The Day in MMA

Hello, fight fans. Welcome back to another addition of The Day in MMA. Today was a fairly big day in MMA. With such a big weekend for the sport starting tomorrow the buzz seems to have reached its peak.

Tomorrow will play host to UFC on FX 2 in Sydney, Australia. Today’s biggest news was that all the fighters for tomorrow night’s card weighed-in on weight to make all the bouts official. I personally think this is the perfect way to start the weekend. The card is being broadcast on FX and is headlined by a welterweight scrap between Martin “the Hitman” Kampmann and Thiago “Pitbull” Alves. This card will also be the UFC’s first to host the newly adopted flyweight class. Don’t miss this card, fight fans. It’s history in the making.

And then on Saturday we’ll get to see Miesha Tate defend her women’s bantamweight title against the new girl on the block, Ronda Rousey. The fight will headline a Strikeforce card that will air on Showtime. The press conference for the event took place today and the build-up and tension between the two headliners has been escalating for the past month. The tension peaked today during the conference as both women went back and forth, accusations were confronted, and the fight is just two days away! The highlights of the presser can be found at BJPenn.com

Bellator made the Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez II fight official today. The two will face off on April 20th on Bellator 66. The fight will be a rematch between the two (in which Aoki won by hell hook) three and a half years in the making. Don’t miss it next month on MTV2.

We also found out today that newly crowned lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, and Rampage Jackson received medical suspensions today that could amount to six months each. Henderson may have fractured both hands and a foot while Rampage has been suffering from a knee injury even before his fight with Bader last weekend. More news on these medical suspensions will come soon.

Rampage also admitted to using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) prior to his fight with Bader at UFC 144. Rampage said his levels were never exceeding the legal amount for the sport and that he plans to fight many more times because he now feels 25 again. We’ll see if this shakes up the MMA sporting world at all. Many fighters have already admitted to using TRT, like Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt, but the more popular it gets the more attention it’s going to get, so we’ll see what happens.

The UFC announced three more fights to be added to its upcoming UFC on FUEL 3 card earlier today. Lightweights Kamal Shalorus and Rafael Dos Anjos have agreed to face off, bantamweights Azamat Gashimov and Alex Soto have agreed to throw down, and top featherweight stars Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung have signed on to do battle. UFC on FUEL 3 is set to take place from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on May 15. This card has been a big topic of discussion this entire week, adding several bouts to its lineup. These additions are another big plus for the upcoming event.

We heard Dana White speak more about the Frankie Edgar situation today. He explained that he really wants Edgar to drop to featherweight and that if he did he would gain an immediate title fight with Jose Aldo. However, he also said that if he did not drop and decides to stay at lightweight he may have to climb the ladder again before getting the immediate rematch that Frankie feels he deserves. This is surely going to be a huge topic of discussion in the coming days.

And in other news Paul Daley stated that after he beats Misaki this Saturday on the Strikeforce card he wants to fight newly acquired Nate “The Great” Marquardt for the vacant welterweight strap, the TUF 15 preview show aired tonight, and Dana White stated that TUF was headed to Australia, India, and the Philippines next.

And that wraps up another day in MMA news. For more in depth coverage, videos, and interviews visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until tomorrow, fight fans, stay classy.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45