(As Goldie himself might say, the precision of those rumors was not very precise.)

When long-time UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg missed UFC 155 for undisclosed reasons, it didn’t take long for the rumor mill to churn out reports of him being addicted to Adderall and taking a leave of absence to attend drug rehab.* MMA Fighting contacted Goldberg directly on Friday, asking for comment on his health, and the commentator denied the pill addiction rumor and said he hopes to return to work by the next UFC on Fox event later this month.

“Those rumors out there are not true,” Goldberg said via text to MMA Fighting. ”I’m dealing with a complicated health issue but feeling better and hoping to be back to 100 percent by Jan. 26.”

Goldberg did not provide more details about his health issues but reporter Ariel Helwani also wrote that “according to multiple sources close to Goldberg, who all asked to remain anonymous, the broadcaster suffered from a severe upper respiratory infection in October…

(“Why must we have to wait until February for the next episode of The Walking Dead? WHY?!”) 

If their backstories are any indication of how they will perform, then Rory MacDonald best prepare himself for hell against B.J. Penn come Saturday night. Not only is BJ looking to be in the best shape of his (welterweight) career, but the manner in which “The Prodigy” was portrayed in the UFC’s recent UFC on FOX 5 “Road to the Octagon” featurette has all but set him up for an epic career comeback. The “champion hoping to reignite legacy for family’s honor” angle has been played up plenty of times by similar countdowns, fight previews, or whathaveyous in the past, but very few cases have been as emotionally gut-wrenching as Penn’s.

The normally stoic Penn, whose daughter turned 4 around the time of the filming, revealed a completely unseen side of himself as he broke down in front of the cameras while describing how hard it has been to see his children grow up while he has been away fighting to secure their future (14:25). Credit is due to the editing department for brilliantly juxtaposing Penn’s fatherly plight (but did they have to have impose BJ’s breakdown over the Happy Birthday song for his daughter? TOO MUCH EMOTIONS DAMN YOU) with that of MacDonald’s, who admits that his own father wasn’t around much during his childhood. Nice try, Rory, but you are now the Max Bear to Penn’s James Braddock and we will root against you until Penn breathes his final breath. ATTICA! ATTICA!!

Anyway, a full replay of the special is after the jump, and it features an equally compelling handling of the Gustafsson/Rua and Henderson/Diaz fights, so check it out, won’t you?

Pound for pound boxing champ Manny Pacquiao‘s next fight has been scheduled for December 8th, the same night as the UFC’s next Fox network show. In the recent past when the UFC has had big shows scheduled the same night as major boxing events they’ve has hoped that earlier telecasts on would catch many viewers who were planning on watching boxing later in the evening.

Things may not have worked out that way for the UFC and this development of Pacquiao fighting on a date that the UFC had already set as a Fox event might end up taking away viewers from the MMA programming. Last May, the UFC on Fox 3 featured an exciting card headlined by a spectacular title contender’s fight between lightweights Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. The free to watch event was also followed, on pay per view, by Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Miguel Cotto.

The UFC’s numbers ended up going down from their prior two Fox shows, while Mayweather’s win had an excellent buy-rate on pay per view. The UFC’s “come pre-game with us before boxing,” strategy might be more successful this time around if Fox promotes the heck out of the event during football telecasts as it did last year for the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos heavyweight title telecast.

Otherwise, the UFC had better hope that Fox is taking a qualitative and long-view of things because dropping ratings on network television are never good.

I’m going to keep this brief, taters…If you watch the above video blog from “Mr. Fight Night Bonus” Joe Lauzon, you will be privy to some of the coolest behind-the-scenes access to a UFC event ever, and what’s more – there are three other great video blogs from earlier in the fight week to watch as well. The above video is Lauzon’s just-released fourth vlog from the UFC on FOX fight week and it takes fans with him from the weight cut to just after his fight of the night year with Jamie Varner.

The video is over 17 minutes long, but well-worth the watch. It has everything – from Lauzon and Varner chatting each other up casually about how they are going to beat one another up right before weighing in to the girl in the white dress we’ve all come to know and love (look for her hanging with Joe’s crew backstage post-fight at around the 15:50 minute mark, you creeps).

Lauzon’s UFC on FOX Fight Week Video Blogs 1-3 after the jump.

