Pat Curran wants to take next big step at Bellator 48

The world of mixed martial arts is searching for featherweights who can compete with Jose Aldo. On his way to a 9-0 record with Zuffa's fight promotions, the UFC champion has destroyed everything in his path. Kenny Florian is up next, but after that who knows?

With a win tomorrow at Bellator 48 in Uncasville, Ct., Pat Curran or Marlon Sandro could be in the discussion.  Curran (15-4) and Sandro (19-2) battle for the Bellator Featherweight tourney title, $100,000 to the winner and a guaranteed shot at the Bellator 145-pound champ Joe Warren.

Sandro, a huge free agent signing from Sengoku in Japan, entered as the tourney favorite.

"He's a very tough fighter and explosive," Curran told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He puts on a very high pace. I definitely I have to be up to par for this. He's one of the top featherweights in the world and definitely trains with some of the top featherweights in the world."

With two impressive wins and a history of success in these tournament formats, Curran has made this brawl into a tough one to call.

"The tournaments are so close together they kind of remind me of wrestling tournaments in a way," Curran said. "You just constantly staying in shape, in the gym 24/7 and you're just focusing on one fight after the next. I like having these fights closer together. You can knock them out, then you can take a little bit of time off to relax and just get right back at it again."

Curran, 24, was a high school wrestler in Florida. In 2007, he re-located to the Chicago area to train with his cousin Jeff, a former WEC champion.

Curran is on a great run and the recent drop to the 145-pound weight class has only helped. It's not as if he was a slouch at 155 pounds. He beat Roger Huerta and Toby Imada on his way to a 2010 Bellator lightweight tourney title and followed that up by giving Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez one of his toughest fights in years.

If Sandro wins and ever gets to the UFC, it sets up an interesting quandary because he's a trainer partner with Aldo. Sandro is a slight favorite tomorrow night at minus-120, while Curran is minus-110.

Tomorrow's card is also highlighted by a heavyweight clash between two-time NCAA Div. 1 heavyweight wrestling champ Cole Konrad and UFC/Strikeforce veteran Paul Buentello. Former UFC heavyweight king Ricco Rodriguez will take on Kimbo Slice-killer Seth Petruzelli.

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?Cowboy? Cerrone shows striking prowess at UFC on Versus 5

MILWAUKEE -- Donald Cerrone showed off his kickboxing prowess in a TKO over Charles Oliveira on Sunday night at the UFC on Versus 5 card.

Cerrone controlled most of the fight, stalking down Oliveira with leg kicks and punches. He knocked Oliveira down with a knee, and then backed away for a second before finishing up with a flurry of punches. It was stopped at 3:01 in the first round.

"My game plan was to let it go man. I finally got to go out there and get it started.  Looking forward, I would like a rematch with Ben Henderson.  I train with the best every day, and this is what you get," Cerrone said after the win.

This win puts Cerrone on a five-fight win streak, extending back to his stint in the WEC. Oliveira is a young, rising prospect, but has hit a rough patch as his last three fights were two losses and a no contest.

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UFC reportedly has deal with FOX; Network has big press conference announcement set for Thursday

The rumor merry-go-round continues to twirl with regards to the UFC and a new television deal.

First it was the Wall Street Journal reporting that Zuffa (parent company to the UFC) was closing in on a deal with Comcast/NBC. Now Sport Business Daily says FOX has stepped up to grab the mixed martial arts giant in a package that could be worth as much as $90 million per year.

In what would represent a major push into the mainstream for the UFC, Fox has agreed to a deal that will see the broadcast channel air as many as four MMA events per year, according to several sources. The multiyear deal would mark the first time the UFC will have consistent airtime on a broadcast network. Fox execs refused to comment on the deal, but sources with knowledge of the negotiations said bidding had gone as high as $90M per year. The Fox deal is believed to be for seven or eight years.

UPDATE: John Ourand from SBJ tweeted that FOX has a major announcement on the way later this week.


UFC president Dana White wouldn't confirm the deal to MMAjunkie.

"You guys will know when we have a TV deal," said White.

White appeared with Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole on Friday's "MMA Insiders" on ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas.

"We do not have a deal. We're out there talking to everybody. When you're out there talking to everybody there's going to be lots of rumors," White said (19:10 mark). "In a perfect world, what would really work out great is if you could be on CBS and FOX and Comcast/NBC. Just like the NFL is. That would be the perfect world, but this sport has a lot of room to grow."

White has been very selective over the years with the UFC's programming partners.

"I will not do a dumb deal. We're not going to do a deal that doesn't make sense. We could've been the first mixed martial arts on network television, but none of the deals made sense," White said. "And as you saw all those guys [that were on network TV like EliteXC on CBS] ended up going out of business."

The UFC has been looking for a multi-platform deal. The promotion would like programming on network TV and several cable channels. Currently, it's running live fights and additional programming with preview shows and past fights on Spike and Versus. That will change in a deal with FOX.

As part of the deal, most of the weekly programming that UFC has on Versus and Spike TV will move to FX starting in January. That includes several fight cards, plus shows like the reality series "The Ultimate Fighter." Fox-owned Fuel also will wind up with some UFC content. But rumors that Fox will rebrand Fuel as a UFC channel are not true, sources said. Fox was attracted to UFC programming, which has produced some of the highest viewership figures ­-- and most attractive demos --­ on Versus and Spike TV.

