Red Mosquito

Time will tell. He seems to be taking his time and getting into the training he needs to compete, playin it smart. He'll get a couple of no-namers to start off with to gauge his abilities.

**Here are the results from last Sat night’s UFC Fight Night card in Goiania, Brazil and airing on FS 1 in the U.S.:
*Tom Breese over Luiz Dutra Jr. by TKO at 4:58 of Round 1
*Juliana de Lima Carneiro over Ericka Almeida by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-25)
*Mirsad Bektic over Lucas Martins by TKO at 0:30 of Round 2
*Nicolas Dalby over Elizey Zaleski dos Santos by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Jussier Formiga over Wilson Reis by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Rony Jason over Damon Jackson by triangle choke at 3:31 of Round 1
*Darren Till over Wendell Oliveira by KO at 1:37 of Round 2
*Francisco Trinaldo over Norman Parke by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Francimar Barroso over Ryan Jimmo by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Alex Oliveira over K.J. Noons by rear-naked choke at 2:51 of Round 1
*Charles Oliveira over Nik Lentz by guillotine choke at 1:10 of Round 3
*Carlos Condit over Thiago Alves by TKO at 5:00 of Round 2 due to a doctor’s stoppage

**The last two fights were the strongest fights on the show. Thiago Alves had his nose shattered by an elbow strike in the second round and led to the doctor stopping the fight in between rounds, which was the correct call. Condit looked very good in his return, the first round was very close and then second round was a huge round for Condit and was likely a 10-8 round. Mirsad Bektic is a featherweight to keep your eyes on as he dominated Lucas Martins and is now 3-0 in the UFC and will get a step up in quality of opponent when he fights next. The flyweight division is up in the air in regards to the next title challenger. The options are rematches with either John Dodson or a third fight with Joseph Benavidez or Formiga getting the title fight.

**The performance bonuses went to Charles Oliveira and Rony Jason and the fight of the night bonus went to Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz, all for $50,000 and thus Oliveira took home $100,000 in bonus money.

**This weekend’s UFC card takes place from New Orleans, Louisiana at the Smoothie King Center and it is worth noting that next week’s Raw takes place two nights after the UFC card in the same arena. The UFC show is headlined by Dan Henderson and Tim Boetsch, which replaced Daniel Cormier and Ryan Bader in the main event when Cormier was moved to UFC 187.

**UFC Fight Pass has a new “Pioneers of MMA” documentary on Matt Hughes that is available on the service. It is a 50-minute piece on his career with interviews with Hughes, his twin brother Mark (who in a trivia note lost a wrestling match to Frank Trigg in college and therefore there was a back story before the first Hughes vs. Trigg fight in 2003) as well as Pat Miletich and Ariel Helwani being interviewed. It outlines all of his key fights, in particular noting how angry he and his team were when Carlos Newton came out to “Bootylicious” at UFC 34 in November 2001 (which was one of the most famous finishes where Hughes slammed Newton to the mat as Newton had a triangle applied and Newton was knocked from the slam and lost the welterweight title to Hughes). If there was a glaring omission from the piece it was the absence of Hughes’ appearance as a coach on the second season of TUF, which was the turning point for Hughes as a draw. Prior to TUF, Hughes was respected as a very tough wrestler, he was the dominant welterweight at the time but on TUF he came off as an obnoxious bully that you wanted to see get beat and it was after that series that his fights started doing big numbers and he became a big star from that season.

**UFC president Dana White appeared on UFC Tonight on Wednesday and announced that Luke Rockhold would get the next middleweight title shot against Chris Weidman but no date or location has been announced. The UFC has a hold on Madison Square Garden for December 5th if the bill can be voted on and passed before the current session ends later this month.

White also stated that they are looking at Alexander Gustafsson receiving the next light heavyweight title fight with Daniel Cormier rather than Ryan Bader. The argument is that Bader has won four straight fights while Gustafssson is coming off a loss to Anthony Johnson. However, Cormier vs. Gustafsson being a more competitive fight, on pay-per-view the two fights are relatively equal. That is the state of the light heavyweights where everyone is either booked to fight, hurt or is Jon Jones.

