Red Mosquito

**The UFC has locked up Donald Cerrone with a new eight-fight contract following his win over Rick Story from this past weekend. Cerrone had stated throughout fight week last week that the Story fight was the last on his deal but after the fight, his management confirmed to Ariel Helwani that Cerrone had “misspoke” and he actually had one more fight after Saturday. Since losing to then lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in December of last year, Cerrone has gone 3-0 since fighting at welterweight with wins over Alex Oliveira, Patrick Cote and Story.

**This past Saturday’s UFC on FOX card from Vancouver did not finish well in the number with 1,983,000 watching the two-hour main card and would their lowest mark since beginning to run cards on FOX in November of 2011. The main event featured Demian Maia submitting Carlos Condit in the first round of their welterweight fight and led to no overrun past 10pm Eastern.

**Former Bellator lightweight Marcin Held has signed with the UFC with MMA Fighting confirming the signing. Held had fought for Bellator since 2011 and has won seven of his last eight fights with the lone loss to then lightweight champion Will Brooks last year.

**World Series of Fighting has signed former UFC lightweight Ramsey Nijem but no debut has been announced. Nijem lost to Tony Ferguson in the final of the Ultimate Fighter Season 13 in 2011 and went 5-5 while fighting for the promotion until he was released. Nijem is coming off two losses and hasn’t fought since July of 2015 when he dropped a split decision to Andrew Holbrook.

Conor McGregor Won't be Stripped of UFC Title
There probably won't be a third match with Nate Diaz anytime soon

By Scott Rafferty

After Conor McGregor made over $3 million for beating Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC president Dana White put some pressure on his biggest star to return to the featherweight division and defend his championship belt against Jose Aldo. White's exact words on SportsCenter: "Conor has to defend his title or make a decision to give it up."

Of course, McGregor wasn't too happy with those options. Aside from reminding the world that he knocked Aldo out in record fashion at UFC 194, McGregor said stripping him of his belt would "bury that division" and questioned how they could realistically make it happen. In response, White changed his words ever-so-slightly to say he could face current lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez instead if he wanted.
Now, White is saying McGregor won’t be stripped of his belts whatever his decision is. The odds of his next fight being another rematch with Diaz, however, still don't seem to be very high.
"He's not going to get stripped," White told NBC Sports Radio. “He’s going to make a decision. He knows the Nate Diaz fight isn't the fight to make right now.”
The good news for those hoping to see McGregor back in the Octagon sooner rather than later is that we was in the gym two days after his fight with Diaz. He was also seen walking around without the need of a crutch – a sign that maybe his injury isn’t as bad as we initially thought — which means he could be reinstated much sooner than February.

Stickman wrote:Conor McGregor Won't be Stripped of UFC Title
There probably won't be a third match with Nate Diaz anytime soon

By Scott Rafferty

After Conor McGregor made over $3 million for beating Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC president Dana White put some pressure on his biggest star to return to the featherweight division and defend his championship belt against Jose Aldo. White's exact words on SportsCenter: "Conor has to defend his title or make a decision to give it up."

Of course, McGregor wasn't too happy with those options. Aside from reminding the world that he knocked Aldo out in record fashion at UFC 194, McGregor said stripping him of his belt would "bury that division" and questioned how they could realistically make it happen. In response, White changed his words ever-so-slightly to say he could face current lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez instead if he wanted.
Now, White is saying McGregor won’t be stripped of his belts whatever his decision is. The odds of his next fight being another rematch with Diaz, however, still don't seem to be very high.
"He's not going to get stripped," White told NBC Sports Radio. “He’s going to make a decision. He knows the Nate Diaz fight isn't the fight to make right now.”
The good news for those hoping to see McGregor back in the Octagon sooner rather than later is that we was in the gym two days after his fight with Diaz. He was also seen walking around without the need of a crutch – a sign that maybe his injury isn’t as bad as we initially thought — which means he could be reinstated much sooner than February.

Well that just pisses me off - he should have to defend that belt

**Georges St-Pierre appeared on UFC Tonight on Wednesday and continued to push that he wants to return and would like to fight at UFC 206 this December in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. St-Pierre stated he doesn’t have a deal yet with the promotion and said he would like to fight Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia or Nick Diaz. He stated that his terms are reasonable and the ball is in the court of the UFC. St-Pierre last fought in November 2013 and narrowly defeated Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 and then announced he was stepping away from the sport and vacated the welterweight title. St-Pierre largely blew off the public comments that Dana White made about St-Pierre not having the desire to fight and stated that White doesn’t know him and called it a “game”.


**Marc Raimondi at MMA Fighting reports that USADA is not going to be punishing UFC fighter Augusto Montano following a drug test that showed the banned substance of Clenbuterol to be found in his system back in May. Montano is the fourth UFC fighter over the past few months to have been found with the substance in his system and it is believed that the cause has been tainted meat in certain parts of the world such as Mexico and China. USADA has already ruled that Ning Guangyou will not face any punishment for the same substance in his test and they are reviewing cases for Francisco Rivera and Li Jingliang for clenbuterol.

