Red Mosquito

**Georges St-Pierre posted a quick video today and noted that he met with Ari Emmanuel last week to try and work his contract out. He stated that he made peace with Dana White but nothing is happening at the moment regarding a possible fight with Michael Bisping at UFC 205. Bisping noted on Tuesday night that he verbally agreed to fight St-Pierre in Toronto and Dana White quickly shot down the rumor of that fight to ESPN.

**The UFC has announced that a featherweight fight between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway has been added to the UFC 206 card on December 10th in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. This would theoretically be the #2 fight on the card underneath the light heavyweight title main event between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson. Holloway has won nine straight fights going back to January 2014 and Pettis cut down to featherweight for his last fight and defeated Charles Oliveira in August.

**MMA Junkie reporters Steven Marrocco and Ben Fowlkes have an in-depth article regarding the sale of the UFC to WME-IMG with access to an investor’s document that the two received. Their reporting shows that the actual sale of the promotion to WME-IMG was for $3,775,000,000 with another $200 million in banker fees and other expenses in the transaction. There will be massive bonuses that kick in for the promotion if they can raise EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) to $275 million in 2017 and up to $350 million in 2018. Part of the strategy is cutting numerous costs with the recent job cuts occurring and dropping the payroll from $55.4 million down to $27 million (this was originally reported in the piece as cutting the payroll by $55.4 million and that figure was repeated on today’s Bauer & Pollock, but the correct figure has since been updated in the story). The documents obtained also reveal that the production budget for Ultimate Fighter would cut significantly from $27.6 million annually down to $10 million.

**A frightening story came out today regarding Anthony Pettis and three cars being set on fire in the driveway of his Milwaukee home. A witness stated that they saw a car speeding through the neighborhood around 1am on Thursday and came at the same time the witness heard a loud bang. It is believed that two cars in the driveway were set on fire and caused a third vehicle to catch fire as well. Police are seeking information on the unknown perpetrator of the blaze. Pettis has since put out the following statement:

I am a fighter. I won’t be defeated by this. I am also extremely confused and saddened by the events that occurred. I am grateful that no one was harmed by this cowardly act. My life as well as my loved ones were put in danger. I cannot understand why someone would want to hurt myself or my family. I will do everything I can to ensure that we find out who committed this crime and that they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I’m constantly defending my choice to stay in this city. Regardless of the crimes that have been occurring lately, this is my home. I really hope the city that I rep has my back on this one and helps by reporting anything they know about this.

**The UFC has released the official lineup for UFC 205 and where all of the fights will be broadcast. As was the case for UFC 200, the pay-per-view window will be extended with six fights on the pay-per-view portion with the following schedule:

MAIN CARD (10pm Eastern on pay-per-view)
*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
*Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm Eastern on FS 1)
*Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
*Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Michael Johnson
*Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy
*Vicente Luque vs. Belal Muhammad

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30pm Eastern)
*Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves
*Tim Boestch vs. Rafael Natal
*Liz Carmocuhe vs. Katlyn Chookagian

**The UFC has officially announced that Dominick Cruz will defend the bantamweight title against Cody Garbrandt on December 30th in the co-feature spot at UFC 207 in Las Vegas. Garbrandt is 10-0 as a professional fighter and 5-0 inside of the UFC with a 0:48 stoppage over Takeya Mizugaki in his last outing at UFC 202. Cruz last defended his title in June, where he earned a decision over Urijah Faber at UFC 199.

**Ariel Helwani reported at MMA Fighting today that the matchmaking duties between Sean Shelby and incoming Mick Maynard has been sorted out with the weight divisions that each matchmaker will oversee. In light of Joe Silva’s retirement, Shelby has been promoted to become the Senior Vice President of Talent Relations and will manage both the women’s bantamweight and strawweight divisions along with the men’s bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight and Maynard will manage the men’s flyweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. Shelby is inheriting the lightweight and welterweight divisions, which were previously handled by Silva and handing over the flyweights to Maynard.

**MMA Junkie’s Ben Fowlkes and Steven Marracco continue to report on the UFC’s business figures from 2015 and have a new piece up on their pay-per-view revenue from 2015. Last year was the UFC’s highest for pay-per-view, which was a result of three fights involving Ronda Rousey and three from Conor McGregor on pay-per-view. The documents obtained listed the UFC’s total revenue for the year at $609 million (the four key areas of domestic / international rights fees, pay-per-view sales and Fight Pass subscriptions account for $462 million). Rousey accounted for 2.6 million buys over three fights (Cat Zingano, Bethe Correia and Holly Holm) and McGregor with 2.025 million buys (Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo).

**UFC bantamweight Guido Cannetti has been flagged for a possible USADA violation and has been removed from his fight on next weekend’s TUF Latin America Final card against Marco Beltran. Cannetti has put out a statement denying he took any banned substances and said it could only be from a supplement he took that may have been tainted.

**An injury to Luke Rockhold has forced the former middleweight champion to withdraw from his fight with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza later this month in Melbourne, Australia. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani was the first to report the news and the fight between Derek Brunson and Robert Whittaker has been moved up to the main event slot on the show.

**Ronda Rousey was a guest on the “Ellen” show on Tuesday to promote her return fight on December 30th at UFC 207 against bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. The major news coming out of the interview was Rousey stating that this is definitely one of her final fights and she is winding down her career. UFC president Dana White spoke to TMZ and repeated what Rousey said and this would be one of her last fights.


**Charles Oliveira missed weight by nine pounds today for his featherweight fight with Ricardo Lamas on the TUF Latin America Finale card set for Mexico City on Saturday night. It is technically the fifth time he has missed weight in the UFC with four misses on his record but there is an additional time he missed weight for a September 2014 fight with Nik Lentz, which ultimately was scrapped due to Oliveira having an illness and stating the illness was the reason he missed weight for that fight. Lamas is agreeing to fight at the catchweight, which is really unfair in my opinion.

**Bellator has lost a pair of fights for tonight’s card in Uncasville, Connecticut. MMA Fighting reported this morning that Paul Daley is off the show after a difficult weight cut. Daley did make weight on Thursday at 171 pounds but the Mohegan Athletic Commission made the call to remove him for safety issues. This comes a day after they lost a women’s featherweight fight between Marloes Coenen and Talita Nogueira after Nogueira missed weight by 5.6 pounds. Below is the new main card lineup at 9pm Eastern on Spike tonight:
*Liam McGeary vs. Phil Davis for the Bellator light heavyweight title
*Saad Awad vs. Brennan Ward
*Sergei Kharitonov vs. Javy Ayala
*Neiman Gracie vs. Rudy Bears

**UFC light heavyweight Tom Lawlor has been flagged for a possible USADA violation and was the result of an out-of-competition test from last month. Lawlor last fought in March at UFC 196 where he lost by unanimous decision to Corey Anderson. Lawlor is a fighter that was always worried about taking a tainted supplement and therefore doesn’t take supplements as a result of that. In this case, the onus will be on Lawlor to mount a defence and it’s hard to figure out how something got into your system if you cannot blame it on supplements. It’s actually a really important case for fighters when you look at the specifics of it.

**The inevitable became a reality on Wednesday as Jon Jones was stripped of his interim UFC light heavyweight just days after receiving a one-year suspension in the arbitration case for his failed UFC 200 drug test. ESPN first reported the news, which marked the second time in the past two years that Jones has been stripped of a UFC title.

"Jon Jones has blown it in every way shape and form a guy with that much talent can blow it," said UFC president Dana White to ESPN. "Greatest talent ever and the biggest screw-up ever."

With things looking bleak for Jones' chances of competing in the immediate future, White said on Wednesday that it was an easy choice for Jones to be stripped of his interim title.

"It doesn't make sense," White said. "He was the interim champion because he should have been fighting for the title [in April]. We gave him this, 'You were supposed to fight for the title, here it is.'

"It doesn't make sense with all the stuff that is going on for him to still be the interim champion."

