The Official MMA Thread

[Stickman]

**Here are the results from the UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in front of 7,422 and a gate of $1,435,000 (most of the ticket sales would have occurred when the main event was still scheduled as Fabricio Werdum vs. Cain Velasquez):
*Alex White def. Artem Lobov by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – White got progressively better with his striking and movement as the fight wore on and Lobov started putting his hands down near the end and truing to initiate a brawl
*Mickey Gall def. Mike Jackson by rear-naked choke at 0:45 of Round 1 – Jackson went down to the mat when a right hand connected and Gall easily submitted him after taking his back.
*Diego Rivas def. Noad Lahat by KO at 0:23 of Round 2 – Lahat dominated the first round with so many submission attempts. Then the second began and Rivas landed a picture-perfect flying knee and Lahat was out and was taken to the hospital afterward.
*Justin Scoggins def. Ray Borg by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) – An excellent showing by Scoggins, who has left ATT and moved back to South Carolina to train. Borg was on a three-fight win streak and wasn’t able to handle the striking of Scoggins, who resembled Stephen Thompson (the two trained together for a long time). Scoggins said his goal is to win the flyweight title in 2016, he’s ambitious.
*Derrick Lewis def. Damian Grabowski by TKO at 2:17 of Round 1 – Lewis was disappointed the fight went as long as it did. Lewis hits so hard and after Grawbowski went to the mat, Lewis landed some big strikes and the fight was stopped.
*Josh Burkman def. K.J. Noons by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Burkman said this was the hardest weight cut of his career (he used to fight as heavy as 205). Noons was largely inactive for two-rounds and Burkman chopped away with leg and body kicks. Noons showed life in the third, but Burkman won all three rounds.
*Mike Pyle def. Sean Spencer by TKO at 4:25 of Round 3 – Pyle is 40-years old and is very tough. I had it even going into the third and Pyle started to land big strikes, the key was a spinning elbow that rocked Spencer and then Pyle attacked him against the cage and it was a big knee to the head that stopped the bout.
*Misha Cirkunov def. Alex Nicholson by neck crank at 1:28 of Round 2 – Nicholson proposed to his girlfriend at the weigh-ins and then had his jaw broken in this fight, which is probably the largest discrepancy of events for a fighter in a 24 hour period. Cirkunov was so big in this fight and hits very hard with a slick ground game. He cranked the neck of Nicholson and you could hear the jaw break. Brian Stann shared a story during the fight that Nicholson had broken his jaw in the past and manually took out the wiring so he could take a late notice fight.
*Joseph Benavidez def. Zach Makovsky by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – Benavidez looked great in this fight, his volume and range of strikes made it impossible for Makovsky to keep up. The strongest round for Benavidez was the third round and if this division was occupied by Demetrious Johson, Benavidez would be the top flyweight in the world.
*Ovince St. Preux def. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – This was such a gutsy performance by Saint Preux, who connected with the side of his right foot during a kick and rolled his ankle. He was having the hardest time putting any weight on it and Cavalcante spotted the injury and I thought the fight was going to end. Instead, Saint Preux changed his stance and attacked with left kicks and was able to take him down throughout the fight and easily win a decision. There was no way Cavalcante won a round in this fight.
*Roy Nelson def. Jared Rosholt by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – The first round was the closest and Rosholt was very aware of Nelson’s power and it made him hesitant to shoot for the takedown and only went for two during the fight. Nelson won the second and third rounds with his strikes making the difference and Rosholt was never able to adapt and fight his fight. It wasn’t a great fight, but Nelson really needed a win after losing 5 of his last 6.
*Stephen Thompson def. Johny Hendricks by TKO at 3:31 of Round 1 – Thompson was spectacular with excellent precision and power behind his kicks, was changing his stance and confusing Hendricks and finished him with a spin kick against the cage and followed with strikes to send him down and get the finish. This was the biggest win of his career and instantly catapults him into the major contenders of the welterweight division.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Mike Pyle and Sean Spencer and the Performance bonuses went to Stephen Thompson and Diego Rivas for $50,000 each.


**The Mickey Gall vs. CM Punk fight doesn’t have an official date yet. UFC president Dana White had stated a few weeks ago that they were looking to hold it at UFC 199 in June, but both fighters are pushing for it to be at UFC 200 in July. Mickey Gall defeated Mike Jackson during the UFC Fight Pass prelims on Saturday night in 0:45 and secured his shot to be the first opponent for Phil Brooks a.k.a. CM Punk.

