The Official MMA Thread

[warehouse]

man, jon jones is a fucking idiot.

[Stickman]

2015 hasn't been his year.

[Stickman]

and then..

Jon Jones stripped of UFC light heavyweight title, suspended indefinitely

Damon Martin
FOX Sports

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been stripped of his title effective immediately and will be suspended from the promotion indefinitely.

UFC president Dana White made the announcement via FOX Sports Live on Tuesday night.

Jones was arrested on Monday in Albuquerque on allegations of leaving the scene of an accident, which is a felony charge in New Mexico due to one of the drivers suffering a fractured wrist and arm. The injured driver, later identified as Vanessa Sonnenberg, was taken to the hospital because she is pregnant and felt like she might pass out at the scene.

Jones was sought as a 'person of interest' in the hit-and-run accident but the Albuquerque police eventually upgraded him to suspect before issuing a warrant for his arrest on felony charges for leaving the scene of an accident. Jones eventually surrendered to police on Monday before being released on $2500 bond.

White said that he finally spoke to Jones on Tuesday to get his side of the story before the promotion took any action against him.

"He didn't say a lot. Obviously, he's got to handle his legal proceedings," White said.
"His lawyer didn't have him say much. What we wanted to find out is what the facts were. There's a lot of things that are being said out there about what happened that day, a lot of them are untrue, a lot of them are speculation, and we wanted to hear Jon's side of the story and we wanted to hear what his lawyer had to say about it."

Jones hasn't spoken publicly since the incident outside of a message he released on Twitter on Tuesday.

Jon Bones Jones @JonnyBones

Got a lot of soul searching to do. Sorry to everyone I've let down.
8:09 PM - 28 Apr 2015

Once White got the information he required, the UFC moved swiftly to strip Jones of his UFC light heavyweight title while suspending him indefinitely. Jones was expected to face Anthony Johnson in the main event of UFC 187 before he was suspended.

White said that Jones was obviously upset about the decision, but given the circumstances the organization had to take action.

"Obviously he's very disappointed," White said. "He's upset, he wanted to go down as one of the greatest ever, but it is what it is. It was the decision we had to make."

As far as Jones' future with the UFC, that remains up the air for the time being.

Under the UFC's code of conduct policy, the promotion has the right to suspend Jones indefinitely for behavior that is considered detrimental to the organization. UFC officials haven't placed a time limit on how long Jones will remain suspended or if he'll ever fight in the Octagon again.

"I don't now what's going to happen," White said candidly. "We have suspended him indefinitely. Obviously he needs to focus on his legal matters right now and I don't know we'll see what happens."

According to the police report, Jones was identified at the scene of the accident by an off duty police officer who was nearby and witnessed the three car crash. Paperwork belonging to 'Jonathan Jones' was found in the vehicle along with a marijuana pipe with marijuana in it.

The District Attorney from Bernalillo Count has 60 days to take Jones' case before the grand jury to seek an indictment against the fighter. The felony charges carry a penalty of up to three years in prison.

With Jones suspended, UFC 187 will move forward with Daniel Cormier stepping in to face Anthony Johnson as the new main event with the UFC light heavyweight title on the line.

[Stickman]

**MMA Junkie was the first to report that lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov had suffered a knee injury in training and is likely off of the UFC 187 card on May 23rd, where he was to fight Donald Cerrone. Nurmagomedov missed the past year after tearing his ACL and hasn’t fought since April of 2014. He was scheduled to have his knee examined on Thursday

**Melvin Guillard has been released from World Series of Fighting and ending a very rocky relationship between the two sides. Guillard missed weight for both of his fights with the promotion in July and November of last year. Guillard was not responding to requests from the company to do media ahead of his recent fight with Ozzy Dugulubgov at the WSOF 20 card and the promotion pulled him from the fight just days away from the fight.

**Michelle Waterson will make her UFC debut on Sunday July 12th at the TUF 21 Finale card in Florida against Angela Magana. Waterson is the former Invicta FC atomweight champion and was signed this past week by the UFC and will fight at 115 pounds.