**Ariel Helwani reported on Wednesday that UFC 191 will take place on Saturday September 5th from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

**MMA Digest was able to obtain the 911 call from April 26th involving Jon Jones and the hit-an-run accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition to the 911 call there is also footage from the lapel cameras of the officers from the scene of the crime:


**Bobby Razak has released a feature on Mark Kerr, who was considered one of the top heavyweights in the world at one point and the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary, “The Smashing Machine”:

**The UFC had an incredible show Sat night in New Orleans and a contender for best card of the year and a fight of the year contender on the show as well. Below are the results from the Smoothie King Center in front of 6,231 and a live gate of $621,523:
*Jose Quinonez over Leonardo Morales by rear-naked choke at 2:34 of Round 1
*Jake Collier over Ricardo Abreu by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Joe Proctor over Justin Edwards by guillotine at 4:58 of Round 3
*Chris Wade over Christos Giagos by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Omari Akhmedov over Brian Ebersole by TKO (injury) at 5:00 of Round 1 – Ebersole suffered a knee injury and couldn’t continue after the opening round
*Shawn Jordan over Derrick Lewis by TKO at 0:48 of Round 2 – Jordan landed a hook kick and is the closest you are going to see of a guy legitimately hitting a superkick in a fight and followed with strikes on top for the stoppage
*Francisco Rivera over Alex Caceres by KO at 0:21 of Round 1
*Anthony Birchak over Joe Soto by KO at 1:37 of Round 1
*Brian Ortega over Thiago Tavares by TKO at 4:10 of Round 3 – this was an amazing fight with Tavares suffering one of the nastier cuts you are going to see and will have a horrible scar as a result over his right eye. The score cards were all over the place going into the third with one having Tavares up 20-18, another having Ortega 20-18 and the third judge having it 19-19 before Ortega mounted and stopped Tavares
*Dustin Poirier over Yancy Medeiros by TKO at 2:38 of Round 1
*Ben Rothwell over Matt Mitrione by submission at 1:54 of Round 1 – Mitrione was looking great on his feet and then shot in for a takedown, was reversed and Rothwell applied a front choke and Mitrione immediately tapped furiously with both hands and was just simply caught, the most frustrating type of loss you could have if you are Mitrione
*Dan Henderson over Tim Boetsch by KO at 0:28 of Round 1

**After the card, Brian Ebersole announced his retirement from the sport due to lingering issues and needing to hang it up. Ebersole has been fighting since February of 2000 and retires with a record of 51-17-1 and 1 no contest.

**The fight of the night bonus went to Brian Ortega and Thiago Tavares (no question) and the performance bonuses went to Dustin Poirier and Shawn Jordan (there were easily eight guys that could have got the performance bonuses on this card).

**The fight time on the main card was 21:08 and 14:10 of that was for the Ortega vs. Tavares fight. This will be a tough card to beat come the end of the year.

**Yancy Medeiros and Leonardo Morales both missed weight and will forfeit 20% of their purses. Medeiros has always been a large lightweight and came in at 159.5 pounds while Morales was 140 pounds for his bantamweight fight with Jose Quinonez so neither was even close to making weight.

**Below is the post-fight press conference from New Orleans Sat night:

Anyone else feel like it was pretty questionable for the doctor to let the fight continue after that cut opened up over Tavares's eye? That shit was disgusting.

Questionable indeed. I think it should have been stopped. That thing could have been torn open even worse by continuing.

**This past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card averaged 950,000 viewers on FS 1 and peaked during the main event between Dan Henderson and Tim Boestch, according to the ratings report from Dave Meltzer on MMAFighting.com. The preliminary card averaged 782,000 viewers on FS 1 as well.

**The California State Athletic Commission has made a bold statement and suspended Bellator fighter Mike Richman for two-years after he tested positive for a banned substance, following his loss to Eduardo Dantas on May 15th at Bellator 137. Sherdog.com was the first to break the news and due to privacy laws in the state, the CSAC could not disclose what Richman tested positive for. However, Richman has posted the following statement and confirms it was for an anabolic steroid:

In regards to my positive test results for an Anabolic Steroid. I want to say that I lost the integrity in myself and the integrity of this sport. I will not sit here and deny that I took it or act like I didn't know what I was taking or blame it on someone else. I am a cheat, plan and simple and there is no excuse or reason that is valid enough to dispute the reasons why I cheated the sport and myself by using it. I want to apologize to Bellator MMA for my actions. I want to apologize again to my hard working Teammates who are not cutting corners and busting their asses off everyday in the gym to better themselves. I want to apologize to My head MMA coach Greg? Nelson for making him and his gym the Academy look bad. He had no knowledge of me using at all. I want to make the same apology to my S&C coach Matt Miller of Horsepower strength and conditioning, he also had no knowledge of my use of this Anabolic Steroid. I apologize to all my sponsors that support me, my family that loves me, and my friends and fans that cheer for me. I deserve every bit of backlash and hate I'm going to receive from the media and the fans of this great sport. I take full responsibility in my actions and the decisions I made. I also deserve the punishment the CA state athletic commission brought down upon me.

