*In a story that has surfaced online WWE Champion CM Punk is scheduled to get the January 28th ‘Raw’ house show in Evansville, Indiana off in order to appear at the UFC on FOX 2 event in the corner of Chael Sonnen. Dave Meltzer confirmed the story with Sonnen, who fights Mark Munoz on that card in a middleweight bout. The card takes place in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois and takes place the night before the ‘Royal Rumble’. The story was first reported by @frontrowbrian on Wednesday and later confirmed by Meltzer after the story was posted the Wrestling Observer website forum.

**All of the six preliminary fights at UFC 142 on January 14th in Rio de Janiero will be airing live on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada.

**The UFC confirmed on a conference call today that they will be running Stockholm, Sweden on April 14th this year. It times out well that Alexander Gustafsson could fight on that event.

**MMA Weekly is reporting that Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion is going to defend her title against Ronda Rousey on March 3rd in Columbus, Ohio. Rousey debuted for the company in 2011 and went 4-0 winning all her fights within a minute and ending with her armbar submission. Rousey leapfrogs over Sarah Kaufman for the title shot who was under the impression she would be the next opponent for Tate.

**Sports Illustrated writer Loretta Hunt has a great story on Ronda Rousey discussing a number of issues including her father committing suicide when she was young and more at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/m ... index.html.

**A light heavyweight bout between Anthony Perosh and Nick Penner has been added to the UFC on FX 2 event from Sydney, Australia on March 3rd. Perosh is on a two-fight win streak with his last fight coming this past November over Cyrille Diabate while Penner fights out of Manitoba and is making his debut with the organization.

**Shane Roller has replaced Cody McKenzie on the UFC on FOX 2 event on January 28th and will be fighting Michael Johnson in a lightweight bout.

**Gray Maynard recently received his BJJ blue belt from Andre Pederneiras in Brazil. Maynard has been working with Jose Aldo in Brazil in preparation for his title defence against Chad Mendes at UFC 142 on January 14th.

**Two fights have been announced for the UFC on FUEL 2 event that is scheduled for April 14th in Stockholm, Sweeden at the Ericsson Sport Arena:
*Brian Stann Vs Alessio Sakara
*Cyrille Diabate Vs Jorgen Kruth
*Papy Abedi Vs James Head
*Francis Carmont Vs Magnus Cedenblad
*Besam Yousef Vs Simeon Thoresen

**The debut of ‘UFC Tonight’ averaged 39,000 viewers on FUEL TV this past Tuesday night. The weekly news show is hosted by Todd Harris and Kenny Florian along with reporters Jay Glazar and Ariel Helwani featured on the show each week.

**It was revealed on Friday night by the California State Athletic Commission that Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos had tested positive for stanozolol (winstrol) in her system. Cyborg was tested for her recent 16-second win over Hiroko Yamanaka in San Diego on December 17th. Dana White spoke on ESPN Radio and said Santos would be stripped of the title and put into question the future of the Women’s Featherweight division. With Cyborg gone for an extended period of time and Ronda Rousey moving down to Bantamweight it leaves zero depth to the Featherweight division and I would suspect you concentrate all of your efforts on building the 135-pound division and limit the division to one weight class at this point.

**Cyborg has released the following statement regarding the test failure:

I would like to sincerely apologize to Strikeforce, the Zuffa organization, Hioko Yamanaka and my fans for my failed drug test.

I am ultimately responsible for everything I put in my body, and at the end of the day, there is no excuse for having a prohibited substance in my system. I do not condone the use of any performance enhancing drugs by myself or any other professional athlete, and willingly accept the penalties and fines that have been handed down to me by the California State Athletic Commission and those of the Strikeforce/Zuffa organization.

While I was preparing myself for my last fight, I was having a difficult time cutting weight and used a dietary supplement that I was assured was safe and not prohibited from use in sports competition. It was never my intention to obtain an unfair advantage over Hiroko, mislead Strikeforce, the commission or my fans. I train harder than any fighter in MMA and do not need drugs to win in the cage, and I have proven this time and time again! My only mistake is not verifying the diet aid with my doctor beforehand, and understanding that it was not approved for use in the ring. Unfortunately in the end I suffer the consequences and must accept the responsibility for my actions.

