The Official MMA Thread

[Stickman]

well, she certainly has time now.

[LoathedVermin72]

I'm in

[LoathedVermin72]

Just watched the fightt. Man, Rousey was sloppy as fuck. She deserved that loss. Terrible performance.

[BurtReynolds]

yeah it seems like she got lazy.

[LoathedVermin72]

It's like the concept of blocking strikes was completely alien to her. Which, I guess, kinda makes sense.

[verb_to_trust]

Her boyfriend beats women up doesn't he? You'd think she'd get a lot of practice blocking strikes.

[Stickman]

**Ronda Rousey’s first public statement since the loss to Holly Holm on Saturday was released on Sunday night, Rousey posted the following message on Instagram:

I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support,” Rousey said. “I appreciate the concerns about my health, but I’m fine. As I had mentioned before, I’m going to take a little bit of time, but I’ll be back.

**Below is audio of Ronda Rousey’s reaction immediately after her loss to Holly Holm:


**Darin Harvey, who is the former manager of Ronda Rousey has come out and stated that he created a “monster” in Rousey. Harvey is currently involved in a legal dispute with Rousey and being dismissed as her manager in 2013. Harvey says he could lose up to $1 million in legal fees and was wronged by Rousey during negotiations with the UFC on a new contract. The interview was conducted by USA Today and is up on their site.

**Over the next week, Holly Holm will be doing media tours in Los Angeles, New York and Albuquerque, New Mexico after she returns home from Melbourne.

[Stickman]

**The UFC captured some incredible footage from UFC 193 with live reactions from the family and friends of Holly Holm and Ronda Rousey as the fight was going on and including the finish. This will be the subject of a future episode of “The Thrill and the Agony” on Fight Pass:


**UFC 193 is on pace to be one of the most successful pay-per-views events the UFC has ever put on. Lorenzo Fertitta spoke to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports and stated that the number has passed the 1,000,000 mark and is trending to be the second most purchased event in company history, trailing UFC 100 from July 2009. All indications were that this was going to be a giant number following the late buzz after the weigh-ins, an incredible amount of online traffic on Saturday and Sunday, a historic outcome and probably huge replay buys for the show.

**The preliminary fights at UFC 193 did a huge number of FS 1 with 1,394,000 watching the prelim bouts from Melbourne. It is the third highest prelim audience that FS 1 has ever done, since launching in August of 2013. The peak point of the prelims came during the Jake Matthews vs. Akbarh Arreola fight, with over 1.7 million viewers.

**Bellator 146 takes place tonight from Thackerville, Oklahoma and airs at 9pm ET on Spike TV with the following main card lineup:
*Hisaki Kato vs. Melvin Manhoef
*Jordan Parsons vs. Bubba Jenkins
*Chidi Njokuani vs. Ricky Rainey
*Brandon Girtz vs. Derek Campos
*Houston Alexander vs. Guilherme Viana

**World Series of Fighting will attempt to pull off a one night, eight-man lightweight tournament tonight in Phoenix, Arizona. The tournament has already had issued before the first fight has taken place. On Thursday night, Brian Cobb withdrew from the tournament for undisclosed reasons and has since been released by the promotion, along with reserve fighter Benny Madrid being taken out of the tournament after being rushed to the hospital for weight cutting issues, according to Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting. This has led to reserve fighter Joe Condon put into the tournament against Mike Ricci and now there will only be one reserve bout with LaRue Burley taking on Ramil Mustapayev. Below is the full lineup of fights, beginning at 11pm ET on NBC Sports Network and Fight Network in Canada:
*Luis Palomino vs. Richard Patishnock in the opening round
*Brian Foster vs. Joao Zeferino in the opening round
*Mike Ricci vs. Joe Condon in the opening round
*Islam Mamedov vs. Jorge Patino in the opening round
*LaRue Burley vs. Ramil Mustapayev in the reserve bout
*Jason High vs. Estevan Payan in a non-tournament fight
*Joseph Barajas vs. Erik Villalobos in a non-tournament fight

**The UFC weigh-ins from Monterrey, Mexico take place tonight at 6pm ET for tomorrow night’s TUF Latin America Finale event. Below is the card, which begins at 6:30pm ET tomorrow:

