From MMA Weekly:

(Were it not for his Snickers addiction, he could have been a contender.)

You know what sends a negative message about how prepared and mentally focused you are for a fight? Missing weight. Especially when you’re in the main event. That’s what Thiago Alves did, clocking in at 174 pounds for his welterweight bout with Matt Hughes at UFC 85 tomorrow.

It’s not a title bout and they’ve agreed to fight it as a catch weight (meaning Hughes is going to go ahead and spot him the extra weight), so it’s not exactly a disaster. Still, when your opponent hits weight exactly at 170 and you come in four pounds over, it lets everyone know that one of these men is a professional and the other, well, maybe not.

What’s more, Hughes is known for cutting a lot of weight himself, so those extra pounds probably won’t be much of a help to Alves once they step in the Octagon. It just makes him look bad, without the added benefit of giving him an advantage. In the past, Alves has struggled making weight, even testing positive for a banned diuretic after his win over Tony DeSouza.

In other Alves-related news, it seems like there’s some disconnect over the Thiago Alves story. You know how Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports likes to seize on some aspect of a fighter’s life that isn’t really related to fighting, and then hammer that theme relentlessly until he’s reached a sufficient word count? Well, Bloody Elbow maintains that Iole has screwed up the easiest part of that formula, all by adding one letter that doesn’t belong.

Four months after the first submission victory of his UFC career, crowd-pleasing welterweight slugger Thiago Alves returns to action against Martin Kampmann in the main event of UFC on FX 2 at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. [Ed. note: North Americans can catch the show on Friday night starting at 9 p.m. ET, while those poor Australian bastards have to drag their asses out of bed on Saturday morning to see it. LOL @ you sheep-fuckers!] Will Alves add another win to a resume that already includes big names like Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan, and Chris Lytle? Check out these GIFs of the Pitbull in action and start getting hyped up…

(It’s particularly disappointing because Thiago’s face had just returned to normal.)

When it rains, it goddamned pours. The latest big-name UFC fighter to be scratched from an end-of-year card is Thiago Alves, who just went down with a knee injury — most likely a torn posterior cruciate ligament, if you want to get specific. Alves was scheduled to rematch Jon Fitch at UFC 107, and was coming in as a replacement for Ricardo Almeida, who suffered his own knee injury last week. No word yet on how long this will keep Alves sidelined, or if Fitch will be getting a replacement-replacement opponent for the December 12th show in Memphis. Matt Hughes, if there was ever a time to shut AKA’s collective mouth, it’s now. As it stands, UFC 107′s lineup looks like this:

(Great fighter, but he’s absolutely terrible at rock-paper-scissors.)

During a Q & A session in Fayetteville, N.C. to hype up tonight’s “Fight for the Troops” card, Dana White revealed that Thiago Alves is going to get the next crack at the welterweight strap after the Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout at UFC 94, and it doesn’t matter who’s got it around their waist at the time:

"He’s next in line for a title shot. If GSP beats B.J. Penn, then (Alves) fights GSP. If B.J. Penn wins, then he fights B.J. And then he’d have to defend that title for a while before I let him move up and try to fight Anderson."

Sounds like we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves.  The first thing Alves would have to do before any of this can happen is make weight for a 170-pound title fight.  That means no one-pound allowance, so he might as well start weaning himself off the Creamsicles right now (but OMG they’re so good!!!!).

This also means that a potential GSP-Anderson Silva bout is but a very distant dream, as St. Pierre would have to beat Penn, then beat Alves a few months later before we could even talk about that superfight.  If Penn wins, it will continue to screw up the lightweight division, as he’ll be expected to fight Alves and poor, patient Kenny Florian – that is, if the UFC allows him to try and defend both titles, which they shouldn’t.

I’m just saying, a lightweight tournament for a vacant 155-pound title sure sounds fun, doesn’t it?

(Video courtesy YouTube/ATT) Thiago Alves received news this week that he has been waiting on for two months. The UFC welterweight traveled from his home in Coconut Creek, Florida to New York City where he underwent his second angiogram in as many months to ensure that the medical procedure he had done on March 31 [...]