**The UFC held a largely forgettable card from Hamburg, Germany on Saturday afternoon with few highlights. Among them were a fun main event between Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski, including a great opening few minutes where both landed big shots on the other and ended with Barnett submitting Arlovski in the third. Ryan Bader had a knockout of the year candidate when Ilir Latifi when to level change and ate a brutal knee and did the Nestea plunge backward onto the mat and was done. The undercard featured very little of note although impressive was Taylor Lapilus and the middleweight fight between Jack Hermansson and Scott Askham was a good fight and Hermansson has good striking and left an impression. The card took place at the Barclayland Arena in front of 11,763 with a gate of $913,428. Below are the full results:
*Rustam Khabilov def. Leandro Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Jack Hermansson def. Scott Askham by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Christian Colombo and Jarjis Danho fought to a majority draw (29-27 Colombo, 28-28, 28-28) – Colombo was deducted a point in the first round for landing an illegal knee. It is often referred to as “playing the game” when a fighter is touching the mat to stay grounded and there was no better example of someone doing this than Danho throughout the fight.
*Taylor Lapilus def. Leandro Issa by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Lapilus is a good prospect, very composed with his striking and Issa’s game was continually grabbing holding of his leg and trying for the takedown and never adjusted to a different strategy.
*Ashlee Evans-Smith def. Veronica Macedo by TKO at 3:14 of Round 3 – Macedo is only 20 years old and was a replacement for the injured Germaine de Randamie. Macedo landed a spin kick to the body in the first by Evans-Smith timed her with strikes and would continually get her to the ground and used elbows for the stoppage in the third.
*Peter Sobotta def. Nicolas Dalby by unanimous decision (30-26 all) – A very one-sided fight through the grappling and control of Sobotta.
*Jessin Ayari def. Jim Wallhead by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – The third round was really good and the best round of the undercard. The first two were very close and I had it 29-28 for Walhead but could have gone either way.
*Nick Hein def. Tae Hyun Bang by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 29-28) – This fight happened.
*Ryan Bader def. Ilir Latifi by KO at 2:06 of Round 2 – A great knockout and win for Bader, probably not the best KO of the year but looked spectacular because of how Latifi went down from the knee and was timed perfectly by Bader.
*Alexander Gustafsson def. Jan Blachowicz by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Gustafsson stood with him in the first and was cut open, he used his wrestling and fought a smart fight as he really needed a win here and didn’t get reckless where Blachowicz could have landed a big shot and won.
*Josh Barnett def. Andrei Arlovski by rear-naked choke at 2:53 of Round 3 – The first round was great and the opening minutes were being compared to Arlovski’s fight with Travis Browne last year (it wasn’t at that level but both guys landed big shots). When Barnett got Arlovski to the ground it was his world and Arlovski was trying to survive and Barnett got the second round with a 10-8 and then finished him in the third.

**The Fight of the Night went to Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski and the performance bonuses were given to Barnett and Ryan Bader for $50,000 each and Barnett taking home $100,000 in bonuses.

**Dave Meltzer has an excellent story about outgoing UFC Vice President Joe Silva and his rise within the industry on the MMA Fighting site.

**Due to a visa issue with Damir Hadzovic, his fight with Yukawa Kazuya has been moved from this weekend’s UFC 203 card to the UFC Fight Night card in Manila on October 15th.

**Below is the full Countdown to UFC 203 show and profiling the top three fights with Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem for the heavyweight title, a rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Travis Browne and the fight that will have the most focus this week with the pro debut of CM Punk against Mickey Gall:


**Erik Magraken put out an article on Tuesday addressing the Ohio Athletic Commission’s standards for a professional fighter to be licensed to fight within the state with regards to Phil Brooks receiving a license without any prior fights. The commission’s administrative code says that fighter must have at least five amateur bouts with a winning record to be licensed or they can appeal to the executive director to have that waived.

MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas spoke to Bernie Profato, who is the Executive Director of the Ohio Athletic Commission and Profato stated that “CM Punk has a wrestling background similar to Brock Lesnar being permitted to fight in the past. There is also the confidence in the matchmaker from the UFC and the past bouts he has submitted in previous UFC events in Ohio.”

Certainly the wrestling backgrounds of Lesnar and Punk are impossible to compare given Punk’s lack of amateur wrestling experience while Lesnar was a NCAA heavyweight champion in 2000. It is hardly a gigantic mismatch between Punk and Gall, who himself only has two pro fights but it’s the reasoning from Profato that is a strange logic to use Lesnar as the comparison point.

**ESPN was the first to report that Jon Fitch will defend the WSOF welterweight title against Jake Shields on November 12th at the WSOF 34 card in Loveland, Colorado and will be airing on NBC SN.

**Below is Episode 1 of UFC Embedded going into this weekend’s UFC 203 card in Cleveland:

CM Punk explains why he refused to shake Mickey Gall’s hand at UFC 203 weigh-ins

**Dave Meltzer at MMA Fighting is reporting that UFC 202 looks to be closing in at approximately 1,650,000 buys and making it the most purchased UFC card ever and ahead of their first fight at UFC 196 and UFC 100, which both did slightly less. The question that will never be answered is how much UFC 200 would have drawn with the original main event of McGregor and Diaz with the 200 promotion behind it. In the end, the UFC got two massive shows instead of one with about 2.85 million buys between UFC 200 and 202 and McGregor and Diaz making multi-millions for the rematch.

**UFC president Dana White was on the CBS Cleveland radio station and stated today that papers have been signed for Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone to meet at UFC 205 on November 12th at Madison Square Garden. Lawler just dropped the welterweight title to Tyron Woodley at UFC 201 back in July while Cerrone has won his last three fights since coming up to welterweight after a failed bid for the lightweight title last December.

**Ariel Helwani at MMA Fighting is reporting that Thiago Alves will make his lightweight debut at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden against Al Iaquinta. Alves has not fought since May of last year, where he was defeated by Carlos Condit and since that time has been working along with Mike Dolce on cutting down to the lightweight division. Iaquinta has been on the sidelines even longer as he had knee surgery after his last fight, which was a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal in April of 2015.

**Bellator has announced that they will hold a card in Tel Aviv, Israel on November 10th and will be headlined by Andrey Koreshkov defending the welterweight title against Douglas Lima as well as former UFC fighter Noah Lahat fighting Scott Cleve. The show will air Friday night November 11th at 9pm Eastern on Spike.

**Here is Episode 2 of UFC Embedded ahead of this weekend’s card in Cleveland:

**Below are the results of the UFC 203 card from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland with an announced attendance of 18,875 and a gate of $2,600,000:
*Yancy Medeiros def. Sean Spencer by rear-naked choke at 0:49 of Round 2 – Medeiros moved up to welterweight for this fight and looked very good.
*Drew Dober def. Jason Gonzalez by TKO at 1:45 of Round 1
*Nik Lentz def. Michael McBride by TKO at 4:17 of Round 2 – McBride took this fight on short notice and Lentz knew next to nothing about him.
*Brad Tavares def. Caio Magalhaes by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Bethe Correia def. Jessica Eye by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Jessica Andrade def. Joanne Calderwood by guillotine choke at 4:38 of Round 1 – Andrade has looked outstanding since cutting down to strawweight with wins over two very good fighters in Jessica Penne and Calderwood. She took Calderwood down and controlled the entire round before locking on the guillotine.
*Jimmie Rivera def. Urijah Faber by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – This was all Rivera in the stand up. It appeared Faber injured his hand early and was limping after the fight. Rivera out struck Faber in all three rounds and scored the biggest win of his career.
*Mickey Gall def. CM Punk by rear-naked choke at 2:14 of Round 1
*Fabricio Werdum def. Travis Browne by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-28) – Everything about this fight was crazy. Werdum came out with a jumping side kick that landed on the face of Browne. Later in the round, Browne injured his finger and called for a timeout (you cannot do this) and the referee allowed it and the fight continued even though it should have been a TKO win for Werdum. The fight dropped in the second and third rounds and the crowd booed. After the fight, Browne’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan was cursing at Werdum and Werdum kicked him and led to the sides being separated.
*Stipe Miocic def. Alistair Overeem by KO at 4:27 of Round 1 – Overeem landed a big shot and went for a guillotine, which Miocic escaped from and then began to land on Overeem. Miocic was in Overeem’s guard and landing shots and put Overeem out for the win.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem and the performance bonuses were awarded to Jessica Andrade and Yancy Medeiros.

**After the fights, UFC president Dana White spoke about the future of CM Punk in the UFC:


**Below are the post-fight interviews with Fabricio Werdum with Stipe Miocic showing up and Mickey Gall with a great story about the discovery of his walkout music last night:

Punk's humiliation aside, 203 was a really fun show to watch.

yeah, the main event was nuts thanks to possible knock outs by both guys and Werdum's flying kick to start off was highlight of the year material.

**The Ohio Athletic Commission released the disclosed pay from Saturday’s UFC 203. Stipe Miocic made a disclosed amount of $600,000 (and likely has points on the pay-per-view as champion and greatly benefited from having CM Punk on this show) with Alistair Overeem topping the disclosed payouts with $800,000. The figure everyone is focusing on is Punk’s at $500,000 with no additional bonus listed. It is believed that Punk has points on the pay-per-view as well.

If you do the math that a UFC pay-per-view is $60 and the UFC takes in roughly $30 per buy then you needed about 17,000 buys to pay for Punk (not accounting for additional money spent on the Evolution of Punk series) and it’s a lock that Punk added way more than 17,000 buys. It is one thing to say Punk isn’t at the UFC level as a fighter but the same people that said “he’s only here because he can draw” have to acknowledge that he did and should be paid for it. When the UFC 203 pay-per-view number is reported, it is going to lead to one of the most hotly debated topics of the year with how CM Punk is handled if the number is significantly big. On the one hand, it was clear on Saturday that he isn’t UFC ready but no one believed he was ahead of time and the curiosity factor was huge. The UFC could give him a second fight or place him on Ultimate Fighter (although given the nature of the show on FS 1, is it a smart platform to place someone that can do big business elsewhere?). Cutting Punk would result in Bellator receiving their biggest draw on a silver platter from the UFC and could match him with much more favorable opposition. It will be a major philosophical question for the new ownership group and the first major one that WME-IMG will have to make in terms of what is most valuable.


**The main event for the UFC’s return to Australia will be a middleweight rematch between Luke Rockhold and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza on Saturday November 26th. The card is a Fight Night show from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne and will take place on Sunday morning in Australia to accommodate the North American television audience. Rockhold defeated Souza for the Strikeforce middleweight title in September 2011 with a unanimous decision win.

**The UFC is back this Saturday with a card in Hidalgo, Texas and airing on FS 1 in the U.S. with Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Johnson in the lightweight main event.

**Condolences go out to Kenny Florian and his family, as Florian’s brother Kirk passed away this week. Kirk had gone missing and since been pronounced dead. No much is known regarding the circumstances of his passing. Kirk Florian was 33 years of age.

**Ariel Helwani is reporting at MMA Fighting that the UFC is working on putting together a welterweight fight between Donald Cerrone and Kelvin Gastelum for UFC 205 on November 12th at Madison Square Garden. It appeared that Cerrone was going to fight Robbie Lawler at UFC 205 but this past weekend, Lawler met with Cerrone and said he needs time off and cannot do the fight in November. If the Gastelum fight is signed, it would take him out of his already scheduled bout with Jorge Masvidal on November 5th in Mexico City.

**The preliminary card for UFC 203 averaged 870,000 viewers this past Saturday on FS 1. The prelims were headlined by Bethe Correia and Jessica Eye from Cleveland, Ohio.

**UFC welterweight Jordan Mein is coming out of retirement following a year away from the sport. Mein has not fought since a January 2015 loss to Thiago Alves and announced his retirement in August of last year. Mein is still under contract to the UFC and it is not known if he would have to go through the four-month drug testing period before returning as his retirement occurred after USADA’s drug testing policy had already been put in place. Mein had his first professional fight at the age of 16 against Rory MacDonald and retired with a record of 29-10 and is currently 26 years of age.

sorry for the lack of updates, I'm workin in Atlanta for a couple weeks.

