(These latest charges make Franca’s DUI in 2008 look like a jaywalking charge.)

According to a report from Sherdog, nine charges were laid this week against Hermes Franca in relation to a sexual assault that took place in Oregon, where the UFC veteran used to live and run his Team Hermes Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

The 36-year-old native of Fortaleza, Brazil who was arrested in 2008 for a DUI, flew from Florida, where he now lives and trains to turn himself in on Monday. He is charged with seven counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree. Franca’s trial is scheduled for July 12 at 9 a.m. in the Clackamas County Courthouse in Oregon City, Oregon. His bail was set at $250,000.

Official UFC light heavyweight benchwarmer Rashad Evans – seriously, it’s been what? A year since this guy fought? – stopped by Pro MMA Radio this week to give his account of that “nightclub altercation” with Jon Jones we’ve been hearing so much about lately. Let us say from the outset that our first thought upon reading this transcript from 5th Round.com was to wonder how differently Jones’ version of events would be. Significantly, we’re betting. For now, all we have to go on however is Rashad’s take on the subject which – get your surprised face ready – makes Evans look pretty cool under fire and Jones look pretty dorky. So, you know, grain of salt and all that.

A little scene setter: Both Evans and Jones were attending the UFC fighter summit in Vegas last week when they independently decided to take in some much needed R&R (from their busy schedules of tending to injuries and defending themselves from haters on Twitter) at something called “Surrender nightclub at Encore.” Yeah, sounds shitty. Anyway, both being fairly sizable dudes in what we can only assume were just epic outfits, it didn’t take them long to find each other on the dance floor or the VIP or the champagne court or wherever the fuck dudes hang out in places called “Surrender.” From here, we’ll let Rashad pick up the narrative …

THE REEM EPISODE 3: REWIND THE MOMENT from THE REEM on Vimeo.

The Reem Team has released the latest episode of Alistair Overeem’s web documentary series and as usual, it’s stellar.

New details have emerged in yesterday’s Ricco Rodriguez arrest story. From a KSAZ FOX 10 report published last night:

PHOENIX – Mixed martial arts fighter Ricco ‘Suave’ Rodriguez has been arrested after allegedly assaulting a taxi cab driver and resisting arrest.

According to Phoenix Police, the 33-year-old was arrested over the weekend after an incident with a cab driver in Ahwatukee, south of Phoenix.

Last Sunday, Rodriguez commissioned a cab driver to take him to a bar in Ahwatukee called the Garage.

When the cab fare came to $70, Rodriguez allegedly refused to give the driver more than $20. They got into an argument and the cab driver called 911.

Rodriguez grabbed the man and tossed him to the ground, according to police. When officers tried to take him into custody, he allegedly pushed one of them into a wall.

He’s a big guy — according to his jail booking information, Rodriguez is 6’2″ and 235 lbs.

Police say it took two Phoenix Police officers and an off-duty officer to get him under control.

(“New episode of ‘Coal’? YEAH, BABY! GET SOME!” / Gif via IronForgesIron.com)

The quarterfinal round kicked off in last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bellyache vs. Team Stare Directly at the Camera While Being Interviewed by Megan Olivi, and Shamar Bailey’s not feeling a personal best. The gray-team standout tweaked his back, and direct pressure ain’t comfortable. As he discusses it with Justin Edwards, Chris Cope lurks by, as if on cue, and screams “Woo!”

“I’mma choke that voice box out,” Shamar says.

But before he gets a chance to do that, Ramsey Nijem and Clay Harvison will square off. Dos Santos feels Ramsey is the best wrestler on his team. Ramsey says that his Palestinian heritage helps him be the fighter he is. He’s seen the road-stops, the walls, the guns; he feels grateful to be fighting in a controlled environment, and not for his life.

Dana White brings UFC middleweight contender and war hero Brian Stann to the gym. Stann tells the guys about being a Marine Corps captain, the lifestyle of discipline, how success breeds success…wait a minute. Is this just an ad for the Marines? This is like those segments on The Biggest Loser where they teach the contestants how to cook with Jennie-O-brand turkey. Come on, you know what I’m talking about. I can’t stand that crap. Anyway, Brock tells some of these long-haired punks to fill out an application.

(Jon Jones photobombs the staredown – Video courtesy of YouTube/MCLHEA)

All of the fighters scheduled to compete on Thursday night’s MMA Live 1 card set for the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario, Canada made their respective contracted weight limits except for two, who hit their marks the second time after an hour in the sauna.

Main event participants Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford (169.4) and Karo “The Heat” Parisyan (171) shared a private conversation during an intense staredown, which concluded with the two welterweights exchanging a pat on the back and a smile,  breaking the tension in the room.

(Props: wiu81. Side-view is here, if you’re an MMA mugshot completist.)

According to jailbase.com, former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez was arrested last Sunday, May 15th, in Maricopa County, Arizona. Charges were listed as assault, failure to appear, and resisting arrest. We have no more info at this time, but we’ll update you as soon as we do. By the way, if you feel like checking out the mugshots of everybody who was arrested in Maricopa County on 5/15, click here. It’s like a broke-ass game of Guess Who. (“Is your person an obvious tranny? Does your person look like he needs a bath?”)

(Yes, at this point they are in fact just fucking with us.)

Man, it’s like the Shaw family doesn’t even check with each other anymore before they go to the media and just start saying stuff. Remember it was less than two weeks ago that Gary Shaw told us that his longtime crush object Kimbo Slice would probably not be entering the world of boxing after finding out “how hard it is to be a boxer.” Well, on Tuesday, not 15 days later, Jared Shaw – Shaw Trek the Next Generation, if you will – made an appearance on MMA Weekly radio and immediately started issuing “open challenges” on behalf of one Kevin Ferguson, professional boxer.

Specifically, Shaw invited NFL player Ray Edwards to meet Slice in a boxing match. Edwards, a defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, will make his own professional boxing debut this Friday at a casino in the Gopher State, against an as-yet unnamed opponent. So that sounds just super. Shaw’s comments and some of Edwards’ own ridiculousness are after the jump …

(Very somber courtroom photo via MMAWeekly)

Following a two-hour hearing in Los Angeles, California State Athletic Commission officials voted 4-1 to uphold their indefinite suspension of Chael Sonnen, citing that the false statements he made about the authorization of his testosterone therapy as well as his money laundering conviction in Oregon did in fact constitute “discredit to MMA.” He will not be re-licensed at this point, which will effectively keep his MMA career on ice until his license expires on June 29th. After that, he’ll be free to apply elsewhere, but since he’ll be on an MMA commission watch list, he may encounter further difficulties trying to return to competition.

ESPN’s Josh Gross and MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco were on the scene at the Ronald Reagan State Office Building, and provided updates through the proceedings. Here’s a quick rundown:

(So much is on the line here. Pride. A win bonus. Mostly just those two things.)

In less than two weeks, the UFC will return from its spring hibernation to present UFC 130 in Las Vegas, featuring a makeshift main event that not even the fighters themselves are that psyched about. But hey, fighting is fighting. Let’s all stay positive and consult the cold, hard data to predict how the light-heavyweight bang-up between Quinton Jackson and Matt Hamill will play out. If you see things differently, let us know in the comments section…

SIZE
Jackson: 6’1″, 73-inch reach
Hamill: 6’1″, 76-inch reach
Advantage: Hamill

RESULT OF LAST FIGHT
Jackson: Split-decision over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123
Hamill: Unanimous decision over Tito Ortiz at UFC 121
Advantage: Jackson

MOST DEVASTATING KNOCKOUT
Jackson: His slam KO of Ricardo Arona at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004
Hamill: His head-kick KO of Mark Munoz at UFC 96
Advantage: Jackson

MOST UNDESERVED VICTORY
Jackson: His split-decision win over Murilo “Ninja” Rua at PRIDE 29
Hamill: His DQ victory over Jon Jones at the TUF 10 finale
Advantage: Even

(Video courtesy of TheScore.ca)

A rumored June 10 bout between fast-rising Canadian welterweight Jordan Mein and DREAM 170-pound kingpin Marius Zaromskis was made official today as representatives from The Score Fighting Series confirmed the main event pairing.

