The Official MMA Thread

[Alex]

in case you missed it.
Poor Hendo

i did miss it thanks for the update though

[Stickman]

**UFC president Dana White spoke with UFC.com regarding the current situation involving Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Lorenzo Fertitta initially told ESPN.com that they were aiming for Jones vs. Gustfasson on August 30th and later it was clarified that Gustafsson had signed a bout agreement but Jones has not. The latest from White in this interview is that Jones not only hasn’t signed the bout agreement but now he wants to fight Daniel Cormier instead of Gustafsson in his next fight. It is an interesting tact from the UFC as they are playing this out publically and Jones coming across to the public as being adverse to fighting Gustafsson again.

**Jon Jones responds:


**Spike TV has announced that the Gym Rescue featuring Randy Couture and Frank Shamrock as hosts, will be premiering on Sunday August 10th at 9pm Eastern. The concept is that Couture and Shamrock will travel to different MMA gyms, yoga studios and military base camps and offer advice and assistance. They have already shot a bunch of episodes and this series was initially announced way back in January of last year when Couture signed a deal with Viacom after leaving the UFC.

**Bellator kicks off their Summer Series this Friday with a card in Thackerville, Oklahoma headlined by heavyweight James Thompson and Eric Prindle and the promotional debut of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou taking on Terry Davinney. The show will also feature three light heavyweight quarter-final bouts for their next tournament at 205-pounds. The card was originally to be headlined by Pat Curran vs. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire for the featherweight title but Curran had to pull out due to a right calf strain.

**The UFC is running a Fight Night card this Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico headlined by Benson Henderson and Rustam Khabilov in a lightweight bout. There are numerous Jackson-Winkeljohn and MMA Lab fighters on the card.

**The UFC has made an interesting announcement that they will be running a Fight Night card on Friday September 5th in Ledyard, Connecticut, which is about ten-miles from the Mohegan Sun Arena, which is where Bellator is running their Season 11 opener that night. Bellator has not announced a main event for that card but have stated Brennan Ward will fight James Irvin on that show.

[Stickman]

**Jon Jones and his management met with UFC officials in Las Vegas yesterday regarding his next fight. This one is largely being played out in the public with the UFC steadfast in wanting to do the Alexander Gustafsson rematch while Jones is now stating he wants to fight Daniel Cormier in his next fight. Cormier has since said that if he were to get the next title fight he would forego knee surgery (he injured his ACL and LCL in the lead up to the fight with Dan Henderson) according to a report from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight this week.


**The big date to circle on your calendars regarding the Vitor Belfort situation is Tuesday June 17th where Belfort will appear in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission to apply for a license to fight in the state and approved to fight Chael Sonnen on July 5th at UFC 175. They most interesting aspect of the meeting will be that the NSAC will have the power to reveal the results of the random drug test Belfort was subjected to earlier this year. The results of the test were sealed because Belfort was not licensed by the state at the time so the NSAC couldn’t release the results and Belfort chose not to disclose them either.

**RFA also has a card Friday night in Culver City, California headlined by Kevin Casey fighting Andrew Sanchez for the vacant middleweight title. The card will also feature Chinzo Machida (the younger brother of Lyoto Machida) taking on Dmitry Gerasimov.

**UFC bantamweight Cat Zingano is currently training at American Top Team as she gets set to return to fight in the near future. No fight is announced but her manager Ed Soares indicated on The MMA Hour this week that she would likely have a non-title fight upon returning as opposed to getting a shot at the winner of Ronda Rousey and Alexis Davis, who are fighting July 5th.

**Cole Miller is off of the July 19th UFC Fight Night card where he was scheduled for the main event against Conor McGregor. Miller suffered torn ligaments in his right thumb and will be unable to fight on the card with Diego Brandao stepping in to fill his spot in the main event.

**Dave Meltzer at MMAFighting.com reported that Saturday’s TUF Brazil 3 Finale card averaged 609,000 for the main card and 569,000 for the undercard. Typically the main card grows significantly since you are peaking with the main event but this was a rare instance of both the prelim fights doing above expectations and the main card below what you would expect for a Saturday night main card. No numbers are available for the Germany show since it aired exclusively on Fight Pass.

**The Countdown to UFC 174 special will debut this Sunday night at 8pm Eastern on Fox Sports 1.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night card in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Tingley Coliseum in front of 8,775 and a gate of $698,000:
*Patrick Cummins over Roger Narvaez by TKO at 2:28 of Round 2
*Jon Tuck over Jake Lindsey by submission from strikes at 2:47 of Round 3
*Scott Jorgensen over Danny Martinez by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Lance Benoist over Bobby Voelker by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Sergio Pettis over Yaotzin Meza by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Bryan Caraway over Erik Perez by rear-naked choke at 1:52 of Round 2
*Piotr Hallmann over Yves Edwards by rear-naked choke at 2:31 of Round 3
*Rafael dos Anjos over Jason High by TKO at 3:36 of Round 2
*John Dodson over John Moraga by TKO due to a doctor’s stoppage at the ed of Round 2
*Diego Sanchez over Ross Pearson by split decision (30-27, 27-30, 29-28)
*Benson Henderson over Rustam Khabilov by rear-naked choke at 1:16 of Round 4

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the card:
*Fight of the Night – Scott Jorgensen vs. Danny Martinez
*Performances – Benson Henderson and Piotr Hallmann

**The Diego Sanchez decision over Ross Pearson was one of the worst in a long time. In the first round Sanchez came on with a flurry at the end (and kept this pattern for Round 2 and 3 but had no success at the end of those rounds). Even with the flurry at the end of the round, with minimal shots landing, the general consensus is that Pearson won the first. Fight Metric has the breakdown of the stats with Pearson out-landing Sanchez in significant strikes by a margin of 13-8 in Round 1, 17-13 in Round 2 and 21-12 in Round 3 and 51-33 overall. Jeff Collins was the judge with the 30-27 card for Sanchez (he typically judges about two cards per year but has been doing it for a number of years but not one of the more active judges in the sport), Chris Tellez had it 29-28 for Sanchez and had never judged a pro MMA card before and Marcos Rosales had it 30-27 for Pearson.

**The Telegraph in the U.K. has reported that UFC lightweight Ross Pearson has filed a complaint to the New Mexico Athletic Commission regarding the judges split decision for Diego Sanchez on Saturday night in Albuquerque. Judges Jeff Collins and Chris Tellez scored the fight for Sanchez with Collins scoring the fight 30-27 and Tellez 29-28 while Marcos Rosales had the fight 30-27 for Pearson.

**There was an incident involving Jason High when he shoved referee Kevin Muhall after Mulhall stepped in to stop the fight with Rafael dos Anjos. High apologized on Twitter after the fight and said it would never happen again. It is up to the athletic commission in New Mexico in regards to whether he will be fined and /or suspended.