**UFC lightweight Al Iaquinta has stated that he has not signed his bout agreement to fight Thiago Alves at UFC 205 on November 12th at Madison Square Garden. In an interview with Damon Martin at FOX Sports, Iaquinta says that after going through his entire savings during his time away recovering from knee surgery, he cannot sign his current bout agreement because of the money he is contracted to make. Iaquinta has not fought since April of 2015 as he dealt with a lingering knee injury and would stand to make $25,000 to show and another $25,000 if he beat Alves in November and was based on a contract he signed before the Reebok deal came into effect in July 2015. Iaquinta also mentioned in the interview that a combination of missing the UFC Fighter’s Summit when he informed the UFC he was ill and also getting ready for a fight five-weeks later, trashing a hotel during a fight week and also cursing on live television after his April 2015 fight with Jorge Masvidal, led to a disciplinary action by the UFC where Iaquinta would not be eligible for any fight night bonuses in his next three fights. Iaquinta stated that he is a personal trainer and also has his real estate license and can make money elsewhere rather than fight for the time being.

**Ed Soares appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today and announced that the Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA) and Legacy FC have merged to form a new promotion called Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA). Both promotions already has deals with AXS TV with Soares stating that the LFA promotion will begin operations as of January 1st and are scheduled to do 30 cards in 2017 (the two promotions are going to do a combined 27 this year).

**Cris “Cyborg” Justino did make weight earlier today in Brasilia and came in at 141 pounds (Justino had originally stated that she was not allowed a one pound allowance but later posted an update that she would be allowed the extra pound for the weigh-ins). The only fighter that did miss weight was lightweight Michel Prazeres, who came in at 158 pounds and will lose 20% of his purse for his fight on Saturday against Gilbert Burns.

**Invicta FC 19 takes place tonight from Kansas City at the Scottish Rite Temple and airing on Fight Pass at 8pm Eastern with the following card:
*Jennifer Maia vs. Roxanne Modafferi for the Invicta FC flyweight title (Maia has been promoted from interim to full flyweight champion with the announcement that Barb Honchak has been stripped of the title due to inactivity)
*Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Jinh Yu Frey for the atomweight title
*Irena Aldana vs. Faith Van Duin
*Kaline Medeiros vs. Manjit Kolekar
*Tiffany van Soest vs. Kalyn Schwartz
*Stephanie Skinner vs. Julia Jones
*Amber Leibrock vs. Amy Coleman
*Ashley Greenway vs. Sunna Davidsdottir

**From Cat Zingano on female fighters cutting weight:

I’ve cut 35 lbs in 5 weeks. The majority of it being in the last two days before weighins. Yeah we make weight, but it f***s our metabolism and hormones a little more each time we do it, making our weight go up even further between fights. It’s an invisible injury, especially once you get hit in the head and knock that pituitary gland around while being dehydrated. If you look at all the female fighters that get “fat” between fights, know there’s a lot more going on there than being a food ninja.

**The Nevada Athletic Commission will be holding a hearing for Jon Jones regarding his pre-fight drug test failure that took him out of UFC 200 this past July, as well as the water bottle throwing incident between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz prior to UFC 202 with both scheduled for October 10th.

**The UFC will hold a press conference on Tuesday night at 6pm Eastern with the expectation that the main event will be announced for the November 12th card.

**Here is the full card for Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night event in Brasilia and the main card will be airing on FS 1 in the U.S. and TSN5 in Canada:

MAIN CARD (10pm ET on FS 1, TSN5 in Canada)
*Cris “Cyborg” Justino vs. Lina Lansberg
*Renan Barao vs. Phillipe Nover
*Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Silva
*Francisco Trinaldo vs. Paul Felder
*Thiago Santos vs. Eric Spicely
*Mike De La Torre vs. Godofredo “Pepey” Castro

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Gilbert Burns vs. Michel Prazeres
*Rani Yahya vs. Michinori Tanaka
*Dustin Ortiz vs. Jussier Formiga
*Erick Silva vs. Luan Chagas

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30pm)
*Alan Patrick vs. Stevie Ray
*Hector Urbina vs. Vicente Luque
*Glaico Franca vs. Gregor Gillespie

**Bellator has announced a card for Friday November 4th in Uncasville, Connecticut with Liam McGeary defending the Bellator light heavyweight title against Phil Davis in the main event. They have also announced a welterweight fight between Saad Awad and Brennan Ward and a women’s featherweight bout between Marloes Coenen and Talita Nogueira.

**The UFC announced the hiring of Mick Maynard on Tuesday as the new Vice President of Talent Relations and will be succeeding Joe Silva, who they stated is retiring at the end of 2016. Maynard is the president and founder of Legacy FC, which he will be leaving with the new role with the UFC as Legacy FC announced this week that they are merging with the RFA organization. Sean Shelby will be promoted to become the Senior Vice President of Talent Relations with the transition of Joe Silva.

**There is a lot going regarding the UFC 205 event set for November 12th at Madison Square Garden. On Tuesday night, UFC president Dana White was asked if Eddie Alvarez would be fighting Conor McGregor on the show and White replied that Khabib Nurmagomedov would be fighting Alvarez. Later on, Nurmagomedov stated that they are waiting for Alvarez to sign the bout agreement but Alvarez wants the McGregor fight. McGregor has since tweeted out “Beg Me” in response to all of the discussion on his fight status for November.

The card is facing other issues as well as Chris Weidman and Yoel Romero is not yet official for the show and an injury has taken Gian Villante off the card for his fight with Marcos Rogerio de Lima. On top of that, Al Iaquinta made it public this past week he won’t be fighting on the card because of his issues with his pay. One title fight that is expected for the show is a welterweight title bout with Tyron Woodley defending the title against Stephen Thompson.

