Chris Wilson

(I know what you're wondering, and yes, the carpet matches the drapes. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

God damn this economy. After some hard decisions, the UFC has been forced to cut four members of its workforce. MMA Survival has noticed that the following fighters have been removed from the UFC.com Fighters section...

Hermes Franca: Franca's TKO loss to Tyson Griffin at UFC 103 was his third defeat in four fights. Franca missed weight for the contest by an embarassing four pounds, and put in an uninspired performance while sporting some seriously jacked-up hair. Franca previously served a one-year suspension for steroids. It was only a matter of time.

Chris Wilson: The Professor kicked off 2009 by losing to John Howard at UFC 94. Then, he was the victim of a terifying robbery in Brazil, was forced to drop out of UFC 98 due to incomplete paperwork, and was finally choked out by Mike Pyle at UFC Fight Night 19. It was Wilson's third Octagon loss in four attempts, and now he's been released by the organization. So, not the greatest year for Chris, really.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Chris Wilson's month just went from incredibly awful to unbelievably terrible. As if getting home-invaded and robbed of all his valuables by Brazilian marauders wasn't bad enough, the Team Quest welterweight now can't even earn the money to replace what he lost. Bad, bad tidings from his blog:

(At least now fighting unarmed people seems easy by comparison. Photo courtesy of ChrisWilsonMMA.com)

UFC welterweight fighter Chris Wilson is, for the most part, a pretty laid back guy.  But even for him it sounds like he’s a little too nonplussed about this home invasion robbery/kidnapping at gunpoint that happened to him recently.  Wilson, who’s lived in Brazil on and off ever since his parents were Baptist missionaries there, was recently in Brazil with his wife and two kids training for his fight with Brock Larson at UFC 98.  Everything was going fine, and then this happened:

(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.

Josh Koscheck isn't letting a shocking upset slow down his brisk competition schedule. MMA Mania reports that the UFC welterweight sorta-contender will attempt to rebound from his knockout loss against Paulo "Seriously?" Thiago at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas), where he's scheduled to take on Team Quest fighter Chris Wilson; it will be Kos's fourth fight in six months.

A veteran of the IFL and the Oregon-based SportFight league, Wilson has gone 1-2 since entering the UFC in 2008 and likely needs a win to keep his contract. Wilson lost his Octagon debut against Jon Fitch last March (where he was a short-notice replacement for Akihiro Gono), then won a unanimous decision over Steve Bruno in August, and most recently dropped a split-decision to John Howard in UFC 94's "Fight of the Night." Six of Wilson's last eight fights have gone to the judges.

As for Koscheck, he'd better do his research this time. And bringing back some of the wrestling that used to work so well for him in the past wouldn't be such a terrible idea either.