(UFC on FOX Main Event Fighters Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (L) and Brandon Vera | Photo Credit MMA Junkie)

So, we all know that Saturday’s UFC on FOX card was spectacular, with every main card bout (and many under card ones) being competitive and thrilling, but how did it fare in the ratings? Preliminary ratings from TV by the Numbers, show that the UFC ratings were relatively strong. The UFC on FOX peaked with a preliminary rating of 2.36 during the Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera main event.

The bad news for MMA partisans is that the UFC on FOX, like everything else on television Saturday night, got blown out of the water by the Summer Olympics. These are the highest-rated Olympics in history, so it is what it is.

The good news is that, in overall ratings and in the 18-49 year old demographic, the UFC on FOX telecast placed second to the Olympics in ratings every half hour they went head to head.

(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?) 

We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.

Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned oversaturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.

By Elias Cepeda

Props: MMAMania

As expected, it was a great idea to pit two heavyweight knock out artists against one another for the Fox audience. Lavar Johnson and Pat Barry swung for the fences and beat the tar out of each other for almost a whole round before Johnson stopped Barry with punches.

“Big” secured a $65,000 KO of the night bonus with the beating. Johnson now has two consecutive entertaining UFC wins under his belt, after back to back Strikeforce submission losses. He’ll likely get at least a couple more style-friendly sluggers to duke it out with from the UFC since he’s performed so well against them thus far.

Barry’s situation may be a little more complicated. The former K-1 fighter always brings it in his fights, is fan-friendly and has some big wins on his resume. But he’s also now lost three out of his last four fights and five out of his last eight. One would imagine he’ll get at least some more fights from the UFC given that he won his prior fight and how exciting he was, even in defeat, against Johnson.

UFC President Dana White says that Bellator import, Hector Lombard, might just get a middleweight title shot if he beats Brian Stann in his UFC debut. “When you talk about cleaning out a division, there’s always another guy who comes up, even for a guy like Anderson…We just brought in Lombard. (If) Lombard beats Stann. … that (title) fight makes sense,” Sergio Non reports White as saying, for USA Today.

And, oh yeah, Stann vs. Lombard will headline UFC on Fox 4, according to MMA Fighting ace Mike Chiappetta. When a fan asked Chiappetta, via twitter, if the fight was set to be the main event for Fox’ fourth UFC installment, he replied in the affirmative.

(You best believe that if Anderson’s wife isn’t making someone a sandwich, she’s doing their laundry.) 

Keeping with the theme of previous UFC on Fox promos, the latest ad features none other than UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva trying to convince us that he’s just a normal guy whilst performing tasks that only The Fonz could get away with. No, he isn’t lip singing Minnie Riperton or seducing Brazilian pop stars, but “The Spider” manages to be entertaining nonetheless.

But your probably asking yourself, how could someone who all but refuses to speak English appear in an American television commercial? Surely they didn’t subtitle him, because our forefathers didn’t die face down in the mud so that we’d be forced to listen to some cockamamie, Godless language in our own homes and read on top of it. But it turns out that there would be no need for subtitles, because wouldn’t you know, Chael Sonnen wasn’t lying to us; Anderson Silva speaks better English than Jackie Chan has managed to learn in twenty-some years of acting.

This more or less confirms that Big Nog did in fact try to feed a bus a carrot. It’s only a matter of time until the truth is revealed.

Join us after the jump for the video. 

Props: @BrianStann

If nothing else, at least the commentary will be much better for UFC on FOX 3 than the organization’s previous attempts on the network.

Those of you who tuned in for UFC on FUEL: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger more than likely left impressed by Brian Stann’s commentary throughout the evening. Already known for his ability to produce the most professional responses during interviews at will, Brian Stann seamlessly transitioned to the role of analyst. Stann was very confident while analyzing the fights, handling his first commentary gig like it was just another day at the office. Needless to say, the impressive showing granted him a role as an analyst for future UFC on FOX events.

The UFC’s attempts to give fighters active roles as commentators during UFC on FOX broadcasts have seen mixed results. The organization’s debut on FOX saw Brock Lesnar do a great job in both analyzing the fights and promoting his upcoming bout with Overeem. However, when Lesnar lost that fight and subsequently retired, the UFC could not continue to use him. It attempted to fill the void he left with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones.

