Bloody Elbow

In a match-up that's probably not going to showcase any displays of grappling wizardry, welterweight sluggers, Dan Hardy and Duane Ludwig, have agreed to face off in Las Vegas on May 26th at UFC 146, according to MMA Weekly, who confirmed the booking with UFC officials:

Dan Hardy will return to action at UFC 146 in May where he will face fellow striker Duane "Bang" Ludwig.
UFC officials confirmed verbal agreements are in place for the welterweight showdown.

This might be Hardy's last chance to keep his spot on the UFC roster, although it has appeared that he's been in that position in the past, only to keep his job after putting on exciting fights, even during his current four-fight losing streak, which is usually more than enough to get a fighter booted from the promotion. Hardy has revamped his training though, electing to leave his native England to prepare full-time in Las Vegas and taking an extended layoff after his loss to Chris Lytle last August to get fully focused before this next fight. Ludwig, a longtime veteran of the sport, seemed to be enjoying a career resurgence with back-to-back wins over young prospects, Nick Osipczak and Amir Sadollah, but like Hardy against Lytle, his weakness on the ground caught up to him against fellow journeyman, Josh Neer, and Ludwig ended up getting choked out back in January.

Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (23-10)
L Chris Lytle (submission) - UFC on Versus 5
L Anthony Johnson (unam. decision) - UFN 23
L Carlos Condit (KO) - UFC 120

Duane "Bang" Ludwig (21-12)
L Josh Neer (technical submission) - UFC on FX 1
W Amir Sadollah (unam. decision) - UFC on Versus 5
W Nick Osipczak (split decision) - UFC 122

The UFC 146 card now includes:

-Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem - UFC heavyweight championship
-Evan Dunham vs. Edson Barboza
-Jason Miller vs. C.B. Dollaway
-Jacob Volkmann vs. Paul Sass
-Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig

UFC 146 coverage

Following his decision loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, Nick Diaz' drug screening came back positive for marijuana metabolites. This is the second time that Diaz has tested positive for marijuana in Nevade with the first time following his fight against Takanori Gomi at Pride 33 in 2007. He was suspended for six months and fined twenty percent of his fight purse. The win was also overturned to a no contest.

A temporary suspension of his fight license has been handed down to Diaz on the Wednesday meeting following his UFC 143 positive test. The request was made by Christopher Eccles, the Nevada deputy Attorney General and the commission unanimously agreed on the motion. A follow up disciplinary meeting will be scheduled where Nick Diaz will be able to defend his usage of marijuana. Nick Diaz was not on the call Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday's pre-hearing was overseen by commission chairman Skip Avansino, who requested that documentation from the 2007 hearing be made available as well as any disciplinary actions handed down from other commissions. Diaz had prior issues with the California State Athletic Commission while in Strikeforce.

Diaz' case is unique as marijuana is prescribed by a doctor to help him with his ADHD in the state of California. He will likely request exemption for medicinal marijuana usage. This is without precedent as there has never been another case of a fighter asking for marijuana exemption. There is also a possibility that Diaz would request a retroactive exemption which could possibly change the No Contest back to a win.

Diaz could face up to a year suspension as well as a financial fine. The commission requested his financial earning from UFC 143 which would put not just his purse but any bonuses received at risk. His base salary was $200,000 though it is very likely that he also received undisclosed "locker room" and PPV based bonuses as well.

SBN coverage of UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit

An intriguing match-up of lightweight ground specialists appears to be taking shape for the UFC 146 card in Las Vegas on May 26th. According to ESPN UK, british submission wizard, Paul Sass, will take on Minnesota's own Jacob Volkmann:

Verbal agreements are in place for a lightweight match between England's undefeated submission specialist Paul Sass and Jacob Volkmann at UFC 146 in Las Vegas.

Both men are riding extensive winning streaks and although they can both be considered "ground specialists", their styles are quite different with Sass employing a relentless submission attack, and pulling guard repeatedly to ensnare opponents in his signature submissions: the triangle choke and the heel hook. Volkmann, on the other hand, is a methodical, grinding wrestler who dominates and smothers via position before attacking, usually with d'arce or rear naked chokes. Volkmann's style has been roundly criticized as boring, but his awkward post-fight interviews and public statements about President Obama have gotten him some attention, although not always the kind he wants, as he's now been suspended twice by the high school that employs him as a wrestling coach.

Paul Sass (12-0)
W Michael Johnson (submission - heel hook) - UFC on Versus 6
W Mark Holst (submission - triangle choke) - UFC 120
W Jason Young (submission - heel hook) - OMMAC 4

Jacob "Christmas" Volkmann (14-2)
W Efrain Escudero (unam. decision) - UFC 141
W Danny Castillo (unam. decision) - UFC on Versus 5
W Antonio McKee (split decision) - UFC 125

UFC 146 coverage

UFC president Dana White turned to twitter today to announce a pretty big fight for UFC 147. Evan Dunham will take on the undefeated Edson Barboza in a bout that is almost surely main card material. Here's the tweet:

Dana corrected himself shortly after, and said he meant UFC 146 and May 26th. Still though, this is an excellent fight. Dunham has rebounded from two losses (to Sean Sherk and Melvin Guillard) by winning two in a row, most recently in a fight of the night performance against Nik Lentz. Barboza is 4-0 in the UFC and is coming off one of the best KO's in UFC history, a spinning wheel kick knockout of Terry Etim at UFC 142.

