The Official MMA Thread

[LoathedVermin72]

Hard to feel much sympathy. Rousey played the villain and loved it. She knew what people thought of her. Hell, she cultivated it. And her performance in that fight was sloppy. She didn't seem to take Holm seriously. She got cocky and she lost.

[Stickman]

**The Rizin Fighting Federation presented their second event this week with their New Year’s Eve card early Thursday from the Saitama Super Arena. An edited version aired on Spike this morning, featuring fights from both Tuesday’s card and the one from yesterday morning. Below are the results from the show:
*Rena Kubota def. Jleana Valentino by flying armbar at 3:31 of Round 2
*Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal def. Teodoras Aukstuolis by unanimous decision in the semi-finals of the heavyweight tournament – it was an easy decision win for Lawal, who out struck Aukstuolis throughout the fight
*Jiri Prochazka def. Vadim Nemkov by TKO (retirement) at 10:00 of Round 1 – Nemokov won the first portion of the fight and then got so tired that he couldn’t come out for the second round and the fight was called as Prochazka advances to the final of the heavyweight tournament
*Brennan Ward def. Ken Hasegawa by rear-naked choke at 1:52 of Round 2
*Soo Chul Kim def. Maike Linhares Galvao Amorim by unanimous decision
*Takeru Segawa def. Yang Ming by TKO at 3:00 of Round 2
*Gabi Garcia def. Seini “Lei’d Tapa” Draughn by TKO at 2:36 of Round 1 – Garcia did get a takedown but it was her striking that won the fight and ran through Tapa
*Bob Sapp def. Akebono by technical decision at 0:49 of Round 1 – the fight was under shoot boxing rules and contested over three 3:00 rounds. Akebono suffered a cut by the side of his head, which they were constantly monitoring and taking time out to check. This fight was awful and went long enough that Spike didn’t even air it.
*Baruto def. Peter Aerts by unanimous decision – Aerts was a late replacement for Jerome LeBanner
*Andy Souwer def. Yuichiro Nagashima by TKO at 5:28 of Round 1 – this was Souwer’s MMA debut
*Kron Gracie def. Asen Yamamoto by triangle choke at 4:58 of Round 1 – Yamamoto is only 19 years old and even in losing, he fought out of a deep armbar and could mature into something special as a Japanese star

*Muhammad Lawal def. Jiri Prochazka by KO at 5:09 of Round 1 to win the heavyweight tournament – Prochazka was winning early with his striking but it was Lawal, who landed the fight ending punch and won the $300,000 grand prize

*Fedor Emelianenko def. Jaideep Singh by submission from strikes at 3:02 of Round 1 – Fedor took him down rather easily and finishes him with strikes, Singh was out of his element in a MMA bout and they got the outcome that positions Rizin best for a future show next summer.


**Below is Episode 2 and 3 of this week’s UFC 195 Embedded series, heading into the card on Saturday night from Las Vegas:



**MMA Fighting is reporting that the UFC has cut the following eight fighters:
*Fabio Maldonado – Has been with the UFC since 2010 and a fan favorite, is coming off losses to Quinton Jackson and Corey Anderson in 2015
*Chico Camus – A Rofusport fighter, lost fights to Henry Cejudo and Kyoji Horiguchi in 2015 in the flyweight division
*Kevin Souza – this was a bit surprising as he was a Jungle Fight champion when he was signed, won three fights in the UFC and is coming off one loss to Chas Skelly after winning ten straight fights
*Ericka Almeida – Another Jungle Fight import, she lost to Juliana de Lima Carneiro and Aisling Daly this year, both by decision
*Bubba Bush – Fought for Legacy FC prior to his UFC signing, his loss to Kevin Casey in July 2014 was overturned when Kevin Casey failed his post-fight drug test, Bush didn’t fight again until this past October and was knocked out by Garreth McLellan with two-seconds left in the fight
*Jumabieke Tuerxun – Was a member of the cast of TUF China and lost three straight fights to Mark Eddiva, Leandro Issa and Marcus Brimage in 2014 and hasn’t fought in over a year
*Vernon Ramos – A member of the second season of TUF Latin America, he was submitted in the semi-finals of the TUF tournament and then knocked out by Alvaro Herrera this past November in 0:30
*Mickael Lebout – A fighter from France, who went 1-2 in the UFC and coming off a decision loss to Steven Ray this past October in Ireland

**World Series of Fighting will have an eight-hour marathon on New Year’s Day on NBC Sports Network beginning at 5pm ET and featuring fights from the past year.

**Herb Dean having some trouble doing his job at Road FC 27 in China...(jump to 2:39)

[Stickman]

Man, that 5th round was a proper fucking fight.

[Stickman]

**UFC 195 went on Saturday night and produced one of the greatest (and most debated) championship fights in company history. Robbie Lawler won a narrow split decision over Carlos Condit after arguably the best fifth round of a championship bout you will ever see. The scoring of the fight came down to the third round with everyone in agreement that Lawler won Rounds 2 and 5 and Condit won Rounds 1 and 4. If you re-watched the third round today, it’s one of those rounds that comes down to what you value and you can make an argument for both guys. It seems Lawler landed the more significant strikes in the round, including a left head kick at the 1:30 mark and the right hands he did land were hard shots. Conversely, Condit without question landed more strikes in the round and pushed the pace and it becomes a question of significant blows versus volume of blows. This was an excellent fight and the rematch feels like the right move to make, given how close this fight was and so many people feeling that Condit won the fight.