During halftime of yesterday’s NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco Fail Machines, viewers were treated to a UFC on FOX promo that was…kind of odd, actually. Light-heavyweight champion/part-time model Jon Jones is set up as a relatable nice-guy, then kicks his own child into the stratosphere. Jones catches the falling kid, and two nearby moms express their barely-conceled lust for him. And that’s about it.

General strangeness aside, the commercial doesn’t actually show any UFC footage — more evidence of FOX’s gun-shy attitude toward the sport, maybe? — and doesn’t feature any of the fighters competing in next week’s UFC on FOX: Evans vs Davis event. (Rashad Evans probably punched another hole through his wall after seeing this.) I wonder how many football fans watched the commercial in a loud sports bar and thought, “Hey, there’s a new Old Spice guy. Alright.”

(Linka was always Peralta’s favorite Planeteer, but stealing her wind-based attacks?! The man is out of control!) 

Chalk one up for justice. When their original bout back at UFC on FOX ended via an accidental headbutt that knocked Mackens Semerzier out cold, Robbie Peralta was initially gifted a TKO victory. Referee Big John McCarthy and the audience alike were confused to say the least, but assumed that Peralta had managed to sneak in some sort of phantom punch in the mess of things. However, a quick look at the replay revealed a clash of heads to be the cause of Semerzier’s sudden case of narcolepsy, and “Mack Da Menace” immediately appealed the decision to the California State Athletic Commission. In a rare bit of good judgement, the commission sided with Sermizer and changed the bout to a no contest.

Now that all has been rightfully adjusted, these two featherweights are set to battle once again, this time at the UFC’s second FX event, which features a welterweight clash between Martin Kampmann and Thiago Alves as well as the debut of the UFC’s newly added flyweight division.

By Jason Moles

A large percentage of MMA fans grew up as fans of pro wrestling.

Back in the day, you watched Saturday morning cartoons and then WWF Superstars. A couple of days later, you took your pick between Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro. There even came a point when you could scratch your mid week ‘rasslin’ fix with the help of Smackdown. For a select few of you, body slams and face paint wasn’t enough and you tuned into Paul Heyman’s ECW in hopes of seeing someone power bombed off the top of a steel cage through multiple burning tables. As soon as you were introduced to “No-Holds Barred” fighting thanks to Ken Shamrock, you were hooked. You started renting UFC VHS tapes and the followed The Ultimate Fighter.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far as a fan of fighting, both choreographed or otherwise, but you can’t help but miss a few of these iconic pieces of your childhood while wishing MMA would get their own version.

Well, we didn’t have a correct answer for the UFC on Fox Fight-Picking Contest, but we had several close ones.

Unfortunately we only have one prize, so the closest answer gets “Heart,” the cool MMA-themed comic-book mini-series by writer Blair Butler and artist Kevin Mellon.

By Jason Moles

As ESPN’s Bill Simmons tweeted, the UFC lost its network virginity to FOX and it was over in a matter of seconds – just like real life. Similarly, for most of you, there seemed to be that same awkward feeling afterwards where you’re not sure if should zip up and head home to catch Sports Center or if she expects you to spoon with her until the early morning light reveals what she looks like when you’re sober. Regardless of what decision is made you can be certain that from this moment forth, life will never be the same. Ever.

It’s done – over. You can’t change anything even if you wanted to, like what you screamed as the finish came about. This is probably in your best interest seeing as how you’ll need money if you want her to stay around, at least more money than you currently have. Women love when you shower them with tokens of your affection so you should really pay attention to this next part. So crack open that portfolio and let’s play another round of ‘Buy, Sell, Hold’ in the MMA Stock Market.

Junior dos Santos – Buy it like they’re giving it away for free.

“Cigano” defeated the previously unbeaten UFC heavyweight in one minute and four seconds to capture the belt – with a torn meniscus. With only sixty-four seconds to analyze, it is hard to point out anything we didn’t already know like getting hit by JDS may be hazardous to your health. Any way you want to slice it, it all turns out the same; dos Santos is here to stay.

Knock it off, you two. We said “Gif Party”, not “Punch Face Party“! (Props: Cagewriter/Tracy Lee)

It’s not everyday that we’re treated to “the biggest fight in the history of the sport”, and even rarer that a single gif covers the pre-fight warm up, the bout, the post-fight celebration, and the after party at Ghost Bar. That calls for a GIF party. Though the sole focus of last night’s UFC on FOX event yielded precious little in terms of motion-picture awesomeness, the fighters relegated to the dark corners of social media came through in spades.

