Erik Koch is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and trains in Milwaukee, Wisc. Neither place is known for its sunshine, so Koch's George Hamilton-esque tan was noticed by reporters at the Ultimate Fight Night 25 open workouts.

At least he admits that the tan is not au natural, though someone should break it to Koch that a glass of milk is a way better source of vitamin D.

Koch will face "The Ultimate Fighter" winner Jonathan Brookins on Saturday. He was supposed to face Cub Swanson at UFC 132, but Swanson pulled out due to an injury. Koch is coming into this fight on a three-fight win streak. His one loss under the Zuffa banner is to Chad Mendes on a fight that Koch took on short notice.

Tom Big Cat Erickson Martinsh Egle Eric Butterbean Esch Efrain Escudero

Tomorrow night's tilt against Jake Ellenberger was already a difficult task, now Jake Shields is also dealing with the recent passing of father, mentor and manager Jack.

"I had a really tough time," Shields said in a statement. "It took me a moment to figure out what I wanted to do but I figured the right thing to do would be to continue to fight with him being my manager and my biggest supporter."

Shields said his father's death has allowed him to focus even more during training.

"It's been (a) little tough since then, but I don't think it's really affected my training" Shields said. "When it's been time to focus and train, I've been able to pull it together and got some of the best workouts and sparring sessions ever in the last couple of weeks."

Shields (26-5-1) and Ellenberger clash in the main event on Spike from New Orleans. Shields is coming off a competitive loss in April to Georges St-Pierre, the UFC's welterweight champ.

Ellenberger (25-5, 4-1 UFC) is a tough cookie. His wrestling is solid and he'll stand and bang. Shields will likely turn to his awesome submission game to take out the upstart Ellenberger. His trainer Tariq Azim doesn't sound too worried about Ellenberger's skill set.

"Jake brings more to this fight than Ellenberger can ever dream of," Azim said. "Ellenberger is good. He wouldn't be fighting Shields if he wasn't, but Shields has worked a lot harder and has a better understanding of the game. Ellenberger will be hoping to land a big hit, but Shields will set him up, take him down and choke him out."

UFN 25 betting odds:

Jake Shields (-185) vs. Jake Ellenberger (+160)- Welterweight

Court McGee (-165) vs. Dongi Yang (+135) - Middleweight

Jonathan Brookins (+155) vs. Erik Koch (-185) - Featherweight

Alan Belcher (-280) vs. Jason MacDonald (+220) - Middleweight

Cody McKenzie (+130) vs. Vagner Rocha (-160) - Lightweight

Evan Dunham (-500) vs. Shamar Bailey (+350) - Lightweight

Matt Riddle (-200) vs. Lance Benoist (+160) - Welterweight

Ken Stone (-120) vs. Donny Walker (Even) - Bantamweight

Clay Harvison (+125) vs. Seth Baczynski (-155) - Welterweight

T.J. Waldburger (-225) vs. Mike Stumpf (+175) - Welterweight

Mike Lullo (+135) vs. Robert Peralta (-155) - Featherweight

Justin Edwards (+300) vs. Jorge Lopez (-450) - Welterweight

Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante  Luiz Cane  Dos Caras Jr  

UFC President Dana White announced UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Josh Koschek, and Nate Diaz have all earned $75,000 for their respective performances tonight at UFC 135.

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Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos

DENVER - MMA Fighting caught up with Tony Ferguson after his knockout win over Aaron Riley at UFC 135. Ferguson discussed how he didn't want to "flake" his 'video game' punch, if he knew he broke Riley's jaw and why he dropped down to 155 pounds.

 

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Ao Hailin  Shinya Aoki  Andrei Arlovski  Ricardo Arona 

The Zuffa yentes have been hard at work, making matches, finding finds, catching catches for UFC 139 and the Strikeforce event in December.

Dana White announced on Twitter that Wanderlei Silva will now fight Cung Le at UFC 139. Vitor Belfort, who had been tabbed for the main event, is injured. Silva's last fight was a brutal KO by Chris Leben, and afterwards, White had suggested that Silva retire. This is on the same card that will feature Dan Henderson's return to the UFC against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Strikeforce made the first official announcement for their Dec. 17 card that still doesn't have a venue. Former light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi will fight Ovince St. Preux. Mousasi's last Strikeforce bout was a draw against Keith Jardine. He won a DREAM bout in Japan in July over Hiroshi Izumi.