They announced a crowd of 10,300 and below are the results from the card:
*Sheldon Westcott def. Edgar Garcia by TKO at 3:12 of Round 1
*Michinori Tanaka def. Joe Soto by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Dustin Poirier def. Joseph Duffy by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
*Drew Dober def. Scott Holtzman by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Justine Kish def. Nina Ansaroff by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Alex Morono def. Kyle Noke by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28) – I felt Noke clearly won the first and second rounds and Morono took the third round
*Michael McDonald def. Masanori Kanehara by rear-naked choke at 2:09 of Round 2 – McDonald escaped a deep arm-triangle and got the back instantly and choked out Kanehara, after Kanehara controlled the entire fight up to that point
*Abel Trujillo def. Tony Sims by guillotine choke at 3:18 of Round 1
*Brian Ortega def. Diego Brandao by triangle choke at 1:37 of Round 3 – Ortega got the submission after losing the first two rounds
*Albert Tumenov def. Lorenz Larkin by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – another close fight with Larkin chopping away with leg kicks, most gave Tumenov the first two rounds and Larkin the third
*Stipe Miocic def. Andrei Arlovski by TKO at 0:54 of Round 1 – Excellent performance by Miocic, who rocked Arlovski with a right hand and landed another, followed by a left as Arlovski was already going down, Miocic was calling for the next heavyweight title fight with the win
*Robbie Lawler def. Carlos Condit by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) to retain the UFC welterweight title

**The Fight of the Night bonus obviously went to Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit and the performance bonuses went to Stipe Miocic and Michael McDonald, all for $50,000.

**There was an excellent segment involving T.J. Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz that ran on the pay-per-view portion on Saturday night. Both were seated with Jon Anik in the middle and discussing their fight in two-weeks with Cruz breaking apart Dillashaw’s style and making Dillashaw so uncomfortable, to the point Dillashaw turned away and didn’t want to engage with him any longer. Their fight is on January 17th in Boston and on paper looks like an excellent fight and Cruz is doing the best work of his career in building this one up.

[Stickman]

Dana White: Holly Holm will fight before rematch with Ronda Rousey

By Adam Silverstein

While former champion Ronda Rousey is away from UFC licking her wounds, hosting SNL on the 23rd and filming movies, new women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm will be fighting.

Though UFC head honcho Dana White originally said that Holm and Rousey would not fight at all until their proposed rematch on July 9, 2016, in Las Vegas for UFC 200, it appears as if he has relented to his champion's wishes and plans to have Holm fight at least once before that bout.

That's right. Holm will get her wish and step into the octagon, presumably to defend her title before the highly anticipated rematch with Rousey. The only question that remains now is: Who will she face?

Holm and her manager have both looked to No. 1 contender Miesha Tate as the first woman to get a title shot, though it is unknown whether White agrees. One thing is for sure, though: White definitely wants Rousey-Holm II -- whenever it takes place -- to be a title match.

Holm, of course, shocked the world by knocking out Rousey to claim the belt last November. Holm confirmed on The MMA Hour on Monday with Ariel Helwani that she has signed a new deal with the UFC and now hopes to get back in the octagon as soon as possible.

[Stickman]

Meisha Tate
**Jeremy Botter at Bleacher Report broke the news late Thursday night that UFC 197 on March 5th will be a blockbuster card with two big championship fights. Holly Holm will defend the women’s bantamweight title against Meisha Tate in her first championship title defence. The other big fight will feature Rafael dos Anjos defending the lightweight title against current featherweight champion Conor McGregor. It was expected that a Holm vs. Tate announcement was coming after Holm heavily hinted at it on The MMA Hour this past Monday with Ariel Helwani.

In the case of the women’s title fight, Holm wanted to fight as soon as possible and had recently signed a new deal with the UFC. The argument against this fight was the idea that Holm would be putting the ultra-lucrative rematch with Ronda Rousey in jeopardy for a smaller fight. This scenario is different, because with Conor McGregor going after the lightweight title, this could be a 1,000,000 buy show and Holm will greatly benefit from the addition of McGregor to this one. The question will be how many Ronda Rousey buyers (as she drew from an audience that were only buying Rousey fights and not necessarily UFC fans) Holm can attract to watch her fight after UFC 193, where Holm is a significantly bigger star today.

The lightweight title fight between Dos Anjos and McGregor will be the fight that lifts this card into a possible seven-figure territory. The story of McGregor going up a weight class and attempting to become the UFC’s first two-division champion is gigantic. McGregor fighting this early into the year could put him on pace to fight three times in 2016, fighting four is going to be tough for him. If McGregor comes out of this one in relatively healthy fashion, the next fight would appear to be at UFC 200 for McGregor and Frankie Edgar, and would pacify Edgar, who on the surface is being leapfrogged, but in reality if he gets the UFC 200 fight, he will have nothing to be upset about. Most likely, the Edgar fight happens regardless of whether McGregor wins or losses and the key is that he doesn’t get hurt in camp or in the fight.

**A pair of flyweight fights have been added to the UFC 196 card next month on February 6th in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review Journal announced that Joseph Benavidez will be fighting Zack Makovsky and a bout between Justin Scoggins and Ray Borg has also been added to the Super Bowl weekend card.