With five fight of the night bonuses between the two fighters (Dunham also has a sub of the night, while Barboza has a knockout of the night), this bout has excitement written all over it. The only other bout currently confirmed for the card is Jason Miller vs. C.B. Dollaway, but it is widely expected that Junior dos Santos will defend his UFC heavyweight title against Alistair Overeem on the card as well.

SBN coverage of UFC 146

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jone tweeted last night that his coach Greg Jackson will indeed corner him against former teammate Rashad Evans at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jones had said at last week's UFC 145 press conference that he didn't expect Jackson to corner him.

Evans trained at Jackson's MMA long before Jones and originally the two had vowed never to fight. That all fell apart when Evans had to bow out of a UFC 128 title shot against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Jones stepped up and took the title.

Evans and Jones quickly ceased being friends and Evans left Jackson's MMA as part of the fall out.

Jackson originally had said he would never corner one of the two against the other, but recently rethought his position. Essentially Jackson concluded that since Evans left the team that he owed it to the team to corner Jones.

ESPN Magazine recently did an in-depth feature on the Jones-Evans rivalry and how Dana White and other UFC officials egged it on.

Here's Jones' tweet:

More SBN coverage of UFC 145

Jason Miller may have broken the news a little earlier than planned, but it is now official. Yesterday, "Mayhem" tweeted out that he would be facing C.B. Dollaway at UFC 146. The tweet was then quickly deleted but the cat was pretty well out of the bag.

Now, the UFC has confirmed the fight on the promotion's website:

UFC president Dana White today confirmed the first fight - one between fan favorites - officially set for UFC 146, set to take place over Memorial Day weekend.

"Ultimate Fighter runner-up C.B. ‘The Doberman' Dollaway has verbally agreed to face recent Ultimate Fighter coach Jason ‘Mayhem' Miller in a middleweight bout at UFC 146 this May in Las Vegas,"

Miller put on a truly horrible performance against Michael Bisping at the finale of their season of The Ultimate Fighter and White's statements to that effect made it seem that "Mayhem" may have been one-and-done in the UFC. Instead, he'll get at least one more crack at things inside the Octagon.

UFC ring girl Chandella Powell has issued a statement via her Twitter account basically apologizing for her past work in pornographic endeavors. While the idea that she has something to apologize for remains very much up for debate, she felt that she needed to issue a statement and has done so.

Via Chandella's Twitter:

When you are young, you often don't realize that your actions have consequences. I made a bad decision about ten years ago, but you learn from these moments. There is nothing I can do to change the past, and believe me, if I could, I would. That decision doesn't represent who I am today. All I can do now is put the past behind me and move forward. I am sorry to disappoint any of my fans and my family at Zuffa. I love you guys :)

There still is no official word of any change in Chandella's employment with the UFC. When her prior word had first surfaced it came with rumors that she had been released from the UFC for not disclosing the information to the promotion.

I want to avoid editorializing too much here, but I would hope that a decision made ten years ago that really has no impact on the promotion. Given the multitude of things that fighters have in their history or the current ring girls having done work in Playboy, it's hard to say that this is any sort of real potential for a black eye for the promotion.

Given that there has been no word of her release and she is still featured on the UFC's website, it would seem that the promotion has not overreacted to old news.

Two bouts featuring competitors from the 14th season of The Ultimate Fighter have been added to the May 5th UFC on Fox 3 card at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Featherweight runner-up Dennis Bermudez will square off against another TUF alum, Pablo Garza, while bantamweight semfinalist Johnny Bedford will face Canadian, Nick Denis, according to UFC.com:

Nick Denis put the rest of the bantamweight division on notice with a devastating 22-second KO of The Night debut in his first UFC outing, while TUF 14's Johnny Bedford won a landslide victory in his last fight at the series finale. Now, these two have verbally agreed to clash at the UFC on FOX event May 5.
In the featherweight division, TUF 14 finalist Dennis Bermudez has agreed to take on Pablo Garza, known for his dynamic fighting style that's seen Octagon finishes via flying knee and flying guillotine.

The proud owner one of MMA's most unique nicknames ("The Ninja of Love") and more unusual fighting styles ("cuddle-jitsu"), Ontario's Nick Denis is nonetheless a very talented bantamweight fighter, and proved it in his UFC debut by knocking out Joseph Sandoval with vicious standing elbows, and that victory coming on the heels of a KO-by-suplex against Bellator vet, Nick Mamalis. Bedford was an early favorite to win his season of TUF, but his inability to deal with the speed of John Dodson led to a KO loss in the semifinal round. Bedford rebounded at the season finale with a one-sided beatdown of Louis Gaudinot, and now takes a big step up in competition against a fellow veteran.

Bermudez, who will be fighting close to home as a resident of Long Island, made it all the way to the finale on TUF, before tapping to an armbar from Diego Brandao in a wild scrap that earned both men Fight of the Night honors. Now getting a chance to prove he deserves a roster spot in the rapidly growing UFC featherweight division, Bermudez will have to shore up his submission defense to avoid the lanky limbs and spidery guard of Garza. Garza competed on the 12th season of TUF, but a decision loss to eventual runner-up Michael Johnson in the opening round denied him entrance to the house. Instead, Garza worked his way up through the regional ranks and before finally getting a Zuffa contract (first in the WEC, and then in the UFC). Although his Zuffa record stands at 2-2 and he's wilted against stronger opponents,, "The Scarecrow" is rarely in a boring fight, and owns one of the most impressive highlight reels around, with a flying knee KO followed up by a flying triangle submission in his first two UFC fights.

UFC on Fox 3 coverage