The upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter® will once again showcase mixed martial arts’ global expansion, as Polish strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha of Brazil lead a group of light heavyweight (men) and strawweight (female) hopefuls.
Thirty-two athletes from countries such as the Netherlands, Algeria, France, Norway, Spain, Canada, Brazil, England and the United States fight for one of 16 spots available in the premiere episode on Thursday, April 21 at 3am BST on BT Sport (repeated at 10pm BST later that same day).
There will be no shortage of intensity and drama with Jedrzejczyk (11-0, fighting out of Olsztyn, Poland) and Gadelha (13-1, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as one of the most intense rivalries in all of mixed martial arts plays out on screen. The two fought in December 2014 with Jedrzejczyk narrowly edging out Gadelha before eventually going on to win the strawweight world title. There will be no love lost between the two as their epic feud plays out leading up to their highly anticipated rematch.
The show will feature 12 episodes, airing on BT Sport. Each episode’s winner will advance in the single-elimination tournament, leading to the season finale on July 8 in Las Vegas as part of International Fight Week. The finale will be headlined by this season’s coaches in a world title bout as Jedrzejczyk collides with Gadelha.
The Ultimate Fighter 23 competitors:
Strawweight Females
Light Heavyweight Men
Alyssa Krahn, 3-1, Age 28, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Abdel Medjedoub, 3-0, Age 30, Mila, Algeria
Amanda Cooper, 1-1, Age 24, Bath, Mich.
Andrew Sanchez, 7-2, Age 27, Shiloh, Ill.
Amy Montenegro, 7-2, Age 32, Forks, Wash.
Cory Hendricks, 3-0, Age 27, Lynden, Wash
.
Ashley Cummins, 3-3, Age 28, St. Louis, Mo.
Elias Urbina, 3-0, Age 22, Weslaco, Texas
Ashley Yoder, 4-1, Age 28, Indianapolis, Ind.
Eric Spicely, 8-0, Age 29, Stoughton, Mass.
Chelsea Bailey, 2-0, Age 23, Chewelah, Wash.
Jamelle Jones, 6-2, Age 28, Atlantic City, N.J.
Helen Harper, 4-1, Age 28, Farnborough, England
John Paul Elias, 3-0, Age 27, Fresno, Calif.
Irene Rivera, 6-2, Age 22, Barcelona, Spain
Josh Stansbury, 7-2, Age 31, East Liverpool, Ohio
Jamie Moyle, 3-1, Age 27, Las Vegas, Nev.
Kenneth Bergh, 3-0, Age 26, Oslo, Norway
JJ Aldrich, 2-1, Age 23, Aurora, Colo.
Khalil Rountree, 4-0, Age 26, Las Vegas, Nev.
Jodie Esquibel, 5-1, Age 29, Albuquerque, N.M.
Marcel Fortuna, 8-1, Age 30, Tubarao, Brazil
Kate Jackson, 7-2-1, Age 29, Lostwithiel, England
Muhammed DeReese, 5-0, Age 27, Titusville, Fla.
Kristi Lopez, 2-0, Age 33, Quartz Hill, Calif.
Myron Dennis, 12-4, Age 27, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Lanchana Green, 2-1, Age 26, Darlington, England
Norman Paraisy, 15-4-2, 1 NC, Age 30, Paris, France
Mellony Geugjes, 0-1, Age 23, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Phil Hawes, 3-0, Age 27, Little Ferry, N.J.
Tatiana Suarez, 3-0, Age 25, Fontana, Calif.
Trevor Carlson, 10-2, Age 27, Spring Creek, Nev.
All photo credits to:
UFC, Invicta, Joe Pic Photography, Sherdog, Cage Warriors,Bloody Mayhem, Epic Fighting, Google Images, Facebook, http://www.kristilopez.com
UFC 193 came live from Melbourne in Australia, in an all female double title headliner. Ronda Rousey was making a defense to her bantamweight belt against boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia tonight and it was Holly Holm who put on a master class performance and KO’d Ronda Rousey in the 2nd round to become the New Bantamweight Champion.
UFC 193 came live from Melbourne in Australia, in an all female double title headliner. Ronda Rousey was making a defense to her bantamweight belt against boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia tonight and it was Holly Holm who put on a master class performance and KO’d Ronda Rousey in the 2nd round to become the New Bantamweight Champion.
In the co-main event it was strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk who was defending her belt against Canada’s own Valerie Letourneau in a five round battle, for which we saw Joanna Jedrzejczyk retain her title via Unanimous Decision from a very tough Valerie Letourneau.