**The UFC officially announced on Saturday night that UFC 198 will take place Saturday April 23rd from Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will be headlined by Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title and Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo for the UFC flyweight title. This will be Jones’ first fight since January 2015, where he defeated Cormier and was later stripped of the gold, following the April 2015 hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

**The UFC also announced the next FOX special for Saturday April 16th in Tampa, Florida and the following fights for the card:
*Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson in the five-round lightweight main event
*Rashad Evans vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
*Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida
*Rose Namajunas vs. Tecia Torres
*Beneil Dariush vs. Michael Chiesa
*Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington
*Cub Swanson vs. Hacran Dias

**Bellator announced on Friday night that they have signed 35-year old Chris Leben, who is coming out of retirement and expected to fight this spring, although it is not known yet what weight class he will be compete in. Leben retired after four straight losses in the UFC, the last one being to Uriah Hall at UFC 168 in December of 2013. Leben recently served a prison sentence and released his biography and noted on The MMA Hour a few weeks back that he had requested out of his pre-existing contract with the UFC, and the UFC released him. Leben’s last win was against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 in July 2011.

**Todd Martin looks at the pending debut of CM Punk in the UFC.

**Jon Jones will be appearing in traffic court this Wednesday after driving without his license last weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. KRQE in Albuquerque reported that Jones was pulled over on Sunday January 31st and is facing three charges: driving without a license, driving without proof of insurance and evidence of registration. This on its own is not a big deal, however Jones is serving a 18- month probation period from his April 2015 hit-and-run case. Marc Raimondi at MMA Fighting reported on Monday that the District Attorney will not be seeking out a formal probation violation for Jones and this should all be likely taken care of with his appearance Wednesday in traffic court.

**The UFC’s Fight Night event in Croatia on April 10th will be headlined by heavyweights Ben Rothwell and Junior dos Santos for the promotion’s debut card in that country. Rothwell has defeated Alistair Overeem, Matt Mitrione and Josh Barnett in his last three fights, while dos Santos is coming off a stoppage loss to Alistair Overeem this past December.

[Stickman]

CM Punk debut delayed once again due to back surgery

[Stickman]

**The UFC has added a pair of fights for the card in Brisbane, Australia on March 20th. A flyweight fight between Justin Scoggins and Ben Nguyen has been added, following Scoggins’ win over Ray Borg this past weekend. They have also added a women’s bantamweight fight between Rin Nakai and Leslie Smith. Nakai has only fought once for the UFC, where he dropped a decision to Meisha Tate in September 2014.

**It was just announced this week that Jason “Mayhem” Miller would be returning to fight on May 21st for the Venator FC promotion in Milan, Italy. Today TMZ announced that Miller was arrested this past weekend for driving under the influence in Irvine, California and failed a number of field sobriety tests.

**Bellator has announced that Wanderlei Silva, Kurt Angle, Phil Davis, Tito Ortiz and light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary will be appearing at the Fanfest next Thursday at Dave & Buster’s next Thursday in Houston, Texas.



**On Thursday night, news broke that MMA veteran and collegiate wrestling standout, Kevin Randleman had passed away.

Jeremy Botter at Bleacher Report was the first to report the news, stating that Randleman was admitted to a hospital with pneumonia and later passed away due to heart failure.

Randleman was the one of the best athletes to ever enter the sport of mixed martial arts, following a collegiate career at Ohio State University, where he won two NCAA Division I championships.

Randleman entered the sport during its infancy in 1996 and fought three-times in one night for the Universal Vale Tudo organization in Brazil, winning the first five fights of his career, which were spread out over two nights of fighting, before losing his third fight of the night on March 3rd, 1997.

Randleman was always associated with the Hammer House team with close friends Mark Coleman and Wes Sims.

Randleman entered the UFC in March of 1999 as a heavyweight, defeating Maurice Smith and setting up a fight with Bas Rutten at UFC 20 in May of 1999, which was one of the most controversial decisions at the time. Randleman controlled the majority of the fight on top, but Rutten was also doing damage off his back. This was during a time period where the judges simply wrote down who they believed won the fight, similar to the Pride system of scoring, and Rutten was declared the winner and new champion.

Due to a contract issue, Rutten would vacate the title and Randleman would become the heavyweight champion by defeating Pete Williams at UFC 23 in November 1999 and held the title for a year before losing it to Randy Couture at UFC 28.

Randleman then cut down to light heavyweight and suffered a knockout loss to Chuck Liddell in May 2001, before his final fight in the UFC, where he defeated Renato Babalu Sobral at UFC 35 in January 2002.

Randleman would then go to PRIDE, where he fought in both their middleweight and heavyweight divisions throughout his tenure. His most famous win came in April 2004, where he dropped Mirko Cro Cop and finished him with strikes in the opening round of the Heavyweight Grand Prix, in a stunning upset at the time and featured one of the greatest calls to the finish of a fight by Mauro Ranallo.

