The Official MMA Thread

[Stickman]

I thought he had Silva's number in the first when he turned his lights out there for a sec.

[warehouse]

I thought he had Silva's number in the first when he turned his lights out there for a sec.

from anderson's favorite spot, the clinch. thats another thing that sucks about this injury, it totally overshadows weidman's dominant first round.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from UFC 168 last night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena with an announced crowd of 15,650 and a live gate of $6.2 million (which would be the second highest MMA gate in the history of Nevada behind UFC 148 with Silva vs. Sonnen 2).
*Robbie Peralta over Estevan Payan by KO at 0:12 of Round 3
*William Macario over Bobby Voelker by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*John Howard over Siyar Bahadurzada by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Dennis Siver over Manny Gamburyan by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Michael Johnson over Gleison Tibau by KO at 1:32 of Round 2
*Uriah Hall over Chris Leben by TKO (corner stoppage) at 5:00 of Round 1
*Dustin Poirier over Diego Brandao by TKO at 4:54 of Round 1
*Jim Miller over Fabricio Camoes by armbar by 3:42 of Round 1
*Travis Browne over Josh Barnett by KO at 1:00 of Round 1
*Ronda Rousey over Miesha Tate by armbar at 0:58 of Round 3 to retain the bantamweight title
*Chris Weidman over Anderson Silva by TKO (injury) at 1:16 of Round 2 to retain the middleweight title

**The bonus winners are listed below, each getting $75,000:
*Fight of the Night – Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate
*Knockout of the Night – Travis Browne
*Submission of the Night – Ronda Rousey

**The biggest story coming out of the show was the devastating and graphic leg break of Anderson Silva that forced an end to the fight in the second round. Silva threw a leg kick, which Weidman checked and Silva connected with the knee of Weidman and his leg snapped in the opposite direction with comparisons to the likes of Corey Hill, Sid Vicious and Joe Theismann in terms of how graphic the leg appeared during the replay. This will be an incredibly tough injury for Silva to come back from considering he is 38-years old, would be close to 40 if he does come back and it isn’t as if Silva needs money.

**Below is the statement the UFC has released regarding the injury to Anderson Silva and subsequent surgery on Saturday night:

Following Saturday evening's UFC 168 main event, former champion Anderson Silva was taken to a local Las Vegas hospital where he underwent surgery to repair a broken left leg. The successful surgery, performed by Dr. Steven Sanders, the UFC's orthopedic surgeon, inserted an intramedullary rod into Anderson's left tibia. The broken fibula was stabilized and does not require a separate surgery. Anderson will remain in the hospital for a short while, but no additional surgery is scheduled at this time. Recovery time for such injuries may vary between three and six months.

Anderson is deeply touched by the outpouring of support from his fans and the entire MMA community. There has been no immediate decision about his future, and he would kindly ask for privacy at this time as he deals with his injury and prepares to return home to recover.

**UFC president Dana White announced at the post fight press conference that Ronda Rousey is coming back to fight in the main event of UFC 170 on February 22nd in Las Vegas against Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann and will have a very quick turnaround of eight-weeks between fights. McMann has only fought once in the UFC with a win over Sheila Gaff last April at UFC 159 and was injured and had to pull out of a fight this past summer with Sarah Kaufman. It’s probably too soon for McMann to fight Rousey and even she stated that a year ago when I spoke to her but the dynamic of marketing two Olympic medalists as the Winter Olympics are going on and needing a bigger main event for that show is going to rush things and Cat Zingano would not be ready for February 22nd (she is set to resume training in March and the hope is she will fight the winner of Rousey vs. McMann).

**The Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Cormier fight at UFC 170 will now be the co-feature and will be three rounds instead of five. They have also added a lightweight bout between Gilbert Melendez and Khabib Nurmagomedov to that card.

**Chris Leben tweeted this out following his loss to Uriah Hall:

Way to go @UriahHallMMA. Next generation of this sport:real athletes. Days of winning on toughness alone are over. Good job buddy

**It was made pretty clear that Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort will be the next fight for each for the middleweight title but no timetable was given for that fight. Belfort was at the show and even got on the mic at the post fight press conference and just congratulated Weidman and the winners.

**The UFC held a press conference before the pay-per-view to officially launch UFC Fight Pass, their online digital network. The network will start with a two-month free preview at http://www.ufc.tv/page/fightpass and then be available for $9.99 per month including approximately 13 international cards in 2013, lots of past events and fights from their libraries (UFC, Strikeforce, WEC, Pride, Elite XC), international seasons of TUF including the next TUF Brazil season with coaches Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen and other original programming. This is a long-term project for the company and will be overseen by Marshall Zelaznik and has the chance to be a giant revenue stream for the company if their belief of a shift from traditional pay-per-view to the internet comes to fruition over the next few years. In order to get the free trial you do need to sign up with a credit card and can cancel whenever you’d like but the hope is to lure people in and the onus is on them to opt out after the free trial expires.

**It was probably very apparent if you were listening closely but Mike Goldberg was said to be very under the weather during last night’s broadcast.


**Brock Lesnar did not attend UFC 168 but was certain a major topic of discussion going into the show.

[Stickman]

**Dr. Steven Sanders held a conference call on Monday to provide an update on UFC middleweight Anderson Silva following Silva’s leg fracture on Saturday night at UFC 168. Silva broke both his left tibia and fibula with Sanders making an early estimate that it will be 3-6 months before the injury heals and roughly 6-9 months before he could begin training. Sanders emphasized that Silva was immediately asking when he could train again but it’s mere speculation at this juncture if Silva would want to fight again but the indication from Sanders is that he likely could fight again if he chose to. He noted that had the bone gone through the skin it could have been much worse and increased the chances of infection (which was a major concern when Jon Jones injured his toe at UFC 159 against Chael Sonnen).