**MMA Fighting reported on Thursday that the main event of the UFC’s Fight Night card in Brisbane, Australia will be a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Frank Mir. Hunt last fought at UFC 193 and snapped a two-fight losing skid by defeating Antonio Silva with a first round TKO. Mir defeated Silva and Todd Duffee last year, but is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Andrei Arlovski from this past September at UFC 191.

**The UFC has announced two International cards for later this year. The promotion will run a card from Zagreb, Croatia on Sunday April 10th and then hold a card on Sunday May 8th in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Both Sunday night cards will be airing on FS 1 in the U.S.

**The special one-hour edition of UFC Embedded for T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz will air this Sunday at 3pm Eastern on FOX.

**Below is the full “Lookin’ For a Fight” episode with Dana White, Matt Serra and Nick the Tooth attending a pair of MMA cards from last November, the possible opponent for CM Punk and the signing of another fighter to debut on the upcoming FOX card in Newark:

[Stickman]

Conor McGregor Rips Floyd Mayweather, Challenges Him to a Fight

"If you want we can organize a fight no problem," UFC star tells undefeated boxer

By Daniel Kreps January 9, 2016

Conor McGregor challenged Floyd Mayweather to a fight after the undefeated boxer questioned whether the UFC featherweight champion's ascension in the sport and in the media was racially motivated. "Floyd Mayweather, don't ever bring race into my success again," McGregor wrote on Instagram Friday. "I am an Irishman. My people have been oppressed our entire existence. And still very much are. I understand the feeling of prejudice. It is a feeling that is deep in my blood."

In an interview with FightHype.com (via Yahoo Sports), Mayweather admitted that while he's never seen McGregor spar, many of the traits that have endeared the Irish MMA star to the media are the same qualities used to badmouth "Money." "I don't really know the McGregor guy, never seen him fight," Mayweather said. "They say he talks a lot of trash and people praise him for it, but when I did it, they say I'm cocky and arrogant. So biased! Like I said before, all I'm saying is this: I ain't racist at all, but I'm telling you racism still exists."

On Friday, McGregor fired back at Mayweather's comments. "In my family's long history of warfare there was a time where just having the name 'McGregor' was punishable by death. Do not ever put me in a bracket like this again," he said, adding, "If you want we can organize a fight no problem. I will give you a fair 80/20 split purse in my favor seen as your last fight bombed at every area of revenue."

Mayweather has not yet responded on social media to McGregor's offer to organize a fight. This is the second time McGregor has challenged Mayweather to step in the ring: In August, the Irishman bragged that he would "dismantle" Mayweather if the two ever sparred.

In the Instagram post, McGregor also thanked Rolling Stone for naming him as one of the 25 Hottest Sex Symbols of 2015. He gloated, "My Mother will be delighted and proud!"

[Stickman]

**BREAKING NEWS
Conor McGregor v Rafael Dos Anjos at ‪#‎UFC197‬ CONFIRMED


**It wasn’t nearly the spectacle that the previous hearing between the two parties provided, but the Nevada Athletic Commission has reached a settlement with Nick Diaz. The NAC unanimously passed the settlement during a hearing on Tuesday. Although terms were not initially disclosed, multiple outlets have reported that Diaz’s suspension was reduced to 18 months and his fine lowered to $100,000. “UFC Tonight” first brought word of a potentially reduced punishment in November. It wasn’t nearly the spectacle that the previous hearing between the two parties provided, but the Nevada Athletic Commission has reached a settlement with Nick Diaz. The 18-month term will be retroactive to his Jan. 31 bout with Anderson Silva, so Diaz could return to the Octagon as soon as August. The Stockton, Calif., native was initially given a five-year suspension and fined $165,000 for testing positive for marijuana following his UFC 183 clash with Silva. It was the fighter’s third failed test in Nevada, although only one of his three samples was above the minimum threshold for marijuana in the state. Diaz’s lengthy suspension prompted outrage both in and out of the MMA community, and an online petition to the White House to get the ruling overturned garnered more than 100,000 signatures.

**There was a very sad story on this past week’s edition of Inside MMA on AXS TV. Reporter Amy Dardashtian spoke at length with retired fighter Gary Goodridge about the head injuries he has suffered, memory issues and stating that if it wasn’t for the pills he was on that he would have taken his life by this point. This is a segment that all fighters and professional wrestlers should be watching as a cautionary tale.


**The Rizin Fighting Federation card was hardly a success in the U.S. with the New Year’s Eve special drawing 156,000 viewers for a 10am Eastern airing on December 31st on Spike. The show peaked for Fedor Emelianeko’s first round TKO victory over Jaideep Singh, with an average of 271,000 viewers watching that fight. While the card was not geared for the North American market, Spike and Bellator did put a lot of resources into the show from sending fighters to compete, lots of advertising for the “Breakfast with Fedor” special, as well as producing a countdown show and sending Sean Grande and Jimmy Smith to Japan to call the event.

[Rangi Guy]

Conor McGregor didn't waste any time to start the trash talk.

Just seconds after the UFC officially announced the fight between he and Rafael dos Anjos, McGregor to Facebook and slammed the lightweight champion. McGregor called dos Anjos a "traitor" to the Brazilian people and vowed to "behead" him in the name of "La Brasilia."

