The Official MMA Thread

[Stickman]

Yeah I must say the Jones/Cormier fight was a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong; it was solid. I just thought it would be more exciting based on all the hype and trash-talking. I really wanted a big finish. Jones's "gesture" at the end was the best part.

It really was a dull fight. Why DC didn't go all berzerker in the last minute is baffling. He had to know he was losing the fight.

[LoathedVermin72]

Yeah I must say the Jones/Cormier fight was a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong; it was solid. I just thought it would be more exciting based on all the hype and trash-talking. I really wanted a big finish. Jones's "gesture" at the end was the best part.

It really was a dull fight. Why DC didn't go all berzerker in the last minute is baffling. He had to know he was losing the fight.

I think the guy was too exhausted. He worked soooo hard for all those takedown attempts that went nowhere. That takes a huge amount of energy. I would say he should have changed his strategy earlier and stopped going for them, but that wasn't working for him either prior to attempting them. Jones is just too tall, too strong, and has too much reach. Fighters don't know how to handle him.

[Kaius]

Gustafson knows how to handle him.

[LoathedVermin72]

Gustafson knows how to handle him.

I know he was the only dude prior to Cormier who ever took him down, but I have actually never seen that fight. I'm gonna look it up.

[Stickman]

**A severe case of the flu has taken Eddie Alvarez out of his January 18th UFC Fight Night bout with Benson Henderson with Donald Cerrone stepping in to replace Alvarez. Cerrone will be fighting twice in ten-days after going three-rounds with Myles Jury this past Saturday at UFC 182. The two fought twice in the WEC with Henderson defeating Cerrone by unanimous decision in one of the best fights of 2009 and then submitting Cerrone the following April in the first round. Cerrone has won his last six fights and would have to be in line for a title fight with a win over Henderson but he is certainly stacking the odds in his opponent’s favor given the circumstances.

**Below are all of the results from UFC 182 Sat night in front of 11,575 and a gate of $3,700,000 (the prices were scaled very high and it didn’t sell out nor was it the gate you would have expected).
*Marion Reneau over Alexis Dufresne by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-25) – this was one of the more one-sided fights you will ever see in the UFC with Dufresne lost in the standup department.
*Omari Akhmedov over Mats Nilsson by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Evan Dunham over Rodrigo Damm by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Shawn Jordan over Jared Cannonier by KO at 2:57 of Round 1
*Cody Garbrandt over Marcus Brimage by TKO at 4:50 of Round 3
*Paul Felder over Danny Castillo by KO at 2:09 of Round 2
*Hector Lombard over Josh Burkman by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Kyoji Horiguchi over Louis Gaudinot by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Brad Tavares over Nate Marquardt by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – not a great fight
*Donald Cerrone over Myles Jury by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Jon Jones over Daniel Cormier by unanimous decision (49-46 all) to retain the UFC light heavyweight title – Cormier won the second round though one judge gave him Round 3 but gave Jones the second round. The third was a very close round and if you want to give it to Cormier that’s fine but you have to give him Round 2 as well.

Right before the buzzer sounded, Jones raised his hands and Cormier fired at him and nearly decked Herb Dean and the two had more words with Jones they giving a crotch chop to Cormier. The two were complimentary of each other at the post fight press conference.

**Jones vs. Cormier got the fight of the night bonus while Shawn Jordan and Paul Felder got the two performance of the night bonuses, all for $50,000.

**Dana White said the pay-per-view number was going to blow away his initial projection (of 750,000 buys), which would mean a monster number and a huge payday for Jones and Cormier.

**It was announced on the FS 1 broadcast sat night that Anthony Pettis will defend the lightweight title against Rafael dos Anjos on March 14th at UFC 185 in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center. Dos Anjos was able to jump Khabib Nurmagomedov as the latter isn’t ready to fight yet from his knee injury and is targeting an April return. Front Row Brian was reporting this fight on Twitter before the announcement and also added that Quinton Jackson may be added to the Dallas card but that hasn’t been officially announced though Jackson was at the MGM Grand last night and speaking with the media.

**Hector Lombard is angling for a fight with Rory MacDonald and makes the most sense given MacDonald is not getting the next title fight.

**Josh Burkman stated after the fight with Lombard that he had the worst camp of his life. He noted that he sprained his ankle, hurt his hip, dislocated a rib and got sick and went on antibiotics but gave his word he would fight Lombard and didn't pull out.

**Dana White has also confirmed that the winner of Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson on January 24th, will get the next light heavyweight title fight (as everyone assumed).

