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ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP® PRESENTS UFC 79: NEMESIS

SATURDAY, DEC. 29
LIVE FROM MANDALAY BAY EVENTS CENTER

UFC® WORLD WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
MATT “THE TERROR” SERRA vs. MATT HUGHES

Tickets Go on Sale Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 10am PT

Las Vegas, NV – 10/17/2007 (USA) – For a sixth straight season, millions of UFC® fans around the world watched competitors on The Ultimate Fighter® do battle
in an attempt to become one of the newest stars in the UFC organization. But fans are also watching another battle rage, this one between the two coaches,
UFC welterweight champion Matt “The Terror” Serra and former UFC champion Matt Hughes. Now, the coaches will have their chance to face off inside the Octagon™,
with the world welterweight title at stake. The Ultimate Fighting Championship® presents UFC 79: NEMESIS live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center Saturday,
December 29, 2007.

“Matt Hughes and Matt Serra did an awesome job as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter and now they are set to fight for Serra’s UFC Welterweight World Championship,”
said Dana White, UFC President. “Serra wants to hold on to his title and Hughes wants it back. The show left little doubt about the dislike these two have
for each other, and I think this is going to be an explosive fight.”

Tickets for UFC 79: NEMESIS go on sale Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 10am PST and are priced at $1,000, $750, $500, $300, $200 and $100. Tickets will be sold at
any Mandalay Bay box office 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 the Mandalay Bay box office at (702) 632-7580 or Ticketmaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets also
are available for purchase at www.ufc.com, www.mandalaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Sunday, Oct. 21 at 10am PT via the website www.ufc.com. A special Internet
ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Tuesday, Oct. 23 starting at 10am PT. To access this presale, users must register for the
UFC newsletter through www.ufc.com.

There also will be a special auction for Octagon-side floor seats available only through www.ticketmaster.com starting Wednesday, October 24 and ending
Monday, November 5.

UFC 79: NEMESIS is 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 $39.95 ($39.99
CAD) and $49.95 for HD where available.

Current UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra (16-4) is proof that The Ultimate Fighter not only produces top contenders in the UFC, it produces champions.
The winner of The Ultimate Fighter Season 4, Serra plowed his way through the reality show to win a “comeback” shot for the 170-pound title against then
champion Georges St-Pierre. In what turned out to be an upset win of epic proportions for Serra, the Long Island native overwhelmed “Rush” with a barrage
of strikes and stopped him cold at 3:25 of the first round. Now Serra looks to defend his title against the legendary Hughes and secure his own legacy
in the UFC 170-pound division.

“I think this is going to be a tough fight. As a person, I can’t stand Matt Hughes, I don’t like him at all, but I respect him as a fighter,” said Serra.
“You can’t deny what he has accomplished as a fighter, but he basically thinks my last fight was a fluke, like I don’t belong in there with him. I believe
there’s one way Matt Hughes can beat me, but I can beat him several different ways, and I plan on beating him on all fronts.”
Hughes (43-5), a two-time UFC champion with seven combined title defenses to his name, has a deadly ground game that has earned him wins over St-Pierre,
BJ Penn, Chris Lytle, Royce Gracie, and Frank Trigg (twice). After giving up his title to St-Pierre at UFC 65, Hughes returned to the Octagon at UFC 68
in March to take on The Ultimate Fighter Season 4 finalist Chris Lytle. He won via unanimous decision, and ever since then, he has waited for the opportunity
to fight for the title and he wants to prove that he is not only the best 170-pounder in the division today, but that he is the greatest 170-pound fighter
ever to fight in the UFC.

“To me, Serra is just another opponent,” said Hughes. “He’s just another guy that likes to run his mouth. I think nine out of 10 times he loses to GSP,
so Serra did get lucky once, maybe. I think I have a lot more ways to win this fight than he does – I just need to watch out for those looping punches.”

For more information about UFC 77, UFC 78, The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, UFC 79 or any upcoming UFC event, visit www.ufc.com or uk.ufc.com. All bouts are
live and subject to change.