In his next fight, lightning nearly struck twice as he fought Fedor Emelianenko and delivered an all-time highlight reel slam, which Emelianenko miraculously absorbed and then finished Randleman with a kimura.

Randleman would rematch Cro Cop in December 2014 on the New Year’s Eve Shockwave card and was submitted in only 0:42. He would win two smaller fights throughout the rest of his career, outside of Pride and had his last high-profile fight in May 2010 with Strikeforce, where he was submitred by Roger Gracie.

Randleman also dabbled into professional wrestling during his time in Japan and worked for the All Japan satellite promotion, Wrestle-1 and later for HUSTLE (which was attached to Dream Stage Entertainment, the parent company to Pride) and later for the Inoki Genome Federation.

Randleman took to pro wrestling very well, had a great vertical dropkick and was such an incredible athlete that many people felt if he dedicated himself to professional wrestling he would have excelled at it.

Randleman was 44 years old at the time of his passing and we send our condolences to the family and friends of “The Monster”.

[Stickman]

**A medication clearance issue has caused next weekend’s welterweight fight between Brandon Thatch and Siyar Bahadurzada to be postponed from the February 21st card in Pittsburgh. The fight has been moved to UFC 196 on March 5th in Las Vegas due to the issue with 13 fights now scheduled for next Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card. As a result of the move, the bout between Chris Camozzi and Joe Riggs has been moved up to the main card of the Pittsburgh event.

**TMZ is reporting that there was an incident late Thursday night at a nightclub in Las Vegas, involving Tito Ortiz and a woman with authorities contacted. The woman is claiming that Ortiz got physical and tried to rip her phone away from her and stated she was “scared for her life”. The story states that she had been taking pictures earlier in the night at the nightclub and believes Ortiz felt she was taking photos of him.

**Gilberto Faria, who is the manager of Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, has confirmed to MMAFighting.com that the fight between Souza and Vitor Belfort for May 14th is now scheduled to be a three-round fight and has been moved

**On Friday Bellator MMA announced that they have signed former lightweight champion Michael Chandler to a new contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is listed as a multi-year, multi-fight deal with the company. Chandler has been with Bellator since 2010 and involved in the best fight in company history, when he defeated Eddie Alvarez on November 19th 2011 at Bellator 67. After losing a rematch with Alvarez in November 2013 and then dropping a pair of fights to Will Brooks, he has since defeated Derek Campos and David Rickels in his last two outings.

**Jenrry Mejia becomes the first Major League Baseball player to be banned for life for performance-enhancing drugs after failing for the third time. He was most recently caught for taking Boldenone.

[verb_to_trust]

Holm kicked Rouseys ass so bad Rousey wanted to off herself.

[Stickman]

indeed

**Ronda Rousey spoke on the Ellen DeGeneres program today and opened up about her loss to Holly Holm. Rousey was on the show promoting her swimsuit cover with SI and broke down crying when describing the loss and her emotional state afterwards. Rousey stated that immediately after the fight she had thoughts of suicide and felt worthless if she wasn’t the champion any longer and that it was boyfriend Travis Browne, who helped her and changed her state of mind after the loss in November. Rousey said she will definitely fight again and wants Holly Holm to defeat Meisha Tate and be the one who beats Holm for the title. The full segment can be watched below:



**The UFC has signed heavyweight Alistair Overeem to a new contract, with Overeem announcing the news on Monday. Overeem also stated that he will be headlining the UFC card in Rotterdam, Netherlands on May 8th. Overeem’s contract expired following his win over Junior dos Santos in December.


**Bellator MMA announced today that they have come to a resolution with Quinton Jackson and he will be returning to the promotion in the near future. Bellator released the following statement on the matter today:

Following an amicable agreement to settle the litigation between the two parties, the always entertaining and exciting Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is returning to Bellator.

Bellator MMA is thrilled to have “Rampage,” one of the most recognizable fighters in the history of the sport, joining a very competitive light heavyweight division featuring champion Liam McGeary, Phil Davis, King Mo, Tito Ortiz, Emanuel Newton, Linton Vassell among others.

Jackson signed with Bellator in 2013 after his UFC contract expired, but then believed that his deal had been breached and it was announced in December 2014 that he was returning to the UFC. Bellator fought this, stating their contract with Jackson was still valid and led to a court ruling during the week of UFC 186 last April that Jackson could go ahead and fight at the UFC event.

**Bantamweight Aljamain Sterling appeared on The MMA Hour to announce that he has re-signed with the UFC. Sterling’s contract expired after his last fight in December, where he stopped Johnny Eduardo and tested the free agent market after not being happy with the first offer the UFC made. Sterling is 26 years old and has an unbeaten record of 12-0, with wins over Cody Gibson, Hugo Viana, Takeya Mizugaki and Eduardo in the UFC.