**Prior to UFC 182, Marshall Zelaznik held a press conference at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to announce the additions of the Pancrase, Hook ‘n Shoot, UCMMA, Cage Rage, Extreme Challenge, XFO, King of the Cage and TKO libraries to Fight Pass. The libraries will be up in the next few months and are expected to add more documentary style programming to the service. He also added they are close to having Fight Pass available on the XBox platforms but that it’s been slower with Sony to get the service on the Playstation consoles, they are also close with Amazon Fire. The new libraries will boost the number of individual fights on Fight Pass to over 9,000 and currently have about 5,000 uploaded.

**Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia has officially retired from the sport after a bizarre day. Sylvia was to fight for the Reality Fighting promotion and wasn’t cleared to fight as he came in at 371 pounds (not a typo) and then announced his retirement as there was some issue with his MRI. Sylvia was a two-time UFC heavyweight champion, winning the title in February of 2003 and would be stripped after failing a post fight drug test after defeating Gan McGee later that year. Sylvia would win the title back in April of 2006 when he defeated Andrei Arlovski (the two would rematch months later in a horrendous fight at UFC 61). Probably his most famous fight was when he lost the title to Randy Couture in the main event of UFC 68 in March of 2007 in one of the truly great moments in UFC history with Couture coming out of retirement. Sylvia would leave the promotion in 2008 and receive a huge money offer to fight for Affliction and would lose to Fedor Emelianenko in 0:36 of the promotion’s first pay-per-view in July of 2008. Sylvia had not fought since October of 2013 and had lost his last three fights where his weight had gone over the heavyweight limit.

**Alexander Gustafsson has posted a video stating that he was recently drug tested by USADA ahead of his light heavyweight bout with Anthony Johnson on January 24th in Stockholm. Gustafsson stated he has no issue with being tested but wants Johnson to be subjected to the same testing and prove to the world that they are both clean fighters going into their main event in three-weeks.

**Invicta FC has announced the signings of flyweights Aspen Ladd, Sharon Jacobson and Mariana Morais as well as strawweight Lynn Alvarez.

**CM Punk’s first day at Roufusport in Milwaukee was yesterday. It is probably best that he disappears from the spotlight for the next couple of months and returns to the media tour once he has a fight booked, which probably shouldn’t be until the latter part of 2015.

**Louis Taylor has stepped in to replace an injured Costas Philippou to take on Uriah Hall on the January 18th UFC Fight Night card in Boston. The card is headlined by Conor McGregor and Dennis Siver plus Benson Henderson takes on Donald Cerrone on the main card.

[Kaius]

Gustafson knows how to handle him.

I know he was the only dude prior to Cormier who ever took him down, but I have actually never seen that fight. I'm gonna look it up.

I have fallen off the mma bandwagon in recent years, but that fight is one of the best I've seen.

[Stickman]

Oh dear.

Jon Jones tests positive for cocaine

Video here
By Brett Okamoto | ESPN.com

LAS VEGAS -- UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones tested positive for traces of cocaine prior to his eighth title defense last weekend in Las Vegas, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

NSAC executive director Bob Bennett confirmed to ESPN.com on Tuesday that Jones, 27, tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. Jones informed the NSAC that he had admitted himself into a drug treatment center.

"Jones has checked himself into a rehab center," Bennett said. "And at this time, I would direct any further questions regarding his situation to Mr. Jones or the UFC."

The urine test sample was collected on Dec. 4 and analyzed by a WADA-approved lab in Salt Lake City. According to a lab report, results of the test were issued on Dec. 23. The test is considered an out-of-competition test, however, and according to WADA's banned substances list, benzoylecgonine is only banned in-competition.

Since the test is considered out-of-competition, the result of Jones' fight against Daniel Cormier on Jan. 3 will stand.

Jones' representatives did not immediately respond to request for comment.

"We support UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones' decision to enter a drug treatment facility to address his recent issue," the UFC said in a statement. "While we are disappointed in the failed test, we applaud him for making this decision to enter a drug treatment facility. Jon is a strong, courageous fighter inside the Octagon, and we expect him to fight this issue with the same poise and diligence. We commend him on his decision, and look forward to him emerging from this program a better man as a result."

Jones (20-1) is widely considered to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He defeated Cormier via unanimous decision Saturday at UFC 182.

"I am proud of Jon Jones for making the decision to enter a drug treatment facility," UFC president Dana White said in a statement. "I'm confident that he'll emerge from this program like the champion he truly is."

Jones' striking coach, Brandon Gibson, called Jones his "friend first."

"I'll be there for my friend through this challenging time," Gibson said. "I'll help him recover and do it for his family. Whatever he needs from me as friend, I'll be there to support him."

Reebok, which signed Jones less than a month ago, stood behind him.

"We commend Jon for taking the necessary steps to address this issue, and we will support him in any way we can," Reebok said in a statement. "The status of Jon's relationship with Reebok has not changed."