Zaromskis will pose the biggest challenge of the career of the 21-7 Albertan, who defeated UFC veterans Joe Riggs (TKO) and Josh Burkman (decision) in his last two outings. “Young Guns” is hoping that a win over a fighter like Zaromskis will elicit a call from the UFC.

“I pride myself on being entertaining and putting on a good show for the crowd,” says Mein. “I know Marius will give me a great fight and test my abilities.”

(“The fact you would even bring Barthelme into this discussion tells me everything I need to know about your view of so-called postmodern literature, Mir. Seriously, grad school is over, man.”)

We’re still 10 days out from the scheduled release of Brock Lesnar’s autobiography and – if you’re like us – it’s getting hard to wait, since you already expunged your spring reading list by powering through “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “The Emperor of All Maladies” over the weekend. What can you say? You are a fucking voracious reader. Luckily for you, the fine folks at literary giant Harper Collins have served up a fairly lengthy excerpt from the former UFC heavyweight champion’s upcoming opus “Death Clutch” to keep you sated until the actual publication date.

Some of the middle-aged ladies who work at HC have even been tweeting links to the outtakes from Lesnar’s book – something we bet they never thought they’d be doing when they got into publishing – and so we checked it out. Oddly, we were sort of delighted with what we found. Firstly, it turns out that Lesnar finds a way to dis Frank Mir in the book’s very first paragraph. We read that and started thinking, ‘OK Brock, you have our attention.’ Look for Mir to fire back in his upcoming memoir “Confessions of a Strip Club Bouncer.” After the jump however, Lesnar gets the first word …

(There’s no quit in MacGrath, which should make for a barnburner against Aurelio Thursday night – PicProps: TopMMANews)

Matt MacGrath’s biggest weapons might just be his drive and determination.

Much like how he doesn’t let his full time job as a chef and obligations of being a father and husband prevent him from training twice a day, the 31-year-old New Glasgow, Nova Scotia native has never let his status as an underdog prevent him from winning fights he was picked to lose.

A typical day for MacGrath starts at around 4:00 am when he gets up to get ready for work at 5:00 am at the provincial Board of Health in Prince Edward Island. When he gets off at 1:00 pm, he heads home for a brief rest before heading to hone his skills at one of several gyms he trains at to work . Depending on his work schedule the next day, he may make the four-hour trek to his main camp at Titans MMA in Halifax, Nova Scotia. If he has to work the following day he may opt to work out closer to home in the afternoon and evening with family time sandwiched in between training sessions. He says it’s a lot of work balancing work, training and family, but he feels that the sacrifices and perseverance will pay off sooner than later.

(Rich’s chest-tattoo is fascinating. He literally buried a pitbull under a rose garden.)

I just want you guys to know that this is the last time we’ll be reporting on the various opponent switches for Shinya Aoki at DREAM.17. If this latest booking falls through, you’ll just have to be surprised on May 29th, because at this point we’re as tired of this mess as you are. And yeah, it’s kind of cruel to be hatin’ on a disaster benefit show, but GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, JAPAN.

Aaaaaanyway, here’s the latest. After Antonio McKee was pulled from the event under mysterious circumstances, DREAM moved to the next name on the list to face Aoki, which happened to be (of all people) BJ Penn training partner and Junie Browning drinking partner Shane Nelson. Nelson turned in a completed bout agreement, but Shinya politely declined the match, which we kind of respect. Nevertheless, Nelson was awarded a two-fight deal with DREAM for his troubles. (Cash equivalent: 1/20th of one cent.)

(The UFC Fighter Summit has a storybook ending. Congrats, Janitor.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- BJ Penn and Jake Shields Want to Fight Each Other (LowKick)

- Shane Carwin’s Cardio Under Microscope at UFC 131 (NBC Sports MMA)

- Rashad Evans Explains His Nightclub Altercation With Jon Jones; Insists ‘Bones’ Ducked Him (MMA Mania)

- Mac Danzig Out of Next Month’s Anticipated Clash With Donald Cerrone, Vagner Rocha to Replace (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Matt Mitrione: If Ortiz Is Still Upset After Confrontation, ‘Then We Can Scrap’ (MMA Fighting)

- Your Favorite Hooters Girl to Serve Ring Cards at ‘UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II’ (5thRound)

- This Will Be the Strangest Seven-Second Knockout You Will See This Year (MiddleEasy)

- Mark Coleman ‘Would Drop Everything’ To Fight Herschel Walker (MMA Convert)

- Video: Hector Lombard Gets Pissed at Reporter After Bellator 44 (TheFightNerd)

- Going Medieval: MMA’s 20 Worst Beatdowns (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

(You need how much? Damn. OK, but I want some new XXL leather headrests for my G6.)

The Las Vegas Review Journal reported today that former UFC light heavyweight champ Tito Ortiz has been tied to a murder conspiracy court case that involves a father who is accused of hiring a hitman to kill his son.

According to court documents, Keith Herriman is alleged to have hired an unidentified person to shoot his son, Dominick, who is said to have slept with both his father’s ex-wife and ex-girlfriend and who testified in February that his old man had used $160,000 he fraudulently obtained through an insurance scam to buy crack.

You know a family is dysfunctional if it make’s Tito’s seem like the Cleavers.

(Having proven his colorful past is behind him, Ford wants the opportunity to prove he’s a future UFC welterweight contender – PicProps GUHDAR photography)

Heading into the stiffest test of his young MMA career – a main event tilt with embattled former UFC welterweight contender Karo Parisyan Thursday night at MMA Live 1 in London, Ontario, Canada, Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford is remarkably calm and focused at the challenging task that lies ahead.

In spite of the fact that he has another bout booked a few weeks after his fight with Parisyan, Ford says it isn’t because he’s taking “The Heat” lightly, it’s because he wants to keep putting in work until certain promoters can’t ignore him any longer.

“It just came up the way it did. I haven’t even been thinking about my other fight, the only fight that I’ve been thinking about for the last eight weeks is Karo Parisyan, and I could care less about the next fight I have coming up right now. Karo Parisyan’s been on my mind when I go to bed, when I wake up, and even when I’m sleeping. I never take any of my opponents lightly, especially Karo Parisyan. I’ve seen what he’s done in the sport, so obviously I’m not coming in thinking I’m just going to walk through him,” Ford explains. “I’ve been training my ass off, every day. What I’m looking to do is run through him, so it is what it is. My overall goal is for Mr. Dana White to give me a call, and give me my shot. I’m going to keep putting the work in and do what I can for him to realize that I’m ready for the UFC. And you know, he’s the boss, so it’s up to him and the Fertitta brothers, so it’s up to them to want me to be a part of their organization.”

(Props: Passing the Guard via tatame)

For those who are still convinced that Steven Seagal‘s relationship with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida is some oddball marketing ploy, the Brazilian fight show Passing the Guard has released a teaser clip of their next episode, which does indeed show Seagal training Machida just before his UFC 129 fight against Randy Couture.

It also gives you a pretty good sense of Seagal’s coaching style, which is pretty much the polar opposite of Greg Jackson-style lovey-doveyness. Listen close as he says the following: “Use your mind. Use your mind. I don’t care if you kill him. I don’t care. You fuck him up. You take him out.” Hey, you can’t argue with success — but it’s interesting that Seagal is playing the bad-guy teacher in his life’s latest role. And after so many heroic performances…

(Oh no. They’re going to cast Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, aren’t they.)

Maybe this is a little off-topic, but considering we previously named Bloodsport the #3 fight movie of all time — and the underground “Kumite” tournament depicted in the flick is basically the spiritual godfather of the UFC — you might be interested to know that the 1988 Van Damme classic is being remade for modern times. According to ScreenDaily (via ScreenJunkies), veteran producer Ed Pressman has closed a deal to remake the flick, and has tapped Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, The Bone Collector, Salt) to direct and Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid, Lethal Weapon 3, The Transporter) to write the screenplay.

(You’re joking, right?He used a fake penis for his urine test? Doesn’t that make him gay?)

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour yesterday and he expressed his distaste with being paired up with a replacement Matt Hamill at UFC 130 when  his original opponent Thiago Silva was forced off the card after being suspended for falsifying a urine test to hide steroid use.

(Hell in the ring, silent on elevators.)

Any time two heavyweights with a history of testing positive get into a bi-lingual war of words, you can book us for a ringside seat. Such was the case this week when Josh Barnett and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva launched into the now nearly obligatory online fighter beef session. Silva got the ball rolling during an interview with Sherdog, wherein (apparently apropos of nothing) he lashed out at Barnett for – among other things – ignoring Brazilian fighters on elevators. So … that was weird.

If we had to guess, we’d say Bigfoot is feeling a little lonely and cranky after being kind of overlooked in all the hype, speculation and gratuitous match-up fantasizing that’s gone on since the UFC-Strikeforce merger. After all, Bigfoot became the latest dude to slay the unslayable Fedor Emelianenko back in February. You’d think that was worth something, right? And then pictures of Barnett exchanging bro-grabs with Dana White show up on the Internet? Why, that’d be enough to set any giant’s blood to a boilin’. His attacks, along with Barnett’s response are after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/StocktonHeyBuddy)

Chuck Liddell was on the latest episode of Fox Sports’ Barfly alongside actor and BJJ black belt Ed O’Neill (AKA Al Bundy) and host and author Mark Kriegel. Besides talking about the rise in popularity of the UFC in comparison to the drop in popularity of boxing, the trio touched on the former UFC light heavyweight champion and Hall-of-Famer’s recent retirement, which is when Chuck got a bit emotional.

(Chuck Liddell poses with ‘Taboo’, co-host of Our Time.)

We have no idea how most of these encounters came about — but we’re sure they were all fairly awkward. Here are 21 of our favorite photos of MMA fighters rubbing shoulders with reality show stars, B-list actors, and aging rock royalty. Ah, the perks of fame…

(Cain Velasquez: The meat in a douche sandwich.)

(Well, that’s a shame.)

Despite recent statements from DREAM and ‘Mandingo’ himself, Antonio McKee will not be facing Shinya Aoki at Dream’s “Bantamweight Japan Tournament” event on May 29th in Saitama. Andrew Simon of HDNet first broke the bad news yesterday evening. Afterwards, MMAWeekly reported that the withdrawal was due to McKee being unable to secure a visa in time to travel and fight in Japan, though FEG USA’s Mike Kogan denied that the situation was visa-related.

(Is there anything Randy can’t do? No wonder he’s Joe Rogan’s hero)

When Randy Couture announced he would be retiring from MMA after his UFC 129 loss to Lyoto Machida, speculation about what “The Natural” would do next quickly began. Some guessed that Couture would be involved in initiating a fighters union while others hypothesized that the UFC Hall-of-Famer would be offered a job similar to the one bestowed upon Chuck Liddell after “The Iceman” called it a career last year.

MMAPayout is reporting that Couture, who wasted little time in diversifying his post-retirement portfolio is now a minority owner of the new Fight Now! TV combat sports-themed television network and will be involved with the specialty channel to an unknown degree moving forward.

(Props: BellatorMMA)

Unfortunately, ReX was unable to provide us with one of his famous Bellator reports this week, so you’ll have to settle for this quick-n-dirty recap of Bellator 44, which went down Saturday night in Atlantic City. First, we’ll direct you to the video above: Hector Lombard earned his 18th-straight victory (!) in a non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, crushing Niko to the mat with a right hook in the third frame after a surprisingly dull first two rounds. Lombard’s latest performance follows such previous classics as “Six Second Prison Rape” and “A Corpse Named ‘Whisper’.”

Headlining the card, Xtreme Couture’s Michael Chandler scored an upset decision win over the highly-touted Patricky Freire in the Season Four Lightweight Tournament final, outworking the Pitbull in all three rounds; Chandler was docked a point in the third for groin-kicks. The victory netted him a $100,00 check and a future shot at Eddie Alvarez’s belt. In non-tournament action, Alexander Shlemenko spun circles around Brett Cooper, picking up his own UD victory, while Giedrius Karavackas battled back from an early ass-kicking to submit Sam Oropeza by scarf-hold armlock. Full results and video of the Karavackas/Oropeza stoppage are after the jump.

(Does this look like a dude who should be deprived of what he wants? Pic: Sherdog)

As avid readers of our keen, in-depth statistical analysis, we know that you know that we know that Jake Ellenberger is currently riding a four-fight win-streak in the UFC. After going to Toronto and knocking out short-notice opponent Sean Pierson (just like we told you he would) last month Ellenberger remains undefeated since his split decision loss to Carlos Condit in his Octagon debut (a fight he appeared to be on his way to winning before gassing out) way back in September, 2009. Now that he’s home in Nebraska rehabbing the hand he broke on Pierson’s face, Ellenberger is going back to basics, returning to a strategy he adopted some months ago: Trying to trash-talk his way into a fight with Jake Shields.

Except here’s the difference: If not for that original loss to Condit at UFN 19, people might just be talking about a 5-0 (in the UFC) Jake Ellenberger as a potential top candidate to get a welterweight title shot one of these days soon. So now that Ellenberger is soaring and the Shields hype-wagon has been slowed a bit by his do-nothing performance against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 129, maybe this booking wouldn’t seem so crazy. Hmmmm?

(Stephan Bonnar — supermodel. Props: TrashTalkinKids)

[Update, 11:56 a.m. ET: The submission e-mail has changed; see below. If you've already submitted an entry, there's no need to re-submit.]

One of my favorite booths at the UFC Fan Expo in Toronto was Trash Talkin’ Kids, a brand-new t-shirt line that combines MMA fighters with one of the most horrible fads from the 1980s. As a dude who appreciates lowbrow humor more than skulls and wings, these shirts spoke to me.

TTK was cool enough to hook us up with a couple shirts for the Potato Nation. It’s been a long time since we’ve done a t-shirt design contest, so we thought we’d give it another shot. Your challenge is this: Create a t-shirt design in the style of Trash Talkin’ Kids. (Basically, a well-known MMA fighter, a weird Garbage Pail-esque pun using their name, and a gruesome visual representation of that pun.) Details continue after the jump…

(Parisyan says although his demons are behind him, they’ll always be chasing him. PicProps: Sherdog)

Karo Parisyan is ready to turn the page.

With the last chapter of his life and his career behind him, the 28-year-old who overcame a highly publicized battle with painkiller abuse and anxiety is hoping that the headlines about his personal and professional struggles the past three years will eventually become footnotes in his life story rather than the main subject.

“When I put my life story out about all of the sh*t I’ve been through and everything that’s happened to me, even my parents will be like, ‘Oh my God,’ when they read it. They don’t even know the half of it.”

Page one of the new chapter of Parisyan’s story starts Thursday night in London, Ontario when he squares off with highly regarded Canadian welterweight Ryan Ford at MMA Live 1 and he says the main difference this time around is that he’s writing the story for himself and not for others like he’s been doing his whole life.

“I’ve been through hell and I’m still on the way back home. I hope people can understand and not judge me for the mistakes I made. I’m doing this for myself. I’m tired of worrying about this person or that person. My family always has my back, but I need to look after myself. I want to get out there and do this for me so I can feel good about myself again. I used to think a lot about what everybody thought about me and now I don’t care. I’ve been training since I was eight years old and competing as long as I can remember and I got burnt out,” Parisyan recalls. “I let the pressure get to me. I had the pressure of representing my friends, my family, Armenians, judo etc…etc. What I realize now is that except your age, what goes up must come down, so you need to not let every little thing get to you because that’s when the pressure will eat at you until you break.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMACanada)

When news got out last week that the hand injury that forced Jon Jones out of his planned UFC 133 meeting with disgruntled former teammate Rashad Evans did not require surgery, and that the UFC light heavyweight champ’s manager Malki Kawa intimated that his client was likely to fight another opponent before facing Rashad, our first thought was, “Damn, it looks like Bones is just doing whatever he can to screw Rashad out of his shot.”

But then we said, “Nah, it must just be a coincidence,” when we heard Jones say they consulted with three doctors before deciding to forgo surgery and that, not to worry, he will still face Rashad somewhere down the road.

Well, it’s looking like our first inclination may have been correct.