**The UFC has added two more fights to the quickly growing UFC 170 card on February 22nd in Las Vegas, Nevada with Jessica Eye taking on Alexis Davis, which is a great fight on paper. Davis holds wins over Rosi Sexton and Liz Carmouche during her UFC tenure while Eye debuted last October at UFC 166 with a close split decision win over Sarah Kaufman. They have also announced that Bryan Caraway will be taking on Lucas Martins (and I’ll assume Caraway will not be placed in the same locker room as Ronda Rousey for that card).

**Bobby Green has had to pull out of his lightweight bout with Abel Trujillo on February 1st at UFC 169 and will be replaced by Jamie Varner. Both Green and Trujillo were coming off wins at the FOX card back on December 14th. Varner only fought once in 2013 with a split decision loss to Gleison Tibau at UFC 164.

**UFC president Dana White has clarified that the lightweight bout between Gilbert Melendez and Khabib Nurmagomedov for February 22nd at UFC 170 is not a done deal as of yet.

**Here is the full card for this Saturday’s Fight Night 34 card in Singapore and available on the new UFC Fight Pass service:

MAIN CARD (9am ET)
*Tarec Saffiedine vs. Hyun Gyu Lim
*Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Sean Soriano
*Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Luiz Dutra
*Kyung Ho Kang vs. Shunizhi Shimizu

PRELIMINARY CARD (6:30am ET)
*Max Holloway vs. Will Chope
*Quinn Mulhern vs. Katsunori Kikuno
*Royston Wee vs. David Galera
*Tae Hyun Bang vs. Mairbek Taisumov
*Dustin Kimura vs. Jon Delos Reyes
*Russell Doane vs. Leandro Issa

**Ronda Rousey and her team react to seeing Anderson Silva’s leg break on Saturday night at UFC 168:

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night 34 card Saturday in Singapore in front of an announced crowd of 5,216 and their first event on Fight Pass:
*Russell Doane over Leandro Issa by triangle choke at 4:59 of Round 2 – Issa won the first round but got tired and Doane locked in the triangle near the end of the round and got the tap right at the last second
*Dustin Kimura over Jon Delos Reyes by armbar at 2:13 of Round 1 – Reyes looked good in the opening minute and dropped Kimura, but he stayed calm on the ground and started fishing for the arm and eventually got Reyes and got the tap
*Mairbek Taisumov over Tae Hyun Bang by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – just a dull affair and started a streak of bad fights on the undercard
*Royson Wee over David Galera by unanimous decision (30-26 all) – Galera hit an illegal up kick in the third round. Wee would just take Galera down and stay on top and did just enough to stay in that position without being stood up.
*Katsunori Kikuno over Quinn Mulhern by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – very flat performance from Mulhern and he announced he was moving on from fighting afterwards
*Max Holloway over Will Chope by TKO at 2:27 of Round 2 – Chope was winning the first few minutes of the fight but once Holloway started letting his hands go he was landing in high volume, mixing in body shots and showing great head movement, he dropped him with a body shot in the second and led to the stoppage
*Kyung Ho Kang over Shunichi Shimizu by arm-triangle at 3:53 of Round 3 – Utterly dominant performance from Kang, who hit Shimizu with a pair of illegal downward elbows in the first round and was deducted two-points. He won Rounds 1 and 2 with superior size and grappling ability and got the finish in the third
*Kiichi Kunimoto over Luiz Dutra by DQ from illegal elbows at 2:57 of Round 1 – Dutra dropped three illegal elbows to the back of Kunimoto’s head and he couldn’t continue, Dutra was upset and thought Kunimoto was playing up the injury but looking at the replay he was hit with some nasty shots
*Tatsuya Kawajiri over Sean Soriano by rear-naked choke at 0:50 of Round 2 – Kawajiri hadn’t fought in a year and was able to take Soriano down, Soriano got tired in the second and Kawajiri locked in a tight choke and got the tap
*Tarec Saffiedine over Hyun Gyu Lim by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) – a much closer fight than I expected. Lim won rounds 1 and 5 on my card but was brutalized by leg kicks to where you thought he wouldn’t get out of Round 4 and showed a ton of heart in the fifth to not only continue but swarm him at the end of the fight and take the final round, it was the best fight on the show but both were exhausted by the end and that added to the drama

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the show:
*Fight of the Night – Tarec Saffiedine vs. Hyun Gyu Lim
*Knockout of the Night – Max Holloway
*Submission of the Night – Russell Doane

**A flyweight bout between Zach Makovsky and Josh Sampo has been added to the UFC 170 card on February 22nd in Las Vegas.

**The UFC has announced a welterweight bout between TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum and Rick Story for UFC 171 on March 15th in Dallas, Texas.

**UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has pulled out of his title unification bout against interim champ Renan Barao due to a groin injury. Cruz, who hasn't competed since October 1, 2011, has been stripped of his title, making Barao the undisputed champion. Urijah Faber steps in with one month's notice to fill the UFC 169 main event slot on February 1st.

**Jake Ellenberger’s twin brother Joe has just signed a four-fight deal with the UFC. Joe Ellenberger was previously diagnosed with a rare blood disease called Paroxysmal Noctural Hemogobinuria, which kept him out of action between 2009 and 2011. He has since been competing in Victory Fighting Championship (VFC). Joe will now be competing in the UFC’s lightweight division.