I will do everything I can to show my fans that I can still compete at the professional level without the use of any prohibited substances, and ask God’s forgiveness for my mistake.

**Female fighter Rosi Sexton posted the following response to Twitter to the Cybrog drug test result:

just heard the news. That’s a real shame, but I guess in honesty I’m not surprised.

let’s be honest here though – she’s by no means the only one.

increased chance of getting caught reduces offending more than tougher penalties. Better testing must come first.

I have a policy… I don’t speculate about individual fighters until there’s evidence.

I think it’s a particular problem when it happens in WMMA. You may as well have a woman fighting a man.

either test properly, or legalise it so the rest of us can get on it with a clear conscience. Enough with the hypocrisy.

Look “just working hard in the gym” won’t give a woman muscles like that any more than eating worms and flapping your arms will make you fly

**Ronda Rousey also responded with this comment:

I’m about to fall off the grid for a few days, my last words: I told you so!!!!

**Former UFC lightweight title contender Hermes Franca has been sentenced to 42-months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of unlawful penetration and one count of first-degree sexual abuse in Clackamas County, Oregon. Franca was charged for sexually abusing an underage student at his BJJ academy and faced up to 75-months in prison before pleading guilty to the two-counts. Franca will have to register as a sex offender when he is released in 3 ½ years. Franca’s biggest fight came in July 2007 at UFC 73 ‘Stacked’ where he challenged then Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk for the title where he lost by unanimous decision and then afterwards tested positive for Drostanolone.

**Ben Fowlkes at MMA Fighting has an article on how Keith Jardine was able to make 185-pounds for friday night's fight in Las Vegas with Luke Rockhold.

**Due to CSAC laws Santos’ victory over Yamanaka has now been ruled a no contest due to the positive drug test.

**MMAJunkie reports that a lightweight bout between Josh Thomson and K.J. Noons is in the works for the proposed March 3rd Strikeforce card in Columbus, Ohio. Thomson missed all of 2011 and hasn’t fought since the DREAM New Year’s Eve event in 2010 where he dropped a unanimous decision to Tatsuya Kawajiri and prior to that got a close decision win over J.Z. Cavalcante in October 2010. Noons recently defeated Billy Evangelista by decision in December. The winner of this proposed bout would likely be next in line for a shot at Gilbert Melendez for the Lightweight Title.

**Here are the full results from the Strikeforce card Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada at The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel:
*Estevan Payan over Alonzo Martines by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Ricky Legere over Chris Spang by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Gian Villante over Trevor Smith by TKO at 1:05 of Round 1 – Referee Kim Winslow halted the fight and many felt it was way too early. Smith was taking a lot of shots to the head and seemed trapped but as soon as Villante let go Smith seemed fine and was moving forward until he realized the bout was stopped.
*Nah-Shon Burrell over James Terry by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) – There was no one who thought Burrell won the fight and even he admitted he thought Terry won so a pretty bad decision in this one.
*Tarec Saffiedine over Tyler Stinson by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – I had it 29-28 for Saffiedine, the first round was the closest of the three and both were bloody and cut up by the end of this fight.
*Tyron Woodley over Jordan Mein by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – If anything I feel the judge scoring the fight for Mein did it more as a message to wrestlers that get top position that it doesn’t mean you stop working. Mein was controlled during the second round but was far more active off his back and that was the lone round you could at least make the argument for Mein. Woodley simply got the take down and rode on top and with few elbows or anything activity.
*Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal over Lorenz Larkin by TKO at 1:32 of Round 1 – There was a horrible stand up ordered by Kim Winslow in this fight where Lawal was on top and being very active but he didn’t question the call, got Larkin down again and was dropping down blows and was upset at Winslow for letting the fight go so long. Lawal looked really good in this fight and should be fighting for the 205-pound title in his next outing.