Jones (22-1) was first stripped of his long-held UFC light heavyweight title in April 2015 for his role in a hit-and-run accident that left one pregnant victim with a broken arm. At that point, Jones was closing in on Anderson Silva's record hallowed for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history, however his streak was stopped at eight due to his actions.

*The ruling from the arbitration case involving Jones case down Monday and he has been suspended for one-year retroactive this past July for his failed drug test prior to UFC 200. Jones and USADA had their case heard last Monday over the course of ten-hours by the McLaren Global Sports Solutions with Jones stating that his failed drug test came as a result of sexual performance pill that were discovered to have Letrozol and clomophene found in the pill and were not listed as ingredients. They ruled that Jones did not do sufficient research to learn if the pill could be a breach of the WADA code and the USADA anti-doping policy. The suspension is retroactive and will leave Jones on the sidelines until next July. In the hearing, it was listed that the failed test led to Jones losing $9 million as a result of his removal from his fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.

**In a bizarre follow up, just minutes after the Jones ruling came down, Chael Sonnen called into The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to announce that Jones would be facing Dan Henderson in a grappling match on December 11th for the Submission Underground promotion. Sonnen claimed he was not aware of the Jones news when Helwani brought it up and asking about the ability of Jones to compete in the grappling match, given his suspension that has been delivered. The match is set to take place in Portland, Oregon and grappling matches have been exempt from commission suspensions in the past and it would be expected that Jones is technically allowed to compete. Jones and Henderson were scheduled to fight in September 2012 at the UFC 151 event, which was cancelled after Henderson pulled out of the fight due to an injury and Jones wouldn’t fight Chael Sonnen on such short notice. Jones did end up fighting a few weeks after at the UFC 152 card in Toronto and defended his light heavyweight title against Vitor Belfort.

**The UFC has announced that their annual Super Bowl weekend card will take place on Saturday February 4th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The promotion has not announced any fights yet for the card.

**The UFC returned on Saturday after a three-week break with the TUF Latin America Season 3 Finale card from Arena Ciudad in Mexico City in front of 11,460 and below are the results:
*Enrique Barzola def. Chris Avila by unanimous decision (30-26 all)
*Marco Polo Reyes def. Jason Novelli by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Sam Alvey def. Alex Nicholson by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Douglas Silva de Andrade def. Henry Briones by KO at 2:33 of Round 3 – The spinning back fist was very impressive and the fight was waved off immediately when it landed
*Max Griffin def. Erick Montano by TKO at 0:54 of Round 1 – Griffin clipped him behind the ear and Montano went down and was swarmed with strikes
*Joe Soto def. Marco Beltran by heel hook at 1:37 of Round 1 – Soto was a late replacement after Guido Cannetti was flagged for a possible USADA violation
*Erik Perez def. Felipe Arantes by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Alexa Grasso def. Heather Jo Clark by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Beneil Dariush def. Rashid Magomedov by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Martin Bravo def. Claudio Puelles by TKO at 1:55 of Round 2 to win the TUF Latin America Season 3 contract
*Ricardo Lamas def. Charles Oliveira by guillotine at 2:13 of Round 2 – Oliveira won the first round and almost had Lamas finished with a rear-naked choke as the buzzer sounded. Lamas locked on a guillotine in the second and got the tap after Oliveira missed weight by nine pounds on Friday.
*Diego Sanchez def. Marcin Held by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Held easily won the first round and included Sanchez nearly being caught with a guillotine and kicking off the fence to escape. Sanchez was the better conditioned and won the second and third rounds and was a big win for Sanchez and bouncing back after his stoppage loss to Joe Lauzon at UFC 200.
*Tony Ferguson def. Rafael dos Anjos by unanimous decision (48-47 all) – This was a great fight with Ferguson winning based on volume and winning the two final rounds and all three judges having the same as I did with Ferguson winning Rounds 2, 4 and 5. This is Ferguson’s ninth straight win in the lightweight division.

**Bellator had a great show on Friday night with their Bellator 163 card from Uncasville, Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Arena and featured the following main card results:
*Javy Ayala def. Sergei Kharitonov by KO at 0:16 of Round 1 – This was a brutal knockout and Kharitonov plunged backwards and was out instantly.
*Neiman Gracie def. Rudy Bears by armbar at 4:39 of Round 1
*Brennan Ward def. Saad Awad by KO at 1:26 of Round 1 – Ward put Awad against the fence and landed a left that sent him down and finished with strikes.
*Phil Davis def. Liam McGeary by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-44, 50-43) to win the Bellator light heavyweight title – I had Davis winning it 50-44 with a 10-8 Round 4 and dominant performance over the 25:00. Davis lit him with leg kicks and constantly was able to take McGeary down and mount him throughout the fight. This was one of Davis’ most complete performances and most focus will be on the wrestling but his striking was very effective as well.

**Tom Lawlor has revealed that the substance that came back in his USADA test was Ostarine. USADA announced on Thursday that Lawlor was flagged for a possible violation stemming from an out-of-competition drug test that was administered on October 10th.

**Bellator will be holding a card this Thursday from Tel Aviv with Andrey Koreshkov defending the Bellator welterweight title against Douglas Lima in a rematch from last year. The card will air on a one-day tape delay next Friday night on Spike.

**David “Kid” Kash fought on the Valor Fights card on Friday night in Nashville and aired on FloCombat. Kash was stopped by Lindsey Jones in 0:39 of the first round and featured Josh Mathews calling the event.

welp, no shuttin him up now.

Shit!

**Conor McGregor predicted early in his UFC career that he would one day become the first simultaneous two-division champion in company history. On Saturday at UFC 205, he made what once seemed like a farfetched proposition into his reality.

McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is now owner of both the UFC Lightweight and Featherweight championships after he scored a second-round knockout of Eddie Alvarez (28-5, 3-2 UFC) to close out the UFC's first event in New York in more than 20 years, which took place at Madison Square Garden.

What's even more impressive is how easy "The Notorious" made it all look. He smashed Alvarez repeatedly with his trademark left hand, dropping him multiple times in the opening minutes of the fight. Alvarez kept his composure and battled through the early flurries, but it was clear he was walking on thin ice. Iit was just matter of time until he was put down for good.

Alvarez cleared the cobwebs after being dropped and tried to trade with McGregor and score takedowns, but he wasn't able to find success anywhere. McGregor shook off every advance made by his opponent in the opening frame, and by the second round he was firmly in his groove.
McGregor dropped his opponent once more, and the third time was the charm. He followed up with a few ground strikes until the referee pulled him off at the 3:04 mark of Round 2, solidifying his victory and sending the crowd into a pandemonium.

The Irishman joined B.J. Penn and Randy Couture as the only fighters in UFC history to win belts in two divisions, but he set himself apart from the pack by being the first to hold two belts at once, etching his place in the company record books forever.

"I saw this so clearly – I swear to God – I saw this so clearly," McGregor told Rolling Stone after his win. "I followed it until it was reality. I'm very confident in my abilities. I back it up with work ethic, I back it with hours and hours of time and dedication. I never take an hour off this game. I'm very satisfied, very grateful, very happy. But not surprised. I knew it was going to happen to me."

UFC 205 pulled in a record $17.7 million live gate because of the 20,427 fans in attendance who paid an unprecedented amount for tickets. The event is also trending toward reaching a new benchmark for pay-per-view buys, said UFC President Dana White, topping the reported 1.65 million number set for McGregor's UFC 202 rematch with Nate Diaz in August.

McGregor had the 155-pound belt wrapped around his waist after his victory was announced, but immediately he called for the second piece of gold to be put in his possession, as well. He draped one belt over each should for an unforgettable piece of scenery, and Alvarez admitted after the fight that he allowed McGregor to force him off his game.

"The first time I was dropped, I remember being on my butt and I was like, 'Wow that was quick. Whatever that was, it was fast,'" Alvarez says. "I've been there before a lot of times in my career, I've been dropped. I don't panic. I get my composure and get right back up. It was more – his speed and timing were very good."

Once McGregor attacked, that composure melted away.

"I'm not quire sure [why I fought the way I did], and it was foolish." Alvarez says, "I'll be the first to admit that was not my intention to go into that fight. That was stupid, it was foolish and I paid for not sticking to the game plan. I paid for it. I didn't stick to the game plan."
McGregor's victory put him in a position of power unlike anything the sport has previously seen. White and the UFC brass said prior to UFC 205 that he would have to vacate a title if he won both, but McGregor has other plans. He could jump between divisions and defend either belt next, and even mentioned the possibility of moving back up to welterweight to go for a third piece of UFC gold.

That's all up in the air for now, but one thing that is a certainty is that McGregor's next big life occurrence will come outside the Octagon. His longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin is pregnant with their first child, he said, and McGregor wants some down time to enjoy is accomplishments and prepare for fatherhood.

Once he welcomes the new addition to his family it will be back to business, and considering what he's achieved so far through 10 UFC fights, he believes the sky is the limit going forward.

"I own the featherweight division, I'm dominating the 155 now, and 170, I have no problem with going to 170," McGregor says. "I've been to 170 ... I'm sizing them up all week and saying, 'They're not on my level either.' We'll see. Like I said, there's hurdles."
Age is not one of them.


"Twenty-eight (years old) is young, so we'll see," the champ says. "Fresh, I am. Not a bother on me. I could go again. I honestly could go again no problem. I'm just going to go chill for a bit, enjoy these two belts and that's it."


McGregor discusses his win over Eddie Alvarez, comments from lightweight challenger Khabib Nurmagomedov, what’s next and more.


**It has been reported by Damon Martin of FOX Sports as well as Ariel Helwani at MMA Fighting that the UFC is looking to book a fight between Donald Cerrone and Matt Brown for the UFC 206 card next month in Toronto.

**The UFC has announced their first three months of cards for 2017 with the announcements being made on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight. Below are the cards that have been announced:
*Sunday January 15th – Fight Night card from Phoenix, Arizona on the night of the NFC and AFC championship games
*Saturday January 21st – UFC 208 in Anaheim, California – this is the same night as Bellator’s card at The Forum in nearby Inglewood, California with Chael Sonnen vs. Tito Ortiz
*Saturday January 28th – Fight Night card in Denver, Colorado
*Saturday February 4th – Fight Night card in Houston, Texas (Super Bowl weekend, which is in Houston)
*Saturday February 11th – UFC 209 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn
*Saturday February 19th – Fight Night card in Halifax, Nova Scotia
*Saturday March 4th – UFC 210 in Las Vegas
*Saturday March 11th – Fight Night card in Brazil

After Historic Win, Conor McGregor Wants Stake in UFC
"I want the ownership now. I want the equal share. I want what I deserve, what I've earned," says UFC Lightweight and Featherweight champ



By Mike Bohn
2 hours ago

Conor McGregor made history at UFC 205 when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez in the second round to become the first simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history. It's an apex no fighter had ever reached previously, but that doesn't mean MMA's biggest superstar is anywhere close to content.

After beating Alvarez in what looked like the most effortless contest of his 10-fight UFC career, McGregor revealed that his longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin is pregnant with their first child. With an expected due date of May 2017, the Irish fighting sensation is displaying a shift in his priorities.

Despite telling Rolling Stone prior to UFC 205 that he was "set for life" and in position to provide for future generations of his family name, that still isn't good enough. McGregor wants more, and that goes far beyond cashing in record-setting fight purses or hanging multiple belts off his shoulders.
McGregor is not oblivious to the fact he's giving the UFC more than he's getting back, and it's likely been that way for his past several fights. But now that he holds both the UFC Lightweight and Featherweight championships and is in a greater position of power than any fighter the sport has seen past or present – including Ronda Rousey – he intends on taking advantage.

For him, that means a piece of UFC ownership. The company was recently purchased by Hollywood talent agency giant WME-IMG for a whopping $4.2 billion, and according to documents sent out to potential investors by the previous owners, McGregor's presence in the organization since his April 2013 debut played a substantial role in elevating the price tag.

McGregor has seen those documents and wants what he believes is a fair shake. And if he has to sit on the sideline to focus on the birth of his child while holding two title belts hostage to ensure that happens, he made no bones about the fact he's OK with doing so.

"I've been happy to just come do what I've been doing – I feel I've outworn the previous contract – now it's time for the real shit," McGregor told the media following his UFC 205 victory. "I know I'm the highest paid already, but when I'm looking at what they're taking in, that list that (former UFC owner) Lorenzo [Ferttita] compiled to show the new owners, that's like the gospel right there. That's proof of what I bring.

"You want me to come around, stick around and service that debt (from the purchase) and continue to push? Bring me on board for real. Not just as this. I need to be set for life for this. If you want me to be truly in on this then I need to be all in on this. Proper. That's a stake in the company."



It's difficult to argue with McGregor's point. Several years ago the idea of a fighter owning an actual piece of the UFC would be dismissed as laughable. However, McGregor's rise to the top of the sport has been unprecedented. He walks a road all his own and transcends fighting and all the rules that have previously applied.

Moreover, McGregor's numbers back up his reasoning. He has competed three times in 2016, and win or lose, every fight turns into a more grandiose spectacle than the last. His two fights with Nate Diaz at UFC 196 in March and UFC 202 in August drew a combined $18.8 million in live gate sales and reportedly broke the UFC pay-per-view record each time with more than 3 million total buys.

UFC 205, which marked the organization's highly anticipated return to New York after MMA was banned in the state for more than 20 years, "broke every record" for the company, according to UFC President Dana White.

The fight with Alvarez, who despite being 155-pound champion and having a long and storied career, was largely unheralded to the casual and mainstream audience, pulled in a UFC and Madison Square Garden live gate record at $17.7 million. That smashed the previous UFC high of $11 million set by UFC 129 in April 2011, an event in Toronto, which was headlined by Georges St-Pierre.

Furthermore, the event is also expected to top the UFC pay-per-view record once more. McGregor predicted prior to UFC 205 that the card would sell more than two million buys, and as usual, his assent appears on point. If that number holds up, he would bypass boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather's record for most combat sports pay-per-views sold in a single year at more than 4.5 million.

With all that perspective, McGregor's request for a stake in UFC ownership doesn't seem so farfetched after all, especially because WME-IMG has already proven willing to sell of pieces to outsiders such as a long list of celebrity investors announced in late September.

"Whoever runs this shit now has got to come to me and give me the real slice because that's what I've earned," McGregor said. "They've got to come talk to me now because no one's came and talked to me since the sale has happened as a business-man. I've been approached as, 'Hello' and that type of stuff, but I've earned something."

McGregor thinks he's in the same league as some of the famous names who own small chunks of the company he fights for.

"Who owns the company now? People have shares. Celebrities. Conan O'Brien owns the UFC now. Where's my share? Where's my equity? I'm the one that's bringing this. They've got to come talk to me now. I've got both belts, family on the way. If you want me to stick around, if you want me to keep doing (this), let's talk. But I want the ownership now. I want the equal share. I want what I deserve, what I've earned."

Whether McGregor's desires for the future shake out remains to be seen, but he made it clear he's willing to hold out until he gets what he wants. Despite a bevy of deserving contenders eager to challenge for his belts in both weight classes, McGregor said he's not going to step back in the Octagon again until he's compensated with exactly what he knows he's worth.

He may already be the highest paid fighter the sport has ever seen, with his most recent publicly-announced purse against Diaz at UFC 202 coming in at a record $3 million it's clear he wants to generate a payday in the realm of someone like Mayweather, which would come in at closer to $30 million.
At just 28, McGregor said he could be kept around the UFC for many years to come and has much more to offer in terms of fights and promotion. He could even be looking to make more history by jumping up to the Welterweight division and seeking a third piece of UFC gold for his collection.

Many use the term "the sky's the limit," but for McGregor's career, it truly applies. He's not going to push the limit for a penny less than what he feels worthy of, though, but if the UFC brass disagrees, McGregor's next and perhaps toughest fight could be against management.

"I feel like I'm only reaching me prime," McGregor said. "I could keep going but I'm aware of my worth. I've got a family on the way, I've got a kid on the way and I'm coming for mine now. I own the featherweight division. I'm dominating the 155 now. And 170, I have no problem with going to 170. I've been to 170, … I'm sizing them up all week and saying, 'They're not on my level either.' We'll see. Like I said, there's hurdles (before I fight again)."

**Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida has been suspended for 18-months by USADA after declaring he had taken a banned substance when he was being tested earlier this year. Machida listed a product on his form that contained 7-keto-DHEA as an ingredient and is banned by USADA. This acknowledgement on his form led to his removal from a fight with Dan Henderson that was scheduled to take place days late in April this year. The suspension is retroactive to April and would make Machida ineligible to fight until October of 2017. Machida is currently 38 years old and would be 39 by the time he is able to compete again. Machida has been fighting for the UFC since 2007 and became light heavyweight champion in May of 2009 when he defeated Rashad Evans and held the title for a year. In 2013, Machida moved down to middleweight and was coming off back-to-back losses to Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero when he was flagged by USADA earlier this year.

**Ryan Bader noted in an interview with MMA Fighting today that this weekend’s main event against Antonio Rogerio Nogueria will be the last on his current contract and will explore free agency after the fight.

**Chad Laprise has suffered an injury and his fight with Li Jingliang is off of next month’s UFC 206 card in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. The UFC is not planning to find a replacement opponent and the card is currently scheduled to feature 13 fights.

**Tarec Saffiedine has a new opponent for UFC 207 on December 30th in Las Vegas. Saffiedine was scheduled to fight Matt Brown on the card but Brown was taken out of the fight in order to face Donald Cerrone on December 10th in Toronto at UFC 206. Saffiedine’s new opponent is Dong-Hyun Kim, who was originally scheduled to fight Gunnar Nelson this weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland but Nelson was injured and the fight was scrapped.

**This weekend is one of the busiest of the year with two UFC cards and a Bellator show happening on Saturday. The weekend will kick off with Invicta FC on Friday from Kansas City and airing on Fight Pass with Tonya Evinger defending the bantamweight title against Yuna Kunitskaya and Angela Hill defending the strawweight title against Kaline Medeiros.

**Georges St-Pierre’s last fight in the UFC took place on this date in 2013 at UFC 167 in Las Vegas. St-Pierre narrowly retained his UFC welterweight title by defeating Johny Hendricks by split decision.

**The Brazilian Superior Justice Court of MMA has handed down a nine-month suspension and $40,000 fine to heavyweight Roy Nelson for his post-fight kicking of referee John McCarthy. Nelson had dropped opponent Antonio Silva and was landing strikes and felt the fight was over but McCarthy had yet to wave it off and this upset Nelson, who didn’t want to continue striking Silva. As McCarthy checked on Silva after the fight, Nelson came from behind and kicked him from behind. The fine and suspension could be lessened if Nelson opts to publically apologize to McCarthy before the end of the year and would reduce his suspension to six-months and the fine to $24,000.

**Below is the preview of the UFC’s upcoming “Agony and Defeat” special on UFC 205 where some captivating moments are caught, including Miesha Tate’s reaction moments after her loss to Raquel Pennington and deciding to announce her retirement on the spot:


**UFC president Dana White spoke to the L.A Times and stated that Conor McGregor will not fight before May because of his girlfriend set to give birth to the couple’s first child. White stated they don’t want to have the stress of a fight in the middle of the pregnancy and that McGregor will take a break until the birth. McGregor fought three times in 2016 with two fights against Nate Diaz at welterweight and then coming down and winning the lightweight title this past weekend at UFC 205. The decision by McGregor will leave the UFC without their biggest drawing card and also comes as Ronda Rousey will fight on December 30th and even if she does to opt to continue fighting it is unlikely she would return that quickly for a fight in the first half of 2017. Their third biggest star is Jon Jones and he is suspended by USADA until next July and still has to receive his punishment from the Nevada Athletic Commission.

**Michael Bisping spoke on his Sirius XM show about his pending title defence against Yoel Romero. Bisping said that UFC president Dana White proposed the fight for the UFC 208 event on January 21st in Anaheim but Bisping noted he recently had injections on his knee and would not be ready to enter a fight camp next week, which is what he would need to do. Bisping countered by suggesting the spring and it was left with White going to seek out dates and venues and get back to Bisping to finalize a date.

**The UFC has a doubleheader on Saturday with cards in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Below is the card for Belfast:

MAIN CARD (4pm Eastern on Fight Pass, Fight Network in Canada)
*Gegard Mousasi vs. Uriah Hall
*Ross Pearson vs. Stevie Ray
*Alexander Volkov vs. Timothy Johnson
*Teruto Ishihara vs. Artem Lobov

PRELIMINARY CARD (12:45pm Eastern on Fight Pass)
*Jack Marshman vs. Magnus Cedenblad
*Ali Bagautinov vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
*Kevin Lee vs. Magomed Mustafaev
*Anna Elmose vs. Amanda Cooper
*Mark Godbeer vs. Justin Ledet
*Zak Cummings vs. Alexander Yakovlev
*Marion Reneau vs. Milan Dudieva
*Kwan Ho Kawk vs. Brett Johns
*Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Charlie Ward

Following the Belfast card, they will immediately begin with their show in Sao Paulo and that features the following card:

MAIN CARD (9pm Eastern on FS 1)
*Ryan Bader vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
*Thomas Almeida vs. Alberto Morales
*Claudia Gadelha vs. Cortney Casey
*Thales Leites vs. Krzysztof Jotko
*Warlley Alves vs. Kamaru Usman
*Zak Ottow vs. Sergio Moraes

PRELIMINARY CARD (7pm on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Cezar Ferreira vs. Jack Hermansson
*Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov
*Johnny Eduardo vs. Manny Gamburyan
*Christian Colombo vs. Luis Henrique

FIGHT PASS CARD (6pm Eastern)
*Pedro Munhoz vs. Justin Scoggins
*Francimar Barroso vs. Darren Stewart

They've got to get Fight Pass available on more platforms. I would totally get it if it was on PlayStation or vizio smart tvs.

**Ariel Helwani reported today that Daniel Cormier has been removed from the main event of UFC 206 due to injury and leaves the card without a main event at the moment. In the report, Helwani stated that the promotion is seeking a replacement for Anthony Johnson and keeping him on the card, which is two-weeks away. There also are not a whole lot of options unless you consider Johnson fighting at heavyweight and then you are risking your only viable challenger for Cormier’s title. At light heavyweight, Ryan Bader just fought and Johnson just beat Bader in January in decisive fashion and also holds a win over Jimi Manuwa while Alexander Gustafsson is hurt and that’s why he didn’t fight on the Brazil card last week as Bader replaced him against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Barring a rabbit that the UFC could pull out to save the main event and have something viable for pay-per-view, this show should really be a free Fight Night card on television.*
*Dave Meltzer has added that Cormier has a torn abductor muscle and mild inguinal hernia, which forced him to withdraw from the fight.


**The UFC has announced that BJ Penn will meet Yair Rodriguez in the main event of the UFC’s card in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday January 15th and will air on FS 1. It is the latest attempt for Penn to return to fighting after numerous setbacks in 2016. Penn last fought in July of 2014 and was dominated by Frankie Edgar while Rodriguez has become one of the most entertaining fighters in the featherweight division to watch since winning TUF Latin America and posting a 5-0 record inside the UFC.