In May 2012, Jones was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence when he drove his car into a telephone pole in New York. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was fined $1,000 and had his driver's license suspended six months.

He became the youngest champion in UFC history in 2011, when he won the title at age 23. His eight consecutive title defenses rank third all time in UFC history.

[LoathedVermin72]

Whaaaaaaat

[Kaius]

haha

[Stickman]

**Bob Bennett, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission,has commented to MMA Fighting that in fact the tests that Jon Jones submitted in December have been tested for endogenous testosterone. Bennett confirmed that CIR (Carbon Isotope Ratio) testing was done on the samples provided from Jones and came back clean prior to the bout with Daniel Cormier. CIR testing does have an additional cost of roughly $500-700 per test and can detect artificial testosterone in the samples. Bennett also added to MMA Fighting that tests administered to Daniel Cormier came back with T/E ratios of 0.4:1 and 0.48:1, but Bennett stated there was no question that Cormier was clean as well and his tests confirmed this. This will be a major topic covered at Monday’s NSAC hearing in Las Vegas and the hearing will be airing on UFC Fight Pass.

**The UFC has confirmed that Luke Rockhold and Lyoto Machida will headline the April 18th FOX card from Newark, New Jersey in a five-round middleweight bout. Rockhold has won his last three fights with his lone blemish in the UFC coming in May 2013 with a loss to Vitor Belfort. Machida bounced back from a loss to Chris Weidman by defeating C.B. Dollaway last month in Brazil with a first round stoppage.

**FOX was advertising next Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card from Boston during today’s playoff games. With the New England Patriots defeating the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, that means the Patriots will be playing next Sunday night and going head-to-head with the UFC in the market.

**The UFC is bringing in featherweight champion Jose Aldo to Boston this week and will be hosting a Q&A prior to the weigh-ins on Saturday. The expectation is that Conor McGregor would receive the next title fight with a win over Dennis Siver next weekend and have it a stadium in either Ireland or Brazil.

**Chidi Njokuani defeated Gilbert Smith at RFA 22 on Friday night by unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 49-46. The fight was for the vacant RFA welterweight title but Njokuani missed weight and therefore only Smith could win the title and therefore it remains vacant.

**Bellator returns this Friday for their first card of 2015 with a show from Temecula, California featuring Patricio “Pitbull” Freire defending the featherweight title against Daniel Straus. World Series of Fighting also has a show next weekend with Jake Shields vs. Brian Foster headlining their show in Las Vegas.

**Duke Roufus and CM Punk appeared on Inside MMA with Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten on Friday to discuss Punk’s first week at Roufusport. Punk said there have not been any discussions regarding an opponent for him and is still getting acclimated to the gym but everyone has welcomed him into the gym:


**Jim Ross was also a guest on Inside MMA and discussed Punk making the transition over to MMA:


**The UFC has added a strawweight bout between Marion Reneau and Jessica Andrade as well as a bantamweight bout between Douglas Silva de Andrade and Cody Gibson for the February 22nd Fight Night card in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The show is now headlined by Frank Mir and Antonio Silva in a heavyweight bout.

**The UFC is scheduled to return to Montreal at the Bell Centre on April 26th for the UFC 186 and announced these plans on UFC Tonight this past week.

**Newsday reports that Manny Gamburyan will meet Aljamain Sterling at the UFC on FOX card on April 18th in Newark, New Jersey in a bantamweight bout.

**MMA Fighting is reporting that the UFC is targeting a welterweight bout between Rory MacDonald and Hector Lombard for the UFC 186 card on April 25th in Montreal at the Bell Centre. MacDonald was initially told he would be fighting for the title after his win over Tarec Saffiedine but the promotion has since stated that MacDonald would not be fighting for the title in his next fight (which almost guarantees a third fight between Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks will be the next title fight).

**The Nevada State Athletic Commission will be holding their hearing on Monday at 4:30pm Eastern. Among the items are the agenda are Anderson Silva applying for a license to fight Nick Diaz on January 31st, Jake Shields applying for a license to fight in the state, Francisco Rivera appealing to have his loss to Urijah Faber from UFC 181 turned to a no contest due to the illegal eye poke, Ashlee-Evans Smith facing punishment for testing positive for a diuretic at UFC 181 and referee Marc Goddard applying for a license to officiate in the state. There will also be a period for public comment and setting the agenda for future hearings and undoubtedly a portion of this will be dedicated to everything involving Jon Jones over the past week and how everything was handled.