**This Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card in Pittsburgh is getting destroyed with a wide variety of problems. First, they lost the welterweight fight between Brandon Thatch and Siyar Bahadurzada due to a medical clearance issue and that fight has been moved to UFC 196 on March 5th. The next fight lost was a women’s bantamweight bout between Sarah Moras and Leslie Smith after Moras had to withdraw from the bout, although they could find a late replacement. Today, news broke that John Lineker is out of the card after coming down with dengue fever and won’t be able to fight Cody Garbrandt on the main card. The Linker news was first reported by the PVT outlet in Brazil and Lineker has since posted an apology to Garbrandt on his Instagram account. And now Trevor Smith is the latest fighter off the card with a hand injury. He is going to be replaced by Anthony Smith, who steps in and will fight Leonardo Augustus Guimares.

**A number of fights have been added to the UFC 197 card on April 23rd in Las Vegas, which is headlined by Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title. A featherweight bout between Andre Fili and Yair Rodriguez has been added, a heavyweight fight between Roy Nelson and Derrick Lewis had been added and a women’s strawweight fight between Jessica Aguilar and Juliana Lima.

[Stickman]

Former two-time champion, BJ Penn, will postpone his return to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) following allegations of sexual assault. A police report was filed on Tuesday, accusing the Hawaiian of forcing himself on a 29-year-old female last October.

While Penn, 37, is innocent until proven guilty, the promotion released a statement earlier today outlining its decision to bench "The Prodigy" pending an investigation.

From UFC.com:
"UFC is aware of the recent allegations made against BJ Penn. The organization requires all athletes who compete in the UFC to act in an ethical and responsible manner, as detailed in the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy. UFC will not tolerate violations of the policy. Every athlete is deserving of proper review and this situation, as with any serious allegation, will be investigated by an independent party and thoroughly reviewed by the UFC. The UFC organization will also cooperate with any law enforcement investigation. In light of the serious allegations, UFC has postponed plans to book Penn for an upcoming bout until more details are determined.

UFC holds athletes who compete in the organization to the highest standard and will continue to take appropriate action, if and when warranted. It is important to note that Penn is considered innocent until proven guilty and UFC is not prejudging this matter."

Let's hope featherweight nemesis Nik Lentz doesn't use this opportunity to draft another poem.

Pedro Alex Carrasco, former writer for BJPenn.com, blew up social media back on Tuesday (via Bloody Elbow) when he accused Penn of being a "pervert" and a "cocaine addict," who "sexually assaulted" his girlfriend. Carrasco later suggested he may have evidence of the incident.

Here is the official police report.

[Stickman]

**Wanderlei Silva had his hearing in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission today in Las Vegas. He was seeking to have his punishment reduced after evading a drug test in June 2014, where he was told he would never be issued a license to fight in the state again. The commission voted today to reduce his fine to nothing and give him a three-year suspension, retroactive to 2014 and making him eligible to return in 2017. Silva would not be prevented from fighting overseas in unregulated parts of the world, but would severely threaten his chances of ever being given a license in the future to fight in the U.S. if he chose that path. Silva was recently released from his UFC contract and is free to fight with any promotion in the world once his suspension expires.

**UFC lightweight Gleison Tibau is not going to fight his recent drug test failures from last November. Tibau later came out with a statement and acknowledged that EPO was found in the drug test. In an interview with MMA Junkie, Tibau stated that it’s costly to fight this suspension in court and feels that he would only get a few months knocked off the suspension. Tibau has two drug test failures within this small window with one being in-competition and the other outside of competition and could result in a longer suspension than the expected two-years for a first time offender. Tibau has been fighting for the UFC since 2006 and has fought 26 times since entering the promotion.

**It was decided today that Herb Dean will be the referee for the Rafael dos Anjos vs. Conor McGregor lightweight title fight at UFC 196 on March 5th. John McCarthy will be the official for the Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate bantamweight title fight on the same card.

**Bellator and Spike TV have announced the launch of Bellator Kickboxing, with the first event set for April 16th in Torino, Italy with both mixed martial arts and kickboxing bouts scheduled for the show. Scott Coker will be the one in charge and going back to his roots in promoting the sport of kickboxing. They have announced Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, Melvin Manhoef, Alessio Sakara, Kevin Ross, A.J. McKee, Raymond Daniels, Brent Primus, Denise Kielholtz, Anastasia Yankova and Brian Rogers for the April 16th card, which will air on Spike.