**Fernando Gonzalez, who also fought on the Bellator 137 event and submitted Curtis Millender, tested positive for marijuana in his post-fight drug test and has been fined $1,500 for the failed test.


**There was a minor incident involving Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum at the fighter hotel in Mexico City earlier this week. On the first episode of Embedded, Werdum stated that Velasquez is “an America, who thinks he’s Mexican” and Velasquez was upset at the comment and refused to shake hands with Werdum when they met at the hotel. Werdum has since backtracked on the statement and admitted he is trying to sell the fight.


**Combate out of Brazil was the first to report that Jessica Aguilar has signed with the UFC and will debut on August 1st at UFC 190 against Claudia Gadelha. Many consider Aguilar to be the top strawweight in the world but could not participate in the Ultimate Fighter tournament last year due to her existing contract with World Series of Fighting. Aguilar recently requested a release from her WSOF deal and was granted the release as the promotion doesn’t appear to be interested in continuing their women’s strawweight division due to the lack of depth. Aguilar and Gadelha would seem to be a title eliminator fight to face the winner of next week’s title bout between Joanna Jedrzeczyk and Jessica Penne, who are fighting June 20th in Berlin, Germany.

**It was reported on UFC Tonight that Donald Cerrone has been told he will receive the next UFC lightweight title fight when Rafael dos Anjos is ready to return from his MCL injury. The UFC is targeting the fight for December and Cerrone wants to take a fight before that and risk the title shot but the UFC has told him they want him to wait and fight for the title next. Cerrone may be the first fighter that is upset about a guaranteed title fight.

**Below are the first three episodes from UFC Embedded this week:




**The UFC has announced that former title challenge Sara McMann will fight Amanda Nunes on the August 8th Fight Night card in Nashville, Tennessee, which is headlined by light heavyweights Ovince St. Preux and Glover Teixeira. McMann is coming off a decision loss to Miesha Tate at UFC 183 this past January and Nunes is coming off a stoppage victory over Shayna Baszler.


**CM Punk cuts promo on Hulk Hogan for his lack of hockey knowledge during the finals of the Stanley Cup between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning:

**Tonight is the UFC 188 card from Mexico City, Mexico at the Arena Ciudad and their second card in the country. Below is the full card for tonight’s show:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on pay-per-view)
*Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum for the heavyweight title
*Eddie Alvarez vs. Gilbert Melendez
*Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nate Marquardt – after missing weight in his last night, Gastelum has been forced to move up to middleweight for this fight but wants to return to 170
*Yair Rodriguez vs. Charles Rosa
*Tecia Torres vs. Angela Hill

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FX in the U.S, TSN2 in Canada)
*Henry Cejudo vs. Chico Camus – this is a big fight for Cejudo, who is both a new and tough opponent for Demetrious Johnson and Mexico would be the place to hold that title fight down the road
*Efrain Escudero vs. Drew Dober
*Alejandro Perez vs. Patrick Williams
*Johnny Case vs. Francisco Trevino

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm ET)
*Augusto Montano vs. Cathal Pendred
*Clay Collard vs. Gabriel Benitez

**Due to medical issues while cutting weight, Andrew Todhunter was medically disqualified from competing tonight and his fight with Albert Tumenov was scrapped.

**There was a strange issue this week regarding an out-of-competition drug test administered to featherweight champion Jose Aldo. A drug tester named Ben Mosier, the director of Drug Free Sport, went to the Nova Uniao for a drug sample from Aldo and received the sample but it was later discarded when it was revealed that Mosier did not have a proper working visa for Brazil. A second test was administered on Friday and the UFC has released the following statement:

The UFC has learned about the out-of-competition test, originally scheduled for Thursday, June 11, with Jose Aldo, by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Aldo has always been an exemplary athlete and a great champion for the UFC, and has proved it all this time. We affirm with authority that Aldo was made available to the test when requested by the Nevada Commission.

Andre Pederneiras, the champion’s manager and coach, then received the tester in his gym in Rio de Janeiro, on Friday, when the test was officially done.

The UFC declares unconditional support to featherweight champion Jose Aldo and reiterates its admiration for the Nevada Commission, for wanting to ensure a clean competition between athletes.