[Stickman]

**Combat Press was the first to report that Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson has signed with Bellator. Ferguson is one of the more important figures in the rise of MMA over the past decade, having been in some of the most watched fights in MMA history. He was part of Elite XC’s first card on CBS in May 2008 against James Thompson and also their last CBS card with a debacle of a fight with Seth Petruzelli, who was a last minute replacement for Ken Shamrock. Slice would sign with the UFC after Elite XC went out of business and led to the highest rated season of TUF in late 2009, where he lost to Roy Nelson and the taped fight did incredible numbers on Spike TV. Slice would fight twice after TUF with a win over Houston Alexander in December 2009 and then was cut after losing to Matt Mitrione in May 2010 at UFC 113. He has not done any MMA since that time but did amass a 7-0 professional boxing record since 2011.


**UFC president Dana White was a guest with Jim Rome yesterday on FS 1 discussing the Jon Jones story. White said that Jones is going to speak publically about the last few weeks of his life in the near future and will clarify a lot that has been made public. White said that legally there was nothing he could do in regards to removing Jones from the fight with Daniel Cormier when they got the drug tests results that revealed he tested positive for the main metabolite found in cocaine. White did acknowledge there was a problem when a guy is doing cocaine a few weeks out from a fight.

**Jeremy Botter at Bleacher Report has obtained a copy of the UFC and Reebok’s new Athlete Outfitting Policy as they begin to inform fighters and management teams about the strict policies that go into effect July 6th (the week leading into the their July 12th pay-per-view in Las Vegas). The policy includes penalties if fighters choose not to wear the apparel and that ranges from a fine all the way up to being removed from the fight. The fighter’s corner are also responsible for wearing Reebok apparel (which will be distributed at the start of fight week and include hoodies, t-shirts, socks, underwear, walkout shorts and shoes along with sports bras for female fighters). Fighters will be responsible for wearing their apparel throughout fight week to all events including weigh-ins, open workouts and press conferences as well as wear the apparel for various UFC programming when they are being filmed. The biggest question for fighters and managers regards money and that is not specified other than fighters are going to be paid based on their ranking as of the day they weigh-in for their fight and is a tiered system from champions all the way down to unranked fighters.

**World Series of Fighting has a show on Saturday night in Las Vegas with Jake Shields taking on Brian Foster in the main event. The main card airs at 9pm ET on NBC Sports Network and WSOF.com for regions without the station.

**Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has withdrawn from his fight with Yoel Romero at UFC 184 on February 28th with Jacare battling pneumonia. The UFC announced the fight is being postponed but it appears it will be re-booked for a card later in the year rather than searching for a new opponent to fight.

**The UFC has appointed David Allen as their new senior vice-president and general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

**A featherweight fight between Chas Skelly and Jim Alers has been added to the UFC Fight Night card on February 14th in Broomfield, Colorado. With Matt Brown being moved off of the show the new main event is Brandon Thatch vs. Stephen Thompson with Max Holloway vs. Cole Miller, Neil Magny vs. Kiichi Kunimoto, Patrick Walsh vs. Daniel Kelly, Kevin Lee vs. Michel Prazeres and Ray Borg vs. Chris Kelades rounding out the main card that night.

**The UFC 185 card on March 14th in Dallas will have a second title fight on the pay-per-view with the announcement that Carla Esparza will make the first defense of her strawweight championship against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Esparza won the title last month by defeating Rose Namajunas in the finals of the TUF 20 season while Jedrzejczyk earned the fight by defeating Claudia Gadelha the next night. The UFC 185 card will also feature a lightweight bout between Sam Stout and Ross Pearson as well as Elias Theodorou taking on Roger Narvaez (both of these fights were being targeted for a Fight Pass card the prior week in Windsor, Ontario but that show is no longer happening and are being moved to Dallas).

**A women’s strawweight bout between Felice Herrig and Paige VanZant has been added to the April 18th UFC on FOX card as reported by Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight. VanZant was not allowed to participate on the last domestic season of TUF as she was under the age of 21 and there was alcohol in the house. The UFC signed VanZant and she debuted in November with a win over Kailin Curran and got a lot of attention coming out of that show, which aired on Fight Pass. The FOX show will also be getting a lightweight bout between Jim Miller and Paul Felder, which sounds like a great fight on paper. Miller is from New Jersey with the card taking place in Newark at the Prudential Center.

**The UFC has thrown a monkey wrench into their welterweight title plans with the announcement that Johny Hendricks will not be receiving a title rematch in his next fight but instead will fight Matt Brown at UFC 185 on March 14th in Dallas. Brown was in need of a new opponent when Tarec Saffiedine fell out of their February 14th bout and Hendricks was ready to fight a month later. That fight will be the co-feature at UFC 185 underneath Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title.

**With the announcement that Matt Brown will no longer be fighting on the February 14th Fight Night card in Colorado, the new main event will see welterweights Brandon Thatch and Stephen Thompson headline that card in a welterweight bout. Thatch has not fought since November of 2013 and is 2-0 since debuting with the organization while Thompson is 5-1 in the UFC.

