(If Rashad tests positive for anything after this fight it will likely be Prozac.)

A torn tendon in his hand that he suffered in his UFC 128 light heavyweight championship win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has forced Jon Jones to bow out of his August UFC 133 grudge match against former training partner Rashad Evans. Stepping in for the injured champion in the bout will be Phil Davis.

The news was first reported this morning by Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press and was later announced by the UFC.

It seems like Rashad can’t get a break these days.

(Belcher, seen here prior to getting that giant picture of Carl Perkins tattooed on his left arm. Pic: TigerMuayThai.com)

If Alan Belcher manages to return from the detached retina that nearly ended his career last year and can recapture anything close to the 4-1 form he showed during his five most recent fights in the Octagon, it’ll be one of 2011’s true feel good stories. Belcher has always struck us as one of the sport’s more likable characters, so when he tells Sherdog this week that he’s interested in returning to the UFC as soon as September, that’s great news. Only thing is, we wish Belcher would show just a touch more originality in deciding who he wants to fight in his comeback bout. Pretty much the usual suspects here:

“(Michael) Bisping is an asshole who disrespects the sport and his opponent,” Belcher tells the Dog. “A fight between me and Michael Bisping is something everybody wants except for Michael Bisping. It would be amazing to sign that fight and have him come to my backyard. He always gets to fight in Britain and other places, but it’d be good to see him come down to Louisiana. I’d love for that to be my comeback fight.”

Yep. Bisping. The ol’ standby. And in case you’re wondering, Belcher wouldn’t turn down a fight with Wanderlei Silva, either, though he sounds a little more reasonable about Silva’s standing in the division than some of the other dudes who’ve called out “The Axe Murderer” recently …

(Hurt? Nah, I just wanted to have some time to surf.)

A week after news broke that Jon Fitch had pulled out of UFC 132 due to a shoulder injury, the American Kickboxing Academy fighter’s opponent for the event had reportedly been removed from the July 2 card as well.

Dave Meltzer reported earlier today via his Wrestling Observer subscription newsletter that Penn had apparently sustained an injury this week while training for the event in anticipation of the UFC finding him a viable replacement opponent.

Now MMAJunkie is saying that Penn has opted out of the event for undisclosed reasons and will instead look at a future card for his next bout.

(Those hats that make it look like you have an arrow through your head? Comedy gold. Somehow, the same principle does not apply to the AK-47. PicProps: BrasilCombate.com)

Well, it’s not every day that both guys decide they’d rather not fight. That however seems to be the case with Mike Swick’s scheduled comeback fight against David Mitchell at the UFC’s “Fight for the Troops” event on Jan. 22 in Ford Hood, Tex. Swick, who has not fought since February, announced on his Facebook page recently that Mitchell was out with an injury (a shoulder, people are saying) and said that his own ongoing medical issues made the best option for the former “TUF 1” contestant to sit this one out too, rather than accept a replacement opponent. He sounded more relieved about it than anything else, if you want to know the truth. Here’s the original message from Swick himself, consider all his quotes in this story fully sic’d: 

"Not fighting on January 22nd," the fighter wrote. "I got the call yesterday that David Mitchell backed out due to an injury and considering my current situation we opted to put off the fight all together."

(Talk of bruised ribs and doing god’s work in the cage don’t belong in a post-fight interview)

Watching Anderson Silva get dominated on the feet and the ground by Chael Sonnen for the better part of five rounds Saturday night at UFC 117, a large number of fans and pundits assumed out loud that the middleweight champion must be sick or injured. How else could he be outworked, outstruck and outgrappled by Sonnen for over 23 minutes of a championship bout?

It didn’t take long for Silva to nullify the praise Sonnen’s career defining performance was garnering him as he announced in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that his own somewhat lethargic performance was a result of an injury, not Chael’s nearly perfectly executed game plan.

Besides the slick, yet last-ditch armbar-triangle combo he threw up and was able to catch Chael with in the dying seconds of the fifth round, Anderson really didn’t do a whole lot in the fight, but instead of praising Sonnen for contributing more than his half to their "Fight of the Night" awarded bout, he instead chalked it up to a rib injury he sustained in training more than a week prior to the fight.

