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Dominick "The Energizer Bunny" Cruz becomes the UFC's 1st ever Bantamweight Champion!

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History has been made...

New UFC champion Jose Aldo officially awarded title belt

by John Morgan and Dann Stupp on Nov 20, 2010 at 6:30 pm ET

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Meet Jose Aldo (18-1 MMA, 8-0 WEC), the UFC's first-ever featherweight champion. The 24-year-old Brazilian, who closed out his WEC run with two successful defenses of that promotion's 145-pound belt, was granted the UFC's first-ever featherweight championship when Zuffa LLC elected to merge the UFC and WEC.

Today, in a ceremony held at The Palace of Auburn Hills in advance of this evening's UFC 123 event in suburban Detroit, UFC president Dana White awarded Also his belt.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) and other media members entered the cage to snap photos of the ceremony.

The soft-spoken Aldo was decked out in his finest suit as he and White posed for photos with manager Ed Soares nearby.

Aldo debuted for the WEC in June 2008 with a second-round TKO win over Shooto legend Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira.

Following five consecutive knockout wins to open his WEC run – including three in the first round – Aldo was granted a title shot against then-champion Mike Brown. Aldo halted Brown with strikes in the second round.

Aldo then defended his belt twice with wins over Manny Gamburyan and Urijah Faber and is currently considered among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

Aldo defends his newly issued UFC belt for the first time against top contender Josh Grispi (14-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC) at "UFC 125: Resolution," which takes place Jan. 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

For the latest on UFC 125 stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

(Pictured: Dana White and Jose Aldo)

Guess who's back and evidently wanting another shot at Faber!

Ivan Menjivar 31-9 (Record)

135lbs 5'5" (Tristar Gym)

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Henderson-Pettis Slated for WEC 53

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No other promotion can even come close to putting on better cards than the WEC.

Nearly every fight, on every card, has the potential for FOTN...how many other promotions can you say that about!?

WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan

Date: Sep 30, 2010

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Venue: 1STBANK Center

Broadcast: Versus

MAIN CARD

• • Champ Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan (for featherweight title)

  • Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia

  • Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner

  • Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop

  • Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick

PRELIMINARY CARD

• • Mike Brown vs. Cole Province

  • Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff

  • Antonio Banuelos vs. Chad George

  • Demetrious Johnson vs. Nick Pace

  • Diego Nunes vs. Tyler Toner

  • Jason Reinhardt vs. Tiequan Zhang

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My favorite events right now are the WEC and Bellator.

Anybody can see the WEC has the most exciting fights, bar none, in all of MMA.

Bellator has, hands down, the best contender elimination system in all of MMA. For years MMA fans have been screaming to the UFC to have tournaments to crown their champions, and to decide the #1 contenders. It's a perfect system. The only thing i have against Bellator is the no elbow rule. But i also admire the way they're developing new talent. Lots of hot new prospects are being exposed thru them!

The UFC might have the most talented fighters in the World but, these two promotions have what no others have. My hat off to them!

My two favorite weight classes are the Bantamweights and the Featherweights, respectively. No other division has more exciting fighters than the lightening fast and non-stop, action packed 135lber's! ...and the Featherweights aren't far behind them. 155 might be the deepest but who can argue that the BW's and FW's are the most exciting?

If you'd like to discuss these topics, please go to our discussion forum here.

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No Olympics, no problem – UFC plans to create its own international tournament

by John Morgan on Sep 03, 2010 at 3:05 pm ET

For years, many mixed martial arts fans have wondered aloud why their favorite sport isn't a part of the Olympic Games. After all, with boxing, judo, wrestling and tae kwon do already slated as modern Olympic events, what's the problem with adding the arts together?

That's an argument for another time and place. UFC president Dana White has far more pressing concerns on his mind. And besides, he envisions an international tournament staged far more frequently than every Olympiad.

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Tachi Palace Fights signs top flyweight Jussier da Silva to four-fight exclusive deal

by John Morgan on Aug 19, 2010 at 7:55 pm ET

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