Author: Luke Thomas

MMA’s number two promotion rolls on with its sixth season and returns to the East Coast with tonight’s fights from Atlantic City. In main event action, Daniel Straus will face Marlon Sandro in the featherweight tournament final while Travis Marx and Marcos Galvao battle in semi-final bantamweight action. In a 230 lbs-catchweight bout, UFC veterans Carmelo Marrero and Seth Petruzelli square off. Lastly, but certainly not least, Marius Zaromskis and Waachiim Spiritwolf will finally rematch after their ill-fated 2010 Strikeforce Challengers bout that ended in a no contest.

What: Bellator 68

When: Friday, the MTV2-televised card begins at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday. However, Spike.com will carry the entire fight card beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Where: Caeser’s Atlantic City, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Predictions below for the featherweight tournament final, a bantamweight tournament semi-final and two additional main card bouts.

Daniel Straus vs. Marlon Sandro

I like Straus a lot. He’s a sensational athlete, a very proficient striker, a talented wrestler and packs a serious punch. He’s technically cleaner on the feet than Sandro, although the Brazilian has the edge if and when the fight hits the mat. My problem, though, is with Straus’ finishing. The longer fights go, the more he tends to fight on auto-pilot. His killer instinct is good, but he hasn’t quite mastered the art of finishing at this level of the game. Straus is a handful in the first round and that’s where this fight will be close, but beyond that it quickly becomes Sandro’s to lose.

Pick: Sandro

Marcos Galvao vs. Travis Marx

I don’t agree with the oddsmakers here. They’ve got Galvao as the pretty significant favorite and while I agree he deserves to be the odds-on choice as the guy to beat, it’s not as much of a disparity as they suggest. It is very, very possible Marx can win the takedown battle and avoid submissions on top. It won’t be a pretty win if he does, but it’ll be a win. Galvao’s takedown defense is not the best, but he’s obviously formidable on the ground. But can he really win a bout from his back? I don’t think so. Galvao is incredibly talented, so if you’ve picked him to win I have positively zero issue with it. But given Galvao’s particular weakness, Marx might just have enough to steal a round or two.

Pick: Marx

Carmelo Marrero vs. Seth Petruzelli

This one is difficult to forecast. Petruzelli and Marerro are basically at the same points in their careers. The liabilities that cost them at the UFC level are now permanent fixtures of their games. That’s why I’m going to side with Marerro. I’m not overly confident about it, but takedown defense and getting up off the bottom (not to mention guard play) has never been a strong suit of the Florida native. Marerro doesn’t have much to offer beyond that at the professional level, but it might just be enough. Or maybe not. I can’t really be confident about it.

Pick: Marrero

Marius Zaromskis vs. Waachiim Spiritwolf

Neither fighter is much to write home about anymore, but there’s seemingly a lot left in Zaromskis’ tank. Then again, with his wild, aggressive and often reckless style, he can lose at any point. Sure, he’ll land a rolling axe kick every now and again, but the word ‘defense’ just never meant that much to him. He’s technically got more polished skills than Spiritwolf, so that should be enough to win in what I expect to be a rather remarkable car crash.

Pick: Zaromskis

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said Thursday that Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will defend his title against former Army special forces operator Tim Kennedy in Portland, Oregon on July 14th of this year. Coker made the announcement on a media conference call to promote the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The event will be held at the Rose Garden venue. Other main card fights include a pair of middleweight bouts between Robbie Lawler and Lorenz Larkin and Roger Gracie taking on Keith Jardine. MMA Fighting reported the signing of the Gracie vs. Jardine bout earlier this week.

Rockhold, 27, last competed on January 7th, 2012 at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, where he defeated UFC veteran Keith Jardine by first-round TKO stoppage. However, he injured his hand during the bout and has been sidelined since then.

Kennedy, 32, last fought on July 30th, 2011 at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson where he defeated UFC veteran Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision.

The main card for this event will air on Showtime while the preliminary card will be broadcast on Showtime Extreme.

This marks the second time the promotion has held an event in the city of Portland. Strikeforce Challengers: Lindland vs. Casey was also held at the Rose Garden on May 21st, 2010. Former UFC middleweight contender Matt Lindland defeated Kevin Casey in the third round via TKO in the night’s main event.

