The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain

Welcome to another installment of “The Day in MMA with Jake Chastain.” Monday was quit a jammed packed day in the MMA world. We experienced a flurry of great fight announcements, ratings results, and of course we saw build up for the upcoming shows that will be taking place across the globe.

First, let’s look at the viewer ratings that were revealed for last Friday’s TUF episode. We found out today that the show, which featured the first bracket fight for the show’s season, garnered approximately 1.1 million views nationwide. This is slightly lower than the season’s premiere episode last week, which pulled in 1.3 million views. These are still very strong, promising numbers that I’m sure will rise as the season continues to build within its new FX home.

We heard today that UFC middleweight, Chael Sonnen is releasing a book, entitled, “The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P Pass to Enlightenment.” The book is sure to be filled with hilarious tales filled with the satiric genius of Chael Sonnen. The 320 page book titled will be available on May 15 at Amazon.com for $16.47.
We also had a handful of amazing fight announcements take place today. UFC 148, which is expected to take place on July 8th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, added three fights to its card today. First, news broke the Michael Bisping would be fighting the recently victorious Tim Boetsch. This fight in itself is a co-main event caliber brawl in the making. Both men are at the top of the weight class and trying to stay there.

Then we heard the UFC 148 card would also be adding Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le. Franklin will be returning to the middleweight division for the first time since moving to light heavyweight in 2008. Anderson Silva has been the only man to defeat Franklin in the 185 pound weight class. Le is coming off of a loss to Wanderlei Silva but is an explosive, dangerous fighter with kicks that can give any fighter problems. This is a gem of a fight.

Then, in the closing hours of Monday night, Tito Ortiz broke news via his Twitter account that he and Forrest Griffin would be completing their trilogy at UFC 148 as well. The two have split the last two meetings with Ortiz taking the first back at UFC 59 and Griffin getting his revenge at UFC 106. This should be an exciting fight between two declining yet huge names in the MMA world. This is a great addition to the card, which is more than likely going to be headlined by another trilogy fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.
And then on top of these three fight announcements we found out that UFC 148 would also be adding a bantamweight scrap between Renan Barao and Jeff Hougland. Barao is the current owner of the longest MMA winning streak, which is now at 31 after his UFC debut victory at UFC 143, and Hougland is also riding a nine-fight winning streak. These four fights announcements quickly shaped UFC 148 into a “can’t miss” PPV event. We’ll see how the remainder of the card stacks up in the coming weeks.

And while we’re on the topic of UFC fight announcements I may as mention that UFC on FX 4 added its main event bout today, and it’ll be a lightweight war between Clay Guida and Gray Maynard. The two have verbally agreed to the fight and will look to face off in Atlantic City on June 22nd, although the UFC has not yet made the date and venue official. This will be a very interesting fight as both fighters will be coming off of losses at the top level. Maynard will be making his first appearance after dropping his first official MMA loss to Frankie Edgar in their title fight, and Guida will be returning after his number-one contender fight with current champion Benson Henderson. Both Maynard and Guida are explosive, top-notch lightweights that need this win to move back up the ranks of the UFC lightweight division.

The UFC also finalized its 5-fight UFC on FUEL TV 3 card today. The event is set to take place on May 15th in Fairfax, VA. Here is how the card currently stands:
MAIN CARD: (FUEL TV)
Dustin Poirier vs. Chan Sung Jung
Donald Cerrone vs. Jeremy Stephens
Mike Easton vs. Yves Jabouin
Tom Lawlor vs. Jason MacDonald
Jorge Lopez vs. Amir Sadollah

PRELIMINARY CARD: (Facebook)
Jeff Curran vs. Johnny Eduardo
Cody McKenzie vs. Aaron Riley
Brad Tavares vs. Dongi Yang
T.J. Grant vs. Carlo Prater
Rafael Dos Anjos vs. Kamal Shalorus
Azamat Gashimov vs. Alex Soto
Fabio Maldonado vs. Igor Pokrajac

The MMA world heard from Dan Henderson today as he spoke with ESPN and explained, despite what UFC president Dana White says, that he would only be willing to cut down to fight at middleweight if it was a fight with current champion, Anderson Silva. Other than that he wants to focus on capturing gold at light heavyweight. We’ll see how this shakes out in the coming week as Henderson is still opponent-less.

And in other news we witnessed a small verbal war begin between Dana White and Ken Shamrock, early betting odds on Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva heavily favor Belfort, Matt Serra earned his 3rd Dan in BJJ from Renzo Gracie, and the Jon Jones/Rashad Evans verbal war continued.

For more in depth MMA news, interviews, and videos be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until next time, fight fans; stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45