**The UFC 186 preliminary fights averaged 710,000 viewers on FS 1 prior to the pay-per-view this weekend.

**Steve Bosse is going to get his opportunity to fight in the UFC as he has been added to the June 27th TUF Brazil 4 Finale card in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Quebec based fighter will be fighting Thiago Santos on that show. Bosse was inserted to fight Fabio Maldonado on short notice when it appeared that an injunction filed by Bellator would prohibit Quinton Jackson from fighting at UFC 186 but the injunction was overruled.

[Stickman]

**UFC president Dana White is predicting 2.6 million buys for tonight's Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao bout, which is one of the more conservative estimates out there.


**The UFC’s week of disaster continues as Alexander Gustafsson is injured and off of the June 20th card in Berlin, Germany, where he was to fight Glover Teixeira in the main event. The new main event will see strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defend her title against Jessica Penne and will be the first title fight to be broadcast on Fight Pass. It is unknown what will happen will Teixeira but it is possible he could be moved to the main event of the June 6th card in New Orleans for a rematch with Ryan Bader, who was left without an opponent when Daniel Cormier was moved to UFC 187 earlier this week.

**It was confirmed by Ariel Helwani that Khabib Nurmagomedov is officially off of the UFC 187 card on May 23rd and is undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus today in Los Angeles. Nurmagomedov will be replaced by John Makdessi for the fight against Donald Cerrone on May 23rd. Makdessi just fought this past weekend in Montreal, defeating Shane Campbell and getting the fight of the night bonus.

**Tom Lawlor will have his first fight in the UFC in over two-years when he meets Gian Villante on July 25th in Chicago at the next UFC on FOX card. Lawlor last fought in April of 2013 where he defeated Michael Kuiper and has undergone significant knee problems over the past two-years. Villante is coming off a win last month over Corey Anderson at the FOX card in Newark, New Jersey.

**UFC Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner spoke to Luke Thomas of SBNation and says if all goes well and the bill goes through to legalize professional mixed martial arts in the state of New York, that the UFC would run Madison Square Garden on December 5th.

**Seth Baczynski, Justin Jones, Marcin Bandel and Cain Carrizosa have been cut by the UFC.

[Stickman]

**The UFC kicks off eight straight weekends of fight cards this weekend with a show in Adelaide, Australia. This Saturday’s show is headlined by heavyweights Stipe Miocic and Mark Hunt with the preliminary fights airing at 7:45pm ET and the main card at 11pm ET. The main card will be airing on Fight Network in Canada.

**Just days after being released by the World Series of Fighting organization, Melvin Guillard has signed with Bellator. The lightweight was released from the promotion following a request by his management and granted the release after missing weight for both of his fights in the WSOF and then being pulled the week of his last fight due to a communication breakdown between the promotion and Guillard.

**Brad Pickett is returning to the bantamweight division and will be fighting Thomas Almeida at UFC 189 on July 11th in Las Vegas. Pickett cut down to flyweight for his last three fights and went 1-2. Almeida is coming off a spectacular stoppage of Yves Jabouin at UFC 186 last week in Montreal and holds an undefeated record of 19-0.

**Bellator has also announced the signing of former kickboxer Ewerton Teixeira. Teixeira’s last kickboxing fight was in December 2013 and held a record of 11-8 and also had a 3-0 record in MMA but hasn’t fought since April 2013.

[Stickman]

**The pay-per-view numbers for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are expected to shatter the previous existing mark of 2,480,000 buys (Mayweather vs. Oscar de la Hoya in May 2007). Kevin Iole reports that satellite figures alone are being tabbed at 2,350,000 buys and they typically account for 35% of the final number. This would mean the final figure should break 5,000,000 buys and could be significantly north of that figure. It is without question the most successful fight in combat sports history and is a mark that won’t be threatened in this lifetime. There are a lot of lessons learned from this promotion and it’s insane to think there is any other fight to put together than the rematch between the two for business.

**The weigh-ins for the UFC card in Adelaide take place tonight at 9:30pm ET (meaning that some of the undercard fighters will have less than 24 hours to rehydrate before they fight as the prelims begin at 7:45pm ET on Saturday). Below is the full card for tomorrow night’s show in Australia:

MAIN CARD (11pm ET on Fight Pass, Fight Network in Canada)
*Mark Hunt vs. Stipe Miocic
*Brad Tavares vs. Robert Whittaker
*Anthony Perosh vs. Sean O’Connell
*Jake Matthews vs. James Vick

PRELIMINARY CARD (7:45pm ET on Fight Pass)
*Hatsu Hioki vs. Daniel Hooker
*Kyle Noke vs. Jonavin Webb
*Sam Alvey vs. Daniel Kelly
*Bec Rawlings vs. Lisa Ellis
*Dylan Andrews vs. Brad Scott
*Kailin Curran vs. Alex Chambers
*Vik Grujic vs. Brendan O’Reilly
*Alptekin Ozkilic vs. Ben Nguyen

**Former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis has suffered an injury in training and is off of the July 25th card in Chicago on FOX. The news was reported on Thursday night by Fox Sports 1 with Edson Barboza stepping in to fight Myles Jury on the card. Both Jury and Barboza are coming off losses with Jury losing his first pro fight (he did lose on TUF but that isn’t counted on his official record) to Donald Cerrone in January while Barboza dropped a decision to Michael Johnson this past February.

**Ariel Helwani at MMA Fighting confirmed that Pettis has suffered an elbow injury following his wrestling practice this past Tuesday night. Pettis has suffered a torn muscle and ligaments in the elbow and will undergo surgery next Tuesday and is expected to be out for 4-6 months.

**The UFC 189 card scheduled for July 11th during International Fight Week continues to grow with the latest addition being a welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger and Stephen Thompson. The card is headlined by two title fights with Jose Aldo defending the featherweight title against Conor McGregor and Rory MacDonald challenging Robbie Lawler for the welterweight title.

**The figures for the Reebok deal have now been confirmed with a notice sent to fighters on the roster. The fighters will be paid the following amounts based on the number of fights that have had under the Zuffa banner (this will include fights for the WEC and Strikeforce AFTER they were purchased by Zuffa):
*1 to 5 fights - $2,500
*6 to 10 fights - $5,000
*11 to 15 fights - $10,000
*16 to 20 fights - $15,000
*21 fights or more - $20,000
*Title challenger on a card - $30,000
*Champion - $40,000

Obviously there are fighters that are not ecstatic with the official figures. Brendan Schaub commented publically that he has made over six figures each for his last six fights and will now be taking $10,000 per fight under the current model. Roger Narvaez stated that he made double in his last fight of the lowest tier, which he would qualify for.

**The UFC has announced changes to their Hall of Fame, which will go into effect with this year’s induction class during International Fight Week. The Hall of Fame will now be broken down into four distinct categories:
*The Pioneers Era - fighters that debuted prior to November 17th 2000 and the adoption of the unified rules
*The Modern Era – fighters that debuted after that date
*The Contributors – reserved for non-fighters that made an impact in the sport
*The Fight Wing – reserved for a specific fight to be acknowledged

There will be an induction for each of the four categories at this year’s ceremony and also discussions of building a physical Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

**Renzo Gracie and Matt Serra presented UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman with his BJJ black belt last night.

[Rangi Guy]

Kiwi UFC fighter Mark Hunt posted a photo of his battered face on social media following his TKO loss in Adelaide.