MAIN CARD (FS 1, TSN 1 and 5 in Canada)
*Kelvin Gastelum vs. Neil Magny
*Ricardo Lamas vs. Diego Sanchez
*Henry Cejudo vs. Jussier Formiga
*Enrique Marin vs. Erick Montano in the TUF Latin America welterweight final
*Enrique Barzola vs. Horacio Gutierrez in the TUF Latin America lightweight final
*Efrain Escudero vs. Leandro Silva

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Erik Perez vs. Taylor Lapilus
*Bartosz Fabinski vs. Hector Urbina
*Alejandro Perez vs. Scott Jorgensen
*Gabriel Benitez vs. Andre Fili

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30pm ET)
*Vernon Ramos vs. Alvaro Herrera
*Cesar Arzamendia vs. Polo Reyes
*Valmir Lazaro vs. Michel Prazeres

**Bellator has announced two more fights for the Bellator 147 card on December 4th in San Jose, California. Brian Rogers is moving up to light heavyweight to fight Virgil Zwicker on the card, and a lightweight fight between Mario Soto and Adam Piccolotti has been added to the show. Bellator 147 is headlined by lightweight Josh Thomson and Pablo Villaseca.

[Stickman]

**Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today and stated they are targeting a 140-pound catchweight bout between Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Cindy Dandois on January 16th in Costa Mesa, California. This was the first step towards Cyborg attempting to get down to the bantamweight division and set up a fight with former champion Ronda Rousey, however the dynamic of that fight lost a lot last week after Rousey was defeated by Holly Holm. The intrigue behind Cyborg was that she represented someone that could present a challenge to Rousey, and the UFC found a challenge in Holm on their own and now have a rematch between the two that will be gigantic.

**Tryouts for the 23rd domestic season of Ultimate Fighter will be held on Monday December 14th at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas. They are seeking out female strawweights and bantamweights, along with male light heavyweights and could be the first season that features three separate weight classes featured on the show.

**Gray Maynard has announced that he is moving down to the featherweight division after competing within the UFC’s lightweight division since 2007. Maynard twice challenges for the lightweight title with a draw and a loss to then-champion Frankie Edgar in 2011. Since the second fight with Edgar, he has gone 1-4 and lost four straight fights, last fighting this past April, where he was defeated by Alexander Yakovlev by unanimous decision.

**Diego Sanchez posted a photo on Instagram on Saturday that his weight is up to 171.2 pounds after he weighed in at 145 pounds on Friday for his fight with Ricardo Lamas tonight.

**The World Series of Fighting embarked on a one-night tournament on Friday with eight lightweights competing in the tournament, along with one reserve bout. At the end of the night, there was a winner, but also many arguments that this idea is just not logical or feasible in 2015. In the opening round Islam Mamedov earned a decision win over Jorge Patino, however Mamedov tore his ACL and Patino advanced to the next round, where he was scheduled to fight Mike Ricci, however Ricci injured his ribs in his win over Joe Condon. The other first round fights features Luis Palomino knocking out Rich Patishnock and Joao Zeferino submitting Brian Foster, with Ricci out, Foster was given a second opportunity as he was the only loser in the opening bracket healthy enough to continue, despite the loss. The semi-finals featured Zeferino submitting Patino and Foster defeating Luis Palomino by TKO and setting up a same-night rematch between Foster and Zeferino and this time, Foster winning by knockout in the second round and winning the tournament.

**Bellator 146 took place from Thackerville, Oklahoma on Friday night and aired on Spike TV. Below are the main card results:
*Guilherme Viana over Houston Alexander by TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00 of Round 2 – Alexander took a tremendous amount of damage with both rounds possible 10-8 rounds. It was a cut over the right eye that led to the fight to being stopped and Alexander complained, but was the right call to make.
*Chidi Njokuani over Ricky Rainey by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – I felt Rainey won the fight 29-28.
*Bubba Jenkins over Jordan Parsons by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – really close fight and came down to the third round for most people, Parson did slightly more damage in the opening minutes of the third round, but Jenkins controlled the majority with his wrestling.
*Brandon Girtz over Derek Campos by KO at 0:37 of Round 1 – Girtz landed two explosive right hooks and Campos was finished.
*Melvin Manhoef over Hisaki Kato by KO at 3:43 of Round 1 – It was short but they stood and traded, both withstood some significant strikes and then Manhoef landed a beautiful right hook and Kato fell backward and the fight was waved off.

