Despite leaving CBS, Johnson still on the mic for MMA bouts

When news broke that Gus Johnson was leaving CBS and his familiar post during March Madness and NFL games, I assumed that meant no more calling fights on Showtime (or CBS, if they ever decide to air fights again). CBS and Showtime are owned by the same parent company, and Johnson has done bouts on both networks for Strikeforce. I assumed wrong.

According to a report by MMA Fighting, Johnson's contract for calling NCAA basketball and NFL games with CBS ended. However, his deal with Showtime to call fights, both boxing and MMA, was a separate deal.

Michael David Smith points out that it's good to have a proponent of MMA like Johnson in the mainstream:

While HBO's lead boxing voice, Jim Lampley, rarely discusses MMA except to compare it unfavorably to boxing, Johnson spoke admiringly about MMA during Saturday night's Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight, at one point comparing and contrasting the striking styles of the two sports and noting that a punch Pacquiao threw was similar to an MMA Superman punch.

But it was Johnson who uttered a phrase that was incredibly damaging to the sport. During the melee after Strikeforce's event in Nashville last April, Johnson said, "These things happen in MMA," when nothing can be further from the truth.

After fights, cages are normally areas of respect and appreciation. Melees like that are extremely rare. Baseball and basketball have more dirty moves and fights than MMA, but Johnson didn't point that out. He made it sound like fighters can't stop fighting when the bell rings, but had no evidence to back up that claim.

That was during a CBS broadcast, when people with no prior exposure to MMA had a chance to see the sport for free. Nick Diaz and Jason "Mayhem" Miller deserve the brunt of the blame for the melee, but they both served suspensions and paid fines. Miller wasn't allowed back on Showtime, and sat out for more than a year before being signed by the UFC. But Johnson continues to call fights, despite his poor reaction to an odd event.

Do you like Johnson's fight commentary, or would you rather see him stick to basketball and football?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Despite-leaving-CBS-Johnson-still-on-the-mic-fo?urn=mma-wp2148

Mikey Burnett  Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante 

Houston Chronicle reports next UFC stadium show could be at Reliant

Dana White pointed out accurately that Toronto's UFC 129 at Rogers Centre was a special case.

The UFC won't be putting on mega-events at a stadium every quarter. It has to be perfect match. That's why we were a little surprised to see the future Houston event in October mentioned as a candidate for a stadium show.

Sources tell Brawl Sports that if Brock Lesnar wins his bout against Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 next month, the company will give serious consideration to running the UFC event at Reliant Stadium and not the previously-reported Toyota Center. If dos Santos wins, they'll almost certainly run Toyota Center. The winner of that UFC 131 bout will face Cain Velasquez in a bout that will almost certainly take place in Houston.

Jeremy Botter throws a little cold water on the idea by mentioning two important notes:

1. Filling a stadium the size of Reliant won't be easy. While Lesnar has historically been the best pay per view draw on the planet, he's not a very good live draw. They'll need more than just a heavyweight title fight to fill that card.

2. There's just one small problem: the Texans have a game scheduled against Oakland the next day. While I've seen the UFC brass tear down an arena in just a matter of hours, I can't imagine they'd be able to get an entire stadium ready for a football game the next day at noon. It simply isn't possible, not with the amount of bleachers and video screens they would be bringing into the stadium for a custom setup.

Botter thinks an NFL lockout is all but a certainty and says the Oct. 8 date at Reliant Stadium could open up. I'd be shocked if the NFL lockout reaches October, but you never know. I'd also be a little surprised if Lesnar beats dos Santos. He's got a lot of ground to make up in the stand-up game. If Lesnar didn't like getting hit by Cain Velasquez, imagine his reaction to the power and speed of JDS.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Houston-Chronicle-reports-next-UFC-stadium-show-?urn=mma-wp2045

Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante  Luiz Cane 

Brock Lesnar could face retirement due to second bout with diverticulitis, though he says he will fight on

As the anticipation began to for the upcoming return to Vancouver, Canada for ufc 131, the event has taken a huge hit. Brock Lesnar, the former UFC heavyweight champion, has been forced to pull out of his upcoming bout with Junior dos Santos come this June. Lesnar, who in the past has battled with diverticulitis, has [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/12/brock-lesnar-could-face-retirement-due-to-second-bout-with-diverticulitis-though-he-says-he-will-fight-on-regardless

Stephan Bonnar Lorenzo Borgomeo  Kyle Bradley  Jai Bradney 

Bellator 44 Picks And Predictions

We?re now only a few days away from Bellator 44. In the main event, tough veterans with very high win/loss ratios will do battle: Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard takes on Falaniko Vitale in a non-title contest. The co-main event will also be an interesting match-up, as the Season Four Lightweight Tournament comes to a [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/12/bellator-44-picks-and-predictions

Edgar Garcia Leonard Garcia Andrew Gardner Tiki Ghosn

Evans, Jones in altercation in Las Vegas nightclub

What happens when you bring every fighter on the Zuffa roster to Las Vegas in one week? Night clubs see a surge in patrons with cauliflower ear, and tensions between former-teammates-almost-opponents boil over.

UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, the former champ who was supposed to fight Jones, ran into each other at Surrender, a club in Encore in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the two nearly came to blows until welterweight champ and peacemaker Georges St. Pierre came between them and talked them down.

This is the latest chapter in their soured friendship. Evans and Jones trained together until Evans was injured before a planned title bout. Jones was given that bout, won the belt and then said he would fight Evans, going against what the two had previously agreed upon. Since then, they've had a war of words through the media that bubbled over at Surrender. Everyone was said to have left with a smile, so it must not have ruined their evenings.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Evans-Jones-in-altercation-in-Las-Vegas-nightcl?urn=mma-wp2230

Eric Butterbean Esch Efrain Escudero Rashad Evans Urijah Faber

May Misgivings: Why Are There So Few Fights In Spring 2011?

I hate to keep bringing this up, but I really am quite shocked at how few MMA events happened in April, and how few are scheduled to happen in May. I recently updated the fighters.com calendar for June 2012, and I was struck by how many more MMA events were scheduled for that month. So [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/13/may-misgivings-why-are-there-so-few-big-league-fights-in-spring-2011

Tyson Griffin Karn Grigorian Karen Grigoryan Kendall Grove

Randy Couture on Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 and Fighting Before 55,000 in Toronto - UFC 129

UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture talks about his fight with Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 and about fighting before 55,000 people at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Get more MMA and UFC news at the World's top MMA News website http://www.mmaweekly.com.

Source: http://mmalice.com/ufc-129/randy-couture-on-lyoto-machida-at-ufc-129-and-fighting-before-55000-in-toronto-video_19b1d884d.html

Rolles Gracie Royce Gracie Royler Gracie Ryan Gracie

Video analysis: Hominick technically misses weight, will Aldo raise a stink if he loses?

The weigh-in for UFC 129 was certainly one to remember. For first time, to my recollection, a local commission official actually complained that the music playing in the arena was too loud.

Someone named "Rocky" (wouldn't give his last name) voice his displeasure on several occasions, including when Mark Hominick stepped on the scale.

The Canadian, who's challenging Jose Aldo for his UFC featherweight title, weighed in at 145.25.

By rules, he missed weight for a title fight. You have to be at the designated weight or below. There is no one-pound allowance for title fights.

Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA writer Kevin Iole checked in from Toronto. He was outraged with the way the Ontario Commission and the official, Rocky, handled the situation.

If Aldo storms to a victory, it probably won't matter. But because of Rocky's error, the door is slightly open for some potential postfight controversy.

Yahoo! Sports' Dave Meltzer also had concerns.

You can watch UFC 129 on PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) right here on Yahoo! Sports.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-analysis-Hominick-technically-misses-weig?urn=mma-wp1767

Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy Lee Hasdell Musse Hasselvall