There, I said it. Ronda Rousey should headline the next UFC on FOX. It’d obviously take a lot of give and take between Zuffa, Showtime and FOX, but it’s certainly not impossible. Given what we know about the sport (it’s star-driven), and what FOX needs (bigger names than they got the last time out), there are a lot of good reasons to put Rousey at the top of the card. Let’s be clear: Rousey isn’t Gina Carano-popular. At least not yet. But her fame is growing by the day as is the intrigue surrounding her career and personal story. Her moving to the UFC for one fight would create all kinds of media buzz and we know she can personally do the promotional heavy lifting. There are other reasons to do it, but we’ll discuss that later.

Join me at 1 p.m. ET for our weekly live chat to discuss those matters and more. We’ll discuss who Urijah Faber should face next, what the abysmal ratings for UFC on FOX 3 mean for MMA and network television, whether UFC and Showtime should work out a deal to let Ronda Rousey headline a UFC on FOX card and whatever you would like to talk about.

Ratings for UFC on FOX 3, the third installment of the UFC’s fight cards on network television, make it the lowest-rated event of its kind. It only drew 2.42 million average viewers.

The early ratings figures for the UFC’s third outing on FOX are in and there’s both good and bad news.

According to a report by TV By The Numbers, UFC on FOX 3 pulled in a total of 2.25 million viewers. Among adults 18-49, the event earned a 1.0 rating and 4 share. The event was headlined by a lightweight fight between Jim Miller and Nate Diaz and took place at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

That figure is good enough for UFC to have won the evening in their time slot among major networks in the key adult demo, but not good enough to top CBS in viewers overall.

Additionally, UFC on FOX 3’s initial ratings figures are down considerably from UFC on FOX 2, which itself was a decline from the first UFC on FOX.

UFC on FOX 2, which featured a main event between light heavyweights Rashad Evans and Phil Davis, earned overnight numbers of 4.57 million. UFC on FOX, an event headlined by a UFC heavyweight title clash between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, pulled in initial average estimates of 4.64 million.

Both numbers eventually went up when final ratings were available, though generally not by huge leaps. UFC on FOX 2 eventually scored 4.7 million viewers and peaked with 6 million. UFC on FOX 1’s final numbers saw an average of 5.7 million viewers and a peak of 8.8 million viewers.

Final average numbers and a peak figure for UFC on FOX 3 should be available Monday or Tuesday.

UFC on FOX 4 is expected to take take place on August 4th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. UFC middleweight and commentator Brian Stann confirmed on last night’s broadcast he will headline the event in a bout with former Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard.

The final ratings for UFC’s third installment on FOX are in and have the event averaging a total viewership of 2.42 million, according to TV By The Numbers. That’s up slightly from the initial 2.25 million turned in by overnight ratings. UFC on FOX 3 ultimately pulled in a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 1.5 household rating overall.

As previously reported, UFC on FOX averaged 5.7 million total viewers while UFC on FOX 2 managed 4.7 million average total viewers.

In terms of average total viewership, UFC on FOX 3 is now the lowest-rated of the eight MMA events ever broadcast on major network television. Saturday’s event is edged out by 2008’s EliteXC: Unfinished Business, which was headlined by Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith. Held in Stockton, California, Nick Diaz also fought Thomas Denny on the card. That event drew 2.62 million average viewers.

UFC on FOX 3 took place at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The card was headlined by a lightweight bout between Jim Miller and Nate Diaz. Welterweights Johny Hendricks and Josh Koscheck fought in the co-main event.

According to a report by MMA Junkie, Saturday’s fights earned a 1.6 rating among men 18-34. That figure represents a 60% increase in viewership week-over-week in that time slot. However, that number is down from 4.3 during UFC on FOX’s inaugural event and 3.2 for UFC on Fox 2.

According to a FOX press release, “FOX won Saturday night among Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34 with UFC ON FOX.”

UFC on FOX 4 is slated for August 4th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The event will be headlined by a middleweight bout between middleweights Brian Stann and former Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard.

What will it take for former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion B.J. Penn to return to competitive mixed martial arts? Is it a fight in Hawaii? Would it be a rematch against Nick Diaz? Maybe a big paycheck?

It could be all or none of those things. The right offer matters, of course, but most important is timing. Or stated differently, time off. Time for things to change.

If there’s anything that becomes immediately clear in a conversation with Penn, he just isn’t in a part of his life where returning to competitive fighting interests him enough to make the commitment. “I’m not really excited to jump into a training camp right now,” Penn told Ariel Helwani yesterday on The MMA Hour.