"[Mr. McGregor] has chosen to dedicate this demolition job to the loyal people of Brazil and all the fans around the globe who stay true to their roots and loyal to their land," McGregor's Facebook post said. "Mr. McGregor has said that Rafael is a traitor to his people and vows to "behead the 'American Gringo' Rafael Dos Anjos, in the name of La Brasilia!""

[Stickman]

**Steven Marrocco at MMA Junkie was the first to report that the UFC has released Wanderlei Silva from his contract and they have come to a settlement regarding the lawsuit that the promotion filed against Silva. Silva had made comments last year, insinuating that Zuffa had fixed fights and was met with a defamation lawsuit. The released also came with a statement from Silva, apologizing for the comments he made in regards to Zuffa. Silva will be back in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission next month to try and have his lifetime ban from the state reduced, which came after Silva avoided taking a drug test in 2014 prior to a proposed fight with Chael Sonnen. Below is the statement that Silva released:

I hereby retract any such statements in their entirety as I failed to understand that the term “fight-fixing” specifically refers to the illegal action or practice of dishonestly determining the outcome of a contest before it occurs,” Silva wrote. “I understand the UFC’s reputation would be harmed if my fans and others actually believed the UFC engaged in fight fixing, and I have no evidence to support such a claim. I apologize for any misunderstanding my comments may have caused.

**Below are the results from the Invicta FC 15 card on Saturday night in Costa Mesa, California and airing on Fight Pass:
*Megan Anderson def. Amber Leibrock by TKO at 2:33 of Round 3
*Angela Hill def. Alida Gray by KO at 1:39 of Round 1
*Mizuki Inoue def. Lacey Shuckman by armbar at 3:41 of Round 3
*Amber Brown def. Shino VanHoose by guillotine at 2:36 of Round 1
*Colleen Schneider def. Raquel Pa’aluhi by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Livia Renata Souza def. DeAnna Bennett by TKO at 1:30 of Round 1 to retain the Invicta strawweight title
*Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino def. Daria Ibragimova by KO at 4:58 of Round 1 to retain the Invicta featherweight title

**The next Invicta FC card is scheduled for Friday March 11th in Las Vegas at a venue to be announced. They stated that Alexa Grasso will fight on the show, but no opponent has been announced yet.

**Jack Encarnacao at the Boston Herald spoke to Lorenzo Fertitta and Reebok brand president Mark O’Toole about the relationship between the UFC and Reebok, the reaction from the fighters and the recent fines by the UFC to a handful of fighters from the Orlando card.

**FOX Sports announced today that analyst Kenny Florian has been suspended temporarily over the plagiarism story that surfaced late Thursday night. The story is detailed in our Friday update, where Florian took portions of a breakdown by Lee Wylie and used them in his own breakdown of the T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz fight, which was posted earlier this week. Wylie’s breakdown was of boxer Willie Pep and there were a number of replications that were taken from the video breakdown of Wylie’s and inserted into Florian’s written breakdown on the FOX site. Florian was scheduled to be on the desk this weekend for the UFC Fight Night card in Boston and is also a co-host on UFC Tonight. FOX Sports released the following statement on Saturday:

It is vitally important that FOX Sports and FOXSports.com maintain credibility and trust with their readers, viewers and fans. FOX UFC on-air personality Kenny Florian is being suspended beginning immediately for a critical oversight in a story posted earlier this week on FOXSports.com. Florian has admitted and regrets his mistake and apologized for the error.

Florian has issued an apology on Friday prior to the suspension being handed down and stated he would be addressing it further on Monday on his podcast, which he co-hosts with Jon Anik. It is unknown if the two will still be put putting out a show this week in the wake of Florian’s suspension.

**The UFC announced on Saturday that featherweight Diego Brandao failed his post-fight drug test at UFC 195 on January 2nd with a potential violation of the allowable limit of marijuana in his system. Within the state of Nevada, the cut off limit is 150 ng/mL and Brandao was over that limit.


**Dana White appeared on the Toucher & Rich radio program today in Boston to promote the card on Sunday night in the city. White stated that he is aiming to have CM Punk’s first fight in the UFC take place in June at UFC 199, rather than at UFC 200 the following month. This would also mean that the UFC wouldn’t be running a pay-per-view card on Memorial Day weekend in May, which has been the traditional May card for the organization. UFC 198 is tentatively scheduled for April 23rd with a hold on Madison Square Garden, if the MMA bill is passed in the state, with the Honda Center in Anaheim as a backup venue. White had stated earlier this week on TSN’s Off the Record that Mickey Gall will fight Michael Jackson on February 6th at UFC 196 and if Gall wins, he would get the fight with Punk later this year.

**The UFC 197 press conference will take place next Wednesday at the MGM Grand involving Dana White, Conor McGregor, Rafael dos Anjos, Holly Holm and Miesha Tate. The press conference will begin at 2pm Eastern and we will be carrying it live on Fight Network that day.

