Pena injured following "assault", Pennington now faces andrade at ufc 171

Raquel Pennington vs Jessica Andrade now set for UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

Earlier this week reports came out that The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 women’s champion Julianna Pena had suffered a knee injury ahead of her scheduled fight against Jessica Andrade at UFC 171. At the time no details emerged of how the injury happened that was until Dana White tweeted last night

What happened to @VenezuelanVixen at "her gym" is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard. Ranked #10 out for 2 years. #leavethatgymnow
— Dana White (@danawhite) January 30, 2014

The extent of Julianna Pena's injury is a torn ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus. Though how it happened at Sik-Jitsu Fighting Systems, where Pena trains in Spokane, Washington is still a bit of a mystery and during the UFC 169 pre fight scrum Dana added what he has been told about the incident.

"It’s the worst injury I’ve ever heard of, ever, in this sport, and you hear about those types of injuries in football," he said. "Apparently, when she came into the gym she was training in her gym and one of her training partners, a guy, was saying to her, ‘oh, you’re wearing your Ultimate Fighter shirt, we’re real scared.’ He says that and was talking smack to her and then basically attacked her.

"He jumped on her back, started cranking her neck, and the way she fell her knee blew out. The most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard in my life. A year-and-a-half to two years she’ll be out, and I told her to leave that disgusting gym and go somewhere else with new coaches, new training partners, whatever. And that’s all I know."

All White knew was that it was a man that caused the injured but he didn't know who but in his opinion it sounded like assault.

"It sounds like assault to me, but how do you consider it assault in a gym? You know what I mean?"

When Dana was told of Rick Little's version of events he was shocked at how different it was from what he was told. Little said that Pena didn't do her proper warm up and was training with some guys before he arrived when the injury happened.

"That’s so far from the story she told me right after she was completely hysterical and crying, completely opposite," he said. "Completely different story from what she told me. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth."

Pena will travel to Los Angeles next week to undergo surgery and hopefully repair her knee.

With the injury to Pena, Jessica Andrade was left without an opponent. That was until Pena's fellow TUF season 18 housemate Raquel Pennington stepped up and will fill in against the Brazilian Andrade.

Pennington defeated Roxanne Modafferi in November in her UFC debut, while Andrade got back to winning ways picking up her first win in the UFC against Rosi Sexton in October following a loss to Liz Carmouche in her UFC debut.

Paulo Thiago injured, replaced by Brian Melancon at UFC Fight Night 27

Paulo Thiago injured and out of UFC Fight Night 27

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Paulo Thiago has had to pull out of his welterweight fight with Kelvin Gastelum at Fight Night 27 due to a knee injury. This made the UFC have to rethink who was going to go up against the season 17 TUF champion. Gastelum won that series at Middleweight before dropping to welterweight and this will be his first welterweight appearance in the UFC.

At first Cage Warriors champion Cathal Pendred offered his services and tried to rally for support to get him in to the UFC to the ufc and to step in on short notice for this fight. Unfortunately for Cathal this did not get him anywhere. I am not sure how this act may have gone down with Cage Warriors management as its not the first time he has tried to get noticed by the UFC after he defeated Che Mills he publicly called to Dana White to get him in the UFC.

Later though it was announced that Brian Melancon will step up to the plate and try to make it two wins in two months for the UFC after knocking out Seth Baczynski in the first round at UFC 162. That fight was his debut in the UFC and he dominated the whole fight and could have rode out the last few seconds of round one but he decided to push the pace and in doing so knocked out Baczynski.

Phil Harris out of UFC 163

Phil Harris is the latest fighter to pull out of a fight due to an injury

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Phil Harris will miss out on his big opportunity of facing John Lineker in Lineker's home country of Brazil on the main card of ufc 163. The British flyweight was caught in sparring preparing for the fight and has unfortunately fractured his orbital bone.

Harris made his UFC debut in October unfortunately he was submitted in the second round of that fight. That loss snapped a five fight win streak but he got back to winning ways when the UFC returned to the UK in February as he beat Ulysses Gomez.