[Stickman]

**Below are the results from the UFC Fight Night card in Adelaide, Australia on Saturday in front of a crowd of 7,984 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and a gate of $833,810:
*Ben Nguyen over Alptekin Ozkilic by TKO at 4:59 of Round 1 – Nguyen was a late addition and was popular from a viral video where his opponent was bullying him prior to the fight and then knocked him out instantly in their fight
*Brendan O’Reilly over Vik Grujic by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – both were exhausted by the final round but the second round was the best round of the card
*Alex Chambers over Kailin Curran by armbar at 3:15 of Round 3 – Curran won the first two rounds and well on her way to winning a decision when she was caught with an armbar
*Brad Scott over Dylan Andrews by guillotine at 4:54 of Round 2
*Bec Rawlings over Lisa Ellis by rear-naked choke at 4:09 of Round 1
*Sam Alvey over Dan Kelly by TKO at 0:49 of Round 1 – Alvey was great with his post-fight interview and challenged Elias Theodorou to a hair vs. hair fight
*Kyle Noke over Jonavin Webb by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
*Dan Hooker over Hatsu Hioki by KO at 4:13 of Round 2
*James Vick over Jake Matthews by guillotine at 4:53 of Round 1
*Sean O’Connell over Anthony Perosh by TKO at 0:56 of Round 1
*Robert Whittaker over Brad Tavares by KO at 0:44 of Round 1
*Stipe Miocic over Mark Hunt by TKO at 2:47 of Round 5

This was a really great show up until the main event. This fight was over in the third round and referee John Sharp allowed it to continue into the fifth round and was simply unnecessary punishment that Hunt received. Miocic ended up setting a new UFC record for strikes landed with 361 (the old record was 355 by Royce Gracie at UFC 5) and that is a record that shouldn’t have been made. There is outrage at times over a fight not being stopped quickly enough but this was at another level of blatant disregard. The win does put Miocic in a good spot at the heavyweight division with no obvious contender for the winner of Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum next month and while Miocic does have a loss to Junior dos Santos (which some thought he won), dos Santos won’t be fighting until October of November and it is highly unlikely they will put together another fight between Velasquez and dos Santos if Velasquez wins next month in Mexico City.

**Next Saturday’s card in The Philippines will start at 7am ET with the Fight Pass prelims and then the televised prelims begin at 8am and the main card at 10am. In Canada, the prelims will air on Fight Network at 8am and the main card will air on TSN2.

**Mike Swick is documenting his return to the UFC with a video series, entitled “The Comeback”. Swick is fighting for the first time since December 2012 when he meets Alex Garcia at UFC 189 on July 11th:


**Bellator has announced that they have signed three-time national wrestling champion Ed Ruth to a deal. Ruth is 25-years old and currently training for the 2016 Olympic Games and plans to start his MMA career after next year’s summer games, where he will compete at 190 pounds. Ruth had stated he was in discussion with a number of fight promotions and noted that one of the factors that made Bellator was appealing was the fact he could secure his own sponsors.

**Ronda Rousey’s autobiography, “My Fight / Your Fight” comes out tomorrow through Regan Arts. She worked on the book with her sister, Maria Burns-Ortiz, who is a reporter and has worked for SI and ESPN.

**A fight between Andrew Craig and Edgar Garcia has been announced for the UFC’s Fight Night card on Wednesday July 15th in San Diego. Craig is moving down to welterweight for this fight after consecutive losses at middleweight to Luke Barnatt and Cezar Ferreira.

[Stickman]

**The UFC has announced the first Japanese edition of the Ultimate Fighter, which will be promoted as “Road to the UFC: Japan” and will premiere this July and air in Japan and likely on Fight Pass for the rest of the world. There will be eight fighters on the show and will be training in Japan and Las Vegas under coaches Josh Barnett and Roy Nelson. This will lead into the UFC’s return to the Saitama Super Arena on September 27th a Fight Night card headlined by Barnett vs. Nelson.

**Urijah Faber turns 36-years old today.

**The UFC Fight Night weigh-ins from Manila will be taking place early Friday morning at 7am ET from The Philippines.

**Mark Hunt provides his first interview since his loss to Stipe Miocic and spoke to 3 News in New Zealand about the loss, the amount of strikes he took and providing an update on his health and how he is doing.

**Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting, who a guest on The MMA Report last week, has a piece looking at the impact of the Reebok deal on fighters and spoke to a number of fight managers about the numbers that came out last week.