**The UFC has announced a lightweight bout between Tony Ferguson and Yancy Medeiros has been added to the UFC 184 card on February 28th in Los Angeles.

[Stickman]

**Charissa Thompson interviews Jon Jones about his cocaine test, going to rehab, testosterone levels and more on Fox Sports Live from Monday night:


**The UFC sent out a statement on Saturday night that Jon Jones was being fined $25,000 for violating the athlete code of conduct for his positive cocaine test. The money is going to be donated to a substance abuse prevention program.


**Reporter John Joe Regan out of Manchester, England was the first to break the news that the UFC has signed Mirko Cro Cop. The UFC has since confirmed the story with Cro Cop returning to the UFC for his third stint with the promotion. This comes after Scott Coker had revealed they had interest in signing Cro Cop and the UFC scooping Bellator on the signing. Cro Cop had just won the IGF heavyweight title from Satoshi Ishii last August and then defeated Ishii on New Year’s Eve in his first title defence. Cro Cop last fought for the UFC in October of 2011 and was cut following three straight losses to Frank Mir, Brendan Schaub and Roy Nelson. Cro Cop also competed for GLORY last year and went 1-1 for the promotion in 2014.

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night card on Sunday night in front of 13,828 and a gate of $1,340,000 at the TD Garden in Boston:
*Joby Sanchez over Tateki Matsuda by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Sean O’Connell over Matt Van Buren by TKO at 2:11 of Round 3
*Charles Rosa over Sean Soriano by D’arce choke at 4:43 of Round 3
*Johnny Case over Frankie Perez by TKO at 1:54 of Round 3
*Patrick Holohan over Shane Howell by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Chris Wade over Zhang Lipeng by unanimous decision (30-26 all)
*Lorenz Larkin over John Howard by TKO at 2:17 of Round 1
*Cathal Pendred over Sean Spencer by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Gleison Tibau over Norman Parke by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Uriah Hall over Ron Stallings by TKO (doctor stoppage) at 3:37 of Round 1
*Donald Cerrone over Benson Henderson by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Conor McGregor over Dennis Siver by TKO at 1:54 of Round 2

**The fight of the night bonus went to Sean O’Connell and Matt Van Buren and the performance bonuses to Conor McGregor and Lorenz Larkin for $50,000 each.

**At the post fight press conference, UFC president Dana White stated that they were targeting a date for May in Las Vegas for the Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor featherweight title fight. White said the logistics of booking the massive Croke Park in Ireland created too many issues and cited the weather (believing it would inevitably rain), the extra costs of production for a big stadium show, the hit they would take running a pay-per-view from Ireland and hurting numbers by 25% and also the curfew law in Ireland where the card would have to be done by 11pm in Ireland (6pm Eastern time and would require an afternoon timeslot in the U.S.).

**The Pendred decision over Spencer was the worst decision since Diego Sanchez over Ross Pearson last June. There is no way Spencer loses the first round and it’s a really tough argument to give the second round to Pendred.

**CM Punk’s reaction to the Cathal Pendred decision over Sean Spencer:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Pendred then replied:

I would fight you, but I'll be 40 by the time you come back to the UFC and say you're "ready".

**Bellator president Scott Coker appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani earlier today and announced Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal will be fighting Cheick Kongo on February 27th at Bellator 134. Lawal will be returning to the heavyweight division for this fight and had been petitioning for a heavyweight bout with James Thompson after Bobby Lashley was hurt and had to pull out of the fight with Thompson over the past week.

**The Bellator 134 card has lost a title fight as welterweight champion Douglas Lima is injured and been forced to withdraw from his fight with Paul Daley on that card.

**Cung Le released the following statement on Tuesday, officially announcing his retirement from the sport:

After several months of thought and discussion with my wife and family we realize our future includes many things, but active competition in mixed martial arts is no longer one of them therefore I am officially announcing my retirement from active competition. Fighting will never be far from my heart and martial arts will always continue to be a part of my daily life. I have thoroughly enjoyed the career that I have been blessed with due in large part to all my fans and the many people who have helped me on my journey.

I want to personally thank my wife, Suzanne, my three Little Ninjas, my Mother, Sister and the rest of my incredible family for their support, prayers and inspiration. I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank Scott Coker for his long-time friendship and support of my career, Gary Ibarra for your tenacity, to Khoa Do for everything, Scott Sheeley, you know, and to Jane Estioko, thank you for your loyalty. I’d also like to thank all of my past and present USH Team Family members, I am grateful for every round.