**More fights have been added to the UFC 171 card in Dallas, as Dennis Bermudez faces Jim Hettes in featherweight action, and TUF season 18 winner Julianna Pena will have her first fight since winning the competition, against Jessica Andrade.


**Former UFC and Bellator fighter Tito Ortiz was arrested in Los Angeles Monday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence after a single car collision. KTLA reports that no one was injured in the accident, but Ortiz was sent to the LAPD 77th Division Precinct.

**Anderson Silva’s coach, Pedro Rizzo, says that despite Silva’s horrific injury that he suffered in the fight with Chris Weidman last month, he expects that Silva will fight again.

**UFC women’s bantamweight fighter Miesha Tate has agreed to help train Cris Cyborg for Cyborg’s next fight. Tate was recently approached with the idea by Cyborg’s representative, Tito Ortiz.

[Stickman]

**Anderson Silva’s management team has been pushing for a super fight between Silva and Georges St-Pierre, once the Spider returns to action.

**MMA fighter Joe Torrez, who fights out of New Mexico, allegedly stabbed a man to death while trying to prevent a home invasion on January 1 of this year. Torrez could face serious charges and according to reports, is no longer cooperating with police in this investigation.

**UFC welterweight Matt Brown is currently in hot water after making a sexist comment on his podcast this week. He said that if he was going to pay $60 to watch women fight in the UFC, they should at least be topless. The UFC released a statement announcing that Brown has apologized for the comments and that they do not reflect the views of the promotion. Brown’s podcast has also been removed from the Internet.

**Daniel Cormier has made it clear that he wants a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. He says he believes that a win over Rashad Evans would definitely put him in contention.

**The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3, featuring coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva, will consist of middleweight and heavyweight fighters. The show will air on UFC Fight Pass and will run from March to May of this year.

[Stickman]

**The UFC has announced that UFC on Fox 11 will take place April 19 of this year at the Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida. Headlining that card will be Travis Browne versus Fabricio Werdum to determine the number one contender for the heavyweight title. There will also be a women’s bantamweight bout between Miesha Tate and Liz Carmouche.

**Bellator 112, which takes place March 14 at the Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, will be headlined by Daniel Straus versus Pat Curran for the featherweight title.

**Former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre recently spoke with the Ottawa Sun and indicated that while he is enjoying his time off, he hasn’t yet ruled out an eventual return to the Octagon.

**The UFC has confirmed that Jon Jones will face Glover Teixeira for the light heavyweight title at UFC 172 on April 26 in Baltimore.

**A welterweight fight between Pascal Krauss and Adam Khaliev has been taken off the UFC on Fox 10 card. No reason has been given yet as to why the fight was removed, but a replacement fight will be announced soon.

[Stickman]

**World Series of Fighting has signed Japanese Women’s Strawweight fighter Emi Fujino, who previously competed in Deep and trained in pro wrestling, kickboxing and shoot boxing.

**And with one fighter coming in, one might be leaving, as Anthony “Rumble” Johnson takes on Mike Kyle on Saturday in the last fight of Johnson’s contract with World Series of Fighting.

**The Bellator light heavyweight title will be unified at Bellator 113 on March 21, as Attila Vegh takes on Emanuel Newton.

**After a big win at UFC Fight Night 35 over Costas Philippou, Luke Rockhold has called out Michael Bisping. However, Bisping is still on the injured list after suffering a detached retina last year. It's unknown at this time when or if that fight would take place, should Bisping accept the challenge.

[Stickman]

**Ariel Helwani reported on UFC Tonight that lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is targeting his return for the 4th of July weekend card following PCL surgery last year, which forced him to pull out of his fight with Josh Thomson in December.

**Ross Pearson has been forced to withdraw from his bout with Melvin Guillard at the March 8th London card for the UFC with Michael Johnson stepping in to fight Guillard on the show. The card is headlined by Alexander Gustafsson and Jimi Manuwa and will be airing on UFC Fight Pass.

**The UFC is holding a press conference next Wednesday in Quebec City at Espace 400e with Tom Wright and Patrick Cote on hand to announce the UFC’s schedule of Canadian events for the rest of the year.

**Dan Henderson has confirmed that he has signed a new six-fight contract with the UFC but taken a drastic cut in pay he acknowledges. Henderson will fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a rematch of one of the all-time legendary fights in company history on Sunday March 23rd in Brazil at light heavyweight.

**Rick Hawn will meet Douglas Lima at Bellator 117 on April 18th for the vacant welterweight title with Ben Askren leaving the organization. Both had won tournaments towards the end of 2013 and were owed title shots anyway.

