The preliminary bouts for UFC 146 that aired on FX before the start of this past weekend's pay-per-view drew an average of 1.3 million viewers, according to MMA Junkie. That ranks fifth out of seven events to have been shown on FX (including UFC on FX main card broadcasts), tied with the UFC on FX 1 (1.3 million) and ahead of the UFC 142 prelim (880,000) ratings.

It is still 300,000 viewers under the UFC 145 prelim broadcast, despite 146 appearing to have the bigger names. This show had fan favorites Dan Hardy and Jason Miller as well as a former WEC champion Jamie Varner, which I thought would have driven ratings up a bit more. It's likely that the UFC 145 advertising presence, based around the strong push for Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans probably had casual fans more "aware" that there was an event taking place.

For reference, the 27 prelim broadcasts that were held on Spike TV before the UFC's Fox deal did an average of 1.5 million viewers.

Some interesting details are emerging about Nick Diaz's punishment from the NSAC. There was talk of him losing part of a "bonus" as punishment for failing his drug test after UFC 143 for the presence of marijuana metabolites and the NSAC is now saying that the bonus in question wasn't a part of his "Fight of the Night" bonus for the fight but something else entirely.

Brett Okamoto of ESPN Tweets:

Most likely, Nick will be fined 30 percent of $200k and $65k *bonus* ... the order for that should come down within next two weeks.

The $65k bonus was not a fight night bonus. It was part of a $300k bonus Diaz received from the UFC for not missing 143 press conferences

According to Kizer, he was told Diaz lost PPV incentives after noshowing St. Pierre pc. The $300k bonus made up for those losses at 143.

It's very interesting that the UFC wanted to "make it up to him" for losing out on the Georges St. Pierre fight, which was his fault to begin with.

Dana White declined to comment on the situation to ESPN.

Update: Okamoto just explained a bit more:

The $300k bonus was supposedly made out for more than just attending press conferences, but that was the main crux acc. to Kizer.

The UFC's heavyweight division is both booming and at a standstill. With Junior dos Santos looking impressive in victory over Frank Mir at UFC 146, the UFC appeared to have a champion ready to stay on top for a considerable amount of time.

Unfortunately, all of the top challengers appear to have some sort of issue. Alistair Overeem is serving a suspension, Daniel Cormier has a broken hand and has to fight one more time in Strikeforce and Cain Velasquez appears to have a hand injury as well, possibly derailing a rematch with dos Santos.

Shane Carwin has been out of action for some time with back issues, and he certainly isn't the man to get a title shot any time soon, but he's a big name and another dangerous fighter in the division. And he says he's ready to come back. Via his blog:

My entire career is shorter then some Pride Fights. I have somehow managed to contend for the UFC HW Title with less than an hour of actual fighting. On one hand that is amazing on the other it kind of scary to think I am facing seasoned veterans with limited experience. Talk about swimming with the sharks. The time off has allowed me to focus on me. Work on the fundamentals of the sport and improve. Maybe most important, to fall in love with the sport again.

...

I informed UFC Matchmaker (Joe Silva) that I would like to fight in Early Fall 2012. I would like to be able to fight every three or four months. Barring injury I intend to leave the UFC octagon and head back to the Grudge Training Center to continue the climb. I have spent my entire career dealing with injuries sustained through Football. I am 100% and I feel like a younger version of my former self. The UFC should look into adding some padding in the gloves because I plan on crushing my opponents.

Who would make a first opponent back for Shane?

Rich Franklin has spent the latter part of his career being a guy who is willing to fight at either middleweight or light heavyweight and is almost always willing to step into a fight on short notice. He'll be doing it again in June when he travels to Brazil to take on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147 following Vitor Belfort's withdrawl due to injury.

Here's UFC.com's announcement:

UFC 147 now has a new five-round main event, as former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will face "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva in a 190-pound catchweight feature. The two first met at UFC 99 in Germany, where Franklin earned a decision win and both men took home Fight of the Night bonuses.

Silva was originally set to face fellow TUF Brasil coach Vitor Belfort in a rematch of their 1998 UFC Brazil bout, but a hand injury forced Belfort to withdraw from the event.

It's hard to imagine this show doing all that well. The main event has little title relevance and, while Franklin and Silva are beloved, the men are not huge draws.

