Dave Coulson

Twitter

Recent Posts

Poor Jacob Volkmann. You can’t become President when you’re stuck on Facebook.

Mark Hunt has been forced out of his UFC 146 fight with a knee injury so Lavar Johnson will fight for the second time this month against Stefan Struve. (MMA Fighting)

Speaking of UFC 146, the bout order has been released and yet again, Jacob Volkmann is left off of TV while loser of four straight Dan Hardy is on FX. (MMA Junkie)

We talked yesterday about a possible fight between Josh Koscheck and B.J. Penn, well Penn has gracefully declined the fight. (5oz of Pain)

Here are the disclosed salaries for Tuesday’s UFC on FUEL 3 card and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was the top earner of the night. (Bloody Elbow)

After a scare on the scales, all of the main card competitors for tonight’s Bellator 69 event came in at the correct weight. (MMA Weekly)

If you had any doubts about King Mo Lawal’s future in MMA after his joint venture contract with TNA Wrestling, he wants to assure you that MMA comes first in his life. (Sherdog)

The pay-per-view tax charged by the state of Oklahoma has been deemed unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Attorney General. (MMA Payout)

Follow @Dave_Coulson

With just over a week until UFC 146 hits Las Vegas, another hit to the all heavyweight main card has come to light.

Mark Hunt has pulled out of his fight with Stefan Struve due to an injury. Replacing Hunt is former Strikeforce heavyweight Lavar Johnson, keeping the all heavyweight main card intact.

Johnson is coming off another spectacular knockout performance when he took out Pat Barry by first round KO at the UFC on FOX 3 earlier this month. The win was Johnson’s second in a row since entering the UFC. In his UFC debut, Johnson finished Joey Beltran by first round knockout as well.

Hunt was looking to continue his Cinderella story with a win over Struve. After losing in his UFC debut to Sean McCorkle, Hunt has since reeled off three straight wins, the last one being a knockout win over Cheick Kongo at UFC 144 in Japan. Hunt’s popularity has soared during this winning streak and a campaign was even started for Hunt to get the next title shot after Alistair Overeem was pulled from his title fight due to a positive drug test.

This latest change is the sixth that has occurred to the main card of UFC 146. The majority of the changes were due to the fact that Overeem was pulled from the main event after testing positive for an elevated testosterone level.

Follow @Dave_Coulson

Photo Courtesy Bellator

Maiquel Falcao has made weight on his second attempt and his season six finals fight with Andreas Spang is a go for tomorrow’s Bellator 69 event.

Falcao initially missed weight by two pounds earlier today and it brought back memories of Thiago Santos missing weight for his fight with Eric Prindle which led to Prindle winning the season five heavyweight tournament on the scales.

Falcao advanced to the middleweight final after a close decision victory of Vyacheslav Vasilevsky at Bellator 66. The win was Falcao’s second inside the Bellator cage and third straight overall.

Falcao’s opponent Spang, who made weight at 185.8 pounds, was an injury replacement for Bruno Santos in the tournament. Spang took on Brian Rogers in the semi-finals and surprised many with a knockout win. Following the win, Spang and Falcao got into a physical altercation inside the cage. Spang was fined by the Ohio Athletic Commission for his actions.

All other main card fighters for Bellator 69 made weight successfully.

Follow @Dave_Coulson

Ever since his unanimous decision loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 137, B.J. Penn has remained firm in his decision to become a retired fighter. Although he has continually stuck behind his retirement, the UFC and UFC President Dana White have been under the impression that ‘The Prodigy” would return to the octagon at some point in time.

Apparently the UFC feels that Penn’s return is in the near future as he has apparently been offered a fight against perennial welterweight contender Josh Koscheck. Koscheck announced that he had been offered the fight on his twitter earlier this morning.

#UFC just offered me to fight BJ Penn…I said YES!!!!! Just waiting on him!!!!!! Let’s scrap bra?

— Josh Koscheck (@JoshKoscheck) May 17, 2012

While Koscheck appears excited for a potential fight with the UFC legend, the same might not be said of Penn. Koscheck does say that he is waiting for Penn is accept the fight and as of now, Penn has still yet to officially accept the bout. Guerilla journalist Front Row Brian added some fuel to this story on his twitter page this morning as well.

