Gus Johnson Signs With Fox but Stays With Showtime

by Michael David SmithLast week it was revealed that Gus Johnson's contract with CBS had expired, and on Tuesday morning it was reported that Johnson has accepted a job at Fox. But that doesn't mean he's done as the voice of mixed martial arts on Showtime, the sister network of CBS.

Sources told MMAFighting.com that Johnson's contract with CBS was for basketball and football, and that his deal to call fights (both MMA and boxing) for Showtime was a separate contract. That contract is still in effect, and Johnson will call Saturday night's Andre Ward-Arthur Abraham boxing match for Showtime. Although Showtime hasn't yet announced who will broadcast its next MMA show (a June 18 Strikeforce card), Johnson is expected to call that event as well.

Theoretically, it's even possible that Johnson could be back on the CBS airwaves if CBS ever aired another Strikeforce fight: When Johnson called EliteXC and Strikeforce fights on CBS in the past, that was part of his Showtime deal. It's probably a long shot that we'd see Johnson back on CBS, however.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/10/gus-johnson-signs-with-fox-but-stays-with-showtime/

Kevin Randleman Vitor Ribeiro Aaron Riley Joe Riggs

UFC 130 main event off, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard both injured

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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The highly anticipated rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard at UFC 130 this month is off, as MMAFighting.com reports that both fighters have suffered injuries, canceling that card's main event.

With no time to find a suitable replacement, the light heavyweight bout between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Matt Hamill has been moved up to the main event slot, while Frank Mir and Roy Nelson will take the co-main event slot with their heavyweight bout.

Per the report, Edgar has suffered broken ribs in training, while Maynard suffered a knee injury of his own. There's no timetable for a return for either competitor at this moment.

The card will still take place on May 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and will air live on pay-per-view.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: That's a huge blow to the UFC and will cost this card them a significant amount of money in lost pay-per-view buys. Rampage is still a draw, but against Hamill as the main event on three weeks notice it won't be. This was going to be an excellent rematch, and it's extremely unfortunate that this happened. It also puts the lightweight division on hold even longer, and there's no telling how long it's going to take both fighters to get back to action, and who knows if the UFC will even keep the rematch together. If one is going to be out for a longer time than the other, we may end up seeing one of them in a different fight upon their return altogether. This just really hurts a lot of plans that were in motion for the division and, even though there's still a strong overall card for this pay-per-view, really hurts the event as a whole without a true main event level fight for pay-per-view. This is awful news.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9285.shtml

Zelg Benkei Galesić Mauro Galvao Arman Gambaryan Manvel Gamburyan

Evans Calls Jones A Sneaky Snake, Has More Respect For Rampage

Rashad Evans will face Phil Davis at UFC 133 in place of an injured Jon Jones, the man he had hoped to be fighting for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title, and this week Yahoo! caught up with Evans and he discussed his training plans for the upcoming fight as well as his thoughts on how things played out with Jon Jones:<Br><Br> "Great team out there (at Jackson MMA's partner gym, Grudge Training Center, including Nate Marquardt and Shane Carwin). It's like family out there, but the thing about that is, they're like team-affiliated with Jackson. I don't want to put them in a position where they feel like they train with me and having to choose because of the way things are."<Br><Br> "I going to do a little bit in Florida, I'm going to do some in Arizona, and I'm going to try to get up to New York City and do some training."<Br><Br> "Me and Jardine are still tight. Jardine has his own gym out there, you know. And I said if I'm gonna go back out there and train, it'd be at his gym."<Br><Br> "I seen (Jon Jones) in Toronto (at UFC 129) and walked by him and he looked at me and said 'what you looking at' and I said 'what you looking at."<Br><Br> "Jon will put on his Jon Jones hat when he's in front of the media, but I know Jon Jones," Evans said. "I have more respect for 'Rampage' [Jackson] than I do for Jon. At least Rampage will be like 'this is me, this is what you get.' He's straight up, boom. I don't like that sneaky, sneaky stuff. Jon is like sneaky. Snake ... snake." <Br><Br> "Yeah I was gettin' into (the bitter twitter quarrel with Jones). I like to talk, and I was gettin' real excited about it. There were a lot of things that made me mad about the whole situation so...I definitely wanted to address a few things."<Br><Br> "I seen him in Toronto and walked by him and he looked at me and said "What you lookin' at?' and I said "What you lookin' at?" Then he said "You a clown!" and I said "You a clown!" and that was it....it was nothing."<Br><Br> "No, I will not be going back to Jackson's. I'll never go back to Jackson's. Wait, because I don't want to go back there I'm not goin to say never, I'm just gonna say I'm not going back."<Br><Br>

Source: http://www.mmanews.com/home.php

Frank Shamrock Tito Ortiz Randy Couture Vitor Belfort

Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz in the UFC not out of the question after UFC 129

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre has taken out yet another challenger in the 170 lb. division, taking the five round decision over Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto last weekend.

The win, St. Pierre's sixth straight title defense, left a lot to be desired, with St. Pierre suffering a poke to the eye early in the fight and failing to be too effective from then on out. Shields played a part in the fight being a less-than-exciting spectacle, attempting to kick box with the Champion and failing to bring the fight to his strength on the ground.

Now, talk of a super fight between GSP and Anderson Silva has slowed, and the new bout on everyone's tongue is Georges St. Pierre against Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz.

For his part, Diaz wants the fight. According to Luke Thomas at SBNation.com, Diaz stated at the post-event press conference "I want to fight Georges St. Pierre." It was a comment made in the gallery as the question was being posed to UFC President Dana White about GSP and Silva, but nonetheless after discussing a move to boxing, this is one fight that would keep him in the sport.

And he's not the only one that wants to see it. UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta asked fans on Twitter whether they'd rather see GSP-Silva or GSP-Diaz, and he says the response he got was fairly one sided. "Overwhelming response for GSP/DIAZ interesting," he wrote. "In NYC now working in what you all know."

58% of our readers that have responded to a poll put up Sunday afternoon regarding these two possible fights have chimed in as well, wanting to see St. Pierre take on the brash and exciting Strikeforce Champ.

The hurdles revolve around whether or not the UFC can bring Diaz into the fold with the relationship with Showtime after acquiring Strikeforce, and whether they can prevent Diaz from leaving for a fight in boxing first.

White spoke about the fight after Saturday's event, and though he acknowledged the hurdles present, that may not stop the fight from taking place.

"I imagine I could do whatever I wanted to do if I really wanted to, but we have a contract with Showtime and [Diaz is] a Showtime fighter," White said at the post-fight press conference. "I don't know, we're going to have to see how this whole thing works out. That's an interesting fight... I can do what I want to do."

White plans on heading to Stockton, Calif., this week to talk to Diaz about the boxing fight he's allowed to take under contract as well as what Diaz's future plans will entail. When they meet, this fight will likely be among the topics discussed as well, and if fight fans get what they want, it's a fight we might see sometime this year.

Penick's Analysis: With the way the fight went down on Saturday night, this one could be more interesting than a GSP-Silva fight right now. It's a fantastic fight between the greatest 170 lb. fighter in the world in St. Pierre and an extremely exciting fighter in Diaz that will, at the very least, pull out a massive effort from the champion in a title fight. If the UFC can figure out how they can bring Diaz into the fold with the Showtime and Strikeforce hold ups, and can convince him to take the GSP fight instead of making an attempt to go to boxing, this could definitely come to fruition.

[GSP art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9222.shtml

Johnnie Morton Ben Mortimer Curtis Mostat Gegard Mousasi

Bellator adds talented finisher Douglas Lima to welterweight roster

Though Bellator champion Ben Askren and Season 4 Tournament winner Jay Hieron currently have their sights set on each other and a future title-fight, when things are said and done this fall the winner?s attention may very well lie with the latest welterweight to join Bellator?s growing 170-pound roster. According to a promotional press release, [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/05/10/bellator-adds-talented-finisher-douglas-lima-to-welterweight-roster/

Takanori The Fireball Kid Gomi Akihiro Gono Gabriel Gonzaga Lyman Good

UFC 129 Prelims Live brings 1.5 million viewers to Spike TV

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Saturday's UFC 129 Prelims Live broadcast on Spike TV brought another strong rating to the network, bringing in 1.5 million viewers for the hour long broadcast.

The Spike broadcast featured two fights live, with Jake Ellenberger scoring a vicious first-round KO win over Sean Pierson and Rory MacDonald putting on an impressive performance in a dominant decision win over Nate Diaz.

The 1.5 million viewers tied for the fourth most to tune in for a Prelims Live special on Spike, falling just slightly below UFC 114, UFC 109 and UFC 126. UFC 126 set the record for the specials with 2 million viewers in February.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9227.shtml

Marcus Vinicios Falaniko Vitale Igor Vovchanchyn Anthony Walsh