Tachi Palace Fights returned tonight with TPF 7: “Deck The Halls” from the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore, California. The solid event was headlined by a catchweight bout between hard-hitting UFC veteran James “The Sandman” Irvin and Brazil’s Jorge “Van Damme” Oliveira.
Also on the card, top-ranked flyweight Jussier “Formiga” da Silva made his Tachi Palace Fights debut against Danny Martinez, while John “The Natural” Alessio and Phil “The Pain” Collins squared off for the TPF Welterweight Championship. MMARising.com has live play-by-play for the card.
A pair of close decisions in November saw Yushin “Thunder” Okami and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson narrowly edge out Nate “The Great” Marquardt and Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida, respectively. Both Okami and Jackson move closer to the top of their divisions in this month’s rankings.
Injuries have led to a pair of late changes for this Saturday’s Strikeforce: “Henderson vs Babalu” event at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Former IFL contender Benji “Razor” Radach will return to competition after a lengthy layoff to face Ovince St. Preux in a light heavyweight matchup.
A significant upset and controversial scoring were the two main stories at today’s Greatest Common Multiple “Valkyrie 8” event in Tokyo, Japan. The all-female card featured Valkyrie Featherweight Champion Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi battling Kyoko Takabayashi to a Draw in the main event.
Rebounding from losses in Bellator, England’s Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton and Ireland’s Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly both picked up victories tonight at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 39: “The Uprising” in Cork, Ireland. Sexton stopped “Slick” Sally Krumdiack with punches in round two, while Daly bested Molly “The Maulinator” Helsel via Unanimous Decision.
Jewels has officially announced two more fights for their upcoming “Eleventh Ring” event on December 17th in Tokyo, Japan. In one matchup, promotional postergirl Shizuka Sugiyama will finally take on Mongolian wrestler Esui in an MMA bout. The two were originally set to face each other on July 31st in a shootboxing match, but Sugiyama was forced to withdraw due to injury.
A 135-pound women’s bout between tough veteran Julie “Fireball” Kedzie and unbeaten prospect Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio will now take place at Jackson’s MMA Series 3 on December 18th in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fight, which was originally set to take place in September, was added to the card earlier this month and will serve as the co-main event.
DaMMAge Fight League held its first event tonight with “The Big Bang” at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The solid debut card was co-headlined by a lightweight bout between Ring of Combat veterans Chris “The Story” Liguori and John “Greco” Salgado.