**Mel Gibson attended the UFC card Sat night in Albuquerque with TMZ picking up the story and showing a photo of him alongside the octagon girls.

**Here are the results from the WSOF Canada 2 event from Saturday night in Edmonton (and will be airing on Fight Network later this month):
*Graham Park over Jordan Murray by TKO at 1:00 of Round 1
*Marcus Hicks over Markhaile Wedderburn by rear-naked choke at 1:34 of Round 1
*Hakeem Dawodu over Jake MacDonald by KO at 0:18 of Round 2
*Ryan James over David Perron by rear-naked choke at 4:23 of Round 1
*Spencer Jebb over Matt DesRoches by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Tim Hague over Matt Baker by TKO at 3:56 of Round 1
*Josh Hill (TUF 18 alumni) over Mike Adams by TKO at 4:20 of Round 1
*Dwayne Lewis over David Loiseau by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

**A lightweight bout between Bobby Green and Abel Trujillo has been added to the UFC 176 card on August 2nd in Los Angeles, California. Trujillo was scheduled to fight Myles Jury later this month but an injury forced Jury to withdraw and Trujillo is now being moved to the August 2nd card. Trujillo is coming off wins over Roger Bowling and Jamie Varner while Green has won his last seven fights with wins over Jacob Volkmann, James Krause and Pat Healy since coming over from Strikeforce in 2013.

**The UFC officially announced that Jon Jones will fight Alexander Gustafsson on September 27th in Toronto at UFC 178 in the same city where the first fight took place last year and was the fight of the year for many people. The release came out with Jones stating that he does believe Daniel Cormier is the tougher match up (this actually was included in the release promoting the “lesser” fight according to Jones) and that he wanted to fight later in the year but is fine with this date. Jones stated that his brother is getting married in July and that was the major roadblock to Jones fighting on August 30th and was opting for October or November but said he will still get a “proper training camp”.

**Vitor Belfort released a statement today regarding his random drug test from this past February where he stated that the test results showed that his testosterone levels were above the allowable range. Belfort noted further that following the test result, he has been sending test results of his own to the NSAC indicating that his levels were either at normal or below normal levels and that he immediately stopped using TRT when the NSAC issued a ban on testosterone replacement therapy. This comes in advance of his hearing on June 17th in front of the commission in hopes of being licensed in the state to fight Chael Sonnen on July 5th at UFC 175. The document posted indicates his levels were measured at 1472 ng/dL with the acceptable range between 348-1197.

**The UFC and Invicta FC have announced a distribution agreement where all of Invicta’s past and future events will be airing on UFC Fight Pass. The past seven shows for the promotion should be up on the service in 2-3 weeks and the promotion is aiming to hold another event at the end of the summer. The UFC made it clear they are not purchasing the company but will obtain the digital rights to the promotion through this deal. Invicta FC has not run a show since last December and looked to be in trouble if a deal like this didn’t come along. The deal will also allow Invicta to promote their cards and fighters on UFC programming.

**Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp confirmed to MMA Fighting today that Cris “Cyborg” Justino will fight Ediane Gomes in her next fight with the bout expected to be at featherweight with Cyborg defending her title before Cyborg cuts down to 135-pounds.

[Stickman]

Chael Sonnen announces he's retiring from MMA after 17 years of fighting

Marc Raimondi

FOX Sports

JUN 11, 2014 7:21p ET

Chael Sonnen's recent failed drug test hasn't just led to him being pulled from UFC 175. It will also mark the end of his MMA career.

Sonnen announced his retirement from competition Wednesday on UFC Tonight, one day after news came out that he had tested positive for banned substances and would likely not be able to fight Vitor Belfort on July 6 in Las Vegas. Sonnen has competed in MMA for 17 years, including the last five with the UFC.

At the top of the show, Sonnen further explained why he was taking human chorionic gonadotropin, anastrozole and clomiphene. The latter two are anti-estrogen medications typically given to women. Sonnen, 37, has hypogonadism, an affliction that affects the output of testosterone. He was on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) before it was banned by the Nevada Athletic Commission in February. Once he came off that, Sonnen said doctors prescribed him anastrozole and clomiphene with the hope of stimulating natural testosterone production.

In some ways, it worked. Sonnen said he had fertility issues previously and now his wife Brittany is pregnant with their first child. He said he was putting his health and family first and would do the same thing again if given the choice.

Sonnen took responsibility for his actions and said he should have disclosed to the NSAC that he was on the drugs. He said Tuesday on "America's Pregame" that he was "confused" about commission regulations for out-of-competition testing, since the tests came last month and the fight was in July. Also, he took exception to the fact that the two drugs found in his system were performance-enhancing -- Sonnen said they are for his health and would not help him in the Octagon.

Furthermore, he said, they are legal in the United States unlike anabolic steroids. Anastrozole and clomiphene are, however, banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Sonnen (28-14-1), one of the biggest pay-per-view draws in the UFC, is perhaps best known for his heated rivalry with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva, someone he thanked profusely Wednesday on UFC Tonight. The feud was one of the most memorable in MMA and Sonnen nearly won the title from Silva in August 2010, dominating four rounds against the all-time great before being submitted at 3:10 of the fifth by a triangle choke.

After that fight, Sonnen tested positive for elevated testosterone levels. He was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission, but worked his way back to beat Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, earning another shot at Silva.

That rematch, in July 2012, was one of the biggest drawing UFC bouts in recent times. Silva beat Sonnen again, this time by TKO in the second round.

Sonnen's days as a title contender were not over. His very next fight was a matchup with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, which Jones dominated and ended at 4:33 of the first round by TKO. After that, Sonnen beat Mauricio "Shogun" Rua on the FOX Sports 1 launch card in August and fell to Rashad Evans in November.

Sonnen is best known for his trash talk, which has made him one of the most popular -- and divisive -- fighters in UFC history. His rivalry with Silva was fueled by Sonnen tearing the then-champion down, everything from making fun of his appearance to his home country of Brazil. Sonnen did the same to Jones en route to earning that title shot and a spot as coach on The Ultimate Fighter.

Sonnen was supposed to settle another score with a major rival in Wanderlei Silva next month after the two got into a fight on the set of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, but Silva evaded a random drug test from the NAC and Belfort, another person Sonnen has traded barbs with, stepped in. It's unclear if Belfort, who has his own past drug issues, will remain on the UFC 175 card.

Before Sonnen started speaking up, he was a journeyman 185-pounder with stints in WEC, Pancrase and Bodog Fight. At his best, though, the former Division I wrestling All-American and Olympic trialist was a guy who could beat any middleweight in the world outside of Silva. Sonnen was also known for being a company man who would step in at a moment's notice to take a fight if someone else had pulled out with an injury.

His charisma has made Sonnen a rising star on FOX Sports 1, hosting UFC Tonight with Kenny Florian and also acting as an analyst for UFC live events.

That's the role everyone will be seeing him in from now on, because Sonnen said his fighting career has come to an end.

The announcement:

“I want to take an opportunity to officially announcement my retirement from competitive mixed martial arts. I had a great time. I want to thank Roy Pittman. I want to thank Dave Sandal. I want to thank my coach Clayton Hires. These guys taught me how fight, they taught me how to persevere and they stood by me through thick and thin.

“I want to thank FOX, I want to thank the leadership of the UFC. I want to thank a man named Bill Brady, who gave me a second wind if you will. He’s a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and he believed in me at a time when I really needed somebody too, and I owe the second wind of my career to him. I am proud to call him a friend. I also want to thank the most important opponent I’ve ever had. I couldn’t have got here without this dance partner, and that is of course you, Anderson Silva. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for the memories, thank you for the invitation to the barbeque, even though I didn’t take you up on it. “

[Stickman]

**UFC president Dana White has announced that Jason High has been cut from the promotion following an incident last Saturday where High shoved referee Kevin Mulhall after his loss to Rafael dos Anjos. High apologized on Twitter for his actions but White is taking a hard line stance and compared the incident to when Paul Daley sucker punched Josh Koscheck after their UFC 113 fight in May 2010.

**Josh Burkman has been forced to withdraw from his bout with Jon Fitch at the WSOF 11 card on July 5th due to an injury with the promotion seeking out a replacement. This is the second opponent change for Fitch, who was originally to fight Jake Shields on this card.

**Next week’s NSAC will be a very important one as they will be addressing Vitor Belfort’s case and whether he will be licensed within the state despite high levels of testosterone showing up in a random drug test from this past February. The NSAC has also invited Wanderlei Silva to appear in front of the commission to address his refusal to participate in a random drug test on May 24th with possible disciplinary action being handed out.

**Dana White has also announced that despite a split decision loss, Ross Pearson will get his $30,000 win bonus for Saturday’s fight with Diego Sanchez. It was one of the more controversial decisions in recent history with judge Jeff Collins scoring the fight 30-27 for Sanchez, Chris Tellez scored it 29-28 for Sanchez and Marcos Rosales scored it 30-27 for Pearson.

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 174 videos discussing the top three fights this Saturday night in Vancouver:

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC 174 card last night in Vancouver, British Columbia with an announced crowd of 13,506 and a gate of $1,140,000 at the Rogers Arena:
*Jason Saggo over Josh Shockley by TKO at 4:57 of Round 1
*Michinori Tanaka over Roland Delorme by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Tae Hyun Bang over Kajan Johnson by KO at 2:01 of Round 3
*Yves Jabouin over Mike Easton by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Valerie Letourneau over Elizabeth Phillips by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Kiichi Kunimoto over Daniel Sarafian by rear-naked choke at 2:52 of Round 1
*Ovince St. Preux over Ryan Jimmo by TKO (verbal submission) at 2:10 of Round 2
*Andrei Arlovski over Brendan Schaub by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Ryan Bader over Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Rory MacDonald over Tyron Woodley by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Demetrious Johnson over Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision (50-45 all)

**The $50,000 bonuses were handed out to the following:
*Fight of the Night – Tae Hyun Bang vs. Kajan Johnson
*Performances – Tae Hyun Bang and Kiichi Kunimoto

**Dana White spoke to Ariel Helwani after the card and announced that the winner of the Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown would still be the next contender for Johny Hendricks despite MacDonald’s performance on the card last night. White also felt that Tyron Woodley “choked” during the big fight.


**Brendan Schaub, Valerie Letourneau and Ryan Jimmo all went to the hospital after their fights. Schaub was cleared and didn’t break his jaw despite massive swelling. Letourneau said after the fight that she thought she broke her orbital bone in the opening round while Jimmo was concerned he broke his right arm, which caused the end of the fight with Ovince St. Preux.

[Stickman]

**The biggest story of the day concerns the massive changes to the Bellator organization with founder and C.E.O. Bjorn Rebney and company president and C.O.O. Tim Danaher out of their positions and former Strikeforce C.E.O. Scott Coker coming is as the new president of the organization effective immediately.

It was outlined in the press release that this would begin a philosophical change from a tournament based promotion to one built around big fights and outlines the differences of what Viacom wanted and the resistance from the founder and president.

Coker has been out of the game from a hands on role for quite some time after Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment sold the promotion to Zuffa LLC in March of 2011 and Coker stayed on board in a figurehead position before Strikeforce was shut down in late 2012 and absorbed by the UFC. Coker had a non-compete agreement, which expired this past March and allowed him to take this position without any contractual hurdles in the way.

There is lots of discussion as to the changes that will occur within the promotion and the good and bad of both Rebney and Coker. Rebney has to be given credit or taking a promotion that had little chance of success in 2009 and keeping it going for as long as he did, finding a business model where they could sell shows to various casinos and manage costs before ultimately selling a controlling share to Viacom and giving the promotion stability with a massive broadcaster behind the venture.

The tournament structure was the calling card for Bellator and the argument you would always hear is that you can create a star through the tournament formal and harkening back to the early days of the UFC where that was idea and taking an unknown like Steve Jennum, who won a tournament and had momentary fame that ultimately didn’t last or on the other side of the spectrum have someone like Royce Gracie, who used UFC 1 as an exhibition and was a bigger star after one night. The proof was in the pudding and after five-years the promotion had not created a superstar (Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler would have been the biggest but the success of their recent pay-per-view was evidence that Chandler was a small piece of the puzzle that clicked for pay-per-view customers and the reality was Quinton Jackson, Muhammad Lawal and to a lesser extent Tito Ortiz were the people seen as stars on that card) and stars fighting are going to sell a lot easier than a technically great fight.

On the other hand is Coker, who had a much better sense of the star creation system and was smart enough to see what worked for Gary Shaw and Elite XC and promote women’s MMA after Elite XC went out of business and would promote the biggest women’s bout up to that point in history with the Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg fight in August 2009. Coker had his shortcomings as well including mounting money losses that ultimately led to Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment wanting out and that may have been fast tracked by the contract that Fedor Emelianenko signed, which was never going to be worthwhile for the promotion if they couldn’t get him onto pay-per-view and draw (which they didn’t) or get such strong advertising dollars by putting him on CBS (which they couldn’t either despite Fedor drawing some impressive numbers on both CBS and Showtime).

To the public Coker is much more reserved and won’t be engaging in public feuds with fighters on the roster and might be the best recipe for Bellator at the present time, where the promotion has (fairly or unfairly) gained a reputation of being a tough promotion to deal with if you’re a fighter and being locked into inescapable deals. Coker is well respected across the board from fighters to fellow promoters and you will hear few negative words about the man, who has been promoting since the 1980’s with regional kickboxing shows and then began promoting MMA in 2006 when California legalized the sport and drew one of the highest paid attendance figures in U.S. history in March of 2006 for a card headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie.

