LAS VEGAS and TOKYO – UFC FIGHT PASS®, the world’s leading digital subscription service for combat sports, and QUINTET, the innovative five-on-five grappling promotion, today announced details for QUINTET Ultra, an unprecedented event featuring the most iconic brands in MMA history competing against each other in a submission-grappling tournament for the first time ever. 

QUINTET Ultra will stream live from Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday, December 12, exclusively on UFC FIGHT PASS at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.

QUINTET Ultra will follow the traditional QUINTET ruleset in which four teams, each comprising five members, compete in a single-elimination, winner-stays-on grappling tournament for mat supremacy. Competitors are eliminated by a loss or draw, while the winner stays on the mat. A team loses when all five members are eliminated. Each team will be represented by the four most influential promotions in MMA history: UFC®, PRIDE®, STRIKEFORCE®, and WEC®.  Athletes will be named to teams based on their individual historical connections to each promotion. 

Confirmed participants on the stacked card include: Takanori Gomi; Anthony Johnson; Gilbert Melendez; Chad Mendes; Sean O’Malley; Kazushi Sakuraba; Jake Shields; and Glover Teixeira.  Full team rosters will be announced in coming weeks.

In addition to team matchups, QUINTET Ultra will feature singles matches, highlighted by a “super fight” between Gordon Ryan and Aleksei Oleinik. Singles matches and the super fight will follow the traditional QUINTET ruleset.

The event is a collaboration between UFC FIGHT PASS and QUINTET founder and UFC Hall of Famer Kazushi Sakuraba.

“UFC FIGHT PASS is looking forward to working with QUINTET to celebrate the great influence that these four legendary promotions have had on the MMA landscape,” said Crowley Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager of UFC FIGHT PASS. “QUINTET is adding a twist by presenting the event within its unique team grappling format.  We are thrilled to be producing the event.”

Added UFC Hall of Famer and QUINTET Founder Kazushi Sakuraba:  “We’ve always been very grateful for UFC’s support from when we first approached them with the idea of QUINTET.  I am personally looking forward to the amazing things we will accomplish together as QUINTET continues to gain momentum around the world by being showcased to the hardcore fight fans on UFC FIGHT PASS.”

*Confirmed participants as of Monday, November 11:

TEAM UFC                                         TEAM PRIDE

1. Anthony Johnson                       1.   Kazushi Sakuraba
2. Sean O’Malley                             2.   Takanori Gomi

3.   TBA                                               3.   TBA

4.   TBA                                               4.   TBA

5.   TBA                                               5.   TBA

TEAM STRIKEFORCE                      TEAM WEC

1. Gilbert Melendez                         1.   Chad Mendes
2. Jake Shields                                2.   Glover Teixeira
3. TBA                                               3.   TBA
4. TBA                                               4.   TBA
5. TBA                                               5.   TBA

*Participants subject to change

This will be QUINTET’s second event in the United States, the first of which was in October of 2018.

Information regarding ticket pricing and availability will be announced soon.

To sign up now for UFC FIGHT PASS, please visit www.ufcfightpass.com

Alexander Volkov’s win over Greg Hardy on Saturday wasn’t the one we expected. Most assumed that with the experience edge that “Drago” held over the former NFL lineman, it was going to be a one-sided mauling ending in a KO or submission. That didn’t happen. Yes, Volkov’s decision victory was dominant, but it wasn’t spectacular, and that disappointed some. But if not spectacular, it was smart, and after being on the sidelines for a year, Volkov took legendary boxing trainer George Benton’s advice to one of his fighters years ago: Win tonight, look good next time. Volkov got the win. And now he’s back into the swing of things in the heavyweight division.

The Octagon is coming to Raleigh, NC for the first time on Saturday, January 25.

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THE LEGEND ON UFC I

After two decades of covering combat sports, there are few interviews that can make you nervous. Talking to Royce Gracie was one of them. Luckily, when I spoke to him for the first time before he announced his return to the UFC to face Matt Hughes in 2006, he couldn’t have been more gracious, and in subsequent chats, the man who basically created this sport has always been generous with his time, recollections, and knowledge. But with a family full of jiu-jitsu legends, why was he chosen for UFC I?

“It was just the right time,” Gracie told me in 2006.  “I was the right size.  I wasn’t bulked up and big and I didn’t look very scary, so to speak.  It was just the right timing for me.”

And the wrong timing for everyone else. Yet despite the fact that the sport and its athletes have evolved since 1993, Gracie’s accomplishments in the early UFCs haven’t dimmed in the slightest, mainly because he was fighting in unknown situations every night out against multiple opponents. In UFC I alone, he fought three times in a single night.

“It was very different from the way it is now,” recalled Gracie.  “You draw the fighter right before the fight and your strategy is done right there on the spot.  You train for everybody.  When you’re in training camp you train for a big guy, little guy, fast guy, slow guy, heavy guy, strong guy, everybody.  So when you get an opponent, you say, ‘okay, that’s the guy – here’s the strategy for him.  He’s a boxer, so I’m gonna shoot.’  It was a lot more on the fly.  You have to be prepared for everybody.  Now, you get an opponent, you know who he is, you have the footage, and you train for him.  It’s different.”

It sure is, but while many things have changed, the respect for the legendary Gracie has never wavered. And never will.

Former NFL star Greg Hardy proved that he could hang with an elite heavyweight on Saturday, but it was still Alexander Volkov who emerged victorious in the UFC Moscow co-main event, as he beat the late replacement via unanimous decision.

Scores were 30-27 across the board for the No. 7-ranked Volkov, now 31-7. Hardy, who replaced Junior Dos Santos just 22 days after his no contest with Ben Sosoli, falls to 5-2 with 1 NC.

The fighters traded shots at range in the opening stages of the fight, Volkov’s jab being the most telling blow. Hardy held his own before coming up short on a takedown attempt, and then it was back to kickboxing for the two. Hardy landed a pair of left hooks in the closing minute of the first, but Volkov took them well and kept control of the fight.

Between rounds, Hardy told his corner his right hand was injured, but he still attempted to throw it in the second stanza. Volkov remained patient in his attack, though, and his technique was sharp, even though he was still wary of Hardy’s power. Volkov did pick up the pace slightly in the final minute, ending the round strong, and in the third, he went back to a measured attack that kept Hardy from getting into an offensive rhythm and that carried him to victory.