**Bellator has also announced a light heavyweight bout between Joey Beltran and Vladimir Matyushenko for April 11th in Temecula, California. Beltran is coming off a TKO loss to Quinton Jackson last November while Matyushenko debuted with Bellator last September with a unanimous decision victory over Houston Alexander.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC on FOX 10 event last night in front of an announced crowd of 10,895 and a live gate of $863,655 (last year’s gate in Chicago for the FOX show was $1.27 million):
*Nikita Krylov over Walt Harris by TKO at 0:25 of Round 1
*George Sullivan over Mike Rhodes by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Daron Cruickshank over Mike Rio by TKO at 4:56 of Round 2
*Hugo Viana over Junior Hernandez by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Chico Camus over Yaotzin Meza by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Eddie Wineland over Yves Jabouin by TKO at 4:16 of Round 2
*Alex Caceres over Sergio Pettis by rear-naked choke at 4:39 of Round 3
*Jeremy Stephens over Darren Elkins by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Donald Cerrone over Adriano Martins by KO at 4:40 of Round 1
*Stipe Miocic over Gabriel Gonzaga by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Benson Henderson over Josh Thomson by split decision (49-46, 47-48, 48-47)

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the event:
*Fight of the Night – Alex Caceres vs. Sergio Pettis
*Knockout of the Night – Donald Cerrone
*Submission of the Night – Alex Caceres

**The overnight ratings for the FOX card have the show averaging 2,550,000 viewers from 8-10pm ET and a 1.1 in the 18-49 demographioc with the final number expected on Tuesday. The overnight rating doesn’t include the overrun (which was significant from last night with the main event going five rounds) or the west coast audience so it should be a bit higher when the final number is released this week.

**The major injuries coming out of the FOX card last night were a broken right thumb that Josh Thomson sustained in the first round of his bout with Benson Henderson and Gabriel Gonzaga, who broke his right hand in the first round of his fight with Stipe Miocic.

**The UFC announced after the show that they are making contingency plans in the event that the Super Bowl is moved to Saturday next weekend due to weather problems in New Jersey. In the event of that move occurring the UFC 169 pay-per-view would move to Sunday night in Newark.

**Chico Camus noted in the post fight media scrum that he didn’t work with Roufusport for this camp and had a falling out with them but is optimistic they can patch things up and work together again. Roufusport was represented by Sergio Pettis and Mike Rhodes on last night’s card.

[Stickman]

**There was a massive incident between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva during filming of TUF Brazil where the two got into an actual fight. The two were going back and forth and allegedly Silva spit on Sonnen and Sonnen took down Silva and they were striking when one of Silva’s coaches, Andre Dida (who is based out of Toronto and seen cornering a number of fighters at various UFC events) struck Sonnen in the back of the head before they were all separated. Here's Chael talking about Silva anger issues.



**UFC bantamweight Julianna Pena has suffered a devastating injury and could be a career ending one. Pena has suffered a torn ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus and hamstring at her gym in Spokane, Washington. The story is now coming out according to Pena that she was more so attacked by someone in the gym and called Dana White in hysterics after the injury and relaying that story. Her gym is disputing the circumstances and placing more of the blame on Pena. Regardless this is a horrific injury and won’t be able to have surgery until next week because of how badly she is hurt with estimates of 18-24 months of inactivity if can even return at all to fighting. Pena was scheduled to fight on March 16th at UFC 171 against Jessica Andrade and will be replaced by Raquel Pennington.


**UFC president Dana White spoke to TMZ today regarding a return to the UFC for Brock Lesnar. White stated that Lesnar is not happy with the way he left in 2011 due to health reasons and would ideally like to do both fighting and WWE. White said when Lesnar’s deal comes up with WWE they could talk and he would be open to Lesnar returning. Lesnar has an exclusive deal with the WWE that specifically outlines he cannot do MMA with that contract expiring next April when Lesnar would be 37-years old.

**Dana White told members of the media today that Michael Bisping has been cleared to return to action following problems with a detached retina and will fight Tim Kennedy on April 16th in Quebec City on the TUF Nations Finale show. The UFC has also announced a lightweight bout between Mark Bocek and Evan Dunham for that same card and will be Bocek’s first fight since November 2012 when he lost to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 154.

**Chad Laprise of Team Canada defeated Chris Indichon TUF Nations last night to put the Canadians up 3-0 after three-weeks with Nordine Taleb taking on Tyler Manaworoa next week.

**The UFC held a press conference in Quebec City this week to announce the following shows in Canada for the rest of the year:
*April 16th – TUF Nations Finale in Quebec City
*June 14th – UFC 174 in Vancouver at Rogers Arena (first time back in the city since 2011)
*September 27th – UFC 178 in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre
*October 4th – UFC Fight Night in Halifax, Nova Scotia
*December 6th – UFC 181 in Montreal at the Bell Centre

**A lightweight bout between Sam Stout and K.J. Noons has been added to the TUF Nations finale card on April 16th in Quebec City.


**MMA Junkie reported today that Frank Mir has been granted a TUE for testosterone replacement therapy for this Saturday’s bout with Alistair Overeem by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. Mir had previously been granted exemptions by both Nevada and Wisconsin.

[Stickman]

**An injury to Rustam Khabilov has taken him off of the UFC 170 card on February 22nd and his opponent, Rafael dos Anjos will now be fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov on April 19th in Orlando on the FOX 11 card. There was a funny story that came out when the first fight was booked where dos Anjos thought he was fighting Nurmagomedov and had the two Russians mixed up. The new fight makes much more sense and they are two of the top contenders in the lightweight division with the winner getting very close to a title fight. The UFC has also added a lightweight bout between Pat Healy and Jorge Masvidal and a middleweight bout between Brad Tavares and Yoel Romero to the April 19th card in Orlando.

**The UFC has announced they will return to Abu Dhabi for a show on Saturday April 11th on Yas Island and will feature a heavyweight bout between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Roy Nelson in the main event. The UFC has also signed a television deal in Abu Dhabi that will feature the “Ultimate Fighter” brought to the country and five live events over the next two-years. The April 11th card is scheduled to air on Fight Pass and is the UFC’s second event in Abu Dhabi after coming over for UFC 112 in April 2010.