**Below is the final Embedded episode going into UFC 188 tonight:

**The big story of UFC 188 was the crowning of the undisputed heavyweight champion in Fabricio Werdum, who unified the two heavyweight titles by submitting Cain Velasquez in the third round of their bout. Velasquez’s striking was on point in the opening round but tired late in the round and became a stationary object for Werdum to attack in the second round. It was the most tired Velasquez has ever appeared during a fight and was somewhat surprising Velasquez made it to the third round, given all of the damage he took during the second round. In the third, Velasquez dove in for a takedown and instantly caught with a guillotine and tapped out as Werdum completes one of the more remarkable comeback stories. It was in 2008 that Werdum was stopped by the debuting Junior dos Santos at UFC 90 in Chicago and was cut from the organization with few complaints about the heavyweight receiving his walking papers. Werdum reinvented himself as a top level striker under Rafael Cordeiro and would score the biggest win of his career up to that point in June of 2010 where he submitted Fedor Emelianenko and handled Emelianenko the first “real” loss of his career and stunned the world. In his next fight, he suffered a decision loss to Alistair Overeem but that didn’t stop the UFC from bringing him back in 2012 and Werdum would kick off a six-fight win streak by defeating Roy Nelson and showcasing his striking and in particular his knees from the clinch on Nelson. Werdum is 37-years old and there are no shortage of title fights for him in the division with the rematch with Cain Velasquez, rematches with Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem (though Overeem probably needs two wins before a title fight is possible) and a fight with Stipe Miocic.

**Below are the results from UFC 188, which they announced was a legitimate sellout of 21,036 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City:
*Gabriel Benitez over Clay Collard by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Cathal Pendred over Augusto Montano by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Johnny Case over Francisco Trevino by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Case suffered a bad eye poke in the opening round and went to the hospital after the fight
*Patrick Williams over Alejandro Perez by standing guillotine choke at 0:23 of Round 1 – this was the fastest submission in the history of the bantamweight division in UFC / WEC combined
*Efrain Escudero over Drew Dober by standing guillotine choke at 0:54 of Round 1
*Henry Cejudo over Chico Camus by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Tecia Torres over Angela Hill by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Torres was one of many fighters affected by the altitude and was honest in her assessment that this win doesn’t put her in line for a title fight
*Yair Rodriguez over Charles Rosa by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – this was a fantastic fight with Rodriguez coming out of the gate with a series of fantastic kicks that landed and nearly finishing the fight with a triangle applied on Rosa, who fought out of it. Rodriguez won the first two rounds and Rosa won the final round and they received the fight of the night bonus. Rodriguez vomited all over himself during the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
*Kelvin Gastelum over Nate Marquardt by TKO (retirement) at 5:00 of Round 2 – Marquardt was done at the end of the round and it was the right call to stop the fight. Gastelum easily won the first round and in the second round as Maruquardt went down he was simply surviving, he wasn’t out of the fight but it was fairly one-sided. This was Marquardt’s 50th professional fight and has now lost 5 of his last 6 and this may be it for him.
*Eddie Alvarez over Gilbert Melendez by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – this didn’t deliver the fireworks everyone anticipated but it was a fun fight from a strategy perspective as Alvarez may have broken his orbital bone from a right elbow in the first round. When the round ended, he blew his nose and his eye instantly shut and it was amazing the fight continued given how bad the eye appeared. Melendez looked great in the first but his cardio was gone in the second and even worse in the third and Alvarez used his wrestling and a pair of spinning back fists as the key strikes as he edged out the second and clearly won the third round.
*Fabricio Werdum over Cain Velasquez at 2:13 of Round 3 to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion

**The UFC announced that they would be returning to Mexico on November 21st with the TUF Latin America Season 2 Finale in Monterrey and I suspect that a lot of fighters outside of Mexico will be turning their cell phones off come August when they start putting together that card. It isn’t an excuse as fighters now about the elevation of fighting in Mexico but its legitimate issue and there were fighters on the card that gassed out, who have tremendous conditioning. It does become an unequal balance when you have fighters in one earning bracket that can afford to hold their camp in Mexico or happen to live there and other fighters that are making ends meet and cannot afford that kind of a camp.

**A great interview that Ariel Helwani conducted with Nate Diaz and the closing line is better than 95% of the WWE promos this year and a further blurring of the lines between the Diaz and Briscoe brothers:


**The UFC has an afternoon card next Saturday from Berlin, Germany. The preliminary card begins at Noon ET on Fight Pass and the main card is airing at 3pm ET on Fight Pass and Fight Network in Canada with Joanna Jedrzejczyk defending the strawweight title against Jessica Penne and Dennis Siver fighting Tatsuya Kawajiri in Siver’s first fight since the Conor McGregor loss.

