(Alessio prays for forgiveness (and another shot) after coming up short in a snoozer against Shane Roller at UFC 148.) 

We don’t mean to disrespect a grizzled veteran of the sport like John Alessio, but simply put, if you are shocked to learn that “The Natural” was released from the UFC following an 0-2 stint in the octagon, you are either John Alessio or Lloyd Christmas. Having compiled an 0-5 lifetime record in the promotion, Alessio not only received one of the most undeserved title shots of all time under the Zuffa banner, but will live in CagePotato infamy for his placement amongst the “50 Worst Fighters in UFC History” and “The Ten Most Ironic Nicknames in MMA”. While he might be upset to learn of his placement on one of those lists, the other was more or less just a means of wasting time on our part.

Based purely on comparative success in other promotions, Alessio was/is basically the Canadian version of Jorge Santiago — a man capable of crushing 95% of the fighters he faces outside of the promotion, but one who simply couldn’t put it together under the bright lights — scoring impressive wins over fellow UFC veterans Chris Clements, War Machine, and Sean Pierson among others. Of his five losses, four came by way of unanimous decision, against superior strikers (Thiago Alves, Diego Sanchez), superior grapplers (Mark Bocek, Shane Roller) and superior superiors (Pat Militech). In an interview with MMAJunkie, Alessio discussed how his most recent loss to Roller was the hardest to swallow:

 I’m super upset. I worked so long and so hard to get back, and the UFC always puts all this pressure on you about being exciting, so I tried to change my style up to be crowd-pleasing. But then I get an opponent in my last fight, where he just chose to hold me down to win the fight, and it’s just depressing that that gets rewarded when all they talk about is exciting fights.

I really thought that I’d be spending more than a couple of months of 2012 in the UFC. I thought I’d get one more shot. I don’t know where I should go or what my options are.

Though we are sure that Alessio will find success wherever he lands, his hope of getting a win in the UFC before he retires is a long shot at best at this point in his career. The 33 year-old Xtreme Couture products record currently stands at 34-16.

A tribute to Alessio’s finest UFC moments is after the jump. 

(What? Is that ghost you’ve been staring at all these years on his lunch break?) 

By Ryan Sarr

The time for talk is up. For over a year now, we’ve watched as Jon Jones and Rashad Evans’ relationship has deteriorated from training partners willing to fake injury to avoid fighting one another, to bitter enemies just waiting for the chance to beat the other into a living death. Is all the personal heat real? Can these two bury the hatchet after the fight? We’ll find out soon enough, but either way, this has all the makings of a can’t miss war that will not soon be forgotten. All signs point to a decisive victory for “Bones” in ATL tomorrow night, but as we all know, anything can happen in a fight. So join me as I break down all the main card fights taking place at UFC 145 and give you my street-certified predictions.

Jon Jones (15-1, 9-1 UFC) vs. Rashad Evans (17-1-1, 12-1-1 UFC)

At only 24 years old, Jones has already been in more title fights(3) than the 32 year-old Evans(2). So clearly, Jones should not be intimidated, for he is battle-tested and has proven himself worthy of carrying that UFC Light Heavyweight belt. And not only has Jones taken out three former UFC champions in his last three fights, he has done so in devastating fashion. In his last fight, Jones dropped Lyoto Machida (a.k.a the man who made Rashad do the cross-eyed stanky leg) face down on the mat after choking him unconscious. That type of win has to make Jones feel good going into his fight with Rashad.

While Jones comes into Saturday night riding a stratospheric surge of momentum, Rashad enters this fight following an unceremonious, workmanlike decision victory over Phil Davis at UFC on Fox in January. However, there are many positives to take away from that victory, the first of which being the decisive, dominant manner in which Rashad managed to defeat a very talented prospect in Davis. “Suga” overcame a significant reach disadvantage (like he will face with Jones) to close the gap and effectively control Davis with his superior wrestling and ground game. Second, Rashad finally had the chance to prove that he could go the full five rounds, and imposed his will on “Mr. Wonderful” from the start of round 1 to the end of the fifth. Most of the Potato Nation seems to agree that his fight with Jones will likely be a knock down, drag out war that tests the will, strength, and cardiac endurance of both men, so it’s good to know that Rashad will be able to keep up with Jones if the fight makes it into the championship rounds. Finally, Rashad demonstrated that once he gets his opponent down on the mat, he can do some serious damage. So even if Rashad may not be able to stand and trade with Jones, he at least knows that if he can get Jones down, his chances of grinding out a victory significantly increase.