I’d like to recognize the UFC for the opportunity they have provided me, the sport of mixed martial arts, and more importantly the fans who love it, you will never be far from my heart. It has truly been my honor and my privilege to entertain you.

**The UFC has announced a new television deal in Russia with VGTRK and will be airing all of their events for 2015 across their various stations including Russia 2, Sport 1, Fight Club and Sportbox.

**Wanderlei Silva filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Athletic Commission this past Friday through his lawyer, Ross Goodman. The suit states that the commission did not have the jurisdiction to punish or ban Silva as he was not a licensed fighter within the state when he was subjected to a random drug test, which Silva fled back in May and later acknowledge at a NAC hearing that he had been taking diuretics for an injury. At a later hearing, Silva did not appear with Goodman arguing the case and being turned down by the commission and issuing a lifetime ban to Silva along with a $70,000 fine for skipping out on the unannounced May drug test in the state of Nevada.

**Former UFC and Bellator fighter Dave Herman was arrested early Tuesday in Indiana following a three-mile police chase and Herman facing three felony charges. Herman was speeding on a highway in the state with a female and child also in the vehicle and didn’t have his headlights or taillights on. After the three mile chase, Herman pulled over at a gas station and was said to be aggressive with the authorities before he was arrested. Herman is facing charges of resisting law enforcement, battery against law enforcement, neglect of a dependent and a Class A misdemeanor for resisting law enforcement. No court date is known or the punishment he faces if found guilty.

**One FC has announced that Ben Askren will defend his welterweight title against Luis Santos on April 24th at their event in Manila.

**The UFC has announced a card for April 4th, which will be a rare Saturday afternoon with the main card starting at 1pm Eastern from Fairfax, Virginia. The show will be headlined by featherweights Chad Mendes and Ricardo Lamas with the main card also featuring Jorge Masvidal vs. Bobby Green and Michael Chiesa taking on Mitch Clarke.

**Joseph “The last man to defeat Conor McGregor” Duffy will be fighting Vagner Rocha in his UFC debut on March 14th at UFC 185 in Dallas. Duffy competes at lightweight and defeated McGregor when the two fought in November 2010 at lightweight.

**The UFC has officially announced that UFC 186 will take place on Saturday April 25th at the Bell Centre in Montreal with tickets going on sale February 14th. They have announced the following six fights for the card:
*T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao for the bantamweight title
*Rory MacDonald vs. Hector Lombard
*Quinton Jackson vs. Fabio Maldonado
*Michael Bisping vs. C.B. Dollaway
*Patrick Cote vs. Joe Riggs
*Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. David Michaud
*Jessica Rakoczy vs. Valerie Letourneau

[LoathedVermin72]

Wow, Johnson's victory over Gustafsson was a bit of a shocker. Really beat the shit out of him. I'm itching to see that dude get a shot at Jon Jones now. Once they find someone who can actually pick Jones apart, we're gonna be in for one hell of a show.

[Stickman]

Johnson's got scary power, though I did not expect the fight to finish that fast.

Great night for fast knockouts/subs though.

[LoathedVermin72]

Johnson's got scary power, though I did not expect the fight to finish that fast.

Great night for fast knockouts/subs though.

Yeah, I had just recently watched the Jones/Gustafsson fight, and Gustafsson took a LOT of punishment without going down. So to see Johnson just brutalize him like that...makes me wonder what he could do to Jones. There's gotta be SOMEONE who can take that guy out.

[Stickman]

**The UFC ran the second largest building in their history Sat night at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden in front of an announced crowd of 30,000 and a gate of $3,100,000. Below are the results from the show:
*Neil Seery over Chris Beal by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Viktor Pesta over Konstantin Erokhin by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Mirsad Bektic over Paul Redmond by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-25) – Bektic dominated every minute of this fight and 30-25 was a perfectly reasonable score
*Mairbek Taisumov over Anthony Christodoulou by KO at 0:38 of Round 2
*Nikita Krylov over Stanislav Nedkov by guillotine at 1:24 of Round 1
*Makwan Amirkhani over Andy Ogle by TKO at 0:08 of Round 1 – Joe Rogan was questioning if the finish was too early, but it was clear that Amirkhani didn’t see any controversy and was annoyed at the line of questions from Rogan and later said that he thought Rogan was drunk
*Kenny Robertson over Sultan Aliev by KO at 2:42 of Round 1
*Albert Tumenov over Nico Musoke by unanimous decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – this was the best fight of the night and anyone’s fight going into the third, where Tumenov was very strong with his striking in the third round
*Sam Sicilia over Akira Corassani by KO at 3:26 of Round 1
*Ryan Bader over Phil Davis by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – this was a very close fight, Davis had his most success in the third using leg and push kicks as his wrestling was constantly shut down by Bader.
*Gegard Mousasi over Dan Henderson by TKO at 1:10 of Round 1 – Mousasi caught him with a shot to the head and Henderson stumbled back and took another shot as he crashed into the fence and the fight was stopped. Henderson was heavily protesting the finish and watching the replay he definitely took a big shot but the way he stumbled looked like he was rocked and was hard to decide one way or another. Henderson also cut his eyelid in the fight and had the entire eye bandaged at the post fight press conference
*Anthony Johnson over Alexander Gustafsson by TKO at 2:15 of Round 1 – Johnson rocked Gustafsson early and then continued with Gustafsson going to the mat and taking a lot of shots as the official gave Gustafsson every opportunity in the world to recover and he didn’t.