Worse, Mike Russow vs. Fabricio Werdum is in the co-main event role without much else on the card likely to draw anything in terms of casual interest.

More details are emerging now in regards to the Jon Jones DWI case from last week. It appears that Jones was not alone in the car when he smashed his Bentley into a pole while under the influence of alcohol.

Loretta Hunt tweets the information:

Binghamton PD has confirmed there were two passengers in car with Jon Jones when he hit a pole on May 19. Jones pleaded guilty to DWI yest.

I don't know the identities of two passengers yet. Working on it.

This is why the situation is so serious, drunk driving puts your life at risk as well as the lives of anyone else in the car with you and everyone else on the road.

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Rashad Evans isn't exactly Jon Jones' biggest fan. Knowing that, it's surprising to know that Evans didn't go a little harder at Jon for his recent DWI arrest when he on UFC Tonight. Instead, Evans seemed pretty compassionate about the situation.

When on the show, here's what Rashad had to say about the situation:

Honestly, it is hard to really say if it surprised me. I hate to see that happen to someone. Thankfully, no one got hurt and hopefully he can move forward from it.

Also on the show, Ariel Helwani explained all the next steps for Jon after his plea deal.

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A man has died after his fifth MMA fight since taking up the sport only roughly a year ago. Dustin Jenson died after a brain injury following a loss at a May 18 South Dakota MMA event.

Rapid City Journal with the sad details:

Dustin Jenson, 26, was participating in full-contact fights at a RingWars event May 18 when he tapped out - a signal to end the fight. According to his mother-in-law, Violet Schieman, Jensen then watched the next two fights before going to the locker room area, where he suffered a seizure.

...

Schieman said medical personnel determined that Jenson had increased pressure on his brain and put him in a medically induced coma before surgery was performed to relieve pressure. He was declared dead May 24 and was taken off life support the next day, Schieman said.

...

Schieman, who was not at the fight, said her daughter, Jenson's wife Rebecca Jenson, and several others told her the violence in the fight was "nothing out of the ordinary."

"Doctors have watched the video and said it shouldn't have happened," Schieman said. "They said the fight may have triggered a brain aneurysm, but it was not overly violent."

South Dakota has no governing body for MMA but this doesn't appear from the initial reports to be a case of negligent behavior on the part of the promoter, doctors or referee. That is not to say that regulation would have been a bad thing, or that maybe something would have been caught with better pre-fight medicals having been done, but simply that the story doesn't seem to lean on this being the shadiest of shady situations.

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It seems that it is impossible at this point to have a conversation about Strikeforce that doesn't involve quickly pointing out that the Gilbert Melendez is stuck there with no competition. Some of that noise was lessened when Melendez was put through a hell of a test in his third fight with Josh Thomson at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier, but most people recognize that Thomson is a legitimate top-end lightweight when healthy and firing on all cylinders.

UFC president Dana White was on HDNet's Inside MMA and the subject of Melendez came up. White had this to say about Gilbert's future:

Strikeforce is not going anywhere. And Gilbert Melendez is not going anywhere. He will fight again on Showtime.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier

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Cain Velasquez not only dominated Antonio Silva, he cut him up and left the canvas stained with his blood. Directly after the fight, Velasquez spoke to Ariel Helwani for Fuel TV and made it clear that he wasn't bothered by fighting a blood-soaked Silva.

The video:

Quote after the jump...

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

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You'll have to forgive me for writing this, it's been an odd few days and sometimes the act of simply writing about things provides the necessary catharsis.

When I first read that Johnny Tapia had passed away, it was a heavy moment for me as a boxing fan. During my younger days, as I made the transition from a kid who heard about boxing from family and watched Mike Tyson (and, of course, played Punchout!) to someone who actually followed the sport, there was something about Tapia that was deeply attractive to me. On the surface level, Johnny fought in a way that was easy to understand, he had the necessary skill, but he still fought like absolute hell when he stepped between the ropes.