**Tonight is the Bellator 149 card from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas and airing on Spike TV at 9pm Eastern. With both the Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 fights being presented, I would expect they will attempt to stretch the time as much as possible for the largest possible growth in audience. There is a legitimate shot at topping the all-time Bellator viewership record of 2,100,000 viewers, which was audience average for the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock bout last June. Below are the main card fights for tonight’s show:
*Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie
*Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris
*Emanuel Newton vs. Linton Vassell
*Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Daniel Pineda
*Melvin Guillard vs. Derek Campos

**There have been some questions regarding the Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor event on Friday April 1st and what platforms it will be available on. We were told today that it will be available as an iPPV and on VOD and will not be airing on traditional pay-per-view. The next ROH pay-per-view is next Friday for the 14th Anniversary show and will follow with traditional pay-per-views in May and June of this year.

**A heavyweight bout between Stefan Struve and Antonio Silva has been announced for the UFC’s debut card in Rotterdam in The Netherlands on May 8th with Combate first reporting the fight. Alistair Overeem announced earlier this week that he would be headlining this card, but that has not been announced yet by the UFC.

[Stickman]

Man, both of those main events were embarrassing.

[Stickman]

**The Bellator 149 number is out and it’s a huge as they averaged 1,964,000 viewers for the 184-minute broadcast on Spike TV this past Friday night. This is the new record for the company, surpassing the mark of 1,580,000 for the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock card from last June. The Bellator 149 show had the advantage of two fights to draw in the casual base with Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 and Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie. The peak viewership marks for those fights are not available yet but one would expect the final hour saw a huge growth and people staying tuned for both fights.

The ratings success will only be a point in favor of this style of matchmaking to continue despite the negativity of the fights, in particular the Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 fight, which likely led to more people tuning in for the train wreck because of how bad it was as opposed to people tuning out.

Bellator 149 event will be one that is discussed for a long time. Beyond the fight between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris, the more concerning topic is the health of Harris and whether he should have been allowed to fight.

Following his third round TKO loss, Harris was taken out on a stretcher and taken to hospital. Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report broke the news today that Harris was in significant health trouble where his heart stopped at one point and needed to be placed on a ventilator. Harris is recovering now and his family has released a statement.

In the statement, they believe that Harris’ extreme weight cut of 40 pounds leading up to the fight, contributed to high levels of potassium in his blood and resulted in severe dehydration, fatigue and renal failure and is now recovering nicely.

This falls on the commission in Texas as there is a strong case that Harris should not have been allowed to fight given his dehydration level as a result of trying to make the 265 pound heavyweight limit.

**Bellator president Scott Coker provided the following update today regarding Dada 5000:

We wanted to thank everyone for their concern. Dada’s update is he’s progressing well and will be headed home soon.

Mike Vasquez, a representative for Dada 5000, spoke to TMZ Sports and said that he is up and moving and should be out of the hospital by the end of the week.

**Below are the main card results from the Bellator show in Houston on Friday night at the Toyota Center:
*Emmanuel Sanchez def. Daniel Pineda by split decision (29-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Linton Vassell def. Emanuel Newton by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-27) – Newton connected with three low blows during the fight and was deducted a point on the final one.
*Derek Campos def. Melvin Guillard by TKO at 0:32 of Round 2 – The most notable part of this fight was Mike Tyson joining Sean Grande and Jimmy Smith for commentary.
*Kimbo Slice def. Dada 5000 by TKO at 1:32 of Round 3
*Royce Gracie def. Ken Shamrock by TKO at 2:22 of Round 1

The main event featured a controversial ending as Gracie landed a knee to the groin of Shamrock, which referee Jacob Montalvo did not call and Shamrock went down to the mat and was finished with strikes. Shamrock was livid about the stoppage before calming down and making peace with Gracie inside the cage.

**Ken Shamrock has stated that he and his team have filed a complaint to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to have Friday’s loss to Royce Gracie changed to a no contest. Gracie appeared to have landed a knee to the groin of Shamrock, which led to Shamrock going down and being finished with strikes with referee Jacob Montalvo not calling the foul.

**The UFC is back this Saturday for an afternoon card from London, England and is their biggest Fight Pass card in history with Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping. The main card begins at 4pm Eastern.

**John McCarthy, who was the referee for the Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 fight, spoke to MMA Fighting about the fight, his decision to stand them up from mount and their conditioning in the fight.

**Bellator announced their next big “tent-pole” card for Saturday May 14th, which is going head-to-head with the UFC 198 pay-per-view, with a show in San Jose. The card will feature a light heavyweight bout between Phil Davis and Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal and a lightweight fight between Michael Chandler and Josh Thomson.

**Houston’s Booker T. and Stevie Ray were in attendance at the Bellator card on Friday night, as well was Kurt Angle. Several reporters noted that Booker was in tears by the end of the Kimbo vs. Dada fight.