The next Bellator card is scheduled for July 25th (which interestingly enough is the night before the UFC on FOX card in San Jose, which was put on the map by Scott Coker and Strikeforce to MMA fans).

**On Tuesday the Nevada State Athletic Commission reviewed the cases involving Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen regarding their recent random drug tests from May 24th. Silva appeared with his lawyer, Ross Goodman, and took responsibility for not taking part in the drug test and stating that he was concerned that it would show he has been taking diuretics and other anti-inflammatories for a wrist injury he sustained back in February while filming TUF Brazil. The commission is going to rule on a punishment at a later date for Silva and issued a temporary suspension for the now retired Chael Sonnen after his random test revealed the banned anti-estrogen drugs Clomiphene and Anastrozole.

**Just days after their wins at UFC 174 it has been announced that light heavyweights Ryan Bader and Ovince St. Preux will headline the Fight Night card on August 16th in Bangor, Maine in a five-round bout. Both were asked about fighting the other this past Saturday after their wins and both seemed to like the idea and made it easy for the UFC to go in that direction.

**Benson Henderson and Rafael dos Anjos are also going to have quick turnarounds as they will headline the August 23rd UFC Fight Night card in Tulsa, Oklahoma in a five-round lightweight bout. The UFC will be running two cards that day with the show in Tulsa and their return to Macau, China with Dong Hyun Kim vs. Hector Lombard and Cung Le vs. Michael Bisping on that card.

**MMA Fighting confirmed a report from Middle Easy that Bellator did make an offer to Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson to fight for the organization but they didn’t like the terms and have not accepted a deal. It should be noted that the offer was made prior to the regime change and it’s unknown if the new management will have any interest in pursuing him. Ferguson has not fought in mixed martial arts since May of 2010 when he lost Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 and was subsequently cut (and despite still have a name wasn’t signed by Strikeforce so that may tell you right there where the interest level in Slice is for Scott Coker).

**The Los Angeles Daily Times broke the news that middleweights Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Gegard Mousasi will square off at UFC 176 on August 2nd in Los Angeles underneath the Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes rematch for the featherweight title. Souza last fought in February with a strong win over Francis Carmont and then underwent elbow surgery to have bone chips removed while Mousasi is coming off of a dominant win over Mark Munoz last month in Germany. This is a rematch from the 2008 Dream Middleweight Grand Prix where Mousasi stopped Souza with an up kick in the final the Grand Prix.

**FOX Sports reported that Brandon Vera has been cut by the UFC after nine-years with the organization and fighting sixteen times for the promotion. Vera debuted for the UFC in 2005 and quickly gained attention by proclaiming he would win titles at both heavyweight and light heavyweight and seemed to be on his way to the first promise when he stopped Frank Mir in the first round at UFC 65 in November of 2006. Vera then sat out close to a year due to a contract dispute and would return the following October where he gave up way too much size and beaten by Tim Sylvia at UFC 77 and would cut down to light heavyweight in July 2008 where he would show flashes of brilliance but struggle in fights he should have won on paper. He was actually cut in 2011 following a loss to Thiago Silva at UFC 125 but when Silva failed his post fight drug test, the loss was changed to a no contest and he couldn’t be cut without losing and came back where he went 1-2 in his next two fights. His last fight was at UFC 164 last August where he was stopped by Ben Rothwell in his return to heavyweight but Rothwell had high levels of testosterone in his system but the commission didn’t change the result of the fight.

[Stickman]

**The UFC has overturned Louis Gaudinot’s win over Phil Harris from March 8th in London, England to a no contest after it was discovered that Gaudinot tested positive for a diuretic in his post fight drug test. Gaudinot was also suspended for six-months by the UFC retroactive to his win over Harris. Gaudinot has put out a statement and denies any wrongdoing but is not contesting the result.

**Thiago Tavares is dropping down to the featherweight division for his next fight when he takes on Robbie Peralta on August 16th at the Fight Night 47 card in Bangor, Maine. Tavares is 8-5-1 in the UFC since April of 2007 and last fought in November of last year with a submission win over Justin Salas. Peralta is coming off back to back wins with his most recent being a split decision over Rony “Jason” Bezerra last month in Brazil.

**The finalized for card for UFC 175 on July 5th will feature Urijah Faber and Alex Caceres not part of the pay-per-view portion but will instead be the featured preliminary bout on FS 1 leading into the pay-per-view. Marcus Brimage vs. Russell Doane will open up the pay-per-view

**A lightweight bout between Tony Martin and Beneil Dariush has been added to the UFC 176 card on August 2nd in Los Angeles.

**A featherweight bout between Andre Fili and Sean Soriano has been announced for the UFC’s Fight Night card on September 5th in Ledyard, Connecticut. That card will also feature a lightweight bout between Michael Chiesa and Joe Lauzon, which was announced earlier this week.

[Stickman]

**Bellator and Spike TV has announced that they will be replaying their pay-per-view event on Friday July 18th at 9pm Eastern featuring Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammad Lawal, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko and Will Brooks vs. Michael Chandler for the interim lightweight title.

**Guilherme Cruz from MMA Fighting is reporting that 19 fighters have been cut from their Bellator contracts including heavyweight Eric Prindle and others names including Anthony Leone, Rodrigo Lima, Tim Welch, Nathan Coy, Jared Downing, Keith Berry, Eric Smith, Jeremy Kimball, Anthony Lemon, Trey Houston, Travis Marx and Hiroshi Nakamura.

**Dan Henderson is planning to return back to the middleweight division according to his Muay Thai coach, Daniel Woirin, who spoke to MMA Fightng about the move. Henderson has not fought at 185-pounds since his loss to Jake Shields in April of 2010 for the Strikeforce organization. Henderson hast lost four of his last five in the UFC and coming off a bad loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC 173 last month where he weighed in at 199-pounds for the fight.

**Hector Lombard has been forced to withdraw from his welterweight bout with Dong-Hyun Kim on August 23rd due to injury and is being replaced by Tyron Woodley for the Fight Night card in Macau. UFC president Dana White was actually over in China doing media with the fighters on the card when the news broke and had to inform Kim of the change in person. The show will also feature a middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Cung Le.

**There were four UFC related nominations announced this week for the annual ESPY Awards with Ronda Rousey nominated for Best Fighter and Best Female Athlete, Jon Jones was nominated for Best Fighter and Chris Weidman is nominated for “Best Upset” for his win over Anderson Silva (which is funny because prior to the first fight just about every fighter was picking Weidman and among those in the industry T.J. Dillashaw’s win over Renan Barao was seen as a much bigger upset).