On good authority, BJ Penn will NOT accept a fight with Josh Koscheck. Kos stirring the pot by going public. Not match up BJ wants now

— Brian(@FrontRowBrian) May 17, 2012

In my mind, this fight makes perfect sense and shows yet again why Joe Silva is the best matchmaker in the business. For Koscheck, he is in an interesting position with the promotion. After his loss to Johny Hendricks earlier this month, Koscheck’s chances of fighting for the welterweight title again are slim. At this point in his career, Koscheck will probably be there for big money fights. The only big money fights I see for Koscheck at 170 are with Penn and Nick Diaz.

Penn is in the same boat as Koscheck. He has said that he has no interest in returning to lightweight and being 1-4-1 in his past six fights at 170, there will be no title talk for Penn. A fight with Koscheck or a rematch with Jon Fitch are the only welterweight fights I see as plausible for Penn.

There may be one situation that would entice Penn to accept this fight. It is no secret that the UFC has wanted to hold an event in Hawaii for some time now. It was just this past February that UFC President Dana White said that he would like to do a show at the Aloha Bowl and would want Penn to headline. I can’t think of any better way for Penn to actually retire for good then to go out in front of his hometown fans.

We will just have to wait to see whether Penn is ready for another fight in the near future.

Follow @Dave_Coulson

This is the last image we have of B.J. Penn inside the octagon. I think this will change in the near future.

Some added incentive to watch Friday’s episode of TUF: Live as UFC President Dana White has said he will reveal Urijah Faber’s new opponent on the episode. (MMA Weekly)

UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck announced on twitter that he has been offered a fight against B.J. Penn, but Penn has yet to accept the bout. (MMA Mania)

The ratings are in for UFC on FUEL 3 with 173,000 viewers tuning in to see a classic fight between Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung. (Sherdog)

After his loss at the UFC on FUEL 3, Fabio Maldonado says that the judges were out to get him and that is why he didn’t get a decision win. (Tatame)

Three new bouts have been added to the UFC’s next venture onto FUEL TV in July. (Bloody Elbow)

Suspended Strikeforce female fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos says that when she returns to the cage, it will be as a bantamweight. (5oz of Pain)

Bellator 70 has now been made official for next weekend and as of today, we will finally get to see a heavyweight title fight between Cole Konrad and Eric Prindle. (MMA Convert)

According to multiple sources in Japan, FEG has declared for bankruptcy. (Fightline)

Follow @Dave_Coulson

How does this keep happening?

Normally, this would be “The Monday After” but FUEL TV cards are landing on some pretty random days. I’m pretty sure UFC on FUEL 4 is going down on a Wednesday night so we will return to normal slightly.

For a card that really didn’t have much buzz, there were a lot of solid fights. Some impressive performances mixed in with some upsets made the night very enjoyable.

Without any more time wasted, here are a few observations coming from the UFC on FUEL 3.

Read the rest of this entry »

Follow @Dave_Coulson

Chan Sung Jung impressed many, including myself, with his upset win last night.

UFC on FUEL 3 went down last night and The Korean Zombie came out victorious in one of the best fights of the year. (MMA Junkie)

Canadian T.J. Grant was one of the winners on the preliminary portion of UFC on FUEL 3. (Sherdog)

The bonuses for last night were $40,000 and Chan Sung Jung cleaned up with two separate bonuses. (MMA Weekly)

In other UFC news, Stephan Bonnar is openly campaigning to be a coach on the next season of the Ultimate Fighter opposite Forrest Griffin. (Cage Potato)

With the recent announcement of a UK vs. Australia edition of The Ultimate Fighter, it is rumoured that the coaches could be Ross Pearson and George Sotiropoulos. (5oz of Pain)

The ratings are in for Bellator 68 and they were quite similar to the numbers they got for Bellator 67 one week prior. (MMA Payout)

After Cesar Gracie gave his side of the story from this past weekend’s BJJ fiasco, Braulio Estima has responded and he isn’t very happy. (MMA Frenzy)

On the latest edition of “Inside MMA”, Bas Rutten was thrown around not by Ronda Rousey, but by Rousey’s mother. (Cage Today)

Follow @Dave_Coulson