According to SBJ, Viacom-owned Spike dropped out of the bidding because of lagging numbers:

The UFC's talks with Viacom-owned Spike ended before that. Sources said Spike ultimately passed over concern that its UFC shoulder programming stopped growing. Shows like "Unleashed," "Knockouts" and "Countdown" averaged 1 million viewers in '05. This year, they are averaging 492,000. Spike holds the rights to UFC library programming through '12, including old fights and shoulder programming such as "UFC Unleashed."

The most recent live event on Versus actually trended up at UFC on Versus 5.

UFC's Sunday night event in Milwaukee on Versus also drew 766,000 viewers from 9:00-11:09pm ET, marking the net's most-viewed program for the week ending August 14. That figure is up 3% from 744,000 viewers for the last UFC event on Versus on June 26.

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Lytle retires with a submission win at UFC on Versus 5

MILWAUKEE -- Chris Lytle ended his MMA career with a bang at UFC on Versus 5 on Sunday night. Just after he announced his retirement, Lytle submitted Dan Hardy in the third round.

The fight started with both fighters throwing big, looping strikes. Both Hardy and Lytle landed clean punches, but both showed off their strong chins. Neither fighter let up as the round wore on. Lytle appeared to land more, but Hardy was never wobbled.

In the second round, the two continued to trade leather. Again, Lytle had a slight advantage, but also sustained a cut. He landed several square shots on Hardy's noggin, and gave him several big bumps.

As Lytle went to his corner for the last time in his career, he smiled at his corner men. He was clearly enjoying his last fight in the UFC.

Blood and spit leaked out of Hardy's mouth in the third round, as he continued to take punishment from Lytle. Hardy still had good movement and was still landing some shots. He tried for a takedown in the final two minutes, but ended up with Lytle on top. Lytle smoothly sunk in a guillotine, and choked Hardy at 4:16 in the third round.

Not a person in the Bradley Center sat as the official decision was read. They booed at the idea that he was leaving MMA.

"I love being a part of the UFC almost more than everything, except one thing, and that's my family. It's time I start putting them first," Lytle said after his win.

No matter what happened, this fight was destined to be special. Lytle announced this weekend that this was his last fight. Always loved by fans for his hold-nothing-back style, Lytle got to have his final fight in the Midwest, just a drive away from his home in Indianapolis. He now gets to leave with a win under his belt.

For Hardy, it was a chance to show that he still belonged in the Octagon. He had been on a three-fight losing skid, starting with losing to Georges St. Pierre in a title bout. It's hard to say what the future will bring for him, but four losses in a row rarely brings longevity.

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UFC on Versus 5: Dan Hardy won?t get punked again

MILWAUKEE -- Dan Hardy was in his happy place: a room full of fight fans who all had their eyes on him. At the UFC on Versus 5 open workouts Friday, the British, orange-mohawked fighter bantered with the crowd, taking requests for fighting styles.

"If Chris agrees to do the fight in slow motion, we can do Tai Chi!"

But he has learned his lesson on making fight agreements with opponents. Before his March loss to Anthony Johnson, Hardy and Johnson spoke often about the type of fight they wanted. Even before weigh-ins, as they watched a replay of the exciting bout between Leonard Garcia and the Korean Zombie, Johnson told Hardy, "That's going to be us."

Johnson then wrestled his way to a decision win. Afterwards, Hardy said that he was punked.

"I was annoyed, but I was annoyed with myself. The reason is a few years ago, when I fought on the Cage Warriors show, I did the same thing to someone else. So I guess it's karma. If he had been saying it to the media, and constantly said, "It's gonna be a war," but hadn't said anything to me, I wouldn't have bought into it. But, it was the private messages between us. It was a smart gameplan, and he outsmarted me. I only have myself to blame for that," Hardy said.

With that loss, Hardy fell to 0-3 in his last three fights. Getting the chance for a fourth loss doesn't happen for many fighters, so he knows that it is important to deliver on Sunday night against Chris Lytle.

"It's concerning, because I love my job and I love being part of the UFC. I love seeing the fans and stuff. I like that interaction, and seeing them have such an interest in the UFC and my career. On another note, there's not much I can do about it. I'm three losses down. I can't take those back. I only can learn from them. I'm going into this fight, remembering the mistakes that I've made in my last three fights and training camps, and give it everything I've got. I'm of the mindset now that as long as I give it everything I've got, what else can I do? For right now, I'm comfortable that Sunday is going to be a great day."

Hardy worked both in Las Vegas with Roy Nelson and with his home camp in England to prepare for the bout. He thinks his game will be better integrated because the training of the different MMA disciplines was more integrated. He complimented his opponent's style, but did say that he has more weapons.

"He's got experience, which is gonna make it harder to me to set him up for the easier techniques that will knock him out. Having said that, coming from a Muay Thai background, I feel like I have an extra three weapons that he doesn't have. Boxing is a huge thing, and I use my hands a lot and I like boxing, but when I use it with my hands and kicks and knees, and elbows, that's going to be the deciding factor of the fight."

Hardy asked for a bout with Lytle because he knew he was going to bring a fight. Lytle has six Fight of the Night bonuses under his belt, and knows he can count on Lytle to bring a fight.

"Just the vibe I get off of him, I know he's coming for a fight, and that's all I really want. A fight. A good fight."

He was in a jovial mood for most of the interview, but turned serious when discussing the rioting that has swept over his home country.

"I think it's opportunistic crime. There's some discrepancy over what happened with Mark Duggan, who was shot by the police. People are saying it was unfair that he got shot, other people are saying that he was a drug dealer with a gun. The protests that followed that turned a little bit violent, then it swept across the country, people started thinking, 'I want a new TV and a pair of Nikes.' "

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