**Team Nogueira has posted footage of Anderson Silva, who was recently cleared to return to sparring six-months after his leg injury at UFC 168 against Chris Weidman:

[Stickman]

**Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting broke the news Saturday night that Chael Sonnen has failed a second random drug test, which was administered on June 5th (prior to the announcement of his first failure from a May 24th test in Nevada) and came back positive for the banned performance enhancing substances of HGH and EPO. The test results were not brought up on the broadcast last night on FS 1 but the UFC did tell members of the media in attendance that a statement would be released at the post fight press conference. Dana White was not at the San Antonio show and the following statement was given after the card:

We were made aware that a second random test, conducted earlier this month, resulted in a positive test for additional banned substances. Chael wil have the opportunity to appear in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission next month, and through a statement released to the media tonight, he's pledged to cooperate. Our stance on the subject remains absolutely the same. We support the commission and we will continue to ensure that all UFC competitors compete on an even playing field, free of performance-enhancing drugs and banned substances.

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night 44 card last night in San Antonio, Texas in front of 9,227 and a gate of $728,358 at the AT&T Center:
*Oleksiy Oliynyk over Anthony Hamilton by neck crank at 1:28 of Round 1
*Ray Borg over Shane Howell by rear-naked choke at 2:17 of Round 1
*Marcelo Guimaraes over Andy Enz by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
*Cody Gibson over Johnny Bedford by TKO at 0:38 of Round 1
*Carlos Diego Ferreira over Colton Smith by rear-naked choke at 0:38 of Round 1
*Joe Ellenberger over James Moontasri by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Clint Hester over Antonio Braga Neto by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Ricardo Lamas over Hacran Dias by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Cezar Ferreira over Andrew Craig by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Kelvin Gastelum over Nicholas Musoke by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Cub Swanson over Jeremy Stephens by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)

**Cub Swanson and Jeremy Stephens received the fight of the night bonus for $50,000 each while Ray Borg and Cezar Ferreira each got $50,000 for the performance of the night bonuses.

**There was a lot of controversy in the Cody Gibson win over Johnny Bedford after referee Kerry Hatley stepped in to stop fight after Bedford fell backwards onto the mat following two right hands from Gibson. Hatley hesitated to stop the fight but did go ahead and commit to the call with Bedford livid at the decision. Gibson stated in the post fight interview that he saw Bedford’s eyes roll back and later Bedford acknowledged he was dazed but not out and was upset at the stoppage. Gibson said he would be happy to have a rematch with him.

**Tom Wright of the UFC noted at the post fight press conference on Saturday after the Auckland event that the December 6th show that was scheduled for the Bell Centre in Montreal is expected to be moved to March of 2015. Back in 2012 the promotion originally planned to have shows every March in Montreal and every September in Toronto.

**The UFC’s Countdown to UFC 175 premieres tonight on FS 1 at 8:30pm Eastern.

[Stickman]

[Stickman]

**The hammer came down on Chael Sonnen on Monday night the announcement from the UFC and FOX Sports that they were ceasing their relationship with the former fighter following a second positive drug test from the past month. It was revealed by Ariel Helwani at MMA Fighting on Saturday night that Sonnen’s random drug test that was conducted on June 5th came back positive for the banned substances HGH, EPO, HCG and Anastrozole (the latter two, which also appeared in his May 24th random test and led to his removal from the UFC 175 card). The following statement was released by the UFC and FOX:

The UFC and FOX Sports organizations announced today the termination of their respective broadcasting services agreements with analyst Chael Sonnen. This decision comes in light of Sonnen failing a second test conducted by the Nevada Athletic Commission for banned substances in June. Sonnen was previously under temporary suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission for failing an initial test conducted in May.


**Dave Meltzer has a tremendous piece up at MMA Fighting discussing the implications of the second positive drug test for Chael Sonnen and what this could mean for the sport with HGH and EPO being found in a UFC fighter for the first time.

**Former middleweight champion Anderson Silva held a media scrum recently in Brazil and stated he will not be able to fight this year and is targeting 2015 for his return. He stated he has no interest in fighting Chris Weidman for a third time and feels the possibility of fighting Nick Diaz would be “interesting” for him.

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 175 videos promoting the two title fights this weekend with Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida and Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis:



**There are some huge lines for some of the bouts this weekend on the two UFC cards. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is as high as a -2000 favorite over Alexis Davis at last check while Frankie Edgar is as high as -750 for his fight with BJ Penn. Urijah Faber is also a big favorite over Alex Caceres, where he is -1580 on some sports books.

**UFC lightweight Myles Jury has posted that he accepted a fight with Nate Diaz but there has been no response from the Diaz camp and is publically calling Diaz to take the fight for later this year.

**Metamoris has stated that despite the recent drug test failures and release from the UFC that they are keeping Sonnen on their August 9th card where he is set to take on Andre Galvao. Metamoris is grappling only and is not subjected to drug testing by the California State Athletic Commission, which is the state the show is taking place in.

**UFC heavyweight Antonio Silva was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday and stated that after his next fight he would once again have to have an operation to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland, which causes acromegaly and allows the body to produce excess testosterone. Silva had the surgery once before after being ordered to do so by the California State Athletic Commission and has led to Silva having a legitimate need for testosterone replacement therapy but will not be allowed to do so. Silva is currently under suspension stemming from his high levels of testosterone were found in his post fight drug test after his bout with Mark Hunt last December.

**There are tons of events happening in Las Vegas this week for UFC International Fight Week with a list of the events posted at http://m.ufc.com/news/fight-week-2014-events.

**UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis has signed an endorsement deal with Reebok.

[Stickman]

Stone Cold Steve Austin talks his career, current projects and his love of MMA
Scroll down to the bottom for the interview.

[Stickman]

**Ariel Helwani reported on Wednesday night that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is off of the UFC 176 card where he was to defend the title against Chad Mendes in Los Angeles. Aldo is believed to have suffered a shoulder and cervical spine injury during a wrestling practice on Tuesday with no replacement or plans announced for the card. While the event has some intriguing match ups it’s a tough sell without the title fight with Gergard Mousasi vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in the co-feature position.

**The UFC officially announced all of the cast members for TUF Season 20 featuring the women’s strawweight tournament to crown the first champion in the division. The following names were announced (with some previously announced):
*Joanne Calderwood, Alex Chambers, Randa Markos, Aisling Daly, Heather Jo Clark, Lisa Ellis, Carla Esparza (the Invicta FC strawweight champion), Emily Kagan, Angela Magana, Felice Herrig (who is the best personality of all the women), Angela Hill, Rose Namajunas, Jessica Penne (former Invicta atomweight champion), Tecia Torres and Bec Rawlings. The season will be kicking off the first week of September on FS 1 and Sportsnet 360 in Canada.

