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UFC Tonight & Ultimate Insider Recap: Updates on Rory MacDonald, Jon Jones, and the Greatest Flying Knees in the UFC

Another Tuesday night has come and gone which means Fuel TV was the destination of choice for most MMA fans. At least it probably was, if A.) you are lucky enough to have the channel and B.) weren’t too busy watching Tosh.O or Sons of Anarchy. Now that I think of it, I’m guessing a total of four of you actually watched last night. Not to worry, ~~Potato Nation~~ ~~taters~~ you guys, we watched UFC Tonight and UFC Ultimate Insider for you and laboriously jotted down all the juicy news and rumors for your enjoyment. Here’s what you missed:

Reminder: UFC on Fuel 5 starts at 4pm ET this Saturday. Plan your weekend accordingly.

Speaking of UFC on Fuel 5, one half of the main event Stefan Struve attempts 4.5 submissions per 15 minutes of fighting but has 0% takedown defense. That is not a typo. He has been grounded each of the four times an opponent has attempted to take him to the canvas. I’m no expert, but isn’t that a little troubling? Maybe it’s all just a part of “Skyscraper”‘s master plan considering 16 the BJJ purple belt’s 24 victories come by way of submission. It’s kind of hard to argue with results like that.

Reminder: UFC on Fuel 5 starts at 4pm ET this Saturday. Plan your weekend accordingly.

Ariel Helwani popped on the screen for a minute to update us on the injury status of a one Jonathan Jones – and it’s not looking good. The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion has been medically suspended indefinitely pending x-rays. Let’s just hope it looks better than this.

Helwani also talked with the still recovering hipster, Rory Macdonald. As of now, he’s feeling much better and is able to do some conditioning work and hit pads.It’s not much, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, which is more than I can say for the fashion advice he’s been receiving. Moving along, Macdonald‘s doctors say he will be able to start camp in two weeks and the VADA drug testing for his upcoming fight against BJ Penn is still part of the plan as far as he knows.

Newly minted ~~Jakks action figure~~ UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson says he wants to defend his title as often as possible. When asked who he thought was next, “Mighty Mouse” said he’d be paying special attention to UFC on FX 5 on October 5th, when TUF 14 contender Jon Dodson meets UFC noob Jussier Formiga in a “#1 contender” bout. Make of that what you will.

Funniest line of the show came from Johnson when he said that the people booing were intoxicated, so he wasn’t really affected by it.

This week’s UFC Tonight poll question was ‘Who Do You Want To See Jon Jones Fight Next?’ The results we’re actually quite surprising. Take a look for yourself. Dan Henderson racked up 45% of the votes and was the majority decision by fans. Alexander Gustafsson had 23%, Lyoto Machida took 14%, and Chael P. Sonnen only garnered 18% of the vote. Maybe Sonnen will need to do a little more than talk smack before he gets a crack at Jones.

*****

UFC Ultimate Insider took, you guessed it, an inside look at the career of Glover Teixeira. Here’s what you should know, if you didn’t already. Teixeira has been around for awhile. He started training MMA in 2001 and eventually wound up being the main sparring partner of UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, according to Ed Soares, the Brazilian was here illegally. You know what that means.

It took three years to get his green card, but when he finally did, Joe Silva was one of the first to know. Now back training at The Pit under the tutelage of “The Iceman” and watchful eye of John Hackleman, Teixeira is determined to make an impact in the cage. Liddell warns other 205-ers that Glover’s only getting better so they better take their shot at him sooner rather than later.

To close out the show, Joe Rogan ranked his Top 8 Greatest Flying Knees. Here they are:

#8.) Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs at UFC 145

#7.) Thiago Alves vs. Matt Hughes at UFC 85

#6.) Pablo Garza vs. Fredson Paixao at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale

#5.) Spencer Fisher vs. Matt Wiman at UFC 60

#4.) BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk at UFC 84

#3.) Carlos Condit vs. Don Hyun Kim at UFC 132

#2.) James Irvin vs. Terry Martin at UFC 54

#1.) Jose Aldo vs. Cub Swanson at WEC 41

-JM

[VIDEO] Jon Jones and Rashad Evans Trade Insults on ‘Ultimate Insider’

(So wait, it ISN’T casual Friday?)