Join us after the jump for an incredible collection of throws, slams, submissions, knock outs, spinning everythings, and even some good old fashioned mid-fight showboating.

(Thanks to Zombie Prophet, as usual, for the gifs)

Confirmation comes at the 12:35 mark of the press conference highlights. Props to MMAFighting.com for the video.

Leading up to last night’s historic UFC on Fox broadcast, there were rumors that the winner of Benson Henderson vs. Clay Guida would be fighting Frankie Edgar in Japan for the UFC lightweight title. As you know, Ben Henderson went on to defeat Clay Guida by unanimous decision in a Fight of the Night winning performance. Now, it has been confirmed that Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar will be the main event of the UFC’s return to Japan.

Since losing to Anthony Pettis back at WEC 53, Ben Henderson has gone 3-0 in the UFC. Even though all three victories have come by unanimous decision, Henderson has proven that he is incapable of being involved in a boring fight. Likewise, Frankie Edgar is coming off of a come from behind fourth round TKO over Gray Maynard at UFC 136 in October.

          When you see it…                                   PicProps: MMAJunkie.com 

Alright Nation, we are on the brink of what is possibly the most important event in human history since ever.  We stress the word “possibly” in that sentence, so no silly hate mail about Steve Guttenberg inventing the bench press, or whatever.  And please, don’t talk to us about the historic impact of the so-called “moon landing”.  Everyone knows that the whole Apollo mission was filmed on a sound stage in Arizona.

This historic event will be broadcast live on a major network to a bajillion people, so it’s not even really a contest.  Two large men will fight for money and everyone and their Nana can watch; if Jesus shows up tonight in a tuxedo t-shirt we wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest.  It’s such a huge deal that the UFC is basically giving Fox just the tip to see how it feels, airing just one fight off of a pretty sweet ten-fight lineup.

Come around and hang out with us for all the fights, because you know we’re going to have you covered, Nation.  Fights start at 4:45ET on Facebook and FoxSports.com, the big-deal television show kicks off at 9ET.

Oh, and hit “Refresh” frequently, since everyone seems to tell people to do that.

[RX]

It’s been a long road, ladies and gentlemen, but it seems the time of network television MMA not involving Kimbo Slice and a screaming Gus Johnson is finally upon us. UFC on Fox kicks off at 9 o’clock tomorrow night, and for those of you who are looking to get some last minute gambling in, well, allow us to help you scratch that itch. Check out the betting lines, courtesy of BestFightOdds, along with our Morgan Freeman-eqsue advice on what to do below.

Main Card/Event:
Cain Velasquez (-175) vs. Junior Dos Santos (+155)

Preliminary Card
Benson Henderson (-260) vs. Clay Guida (+220)
Dustin Poirier (-300) vs. Pablo Garza (+250)
Aaron Rosa (-140) vs. Matt Lucas (+120)
Mike Pierce (-340) vs. Paul Bradley (+280)
Mackens Sermizer (-115) vs. Robert Peralta (-105)
DaMarques Johnson (-270) vs. Clay Harvison (+230)
Norifumi Yamamoto (-360) vs. Darren Uyenoyama (+300)
Ricardo Lamas (-145) vs. Cub Swanson (+125)
Cole Escovedo (-260) vs. Alex Caceres (+220)

(Video courtesy of TheScore)

Strikeforce play-by-play commentator and MMA reporter Mauro Ranallo caught up with Dana White following yesterday’s UFC on FOX 1 press conference in Los Angeles and as usual, the always outspoken UFC president had a lot to say.

Check out the brass tacks of the interview after the jump.

(A twist to the story is that they are actually brothers who used to be siamese twins.)

The UFC and FOX held a conference call today with UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC President Dana White, FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill, FOX Sports Co-President Eric Shanks and FUELTV General Manager George Greenberg for members of the media who were unable to attend today’s UFC on Fox 1 pre-fight press conference in Los Angeles. Besides the big announcement that prelim fights will soon be moving over to FuelTV from Facebook, there were a few other interesting nuggets that came out of the call.

Check out the quick quotes after the jump.

(There can only be one Baldfather around here.) 

