Red Mosquito

I don't see it as harmful. People seem to get a kick out of seeing the pro wrestlers at the events.

if you are going to try to make mma a legit sport like football, boxing, hockey, etc. i think you need to distance mma from professional wrestling. id much rather see a pro football or baseball player at a ufc event the the rock. unless that person is w/ lesnar

To be fair, plenty of other pro athletes attend UFC events. I don't watch much anymore, but even 2-3 years ago when I was watching they were always showing a handful of celebrities/actors/musicians/athletes at each event.

**This week was a monumental one in mixed martial arts with the decision by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to ban exemptions for testosterone replacement therapy effective immediately. This decision was made in Las Vegas at their regular open meeting and was one of the last topics on the agenda for the day. The UFC is completely supporting the decision with Dana White issuing the following statement being issued right after the decision was made by the NSAC:

The Ultimate Fighting Championship fully supports the decision made today by the Nevada State Athletic Commission regarding the immediate termination of therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). We believe our athletes should compete based on their natural abilities and on an even playing field. We also intend to honor this ruling in international markets where, due to a lack of governing bodies, the UFC oversees regulatory efforts for our live events. We encourage all athletic commissions to adopt this ruling.

The biggest fallout from the NSAC ruling on TRT is that Vitor Belfort is out of the main event of UFC 173 where he was set to fight Chris Weidman for the middleweight title on one of the biggest fights on the horizon for the company. It was announced on Fox Sports Live late last night that Belfort is out and Lyoto Machida will step in to fight Weidman on that card. Belfort is stating that he didn’t take himself out of the fight, he was removed but did admit he needed more time to get ready for the fight now that he couldn’t use TRT so it was a case of Belfort wanting to postpone the fight but the UFC wanted the fight to happen on May 24th. Belfort is stating he has been promised a shot at the winner of the fight.

Many fighters were tweeting their happiness with the ruling and it’s a giant decision by the NSAC because of the influence they wield and many other commissions in a corner to respond now. Damon Martin at FOX Sports spoke with Bernie Profato of the Ohio commission regarding the decision and stated:

Our commission has already discussed banning them as Nevada has done. However I wouldn't want to speak on their behalf. I suggested at the meeting that some of us wanted to have the ABC's Medical committee to do more research. I understand where there coming from because it removes a big headache for Commissions. Rules and laws are put on place most of the time for a small percentage who are looking to gain an advantage by violating that rule. If they have found that there is an ADVANTAGE gained, then I totally agree that it should be banned. However rules especially one like this has to be administered CONSISTENTLY BY ALL. You can't have some having the ban and some not. Those using will run to the state and tribal commissions that don't regulate it or ban it. My opinion if there's an advantage then I agree to BAN.

**The CABMMA (the Brazilian commission to oversee shows) has announced that they will follow the NSAC’s ruling and also stop issuing TUEs for fighters needing testosterone replacement therapy but will allow Dan Henderson his exemption ahead of his March 23rd fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, which he had already requested and been granted for this fight. The commission will not be issuing an exemption to Chael Sonnen though ahead of his May 31st fight with Wanderlei Silva.

**The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board released a statement to Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com and they will not be following suit with Nevada’s ruling and explain their reasoning at http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/2/28/54 ... ng-nevadas.



**UFC lightweight Nate Diaz tweeted Dana White today requesting his release from the company.

**UFC president Dana White appears on BT Sport to discuss the recent re-signing of Gilbert Melendez, his stance on Testosterone Replacement Therapy and whether Cris “Cyborg” is coming to the UFC at:


**Quinton Jackson weighed in at 206.5 pounds for his fight with Christian M’Pumbu and was given two-hours to lose half a pound. M’Pumbu came in super light for the fight at 199.75 pounds.

**Bellator kicks off their tenth season tonight with a show from Uncasville, Connecticut and the start of their four-man light heavyweight tournament and the start of an eight-man featherweight tournament with the following fights tonight:

MAIN CARD (9pm ET on Spike TV)
*Christian M’Pumbu vs. Quinton Jackson in the light heavyweight tournament
*Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal vs. Mikhail Zayats in the light heavyweight tournament
*Diego Nunes vs. Matt Bessette in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Goiti Yamauchi vs. Will Martinez in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Mike Richman vs. Desmond Green in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament

PRELIMINARY FIGHTS (6:30pm ET on Spike.com)
*Daniel Weichel vs. Scott Cleve in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Andrew Fisher vs. Saul Almeida
*Andrew Calandrelli vs. Ryan Quinn
*Manny Lara vs. Josh Diekmann
*Marvin Maldonado vs. Rico DiSciullo
*Atanas Djambazov vs. Egidijus Valavicius