**The same MRI issue that forced Rashad Evans to be removed from the UFC 205 card at Madison Square Garden is now preventing Evans from fighting in Toronto next month against Tim Kennedy. Kennedy revealed the fight was off to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour today with Ali Abdel-Aziz (the manager of Evans) confirming the fight was off to Helwani. It is unknown what the MRI revealed to the commissions in New York and Ontario and Abdel-Aziz stated that Evans is hoping to fight in early 2017.


**Bellator announced on Saturday night that they have signed Fedor Emelianenko and he will be fighting Matt Mitrione on February 18th when the promotion returns to the SAP Center in San Jose. They did an elaborate introduction with Mitrione brought out and they explained that Mitrione signed a contract with the name hidden on the contract as though he was finding out for the first time it was Emelianenko, even though reports were out and this was hardly the surprise it was made up to be. Regardless, it’s a sign that Bellator and Spike are willing to commit big dollars to signing fighters as Emelianenko is not coming in cheap and stylistically, this is a difficult fight for Emelianenko as he didn’t look great in his last fight with Fabio Maldonado, who is a light heavyweight that came up in weight to fight Emelianenko earlier this year.

Here are the the results from Saturday’s UFC doubleheader. The first card was from the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland in front of an announced audience of 7,222 and a gate of $850,000 with the following results:
*Abdul Razak Alhassan def. Charlie Ward by KO at 0:53 of Round 1
*Brett Johns def. Kwak Ho Kwan by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – This was a really good fight but I definitely thought Kwak won the final round
*Marion Reneau def. Milana Dudieva by TKO at 3:03 of Round 3
*Zak Cummings def. Alexander Yakovlev by straight armbar at 4:02 of Round 2
*Justin Ledet def. Mark Godbeer by rear-naked choke at 2:16 of Round 1
*Amanda Cooper def. Anna Elmose by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Kevin Lee def. Magomed Mustafaev by rear-naked choke at 4:31 of Round 2
*Kyoji Horiguchi def. Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Jack Marshman def. Magnus Cedenblad by TKO at 3:32 of Round 2
*Artem Lobov def. Teruto Ishihara by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Alexander Volkov def. Timothy Johnson by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
*Stevie Ray def. Ross Pearson by split decision (30-27, 27-30, 30-27)
*Gegard Mousasi def. Uriah Hall by TKO at 4:37 of Round 1

The performance bonuses were handed out to Jack Marshman, Kevin Lee, Justin Ledet and Abdul Razak Alhassan for $50,000 each.

**The second UFC card of Saturday took place from Sao Paulo, Brazil in front of 9,028 at the Ginasio do Ibirapuera with the following results:
*Darren Stewart def. Francimar Barroso by TKO at 1:34 of Round 1
*Pedro Munhoz def. Justin Scoggins by guillotine choke at 1:55 of Round 2
*Luis Henrique def. Christian Colombo by guillotine at 2:12 of Round 3
*Johnny Eduardo def. Manny Gamburyan by TKO at 0:46 of Round 2
*Gadzhimurad Antigulov def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima by guillotine at 1:07 of Round 1
*Cezar Ferreira def. Jack Hermansson by arm-triangle at 2:11 of Round 2
*Sergio Moraes def. Zak Ottow by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
*Kamaru Usman def. Warlley Alves by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-28)
*Krzysztof Jotko def. Thales Leites by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Claudia Gadelha def. Cortney Casey by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Thomas Almeida def. Alberto Morales by TKO at 1:37 of Round 2
*Ryan Bader def. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira by TKO at 3:51 of Round 3

The performance bonuses went to Thomas Almeida, Cezar Ferreira, Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Pedro Munhoz for $50,000 each.

**The New York State Athletic Commission has issued some puzzling suspensions coming out of UFC 205 for a variety of reasons. Kelvin Gastelum was issued a six-month suspension for the combination of missing weight and failure to actual weigh-in on the Friday before UFC 205 and led to the cancellation of his welterweight fight with Donald Cerrone. Thiago Alves was issued a three-month suspension because he came in over weight at 162.6 pounds for his fight with Jim Miller, which remained on the card as Miller added enough weight to be within the allowable range for the commission to allow the fight to take place. Finally, Yoel Romero has been issued a two-month suspension for hopping over the cage after his win over Chris Weidman and celebrating. Brett Okamoto of ESPN reported the Alves and Gastelum suspensions and added that Gastelum’s team is planning to launch an appeal as he had verbally agreed to fight Tim Kennedy at UFC 206 on December 10th and this suspension would prevent him from being able to take the fight.


**CM Punk (Phil Brooks) appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this past Monday and stated he will definitely fight again but it’s up to the UFC if he will fight for them or another organization. Punk has been relatively quiet since UFC 203 in September and his first round loss to Mickey Gall in his pro debut. On that night, Dana White spoke to me and stated that it his next fight should “probably” not be in the UFC but has not committed one way or the other to the future for Punk. In the interview, Punk stated that an idea has been floated and he seems confident that he will fight in the UFC next and would like to return in January or February. Given the disparity in stars and volume of shows, there are solid arguments to utilizing Punk in the UFC as he’s going to draw a lot of attention for his next fight so it may as well be for the UFC if you have him under contract and given the lack of options throughout the first half of 2017, the UFC could use someone that is going to generate above average interest for either a fight on pay-per-view, FOX or Ultimate Fighter.

Oh and Conor McGregor no longer has his featherweight belt.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-spor ... ight-title

Funny that, Cormier goes down, no main event for 206, Aldo is ready to leave MMA and *poof*, belt is off Conor, Aldo is now champ and Pettis and Holloway are now a title fight for 206.

It's a Christmas Miracle!!

So Aldo will be a double interim champion?

Also, what happens when Aldo pulls an Aldo and pulls out of the fight against Max/Pettis? A fight for the interim title 3x removed?

numbers wrote:So Aldo will be a double interim champion?

Also, what happens when Aldo pulls an Aldo and pulls out of the fight against Max/Pettis? A fight for the interim title 3x removed?

Aldo's now the champ!

**The UFC returned to Melbourne on Saturday for a Fight Night event at the Rod Laver Arena with an announced attendance of 13,721 and was a card that was one of the thinnest that the UFC has promoted this year and also lost the original main event between Luke Rockhold and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza with the Robert Whittaker vs. Derek Brunson moved up to the main event slot and made into a five-round fight. The card featured eight decisions to start the show and ended up with ten of the thirteen fights going to the judges. The highlight of the card was easily the main event as it was chaotic as Brunson was landing and winning and then just threw the game plan out the window and chased Whittaker down like a wild man and ran into strikes and was ultimately stopped with a head kick and left hands from Whittaker. It is one of those fights that Brunson will look back on and wonder what he was thinking. Below are the full results:
*Jenel Lausa def. Yao Zhikui by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Lausa’s speed and power were the difference
*Marlon Vera def. Ning Guangyou by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Vera won Round 1 and 3. After the fight he compared himself to a shark and said when he smells that he will “eat the fuck out of you” and also said he is going down to bantamweight.
*Jason Knight def. Dan Hooker by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 29-28) – Knight dominated the second with control of Hooker’s back and had it 30-26 for Knight.
*Ben Nguyen def. Geane Herrera by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) – Excellent fight from Nguyen, who is really fast and came at Herrera with all different angles and easily Nguyen’s best performance in the UFC.
*Jonathan Meunier def. Rich Walsh by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Damien Brown def. Jon Tuck by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – This was a close fight with the two splitting Rounds 1 and 2 but Brown just did enough in the third after weathering a storm in the first round to win it 29-28.
*Dan Kelly def. Chris Camozzi by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-28) – Kelly was sliced open on his forehead and lost a lot of blood in the fight. Kelly is so tough and came back to win Round 2 and 3 after a very close first, which is where his forehead was sliced open but you could still argue Kelly won all three rounds.
*Danielle Taylor def. Seo Hee Ham by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27) – Ham definitely won the first round so the two 30-27 scores were hard to justify. Taylor won the third by circling the perimeter and landing as Ham would enter the pocket and it came down to the second, which was a really close round.
*Tyson Pedro def. Khalil Rountree by rear-naked choke at 4:07 of Round 1 – This was the first finish of the card and was nearly a win for Rountree as he dropped Pedro with a left but Pedro recovered and was able to get the back and submit Rountree.
*Alexander Volkanovski def. Yusuke Kasuya by TKO at 2:06 of Round 2 – Volkanovski got a takedown in the second round and Kasuya tried to grab the leg of Volkanovski but tied up his arms and was left vulnerable to numerous strikes without the ability to defend and Volkanovski ended the fight with strikes.
*Omari Akhmedov def. Kyle Noke by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – After the fight Noke announced his retirement.
*Andrew Holbrook def. Jake Matthews by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – Holbrook won the first and third rounds. Matthews was on top in the third but was so inactive in Holbrook’s guard and Holbrook attacked from his back and got the round.
*Robert Whittaker def. Derek Brunson by TKO at 4:07 of Round 1 – This was a wild fight with both landing huge blows and then Brunson started charging with all caution thrown to the wind and ended up running into a massive shot and Whittaker later connected with a head kick and unloaded with left hands and stopped Brunson.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson and Whittaker also picked up a performance bonus for a total of $100,000 in bonuses. Tyson Pedro also received a $50,000 performance bonus.

