Conference Championship in 2004 and earning All-American honors every season during his four-year tenure at OSU. His remarkable NCAA credentials made him one of the highest profile prospects to ever enter MMA.
Despite having less than a year of training under his belt, Rosholt began his MMA career with a perfect 4-0 record and received a lucrative contract from the Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. After going 1-0 in the WEC, Rosholt joined the UFC after the two promotions merged.
Upon entering the UFC, Rosholt’s inexperience began to show as he compiled a 1-2 record against veteran competitors who had the advantage of possessing years of training and competition experience in MMA. Since departing the UFC, Rosholt’s obsession has been to gain more in-cage experience and victories in order to return to the big show.
Having gone an impressive 4-0 in 2011 with all four victories coming by way of early stoppage, Rosholt is reportedly on the cusp of accomplishing his goal of returning to the UFC. Standing in Rosholt’s way of returning is John Ott, another college wrestling standout that made national headlines in March after going up in weight yet still going the distance with former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley.
Meanwhile, the younger Rosholt is quickly following in his brother’s footsteps. A multi-time All-American while wrestling at Oklahoma State, Rosholt is currently 2-0 with two submission victories since transitioning to MMA. Additionally, the 24-year old won the Adu Dhabi Regional Trials in California earlier this year and will be participating in the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships — the premiere No Gi submission grappling championship in the World — in the United Kingdom later in the year.
Despite having only trained less than a year in MMA, Jared Rosholt has already earned the distinction of being named BloodyElbow.com’s sixth-best rated unsigned heavyweight prospect. Another win on Friday night would only serve to send his already fast rising stock through the roof.
“When you look at brother acts in MMA, it’s clear that Ken and Frank Shamrock are the best brother-tandem to have ever grace this sport,” Kelly remarked. “However, when the respective MMA careers of the Rosholt Brothers have come to an end, I have no doubt in my mind that Jake and Jared will surpass the Shamrocks as the greatest brother duo in MMA history. I believe that Jake Rosholt will return to the UFC and eventually claim the middleweight title and those that I know who have seen Jared Rosholt train tell me that he is going to be a future UFC heavyweight champion. Having two future UFC champions compete together on national television so early in their respective careers is going to be special.”
Tickets for “HDNet Presents: Titan Fighting Championship 18: Pulver vs. Davidson” are still on-sale at Ticketmaster.com, all local Ticketmaster outlets, as well as the Memorial Hall box office. The main televised card will begin at 10 p.m. ET this Friday with the non-televised undercard start at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Weigh-ins are scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CT on Thursday, May 26 at the Constellations Room at the Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa in Kansas City, MO and will be open to the public. Sponsors for the event include Combat Sports International (www.CombatSports.com), Monster Energy Drink (www.MonsterEnergy.com), Ink’d Out Apparel (InkDOutApparel.com), Supremacy MMA by 505 Games (watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O4c_4RQokE) and the Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa (www.StayArgosy.com).
The current card for Titan Fighting Championship 18 is as follows:
- Jens “’Lil Evil” Pulver (24-14-1) vs. Brian “Mr. D” Davidson (6-3) at 140 lbs.
- Jake Rosholt (11-3) vs. John Ott (8-8) at 200 lbs.
- Darryl Cobb (6-2) vs. Rudy “Bad News” Bears (12-7) at 185 lbs.
- Jared Rosholt (2-0) vs. Kirk Grinlinton (2-2) at 265 lbs.
- Joe “The Nose” Wilk (11-5) vs. Jesse Zeugin (5-1) at 145 lbs.
- “Super Duper” Bobby Cooper (5-3) vs. Nick Budig (5-1) at 155 lbs.
- Sean “P-Town” Wilson (27-15) vs. Deryck Ripley (11-19) at 155 lbs.
Champ Hall’s Fight Night in the Cage (www.FightNightinTheCage.com) is set to return this Saturday, May 28 at the Lancaster Host Resort in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for its second-ever event.
The card will feature several blue chip prospects going head-to-head as they look to build their resume in hopes of eventually competing for the UFC, Strikeforce, and the Bellator Fighting Championships. A total of 13 bouts in all are planned (card subject to change) with the event to feature a double main event of Jeff Smith (6-1) from Steve Blackman’s MMA Academy in Harrisburg, PA taking on Brian “Vicious” Van Hoven (7-2) out of Gold Medal Grappling in Woodbridge, VA in a lightweight contest as well as light heavyweights Brandon Saling (3-1) vs. the fast-rising Matt Van Buren (3-0).
“Demand for this show has been tremendous and we’re very excited for this event,” said Hall, a former Golden Gloves boxing competitor who owns multiple Barber Shops in the Lancaster area. “Brian is a former U.S. Marine who has trained with ex-UFC fighter Kris McCray and has a huge future ahead of him. But he’s coming into enemy territory against Jeff, who also is a blue chip prospect and trains with an amazing camp in Harrisburg with former WWE Superstar and Shotokan Karate standout Steve Blackman. It’s going to be an amazing battle.”
Also on the card will be a flyweight clash between Joshua Aarons and Arthur Parker. Parker has been a media darling as of late and enters his 125 lbs. fight vs. Aarons with a great deal of momentum.
“Look for Parker to make his announcement as a new prospect in the Keystone State,” York Daily Record reporter Ted Czech recently wrote on his MMA Explosion blog.
Also slated for the pro card is another one of Blackman’s star pupils, Mike Diggs, who will be taking on Jeff Smith in a lightweight battle.