**Nova Uniao coach Andre Pederneiras spoke to Ariel Helwani and says that for Jose Aldo to fight Anthony Pettis they want it to be a 150-pound catchweight bout rather than Aldo going up to lightweight and challenging for the title. I would say there is next to zero chance of that happening given the fact they don’t want to ice two divisions for a full fight cycle and that is why Dana White stated that if Aldo came up 155 he would have to vacate the featherweight title to keep that division moving.

**Rafael Silva has been forced to withdraw from his bantamweight title fight against Eduardo Dantas on March 7th at Bellator 111 due to a knee injury. Silva’s replacement for the fight will be Anthony Leone, who lost in the finals of the bantamweight tournament to Silva.

**Jason David Frank (who played the Green Ranger in Power Rangers) has publically challenged CM Punk to a mixed martial arts bout with World Series of Fighting jumping to the forefront to put the fight together. Frank does have a background with a 1-0 professional record as well as three amateur victories. If Punk were ever to consider fighting he wouldn’t be free to do so until his WWE contract expires in July of this year.

**The UFC has signed Anthony Johnson, who will return to the company after being let go in 2012 and is set to fight Phil Davis on April 26th at UFC 172 in Baltimore, Maryland. Johnson missed weight on three occasions in the UFC and following a loss to Vitor Belfort in January 2012 at UFC 142 he was let go. Since leaving the company he has gone 6-0 (he missed weight for another middleweight fight and is now fighting at light heavyweight) and his contract with World Series of Fighting expired following his win over Mike Kyle last month.

**The UFC has also announced that Luke Rockhold will fight Tim Boetsch on the same UFC 172 card in Baltimore. Rockhold is coming off a strong win over Costas Philippou in January while Boetsch last fought at UFC 166 in October of last year with a close split decision win over C.B. Dollaway. In addition a flyweight bout between Joseph Benavidez and Tim Elliott is also official for UFC 172.

**Donald Cerrone’s quest for six fights in 2014 continues with the announcement he will fight Edson Barboza on April 12th at the FOX 11 card in Orlando, Florida on the main card. The show will be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Travis Browne and Fabricio Werdum.

**The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has turned Jessica Eye’s split decision win over Sarah Kaufman from a split decision win to a no decision. The commission stated that Eye tested positive for a prohibited drug, which Eye is disputing and fined her $1,875. The ruling is not expected to impact Eye’s fight with Alexis Davis that is coming up on February 22nd at UFC 170 in Las Vegas.

[Stickman]

Thiago Silva Charged and Held Without Bond; UFC Contract Terminated
Posted on February 7, 2014 by Ken Pishna


UFC light heavyweight Thiago Silva was arrested Thursday evening, then was charged and had his Ultimate Fighting Championship contract terminated Friday morning.

Silva was arrested Thursday night following an incident at the Pablo Popovitch Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Oakland Park, Fla. Silva’s estranged wife, Thaysa, trains at the academy. Silva and his wife are reportedly separated.

Silva showed up at the school armed with a gun, making threats for Popovitch to come out or he would go inside the school and open fire. Silva left without harming anyone at the site, and the police were called.

He then fled to his Oakland Park home and barricaded himself inside. A SWAT team was called to the scene and Silva eventually surrendered without further incident.

Silva appeared in court Friday morning (what video of the court proceedings here) where he was initially charged with two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, and resisting arrest without violence.

Judge John Hurley eventually found there was probable cause for charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and resisting arrest without violence. He determined there was no probable cause on the attempted murder charges.

The situation stems from a domestic violence situation between Silva and his estranged wife. According to documents that were read during the court proceeding, Silva assaulted his wife in late January, pushing her to the floor, sticking a gun in her mouth, and threatening to kill her.

The court charged Silva with two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and resisting arrest without violence.

Judge Hurley set Silva’s bond at $2,500,100. However, citing Silva, a native of Brazil, as a possible flight risk, the appearance of ongoing domestic violence towards his wife, and the probability that he represents a continued threat to his wife and others in the community, Judge Hurley then ordered Silva held without the ability to post bond.

“You’re a professional fighter. With or without a weapon, you could easily kill your wife,” said Judge Hurley. “The court notes that this was not isolated, this looks like ongoing domestic violence. I think there is a reasonable conclusion that you would confront your wife again and the court is concerned that you would bring great harm to her or kill her.”

UFC officials later issued a statement to MMAWeekly.com terminating Silva’s contract.

“The Ultimate Fighting Championship has terminated Thiago Silva’s contract, effective immediately.”

Silva had been booked to face Ovince St. Preux at UFC 171 on March 15 in Dallas. As of the time of publication, there had been no word on what the UFC plans to do with St. Preux, although he is currently without an opponent, while Silva enters into an entirely different type of fight.

[Stickman]

**TUF Nations cast member Tyler Manawaroa has issued an apology following the discovery of an old Instagram post he put up with a black child in a shopping card and making derogatory remarks towards black people. Manawaroa posted:

I posted a pic on instagram that has offended people..im very sorry !! As you can imagine that was never the intention. .as a dark skinned person myself who has delt with racism all my life ,I was making fun of the stereotype that all dark people go to jail..which is obviously not true....hence the irony...but I will remove it and I apologize for offending you.

**An interesting note is that the WWE is running a house show on Sunday March 16th in Dallas at the American Airlines Center the day after UFC 171 in the same building.