**The UFC returns next Saturday with the TUF 24 Finale as Demetrious Johnson defends the flyweight title against the winner of this Wednesday’s TUF final between Tim Elliott and Hiromasa Ogikubo and the coaches Joseph Benavidez and Henry Cejudo are also fighting on the card and should be a great fight.

**The UFC is also attempting to book Tim Kennedy and Kelvin Gastelum for the UFC 206 card on December 10th in Toronto but that is tougher because Gastelum was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission after he failed to attend the UFC 205 weigh-ins earlier this month and Gastelum received a six-month suspension.

**Sports Business Journal has a big story today on the UFC’s domestic television deal, which comes to an end with FOX at the end of 2018 and the ambitious plans the new ownership has for its next rights deal. The piece by John Ourand and Liz Mullen of SBJ, states that the new ownership is expected to look for an increase to $450 million annually for the UFC package and looking for a ten-year term, which would consist of the four annual FOX specials (there were actually five in 2016), six cable specials, close to weekly cards on FS 1 and could also include the rights to UFC Fight Pass and allowing the network control of the broadcasts, which would be major fundamental change as the UFC has controlled their own broadcasts and was a key point to the existing FOX deal when it was signed in 2011.

Based on the recent financial reports that MMA Junkie put out, the deal with FOX had an escalating fee with the rights deal growing each year. It was revealed in the financial reports that the UFC is expected to earn $140 million in 2016 from FOX and that figure grows to $154 in 2017 and maxes out at $168 million for the final year of the contract with an average of $115 million per year over the life of the contract.

FOX will have an exclusive negotiating window that begins around the end of 2017 and there is an incentive to keep the UFC package but the price tag is going to be an enormous one for any singular network to justify and the intriguing element would come in 2018 with the level of interest from other networks such as ESPN.

With the combination of a massive rights increase and the hope to keep your pay-per-view business at healthy levels (which is way more volatile given it is star driven and you have way less control of that part of the business), the UFC could be into record revenue territory and would be game changing for the company to hit these marks. Without question, this will be the biggest MMA business story to follow over the next two-years.

**UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was on The MMA Hour today with Ariel Helwani, confirming he suffered a torn abductor muscle but stated he is still weighing the options of whether to have surgery or not. He stated that rehabbing the injury without surgery would take approximately five-months to recover and surgery would keep him out of the gym for eight-weeks.

**Bellator has made some changes to their two cards this weekend in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Friday’s card will now feature Ray Wood taking the spot of the injured Emmanuel Sanchez and will fight A.J. McKee on the main card, which is headlined by Eduardo Dantas defending the bantamweight title against Joe Warren. The Saturday night card will now be headlined by the rematch between Darrion Caldwell and Joe Taimanglo after Patricky “Pitbull” Freire was injured and had to withdraw from the main event against Derek Campos. The promotion has stated that Campos will receive his show money and be booked for a fight in early 2017. Both cards will air on Spike TV this Friday and Saturday at 9pm Eastern.

**The formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) was announced this week via conference call with Georges St-Pierre, Tim Kennedy, Cain Velasquez, T.J. Dillashaw and Donald Cerrrone speaking on the call and comprising the board for the association with former Bellator C.E.O. Bjorn Rebney serving in an advisory capacity. Below are the some of the many notes coming out of the call:
-They strongly identified themselves as an association and not a union with Rebney believing a union would be their worst option and would spend years attempting to do what they must because of the fighters classification as independent contractors
-There has been no contact with the UFC and they do not plan on doing so as their plan won’t involve that
-Rebney has been working on this for two years and not been paid anything, they have a headquarters in Orange County and will be travelling to various gyms and speaking to fighters
-They claim that fighters made 8% of the revenue that the UFC generates and are entitled to a significantly larger portion and wanting a 50/50 split
-The association is specifically directed at the UFC and WME-IMG and looking to assist past, present and future fighters
-They stated that litigation and a labor strike would be last resort options and not options they are currently interested in
-Despite St-Pierre, Kennedy, Velasquez and Dillashaw being represented by CAA (Creative Artists Agency), the agency supports its athletes but is not necessarily the association and didn’t want to position this as a WME-IMG vs. CAA situation
-They didn’t add any other names that are attached to the association but Rebney did mention that former Bellator matchmaker Zach Light is involved too

**Bellator has added a welterweight fight between Paul Daley and Brennan Ward for their January 21st card in Inglewood, California at The Forum, which is the card headlined by Chael Sonnen taking on Tito Ortiz.

**The UFC announced on Thursday that they are scrapping the January 21st pay-per-view date from the Honda Center in Anaheim and will be running the venue on August 5th (which will be a pay-per-view date). The February 11th card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn will now become UFC 208 with the promotion scheduled to run 12 pay-per-view events in 2017. The main issue was that the UFC didn’t have a viable main event for the January 21st date and still have holes to fill with a FOX card on January 28th, a Fight Night on February 4th in Houston on the eve of the Super Bowl in the same city and then the Brooklyn card on February 11th. For the 2017 calendar, they are planning to have one pay-per-view per month from February – November and then have two pay-per-view events in December 2017.


**Both Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes are no longer employed by the UFC. This comes amid layoffs at the UFC announced on Thursday by WME-IMG with Ariel Helwani first reporting the layoffs. Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal pegged the number of people being let go at 20 with a total of 15% of their workforce believed to have been let go over the past two rounds of layoffs since the sale went through.

**The House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing next Thursday at 10am with a subcommittee focused on Mixed Martial Arts. The hearing is being titled “Mixed Martial Arts: Issues and Perspectives” and will be streamed at http://energycommerce.house.gov from the Rayburn House Office Building.

**Ariel Helwani reported today at MMA Fighting that the UFC is close to finalizing a main event for the February 4th Fight Night event in Houston between the returning Chan Sung Jung and Dennis Bermudez. Because of Jung’s mandatory military service in South Korea, he has not fought since UFC 163 in August of 2013 when he unsuccessfully challenged Jose Aldo for the featherweight championship. Bermudez is coming off wins over Tatsuya Kawajiri and Rony Jason earlier this year.