Thank Science, the UFC’s six week drought is finally coming to an end. After Alexander Gustafsson and Thiago Silva throw down at this weekend’s UFC on FUEL event in Sweden, Rashad Evans will finally get the chance to slay the metaphorical white whale, that has long alluded him when he takes on former friend/current foe Jon Jones at UFC 145. These two have been going at it for what seems like years now, and when the pair sat down alongside Jon Anik on a recent episode of Ultimate Insider, things got heated rather quickly.

It all started (at least this time) when Anik brought up Greg Jackson, who will in fact be cornering Jones against Evans come April 21st. Ever since Evans departed from Team Jackson, let’s just say that he and Greg haven’t been on the best of terms. Or even speaking terms, for that matter. Jones, however, feels that the rift between them is mainly due to Evans constant bashing of the very camp he helped build. Here’s what he began to say:

Greg, he said, basically, Rashad is always welcome back. You know, Rashad will always be like a brother to me. You know, he spoke so highly of Rashad. On numerous occasions, he really did everything he could to keep some type of rapport.

Evans quickly chimed in, “He did everything, but he didn’t even give me a call and talk to me. He did everything but couldn’t do the simplest thing.”

Jones brushed off the remark, stating, “On the other hand, you have Rashad, who’s bashing the program and the history -”

It was at this point that Rashad all but flew off the handle, claiming that he was Team Jackson’s history, and that Jones was basically just riding on his coattails. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Anik tried to remain calm while cautiously scanning the Ultimate Insider studio for someone big enough to separate these two if need be, because it sure as shit wasn’t going to be him.

Check out the full video after the jump.

(So wait, it ISN’T casual Friday?)

Greg, he said, basically, Rashad is always welcome back. You know, Rashad will always be like a brother to me. You know, he spoke so highly of Rashad. On numerous occasions, he really did everything he could to keep some type of rapport.

Evans quickly chimed in, “He did everything, but he didn’t even give me a call and talk to me. He did everything but couldn’t do the simplest thing.”

Jones brushed off the remark, stating, “On the other hand, you have Rashad, who’s bashing the program and the history -”

“The history?!” Evans interrupted:

I made that history! What are you talking about? I’m the one who helped make that history! You’re the one who came into it. You came into it! Don’t talk about the history, when you have no roots in the history! Don’t talk about — I helped make Greg Jackson! I helped make him the reason why you even wanted to come there and train. So, don’t talk to me about the history of the team, bro! Don’t talk to me about the history of the program because, motherf*cker, I made that program.

Jones kept his cool, firing back that “There’s more to Jackson’s than the four or five or six UFC fighters that’s on the program. It’s the kids who aren’t in the UFC.”

We gotta say, this is perhaps the most fluent and composed we have seen Jones in an interview scenario. Sure, it sounded a little weird when he declared that all of the non-UFC fighters in Team Jackson “loved him” and that “it was his team now,” but he managed to turn nearly all of Evans’ words against him like a seasoned trash-talker.

Take the following verbal exchange for instance, which came after Evans claimed he “already knew” what Team Jackson was going to tell Jones to do in the cage. When Jones replied that the only weapons Evans possessed were his right hand and his wrestling, Evans thought he had the end all response, but was instantly shut down:

Evans – “Jon, you just showed me why exactly you’re going to lose.”
Jones – “Why’s that?”
Evans- “‘Cause you think you know.”
Jones – “And you think you know. You just said that. Yo, you’re weird, bro.”

Point – Jones

The fact is, no matter what Evans claims to have in his arsenal that he hasn’t displayed in some 14 UFC fights, it is undoubtedly true that Jones brings more diversity to the table than he does. And for Evans to state that he knows what someone as inventive as Jones is going to do seems a little ludicrous, especially when Jones was spot on in his analysis of Evans.

To be fair, Evans made some great points when it came to the somewhat questionable loyalty of Greg Jackson’s gym, using Carlos Condit as a prime example:

That’s why I feel so disrespected. It’s like, ‘So, now Greg, you’re gonna go against me? You’re gonna go against me, right? You gonna go against Georges St. Pierre? Oh, okay. You gonna bring in Carlos Condit? He helped make you too. So where does your loyalty lie?’ So, if you’re gonna go against the people that helped make you, and I was somebody like in Jon’s position, I’d be like, ‘Man, if he’ll go against some people that were with him, to help him get his notoriety, to help him get where he is, then damn, what would he do to me?’