St. Preux, who has risen through the ranks in Strikeforce and is on an eight-fight win streak, submitted Joe Cason on a July Challengers card. No other fights have been made official for this card, but it is expected that Gilbert Melendez will defend his lightweight title and featherweight champ Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos will make her return at this event.

Now put on your matchmaking hats -- what other fights would you like to see on that Strikeforce card? Tell us in the comments or on Facebook.

Efrain Escudero Rashad Evans Urijah Faber Wagnney Fabiano

Erik Koch is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and trains in Milwaukee, Wisc. Neither place is known for its sunshine, so Koch's George Hamilton-esque tan was noticed by reporters at the Ultimate Fight Night 25 open workouts.

At least he admits that the tan is not au natural, though someone should break it to Koch that a glass of milk is a way better source of vitamin D.

Koch will face "The Ultimate Fighter" winner Jonathan Brookins on Saturday. He was supposed to face Cub Swanson at UFC 132, but Swanson pulled out due to an injury. Koch is coming into this fight on a three-fight win streak. His one loss under the Zuffa banner is to Chad Mendes on a fight that Koch took on short notice.

Dan Cramer Alberto Crane Marcio Pe de Pano Cruz Luke Cummo 

Filed under: UFC

DENVER -- This is the UFC 135 live blog for Matt Hughes vs. Josh Koscheck, a welterweight bout on tonight's UFC pay-per-view from the Pepsi Center. The live blog is below.

Hughes (45-8) last competed at UFC 123 in November 2010, losing via KO in 21 seconds to B.J. Penn. Koscheck (15-5) lost to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 124 last December and has been out with an orbital bone injury since.

The live blog is below.

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Round 1: Hughes takes the center right off and flicks out a couple jabs. 'Let's go Hughes!' chants the Denver crowd. Both men being very careful in the opening minute. The crowd entertains itself by transitioning to a 'Koscheck sucks!' chant. Koscheck charges forward behind a power punch combo, but Hughes defends. Nice left hook by Hughes, but Koscheck comes back with a thumping hook to the body. Koscheck lands a nice uppercut as Hughes tries to change levels. Takedown attempt by Koscheck is thwarted, and Hughes adds a knee to the head as Koscheck is on his way out. Hughes moves in to try and clinch, but Koscheck comes over the top with a right hand that staggers him. Hughes is still reaching out for Koscheck like a mummy, and Koscheck nails him with another one. Hughes is down and Koscheck jumps on him with big rights from the top. Time is ticking down, and Hughes is just trying to survive now. Hughes rolls to his side and Koschecks pounds him with hammerfists until he goes limp. This one is over, and referee Mario Yamasaki jumps in to wave it off in the final seconds.

Josh Koscheck def. Matt Hughes via KO (punches) at 4:59 of round 1

Koscheck thanks Hughes for taking the fight, but you can hardly hear him over the boos in here. A disappointed Hughes smiles bitterly when Joe Rogan starts the post-fight interview with, 'Matt, we've had this conversation before.' Hughes says he'll tell the UFC to 'put me on the shelf and we'll see what happens.' Not quite a retirement speech, but he warned us that we probably wouldn't hear one.

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Dave Gomez Keith Hackney Matt Hamill Volk Han

As the big-time athletes continue to filter into mixed martial arts, some veterans getting wake up calls. Lavar Johnson got his in the first 30 seconds of the fight from former LSU fullback Shawn Jordan. A monstrous left blasted him around his right eye, he pawed at it and knew he was in for a dogfight.

The 26-year-old Jordan (12-3) surprised the hard-hitting Johnson with his chin, wrestling and power to pull the upset via stoppage (key lock) at 3:08 of the second round. Johnson, who was part of the alternate bouts in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, was a minus-270 favorite entering tonight's tilt.

Jordan was a member of the 2007 national championship team at LSU. It looks like he's got a bright future in MMA.

