UFC card in Oklahoma City announced…
By Robert Przybylo
Bprzybylo@opubco.com
A pair of lightweight showdowns will main event the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Ultimate Fight Night 19 card at the Cox Convention Center on Sept. 16.
Nate Diaz, who won The Ultimate Fighter in season five, will take on Melvin Guillard in the main event. Diaz has lost his last two UFC bouts while Guillard has won three in a row.
In the co-feature, Roger Huerta will go against undefeated Gray Maynard. Huerta hasn’t fought in two years since losing to Kenny Florian. Maynard has won five straight bouts in the lightweight division.
Other announced bouts include lightweight fights between Ronnys Torres, who is making his UFC debut, vs. Jeremy Stephens and Sam Stout vs. Kyle Bradley. Welterweights Chris Wilson and Mike Pyle will also fight as will middleweights Tim Credeur and Nate Quarry.
It is unlikely former Oklahoma State wrestling stars Johny Hendricks or Jake Rosholt or Harrah product Matt Grice will be on the card. Hendricks and Rosholt each fight in August while Grice fights Saturday at UFC 100.
Tickets go on sale Saturday and will be priced at $200, $125, $95, $75, $50 and $35. They will be available at the U.S. Army box office at the Ford Center and all Ticketmaster outlets or can be ordered online at www.okfordcenter.com.
The only other time the UFC was in Oklahoma was UFC IV in Tulsa in 1994 where Royce Gracie defeated Dan Severn in a battle of two UFC Hall of Famers.
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That’s not a bad card. Not bad at all.
Grice gearing up for UFC 100…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
Sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a crazy week for the Boneman in his other realm, minor league hockey.
If you have any interest in all, just follow the last week of blog posts for the Oklahoma City hockey scene right here.
If not, hey, it’s time for UFC 100 this weekend in Las Vegas. After a quiet couple of weeks in the fight game, good to be excited about something once again.
The card is anchored by three major fights: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves and Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping. And I’ll get to those fights later in the week.
But today is about one of the prelim fighters, Matt Grice from Harrah. Grice will take on Shannon Gugerty in a pre-PPV bout at the event and left for Las Vegas yesterday.
I had a chance to do a phone interview with Grice and his trainer/workout partner, Shawnee High assistant coach Jason Merrell, about how everything is going.
Grice said he is feeling great right now. Asked if this is a must-win, “they’re all must-wins in the UFC, especially in this loaded division (lightweight).”
Grice lost his last bout in February, returning from a two-year hiatus to become an Oklahoma City police officer.
But the love of the fight brought him back. Merrell said Grice has had one of his best camps and is coming into this one with no excuses and is ready to showcase what he can do.
Grice has an extrememly interesting story. A four-time state champion at Harrah, his college career was derailed by a nasty car accident. Yeah, that’s a tease. You can read more about Grice in Saturday’s paper, looking forward to writing this one.
While Grice will be in “full preparation” mode, wondered what it will be like for Merrell.
He said it’s a once in a lifetime experience to go to something like this. He’s very interested to work out with some of the other camps and see what he can learn.
There won’t be much sight-seeing. Merrell said that may have drained Grice for his UFC bout in England. This time, “there will be a lot of looking out the window, but that’s about it.”
UFC also came out with an official magazine that I picked up Monday. Because of all the hockey stuff, haven’t had a chance to read it yet but will soon.
And despite taking almost a week off, I didn’t miss much, thankfully. Nothing earth-shattering to report in MMA or boxing at this point. Vic Darchinyan returns on Showtime on Saturday, so that should be good.
The biggest fight of the last week was the epic Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. Federer won 16-14 in the fifth set in the most amount of games ever in a championship final.
Happy to be back and expect more UFC 100 thoughts and links the rest of the way.
Arguello memories…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
It’s always sad to hear about one of the greats passing away, but the emotions get conflicted when you hear it’s suicide. For today, I’m going to let that go and just remember what a great fighter Alexis Arguello was.
Arguello died Wednesday. He was 57.
Nicknamed “The Explosive Thin Man,” Arguello is a natural favorite for someone who has been given The Boneman moniker. I wasn’t around for Arguello during his prime or even his decline. No, my first taste of Arguello came through the Playstation game Knockout Kings. It was through the game I learned about him and then later the epic wars he had in the ring.
Everyone remembers the legendary battle with Aaron Pryor in Miami in 1982. I had heard such great things about the fight that I never thought it could actually live up to the billing. It did so, and then some. I don’t have a great copy (color isn’t great, sound goes in and out), but nothing could take away from that fight.
Pryor eventually knocked Arguello out in the 14th round in what is still one of the greatest fights I’ve ever seen. Pryor would also KO Arguello in a subsequent rematch.
But in reading about Arguello through the years, one thing has stood out in all the pieces: his class. In a sport devoid of it, Arguello was a class act. His final record ended up 82-8 with 65 KOs.
I don’t think we’ll see anyone touch the 70-fight plateau again (maybe not even 60) with the way the scheduling is. But it wasn’t that Arguello had 90 fights, but who they were against. From 1978-1983, almost every bout was a title contest. He had great fights with Ruben Olivares and Ray Mancini, just to name a few. And after that first Pryor fight, he was fighting three months later. Unheard of.
Arguello was the flag-bearer for Nicaragua at last year’s Olympics and was elected the mayor of Managua last year. He was found dead Wednesday morning with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest.
Thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.
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Slow weekend in the fight game coming up. I was unable to attend a Matt Grice training session this week, but here’s to hoping I can still get a lengthy sit-down with him early next week before he heads to Las Vegas for UFC 100.
Grice has an interesting story that I’m giddy to learn more about and let people know next week.