**Nik Lentz writes a letter to the “possibly” returning B.J. Penn about a fight between the two.

[Stickman]

**The UFC presented their Fight Night card from Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday night on FS 1 in front of an announced crowd of 12,022 and a gate of $1,300,000. Here are the results from the card:
*Francismar Barroso def. Elvis Mutapcic by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
*Rob Font def. Joey Gomez by TKO at 4:13 of Round 2 – Font has a lot of speed and good striking, he hadn’t fought since July 2014
*Charles Rosa def. Kyle Bochniak by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – Bochniak looked very good in this fight, considering this was a last minute replacement and Bochniak had just fought eight-days prior.
*Ilir Latifi def. Sean O’Connell by TKO at 0:30 of Round 1 – Latifi connected with a right behind the ear and O’Connell was wobbled and dropped with another right and the referee called it off
*Paul Felder def. Daron Cruickshank by rear-naked choke at 3:56 of Round 2 – Felder had lost the first two rounds but Cruickshank was tired in the third and Felder worked and got the submission
*Luke Sanders def. Maximo Blanco by rear-naked choke – Sanders was the RFA bantamweight champion and was fighting up a weight class and improves to 11-0.
*Chris Wade def. Mehdi Baghdad by rear-naked choke at 4:30 of Round 1 – Wade took the fight down and eventually got his back and flattened him before securing the choke.
*Ed Herman def. Tim Boestch by KO at 1:39 of Round 2 – Herman hasn’t fought at 205 pounds in over ten-years. They had a close first round and then in the second, Herman landed a knee from the clinch and Boestch fell to the mat and Herman got the knockout win.
*Patrick Cote def. Ben Saunders by TKO at 1:14 of Round 2 – Cote looked tremendous in this fight, he threatened with an armbar in the first round and then came out in the second, landing uppercuts from the clinch and finishing Saunders with strikes. Cote has made incredible strides since cutting down to welterweight.
*Francisco Trinaldo def. Ross Pearson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – this was Trinaldo’s fifth straight win at lightweight, I scored all three rounds for Trinaldo.
*Travis Browne def. Matt Mitrione by TKO at 4:09 of Round 3 – This was an ugly fight with Mitrione being poked in the eye twice accidentally. In the third, Browne took him down, mounted him and finished him with strikes. Mitrione broke his orbital bone and led to one of the most gruesome looking visuals you will see with a baseball growing out of Mitrione’s eye.
*Eddie Alvarez def. Anthony Pettis by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – This was a close fight and came down to the first round, where Alvarez pressured Pettis and held him against the cage with three takedowns, while Pettis scored a number of kicks to the body. I felt Pettis won the second and Alvarez clearly won the third. This was a tough loss for Pettis and his second in a row.
*Dominick Cruz def. T.J. Dillashaw by split decision (49-46, 46-49, 48-47) to win the UFC bantamweight title – This was a great fight, Cruz used his counter striking and constant movement to avoid damage, but Dillashaw did have his moments and connected. I felt Dillashaw won the first (which was an ultra-close round) as well as Rounds 4 and 5 to win the fight, but Cruz winning is a perfectly justifiable decision.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Dominick Cruz and T.J. Dillashaw and the Performance bonuses went to Ed Herman and Luke Sanders for $50,000.

**Cruz was limping afterwards and cited a foot injury that he came into the fight with and is dealing with plantar fasciitis and it started to really affect him in the fifth round and clearly stated it was not an injury to his knee.

**Ronda Rousey spoke to TMZ and said she expects to fight later in the year and will make plans once she sits down with the UFC and figures on when and where. Based on her reaction, it sounds like the only fight she is interested in is the rematch with Holly Holm.

**Urijah Faber was in Boston for the card at the request of the UFC and was angling for the rematch with Dominick Cruz afterwards.

**The coaches for the next season of TUF were revealed on the broadcast on Sunday night. UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha will coach the next season, featuring 16 male light heavyweight fighters and 16 female strawweights fighting to get into the house. The series will debut on Wednesday April 20th and the TUF Finale is scheduled for Friday July 8th in Las Vegas, on the eve of UFC 200. Jedrzejczyk and Gadelha will headline the TUF Finale card, in a rematch of their December 2014 fight, where Jedrzejczyk won the fight by split decision.

[Stickman]

**This past Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card from Boston was a big success on FS 1 with the main card averaging 2,288,000 viewers and 1,767,000 watching the FS 1 preliminary fights. The card was headlined by the biggest UFC bantamweight title fight in the promotion’s history with Dominick Cruz defeating T.J. Dillashaw by split decision to regain the title. The prelim fights did a spectacular number and were headlined by Patrick Cote vs. Ben Saunders.

**ONE Championship is taking all of the necessary steps to enact their weight cutting policy, where the goal is to have fighters competing as close to their natural weight as possible. All fighters are being moved up a one weight division, with all of the champions remaining with their titles, just at a higher weight. We spoke with Bibiano Fernandes this week and he stated he would be fighting at 145 pounds this Saturday in China for the “Dynasty of Champions” card against Kevin Belingon. Fernandes is the reigning bantamweight champion. That card is airing at 6:30am Eastern on Saturday morning on Fight Network in Canada.

**The UFC 197 Fight Pass prelims will be headlined by a lightweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Jim Miller. Sanchez is returning to lightweight after one fight at featherweight this past November, where he was defeated by Ricardo Lamas in Monterrey, Mexico. Miller has lost three of his last four and is coming off a submission loss to Michael Chiesa last month.