"[Fighting] is an entirely separate entity. It's great. I love it," Jordan said when asked to compare MMA to football. "It's a different type of competition, just me."

He's an athletic 5-foot-11 and 248 pounds. Seconds after a rough fight, he pulled off two successful standing back flips to celebrate the victory. Jordan was a big-time high school recruit out of El Paso, Tx. back in 2003. The No. 7 rated fullback in the country, he turned down Stanford, UCLA and Oklahoma State to go play for Nick Saban.

Johnson, also former college football player, is massive but Jordan walked right through the knockout artist's shots and dumped him like a sack of potatoes when they locked up.

On the ground, Jordan was heavy and wore Johnson down. By the middle of the second, Johnson (15-5) was struggling with badly with a swelled right eye and didn't pay attention to his right arm. Jordan grabbed it, got into position and pushed forward with all his weight. Johnson had to tap before his shoulder was shredded.

As the ring announcer shouted the results, you could hear Johnson tell Jordan that he never expected that early left hook that changed the fight. He said he was looking for the right from the southpaw.

Jordan, now working with Greg Jackson's MMA gym in Albuquerque needs to work on his standup, but he's definitely got a granite chin. Johnson drilled him with a left and an uppercut to start the second and Jordan just smiled. Johnson has 13 KO's victories in 21 fights.

Stav Crazy Bear Economou  Yves Edwards  Justin Eilers  Jon Olav Einemo

Erik Koch is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and trains in Milwaukee, Wisc. Neither place is known for its sunshine, so Koch's George Hamilton-esque tan was noticed by reporters at the Ultimate Fight Night 25 open workouts.

At least he admits that the tan is not au natural, though someone should break it to Koch that a glass of milk is a way better source of vitamin D.

Koch will face "The Ultimate Fighter" winner Jonathan Brookins on Saturday. He was supposed to face Cub Swanson at UFC 132, but Swanson pulled out due to an injury. Koch is coming into this fight on a three-fight win streak. His one loss under the Zuffa banner is to Chad Mendes on a fight that Koch took on short notice.

Aldrin de Jesus  Todd Duffee  Marvin Eastman  Stav Crazy Bear Economou 

CINCINNATI -- Scott Coker started the Strikeforce post-fight press conference by pointing out that it was filled with unbelievable fights. More notes from the press conference:

-- Main event winner Josh Barnett quickly got to the heart of questions about the Strikeforce heavyweight championship by asking that his Grand Prix final match with Daniel Cormier be for the Strikeforce belt.

"Why don't we sweeten the pot? Why not put the belt on the line? The people that he had to step over to get it a real belt."

Coker asked Barnett to slow down, saying, "Let's keep it one step at a time." They expect that the fight will take place in the first quarter of 2012. Cormier's hand was wrapped up and said that he did hurt it, so the timing rests on his health.

-- Rockhold said that his prediction of a 4-0 night by American Kickboxing Academy was not just to hype the fights. Having trained with the fighters who all won, Rockhold said that they were all ready.

"It sucks to get hit by Mo," he said of Lawal.

-- Rockhold's win was in one of the tightest fights of the night. His opponent, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza asked for a rematch. Coker said it's not a bad idea, but Rockhold didn't seem as keen on it.

-- Mo Lawal, who was fighting for the first time in over a year, mentioned earlier in the week that he was unhappy with the buzz surrounding his fights. He pointed out how Strikeforce delivered again.

"I'm glad to be back. Tonight was a great night of fights. I'm speechless because there were so many great fights. Strikeforce, we always put on great fights," he said.

-- Pat Healy said that he wasn't surprised when Maximo Blanco peppered him with illegal kicks to the head. "I don't want to say he's cheap, but he's had a few incidents."

-- Lawal wants to win to fight for the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt, unless it's vacant.

"If Dan has belt, I want it. But if it's vacant, I don't want to fight for no vacant title. Real talk," Lawal said.

Coker was unsure if that can happen because Strikeforce is still negotiating with Henderson.

Marcus Davis  Tony DeSouza  Edwin Dewees  Nick Diaz