**World Series of Fighting will hold their final card of the year on Friday December 18th in Las Vegas at The Cosmopolitan and will feature Lance Palmer defending the featherweight title against Alexandre de Almeida in the main event.

[Stickman]

**The UFC weigh-ins from Seoul, South Korea take place late tonight at 2am Eastern. Below is the full card for Saturday morning’s event:

MAIN CARD (8am ET on Fight Network in Canada, UFC Fight Pass)
*Benson Henderson vs. Jorge Masvidal
*Dong Hyun Kim vs. Dominic Waters
*Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alberto Mina
*Sam Sicilia vs. Doo Ho Choi

PRELIMINARY CARD (5am ET on Fight Pass)
*Mike de la Torre vs. Yui Chul Nam
*Tae Hyun Bang vs. Leo Kuntz
*Jake Collier vs. Dongi Yang
*Seo Hee Ham vs. Cortney Casey
*Fredy Serrano vs. Yao Zhikui
*Marco Beltran vs. Ning Guangyou
*Dominique Steele vs. Dong Hyun Kim (different than the one on the main card)

**Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report reported that this weekend’s fight is the last on Benson Henderson’s existing UFC deal.


**Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic became the first UFC fighter to be suspended under USADA, since USADA began testing UFC fighter this past July. Filipovic was subjected to a random drug test on November 4th, and then contacted the UFC to inform them he had been using Human Growth Hormone for a lingering injury. Filipovic followed by contacting USADA on November 9th and admitting to use of the banned substance and was handed a two-year suspension as a result, because he admitted to the use, he avoided a four-year suspension. Cro Cop had already announced his retirement from the sport after he was forced to withdraw from the Anthony Hamilton fight, which was scheduled for this Saturday, and later it came out that he was facing a drug suspension.

**If you missed Ariel Helwani’s one-on-one interview with Jon Jones, it is well worth checking out as Jones addresses all the issues from the last year of his life. Jones goes through the car accident he was involved in last April, where he ran a red light and collided with a car, which had a pregnant woman inside, his past addictions and being sober for the last number of months, the Deadspin story regarding Vitor Belfort’s TRT use ahead of their UFC 152 fight in 2012 and many other topics. The full interview can be viewed below.


**It was announced on FOX Sports Live on Tuesday night that heavyweights Ben Rothwell and Josh Barnett will fight on the UFC on FOX 18 event on January 30th in Newark, New Jersey. Rothwell last fought in June and submitted Matt Mitrione, while Barnett returned this past September and earned a decision over Roy Nelson.

**This past Saturday’s UFC TUF Latin America Finale event averaged 750,000 for the main card, which was headlined by Neil Magny earning a decision win over Kelvin Gastelum. The preliminary fights did 730,000 viewers with both airing on FS 1.

**UFC welterweight Cathal Pendred has announced he is retiring from MMA after fighting for close to seven-years. Pendred is a long-time member of the SBG Ireland camp, including interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor. Pendred competed on Season 19 of the Ultimate Fighter and then had his first UFC fight in July of 2014, where he submitted Mike King. Pendred won his first four fights in the UFC and is coming off losses to John Howard and Tom Breese this year. He is retiring at the age of 28 and is planning to stay connected to the sport.

[Stickman]

**Georges St-Pierre was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and clarified a lot of information that has been said regarding a possible return. Despite Freddie Roach’s comments over the past month, St-Pierre has not committed to a six-week training camp in Los Angeles and is unsure about a return to the cage, though he is considering it. St-Pierre also added that he has no idea if he would go for the welterweight title or look for a super fight if he chose to fight again.

**The UFC has announced three fights for their return to London, England on February 27th at the O2 Arena. In a middleweight bout, Michael Bisping will be fighting Gegard Mousasi, rising featherweight Makwan Amirkahni meets Mike Wilkinson and a lightweight bout between Rustam Khabilov and Norman Parke has also been announced for the Fight Night card.