Join us after the jump for more on Jones/Evans, as well as a break down of all of the main card’s match-ups. 

(Wait…it’s already been FIVE YEARS since these two last fought?!!) 

Trilogy fever has officially struck Zuffa.

Word has it that lightweight scrappers Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher will meet for a third time at UFC on FX 4 this June, in a fight that will be an early front runner for “Fight of the Night” to say the least. Both Fisher and Stout are coming off losses to Thiago Tavares, so it seems a good a time as any to have these two square off once again, because MMA fans eat up rematches like fried Kool-aid nowadays.

Fisher and Stout last met way back at UFN 10 in June of 2007, where Fisher was able to erase the memory of his split decision, “Fight of the Year” earning loss to Stout at UFC 58 by walking away with a close but unanimous decision victory. As of late, however, Fisher has descended further down the lightweight ladder with each performance, to the point that he could be fighting for his job come June 22nd. He has dropped 4 of his last 5, with the lone win coming by way of UD over UFC washout Curt “The War” Warburton at UFC 120. Yes, you read that correctly; Curt Warburton’s nickname is “The War.” What a crafty SOB.

Stout has seen quite a bit more success recently, scoring wins in 4 of his last 6, including a first round starching of Yves Edwards at UFC 131 last year. After his long time trainer and close friend Shawn Tompkins suddenly passed away, however, Stout pulled out of his bout with Dennis Siver to do some “soul searching” along with fellow Team Tompkins members Chris Horodecki and Mark Hominick. Upon returning to the octagon, the aftereffects of such a tragic loss were still noticeable, as both Stout and Hominick suffered defeats to Tavares and Chan Sung Jung, respectively.

In other fight booking news…

(Bahadurzada v. Alessio, United Glory 2010 World Semifinals) 

News broke earlier today that Golden Glory standout and Team Mayhem striking coach Siyar Bahadurzada has signed with the UFC and will be facing Erick Silva at UFC 142 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on January 14th. Bahadurzada, who has compiled a respectable 20-4 record with wins over John Alessio, Derrick Noble, and Evangelista Santos (by injury) will be looking to showcase his hands against Silva, who most recently plastered Luis Ramos in under a minute at UFC 134.

Bahadurzada last competed in Russia back in May, where he capped off a devastating run through the United Glory 2010 World Series with a second round TKO over Tommy Depret to take home the gold. Well, it was more then likely coal, but you get what I’m saying. Anyway, Bahadurzada hasn’t tasted defeat since two-time UFC washout Jorge Santiago heel hooked him back at a 2008 Sengoku event.

As a bonus, I’ve included Siyar’s quarterfinal match against Derrick Noble and his championship-earning victory over Depret after the jump.

(Time sure does fly…)

WEC 49 went down 1 year ago.

Why it matters:

Josh Grispi earned the next shot at WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo with his win over LC Davis at this show held in Edmonton, Alberta. Because of an injury, Aldo had to pull out of their planned UFC 125 bout. Rather than wait for his shot, Grispi took a fight with Dustin Poirier on the January card and lost via unanimous decision. As a result, another fighter who impressed on the UFC 49 card earned the next shot at Aldo.

Mark Hominick was en route to a unanimous decision loss to fellow Canadian Yves Jabouin in Edmonton, but pulled out one of the most impressive come from behind wins in WEC history.

Stunned and dropped by a stiff right hand, Hominick weathered the ensuing ground and pound onslaught, swept Jabouin and forced a TKO stoppage via punishment from the mount.

A quick first round TKO win over teammate George Roop in his next bout earned him a shot at Aldo at UFC 129 this past April. Although he couldn’t finish the Aldo, Hominick showed the heart of a champion by fighting through a massive, disgusting hematoma to give Aldo the fight of his life and finishing the last round in dominating fashion.

(…so I can’t accept the fight right now…Hello?….Dana…Are you there?)

Ever since John Alessio was cut lose by the WEC following a DQ loss to Brock Larson at WEC 33 in 2008, the Vancouver, BC native has been vocal about his desire to get back to fighting for the promotion. Part of the 31-year-old fighter’s motivation was the fact that, besides the loss to Larson, he had only technically lost to the promotion’s champion Carlos Condit in the WEC. He wanted the opportunity to avenge the loss and also because he had won three in a row prior to his final bout and didn’t think his firing was justified.