Here are the full results:
Main Card
Holly Holm DEF Ronda Rousey via KO 0.59 seconds Round Two
UFC 193 comes live from Melbourne in Australia, in an all female double title headliner. Ronda Rousey will be making another run at her title defense of her bantamweight belt against boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event. In the co-main event strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will be defending her belt against Canada’s own Valerie Letourneau.
Before any of the above action can take place we have to make sure they are of course all on weight.
Here are the full weigh-in results:
Main Card
Holly Holm 134 lbs vs Ronda Rousey 134 lbs
Joanna Jedrzejczyk 114 lbs vs Valerie Letourneau 115 lbs
On Episode 5 of UFC 193 Embedded, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey gets a message of encouragement from a big name in news before talking about loss at Ultimate Media Day. Her challenger Holly Holm, strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and strawweight challenger Valerie Letourneau also take questions from the media in Melbourne.
After finishing their weight cuts, all parties head to the official weigh-in. Both champions get into heated staredowns, with Rousey and Holm having to be separated on stage.
UFC Embedded is an all-access, behind-the-scenes video blog leading up to the double-championship fight night at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm, Saturday, November 14th 2015.
UFC 193 came live from Melbourne in Australia, in an all female double title headliner. Ronda Rousey was making a defense to her bantamweight belt against boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia tonight and it was Holly Holm who put on a master class performance and KO’d Ronda Rousey in the 2nd round to become the New Bantamweight Champion.
UFC 193 came live from Melbourne in Australia, in an all female double title headliner. Ronda Rousey was making a defense to her bantamweight belt against boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia tonight and it was Holly Holm who put on a master class performance and KO’d Ronda Rousey in the 2nd round to become the New Bantamweight Champion.
In the co-main event it was strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk who was defending her belt against Canada’s own Valerie Letourneau in a five round battle, for which we saw Joanna Jedrzejczyk retain her title via Unanimous Decision from a very tough Valerie Letourneau.
Here are the full results:
Main Card
Holly Holm DEF Ronda Rousey via KO 0.59 seconds Round Two
Piotr Ptaskinski will be making his return to the octagon this weekend after two years away from the sport at Ultimate Impact Championship 16 this Saturday, November 14th at GL1 Leisure Centre in Gloucester, in a K1 Title fight against Craig White.
The 33-year-old, originally from Poland who now resides in Worcester, Worcestershire has only been competing in professional MMA for the last five years, but I guess realistically you could actually say only three years with his last two years out of the sport due to injury and having no motivation or hunger for the sport during that time.
Piotr Ptaskinski will be making his return to the octagon this weekend after two years away from the sport at Ultimate Impact Championship 16 this Saturday, November 14th at GL1 Leisure Centre in Gloucester, in a K1 Title fight against Craig White.
The 33-year-old, originally from Poland who now resides in Worcester, Worcestershire has only been competing in professional MMA for the last five years, but I guess realistically you could actually say only three years with his last two years out of the sport due to injury and having no motivation or hunger for the sport during that time.
Before his two-year hiatus, Piotr fought for established European promotion Cage Warriors for which he had a career that consisted of 2 wins and 2 losses which brought his impressive welterweight record to 5-4 inside the octagon for professional MMA. Now fully healed, full of motivation and more hungrier than ever Piotr has decided to make his comeback in a K1 middleweight title fight.
“I have always liked stand up and although I have been away for two years I have been training in K1, Kickboxing and Muay Thai, so this to me was the perfect option for me to come back to with a great opponent in that of Craig White to showcase both our skills.”
Having watched several of Piotr’s fights myself, I for one know that he never takes a backwards step in the octagon and is always coming forward no matter what is being thrown at him. I guess this is where his love of the sport definitely comes in and makes him a fan favourite to watch in whatever promotion he his competing in at the time. Whenever Piotr competes you can usually guarantee there will be ‘beautiful violence’ involved.
“Whilst competing for the promotion Cage Warriors I did get given the nickname ‘The Polish Zombie’ after my fight with Moshen Bahari, at one point there was just blood coming out of my eyes but the polish zombie is not my real nickname (infact it is current TUF 22 competitor Marcin Wrzosek nickname) my nickname is ‘Iron’ given to me by Paul Sutherland after my fight with Daniel Brzozowski who knocked me down in the first round, twice, and I came back to finish him in that round in 2 mins via Armbar. That was when I was given my fight name of ‘Iron’.”