**Titan FC 27 takes place from Memorial Hall in Kansas City tonight and the main card runs at 11:30pm ET on the CBS Sports Network with the following main card bouts:
*Mike Ricci vs. Jorge Gurgel
*Michael Kuiper vs. Matthew Riddle
*Kurt Holobaugh vs. Eric Marriott
*Bryan Goldsby vs. Kevin Croom
*Charlie DuBray vs. Anthony Gutierrez (Gutierrez was the bantamweight on TUF 18 on Team Rousey, who was always shown eating and eating and then missed weight and couldn’t fight)

yes these are MMA related

**Bellator kicked off their tenth season on Friday night from Uncasville, Connecticut with the following tournament results as they started off an eight-man featherweight and four-man light heavyweight tournament:
*Daniel Weichel over Scott Cleves by rear-naked choke at 3:46 of Round 1 in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Will Martinez over Goiti Yamauchi by unanimous decision (30-27 all) in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Des Green over Mike Richman by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Matt Bessette over Diego Nunes by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) in the quarter-finals of the featherweight tournament
*Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal over Mikhail Zayats by unanimous decision (30-27 all) in the semi-finals of the light heavyweight tournament
*Quinton Jackson over Christian M’Pumbu by KO at 4:34 of Round 1 in the semi-finals of the light heavyweight tournament

**Bellator announced Friday night that their first pay-per-view event will take place Saturday May 17th headlined by Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler for the lightweight title with a location still to be announced.

**MMA Junkie reported after the TUF China Finale card that the UFC will be returning to Macao on August 23rd for a Fight Night card and will return to the Saitama Super Arena in Japan on September 20th for a show.

**Canadian viewers will be able to watch the main card of next Saturday’s Fight Night card from London, England due to the existing television contract with Sportsnet 360 (they also aired the January show in Singapore). The main card begins at 3pm ET and the prelim fights will also be seen on Fight Pass.

Glad to see Rampage KOing guys again

Kaius wrote:Glad to see Rampage KOing guys again

KO'ing, trash talkin and callin out King Mo. Good stuff

Ya their feud goes back a few years. I've wanted to see that fight for awhile.

who here is fulfilled by life, and who feels empty?

**A tragic story to report regarding EFC Africa fighter Booto Guylain, who fought for the promotion last Thursday and suffered a head injury during the fight and has passed away due to the trauma he sustained during the fight. The promotion has released a statement at http://www.efcafrica.com/news/2014/Marc ... s_away.php. Guylain was 29-years old and leaves behind a wife and son.

**Below is a trailer for a documentary airing in Ireland next Thursday on UFC featherweight Conor McGregor. It’s notable that there is UFC footage in the documentary as there have been other fighters in the past (Jon Fitch, the first GSP doc – The Striking Truth), which didn’t get UFC footage approved:


**Mac Danzig, who won the sixth season of the Ultimate Fighter in 2007 has announced he is retiring from the sport after losing his last three fights in the UFC and most recently to Joe Lauzon in December of last year. Danzig posted a lengthy statement announcing his retirement and is a statement most young fighters should read. He says that after numerous blows to the head and concussions stemming from hard sparring sessions, he believes that is where the most damage has occurred and not knowing when to taper down in training. The full statement is up at http://macdanzig.tumblr.com/post/786024 ... l-my-peeps. Danzig retired at the age of 34 with a record of 21-12-1.

**Takenori Gomi has stepped in to replace Danny Castillo at UFC 172 on April 26th against Isaac Vallie-Flagg after Castillo had to withdraw from the fight. This is Gomi’s first fight since March of last year where he lost a close split decision to Diego Sanchez in Japan.


**There is a lot of speculation regarding Ronda Rousey’s next opponent following a radio appearance by Joe Rogan. During the interview Rogan teased that a big announcement is coming regarding Rousey’s next opponent but he could not elaborate but it’s expected to be made very soon. One would assume that that will that level of buildup it would rule out Cat Zingano and Alexis Davis as her next opponents.

**Brett Okamoto at ESPN has a story on Cris “Cyborg” Justino and her plans for 2014 with comments from Invicta FC owner Shannon Knapp. The article states that Justino is looking to defend her 145-pound Invicta FC championship in her next fight and then fight for the Invicta bantamweight title later in the year and would eliminate any talk of her fighting Rousey next. The piece is up at http://espn.go.com/blog/mma/post/_/id/2 ... usey-fight.