Lineker will now fight Jose Maria Tome, who he defeated in 2009. Will this fight also finish via a first round submission victory or will Tome pull off the upset.... we will find out at UFC 163.

Al Iaquinta replaces injured Quinn Mulhern and takes on Ryan Couture at UFC 164

Another injury forces more changes to UFC 164

By Tom Rooney @oldmanrooney

Ryan Couture (6-2-0) will now face TUF Live finalist Al Iaquinta (5-2-1) at UFC 164 after his original opponent Quinn Mulhern (18-3-0) announced on Tuesday that he had sustained a fractured hand and would be unable to compete.

The lightweight bout is scheduled for the undercard of UFC 164, which will be headlined by 155lbs title-fight between Benson Henderson and Anthony Petits in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 31st.

Couture, who lost his Octagon debut against Ross Pearson via KO at UFC Sweden in April, was part of the migration of fighters from Strikeforce after it was absorbed by Zuffa. Prior to his loss to Pearson, he was on a four fight win-streak, which he will need to resume with haste or he may be joining his errant father at Bellator.

Iaquinta, a member of Team Faber on TUF LIVE, has not fought in the UFC since the series finale in June 2012, when was submitted in the first round by Michael Chiesa.

UFC on Fox 8 card gets a shape up due to injuries

More injuries force a mix up to the Fox card

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

UFC on Fox 8 has had a bit of a shape up due to injuries. UFC on Fox takes place in Washington on July 27th. A spate of injuries this week had matchmakers scratching there heads.

On the main card Siyar Bahadurzada, who was originally an injury replacement for Tarec Saffedeine, had to pull out of his bout with Robbie Lawler. So now Bobby Voelker has stepped in to take the fight.

Voelker was originally scheduled to take on James Head in late August so it will be interesting to see how that effects his preparations. Not only in regard to the fact that his camp was design to peak a month after the new date for his fight but also, meaning no disrespect to James Head but Robbie Lawler is in a different league and is a massive step up in competition. A win for Voekler on short notice however could change the route for his career.

Matt Mitrione v Brendan Schaub has also been scratched from the card due to an injury suffered by Mitrione in the buildup. This fight will likely be held at a later event and had been brewing along nicely with tweets back and forth between the two.  

Bobby Green also suffered an injury and has been replaced by Tim Means for his fight with Danny Castillo.

Lastly Yves Edwards also got a change of opponent as Spencer Fisher was forced off the card. Daron Cruickshank will be his replacement.

More Injuries to UFC 163 card

The UFC 163 injury bug strikes again

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

After Anthony Pettis had been forced out of the main event the Brazilian fans could be excused for cursing there luck. They will be doing so again this week after the cancellation of the Maia-Koscheck fight. 

Josh Koscheck has been forced to pull out of the fight with an injury and the UFC wont be looking for a replacement as Maia has also been pulled from the card. I am not sure if this means the injury is not a serious one and the fight could be rescheduled in the next few events but all we know is it will not be taking place next weekend in Brazil.

Maia has recently turned his career around after dropping down to welterweight and a win over Koscheck could have really helped push him in to title contention.

UFC officials announced the news on Friday, but no further details about the nature of the injury were provided.

Injury forces changes to Saturdays Cage Warriors 57 card

Cage Warriors 57 makes enforced changes to fight card on less than a weeks notice

by Ben Heather @benheather

Unfortunately the Cage Warriors 57 fight card has had a couple of late enforced changes due to late changes. Cage Warriors 57 will be taking place in Liverpool's Echo Arena on Saturday night.

The changes can be viewed below.

Main Card
Danny Roberts will now take on Aldric Cassata (6-5), who replaces the injured Mauro Chimento.
Jack Mason now faces Ali Arish (19-2) instead of Bruno Carvalho.
A new opponent is currently being sought for Mats Nilsson following the withdrawal of Lee Chadwick due to injury.

Prelims
Jason Cooledge (8-4) steps in for the injured Lew Long to take on Saul Rogers.