**Below is a preview episode of “Retrospective” on Fight Network with Miesha Tate:

**The UFC 205 press conference went down last tues in New York City and is the deepest card on paper that the UFC has ever promoted. The news broke late Monday night that the card would be headlined by Eddie Alvarez defending the lightweight title against Conor McGregor and takes this show from one that would have been pegged to do 350,000 buys and now could surpass 1,000,000. The highlight of the press conference was McGregor, who was outstanding and Alvarez getting involved with him as well. This is going to be a giant card and below is the current lineup, which is the deepest card they have ever had:
*Eddie Alvarez vs. Conor McGregor for the UFC lightweight title
*Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson for the UFC welterweight title
*Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz for the UFC strawweight title
*Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero
*Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum
*Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Michael Johnson
*Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington
*Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
*Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy
*Rafael Natal vs. Tim Boetsch
*Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves
*Belal Muhammad vs. Lyman Good
*Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian

**One person who is very upset about the decision to allow Conor McGregor to fight at lightweight is interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Aldo spoke to Combate out of Brazil on Tuesday and feels he has been lied to by the UFC and has no faith that McGregor will be stripped of his title if he beats Alvarez at UFC 205 and has stated he wants out of his UFC contract. His coach, Andre Pederneiras has added that his client is willing to fight the UFC in court to get out of his contract. Aldo told Combate that he was offered to fight Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis for the interim title at UFC 205 but that his coach felt he needed a full camp for either of those two and would rather fight them on December 10th and expected that if he couldn’t get the McGregor rematch immediately, that McGregor would be stripped of the title and was furious when it was announced McGregor would fight Alvarez and keep the featherweight title.

**The UFC announced late Thursday night that with WME-IMG’s purchase of the company that a number of prominent celebrities have bought small stakes in the company. A press release lists the following having purchased a piece of the UFC: The Weeknd, Adam Levine, Anthony Kiedis, Ben Affleck, Calvin Harris, Cam Newton, Conan O’Brien, Flea, Guy Fieri, Jimmy Kimmel, Li Na, LL Cool J, Maria Sharapova, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Ron Drydek, Robert Kraft, Serena & Venus Williams, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Brady, Trey Parker and Tyler Perry. The percentages and terms of the deals were not disclosed.

**The UFC has signed former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov and he’ll debut on the November 19th card in Belfast, Northern Ireland against Timothy Johnson.

**The UFC has moved Jorge Masvidal to the TUF 24 Finale card on December 3rd in Las Vegas and will now be fighting Jake Ellenberger. Masvidal was scheduled to fight Kelvin Gastelum on November 5th in Mexico City but the UFC removed Gastelum from that fight so he could fight Donald Cerrone at UFC 205. Masvidal is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Ross Pearson at UFC 201, which was also the last time Ellenberger fought and defeated Matt Brown by TKO.

**The UFC returns next weekend with UFC 204 from Manchester, England with Michael Bisping defending the UFC middleweight title against Dan Henderson in a rematch from UFC 100. The Manchester Arena sold out in six-minutes when tickets went on sale and will also feature Vitor Belfort taking on Gegard Mousasi on the main card.

theplatypus wrote:

Stickman wrote: Jorg Masvidal

Strange. If I go the edit the post, the "e" is there, just doesn't show in the post.

**The main event of UFC 204 featured an outstanding fight between Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson, which Henderson nearly won in the opening round after dropping him with a right hand and diving onto him in similar fashion to their UFC 100 fight. Bisping did survive and then was in full control of the second round when he was caught again by a Henderson right hand. The crowd was incredible on this show with the fight beginning at around 4:30am local time and they were their loudest for the main event and the post-fight.

Dan Henderson did confirm he was not going to be fighting again and definitely questioned the scoring of the fight and believed the first round should have been a 10-8 (all three judges scored it 10-9 and that difference would have made the fight a majority draw).

Below are the results from the show:
*Leonardo Santos def. Adriano Martins by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – This was not a great fight with the exception of the final minutes when Martins came alive.
*Mike Perry def. Danny Roberts by KO at 4:40 of Round 3 – Perry dominated the first round and then Roberts came back and won the second. Roberts was controlling the pace of the third and landing with Perry tired and then all of a sudden he landed a knee and finished Roberts with strikes. Perry has tremendous power.
*Marc Diakiese def. Lukasz Sajewski by TKO at 4:40 of Round 2 – Diakiese was the BAMMA lightweight champion when he was signed and a hot prospect. He was taken down in the first but Sajewski did nothing from side control. Diakiese put him against the fence in the second and opened up with strikes and Sajewski slumped down.
*Leon Edwards def. Albert Tumenov by rear-naked choke at 3:01 of Round 3 – Edwards took his back and got the submission. Tumenov was a red hot prospect at welterweight and has now lost two-in-a-row.
*Damian Stasiak def. Davey Grant by armbar at 3:56 of Round 3
*Yuri Alcantara def. Brad Pickett by triangle choke at 1:59 of Round 1 – Alcantara caught him with a flying knee and spinning back fist then got on top and was attacking with strikes before going to the submission.
*Mirsad Bektic def. Russell Doane by rear-naked choke at 4:22 of Round 1 – Doane took this fight on one weeks’ notice and Bektic just took him down and got control of his back.
*Stefan Struve def. Daniel Omielanczuk by D’arce choke at 1:41 of Round 2 – The size difference was comical and it looked frightening when Struve mounted him. Omielanczuk did survive and made it to the second and was taken down again and submitted. Struve looked good here although he was tagged early in the fight.
*Jimi Manuwa def. Ovince Saint Preux by KO at 2:38 of Round 2 – OSP won the first round and then was much more reserved in the second. He was against the cage and Manuwa hit a great combination beginning with a left shot to the body, a huge right that dropped Saint Preux and finished with a left hand.
*Gegard Mousasi def. Vitor Belfort by TKO at 2:43 of Round 2 – Mousasi was patient in the first round and then in the second and landed a head kick and swarmed Belfort with a flurry of shots, mounted Belfort and continued with strikes as Belfort turned and the fight was stopped.
*Michael Bisping def. Dan Henderson by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) to retain the UFC middleweight title – All three judges scored it 10-9 for Henderson, two of the three scored the second round for Henderson and then all three gave Rounds 3-5 to Bisping.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson with Jimi Manuwa and Yuri Alcantara receiving the Performance bonuses for $50,000 apiece.