(This was going to be part of a new tourism campaign for the nation of Japan, but even they thought Okami was too boring.)

It’s not enough that Yushin Okami keeps getting overlooked in the UFC’s middleweight title picture.  Now an injury has forced him out his UFC 98 bout with Dan Miller, further pushing him into the land of the also-rans.  So who will replace Okami against the larger of the two Miller boys?  How about Ed Herman, who absolutely no one brings up when the conversation turns to guys who deserve a shot at Anderson Silva.  And the most telling part is, Herman vs. Miller feels like a fight that makes perfect sense.

(When he told her it was time to retire and give up the game for good, a tearful Paris Hilton told Dana: "But I am the game!" Only then did he fully understand the devils of fame and the ransom they demand. True story.)

- UFC president Dana White talked with Inside Fighting about the disappointing main event at UFC 97, and he also reiterated his commitment to keeping Chuck Liddell firmly in retirement, saying, “Believe me, it will be a fucking war if he tries not to retire, believe me.”  When pressed on other rapidly aging fighters who might need to be nudged into retirement, White admitted that Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira “are right there too and yes, I will pull the trigger on them too.”  Dear God, he’s not going to kill them, is he?!

- A crazy rumor on the information superhighway says that Fedor Emelianenko and Shinya Aoki will square off against each other in a special grappling match at the “Deep M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition” in Japan on April 29th.  I’ll pause a moment and let that one sink in.  If true this would be completely insane, but to deny that we would totally want to see it would be to deny the very curiosity of the spirit that makes us human, and we aren’t about to do that.

(Well, it didn’t really look like these two BFFs wanted to fight anyway.)

FiveOuncesofPain breaks it:

A follow-up report by MMA Mania called it a knee injury, not a back injury, but the situation remains the same — UFC 98′s headlining bout has gone from Lesnar vs. Mir to Hughes vs. Serra. Unless, of course, the UFC throws in a replacement for Mir. (The winner of Gonzaga/Carwin, anybody?) But with the rivalry and dual titles that Lesnar and Mir have accumulated in the last year, it’s hard to imagine that the UFC would risk giving Lesnar a loss and killing the heat behind the matchup. Stay tuned…

(Takeya Mizugaki vs. Daichi Fujiwara, 6/22/08. Fight starts at the 1:08 mark; Mizugaki’s in the white trunks. Videos of two more Mizugaki wins are after the jump.)

MMA Weekly reports that the WEC‘s #1 bantamweight contender Brian Bowles has suffered an "undisclosed injury" [update: it was a back injury suffered during a training session at ATT] and has been forced to pull out of his title scrap with #4 P4P fighter Miguel Torres at WEC 40 (April 5th, Chicago). It’s an incredibly tough break for the undefeated Bowles, but on the bright side, the WEC has managed to pull a very credible replacement directly out of their asses. Stepping in for Brian will be Takeya Mizugaki, an 11-2-2 veteran of Shooto and GCM Cage Force who’s on a five-fight win streak, and who MMA Weekly currently ranks as the #6 bantamweight in the world. Mizugaki is expected to sign a five-fight contract with the WEC.

Speaking of which: WEC 39 is this Sunday in Corpus Christi, and will be broadcast live on Versus. The card will feature the featherweight title fight between Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia, Jose Aldo vs. Chris Mickle in a featherweight contender match, and lightweight bouts between Bart Palaszewski and Ricardo Lamas, and Rob McCullough vs. Marcus Hicks.

(You just hate to see a guy like Franca sidelined for anything other than a steroid suspension or drunk-driving arrest.)

UFC lightweight Hermes Franca has been forced to pull out of his scheduled bout with Joe Lauzon at Fight Night 17 on Feb. 7 due to a torn ACL, according to a post by Franca on the UG.  Franca said he injured the knee last Saturday and will now have it repaired.  He added:

Thank you UFC,my fans, friends for the support, i was training hard and i was so excited ,but there’s      nothing i can do, (could be worse), so Hermes franca will take a break for some recovery,and come back  stronger than ever like i always do!!!!

Nothing like referring to yourself in the third person to remind everyone that you are a professional athlete.  This is the second time in the last week that a scheduled opponent of one of the Lauzon brothers has had to pull out of a fight due to injury.  First Chris Horodecki failed his physical exam prior to a fight with Dan Lauzon, which meant “The Upgrade” had to face “Frantic” Bobby Green and get his testicles jostled.  Now Franca is hurt and the UFC will have to find a replacement to take on Joe Lauzon.

Lauzon, replying to Franca’s post, expressed his disappointment at the news and wished Franca a speedy recovery, real gentleman-like.  Then things got a little weird on the ol’ internets, with this remark from Franca:

(At times like these, it’s the simple pleasures that sustain us. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Due to an injury sustained in training, TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah will not be facing Nick Catone at UFC Fight Night 17 (February 7th; Tampa, Florida). No, he didn’t break his funny-bone. According to MMA Weekly:

This sucks just as bad for Nick Catone, who has been inactive since last June, just waiting for Sadollah to get his shit together. Luckily, the UFC is trying to find a replacement for Amir so that Catone can still compete next month.

As for Sadollah, he’s also been inactive since last June, when he submitted CB Dollaway at the TUF 7 finale. That fight is still the only pro MMA match on Sadollah’s record. There’s no word yet on when he’ll be able to return to competition, though perhaps Amir should take this as a sign that God is very displeased with the idea of him as a cage-fighter.

(‘Whoa, guys, I just had the worst dream.  Dan Henderson poked me in the eye and head-butted me and I lost the decision anyway and then…why are you all looking at me like that?  Where am I?  And why do I suddenly have no depth perception?’)

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets poked in the eye.  Word from Rich Franklin’s official website is that he will not need Anthony Johnson-esque surgery to repair the eye that Dan Henderson got knuckle-deep into, which is always good news. 

In addition to the eye-poke injury, Franklin also needed stitches in his head on account of the Hendo head-butt that opened up a nasty cut on his forehead, as well as stitches on his shin to close a cut resulting from one of his many kicks in the fight.  Basically, it was a rough night.  At least he had his special pink travel pillow to comfort him on the long journey home.

More pics of the damage “Ace” suffered are after the jump.  Take a look at those and then ask yourself anew, ‘Do you want to be a f*cking fighter?!’

(In case you missed it…)

Steve Cantwell has been taking some heat for sounding so pleased with himself after bending Razak Al-Hassan’s arm like a Gumby doll at “Fight for the Troops.”  Telling Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview that he had "been waiting so long to do that,” was maybe not the best way of wishing his opponent a speedy recovery.  Now Cantwell tells MMA on Tap it was just the adrenaline talking:

“You know that was a really weird outcome to the fight. I had the arm locked in tightly and expected Razak to tap right away – then we rolled twice and it got even tighter. I was thinking to myself ‘This guy is made of rubber – this is crazy’. The only thing I could to end the fight was force the arm until either it broke or he tapped, and that’s what I did. Fighting is always a series of calculated risks, and he had ample opportunity to tap. But none of us enter the ring trying to end each others career, and I do regret the comments I made and being so animated about it afterwards. It was the adrenalin taking over.”

Fair enough, Steve.  It’s somewhat understandable.  As we’ve all observed, nothing good ever comes out of those immediate post-fight interviews.  The guy is either too pumped up, too out of breath, or too busy trying to yank his sponsor’s t-shirt down over his sponsor’s baseball cap to say anything meaningful.  Really, the best you can hope for is that he doesn’t call anyone a cocksucker or lapse into dead air when asked to talk us through the replay.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Corey Hill’s sickening leg-break at “Fight For The Troops” was easily one of the worst injuries ever in the UFC.  Just ask Joe Rogan, who has seen it all in the Octagon and still had terror in his voice as he shouted for the fight to be stopped.  Or ask Dana White, who said afterwards: "Had this fight happened 7 years ago, we probably wouldn’t have been legalized."

Gracie Tampa has set up a charity fund to help Hill through his recovery.  Word has it that the UFC paid for his medical bills (which is right friendly of them), but the guy has a wife and three kids who are going to need a little help while Hill recovers, and if you’re not already tapped from giving money to support TBI research, you can go ahead and give money to help a guy who got hurt on the card to raise money for TBI research.  This is getting weird.

The good news for Hill is that his injury was almost identical to the one suffered by Brazilian fighting legend Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons, and he was back in the gym a couple months later, complaining about the fight being ruled a loss instead of a no contest and angling for a rematch.  Then agan, “Pele” is insane.

(Looks like Sadollah’s first non-TUF fight is going to have to wait.)

Ultimate Fighter 7 winner Amir Sadollah won’t be fighting at UFC 91 this weekend after all, as UFC.com reports that a leg infection has forced him off the card. What with the fight just a couple of days away, the UFC couldn’t find a suitable replacement and has given up trying, so the bout is being scratched altogether.

Sorry, Nick Catone. That big UFC debut you’ve been training for, the one you told all your friends and family about, it ain’t happening. Look on the bright side: at least you’re still undefeated.

Since the bout leaves a hole in the televised portion of the event, the UFC is going to bump Tamdan McCrory-Dustin Hazelett up from the darkness to make up for it. You hear that, “Barn Cat”? You’re going to fight on TV in front of a Dana White-estimated 1.2 million households. Your struggles with women are finally over, my man.

(Cote enjoying the hell out of his alternate reality.)

When I saw the video of Patrick Cote looking inebriated in a hotel room and talking about how bad he had “fucked up” Anderson Silva in their fight at UFC 90, I assumed this was something he needed to tell himself in order to enjoy his post-fight party. We all have our own pleasant fictions, and I can’t begrudge a man with a blown out knee and a cut forehead from getting all hopped up on, well, whatever he was hopped up on, and telling himself a palatable story about what had happened that night.

The fact that he still believes it is a little more disconcerting. Speaking about the fight on MMA Rated Radio, Cote seems to have decided that Silva‘s antics weren’t a show of disrespect, but rather a sign that the champ was so utterly confused in the fight that he didn’t know what to do:

“I don’t think it was a lack of respect. I just think my game plan was perfect. I was moving a lot, going forward but not running after him and I don’t think he was expecting a lot of leg kicks like I did. He gave me a very good shot and I was still there…He didn’t want to exchange, I think, with me.”

That is one possible interpretation. Granted, it’s the interpretation that’s most generous to Cote, and the interpretation that only Cote seems to subscribe to, but it’s an interpretation nonetheless. As for Silva offering his hand to help him up, Cote has an explanation for that one too:

Wow…the delusions you suffer when Anderson Silva allows you to reach round three. As you can see in this video from MMACanada, Patrick Cote has a rather inflated sense of his own toughness following Saturday night’s debacle. After explaining that his knee was actually toast by the end of the second round, the Predator launches into the money quote:

“I proved to everybody that this guy’s not unbeatable. I think I fucked him up really bad ['you fucked him up' and 'oh, big time' his friends shout, possibly sarcastically]. My gameplan was good and I think he was scared to exchange with me. I received all his best punch and all his best knee and I was still there.”

Well, that’s a matter of opinion. It’s still unclear what was going through Silva’s head during those first two rounds, but I wouldn’t assume that he was scared of Cote (who never gave Silva reason to be), and the small handful of bored strikes he threw certainly did not represent “his best punch and his best knee.” Far from it. What we saw at UFC 90 was Anderson Silva at his most ineffective. Though hey, maybe he was going to make something happen in the championship rounds. Cote would also like you to know that he didn’t fake the knee injury, and he thought it was a little bit rude when Silva offered his hand to help him during the fight. Okay? Now let’s all forget that this ever happened.

Dana White, it should be noted, was understandably disappointed with Silva’s performance, and didn’t think it had anything to do with fear of Cote.

(At first he claimed to have other plans that night, but no one was buying that.)

The fates of Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck are indeed intertwined in mysterious ways. The UFC sent out a release today announcing that Diego Sanchez has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 90 bout with Thiago Alves due to torn rib cartilage. Stepping in to face Alves on short notice will be Sanchez’s TUF 1 buddy, Josh Koscheck.

From the official release:

“There is nothing worse than having a great fight and then having one of the fighters drop out at the last second,” said UFC President Dana White. “But the one thing the UFC has proven time and time again is our ability to replace fights with ones as good as or better than the original fight, and we’ve done it again with the highly-ranked Josh Koscheck stepping up to replace Diego Sanchez against welterweight wrecking machine Thiago Alves. Hats off to Josh and Thiago, as not many fighters would agree to a matchup this tough on such short notice.”

[...]

“Josh Koscheck is a great fighter and I think he’s an even better matchup for me,” said Alves. “I’m looking forward to fighting him, and I’m gonna knock him out.”

[...]

“I think he’s a tough opponent,” said Koscheck. “He’s on a tear right now in the UFC and for me to step up and fight him, I think it’s gonna be an exciting fight. I’ve been in training since Chris Lytle, I haven’t taken any time off, and he’s a tough guy, so I’ve got to come in and fight him at my ‘A’ game.”

Alves is a tough opponent to step in against on short notice, but how could Koscheck resist such a golden opportunity to grind salt in Sanchez’s torn rib cartilage? The only thing worse than having to pull out of a big fight is having a rival swoop in and take it.

As late replacements go, Koscheck probably makes the most possible sense. Instead of throwing Alves against someone far lower on the welterweight totem pole, he gets someone at right about the same level. This bout, in terms of both quality of competition and future ramifications on the division, has simply made a lateral move. How many times have we been able to say that?

(Cain Velasquez cracks Brad Morris at UFC 83. Photo courtesy of video.ufc.tv.)

As a couple of you pointed out yesterday, a match between Cain Velasquez and a foreigner with “a terrorist name” would have been perfect for UFC’s “Fight for the Troops” event on December 10th. Unfortunately, the Velasquez/Mustapha Al-Turk bout is in danger as the American fighter recently suffered a knee injury in training, and is currently recovering from arthroscopic surgery. According to MMAWeekly, a final decision on Velasquez’s status will be made in two weeks, but his fight will probably be rescheduled to UFC 92 (12/27) or 93 (1/31).

“Fight for the Troops” — which aims to raise millions for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence — will be broadcast for free on Spike. So far, the card looks like this:

Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet
Steve Bruno vs. Luke Cummo
Frankie Edgar vs. Matt Wyman
Luigi Fioravanti vs. Brodie Farber
Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully
Dale Hartt vs. Corey Hill

Update: Al-Turk will now face Cheick Kongo on the main card of UFC 92 (December 27th, Las Vegas).

(Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Well, this blows:

A last-minute back injury has forced welterweight contender Karo Parisyan to withdraw from his UFC 88 bout with Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Saturday’s UFC 88 card will continue with nine bouts.

Who knows what Karo was doing last night or this morning to screw up his back, but he showed no sign of injury at yesterday’s press conference. We certainly hope it wasn’t panic attack-related. More info as we get it…

And the hits keep coming: It seems the back injury fairy has also visited light-heavyweight contender Thiago Silva, who will no longer be facing fellow undefeated Brazilian Lyoto Machida at UFC 89 (October 18th; Birmingham, England). Silva is expected to be able to compete again in December. No replacement opponent for Machida has been announced at this time; hopefully the UFC will just postpone the match until Silva is fully recovered.

It’s official: Vitor Belfort will not face Matt Lindland at Affliction: Day of Reckoning on October 11. The hand he broke on Terry Martin’s face won’t be healed in time, though Affliction VP Tom Atencio sounds just a little suspicious of the whole thing in his remarks to MMA Weekly:

“Vitor is out, I spoke with him I think yesterday and he told me,” said Atencio. “Actually, it was on Tuesday we had a conversation for about an hour or so, and yeah, I guess he broke his hand in two places is what he told me and he had been having 2, 3 and 4 opinions on it. He finally got the opinion that he wanted I guess and they told him to step out for a while.”

This might be just an accident of poor phrasing, but Atencio seems to be suggesting that Belfort went looking for a doctor who would tell him not to fight. That hardly sounds like “The Phenom,” who told a slightly different tale to Tatame:

“Man, I’m doing physiotherapy now and won’t be able to fight at October 11th, I wanna fight with 100%, so I’ll be at the next show to fight for the title”

Belfort also said that he expects to face the winner of Matt Lindland vs. TBA for the currently non-existent middleweight title in Affliction’s third event. Naturally, Atencio cast doubt on that too, saying that the proposed Belfort-Lindland bout would not have been for a title because “it didn’t make too much sense.” He said they may eventually decide to make it a title bout, but for now the task at hand is finding an opponent for Lindland, and guess whose name keeps coming up? Jake freakin’ Shields.

(Steve Mazzagatti hangin’ ringside with Anthony “Two Face” Johnson.)

According to Fightline.com, EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” show was the site of a very touching reconciliation, as Anthony “Rumble” Johnson buried the hatchet with the man responsible for turning what should have been a DQ victory at “UFC: Silva vs. Irvin” into a TKO loss. As the story goes:

…Johnson approached Mazzagatti at ringside during last night’s event. Mazzagatti and Johnson shook hands and hugged. Mazzagatti apologized to Johnson and noted that it was “a bad call” and Johnson immediately accepted, saying it was all good.

If you’ll recall, Kevin Burns repeatedly poked Johnson in the eye during their match, leading to a serious retinal injury that would later require surgery; Mazzagatti awarded Burns the win when Johnson couldn’t continue. Rumble’s surgery was pretty grisly, apparently, though it was ultimately a success. As he told MMA Weekly:

“My retina was damaged, possibly detached, and the laceration was pretty long. It was basically from one end of my eye to the other. They did laser surgery that took about two hours, put some stitches on it basically. The doctor said I should be back in the September. So, hopefully you’ll get to see me do my thing in September or October…

I have nothing against Kevin; but personally I don’t want him to fight again until he gets his hands fixed. I don’t want any other fighter to go through what I went through. I don’t think it’s cool that he fought with his hands like that. It put himself and others that he’s competing with in danger. Just look at me. I can accept a loss, but I can’t accept a loss or the consequence of someone else’s wrong doing in a fight like that.”

We’ll let you know when Shayna Baszler forgives Steve for making Cristiane Cyborg knock her out twice.

(Props: MMATKO. Fight starts at the 5:34 mark.)

It looks like Robert “Buzz” Berry’s beating last Saturday at the hands of Neil Grove could be his last. Berry (13-8), who suffered a second-round TKO loss at Cage Rage 27 and who has dropped three of his last four fights, announced his retirement last night via the Cage Warriors forums, writing the following:

Just to let you all know I have had to retire. After my fight with Neil Grove I was taken to the hospital and had to have surgery on my face. They have had to put two plates in, one in my cheek bone and one on my eye socket. So that is it, over for me.

Can I take this opportunity in congratulating Neil Grove on the fight and good luck in the future. Thank you to all my camp and other camps for their help over the years in getting me ready for fights. Thanks to all my fans in their support for me, it has always meant a lot. A real big thanks to John Close, he has been a diamond — we have been joined at the hip for a few years. Neil Wain has been a star for me and wish him all the best in his fight in the UFC. Thanks to the guys at Cage Rage for their part in my fighting and to anyone I have missed out: Thank you.

As you can see in the video from the Berry/Grove fight (above), Buzz was on the mat for about three minutes after the loss, in visible pain. Grove’s leg kicks were responsible for breaking Berry down during the fight, but his final flurry of punches turned out to be a career ender for the man who’d previously knocked out Ken Shamrock at Cage Rage 25 in March. With the win, Grove increased his record to 6-1; in the post-fight interview he called out Cage Rage British heavyweight champion Mustapha Al Turk, as well as (who else) Kimbo Slice.

I was incredibly disappointed by Marcus Davis’s loss-by-smothering against Mike “Not Quick” Swick at UFC 85 — partly because I’d been shamelessly hugging his nuts leading up to the event, and partly because his loss contributed to me having to film myself vomiting. But in a recent profile on MMA Junkie, Davis reveals that his insane weightlifting regimen led to an injury that almost sunk the fight altogether. As Davis explains:

“Three weeks before the Swick fight, I had torn the connective tissue between my triceps and my rear [deltoid]. I had Cortisone shots for that. Two days before the Swick fight, I couldn’t move my arm. So, the UFC was cool enough to send me to an orthopedic doctor in the U.K., and they did an ultrasound on my arm. I had an impingement in the front bursa sac that was like 100 times the size it was supposed to be, and then still that tear in the rear connective tissue. [The doctor] did a guided needle with the ultrasound into the bursa, and drained the bursa. And that lasted for about three-and-a-half hours, and then I couldn’t move my arm again.

“The day of the weigh-ins, [the UFC] excused me early. After I weighed in, they let me leave and brought me back [to the doctor] and checked me out. It had swollen right back up again because the needle had aggravated it.”

(His tattoo is watching even when he’s not. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Yesterday evening, the UFC announced that a broken foot has forced James Irvin to pull out from his UFC 85 match against Rashad Evans. Though UFC.com first reported that Luiz Cane would be stepping up to replace Irvin, a finalized card was released shortly after, which didn’t include Evans at all. The undercard fight between Nate Marquardt and Thales Leites has now been moved to the main pay-per-view card.

Anyway, that’s a bummer — I had high hopes for the Irvin/Evans match-up, as their conflicting styles could have produced some exciting results. But Evans is better off not being on the card at this point. Having to train for another new opponent (he was originally slated to fight Chuck Liddell) wouldn’t be fair to him with less than a month until the show, and historically, situations like that tend not to go well. Still, how cursed is this card? First it was Mauricio Rua with an injured knee. Then Liddell with a torn hammy. Then Chris Leben with his probation violation. Good Lord, is the O2 Arena built on an Indian burial ground or something?

In other UFC news:

— Early reports have UFC 88 slated for September 6th in Atlanta, GA. It would be the first time the UFC was held in the state of Georgia since UFC 13 in May 1997.

— TUF 6 alum Blake Bowman (remember, the guy who Mac Danzig used to mercilessly make fun of?) won his professional MMA debut on Friday, at the same event that produced the already-legendary double-K.O. involving Tyler Bryan and Shaun Parker. Facing Kevin Walker, who was also making his professional debut, Bowman won a TKO victory in just eight seconds, landing a head kick right at the bell and following it up with a punch that put Walker out.

— According to recent announcements and promotional materials, Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Coleman will not be the official main event of UFC 87. Could a headlining title fight be possible? GSP and Anderson Silva don’t have anything scheduled yet…

(Anderson Silva: Pound-for-pound the worst liar in the world.)

— Chuck Liddell’s hamstring injury, which forced him to pull out of a match against Rashad Evans at UFC 85, isn’t looking good. “He can barely bend over and tie his shoe,” Dana White said. “He tore his leg real bad. It’s pretty nasty.” As of now, there’s no official estimate on how long it will take for the Iceman to recover and return to the Octagon.

— A welterweight bout between Tamdan “AFC” McCrory and Luke Cummo is expected to go down at UFC 87. Both men are coming off losses — to Akihiro Gono and Luigi Fioravanti, respectively — and if this isn’t a “win or get fired” match, we don’t know what is. (Update: Cheick Kongo and BodogFight/Gladiator Challenge vet Dan Evensen are also expected to meet at UFC 87.) In other fight-booking news, a lightweight match between Spencer Fisher (who most recently lost to Frankie Edgar by decision at UFC 78) and Jeremy Stephens (who most recently TKO’d Cole Miller at UFC Fight Night 12) has been added to the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale (June 21st, Las Vegas).

— Remember that two-day seminar that Anderson Silva was supposed to do this weekend at Miletich Fighting Systems Houston? Well, he backed out at the last minute, citing “personal family health issues.” Turns out Silva was in Miami doing a two-day seminar at the grand opening of his own school. Said Alex Lopera of MFS Houston, “If this is true then we have been completely mislead and as you can imagine we are furious at this. We are doing our due diligence to confirm that this is really happening. If this is true we will take all legal recourse possible.” Busted!

— Tito Ortiz predicts that at UFC 84 there will be “about 16,000, probably 15,999 [fans] that will be screaming about Tito and there will be that one person that’s hating on me.” Sure, but he’ll be hating on you so loud that it’ll seem like thousands of people, all over the arena. That son-of-a-bitch and his voice-throwing…

(Aoki’s fancy flying guard-pull against Calvancante.)