©2007 Combat Hooligans. Duplication of the content from this website without permission by its author(s) is prohibited. Any news, reports and commentary used from this site must be accompanied by a link to www.combat-hooligans.com

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Welcome to the first ever combat-hooligans.com attempt at a ranking system for the 5 major weight classes in MMA: Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welterweight and Lightweight.
A few notes on how this Is going to work. The panel is 1 person, and that one person is me. My rankings aren’t meant as a sign of all-time contributions, what could be done in the future, or a reflection of who I think would win in a fight between 2 fighters. This is pretty much the “What have you done for me lately” way of ranking things. As a result, champions get ranked hire by virtue of being champions.
I’m only ranking fighters I’ve actually seen. As time goes on this will be less and less of an issue, but I am willing to admit that my not having seen a fighter may be the only reason he’s missing from a list.

We’re going to look this week at the Welterweight Division, maybe the deepest in North America.
Ranking last Updated:

Matt Serra: 33, 5’6, 170 9-4-0
Sure, people will say that he doesn’t deserve the ranking. They’ll say that he fluked his way to a victory over Georges St. Pierre. However, he is the champion and he did win that fight regardless of how you think it happened. He knocked out a man who had never been KO’d before. Can he do it again? That’s a question for a future time, but these rankings don’t reflect the future.
Georges St. Pierre: 26, 5’10, 170, 14-2-0
I predicted a Josh Koscheck victory over GSP at UFC 74. To say I was incorrect would be a big understatement. A dominating performance solidified his position as the #1 ranked (behind the champion) Welterweight contender. He’ll have to wait until 2008 to get that title shot but if he looked like he did against Koscheck it won’t be long before he’s got the belt back.
Matt Hughes: 33, 5’9, 170, 41-5-0
Hughes’ last outing was a decision victory over Chris Lytle in what wasn’t the dominant victory people expected coming off his loss to Georges St. Pierre. However, in fairness, Lytle is a pretty tough opponent who nearly beat Matt Serra on the TUF 4 Finale.
Hughes gets the next shot at the belt in December after his second stint as a coach on the Ultimate Fighter. Hughes is in this spot largely on past accomplishments though he is still dominant enough that another reign as champ is not out of the question.
Jon Fitch: 29, 6’0, 170, 14-2-0
Fitch is on a 13 fight winning streak. His losses have come to Mike Pyle and Wilson Gouveia and he has a no contest against Solomon Hutcherson. He’s 6-0 in the UFC and is coming off a victory on 06/12 over Roan Carneiro who gave Fitch trouble in round 1 but Fitch rebounded to win in the second. On 09/22 he’ll take on Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez who is coming off the first loss of his career to Josh Koscheck. Fitch was a guy who until recently the more well-known Welterweights wanted no part of but a victory over Sanchez will put him right in the mix for a future shot at the belt. He’s an outstanding wrestler who just imposes his will on any of his opponents.
I have Fitch ranked a lot higher than other sites have him in their rankings but I believe it is justified and that Fitch is still somehow very underrated.
Karo Parisyan: 25, 5’10, 170, 17-4-0
Sure, he has a loss to Diego Sanchez who nearly got the last spot. But since then, Parisyan has rebounded with a couple of solid victories over Josh Burkman and Drew Fickett. Plus, when you factor in the fact that the decision in the Sanchez fight was very close (it won the Wrestling Observer fight of the year) and many felt he won, it becomes a little easier to put him in that spot. This is a guy who once earned a shot at Matt Hughes and the Welterweight title but was forced out with an injury and replaced by Joe Riggs. Parisyan hasn’t gotten that title shot back.
His Judo throws make him a fun fighter to watch although I don’t think I need to hear him sing again. If you want to argue for Diego Sanchez in this spot, I won’t argue. If you want to argue for someone else, you can make a case for a lot of guys that’s how deep this division runs.

Fighter on the Rise: Carlos Condit – This guy is really good, current WEC champ can’t help but end up in the UFC someday.
Best Fighter outside the UFC: Jake Shields – Tough to fit him in the top 5 without him beating top 5 competition.

This is by far the deepest division in the UFC in terms of quality contenders. It is so deep, I’ve got to wonder if we won’t see some of the mid-level contenders shifted to the WEC so that they can be focused on a little more. Compared to the UFC, the WEC has a weak Welterweight Division.
Coming next week, the Lightweight division, maybe the toughest for me to lay out.

Previous Rankings:

©2007 Combat Hooligans. Duplication of the content from this website without permission by its author(s) is prohibited. Any news, reports and commentary used from this site must be accompanied by a link to www.combat-hooligans.com