I mean, come on:

As I learned about the individual boxers I'd see on ESPN, USA, HBO, Showtime..etc. I'd see Tapia fight and hear the stories behind his "Mi Vida Loca" tattoo and, even at a younger age, it blew my mind that someone could overcome the worst things in life to become a world champion. For those that don't know, Tapia's father was murdered while his mother was still pregnant with Johnny and then at the age of eight...I'll let HBOWorldBoxing.com tell the horrible story:

...his mother Virginia was kidnapped, raped, hung, stabbed 22 times with scissors and a screwdriver, and left for dead by her assailant. Johnny recalls being awakened in the middle of the night by a noise that he was certain was his mother's screams. He looked out the window and saw her chained in the back of a pick-up truck. He woke up his grandparents to tell them what he had seen, but they thought it was just the overactive imagination of a little boy and sent him back to bed. He is still haunted by these memories to this day.

After crawling 100 yards through a gravel pit to a road following her brutal encounter, Johnny's mother was found by the police and taken to the hospital. Because she was found with no identification, she remained in a hospital bed as a "Jane Doe" for two days. Finally, after a story and photo ran in the paper, Virginia's sister ran to the hospital and sadly confirmed her identity. Johnny's aunts and uncles went to visit his mother over the next few days to make their peace, but would not allow Virginia's 8-year-old son to visit. Though Johnny desperately pleaded with his family for the opportunity to say good-bye to his mother, he was denied. She died four days after the attack without regaining consciousness. No one was charged with the murder.

Tapia would struggle with drugs during his career and to his dying day (his brother-in-law and nephew died driving to see Johnny in the hospital after he overdosed on cocaine), but it remains amazing to me that boxing saved Johnny and allowed him to not have his life defined by the unfathomable tragedy of his youth. Instead, Johnny was a great. Retiring with a record of 58-5-2, having a four year run as WBO super flyweight champion, a run during that time with the IBF super flyweight title, a WBA bantamweight championship run, a WBO bantamweight championship stint and an IBF featherweight title run.

I was given a TV and a VCR in my room at a fairly young age, and one of my favorite things to do was to tape pretty much every fight on TV and I can say with absolute honesty that Tapia's 1999 fight with Paulie Ayala (which I put at the bottom of this article) was one of my favorites in my collection and is as responsible as any one fight for cementing me as a boxing fan. That fight, along with Tyson vs. Douglas, Foreman vs. Moorer, and all kinds of Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones Jr. fights that I'd watch over and over cemented my love of boxing.

That Tapia died at 45 may seem tragic, but, despite his struggles, Johnny dies as a man who survived the worst and still reached the top. His crazy life is still something to have been proud of.

While Tapia's death may have carried with it a sad sense of inevitability, no one saw the Paul Williams tragedy coming.

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UFC 146 saw an all-heavyweight main card a week after the end of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix and the night after Cole Konrad defended his Bellator heavyweight title.

This has been one of the biggest two week periods in heavyweight history and, as such, it's worth taking a look at the rankings to see how things will shake out. So let's take a look at all the heavyweights who have fought over these two weeks (and some who haven't) and see how the division looks going forward. We'll use the best rankings in the sport, the USA Today / SB Nation Consensus Rankings.

Rising

- #1 Junior dos Santos - Rising may be "wrong" in terms of the number-one guy not being able to "rise" any further. But, with many people feeling you need to defend your title successfully to "truly" be champion, Junior got that title defense out of the way in emphatic fashion.

- #2 Cain Velasquez - Similar to Junior, he's more "holding steady" but any concerns that Cain's career would crumble on the back of his loss to Junior are gone as he demolished Antonio Silva.

- #6 Daniel Cormier - Completely dominated Josh Barnett to earn a well deserved top 5 heavyweight spot.

- #14 Roy Nelson - I don't know that Roy deserves to be higher than 14, but beating Dave Herman kind of re-establishes him as the "not quite top-10 but not a bad fighter" that he is.

- #18 Cole Konrad - He was dominant enough against arguably the best opponent Bellator has to offer. I have no clue what there is left for him outside of the UFC at this point, but he can enjoy a solid win for a little while before we freak out about it.

- #19 Stefan Struve - Lavar Johnson was a flawed opponent and certainly not as tough as Mark Hunt would have been, but Struve fought smart and took a pretty easy win. I have a feeling Struve might end his career with the most UFC fights ever.

- Unranked Stipe Miocic - Shane del Rosario is a tough fighter and Miocic survived a rocky first round to take him down and dominate in the second. It was impressive enough that Miocic should check in in the top 25 in the next rankings.