**The Bellator season 10 opener on Friday night averaged 880,000 viewers and peaked for the main event between Quinton Jackson and Christian M’Pumbu with over one-million viewers for the main event.

**The UFC has announced that the Fight Night card on May 10th in Cincinnati, Ohio will be headlined by Matt Brown and Erick Silva in a five-round welterweight bout. Brown has not fought since last August where he was forced to withdraw from a fight with Carlos Condit last December due to a back injury. They have also added a middleweight bout between Costas Philippou and Lorenz Larkin.

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night 37 card on Saturday afternoon in front of 14,604 and a gate of $2-million at the O2 Arena in London, England:
*Louis Gaudinot over Phil Harris by guillotine at 1:13 of Round 1
*Igor Araujo over Danny Mitchell by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Claudio Silva over Brad Scott by unanimous decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Luke Barnatt over Mats Nilsson by TKO at 4:24 of Round 1
*Ilir Latifi over Cyrille Diabate by neck crank at 3:02 of Round 1
*Gunnar Nelson over Omari Akhmedov by guillotine at 4:36 of Round 1
*Brad Pickett over Neil Seery by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Michael Johnson over Melvin Guillard by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Alexander Gustafsson over Jimi Manuwa by TKO at 1:18 of Round 2

**The $50,000 bonuses were give out to Alexander Gustafsson and Jimi Manuwa for fight of the night and Gustafsson also received a performance of the night bonus as did Gunnar Nelson.

**The David Grant vs. Roland Delorme bantamweight bout was cancelled late on Friday after the weigh-ins when officials discovered that Grant had a significant knee injury and they would not allow him to fight despite him protesting. Both Grant and Delorme were paid their show money for the fight.

**Here are the Bellator 111 results from Friday night in Thackerville, Oklahoma including an incredible submission from Eduardo Dantas in the main event:
*Blagoi Ivanov over Rich Hale by unanimous decision (29-28 all) in the opening round of the heavyweight tournament
*Alexander Volkov over Mark Holata by TKO at 1:21 of Round 1 in the opening round of the heavyweight tournament
*Siala “Mighty Mo” Siliga over Peter Graham by head-arm choke at 2:31 of Round 1 in the opening round of the heavyweight tournament
*Lavar Johnson over Ryan Martinez by TKO at 4:22 of Round 1 in the opening round of the heavyweight tournament
*Eduardo Dantas over Anthony Leone by rear-naked choke at 2:04 of Round 2 to retain the bantamweight title

**The RFA event on Friday night was headlined by Dakota Cochrane defeating Efrain Escudero by unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28.

**The UFC has announced that their next card in London at the O2 Arena will take place in 2015 on February 28th.

**Cyrille Diabate has announced his retirement from the sport. Diabate had stated earlier in the week that regardless of whether he won or lost that he was going to retire at the age of 40.

**War Machine , Joe Riggs and Mark Scanlon have all had to withdraw from next Friday’s Bellator welterweight tournament with War Machine and Riggs out due to injury and Scanlon’s reason unknown. They will be replaced by Paul Bradley, Nathan Coy and Cristiano Souza for the eight-man tournament.

**The UFC had a great show Sat night with 171 from the sold out American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas in front of 19,324 (which is a new U.S. record for the organization, surpassing the mark set in 2007 at UFC 68 in Columbus, Ohio) and a gate of $2,600,000. Below are all of the results:
*Robert Whiteford over Daniel Pineda by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Sean Strickland over Bubba McDaniel by rear-naked choke at 4:33 of Round 1
*Justin Scoggins over Will Campuzano by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Francisco Trevino over Renee Forte by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Alex Garcia over Sean Spencer by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Dennis Bermudez over Jimy Hettes by TKO at 2:57 of Round 3
*Jessica Andrade over Raquel Pennington by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Kelvin Gastelum over Rick Story by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Ovince St. Preux over Nikita Krylov by submission at 1:29 of Round 1
*Myles Jury over Diego Sanchez by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Hector Lombard over Jake Shields by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Tyron Woodley over Carlos Condit by TKO (injury) at 2:00 of Round 2
*Johny Hendricks over Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision (48-47 all) to become the UFC welterweight champion

**The $50,000 bonuses handed out after the card when the Hendricks vs. Lawler for fight of the night while Dennis Bermudez and Ovince St. Preux took the two performance of the night bonuses.