**Michael Bisping had to be transported to the hospital after the fight and could not attend the post-fight press conference.

**The UFC now has three-weeks off and their next show is Saturday November 5th with the TUF Latin America Finale card from Mexico City with Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tony Ferguson in the lightweight main event.

**Below is this outstanding promo that the UFC aired on Saturday’s broadcast for the UFC 205 card at Madison Square Garden next month:


**The UFC announced that next weekend’s Fight Night event in Manila in The Philippines will not be happening and will be “re-scheduled”. The UFC sent out a release and cited a rib injury to BJ Penn as the reason for the card being moved and added that all fighters on the card will be paid and be booked on upcoming events. On paper, this was an extremely weak card with the elimination of Penn. It was first reported by @TalkMMA on Twitter and later Jeremy Botter of Flosports.com noting that the Filipino Government was ramping up drug testing and would be testing all fighters and UFC personnel with the threat of passports being seized if any failed a test. Both reporters have stated this as the key reason for the card being scrapped altogether although the UFC has not acknowledged anything beyond the Penn injury as the reason.

**It was announced on UFC Tonight on Wednesday that Daniel Cormier will defend the light heavyweight title against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206 on December 10th in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. On Thursday, more fights were announced with the following announced for UFC 206:
*Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson for the UFC light heavyweight title
*Misha Cirkunov vs. Nikita Krylov
*John Makdessi vs. Landa Vannata
*Zack Makovsky vs. John Moraga
*Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Drew Dober
*Jason Saggo vs. Rustam Khabilov
*Valerie Letourneau vs. Poliana Botelho

**The fight that Mickey Gall requested has been granted as he will get to fight Sage Northcutt on December 17th on FOX in Sacramento, California at the new Golden 1 Center. Gall challenged Northcutt during his post-fight interview at UFC 203 after defeating CM Punk.

Conor McGregor on Nevada Bottle-Throwing Fine: 'I'm Free to Do What I Want'
"I don't see Nevada in my future," the Notorious says after being fined $150,000 for UFC 202 press conference incident



By Mike Bohn
4 hours ago

Conor McGregor won't fight in Las Vegas for the "foreseeable future" after the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) hit the UFC champ with a $150,000 fine and 50 hours of community service earlier this week, he tells Rolling Stone.

McGregor was punished for his involvement in the press conference incident, although it involved both his and Nate Diaz's fight camps prior to his UFC 202 fight in August. After McGregor showed up 35 minutes late to the news conference, Diaz opted to get up and leave early, which sparked a chaotic scene inside MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

McGregor, Diaz and both their respective fight camps began tossing objects at each other, with "The Notorious" launching multiple full water bottles and Monster Energy Drink cans into a crowd where Diaz was standing.
The commission felt this was worthy of a significant punishment, and on Tuesday, McGregor was issued a 5 percent fine of his $3 million fight purse for the UFC 202 fight with Diaz (which he won by majority decision), as well as 50 hours of community service and the requirement of helping launch an anti-bully campaign.

Aside from a tweet where McGregor bragged: "I get fined more than these bums get paid," the brash Irishman has been silent on the issue. He conducted his first interview on the topic with Rolling Stone, and he confirmed a recent statement from UFC President Dana White revealing that he has no desire to compete again in Nevada.

"I don't see Nevada in my future, for the foreseeable future is how I see it," McGregor says. "I'm free to do what I want. … I'm good. I'm good. New York, New York. That's what I think."

McGregor cannot protest the fine because he called into the NSAC meeting and on top of apologizing for his actions, said he would be willing to accept any punishment deemed fitting. He thought putting himself out there in that way would help his cause, but instead it backfired, as the originally proposed $25,000 fine went up to an outrageous $150,000.

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor grabs two cans during the during the UFC 202 Press Conference at David Copperfield Theater in the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino on August 17, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC//Getty


UFC boss White called the $150,000 fine "insane," and McGregor agrees, though he hinted it won't be easy for the commission to collect.
"I thought they might respect [McGregor calling in] a little bit more," McGregor says. "I owned up. I man'd up. I'm here. I apologized. I'm not trying to blame nobody, although they fired the rounds off first. I didn't think they would even go that route because I didn't think this was like a real thing. Are they going to come and arrest me or what the fuck is that? I wanted to give them the respect and I felt they would have respected that but they didn't. So, whatever. It is what it is. Good luck trying to get it."

Diaz was originally slated to receive punishment for his involvement in the UFC 202 news conference incident at the same meeting, but his hearing was pushed back to a later date. His day will come eventually, though, and although McGregor thinks his rival shouldn't be handled differently, he said he hopes Diaz isn't raked over the coals the same way.
"I do not wish to see Nate get any more or any less than me," McGregor said. "I don't want to see either of us have something like this happen. But we'll see. I don't know. If they went that way on me I don't know what way they're going to go on him. He threw the bottle first, but I don't wish he get more than me or anything like that. I just wish we'd get it sorted out and get on with it and carry on."

McGregor can't exert too much energy on the situation, though, because he has much grander things to focus on, mainly his UFC 205 main event fight against Eddie Alvarez (28-4, 3-1). McGregor, the current UFC featherweight champ, moves up to lightweight to challenge Alvarez and attempt to become the first simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history.
The November 12th event at Madison Square Garden in New York City is being built up as arguably the biggest in UFC history, and given McGregor's current distain for Nevada, it could be the location of many more of his future fights.
"Respect to them," McGregor said of the NSAC. "They wanted me to pay them and work for them at the same time. How can I not respect that? Good luck to them."

