The Official MMA Thread

[LoathedVermin72]

holy shit that stoppage was absurd

[warehouse]

holy shit that stoppage was absurd

the dude was literally getting out of the choke when he stopped it. my god thats terrible

[Stickman]

**The New York Post has an article up teasing that the legalization of professional mixed martial arts in the state could be near. The article states that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is meeting with Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislators today and tomorrow to lobby for the legalization of the sport. The sport has been legally banned in the state since 1997 despite amateur fights being allowed in the state. Lorenzo Fertitta has gone on record stating that they would bring four events to the state of New York per year once the ban is lifted and would result in $135 million in annual economic activity throughout the state.

**The UFC is doing a special Embedded series throughout the week as they travel around the world for the UFC 189 press tour, which began in Brazil this past Friday. The first episode is below:


This feels like a fight that will do 800,000 buys easily after this video, which was a grand total of 7 minutes and 2 seconds. The key line of the video wasn’t even from Conor McGregor (who on another level when it comes to delivering what people want and saying and playing the role he knows he needs to) but it was Jose Aldo reacting to the press conference and stating “I am really mad”. This video should be required viewing for anyone in professional wrestling or mixed martial arts promotion.

**Leandro Silva’s win over Drew Dober will stand according to the Comissao Atletica Brasileira de MMA (CABMMA). They released a statement to the media and said that a decision can only be overturned if a party can prove there was collusion among the judges, the judges’ score cards were added up incorrectly or there was a misinterpretation of the rules by the official. In the case of the Silva vs. Dober fight, they stated it wasn’t a misinterpretation by referee Eduardo Herdy but rather a judgement call and the win will stand for Silva. This is a massive hole, which essentially allows for high levels of human error to be overlooked and that is a commission issue at the core. Dober was paid his win bonus despite having a loss on paper as UFC president Dana White was furious about the stoppage by Herdy.

**Invicta FC has added the following bouts to their April 24th card in Kansas City, which is headlined by Katja Kankaanpaa defending her strawweight title against Livia Souza:
*Roxanne Modafferi vs. Vanessa Porto
*Faith Van Duin vs. Amanda Bell
*Peggy Morgan vs. Latoya Walker

[Stickman]

Brock Lesnar ends MMA career

By Brett Okamoto | ESPN.com

Former UFC heavyweight champion and professional wrestling super star Brock Lesnar has "closed the door" on a return to mixed martial arts.

Lesnar, 37, announced on Sportscenter on Tuesday he has re-signed with the WWE, effectively ending all speculation of a potential return to the Octagon.

"I'm officially closing the door on MMA," Lesnar said. "It was hard. I re-signed last night with the WWE."

Lesnar (5-3) is scheduled to appear at Wrestlemania 31 this weekend in Santa Clara, California. His previous professional wrestling contract was scheduled to expire at the end of the month, prompting countless headlines regarding a potential return to the UFC. On Monday, he chose to sign a new WWE deal.

"It was a very hard decision at this stage of my career," Lesnar said. "The fighter inside me wants to compete. The father and husband -- I'm an older caveman now. I make wiser caveman decisions. So, I'm here to say my legacy in the Octagon is over.

"It was a hard decision to make. It took me a year. I've thought about this for a year. At the end of the day, it's all about me wanting to have fun. The last two-and-a-half months I've been training to get back into the Octagon. I felt physically great, but something lacked mentally -- and that's not good."

Late last month, Lesnar was seen cageside at a UFC pay-per-view event headlined by female bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in Los Angeles. Lesnar said he attended the event purely as a fan and not as a bargaining move.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told ESPN.com earlier this week the two sides did not negotiate Lesnar's return in Los Angeles.

"He hit me with a text two days before the fight and asked if he could have two tickets," Fertitta said. "It was kind of funny, that fight we had more requests for celebrities than we've ever had but we said, 'of course, we'll get you two tickets.' Then he called back and said he wanted three.

"He just wanted to come to the fight and I think feel it again, feel the energy. Remember what it was like to be part of the UFC."

Lesnar made his professional MMA debut in June 2007. The former NCAA collegiate wrestling champion debuted with the UFC the following year, losing to Frank Mir via submission at UFC 81.