When the WEC dropped its welterweight class in 2009, Alessio turned his sights on the organization’s big brother promotion, the UFC, where he first fought in 2006.

Racking up an impressive 8-2 (all finishes) record and current  six-fight winning streak since being dropped by the WEC, Alessio (30-13) revealed today that he finally got his wish, but had to turn down the offer by the UFC to fight on the upcoming Montreal card in December due to contractual obligations to the Dutch-based United Glory promotion. "The Natural" earned a berth in the second round of the Golden Glory-owned organization’s $150,000 welterweight tournament which will take place on January 30 by submitting Sergey Golyaev October 16 in Amsterdam. He will face Golden Glory standout Siyar Bahadurzada in round two of the competition.

(Life ain’t always easy for a “true Alpha male.” The world is so chock-full of motherfuckers just begging you to punch them in the face that sometimes it’s hard to keep a clear head. Pic Props: Sherdog)

If you followed War Machine’s various Twitter ramblings during the last couple of weeks, you had to fear the worst for Our Hero in his fight with John Alessio at Tachi Palace Fights 5 on Friday. There was way too much tweeting about boozing, pill popping and hopes for impending civil war going on for War to be truly focused on training. Not to mention that next week he’s due to report for a one year stay in the San Diego County sneezer for violating his probation in a self-described “lame bar fight.”

(Jay Hieron batters the outmatched Chris Kennedy. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

From the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Saturday night…

Hector Ramirez def. Rick Roufus via unanimous decision
Jay Hieron def. Chris Kennedy via unanimous decision
Mike Pyle def. Brian Gassaway via submission (armbar), 4:21 of round 1
John Alessio def. Gideon Ray via TKO, 0:45 of round 1
Josh Haynes def. Sean Salmon via submission (achilles lock), 2:49 of round 2
Jonathan Mix def. John Halverson via TKO, 4:25 of round 1
Patrick Gonsalves def. Shawn David via submission (kimura), 3:51 of round 2
Elena Reid def. Stephanie Palmer via TKO, 0:53 of round 1
Ryan Hass def. Ian Omalza via submission (armbar), 3:09 of round 1

Notes
— Jay Hieron’s original opponent (6-13 jobber Bryson Kamaka) was pulled from the event on Friday after testing positive for marijuana, and was replaced by Chris Kennedy. Hieron dominated Kennedy for three rounds with slams and ground-and-pound, but was unable to finish him. Kennedy left the fight with a golf-ball sized welt on his forehead.

— There was a minor altercation after the Alessio/Ray fight, when Ray threw his mouthpiece at Alessio’s sister, who wouldn’t stop cheering after the match was over. The mouthpiece missed her and struck the dude sitting next to her. Arena security quickly prevented the situation from escalating.

— The event will be broadcast on HDNet on October 17th at 10 p.m.

If there’s a worse sign for an MMA company than canceling a scheduled event just over a month out, we don’t want to know about it. Neither does Elite XC. The Fight Network is reporting that the organization has canceled their planned September 20 event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not postponed. Not rescheduled. Straight-up canceled. They still have plans for an October 4 show on CBS, so this is far from a death knell for Elite XC, but it’s not something to celebrate, either.

There’s no official word just yet on exactly why the event is being canceled, but it would seem to be at least partially related to their troubles putting together the somewhat baffling Jake Shields-John Alessio bout. After all the hype around Shields on the last CBS show, it didn’t seem to make much sense to give John Alessio a crack at his title. Add to that the fact that Alessio said the fight was too soon for him to reasonably take, and what you have is a non-bout and a non-event.

Poor Elite XC. Maybe this is the best thing for them at the moment. Their fighter stable is already a little thin, and when you try to stage a show every month you only make things more difficult. Focusing all their efforts on the October 4 CBS show is probably the best idea.

Who knows, maybe this will even improve the chances of Elite XC allowing Shields to take on Matt Lindland in Affliction. Don’t hold your breath, though. We worry about you when you do that.

How hard is it for EliteXC to find opponents worthy of going up against welterweight champ Jake Shields? This hard:

Darrick: You just found out that you will be defending your title against John Alessio in about five weeks. What are your thoughts about this match?

Jake: I’m excited to be back at it. I trained all year without getting to fight until July, so I’m ready. I think John will be a good fight, he has good all-around skills and he always brings it. I’m sure he’ll be ready.