Are you sitting down? Sherdog is reporting that Shinya Aoki suffered a facial injury in his fight against Gesias Calvancante yesterday, and will not be able to participate in the second round of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix (May 11th; Saitama, Japan). UPDATE: Sherdog amends their story: “Calvancante was approached about replacing the Japanese fighter, but the 24-year-old American Top Team representative could not come to terms with the promotion and has since left Japan.”

Aoki always seemed to have misgivings about continuing in the tournament. Here’s what he said in an interview on DREAM’s website a couple weeks ago:

Are you thinking about fighting on May 11 in DREAM 3?
I win on Apr 29, but not fight on May 11. That’s their business and not me. I’m not well-considered person to agree with fighting on May 11. I’m not thinking about a fight after Apr 29. I may fight if I had an easy fight on Apr 29.

Don’t you want a belt?
Not interested in. My next fight has more meaning than a belt.

And in another interview…

“I have no schedule after April 29 so far. I don’t even think about the 2R. I will have a good result on April 29 and clean up my past.”

So, it’s safe to say that Aoki’s heart wasn’t in DREAM’s lightweight GP past the marquee matchup of him vs. Calvancante, and now this so-called “facial injury” is sounding a little too convenient. But hey, he’s in good company: Kazushi Sakuraba wants nothing to do with DREAM’s middleweight tournament. Good lord, is it too much to ask for DREAM to book fighters that actually want to be involved with them?

(Any guesses on what they had to black out in the lower-left corner?)

Last night, the UFC officially confirmed Chuck Liddell’s hamstring injury and pullout from UFC 85. To quiet down the cynics who suggested that Chuck simply didn’t feel like traveling all the way to England to fight Rashad Evans, they released the above photo of a man showing off an enormous strawberry while cupping his taint ever so gently; apparently, it’s Liddell. According to Dana White:

“Chuck Liddell tore his right hamstring during training last week, and being the warrior that he is, he still wanted to fight, which is the reason why everyone in the world loves him. But I wouldn’t let anyone fight with his leg looking that way. Let him heal and come back and fight when he is 100 percent. We’re adding fights to the card and rearranging it so the UK fans won’t have to worry, we’ll still be bringing an amazing card to London and the O2 Arena.”

Sherdog is floating the rumor that James Irvin may step in to face Evans, though that certainly wouldn’t be the show’s main event. (It must be said that, historically, Irvin has performed very well against African-American fighters.) You’ll know more when we do…

(Sorry Nate, the Iceman has been doing the goofy-punch for years.)

It seems that the curse of Mauricio Rua extends past Shogun himself. MMARated brings us the disappointing news that Chuck Liddell recently sustained an injury and will not be fighting Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 85 (June 7th, London); Liddell and Evans will supposedly face each other later in the summer. Liddell was originally supposed to fight Rua in UFC 85′s main event, but Rua ruptured his ACL and was replaced by Evans. No other information on Chuck’s condition is available at the moment.

Since UFC 85 doesn’t have a title fight attached to it — the other notable bouts on the card are a heavyweight match between Brandon Vera and Fabricio Werdum, and a welterweight bout between Marcus Davis and Mike Swick — Chuck’s injury represents a big loss for the event. If I was Dana White, I’d be calling Michael Bisping right now to see how his knees were doing. Not only is the Count a huge draw in his hometown, but he’s also two dominant wins away from being a credible opponent to Anderson Silva (from a marketing standpoint, at least). Unless they want the Spider on ice for the better part of a year, dreaming about boxing money, the UFC would be wise to arrange those fights for Bisping as soon as possible; and six weeks is about as soon as it gets. Nate Marquardt is already penciled in on the card to face Thales Leites. Why not poach him for an opponent?

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3 (demoralizing leg sweep at the 2:25 mark; arm-breaking leg-kick at 4:57, Cung’s meddlesome girlfriend at 7:30):

UPDATE: The round 3 vid has been taken down. You can watch the whole fight here.

Final thought: Remember that stuff about Frank not being dumb enough to stand and trade with a superior striker? We will never doubt the stupidity of any member of the Shamrock clan ever again; that’s a promise. And so goes the last remaining shred of marketability for Blood Brothers…