Las Vegas, NV (USA) – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) is proud to announce its first-ever event in Nashville, Tennessee. Music City has never seen hard-hitting action like this as many of the rising stars in the sport of mixed martial arts will be featured in a nationally televised event live on Spike TV Wednesday, April 1 at 9:00p.m. ET/PT for UFC® Fight Night Live™ from the Sommet Center.
UFC® TO HOST ITS FIRST EVER EVENT IN TENNESSEE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
LIVE FROM SOMMET CENTER IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Las Vegas, NV (USA) – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) is proud to announce its first-ever event in Nashville, Tennessee. Music City has never seen hard-hitting action like this as many of the rising stars in the sport of mixed martial arts will be featured in a nationally televised event live on Spike TV Wednesday, April 1 at 9:00p.m. ET/PT for UFC® Fight Night Live™ from the Sommet Center.
Tickets for this event will go on sale Saturday, February 7 at 10 a.m. CT and will be priced at $200, $125, $90, $60, $40 and $20. Tickets are available at the Sommet Center box office, all Ticketmaster locations, and by telephone at 615-770-2040. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at ufc.com, sommetcenter.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Thursday, February 5 at 10 a.m. CT via the website ufc.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Friday, February 6 starting at 10 a.m. CT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through ufc.com.
The UFC’s first-ever event in Nashville will be headlined by the contrasting styles of submission specialist Carlos Condit and the top-tier striking of Martin Kampmann. UFC® Fight Night™ will also include The Ultimate Fighter® Season 8 winners Ryan Bader and Efrain Escudero, The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 standout Cole Miller, The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 contestant Junie Browning and light heavyweight contender Carmelo Marrero.
Winner of his last eight MMA bouts, former World Extreme Cagefighting® welterweight champion Carlos Condit (fighting out of Phoenix, AZ) makes his UFC debut on April 1. The 24-year-old is a native of Albuquerque, NM, and has submitted four of the five WEC opponents he has faced, winning all the matches within four rounds. The former WEC 170-pound champ holds impressive submission wins against UFC veterans Brock Larson and John Alessio. It’s going to be a battle of Condit’s phenomenal ground game vs. Kampmann’s world-class kickboxing when these two explosive welterweights meet.
Kampmann (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev.), a former Thai boxing champion in his native Denmark, won his first four bouts in the Octagon™ as a middleweight, and after dropping down to welterweight, Kampmann has continued his string of success, defeating Alexandre Barros via TKO in January at UFC 93.
After winning Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter, Efrain Escudero and Ryan Bader will make their true UFC debuts. The 25-year-old Bader (Tempe, Ariz.) attended Arizona State University where he was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Pac-10 wrestler. He is coming off an impressive first-round TKO over Vinny Magalhaes in December 2008 to be crowned The Ultimate Fighter in the light heavyweight division. However, his next big test in the Octagon™ comes against Carmelo Marrero (fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla.), who made a big splash in his Octagon debut in October 2006 at UFC 64 by winning a split decision over the dangerous Cheick Kongo. Following a drop to light heavyweight, he won his last fight against Steve Steinbeiss in a WEC matchup last November, and looks to continue his winning ways against Bader.
Undefeated Efrain Escudero (fighting out of Tempe, Ariz.) makes his first appearance in the Octagon since winning the lightweight division on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter with a three-round decision victory against Phillipe Nover in December 2008. Born in Mexico and raised in Tucson, Ariz., the former All-American collegiate wrestler’s opponent will be announced shortly.
Spike TV will open the two-hour televised fight card at 9:00 p.m. with a lightweight battle between two memorable contestants from The Ultimate Fighter. Browning (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev.) is a Kentucky-native who reached the semifinals in the lightweight division for The Ultimate Fighter Season 8. He scored an impressive victory via submission over Dave Kaplan on the show’s live finale undercard in December 2008. His opponent, Cole Miller (fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla.), made a name for himself by catching Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Jorge Gurgel in a triangle choke for a submission victory at UFC 86 last July. The Augusta, Georgia native and veteran of The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 has won three of his last four fights.
The remaining fights will be announced shortly.
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.
About Spike TV
Spike TV is available in 97.7 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV's Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV's press site at http://www.spike.com/press.
