Oct. 31, 2008
ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP®
CONFIRMS FINAL BOUTS ON THE MAIN CARD FOR UFC 91: COUTURE vs. LESNAR
JOE STEVENSON VS. KENNY FLORIAN
NICK CATONE VS. AMIR SADOLLAH
JOSH HENDRICKS VS. GABRIEL GONZAGA
DEMIAN MAIA VS. NATE QUARRY
SATURDAY, NOV. 15, 2008
LIVE FROM MGM GRAND GARDEN ARENA
Las Vegas, NV (USA) – What will happen when two explosive lightweight title contenders meet in the Octagon™ on Saturday, November 15? The Ultimate Fighter® Season 2 welterweight winner Joe “Daddy” Stevenson and Kenny “KenFlo” Florian will answer that question when they clash to see which fighter will continue their ascension up the lightweight ladder when the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) presents UFC 91: COUTURE vs. LESNAR, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC 91: COUTURE vs. LESNAR will be available live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, Bell ExpressVu, Shaw Communications and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.95 for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).
Tickets for UFC 91: COUTURE vs. LESNAR are on sale now and are priced at $1000, $750, $500, $300, $150 and $75. Tickets are available at the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office, all Ticketmaster locations, and by telephone at 800-929-1111 or 702-891-7777 and all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers, Macy’s West at the Fashion Show Mall and Ritmo Latino). To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets also are available for purchase at http://www.ufc.com, http://www.mgmgrand.com or http://www.ticketmaster.com.
A Westwood, Mass. native, Kenny Florian (12-3) 5’10”/155 lbs. is on a five-match win streak with two wins coming by submission and two by TKO. Coming off a unanimous decision victory against Roger Huerta in August, “KenFlo” is preparing for one of his toughest matches to date.
“Joe always comes to fight,” Florian said. “He’s very well rounded. I expect the fight to be a war. I think a win over Joe Stevenson will make me the No. 1 contender for the lightweight belt.”
Joe Stevenson (5’7”/155 lbs.) has the experience and the drive to ruin Florian’s plans. At only 26, The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 welterweight winner has already amassed a 34-8-1 record. The Torrance, Calif. fighter has won five out of his last six fights, with his only loss coming against UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn. A win over Florian could put him back in contention for the lightweight championship.
“Fighting a person like Kenny can get you back in the title picture,” Stevenson said. “I consider very few people in the lightweight division a threat on the ground. Standing, I don’t see him with knockout power. People are putting him as the favorite and I don’t know why.”
Last season’s The Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah (2-0) 5’11”/185 lbs. will have his first true UFC test when he faces undefeated New Jersey native and former NCAA Division I wrestler Nick Catone (6-0) 5’9”/185 lbs. Sadollah, a Brooklyn, NY native who now fights out of Las Vegas, has shown an impressive ground game with two straight submissions against CB Dollaway, the last coming in The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale. The middleweight is going to need all of his skills if he plans on trading with Catone, who has taken out his last four opponents in the first round.
Brazil’s Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga (9-3) 6’1”/242 lbs. has devastated opponents with his striking and world-class grappling in his time with the UFC. The Ludlow, Mass. trained fighter owns a highlight-reel head kick KO over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and most recently an impressive submission victory over Justin McCully. Now the decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will need those ground skills against former two-time All-American wrestler and Mansfield, Ohio product Josh Hendricks (15-4) 6’2”/246 lbs., who is undefeated in his last 10 fights.
When power-puncher Nate “Rock” Quarry (16-2) 6’0/185 lbs. locks horns with Brazilian submission machine Demian Maia (9-0) 6’0”/185 lbs., the question remains: Where will this fight end up? Winner of his last two fights, Arcata, California’s Quarry is a mixed martial arts veteran that has lost only one match in the UFC, a KO defeat to former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. Ryan Jensen, Ed Herman and Jason MacDonald all can talk extensively about Maia’s submission prowess. The BJJ black belt has submitted all three fighters in the UFC and now looks to sink the “Rock.”
About The Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the world’s leading professional mixed martial arts organization and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC produces over twelve live pay-per-view events annually that are distributed residentially through North American cable and satellite providers including iNDEMAND Networks, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN Entertainment, Shaw Pay-Per-View, Bell ExpressVU, Viewers Choice, SaskTel Max™ and via the Internet worldwide on Yahoo! Sports, and commercially through Joe Hand Promotions in the U.S. and Canadastar in Canada. In addition to its North American distribution, UFC programming is distributed in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world. For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit ufc.com or uk.ufc.com or ufcespanol.com.
Ultimate Fighting Championship, Ultimate Fighting, UFC, The Ultimate Fighter®, Submission®, As Real As It Gets®, Zuffa™, The Octagon™ and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC or other respective owners.
