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Report: Jonathan Goulet turns down UFC 85 fight

Jonathan Goulet (22-9 MMA, 4-3 UFC) has pulled out of a planned UFC 85 bout with Paul Kelly (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC).

Goulet, who defeated Kuniyoshi Hironaka just three weeks ago at UFC 83,
turned down the June 7 fight due to a shortage of training time,
according to a Thursday report from TKO Xtreme.

Goulet had been one of the last fighters scheduled for the event. At
one time, Kelly had been rumored to be fighting “The Ultimate Fighter
6” cast member Troy Mandaloniz at the event.

Ben Saunders on UFC 86 fight, roster cuts, and upcoming video game

Ben Saunders (5-0-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who last competed in December at The
Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, is best known for his Jeet Kune Do style —
and his constant smiling during fights. Don’t let the smile fool you,
though; the American Top Team member is very serious about fighting.

MMAjunkie.com recently had a chance to
speak with the 25-year-old as he prepares for a fight against fellow “TUF
6” alumnus Jared Rollins.

Saunders spoke about a number of topics, including the UFC’s
roster cuts, the upcoming UFC video game, his future in the
welterweight division, and his upcoming fight at UFC 86 on July 5.

Palace Fighting Championship VIII – Live Results

The California-based Palace Fighting Championship is live tonight at the
Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore, Calif., and four championship
belts are on the line.

“PFC8” features lightweight, middleweight, featherweight and interim
bantamweight title fights, including a main event of lightweight
champion and UFC veteran Diego Saraiva (11-6-1) vs. Brian Cobb (11-4). 

MMAjunkie.com has live results from Palace FC VIII after the jump.

Tim Sylvia is Boring? Not According to This Math

The numbers don’t lie (for the most part):

Two-time UFC champion Tim Sylvia holds the highest knockout percentage among the world’s premier heavyweights. The 32-year-old product of the Miletich Fighting Systems camp has delivered 16 of his 28 career wins (57 percent) by knockout or technical knockout. His percentage is followed by Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (52 percent), Ben Rothwell (50 percent), former UFC titleholder Andrei Arlovski (47 percent), Aleksander Emelianenko (44 percent), UFC Hall-of-Fame Randy Couture (29 percent), Gabriel Gonzaga (27 percent), Fedor Emelianenko (21 percent), Fabricio Werdum (21 percent), Heath Herring (17 percent), Josh Barnett (15 percent) and interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (8 percent).

Yes, yes, I know. Sylvia’s become more boring as his career has progressed. I get that. I just thought the data was interesting.

Josh Barnett Offers Advice to Would-Be MMA Promoters

Sounds like spot-on analysis to me:

Affliction is a new organization coming up, and World Victory Road is a relatively new organization. Should new organizations even think about competing with the UFC?

No, they shouldn’t. They can’t operate within a vacuum, because what every promotion does, even to a small extent, is going to affect them, but they can’t worry about competing with UFC.

They have to try and make sure that:

a) They can put together a great product, in a fashion that is going to draw people to watch it and is available for people to watch it.

b) All their i’s are dotted and all their t’s are crossed, and everything is laid out and set up, so that someone like UFC couldn’t come along and try and find some way to throw a wrench into it, hijack it, challenge it by running programming against it or just simply going behind the scenes to whoever and making a few handshakes, and (say), “Hey, make sure this thing doesn’t go off.”

You’ve worked with many promoters in your career. Why is it so hard for new organizations to get traction?

They don’t secure the viewership first and basically they just spend way too much right off the bat.

Of course, you’re going to lose money when you start, but some of these guys, I think they come in not with the understanding of how long it’s going to take them to recoup that investment, and they don’t have a nest egg that’s large enough to hang in there, especially at the level they’re trying to do it at.