**Bellator is back with a card next Friday night from Mulvane, Kansas with Marcos Galvao taking on Eduardo Dantas for the bantamweight title. The Kansas commission is opting for a different weigh-in procedure on this card as fighter will have the ability to weigh-in earlier in the day on Friday and not wait until the usual afternoon weigh-in time. The reason is to give fighters a larger window to rehydrate and not go into a fight dehydrated.

**The UFC is holding a major press conference in Las Vegas on March 4th to promote all of their major fights leading into UFC 200. The press conference will begin at 2am Pacific that day (the day of the UFC 196 weigh-ins) and feature UFC president Dana White, Junior dos Santos, Ben Rothwell, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, Daniel Cormier, Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, Henry Cejudo, Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman.

**Below are the results from the UFC Fight Night card on Sunday night at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh in front of an announced crowd of 7,330 and a gate of $572,547:
*Shamil Abdurakhimov def. Anthony Hamilton by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Lauren Murphy def. Kelly Faszholz by TKO at 4:55 of Round 3 – Considering this was a late replacement, Faszholz performed very well in the first round and will be worth seeing with the benefit of a full camp
*Ashlee-Evans Smith def. Marion Reneau by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – This was a strange one. There is no way Evans-Smith won the first round so a 30-27 card is insane. The second round was close and many felt Evans-Smith won the third, so it wasn’t a bad decision in who won, but it was bad that two judges scored the first round for Evans-Smith
*Nathan Coy def. Jonavin Webb by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Anthony Smith def. Leonardo Leleco by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Oluwale Bamgbose def. Daniel Sarafian by KO at 1:00 of Round 1
*Sean Strickland def. Alex Garcia by TKO at 4:25 of Round 3 – It was even going into the third and Strickland landed a hard shot that stunned Garcia and led to a big series of strikes by Strickland to end the fight
*James Krause def. Shane Campbell by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Chris Camozzi def. Joe Riggs by TKO at 0:26 of Round 1 – Camozzi landed six consecutive knees and broke Riggs’ forearm before the fight was ended
*Dennis Bermudez def. Tatsuya Kawajiri by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – The first round could have been a 10-10 because so little happened. Bermudez took over in the next two rounds and it was very one-sided in the third and felt it could have been a 10-8 for Bermudez
*Cody Garbrandt def. Augusto Mendes by TKO at 4:18 of Round 1 – Mendes had to cut so much weight after being called on Monday to step in, so this ended up being a 142 pound catchweight fight for good reason
*Derek Brunson def. Roan Carneiro by TKO at 2:38 of Round 1 – Carneiro backed up from a shot and went to his back against the cage, Brunson just got on top and landed a flurry before it finally was called
*Donald Cerrone def. Alex Oliveira by triangle at 2:33 of Round 1 – It was Cerrone that got the takedown and instantly locked on a tight triangle with Oliveira tapping furiously

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Lauren Murphy vs. Kelly Faszholz and the Performance bonuses went to Donald Cerrone and Chris Camozzi for $50,000 each.

[Rangi Guy]

Shit - I hope this isn't legit

UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has a broken foot that will force him out of his bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, according to Brazilian media reports.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... out-report

[Stickman]

Shit - I hope this isn't legit

UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has a broken foot that will force him out of his bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, according to Brazilian media reports.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... out-report

It's true, he's out. No replacement found for McGregor yet.

[Rangi Guy]

Shit - I hope this isn't legit

UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has a broken foot that will force him out of his bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, according to Brazilian media reports.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... out-report

It's true, he's out. No replacement found for McGregor yet.

I see they reached out to Aldo for a rematch, but he declined since he's not in shape for a match at this stage. You'd think he'd have been training hard in case this happened (It happened to him first time around) so he'd be in his prime come fight day

[Stickman]

Shit - I hope this isn't legit

UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has a broken foot that will force him out of his bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, according to Brazilian media reports.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... out-report

It's true, he's out. No replacement found for McGregor yet.

I see they reached out to Aldo for a rematch, but he declined since he's not in shape for a match at this stage. You'd think he'd have been training hard in case this happened (It happened to him first time around) so he'd be in his prime come fight day

Training camps can be brutal, it's tough to stay fight ready all the time. GSP was one of the rare ones that would go 365 in training but that is def not the norm.

[Rangi Guy]

Shit - I hope this isn't legit

UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has a broken foot that will force him out of his bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5, according to Brazilian media reports.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... out-report

It's true, he's out. No replacement found for McGregor yet.

I see they reached out to Aldo for a rematch, but he declined since he's not in shape for a match at this stage. You'd think he'd have been training hard in case this happened (It happened to him first time around) so he'd be in his prime come fight day

Training camps can be brutal, it's tough to stay fight ready all the time. GSP was one of the rare ones that would go 365 in training but that is def not the norm.

