Bisping's Out; Boetsch/Lombard Scheduled

More injuries for the UFC’s middleweight division. After it was announced that Brian Stann had withdrawn from his fight with Hector Lombard, Lombard took to twitter to call out everybody’s favorite British MMA practitioner, Michael Bisping. Apparently Hector Lombard’s tweets hit harder than JDS because within an hour it was announced that Bisping was now injured and pulled from his fight with Tim Boetsch. Boetsch/Lombard is now going down at UFC149. Most people are already saying this will be an early night for Lombard, but I don’t think so. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this plays out in similar fashion to Griffin/Rua back at UFC 76. I’m picking Boetsch to drop the first two rounds and then pull off a come from behind submission late in round three, snapping Lombard’s ridiculous win streak. 

Shogun/Vera to Headline UFC on FOX 4

After turning down a Glover Teixeira fight, Shogun Rua will now headline UFC on Fox 4 against the continuously irrelevant Brandon Vera. Vera is perhaps best known for using his face as a shield from Jon Jones’s elbows, breaking his orbital bone and baffling experts to this day. The only reason Vera is in the UFC is because Thiago Silva, Rua’s original opponent, failed a drug test at the beginning of 2011 causing his win against Vera to be overturned to a no contest. I can’t even feign interest in this fight. Shogun refused Glover wanting a “bigger fight” but jumped at Vera. Shogun is a top LHW and Vera is B-list at best. Glover has a win streak longer than Vera’s career right now; this is Shogun picking easy street. That being said Shogun wins this fight anyway he wants, most likely by TKO.

Teammates Fighting Teammates

(Aren't they cute together??)

For years people wanted a Fitch/Koscheck fight. Jones/Evans was highly anticipated due to the “friends turned enemies” story. With BJ returning to face MacDonald people are wondering about GSP/MacDonald; look for Cormier/Velasquez soon. The other side to the coin is Leonard Garcia and Donald Cerrone, best friends who live together, willing to fight. MMA is a unique sport in that it focuses on your ability to do bodily harm. It might cause friction if you outscore your former college teammate in the NBA, but you are not causing physical damage. It is one thing to shoot more baskets, it is quite another to intentionally dislocate their shoulder for refusing to tap. If Garcia/Cerrone are comfortable, fine. If Fitch and Kos refuse, that’s fine too. As fans we constantly want the best fights, and although some look good on paper, do you really think Cain could do to Cormier what he did to Bigfoot?

Brian Stann Injured; Out of Lombard Fight

Well, this is the latest in a series of injuries that has plagued recent UFC cards. Brian Stann injured his shoulder and will no longer be able to compete this August at the UFC on Fox 4 card. Right now it is unclear if Hector Lomabrd, who was headlining the event with Stann, will remain on the card with a replacement. With Mark Munoz headlining his own event it is unlikely he will be pulled, Chael Sonnen is set for a rematch with Silva, Wanderlei is headlining with Franklin, Leben is suspended, and Vitor broke his hand, in essence the entire UFC middleweight division is tied up leaving only one name that comes to mind. Say it with me kids: Michael Bisping. Bisping is set to return to the octagon against Tim Boetsch July 21^st, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is reassigned to Lombard.  

Johny Hendricks calls out Carlos Condit

I stand by my statement that Johny Hendricks is The Kurgan of the Welterweights, but even The Kurgan had to kill Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez before he got Connor MacLeod. Martin Kampann is Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez and Carlos Condit is Connor MacLeod. I am in favor of either Hendricks/Kampmann in a title eliminator or Condit/Kampmann for the title. I don’t think Hendricks is the #1 contender, and if it wasn’t for his flash KO over Jon Fitch we wouldn’t be considering him for a title shot; he narrowly beat Koscheck and Pierce both by split decision. If Kampmann elects to have his surgery, I am not in favor of Hendricks/Condit. Condit should only be forced to defend his belt against the true #1 contender (Kampmann); if Kampann takes time off, Hendricks/Condit should not happen just to happen, but instead Hendricks/Ellenberger and if Hendricks wins that then he can fight Condit. 

BJ's Back; Accepts MacDonald's Challenge

When I said that Rory MacDonald has 0% chance of getting BJ to come out of retirement, that was actually a typo and what I meant to say was 100% because the fight is actually going down. BJ has accepted the challenge and is eyeing a spot on the UFC 152 card this September in Toronto. Let’s take a moment and reflect on this utter act of insanity – Not only has BJ agreed to come out of retirement and fight the reincarnation of Fedor as a welterweight, but he wants to fight him in his own backyard. Remember when Keyser Soze killed his own family to prove his dominance over the Hungarians before he massacred them; it’s kind of like that. BJ Penn is the Keyser Soze of MMA. Think about that for the rest of the day.  

McCall/Johnson 1.5 Goes Down This Friday

UFC on FX 3 goes down this Friday and the opening round of the Flyweight tournament will finally conclude in the “do over” match between Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson. I’m still not entirely sure what happened last time. Someone said Mighty Mouse won, someone wrote down the wrong number on the wrong line or something and said Ian McCall won; somehow they came to the conclusion that one judge scored the fight a draw, but he was also the alpha male of the judges so they changed their scores accordingly. Then at the post fight press conference Dana White described the entire ordeal as a, “Convoluted Cluster-F—k,” …that may not be an exact quote, but close enough. Long story short the fight is finally going down this Friday night and the winner will face Joseph Benavidez for the inaugural UFC Flyweight Championship later this year. 

Brett Rogers Signs With Bellator

Rogers started his MMA career going 10-0 claiming victories over 9 people you really don’t care about and Andrei Arlovski. He was then paired with Metal Gear Rex Inspiration: Fedor Emelianenko (fun fact, the literal translation of Fedor is: Human Battle Tank) who handed the rising star his first loss. Since then Rogers made headlines for a domestic violence charge and even spent 60 days serving “hard time” and bolstering his “street cred”. It’s been announced that he has signed with Bellator Fighting Championships and will make his debut June 22^nd where he will look to get his career back on track after going just 1-4 in his last 5. To his credit, three of his defeats have come at the hands of Fedor, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett. We’re excited that Roger’s has his personal life back on track and wish him the best in his Bellator debut. 

Martin Kampmann Sidelined After Knee Surgery

There are so many pieces about Martin Kampmann on this site right now it is bordering on the bizarre. This piece is no exception, as it seems Martin will be sidelined due to elective knee surgery. He said there is just a “little bug” that causes his knee to “pop” during training but does not affect him in fights and that he would like to take this time to repair himself. That story does not sound nearly as cool as pretending Kampmann shattered his knee by delivering fight-ending shots to the face of Jake Ellenberger. Regardless of what you choose to believe, Kampmann will be sidelined for the next few months so Hendricks/Kampmann will probably happen sometime this fall. We wish Martin a speedy recovering and are looking forward to his next appearance inside the octagon. 

EA Sports/UFC Announce Multi-Year Deal

I bought EA Sports NHL 2011 the other day because it was cheap and I wanted to play hockey. There is a giant flaw in that game – with the press of a single button you can start a fight. My “superstar” went 5-0 in one game and the biggest complaint I had was that I couldn’t finish the fight when it went to the ground. Then I realized I was playing hockey. That same company, EA, just announced they have struck a multi-game deal with the UFC. No time frame was given for their first release but the news alone should have fans of both EA Sports MMA and the UFC Undisputed franchise jumping for joy. Hopefully they can marry the best features of each game together and get us a solid MMA simulator. Now I’m going to go see how many fights I can pick against the Red Wings. Cheers!