**The UFC has announced a middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza for a May 14th Fight Night card in Brazil. This would theoretically eliminate both from the next middleweight title fight with Luke Rockhold and clears the path for Chris Weidman to get the immediate rematch. Rockhold was pushing for a rematch with Belfort, stemming from his loss to Belfort in May of 2013. Many believed that Jacare defeated Yoel Romero at UFC 194 in December and with Romero’s status up in the air, following a potential USADA violation, Romero could be out of the picture for a long time.

**Below is the full UFC 197 press conference from Wednesday involving Dana White, Conor McGregor, Rafael dos Anjos, Holly Holm and Meisha Tate. The press conference was certainly something to say the least.


Or just watch Conor McGregor's highlights


**BJ Penn appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani tuesday and confirmed he is planning a return to the octagon and working with Jackson-Winkeljohn in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This all began a week ago, when Penn posted a photo with Greg? Jackson and the two had a meeting. Penn also stated today that he wants to make a run at the UFC featherweight championship and therefore, plans to fight at 145 pounds. Penn stated on the show today that he is currently 158 pounds therefore doesn’t have a major cut to make to get to the featherweight limit.

**Randy Couture spoke to MMA Junkie Radio and confirmed that he received an offer from the Rizin Fighting Federation to face Fedor Emelianenko on the recent New Year’s Eve card. Couture stated that the money offered was significant but was concerned about getting into the proper shape and “doing the sport justice” at the age of 52

**Mickey Gall will be a guest on The MMA Report this week to discuss his fight with Mike Jackson at UFC 196 on February 6th and the possibility of fighting CM Punk if he wins.

**The UFC has announced a pair of fights for the Saturday March 19th Fight Night card in Brisbane, Australia (which will take place Sunday morning in Brisbane and air Saturday night in North America). The main event will be a heavyweight bout between Frank Mir and Mark Hunt and the card will also feature Hector Lombard returning to action to take on Neil Magny. Lombard failed his post-fight drug test following his win over Josh Burkman at UFC 182 in January of last year and was handed a one-year suspension and the fight was changed to a no contest.

[Stickman]

Some great highlights of knockdowns/fights/knockouts here

[tommymtcom]

So, when is CM Punk debuting? The sooner he gets his ass kicked and comes back to the WWE the better.

[Stickman]

So, when is CM Punk debuting? The sooner he gets his ass kicked and comes back to the WWE the better.

Scroll up until you see his picture.

[tommymtcom]

So, when is CM Punk debuting? The sooner he gets his ass kicked and comes back to the WWE the better.

Scroll up until you see his picture.

In all seriousness, how do you expect him to do? How is his opponent? I imagine they would probably ease him in, right?

[Stickman]

So, when is CM Punk debuting? The sooner he gets his ass kicked and comes back to the WWE the better.

Scroll up until you see his picture.

In all seriousness, how do you expect him to do? How is his opponent? I imagine they would probably ease him in, right?

His potential opponent is 1-0, so really, they're about even. Punk probably has a better team that he's training with and he's rather dedicated to making a go of it in MMA. Punk's undoubtedly taken more punishment in all his years of wrestling so as far as taking a punch, i'm sure he can handle himself. We shall see.

[Stickman]

**The UFC’s attempt to run Madison Square Garden in April has been shut down for the time being by Judge Kimba Wood and will likely lead to the proposed April 23rd card moving to a new home. The UFC was attempting to obtain a preliminary injunction to gain clearance to run the card from New York while their attempt to overrule the ban on professional mixed martial arts within the state is taken to court. The Judge ruled on Monday against the temporary injunction and is the latest setback for the promotion to return to the state for the first time since 1995.

**A welterweight fight between TUF Nations winner Chad Laprise and Alan Patrick has been added to the March 20th card in Brisbane, Australia, which will be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Frank Mir.

**The UFC has added a welterweight bout between Demian Maia and Matt Brown for the May 14th card in Brazil. That same card is headlined by Vitor Belfort vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

**In the re-naming of some upcoming events, the UFC is turning the March 5th pay-per-view card into UFC 196 (previously billed as UFC 197) with next weekend’s Las Vegas card being promoted as “UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson”. This comes after both Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez withdrew from their heavyweight title fight for the card, which was scheduled to headline the pay-per-view card. This means the UFC will likely be adding a pay-per-view over Memorial Day weekend in order for them to get to UFC 200 on July 9th. Originally the UFC was going to skip Memorial Day weekend, which has been an annual tradition for the promotion for the past decade.

**Chael Sonnen is set to appear on the next season of the “Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC, which will be hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sonnen will be part of the cast that includes: Vince Neil of Motley Crew, Jon Lovitz, Boy George, Eric Dickerso, Brooke Burke-Charvet, Ricky Williams, Carnie Wilson, Porsha Williams, Lisa Leslie, Carrie Keagan and Carson Kressley. NBC has not announced the premiere date for the season yet.

**This past weekend’s World Series of Fighting card drew 213,000 viewers on NBCSN for the card from the FedEx Forum in Memphis and another 111,000 for the replay later that night. The card was headlined by Luiz “Buscape” Firmino defeating Caros Fodor by unanimous decision and also saw Shamil Gamzatov stopping Teddy Holder with a TKO stoppage in the opening round of their light heavyweight bout.