As soon as details come out regarding Mats Nilsson's new opponent we will keep you all up to date.

Ogle out, McGregor now faces Max Holloway in Boston

Conor McGregor vs Max Holloway announced for UFC on FOX Sports 1

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Andy Ogle is out of the Conor McGregor fight and Max Holloway has stepped up.

UFC today broke some injury news. Andy Ogle is out of his UFC on Fox Sports 1 bout with Conor McGregor with an undisclosed injury.

McGregor will now meet Max Holloway instead. Holloway is coming off a tough split decision loss to Dennis Bermudez that many felt he deserved to win. It still promises to be an exciting fight as Holloway has an exciting stand up orientated style but is more than competent should the fight hit the floor.

The fight goes down on 17th August at The Garden in Boston.

Thiago Alves injured Matt Brown now faces Mike Pyle

Matt Brown to meet Mike Pyle at UFC on Fox Sports 1

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

UFC Welterweight Thiago 'Pitbull' Alves has been forced to withdraw from his clash with Matt Brown (17-11) at UFC on Fox Sports 1 card in Boston due to a bicep injury that occurred in training.

Alves' replacement has already been announced and we will now get to see Mike Pyle vs Matt Brown on August 17th. Pyle (28-8-1) last fought at UFC 160 on May 25th which lead to a razor thin split decision win over Rick Story, putting Pyle on a four fight winning streak.

Brown (17-11) himself is on a winning streak of his own after stringing together five consecutive wins, finishing four of his last five opponents via TKO/KO.

To a lot of MMA fans this will seem as a more of a sensible match up as both fighters come in to the fight on winning streaks and a win would move one of them nearer to that title shot. Where as Alves was coming in to the fight off a submission loss to Martin Kampmann back in March '12. That was a fight in which he was controlling for the first 2 rounds before being forced to submit at the end of the third round.

UFC on Fox Sports 1 will be headlined by light heavyweights Shogun vs Sonnen in Boston on August 17th and will also see the return of Heavyweight Alistair Overeem who will be facing Travis Browne in the co-main event of the evening.

Esparza injured, Hamasaki now fights Gadelha. Joanne Calderwood's new opponent TBC

Strawweight champ Carla Esparza out of Invicta 6

by Ben Heather @benheather

Carla Esparza the Invicta strawweight champion has had to pull out from her fight against Ayaka Hamasaki at Invicta FC 6 after suffering an apparent knee injury. That fight was for Esparza's title which obviously now will not be defended. Ayaka Hamasaki, who was due to fight Carla Esparza will now face off against Claudia Gadelha. This leaves Invicta trying to find an opponent for Joanne Calderwood who should have been fighting Gadelha before the switch.

Kingdom MMA spoke with Joanne Calderwood to find out if she was still going to be fighting on the card and if an opponent had been found yet. This was her response.

"Yea I'm still on the card, my new opponent should be announced in the next few days. I wish Carla a speedy recovery and that she's back ASAP for the queue of 115lbers that will be forming for the title"

According to Invicta president Shannon Knapp, Esparza's injury may be severe enough to promote the new fight between Gadelha and Hamasaki as an interim title fight. The original fight was slated to be the co-main event to the Cris Cyborg vs Marloes Coenen featherweight title fight which will headline Invicta 6 in July.

The new co main event will be an interesting fight as both women will go in to the fight with perfect 9-0 records. This will be Hamasaki's second fight for Invicta after submitting Lacey Shuckman via armbar at Invicta FC 2: Baszler vs. McMann. However Gadleha will make her Invicta debut against possibly her toughest opponent yet.

The fights will take place on July 13th at the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City.

Del Rosario out injured, Dave Herman now meets Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 162

Gabriel Gonzaga saves the day

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

An undisclosed injury has forced Shane Del Rosario out of the UFC 162 card and Gabriel Gonzaga will step in to take his place and fight Dave Herman.

