It is rare feat in mixed martial arts when a replacement fighter actually increases the interest for a fight, so that makes this particular announcement all the more interesting. It appears that Yves Edwards has suffered an undisclosed injury that has forced him to withdraw from his upcoming UFC on FUEL 3 lightweight fight with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Luckily, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva has found literally the PERFECT opponent to replace Edwards, Iowa power puncher Jeremy Stephens, in a fight that is now all but guaranteed to be a slugfest.

We last saw “Lil’ Heathen” at UFC 136, where he was out grappled by the likely next challenger to the UFC Lightweight title, Anthony Pettis, en route to a split decision loss. Prior to that, Stephens had scored two straight, KO’ing Marcus Davis out of a Zuffa contract at UFC 125…

…before almost ripping Danny Downes‘ arm off at the TUF 13 Finale. 

VidProps: WorldMartialArts/YouTube

Duke Roufus knows a thing or two about kicking. Also about punching. Oh, and knees and elbows, too.

Hmmm. Let’s start over…

Duke Roufus knows a thing or two about striking, and since his retirement from kickboxing competition, he’s passed along his knowledge to fighters from the Roufusport Martial Arts Academy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Pat Barry, Danny Downes, Matt Mitrione, Anthony Pettis (and his little bro Sergio), Alan Belcher, Ben Askren, and Eric Koch (and more) have all spent time with Duke sharpening their stand up skills, and Roufus has been credited with pushing innovation in MMA striking. Belcher’s cage-spring superman punch and Pettis’ Showtime Kick were both attributed to training with Roufus, because they apparently practice that kind of crazy stuff over there.

But we must remember the words of Mr Miyagi: “first learn stand, then learn fly.”

Watch this video of Roufus breaking down technique for Thai-style low kicks. Watch it twice, then go find a bamboo tree. Kick that bamboo tree until it falls. You’re now halfway to being a Roufusninja, and don’t leave us comments about how bamboo is technically grass. That’s bullshit. No one ever became a ninja by kicking grass; that’s clearly a moronic idea. You think Tony Jaa took a level in badass by kicking over blades of grass? Absolutely not. He kicked down trees and made friends with elephants.

As far as we know, Duke Roufus does not have an elephant friends. What he does have is this video of kicking technique, and you need to quit arguing and watch it.

[RX]

Remember the good ol’ days?

Another weekend is here, bringing us another batch of fights confirmed by the UFC for future events. You know the drill. This weekend, a total of five fights have been announced, two for UFC 135 in September and three for October 29^th’s UFC 137.

Yesterday the UFC announced the addition of a featherweight bout between Manny Gamburyan and Diego Nunes to the prelims of UFC 135. Expect Manny Gamburyan to be fighting with an extra sense of urgency in this one. The TUF 5 runner-up has lost two straight fights in Zuffa, most recently dropping a unanimous decision to Tyson Griffin at UFC Live 4: Kongo vs. Barry. Three straight losses would more than likely grant Gamburyan his walking papers. Likewise, Diego Nunes was last seen at UFC 131, where he lost to Kenny Florian via unanimous decision in Florian’s featherweight debut.

A bantamweight fight between Cole Escovedo and Takeya Mizugaki has also been added to UFC 135. Escovedo was last seen at UFC 130 in May, where he lost by unanimous decision to the impossibly long named Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado, aka Renan Barao. “The Apache Kid” is 1-3 in his last four fights and needs to build some momentum if he wants to stick around in the UFC. Likewise, since his Fight of the Year worthy performance against Miguel Torres, Takeya Mizugaki has gone 3-3 in Zuffa, most recently dropping a unanimous decision to Brian Bowles at UFC 132.

Check after the jump for the fights added to UFC 137

(GIF is after the jump, courtesy of IronForgesIron via MiddleEasy.)

“I figured him to be tough, but I did hear his arm pop three times when I had the deep kimura. I was trying to finish or break his arm, and I was telling the referee, ‘Hey, it’s broke, it’s broke’, but he is a tough guy. It didn’t really surprise me, but man, props to him.”

- So says Jeremy Stephens (to HeavyMMA) who nearly went home with the arm of Roufusport lightweight prospect Danny Downes during the second round of their preliminary card bout on Saturday night. Stephens eventually gave up on the kimura when Downes wouldn’t tap, but continued to beat the tar out of him en route to a unanimous decision. (30-26 x 2, 30-27)

Pettis, and his hopes at a title shot, come crashing down (pic: MMAFightNews.net)

Judging from the sparse commentary throughout last night’s live blog, most of you were out sipping $20 Manhattans and discussing the latest issue of The New Yorker while a few of us sat on the couch watching free cage fights and loathing ourselves. It’s cool. You know what you did was wrong, and you came back home to us. We forgive you, and we’ll give you the gist of what went down.

It only took three minutes and fifty four seconds to send ten weeks of buildup crashing to the mat. The bout between Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem was competitive, with both men finding a home for their hands, but Ferguson was able to employ his collegiate wrestling experience and the time spent with Lesnar’s camp after the show to dictate the fight and set the pace. Following a couple of successful takedowns, Ferguson flipped Ramsey’s switch with a left hook and Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter crowned its asshole champion.

Dammit, who are all you guys again?

Say what you will about The Ultimate Fighter (not like you need an invitation), but the finale shows tend to be pretty damn fun. This season, we actually have two fairly solid finalists, a dynamite co-main in Pettis-Guida, plus a handful of other matchups calibrated for striking showdowns and crowd amazement.

Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of the fights scheduled for this weekend, with a few of those fancy moving pictures that you like so much. Who ya got?

Ramsey Nijem

VS

Tony Ferguson

Well, either this fight is the one you’ve been waiting for, or you’re just wondering what these two nobodies are doing on your UFC card. Tune in to find out which guy gets a contract with the UFC. (Spoiler Alert: It’ll be both of them.)