TMZ breaks the awful news…

We heard chatter last night that the UFC was looking for a new opponent for Fitch, but with UFC 111 just two days away, any attempts to find a respectable replacement might be futile. A weird-looking artery in the brain is serious, scary business. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed medically so that Alves doesn’t have to retire when so much of his career was still ahead of him. We’ll update you when we get more details on the Pitbull’s health and when we know which preliminary card match will be promoted to the main card.

(Thiago Alves learns the hard way why you should never take NyQuil before a big fight. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

UFC president Dana White confirmed late last night that the rematch between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves — which was postponed from UFC 111 due to concerns over Alves’s brain — will now take place at UFC 115 (June 12th, Vancouver). The fight will come four years to the month after Fitch and Alves’s first meeting at UFC Fight Night 5, which Fitch won by second round TKO. Though the Vancouver card will feature a host of compelling matchups, a main event still hasn’t been officially announced. I mean, it’s not like Chuck Liddell will be fighting Rich Franklin, after Franklin comes in to replace Tito Ortiz on The Ultimate Fighter 11, right? Pay no attention to the leaked photo of the TUF 11 set after the jump!

(Props: ‘SmashedAceHole’ on the UG. Fight starts at the 3:03 mark.)

Before he was the UFC’s #1 welterweight contender and a Fight! magazine cover-boy, Thiago Alves was just a young scrapper whose last name was consistently butchered by announcers and commentators. Alvs’s Alvarez’s Pitbull’s eighth pro MMA match took place at a King of the Cage event in Cleveland back in February 2005, where he faced then-undefeated Jeff Cox, who entered the cage sporting maroon Aokipants and a hairstyle that might be described as a "nohawk." After missing a head kick, Alves grabbed a Thai clinch and found Cox’s snooze-button with a knee to the chin. He then fired punches into Cox’s grill until Herb Dean dove on to stop the abuse. Alves caught the attention of the UFC with the 15-second KO win, and would make his Octagon debut eight months later. All Cox got was the shame of waking up in Cleveland wearing red tights.

(Props: MMA Mania)

"It’s finding what’s called a ‘safety zone’, and that’s a place that when he’s in trouble he goes to. It could be a clinch, it could be a takedown, it could be kickboxing, wherever he feels comfortable and safe. And then you have three ways of getting around it, you can either avoid it, nullify it, or smash it…hopefully we’ll be able to exploit [Thiago Alves's safety zone] and move around it."

In this FOX Fight Game interview, Georges St. Pierre‘s trainer Greg Jackson discusses one of the most important elements of his famous game-plans — attacking an opponent not where he’s strongest or weakest, but what he falls back on when things get rough. He wouldn’t name what he thinks Alves’s safety zone is, though he does admit that Alves’s left knee and left hook are weapons to be feared. Also in the interview, Jackson describes game-planning as a structure that "the artist" has to be able to work within, and talks about the crucial balance between cooperation and competition that exists at his gym. GSP and Pitbull are scheduled to get it on in 11 days at UFC 100.

(We’re all going to ARBYS!!!!)

Well, at least we can say he’s consistent. In what has been the most detrimental factor in Thiago Alves‘ career, the former welterweight title challenger once again showed up to a weigh-in overweight, just barely tipping the scales yesterday at 172 pounds, or a pound over the limit. Though not nearly as bad as his previous entries, the fact of the matter remains that this marks the third time in Alves’ last seven fights that he has initially failed to make weight. Aside from showing up heavy to his fights with Matt Hughes and Jon Fitch at UFC 85 and 117, respectively, Alves was also busted for using a banned diuretic to make weight for his match against Tony DeSouza back at UFC 66. MRuss would not approve.

“The Pitbull” was given an hour to drop the pound, and did so successfully.

Join us after the jump for the full weigh-in results and the intense Leben/Munoz and Alves/Abedi stare-downs:

(‘Fixing to go eat, son!’)