Siempre jiu jitsu!

**Eddie Alvarez ended up breaking both his orbital bone and nose during his fight with Gilbert Melendez this past Saturday at UFC 188. Overall There were no survivors, at least on the suspension front, as all 22 competitors were hit with mandatory seven-day suspensions.

In addition, a handful of combatants were issued lengthier suspensions depending on the injuries sustained during last weekend's event, which UFC then provided directly to mixedmartialarts.com. In the absence of an athletic commission, UFC acts as its own governing body.

Clay Collard: Upper lip laceration; suspended 45 days (30 days no contact)
Alejandro Perez: Left infraorbital laceration; suspended 30 days (21 days no contact)
Henry Cejudo: Nasal laceration; suspended 30 days (21 days no contact)
Cain Velasquez: Left upper eyelid and right eyebrow; suspended 45 days (30 days no contact)
Gabriel Benitez: Suspended 180 days or clear right wrist/knee and left thumb/foot by Ortho
Francisco Trevino: Suspended 180 days or clear right knee by Ortho
Fabricio Werdum: Suspended 180 days or clear MRI of right knee and right thumb and nasal X-ray
Gilbert Melendez: Suspended 30 days (21 days no contact)
Eddie Alvarez: Suspended 180 days or until cleared by Ophthalmologist.

**Rony “Jason” Bezerra has failed his post-fight drug test from the recent UFC Fight Night card in Goiania in Brazil. Bezerra tested positive for the diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide and his win over Damon Jackson has been changed to a no contest by the Brazilian Athletic Commission MMA. On top of that, Bezerra was also awarded a $50,000 performance of the night bonus and will be losing that bonus due to the drug test failure. He is planning to appeal the ruling.


**The weigh-ins for Bellator 138 took place today from St. Louis for tomorrow night’s show. The one-hour “Finally” special aired last night featuring Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock and heavily focusing on how the fight in 2008 fell apart. The two were scheduled to headline the October 4th Elite XC event on CBS in Miami and the day of the fight, Ken Shamrock cut himself while rolling and it led to Shamrock being forced off the card by the commission in Florida. As a result, Seth Petruzelli was inserted into the main event and knocked out Slice and it turned out to be the final Elite XC card ever. The Spike special last night asked various reports about the idea that Ken Shamrock may have cut himself as a way to get out of the fight, spurred on by Jared Shaw (the son of promoter Gary Shaw) stating that it appeared to be a razorblade cut when he saw the cut on Shamrock that day. Jonathan Snowden at Bleacher Report has an in-depth story on Ken Shamrock’s preparation for this fight with Slice at http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2495 ... gerous-man.

**It was announced on Fox Sports Live on Wednesday night that Gilbert Melendez will be stepping in to replace Bobby Green on the July 15th Fight Night card in San Diego and will take on Al Iaquinta. Melendez just fought this past weekend at UFC 188 and lost by split decision to Eddie Alvarez.

**Ariel Helwani reported the news that Bobby Green has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Al Iaquinta, which was scheduled for July 15th in San Diego. The UFC is trying to lock in a new opponent for Iaquinta on a month’s notice.

**World Series of Fighting is scheduled to have a one-hour special on NBC on Saturday July 11th at 4pm ET. The special will feature a preview of the Rousimar Palhares vs. Jake Shields fight set for August 1st and will be hosted by Todd Harris, Bas Rutten and Renzo Gracie.

**A middleweight fight between Derek Brunson and Sam Alvey has been added to the UFC Fight Night card in August 8th in Nashville, Tennessee. The UFC has also announced a flyweight bout for that card between Ian McCall and Dustin Ortiz.

**The UFC has announced their next Canadian date for Sunday August 23rd in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the SaskTel Centre. The card will be headlined by a featherweight bout between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, which should be a great fight. The Fight Night card will be going head-to-head that night with the WWE’s SummerSlam event from Brooklyn.

**The Bellator 138 fight card averaged 1,580,000 viewers for the 9pm - Midnight ET broadcast of the show. The peak quarter was for the main event between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock with 2,100,000. The actual peak of the fight is unknown but it is safe to say it will be well above the 2.2 million figure they were hoping to beat from Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar.

**Andre Pederneiras, the head coach of Nova Uniao, spoke to Combate out of Brazil and confirmed that Jose Aldo did suffer a rib injury in training but the extent of the injury is unknown. He also said that they won’t make any decision until Thursday when they have the full results and can see if the rib is actually fractured and if so, would have to stop training for the next few weeks. There is a lot at play as this is one of the biggest fights the UFC has ever promoted and from a financial standpoint, probably the most they have ever put into promoting a fight. There is the argument that the money fight is Aldo vs. Conor McGregor and to postpone the fight until Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas and it’s still going to do a huge number. The other side is that they have sold so many tickets to Irish fans, who are travelling over to watch the fight and would be an argument to find a new opponent for McGregor, even though that puts the bigger fight with Aldo at risk.

**The California State Athletic Commission administered a harsh sentence on Bellator middleweight Alexander Shlemenko today with a suspension for three-years and a $10,000 fine. Shlemenko tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone in his post-fight drug test after defeating Melvin Manhoef at Bellator 133 in Fresno, California this past February. The win has also been changed to a no contest. Shlemeneko is currently 31-years of age and a three-year suspension is a very significant one.


**The UFC has added a strawweight fight between Paige VanZant and Alex Chambers for UFC 191 on September 5th in Las Vegas.


**The nominations have been announced for the annual ESPY Awards on ESPN. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has been nominatyed for Best Female Athlete along with Breanna Stewart, Lindsey Vonn and Serena Williams. Rousey and Donald Cerrone have also been nominated in the Best Fighter category along with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Gennady Golovkin and Terence Crawford.

**With an injury to John Hathaway, the UFC has played musical chairs with some of the welterweights on the UFC 189 card. Brandon Thatch has been taken out of his fight with John Howard on the same card and will now fight Gunnar Nelson, who was originally to fight Hathaway. With the spot open for Howard’s opponent, Cathal Pendred has taken the fight on short notice after just fighting in Mexico City earlier this month at UFC 188 and defeating Augusto Montano.

**This Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card from Hollywood, Florida will be airing in Canada with the main card on TSN2 at 10pm ET and the preliminary fights on Fight Network at 8pm.

**The UFC has added more fights to the August 23rd event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The show is headlined by Max Holloway taking on Charles Oliveira and the following fights have also been announced: Rick Story vs. Erick Silva (which was scheduled to happen this weekend), Patrick Cote vs. Josh Burkman, Chris Kelades vs. Chris Beal, Maryna Moroz vs. Valerie Letourneau as well as Sam Stout, Chad Laprise and Olivier Aubin-Mercier being announced for the card but no opponents have been announced yet. Tickets for the card at the SaskTel Center go on-sale this Friday morning.


**In an interview with Luke Thomas of MMA Fighting, Tito Ortiz revealed that he was offered a number of different opponents prior to the Liam McGeary being confirmed. Ortiz stated that both Ken and Frank Shamrock were offered as well as a fight with Kimbo Slice but Ortiz stated he wasn’t a fan of the “freak show” fight and wanted to go for the light heavyweight title and that is how the McGeary fight came together and is set for September 19th in San Jose, California on Spike TV.

*Here are the results from Sat. night’s UFC Fight Night card in Hollywood, Florida at the Seminole Hard Rock in front of 5,604:
*Sirwan Kakai over Danny Martinez by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Tony Sims over Steve Montgomery by KO at 2:43 of Round 1
*Leandro Silva over Lewis Gonzalez by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Alex Oliveira over Joe Merritt by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Hacran Dias over Levan Makashvili by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Thiago Santos over Steve Bosse by KO at 0:29 of Round 1
*Antonio Carlos Jr. over Eddie Gordon by rear-naked choke at 4:37 of Round 3
*Lorenz Larkin over Santiago Ponzinibbio by TKO at 3:07 of Round 2
*Yoel Romero over Lyoto Machida by KO at 1:38 of Round 3

After the biggest win of his career, the focus on Yoel Romero changed from his win over Lyoto Machida, to his post-fight interview with Jon Anik. Romero chose to speak English, which is not his first language, and proceeded to call on America and ask “what happened?” and spoke about Jesus. The automatic response to the interview was that he was addressing this past week’s Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. The interview is below for you to watch:


After the fight, he addressed this at the post-fight press conference and said it was a misunderstanding, his messages are full of “love” and he is not a judge of anyone.


**The performance bonuses were handed out to Yoel Romero and Thiago Santos with the fight of the night going to Lorenz Larkin and Santiago Ponzinibbio, all for $50,000.

**Before everyone breathes a sigh of relief that the crisis involving Jose Aldo has been averted, Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting has spoken to Nova Uniao head coach Andre Pederneiras, who states that there are conflicting reports regarding the state of Aldo’s injured ribs. Pederneiras states that the Brazilian doctors, who have checked out Aldo are saying his ribs are broken while the American doctors in question report a bone bruise with cartilage damage. Pederneiras had stated earlier this week that if the ribs are broken, they would stop training and it would effectively end the chances of Aldo fighting on July 11th and would open the door for Chad Mendes to take the short notice fight with McGregor for the interim title.

**Here are the main card results from Bellator 139 Friday night in Mulvane, Kansas and airing on Spike TV:
*Pat Curran over Emmanuel Sanchez by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Sanchez is a good fighter but Curran convincingly won the three rounds
*Hisaki Kato over Joe Schilling by KO at 0:34 of Round 2 – one of the best knockouts of the year as Kato connected with a superman punch with a left that put Schilling to sleep before he landed on the canvas, highlight reel worthy
*David Rickels and John Alessio had a no contest due to an illegal knee thrown by Rickels, who was so frustrated because he had Alessio nearly finished and then had a brain freeze and through the illegal knee and instantly knew he screwed up and didn’t make any excuses, but he cost himself the win as it was right there for him
*Cheick Kongo over Alexander Volkov by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – not a great fight as Kongo took him down repeatedly with ease and just struck on top for 15:00, nothing special and no other score to give than 30-27 for Kongo

**Bellator announced on the broadcast that they have signed Josh Koscheck and is the latest example of the Scott Coker / DeWayne Zinkin relationship of talent coming Bellator’s way. Koscheck is pushing for another fight with Paul Daley as the two had an infamous fight at UFC 113 in May 2010 where Koscheck controlled the entire fight with takedowns and then Daley took a cheap shot at Koscheck after the fight ended and was banned from the UFC afterwards. Koscheck stated that he started his career on Spike TV and wants to end it there as well. Koscheck is 37-years old and lost his last five fights dating back to 2012 with losses to Jake Ellenberger and Erick Silva earlier this year in the UFC.

**The next Bellator card is on July 17th in Uncasville, Connecticut and will feature Douglas Lima vs. Andrey Koreshkov for the welterweight title in the main event.

**For yet another year, a bill to legalize and regulate professional mixed martial arts in the state of New York has died. It came down to the wire once again with many people optimistic given that Sheldon Silver had been replaced as the speaker, they had rounded up enough votes and had a big show reserved for December 5th by the UFC at Madison Square Garden. The bill didn’t make it to a vote on the Assembly floor and erased any chances of a last minute saving of the bill, which was drafted to include reform for Boxing and Pro Wrestling on top of introducing legislation for mixed martial arts on the pro level (amateur MMA is legal in the state as well as on Indian reservations in the state).

**UFC president Dana White tells Dave Deibert of The Post Media News that the chances of the December 5th card going to Calgary are looking very good after the news that they won’t be able to get into New York this year.

So Jose Also is out and now Conor is going up against Chad Mendes

Indeed.

**The hammer came down on Tuesday night with UFC president Dana White announcing on ESPN that featherweight champion Jose Aldo is officially out of UFC 189. As recently as Tuesday morning, UFC officials were optimistic that Aldo would be fighting, despite a devastating rib injury he suffered a week ago. Aldo elected not to train yesterday but most were under the impression that a final decision wouldn’t be made until this Friday.

There is so much money that has gone into promoting this fight, not the least of which is a “Bad Blood” television special that was to debut this weekend, which will need to be shelved. In a sense, the decision coming down to the wire was going to prohibit the ability to promote the new fight, which if there is a silver lining (and I can’t even say that, given the losses this injury creates) you can at least promote the fight you know will be happening with Conor McGregor and Chad Mendes for the interim title.

This card had a possibility to hit one-million buys and this fight would beat the Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier fight from UFC 182 this past January. With the elimination of Aldo, this card is going to be do the business that a Conor McGregor against a tough opponent is going to do without the same elements the Aldo fight faced. There is a grudge between McGregor and Mendes (the clip is below from an interview segment last October, which Mendes was very upset about after because he was under the impression he was doing a straight interview and didn’t know McGregor was going to be on the other end, and this was days out from his rematch with Jose Aldo at UFC 179).


The risk factor is huge for the UFC because Mendes has a very good chance of winning this fight, this will test the theory of how McGregor can handle a high-level wrestler and puts the “big fight” with Aldo in jeopardy. On the other end, Mendes is taking this on extremely short notice, it’s a five-round fight and McGregor is an excellent striker, who has a full camp going into this fight.

**Conor McGregor will be on Conan O’Brien on Thursday night at 11pm ET on TBS.

**The UFC’s debut card in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has added a lightweight bout between Sam Stout and Frankie Perez as well as a lightweight bout between Shane Campbell and Elias Silveiro. The card is headlined by a featherweight fight between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira and takes place on Sunday August 23rd. They are still finalizing opponents for Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Chad Laprise on the show.

**The UFC has booked a Fight Night card for Dublin, Ireland for Saturday October 24th at the 3Arena.

**The UFC held a major unveiling for the Reebok Fighter Kits yesterday in New York City with tons of fighters brought in to model the new outfits. The release of the various fighter kits and athlete specific jerseys has resulted in a lot of complaints from fighters and observers with numerous issues on launch day, including:
*Spelling mistakes of various fighter names on the images for their shirts, including “Giblert Melendez” and Jacare’s jersey being posted with “Ronaldo” in quotations as opposed to his “Jacare” nickname
*Most fighters being identified by their full names as opposed to what they are usually billed as, such as: Timothy “T.J.” Grant, Thomas Lawlor and Rebecca Rawlings and Phil Brooks (which is just insane to market him as such when he has the rights to CM Punk)
*The replica jerseys are priced at $80 for the popular fighter and $95 for the lesser known fighters with Tom Lawlor flat out stating you are an “idiot” to spend $95 for a jersey with his name on the back and others complaining about the high prices

A number of these fighters with mistakes have been pulled down but suffice to say, it was not a smooth launch on the first day. The website to view all the items is at http://www.reebok.com/us/ufc_fight_kits.

**Conor McGregor noted on the conference call this week that he wants to be on the October 24th card in Dublin, Ireland, which was just announced this week. That is going to be a Fight Night card and I can’t see McGregor being out on a Fight Night card when he has established himself to such a degree and should only be fighting on pay-per-view at this stage.

**The UFC is getting a head start on the promotion for UFC 189 with the kickoff of Embedded earlier than usual. Below is episode one of the series, profiling the UFC Fighter Kit launch in New York City and the change in the main event for 189:


**Duane Ludwig is not working with Chad Mendes for this fight next weekend. Mendes is working exclusively with the Team Alpha Male camp and their striking coach, Martin Kampmann (who has been with the team for a year now since Ludwig left to open his own gym in Colorado).

**Bellator announced they have signed heavyweight Chase Gormley. Gormley fought twice in the UFC with losses to Stefan Struve and Brendan Schaub before he was cut in 2010. He has won his last five fights and most recently defeated Jon Madsen by unanimous decision at the Titan FC 33 card this past May.

**Rhonda Rousey was on the Jimmy Kimmel Show this week to promote her upcoming fight.

**The UFC announced today that Gilbert Melendez failed his post-fight drug test after his recent loss to Eddie Alvarez at UFC 188 in Mexico City last month. The statement noted that testosterone metabolites were detected from an outside source. Melendez has provided a statement that he not inject himself with anything but is taking responsibility and indicated there was a product he used that he wasn’t aware contained a banned substance. Due to the positive test, Melendez has been taken off of next Wednesday’s Fight Night card in San Diego, where he was scheduled to fight Al Iaquinta.

**Today marks the start the UFC’s biggest week of the year with International Fight Week with tons of events going on in Las Vegas all week long. Below are some of the key events over the next few days:
*Thursday at 2pm ET – UFC 189 and TUF Finale press conference
*Thursday at 11pm ET – Invicta FC 13 at the Cosmopolitan Hotel (Cris “Cyborg” Justino vs. Faith Van Duin for the featherweight title)
*Friday at 7pm ET – UFC 189 weigh-ins
*Saturday afternoon – UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony (BJ Penn, Bas Rutten, the late Jeff Blatnick, Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg fight are being inducted)
*Saturday at 7pm ET – UFC 189 (Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes, Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald)
*Sunday – TUF 21 Finale (Jake Ellenberger vs. Stephen Thompson)

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 189 videos, previewing the two title fights this weekend:



**The Invicta FC 13 card on Thursday night will feature three title fights with Cris “Cyborg” Justino defending the featherweight title against Faith Van Duin, Irena Aldana and Tonya Evinger fighting for the vacant bantamweight title and Herica Tiburcio defending the atomweight title for the first time against Ayaka Hamasaki and will also feature the promotional debut of Marina Shafir. The entire card will air on UFC Fight Pass.

Well the Conor/Mendes fight was disappointing - was sure that Mendes had it