**Bellator is running back-to-back nights this weekend in Thackerville, Oklahoma with both Friday and Saturday night’s cards airing at 9pm Eastern on Spike. The cards have been hit with injuries with the key ones being to Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (who was to fight Derek Campos) and to Pat Curran (who was to fight John Teixeira, who remains on the Saturday night card). Below is the main card lineup for tonight’s show:
*Eduardo Dantas vs. Joe Warren for the Bellator bantamweight title – Dantas looked outstanding in his last fight, defeating Marcos Galvao and dominating him for five rounds.
*A.J. McKee vs. Ray Wood – McKee is a big prospect at featherweight for the promotion and Wood is replacing Emmanuel Sanchez in this fight
*Marcos Galvao vs. L.C. Davis
*Chris Honeycutt vs. Ben Reiter – they are fighting at a catchweight of 195 pounds

**Roy Nelson appeared in front of media today and issued an apology for his actions back in September when he kicked referee John McCarthy from behind over his win over Antonio Silva. Nelson was given the opportunity to apologize in a public forum in order to have his suspension and fine reduced by the commission in Brazil. His initial punishment was a nine-month suspension and fine of $24,000 but with the apology he would be able to reduce it to a six-month suspension and $13,700 fine.

**The UFC has added a number of fights to their Fight Night card on Sunday January 15th, which is headlined by BJ Penn taking on Yair Rodriguez. In addition to the featherweight main event, lightweights Joe Lauzon and Marcin Held have been added to the card, a bantamweight fight between Bryan Caraway and Jimmie Rivera has been added and a flyweight fight between Jussier Formiga and Sergio Pettis.

**The TUF 24 Finale card is Saturday from The Palms in Las Vegas with the following card:

MAIN CARD (10pm Eastern on FS 1, TSN 2 in Canada)
*Demetrious Johnson vs. Tim Elliott for the UFC flyweight title
*Joseph Benavidez vs. Henry Cejudo
*Jorge Masvidal vs. Jake Ellenberger
*Ion Cutelaba vs. Jared Cannonier
*Sara McMann vs. Alexis Davis
*Ryan Benoit vs. Brandon Moreno

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm on FS 1, Fight Network in Canada)
*Gray Maynard vs. Ryan Hall
*Rob Font vs. Matt Schnell
*Brendan O’Reilly vs. Dong Hyun Kim
*Kailin Curran vs. Jamie Moyle

FIGHT PASS CARD (7pm Eastern)
*Anthony Smith vs. Elvis Mutapcic
*Devin Clark vs. Josh Stansbury

**Here are the results from Saturday’s UFC TUF 24 Finale card from The Palms in Las Vegas in front of 2,044 and a gate of $188,602:
*Devin Clark def. Josh Stansbury by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Anthony Smith def. Elvis Mutapcic by TKO at 3:27 of Round 1 – Mutapcic won the first round but then Smith came back and lit him with strikes and led to the stoppage
*Jamie Moyle def. Kailin Curran by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – this was a good fight and closer than the scores made it appear but a tough loss for Curran, who has now lost 4 of her last 5
*Dong Hyun Kim def. Brendan O’Reilly by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – This is the lightweight Dong Hyun Kim and not the more well-known welterweight one
*Rob Font def. Matt Schnell by KO at 3:47 of Round 1 – Schnell replaced Alejandro Perez on short notice
*Ryan Hall def. Gray Maynard by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Maynard got very frustrated because Hall was constantly going to the ground and fishing for Maynard’s leg. Hall was also quick with his hooks kicks and was catching Maynard frequently with them, the crowd booed but Hall hardly fought a bad fight at all.
*Brandon Moreno def. Ryan Benoit by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – Moreno is a great personality and after going onto TUF as the #16 flyweight, he has now wins over Louis Smolka and Benoit
*Sara McMann def. Alexis Davis by arm-triangle choke at 2:52 of Round 2 – Davis was on bottom for the first round but landed lots of strikes and felt she won the first round. McMann got her down in the second and tightened the choke and tapped out Davis, who hadn’t fought since April of 2015.
*Jared Cannonier def. Ion Cutelaba by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Cutelaba won the first round but he tired and Cannonier took over.
*Jorge Masvidal def. Jake Ellenberger by TKO at 4:05 of Round 1 – This was a weird finish as Ellenberger got his foot trapped between the fence and the edge of the octagon and started taking strikes as Herb Dean couldn’t call a timeout and Masvidal was awarded the win by TKO. This would be an interesting case if Ellenberger tries to appeal.
*Joseph Benavidez def. Henry Cejudo by split decision (30-26, 27-29, 29-27) – I had it a draw at 28-28 as Cejudo was deducted a point in Round 1 and he clearly won that round so it was 9-9. Cejudo won the second and Benavidez won the third on my card, this was a great fight and Benavidez has now won six straight and could get a third fight with Demetrious Johnson.
*Demetrious Johnson def. Tim Elliott by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) to retain the UFC flyweight title – Johnson lost the first round with Elliott working for a pair of chokes but couldn’t get him. Elliott fights with an awkward stance and made Johnson adjust but Johnson got his rhythm and took Elliott down and had constant pressure on top. Round 4 could have been a 10-8 so the 49-45 score wasn’t crazy but Johnson clearly won.

**The Fight of the Night bonus was awarded to Jared Cannonier and Ion Cutelaba and the Performance bonuses went to Sara McMann and Anthony Smith for $50,000 each.

**Demetrious Johnson’s win on Saturday was his ninth title defence and his next fight would tie Anderson Silva’s record of ten defences, if Johnson is successful. The options are flyweight are a third fight with Joseph Benavidez, Wilson Reis (who is supposed to fight Ulka Sasaki next) or the winner of Zach Makovsky and Dustin Ortiz, who are fighting at UFC 206 this weekend.

**Tito Ortiz is stating that his fight with Chael Sonnen on January 21st will be the final fight of his career. The fight takes place two days before Ortiz’s 42nd birthday.

**Below is Episode 1 of UFC Embedded going into UFC 206 this Saturday night in Toronto:


**UFC president Dana White was a guest with Matt Serra and Jim Norton on the “UFC Unfiltered” podcast today and addressed many topics and below are the highlights from the interview:
-He wasn’t unhappy about the fighters forming the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association but was extremely negative about Bjorn Rebney being involved and called him a “scumbag” and repeated what many others have said about his past when dealing with fighters and now doing a complete reversal in this new venture.
-He said he was surprised he didn’t at least receive a phone call from Donald Cerrone about the association and Cerrone joining the effort. White brought up a story from a few years ago where Cerrone was involved in a fight with someone while on his boat and White ended up spending $100,000 of his own money for Cerrone to have good representation in the case.
-The UFC offered Cris “Cyborg” Justino two fights at 145 pounds to create a title and both were turned down by Cyborg’s team. White said they offered her a fight with Holly Holm for the now cancelled January 21st card in Anaheim and Cyborg’s team said she couldn’t make 145 pounds by then and then was offered the same fight on February 11th in Brooklyn and it was turned down as well. White also said that Holm really wanted the fight but her coach Mike Winkeljohn didn’t want her to take the fight and ultimately went with Winkeljohn’s decision and therefore the UFC’s backup plan was to have Germaine de Randamie fight Cyborg but that isn’t happening. (On a side note, Holm’s manager Lenny Fresquez spoke to Ariel Helwani today and stated that the team agreed on fighting Cyborg at either 136 or 138 pounds but not at any weight higher than that).
-White did address the recent firings of Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes and noted that he promised they would have jobs as long as he was alive or in a decision making position and that has obviously changed. White said it’s normal for big companies to purchase another company and bring in their own people and therefore the cuts were made.
-White also said that Conor McGregor has a few fights left on his UFC deal and then they can re-negotiate or he can become a free agent. He said the fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is “never” going to happen.
-He also added that Jon Jones is coming back next summer

**Following Dana White’s comments on the podcast, Cris “Cyborg” Justino issued a statement to MMA Fighting about why she turned down the fight. She said the weight cut for her last fight was brutal and that she was so weak the night of the fight that she couldn’t even warm up in the dressing room ahead of the fight with Lina Lansberg. Cyborg blamed the bad cut on nutritionist George Lockhart’s decision to put her on birth control and led to Cyborg cutting 24 pounds the week of the fight. She outlined that her blood was so thick the day after the fight that doctors could not draw blood for testing. She stated that she is also battling depression and needed more than 8 or 10 weeks to prepare for a fight (which would have been the dates for January 21st and February 11th) and is willing to fight on the March pay-per-view in Brazil.