**ONE Championship presents their Clash of Heroes card on Friday morning at 7:30am Eastern and will be airing in Canada on Fight Network. The show is headlined by Eric Kelly vs. Ev Ting and also features Eric Folayang taking on Tetsuya Yamada.

**Bellator presents their first card of 2016 on Friday night from the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California and airing on Spike TV at 9pm Eastern. Below are the main card fights on the show:
*Paul Daley vs. Andy Uhrich
*Paul Bradley vs. Chris Honeycutt
*Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs. Ryan Couture
*Raphael Butler vs. Tony Johnson

**The UFC has added a featherweight bout between Mark Eddiva and Daniel Hooker to the Fight Night card on March 19th in Brisbane, Australia.

[Stickman]

**Below are all of the results from the UFC on FOX card from Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey in front of 10,555 and a live gate of $818,000:
*Tony Martin def. Felipe Olivieri by rear-naked choke at 3:02 of Round 3 – The fight was even going into the third and Martin got the submission.
*Damon Jackson and Levan Makashvili fought to a majority draw (29-27 Jackson, 28-28, 28-28) – Makashvili was deducted a point in the third round after hitting Jackson low and then accidentally poking him in the eye. I felt Makashvili won all three rounds and should have won 29-27, even with the point being deducted.
*Randy Brown def. Matt Dwyer by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Dwyer won the first round but clearly lost the next two. Brown was featured on the last episode of “Lookin’ for a Fight” on the same episode featuring Mickey Gall.
*Alex Caceres def. Masio Fullen by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Caceres returned to featherweight for this fight after losing his last three fights at bantamweight.
*Alexander Yakovlev def. George Sullivan by KO at 3:59 of Round 1 – Yakovlev dropped him with a beautiful right hook and finished with strikes.
*Wilson Reis def. Dustin Ortiz by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Reis looked great in this fight, he scored nine takedowns throughout the fight and his ability to transition to the back of Ortiz was exceptional.
*Rafael Natal def. Kevin Casey by TKO at 3:37 of Round 3
*Carlos Diego Ferreira def. Olivier Aubin-Mercier by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – Most felt Ferreira won all three rounds, he figured out the patterns that Aubin-Mercier was showing and when Aubin-Mercier took him to the ground and lost his back, he was in deep water, though he did ride it out to the end of the fight in Round 3.
*Tarec Saffiedine def. Jake Ellenberger by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Saffiedine would have won all three rounds, but he took a huge right hand in the first and was nearly stopped with it and Ellenberger couldn’t follow up, but that one blow was the reason Ellenberger won the first round.
*Bryan Barberena def. Sage Northcutt by submission at 3:06 of Round 2 – Northcutt won the first round, though Barberena connected with some strong strikes in the first. In the second, Northcutt went for this somersault kick and ended up on his back and Barberena was on top in half-guard. He was trying to set up an arm-triangle but could free his leg and before it was even fully applied, Northcutt tapped and it looked closer to a Von Fluke choke than an arm-triangle because it was the shoulder pressure on the chin that appeared to be affecting Northcutt. Because of the nature of the submission, how young and promoted he has been, Northcutt is getting destroyed online today and being questioned for his toughness. That criticism comes with such a big spotlight, but every fighter is going to be aware that when he senses he is in trouble he will panic and want out of a fight and his submission defence will be the focus of his next fight.
*Jimmie Rivera def. Yuri Alcantara by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – This was a good fight and this was Rivera’s toughest opponent yet in the UFC. Alcantara was trying to figure out his timing and rely on catching him with counters and never really did. Rivera was also able to take him down a number of times with strong slams.
*Ben Rothwell def. Josh Barnett by submission at 3:48 of Round 2 – This was a huge win for Rothwell, catching Barnett with his gogo choke, which is the same choke he defeated Matt Mitrione with last June. It was a close first round. This puts Rothwell alongside Stipe Miocic as the next contenders for the title and considering Rothwell holds a win over Alistair Overeem and Miocic lost to Junior dos Santos at the end of 2014, Rothwell has the stronger case at this point.
*Anthony Johnson def. Ryan Bader by KO at 1:26 of Round 1 – Bader instantly found himself on his back and attempting a kimura, Johnson moved to mount as Bader lost the arm and Bader was in huge trouble, eating big blows and he was out.

**The Fight of the Night bonus was given to Jimmie Rivera and Yuri Alcantara, while the performance bonuses went to Anthony Johnson and Ben Rothwell, all for $50,000.

**The UFC stated that an announcement will be made in the next few days regarding Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier and their light heavyweight title fight. The two were being targeted for the April 23rd event, which the UFC was hoping to have at Madison Square Garden but that is no longer happening.

**Next weekend’s UFC card is the free special on FS 1 with Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson in a five-round welterweight bout, as well as a heavyweight fight between Roy Nelson and Jared Rosholt in Las Vegas, Nevada. In Canada, the main card will air on TSN and the preliminary bouts on Fight Network.

