David Mitchell awarded show money after Hyun Gyu Lim pulled from UFC on FUEL TV 6

by John Morgan on Nov 08, 2012 at 9:35 pm ET

Looking to fight for the first time in 15 months, David Mitchell (11-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has instead been reduced to a tourist.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned that Mitchell’s planned opponent, Hyun Gu Lim (10-3-1- MMA, 0-0 UFC), has been pulled from tomorrow’s UFC on FUEL TV 6 event and his fight with “Daudi” has been scratched.

According to sources close to the fighter, UFC doctors nixed the bout. While an exact reason for the scratch wasn’t given, additional sources suggested complications during Lim’s weight cut were responsible for the move.

The fight card will now proceed with nine fights, and Mitchell will be paid his show money.

Mitchell likely was getting a final shot at a first UFC win. After opening his career with a perfect 11-0 mark, the former Tachi Palace Fights champ signed with the UFC and promptly suffered back-to-back octagon losses to T.J. Waldburger and Paulo Thiago, though his most recent appearance came back in August 2011.

Lim, meanwhile, has posted five consecutive wins (all via first-round stoppage) while competing in Guam, which followed some M-1 appearances. The South Korean was expected to make his UFC debut after posting nine stoppages in 10 career wins.

With the late change, the UFC on FUEL TV 6 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD
•Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le
•Stanislav Nedkov vs. Thiago Silva
•Dong Hyum Kim vs. Paulo Thiago
•Mac Danzig vs. Takanori Gomi
•Jon Tuck vs. Tiequan Zhang
•Jeff Hougland vs. Takeya Mizugaki

cagepassion.com

At Invicta FC’s first event Leslie Smith faced Katlin Young. Both women fought their hearts out in a bout that not only ended in a draw, But also earned Fight of the Night honors. It was a fight that made many people take notice of Invicta FC.

While many people were calling for a rematch it did not happen at Invicta FC 2. Instead Katlin Young faced Liz Carmouche in a fight that she lost in the second round by rear naked choke. Smith was eventually matched against Amanda Nunes only after Milana Dudieva had to pull out of the fight. Soon after the match up though Leslie suffered a hand injury that forced her to pull off the card.

Then Invicta FC 3 was announced. Katlin Young was matched up in a highly publicized bout with former Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman and Smith was set to fight 4-0 fighter Kim Connor-Hamby.
That would all change though once Sarah Kaufman had suffered an injury that made her have to pull off the card. Finally we were going to see the Young vs Smith rematch.

On October 6th both women came out of the gate firing on both cylinders as the crowd went wild. In the second round Smith would capture Young in a crucifix and started hammering her with punches until the ref stopped the fight. There would be no draw on this night.

So has Smith finally earned the respect she deserves? With only 2 decision losses to her record one to Kerry Vera in 2009 and another to Ediene Gomes in a fight she took on 72 hours notice, What is next for the Peacemaker?

When we spoke to Smith pre fight on Cage Passion Radio she said she would like Young’s original opponent Sarah Kaufman. She said “I think it only makes sense.”

Leslie Smith had already earned my respect prior to October 6 and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for this talented fighter. Keep your eye on this one folks, I think she is going places.

Gilbert Melendez has been forced to withdraw from next Saturday’s Strikeforce Championship title defense versus Pat Healy, due to a shoulder injury he sustained last week in practice. Melendez decided to forgo training for a few days to let the injury heal but it became apparent that the injury was too serious and would not heal in time.

Strikeforce has cancelled the entire event after Showtime decided not to broadcast the card without the Championship fight.

mmafighting.com
Andy Samuelson

Sep 14, 2012 – LAS VEGAS — The fallout from UFC 151′s cancellation isn’t going away anytime soon as UFC president Dana White talked again on Thursday about his displeasure for comments made by light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his camp.

“The Jon Jones piece of meat (expletive) thing. When I see him in (expletive) Toronto, that’s the first (expletive) thing we’re going to talk about. Piece of meat? Give me a (expletive) break,” White told a small group of reporters gathered at the UFC headquarters, about an upcoming conversation he would have with Jones before his UFC 152 fight next weekend against Vitor Belfort in Canada.

“That sounds like something a male supermodel would say: I feel like a piece of meat out here (White said in a mocking voice).

“That pisses me off worse than (expletive) canceling the event. I just heard that one today, Jim Rome told me that.”
(Editor’s note: The “piece of meat” remark from Jon Jones comes at the 16:23 point in our video below.)

Closure for UFC’s boss doesn’t seem any closer after UFC 151 went up in flames last month when Dan Henderson was forced to pull out because of a knee injury and Jones refused a bout against substitute opponent Chael Sonnen.

“Every time somebody asks me if I take responsibility for canceling UFC 151 on (expletive) Twitter, it’s like ‘ Yeah, how’s it my fault?’” White said of the UFC’s first canceled event in 11 years. “If somebody can even try to give me an idea of how that’s my fault that 151 got canceled, I would love to hear it.

“Dan Henderson should have told me three weeks before that his (expletive) knee was hurt, and maybe I could have saved it. And Jon Jones should have fought (expletive) Chael Sonnen. And his (expletive) goofy trainer should have kept his face shut.”

White — who unleashed on Jones’ trainer, Greg Jackson, on a media call immediately after the event’s cancellation — certainly didn’t hold back any verbal barbs when talking about the New Mexico-based trainer again on Thursday.

“The thing that drives me crazy about Greg Jackson is Greg Jackson has this whole little thing where he’s the nicest guy in the world, the nicest guy you’ve ever met. Real quiet and humble. He’s a (expletive) hardcore businessman,” White said. “That’s what that guy is. He plays the whole thing with Jon and Rashad (Evans) and (expletive) Jardine and all these guys ‘We’re all family, we’re all brothers. We’re a big family here and that’s what we are. We won’t fight each other because we’re family.’

“(Expletive) You’re not family. You train together. Yes they like each other. There’s a lot of nice guys in MMA. Keith Jardine is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Rashad is cool too. This sport is full of nice guys. (But Greg) plays this card with these guys…”

Before White could catch his breath, his rant on Jackson continued.

“The only reason we even know who Greg Jackson is cause of (expletive) Diego Sanchez,” White said. “Diego Sanchez came out of his camp because of GSP. GSP wanted to come train at Jackson’s camp and Diego was like (expletive) that (expletive). ‘This is my house, man. I’m going to have to fight this guy one day.’ What did Greg Jackson do? (Expletive) GSP down there isn’t he. You know why because he believed GSP would (expletive) beat Diego Sanchez. He made a business decision. I will take him over him. What happened to (expletive) family?

“Who could be more family to you than (expletive) Diego Sanchez, the kid’s been with you since he was (expletive) 14 years old. What happened to family, Greg, you (expletive) family-guy you.”

“Then you got Rashad Evans, Rashad Evans was with him the second-longest other than Diego Sanchez. ‘That’s his brother, we’re brothers. He’s my family. He’s this, that and everything else.’ Jon Jones wanted to come train there and comes in and everything is cool. Who the (expletive) did Greg Jackson pick? He picked the guy who he thought would beat Rashad Evans, no matter how (expletive) long Rashad Evans had been with him. He made a (expletive) business decision. He’s a businessman, he’s a (expletive), he’s a (expletive) con artist.”

At this point in his vitriolic speech, White tries to backup a tiny bit before closing his argument with one final blast against Jackson.

“Let me be fair. It’s good to have a trainer whom you respect. To keep you in (expletive) line, that you don’t run the (expletive) show,” White continued. “To keep you in order, and you respect him enough to run a camp. And have his (expletive) together to keep your life organized and focused and ready for a (expletive) fight and can breakdown (the fight) and do all this other stuff.

“But Greg Jackson is a (expletive) businessman who cons all these guys into this family (expletive). Because it would be the perfect (expletive) world if I can have Diego, GSP, Rashad, Jon Jones and a list of other (expletive) characters who don’t have to fight each other because they’re all the best in the world. And if they don’t ever have to (expletive) fight each other, he makes money from all of these guys. Big money, because these are all big-money fighters. He’s full of (expletive) is what he is.”

After he cooled down momentarily, White was asked how he thought the crowd would respond to Jones.

“I don’t think it will be that much different. It’s not like he was getting Wanderlei Silva-type receptions anyway,” White said. “It will be interesting to see if fans boo him more than before, or they will cheer for him.

“But you can’t deny no matter what they do, people are interested in Jon Jones.”

White relayed the story of how he called Jones immediately after learning of Henderson’s injury and seemed to have a fight against Sonnen all set.

“I was driving off the freeway, I had just landed and called him and told him what Sonnen said and he (expletive) laughed,” White said of Jones’ initial reaction. “It wasn’t like: Whoa (expletive) this might be the biggest mistake of my (expletive) career.

“I thought we had a (expletive) fight. He was laughing and was like ‘Alright I’m going to call my team and call you back in a little while.’ And then they call back and it was a completely different (expletive) story. It was the genius Greg Jackson that talked him out of the fight. Talked him out of fighting Chael Sonnen on eight days (expletive) notice, yet fighting Vitor Belfort off a full (expletive) camp.

“Ok, we were gonna fight Dan Henderson, guy’s got (expletive) knockout power, great wrestling, a good chin, tough (expletive) guy. Now here’s Chael Sonnen on eight days notice and he’s a (expletive) 185 pounder, coming in with no camp whatsoever. And you heard what they said: he’s a southpaw. Vitor Belfort’s a (expletive) southpaw. And hits (expletive) harder, and is faster and more explosive. So you’re gonna (expletive) say no to him on eight days notice but fight (Vitor). It’s so stupid that it gets me angry.”

But White, who’s no stranger to having famous confrontations with fighters in the past, says him and Jones don’t have to be best friends to do business.

“I don’t know, we’ll see how our talk goes. We’ve proven you don’t have to best friends to work here,” White said. “But it’s not a good idea to have a horrible relationship with us either. I get mad all the time and (expletive) happens, but the voice of reason in the next office over here (UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta). If you can get along with him than I’m cool with that. We run a business.

“Lorenzo was really pissed. Like I said pissing me off is one thing, I’m always pissed off. But he’s never pissed off. You start getting to the point where you’re pissing him off, then …”

Lucas Gamaza defeated AKA fighter, Wayne Phillips, in the main event of Red Canvas’ inaugural show in San Jose, CA. Gamaza easily outstruck and out grappled Phillips in the first round but lost the second when Phillips rallied with the San Jose fans rooting for the hometown product.

The third round was mostly on the ground where Gamaza attacked with constant submission attempts to win him the round and the fight.

Both fighters fought well with excellent coaching from Bob Cook in Phillips’ corner and Nate Diaz in Gamaza’s

By Mike Whitman
Sep 1, 2012

Unbeaten Kim Connor-Hamby will replace Cat Zingano at Invicta Invicta Fighting Championships 3 against Leslie Smith, promotion officials announced Saturday.

Zingano was recently removed from her booking against Smith in favor of a Sept. 29 Strikeforce meeting with Amanda Nunes. Invicta FC 3 takes place Oct. 6 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and is headlined by an atomweight title confrontation between Jessica Penne and Naho Sugiyama.

Connor-Hamby, 31, has been perfect in her four professional outings but has not competed since April 2010, when she took a split decision from Jessica Hilger at a local show in Arkansas. Known as “Killer,” Connor-Hamby notched her first three pro victories by way of technical knockout.

5thround.com

Another fight, another 1stRound armbar submission victory for Strikeforce bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey (Pictured). Everyone knew what the “Rowdy” one’s bread and butter move was, yet just 54 ticks into Saturday’s scrap against Sarah Kaufman, the division’s former champion, Kaufman was crying uncle from the same maneuver that Rousey forced her other five victims to tap out to.

Rousey was a 7-to-1 odds-on favorite to dispose of Kaufman, so the outcome of Saturday’s contest wasn’t what interested most fans. It was whether Kaufman could force Rousey into uncharted territory, the 2ndRound. Also, Rousey promised to address Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos after tonight’s scrap.

Did she ever…

“I need to send out a challenge to Ms. Cyborg out there,” Rousey said. “People want to see the first fair fight of your life. I’m the champ now. The champ doesn’t go to you, you go to the champ. Come down to 135 [pounds] and let’s settle this.

“If you still want to go out in the parking lot, my friend Russell brought my gloves, and I’m going to be right there.”

Cyborg is currently serving a year-long ban after testing positive for stanozolol metabolites following her dominant victory over Hiroko Yamanaka. UFC president Dana White immediately stripped the 26-year-old of her featherweight hardware. She is eligible to reapply for licensing as early as December 17th.

However, tonight isn’t about a potential blockbuster bout between the ladies. Especially since it will be a tough task for Cyborg to hit the 135-pound mark on the scale. This is all bout Rousey.

How big is the new face of women’s mixed martial arts? Forget about the ESPN the Magazine cover she donned, or her two-part “All Access: Ronda Rousey” documentary on Showtime, UFC president Dana White flew into town to sit front and center to watch Rousey do her thing.

After an injury forced her out of a planned bout at Invicta FC 2, Leslie “The Peacemaker” Smith returns to the promotion to face Cat “Alpha” Zingano at Invicta Fighting Championships 3 on October 6th in Kansas City, Kansas. MMARising.com confirmed plans for the bantamweight matchup today.

Smith engaged in a Fight of the Night-winning bout with Kaitlin Young on the inaugural Invicta FC card and settled for a Split Draw when the cageside judges were unable to determine a victor. Zingano hopes that the third time will be the charm after injuries kept her off of the first two Invicta FC events.

Smith (3-2-1) put together a solid amateur record before making her pro debut in March 2009 and went on to win three of her first four pro fights. She fought and defended the Kickdown women’s 135-pound championship along the way with a pair of TKO triumphs over Louise Johnson, but sat out for a full year and a half after a win against Alaska’s Julia Griffin in March 2010. Smith’s first fight back in October did not go as planned and she dropped a Unanimous Decision to Ediane “India” Gomes, but bounced back with arguably her best performance to date against Young. Smith did not get the victory in the bout with Young, but most observers felt that she had done enough to win the action-packed fight.

Zingano (6-0-0) is a multi-time professional and amateur champion who has held titles in three different weight classes. The unbeaten Colorado native holds big victories over Barb “Little Warrior” Honchak, Carina “Beauty But The Beast” Damm and Takayo Hashi, and recently opted to move back up to 135 pounds to take on some of the division’s top talent. Injuries have played a part in keeping Zingano out of action in recent months, however, and she has not fought since her powerbomb knockout victory over Hashi in May 2011. All but one of Zingano’s wins have come inside the distance and she has developed into a well-rounded competitor with formidable skills in all areas. A victory over the fan favourite Smith would place Zingano among a short list of bantamweight contenders.

Invicta Fighting Championships 3 takes place on October 6th at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. The event is headlined by an Invicta FC Atomweight Championship bout between Jessica Penne and Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama.

“I know the reason why Rory [MacDonald] pulled out on September 22nd. The cut is a detail but I know the reason why he pulled out is because he knew he wasn’t gonna win. If he let that cut heal, tried to train, whatever it was, whether he should have been in shape already… I’ve never heard of a guy pulling out of a fight 10 weeks early from a cut. Never in my life have I heard of a guy, 10 weeks before a fight, he got cut, he pulled out. You know what I mean? He feels he has to to what’s best for him, for his team, they’re gonna do that, but it’s 100 percent fact that the reason why they pulled out is because they knew they were gonna lose on September 22nd. If not, you wouldn’t pull out, you would go. Like I said, I had a cut on my eye, 13 stitches inside and out five weeks before the Diaz fight. Didn’t care. Opened up from eight weeks every week all the way up to the fifth week before the Diaz fight but did I ever think about pulling out? Not even once. “

USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com confirmed with UFC officials that lightweight champion Benson Henderson

(17-2 mixed martial arts, 5-0 UFC) will face Nate Diaz (14-3-1, 9-3-1) at UFC on Fox 5 on Dec. 8 at a host site to be announced.

A light heavyweight matchup between former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (21-6, 5-4) and Alexander Gustafsson (14-1, 6-1) is the co-feature, and a B.J. Penn (16-8-2, 12-7-2) vs. Rory MacDonald (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) lightweight fight also has been rebooked for the card..

A fourth main-card fight is expected to be added in the coming weeks.

Henderson headlined last weekend’s UFC 150 and scored the first successful defense of his title with a split-decision victory against Frankie Edgar, whom he also narrowly defeated in February to win the title.

Despite the close nature of the rematch, UFC President Dana White immediately made it clear that Diaz, who was promised a title shot after a May win against Jim Miller, would get the next crack at the belt.

Rua returns to action after a victory against Brandon Vera this month in UFC on Fox 4′s headliner.

The Brazilian had an opportunity to earn a title shot against the winner of the UFC 151 headliner Sept. 1 between light heavyweight champion Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson, but fellow ex-champion Lyoto Machida leapfrogged him with an impressive stoppage of Ryan Bader.

Rua now faces Gustafsson, who has been inactive since a victory in April against Thiago Silva in his native Sweden.

“The Mauler,” one of the top light heavyweight prospects, has a five-fight winning streak. Beating Rua would be a signature victory and propel Gustafsson to serious title consideration.

MacDonald and Penn initially were slated to co-headline next month’s UFC 152 event in Toronto. However, MacDonald suffered a cut in training that required 38 stitches, and the bout was postponed.

Penn, a former two-division champion and future UFC Hall of Famer, hasn’t fought since a loss in October to Diaz at UFC 137.

MacDonald posted a dominant second-round TKO of Che Mills in UFC 145′s co-headliner in April, his third consecutive victory.

UFC on Fox 5 is the fourth and final UFC event to air on network TV this year.