He won his next UFC bout via decision against Heath Herring, which set up a heavyweight title shot against defending champion Randy Couture in November 2008. Lesnar knocked out Couture three minutes into the second round to capture the belt.

After a successful title defense against Mir at UFC 100, which remains the highest-selling UFC PPV of all time, Lesnar was sidelined for one year due to an ongoing battle with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder. He eventually returned to the cage in July 2010, but lost two of his next three fights.

His last appearance was a UFC 141 in December 2011. Lesnar lost to former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem via knockout in the first round.

"I could go back to the Octagon, but what am I going to gain? I was the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. Due to my illness, my career got cut short. That's God telling you, 'it's time to move on.'"

[Stickman]

**UFC bantamweight T.J. Dillashaw has suffered a broken rib and is off of the UFC 186 pay-per-view card on April 26th in Montreal. Dillashaw was scheduled to defend the bantamweight title against Renan Barao in a rematch from their bout in May of last year. This is the second time the rematch has fallen apart as the two were to fight at UFC 177 last August and Barao wasn’t cleared to fight after a bad weight cut and Joe Soto stepped in at the last minute to fight Dillashaw. The UFC has announced Quinton Jackson vs. Fabio Maldonado will now serve as the co-main event of the card with John Makdessi and Abel Trujillo being moved to the pay-per-view portion of the card.


**Bill Goldberg was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday and is strongly considering fighting for the GLORY kickboxing organization at some point. Goldberg stated he was offered to fight Jose Alberto Rodriguez (Albert Del Rio / El Patron) on May 8th at the GLORY show in San Diego but Goldberg felt that it was too soon to get ready for a fight before then and didn’t seem too interested in the idea of two former professional wrestlers fighting and the image that would give GLORY (the reality is that it would be the biggest fight the organization has ever promoted and would shine a light on a promotion that doesn’t get a lot of spotlight). He also made it clear he is open to doing another pro wrestling match or going into the Hall of Fame but is not going to call the WWE to ask and they know his feelings on the matter.

**For the sixth consecutive year, the bill to legalize mixed martial arts in the state of New York has been passed by the New York Senate by a vote of 47-14 and now moves on to the assembly, which has always been the stumbling block for the bill in years past. The key this year is the elimination of Sheldon Silver from the mix and optimism that this will be the year it gets passed.

**Below are Episodes 2 and 3 of the latest UFC Embedded on the UFC 189 world press tour:



**The Bellator card set for June in St. Louis has now been moved from June 6th to June 19th featuring Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice in the main event. Former lightweight champion Michael Chandler will be fighting on that same card against Derek Campos.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Del Rio would beat the living hell out of Goldberg.

[Stickman]

Del Rio would beat the living hell out of Goldberg.

explain.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Del Rio would beat the living hell out of Goldberg.

explain.

He has a boxing and MMA background. Did pretty well IIRC. He was an acomplished Greco-Roman wrestler growing up and would have probably made the Olympics but Mexico didn't send a team due to lack of funding. He is also ten years younger than Goldberg and much quicker. I don't think it would be close.

[Stickman]

Del Rio would beat the living hell out of Goldberg.

explain.

He has a boxing and MMA background. Did pretty well IIRC. He was an acomplished Greco-Roman wrestler growing up and would have probably made the Olympics but Mexico didn't send a team due to lack of funding. He is also ten years younger than Goldberg and much quicker. I don't think it would be close.

Granted he is younger but if Bill is good enough to compete at a pro level, and given he's got alot of weight on ADL, I think it'd be a good fight.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Del Rio would beat the living hell out of Goldberg.

explain.

He has a boxing and MMA background. Did pretty well IIRC. He was an acomplished Greco-Roman wrestler growing up and would have probably made the Olympics but Mexico didn't send a team due to lack of funding. He is also ten years younger than Goldberg and much quicker. I don't think it would be close.

Granted he is younger but if Bill is good enough to compete at a pro level, and given he's got alot of weight on ADL, I think it'd be a good fight.

I'd love to see it but my cash would be on Del Rio.

[Stickman]

Ronda Rousey had a busy night.

[Stickman]

**Ariel Helwani reported on UFC Tonight that he spoke to Brad Slater, who is the agent for both Dwayne Johnson and Ronda Rousey. Slater stated that Rousey is not scheduled for anything further at the moment with the WWE and it was considered a “one off” at WrestleMania. Certainly the angle was designed to keep it open ended if something can be put together and the time to do it would be next year’s WrestleMania. I was given the impression prior to WrestleMania that The Rock and Triple H is the direction for next year’s show but lots can happen over the course of the year and today’s plans could be yesterday’s memories.

**Below is the final Embedded episode from the recent UFC 189 world tour and it finishes up in Dublin with a tremendous atmosphere for the press conference, this fight is going to be so big come July:


**The Quinton Jackson hearing took place this week in a New Jersey court. Bellator is seeking an injunction to prevent Jackson from fighting on the April 25th UFC 186 card in Montreal as they believe they didn’t violate his contract terms and that Jackson owes fights to Bellator. The judge is expected to make his ruling next week after hearing the case today. Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie has a story up and discusses the events that went down today.

**Mean Tweets with Conor McGregor:


A welterweight bout between John Howard and Brandon Thatch has been added to UFC 189 on July 11th in Las Vegas. Thatch last fought in February, where he was submitted by Benson Henderson and Howard has lost his last three fights.

**Marina Shafir announced on the MMA Roasted podcast that she has signed with Invicta FC. Shafir began her pro career a year ago and has a 1-1 professional record and is coming off a KO loss to Amanda Bell last August. Shafir trains at the Glendale Fighting Club and is one of the Four Horsewomen and was ringside at WrestleMania this past Sunday with Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler and Jessamyn Duke.

[Stickman]

**The UFC has hired Jeff Novitsky as their new Vice-President of Athlete Health and Performance and was one of the key investigators during the BALCO scandal. This is a major hiring by the UFC and shows a clear statement of their desire to combat performance enhancing drugs to the best of their ability. There is an interesting piece that Zack Arnold wrote all the way back in 2013 when the Biogenesis scandal was going on and how it could impact MMA at the time including the role of Novitsky at the time at http://www.fightopinion.com/2013/08/02/ ... iogenesis/.

**There were a series odd circumstances involving Melvin Guillard, which has resulted in him being pulled from this weekend’s World Series of Fighting card. Guillard was unable to be reached by officials at WSOF in order for Guillard to get his medicals done and for promotion of the event. The company alerted Guillard’s management team that if they didn’t hear from him by this morning that he would be removed from the card and that is what they have done. His opponent, Ozzy Dugulubgov will now be fighting Lucas Montoya, who was scheduled to fight on the undercard of the show.

**This Saturday’s UFC card from Krakow, Poland will be airing at 3pm ET on Fight Network in Canada with a preview at 2pm ET going into the main card. The show is headlined by a rematch between Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga, who fought in April 2007 with the infamous head kick knockout by Gonzaga in Cro Cop’s second UFC fight.

[Stickman]

**The Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission has announced that Jorge de Oliveira has tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol, following his loss to Christos Giagos at the UFC Fight Night card in Rio de Janiero on March 21st. de Oliveira is denying he took the substance and plans to appeal the fine and suspension and is facing a one-year suspension.

**It was reported on UFC Tonight that Frank Mir and Todd Duffee will headline the UFC Fight Night card on Wednesday July 15th from San Diego, California. Duffee had been pushing for the fight while Mir had his sights set on a third fight with Brock Lesnar up until the news came out that Lesnar was staying with the WWE.

**The UFC had confirmed to Ariel Helwani that Nate Diaz would be moving back to the welterweight division for his next fight and taking on Matt Brown at UFC 189 on July 11th. However, on Thursday morning Diaz denied that the fight is official and said he would be fighting Anthony Pettis in his next fight and is supposed to be meeting with the UFC this Monday to discuss his next fight. Diaz fought at welterweight in 2010 and 2011 and went 2-2 before returning to the lightweight division.

**Sports Illustrated has a big interview with CM Punk with Jon Wertheim about his transition to mixed martial arts. Punk notes that he is walking around at about 190 pounds at the moment and will be doing a test cut in a few months but there isn’t a set time on when he will be fighting. Punk gave an interesting answer when he was asked about criticisms he has made of the WWE work place and similar complaints fighters have had in regards to the UFC. The full transcript of the interview is up at http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/04 ... c-training.

**Tonight is the Bellator 136 card from Irvine, California and airing on Spike TV. Below is the televised main card:
*Will Brooks vs. Dave Jansen for the lightweight title
*Joe Schilling vs. Rafael Carvalho
*Marcin Held vs. Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy
*Alexander Volkov vs. Tony Johnson

**World Series of Fighting is running a rare Friday night card for the promotion on the NBC Sports Network in the U.S. The card has lost Ronny Markes and Melvin Guillard over the past few days with Markes suffering from dehydration and Guillard not sending in his medicals in time and turning down multiple interview requests that the company asked him to do. Below is the main card, which begins at 9pm ET and goes head-t0-head with the Bellator card:
*Dave Branch vs. Jesse McElligott in the light heavyweight tournament semi-final
*Nick Newell vs. Joe Condon
*Ozzy Dugulubgov vs. Lucas Montoya
*Ben “Phoenix Jones” Fodor vs. Emmanuel Walo
*Steve Mocco vs. Juliano Coutinho

**The RFA promotion also has a show tonight from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and airing at 10pm ET on AXS TV and 11pm ET in Canada on Fight Network. The card is headlined by Justin Lawrence and Sam Toomer for the featherweight title and Gabriel Checco takes on Francisco France for the vacant middleweight title.

**The UFC Fight Night card kicks off at 11am ET on Saturday morning from Krakow, Poland with six preliminary fights airing on Fight Pass. The main card begins at 3pm ET featuring the rematch between Gabriel Gonzaga and Mirko Cro Cop.

**Marc Ratner noted to John Morgan of MMA Junkie that all of the fighters on tomorrow’s card in Poland will be drug tested.

**Below is the full card for tomorrow’s show in Krakow:

MAIN CARD (3pm ET on Fight Pass, Fight Network in Canada)
*Mirko Cro Cop vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
*Jan Blachowicz vs. Jimi Manuwa
*Joanne Calderwood vs. Maryna Moroz
*Pawel Pawlak vs. Sheldon Westcott

PRELIMINARY CARD (11:45am ET on Fight Pass)
*Seth Baczynski vs. Leon Edwards
*Garreth McLellan vs. Bartosz Fabinski
*Mickael Lebout vs. Sergio Moraes
*Damian Stasiak vs. Yaotzin Meza
*Daniel Omielanczuk vs. Anthony Hamilton
*Izabela Badurek vs. Alexandra Albu
*Marcin Bandel vs. Stevie Ray
*Taylor Lapilus vs. Rocky Lee

[BigRedLedbetter]

Ronda Rousey had a busy night.

Ronda is awesome.

[Stickman]

**Below are all of the results from the UFC Fight Night card on Saturday from the Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland in front of an announced crowd of 10,000:
*Taylor Lapilus over Rocky Lee by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Stevie Ray over Marcin Bandel by TKO at 1:35 of Round 2
*Aleksandra Albu over Izabela Badurek by guillotine choke at 3:34 of Round 2 – Badurek had a rough weight cut down to 115 and missed the limit on her first attempt on Friday and finally did make it
*Anthony Hamilton over Daniel Omielanczuk by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
*Yaotzin Meza over Damian Stasiak by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Sergio Moraes over Mickael Lebout by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Barotsz Fabinski over Garreth McLellan by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Leon Edwards over Seth Baczynski by KO at 0:08 of Round 1 – this woke up the crowd and was the second fastest knockout in UFC welterweight history
*Maryna Moroz over Joanne Calderwood by armbar at 1:30 of Round 1 – huge upset with Calderwood coming in as a -900 favorite and it was expected that Calderwood would get a strawweight title fight with a win for the card in Scotland later this summer, which is Calderwood’s home country
*Pawel Pawlak over Sheldon Westcott by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Jimi Manuwa over Jan Blachowicz by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Mirko Cro Cop over Gabriel Gonzaga by TKO at 3:30 of Round 3 – Gonzaga won the first two rounds and was rocked in the third by a shot and Cro Cop followed up with more strikes and got him down to the mat and damaged him with elbows for the stoppage

**The fight of the night bonus went to Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga and the performance bonuses were awarded to Maryna Moroz and Leon Edwards. They all received $50,000.

**Jimi Manuwa revealed after the fight that he tore his meniscus, ACL and MCL in his knee about a month ago and significantly limited his training for the fight with Jan Blachowicz. It is unknown how long Manuwa will be on the sidelines for and had been out of action for 14-months prior to the fight on Saturday.

**News came out late in the day on Friday that Yoel Romero had suffered a knee injury and is off of next weekend’s UFC on FOX card in Newark. His fight with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was one of the key fights on the show and personally was the fight I was most looking forward to. Chris Camozzi has agreed to step up on a week’s notice to fight Souza with Dana White hinting that it was not as easy task to find an opponent on such short notice to fight Jacare. Camozzi was submitted by Jacare in May 2013 (coincidentally on a card headlined by Luke Rockhold as well) and was the start of a four fight losing streak for Camozzi, who was released by the UFC after his loss to Rafael Natal in September of last year. Camozzi has gone 2-0 since leaving the UFC and just fought last month for Prize FC.

**Below are the main card results from Bellator 136 from this past Friday night in Irvine, California and airing on Spike TV:
*Tony Johnson over Alexander Volkov by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Marcin Held over Alexander Sarnavskiy by knee bar at 1:11 of Round 3
*Rafael Carvalho over Joe Schilling by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Will Brooks over Dave Jansen by unanimous decision (49-46 all) to retain the lightweight title

**Bellator’s next card is on Friday May 15th in Temecula, California featuring Brandon Halsey defending the middleweight title against Kendall Grove.

**Here are the results from the WSOF 20 card on Friday in Ledyard, Connecticut:
*Ozzy Dugulubgov over Lucas Montoya by TKO at 3:39 of Round 1
*Steve Mocco over Julian Coutinho by TKO at 4:02 of Round 1
*Emmanuel Walo over Ben Fodor by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Nick Newell over Joe Condon by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*David Branch over Jesse McElligott by submission at 1:28 of Round 2 to advance to the finals of the WSOF light heavyweight tournament and will fight Teddy Holder in the finals for the vacant title
**Below is the UFC’s Road to the Octagon special for this weekend’s FOX card in Newark, New Jersey:


**A heavyweight bout between Bobby Lashley and James Thompson has been added to the Bellator card on June 19th in St. Louis, which is the show headlined by Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock. Lashley and Thompson fought in November of 2011 for the Super Fight League in India with Thompson winning by unanimous decision. Since that fight Lashley has won five straight fights and is 2-0 since starting in Bellator last year.

**Scott Jorgensen is leaving the flyweight division and returning to fight at bantamweight after a 1-3 mark at 125 pounds. Jorgensen has been signed to fight Manny Gamburyan on July 15th in San Diego, California at the UFC Fight Night card, which is headlined by Frank Mir vs. Todd Duffee. Jorgensen last fought at UFC 179 last October and was submitted by Wilson Reis. Gamburyan is coming off a submission win over Cody Gibson at UFC 178 last September.

[Stickman]

*The UFC on FOX card is tonight from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and is a very good television card. There will be four hours of fights airing on big FOX beginning at 6pm ET and below is the card:

MAIN CARD (8pm ET on FOX, CTV2 in Canada)
*Lyoto Machida (185) vs. Luke Rockhold (185)
*Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (186) vs. Chris Camozzi (185)
*Max Holloway (146) vs. Cub Swanson (145)
*Paige VanZant (115) vs. Felice Herrig (115)

PRELIMINARY CARD (6pm ET on FOX, TSN2 in Canada)
*Jim Miller (156) vs. Beneil Dariush (155)
*Ovince St. Preux (205) vs. Pat Cummins (205)
*Gian Villante (206) vs. Corey Anderson (205)
*Takeya Mizugaki (136) vs. Aljamain Sterling (136)