Although you may only recognise Piotr’s name from the MMA scene, you can be forgiven as although K1, Kickboxing and Muay Thai are the disciplines he prefers to compete in and for which he has done so previously in-between his MMA days, his last competitive K1 fight was in Spain three years ago for which he won and then he promptly carried on with his MMA way of life.
Being blessed in both disciplines of K1 and MMA and seeing now that Piotr’s motivation and clear hunger for the sport had worked its way back to him and having a ‘rebirth’ into this forever evolving sport the question now is what is the ultimate goal for which he would like to achieve within the sport.
“I don’t know at the moment as I don’t look too much into the future. I’m just looking at this Saturday and taking this belt, this is my ultimate goal at the moment.”
Training out of renowned Cheltenham Trojan Free Fighters under the guidance of head coach Paul Sutherland and Conditioning guru Matt Ewin who is known for his crazy hill sprints, Piotr’s level of training just keeps adding more explosive sets of weapons to the ever-growing arsenal of tools that he has already and is forever expanding into his growing tool box.
“The secret in Trojans being a really good teaching gym is the head coach, Paul Sutherland. He is one of the best coaches in the UK and the gym has a great training programme for every person. Paul Sutherland is the key to Trojans he is the Glue.”
For this specific training camp Piotr has travelled around a few places to get the ‘best of the best’ training and it all started in Poland where he trained at Tomasz Drwal gym who happened to be a pioneer of MMA in Poland and was the first Polish person in the UFC. Piotr’s next part of his camp was then spent with UIC 15 WW K1 Champion David Willmot at Team Tieu Cheltenham and then finally onto sparring seasons with former UFC and Cage Warriors athlete Chè Mills, not forgetting his daily training sessions with Paul Sutherland at Trojans.
“I was over in Poland for ten days training with Tomasz Drwal at his school which was just really good, having around 7/8 sparring partners my size training in boxing and kickboxing, it was a great experience. Training with David Willmot for whom is a multiple K1 champion, well, you couldn’t ask for any better and as for getting to train with Chè Mills he is 6ft tall just like Craig White but I feel Chè’s striking is world-class, in my opinion. If you want to beat the best you must train with the best.”
They say ‘Iron sharpens Iron’
As we start to talk about Polish fighters with the date being the 14th November when Piotr himself is due to compete, there is also another Polish fighter who goes by the name of Joanna Jedrzejczyk competing on the same night for a title belt defence, it would be rude of me not to at least test the waters on this subject.
“Joanna Jedrzejczyk is such a beast and I have been a watching her since I saw here compete in Cage Warriors. We polish are very proud. Although Valerie Letourneau may not be all together an easy fight, Joanna is still a different type of beast, her confidence is great and she will be unstoppable for a long time to come.”
Piotr would like give a shout out to his sponsors:
On Episode 4 of UFC 193 Embedded, heavyweight Mark Hunt plots his Super Samoan performance on the streets of Melbourne.
Women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey explains alien astronauts and ustronauts, as her challenger Holly Holm hangs tough in a hot tub. Then both women head to Federation Square for open workouts alongside women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and her opponent Valerie Letourneau. Rousey also meets a fellow sports trailblazer, Melbourne Cup winner Michelle Payne.
UFC Embedded is an all-access, behind-the-scenes video blog leading up to the double-championship fight night at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm, Saturday, November 14th 2015.
On Episode 3 of UFC 193 Embedded, making weight means zucchini for women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk hard training for her challenger Valerie Letourneau and a very stinky drink for heavyweight Bigfoot Silva.
Women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey turns her room into a private gym and embraces the cameras that come with fight week. And athletes including Holly Holm, Mark Hunt, Uriah Hall and Stefan Struve check in, weigh in and try on their fight kits.
UFC Embedded is an all-access, behind-the-scenes video blog leading up to the double-championship fight night at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm, Saturday, November 14th 2015.
On Episode 2 of UFC 193 Embedded, the card’s stars – including heavyweight Bigfoot Silva, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and her opponent Holly Holm – continue to train hard to compete at the UFC’s biggest-ever event.
Strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk makes time for some Melbourne sightseeing, while heavyweight Mark Hunt and strawweight title challenger Valerie Letourneau take in a local Muay Thai show.
UFC Embedded is an all-access, behind-the-scenes video blog leading up to the double-championship fight night at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm, Saturday, November 14th 2015.
