The UFC 149 Injury Curse Strikes Again: Jose Aldo Out, Faber vs. Barao New Main Event


For the last time, Joe: One of these guys is a fictional character and the other one has a shoulder injury.

At this point, do we even need to update our most cursed MMA events of all time list to include UFC 149? Calling this card “injury plagued” is as brilliant of an observation as saying that airline food is typically not of high quality. For those of you who have lost track of the fighters who have pulled out of bouts on this card due to injury, allow me to quickly refresh your memory: Vitor Belfort, Thiago Silva, Thiago Alves, and Michael Bisping.

And now you can add UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo to that list as well.


For the last time, Joe: One of these guys is a fictional character and the other one has a shoulder injury.

At this point, do we even need to update our most cursed MMA events of all time list to include UFC 149? Calling this card “injury plagued” is as brilliant of an observation as saying that airline food is typically not of high quality. For those of you who have lost track of the fighters who have pulled out of bouts on this card due to injury, allow me to quickly refresh your memory: Vitor BelfortThiago SilvaThiago Alves, and Michael Bisping.

And now you can add UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo to that list as well.

Yesterday it was announced that Jose Aldo has suffered an undisclosed injury, and has been forced out of his UFC 149 headlining bout against Erik Koch. Taking over the main event slot will be an interim bantamweight title fight between Urijah Faber and Renan Barao, initially set as the co-main event for UFC 148. And not that it matters, but that fight was made possible by an injury to Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz.

For those of you keeping track, this summer has also seen injuries to Chad GriggsJon FitchBrian Stann, Pablo Garza and Edwin Figueroa shake up future cards. And to think, it’s only June.

While Erik Koch’s title fight has obviously been postponed, it is uncertain whether or not Koch will remain on the card. Perhaps the UFC will have him fight “The Korean Zombie” for an interim title? Oh wait…never mind.

Previously: And Now Michael Bisping Is Injured: UFC 149 Sets Up Lombard vs. Boetsch, UFC on FOX 4 Adds Shogun vs. Vera Headliner

Georges St. Pierre’s Return Bout Against Carlos Condit Pencilled In for November 17th

If you ever wanted to tie things up, Matt Hughes, now is the time.

The UFC’s Welterweight division has been going nowhere fast for quite some time now. In the time since champ Georges St. Pierre was sidelined with an injury and lengthy recovery, we’ve controversially crowned a interim king who’d prefer to sit and wait for the champion to reemerge rather than fight the rest of the weight class’s top contenders, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what an interim champ is supposed to do.

Now, finally, it looks like frustrated fans have some good news: Carlos Condit has a date with “Rush” marked on his calendar. The bad news? It’s written in pencil and we still have to wait five months to see it.

As reported by Sherdog.com, UFC 154, slated to go down on November 17th in Montreal, will feature the ‘unification’ of the two Welterweight straps. St. Pierre last defended his title against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April of 2011. Assuming that Georges recovers in time for this scrap, will nineteen months of ring rust make for an even more conservative performance from the champ?

After the jump, Hendricks and Kampmann will vie for a title shot on the undercard.

If you ever wanted to tie things up, Matt Hughes, now is the time.

The UFC’s Welterweight division has been going nowhere fast for quite some time now. In the time since champ Georges St. Pierre was sidelined with an injury and lengthy recovery, we’ve controversially crowned a interim king who’d prefer to sit and wait for the champion to reemerge rather than fight the rest of the weight class’s top contenders, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what an interim champ is supposed to do.

Now, finally, it looks like frustrated fans have some good news: Carlos Condit has a date with “Rush” marked on his calendar. The bad news? It’s written in pencil and we still have to wait five months to see it.

As reported by Sherdog.com, UFC 154, slated to go down on November 17th in Montreal, will feature the ‘unification’ of the two Welterweight straps. St. Pierre last defended his title against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April of 2011. Assuming that Georges recovers in time for this scrap, will nineteen months of ring rust make for an even more conservative performance from the champ?

Also on the card, Johny Hendricks will square off with Martin Kampmann for a title shot against the winner of the GSP-Condit bout. Expect Kampmann to handle the pressures of a number-one contender bout well; he fought for and won a shot at this very title just last weekend with his come-from-behind victory over Jake Ellenberger. Huh…didn’t see that one coming.

If things go to hell and GSP isn’t fully recovered in time for the bout, look for “The Hitman” to step up and face Condit for the interim title. “The Natural Born Killer” has previously stated that he’d like a chance to avenge his last loss to Kampmann in the event that GSP’s return is delayed.

Introducing the Roots of Fight/Black House MMA Fan Art Contest!

(Props: YouTube.com/RootsofFight. For further viewing, check out Bas Rutten’s ground-fighting epiphanyinspirational words from Mike Tyson, and George Chuvalo’s Muhammad Ali memories.)

Our good friends at Roots of Fight have previously hooked us up with their Gracie-themed apparel, and now they’re releasing a limited-edition collection that pays tribute to the shadowy MMA brotherhood known as Black House. Check out the video above to learn about the origins and guiding principles of the Black House gym, which has hosted such MMA stars as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira brothers, Rafael Cavalcante, Mark Munoz, Roger Gracie, and Glover Teixeira.

The new Black House X Roots of Fight series includes a t-shirt and sweatshirt that showcase Black House’s unique logo, which was created by legendary illustrator/designer Shepard Fairey. (Check out images of the gear after the jump.) And it just so happens that we have three prize packages to give away, which include both items. If you want them, they’re yours for the taking — all you have to do is create a piece of art paying tribute to any of the fighters in the Black House stable, or the camp itself. And it has to be really freakin’ cool…


(Props: YouTube.com/RootsofFight. For further viewing, check out Bas Rutten’s ground-fighting epiphanyinspirational words from Mike Tyson, and George Chuvalo’s Muhammad Ali memories.)

Our good friends at Roots of Fight have previously hooked us up with their Gracie-themed apparel, and now they’re releasing a limited-edition collection that pays tribute to the shadowy MMA brotherhood known as Black House. Check out the video above to learn about the origins and guiding principles of the Black House gym, which has hosted such MMA stars as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira brothers, Rafael Cavalcante, Mark Munoz, Roger Gracie, and Glover Teixeira.

The new Black House X Roots of Fight series includes a t-shirt and sweatshirt that showcase Black House’s unique logo, which was created by legendary illustrator/designer Shepard Fairey. (Check out images of the gear after the jump.) And it just so happens that we have three prize packages to give away, which include both items. If you want them, they’re yours for the taking — all you have to do is create a piece of art paying tribute to any of the fighters in the Black House stable, or the camp itself. And it has to be really freakin’ cool…

Submissions can be drawings, paintings, photo manipulations, sculptures, or any other variation of badass MMA fan art. E-mail photos or digital copies of your creations to [email protected] by Monday, June 18th; the three best submissions will receive the shirt and sweatshirt from Roots of Fight, which look like this:

We’ll announce the winners on Tuesday, 6/19. Any questions, hit us up in the comments section. Good luck, and thanks to Roots of Fight for making this possible! Follow them on Twitter @RootsofFight.

Good News of the Day: Blagoi Ivanov Recovered from Coma, Released from Hospital

Earlier this year, the future of undefeated Bellator heavyweight prospect Blagoi Ivanov appeared uncertain for the most unfortunate of reasons. However, Sherdog.com is reporting that Ivanov has made a “miraculous recovery” over the past ten days, and has been released from Pirogov Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ivanov will still require treatment, but is determined to eventually fight again.

In February, Blagoi Ivanov was attending the after party of a boxing tournament when a fight broke out. Ivanov attempted to break up the fight when he and two of his friends were attacked by eight men carrying guns and knives. While his friends only suffered minor injuries, Ivanov was stabbed in the armpit, with the blade piercing his heart.

Earlier this year, the future of undefeated Bellator heavyweight prospect Blagoi Ivanov appeared uncertain for the most unfortunate of reasons. However, Sherdog.com is reporting that Ivanov has made a “miraculous recovery” over the past ten days, and has been released from Pirogov Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ivanov will still require treatment, but is determined to eventually fight again.

In February, Blagoi Ivanov was attending the after party of a boxing tournament when a fight broke out. Ivanov attempted to break up the fight when he and two of his friends were attacked by eight men carrying guns and knives. While his friends only suffered minor injuries, Ivanov was stabbed in the armpit, with the blade piercing his heart.

While surgery immediately following the stabbing was successful, Ivanov was placed in a medically-induced coma and remained on life support six weeks after the stabbing. At the time, his physicians did not comment on whether or not they expected him to fully recover from the attack.

Blagoi Ivanov’s 23-year-old assailant is being held indefinitely on charges of attempted murder. His defense team is claiming self-defense, but Ivanov’s friends insist that the attack was unprovoked.

Blagoi Ivanov first appeared on our radar in 2008, when he defeated the seemingly-indestructible (at the time) Fedor Emelianenko in a Sambo match on points (8-5) in the semi-finals of the World Combat Sambo Championships. Ivanov would go on to win the gold medal, and eventually transition to MMA. He racked up a 3-0 record (1 NC) before being signed by Bellator, where he would knock out William Penn in just over two and a half minutes at Bellator 38 and choke out TUF 10 alum Zak Jensen at Bellator 52. His most recent fight was a third round TKO over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez on Christmas Eve, 2011 in Chekhov, Russia.

Doctors expect his recovery to take six months to a year. We’ll keep you up to date on his recovery.

Jon Fitch Out of UFC on FUEL TV 4 Bout due to Knee Injury


Just beneath the picture: Heineken Light.

Depending on how you feel about UFC welterweight Jon Fitch, UFC on FUEL TV 4 either just became much more interesting or just suffered a massive blow.

As initially reported by WrestlingObserver.com and confirmed by MMAFighting.com, Jon Fitch has suffered a knee injury and has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming bout against Aaron Simpson at UFC on FUEL TV 4. At this time, a replacement opponent for Aaron Simpson has not been announced.


Just beneath the picture: Heineken Light.

Depending on how you feel about UFC welterweight Jon Fitch, UFC on FUEL TV 4 either just became much more interesting or just suffered a massive blow.

As initially reported by WrestlingObserver.com and confirmed by MMAFighting.com, Jon Fitch has suffered a knee injury and has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming bout against Aaron Simpson at UFC on FUEL TV 4. At this time, a replacement opponent for Aaron Simpson has not been announced.

It’ll be interesting to see who the UFC matches Aaron Simpson up with now, as this bout looked like a pretty clear rebound fight for Fitch. Jon Fitch was looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2011 campaign, which included a disappointing draw against BJ Penn at UFC 127 followed up by the fastest loss of his career, a 12-second knockout loss to Johny Hendricks at UFC 141. Meanwhile, Aaron Simpson will be making his welterweight debut after his last effort saw him drop a split-decision to Ronny Markes at UFC on FUEL TV 1. Before that, Simpson had won three straight fights at middleweight.

UFC on FUEL TV 4 will go down on Wednesday, July 11 in San Jose, California. The event will be headlined by a middleweight clash between Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. The co-main event of the evening will be a light heavyweight bout between Brandon Vera and James Te-Huna.

Brock Lesnar is Coming Back to the UFC? Well, . . . . Maybe . . . . . .

Nathan “The12ozCurls” Smith

As painful as the UFC post-fight press conferences are to sit though, you sure do learn (or at least get teased with) some vital information about the future of the organization. Stuff like: Dana White saying that he doesn’t want to deal with Alistair Overeem because “he sat in front of us . . . . Lied to us.” There is an entire horse meat story waiting to be written by Josh Hutchinson on that, but I am talking about good juicy TMZ’esque gossip shit. The Overeem issue is kind of news but it was overshadowed by another series of questions asked.

Because there was not a camera pointed at the media members, I am not certain it was Ariel Helwani – but I am pretty damn positive – who asked the most intriguing questions of the night. I AM sure that there are not a lot of guys that (sound like a baritone-polite-Mogwai and) have the stones to ask the necessary questions – but big props to Helwani if it was in fact him.


(Who has 2 index fingers and knows how to make a lot of money?)

Nathan “The12ozCurls” Smith

As painful as the UFC post-fight press conferences are to sit though, you sure do learn (or at least get teased with) some vital information about the future of the organization.  Stuff like: Dana White saying that he doesn’t want to deal with Alistair Overeem because “he sat in front of us . . . . Lied to us.”  There is an entire horse meat story waiting to be written by Josh Hutchinson on that, but I am talking about good juicy TMZ’esque gossip shit. The Overeem issue is kind of news but it was overshadowed by another series of questions asked.

Because there was not a camera pointed at the media members, I am not certain it was Ariel Helwani – but I am pretty damn positive – who asked the most intriguing questions of the night.  I AM sure that there are not a lot of guys that (sound like a baritone-polite-Mogwai and) have the stones to ask the necessary questions – but big props to Helwani if it was in fact him.

If you wanna see Dana White show a giant shit-eating-grin (even bigger than karmaatemycat’s during the Barbosa vs. Varner fight), follow along HERE at the 13:25 mark.

Possibly Probably  Helwani“A lot of people were very surprised to see Brock Lesnar – he wasn’t a guy that would come to fights when he was a member of the UFC . . . . .”  (interrupted by)
Dana White  – “You got that right . . . . right?”
PPH“What was he doing here?”
DW“I don’t know.  Apparently now he is a big fan”
Helwani“Is there anything more to that?”
DW“Ya.”
PPH“Anything that you’d like to share?”
DW“No.  He was here.  I mean, I think that says it all.”
PPH“Is there a chance that he may come back?”
DW“Possibly, ya.”
PPH “So you have talked to him about this?”
DW“No.”

Well, thanks for fucking nothing . . . . kind of.

The fact that both HeavyWeight Champion Junior Dos Santos and defeated foe Frank Mir are in the screen shot during the encounter is absolutely priceless.  Cigano laughs during the questioning while Mir and his swollen face stare into outer space.  Brock was probably there in hopes that Mir would somehow defeat JDS and then he could come back to the UFC for a third match against Frank.  Clearly that shit didn’t materialize.  Now, since the questions have been asked, does anybody really think that Brock wants to come back to face the killers in the HW division, much less JDS?  We already know that ”COCK CHESTNAR” (thanks dranokills)  doesn’t like getting hit in the face or kicked in the body.  Is there anyone out there that thinks this just reeks of “sports entertainment” nonsense?  It has happened before.

Open the proverbial flood gates of endless speculation.