That isn’t to say he’s totally disinterested. After all, he’s at least willing to entertain offers even if they ultimately don’t move him into action. “Me and Dana sat down,” Penn explained. “Dana said, ‘I’m seeing a lot of stuff. You’re saying you don’t want to fight anymore.’ Me and him just kind of talked and did a couple of hypotheticals back and forth and that was it. I know Dana wants me to fight again.”

“I’m enjoying training right now,” Penn said. “You never know what the future holds. If Dana puts something together like ‘hey, you want to do this?’ You never know. You never know what could happen.”

It isn’t just White that wants Penn to fight again. Legions of MMA fans are hopeful ‘The Prodigy’ won’t retire, especially while many of his supporters believe he’s still got the capacity to compete.

“I don’t know. I do get pumped up about it when I go different places and people are like ‘come on! You gotta fight again! You gotta fight again!” But it’s a lot of work.”

It appears more than anything, ‘a lot of work’ is what’s holding Penn back. After years and years the grind, the routine and uphill climb of training camp, the process is not as easy to be a part of as it once was. The toll on the body, the time away from family. Who wants that when you’ve accomplished so much, you’re wealthy and you’ve got an infant daughter? Penn readily admits he thinks he still has what it takes to compete against the elite, but getting up for a training camp day after day just isn’t appealing right now.

“I guess being a competitor, you always have that itch. But what it is is…it’s tough,” Penn said with a laugh. “The training camps are tough, going through that. I’ve been with the UFC for ten years going through different things. All the different personalities you gotta deal with. I still look at some of the guys up there and of course being a competitor ‘You know, I could beat that guy or I could do well with that guy.’ It’s just a tough question.”

Interestingly, though, Penn confirmed reports that Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez was offered to him and that he ultimately turned the fight down. “It was right after the Nick Diaz fight,” Penn acknowledged.

“[White] offered a fight against Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce. We sat down and we thought about it for a little while. We talked back and forth. It was kind of one of those things where I guess at the end of the day we thought about it a thousand different ways and we were like ‘Is that downgrading yourself fighting in Strikeforce? If you win the Strikeforce title are people going to say you did it because you couldn’t win the UFC title?'”

“At the end of the day, it just didn’t make sense to us,” Penn said.

Penn noted it wasn’t Melendez as an opponent he objected to (“If you decide you’re going to be a fighter, you shouldn’t have a problem fighting anyone”), but he just couldn’t rationalize competing under a banner outside of the UFC. If it doesn’t move the needle or add to his legacy, it’s hard to move forward.

In the wake of a serious thrashing at the hands of Nick Diaz at UFC 137, the two-division champion also confessed he’s worried about departing the sport in an unceremonious exit. “That is definitely on my mind,” admitted Penn. “I don’t want to stick around and whether it’s a lack of reflexes or a lack of motivation, whichever it may be. You end up getting laid out a few times that could’ve been avoided.”

“I would think that’s on a lot of fighters’ minds, but some people just do it anyway. They like the money or the attention. It’s one or the other or both. We’ve seen that happen over the years to some of the greatest fighters of all time. That’s definitely on my mind. Certain athletes like Randy Couture, they never needed the reflexes. They could’ve stayed around. I look at a boxer like Floyd Mayweather and think he’s all reflexes. Once his reflexes go, it’s probably time for him to maybe step out.”

As for Penn’s future, there’s no guarantee it could go any direction save for the one it’s one now. To return to MMA, he’d need the right monetary offer against the right opponent at a time when he is willing to put himself through the rigors of training. It would all have to mean something and the day where it could may never come. Or maybe it will. For admirers of Penn, it’s frustrating to live in limbo, but he simply doesn’t know if and when he’ll ever change his mind. Until something acts as a catalyst for change, he’s content to enjoy his life away from professional competition.

Yet, that doesn’t mean Penn doesn’t miss it or doesn’t want more. He still dreams and dreams big when it comes to accomplishing goals in the sport. A fire still burns within the Hawaiian fighter.

After all, Penn told Helwani he still has unfinished business in the Octagon.

“You have dreams and aspirations to what you can accomplish. You never know what’s going to be reality at the end of the day. No, I don’t feel like I’ve done enough. I’d love to become a world champion again. I’m sure every fighter out there, that’s all they think about all the time.”

“I’d love to – without a doubt – be a world champion again,” Penn said.