With less than two weeks to go until UFC®’s sell-out debut event in Scotland, the organisation has confirmed the names of three fighters who will each travel to the Scottish capital as guest fighters for the event.
Women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and top ten ranked featherweights Cub Swanson and Clay “The Carpenter” Guida, will all make the journey to Glasgow to meet fans and media alike, ahead of UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: BISPING vs. LEITES.
The reigning 115lbs women’s champion, Jedrzejczyk successfully defended her title for the first time just last month, defeating the No. 3 ranked Jessica Penne in spectacular fashion in front of fans in Berlin, Germany. It was subsequently announced that Jedrzejczyk would be the latest fighter to form a partnership with leading apparel brand Reebok.
Cub Swanson, meanwhile, remains the No.6 ranked fighter in the UFC’s featherweight division. Swanson holds wins over some of the biggest names in the 145lbs weight class, including Dennis Siver, Jeremy Stephens and Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier.
Also making the journey to Glasgow will be veteran of the sport Clay Guida. Loved by fans for his colourful personality, Guida is arguably one of the most capable wrestlers within UFC. In April, Guida secured a win over Robbie Peralta at UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: MENDES vs. LAMAS and now holds more than 30 wins in his professional MMA career.
All three fighters will be on hand to take part in a number of activities throughout UFC’s inaugural fight week in Glasgow.
On Thursday, July 16th, the fighters will host an exclusive MMA masterclass for students from all over Scotland. Organised in partnership with Glasgow University, Sport and Recreation, students of all ages and ability levels will attend the seminar, which will include an introduction into a variety of techniques, as well as a Q&A and an autograph and photo session.
The guest fighters will also pay a visit to Antonine Sports Centre, a local sports facility which UFC has supported for many years. There, members of the centre will have the unique opportunity to take part in a training seminar led by the fighters, as well as to have their photographs taken with their heroes.
On Friday, July 17th fans traveling to Glasgow for UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: BISPING vs. LEITES will be invited to take part in a live Q&A with Jedrzejczyk, Swanson and Guida, just before the public weigh-ins begin. The Q&A will take place at the SSE Hydro from 12:45-13:30. Doors open to UFC FIGHT CLUB™ members at 12:00 and to the general public at 12:15.
Following the live UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: BISPING vs. LEITES weigh-ins, the guest fighters will also take part in a fan signing, which takes place between 14:30-16:00.
UFC® FIGHT NIGHT: BISPING vs. LEITES will take place on Saturday, July 18th at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Headlined by a five round bout between the UK’s Michael Bisping and Brazilian Thales Leites, the fight card also features three Scottish fighters – Robert Whiteford,Stevie Ray and Joanne Calderwood. Tickets to the event sold out in a matter of hours after going on general sale, so fans can expect a packed out arena on the night.
UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: BISPING vs. LEITES will be aired live from 3:00 p.m. in the UK and Ireland on the BT Sport app.
UFC FIGHT NIGHT® BISPING vs. LEITES FIGHT CARD
All bouts live and subject to change.
Heavyweight Bout
Daniel Omielanczuk (POL) vs. Chris De La Rocha (USA)
Bantamweight Bout
Jimmie Rivera (USA) vs. Marcus Brimage (USA)
Featherweight Bout
Robert Whiteford (SCO) vs. Paul Redmond (IRE)
Light Heavyweight Bout
Ilir Latifi (SWE) vs. Hans Stringer (NL)
Lightweight Bout
Teemu Packalen (FIN) vs. Mickael Lebout (FRA)
Flyweight Bout
Paddy Holohan (IRE) vs. Vaughan Lee (ENG)
Main Card
Lightweight Bout
Stevie Ray (SCO) vs. Leonardo Mafra (BRA)
Welterweight Bout
Leon Edwards (ENG) vs. Pawel Pawlak (POL)
Women’s Strawweight Bout
Joanne Calderwood (SCO) vs. Bec Rawlings (AUS)
Lightweight Bout
Joe Duffy (IRE) vs. Ivan Jorge (BRA)
Lightweight Bout
Ross Pearson (ENG) vs. Evan Dunham (USA)
Middleweight Bout
Michael Bisping (ENG) vs. Thales Leites (BRA)
For the latest information on this event, please visit www.ufc.com or follow @UFC_UK on twitter.
The upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter® will once again showcase mixed martial arts’ global expansion, as Polish strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha of Brazil lead a group of light heavyweight (men) and strawweight (female) hopefuls.
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