Point – Evans.

We haven’t been treated to a grudge match this intense in quite some time, so if you’re not planning on ordering, stealing, or watching UFC 145 from your neighbor’s apartment via a pair of binoculars, it’s safe to say that you’ll be missing out. We haven’t prodded you on this particular match for at least a week, so who you got for this one?

-J. Jones

Jon Anik to Take Over From Arianny Celeste as Host of ‘Ultimate Insider’ Show

(Video courtesy of YouTube/HeavyMMA)

How could he do this to that poor girl?

It looks like Jon Anik’s role with the UFC won’t be limited to just play-by-play broadcasting. The former ESPN host and broadcasting veteran told Heavy.com’s Megan Olivi yesterday following the UFC 137 press conference that he will also be taking the reins from Arianny Celeste as the host of the Ultimate Insider show and will also possibly be hosting a UFC radio program.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/HeavyMMA)

How could he do this to that poor girl?

Anik, who told Olivi that his gig with ESPN only saw him work about 20% of the time on MMA-related content said that he would only have left ESPN for a role with the UFC and was happy to have gotten the call. At the risk of receiving an angry phone call tomorrow afternoon, we will just say that Anik should add some credibility to the show.

Let’s just hope for our sake Jon doesn’t take us behind the scenes on the set of one of his lingerie photo shoots or we may be eating our words.

Video: UFC Ultimate Insider – Best of Unguarded 2010

UFC Ultimate Insider: Best of Unguarded – Watch more Funny Videos

If you want to see the best segment of the UFC’s Ultimate Insider series, you fast forward to the "Unguarded" portion of the show which features fighter interviews conducted by the UFC’s best kept secret, a behind-the scenes interviewer named Elizabeth who’s putting Ariel Helwani on notice.

Fortunately for those of you who don’t want to have to go through each episode they missed, the fine folks at the UFC took the time to splice together the highlights from the season in the 13-minute video above that includes Randy Couture retelling the story of his first ass-kicking, Josh Koscheck recalling how he "became" a dick, Carlos Condit talking about why he became a fighter and Dan Hardy explaining that he doesn’t like getting punched in the face.

BJ Penn Doesn’t Feel That He Has Peaked Yet

(Video courtesy YouTube/tjc231/UFC.com)
If you were to ask a room full of MMA fans and reporters if they think that BJ Penn’s best days as a fighter are behind him, many, if not most would say they were, but as The Prodigy told Joe Rogan on the m…

(Video courtesy YouTube/tjc231/UFC.com)

If you were to ask a room full of MMA fans and reporters if they think that BJ Penn’s best days as a fighter are behind him, many, if not most would say they were, but as The Prodigy told Joe Rogan on the most recent episode of UFC Ultimate Insider, he doesn’t feel that he has reached his full potential and he that with the right training and mindset he will one day be one of the best fighters in the sport.

When asked by Rogan if he would change anything he did during his career, Penn said that he would do it all over again without doing anything differently as he has learned from everything he has done.

"I wouldn’t do anything different. I woulda did it just like that. I wish I could look back and say, ‘I wish how I was gonna train right now for the Matt Hughes fight I trained like this when I was 20 years old,’ but it wouldn’t have worked then," BJ explains. "It wouldn’t have worked that way. You gotta find what works for you. That’s what I believe. I believe once I do [find what works best for me] I’ll be able to hit that peak. We’re just getting started."

Video: UFC Ultimate Insider – Best of Joe Rogan

UFC Ultimate Insider Best of Joe Rogan – Watch more Funny Videos (Vid courtesy UFC.com)
Two of the most overlooked redeeming qualities of great interviewers are that they they are comfortable and that they make their subjects comfortabl…

UFC Ultimate Insider Best of Joe Rogan – Watch more Funny Videos (Vid courtesy UFC.com)

Two of the most overlooked redeeming qualities of great interviewers are that they they are comfortable and that they make their subjects comfortable enough that they will open up to them.

Joe Rogan does both.

Thanks to his years of television and stand-up comedy experience, Rogan has been able to transition into the role of interviewer with relative ease, without coming off on the mic or behind the camera as a gushing 12-year-old fan like many MMA reporters do today.