**Below is a statement that Pablo Popovitch released on Friday following the arrest of Thiago Silva, who showed up at Popovitch’s academy in Oakland Park, California on Thursday and was later arrested and charged:

Concerning the incident that took place at Academy last night. During our evening class, at around 7:45pm. Thiago Silva was outside sitting in his car honking the horn non-stop. Thaysa went outside to talk to Thiago to understand what was happening and saw a gun. After that, I went to see what was happening and also saw that he had a gun. He seemed to be under the influence of some type of drug whether alcohol or drugs. My staff notified the police at that time, and soon after the police arrived. He took off and the police went after him.

Thaysa has been separated and living alone since December of 2012. Thiago has been charged with battery in the past and was seeing other girls and moving on with his own life.

It’s very unfortunate that this had to happen, the last thing I wanted us to see Thiago in this manner. I wish him all the best and hope this will soon be over.

**The UFC sent out a press release today announcing that they had shutdown a European website called Cage Watcher, which they stated has illegally streamed two UFC pay-per-view events. The UFC has also seized the site’s user base with e-mail and IP addresses of those that streamed the event.

**Jack Encarnacao of Sherdog chats with Jim Ross and Dave Meltzer about creating pay-per-views draws in both mixed martial arts and professional wrestling at http://www.sherdog.com/radio/Rewind-Dow ... ltzer-3601.

**Nikita Krylov is cutting down to light heavyweight to fight Ovince St-Preux next month at UFC 171 on March 15th in Dallas. St-Preux was scheduled to fight Thiago Silva next month but with Silva being released it created an opening. Krylov just fought last month on the undercard of the FOX 10 event where he stopped Walt Harris in 0:18 and came in at 218 pounds and was already planning to drop down from heavyweight.

**A lightweight bout between Bobby Green and Jim Miller has been added to UFC 172 on April 26th in Baltimore, Maryland.

**Fighters Only held their annual MMA Awards show last week in Las Vegas with the following list of winners:
*Charles Mask Lewis Fighter of the Year – Chris Weidman
*Female Fighter of the Year – Ronda Rousey
*Breakthrough Fighter of the Year – Travis Browne
*International Fighter of the Year – Alexander Gustafsson
*Fight of the Year – Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson (UFC 165)
*Knockout of the Year – Vitor Belfort over Luke Rockhold
*Submission of the Year – Urijah Faber over Ivan Menjivar
*Comeback of the Year – Travis Browne over Alistair Overeem
*Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year – Duane Ludwig
*Gym of the Year – Team Alpha Male
*Trainer of the Year – Mike Dolce
*Referee of the Year – Herb Dean
*Ringcard Girl of the Year (yes, really) – Brittney Palmer
*Leading Man – Dana White
*Personality – Chael Sonnen
*Promotion – UFC
*Lifestyle Clothing – Bad Boy
*Technical Clothing – Venum
*Technical Equipment – Bad Boy
*Media Source – MMA Fighting
*Journalist – Ariel Helwani

[Alex]

lol

[Stickman]

**A leg injury has taken Rashad Evans out of his bout with Daniel Cormier at UFC 170 on February 22nd. The initial plan was to move the fight to the UFC 172 card in April but it has now been announced that former Division I wrestler Pat Cummins (4-0) will step in to fight Cormier on nine days notice. Cummins hasn’t fought since May of last year with his last two opponents having lost their last 13 combined fights. Cormier was adamant about fighting having cut all of this weight and wanting to get paid to fight on that date and the UFC hired Cummins as their only option to get an opponent for Cormier. UFC president Dana White has stated that Rashad Evans will in fact need surgery on his knee so he will be out for longer than expected depending on the severity of the surgery. If it’s routine arthroscopic knee surgery he could be on the shelf for 4-6 weeks but if there is a tear it could be months before he can train at full strength.

**Here is the card for tomorrow night’s Fight Night 36 event from Jaragua du Sol, Brazil and starting at 6:30pm ET on Fight Pass and 10:30pm for the main card on FS1 and Sportsnet 360 in Canada and the weigh-in results:

MAIN CARD
*Lyoto Machida (185) vs. Gegard Mousasi (186)
*Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (185) vs. Francis Carmont (185)
*Erick Silva (170) vs. Takenori Sato (170)
*Viscardi Andrade (170) vs. Nicholas Musoke (170)
*Charles Oliveira (143) vs. Andy Ogle (146)

PRELIMINARY CARD
*Cristiano Marcello (156) vs. Joe Proctor (155)
*Rodrigo Damm (155) vs. Ivan Jorge (155)
*Jesse Ronson (156) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (155)
*Yuri Alcantara (136) vs. Wilson Reis (135)
*Maximo Blanco (147.9) vs. Felipe Arantes (146)
*Ildemar Alcantara (171) vs. Albert Tumenov (170)
*Zubaira Tuhugov (146) vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade (145)

**Joe Rogan previews tomorrow’s night Fight Night 36 card on Fox Sports 1:


**Georges St-Pierre is in Brazil this weekend to corner teammate Francis Carmont for his fight against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and will the first UFC card he has attended since announcing his leave. Neither Dana White nor Lorenzo Fertitta will be attending the show live tomorrow night so the two parties won’t be meeting face to face.

**Daniel Cormier and Pat Cummins have an exchange on Fox Sports 1 to drum up interest for their bout next weekend at UFC 170:


**The UFC has announced that the Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva fight will take place on May 31st in Brazil at a venue to be announced. They were originally planning to have this fight as the co-feature on the same card as Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort a week prior but announced the change today. The two will fight at the conclusion of the next season of TUF Brazil, which debuts Sunday March 9th on Fight Pass.

**Damon Martin received documents from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation confirming that Jessica Eye tested positive for cannabinoids after her fight with Sarah Kaufman last October at UFC 166. The win has been overturned to a no decision with Eye on probationary suspension and has to pay a fine but will still be able to fight Alexis Davis next week at UFC 170.

**The UFC announced today that their next international season of TUF will be focused on Latin America with a press release sent out asking for applicants between the age of 21-35, three pro fights and a verifiable winning record. The series will be filmed in Las Vegas later this year.

**Ian McCall has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Brad Pickett at Fight Night 37 on March 8th in London, England with UFC officials trying to find a replacement for Pickett.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from Sat night’s UFC Fight Night 36 card in Jaragua du Sol, Brazil in front of an announced crowd of 7,511:
*Zubaira Tukhugov over Douglas Silva de Andrade by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Ildemar Alcantara over Albert Tumenov by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
*Felipe Arantes over Maximo Blanco by unanimous decision (29-27 all)
*Yuri Alcantara over Wilson Reis by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
*Francisco Trinaldo over Jesse Ronson by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Rodrigo Damm over Ivan Jorge by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Joe Proctor over Cristiano Marcello by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Charles Oliveira over Andy Ogle by triangle choke at 2:40 of Round 3
*Nico Musoke over Viscardi Andrade by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Erick Silva over Takenori Sato by KO at 0:52 of Round 1
*Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza over Francis Carmont by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Lyoto Machida over Gegard Mousasi by unanimous decision (50-45, 5-45, 49-46)

**The UFC awarded the Fight of the Night bonus to Machida vs. Mousasi and Erick Silva and Charles Oliveira took the two Performance of the Night bonuses, all worth $50,000.

**With ten decisions on the show last night it ties the all-time record for decisions on a card with the record set two-weeks ago at UFC 169.

**GSP is not going to be in Las Vegas this weekend for UFC 170 where teammate Rory MacDonald is taking on Demian Maia. St-Pierre went down to Brazil for Francis Carmont’s fight with Jacare this past weekend and Firas Zahabi will be with MacDonald this weekend.

**Nate Quarry has posted a lengthy piece on The Underground forum regarding the current sponsorship situation in the UFC and how it has changed over the years. The full post is up at http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/thread/ ... s/?&page=6 and is about half way down the page.

**Despite an initial fear Lyoto Machida did not break his foot during Saturday’s fight with Gegard Mousasi.

**The bigger story of the weekend more so than the card Sat night is the announcement by Bellator that they have comes to terms on a deal with lightweight Gilbert Melendez with the UFC having the right to match Bellator’s offer or let Melendez go. Melendez had a huge contract that the UFC inherited when he came over from Strikeforce with a $175,000 guarantee when he fought with the deal expiring after his fight of the year candidate with Diego Sanchez at UFC 166 last October. We don’t know the exact figure that Bellator offered but you have to assume the UFC was trying to keep Melendez’s contract either at the same or lower his guarantee. The issue becomes that if Melendez gets a guarantee that high it will be lead to other lightweights (champion Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson, who holds a win over Melendez) wanting the same or higher guarantee, which they do not currently get. Melendez may not be a pay-per-view draw but it is fact that he is one of the top lightweights in the world with an argument to be made that he beat Henderson last year when they fought for the title and could be inserted into a lightweight title fight right now without any question to his deserving of another title fight. The way this story plays out will be an important barometer when it comes to measuring Bellator as a legitimate option for top fighters and giving them bargaining power when their deals with the UFC come due.

[Stickman]

**UFC 170 takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada with the following fights listed below. My picks are in bold and weigh-ins results are in parenthesis:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on pay-per-view)
*Ronda Rousey (135) vs. Sara McMann (135) for bantamweight title
*Daniel Cormier (205) vs. Pat Cummins (205)
*Rory MacDonald (171) vs. Demian Maia (170)
*Mike Pyle (171) vs. T.J. Waldburger (171)
*Stephen Thompson (170.5) vs. Robert Whittaker (170)

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, Sportsnet 360)
*Alexis Davis (135) vs. Jessica Eye (136)
*Raphael Assuncao (136) vs. Pedro Munhoz (135)
*Ajamain Sterling (135.5) vs. Cody Gibson (135.5)
*Zach Makovsky (125) vs. Josh Sampo (126)

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm ET)
*Erik Koch (155) vs. Rafaello Oliveira (155)
*Ernest Chavez (156) vs. Yosdenis Cedeno (155.5)

**Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino issued statement to Inside MMA on AXS TV stating that she is working with a doctor to make it down to 135-pounds and wants to fight Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight title. I’m sure this will be a big topic at the post fight press conference if Rousey is victorious over Sara McMann and can be a big pay-per-view fight later this year with the UFC promotion behind it and needing some big main events in 2014.


**The UFC has announced that Dan Hardy will be doing color commentary for six Fight Pass events this year beginning with the March 8th card in London, England headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa. The release also notes that they show will feature the debut of new play by play announcer John Gooden with Andy Friedlander serving as the in cage ring announcer in place of Bruce Buffer.

**The UFC announced today that their first event in Mexico City will be taking place this November with the TUF Latino America Finale card and be airing on Fight Pass.