**The brackets for the heavyweight tournament at the Rizin Fighting Federation card on New Year’s Eve have been announced. Seven of the eight participants have been made public with the following opening round fights set for the December 29th card and then the semi-finals and final will take place two-days later on New Year’s Eve:
*Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal vs. TBA
*Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochazka
*Bruno Cappelozza vs. Teodoras Aukstolos
*Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov
*Yuta Uchida vs. Valentin Modavsky in a reserve bout

**The UFC presented their first card from Seoul, South Korea early Saturday morning and was a very good show. This is their last event before their big stretch of shows in Las Vegas next week with three straight nights of cards, leading up to UFC 194. Below are the results from Seoul in front of 12,156:
*Dominique Steele over Dong Hyun Kim by KO due to a slam at 0:27 of Round 3 – Steele lifted and knocked Kim out with a high slam and finishes with strikes
*Marco Beltran over Ning Guangyou by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Fredy Serrano over Yao Zhikui by TKO (injury) at 0:44 of Round 1 – Serrano went to slam Zhikui, who posted with his right arm and the elbow snapped from the impact and the referee immediately ended the fight.
*Seo Hee Jam over Cortney Casey by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Ham won the second and third rounds as Casey got tired. This was fight of the night and Ham is very skilled, despite the size she gives up as she was fighting at 105 pounds prior to signing with the UFC.
*Tae Hyun Bang over Leo Kuntz by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Mike de la Torre over Yui Chul Nam by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Dongi Yang over Jake Collier by TKO at 1:50 of Round 2
*Doo Ho Choi over Sam Sicilia by TKO at 1:33 of Round 1 – Choi is a tremendous striker and this was his second win in the UFC. Sicilia was a good test and Choi showed a lot of upside and will be interesting to see who he is paired with next.
*Alberto Mina over Yoshihiro Akiyama by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – this was a really close fight.
*Dong Hyun Kim over Dominic Waters by TKO at 3:11 of Round 1– Kim took him down and put him in a crucifix position and finishes him after repeated strikes.
*Benson Henderson over Jorge Masvidal by split decision (49-46, 47-48, 48-47) – this was super close and none of the rounds were won emphatically. I scored it 4-1 for Henderson with Masvidal winning the third round, but again a lot of close rounds.

**This was the final fight on Henderson’s UFC contract and is one of the more interesting free agents to become available. I would offers from every major company to be sent Henderson’s way and he has some leverage as a television draw for the UFC, even though he hasn’t moved numbers on pay-per-view. The guy is a quality fighter, has stepped up and saved cards, can headline any television cards and can fight in two weight classes.

**It was confirmed today at a press conference for the Rizin Fighting Federation, that the promotion had added a rematch between Bob Sapp and Akebono for their New Year’s Eve, which will air on Fuji TV in Japan and Spike TV in the U.S. and Canada. The two first fought on December 31st 2003 on the K-1 Dynamite card and attracted over 54,000,000 viewers at the peak of both men’s popularity. Akebono has been doing professional wrestling for the past decade, including facing Big Show at WrestleMania in 2005 in a sumo challenge, and working for All Japan Pro Wrestling since 2009. Akebono recently dropped the Triple Crown championship and left AJPW earlier this month. Akebono has not had a legitimate fight since 2006, while Sapp last fought in November of 2013. Sapp is still an attraction but has readily admitted he will get out of a fight as soon as he senses any trouble and has lost 13 of his past 14 fights, with the lone victory coming as a result of an injury to his opponent in 2012.


**Below is Holly Holm’s appearance from last week on “Live with Kelly and Michael”:

[Stickman]

Dana White Confirms Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey Rematch

December 3, 2015

Well according to UFC president Dana White this whole debate about whether Ronda Rousey should get an immediate rematch against Holly Holm is pretty pointless.

White joined ESPN’s Mike & Mike, and talked about the fight, saying that a rematch is a no-brainer and will in fact happen.

When? White didn’t give any sort of timetable, but seems pretty insistent and determined to make the fight happen.

“I think that if we didn’t make the rematch, me and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo [Fertitta] should probably lose our promoters’ license. Yeah, that fight’s going to happen. I don’t know when, but that’s the fight that will happen.”

“Ronda Rousey has gone undefeated, taken the sport to another level and was beating the best women in the world in 14 seconds or 30 seconds, so she deserves a rematch. Holly agrees she deserves a rematch, and we’ll figure it out.”


Ronda Rousey was undefeated until she ran into Holly Holm last month in the main event of UFC 193. She was a massive favorite over the new champ, but come fight night she was completely outclassed.