*Robbie Lawler over Adlan Amagov by TKO at 1:48 of Round 1 – Amagov seemed distraught after he delivered an illegal knee to Lawler while he on his knees and there was a brief rest period for Lawler. Lawler came back with a flying knee that clipped Amagov and then finished him with shots to the sides of his head and a big win for Lawler.
*Luke Rockhold over Keith Jardine by TKO at 4:26 of Round 1 to retain the Middleweight Title – This was hardly competitive as Rockhold was landing in huge numbers with everything he threw and this fight had the most obscene last stoppage in recent memory courtest of Herb Dean. Jardine was out and falling against the cage but the fight continued and took more shots, fell down and the fight continued and finally after numerous unanswered shots Dean finally ended the fight but this was ridiculous.


**After the fight Rockhold said he wanted some UFC middleweights to come over to Strikeforce and didn’t seem interested in fighting Tim Kennedy next. It’s going to take a lot of work to build up these Strikeforce divisions because they are all thin and the fights people want are logistically difficult to put together. Even the mid-tier UFC middleweight is not going to want to move ‘down’ to Strikeforce because of the sponsorship loss and lack of visibility and it’s going to take the UFC ordering fighters to move down and with their organization running so many cards they are not going to watch to export any names of value that will be needed to make these Strikeforce divisions compelling.

**Strikeforce announced the following four fights for their March 3rd event in Columbus, Ohio on the broadcast Saturday night:
*Miesha Tate Vs Ronda Rousey for the Women’s Bantamweight Title
*Josh Thomson Vs K.J. Noons
*Kazuo Misaki Vs Paul Daley
*Sarah Kaufman Vs Alexis Davis (theoretically sets up both winners of the women’s bouts to fight as Kaufman had earned the title shot against Tate but was leap frogged by Rousey)

**UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones was a guest on Josh Gross’ podcast ‘Gross Point Blank’ last week and stated that he feels like getting back into the octagon sooner than expected after initially requesting time off after his defence at UFC 140. Most assumed Rashad Evans would earn the next title shot if he defeats Phil Davis at the UFC on FOX 2 event on January 28th but if Jones wants to fight sooner than Evans may yet again have to either wait or fight again for this ever elusive title opportunity.

**All the post fight drug tests from UFC 141 came back negative today from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

jones v. hendo?!?!?

with one second left in the round!!!!!!!!!!!

great card in brazil

munoz is hurt, bisping is fighting sonnen on fox

**Kickboxer Buakaw Por Pramuk Vs A Tree:


**The UFC has come out aggressively in response to ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ feature from Sunday on fighter pay and attacking the credibility of ESPN and how they depicted the company and the fighters in the piece, which can be viewed at http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/15/2709125/espn-ufc-video-fighter-pay-outside-the-lines-otl-lorenzo-fertitta-ken-shamrock.

It was made clear over the weekend that UFC Dana White was preparing a response to attack the piece and did just that with the release of the following video as well as the entire unedited interview ESPN conducted with Lorenzo Fertitta that was filmed by UFC staff:




There is no direct example of ESPN flagrantly misleading its audience or taking a statement out of context. They chose to run the story they wanted to run and opt not to tell the story the UFC would have preferred. The glaring clip that does make ESPN look bad is Fertitta calling Barr on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights pay structure and Barr having no adequate response and the decision to leave that out does make ESPN come across as protecting themselves and having the power to hide something that makes them look bad. It just strikes me the wrong way when ESPN is taking a stance against this issue and it’s not as if they are waving the flag for pay reform internally but nor do I feel the onus should be a broadcaster to concern themselves with salaries for athletes that appear on their channel (that responsibility falls on the promoter) – and for the record the $275 figure is an aberration and the rank and file boxer is making a lot more than that per fight even at a low level but pay outs like that do exist just as I’m sure there are lots of low level MMA fights on regional circuits that pay miniscule amounts.