**Michael Landsberg speaks to UFC president Dana White about Bob Arum, the recent Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight and provides an update on Jon Jones:


**Bellator returns this Friday night with a card from Temecula, California with Brandon Halsey defending the middleweight title against Kendall Grove in the main event of the show. The main card on Spike will also feature Eduardo Dantas taking on Mike Richman, Fernando Gonzalez vs. Curtis Millender and Rafael Silva taking on Darrion Caldwell.

**UFC Fight Pass will be carrying the Shooto Brazil card this Sunday night at 6pm ET with Jason Chambers and Dominick Cruz calling the show.

**A women’s bantamweight bout between Jessica Andrade and Sarah Moraes has been added to the UFC Fight Night card on Wednesday June 15th in San Diego.

[Stickman]

**UFC president Dana White speaks to Michael Landsberg on Off the Record and discusses the Reebok deal, Brendan Schaub, Anthony Johnson and a possible return to Toronto:


**Very sad news coming out over the past few days that Ultimate Fighter season five competitor Corey Hill passed away at the age of 36. MMA Junkie reported that Hill had gone to the hospital and been suffering from bronchitis and they discovered a cyst on his lung. It is believed that he suffered a collapsed lung and heart attack, which led to his passing. Hill last fought in February of this year and last competed for the UFC in December of 2008, where he suffered one of the most graphic injuries in UFC history when his leg snapped during a fight with Dale Hartt at the first Fight for the Troops show.

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight (Morning) card from the Philippines early this morning at the Mall of Asia Arena:
*Yao Zhikui over Nolan Ticman by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Jon Delos Reyes over Roldan Sangcha-An by rear-naked choke at 3:13 of Round 2
*Ning Guangyou over Royston Wee by TKO at 4:59 of Round 2
*Li Jingliang over Dhiego Lima by KO at 1:25 of Round 1
*Kajan Johnson over Zhang Lipeng by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Jon Tuck over Tae Hyun Bang by rear-naked choke at 3:56 of Round 1
*Levan Makashvili over Mark Eddiva by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Phillipe Nover over Yui Chul Nam by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – I had the fight for Nam and it came down to how you scored the second round as Nover won the first and Nam won the third without question
*Neil Magny over Hyun Gyu Lim by TKO at 1:24 of Round 2 – they had a great opening round with Lim nearly finishing Magny but he came back and arguably won the first round and Lim was exhausted and easily taken down in the second round
*Mark Munoz over Luke Barnatt by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – this was the best Munoz has looked in quite some time and this was his retirement fight so he goes off on a high note and gave a nice speech after the fight
*Gegard Mousasi over Costas Philippou by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – not a very entertaining fight as Mousasi would take him down and just worked on top throughout the three rounds with little resistance from Philippou
*Frankie Edgar over Urijah Faber by unanimous decision (50-45 all) – the first two rounds were close by Edgar was pulling ahead with a wider variety of strikes, pressed forward and Faber was never able to use his wrestling, Edgar mixed in takedowns and was the better technical striker of the two

**The bonus winners were Jon Delos Reyes and Roldan Sangcha-An for fight of the night and Neil Magny and Jon Tuck received performance bonuses, all for $50,000.

**Following yesterday’s card in the Philippines, the UFC announced that their first card in Seoul, South Korea will take place on November 28th later this year.

**The Countdown to UFC 187 preview special debuts tonight on FS 1 in the U.S.

**Here are the main card results from Bellator 137 fri night in Temecula, California and airing on Spike TV:
*Darrion Caldwell over Rafael Silva by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Fernando Gonzalez over Curtis Millender by guillotine choke at 1:14 of Round 3
*Eduardo Dantas over Mike Richman by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Brandon Halsey over Kendall Grove by TKO at 2:25 of Round 4

Halsey dominated the fight over Grove and was very one-sided throughout the fight. Halsey won the fight but still must vacate the middleweight title after he came in at 188.1 pounds and also forfeited 20% of his purse.