Tickets are currently available at FightNightInTheCage.com (www.FightNightInTheCage.com) with General Admission tickets starting at $36 with Cageside-area tickets priced at $51 and Front-row area seating just $66. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door the day of show. The Lancaster Host Resort is located at 2300 Lincoln Highway East in Lancaster, PA 17602 with doors opening at 6:00 p.m. ET and the first fight commencing at 7:00 p.m. ET.
About a dozen Minnesota Vikings turned out Friday night to watch teammate — for now — Ray Edwards make his professional boxing debut at Grand Casino Hinckley. Edwards’ performance wasn’t inspiring, but he did record two knockdowns en route to a unanimous, four-round decision over Duluth’s T.J. Gibson
There is no rest for the weary and Cage Fury Fighting Championships will return to the Resorts Hotel and Casino on Friday, June 10th, 2011 for CFFC 9: Beach Brawl. Headlining the event will be Renzo Gracie prospect, John Cholish taking on a battle-tested veteran in Mikhail Malyutin for the CFFC lightweight title. Cholish, who currently holds two other titles, is currently riding a six fight win streak which includes a submission victory over Ultimate Fighter veteran Marc Stevens in Strikeforce last year. Malyutin also holds a title and is coming off of two impressive wins over UFC and Pride veterans, Chris Liguori and Luiz Azeredo respectively.
The co-main event will feature Bellator and Strikeforce veteran Igor Gracie taking on Quinton McCottrell in a welterweight showdown. From the famed Gracie family, Igor comes into this bout with a record of 3-2, but has two submission victories in a row. His last victory came on the undercard of Strikeforce’s Fedor vs. Silva where he submitted John Salgado with an arm triangle choke. McCottrell, a veteran of ten MMA contests has won all but one of his fights by KO or submission. Also, set to return to the cage are CFFC veterans Nah-Shon Burrell, Kyle Cerminara, Stephen Perez, Trevor Suter, and Ariel Sepulveda.
The moments after the announcement that Randy Savage AKA “The Macho Man” passed away hit the main stream the old school WWE fans hit the Twitter-verse. It’s not to far fetched to think that the “Macho Man” touched so many lives in the MMA world. Below are some of the reactions.
bjpenndotcom BJ Penn
Rest in Peace to Macho Man Randy Savage. One of my biggest inspirations. God Bless
bjpenndotcom BJ Penn
You will be missed very much… OOOOOOOOH!! YEAHHHH!!! REST IN PEACE BROTHER!!!!!
bjpenndotcom BJ Penn
THE MEGA POWERS BABY!!! FOREVER!!!!
aaronsimpson Aaron Simpson
Just saw that The Macho man Randy Savage just died in a car accident. Used to love that guy.
AndreWinner André Winner
“@Fighterstrength: S–t. Macho man randy savage is dead !!”Noooooo,only until I got older did I really appreciate how good macho man was
bjpenndotcom BJ Penn
Remembering all the great memories…. I was just a little boy when The Macho Man was doing his thing…. I miss you man.
DaMarques_UFC DaMarques Johnson
RIP Macho Man Randy Savage.
FollowACE Rich Franklin
RIP macho man!!!!
titoortiz Tito Ortiz
Rip. I’ve been a big fan! Oooooh yaaaaa! RT @Ericardoin: RT @bjpenndotcom: Rest in Peace to Macho Man Randy (cont) http://tl.gd/aj753p
Brian_Bowles Brian Bowles
Macho man died today that’s sucks he was one of my favorites
TJ_Grant TJ Grant
RIP MACHO MAN
mayhemmiller Jason Mayhem Miller
Damn. I knew this day would come. I have some giant shoes to fill, but I will do my best. RIP Macho Man. You will be missed.
ShaneCarwin Shane Carwin
We should all go get a slim jim in his honor. He never got the same credit as Hulk but he helped make that era what it was. RIP
ShaneCarwin Shane Carwin
RIP Randy Macho Man Savage! We are going to SOOOOOOOOOO MISSSSS YOUUUUUUUU…… He was a great Entertainer!
thejameshead James Head
OOOOOOOOHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH. RIP #MACHOMAN
Kingsbu Kyle Kingsbury
Im seriously pretty choked up my fav prowrestler of all time died today. RIP Macho Man Randy Savage. Many great memories. #youwillbemissed
SammyJstout sam stout
RIP macho man
mexicutioner760 joey beltran
RIP MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE
JoshLBarnett Josh Barnett
RIP peace “Macho Man” Randy Savage. You are a legend and I loved watching you wrestle. Oh yeah!
dc_mma Daniel Cormier
Rip to the greatest wrestler of all time. Macho man Randy savage. U will be missed.
BamBamHealy Patrick Healy
RIP macho man, ur high flying maneuvers greatly influenced my childhood.
JoeB135 Joseph Benavidez
RIP Macho Man Randy Savage ‘Ooooooo ya”
TMZ reported that Pro Wrestling Legend “Macho Man” Randy Savage met his end in a tragic car crash. The “Macho Man” suffered a heart attack while driving and sent him off the road. The police say that alcohol was not a factor in the crash.
Randy Savage made his debut with the WWF (WWE) in 1985 and won the Intercontinental Championship in 1986. He reined as the Champion for 14 months before losing it to Ricky Steamboat. Savage went on to win the King for the Ring tournament and the WWF Championship. He was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall Of Fame in 2009.
The “Macho Man” also stared in the classic ad campaign by Slim Jim.


June 1, 2011    



