**Nick Diaz was backstage at the show and spoke to us regarding his future and indicating he wants to fight again and will also be going with brother Nate to help coach with Gilbert Melendez on TUF 20, which will begin filming shortly in Las Vegas featuring the all female strawweight season.

**The UFC announced a return to Texas for June 28th at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas for a FS1 card. That will mean they are running three cards in eights as they are planning to do back to back cards on July 5th and 6th in Las Vegas with UFC 175 and the TUF 19 Finale card the next night with Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn.

**Dana White would not announce who would fight next for the welterweight title with teammates Tyron Woodley and Hector Lombard angling for the title fight and Woodley seeming like the front runner unless some major happens with Georges St-Pierre wanting to return earlier than anticipated but I think that’s a long shot.

**Johny Hendricks appeared on KROQ this week in California (the same station where Joe Rogan said a big announcement concerning Ronda Rousey was coming) and announced he has torn his bicep and will be undergoing surgery on Monday morning and will need about two-months before he begin training again. Hendricks tore the bicep in training less than two-weeks before the fight and was on “The MMA Hour” this past Monday stating it was an elbow injury and considered pulling out of the fight it was so bad. Ariel Helwani has followed up and reports that he also injured his shin during the fight with Robbie Lawler last Saturday night. It’s unknown if this will impact Hendrick’s plan to return in October to fight again.

**It was confirmed by Greg? Jackson that Carlos Condit has suffered a torn ACL and partially torn meniscus in his right knee following his loss to Tyron Woodley this past Saturday at UFC 171. The injury could take anywhere from 9-12 months to fully heal and will be a tough injury for Condit to come back from.


**In an interview with Combate out of Brazil, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is ruling out a possible return to the cage for 2014 and is hopeful of fighting in the first half of 2015 following his horrific leg injury at UFC 168 in his rematch with Chris Weidman. Silva also stated in the piece that he doesn’t foresee himself fighting for the middleweight championship again as it may be too far out of reach and that he may not finish his ten-fight contract with the UFC with his family wanting Silva to retire for some time now. The full article is up at http://sportv.globo.com/site/combate/no ... assou.html.

**There is big news coming out of the Team Alpha Male camp that coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig is leaving the group after UFC 173 on May 24th. The news was posted by Front Row Brian on Twitter Wednesday afternoon and confirmed shortly afterwards on UFC Tonight by Ariel Helwani. I contacted Ludwig on Wednesday night and he confirmed the news and that he would be moving back to Arvada, Colorado in June and is believed to be starting up his own academy. Ludwig joined the team in January 2013 and the success of the camp was seen all year with Uriajh Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Chad Mendes, T.J. Dillashaw and Danny Castillo among the fighters he worked with along with TUF 18 winner Chris Holdsworth.

**The UFC has announced that a middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Mark Munoz will headline the May 31st Fight Night card in Berlin, Germany. Both men are coming off of losses to Lyoto Machida with Munoz being knocked out by Machida last October and Mousasi dropping a decision to him last month. This event will take place on the same day as the TUF Brazil Finale in Brazil featuring Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva (tentatively scheduled to headline despite Silva yet to sign the contract to fight).

**The UFC has officially announced UFC International Fight Week from July 1st – 6th featuring UFC 175 on Saturday July 5th and the TUF 19 Finale the next night on July 6th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The week will also feature the UFC Fan Expo on the 5th and 6th, a free outdoor concert, a pool party with the Octagon Girls and many other free events and fighter meet and greets.

**Here are the results from the Fight Night 38 card in Natal, Brazil in front of an announced crowd of 6,828:
*Godofredo “Pepey” Castro over Noad Lahat by KO at 2:39 of Round 1
*Hans Stringer over Francimar Barroso by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Kenny Robertson over Thiago Perpetuo by rear-naked choke at 1:45 of Round 1
*Jussier Formiga over Scott Jorgensen by rear-naked choke at 3:07 of Round 1
*Thiago Santos over Ronny Markes by TKO at 0:53 of Round 1
*Rony “Jason” Bezerra over Steven Siler by TKO at 1:17 of Round 1
*Michel Prazeres over Mairbek Taisumov by unanimous decision (30-25 all)
*Fabio Maldonado over Gian Villante by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Leonardo Santos and Norman Parke fought to a majority draw (29-27 Santos, 28-28, 28-28)
*C.B. Dollaway over Cezar Ferreira by TKO at 0:39 of Round 1
*Dan Henderson over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua by TKO at 1:31 of Round 3

**Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua were awarded $50,000 each for Fight of the Night while Henderson got an additional $50,000 for a performance of the night bonus along with Godofredo Castro.

