(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:

For the second time since his return to the UFC, Mark Coleman has been forced to drop out of a high-profile co-headlining bout. According to Tito Ortiz’s Twitter feed, the Hammer has withdrawn from their UFC 106 meeting, forcing Ortiz to kick someone else’s ass on November 21st. (According to Mark Coleman’s Twitter feed, Coleman is "finally on twitter trying 2 figure out how 2 use this thing lol".)

No word yet on what exactly forced the pull-out, or who Mark’s replacement might be. Could Rashad Evans be pulled off his scheduled fight against Thiago Silva to rematch Ortiz, who he drew with in 2007? Will Ortiz get a gatekeeper-type like Keith Jardine? A fellow veteran like the returning Lil’ Nog? Or will the UFC just go with the obvious cash cow?

("I’ll have the usual." Photo courtesy of MMA TKO.)

We can officially add Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh Thomson to the list of Epically Cursed fighters that already includes James Irvin and Amir Sadollah. The Punk told MMA Weekly that he re-broke his leg in training, postponing his return — and rematch against interim champion Gilbert Melendez — even further:

(Does Houston’s abdomen remind anybody else of Kuato? Photo courtesy of jhiner.)

Bad news for fans who wanted to see Houston Alexander‘s do-or-die, for-real-this-time fight against Andre Gusmao at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas). As confirmed on UFC.com, the Assassin has suffered a broken hand and has withdrawn from the match, making him the sixth big-name fighter to be scratched from the event. According to Fightlinker’s records, "Evans vs. Machida" is just one injury away from tying the all-time UFC record for unfortunate pull-outs, which is currently held by UFC 85. To recap the black cloud that has been hanging over UFC 98…

(Better get the next ice-pack ready. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker.)

Alright, let’s get to it…

— After an injury forced Josh Thomson to drop out of his Strikeforce rematch with Gilbert Melendez, a replacement has reportedly been found, according to The Fight Network. Taking on Melendez at Saturday’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event will be Rodrigo Damm, an 8-2 veteran of Bodog Fight and Sengoku. Damm hasn’t competed since last August, when he was choked out by Eiji Mitsuoka at Sengoku Fourth Battle.

— Winless since his WEC debut against Cub Swanson in December 2007, Jens Pulver will be given another chance to score a victory at WEC 41 (June 7th, Sacramento). Lil’ Evil will be facing 20-year-old up-and-comer Josh "The Fluke" Grispi (12-1), who has gone 2-0 in the WEC with first-round stoppages over Mark Hominick and Micah Miller. WEC 41 will be headlined by the rematch between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.

— TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah has an opponent for his much-delayed return at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). MMA Weekly confirms that Sadollah’s welterweight debut will come against Johny Hendricks, a 5-0 transfer from the WEC’s defunct 170-pound division who won a unanimous decision over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 39 last month. Also on the card will be another welterweight bout between Tamdan McCrory (who’s coming off a submission victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 in March) and John Howard (who most recently won a Fight of the Night bonus for his split-decision victory over Chris Wilson at UFC 94 in January). UFC 101 will be headlined by the lightweight title scrap between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

(Sad Amir is sad. Fan art courtesy of myspace.com/ammmir.) 

In a new interview with MMA Junkie, TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah stated that a move down to 170 pounds is "definitely…in my future," as soon as he recovers from his latest injury. After winning the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter last June by submitting CB Dollaway via armbar in the finale — which also happened to be Sadollah’s professional MMA debut — he had to pull out of UFC 91 in November due to a leg injury. Sadollah became officially cursed when he had to drop out of last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 17 show because of a shoulder injury. As he explains:

Unfortunately, he doesn’t know exactly when that will be:

It’s unclear whether Sadollah will take a fight at middleweight before making his planned drop to welterweight. For now, he’s just focused on getting healthy. Poor guy…even Jesse "Mongo" Taylor seems to be doing better than this kid.

(F*ckin’ boo him.)

WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner may have won a grueling title defense against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone on Sunday — but between his injuries, the fan reaction, and his bank account, he isn’t exactly feeling like a winner right now. During an appearance on Sherdog’s "Beatdown" radio show yesterday, Varner rattled off the laundry list of ouchies that he left the cage with last weekend:

During that fifth round, Cerrone was able to score his first takedown of the night, then kneed Varner in the face when the champ was trying to get up. Varner’s knees — just barely — were touching the mat. Referee Josh Rosenthal halted the action and called the illegal blow unintentional, but Varner couldn’t continue, claiming that he couldn’t see. The fight went to the scorecards, and the crowd erupted in boos. Needless to say, the idea that some fans think Varner faked his injury to get out of finishing the last couple minutes of the fight doesn’t sit well with him:

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Leading up to UFC 92, you may have heard some rumors that Frank Mir was battling injuries while preparing for his fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. We didn’t put any effort into discussing it because hey, the dude was going to lose anyway, right? Turns out that’s exactly what Mir wanted you to think. As he explained on a recent installment of TAGG Radio, a little media misinformation goes a long way:

So apparently Mir was as healthy as he could have hoped to be, and certainly fought like he was in the best shape of his life. Big Nog, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky. During an appearance on the Carmichael Dave show, Dana White let the cat out of the bag:

Sad but true. And Dana could be implying that Nog is suffering from other maladies that won’t clear up as easily as a staph infection. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for ten years of being punched in the head.

Semi-related: Following UFC 92 and Dynamite!! 2008, our heavyweight, lightweight, and pound-for-pound Power Rankings lists have been updated.

(Duuuuuuuude.  No.  Photo courtesy of our friends at Fight! Magazine.)

In addition to the nauseating injuries to Corey Hill (whose broken leg is seen from a different angle above) and Razak Al-Hassan (who, let’s be honest, brought it on himself, even if Cantwell was a dick about it afterwards), UFC’s "Fight For The Troops" could go down as the Gettysburg of UFC cards due to the sheer number and gruesomeness of the injuries.  That is sadly ironic when you consider that F(2)T(2) was a benefit show for injured soldiers.

Obviously Yoshiyuki Yoshida needed medical attention after being knocked out by Josh Kosheck, though there’s no word yet on how he’s doing this morning. 

CBS Sportsline reports that Jonathan Goulet was also taken to the hospital immediately after being knocked out by Mike Swick in order to undergo a brain scan.  He also may have torn his MCL when he crumpled up in an awkward position as a result of the blows, said his agent, Ken Pavia.

Then, of course, there’s Brandon Wolff, who received stitches for facial lacerations and definitely needed a series of rotating ice packs for that lump on his head.  Pavia, who is also his agent, in true Drew Rosenhaus fashion, said Wolff may have briefly lost vision in one eye early on in the fight after one of Saunders’ head kicks ended up sticking a toe in his eye.

Man, when the guy who gets out of there with only stitches, a messed up face, and an eyeball that’s been toe-poked is considered to be much, much better off than most of the other guys who suffered losses on the same card, you know it was a rough night.  Please UFC, for the sake of your fighters, no more benefit shows.  The roster just can’t take it.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Some fun facts coming out of Minneapolis…

According to Dana White, the Target Center hosted 15,082 spectators for UFC 87, and banked a live gate total of $2,252,000, breaking the venue’s former record gate ($2,062,000) set by a Billy Joel/Elton John concert in 2001. It was the first UFC event held in Minnesota, and White hinted that the UFC could return to the Land of 10,000 Lakes in the future.

As for medical suspensions, the fighters of “Seek and Destroy” got off easily, with just four participants picking up 30-day time-outs. They are: Georges St. Pierre (cuts), Jon Fitch (cuts), Ryan Thomas (cuts), and Dan Evensen (precautionary due to KO). Strangely, the also-knocked-out Manvel Gamburyan and the whaled-on Heath Herring managed to escape the suspensions. Minnesota seems to have a “rub some dirt on it” attitude when it comes to fighter injuries, and that’s cool with us. Unfortunately, they also have a “none of your goddamned business” attitude when it comes to fighter payouts — apparently, UFC salaries will not be released in Minnesota as part of the state’s freedom of information legislation.

It was bad enough when Mike Pyle’s contract disputes prevented Jake Shields from taking home a well-deserved EliteXC championship belt in November. Now it looks like his fight against Drew Fickett at this Saturday’s Strikeforce/EliteXC event — which many assumed would officially establish Shields as the welterweight title holder — won’t even happen.

It’s being reported that the Shields/Fickett bout is being postponed due to Shields pulling a muscle in his back while training last week. Says FiveOunces:

[Shields] flew to Los Angeles in order to meet with a specialist. While he had experienced some improvement with the injury, it was determined that he would not be ready in time for Saturday’s fight. A decision was then made to postpone the bout. A re-scheduled date for the bout has not been set, but Shields indicated that the title fight could take place within the next couple of months.

I guess that’s what you get for letting Brandon Vera give you a pinkbelly; that shot probably dislodged at least four discs. Shields’s dropout is just the latest blow to an event that had already suffered the loss of one big name, when Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos was forced to pull out of the card due to visa issues.

In related news, an EliteXC lightweight title fight between Yves Edwards and K.J. Noons has been postponed to June 14th. The two fighters were supposed to meet at an April 26th show in Hawaii, but that event has reportedly been canceled altogether. Our first thought is that EliteXC is canceling the show to reserve some talent for their first CBS broadcasts, but we’ll let you know if/when they release an official statement.

Here’s the Riggs/Devela fight from Saturday’s Strikeforce event, which shows just how Riggs got his back effed up.

Says agent Ken Pavia in an e-mail to CagePotato:

[Joe] is having a procedure this week where they freeze a nerve. Disc is impinging on nerve now. Similar pain to a broken hip. He is ok though.

After the surgery, they’ll know more regarding how long Riggs will be out of action. We’ll keep you posted.

(Griffin and Bonnar: Enemies 4-eva.)

According to Yahoo! Sports, Stephan Bonnar tore ligaments in his knee during training last week and will be out for six months. As a result, he’ll be unable to fight Matt Hamill at Ultimate Fight Night 13 on 4/2. Said Bonnar: “I was doing nothing out of the ordinary, just working on my (jiu-jitsu) getting ready for my fight. I heard a pop and I thought, ‘Damn, what is this?’ I walked around on it a little, but when I got home, it was really stiff and swollen.” The American Psycho will have surgery soon in Los Angeles, where a ligament from a fucking cadaver will be placed into his knee. By the time his recovery period is over, Bonnar will have been inactive for 10 months (his last fight was a TKO victory over Eric Schafer at UFC 77 in October).

This blows, completely. Out of all the big fights at UFN 13, the Bonnar/Hammil match is the one we were most looking forward to. We hope the UFC can find a solid opponent for Matt Hammil so he’s not dropped from the card. In case Joe Silva is reading this, two possibilities come to mind:

Tim Boetsch: UFC fans want to see more of this guy after he kicked/slammed/punched the shit out of David Heath at UFC 81. With another fight or two at that same level of intensity, he’ll earn a place in the light-heavyweight division’s mid-range mix.

Wilson Gouveia: He’s been 4-0 in the UFC since losing to Keith Jardine at the Ultimate Fighter 3 finale, including his highlight-reel knockout of Jason Lambert at UFC 80. One more credible win and he’ll be ready for top-ten-caliber competition.

Mike “The Rhino” Bourke, the 8-11-1 patsy that was scheduled to be obliterated by Kimbo Slice at the 11/10 EliteXC Renegade event in Corpus Christi, TX, has dropped off the card. Five Ounces reported today that Bourke broke his clavicle during a training session on Sunday, and was forced to pull out of the match. EliteXC has now confirmed that Kimbo’s new opponent at the event will be Bo “Redrum” Cantrell, an equally can-like 10-10-0 fighter who became a part of history on Saturday as the second consecutive guy that Brad Imes submitted by gogoplata.

Man, Elite is really hedging their bets on this one. Are they so insecure about Kimbo’s ability that they won’t put him up against a fighter with a winning record? MMA fans want to see Kimbo in an exciting fight, where he’s challenged, and they’re not going to get it this time. I couldn’t find any decent videos of Mike Bourke or Bo Cantrell in action, so here’s a Kimbo Slice highlight reel that you’ve probably already watched a dozen times. Wonderful.

(Still, that part at 0:41-0:44 where Kimbo lets the dude haul off and hit him in the face will never get old…)