**UFC president Dana White announced on Colin Cowherd’s FS 1 show that Amanda Nunes will defend the UFC women’s bantamweight title against Ronda Rousey in the main event of UFC 207 on Friday December 30th. The fight has been rumored for some time and will be Rousey’s first fight since her loss to Holly Holm in November 2015 at UFC 193 in Australia and has kept a relatively low profile since the loss. The title has switched multiple times since Rousey lost the title with Holm losing it to Miesha Tate in March and Tate losing the title to Nunes at UFC 200 this past July. White added in the interview that if Rousey defeats Nunes for the title then the fight with Cris “Cyborg” Justino will definitely happen.

**White mentioned in the same interview that Conor McGregor has told White that he never wants to fight in Nevada again. This comes after McGregor received a $150,000 fine on Monday for the water bottle incident back in August along with 50 hours of community service he will have to complete. The figure was derived from a decision to fine him 5% of his disclosed purse of $3,000,000 for the UFC 202 fight with Nate Diaz.

**This past Saturday’s UFC 204 preliminary fights averaged 678,000 viewers on FS 1. The pre-fight show the hour prior did 277,000 viewers. For a comparison, the prelims prior to UFC 203 last month did 870,000 viewers.

*Bellator has officially announced that they will be running a card from Dublin, Ireland on Friday December 16th at the 3Arena. They have announced that the main event will feature Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal returning to heavyweight to fight Satoshi Ishii and that Irish fighter James Gallagher will also be fighting on the show.

**Ricardo Lamas has been booked for a new fight after this weekend’s card in Manila was cancelled. Lamas will now be fighting Charles Oliveira at the TUF Latin America Finale card on November 5th in Mexico City. Lamas was scheduled to headline this weekend’s card against BJ Penn in Manila but Penn suffered a rib injury and the UFC announced that the card would be “re-scheduled” as a result of the injury to Penn. Lamas has just completed a full camp and will now fight in three-weeks and will also be fighting at elevation in Mexico City, which has been a noticeable issue for fighters on past cards in the city. The November 5th card is headlined by a lightweight bout between Rafael dos Anjos and Tony Ferguson.

**A featherweight fight between Cub Swanson and Dooho Choi has been added to the UFC 206 in Toronto on Saturday December 10th. Choi has looked excellent since coming to the promotion withj with first round stoppages of Juan Puig, Sam Sicilia and Thiago Tavares with a total fight time in the UFC of 4:31 over the course of those three victories. Swanson is a big step up as he’s one of the best featherweights in the division and coming off decision victories over Hacran Dias and Tatsuya Kawajiri and won 8 of his last 10 fights with the losses to Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway.

**The main event for the UFC’s next FOX card on Saturday December 17th will be a women’s strawweight bout between Paige VanZant and Michelle Waterson. The fight was announced by UFC president Dana White on Wednesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight. This will be VanZant’s second straight fight on FOX after defeating Bec Rawlings this past August. Waterson made her UFC debut in July of last year and defeated Angela Magana. This will be an interesting experiment on FOX with the star power of Paige VanZant, Sage Northcutt and all the promotion that Mickey Gall received ahead of the CM Punk fight to see if it translates to a strong number on the network.

**Dana White announced on FS 1 on Wednesday evening that the UFC’s Senior Vice President of Public Relations, Dave Sholler will be leaving the company and taking a position with the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. Sholler was the head of relations for the WEC organization before the promotion was purchased and later absorbed by Zuffa. Over the past two-years, Sholler had become a more public face for the organization as he would frequently handle post-fight press conferences or events in the absence of Dana White.


**Jon Jones is set to have his arbitration hearing with USADA on Monday October 31st in Los Angeles.

BREAKING NEWS: GSP CONFIRMS HE IS A FREE AGENT


Written on Monday, October 17th, 2016 by Tony Quant


Former UFC Welterweight Champion George St-Pierre has ended rumours of a return to the Octagon, confirming today on the MMA hour that he is in fact a free agent as of now.

In leaving the UFC, GSP becomes the hottest free agent in the sport right now and you can bet that the likes of Bellator, Rizin, One FC will be grabbing their cheque books in a bid to sign the former UFC Champion.

Below are some of the quotes from GSP following his shock announcement;

“Most fighters in the UFC, they are starving. For the UFC, when you keep a lot of your staff starving, they are easier to control.”

“Dana White doesn’t know what it is to be a fighter. I know what it is to be a fighter.”

“I’ve never been afraid to stand for what I believe is right.”

“For me, it’s completely illogical that this fight did not happen in Toronto, because we would have been winners of both sides.”

“When the new owners came, all the offers were off the table.”

Shortly after making this announcement on The MMA Hour, St-Pierre discussed the possibilities of his new free agency. Given that he’s spent the vast majority of his career in the UFC, the welterweight great admitted that he’s really not sure what the future holds.

“I just announced the big news.” He said. “Now we’ll see what happens. In mixed martial arts, everything is a question of timing. I try to see things in a logical way, not in an emotional way. I have a great team of advisors, and I’m trying to listen to them. Me, I’m a fighter. This kind of business is not my area of expertise. I’m trying to really listen to what my advisors tell me. It’s hard for me Ariel, because I started fighting at UFC 46. It was a long time ago. The UFC has been like a family for me. Now I’m entering territory that is very unknown.”

Whatever happens down the road, St-Pierre said its important to him to stand up for up-and-coming fighters as he explores his new free agency. He believes this is the responsibility of MMA’s biggest stars.

“I have the power, because of the position that I’m in, I have the option of saying ‘no’,” St-Pierre said of his decision to walk away from negotiations with the UFC. “A lot of these guys that are fighting don’t have this option. And I understand because I’ve been there before. So it’s up to guys like me, Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva, Jose Aldo, guys that are big names, to stand for these guys that don’t have the options.”

“I’m always on the fighter’s side,” he added. “I will always support the fighters.”