FIGHT PASS CARD (4:15pm ET)
*Tim Means (170) vs. George Sullivan (171)
*Diego Brandao (145) vs. Jimy Hettes (146)
*Chris Dempsey (186) vs. Eddie Gordon (186)

**Joe Lauzon is on the front page of The National Post newspaper in Canada. It is a story about an English professor searching for the reason why men decide to go out and fight for a living and in doing research for the story, decided to train and fight for himself. The story is up at http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/the ... rtial-arts.

**Georges St-Pierre and Rory MacDonald will be hosting a fan Q&A next Friday in Montreal, Quebec prior to the UFC 186 weigh-ins.

**A middleweight fight between Derek Brunson and Krzysztof Jotko has been announced for the UFC’s Fight Night card in Berlin, Germany on June 20th. The card is headlined by Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira in a light heavyweight bout.

[Stickman]

**The injunction that Bellator had filed against Quinton Jackson and preventing him from fighting at UFC 186 this weekend has been overturned by the Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division. The news came out on Tuesday that the decision was being overturned and clearing the way for Jackson to be placed back onto the card and he is now scheduled to fight Fabio Maldonado once again. Jackson stated that he has still been training since the injunction was filed but the fight is now going to be fought at a catchweight of 215 pounds and certainly favors Jackson at the higher weight. Steve Bosse had been installed as a replacement for Jackson and he has been told to stay in shape just in case any appeal is filed or any last minute move is made that could impact the fight. Jackson was scheduled to arrive in Montreal on Wednesday and will be at the UFC’s media day event on Thursday.

**The UFC has confirmed that Matt Brown will be fighting on the UFC 189 card on July 11th in Las Vegas and will now be fighting Tim Means. Initially the UFC had stated that Brown would be fighting Nate Diaz but that fight fell apart after Diaz disputed that the fight had been agreed to. Means is coming off a submission win over George Sullivan from this past weekend while Brown last fought at UFC 185 in Dallas and was defeated by Johny Hendricks.

**This past Saturday’s UFC on FOX card averaged 2,745,000 viewers featuring Luke Rockhold and Lyoto Machida in the main event.

**In a statement to Sports Business Journal today, the UFC has announced a radical change to way that fighters will be compensated when the Reebok apparel deal goes into effect this July. The original plan was to have a tiered system of pay based on a fighter’s official ranking, which are made up by members of the media. There was a lot of concern over this model as the rankings have been put into questions based on the members of the media being asked as well as certain conflicts that arise from media members having a direct effect on a fighter’s pay. The new system that has been announced will not be based on the rankings but instead the number of fights that a fighter has had in the organization (and extending to include their WEC and Strikeforce bouts as well but not listing Pride, WFA or other organizations that the UFC has purchased). The UFC did not get into specifics about how much fighters will be paid but did break it down that champions would make the most and then you would be paid based on the amount of fights you have had with the different tiers consisting of: 1-5 fights, 6-10 fights, 11-15 fights, 16-20 fights and more than 21 fights. The article is posted on the SBJ website and features comments from agents Brad Slater and Glenn Robinson about the sponsorship dollars that have dried up over the last few years as well.

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 186 videos focusing on the main event between Demetrious Johnson and Kyoji Horiguchi as well as Michael Bisping vs. C.B. Dollaway:

[Stickman]

Jon Jones Sought for Questioning in Wreck, UFC 187 Bout at Risk

By Scott Harris , Featured Columnist Apr 26, 2015

Jon Jones is wanted for questioning related to a hit-and-run car collision that allegedly left a woman injured Sunday morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

MMA reporter David Kano tweeted the news Sunday night that the UFC light heayweight champ was a person of interest in the hit-and-run. According to Kano, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Simon Drobnik confirmed that Jones is being sought for questioning.

Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com also reportedly spoke with Drobick.

"[We] don't know where he is right now," Drobik told Raimondi in relation to Jones. "We're trying to figure that out."