**Despite a lengthy waiting period Wanderlei Silva has signed his contract to fight Chael Sonnen at the end of the current season of TUF Brazil. The finale card will take place May 31st in Sao Paulo, Brazil and air on Globo headlined by Silva and Sonnen, which should do a gigantic number in Brazil given the grudge element and the story of the Brazilian going for revenge against Sonnen with years of back and forth between the two.

**The UFC has a bit of a break before a glut of shows in April with the following cards next month:
*April 11th – Fight Night in Abu Dhabi (Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira)
*April 16th – TUF Nations Finale (Michael Bisping vs. Tim Kennedy)
*April 19th – UFC on FOX 11 (Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum)
*April 26th – UFC 172 (Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira)

**Kajan Johnson noted online that he dislocated a toe in training earlier today, which could play a factor if he is fighting on the April 16th finale card in Quebec City.

**The Bellator 113 undercard on Friday night featured one of the worst stoppages in quite some time during the Daniel Gallemore vs. Frederick Brown fight with the finish of the fight posted at http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/3/21/55 ... llator-113.

**Bellator 113 also featured Derek Anderson over Brandon Girtz by KO at 0:23 of Round 2 in the quarter-finals of the lightweight tournament (this aired on the prelims but they ran the full fight on Spike TV and was one of the most devastating knockouts of the year)

dan henderson is the toughest person ever

Admittedly, I count him out alot...and am often proven wrong.

**The UFC has a main event for the UFC 173 card on May 24th with Renan Barao defending the bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw with the announcement made by UFC president Dana White to USA Today on Thursday night. Everyone agrees that Raphael Assuncao is the #1 contender for the title but wouldn’t be ready to fight on May 24th due to a fractured rib in his last fight in February and therefore Dillashaw is bypassing Assuncao. This interesting as Duane Ludwig will be working with Dillashaw throughout this camp and is leaving Team Alpha Male after UFC 173. Due to Dillashaw being moved to the main event the UFC has announced that Takeya Mizugaki will now fight Francisco Rivera on the card.


**Georges St-Pierre announced on Thursday night that he has suffered a torn ACL in his left knee following a training session and will be undergoing surgery immediately and into rehab. It was in 2011 when St-Pierre torn his ACL in the right knee and was out of action for over a year before returning in November 2012 to fight Carlos Condit. At the very least this eliminates any chance of St-Pierre returning to fight this year.

**World Series of Fighting got word that Rousimar Palhares has passed his pre-fight drug test by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and has been licensed to fight tomorrow night in the main event of the WSOF card against welterweight champion Steve Carl. The show airs on the NBC Sports Network and will stream online at NBCsports.com for those outside of the U.S.

**Below is a trailer for tomorrow night’s Metamoris 3 event in Long Beach, California headlined by Royler Gracie vs. Eddie Bravo:


**The UFC has announced a middleweight bout between Francis Carmont and C.B. Dollaway for the Fight Night card on May 31st in Berlin, Germany.

**A lightweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Ross Pearson has been added to the UFC Fight Night card on June 7th in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both won contracts on TUF with Sanchez on the inaugural season in 2005 and Pearson on Season 9 in 2009. Sanchez is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Myles Jury earlier this month at UFC 171 while Pearson last fought in October of last year in England where he and Melvin Guillard had a no contest after an illegal knee halted the fight.

**The UFC has announced that they will return to San Jose, California for a FOX card on Saturday July 26th.

**A welterweight bout between Demian Maia and Mike Pierce has been added to the TUF Brazil Finale on May 31st in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Maia is coming off a decision loss to Rory MacDonald at UFC 170 and Pierce’s last fight was his bout with Rousimar Palhares that was turned into a no contest after Palhares failed to let go of the heel hook he submitted Pierce with.

**A pair of bantamweight fights have been added to the UFC 174 card on June 14th in Vancouver with Yves Jabouin set to fight Mike Easton and Roland Delorme meets the debuting Michinori Tanaka

**Carlos Condit has posted that he is moving onto physical rehab for his knee after successful surgery for his torn ACL following his loss to Tyron Woodley last month at UFC 171.

**UFC Fight Pass has posted a feature on Brock Lesnar and his run in the company from 2008-2011 including interviews with Jim Ross, Dwayne Johnson and Steve Austin with the Ross interview really worth checking out including the story of the first time Vince McMahon met Lesnar backstage at a show.

**A middleweight bout between Uriah Hall and Thiago Santos has been added to the UFC 175 card on July 5th in Las Vegas.