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 170 videos focusing on the top three fights for tonight’s show:




**Luke Thomas has a big piece on the sponsorship discussion coming out of Dana White’s scrum yesterday and what the state of MMA sponsorships is in fact tied to the UFC at http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/2/21/54 ... cs-problem.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from UFC 170 Sat night with a crowd of 10,217 and a gate of $1,558,870 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center:
*Ernest Chavez over Yosdenis Cedeno by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
*Erik Koch over Rafaello Oliveira by TKO at 1:24 of Round 1
*Zach Makovsky over Josh Sampo by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Aljamain Sterling over Cody Gibson by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Raphael Assuncao over Pedro Munhoz by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Alexis Davis over Jessica Eye by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Stephen Thompson over Robert Whittaker by TKO at 3:43 of Round 1
*Mike Pyle over T.J. Waldburger by TKO at 4:03 of Round 3
*Rory MacDonald over Demian Maia by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Daniel Cormier over Pat Cummins by TKO at 1:19 of Round 1
*Ronda Rousey over Sara McMann by TKO at 1:06 of Round 1 to retain the women’s bantamweight title

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the show:
*Fight of the Night – Rory MacDonald vs. Demian Maia
*Performance of the Night – Ronda Rousey and Stephen Thompson

**Nick Diaz attended UFC 170 and held a quick scrum with the media stating that he wants to fight the winner of Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler, who are fighting next month for the vacant welterweight title. Dana White seemed to blow off the idea when asked about it later in the night. Diaz challenging for the title would probably be a big fight and likely the biggest fight you could make in the division this year with Georges St-Pierre gone but Diaz is also coming off of two losses and was soundly defeated by St-Pierre last year at UFC 158.

**When asked about Cris “Cyborg” cutting down to 135-pounds Dana White said she would have to make that weight for a couple of fights before the UFC would consider her in the mix and would not be able to bypass the women in the UFC division at the moment. Rousey stated she was looking at fighting against around the end of the summer but might want to fight earlier and will be filming the Entourage movie in March. The two logical contenders for Rousey are Cat Zingano and Alexis Davis and if Rousey doesn’t want to fight until August they could have Zingano and Davis fight in the spring.


**CM Punk made his first public appearance since walking out of the WWE at the UFC 170 card in Las Vegas. Punk was covered wearing a hoodie and seated next to Dana White and was never acknowledged on camera.


**Steve Austin also attended the show and was identified on camera and seated next to Urijah Faber.

**Mike Fish and Josh Gross have a giant piece on ESPN’s site today with an investigative piece on testosterone replacement therapy and the high amount of therapeutic use exemptions granted in mixed martial arts. The piece notes there have been 15 fighters given exemptions with 11 of those fighters being promoted by Zuffa. The article compares the number of exemptions to other sports including MLB (six exemptions over the past six seasons), the 2012 London Olympics (zero exemptions), Boxing (none on record through any athletic commissions) and the NFL (no hard date stating that a “handful” have been given out since 1990). The piece also states that TRT should only be recommended for diagnosed with testicular cancer or Hodgkin’s disease and not because one’s testosterone levels are low. Many people spoke off the record or declined interviews including officials from the UFC but they did speak with UFC middleweight Michael Bisping, who has fought (and lost) to Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort since 2010 with all three being granted exemptions. The piece is up at http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/ ... src=mobile.

**The Nevada State Athletic Commission is holding a meeting this Thursday where TRT is a major topic on the agenda and whether exemptions should be allowed or not. If a decision is made it will directly affect Vitor Belfort’s next fight in May at UFC 173 when he fights Chris Weidman in Las Vegas. Dana White ha stated that if Belfort is denied an exemption then he will have to fight without TRT with the card remaining in Las Vegas.

**The featherweight final between Yang Jianping and Ning Guangyou set for this Saturday’s TUF China Finale has been postponed due to a secret injury to one of the fighters, which hasn’t been released. Because of the short notice and not being able to get visas for a new fight they are just eliminating the fight and bumping Vaughan Lee vs. Nam Phan up to the main card of the show. The original start time on Saturday morning of 5:45am ET has been moved up to 6:15am with the elimination of one fight.

**Titan FC has announced that due to visa issues Pedro Nobre and Gleristone Santos have been forced to withdraw from this Friday’s card in Kansas City. Nobre’s original opponent Bill Friday will now fight Ken Porter and Kalvin Hackney now meets Jeff Robbins with both fights steraming online the CBS Sports Network website at 10:30pm ET. The main card on CBS Network will feature Mike Ricci vs. Jorge Gurgel and Matt Riddle vs. Michael Kuiper and they go head to head with Bellator 110 on Spike TV.

**A lightweight bout between Jamie Varner and James Krause has been added to the May 24th UFC 173 card in Las Vegas.

**The UFC sent out a release late Sunday night announcing that they had signed Gilbert Melendez to a new contract and thus matching Bellator’s offer (they had three-weeks to do so). The deal is an incredible one for Melendez as he is guaranteed that 75% of his fights will be on pay-per-view, he gets a cut of the pay-per-view revenue regardless of his placement on the card and will get a lightweight title shot in his next fight after coaching TUF 20 alongside Anthony Pettis and fight on the December year-end card. Pettis and Melendez will coach the all women’s strawweight season, which begins filming in a few months and will premiere in September to crown the first strawweight champion in the UFC. It’s a major win for Melendez and is largely due to the leverage he had because of Bellator offering him a big deal.

**Bellator has announced that they have extended middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko’s contract with the organization. Shlemenko will be defending his middleweight title on March 29th at Bellator 114 against Brennan Ward.

[warehouse]

im always embarrassed at the mma/pro wrestling connection