Yeah - I'm not saying - stay fight ready all the time, but for someone who want's a rematch and knows first-hand how things can go down in training, I'd have thought he'd be ready to jump in and take Conor down

[Stickman]

Welp, I didn't see that comin.

McGregor to fight Diaz at UFC 196


Conor McGregor will fight Nate Diaz at UFC 196 on March 5 after champion Rafael Dos Anjos dropped out of their bout with a foot injury.

UFC President Dana White announced the 170-pound matchup Tuesday night after a day of frantic shuffling.

White told Yahoo Sports Tuesday that he wanted the fight to be at lightweight, but said Diaz asked for it at 165. White said he countered at 160, but then called McGregor.
"Conor said, 'Screw it, let's fight the [expletive] at 170,' " White said. "So that's what we did. The guy is going to go up two weight classes."

White said after he reached the deal with Diaz to replace dos Anjos, he then put two extra bouts on Diaz's contract, meaning Diaz has five fights left on his agreement.

Dos Anjos (24-7) was forced out of the matchup after injuring his foot in training in his native Brazil. McGregor (19-2) won the 145-pound featherweight title in December, and the loquacious Irish superstar hoped to hold the 155-pound lightweight belt simultaneously.

Diaz (18-10) isn't a title contender, but the entertaining brawler from Stockton, California, is one of the UFC's most popular fighters in his weight class. Diaz lost a decision to Dos Anjos last year but also beat Michael Johnson in December in a thrilling lightweight bout.

With less than two weeks for Diaz to cut weight, the fighters agreed to meet at the 170-pound welterweight limit in the UFC 196 main event. Bantamweight champion Holly Holm also meets Miesha Tate on the pay-per-view card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Diaz and his older brother, Nick, are rivaled only by McGregor himself as mixed martial arts' most eloquent trash-talkers, and the UFC 196 fighters are already off to an entertaining start.

While fans speculated about McGregor's new opponent earlier Tuesday, Nate Diaz tweeted: "He's going to have to get on his knees and beg ... "

Diaz was echoing previously boastful social media comments from McGregor, who has said he wants his future opponents to line up "on their knees with their hands out. I want them to beg" for the payday that comes with fighting him.

White detailed the promotion's hustle to fill the matchup with McGregor in an interview on ESPN's "SportsCenter," saying former champions Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar turned down the short-notice fight. Edgar is thought to be injured, while the short preparation time wasn't enough for Aldo, who was knocked out by McGregor in 13 seconds in December.

White said Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and former champions Anthony Pettis and BJ Penn and other fighters were willing to take the bout, but the UFC chose Diaz.

Dos Anjos stopped Cerrone in December to defend his title in his first fight since claiming the belt last March with a win over Pettis. Dos Anjos had been a durable fighter during his lengthy career until last year, when he tore a knee ligament and needed a nine-month gap between bouts.

Dos Anjos eagerly accepted the huge payday and high-profile matchup with McGregor, boasting of the ease with which he would win. Instead, Dos Anjos became the second straight Brazilian champion to incur a serious injury during training for McGregor, missing out on a large payday in the process.

Aldo, the UFC's long-reigning featherweight champion, was pursued and verbally trashed for months by McGregor. Aldo dropped out of their bout 11 days beforehand with a rib injury last summer, and McGregor beat late replacement Chad Mendes to win the interim title.

Aldo finally faced McGregor in December, and McGregor ended Aldo's 18-fight win streak in spectacular fashion.

The 170-pound weight limit against Diaz also sets up McGregor for a dry run at fighting as a welterweight, 25 pounds above the featherweight division. McGregor's trainer has claimed the fighter has trouble making the 145-pound limit, although McGregor has dismissed the concern.

McGregor has boasted of his intention to win belts in multiple weight classes, and the UFC could be entertaining the possibility of matching McGregor against welterweight champion Robbie Lawler at its landmark UFC 200 show on July 9 in Las Vegas' new T-Mobile Arena.

[Rangi Guy]

SO what does yesterday's loss mean for Anderson Silva's future?

[Stickman]

it sets him back a bit but it's not like he lost badly. He just layed back most of the fight, waiting for the big opportunity. Bisping kept busy, lotta striking and pushed the pace. Silva's gotta learn to stop actin a fool, trying to prove that he's bored in the fight by putting his hands down and baiting fighters to come in close.

He can still fight. Just needs to climb back up the ranks again.

