The Weekly Wrap: July 11 - July 17

Jack EncarnacaoJul 18, 2009
File Photo

Jose Aldo gets his title shot.
Misc. Matchmaking

• World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown’s next challenger will be Jose Aldo, as Brown has signed to fight in November, according to reports from Sherdog.com and Intheguard.tv. When and where the event will take place has not been announced, but insiders have told Sherdog.com that it could land in Colorado.

• The UFC this past week confirmed four widely reported fights for UFC 103 on Sept. 19 in Dallas, Texas: Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck vs. Frank Trigg, Efrain Escudero vs. Cole Miller and Hermes Franca vs. Tyson Griffin. The card will also reportedly feature Sean Sherk vs. Gleison Tibau, Rafael dos Anjos vs. Matt Wiman, Tomasz Drwal vs. Drew McFedries and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Junior dos Santos. UFC officials confirmed that Cro Cop ended up signing a three-fight contract with the organization after it appeared he would jump to Dream.

• A few bouts were reported this week for UFC 104 on Oct. 24 in Los Angeles. Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida in a welterweight battle and Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons at middleweight are both set, according to reports from MMAJunkie.com and MMAWeekly.com.

Rafael Assuncao vs. Yves Jabouin and Wagnney Fabiano vs. Erik Koch have been signed as featherweight bouts for WEC 43 on Sept. 2 in Youngstown, Ohio, according to MMAJunkie.com. Alex Karalexis will face Anthony Pettis in a lightweight fight on the show as well, MMAMania.com reported.

Aaron Simpson posted on his Facebook page this past week that he will face Ed Herman in a middleweight tilt at UFC Fight Night on Sept. 16 in Oklahoma City, which serves as the lead-in to the premiere episode of Season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Also on the card, Jeremy Stephens will now face Justin Buchholz. Stephens’ original opponent, Ronnys Torres, withdrew due to injury, according to MMAMania.com.

Jesse Taylor of “The Ultimate Fighter 7” fame has been booked to face Dong Sik Yoon at the Dream 10 card on Monday at Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

• Sengoku announced three fights have been added to its Aug. 2 card as part of its “Gold Rush” television tournament series for up-and-coming talent. They are: Koji Ando-Ikuo Usuda (lightweight), Toru Harai-Shigeki Osawa (featherweight) and Ryosuke Komori-Takeshi Numajiri (bantamweight). The show is headlined by the finals of a featherweight grand prix tournament.

Seth Petruzelli will have his first fight since him infamous win over Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson on Aug. 22, when he faces Chris Baten at Art of Fighting "Damage" in Tampa, Fl.