Thiago Alves got a chubby monkey off his back and made weight by squeaking just under the wire at 171 this afternoon. Good to see some people can put down the fork when the pressure is on (yeah, that was a shot at you, Gina). The only UFC 90 fighter not to make weight today was Josh Burkman, who weighed in two pounds over at 173 for his preliminary bout with Pete Sell. The sad irony is that the former middleweight Sell was the fighter people were expecting to have trouble making the cut. He hit 170 right on the button for what Goldstein expects to be UFC 90′s worst bout. Sure is off to a hell of a start.

Before today’s weigh-in, Matt Hughes spoke to fans and answered some questions, as he’s known to do. When asked about the Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar bout coming up at UFC 91, Hughes sided with Lesnar, saying: “The younger, stronger, better wrestler right now is going to win.”

He also said he’s voting for John McCain, for those of you who were wondering. Weird, I know. Full weigh-in results after the jump.

(Papy wears that hat in memory of his late grappling coach, Fred Sanford.)

With three unanimous decision losses in his last four fights, former welterweight title contender Thiago Alves is going to need to start rackin’ up the old W’s if he wants to stay relevant (and keep his job) in the UFC. His next bout will give him the opportunity to rebound like a boss or crash and burn. MMAWeekly reported yesterday that Alves will face recent UFC signee Papy “Makambo” Abedi at UFC 138, November 5th in Birmingham, England.

A Congolese fighter who now fights out of his adopted home of Sweden, Abedi has racked up an 8-0 record (5 TKOs, 2 subs) competing throughout Europe, most recently scoring a first-round submission against Nathan Schouteren at a Superior Challenge event last October. The 32-year-old holds a black-belt in judo, and trains at the HILTI NHB camp in Stockholm. Though Abedi has spent the majority of his career at middleweight, he’s decided to drop to 170 for his UFC debut. Check out some vids of Papy in action after the jump, and let us know how you think he’ll fare against Alves…

(Maybe Thiago should concentrate more on cutting weight, not on updating his Match.com profile)

When Thiago Alves missed a scheduled appearance at yesterday afternoon’s open UFC 117 workout, it didn’t take long for reports to surface that the American Top Team fighter, who has been plagued with weight cutting issues in the past, was having problems shedding water and that he chose to forgo the media event to focus on making weight for Friday’s weigh-in.

Alves tweeted yesterday that he just had 15 pounds to go before he makes the 170-pound limit, which is at the higher end of the poundage most fighters start cutting at the beginning of the process over a week out from their bouts.

(Props: MMA Opinion)

Is there any fighter who more closely resembles the animal for which he is nicknamed than Thiago "The Pitbull" Alves?  Just looking at his face makes me want to lock the door and call Animal Control.  He says in this video that he’s been working out at Wanderlei Silva’s new gym/daycare center in Las Vegas, and plans to return there the week before his title fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 100 to get his weight right.  Alves has had some weight issues in the past, and with a title fight he won’t get that extra pound allowance so he’d better be on point.  Something tells me that screwing up a title fight at UFC 100 would be a murderable offense in Dana White’s eyes.

Raw Vegas went by Xtreme Couture to talk with Kim Couture about her upcoming bout.  Am I the only one not buying it at all when she claims to be blissfully unaware of the criticism that suggests she’s only getting these opportunities because of who she’s married to?  Even if she doesn’t "go on the computer," the idea must have occurred to her that it’s not solely her 1-1 pro record that’s landing her on Strikeforce cards.  Whatever you think of Couture though, it’s nice to see a woman fighter slam "Cyborg" Santos’ woman trouble excuse.  It just doesn’t have the same force when we do it, for some reason.

After the jump, American Top Team boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. takes it to the gloves and shows us the hand speed.

(Sure, he may look strange to us, but that sort of thing is totally normal where he’s from.)

Somebody up there must like Yoshihiro Akiyama. Though the master judoka/crooner has been defeated in his last four outings — most recently dropping a decision to Jake Shields at UFC 144 — he’ll be getting another chance against Thiago Alves at UFC 149 (July 21st, Calgary). Bizarrely, UFC.com describes the welterweight bout as “a matchup between ground specialists who love to stand and trade.” That’s certainly an apt description of Sexyama, but Alves is more of “a standup specialist who should really stop diving into guillotine chokes.”

Alves’s loss to Martin Kampmann last month dropped his record over the last three years to a disappointing 2-4, with his only wins coming against Papy Abedi and John Howard, so he needs this win almost as much as his opponent does. If Akiyama loses, he’ll become just the second fighter in UFC history (after Steve Cantwell) to suffer five consecutive losses within the promotion. Anybody think he has a chance of breaking his streak?

Check out the current lineup of UFC 149 after the jump…

“MMA Live” talks to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker about his recent acquisitions, and breaks down new rules on Vaseline, as well as running down all the fun little news items floating in the ether of late.  And yeah, War Machine’s arrest gets a mention.  They know how to have fun over at ESPN.

In this preview of the upcoming episode of “Inside MMA” Thiago Alves discusses his weight issues.  He insists he doesn’t have any problems getting down to 170, except for the fight with Matt Hughes, where he missed it by four pounds, and the fight with Tony De Souza, where he was caught using a diuretic and suspended for eight months.  But he admits that he normally walks around at about 200 or 205 pounds, which is pretty freaking big for a welterweight.  If it was me though, I wouldn’t be talking about that stuff in public before a bout with GSP.  That’s only going to help him understand your physiology and how better to destroy it.

After the jump, a look at the new Sengoku ring girls.

Dana White Calls Elite XC A Travesty – Watch more free videos
(Props: Fightlinker)

Sports talk radio personality Dave Carmichael spoke with UFC President Dana White at the WEC event in Sacramento on Sunday, and naturally the discussion turned to Elite XC. We all know White is no fan of what Gary Shaw and Co. have been doing, but just in case you were unclear he clarifies it with words like “disgusting.”

Speaking positively about competitors has never really been White’s style, but he does make a good point when he says that even in the UFC’s darkest days they never “went the freak show route.” Pride certainly couldn’t say as much. It is stretching it a bit to imply that Kimbo Slice-James Thompson was a freak show, however. For starters, which one of them is the freak? Nevermind, don’t answer that.

After the jump Thiago Alves discusses his gameplan for Matt Hughes on Saturday. If it involves somehow infringing on Hughes’s second amendment rights, he is going to be sorry. But wait a minute, this fight is in England. Don’t go, Matt! It’s a trap!!!!

Alves looks to prove that he’s still one of the welterweight division’s best fighters by ending Matt Brown’s career resurgence.

When Dana White originally announced that the UFC was returning to Boston to help launch Fox Sports 1, he promised us a great card but didn’t announce any fights. The main event is still anyone’s guess, but according to MMAWeekly.com, a welterweight scrap between the resurgent Matt Brown and Thiago Alves is in the works for the card.

This is a very interesting fight to book. Not only because it features two of the welterweight division’s best strikers, but also because their careers appear to be heading in total opposite directions.

Matt Brown heads into this fight riding one of the most unexpected career comebacks in the sport. Just two years ago, Brown was a 12-11 “Why hasn’t he been fired yet?” gatekeeper who appeared to lack anything resembling submission defense. Five fights later, Brown is now 17-11, with four of those fights ending by knockout. During this stretch he has notably exposed Stephen Thompson’s takedown defense, ended Mike Swick’s bid for 2012′s Comeback of the Year, and most recently deflated the hype of Strikeforce standout Jordan Mein at UFC on Fox 7. While many fans still question Brown’s submission defense, let’s be honest, this fight likely won’t provide any answers as to how far that has progressed.

(Well if you’re trying to give yourself a hernia and a dislocated jaw, then by all means, keep doing what you’re doing.)

As if the loss of one high-profile Thiago wasn’t bad enough, UFC 149 (July 21st; Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is now short two Thiagos, with welterweight Thiago Alves having to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury.

Replacing him in his scheduled match against Afghan knockout-machine Siyar Bahadurzada will be Canadian striker Chris Clements, the MMA record-holder who out-pointed Keith Wisniewski in his Octagon debut at UFC 145. (Fun fact: Bahadurzada was himself a replacement for Yoshihiro Akiyama against Alves. And round and round it goes.)

Based on the way that Bahadurzada smoked Paulo Thiago in his own UFC debut back in April, we have a feeling that Clements could be in deep do-doo here. And speaking of potential mismatches…

(Video courtesy YouTube/ATT)

Thiago Alves received news this week that he has been waiting on for two months.