Several analysts point to the second round knockout of Rousey as a reason for not booking the rematch, stating that she just doesn’t possess the necessary defensive skills to thwart off the striking prowess of Holm.

Too bad I guess because the UFC’s making it happen! No date for the fight has been set.

[Stickman]

**In the newest issue of ESPN The Magazine, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey opens up about her loss to Holly Holm in UFC 193.
Rousey, who was knocked out by Holm in the second round of their Nov. 15 matchup, said she is “really fucking sad” about the loss, but also alluded to her eventual return to the octagon.
“Maybe I can’t do it all before my prime, before my body is done,” Rousey, 28, said. “But fuck it, maybe I can.”
In the interview, Rousey also discloses information about the injuries she is still dealing with in the wake of the fight.

“It might be three to six months before I can eat an apple, let alone take an impact,” Rousey said.

After her loss, Rousey was given a 60-day medical suspension, which is used to protect injured fighters from rushing back to the octagon. The suspension could reportedly extend to 180 days, which would prevent the rumored rematch from being scheduled in the near future.

**Bellator 147 took place on Friday night and was the final card of 2015 for the promotion. The show took place from San Jose State University in California and below are the main card results:
*Brian Rogers over Virgil Zwicker by arm-triangle choke at 4:38 of Round 2 – Rogers was coming up to 205 pounds for the fight
*Adam Piccolotti over Mario Soto by rear-naked choke at 3:25 of Round 2 – this was a great fight, Piccolotti has a high pressure top game and cut open Soto, while taking his back and applying the choke to end the fight
*Derek Anderson over Patricky “Pitbull” Freire by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – On screen, it felt like Anderson won the first and third rounds, including a big flurry in the third to seal that round.
*Daniel Weichel over Georgi Karakhanyan by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – close rounds but Weichel deserved to win all of them and is back in a good spot in the featherweight division and helps that Straus is now the champion
*Josh Thomson over Pablo Villaseca by TKO at 3:59 of Round 2 – Thomson looked very good and was never in trouble during the fight. Afterwards, he was asked about fighting lightweight champion Will Brooks and said he would like that fight, but the people are demanding he fight Michael Chandler and is angling for that one

**The UFC is embarking on their most ambitious week in company history with three shows in three nights on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Embedded special aired on FOX on Saturday and focused on Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor and Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold and was a strong show. The UFC 194 card should be able to come close or eclipse 1,000,000 buys and the momentum this week is going to be big and beyond those two title fights, there are some incredible fights over the next week.

**Cris “Cyborg” Justino will not be cutting down to a lower weight for her next fight. After teasing a fight with Cindy Dandois at 140 pounds, Justino will now be defending the Invicta featherweight title against Russian fighter Daria Ibragimova at Invicta FC 15 on January 16th in Costa Mesa, California.

**Below is Episode 1-4 of the current UFC Embedded series, going into Thursday’s Fight Pass card from Las Vegas:





**The Wall Street Journal has a nice feature on Conor McGregor going into UFC 194 this Saturday.

**Bellator president Scott Coker has said that the promotion plans to run at least three events in San Jose next year, with two at the SAP Center and at least one at the San Jose State University Events Center, which is where this past Friday’s card took place.


**UFC president Dana White was a guest on “Off the Record with Michael Landsberg” on Thursday and stated that CM Punk will definitely fight in 2016. He went on to state that his opponent will be chosen through the UFC Fight Pass show,
“Looking For a Fight”, where White goes to small shows along with Matt Serra and Nick the Tooth to look at prospects. The show premiered earlier this year and the first episode featured Sage Northcutt and aired the week before his UFC debut in Houston.

[Stickman]

Nick Diaz gets a response from the White House about his five-year ban

Nick Diaz got his long-awaited response from the White House, and not surprisingly nothing much came of the whole ordeal.



By Damon Martin
Dec 9, 2015

Nick Diaz got his long-awaited response from the White House and not surprisingly nothing much came of the whole ordeal.

The entire situation unfolded after Diaz was suspended for five years by the Nevada State Athletic Commission following an alleged failed drug test for marijuana, stemming from his fight with Anderson Silva in January.

