Kang Signed With the UFC

Maybe it’s old news.
read it a few places…
good news

kmc

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division just got some depth and a potential new challenger for middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

Former PRIDE fighter and current SpiritMC champion Denis Kang has signed a four-fight deal with the UFC, American Top Team General Manager Richie Guerriero today confirmed with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Kang, 31, will likely make his octagon debut in early 2009.

“I just think timing wise, it was a good point in his career (to sign with the UFC),” Guerriero said. “He’s always had his eye on the UFC, but with his commitment to SpiritMC, and with him fighting for PRIDE at the time, it just never happened.”

Kang, a Canadian of Korean-French descent, was a top star with SpiritMC, a South Korean-based fight promotion. Kang won the organization’s heavyweight (80+ kg) title in September 2004 and cited his desire to fight for the organization as a stumbling block in previous UFC negotiations.

“SpiritMC was only asking that I fight for them once a year,” Kang said back in April. “That’s one of the things that I really, really wanted to do – to keep my SpiritMC title and keep my fan base in Korea, which is really important to me.”

However, Guerriero and Kang knew the 10-year fight vet was missing out on publicity and sponsorship opportunities closer to home.

“With the UFC being what it is, I think Denis knew it was a good time to get some exposure here in America,” said Guerriero, whose popular ATT facility is located in Coconut Creek, Fla.

Although Guerriero didn’t know the particulars of the deal, he said it would be unlikely for Kang to continue fighting for SpiritMC “just based on the way [the UFC] has always done things,” he said, referring to the organization’s exclusive contracts.

Kang, the 2006 PRIDE welterweight grand prix runner-up, had emerged as a top-five-ranked middleweight during a 23-fight undefeated streak from April 2003 to November 2006. However, he then suffered three losses in a four-fight span, which included a first-round submission defeat to Gegard Mousasi in the opening round of the 2008 DREAM middleweight grand prix earlier this year.

However, Kang has since rebounded for back-to-back victories, which included a 48-second TKO of Marvin Eastman at an Oct. 25 Raw Combat event.

I totally just MMA-gasmed.

About fucking time.

He is one of my favorite fighters to watch, and to be honest, I think he will give Anderson Silva a tough fight if it happens.

One question, do you think the Kang is the middle weight that Dana White talked about a while back about being a threat to Silva?

Dont remember that comment but Dana says a LOT of shit that doesn’t necessarily occur. So maybe it’s Kang. Hell he’s been talking about a “light weight version of anderson silva” for some time… but I check my voicemail and dana hasn’t left me any messages yet so i dunno. shrug

[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
Dont remember that comment but Dana says a LOT of shit that doesn’t necessarily occur. So maybe it’s Kang. Hell he’s been talking about a “light weight version of anderson silva” for some time… but I check my voicemail and dana hasn’t left me any messages yet so i dunno. shrug[/quote]

LOL… I think the lightweight he’s reffering to is Phillipe Nover… have you watched that kid fight? Fucking assassin.

oh fuck fighting dude… i thought they were talking about dancing, i can do that little michael jackson impression just like anderson

that fighting shit hurts.


when i first read this i thought this guy:

LMAO !!!

Hero’s in a half shell…

Tomorrow we shall see this lil’ silva in action.

i’m not dancing tomorr…oh you mean the fighting thing. god why are u guys so violent?

sheesh.

guess it’s “official”

From: AmericanTopTeam Send Private Message Add Comment To Profile
Posted: 1 day ago
AmericanTopTeam
Member Since: 4/23/02
Posts: 3143

We are very pleased to announce that Denis Kang has signed a 4 fight deal with the UFC!

Denis has always expressed a desire to fight in the UFC and we are very happy he will finally get the chance to showcase his skills to a whole new audience of fans. He will be a great addition to the 185# division!

Congrats Denis!!
American Top Team

http://www.americantopteam.com/news_detail.php?NewsArticleID=486

After seeing him get KO’d by akiyama, ill be curious as to how he does in the UFC

Ya i think this is a few years too late (like 5), but it will still be interesting