**The filming for TUF 20 began this past Monday and runs for six-weeks.

**The lightweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez doesn’t have a date locked in place as of yet. The two options appear to be December 6th in Las Vegas or January 3rd of next year in Las Vegas.

**The UFC Fight Night 49 card on August 23rd in Tulsa, Oklahoma has seen some changes and additions this week. Thiago Alves has been forced to withdraw from the card for his fight with Jordan Mein and in to replace Alves is Brandon Thatch and that should be a great fight. The UFC has also added a middleweight bout between Francis Carmont and Thales Leites as well as a welterweight bout between Demian Maia and Mike Pyle. The card is headlined by a lightweight bout between Benson Henderson and Rafael dos Anjos.

**The UFC has announced that Sara McMann will be fighting Lauren Murphy (who was the Invicta FC bantamweight champion) on the Fight Night card from Bangor, Maine on August 16th.

**UFC Embedded Episodes going into UFC 175:

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC 175 card last night, which was a really strong show (in particular the main event and the atmosphere for the Rousey vs. Davis fight) with an announced crowd of 10,088 and a gate of $4,400,000:
*Kevin Casey over Bubba Bush by KO at 1:01 of Round 1
*Luke Zachrich over Guilherme Vasconcelos by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Rob Font over George Roop by KO at 2:19 of Round 1
*Bruno Santos over Chris Camozzi by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Kenny Robertson over Ildemar Alcantara by unanimous decision (30-26 all)
*Urijah Faber over Alex Caceres by rear-naked choke at 1:09 of Round 3
*Russell Doane over Marcus Brimage by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
*Uriah Hall over Thiago Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Ronda Rousey over Alexis Davis by KO at 0:16 of Round 1 to keep the bantamweight title
*Chris Weidman over Lyoto Machida by unanimous decision (49-45, 48-47, 49-46) to keep the middleweight title

**The $50,000 bonuses for fight of the night went to Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida and the performance bonuses went to Ronda Rousey and Rob Font.

**The Stefan Struve vs. Matt Mitrione fight was canceled mid-way during the show when Struve had what was described as a panic attack backstage and nearly blacked out with his blood pressure dropping. Struve was taken to the hospital as a preventable measure but they wouldn’t allow him to fight. All signs indicate that he is okay but there was lots of concern considering his heart issues, which have kept him sidelined since March of last year. Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie noted that Struve is on a medication (Lisinopril) with side effects of dizziness and fainting. Both fighters were paid their show money and win bonuses despite not fighting.

**When Dana White was asked about the status of UFC 176 after the card he didn’t want to discuss it and said he will be dealing with that on Monday. There is a lot of speculation that the card is in jeopardy and could be canceled after Jose Aldo fell out of the main event due to injury. There was zero promotion for the next pay-per-view either in the arena or on the broadcast as they don’t have a main event to promote but didn’t even hint at the show. It led to a very strange and awkward post fight interview with Ronda Rousey where Joe Rogan was asked by a production member in the truck to ask her if she would fight on August 2nd and she stated she needs knee surgery and would have to see if she is cleared to fight by then. Dana White was in the octagon and was furious the question was asked as it wasn’t in the plans and Rousey was blindsided by the question.

**Following on the Rousey news is that she needs to have her right knee scoped and also has a cyst under one of her right knuckles, which she has avoided taking care of and got split open when she connected with an overhand right during the Davis fight and required stitches for.

**Chris Weidman also stated he had the worst fight camp of his career for this fight and hurt his left hand a few weeks ago. Coach Matt Serra after the fight said Weidman couldn’t use his left hand for the past two-weeks in training.

** Urijah Faber said after the fight he has to get his rib checked out to see if he broke it and he is hoping to fight on the Saitama Super Arena card in September as he has never fought in Japan before.

**Uriah Hall was taken to the hospital after the fight when it was discovered at the end of the first round that he had broken one of his toes and kept fighting despite the injury. By the end of the fight the bone was visible and he didn’t attend the post fight press conference. Hall was scheduled to appear at the Fan Expo today and Hall indicated he wouldn’t be missing it and appears to be fine.

**The UFC returns tonight with their second card from the Mandalay Events Center in as many nights with the TUF 19 Finale card (the building is going to be scaled down to hold 5,000 people for the show) with the following card:

MAIN CARD (9pm Eastern on FS 1 and Sportsnet 360)
*Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn
*Corey Anderson vs. Matt Van Burren for the UFC light heavyweight contract
*Eddie Gordon vs. Dhiego Lima for the UFC middleweight contract
*Derrick Lewis vs. Guto Inocente
*Dustin Ortiz vs. Justin Scoggins – this should be a great fight

PRELIMINARY CARD (7pm Eastern on FS 1, Sportsnet 360)
*Jesse Ronson vs. Kevin Lee
*Jumabieke Tuerxun vs. Leandro Issa
*Juan Manuel Puig Carreon vs. Adriano Martins
*Patrick Walsh vs. Dan Spohn

FIGHT PASS CARD (6pm Eastern)
*Sarah Moras vs. Alexis Dufresne
*Keith Berish vs. Robert Drysdale

**Here are the main card results from the WSOF 11 card from yesterday and was buried because of UFC 175 but it was their network television debut on NBC from Daytona Beach, Florida:
*Melvin Guillard over J.Z. Cavalcante by TKO at 2:36 of Round 2 in a catchweight bout at 157 pounds after Guillard failed to make weight
*Cody Bollinger over Pablo Alfonso by rear-naked choke at 2:37 of Round 1 in a 138 pound catchweight bout when Bollinger missed weight
*Jon Fitch over Dennis Hallman by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Justin Gaethje over Nick Newel by KO at 3:09 of Round 2 to keep the lightweight title

**It has been announced that Antonio Silva will fight Andrei Arlovski in the main event of the UFC Fight Night 51 on September 13th in Brasilia, Brazil. This will come just after Silva’s nine-month suspension comes to an end after failing his post fight drug test when he fought Mark Hunt last December and had elevated levels of testosterone. This is a rematch from a bout in Strikeforce in May 2010 where Silva defeated Arlovski by unanimous decision.

**Toronto is no longer getting the Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson rematch as it has been moved to Las Vegas but will remain on the same date of September 27th. The UFC has also announced T.J. Dillashaw will defend the bantamweight title in a rematch against Renan Barao on August 30th at UFC 177 in Sacramento, California.

[Stickman]

**It was made official on Tuesday night that the UFC was cancelling UFC 176 set for August 2nd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The event was in question after Jose Aldo was forced to pull out of the card last week due to a shoulder and neck injury for his title defense against Chad Mendes and no replacement for a main event could be found. The UFC is going to continue on with the already announced numbered shows and UFC 176 will be treated the same as UFC 151 as a show that never happened with bouts on the card being moved to upcoming shows on the schedule.