One other interesting clip was the speech White gave to the fighters (I believe it would have been from UFC 137 in Vegas as they showed B.J. Penn and his only other fight in 2011 was in Australia) and stated that the usual bonuses would be handed out for Fight, KO and Sub of the night and worth $65,000 but that anyone scoring a knockout would earn an additional $20,000. This very easily could have been a clip that was cut down by ESPN and neglected White offering a similar bonus for a submission finish and if that was the case it’s poor journalism on ESPN’s part and certainly left the impression that the UFC is encouraging knockouts over submission and brings back memories of the Elite XC scandal in October 2008 involving Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli when Petruzelli stated on a Florida radio station that he was only offered a knockout bonus as an incentive to keep the fight standing where it would favour Slice.

**The entire UFC on FX 1 event this Friday from Nashville, Tennessee will be airing on Sportsnet 1 in Canada starting at 6pm EST with the prelims. The card is headlined by a three-round lightweight bout between Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard.

**Joe Rogan posted on The Underground the following response to how he approached Mario Yamasaki after the Carlo Prater Vs Erick Silva fight this past Saturday night at UFC 142:

He’s a great guy, and I’m always happy to see him. When I step into the octagon however, I represent the people watching at home that might have obvious questions, and when something is controversial I’m forced to confront it honestly because that’s what I would want to hear from a person in my position if I was a fan watching it at home.

It was obviously a controversial call, and I’m sure some of you agree with it, but I certainly think it’s also possible to argue that it was a bad call. That was my perspective, so I had to express it. I’m not a perfect person, and I fuck up all the time. It’s a part of life.

Great referees have made awful mistakes. Even the consensus nominee for the greatest referee of all time, my personal friend the great Big John McCarthy has made mistakes.

Remember when Bustamante had to tap out Matt Linland twice?

Calling fight as a referee is hard as FUCK. If I was a referee Dana would probably hate me more than he hates Mazagatti. I wouldn’t want that job! That’s a shit load of pressure.

I think Mario Yamasaki is one of the best in the world at refereeing MMA. No doubt about it.

He’s got great insight to the sport, he’s a life long martial artist, and he’s a really smart guy.

What I was acting from, is that I saw an incredible young talent get denied a KO victory for a questionable call.

When I entered into the Octagon and was told of the official ruling that Silva was going to be disqualified for illegal blows to the back of the head everyone that I was around who heard the news opened their mouths in shock. Everyone said, “what?”

The people in the truck couldn’t believe it. I had to read it back to them because I thought it was a mistake, and when I leaned over to explain it to Goldie he couldn’t believe it either.

I had to ask Mario about it. I didn’t know how he was going to respond, but I had to ask him.
Erick Silva is a very promising fighter and I felt like I had a responsibility to adress the issue.

No disrespect intended.

**An undisclosed injury to Mark Munoz has forced the middleweight to pull out of his bout with Chael Sonnen at the January 28th UFC on FOX 2 card in Chicago, Illinois. UFC President Dana White broke the news and stated that Michael Bisping will be now be fighting Sonnen on the main card with the winner earning a title shot against Anderson Silva later in the year. Bisping was scheduled to fight Demian Maia on the same card. Sonnen Vs Bisping makes tons more sense on paper as you have a guaranteed challenger that for Silva that will have interest to the public, which Munoz wasn’t going to bring to a title bout. The home run scenario is Sonnen winning but Bisping is not a bad back up plan and I just hope they are able to put together a countdown special if there is enough time because Sonnen and Bisping is a money fight with the right promo time as each will jump at the opportunity to sell this fight.

**As a result of Demian Maia’s opponent being moved Chris Weidman will be filling Bisping’s vacated slot to fight Maia on the main card January 28th. Weidman is undefeated including a 3-0 mark inside the UFC and most recently submitted Tom Lawlor at UFC 139 this past November in San Jose, California.