**There were four performance bonuses handed out with Anthony Johnson, Gegard Mousasi, Kenny Robertson and Makwan Amirkhani receiving $50,000.

**The overnight numbers for FOX have the UFC show doing 2,820,000 viewers but that doesn’t take into the account the West coast audience, which the final number will reflect. Unlike most FOX shows, the main event didn’t go past the top of the hour at 10pm ET and won’t get a bump from people tuning in at that time as well as the main event not going long enough where there would be huge growth for the biggest fight on the card.

**Jon Jones tweeted out that he wasn’t impressed with Gustafsson’s performance and the deleted the tweet as per usual with Jones. Jones vs. Johnson is the only direction to go for the next title fight.

**Outside of Anthony Johnson, getting the biggest win of his career and earning a title fight with the win, there was no bigger star to come out of this show that Makwan Amirkhani. This guy is such a natural when it comes to speaking, projecting a great arrogance about himself and was the star of the post-fight press conference.

**Below is the Countdown to UFC 183 video for this Saturday’s card focusing on Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz:


**Conor McGregor will be in Las Vegas for UFC 183 this weekend and will be hosting a fan Q&A this Friday prior to the weigh-ins.

**UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has also stated he will be attending UFC 183 this Saturday night.

**Following his loss to Sam Sicilia this past weekend in Sweden, UFC featherweight Akira Corassani has announced his retirement from MMA. The loss to Sicilia was his third in a row in the UFC and he finishes his career with a 12-6 record with a no contest. Corassani has been fighting professionally since 2007 (his first pro bout was against Dion Staring, which is crazy when you consider Staring has fought at heavyweight and Corassani fights at featherweight). He came out of TUF Season 14 in 2011 and went 3-3 in the UFC and retires at the age of 32.

[Stickman]

**The biggest story out of Las Vegas is the status of Nick Diaz. The first episode of UFC Embedded ran yesterday with the closing scene at the airport where Nick Diaz is being paged and misses the flight. Diaz was booked for a second flight to Las Vegas and missed that one as well and didn’t show up for the open workouts earlier today. UFC president Dana White jokingly posted a picture of Nick Diaz on the side of a milk carton earlier today and is confident Diaz will be there for the fight on Saturday night. The weird part is that Diaz did make it to the airport to fly out of in Sacramento and even checked his bags but didn’t board the flight.

This is absolutely insane.


**The UFC 183 weigh-ins will be airing on Fight Network this Friday at 7pm ET.

**The UFC has cut a number of fighters from the roster including: Igor Pokrajac, Rodrigo Damm, Sean Soriano, Tom Niinimaki, Mike Rhodes and Alexis Dufresne (this was a lock after missing weight on two straight fights and her performance against Marion Reneau at UFC 182 earlier this month. MMA Fighting confirmed the released over the past 24 hours.

**John Kavanagh, who is the coach of Conor McGregor, was on Newstalk Breakfast in Ireland and indicated that title fight between Jose Aldo and McGregor may be pushed back to July. The original target date was Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas this May. When Dana White appeared on the Jim Rome show yesterday, he indicated that they were working on Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson for this May.

**TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena will return to fight after a near career ending knee injury. Pena won her UFC contract in November 2013 and then injured her ACL, LCL, MCL and meniscus in training. Pena will fight meet Milana Dudieva on April 4th at the UFC Fight Night card in Fairfax, Virginia.

**The UFC has added three more fights to their Fight Night card on April 11th in Krakow, Poland. Sheldon Westcott will meet Pawel Pawlak in a welterweight bout, middleweights Krzysztof Jotko and Garreth McLellan will meet and a lightweight bout between Jason Saggo and Marcin Bandel has been signed. The card is headlined by a rematch between Gabriel Gonzaga and the returning Mirko Cro Cop

**Invicta FC has announced their next card for Friday February 27th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (and piggy backing with the UFC 184 card the next day at the Staples Center). The card will be headlined by Cris “Cyborg” Justino taking on Charmaine Tweet at featherweight as well as Alexa Grasso vs. Mizuki Inoue, Lynn Alvarez taking on DeAnna Bennett and Irene Aldana vs. Melanie LaCroix on the main card. The show will also be going head-to-head with the Bellator 134 card that night on Spike TV.

