The three largest Mixed Martial Arts promotions based out of the United States today are the Ultimate Fighting Championships, Strikeforce, and The World Extreme Cagefighting. The biggest fight promotion based with a Japanese home base is Dream. Incredibly, in just over one month between March 21 and April 24 these organizations will hold a combined nine cards!
That's pretty much two cards a week. Some of the newer fans might not appreciate what this means, but the older fans probably remember a year like 2001 when the UFC held just five cards over the entire year, while Pride Fighting Championships (the most successful MMA promotion in the world at the time)had six cards over that year. That's right, there are nearly as many mixed martial arts events coming up in the next month and change as there were in the entire year of 2001. On top of that, every one of the upcoming events will be televised live in the United States and many other countries either on PPV, Showtime, Spike, Versus, or HDNET.
MMA fans do not just have quantity to look forward to, there is a lot of quality as well. If its title fights you are interested in, then watch Georges St. Pierre defend the UFC Welterweight championship against top 10 ranked Dan Hardy at UFC 111 on March 27th. On that same card, Frank Mir will face Shane Carwin for the Intern UFC HW title. Fans of Anderson Silva and BJ Penn are in luck as well since Silva will defend his UFC MW championship against submission expert Demian Maia at UFC 114 on April 10. Penn faces Frankie Edgar for the UFC LW championship on that same card.
The UFC is not the only promotion that will be featuring title fights in the next month and change. Former Dream LH champion, Joachim Hansen will drop 10 pounds to challenge Dream Featherweight champion, Bibiano Fernandez at Dream 13 on March 22. Does anyone else want to know who would win a fight between Dream LW champion Shinya Aoki and Strikeforce LW champion Gilbert Milendez? I know I will watch that matchup on Strikeforce on CBS April 17th. Speaking of that Strikeforce card, former 2 division Pride champion Dan Henderson will be making his Strikeforce debut versus Jake Shields in a MW championship fight. That card features a third title fight, as LHW champion Gegard Mousasi faces Muhammed "King Mo" Lawall. On April 24th, the WEC will hold their first ever PPV event where FW champion Jose Aldo faces former champion Uriah Faber in the main event.
Besides all of these championship fights, potential future champion Jon Jones will fight Brandon Vera on the UFC's first card to be televised on Versus this Sunday. On the same card, potential HW superstar Junior Dos Santos will face Gabriel Gonzaga in his biggest test to date. The #2 and #3 ranked 170 pounders face each other at UFC 111 when Jon Fitch fights Thiago Alves in a rematch from their 2006 fight.
Former champions will also be making their comebacks. Former Pride LW champion makes his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 21 on March 31 when he faces 2 time former UFC LW title challenger Kenny Florian. Former UFC HW champion and long time top contender Josh Barnett will fight for the first time since he was suspended for steroids at Dream 13 on March 22. MMA legends, Renzo Gracie and former 2 time UFC WW champion Matt Hughes face each other in Abu Dhabi on April 10.
These are just a sampling of the fights we have to look forward too over the next 5 weeks. It really is amazing how far this sport has come over the last 9 years. I can't wait to see where it goes over the next nine years, but in the meantime I hope you all enjoy these 9 cards over the next month or so.
Jason Klein
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