**The UFC is currently re-scheduling the remaining fights on the UFC 176 and have already moved the Danny Castillo vs. Tony Ferguson, Bethe Correia vs. Shayna Baszler and Lorenz Larkin vs. Derek Brunson bouts to the UFC 177 card on August 30th. They have also moved Tony Martin vs. Beneil Dariush and James Vick vs. Walmir Lazaro to the Fight Night 49 card on August 23rd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

**The flyweight bout between Jussier da Silva and Zach Makovsky is being moved to the August 16th Fight Night card in Bangor, Maine.

**USA Today secured the documents revealing Chael Sonnen’s two random drug test results along with his application for a license within the state of Nevada, which he applied for at the beginning of May. It also reveals that when Sonnen’s first test results were taken on May 24th that he his testosterone were at a stunningly low number of 50 ng/mL and clear evidence that he shouldn’t of have been fighting at that level but also needed to be on the anti-estrogen drugs he was caught for but doesn’t excuse EPO and HGH being found in his system a few weeks after the first test.

**The Las Vegas Review Journal broke the news that middleweights Tim Kennedy and Yoel Romero will meet on September 27th at UFC 178 in Las Vegas on the same card where Jon Jones defends the light heavyweight title against Alexander Gustafsson. Both Kennedy and Romero are unbeaten thus far in the UFC with Kennedy coming off a win over Michael Bisping and Romero last defeating Brad Tavares back in April.

**In addition to B.J. Penn retiring this past weekend, so has former rival Jens Pulver. Pulver first announced the news to Karyn Bryant of MMA Heat during a taped interview at the UFC Fan Expo over the weekend and also appeared on The MMA Hour to discuss the news. Pulver was a huge part of the UFC’s lightweight division when Zuffa first bought the company and became the promotion’s first champion in the weight class. Pulver defended the title against B.J. Penn in January of 2002 at UFC 35 in a fight that few gave Pulver a chance in (and to this day was one of the most anticipated fights from my perspective and one of my favorite fights from that time period) with Pulver pulling off the upset. He would then choose to leave the UFC for the upstart UFO promotion in Japan and led to the lightweight title disappearing in the UFC with the promotion not bringing the title back until October 2006. Pulver would fight all over the world including for Pride before returning to the UFC in 2006 and then coaching TUF Season 5 with Penn as the other coach in 2007 and Penn defeating him in their rematch in June 2007. Pulver then moved to the WEC (which was owned by Zuffa at this point) and had a highly anticipated fight with then featherweight champion Urijah Faber in June 2008, which did a great number on Versus. Pulver would lose the Faber fight along with his next two and was let go by the WEC in 2010 and would bounce around various organizations for the next few years with mixed results and has lost his last two, with his final fight taking place in November of last year. Pulver was also a very underrated commentator for both the UFC and WEC and would love to see him get some work as a color analyst as he had a great gift for that role.

**The UFC has the weekend off from shows and return next Wednesday night for a Fight Night card in Atlantic City, New Jersey headlined by Donald Cerrone vs. Jim Miller as well as Edson Barboza meeting Evan Dunham in a pair of lightweight bouts. Then three nights later they return to Dublin, Ireland for a Fight Pass card featuring Conor McGregor vs. Diego Brandao.

**The biggest fight from UFC 176 was a middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Chuck Mindenhall at MMA Fighting reports that fight is being moved to the Fight Night 50 card in Foxwoods, Massachusetts for September 5th.

**World Series of Fighting sent out a press release announcing that this past Saturday’s debut on NBC averaged 906,000 viewers. This would easily be the highest WSOF number but is misleading because of such a gigantic increase of exposure on NBC compared to their previous shows on NBC SN.

**The UFC has announced that Dominick Cruz is scheduled to make his return to the octagon at UFC 178 on September 27th in Las Vegas against Takeya Mizugaki. Cruz has not fought since October of 2011 when he successfully defended his bantamweight title against Demetrious Johnson. That show is headlined by Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson for the light heavyweight title.

[Stickman]

**The UFC has had to juggle around some fights after it was revealed Michael Johnson would not be able to fight Josh Thomson on July 26th on FOX card in San Jose. Bobby Green has been moved from the August 16th card to the San Jose show to fight Thomson and Ross Pearson has been put onto the August 16th show to fight Abel Trujillo.

**The UFC is back on Wednesday night with a card from Atlantic City, New Jersey headlined by lightweights Donald Cerrone and Jim Miller plus Edson Barboza taking on Evan Dunham. The Fight Pass portion begins at 6:30pm Eastern and then they move to Fox Sports 1 at 7pm Eastern.


**Former fighter and actor Dave Legeno was found dead this past Sunday out in the desert and believed to have passed away dye to heat related issues and very similar to the passing of Evan Tanner in 2008. Sherdog has a report on the death up on their site with a statement being released today by the County Sheriff’s Department. Legeno was a 4-3 fighter, who held wins over notables names such as Kimo, Dan Severn and Herb Dean and only fought for the Cage Rage promotion of the U.K., with his last fight taking place in July 2007. Legeno was also an actor and had roles in movies such as Snatch, Batman Begins and most notably the last three Harry Potter movies where he played the role of Fenrir Greyback. Legeno was 50-years old at the time of his passing.

**In an interesting programming move FOX will be airing four-hours of the UFC card on July 26th from San Jose with the main card at 8pm Eastern and the televised preliminary fights at 6pm Eastern. The card will also feature four Fight Pass cards beginning at 4pm Eastern. The main card will feature Matt Brown vs. Robbie Lawler, Anthony Johnson vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Dennis Bermudez vs. Clay Guida and Josh Thomson vs. Michael Johnson and the televised prelims will see Daron Cruickshank take on Jorge Masvidal, Patrick Cummins vs. Kyle Kingsbury, Tim Means vs. Hermani Perpetuo and Mike De La Torre taking on Brian Ortega.


**The UFC has come to terms and signed undefeated female prospect Holly Holm, who is expected to make her debut later this fall with the company. Holm is a former professional boxer, who is now 7-0 in her MMA career and trains under Greg? Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dana White has stated that she needs at least one win in the UFC before she could challenge Ronda Rousey for the title so I wouldn’t expect that fight to be made right away.

**Below are the two UFC countdown videos for next Saturday’s Fight Night card in Dublin, Ireland with the major push on Conor McGregor and training partner Gunnar Nelson for the show:




**Ali Bagautinov became the second fighter to ever test positive for EPO following a random drug test that took place before UFC 174 last month. The British Columbia Athletic Commission tested Bagautinov on June 2nd but due to the lab processing time, the result was not known until after the fight with Demetrious Johnson took place on June 14th in Vancouver. Bagautinov will be suspended for one-year and will have to pass a drug test in order to fight in the UFC again according to a statement released by the promotion.

**Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran will defend his title against Patricio “Pitbull” Freire on September 5th in Uncasville, Connecticut. The two fought in January of 2013 with Curran defeating Freire by split decision and Freire has since won a tournament to get a rematch. This is the card that goes head to head with the UFC show in Ledyard that night.

**The UFC has added a lightweight bout between Al Iaquinta and Rodrigo Damm for the September 5th show in Ledyard, Connecticut.

**WSOF lightweight champion Justin Gaethje confirmed on this week’s edition of “Inside MMA” with Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten, that his next title defense would be against Melvin Guillard. Both fighters are coming off victories at last weekend’s WSOF 11 card on NBC but no date has been set for the title fight.

**One FC out of Asia has announced that they have signed Brandon Vera to a deal following his recent release from the UFC. Vera fought at both light heavyweight and heavyweight during his nine-year stint with the UFC. Vera last fought in August of last year where he was stopped by Ben Rothwell in the third round but after the fight it was revealed Rothwell had high levels of testosterone but the commission in Wisconsin didn’t change the outcome to a no contest and it went down as a loss for Vera.

[Stickman]

**Here are all of the results from the a very solid UFC Fight Night 45 card in Atlantic City, New Jersey last night in front of 4,115 at The Revel (the venue only holds about 4,500 people) but no gate information was announced after the show:
*Claudia Gadelha over Tina Lahdemaki by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
*Yosdenis Cedeno over Jerrod Sanders by TKO (injury) at 5:00 of Round 1
*Aljamain Sterling over Hugo Viana by TKO at 3:50 of Round 3
*Leslie Smith over Jessamyn Duke by TKO at 2:24 of Round 1
*Gleison Tibau over Pat Healy by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Lucas Martins over Alex White by KO at 2:08 of Round 3
*John Lineker over Alptekin Ozkilic by TKO at 4:51 of Round 3
*Joe Proctor over Justin Salas by TKO at 3:27 of Round 2
*Rick Story over Leonard Mafra by arm-triangle choke at 2:12 of Round 2
*Edson Barboza over Evan Dunham by TKO at 3:06 of Round 1
*Donald Cerrone over Jim Miller by KO at 2:31 of Round 2

**The following $50,000 bonuses were announced after the card:

*Fight of the Night – John Lineker vs. Alptekin Ozkilic
*Performances – Donald Cerrone and Lucas Martins

**Jessamyn Duke broke her right hand while checking a hook shot from Smith early in the bout but it didn’t lead to the finish. She posted an x-ray of the hand after she went to the hospital.

**Joe Proctor had a nasty hematoma form on the left side of his head after being struck by Justin Salas and grew to the size of a softball. The swelling had significantly gone down today but the side of his head remains very swollen.

**Yahoo Sports was the first to report that Demetrious Johnson will be returning to pay-per-view to defend the flyweight title at UFC 177 on August 30th against Chris Cariaso, who has won his last three fights to get the title fight. I was a bit surprised that Cariaso would get the next title fight but it likely is a scenario where they want to get two more Johnson fights in by the end of the year with Cariaso the only guy ready and Johnson could fight one more time at the end of the year against the winner of Brad Pickett and Ian McCall, who fight this Saturday or even John Lineker, who fights tonight in Atlantic City. The UFC 177 card will feature two title fights with T.J. Dillashaw defending the bantamweight title in a rematch against former champion Renan Barao on the show.

**One day after it was announced he was signed by Titan FC, MMA Fighting is reporting that TUF season eight winner Efrain Escudero is returning to the UFC to fight on the Fight Night 51 card on September 13th in Brasilia against Francisco Trinaldo. Escudero was cut by the UFC in 2012 after losing two straight but has won four of his last five.

**Fight Network will be carrying the UFC Fight Night 46 weigh-ins live Friday morning at 11am Eastern from Dublin, Ireland for Saturday’s Fight Pass card.


**The big news for MMA coming out of the ESPY Awards was Ronda Rousey winning Best Female Athlete of the Year while Floyd Mayweather Jr. won the Best Fighter Award beating out Rousey and Jon Jones among others. Chris Weidman was also nominated for Biggest Upset but didn’t win the award. Rousey was not at the event as she had her right knee scoped on Tuesday, which she mentioned right after UFC 175.

**Floyd Mayweather Jr. has never heard of this guy “Ron”:

[Stickman]

**The UFC had one of the greatest crowd in the promotion’s history on Saturday from The O2 in Dublin, Ireland with 9,500 on hand and a tremendous gate figure of $1,400,000. UFC president Dana White stated this was the most successful Fight Pass card they have ever run with the service receiving a giant spike in subscribers yesterday. The atmosphere was electric, specifically for the Irish fighters, who all won their fights and couldn’t have gone better from that aspect. It was a tremendous show and below are the results:
*Patrick Holohan over Josh Sampo by rear-naked choke at 3:06 of Round 1
*Nikita Krylov over Cody Donovan by TKO at 4:57 of Round 1
*Trevor Smith over Tor Troeng by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Cathal Pendred over Mike King by rear-naked choke at 3:33 of Round 2
*Neil Seery over Phil Harris by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Ilir Latifi over Chris Dempsey by TKO at 2:07 of Round 1
*Norman Parke over Naoyuki Kotani by TKO at 3:41 of Round 2
*Ian McCall over Brad Pickett by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Gunnar Nelson over Zak Cummings by rear-naked choke at 4:48 of Round 2
*Conor McGregor over Diego Brandao by TKO at 4:05 of Round 1

All of the Irish fighters on this card came across as superstars and all of them had something to say when Dan Hardy interviewed them. Parke challenged Diego Sanchez for his next fight, Seery told a heartbreaking story of his nephew recently passing away, Pendred spoke of attending UFC 93 and vowing to fight on the next Irish card, Holohan got the crowd buzzed from the start and did a great post fight speech and it was capped off by McGregor listing off all the Irish wins on the card and adding that “we’re not here to take part, we’re here to take over”.

**Cathal Pendred and Mike King received the $50,000 bonus for fight of the night with Pendred nearly finished in the first round but King was so tired on top of him that he could barely throw any strikes while mounting the back and Pendred came back and submitted him in the second round. Conor McGregor and Gunnar Nelson received the performance of the night bonuses.

**Dana White indicated that McGregor will likely fight in Las Vegas next with Dustin Poirier looking to be his next fight unless there are any injuries to prevent either from fighting the other. McGregor says he wants a fast turnaround and believing he will be the featherweight champion by the end of the year, which would take a miracle with Jose Aldo set to fight Chad Mendes later this year and even if an injury occurred it would be tough to have McGregor take that spot.

**UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today and confirmed that his fight with Gilbert Melendez will be taking place on December 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada on pay-per-view.

**Below is the full episode of the UFC’s Road to the Octagon, previewing this Saturday’s card in San Jose, California: