New Years weekend is shaping up to be a crazy week in MMA. Three very stacked cards are taking place within a day of each other. The IFL and UFC will host there events on Dec.29th while on Dec. 31st former Pride staff and M-1 Global will promote the “Yaranoka” event which will feature Fedor Emelianenko against so far an un-named opponent. K-1 is also set to have their year end show on the same day.
The IFL show will feature there Grand Prix finals as well as a featherweight title fight. The total event is:
- IFL Heavyweight Grand Prix Finals: Antoine Jaoude vs. Roy Nelson
- IFL Middleweight Grand Prix Finals: Benji Radach vs. Matt Horwich
- IFL Welterweight Grand Prix Finals: Delson Heleno vs. Jay Hieron
- IFL Lightweight Grand Prix Finals: Chris Horodecki vs. Shad Lierley
- IFL Featherweight Title Match: Wagnney Fabiano vs. L.C. Davis
- Rory Markham vs. Dan Miller
- Tim Kennedy vs. Elias Rivera
- Marcello Salazar vs. Alex Cook
UFC 79: Nemesis features the third installment of Matt Hughes vs. Georges St Pierre and the long awaited matchup between Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell. The rumoured card is:
- Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre (for interim welterweight title)
- Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva
- Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
- Rich Clementi vs. Melvin Guillard
- Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Mohr
- Soa Palalei vs. Eddie Sanchez
- Dean Lister vs. Jordan Radev
- Roan Carneiro vs. Tony DeSouza
- Mark Bocek vs. Doug Evans
The K-1 card is meant to feature the always popular, Kazushi Sakuraba while the Yaranoka card is meant to feature a number of well established fighters. Some of these possible fights include:
- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi
- Gesias Calvancanti vs. Shinya Aoki
- Hayoto Sakurai vs. Hidehiko Hasegawa
- Gilbert Melendez vs. TBA
- Kazuo Misaki vs. TBA
It’ll be a crazy week.