Depending on whether or to what extent Jones is involved in the incident, he may not be available to defend his UFC light heavyweight title against Anthony Johnson, a bout scheduled for May 23 in Las Vegas.

Earler Sunday evening, unnamed sources told MMAWeekly.com that Jones will not compete in the event.

UPDATE: Though the MMA Weekly report initially stated that Jones was out of the bout entirely, sources are now noting that the bout is at risk, but not definitely canceled at this point.

[Stickman]

**The Albuquerque Police Department is trying to contact UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones, who has been upgraded and now listed as a suspect for a hit-and-run accident in Sunday morning.

A car ran a red light on Sunday morning and hit another vehicle, where a woman in her 20s, who is pregnant, was rushed to the hospital and treated for injuries and it has since come out that she suffered a broken arm. Because of the arm being broken, the charge against Jones has been changed from a misdemeanor to now facing a felony charge.

An off duty officer identified the driver as Jon Jones with paperwork found in the car that belongs to Jones. In addition, authorities also discovered a marijuana pipe with marijuana inside the car. The driver is alleged to have left the scene but then returned to take a large handful of cash.

Authorities have attempted to get a hold of Jones but as of this writing have not been in contact with him.

The UFC has released the following statement on the matter:

We are aware that the Albuquerque Police Department is interested in speaking to Jon Jones regarding his possible involvement in a motor vehicle accident. We are in the process of gathering facts and will reserve further comment until more information is available.

**Here are the results from UFC 186 Sat night in front of an announced crowd of 10,154 and a live gate of $668,000 at the Bell Centre in Montreal:
*Randa Markos over Aisling Daly by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Valerie Letourneau over Jessica Rakoczy by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Nordine Taleb over Chris Clements by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Olivier Aubin-Mercier over David Michaud by rear-naked choke at 3:24 of Round 3 – Aubin-Mercier is very charismatic and a talented fighter and he is someone to keep your eye on, especially for the Canadian and Quebec market
*Chad Laprise over Bryan Barberena by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Alexis Davis over Sarah Kaufman by armbar at 1:52 of Round 2 – Kaufman was winning the fight until Davis landed on top and mounted her and then worked for a triangle and then locked in an armbar but referee Jerin Valel was on the wrong side as Kaufman was tapping and Valel didn’t see it immediately
*Patrick Cote over Joe Riggs by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Thomas Almeida over Yves Jabouin by TKO at 4:18 of Round 1
*John Makdessi over Shane Campbell by TKO at 4:53 of Round 1
*Michael Bisping over C.B. Dollaway by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – this was a great fight and the best Michael Bisping has looked in a long time and against a tough opponent in Dollaway. Bisping believes he will challenge for the title one day and this win was critical for him to remain in the mix at 185 pounds.
*Quinton Jackson over Fabio Maldonado by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Demetrious Johnson over Kyoji Horiguchi by armbar at 4:59 of Round 5 to retain the flyweight title – this was far from the most enjoyable fight up until the finish as Horiguchi landed the occasional strike (including a flying knee that Johnson absorbed) but Johnson was just a class above Horuguchi and was controlling the entire fight before the incredible finish and tapping Horiguchi with 0:01 left in the fight.

**Chad Laprise and Bryan Barberena received the fight of the night bonus while Demetrious Johnson and Thomas Almeida received the performance of the night bonuses for $50,000.

**The UFC has next weekend off as they would have been insane to try and run next weekend. Following next weekend, they have a card every weekend until July 4th weekend.

**Jack Encarnacao of The Boston Herald reports that Joe Lauzon has signed a new eight-fight deal with the UFC. Encarnacao has also learned of the estimated payouts for fighters from the Reebok apparel deal, when it comes into effect this July. The following tiers are as follows (based on tenure for fights under the Zuffa LLC banner):
*0 – 5 fights - $5,000
*5 – 10 fights - $8,000 - $10,000
*11 – 15 fights - $12,000 - $15,000
*16 – 20 fights - $18,000 - $20,000
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/othe ... for_lauzon

There will be lots more on this over the next few days as there are many thoughts on the figures being estimated for the fighters and what this means for a variety of fighters on the roster.