**The Nevada State Athletic Commission released the results of the drug tests taken after the Strikeforce ‘Rockhold Vs Jardine’ event held on January 7th and revealed that Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal had tested positive for the steroid Drostanolone following his second round TKO victory over Lorenz Larkin. Lawal has denied he took the substance and will likely be protesting the drug failure with the NSAC.

**In a coincidence with the above story coming out this morning Zuffa announced a new policy to test all incoming fighters to the UFC and Strikeforce where they will be screened before signing a contract similar to how they test all contestants for the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ series. It’s a step in the right direction obviously but still flawed in the sense that fighters will know ahead of time when the testing will be occurring and can cycle accurately if they are in negotiations with Zuffa and get off whatever they are using and flush it out of the system. True random testing is always going to be the best method but at the very least this is another barrier that at least discourages use but will unlikely impede any fighters from changing any routines.

**Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press reports that the UFC 145 event scheduled for March 24th in Montreal, Quebec has been postponed. The UFC is intending to run Montreal later this year but due to scheduling problems could not put together a main event to their liking for the show and have chosen to delay their Montreal return.

**Kenny Florian has officially been named the new color commentator to join Jon Anik for all shows that Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan do not call for the company and this will include ‘Ultimate Fighter’ bouts on FX. Florian revealed last week that he has a herniated disc in his back and is considering retirement from the sport and this could signal a segue out of active competition.

spinning back kicks seem to have grown in popularity, no?

**Here are the UFC on FX 1 results from Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee at the Bridgestone Arena in front of 7,728 and a gate of $334,860:
*Nick Denis over Joseph Sandoval by KO at 0:22 of Round 1
*Daniel Pineda over Pat Schilling by rear-naked choke at 1:37 of Round 1
*Fabricio Camoes over Tommy Hayden by rear-naked choke at 4:03 of Round 1
*Charlie Brenneman over Daniel Roberts by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Khabib Nurmagomedov over Kamal Shalorus by rear-naked choke at 2:08 of Round 3
*Jorge Rivera over Eric Schafer by TKO at 1:31 of Round 2
*Pat Barry over Christian Morecraft by KO at 3:38 of Round 1
*Mike Easton over Jared Papazian by majority decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-29)
*Josh Neer over Duane Ludwig by guillotine choke at 3:04 of Round 1
*Jim Miller over Melvin Guillard by rear-naked choke at 2:04 of Round 1

**The following were the recipients of the $45,000 bonuses handed out after the show:
*Fight of the Night – Pat Barry Vs Christian Morecraft (Dana White ended up giving a bonus to Mike Easton and Jared Papazian, who had the consensus fight of the night to most watching)
*Knockout of the Night – Nick Denis
*Submission of the Night – Jim Miller

**Here are the main card results from the Pro Elite show held Saturday night in Honolulu, Hawaii and airing on HDNet:
*Brant Schermerhorn over Kaleo Gambill by KO at 0:45 of Round 1
*Patrick Cummins over Tasi Edwards by arm-triangle choke at 4:10 of Round 1
*Ryan Martinez over Cody Griffin by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Richard Odoms over Jake Heun by rear-naked choke at 1:56 of Round 1
*Sara McMann over Hitomi Akano by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Kendall Grove over Ikuhisa Minowa by unanimous decision (30-27 all)

Dana White via twitter:

Our 3rd FOX fight May 5th at the IZOD Center in New Jersey will feature Nate Diaz vs Jim Miller!!! Nate = 3 sub and 5 FON Jim = 3 SON!!

**Mike Chiappetta of MMAFighting.com reports that a light heavyweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Mike Kyle has been added to the Strikeforce card in Columbus, Ohio on March 3rd. It was expected that Mousasi would have fought Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal for the vacant Light Heavyweight Title but after his positive drug test Lawal will be on the shelf for up to a year with his pending suspension and threw those plans out the window. Chiappetta also reports that Ryan Couture will fight on the undercard of that same show against Conor Heun.