[Stickman]

**Below is Episode 1 of the UFC 187 Embedded series with Anthony Johnson and Vitor Belfort preparing for their title fights this weekend and also focusing on Chris Weidman and Daniel Cormier in the first episode:


**Aleksander Emelianenko has been sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison and fined $1,000 after being convicted on charges of sexual assault, according to the Russian Legal Information Agency. Emelianenko was charged with raping his housekeeper in March 2014 and then stealing the woman’s passport. Emelianenko denied that he raped the woman and that the two had consensual sex. Aleksander is the younger brother of Fedor Emelianenko and had a professional MMA record of 23-7 and last fought in January of last year.

**One crazy stat for fight week is that Donald Cerrone has gone 7-0 since the last time Vitor Belfort fought, which was in November 2013, where he defeated Dan Henderson.

**World Series of Fighting sent out a press release on Monday, confirming that they have released women’s strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar from her contract. The promotion stated they didn’t have the ability to match Aguilar with the top fighters in her weight class and sounded as though they are dissolving the division since the UFC has the top fighters at the weight class.

**The UFC has signed featherweight Chad Mendes to a new eight-fight deal with Mendes in Las Vegas over the weekend to work out the deal.

**Bellator has announced that Bubba Jenkins will be fighting Joe Wilk at the Bellator 139 card on Friday June 26th in Mulvane, Kansas. The two will be fighting on the preliminary card portion with the following main card fights announced:
*Cheick Kongo vs. Alexander Volkov
*Pat Curran vs. Goiti Yamauchi
*David Rickels vs. John Alessio
*Joe Schilling vs. Hisaki Kato

**A district judge in the state of Nevada ruled on Monday that the Nevada Athletic Commission did have the proper jurisdiction to drug test Wanderlei Silva prior to his fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 175 even though Silva was not officially licensed by the state at the time of the test. However, the same district judge also ruled that the commission did not have sufficient evidence to deliver a lifetime ban to Silva and is ordering the NAC to have another hearing with Silva to determine a more modest punishment for Silva skipping out on a random drug test last year. The new guidelines that the NAC approved last week (which do not take effect until later this year) call for a four-year suspension for skipping out on a drug test. Silva was told he would never be licensed in the state of Nevada again and also fined $70,000 last year by the NAC.

**The following fights have been announced by the UFC for their debut card in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday July 18th at the SSE Hydro:
*Robert Whiteford vs. Paul Redmond
*Pawel Pawlak vs. Leon Edwards
*Ilir Latifi vs. Hans Stringer

[Stickman]

*The UFC has announced the first set of inductees for this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place on Saturday July 11th during the UFC Fan Expo. The first inductee in the contributor’s category is Jeff Blatnick, who was a gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1984 Olympic Games and was a huge contributor to the growth and coining of the term, mixed martial arts. Blatnick began with the UFC as a commentator in 1994 and would later be named of the commission of the organization and remained with the promotion until 2001. The UFC will also be inducting the Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg rematch, which took place at UFC 52 in April 2005 into the fight category.

**The UFC 187 weigh-ins will take place on Friday at 7pm ET from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be airing on Fight Network.

**Below is Episode 2 & 3 of this week’s UFC Embedded series for UFC 187:



**It was reported on UFC Tonight that Ovince St. Preux will take on Glover Teixeira in the main event of the UFC Fight Night card on Saturday August 8th in Nashville, Tennessee. St. Preux has won his last two fights by stopping Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Patrick Cummins while Texeira last fought in October of last year and was defeated by Phil Davis.

**It was also announced on UFC Tonight by Ariel Helwani that Holly Holm will fight Marion Reneau on the UFC Fight Night card on Wednesday July 15th in San Diego. Holm made her UFC debut this past February with a win over Raquel Pennington while Reneau is 2-0 inside of the UFC with wins over Alexis Dufresne and Jessica Andrade.


**Bill Goldberg has announced that he is going to be travelling to Amsterdam to train with GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven. Goldberg has stated publically in the past that he wants to fight for GLORY but doesn’t want it to be a spectacle. He was offered a fight with Alberto Rodriguez (Alberto El Patron) for the GLORY event earlier this month in San Diego but didn’t feel he had enough time to get ready and wasn’t interested in fighting a fellow professional wrestler.