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Last night's UFC 146 all-heavyweight main card was very exciting and delivered more than I thought it would. There are still many MMA fans who haven't forgotten last weekend's showing by Daniel Cormier against Josh Barnett at Strikeforce.

When UFC president Dana White was asked about Cormier and his future in the UFC, Dana hinted that he made it clear that he doesn't think Cormier's future is at heavyweight (via ESPN):

"Yes, he will end up coming over to the UFC. The thing is I'd love to see the guy go down to 205lbs," White said. "I think he's a small heavyweight over here.

"Listen, I respect Josh Barnett, he did work Barnett. Barnett fights like once a year, I'm not taking anything away from Barnett, but it's a whole other ball game over here.

"I'm not telling him [Cormier], if the guy wants to stay at heavyweight, I'm not going to tell him where to go, but I think it would be a good move for him to go to 205."

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Junior dos Santos dominated Frank Mir in the main event of UFC 146. It appeared that once Mir's first attempt at a takedown failed, he resigned himself to engaging in a kickboxing match. That was a fight that Mir would not have any chance of winning and it played out as one would expect.

The straight right hand, an orthodox fighter's staple against a southpaw like Mir, landed over and over for Junior, this wore him out and by the second round it seemed like every shot that landed was hurting Mir badly. Once Mir was fighting against ghosts for the third or fourth time in the fight, it was mercifully stopped after a perfunctory hammerfist by dos Santos.

Junior proved that he is a legitimate champion, if anyone had any doubts based on a quick KO over Cain to win the belt. It may not have been the Overeem fight we wanted, but Frank Mir is a hell of an opponent to handle with such ease.

• Cain Velasquez's performance against Antonio Silva was terrifying. Silva is a bit flawed and, obviously, isn't impossible to beat, but Cain did unspeakable things to him. He dominated him and basically covered the entire canvas in his blood before turning it up yet another notch and getting the stoppage. Just brutal effectiveness.
• As I said on Twitter, there's a legitimate chance that Cain Velasquez is the best heavyweight on the planet still. Losing on a quick KO doesn't really prove that he isn't truly the best. I'm not saying I necessarily think that it's the case, but I'm not willing to write that possibility off just yet.
• Dave Herman is a guy whose career has been mostly about how good he could be rather than how good he is. He's like hyper-Brandon Vera. Roy Nelson knocking his block off with a punch that started in Nelson's back pocket was pure craziness.
• Shane del Rosario has never been a guy I was all that high on, but Stipe Miocic was a really hard fight to come back to. Shane probably could have stood to receive a little bit easier of a comeback. Once Miocic got the fight to the ground in the second round, it was clear he had no intention of letting it get back up. It's kind of amazing that the cut he left on Shane's face became almost forgettable by the sheer volume of blood in the Bigfoot fight.

More after the jump...

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

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As with every major show, Bloody Elbow will be here to bring you live results, play by play and commentary for UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir. Our live coverage will start with the two fights on the Facebook prelim stream (roughly 7 p.m. ET) to the prelim card on FX (8 p.m. ET) and through the PPV main card (10 p.m. ET) so make sure to make Bloody Elbow your home for this event.

This post will cover live results and thoughts for the PPV main card. Our coverage of the undercard can be read here.

The main card sees five heavyweight fights take place, headlined by a UFC heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and former champion Frank Mir. In the "co-main event" role will be a fight between former champion Cain Velasquez and former Strikeforce standout Antonio Silva. Dave Herman and Roy Nelson will clash on the card as well. "Long-time prospect" Shane del Rosario will meet Stipe Miocic and Lavar Johnson will look to continue his roll when he takes on Stefan Struve to round out the card.

Make sure to come back during the event and share your thoughts as the event goes down.

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

Stefan Struve vs. Lavar Johnson - Round 1 - Johnson comes out and lands a big punch to the body and an uppercut and pushes Struve into the cage. Struve pulls guard and takes an arm quickly and Johnson taps out. Yeah, that'll do it. Johnson's arm is broken by the looks of it. Stefan Struve wins by submission (armbar), 1:05 of Round 1

Shane del Rosario vs. Stipe Miocic - Round 1 - Del Rosario throwing a lot of kicks, Miocic lands a nice punch combination. Miocic with a nice hard combo with a right hand that gets in. Again the straight right gets in for him. Del Rosario with nice kicks to the body and now to the legs. Miocic comes forward with a nice combination again and another body kick by Shane. Another body kick and now some punches and Miocic is bothered by the body kicks. Right hand by Miocic lands nicely. Nice counter left uppercut by del Rosario. Miocic with a good takedown late in the round and he lands a few elbows before letting him up as the round ends. 10-9 del Rosario.