The UFC welterweight traveled from his home in Coconut Creek, Florida to New York City where he underwent his second angiogram in as many months to ensure that the medical procedure he had done on March 31 to correct a brain abnormality had healed enough for him to get back to heavy training, contact sparring, and ultimately, competing.

Doctors gave him 100 percent medical clearance,  green lighting "Pitbull" to train and compete without stipulation, and in effect, made the rematch between Alves and Jon Fitch official for UFC 117 on August 7. 

(Rogan was right. That DOES look like a goat’s vagina.)

It looks like Mike Pierce won’t be getting the bone he wanted the UFC to throw him for earning his third Octagon appearance last weekend at UFC 118 against Amilcar Alves.

Yesterday Pierce called out Thiago Alves via Twitter and "The Pitbull" accepted the Washington native’s challenge, however the UFC had other plans for the American Top Team fighter who will now face John Howard at UFC 124 in Montreal on December 11.

The news was first reported by MMAJunkie this afternoon and we were able to confirm with a source close to Alves.

The fight may well be Alves’ last stab at remaining at welterweight after he failed to make weight for the second time in his UFC career, this time for an important number two contendership match-up with Jon Fitch at UFC 117 last month that would determine who was next in line for a shot at the winner of the Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck bout, which is also slated for the December 11 card.

(Jacob Volkmann vs. Travis McCullough, 7/19/08)

Paulo Thiago may have lost his opponent in the Battle of the Thiagos at UFC 106, but at least he didn’t lose the chance to fight in November altogether.  With Thiago Alves pulling out to rematch Jon Fitch, Thiago will instead face UFC newcomer Jacob “Christmas” Volkmann at UFC 106 on November 21.  Aside from being the owner of an inscrutable nickname, Volkmann also has a perfect 9-0 record against a bunch of guys you’ve probably never heard of.  He fights out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, so odds are that he has no problem riding a stationary bike while wearing a blacked-out gasmask.

But Thiago, who’s 1-1 in the UFC, must be feeling like his life just got a little easier.  Instead of facing a bigger, more powerful striker in Alves, he gets a newbie in Volkmann.  That is, until someone informs him that “Christmas” was a three-time All-American wrestler in college.  Then he’s going to start to wonder if there is anyone in the UFC’s welterweight division who doesn’t have a bunch of wrestling trophies at home.  And there is one guy who comes to mind.  His name is Thiago Alves.  Maybe you’ve heard of him.

A couple more Volkmann fights are after the jump, just to help you get acquainted with the guy.

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFC)

- Rashad says Jones may need a therapist after their fight (BleacherReport)

- David Freese could have your girlfriend (WithLeather)

- Johnny Eduardo injured and out of UFC 139 bout with Michael MacDonald (Tatame)

- Alves’ nutrition coach Mike Dolce blames wonky scale on Thiago being over weight (MMAFighting)

Shane Carwin refutes retirement rumors (FightLine)

- Alvarez-Ioki rematch could happen in February in Japan (MMAWeekly)

- 10 books you might have missed in your childhood (HolyTaco)

- How Coca Cola can win Mexico’s drug war (TuVez)

- Alex Trebek makes an awkward threesome (Clutch.MTV)

- DC Universe online now free to play (TheRugged)

- UFC goes multi-platform for Fox debut (FightersOnly)

- Watch Tim Sylvia’s purple belt ceremony get painful (MiddleEasy)

- 11 awesome thing you didn’t know your iPhone could do (MadeMan)

- Amateur fighter and superhero booked on assault charges (TheFightNerd)

Years of sacrifice set to pay off for ProElite headliner Andreas Kraniotakes (CageJunkies)

- Nude girl buys horse, shoots it and resides in it a la Empire Strikes Back (ScreenJunkies)

(Fitch vs. Alves, 6/28/06.)

Though we previously eliminated Thiago Alves in our Fitch’s-next-opponent guessing game, it turns out that the Pitbull is a strong frontrunner for Ricardo Almeida‘s replacement. A source close to the UFC told MMA Junkie that Fitch and Alves will meet at UFC 107 (December 12th, Memphis); Alves’s original opponent for the event — Paulo Thiago — will be booked in another match.

Alves is obviously a bigger name than Almeida, but Fitch’s Twitter enthusiasm still threw us off. Who gets psyched about a rematch with a guy you already beat, unless it’s for a title? Reacquaint yourself with Fitch and Alves’s UFC Fight Night 5 scrap above, which starts with Alves having to take out his tongue ring, and ends with a TKO victory for Fitch at the end of the second-round thanks to a well-placed upkick.

(OMG, we have so much in common! Props to HardfortheYard.)

From Georges St. Pierre’s latest blog entry for our good buddies at Yardbarker.com:

I’m on my way to Brazil, but I stopped off in Chicago to see my training partner Patrick Cote fight for the world middleweight title against Anderson Silva. While I believe he was the first fighter to make it into the 3rd round against Anderson, it’s sad to see him lose the way that he did, because of a knee injury. Patrick has a loose ACL even before, and he had been able to fight 3 fights with it, but unfortunately this one was too much for his knee. I think he was doing pretty well against Anderson, and it was a smart strategy for him to bring the fight into the later rounds. I was very impressed by the performance of Thiago Alves — he showed everybody why he belongs in the top fighters in the welterweight division. Of course, it’s up to the UFC, but I think he will be one of my next opponents pretty soon.

So start getting psyched for St. Pierre/Alves. Pitbull definitely earned his shot with his three-round domination of Josh Koscheck on Saturday night, and he could easily turn out to be St. Pierre’s most challenging title defense yet. To read GSP’s thoughts on his new BJJ black belt (congrats!), his new condo in Ile-des-soeurs, and his recent photo shoot for the cover of Men’s Fitness, read the rest of his blog post here.

From Spike.com: Chris Leben says his loopy, wide-open style knocks people out. He also refuses to lose, check the news and read the interviews. Damn…dude is like the white Shonie Carter. Skip to the -5:14 mark for the ridiculous ending to his fight against Terry Martin; there’s your warning to not get cocky, Count. Later in this video, we look at the matchup between the Dean of the Mean and the Truth, also at UFC 89.

From CBS.com, for some reason: A preview of the UFC 90 welterweight feature between Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez. “You are going to see the strongest Sanchez you have ever seen before,” Sanchez says. “The result is gonna be a dominating submission victory.”

(Props: “Card” on the UG)

Just a friendly reminder that the UFC on Fox 2: Alves vs. Kampmann press conference will be live at 7:00 pm ET and that we’ll have the live stream right here for you.

Besides the main event between Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann, perhaps the most interesting bouts of the card are the opening round flyweight tournament match-ups between Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall versus Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benevidez versus Yasuhiro Urushitani.

Since the card is made up of mostly polite fighters, we don’t expect much drama at the weigh-ins, but there’s a pretty good chance someone at the presser will ask someone about Dakota Cochrane, since it’s such a hot-button topic.

Check out the stream after the jump.

(It looks like Thiago will have to wait a few more months before he can resume his Fraggle-bashing training.)

An MMAFighting.com story reveals today that the planned UFC 115 match-up between Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch will likely not take place until UFC 117.

UFC president Dana White told MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta that the promotion was pushing the fight back as a precaution to ensure that "Alves is 1000 percent healthy."

I can’t help but wonder, though, if there is more to this story.

(And just like that, the dreaded "May not be broadcast" label is wiped clean.)

UFC.com has reacted quickly to the news of Thiago Alves’s removal from the UFC 111 card, and the way things look now it appears as they’ve decided to bump the fight between Kurt Pellegrino and Fabricio Camoes up from the prelims to fill the hole in the pay-per-view broadcast. If you ask us, Ricardo Almeida/Matt Brown might have been a better choice, or even Nate Diaz/Rory Markham, but once again, no one in the UFC front office asked us. That never fails to sting the old pride, either.

The change means that all you FightPicker players are going to want to update your answers to reflect your feelings on who will win the suddenly more important Pellegrino/Camoes showdown. If you don’t it might just cost you that Apple iPad, and wouldn’t that be a shame?