**KSW 31 will be airing live on Fight Network this Saturday at 2pm ET from Gdansk, Poland. The card will feature Tomasz Drwal taking on Michal Materla as well as Mariusz Pudzianowski taking on Rolles Gracie.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC 187 card last night, which was a great show, in front of an announced crowd of 12,615 and a gate of $5,189,167 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas:
*Justin Scoggins over Josh Sampo by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Islam Makhachev over Leo Kuntz by rear-naked choke at 2:38 of Round 2
*Colby Covington over Mike Pyle by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Rafael Natal over Uriah Hall by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Dong Hyun Kim over Josh Burkman by arm-triangle at 2:13 of Round 3
*John Dodson over Zach Makovsky by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Joseph Benavidez over John Moraga by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Andrei Arlovski over Travis Browne by TKO at 4:41 of Round 1
*Donald Cerrone over John Makdessi by TKO (retirement) at 4:44 of Round 2
*Chris Weidman over Vitor Belfort by TKO at 2:53 of Round 1 to retain the UFC middleweight title
*Daniel Cormier over Anthony Johnson by rear-naked choke at 2:39 of Round 3 to win the vacant UFC light heavyweight title

**The Arlovski vs. Browne fight is one of the best one-round fights you are going to see and likely will be the best round of the year in MMA. The two received the Fight of the Night bonus to no one’s surprise. The performance bonuses went to Daniel Cormier and Chris Weidman will all of the bonuses worth $50,000.

**There was a big confrontation at the post-fight press conference as Daniel Cormier started ripping on Ryan Bader and stating that Bader needs to get his ass kicked. Bader was in attendance at the press conference and stormed up to the podium, where Dave Sholler was trying to keep them apart (almost verbatim of the Jon Jones / Daniel Cormier deal) and Cormier stating he wanted to fight Bader because he is the easiest fight in the division. The two were scheduled to fight on June 6th but Cormier was moved up to fight Anthony Johnson after Jon Jones was taken off the card. Bader has won his last four fights and has campaigned hard for the next title fight and made the wise decision of getting on a plane and going to Las Vegas because the press conference deal likely sealed the deal for Bader getting a title fight and the highest profile fight of his career.


**The final inductee for this year’s UFC Hall of Fame class will be former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn. The announcement was made last night during the broadcast and he joins Jeff Blatnick and the Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg II fight from 2005 for this year’s class. The induction ceremony will take place on Saturday July 11th in Las Vegas during International Fight Week.

**Here is the big UFC 189 commercial, which aired for the first time last night during UFC 187:


**Next Saturday the UFC returns to Goiania in Brazil featuring Carlos Condit taking on Thiago Alves in the main event bout. The Fight Pass card kicks off at 7pm ET and the main card airs at 10pm ET. The preliminary fights will air on Fight Network in Canada, beginning at 8pm ET.

**UFC president Dana White appeared on Inside MMA on AXS TV Friday night with Ron Kruck and Bas Rutten and announced that Rutten would be going into the UFC Hall of Fame this July in the Pioneers category. Rutten has had a storied career with many different chapters from his time in Pancrase and only fighting twice in the UFC where he defeated Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in January of 1999 at UFC 18 and then winning the UFC heavyweight title in an extremely controversial split decision win over Kevin Randleman (which was later the subject of a hilarious skit between the two during Pride where they argued about the decision and were about to come to blows on camera and then started laughing) at UFC 20. Rutten dealt with bad knee problems and would leave the sport after the Randleman fight and reinvented himself as a color commentator during the glory period for Pride alongside Stephen Quadros and later Mauro Ranallo. He came back for one fight in the summer of 2006 for the WFA’s pay-per-view event, “King of the Streets”, where Rutten was scheduled to headline about Kimo Leopoldo. Kimo would fail his pre-fight drug test the week of the fight and Ruben Villareal was inserted and Rutten won the fight by TKO and never fought again. Rutten joins Jeff Blatnick and the Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg rematch from UFC 52 as the inductees for this year’s class. The UFC will be announcing one more inductee for the modern fighter’s category.