Proving the belief that if you want to make an omelet, you gotta break a couple million eggs, Lorenzo Fertitta gave full disclosure as to exactly what the UFC’s monumental debut on Fox would be costing Zuffa in a recent interview with Sports Business Journal:

When we were on Spike TV, that was a launching pad. We look at Fox as a bigger and better platform that could elevate the brand. We’re flat out going to lose money on this fight. But that’s the investment we’re making. Those are the steps we’ve got to take to make Cain and Junior pay-per-view stars and lift up the whole thing. Maybe we think a little funny here, but that’s well worth forgoing $16 million. Take that out over the next 10 years and we get a healthy return.

Hot Damn!

Now, though it may seem like pocket change to Zuffa, Dana White has stated that he is incredibly nervous leading into the event, mainly due to this whole “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu” thing, which he feels some of the more casual fans out there may have a hard time dealing with:

Just a friendly reminder that we’ll be streaming the UFC on Fox 1 pre-fight presser starting at 4:00 pm ET, so grab somJagerbombs and get in here. Wait, your boss lets you do shots on Wednesday afternoons, right?

Ok. Just checking. We thought maybe we were the only ones.

Video stream is after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAHEAT)

The UFC held a conference call today in which Dana White and both main event competitors for the promotion’s inaugural Fox broadcast, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, fielded questions from the MMA media.

Among other topics, White addressed the possible scenario that the Velasquez-JDS fight could be over faster then the planned pre-fight extravaganza and said that if it is, then there won’t be any other fights shown on Fox, period.

“There’s only gonna be one fight. The heavyweight championship is the only fight that’s gonna be on Fox, [even if] it goes 10 seconds.”

Check out the highlights of the call after the jump.

Primetime by JMMANow
(Video courtesy of DailyMotion/JMMANow)

If your wife had you finishing up some shit on your honey-do list you had better things to do yesterday afternoon than sit inside and watch the UFC on Fox 1 Primetime show, don’t worry, homies. We got you covered.

(Video: Youtube/UFC)

Just a quick programming note to everyone sitting on the couch this afternoon- the UFC’s first major appearance on the FOX network goes down shortly (exact time depends on your broadcast area, so check local listings). The Sunday afternoon timeslot may counter some NFL action, but it’s an incredible opportunity to capture viewers in MMA’s key demographic.

As readers of this site you obviously possess discerning taste and an appreciation for excellence, so check out the show and let us know your first impression of the UFC powered by the FOX production team.

UFC on Fox Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos is an upcoming special to be aired on October 30th, and features an in-depth look at the Nov. 12 showdown between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos. And to get you hyped for that, here is a brief preview of the special, which includes some press conference snipets ala Creed vs. Drago, some behind-the-scenes training footage ala Marciano vs. Lewis, and even squeezes in some of the lovable, rags-to-riches story of Junior Dos Santos in just over 3 minutes. Enjoy.

-Danga 

(Video props: JREYNOSO)

Does Cain Velasquez really deserve the title of “Baddest Man on the Planet,” previously vacated by Fedor Emelianenko? To make it official, he’ll have to defend his heavyweight title on November 12th in Anaheim against Junior Dos Santos, who has dominated a laundry list of contenders and veterans to get his title shot — and he’ll have to do it on network television. God damn, what a fight. And we appreciate the choice of music for the promo; they’re playing up the “MMA is the sport of Satan” angle, but, y’know, in a subtle way. Sorry Stemm, thine days are numbered.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ClinchGear)

MMA’s top free agent Dan Henderson sat down Monday with Clinch Gear Radio to talk about a number of topics including his last fight with Fedor Emelianenko, whether or not he thinks the Russian fighter can return to his former glory and where his own career stands as of now.

For those of you whose ADHD makes it impossible to pay attention or whose workplace Internet filters make it impossible for you to watch YouTube videos, we have you covered with the transcription of the meat and potatoes after the jump.

(Bendo” and “The Carpenter” will be appearing alongside in Encino Man 2: The Encino Twins.)

UFC officials announced a pair of fight bookings for it’s November 12 Fox premier show overnight.

According to a posting on UFC.com, former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson (14-2) will take on Clay Guida (29-8) in a 155-pound affair and top Japanese bantamweight Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (18-4, 1 NC) will square off against Strikeforce and Shooto veteran Darren Uyenoyama (6-3) in 135-pound action on the card.

Although neither fight will be shown during the one-hour broadcast which will feature only one bout — a heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos — UFC president Dana White mentioned last week that they are looking at options to ensure fans can watch the entire card.