**As expected, the UFC is hardly sitting back and allowing Georges St-Pierre to exit his existing UFC contract. On Monday, St-Pierre stated on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that he was now a free agent and his contract is done with the UFC after a deadline to be offered a fight was set by St-Pierre’s legal team. The UFC issued the following statement to MMA Fighting on Monday night:

Georges St-Pierre remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC as his MMA promoter. Zuffa intends to honor its agreement with St-Pierre and reserves its rights under the law to have St-Pierre do the same.

St-Pierre had noted in the interview with Helwani that he was offered a fight with Robbie Lawler but that St-Pierre was aware that Lawler is taking time off and would not be able to take place at UFC 206, which is the card that St-Pierre wanted to fight on in Toronto.

**Daniel Cormier speaks about the impact of not having Georges St-Pierre on the UFC 206 card in Toronto:


**Ariel Helwani has a report that the UFC is laying off a significant amount of their work force with an estimate that 15% of their employees will be laid off. In the report it states there are approximately 350 people in the company and would be a massive amount of cuts. This is a big story and shows the inevitable changes that were going to occur after the sale to WME-IMG.

**The UFC has announced that heavyweights Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum will meet in a rematch at UFC 207 on December 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The two fought in the main event of UFC 188 in June 2015 in Mexico City with Werdum defeating Velasquez to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Velasquez took the next 13 months off and returned this past July at UFC 200 and stopped Travis Browne while Werdum dropped the heavyweight title to Stipe Miocic this past May at UFC 198 and rebounded with a victory over Travis Browne as well at UFC 203 last month in Cleveland. The winner of this fight would almost surely be guaranteed the next title fight against Miocic in 2017.

**Ariel Helwani was the first to report that Jordan Mein will return and fight Emil Meek on December 10th at UFC 206 in Toronto. Mein announced his retirement last year and hasn’t competed since January 2015, where he was defeated by Thiago Alves. Mein is only 27 years old but already has a professional record of 29-10.

**ESPN was the first to report that Chael Sonnen will make his Bellator debut on Saturday January 21st against Tito Ortiz at The Forum in Inglewood, California. This will be Sonnen’s first fight since November 2013 when he was defeated by Rashad Evans. Sonnen was handed a two-year suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission in 2014 and became eligible to return over the last few months and worked out a release from his deal with the UFC and signed with Bellator MMA.

**The following “face-to-face” between Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz also aired on Friday’s Bellator 162 card to promote their fights for January 21st:


**The UFC had added a welterweight fight between Johny Hendricks and Neil Magny to the UFC 207 card on December 30th in Las Vegas. Hendricks has lost three of his last four fights and is coming off a decision loss to Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 200. Magny was stopped by Lorenz Larkin in his last outing at UFC 202 in August.

**Brett Okamoto at ESPN reported today that Alexis Davis will be returning to fight Sara McMannn at the TUF 24 Finale card on Saturday December 3rd in Las Vegas. Davis was unsuccessful in challenging then bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey for the championship at UFC 175 in July 2014 and was stopped in 16 seconds. Davis rebounded from the Rousey loss and submitted Sarah Kaufman at UFC 186 in April 2015. Davis has been away from the sport since giving birth to her son. McMann last fought in May of this year and earned a decision victory over Jessica Eye.

**Here are the main card results from Friday night’s Bellator 162 card from Memphis, Tennessee at the FedEx Forum and airing on Spike TV:
*Hisaki Kato def. A.J. Matthews by TKO at 4:58 of Round 1
*Goiti Yamauchi def. Ryan Couture by armbar at 1:01 of Round 1
*Bobby Lashley def. Josh Appelt by rear-naked choke at 1:43 of Round 2 – Lashley dominated the fight by taking Appelt down and constantly attacking from his back before submitting him in the second round.
*Alexander Shlemenko def. Kendall Grove at 1:43 of Round 2 – The first round was competitive and the best round of the main card. In the second, Shlemenko stopped him with a body shot and followed with a right hand and strikes on top for the stoppage.

**An injury to Gunnar Nelson has forced the UFC to change the main event for their Fight Night card in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday November 19th. Nelson was scheduled to headline the card against Dong-Hyun Kim and that fight has been scrapped altogether and the new main event will be a middleweight rematch between Gegard Mousasi and Uriah Hall. Mousasi has won 5 of his last 6 fights with the only blemish during that stretch being a TKO loss to Hall in September 2015 in a fight that Mousasi was winning and then shot in for a takedown and ate a brutal knee from Hall and led to the finish.


**Urijah Faber announced on The MMA Hour today that his next fight against Brad Pickett on December 17th in Sacramento will be his final fight. Faber is coming off back-to-back losses for the first time in his career with decision losses to Dominick Cruz and Jimmie Rivera in his last two fights. Faber was the biggest star that the WEC organization promoted and really put the lighter weight classes on a big stage when the promotion was airing on the Versus network in the U.S. Faber has been fighting since November 2003 and would become the WEC featherweight division from Cole Escovedo in March 2006 and held that title until November 2008. After the WEC was shut down, Faber entered the UFC in March 2011 and would challenge for the bantamweight title on four occasions but never won the title. This will be the 44th professional fight of Faber’s career when he meets Pickett.

**UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones will be having is arbitration hearing with USADA next Monday on October 31st. Howard Jacobs, who is the lawyer for Jones, appeared on “The Luke Thomas Show” on SiriusXM and stated that both their team and USADA have tested a product that Jones was taking and found the two prohibited substances he tested positive for, which were unmarked in the product. The prohibited substances were clomiphene and Letrozole and now Jones will appear in front of USADA next week and faces a maximum of a one-year suspension. It should be noted that Jones will also have to appear in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission for the same drug test failure, which occurred prior to UFC 200 and removed him from the card just days before his scheduled bout with Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight title. The NAC hearing for Jones is scheduled for November 10th.