[Stickman]

**The UFC held their biggest card in Fight Pass history on Saturday from the O2 Arena in London, England. The event was sold out with 16,734 announced (and it’s worth noting that the card sold out prior to the announcement that Anderson Silva would be fighting on the card) and a live gate of $2 million. It was one of the longest UFC cards as it featured ten decisions (one of which was a technical decision and ended in the third round). Below are the full results:
*David Teymur def. Martin Svensson by TKO at 1:26 of Round 2
*Teemu Packalen def. Thibault Gouti by rear-naked choke at 0:24 of Round 1
*Daniel Omielanczuk def. Jarjis Danho by technical majority decision(29-29, 29-28, 29-28) – This was a bad fight and ended after a low blow to Danho in the third and he couldn’t continue and they went to the score cards because it happened in the third round
*Rustam Khabilov def. Norman Parke by unanimous decision (29-28 all) –
*Krzysztof Jotko def. Brad Scott by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Arnold Allen def. Yaotzin Meza by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Scott Askham def. Chris Dempsey by KO at 4:45 of Round 1
*Davey Grant def. Marlon Vera by unanimous decision (30-26 all)
*Makwan Amirkhani def. Mike Wilkinson by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Brad Pickett def. Francisco Rivera by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) –
*Tom Breese def. Keita Nakamura by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Gegard Mousasi def. Thales Leites by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Mousasi landed on top of him every time Leites shot for a takedown and out struck him throughout the fight. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight but Mousasi did a very good job.
*Michael Bisping def. Anderson Silva by unanimous decision (48-47 all) – The most discussed part of the fight was the ending of the third. Bisping had lost his mouthpiece and was signalling to referee Herb Dean to re-insert the mouthpiece and left himself wide open and ate a flying knee that sent him down and could have ended the fight if the round wasn’t ending at that second. A referee will reinsert a mouthpiece during a natural break in the action and not when the guy has his back against the cage and in the middle of a sequence.

**The Fight of the Night went to Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva, which was definitely the best fight on the card. The performance bonuses went to Scott Askham and Teemu Packalen and all were for $50,000.

**Below are the main card results from the Bellator 150 show on Friday night in Mulvane, Kansas and airing on Spike TV:
*Rebecca Ruth def. Lena Ovchynnikova by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Chuka Willis def. Gaston Reyno by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Kendall Grove def. Francisco France by KO at 0:35 of Round 2
*David Rickels def. Bobby Cooper by TKO at 3:49 of Round 1
*Cheick Kongo def. Vinicius Queiroz by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

**Bellator has their third card in three weeks on Friday with Bellator 151 from Thackerville, Oklahoma and headlined by Joe Warren vs. Darrion Caldwell, which is a really good fight and Caldwell is someone to watch at bantamweight.

[Stickman]

**Bellator announced today that they have signed former PRIDE and UFC star Wanderlei Silva to a multi-year and multi-fight agreement. Silva was released from his UFC contract earlier this year. Silva is currently serving a three-year suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission after evading a random drug test in May of 2014. That would make Silva eligible to apply for a return in May of 2017 and that would be the earliest that Silva could fight for Bellator. It is expected that Silva is going to attempt to appeal the three-year suspension with the argument that Silva was not licensed at the time of the random test and should not have been subjected to the test. Silva is currently 39-years old and will be turning 40 this July, meaning he would likely be 41 by the time he would fight again. He holds a professional record of 35-12-1 and 1 no contest with his last fight taking place in March of 2013, where he defeated Brian Stann by knockout.

**Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma are investigating a shooting that took place outside of the 10 Gym in Tulsa on Monday night. The victims included former UFC fighter Mikey Burnett and his son, with Burnett being shot three times in the stomach and his son being shot in the leg. It is believed to have been a robbery attempt on Burnett and his son after they left the gym and took place in a parking lot.

**The UFC will be holding a UFC 196 press conference this Thursday at 4pm Eastern from Las Vegas with all of the key fighters on the show this Saturday night. They will be holding a second press conference on Friday at 5pm ET to promote all of their major fights from now through UFC 200 and push their “Unstoppable” campaign for the spring.

**Daron Crucikshank has announced that he has been released by the UFC. Cruickshank came off the 15th season of TUF in 2012 and has gone 6-6 with 1 no contest during his UFC tenure. He is coming three straight losses to Beneil Dariush, James Krause and Paul Felder, all by submission since March of last year.

**The Countdown to UFC 196 preview show will be airing Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern on TSN2 in Canada.

**Bellator has added a pair of fights to the main card of Bellator 153 on April 22nd, which is headlined by Andrey Koreshkov defending the welterweight title against Benson Henderson. The main card will feature Patricio “Pitbull” Freire taking on John Teixeira and a welterweight fight between Brennan Ward and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos.

**Below is Episode 1 of this week’s UFC Embedded series going into UFC 196: