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Once Again, It’s Do or Die Time for Phil Baroni

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After dropping his UFC return fight to Amir Sadollah at UFC 106, Phil Baroni (13-12, 3-6 U…

Phil Baroni MMA UFC Italian Sweatshop Jersey Shore
(Image courtesy of ItalianSweatshop.com. If you decide to click that link, be advised that the "music off" button is in the upper-left corner.)

After dropping his UFC return fight to Amir Sadollah at UFC 106, Phil Baroni (13-12, 3-6 UFC) was slated to come back as a middleweight against John Salter at UFC 118 — but a training injury changed his plans. According to MMA Junkie, Baroni has been re-scheduled to appear at UFC 125 on January 1st against TUF 11 semifinalist Brad Tavares (5-0, 1-0 UFC).

Tavares, who was eliminated on the show by eventual winner Court McGee, returned at the TUF 11 finale and scored a decision win against Seth Baczynski. Now he has a chance to make his name off a struggling veteran, while Baroni can keep his career alive by whipping the 22-year-old Hawaiian. The New York Bad Ass hasn’t tasted victory since outpointing Olaf Alfonso at a Palace Fighting Championship event in September 2008, and it’s a pretty safe bet that if Baroni loses to a barely-established upstart like Tavares, it’ll be the end of his current stint with the UFC. Can Baroni stage another career comeback, or will he catch one of these?

Clay Guida Confirms Takanori Gomi Fight at UFC 125

(Over/under on how many times Joe Rogan will use the word "warrior" during the fight: 27. Photos courtesy of MMAWeekly)
During an appearance on ESPN 1000’s "MMA Tonight" on Sunday, UFC lightweight contender Clay Guida confirmed t…

(Over/under on how many times Joe Rogan will use the word "warrior" during the fight: 27. Photos courtesy of MMAWeekly)

During an appearance on ESPN 1000’s "MMA Tonight" on Sunday, UFC lightweight contender Clay Guida confirmed that he’ll be facing Japanese legend Takanori Gomi at UFC 125 (January 1st, Las Vegas). Guida originally hinted at the matchup last month, when he tweeted that his next fight would be "a big one" against a guy with "ALOT of power in his hands." As the Carpenter told the hosts of MMA Tonight, "[Gomi was] One of my favorite fighters growing up watching MMA…I look up to him, and I’m going to look forward to picking him up off the ground after I ground and pound him into the canvas."

Guida has gone 2-0 this year, scoring submission victories against Shannon Gugerty and Rafael Dos Anjos. Though Gomi was choked out by Kenny Florian in his UFC debut in March, he roared back to relevance with a thunderous knockout of Tyson Griffin at UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko.

The current list of matchups that have been reported for UFC 125 is after the jump…

Kenny Florian ‘Very Excited’ to Face Evan Dunham at UFC 127

(Photoprops: J-Dog)
On last night’s episode of ESPN’s "MMA Live", co-host Kenny Florian revealed that his next fight is close to finalized. As the two-time lightweight title contender said, "We’ve verbally agreed to fight Evan Dunham, …

(Photoprops: J-Dog)

On last night’s episode of ESPN’s "MMA Live", co-host Kenny Florian revealed that his next fight is close to finalized. As the two-time lightweight title contender said, "We’ve verbally agreed to fight Evan Dunham, which is great news. Phenomenal opponent, which I’m very excited about, and it looks like it may happen on Super Bowl weekend."

Ken-Flo is coming off of his unanimous decision loss to Gray Maynard at UFC 118, while Dunham — previously #7 on our increasingly-buckshot list of the 10 greatest undefeated fighters in MMA — recently left it in the hands of the judges at UFC 119, losing a decision to Sean Sherk that Dana White publicly called a robbery. As we wrote then, "it will be interesting to see if the UFC simply ignores the amazing incompetence of the ringside officials on Saturday night and keeps the kid full-speed-ahead on his rise to a title shot." Even though Florian is coming off his own loss, the matchup definitely feels like a well-deserved step up the ladder for Dunham.

It’s also another potentially sick addition to UFC 127 (February 5th, Las Vegas), an event that may feature Silva vs. Belfort, Jones vs. Bader, and Griffin vs. Franklin. Now that we think about it, a Florian vs. Sherk rematch would have made just as much sense here. Your thoughts?

Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim Reported for UFC 125

(Diaz pops Marcus Davis in the jaw at UFC 118; meanwhile, Yves Lavigne notices the rancid smell coming from his armpits. / Props: CageWriter.com)
As first broken by Korean news site mfight.co.kr, Nate Diaz (13-5) will reportedly make his Octagon…

(Diaz pops Marcus Davis in the jaw at UFC 118; meanwhile, Yves Lavigne notices the rancid smell coming from his armpits. / Props: CageWriter.com)

As first broken by Korean news site mfight.co.kr, Nate Diaz (13-5) will reportedly make his Octagon return against Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim (13-0-1, 1 no contest), at UFC 125: Edgar vs. Maynard on New Year’s Day. Diaz most recently picked up his second victory at welterweight, beating the piss out of Marcus Davis at UFC 118 before choking him to sleep in the third round.

Kim’s last cage-appearance was a unanimous decision win over Amir Sadollah at UFC 114, in a performance that was marked by Kim’s superior wrestling and positional control. No, it wasn’t the most exciting fight, but it got the job done and preserved DHK’s unblemished record. Kim was scheduled to return against John Hathaway at UFC 120, but was forced to drop out of the fight due to injury. (Injury withdrawals are kind of a bad habit for Kim, who also missed scheduled UFC meetings with Dan Hardy and Chris Lytle.)

Diaz is on his way to becoming a real contender in the welterweight division — but as we saw in his lightweight losses to Gray Maynard, Joe Stevenson, and Clay Guida, he’s vulnerable against strong wrestlers. If Kim can blanket him like he did to Sadollah, it could be a sad night in Stockton.

Reports: Carwin vs. Nelson at UFC 125, Franklin vs. Griffin at UFC 127

(GNC vs. KFC)
Earlier today, Shane Carwin tweeted that he expects to return to the Octagon at UFC 125 (January 1st, Las Vegas), but doesn’t have an opponent yet. He also promised that "If I knock my opponent out on 1-1-11 in the 1st round at …

(GNC vs. KFC)

Earlier today, Shane Carwin tweeted that he expects to return to the Octagon at UFC 125 (January 1st, Las Vegas), but doesn’t have an opponent yet. He also promised that "If I knock my opponent out on 1-1-11 in the 1st round at the 1:11 mark I will give the gloves to a follower on Twitter." In other words, Shane will probably be hanging on to those gloves.

So who is this mystery opponent? The answer might be the most obvious one. Sources have informed MMAFighting.com that the UFC is trying to book Carwin against TUF 10 winner Roy Nelson, though the matchup could be delayed depending on Nelson’s knee surgery recovery. Carwin and Nelson had a brief Twitter feud in August regarding steroids and obesity, so they already seem to dislike each other. Plus, both guys are coming off of nasty losses, so the fight also has a nice redemption angle. Makes sense to us, especially since UFC 125 needs a prominent co-headliner. We expect Carwin to be the odds-on favorite in this one. Who’s picking Big Country for the upset?

Grove vs. Maia, Bonnar vs. Pokrajac Added to TUF 12 Finale in December

(Stephan Bonnar: He will stand there all day like that.)
The finale show for The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck — slated for December 4th at the Palms in Las Vegas — just picked up its first two official matchups. According …

(Stephan Bonnar: He will stand there all day like that.)

The finale show for The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck — slated for December 4th at the Palms in Las Vegas — just picked up its first two official matchups. According to a press release sent out by Spike this morning, the event will feature a middleweight contest between former title contender Demian Maia and TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove. Maia most recently outpointed Mario Miranda at UFC 118 in Boston, while Grove is coming off a split-decision win over Goran Reljic at UFC 116.

Also on the card, Stephan Bonnar will try to follow up his TKO victory/Fight of the Night against Krzysztof Soszynski (also at UFC 116) when he meets Igor Pokrajac, the man responsible for choking James Irvin out of the UFC. With his 1-2 Octagon record, Pokrajac isn’t exactly a step up in competition for Bonnar after the K-Sos fight. But it’s a fight that Bonnar can win, and if you don’t like seeing Bonnar win fights, we have one question for you: Why do you hate America so much?

Related: According to an MMAJunkie report, the TUF 12 Finale will also host a welterweight battle between Johny Hendricks (9-0, 4-0 UFC) and Rick Story (11-3, 4-1 UFC).