The Weekly Wrap: Feb. 14 - Feb. 20

UFC 95 run-up

The UFC launched hype this week for Saturday's UFC 95 card in London, beginning with the airing of the year's first "Countdown" special on Spike TV. The special focused on Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson and Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia. The segments touched on elements of each fighter's personal life, including Sanchez's rough upbringing, Stevenson's balancing fighting with raising four children, Marquardt's coping with his parents' splitting up and Gouveia losing his father to malaria when he was young. Sanchez was portrayed as a new fighter in the wake of his loss to Josh Koscheck and leaving Greg Jackson's camp, while Gouveia predicted a first-round knockout over Marquardt.

All of UFC 95’s twenty competitors made weight without incident on Friday.

The card takes place at the start of a year where the UFC looks to make even more inroads in Europe.

The company announced a television deal this week with the French-language station RTL9 that broadcasts in 38 countries in Europe and Africa, piping complete UFC cards into countries like Nigeria and Cameroon for the first time. UFC 95 will also air on RTL9.

The UFC has also completed a deal to air fight cards on the German sports station DSF, just in time to hype UFC 99 on June 13 in Cologne. The debut card in Germany does not yet have a main event, although MMAWeekly.com reported this week a 195-pound catch weight fight between Wanderlei Silva and Rich Franklin will be on the show. Randy Couture told RawVegas.tv that there’s a possibility he could face Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on the show if he can get a full training camp in after wrapping movie filming in May. Couture stars in the new Sly Stallone vehicle “The Expendables,” which shoots in Brazil and Louisiana from March until the end of May. B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian is also a possibility for the show.