**Lawal appeared Monday afternoon on ‘The MMA Hour’ with Ariel Helwani. Lawal was joined by his manager Mike Kogan and the two stated they would not be appealing the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s finding of Drostanolone in his system after his January 7th win over Lorenz Larkin. Instead they stated they would be filing an answer for why the steroid was found in his system blaming it on a tainted supplement he purchased at a Max Muscle chain store and purchased the Rock Solid product S-Mass Lean Gainer, which has since been pulled from the market.

**The MMA Corner website reports that effective today the UFC is banning all sponsorships for fighters attached to guns, ammunition, knives and hunting. A lot of fighters were sponsored by the site Ammtogo.com and The Gun Store was also a popular sponsor with many sponsored by those companies as recently as this Friday on the FX debut in Nashville.

double post

awesome, i was hoping they'd give miller diaz.

**Here is the full card for the UFC on FOX 2 card coming up Saturday with the weigh-ins taking place Friday evening in Chicago:

MAIN CARD (starting at 8pm EST on FOX)
*Rashad Evans Vs Phil Davis in a five-round Light Heavyweight bout
*Michael Bisping Vs Chael Sonnen
*Demian Maia Vs Chris Weidman

PRELIMINARY CARD (airing at 5pm EST on FUEL TV in the U.S. and Sportsnet One in Canada)
*Evan Dunham Vs Nik Lentz
*Michael Johnson Vs Shane Roller
*Mike Russow Vs Jon Olav Einemo
*George Roop Vs Cub Swanson
*Eric Wisely Vs Charles Oliveira
*Lavar Johnson Vs Joey Beltran

FACEBOOK FIGHT
*Chris Camozzi Vs Dustin Jacoby

**The Mitch Gagnon Vs Johnny Bedford preliminary fight that was scheduled for this Saturday in Chicago, Illinois on the UFC on FOX 2 card has been scrapped. Gagnon was unable to get his visa issues taken care of (he is from Canada) and with such short notice the fight was cancelled.

**The UFC’s third card on FOX is confirmed for May 5th in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the iZod Center. The company has announced that Jim Miller will fight Nate Diaz with the winner most likely receiving a Lightweight Title shot. It is expected that Floyd Mayweather Jr could be fighting that night but regardless the UFC will be done by 10pm EST and not cut in to the boxing pay-per-view.

**The UFC is targeting a July 7th date for the MGM Grand Garden Arena along with a UFC Fan Expo taking place that weekend.

**Ronda Rousey shares her thoughts on UFC Welterweight Champion Ronda Rousey:


**Following a challenge made by UFC President Dana White towards the website hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ to take down the UFC site once again – the hackers obliged on Thursday night but redirecting the UFC site to a SOPA/PIPA protest site and also publishing personal information of White’s online. White has continually blown off these actions and not being annoyed by them stating that the Government will take these people down. White has gotten a lot of attention for an interview he did Thursday with Mauro Ranallo of The Score comparing the hackers to the 9/11 hijackers and that the hackers will get ‘Osama Bin Laden’d’ as a result of their actions. Anonymous also posted this video:


**Jonathan Snowden of The Bleacher Report spends a day with UFC Light Heavyweight Rashad Evans during fight week in preparation for his bout with Phil Davis.

**Bellator has announced that ‘Take 2’ of the Heavyweight tournament finals will go March 16th with a rematch between finalists Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos at Bellator 61 in Bossier City, Louisiana. The two fought in the finals of the tournament at Bellator 59 but was ruled a no contest after Santos kicked Prindle right in the groin as Prindle was on his back and Prindle could not continue.

it wasnt dana white's info

Bisping got hosed. I knew what was coming the moment Rogan mentioned "you gotta take it out of the judges hands".

he was definitely the better striker but those takedowns were the difference maker.

Nah...I realize they put too big of a premium on take downs, but he wasn't down for more than a minute combined in the first 2 rounds and Sonnen did virtually no damage with any of them even in the 3rd when he had him down longer. Bisping wrecked him the first round and clearly won the 2nd.

oh, jimmy

I thought Bisping won 2-1, but I could understand Sonnen winning 2-1, not 3-0.