**Below are the main card results from Bellator 148 on Friday night in Fresno, California, which was a pretty fun show, although not one of Bellator’s big tent-pole cards and was designed to promote the Bellator 149 card next month in Houston.
*Tony Johnson def. Raphael Butler by TKO at 4:24 of Round 3
*Patricky “Pitbull” Freire def. Ryan Couture by KO at 3:00 of Round 1 – this was a spectacular knockout and came after Couture had been looking good in the opening minutes before he was caught
*Paul Bradley def. Chris Honeycutt by TKO at 0:40 of Round 1 – Bradley hit a pair of big shots that rocked Honeycutt and swarmed him on his back with more strikes for the finish
*Paul Daley def. Andy Uhrich by KO at 2:00 of Round 1 – Daley called out Josh Koscheck, who was sitting cage side and is the fight that Bellator is hoping to put together later this year. Daley said that if Koscheck was in this fight, he would have put the audience to sleep.

**Raquel Pennington has posted that she will be fighting Bethe Correia on April 16th on the next UFC on FOX event that is scheduled for Tampa, Florida.

[Stickman]

**The UFC will present their Fight Night card on Saturday night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be airing it on free television after the loss of the heavyweight title main event. Below is the lineup for tomorrow night’s show:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on FS1, TSN 1 and 5 in Canada)
*Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson
*Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt
*Ovince St. Preux vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante
*Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky
*Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson
*Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Josh Burkman vs. K.J. Noons
*Derrick Lewis vs. Damian Grabowski
*Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins
*Diego Rivas vs. Noad Lahat

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm ET)
*Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson
*Artem Lobov vs. Alex White

**Tim Means is off of the UFC Fight Night card on February 21st, where he was scheduled to meet Donald Cerrone in the main event of the card in Pittsburgh. Means was flagged for a possible drug test violation by USADA for an out-of-competition test and has been removed from the fight. The UFC has now announced that Alex Oliveira will step in to fight Cerrone on short notice. Oliveira has fought at both welterweight and lightweight during his career and has won his last three fights in the UFC, with wins over K.J. Noons, Joe Merritt and last competing in November of last year and knocking out Piotr Hallmann.


**There is a lengthy story on Phil Brooks / CM Punk on The Complex site. The interview was cut short at the end when Punk got upset at the line of questioning and going from professional wrestling to legitimate fighting in the UFC and got upset at the interviewer.

**The UFC announced today that they have extended their partnership with The Cleveland Clinic and the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, in which the UFC will contribute $1 million over the next five-years. The study began back in 2011 for further insight and education into head trauma and brain injury.

**The latest numbers from USADA in regards to drug tests being administered were updated this past Wednesday. Anthony Johnson, who just fought last weekend, has already been tested five times in 2016, while Anderson Silva, Rafael dos Anjos, Josh Barnett and Roan Carneiro have been tested four times this year. Demetrious Johnson was recently tested and received a knock on his door as he was playing video games on his live Twitch account and the video is still up with Johnson having to pause to go be tested.

**A featherweight bout between Goiti Yamauchi and Bubba Jenkins has been added to the Bellator 151 card on Friday March 4th in Thackerville, Oklahoma and airing on Spike TV that night. Bellator will be running three consecutive weeks with shows on February 19th, February 26th and March 4th on Spike.

**UFC president Dana White was a guest on “Garbage Time with Katie Nolan” on FS1 and stated that Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman will headline the UFC 199 card in June for the middleweight title. No date has been announced yet for UFC 199, but White has also stated that the UFC 199 event is expected card for CM Punk’s debut.


**Just one day after his signing with Bellator, Benson Henderson’s first fight with the promotion with take place on April 22nd, according to a report from ESPN. Henderson is scheduled to challenge welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov on that card from Uncasville, Connecticut. Henderson announced his signing with Bellator this past Monday after fighting for the UFC since 2011. UFC president Dana White spoke to John Morgan and stated that the promotion declined to match the offer made by Bellator, which the UFC has the right to do with all of their fighters when their deals come due. Below is a statement from Bellator president Scott Coker on the signing:

Benson is a tremendous athlete who puts forth an exciting effort each and every time he steps into the cage. Whether he chooses to fight at lightweight or welterweight, he’s without question a great addition to this promotion, and brings countless amazing matchups to the table. We’re looking forward to having him put on a show for the great Bellator MMA fans that tune into Spike. We plan on announcing his Bellator debut in the very near future.

**Cain Velasquez underwent orthoscopic back surgery this past Monday and will not be allowed to train for the next two-weeks. This is the injury that removed him from this Saturday’s UFC card in Las Vegas, where he was scheduled to challenge Fabricio Werdum for the UFC heavyweight title. Velasquez posted the following update after his surgery:

I want to give you the latest news on the progress of my injury.

Before that, I want to thank you for all your support. Your messages with displays of affection and support really helped me to me and to my family in this difficult time.

On Monday in the morning I had a orthoscopic surgery to remove bone fragments that they were irritating the sciatic nerve. The surgery was a complete success and I feel so much better.

My doctors have recommended to rest for the moment, but I can start with a light workout in two weeks. I also indicated that I can probably start training on a regular basis in four or five weeks. I’m going to keep its recommendations, though I am eager to train as soon as possible.

**Bellator has announced that they have signed heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov to a contract. The 35-year old former Strikeforce fighter, has been fighting overseas for his last five bouts, primarily with M-1 Challenge.

**Due to an injury to Mike Bronzoulis, he is off of the Bellator 149 card for his fight with Melvin Guillard. Derek Campos will be stepping in to replace Bronzoulis on short notice. This is the card headlined by Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000.

**The newest episode of Dana White’s “Lookin’ for a Fight” is up and can be watched below: