The Official MMA Thread

[Stickman]

**The UFC will be returning for a show in London, England on February 26th next year at the O2 Arena.

**Matt Brown has voiced his displeasure when it was revealed that the UFC is paying for the services of nutritionist George Lockhart, to help Kelvin Gastelum make weight his fight with Brown at welterweight. Gastelum revealed this during an interview with Damon Martin at FOX Sports and reiterated that it was true during an exchange with Brown on Twitter. Gastelum has had problems making the 171 pound weight limit in the past and was forced to fight at middleweight in his last outing as a result. Gastelum is receiving another chance to make the weight for the fight with Brown on November 21st in Monterrey, Mexico. Brown believes it is a conflict of interest and a display of favoritism from the organization.

**The UFC has added a featherweight fight between Darren Elkins and Robrt Whiteford to the October 24th Fight Night card in Dublin, Ireland.

**A rematch has been signed by One Championship for their November 13th card in Singapore. Welterweight champion Ben Askren will defend his title against Luis Santos, following their controversial fight this past April, where Askren lost by DQ due to an eye poke delivered to Santos.

**The UFC 195 card on January has grown by one fight, as lightweights Drew Dober and Erik Koch will be fighting on that show from Las Vegas. The card is headlined by Robbie Lawler defending the welterweight title against Carlos Condit.

[verb_to_trust]

Ronda Rousey doesnt want to cum on her opponents face too quickly I guess.

[verb_to_trust]

Ronda Rousey doesnt want to cum on her opponents face too quickly I guess.

[Stickman]

Ronda Rousey Reveals She Has ‘As Much Sex As Possible’ Before Fights

**The major news from the Bellator Dynamite card was that Spike TV will be the U.S. broadcast partner for Nobuhiko Sakakibara’s new MMA promotion, which will air a big card on New Year’s Eve from Japan and will feature Fedor Emelianenko fighting in the main event. The announcement was made inside the cage with Spike TV president Kevin Kay bringing in Sakakibara to make the announcement, with the tipoff being Jerry Millen standing next to Sakakibara before they brought out Emelianenko, in a bit of a surprise as most felt he was bound for the UFC. The New Year’s Eve show will not be a Bellator show, but will feature Bellator fighters on the card and will air on Spike on tape delay that night, due to the time difference. No other names or fights were announced for the card. I can certainly see the Spike TV side making a big push to finally make the Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture as there are no political barriers preventing that fight from happening but Couture has pretty much closed the door to fight, and he is 52 years old now – Japan is also not the best market for that fight as it won’t mean as much there but does mean a lot in the U.S., where the fight would be broadcast.

**Below are the results from the main card portion of the Dynamite from the SAP Center in San Jose, California:
*Muhammd “King Mo” Lawal over Linton Vassell by unanimous decision – Lawal dominated the first round and narrowly won the second on my card to advance in the tournament.
*Phil Davis over Emanuel Newton by kimura at 4:39 of Round 1 – Very impressive considering how got Newton is at defending submissions and getting out of tough spots, it was a big statement that Davis was able to submit the former champion to advance.
*Keri Anne Taylor-Melendez over Hadley Griffith by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) in a kickboxing bout
*Paul Daley over Fernando Gonzalez by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in a kickboxing bout
*Josh Thomson over Mike Bronzoulis by arm-triangle at 0:39 of Round 3
*Saulo Cavalari over Zack Mwecassa by majority decision (48-46, 48-46, 47-47) to become the GLORY light heavyweight champion
*Phil Davis over Francis Carmont by KO at 2:15 of Round 1 to win the light heavyweight tournament – Carmont was a late replacement for Lawal, who suffered torn rib cartilage in the fight with Vassell and couldn’t continue, Vassell was not cleared to fight a second time and therefore it went to Carmont, who defeated Anthony Ruiz on the undercard in the alternate bout
*Liam McGeary over Tito Ortiz by inverted-triangle choke at 4:41 of Round 1 to retain the Bellator light heavyweight title – Ortiz appeared devastated that he got caught and it was evident how hard he trained for this fight and was winning the round up until he was caught.

McGeary and Davis had a faceoff in the cage after the main event and that will be the next title fight. Davis couldn’t have looked better in his two fights with a submission and knockout, including a win over the former light heavyweight division in Emanuel Newton.

**There were tons of notable personalities shown in the crowd, including: Randy Couture, Cung Le, BJ Penn, Cain Velasquez and Kazushi Sakuraba.

**Bellator is back next Friday with another show in Hidalgo, Texas, featuring Joe Warren vs. LC Davis in the main event and Kendall Grove taking on Joey Beltran as the two key fights on Spike TV. The next major card is the November 6th show in St. Louis, which is one of the “tent pole” events.

**Here are the results from the WSOF 23 card from Phoenix, Arizona on Friday night, featuring another great fight between Justin Gaethje and Luis Palomino:
*Bran Foster over LaRue Burley by KO at 0:32 of Round 1
*Ben “Phoenix Jones” Fodor over Roberto Yong by submission at 3:09 of Round 1
*Timur Valiev over Tito Jones by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*David Branch over Teddy Holder by rear-naked choke at 2:21 of Round 1 to become the inaugural WSOF light heavyweight champion
*Justin Gaethje over Luis Palomino by TKO at 4:40 of Round 2 to retain the WSOF lightweight title

**Dana White discusses the Nick Diaz suspension handed down from the NAC:


**Titan FC lightweight champion Pat Healy missed weight on Friday for tonight’s main event with Rick Hawn. Healy weighed in at 158 pounds and has been stripped of the lightweight title, but the fight will go on as a five-round bout tonight and Rick Hawn can still win the title. The card airs at 9pm ET on UFC Fight Pass and also features Desmond Green taking on Andre Harrison, former UFC flyweight Tim Elliott takes on Felipe Efrain and Steven Siler meets Austin Springer.

**Last week, boxing writer Thomas Hauser released a scathing investigative report regarding USADA and their handling of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao testing procedures. Among the many allegations were that USADA allowed for Mayweather to use an IV the night before the fight in May and then issue Mayweather a retroactive TUE, notifying the Nevada Athletic Commission later that month of the TUE being retroactively issued. The piece went into much more detail regarding USADA and putting the agency into question.

USADA has put together a lengthy response, going through all of the allegations made in the SB Nation article and providing a response to all of them and claiming numerous inaccuracies throughout the piece by Hauser.

**Matt Hughes is receiving criticism for comments he made on Twitter regarding Nick Diaz’s demeanor in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission this past Monday. Hughes agreed with the majority that the suspension was excessive, but stated that Diaz acted “like a punk” in front of the commission. UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione called out Hughes for the characterization he gave of Diaz, give Hughes’ role as the UFC’s Vice President of Athlete Development and Government Regulations. Mitrione stated that Hughes is supposed to act as a liaison between the UFC and fighters and not taking a stance against the fighters, claiming this is another reason that Mitrione doesn’t respect Hughes. The conversation ended with Hughes stating that he needed to speak with Mitrione, presumably offline.


**The UFC has announced that Paige Van Zant will face Joanna Calderwood in the main event of the Fight Pass card on Thursday December 10th in Las Vegas at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan Hotel. This will be VanZant and Calderwood’s first main events in the UFC, with VanZant recently signing a new deal with the UFC. VanZant is 3-0 in her UFC run with wins over Kailin Curran, Felice Herrig and Alex Chambers. Calderwood was upset by Maryna Moroz this past April, but rebounded with a win over Cortney Casey in July.

**A featherweight fight between Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares has been added to the UFC’s card on November 7th in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They have also added another featherweight fight to the same card with Chas Skelly taking on Kevin Souza. The show is headlined by a third fight between Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort.

[Stickman]

**The biggest story this week revolves around a Deadspin article by Josh Gross, uncovering a lot of information regarding Vitor Belfort, ahead of his fight with Jon Jones at UFC 152 in September 2012.

The circumstances at the time saw Belfort agree to the fight on short notice after Dan Henderson was injured and couldn’t fight Jones on the UFC 151 card, which had been scheduled for September 1st. The UFC attempted to save the 151 card with Chael Sonnen as a new opponent, but Jones would not agree to fight Sonnen on such notice. Then the UFC attempted to put together a rematch between Jones and Lyoto Machida and that fell through. A compromise was made that Jones would fight Vitor Belfort, but not on September 1st and instead on September 22nd at UFC 152 in Toronto.

On September 4th, a paralegal at the UFC accidentally sent out the lab results for Vitor Belfort, the email was intended for executives at the UFC, but instead was sent to various members of the industry, including managers and fighters. Immediately, a warning was sent by the UFC’s legal department to those same recipients to destroy the email and reply to confirm the email had been deleted.

The contents of the lab results are now public and revealing that Belfort had a level of 1038 ng/dL of testosterone in his system (the typical range is 250 – 1150), so while it is within range, it is on the high end. The results also uncovered Belfort’s “free testosterone levels”, with a normal range of 8.7 – 25.1 picograms per milliliter and Belfort’s being monitored at 47.7.

The story goes on to say how the UFC privately issued Belfort a TUE for testosterone replacement therapy and did so on their own, with the Ontario Athletic Commission not being part of the process to issue the TUE or having any knowledge of the allowance.

The UFC and Vitor Belfort declined to speak with Josh Gross for the piece.

**Bloody Elbow’s John Nash has a great follow up piece to the Deadspin article with a further look into past statements by Belfort, regarding his allowance of TUEs in 2011 and 2012 and whether the commissions where he fought issued any.

**Due to injuries to both fighters, the Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Matt Hobar fight that was scheduled for this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Saitama, Japan is off. An announcement was made that the fight has been scrapped and the card will go ahead with ten bouts scheduled from the Saitama Super Arena.

**This past Monday, Urijah Faber appeared on The MMA Hour and spoke for well over an hour with Ariel Helwani about the contentious relationship between Faber and former Team Alpha Male striking coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig. The entire interview is below, with Ludwig’s response at this link.


**The big Bellator Dynamite card from this past Saturday night only managed to average 800,000 viewers for the near four-hour show on Spike TV. The best comparison is to this past June’s Bellator card, featuring Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock, which was the last major show from the promotion, and averaged 1,580,000 viewers over the course of the event and the main event doing over 2,000,000 viewers and setting the promotional record for a fight.

**Jon Jones is scheduled for a plea hearing next Tuesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Second Judicial District Court. Jones is facing a felony charge for leaving the scene of a crime, stemming from the incident this past April, where Jones is alleged to have run a red light and collided with a car and then leaving the scene. The result of the charges led to Jones being stripped of his UFC light heavyweight title and indefinitely suspended.

**A lightweight bout between Michael Chandler and David Rickels has been added to the Bellator 145 card on November 6th in St. Louis, Missouri. The show will feature two title fights as Patricio “Pitbull” Freire defends the featherweight title against Daniel Straus and Will Brooks defends the lightweight title against Marcin Held.

**This Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card from Saitama, Japan will be airing on TSN5 in Canada for the main card and the preliminary card will air at 8pm ET on Fight Network.

**It was reported on UFC Tonight that Lyoto Machida is taking a hiatus from the sport for the time being, following losses to Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero this year. Machida is also recovering from nasal surgery following the loss to Romero in June, but did state he will return and would like to fight Michael Bisping when he does.

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC’s Fight Night card on Saturday night from Saitama, Japan at the Saitama Super Arena:
*Shinsho Anzai over Roger Zapata by TKO due to an injured finger at 0:47 of Round 3 – Ansai was winning the fight when Zapata hurt his middle finger, the referee called time but quickly realized he couldn’t do that for a legal blow and then ended the fight
*Kajan Johnson over Naoyuki Kotani by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Nick Hein over Yusuke Kasuya by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Keita Nakamura over Li Jingliang by rear-naked choke at 2:17 – Nakamura won the first round and then Jingliang turned it around in the second and just dominated with his stand up and then got caught in the third as Nakamura got onto his back and Jingliang wouldn’t tap and went out cold
*Mizuto Hirota and Teruto Ishihara fought to a draw (29-28, 28-29, 29-29) – Judge Christopher Shen gave the third round a 10-10 score and was a fair card. I scored it 29-28 for Hirota. Ishihara has a ton of charisma and this should have gone to a sudden victory round because it was the finals of the Road to UFC Japan series. Later in the broadcast they announced that both were being given six-figure contracts with the UFC. This was a very good fight.
*Diego Brandao over Katsunori Kikuno by TKO at 0:28 of Round 1
*Takeya Mizugaki over George Roop by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Kyoji Horiguchi over Chico Camus by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Uriah Hall over Gegard Mousasi by TKO at 0:25 of Round 2 – Hall was dominated in the first round and then came into the second and landed a spinning back kick to the head and followed with a flying knee and Mousasi was out of it, with Hall ending it with strikes on top
*Josh Barnett over Roy Nelson by unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 49-46) – The first and fifth rounds were close, although two judges scored the third round for Nelson. Barnett was so good in the clinch and the better conditioned of the two as Barnett came in much lighter for this fight than the Travis Browne fight in 2013. I had all five rounds for Barnett with the second being his strongest.

Josh Barnett, Uriah Hall, Diego Brandao and Keita Nakamura were awarded $50,000 performance of the night bonuses.


**Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones appeared in court on Tuesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico and pleaded guilty to the charges he faced, stemming from a hit-and-run accident this past April. Jones ran through a red light and collided with another vehicle, and proceeded to leave the scene of the crime and was later charged. Jones accepted a plea bargain in court, where he will be placed on probation for the next 18 months and that Jones will make at least 72 appearances for charity and speaking to children. Should Jones complete the terms of the deal, he will not have a felony conviction placed on his record, in addition to avoiding time in jail. UFC president Dana White was also present Tuesday in court. The UFC has released the following statement regarding the situation:

The UFC organization is aware that Jon Jones reached a plea agreement with authorities in Albuquerque, New Mexico this morning stemming from charges associated with a motor vehicle accident earlier this year. As a result, UFC, through Las Vegas-based law firm Campbell & Williams, will thoroughly review the agreement before discussing Jones’ possible reinstatement to return to competition.

Jones has also released a statement of his own, stating:

With regards to today’s decision made by the court, I am very happy to now be able to put this incident behind me. My actions have caused pain and inconvenience in the lives of others and for that I am truly sorry and I accept full responsibility. I have been working hard during this time away from my sport to grow and mature as a man and to ensure that nothing like this happens again. I have learned a great deal from this situation and I am determined to emerge a better person because of it. I apologize to those who were affected by my actions in this incident and I am hopeful that I will be given the opportunity to redeem myself in the eyes of the public, my family and friends as well as my supporters. I am not sure what the future holds for me but I plan to continue to do the work needed to be productive and successful in every aspect of my life.

**Below are the Countdown to UFC 192 videos, focusing on the top three fights for this Saturday’s card in Houston




**Josh Samman, who serves as both a UFC fighter and a writer for Bloody Elbow, spoke to Jeff Novitsky today from USADA. The interview has not been posted yet, but Samman stated that Novitsky believes Nick Diaz should not have been suspended at all by the Nevada Athletic Commission and Novitsky carries significant weight in this department.

**UFC bantamweight Aljamain Sterling announced on The MMA Hour this past Monday that he is fighting Johnny Eduardo on Thursday December 10th in Las Vegas on Fight Pass. That card is the first of three straight nights of UFC events, with night one headlined by Paige VanZant vs. Joanne Calderwood.


**Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin announced his retirement Monday, writing a piece for Derek Jeter’s website, The Players Tribune. Franklin has not competed since November of 2012, where he was stopped by Cung Le in Macau, China. Franklin has since taken an executive position with One Championship, based out of Asia, and received the blessing of the UFC to take the spot when it was offered to him. Franklin was one of the key stars that was at the forefront of the UFC’s expansion in 2005, serving as a coach alongside Matt Hughes on the second of Ultimate Fighter that year, although they were never scheduled to fight at the end of the season.

Franklin’s career began in 1999 and fought all over the U.S. and went unbeaten until he fought Lyoto Machida on the Inoki Bom Ba Ye card in December 2003. He fought three times in the UFC in 2003 and 2004 and had his most high-profile fight for the organization in April of 2005, headlining the first TUF Finale show, defeating Ken Shamrock, on the same card where Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar had their legendary fight. In his next fight, he defeated Evan Tanner to become the new middleweight champion and also become the coach for the second season of TUF, and that is where his stardom began. Franklin became such a likeable individual with his personality shining through on the reality series and became the furthest thing from the stereotype many had of mixed martial arts fighters, as he was well educated and well spoken. Franklin only defended the twice and then the UFC signed the top middleweight in the sport in Anderson Silva, who became champion after defeating Franklin in October 2006. Franklin would receive a rematch a year later, but it was the same result as the first and Franklin largely served as an attraction on cards for his remaining years and would move to the light heavyweight division in 2008. Franklin was the perfect example of a fighter that would have benefited from a weight class in between middleweight and light heavyweight, but did have success at both divisions, including defeating Chuck Liddell in June of 2010, in what turned out to be Liddell’s final fight.

Franklin would be an automatic candidate for the UFC Hall of Fame as an instrumental figure in the expansion of the company.

**The UFC sent out a press release on Monday regarding spear heading yet another attempt get into the state of the New York and appear to be getting more aggressive. The UFC has outright listed a date of April 23rd of next year at Madison Square Garden. Today the UFC filed a federal case in federal court, believing that the ban on mixed martial arts in the state is unconstitutional and too unclear for the public to understand. The UFC is hoping to receive a preliminary injunction later this week to allow the Madison Square Garden card to take place, but will be unable to hold the card if they do not receive the injunction.

[Stickman]

**Just Announced**
Johny Hendricks vs. Tyron Woodley: UFC 192 Co-Headliner Canceled, UFC President Dana White Says

White posted Friday that Saturday's fight was canceled due to "Hendricks weight cut issues." ESPN reported Hendricks was taken to the emergency room for a kidney stone and intestinal blockage.

The UFC 192 card at Houston's Toyota Center, which is headlined by the UFC light heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, will proceed as scheduled with 12 bouts.

**USADA is now making all their drug testing procedures public and listing those that have been tested on their website. For the third quarter, USADA conducted 81 in and a out-of-competition tests on 50 different fighters. Topping the list was Ronda Rousey, who was tested five times, followed by Thiago Alves, Antonio Silva and Bethe Correia, who were tested four times and Anthony Johnson and Jimi Manuwa being tested twice.

***Michael Bisping has suffered an elbow injury and is off of the UFC 193 card next month in Melbourne, Australia. Bisping was scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker on the card, and now Uriah Hall is going to step in and take the fight with Whittaker. Hall just fought this past weekend and defeated Gegard Mousasi, in his fourth fight already in 2015.

**The UFC has added a pair of fights to the January 17th card in Boston, Massachusetts on FS 1. Heavyweights Travis Browne and Matt Mitrione will meet on the main card, with both coming off losses. Browne had a fight of the year with Andrei Arlovski at UFC 187 back in May, which he came out on the losing end of, while Mitrione was submitted by Ben Rothwell this past June. They have also added a middleweight fight to the card between Tim Boestch and Ed Herman.

[Stickman]

[Rangi Guy]

**Just Announced**
Johny Hendricks vs. Tyron Woodley: UFC 192 Co-Headliner Canceled, UFC President Dana White Says

White posted Friday that Saturday's fight was canceled due to "Hendricks weight cut issues." ESPN reported Hendricks was taken to the emergency room for a kidney stone and intestinal blockage.

The UFC 192 card at Houston's Toyota Center, which is headlined by the UFC light heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, will proceed as scheduled with 12 bouts.

**USADA is now making all their drug testing procedures public and listing those that have been tested on their website. For the third quarter, USADA conducted 81 in and a out-of-competition tests on 50 different fighters. Topping the list was Ronda Rousey, who was tested five times, followed by Thiago Alves, Antonio Silva and Bethe Correia, who were tested four times and Anthony Johnson and Jimi Manuwa being tested twice.

***Michael Bisping has suffered an elbow injury and is off of the UFC 193 card next month in Melbourne, Australia. Bisping was scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker on the card, and now Uriah Hall is going to step in and take the fight with Whittaker. Hall just fought this past weekend and defeated Gegard Mousasi, in his fourth fight already in 2015.

**The UFC has added a pair of fights to the January 17th card in Boston, Massachusetts on FS 1. Heavyweights Travis Browne and Matt Mitrione will meet on the main card, with both coming off losses. Browne had a fight of the year with Andrei Arlovski at UFC 187 back in May, which he came out on the losing end of, while Mitrione was submitted by Ben Rothwell this past June. They have also added a middleweight fight to the card between Tim Boestch and Ed Herman.

Shit! I was looking forward to the Hendricks vs. Woodley fight

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from UFC 192 on Saturday night in front of 14,622 at the Toyota Center and a gate of $1,859,000:
*Derrick Lewis over Viktor Pesta by TKO at 1:15 of Round 3
*Sergio Pettis over Chris Cariaso by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)
*Sage Northcutt over Francisco Trevino by TKO at 0:57 of Round 1 – Northcutt received a lot of publicity this week as he was a local favorite from Katy, Texas, has a great look was featured on the new Fight Pass series, “Looking For A Fight”. Trevino protested the stoppage and shoved Herb Dean and could face disciplinary action for the shove.
*Rose Namajunas over Angela Hill by rear-naked choke at 2:47 of Round 1. Namajunas pounced on Hill and was on her back while Hill was standing and going out on her feet.
*Adriano Martins over Islam Makhachev by KO at 1:46 of Round 1
*Albert Tumenov over Alan Jouban by TKO at 2:55 of Round 1 – Tumenov is a welterweight to watch
*Yair Rodriguez over Daniel Hooker by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26) – Rodriguez takes so many chances with his striking while he’s standing and even attempted a pair of koppo kicks during the fight and a spinning kick that resembled Kofi Kingston’s Trouble in Paradise.
*Julianna Pena over Jessica Eye by unanimous decision (29-27 all) – Eye was deducted a point in the second round for a knee to the head of Pena, while they were on the ground and the second round became a 9-9 as Eye did win the round. Pena challenged Ronda Rousey after the fight and said if Rousey is Mike Tyson then she is Evander Holyfield.
*Joseph Benavidez over Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Ruslan Magomedov over Shawn Jordan by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – this was a bad fight
*Ryan Bader over Rashad Evans by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – All standing with Bader winning each round with better movement. Evans had his best exchanges when he got into the center, but that was infrequent. If Jon Jones wasn’t ready to fight, Bader would be getting the next title fight but he appears to have the worst timing in the light heavyweight division in 2015.
*Daniel Cormier over Alexander Gustafsson by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46) – this was a war for 25:00 and realistically you can go from a 4-1 card for Cormier to a 3-2 card for Gustafsson. Rounds 1 and 5 were clearly for Cormier and Round 2 was Gustafsson’s. Rounds 3 and 4 were the close ones, Round 3 comes down to how much you value that big knee that Gustafsson landed, which wobbled Cormier but he regained his composure almost immediately. This was a great fight.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, and the performance bonuses went to Adriano Martins and Albert Tumenov, all for $50,000.

[Stickman]

**A press conference was held in Tokyo today to formally announce Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s new Rizin Fighting Federation promotion, which will host the New Year’s Eve card with Fedor Emelianenko. The promotion announced that it will run two cards at the Saitama Super Arena with a December 29th show headlined by Kazushi Sakuraba and Shinya Aoki at a catchweight and then the December 31st card with Fedor Emelianenko in the main event. An opponent has not officially been announced yet, but Ariel Helwani reported this week that it is expected to be Jaideep Singh, who has a 40-10 (1 no contest) record in kickboxing and 1-0 in MMA after a 2013 bout with the Super Fight League in India. They have also announced that they are in talks with Fuji TV as a broadcaster for the events and ensuring transparency on the business end, with Pride’s former ties to the Yakuza being the key reason they lost Fuji TV in 2006 and sped up the demise of the promotion. Nobuhiko Takada was also in attendance with Sakakibara at the press conference on Thursday.

**On UFC Tonight it was reported that John Dodson is moving up to the bantamweight division, following his second unsuccessful attempt to win the flyweight title against Demetrious Johnson. Dodson won Season 14 of the Ultimate Fighter in December 2011, by stopping current bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw in the finals and there is a natural story of a possible rematch if Dillashaw keeps the title. Dodson is largely shut out of the title picture at flyweight and his manager also noted the difficulty for Dodson to get down to 125 pounds and the added problems with the recent IV ban being instituted.

**One Championship has a card early Friday morning (airing at 9am ET on Fight Network for those with the channel in Canada and Internationally) with Igor Svirid vs. Vitaly Bigdash for the middleweight title among the nine fights on the main card.

**Myles Jury will make his featherweight debut against Charles Oliveira on December 19th at the next UFC on FOX card in Orlando, Florida. Jury has fought at lightweight his entire career and is coming off his first pro loss to Donald Cerrone this past January at UFC 182. A women’s strawweight bout between Randa Markos and the debuting Karolina Kowalkiewicz has also been added to this show.


**Globo was the first to report that UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw was leaving Team Alpha Male and training in Colorado for his next fight. Dillashaw later spoke to MMAFighting.com and confirmed that he will be working with the Elevation Fight Team out of Colorado for his next fight, but that he is not ceasing ties with Team Alpha Male. Although Dillashaw is expected to work with striking coach Duane Ludwig, Ludwig is not part of Elevation and Dillashaw will be working under Leister Bowling and his team. Dillashaw will be defending his title on January 17th against Dominick Cruz in his next outing.


**Duke Roufus spoke to Brett Okamoto at ESPN and stated that Phil Brooks is nursing an injured shoulder and taking some time off from training at the moment. Roufus stated that Brooks injured the shoulder during a scramble and believes he is 6-10 months away from his first professional fight and that UFC 200 next July would be a good date to target.

**Following a judge reversing the lifetime ban issued to Wanderlei Silva earlier this year, Silva’s case will be heard once again in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission on October 29th. The hearing is necessary for Silva and his legal team to proceed with an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court. Silva’s team argued that the NAC had no jurisdiction over the fighter at the time they sought out a drug test for Silva, prior to his fight with Chael Sonnen, which was scheduled for July 2014 and never happened. Silva never took the test and was told he would never been issued a license to fight in the state of Nevada ever again.

[Stickman]

**MMA Junkie broke the news on Tuesday that Stipe Miocic is injured and is off of next weekend’s UFC Fight Night card in Dublin, Ireland. Miocic was scheduled to fight Ben Rothwell and the UFC is seeking a late notice replacement to fight on the card. The show is headlined by lightweights Dustin Poirier and Joseph Duffy.

**UFC heavyweight Travis Browne was a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday and confirmed what was widely known, that he is in a relationship with Ronda Rousey. Rousey was asked about Browne by ESPN on Tuesday and she responded:

I don’t talk about my personal life much. That’s why it’s called ‘personal life.’ It’s true that Travis and I are in a relationship. I’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent together and getting to know one another. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.

**Jason Floyd was the first to report that Joe Warren failed his Bellator 143 post-fight drug test, following his unanimous decision victory over L.C. Davis in Hidalgo, Texas. Warren tested positive for marijuana metabolites in his system with a level of 53 ng/mL and in Texas that threshold allowed is 50 ng/mL. The levels are noteworthy because if this fight had taken place in Nevada, he would have passed by a landslide as Nevada allows 150 ng/mL in one’s system.

**Chuck Mindenhall at MMA Fighting has an outstanding piece on veteran judge Douglas Crosby, who is one of the most unique personalities associated with the sport. It’s a long-form piece with Mindenhall following Crosby and getting inside his head and philosophies into scoring. Crosby has been one of the more criticized judges for certain scorecards he has handed in over the years. Crosby is also a very successful stunt coordinator and has helped assist many fighters with making a transition over to movies, including Randy Couture, who praises Crosby in the piece. I highly recommend reading this piece as it’s one of the best pieces I’ve read this year.

**UFC flyweight Joseph Benavidez was married on Friday to Megan Olivi, who is an on-air personality for FS 1 on UFC broadcasts.

[Stickman]

**AnnMaria DeMars, mother of Rhonda Rousey, has come out and publically criticized Edmond Tarverdyan, who is Rousey’s head coach. DeMars stated in the video interview below that he is a “terrible coach” and a “bad person”. She stated in the interview that he lucked into the success of Rousey and coming along at the perfect time in her career, that Rousey was a winner prior to working with him and more of a good luck charm. :
Short clip here:

Full Interview:


**World Series of Fighting 24 takes place on Saturday night at 8:30pm ET from Mashantucket, Connecticut and will be airing on the NBC Sports Network in the U.S. and Fight Network in Canada. Below is the main card lineup:
*Jon Fitch vs. Yushin Okami
*Blagoy Ivanov vs. Derrick Mehmen for the heavyweight title
*Vinny Magalhaes vs. Matt Hamill
*Nick Newell vs. Tom Marcellino
*Magomed Bibulatov vs. Donovan Frelow to crown the first WSOF flyweight champion

**WSOF president Ray Sefo and commentator Chael Sonnen preview tomorrow night’s card:


**The UFC changed their minds about the co-feature for next Saturday’s card in Dublin, Ireland. After announcing that Norman Parke vs. Reza Madadi would replace the Ben Rothwell vs. Stiope Miocic fight in that position, they have now stated that the flyweight fight between Paddy Holohan and Louis Smolka will serve as the co-feature. The card is next Saturday with a 12:45pm ET start on Fight Pass and main card is at 4pm ET.

**UFC middleweight Michael Bisping has surgery on his left elbow this past week. This is in the injury that took him off of the UFC 193 card in Melbourne, Australia next month, where he was scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker.

**TMZ reported today that former fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller was arrested on Friday morning after a struggle with Orange County police officers, who were called due to a disturbance. When the officers were called to the scene, Miller struggled with the officers and led to a taser being used on Miller to subdue him, after Miller allegedly through a ceramic tile at the officers. The disturbance at the home involved Miller and two women and TMZ adds that Miller is being held on $50,000 bail.

**Francisco Trevino failed his post-fight drug test after his loss to Sage Northcutt at UFC 192 in Houston earlier this month. MMA Fighting was the first to report that he has been suspended for 90 days and fined $5,000 after marijuana metabolites were found in his system and a level of 69 ng/ml. In Texas, they have an allowable threshold level of 50 ng/ml, as opposed to Nevada and the new WADA standard of 150 ng/ml. It is the second marijuana suspension handed out by Texas over the past month, as Joe Warren was also flagged following his win over L.C. Davis in Hidalgo last month with a level of 53 ng/ml.

**Shawn Jordan tells Combat Press that his UFC contract ended with his last fight and wants to fight Fedor Emelianenko on New Year’s Eve in Japan. Jordan just had a three-fight win streak snapped after losing to Ruslan Magomedov at UFC 192 earlier this month.

[Stickman]

**CM Punk was a guest on The MMA Hour today with Ariel Helwani. He stated that his shoulder injury took place at the end of August during a sparring session but the MRI revealed no tear. He has been back in Chicago and was hoping to return to training this week but has taken a step back and doesn’t want to come back too soon because he is still in a lot of pain.

**The UFC has added a featherweight fight between 19 year old Sage Northcutt and Cody Pfister to the UFC Fight Night card on Thursday December 10th in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the first of three consecutive nights of shows from the UFC, with the TUF 22 Finale on Friday night and UFC 194 on the Saturday. The Thursday night event is headlined by Paige VanZant vs. Joanne Calderwood.

**The UFC has made a recent round of cuts with Eddie Gordon (who was the winner of TUF Season 19), Marcus Brimage (who was Conor McGregor’s first opponent in the UFC back in April 2013), Chris Clements and Roger Narvaez confirming online that they have been cut by the promotion.

[Stickman]

**The UFC announced today that they have reinstated former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, after he was suspended last year following charges he faced after an April hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jones was sentenced to 18 months of probation last month and will not serve time in jail. Jones ran a red light and collided with a car, carrying a pregnant woman and then fled the scene of the crime and turned himself in the following day. Jones was suspended indefinitely by the UFC and stripped of his light heavyweight title, which was awarded to Daniel Cormier, who defeated Anthony Johnson for the vacant title last May at UFC 187.

**Bellator 144 takes place tonight from Uncasville, Connecitcut at the Mohegan Sun Arena and the main card airing at 9pm ET on Spike TV with the following fights:
*Brandon Halsey vs. Rafael Carvalho for the vacant middleweight title
*Brennan Ward vs. Dennis Olson
*Michael Page vs. Charlie Ontiveros
*Goiti Yamauchi vs. Isao Kobayashi

**The main event for this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Dublin, Ireland fell apart on Wednesday with the news that Joseph Duffy suffered a concussion this past Saturday and cannot fight. Duffy was scheduled to fight Dustin Poirier in the lightweight main event and was booked around the idea that it was the last fighter to defeat Conor McGregor against one of McGregor’s former rivals in Poirier. Poirier was offered a fight with Norman Parke on the show, but Poirier stated that his management was against that idea having prepared for Duffy and not feeling that Parke was worth taking a fight on such short notice. Duffy’s head coach, Firas Zahabi, spoke to Ariel Helwani and stated that the injury occurred last Saturday during his last hard sparring session. The new main event will feature Paddy Holohan and Louis Smolka, which was originally going to take place on the preliminary card, then moved to the co-feature when the bout between Stipe Miocic and Ben Rothwell fell apart and now serves as the new main event. Because of the short notice, this will be a three-round main event as opposed to five rounds.

MAIN CARD (4pm ET on UFC Fight Pass, Fight Network in Canada)
*Paddy Holohan vs. Louis Smolka
*Norman Parke vs. Reza Madadi
*Nicolas Dalby vs. Darren Till
*Neil Seery vs. Jon Delos Reyes

PRELIMINARY CARD (1:15pm ET on Fight Pass)
*Mickael Lebout vs. Stevie Ray
*Aisling Daly vs. Ericka Almeida
*Scott Askham vs. Krzysztof Jotko
*Tom Breese vs. Cathal Pendred
*Darren Elkins vs. Robert Whiteford
*Garreth McLellan vs. Bubba Bush

**All fighters made weight earlier today, there was a heated stare down with Norman Parke and Reza Madadi, with Parke pulling out a hand bag and throwing it at Madadi, making reference to Madadi’s aggravated burglary charge, where he went to prison over those charges.

**Rolling Stone has a lengthy story on Joe Rogan and his numerous careers he has going at once, and includes comments from UFC president Dana White.

**TMZ Sports reported on Friday that former UFC and Bellator fighter Lavar Johnson was arrested back in August and facing a number of felony charges over domestic abuse allegations with his girlfriend at the time. Johnson is accused of striking his girlfriend back on August 11th and striking her numerous times with punches and knees. Johnson was arrested on August 25th and is currently in jail and bail is set at $120,000. Johnson came over from Strikeforce to fight for the UFC in 2012 and went 2-2 before being cut. He then fought for Bellator on four occasions, having last fought in September of last year, where he was submitted by Cheick Kongo.

**The UFC has announced that Stipe Miocic will fight Andrei Arlovski on January 2nd at UFC 195 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Miocic injured himself and had to withdraw from the fight with Ben Rothwell, which was scheduled for this weekend’s card in Dublin. Arlovski has won his last six fights and four of those have taken place in the UFC since his return last year. Miocic last fought in May and defeated Mark Hunt.

**The UFC has also added a pair of welterweight fights to the UFC 195 card on January 2nd with Neil Magny set to fight Stephen Thompson on that card as well as Albert Tumenov taking on Lorenz Larkin.

**Bellator has announced a return to San Jose on December 4th at the SAP Center and have announced Josh Thomson will be taking on Pablo Villaseca and Georgi Karakhanyan will be fighting Daniel Weichel on that show.

[Stickman]

**The Nevada Athletic Commission held their monthly meeting earlier today in Las Vegas. The main items on the agenda for MMA, was Wanderlei Silva and reviewing his lifetime ban from fighting in the state. He was scheduled to have his case opened to start the meeting, however there was a paper mishap where his lawyer, Ross Goodman, didn’t receive certain documents in time and they ruled to postpone the hearing for Silva to a later date.

**The other big hearing today was with Rousimar Palhares, following his fight with Jake Shields, where Palhares repeatedly gouged the eyes of Shields and held onto a fight ending kimura for too long (and not the first time this has been an issue for Palhares, and the reason he was released by the UFC in 2013). Referee Steve Mazzagatti was questioned about the fight and agreed that Palhares ignored pre-fight instructions, later they brought John McCarthy in to go through the video and backed up the case against Palhares. The commission ruled that Palhares would be suspended for two-years and fined $40,000 as well as cover the fees for the Attorney General. Palhares is 35 years and will be 37 by the time he is eligible to fight again. He was stripped of the WSOF welterweight title after the fight with Shields but is still under contract to the organization.


**Bellator announced yesterday that they have signed Kurt Angle and he will appearing at the Bellator 145 fan fest next Thursday at Dave & Busters in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Angle will be joining Kimbo Slice, Ken Shamrock, Liam McGeary, Tito Ortiz and Royce Gracie at the event. There is no indication that Angle would ever fight for the group as he is turning 47 years old this December and his body has been through a lot throughout his professional career and quite frankly, would be a scary idea to even suggest Angle fighting at this stage of his life.
Angle made a surprise appearance on the Bellator conference call today but didn’t take any questions from the media (we were also told by Bellator that he wouldn’t be doing any media interviews ahead of next week’s card). Angle said he enjoyed reading about all the speculation online yesterday and said he would see everyone at the fan fest next weekend. Dave Meltzer attempted to ask Scott Coker a question about Angle, and they were not going to discuss Angle’s involvement until a further date. Angle only made a brief statement and then left the call.

**The lightweight between Dustin Poirier and Joseph Duffy, which was supposed to headline last weekend’s UFC card in Dublin, has been re-scheduled. Ariel Helwani reported on UFC Tonight that the fight will now take place on January 2nd at UFC 195 in Las Vegas, which is headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit for the welterweight title.

**Caio Magalhaes appeared in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission, regarding an incident at the TUF Finale this past July, where he was submitted by Josh Samman and then spit blood in the direction of Samman. Magalahes stated during the hearing that he had dinner with Samman afterwards and they cleared up the problem. Samman, seeing this written on Twitter, clarified that Magalhaes came up to him while he was eating and apologized, so it appeared to be a one-sided dinner. Magalhaes has been suspended for six-months and must perform 40 hours of community service.

**The UFC had added a pair of fights to the Fight Night card on January 17th in Boston on FS 1. In a lightweight fight, Ross Pearson will take on Francisco Trinaldo. Pearson is coming off a split win over Paul Felder from this past September at UFC 191, while Trinaldo has won his last four and defeated Chad Laprise by TKO in his last fight in August. They have also added a light heavyweight fight to the card between Ilir Latifi and Sean O’Connell.

**Joanne Calderwood posted a statement today that she suffered a knee injury while wrestling last week and led to her pulling out of the fight with Paige VanZant on December 10th. It was announced on Wednesday that Rose Namajunas will be taking Calderwood’s spot in the main event of that card in Las Vegas. Calderwood expects to be able to resume light training by next week.

**Nick Diaz made a post on Instagram on Tuesday night and said that talks between his legal team and the Nevada Athletic Commission were “going well”. Marc Raimondi at MMA Fighting added that settlements talks are not only in progress but that it could result in Diaz being eligible to fight as early as 2016. Diaz was handed a five-year suspension from the state back in September, following his third positive drug test for marijuana after his loss to Anderson Silva this past January.


**Ronda Rousey held a media scrum on Tuesday at the Glendale Fighting Club in California. Rousey noted she has goals of becoming a champion in Boxing, a jiu-jitsu champion and also becoming the WWE Diva’s champion, but isn’t sure how she can go about doing all of those things. She would not speak about the recent comments her mother made regarding coach Edmond Tarverdyan and wouldn’t answer a reporter about whether she has spoken to her mother about the comments yet. The fight with Holly Holm takes place on Saturday November 14th from Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

**The two-year relationship involving Spike TV and GLORY has come to an end with the expiration of their deal and no plans to renew. GLORY was never able to find a sizeable audience on Spike with their high point coming in December 20013 with the GLORY 13 event averaging 659,000 viewers. This past May featured the GLORY 21 event, which peaked at 797,000 viewers, but was followed up by an ill-fated decision to air the GLORY 22 card live from France on a Friday afternoon and numbers plummeted, with only 152,000 watching live. Their final show on Spike was the GLORY 24 event from Denver earlier this month and featured Joe Schilling defeating Jason Wilnis in the main event and 283,000 viewers watching the show.

**Fight Network will be airing the KSW 32: Road to Wembley event this Saturday at 2pm ET from London, England. The card is headlined by Mariusz Pudzianowski vs. Peter Graham.

[Stickman]

**This past Friday, Vitor Belfort was a guest on Inside MMA on AXS TV and finally addressed the Deadspin article by Josh Gross regarding his use of testosterone replacement therapy ahead of UFC 152 in September 2012. Belfort was scheduled to appear on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani last Monday, but pulled out on the day of the interview because he only wanted to be asked questions about his fight with Dan Henderson this weekend and not questions regarding the Deadspin piece. Below is Belfort’s full appearance with Ron Kruk and Bas Rutten on Inside MMA:


**EVOLVE has posted the full match involving former UFC and Bellator fighter Matt Riddle and Chris Dickinson from the EVOLVE 50 card a few weeks back in New York:


**It was reported by Ariel Helwani late Thursday night that Khabib Nurmagomedov is off of the December 11th UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas for his fight with Tony Ferguson. Nurmagomedov is out of the card due to a rib injury he suffered in training and is the latest in a series of physical setbacks that the Russian fighter has faced for the past 18 months. Nurmagomedov has not fought since April 2014 when he defeated Rafael dos Anjos and remains undefeated. The UFC has announced that Edson Barboza will step in and fight Ferguson on the card, which is headlined by a featherweight bout between Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes.

**Jeremy Botter at the Houston Chronicle reported on Thursday that Bellator is planning to host an event in Houston on February 19th and that Kimbo Slice will be fighting on the card. Bellator has yet to announce the show or Kimbo Slice’s involvement officially, but I would expect that announcement, as well as opponent to come next week at the Bellator 145 show in St. Louis. Slice last fought in June, where he defeated Ken Shamrock and set a new Bellator viewership record with 2,300,000 watching the main event.

**Bellator has added a lightweight rematch between Derek Campos and Brandon Girtz to the Bellator 146 event on November 20th in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The two first fought in June 2013 with Campos defeating Girtz by unanimous decision.

[Stickman]

**A dangerous situation went down on Wednesday at the Bellator fighter hotel in St. Louis, involving lightweight champion Will Brooks, featherweight champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and his brother, Patricky. The details are being disputed in regards to which side initiated a fight, but led to blows being thrown and blood being draw, as seen by a t-shirt posted by Brooks with blood on the shirt. Brooks is claiming that he was on the phone with his mother when the Pitbull brothers attacked him, while Patricio is claiming that Brooks initiated things by striking Patricky. There has been bad blood between the two sides for some time, including a series of tweets back-and-forth in August, where Brooks promised to slap Patricio the next time he saw him. We have reached out to Bellator for a statement and are awaiting a response. The Missouri Office of Athletics has already stated to MMAFighting.com that they will not be issuing any punishment because it is out of their jurisdiction.


**There were a number of announcements coming out of the Bellator 145 card on Saturday night in St. Louis. The biggest was the announcement that Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie will be fighting each other in the main event of the February 19th card in Houston, Texas next year. The news of the fight comes just days before the 22nd anniversary of the first UFC event, where Gracie defeated Shamrock and led to a rematch at UFC 5, which went to a 36:00 draw. Shamrock is 51 years of age and Gracie is 48, with Gracie last fighting in June of 2007, where he defeated Kazushi Sakuraba and later tested positive for steroids, however the fight was never changed to a no contest. Shamrock had his first fight since 2009 in June of this past year, setting a new Bellator viewership record with Kimbo Slice. It was hardly a technical classic, but the audience wanted to see the fight and the track record suggests they will want to see this fight as well next year. Other than Frank Shamrock, there was probably no other opponent you could give Shamrock that mean something on television and that Shamrock would have a chance of winning, although Shamrock’s drawing ability has always been in how he promotes the fight and his interviews, rather than the fight itself turning viewers off, as Shamrock has been a draw in MMA for three separate generations.

They are really loading the February 19th card, as it will also feature Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson fighting Dhafir Harris, a.k.a. “Dada 5000”. Harris is a 2-0 fighter and hasn’t fought since 2011. This fight is a pure ratings driven fight, with the story that Ferguson and Harris grew up together and Harris was a former bodyguard for him, and then the two had a falling out. It tells you the lengths that Bellator has gone to find an opponent that Ferguson can beat in the promotion’s heavyweight division and don’t want to risk him against a skilled heavyweight of any note.

For all the criticism these fights are likely to receive, and some of it is warranted, this could be the most watched Bellator card in history with their two biggest ratings movers in separate fights, with the novelty of Royce Gracie’s first fight since 2007 as a needle mover on top of things. It was in 2006, that a pay-per-view fight between Gracie and Matt Hughes did astronomical numbers at UFC 160 and set a then record for the company with 600,000 buys. Interestingly enough, that record number was shattered just over a month later by Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz for their second fight at UFC 61.

**Ariel Helwani has also reported that the Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie fight will be an open weight bout.

**The other news was from Nobuyuki Sakakibara, officially announcing the rumored both for New Year’s Eve between grappling star Gabi Garcia and former TNA wrestler, Lei’d Tapa (Seini Draughn), who is also the niece of former WWF and WCW wrestler, The Barbarian. They also announced that there will be a light heavyweight Grand Prix tournament and that Bellator will be sending Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal to fight in the tournament. The Rizin Fighting Federation New Year’s Eve event will air at 10am ET on Spike on December 31st, which is a Thursday morning and is going to be a very difficult slot to draw in. I would almost guarantee there will be a prime time replay of the event later that night.

**Below are the main card results from the Bellator 145 event from Friday night in St. Louis, Missouri at the Scottrade Center:
*Justin Lawrence over Emmanuel Sanchez by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Bobby Lashley over James Thompson by TKO at 0:54 of Round 1 – Lashley scored a single leg on Thompson, after the fight Lashley said he heard Thompson’s knee pop and he appeared to be in a lot of pain afterwards.
*Michael Chandler over David Rickels by TKO at 3:05 of Round 2
*Will Brooks over Marcin Held by unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 49-46) to retain the lightweight title – Brooks won every round, except for the first. Brooks said he was caught in a leg look and injured his leg in the first round and had to rely on takedowns and working on top for the duration of the fight to avoid injuring his leg any further. It appears Brooks and Chandler are set for a third fight.
*Daniel Straus over Patricio “Pitbull” Freire by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) to win the Bellator featherweight title – Excellent fight, Straus put forward one of the best performances of his career and had some eerie similarities to the second fight, such as an eye poke and Pitbull mounting his back in the final round, which is how the last ended. The commentary of Sean Grande and Jimmy Smith was tremendous during this fight and telling the story of Straus always failing in the championship rounds and had some scary moments in the fifth round, which made the win even more significant. I felt Straus won the first three rounds and Round 2 was 10-8 round, I narrowly gave Pitbull the fourth round and thought Pitbull convincingly won the fifth. They are 2-1 in the series and will almost surely fight at least one time in their careers.


**Kurt Angle was featured throughout the show, he provided commentary for the quick fight between Bobby Lashley and James Thompson. He said he is considering fighting for Bellator, which is just a scary thought. They did a tease with Angle and Ken Shamrock on the ramp, suggesting they were going to be fighting next, but then Angle said he hopes it happens one day and then brought out Gracie as the real opponent for Shamrock.

**The UFC is back tonight with a card from Sao Paulo, Brazil and airing on FS 1 in the U.S., and TSN 4 and 5 in Canada for the main card and Fight Network has the preliminary card. Below is the full lineup:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on FS 1, TSN 4 and 5 in Canada)
*Dan Henderson vs. Vitor Belfort
*Glover Teixeira vs. Patrick Cummins
*Thomas Almeida vs. Anthony Birchak
*Alex Oliveira vs. Piotr Hallmann
*Gilbert Burns vs. Rashid Magomedov
*Fabio Maldonado vs. Corey Anderson

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Gleison Tibau vs. Abel Trujillo
*Johnny Case vs. Yan Cabral
*Clay Guida vs. Thiago Tavares
*Chas Skelly vs. Kevin Souza

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30pm ET)
*Gasan Umalatov vs. Viscardi Andrade
*Jimmie Rivera vs. Pedro Munhoz
*Matheus Nicolau vs. Bruno Korea

**Alan Belcher has announced his retirement from the sport, at the age of 31. Belcher has not fought since UFC 159 in April of 2013, where he was defeated by Michael Bisping. Belcher began fighting professionally in 2004 and entered the UFC in 2006 and went 9-6 during his UFC tenure. One of his high points (at least financially) was getting a fight of the night bonus for his split decision loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100 in July of 2009. His last win came in May of 2012, where he defeated Rousimar Palhares by knockout, before he suffered losses to Yushin Okami and Bisping.

**Josh Burkman has announced that he is cutting down to lightweight for his next fight. He returned to the UFC this past year and has suffered losses to Hector Lombard (which was later changed to a no contest when Lombard failed his post-fight drug test), Dong Hyun Kim and Patrick Cote.

**The UFC has posted an extended preview for this weekend’s Embedded program that will be airing on FOX, based around Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm. The piece features Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Stephanie McMahon, Mark Wahlberg, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Oscar de la Hoya and other celebrities discussing the rise of Rousey.


**A light heavyweight fight between Anthony Johnson and Ryan Bader has been announced for the UFC on FOX card on January 30th in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center. The announcement was made on UFC Tonight on Wednesday and was a fight that had been discussed for the last number of weeks. Bader has won five straight fights, while Johnson rebounded from his loss to Daniel Cormier in May, by defeating Jimi Manuwa at UFC 191 in September. That card will also feature a welterweight fight between Tarec Saffiedine and Jake Ellenberger on the main card.

**Fight Network’s Retrospective special on Valerie Letourneau, who challenges Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 193 next weekend in Melbourne, Australia:


**UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has signed a new eight-fight deal with the UFC. The deal replaces the existing contract he had, which had four fights remaining on the deal.

**Kevin Iole at Yahoo Sports looks at the USADA’s drug testing of Vitor Belfort going into this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

[Stickman]

**The television numbers from this past weekend’s Bellator 145 and UFC Fight Night events are in. Bellator averaged 814,000 viewers for their tent-pole event on Friday night from St. Louis and peaking at 1,048,000 viewers during the Bobby Lashley vs. James Thompson heavyweight bout, which also featured Kurt Angle on commentary. The show was headlined by Daniel Straus defeating Patricio “Pitbull” Freire for the featherweight title, along with Will Brooks retaining the lightweight title in a decision over Marcin Held.

Conversely, the UFC Fight Night event from Sao Paulo on Saturday night averaged 757,000 viewers for the show headlined by Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson and 609,000 viewers for the preliminary card, which all aired on FS1. It is worth noting that Spike is in more homes than FS1 so it isn’t a direct comparison and they did air on separate nights with different competition.


**Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has announced that a shoulder injury has taken him off of the upcoming UFC card in Seoul, South Korea and his career looks to be over. Cro Cop posted the news on his website and alerting people he will be unable to fight Anthony Hamilton on November 28th and added the following:

I am aware that I have come to the end of my martial times, but training with pain I want no longer,” Cro Cop said in his statement. This is not a temporary decision because I was unhappy due to all of that, but it’s my final decision and it’s best for me. Sooner or later the time comes when a man has to think on the health. I had a really long and great career and I believe I left a deep mark in the martial arts, in a free fight and in K-1 and I have no regrets. Thanks to everyone who followed me and supported me, but for me there remains beautiful memories.

**Below are the first two episodes of UFC Embedded going into UFC 193 this Saturday in Melbourne, Australia:



**Dave Meltzer has an outline of how big New Year’s Eve is shaping up to be this year in Japan with two networks on board for live shows. Fuji TV will be carrying the Rizin Fighting Federation show, which will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko and an opponent yet to be announced, a taped fight between Shinya Aoki and Kazushi Sakuraba, which takes place December 29th, and have also announced Gabi Garcia fighting former TNA wrestler Lei’d Tapa (Seini Draughn). TBS in Japan is also going be doing a New Year’s Eve show entitled Kyokugen and will be headlined by a rematch of a famous kickboxing bout from 2004 with Masato and Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, who is still under UFC contract but allowed to have this “exhibition fight”.

**Angela Hill, who competed on TUF Season 20 and was part of the women’s strawweight division, has announced that she has been cut by the UFC. Hill defeated Emily Kagan on the TUF 20 Finale card last December and then dropped a decision to Tecia Torres in June of this year and is coming off a submission loss to Rose Namajunas at UFC 192 last month.

**The UFC Fight Night event from Sao Paulo, Brazil went down on Saturday night (and with the time zone difference, the main event didn’t start until approximately 3:45am in Sao Paulo). Below are the complete results from the show:
*Matheus Nicolau over Bruno “Korea” Rodrigues by submission at 3:27 of Round 3 – Nicolau had much better striking and constantly landing left hooks throughout the fight before applying the submission.
*Jimmie Rivera over Pedro Munhoz by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Viscardi Andrade over Gasan Umalatov by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Chas Skelly over Kevin Souza by rear-naked choke at 1:56 of Round 2
*Thiago Tavares over Clay Guida by guillotine at 0:39 of Round 1
*Johnny Case over Yan Cabral by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Case won this fight in the final 1:30 of the fight as Cabral was winning the round, when Case got top position and landed enough strikes to clinch the round and the fight.
*Gleison Tibau over Abel Trujillo by technical submission at 1:45 of Round 1 – this received a lot of criticism as Trujillo was not choked out and it was pretty evident that Keith Peterson stopped the fight prematurely.
*Corey Anderson over Fabio Maldonado by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Rashid Magomedov over Gilbert Burns by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Alex Oliveira over Piotr Hallmann by KO at 0:51 of Round 3
*Thomas Almeida over Anthony Birchak by KO at 4:24 of Round 1 – this was one of the more violent knockouts of the year as Almeida connected with a right hook and then landed another, which sent Birchak out and his eyes rolled back, he was down for a while after the fight.
*Glover Teixiera over Patrick Cummins by TKO at 1:12 of Round 2 – Teixeira was just in another league in striking and was unloading a flurry in the second round and was stopped at the right moment. If Cormier defeats Jon Jones, it gives new life to Teixeira at 205 pounds, but a Jones win is going to make it difficult when their first fight was pretty clear cut for Jones.
*Vitor Belfort over Dan Henderson by KO at 2:07 of Round 1 – Henderson ate a left head kick and Belfort swarmed him with strikes, sent him down and continued as Mario Yamasaki jumped in. It felt a bit early in real life, however Henderson didn’t seem to be disagreeing with the call too much when he spoke after the fight and the head kick landed hard.

**There were four Performance of the Night bonuses handed out and they went to Vitor Belfort, Thomas Almeida, Alex Oliveira and Thiago Tavares, all for $50,000.

**The UFC has announced that they will hold four events in Brazil next year and will be returning with the UFC 197 pay-per-view on Saturday March 5th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janiero. Originally there were rumors of a stadium event for March in Curitiba, but this will rule out the stadium show. It is possible that the UFC 197 card could feature Anderson Silva’s return, as he is eligible to fight after January 31st 2016.

[Stickman]

**The UFC 193 weigh-ins took place today. Below is the full card for the card from Melbourne, Australia at Etihad Stadium:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on pay-per-view)
*Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm for the UFC women’s bantamweight title
*Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Valerie Letourneau for the UFC women’s strawweight title
*Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva
*Uriah Hall vs. Robert Whittaker
*Stefan Struve vs. Jared Rosholt

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm ET on FS 1)
*Jake Matthews vs. Akbarh Arreola
*Peter Sobotta vs. Kyle Noke
*Anthony Perosh vs. Gian Villante
*Richie Vaciluk vs. Danny Martinez

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:15pm ET)
*Daniel Kelly vs. Steve Montgomery
*Richard Walsh vs. Steven Kennedy
*Anton Zafir vs. James Moontasri
*Ryan Benoit vs. Ben Nguyen

**Rousey and Holm had to be kept apart at the weigh in:


**Ronda Rousey has been in Melbourne since October 31st getting ready for the fight with Holm.

**UFC president Dana White spoke to Ariel Helwani in Melbourne. White stated that tomorrow’s card will be beat the UFC 190 number, which featured Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia and did 911,000 buys. White also stated that Claudia Gadelha is next in line for the winner of the Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Valerie Letourneau strawweight championship fight.

**The Mirko Cro Cop situation has gotten much more complicated than simply a shoulder injury leading to his retirement announcement. On Wednesday, the UFC announced that Cro Cop was served with a provisional suspension for a possible violation with USADA. Cro Cop has provided an update on his website and stated that because of his shoulder injury, he was taking plasma injections along with human growth hormone for a six-day period, prior to USADA showing up to drug test him. Cro Cop notified the UFC of the injections he had taken, including that he had taken HGH. What makes this so complicated is that HGH has a very small window to be detected in your system and it is likely that USADA doesn’t have a positive test from Cro Cop, but they do have admission from Cro Cop that he was taking a banned substance and therefore it is a “possible” violation. Cro Cop was scheduled to fight Anthony Hamilton on November 28th in Seoul, South Korea and Hamilton doesn’t have a replacement opponent scheduled at this time.

**It was reported on UFC Tonight this week that lightweight Al Iaquinta is set to undergo knee surgery and miss 6-8 months. The procedure will entail cartilage from a cadaver placed into the back of Iaquinta’s knee cap and sideline him until the middle of next year. Iaquinta has won his last four fights and is coming off a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal from this past April.

**Below is Episode of the UFC 193 Embedded series:


**The main event of today’s One Championship card in Singapore didn’t take place, due to weight issues for Luis Santos. Ben Askren was scheduled to defend the welterweight title in a rematch against Santos, who came in at 172 pounds. Askren agreed to fight Santos in a non-title fight, if Santos weighed no more than 190 pounds for the fight and Santos didn’t agree to those terms and the fight was called off.