[LoathedVermin72]

That Browne/Arlovski fight was awesome. When Arlovski got rocked in the middle of pummeling Browne, goddamn. Exciting round.

[LoathedVermin72]

Also, as exciting as the prospect was, Cormier pretty much showed that Johnson wasn't actually ready to face Jones. Guy got pulverized.

[Stickman]

That Browne/Arlovski fight was awesome. When Arlovski got rocked in the middle of pummeling Browne, goddamn. Exciting round.

I wish I'd have been at the pub with a crowd to watch that fight. The reaction to the sudden flip would have been epic to be a part of.

[warehouse]

That Browne/Arlovski fight was awesome. When Arlovski got rocked in the middle of pummeling Browne, goddamn. Exciting round.

great example why people love HW fights, momentum can swing in the blink of an eye. what a round, that was incredible. gotta give it up to both guys, browne was still standing when the fight was called off, although he didnt argue. incredible fight, and im kinda surprised arlovski won to be honest.

weidman did exactly what we all thought, and belfort looked noticeably different. i know he wasnt the only guy to use trt, but he seems like the guy who most benefited from it. weidman pretty much dominated him on the ground. weidman is a beast, i hope he fights rockhold next.

johnson made it exacting with that early punch that dropped DC, but DC showed why he's one of the best wrestlers in MMA. i'm not sure a jones/johnson fight would have gone the same. i dont think DC has fought people with bigger punching power, so his chin has proven to hold up. we've never really seen jones tested by someone like johnson. but jones out wrestled DC, so you gotta assume he could have outwrestled johnson and found a sub.

[Stickman]

**Below is the full card for tomorrow night’s UFC Fight Night card in Goiania in Brazil:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on FS 1, TSN2 in Canada)
*Carlos Condit vs. Thiago Alves
*Charles Oliveira vs. Nik Lentz
*K.J. Noons vs. Alex Oliveira
*Ryan Jimmo vs. Francimar Barroso
*Norman Parke vs. Francisco Trinaldo
*Wendell Oliveira vs. Darren Till

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Rony “Jason” Bezerra vs. Damon Jackson
*Jussier “Formiga” da Silva vs. Wilson Reis
*Elizeu Zaleski vs. Nicolas Dalby
*Mirsad Bektic vs. Lucas Martins

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm ET)
*Juliana Lima vs. Ericka Almeida
*Luiz Dutra vs. Tom Breese

**Jordan Breen at Sherdog has a great piece looking back at UFC 130, which took place on this date in 2011.

**Bethe Correia has received a lot of criticism for a recent interview with a Brazilian outlet regarding her upcoming fight with Ronda Rousey on August 1st at UFC 190. Correia gave the following statement in her interview:

I want to see her reaction when I put some pressure against her. I want her to feel pressure and realize that I’m ready to fight her. She doesn’t have a good head, she needs to get help. There are a lot of people around her, she’s winning, but when she realizes that’s not everything, I don’t know what might happen. I hope she doesn’t commit suicide.

A joke about suicide is pretty ignorant but many are aware that Rousey’s father took his own life after suffering from a debilitating back injury (and is a big part of Rousey’s book, which just came out). Rousey responded stating that:

Suicide is no joke or selling point. My father will be with me the day I hand you the comeuppance you deserve.

Correia has since apologized and posted the following statement:

Never knew what happened to ur dad.I'm humble enough to ask u for forgiveness. Family is a godly bless to me. See u in #UFC190

**A replay of UFC 165 from September 2013 will be airing this Sunday night at 9pm ET on Fight Network, headlined by Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and was many people’s fight of the year that year. A classic UFC pay-per-view airs every Sunday night in that slot with UFC 116 scheduled for Sunday June 7th featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin and was a really great card.

[tommymtcom]

Is CM Punk going to get his ass kicked?