One of Dana White’s favorite phrases is that the only thing he knows when he wakes up in the morning, is something bad is going to happen. Never have those words meant as much as they did yesterday.
Within a span of a few hours, White and the UFC lost not one, but two massive money draws. To wake up with a breakfast of nixing the year’s No. 1 event, ruffling your most lucrative international market, and losing out on millions of revenue dollars is one thing. But to find out dessert is having your most marketable heavyweight star be done for the year because some Simpsons caricature of a doctor didn’t know the ingredients to his own drug cocktail, now that’s a doozy of a one-two punch to the gut. If Jon Jones had randomly retired, White may have spontaneously combusted.
So if there’s ever a day Dana has an excuse to call in sick, it’s today.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
Alistair Overeem license request denied. The Nevada state athletic commission denied Alistair Overeem’s request for licensure, ruling that he would be ineligible to reapply before December 27, nine months from the date of his failed random test.
Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 2 rescheduled. As expected, Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II has been postponed to UFC 148, which is slated for July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman headlines UFC on Fuel 4. A middleweight match-up pitting Chris “All American” Weidman against Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Munoz has been tapped as the five-round main event of UFC on FUEL 4 on July 11, 2012.
Hector Lombard joins UFC. Longtime Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard officially signed a multi-fight contract with the UFC. Lombard has gone 25 straight fights without a defeat, stretching back to December 2006.
Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson potential headliner for UFC 149. UFC President Dana White opened the door for Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson to headline UFC 149 in Calgary, depending on how quickly Jones can recover from last week’s title defense.
MEDIA STEW
Junior dos Santos may be a ridiculously scary guy, but take comfort in knowing you could probably wakeboard better than him.
Marcus Brimage vs. Maximo Blanco wasn’t exactly the barnburner we expected, but at least we got this out of it.
Local alternative outlet Creative Loafing was in attendance for UFC 145’s open workouts, and it didn’t take long for the absurd questions to start flying. Honestly, we never thought listening to GSP list off names of foods could be so entertaining. Also, Matt Brown is a gardener. (HT: Bloody Elbow)
UFC 145 was cool and all, but the moment of the night may have come in the first ten seconds of the Facebook feed. (NSFW: Hilarious swearing)
IT BEGINS
I am in the UFC it is official 🙂
— Hector Lombard (@HectorLombard) April 24, 2012
HELL OF A BIRTHDAY
Happy B-day to my beautiful mom Suzanne today. Still feisty, just caught a burgler w a pellet gun. Held him off till the cops arrived.
— Urijah Faber (@UrijahFaber) April 24, 2012
Here’s the dude my mom caught, she thought she was using a real gun. Probly better. twitter.com/UrijahFaber/st…
— Urijah Faber (@UrijahFaber) April 24, 2012
THE DISGUISE GLASSES WILL SAVE HIM
Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen is on!!! July 7th in Las Vegas but first get Chael out of Brazil in 1 piece. twitter.com/danawhite/stat…
— Dana White (@danawhite) April 24, 2012
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Tuesday, April 24, 2012):
– UFC 147: Anderson Silva (31-4) vs. Chael Sonnen (27-11-1) postponed to UFC 148
– UFC 148: Dominick Cruz (19-1) vs. Urijah Faber (26-5) shifted to co-main event
– UFC on FUEL 4: Mark Munoz (12-2) vs. Chris Weidman (8-0) announced as main event
– UFC on FUEL 3: Aaron Riley (30-13-1) out, Marcus LeVesseur (21-5) in against Cody McKenzie (12-2)
– NEF Fight Night III: Tim Sylvia (30-7) vs. Randy Smith (14-10-1)
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day is an incredibly informative encyclopedia of kickboxing that you’ll accidentally spend 45 minutes reading, courtesy of BE’s Sweet Scientist: The Different Styles Of Kickboxing
SAVATE
Savate (also called boxe française) is a kickboxing style originating in France in the XIXth century. It’s practiced with shoes on (Savate means old shoe in French).
Rules: 5×2 minutes rounds. Punches and kicks allowed on all striking levels but kicks must hit with the foot and not with the shin. Punches are scored but only the first punch in a combination counts, to get more points from punches a kick must be thrown.
So, what does it look like?:
Guys that fought in it you might have heard of:
Ernesto Hoost, Farid Khider, Enoch Effah.
Found something perfect for the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @shaunalshatti and we’ll include it in tomorrow’s post.