We may not have any UFC events to look forward to for the rest of March, but the MMA world isn’t sitting still. Yesterday was newsworthy on multiple fronts, with three big heavyweight bouts announced for May, a major lawsuit filed against a famous MMA apparel company and plenty of news coming out of Vegas regarding Friday’s debut of The Ultimate Fighter Live.
Let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we?
Three Big Heavyweight Bouts Signed For May’s UFC 146
The UFC officially announced three big heavyweight fights for UFC 146, which takes place over Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas.
The main event features Junior dos Santos defending his heavyweight title against top contender Alistair Overeem. The co-main event will see Cain Velasquez return to the cage to face Frank Mir, with the winner moving on to face the winner of Dos Santos vs. Overeem.
Earlier on the card, Roy “Big Country” Nelson steps in the cage with Strikeforce import Antonio Silva, who is making his UFC debut. The preliminary card features another Strikeforce signee making his debut, as Shane Del Rosario goes up against Brazilian jiu-jitsu wizard and former heavyweight title contender Gabriel Gonzaga.
If you like heavyweights, this may just be the event for you. The UFC has done an incredible job with their heavyweight division, creating intriguing championship bouts and setting up immediate contenders to face the champion.
Details of Lawsuit Against TapouT Revealed in Court Documents
Dan Diaz owned Hitman Fight Gear until the brand was purchased by MMA clothing powerhouse TapouT in 2008. Authentic Brands Group purchased Tapout and Hitman (along with Silver Star Clothing) in 2010. Shortly afterwards, Hitman disappeared from the market.
Diaz disappeared from the MMA scene, but on Wednesday it was revealed that he’s filed a lawsuit against TapouT. You can read the full text of the suit here. Among other things, the suit alleges that TapouT engaged in a practice of accepting bribes from vendors in exchange for contracts at “well over market rate.”
Diaz also alleges that Dan “Punkass” Caldwell, former TapouT vice president Gary Gallinot and company president Marc Stevens wrote checks out of company accounts to one another but neglected to financially support the children of TapouT founder Charles “Mask” Lewis after his death in a car crash in 2009. Diaz says that the company was over $14 million in debt when ABG purchased it for $12 million.
Needless to say, this one is going to get a lot uglier before it’s over.
Dana White Says He’ll Probably End Up Signing Hector Lombard
Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard hasn’t lost a fought in nearly six years. This summer, Lombard becomes a free agent, and UFC President Dana White is confident he’ll end up signing the mercurial middleweight.
I guess he’s pretty popular down here. I’ve been hearing all about him since I’ve been here. I hear he’s under contract though with someone else, so we”ll see. I’ll probably end up with him. If he wants to fight in the UFC, then we’ll probably end up with him.
White certainly has the financial resources to make Lombard a good offer, but Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says White probably needs to hold his horses:
Hector remains our champion right now. We are in the midst of a pretty substantial negotiation relative to his future with the organization. I’ve said many times I think he’s the best middleweight in mixed martial arts so it’s not an easy negotiation by any stretch of the imagination.
We’ve got the right to match on any deal. We’re either gonna sign him before he goes out the to marketplace or he’s going to go out to the marketplace and we’re gonna have a determination as to whether we’re gonna match or not match and we’re gonna see where it ends up.
Urijah Faber Reveals Coaching Team, Special Guests For TUF Live
The Ultimate Fighter Live debuts on FX this Friday night, and coach Urijah Faber has revealed his coaching staff:
“The guys are coming out on the 6th so I’ve got my whole coaching staff. Master Thong, Fabio Prado, Dustin Akbari, Lance Palmer, Justin Buccholz, are all coming out to coach,” Faber told MMAWeekly Radio.
“Joseph [Benavidez] and T.J. [Dillashaw] and a couple of the guys are still in Australia, so they’ll be coming in a little bit later, and Danny Castillo and Chad Mendes, all the guys that are key players on our team right now will be coming out to train as well.”
Faber said he’d like to bring in Duke Roufus, Mark Dellagrotte, Phil Nurse and Mark Munoz to work with his team.
The re-booted reality series kicks off Friday with sixteen elimination fights to determine which fighters will go into the TUF house.
New Fights Announced
Here’s a quick look at all of the fight bookings revealed on Wednesday:
- Antonio Silva vs. Roy Nelson (UFC 146)
- Frank Mir vs. Cain Velasquez (UFC 146)
- Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva (UFC on Fuel 2)
- TJ Grant vs. Carlo Prater (UFC on Fuel 3)
- Michael Chandler vs. Akihiro Gono (Bellator 67)
- Ryan Ford vs. Luis Santos (Bellator 67)
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com