Yep, Jake Shields, the #3 welterweight in the world, who recently choked out top ten fighter Nick Thompson in 63 seconds, will next face John Alessio, a UFC castoff who went 0-3 in the Octagon before building up a respectable (though not stellar) 5-2 record in the WEC. Alessio has fallen short every time he’s gone up against high-grade competition — Carlos Condit, Thiago Alves, Diego Sanchez, a recent DQ loss to Brock Larson — so its surprising that he’d be given an immediate title shot after being picked up by EliteXC. But the match illustrates the dearth of talent in their welterweight class; Shields is in a holding pattern right now, waiting for challenges to materialize.

By the way, Sherdog just posted a strange little article about Shields watching UFC 87 at a friend’s house and paying close attention to the GSP vs. Fitch fight; the implied point of the piece was that he really, really, wants to be there. And we’ll probably never know the true extent of Shields’s abilities until he is.

(Props: FiveOuncesofPain)

(Alessio finishes Spratt with a broken arm. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Giving tickets away for free might not be the best long-term business strategy, but it had the desired effect for Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night. “A Night of Combat” drew almost nine thousand spectators with its promise of free tickets and a fight card divided between boxing and MMA.

To hear the Las Vegas Sun tell it, the show accomplished its modest goals through partnerships and an “outside the box” approach to fight promoting:

In this case, by giving tickets away, Libonati created a nice crowd, which met the needs of promoter Artie Pelullo, ESPN, Channel 13 News, Lotus Broadcasting and his other partners. Each received 1,000 free tickets of their own, to be distributed among the people with whom they do business. In return, Libonati got some free publicity.

To help underwrite the show, Libonati brought on a fledgling company called MLSE — Major League Sports Entertainment — which wants to introduce its brand to Las Vegas. On Friday night, MLSE shook hands with about 9,000 spectators, so it can be assumed its needs were met.

[...]

In the end, Libonati said the T&M will break even on the boxing-MMA card, probably even make a little money. He’ll make a lot more in the long run through business relationships that were made or maintained.

“Our model is you’ve got to create more than a receipt,” he said. “This type of special event thinking is what has made us unique in our industry. By creating special events, we are able to generate revenues that are shared by the entire campus.”

This, of course, was the same event that saw Kim Couture enter with high hopes and leave with some facial reconstruction. Also that night, John Alessio won by choking out Pete Spratt with a broken arm. He broke his forearm blocking a kick earlier in the fight, then grimly soldiered on toward the victory. You hear that, Kalib Starnes?

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog via Combat Lifestyle via Bloody Elbow, or something like that.)

As you can see, things didn’t go so well for Kim Couture during her professional MMA debut Friday at “Free For All: A Night of Combat,” at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. En route to a decision loss against Kim Rose — who was also making her pro debut that night — Couture suffered a broken nose, a broken jaw-bone (split in the middle of her chin), and a seriously busted grill. Interviewed after the match, Rose told fans in attendance “I felt like destroying something beautiful.” Nah, not really. Results of the MMA half of the MMA/boxing card are below.

John Alessio def. Pete Spratt via submission (rear naked choke), 2:07 of round 2
Kim Rose def. Kim Couture via unanimous decision
Dave Jansen def. Dennis Davis via unanimous decision
Kui Gonsalves def. Ricky Johnson via unanimous decision
Brice Ritani-Coe def. Rob Mitchell via TKO (strikes), 4:33 of round 1

(Props: MMA Weekly)

As you may or may not know, tonight in Las Vegas the Thomas and Mack Center is putting on a boxing/MMA event, for which they gave away tickets for free in order to drum up interest.

Fighting on the MMA portion of that event is John Alessio, who will be facing Pete Spratt. If you’re wondering whether Alessio has moved past his DQ loss against Brock Larson in the WEC, the short answer is no. The long answer, which can be found in the above video from MMA Rated, is that Alessio thinks Larson is a “fucking pussy.” So there you go.

It should be interesting to see where this zany idea of putting boxing and MMA together goes from here. As anyone who’s ever been to a show that combined MMA fights with “submission grappling” matches can tell you, the response to the thing that is not MMA is often very, very negative. And very, very drunk.

But that could be different when the other option is boxing, because at least that still involves punching people in the face. Or this could all be a ruse to try and trick boxing fans into watching MMA. If that’s the case, expect a lot of hilarious comments equating ground fighting with gay male sex. That never gets old.