The ADCC grappling specialist Gonzaga needs to get back on track. After a resurgence of late he suffered a knockout loss to Travis Browne last time out. The defeat was however controversial as many believe he was stopped due to illegal blows to the back of the head. The fight should perhaps have been ruled as a no contest.

Herman is on a losing skid of his own and really needs to win if he has hopes of sticking around in the UFC. He's on a three fight losing streak after being stopped by Stefan Struve, Roy Nelsen and Antonio Nogueira. He also tested positive for marijuana after his most recent loss at the hands of Nogueira in a battle which he went in to the fight declaring that BJJ wouldn't work on him. This back fired as Big Nog got the win via submission.

Barao out of UFC 161 Injured, Evans vs Henderson Now Headlines

Foot injury forces interim champ Renan Barao out of UFC 161

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

The UFC have officially announced that Interim UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao, will no longer be headlining UFC 161 after being forced to pull out due to a foot injury.

Barao (30-1-1-NC) was due to headline the event for his Interim belt against Eddie Wineland (20-8-1). There has been no official statement by the UFC regarding Wineland. Whether he remain on the card, or not we will have to wait and see but it could mean he has to wait a little longer to get his shot at the belt.

The headline spot has now been taken by the original co-main event which will see Dan Henderson take on Rashad Evans. It has also been confirmed that this fight will take place over 3 rounds and not 5 rounds which is now the standard for all main event fights. 

Evans (22-3-1) is coming into the fight on back to back unanimous decision losses, first to Jon Jones at UFC 145 for the UFC light heavyweight title and more recently and surprisingly to Antionio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 156 in February. Dan Henderson saw his title shot against Jon Jones go up in smoke when he lost in a split decision to Lyoto Machida at UFC 157. This will be a good chance for both fighters to get back into the title mix.

A fight that has also just been announced and added to the main card of UFC 161, which will see Roy "Big Country" Nelson (19-7) face Stipe Miocic (9-1).

The Merits of Super Fights

Super fights, should they happen??

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Are there any real super fights?
This has suddenly become quite a big topic. GSP vs Anderson Silva has always been Mooted and more recently everyone wants to see Jon Jones vs Anderson Silva. But now we also have Benson Henderson wanting to step up to fight GSP. Aldo wants to go up to 155. GSP possibly wants to avoid Hendricks again to finally fight Anderson.

This should not be allowed in my opinion. People like Hendricks fully deserves his title shot. Where is the incentive to take difficult fights if you are not rewarded? If you can just trash talk your way to a title shot instead of actually earning one.

It makes a mockery of the sport if people that earn title shots don't actually get them. If Henderson or St Pierre want to test themselves against another champion then that's fine, but you have to vacate the belt. Without a full ranking system implemented that seems the only fair option to me. Super fights should only occur when there is no viable contender to give the division time to work itself out.

GSP was out for 18 months recovering from injury. This put the division on hold. He came back and legitimately defended against Carlos Condit. He then held up the division again by taking the Nick Diaz fight who did not deserve a title shot. If he decides to fight Anderson next he's putting the division on hold again for another year. How can this possibly be fair?

I think the UFC need to put in place some rules for its champions. We all want to see the best fighting the best. That is the UFC's major pulling point over boxing, we don't want politics to affect title shots. At a push I can understand how team mates don't want to fight each other, but if that's the case then they should go up or down in weight to avoid that happening. That is where the politics should end in my opinion.

In my opinion the UFC also need to look at a rule for its champions in case of injuries. The fact Dominic Cruz is coming up to 2 years out and is still the UFC Bantamweight champion, is in my book ridiculous. At the minute no one knows where we stand though. I believe going forward with a rule in place it would be better for everyone involved and lead to people thinking one fighter is being treated differently to another if they are both in the same position.

Gunnar Nelson injured, Replaced by Rick Story at ufc 160

Rick Story steps in after Gunnar Nelson forced out with injury

by John Haigh @JohnBjayHaigh

Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson has been force out of his fight with Mike Pyle at UFC 160 due to an undisclosed injury.
It was announced late on Tuesday night that Rick Story had been lined up to step in for the injured Nelson.
Rick Story (15-6 MMA) has been on a rough ride of late going 2-3 in his last five fights but was back to winning ways in his last fight against Quinn Mulhern at UFC 158 in Montreal last month. He’ll be looking to win back to back fights for the first time in 2 years.