**The UFC had added a women’s strawweight fight between Jessica Andrade and Maryna Moroz to the UFC 207 card on Friday December 30th in Las Vegas. Andrade has looked excellent since cutting down to strawweight with stoppage wins over Jessica Penne and Joanne Calderwood this year and would likely be in line for a championship fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk with a win over Moroz. Moroz is coming off decision wins over Cristina Stanciu and Danielle Taylor this year and also holds a win over Joanne Calderwood in the UFC.

**FOX Sports reported today that a women’s bantamweight fight between Julianna Pena and Valentina Shevchenko will headline the UFC’s Fight Night card on Saturday January 28th in Denver, Colorado at the Pepsi Center, which will air on FOX. This will be Shevchenko’s second main event on FOX after defeating Holly Holm last July on the network while Pena has won four straight fights and the winner of this fight would likely be in line for the next bantamweight title shot.

**Below are the results from Friday’s UFC Fight Night card in Albany, New York in front of 6,216 and a gate of $411,000 at the Times Union Center:
*Juliana Lima def. JJ Aldrich by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Ryan Janes def. Keith Berish by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Marc Diakiese def. Frankie Perez by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Shane Burgos def. Tiago Trator by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 29-27)
*Andrew Sanchez def. Trevor Smith by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Smith’s left eye was a mess by the end of this fight and was a good win for Sanchez
*Gerald Meerschaert def. Joe Gigliotti by submission at 4:12 of Round 1 – This was a very good submission win and Meerschaert said he is coming after the middleweight division following the win
*Randy Brown def. Brian Camozzi by TKO at 1:25 of Round 2 – Camozzi is the brother of Chris Camozzi and was making his UFC debut
*Justine Kish def. Ashley Yoder by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – This was the second best fight on the show and a very close fight. Yoder was able to mount Kish a number of times but Kish was able to escape before much damage could be done
*Gian Villante def. Saparbek Safarov by TKO at 2:54 of Round 2 – This fight was insane, nothing technical about the fight, it was just two guys throwing everything and landing with big shots and tiring throughout the fight. Safarov could barely stand on his one leg after the first round and Villante got the stoppage in the second round
*Corey Anderson def. Sean O’Connell by TKO at 2:36 of Round 2 – This was all Anderson and announced his new nickname is “Overtime”
*Francis Ngannou def. Anthony Hamilton by kimura at 1:57 of Round 1 – Ngannou was the biggest story coming out of this card as a heavyweight to watch. He used sheer strength to lift Hamilton with a kimura while standing and forcing to the mat and torqueing on the arm, this was a very impressive win
*Derrick Lewis def. Shamil Abdurakhimov by TKO at 3:42 of Round 4 – Not a good fight with Abdurakhimov winning the first two rounds for sure and probably the third until he tired and Lewis started to land some power shots and was able to mount and stop in the fourth. Lewis’ striking did not look great and was constantly going for big power shots and threw too many kicks and was taken down constantly as a result of them. Lewis was critical of his performance and called it terrible.

**To no surprise, Gian Villante and Saparbek Safarov received the Fight of the Night bonus while Francis Ngannou and Gerald Meerschaert received the performance of the night bonuses for $50,000 each.

**Dana White spoke to Max Holloway and offered him the chance to fight Jose Aldo at UFC 208 on February 11th in Brooklyn. Initially, Holloway was down for that date but the more he gave it some thought, he seems to be leaning to a fight later in 2017.

**Jon Jones submitted Dan Henderson with an arm-triangle at the Submission Underground 2 event on Sunday the 1th in Portland, Oregon. Jones secured the submission and got the tap at the 6:39 mark of the grappling contest. After the bout, Jones was interviewed by Chael Sonnen and challenged Sonnen to a grappling bout at the next SUG event on January 29th and Sonnen accepted. The event also saw the recently retired Miesha Tate defeat Jessica Eye after the two went to overtime and Tate won based on the “escape time” rules of the OT period.

**The UFC has announced that Sabah Homasi is out of his fight with Niko Price at UFC 207 on December 30th. Homasi will be replaced by Brandon Thatch in the welterweight fight, who has lost his last three fights to Benson Henderson, Gunnar Nelson and Siyar Bahadurzada.

**The UFC’s penultimate card of 2016 took place on Saturday night at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California with an announced crowd of 13,136 and a gate of $1,238,992 and featured the retirement fight of Urijah Faber. Nine of the thirteen fights ending going the distance, including Faber’s fight with Brad Pickett, which was the highlight of the show with the Sacramento crowd giving Faber a huge send off. Below are the results from the show:
*Sultan Aliev def. Bojan Velickovic by split decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Aliev constantly took down Velickovic and mixed in strikes on top, it wasn’t a very entertaining fight but I had Aliev winning all three rounds.
*Hector Sandoval def. Fredy Serrano by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – This was a great performance from Sandoval, who not only landed big shots throughout the fight but was also able to take the Olympian in Serrano down several times. Sandoval trains with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento and got a big reaction and I felt won all three rounds.
*Eddie Wineland def. Takeya Mizugaki by TKO at 3:04 of Round 1 – Mizugaki was timing his strikes well early and landing but then Wineland caught him with a pair of big shots and finished him.
*Leslie Smith def. Irena Aldana by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Josh Emmett def. Scott Holtzman by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Alex Morono def. James Moontasri by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Colby Covington def. Bryan Barberena by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Mizuto Hirota def. Cole Miller by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
*Paul Craig def. Luis Henrique da Silva by armbar at 1:59 of Round 2
*Alan Jouban def. Mike Perry by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – The first round was the only close round as Jouban landed more but Perry wobbled him with some power shots. Jouban won the second and third rounds.
*Urijah Faber def. Brad Pickett by unanimous decision (30-26 all) – Faber won the first round 10-8 and was quicker all fight, the crowd treated this as the main event and Faber thanked all the fans and said he’s ready to move on with his life. This is worth watching just for the reaction Faber received and was a high note for Faber to go out on.
*Mickey Gall def. Sage Northcutt by rear-naked choke at 1:40 of Round 2 – Gall took him down in the first and Northcutt lasted the round. In the second, Northcutt landed some strikes but then ate a huge right and Gall capitalized and took his back and locked in the choke for the tap. After the fight, Gall said he’s moving down to lightweight and wanted to fight Dan Hardy if he comes out of retirement.
*Michelle Waterson def. Paige VanZant by rear-naked choke at 3:21 of Round 1 – Waterson connected with some right hands immediately with her side-stance. Waterson threw her with a head-and-arm through and easily transitioned to take her back and sink in the choke. VanZant wouldn’t tap and went out from the submission.

**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Leslie Smith and Irene Aldana while Michelle Waterson and Paul Craig also received $50,000 for the performance bonuses.

**The final UFC card of 2016 is UFC 207 on Friday December 30th with Amanda Nunes defending the women’s bantamweight title against Ronda Rousey in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

**Below are the results from the Bellator 169 event on Friday from Dublin, Ireland with the card airing on Spike TV:
*Daniel Weichel def. Brian Moore by arm-triangle at 4:44 of Round 1 – Weichel said he wants to fight champion Daniel Straus for the featherweight title.
*Sinead Kavanagh def. Elina Kallionidou by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-25) – This was a one-sided fight with Kavanagh throwing Kallionidou around the cage, lighting her up with strikes but not able to finish her. The announcers called it for what it was, which was a mismatch.
*James Gallagher def. Anthony Taylor by rear-naked choke at 1:52 of Round 3 – Gallagher is an Irish prospect at featherweight and the crowd was singing throughout the fight for him.
*Muhammad Lawal def. Satoshi Ishii by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Not a very entertaining fight as Lawal constantly took Ishii down and won every round convincingly. Lawal is hopeful of receiving a rematch with Phil Davis for the light heavyweight title.