Rick Story to meet Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 171

Welterweight battle added to UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

On the 15th March 2014 the UFC will crown a new welterweight champion to follow in the footsteps of the greatest welterweight fighter ever. Georges St-Pierre's reign came to an end when he vacated the title at the end of last year and now another welterweight fight has been added to the card.

Kelvin Gastelum, the TUF 17 champion will return to the octagon as the UFC returns to Dallas where he will meet Rick Story.

Gastelum (7-0 MMA 2-0 UFC) capped off a real underdog story to be crowned The Ultimate Champion when he beat Uriah Hall last year. He then followed that up with a submission victory of Brian Melancon after dropping down to Welterweight and now remains at welterweight to meet Rick Story.

Story (16-7 MMA 9-5 UFC) will be looking to get his career back on track in 2014 after finishing 2013 on a high with a win over Brian Ebersole at UFC 167. The past few years he has bounced between wins and losses and a win over Gastelum would be a great way to do that.

UFC 171 is headlined by Johny Hendricks vs Robbie Lawler for the vacated Welterweight title and also on the card Carlos Condit will face off against Tyron Woodley in a fight which could see the new number one contender for the title.

If you enjoy Welterweight battles UFC 171 is the perfect event for you.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Worst Fight of the year

Kingdom MMA Worst Fight of the Year Award 2013: Soa Palalei vs Nikita Krylov

by Ben Heather @benheather

Although 2013 has been a great year for MMA it has also had a few stinkers. So this is the wooden spoon award of the year. Thankfully for us all this was actually quite a hard award to think of a winner for because we really have been treated to some amazing fights in 2013.

However, we had three contenders which were put forward as the worst fight of the year, our first contender was the fight between Jake Shields and Tyron Woodley at UFC 161 where the pair clinched for most of the fight in which Shields failed to get Woodley to the floor in the first two rounds alone with a staggering 11 attempts. The fight was either spent tied up in the clinch or pushed up against the side of the cage but nothing of serious note happened. All in all a stinker of a fight. However, Shawn Jordan must have been watching and gave the fans something to cheer about as he knocked out Pat Barry within a minute in the next fight.

Then in July Rory MacDonald vs Jake Ellenberger met at UFC on FOX 8 was certainly a fight with very little happening during the fight. Rory was waiting for Ellenberger to make the move and when he did, did just enough to win the fight without doing much in the process. Thankfully Demetrious Johnson vs John Moraga came on after that fight and put on a show for the fans to make them rightfully forget that fight ever happened.

Our winner though comes from UFC 164 at the end of August when Soa Palelei faced off against Nikita Krylov. Before the fight both guys had impressive records, Soa was returning to the UFC after a one fight stint years before and Nikita was making his debut in the UFC so both really wanted to impress..... unfortunately for both men and us fans that did not happen on this night. The fans were instead treated to over 11 minutes of fighting between two clearly gassed fighters before Soa put Nikita out of his misery and picked up the TKO win. Soa however announced after the fight that he went in to the fight with an injury, having suffered a fractured rib the week of the fight which led to him putting on a lack luster performance.

Thankfully Soa made up for this recently as the UFC returned to his home nation and he quickly knocked out Pat Barry making people forget all about his previous fight.

We are sorry to do this, but the award for worst fight of 2013 goes to Soa Palelei vs Nikita Krylov. Please forgive us and we hope to see you perform well again in 2014.

Carlos Condit and Tyron Woodley set to fight at UFC 171

Welterweight contenders set to battle at UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

On Friday it was announced that Georges St-Pierre has taken a break from MMA and in doing so has relinquished his UFC Welterweight title. This was confirmation of GSP's UFC 167 post fight interview in which he said he may need to take some time off but wasn't prepared to commit to that decision on the night.

This chain of events led to a couple of other fights being announced, the first was for the now vacant UFC Welterweight title between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler. Dana White also mentioned that Carlos Condit would also be fighting at UFC 171 but at the time no opponent had been announced. He said that at the UFC on FOX 9 post fight press conference he would announce Condit's opponent. At that press conference Dana White announced that he had attempted to arrange the rematch between Condit and Nick Diaz but Diaz turned the fight down saying he was still retired. So until now the world was left waiting to hear who would fight Condit.

Today it was announced that Tyron Woodley, who has been sending Dana about 15 text messages a day trying to get a big name fight would be the man to face Condit with the winner more than likely becoming the new number one contender for the UFC Welterweight title.

Woodley has had a mixed run going 2-1 since joining the UFC from Strikeforce, that being said in the two fights he has won he has put on brilliant performances knocking out Jay Hieron and most recently Josh Koshcheck. That fight with Koscheck was a brutal battle in which he rocked Koscheck a few times before putting him away towards the end of the first round. His only loss since joining the UFC was against Jake Shields at UFC 161 where he lost via split decision.

Condit got back to winning ways last time out against Martin Kampmann, that win was his first win for three fights having lost back to back unanimous decisions firstly in the Welterweight title unification battle with GSP and then against Johny Hendricks. He was due to fight Matt Brown in what would have been a great fight last weekend at UFC on FOX 9 but Brown had to pull out of that fight injured and will not be back in time to be fit for UFC 171.

A win against Tyron Woodley would be enough to potentially set up a rematch for Condit against Hendricks.

I am not sure how each fight will pan out, only time will tell but what I do know is the welterweight division still has enough talent and contenders to keep the division moving whether GSP returns or not is up to him but the UFC Welterweight division is still an exciting division for us fans.

Josh Koscheck vs Tyron Woodley UFC 167

ANOTHER WELTERWEIGHT BATTLE ADDED TO UFC 167
By Tommy Strong @strong_tea

UFC 167 adds another welterweight bout to its card. With the news that Josh Koscheck will face Tyron Woodley on November 16th 2013.

Josh Koscheck (19-7) was scheduled to fight Damien Maia in August at UFC 163, but was forced to pull out due to an injury. Josh will now get the chance to redeem himself after losing his last two fights , a split decision to Johny Hendricks and more recently a 1st round defeat in February to Robbie Lawler.

His opponent Tyron Woodley (11-2) made a spectacular UFC debut in February with a 1st round victory knocking out Jay Hieron in 36 seconds. Though it was polar opposite when he faced Jake Shields in June 2013 losing a split decision in one of the worst fights I've seen to date.

This fight could go one of two way, either be a barn burner or a contender for worst fight of the year!
Lets hope both fighters turn up to entertain the fans!

UFC 167 will be headlined by welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre vs Johny Hendricks, also confirmed for the card will see another welterweight bout between Rory MacDondald vs Robbie Lawler.

Jake Shields vs Tyron Woodley Target for UFC 161 in Canada

A Welterweight match up between one time UFC title challenger, Jake Shields 27-6-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC), and Tyron Woodley (11-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is in the works for the summer.

The fight is being targeted for a yet-unnamed event, likely UFC 161, on June 15 in Canada. A host city is not yet finalised.

Woodley who started his career a perfect 10-0 before losing to Nate Marquardt in a bout for the vacant Strikeforce Welterweight title following Nick Diaz's departure to The UFC, holds notable wins over Paul Daley and Jordan Mein, and impressed in his UFC debut where he knocked out former Bellator tournament winner, and IFL Champion Jay Hieron after just 36 second of the first round.

Shields (pictured), a former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, makes his return to Welterweight after a decision over 185-pound vet Ed Herman at UFC 150 in Denver. However the victory was later overturned when the Gracie fight team member tested positive for a banned substance.

For more on the UFC 161 fightcard, go to the Calendar section on our site.