Fans rallied to Diaz's cause and started a petition on the White House's official forum called "We the People." It takes 100,000 signatures to earn a response from the White House and Diaz got the number, but the statement from the powers that be in the government didn't exactly give him cause to believe an executive order would be handed down exonerating him of all wrongdoing.

"The federal government plays no role in the disciplinary actions taken by state athletic commissions, so we are not in a position to address the specific request raised in your petition. State authorities -- in this case, the Nevada Athletic Commission -- will generally be the best source for information about those kinds of issues," officials said in a statement posted online.

"However, we appreciate that so many of you banded together to make your voices heard through this platform."

The website also posted a couple of additional links out to past statements on the government's view towards medical marijuana as well as veterans and marijauana.

Diaz's suspension got attention from all over the world, including several celebrities -- with everyone from Wiz Khalifa to Cher chiming in to support the UFC fighter and the petition online.

Unfortunately, the petition was never going to overturn the ruling from the commission, but it certainly got Diaz a huge amount of support after he was hammered in one of the harshest and most unpopular decisions in the history of combat sports.

Diaz is currently in negotiations with the commission to have his sentence overturned and reduced to a much lesser penalty than the five-year ban that was originally handed down.

[Stickman]

**The big interview with Ronda Rousey came out today from ESPN The Magazine. The interview was conducted by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and revealed a lot of information from the past year involving Rousey, as well as coming off the loss to Holly Holm. Below are some of the highlights:
*See has been extremely down since the loss to Holly Holm, she went on a trip immediately afterwards with boyfriend to Travis Browne to Texas.
*She is definitely going to come back and feels her career path and legacy will be determined by the result of the inevitable rematch with Holm
*She is going to stay with Edmond Tarverdyan and noted that this is not the first time she and her mother have disagreed on her coaches
*She began seeing Travis Browne in April, she believes Browne that he was not abusive to his former wife and is sticking with him, but did admit to the difficulty of the situation
*She has had her phone off for the majority of the time since the fight, she characterized it as “mourning” what she could have been as an undefeated fighter and everything attached with that
*The interview with ESPN took place on Friday November 27th

**The weigh-ins took place tonight for the first of the UFC’s three straight nights of cards in Las Vegas. The Thursday night card features the following lineup:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on UFC Fight Pass, Fight Network in Canada)
*Paige VanZant vs. Rose Namajunas
*Jim Miller vs. Michael Chiesa
*Sage Northcutt vs. Cody Pfister
*Elias Theodorou vs. Thiago Santos

PRELIMINARY CARD (6:45pm ET on UFC Fight Pass)
*Tim Means vs. John Howard
*Omari Akhmedov vs. Sergio Moraes
*Kevin Casey vs. Antonio Carlos Jr.
*Aljamain Sterling vs. Johnny Eduardo
*Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Andreas Stahl
*Danny Roberts vs. Nathan Coy
*Zubaira Tukhugov vs. Phillipe Nover
*Emily Kagan vs. Kailin Curran


**Holly Holm’s manager, Lenny Fresquez, met with UFC officials on Monday and pitched the idea of Holm fighting Miesha Tate in her next fight. Fresquez spoke to Lance Pugmire at the L.A Times and said that it’s about keeping Holm active and that Ronda Rousey may need a long layoff before returning to fight. Fresquez stated that the UFC told him that there are no open dates for Holm to fight, prior to UFC 200 next July, which is obviously where they want to hold the rematch between Holm and Rousey. If Rousey isn’t able to fight at UFC 200, Tate would be the next best option from both a rankings perspective and also as a make-good for the way her title fight was snatched from her and the public nature in which Tate found out that Holm was leapfrogging her for the title fight.

**Sage Northcutt noted during the media scrum on Tuesday that Firas Zahabi is flying down to Las Vegas and will be in Northcutt’s corner on Thursday night. Northcutt will be fighting Cody Pfister at the UFC Fight Night card at The Chelsea in Las Vegas. Northcutt is also planning to return at Tristar after spending a week in Montreal last month.

**Michael Chiesa noted that he typically walks around at 195 pounds, as he gets set to fight at lightweight on Thursday night against Jim Miller.