His opponent Mike Pyle (24-8-1) has been on quite an opposite run of form, coming off the back of a three fight winning streak and will look to make it four.
This will be Pyle’s first fight of 2013 having not fought since his TKO victory over James Head last December at TUF 16 Finale.

Pyle had been looking at a victory over the undefeated Nelson as a way to get back into the UFC welterweight title picture.

TJ Dillashaw steps in again this time at UFC on Fox 7

Francisco Rivera injured, replaced by TJ Dillashaw who now meets Hugo Viana at UFC on Fox 7

By Ben Heather @benheather

For the third time this week a fighter who fought and won at UFC 158 will step in as an injury replacement on the UFC on Fox 7 card. Its only a five weeks turnaround between UFC 158 and the UFC on FOX 7 event. However for TJ Dillashaw (7-1 MMA 3-1 UFC) this is becoming a usual length for a fight camp. For the second fight in a row Dillashaw is stepping in as a short notice injury replacement for Francisco Rivera (9-2 MMA 2-0 UFC) to fight Hugo Viana (7-0 MMA 2-0 UFC).

UFC officials announced on Friday that Rivera was injured and the new match up had been made.

Dillashaw will be hoping he can emulate his performance from UFC 158 where he knocked out Issei Tamura in the second round. That win made it three in a row since his only loss of his career to John Dodson in the final of The Ultimate Fighter Season 14.

Viana who is still unbeaten in his professional MMA career made his way to the UFC through the Ultimate Fighter Brazil where he was a semi finalist. He picked up a split decision victory over John Teixeria before dropping to bantamweight to fight Reuben Duran at the TUF 16 finale. In this fight he picked up his first stoppage victory of his career by knocking out Duran.

This fight will make up part of the prelims for the UFC on Fox 7 event which is headlined by the lightweight title fight between champion Benson Henderson and challenger Gilbert Melendez. UFC on Fox 7 takes place on April 20th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Keep checking KingdomMMA for all the latest news from the world of MMA.

Dan Hardy injured and out of UFC on Fox 7 fight

Dan Hardy out injured, replaced by Jordan Mein and now meets Matt Brown at UFC on Fox 7

By Ben Heather @benheather

Dan Hardy (25-10 MMA 6-4 UFC) has been replaced by Jordan Mein (27-8 MMA 1-0 UFC) for his fight on the UFC on Fox 7 event vs Matt Brown (16-11 MMA 6-5 UFC). No details have been released on the injury or how long it will be before we can expect to see Dan Hardy back in the octagon.

Hardy was looking for his third straight win following a four fight losing streak which had some fans questioning how he still had his job with the UFC. But the UFC were repaid for the loyalty they showed in him when he got the KO of the night against Duane "Bang" Ludwig. He then returned to his home town to win a unanimous decision win over Amir Sadollah. After his win against Sadollah he went on to call out Matt Brown during a Q and A session for UFC in Australia but for now that fight will have to wait.

UFC officials announced the changes overnight and now Jordan Mein is set to return to the Octagon five weeks after his fight less than a week ago at the UFC 158 event where he looked very impressive in his UFC debut against Dan Miller. He finished Dan Miller for a first round TKO giving him his third straight victory.

Brown will be returning to fight on Fox again after his impressive knockout of Mike Swick with a second round TKO at UFC on Fox 5. He has currently won four in a row and five of his last six fights now. This run is a great run for any fighter to have but when you think that before that he lost three in a row in 2010 and like Hardy was on the verge of being cut before changing his fortunes.

The new fight of Mein vs Brown will be on the main card of the UFC on Fox 7 fight which is headlined by the lightweight title fight between Benson Henderson vs Gilbert Melendez.

Keep Checking KingdomMMA for all the latest news from the world of MMA.