**It was discovered today that former WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles was arrested earlier this month and facing six felony charges, including possession of methamphetamine and marijuana, with intent to sell. Bowles last fought in May 2013 at UFC 160 in May 2013, where he was stopped by George Roop and later tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone in his system. Bowles defeated Miguel Torres for the WEC title in August 2009 but would lose it in his first defence against Dominick Cruz, after Bowles broke his hand during the fight.

[Stickman]

**Nick Diaz did arrive in Las Vegas on Wednesday after missing the open workout and the UFC telling members of the media that he missed two flights out of Sacramento on Tuesday. There were reports from some media that it was all a stunt by the UFC, which Dave Sholler flat out denied and stated Diaz was not in Las Vegas when delivering the statement prior to the open workout on Tuesday.



**The UFC has officially announced their debut card for the Philippines for Saturday May 16th (because of the time zone difference, it will air Friday night in North America). Combat Press was the first to report the event coming to Manila earlier in the week at the SM Mall of Asia. No fights have been announced as of yet for the card.

**MMA Junkie’s John Morgan reported that Thiago Tavares is off the February 14th Fight Night card in Broomfield, Colorado, where he was to fight Nik Lentz. The UFC is seeking out a replacement.

[Stickman]

**Here is the full card for UFC 183 tonight from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on pay-per-view)
*Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz
*Tyron Woodley vs. Kelvin Gastelum
*Al Iaquinta vs. Joe Lauzon
*Thales Leites vs. Tim Boetsch
*Thiago Alves vs. Jordan Mein

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, TSN4 in Canada)
*Miesha Tate vs. Sara McMann
*Derek Brunson vs. Ed Herman
*Ian McCall vs. John Lineker
*Rafael Natal vs. Tom Watson

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm ET)
*Jimy Hettes vs. Diego Brandao – Brando came in very light at 142 pounds for their featherweight fight
*Richardson Moreira vs. Ildemar Alcantara
*Thiago Santos vs. Andy Enz

**Episode 3 of UFC Embedded featuring footage from media day:


**There is a report from the Professional Fighters Brain Study on a recent five year study on the brains of both boxers and mixed martial artists. The study was conducted on 224 fighters over the time period. The findings are up at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288642.php.

**Below is a snippet of an interview with Dana White, discussing Brock Lesnar:


**Kelvin Gastelum and John Lineker both missed weight on Friday by wide margins. Gastelum was having problems all day and had to go to the hospital with flu like symptoms and ended up returning for the weigh-ins and coming in at 180 pounds, but will fight tonight. Lineker weighed 130 pounds for his flyweight bout with Ian McCall and will also forfeit a portion of his purse, as will Gastelum, but both fights are going to take place. UFC president Dana White has told Combate that neither will be able to stay at their respective weight classes for their next fights and sending Gastelum to middleweight and Lineker to bantamweight. It is the second time Gastelum has missed weight and the fourth time Lineker has missed weight.



**One of the big stories coming out of Friday night is that the middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort for UFC 184 on February 28th has been postponed. There was a rumor earlier in the day that the fight was going to be off and later confirmed by MMA Junkie. Weidman has torn rib cartilage and the plan is to move the fight to later in the spring. The UFC 184 card will now feature Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano in the main event slot for the women’s bantamweight title. The combination of Weidman and Rousey being put on the same cards has resulted in the UFC’s most purchased pay-per-views of the year for 2013 and 2014.

**Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor for the featherweight title is signed for UFC 189 on July 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

**The UFC received more bad news on Friday with the announcement that Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is hurt and out of the main event of the February 14th Fight Night card in Broomfield, Colorado. Thompson was to headline the card against Brandon Thatch in a welterweight bout, after the original main event between Matt Brown and Tarec Saffiedine fell apart due to an injury to Saffiedine. UFC officials are seeking a late replacement to take the fight in two weeks.

**UFC 46 took place on this date in 2004 and was notable for a number of events that came out of that show. Vitor Belfort was awarded the light heavyweight title after the eyelid of Randy Couture was sliced by Belfort’s glove and the rules stated that it was a win for Belfort. That same show saw BJ Penn come up from lightweight and defeat Matt Hughes for the welterweight title and was also the UFC debut of Georges St-Pierre, who defeated Jay Hieron by unanimous decision on that show.

[LoathedVermin72]

Just saw the Bigfoot/Hunt match for the first time. That may have been the best fight I've ever seen. What a bloodbath. So much heart on both sides. Insane.