**The UFC’s “Road to the Octagon” special will air this Saturday at Noon Eastern on FOX, promoting the upcoming card in Orlando, Florida. The FOX special is headlined by Rafael dos Anjos vs. Donald Cerrone for the lightweight title and a heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

**The final slot of the Rizin Fighting Federation’s heavyweight tournament has been filled by Brett McDermott, who will fight Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal in the opening round on December 29th. The semi-finals and final will take place on Dec. 31st.

**Below are Episodes 1-3 for UFC Embedded going into Saturday’s UFC 194 card:

[Stickman]

**The UFC’s first of three straight nights of live cards took place on Thursday night from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan Hotel. The show was sold out with 1,643 and a gate of $234,725. Below are the results from the show:
*Kailin Curran def. Emily Peters Kagan by rear-naked choke at 4:13 of Round 2
*Zubaira Tukhugov def. Phillipe Nover by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27) – The only round you could argue for Nover was the third round, there was no way he won either of the first two rounds
*Danny Roberts def. Nathan Coy by technical submission at 2:46 of Round 1
*Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Andreas Stahl by TKO at 4:25 of Round 1
*Aljamain Sterling def. Johnny Eduardo by guillotine choke at 4:18 of Round 2 – this was the final fight on Sterling’s contract, he has already turned down an offer that the UFC has made, but the promotion still has the right to match any outside offers
*Antonio Carlos Jr. and Kevin Casey went to a no contest at 0:11 of Round 1 – Casey suffered an eye poke immediately and was unable to see and the fight was waved off
*Sergio Moraes def. Omari Akhmedov by TKO at 2:18 of Round 3
*Tim Means def. John Howard by KO at 0:21 of Round 2
*Thiago Santos def. Elias Theodorou by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27) – Theodorou’s kickboxing in the opening round looked very good, he was cut open badly over the right eye and Santos won the final two rounds
*Sage Northcutt def. Cody Pfister by guillotine choke at 0:41 of Round 2
*Michael Chiesa def. Jim Miller by rear-naked choke at 2:57 of Round 2 – Miller went for a kneebar and Chiesa rolled and broke it with strikes, stunned Miller and locked on a rear-naked choke for the win
*Rose Namajunas def. Paige VanZant by rear-naked choke at 2:25 of Round 5 – It was a one-sided performance by Namajunas, who dominated the fight from her takedowns, control on top and put numerous submissions together that VanZant fought through. VanZant was cut on her right cheek and opened her up. VanZant admitted she was “outclassed” and that her technique was not at the level of Namajunas’

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Michael Chiesa and Jim Miller with the performance bonuses going to Rose Namajunas and Tim Means, all for $50,000.

**The UFC is back tonight with the TUF 22 Finale at the same venue in Las Vegas and airing on FS 1 in the U.S. The preliminary card kicks off at 8pm ET and the main card airs at 10pm. Below is the full lineup for their second night of fights.

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on FS 1, TSN 1 and 5 in Canada)
*Frankie Edgar vs. Chad Mendes
*Artem Lobov vs. Ryan Hall in the TUF 22 Finals – Hall is taking the place of original finalist Saul Rogers, who is unable to get back into the country because he falsified information in his visa application and Hall was inserted to fight Lobov.
*Tony Ferguson vs. Edson Barboza
*Joe Lauzon vs. Evan Dunham
*Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Jason Knight
*Marcin Wrzosek vs. Julian Erosa

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Konstantin Erokhin
*Mike Pierce vs. Ryan LaFlare
*Joby Sanchez vs. Geane Herrera
*Abner Lloveras vs. Chris Gruetzemacher

**There was tragic news out of the Philippines this morning with the death of 21-year old fighter, Yang Jian Bing, a flyweight with the One Championship organization. Bing was cutting weight in preparation for this morning’s card and was rushed to the hospital and died due to cardiopulmonary failure. He was sent to San Juan De Dios Hospital in Pasay and the following statement was released by company C.E.O Victor Cui:

There is nothing more profoundly tragic and sad than when a member of the ONE Championship family, current or past, passes away. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of Yang Jian Bing. We will work closely with the family and offer all the support they need in any way we can during this very difficult time.

[Stickman]

**Tonight is the UFC 194 card from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is expected to set a new gate record for the company with UFC president Dana White it has exceeded $9 million. This is one of the best fight cards the UFC has ever put together with all the key fights staying intact and will generate one of the most purchased events of 2015. My prediction on buys is 980,000, there is a tremendous amount of buzz for the show and wouldn’t be stunned if this tops a million buys. Below is the full card lineup, beginning on Fight Pass at 6:30pm Eastern.

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on pay-per-view)
*Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor for the UFC featherweight title
*Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold for the UFC middleweight title
*Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Yoel Romero
*Gunnar Nelson vs. Demian Maia
*Max Holloway vs. Jeremy Stephens

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, TSN 4 in Canada)
*Urijah Faber vs. Frankie Saenz
*Tecia Torres vs. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger
*Colby Covington vs. Warlley Alves
*Leonardo Santos vs. Kevin Lee

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30pm ET)
*Joe Proctor vs. Magomed Mustafaev
*Yancy Medeiros vs. John Makdessi
*Court McGee vs. Marcio Alexandre Jr.

**There was a crazy story from Friday where a plane heading to Las Vegas was turned around and landed in New York after a bunch of rowdy UFC fans were too much to handle.

**The TUF 22 Finale went down on Friday night from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan Hotel and featured one of the best fights of the year with Tony Ferguson overcoming a 10-8 score in the first round to rebound and submit Edson Barboza in lightweight action. Ferguson was deducted a point for a brutal kick while Barboza was grounded and in most cases would have ended the fight due to the severity of the blow, but Barboza continued and the striking was incredible throughout the fight. Ferguson locked on a D’arce choke in the second and got the submission. The bigger news was the main event outcome with Frankie Edgar landing an opening round right hand and following with a left hook to stop Chad Mendes and would be stunning if he isn’t fighting for the title in his next fight. Below is a full rundown of the show:
*Chris Gruetzemacher def. Abner Lloveras by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Both were from the recent season of TUF, Gruetzemacher trains at The MMA Lab.
*Geane Herrera def. Joby Sanchez by TKO at 4:28 of Round 2 – Herrera was a late replacement for Justin Scoggins and caught Sanchez with a left hook and stopped him, Sanchez was doing well up until the finish with good speed and movement
*Ryan LaFlare def. Mike Pierce by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – Pierce won the third round with a late flurry and stunned LaFlare at one point but not enough to win the fight. This was Pierce’s first fight since October 2013.
*Gabriel Gonzaga def. Konstantin Erokhin by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-28) – this was one of the worst fights of the year, so little happened and the second round was scored a 10-10 by one judge and is only the second time this year that a UFC fight has received a 10-10 round
*Julian Erosa def. Marcin Wrzosek by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Jason Knight by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Kawajiri took him down time-after-time and worked in his ground and pound throughout the fight
*Evan Dunham def. Joe Lauzon by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26) – Dunham looked outstanding and has now won three straight fights, his striking was too dynamic and Lauzon could not contend with and that has been an issue for Lauzon in the past. The third round was very one-sided and 10-8 was justifiable
*Tony Ferguson def. Edson Barboza by D’arce choke at 2:54 of Round 2 – awesome fight
*Ryan Hall def. Artem Lobov by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26) – The 10-8 rounds were not because of damage by Hall but inactivity from Lobov, who did so little in this fight and was constantly taken down and lost his back to Hall, a one-sided fight and Hall wins the season of TUF
*Frankie Edgar def. Chad Mendes by KO at 2:28 of Round 1 – Huge win for Edgar and was told he will get the next title fight, remember that Miesha Tate was also told that same thing

**The Fight of the Night bonus obviously went to Tony Ferguson and Edson Barboza and Ferguson also received a performance bonus, as did Frankie Edgar. Ferguson takes home an extra $100,000 and the others receive $50,000.

**Chad Mendes left the building after being drug tested following the fight and didn’t attend the post-fight press conference. He is a tough spot as he has now lost to Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor and shut out of the top end of the division. A cut down to bantamweight presents problems as well, considering that his friend T.J Dillashaw is the champion and his training partner Urijah Faber will be in line for the next title fight if he beats Frankie Saenz tonight. It has not been a good week for Team Alpha Male.

**Below are the final two episodes of UFC Embedded heading into tonight’s show and includes a “tater tot” like from Javier Mendez, which proves the term can be used to build up a match:

[nyquillyn]

Wow!!!!!!

[Stickman]

WHAATT???? ONE PUNCH!?

[Kaius]

Ugh