Round 2 - Miocic scores an early takedown now and lands some hard punches. He moves for mount but gets caught in half guard. Miocic doing good work from in the half guard here, landing good elbows to the head and shots to the body. Miocic has del Rosario bleeding badly now. Full mount now but he loses it. Still, Miocic is cutting him up badly. Big flurry of elbows and the fight is stopped. Del Rosario tries to get up and he's stumbling all over the cage. Great stoppage. Stipe Miocic wins by TKO (elbows on the ground), 3:14 of Round 2.

Dave Herman vs. Roy Nelson - Round 1 - Herman with a knee to the body. He's trying to keep the fight at a distance and then...boom. Roy Nelson lands a big right hand and Herman crumbles and it's over. Nelson brought that punch from his back pocket. Herman was out, he is trying to argue that he was fine, but he was OUT. Roy Nelson wins by TKO (punch), 0:51 of round 1.

Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva - Round 1 - Cain catches a kick and gets a quick takedown. Cain is landing a lot of punches and Bigfoot lands an upkick. Cain back on top throwing punches, just trying to be overwhelming here. Cain lands a few elbows and Bigfoot is bleeding badly. That's a very bad cut and Cain is just wearing him out. Silva tries to grab a leg and they're stopped so the doctor can look at the cut. Doctor asks if he can see, Silva says he can, doc says let it continue. Ref restarts Silva on the ground. Cain is just beating him up. Silva gives up his back, Cain pounds away. Silva turns back over and eats more big shots. Cain is just firing away and the fight is over. Cain Velasquez just DESTROYED Antonio Silva. That was not even remotely competitive. Cain Velasquez wins by TKO (punches), 3:36 of round 1.

UFC Heavyweight Championship: Junior dos Santos (c) vs. Frank Mir - Round 1 - Junior has the right hand loaded up. Mir comes in and grabs a leg, looking for a single leg. He can't pull guard successfully either. Body shot by Junior gets in, Mir misses a head kick. Left hook by Junior lands and he goes to the body again after. Leg kick by Mir. Mir working leg kicks and body kicks as well here. Good leg kick by Mir again but Junior with a left hand counter. Now Junior lands again, and again with a right hand. Straight left lands for Mir. Hard body shot by Junior gets in. Jab lands hard. Mir is stuck in a boxing match here and that's the worst possible thing for him. Big right hand by Junior and Mir is hurt. Junior flurries hard to try to finish but can't get it before the round ends.

Round 2 - Mir needs to go for broke to get this to the ground. Hard straight right hand for Junior, and again. Good shot lands for Junior, Mir goes down, Junior walks away, Mir pops right back up. Mir with a left hand and again. Eye poke and Herb Dean said he didn't see it so Mir is forced to fight while squinting away the pain. Another hard shot by Junior. Mir with a leg kick and another, not sure why he had stopped for about a round. And again he lands to the leg. Right hand drops Mir, Dos Santos is on him, Mir is trying to defend, he reaches for Junior and can't find him, so he slides in a circle, clearly out of it. One more shot by Junior and the ref ends it. Junior dos Santos wins by TKO (punches), 3:04 of round 2.

As with every major show, Bloody Elbow will be here to bring you live results, play by play and commentary for UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir. Our live coverage will start with the two fights on the Facebook prelim stream (roughly 7 p.m. ET) to the prelim card on FX (8 p.m. ET) and through the PPV main card (10 p.m. ET) so make sure to make Bloody Elbow your home for this event.

This post will cover live results and thoughts for the preliminary card on Facebook and FX. Our coverage of the main card can be read here.

In the "featured undercard bout" it will be Diego Brandao taking on Darren Elkins in a featherweight bout. Jamie Varner returns to the UFC as he takes on Edson Barboza. Jason Miller looks to rebound from a really horrific performance in his last fight as he takes on C.B. Dollaway. Dan Hardy and Duane Ludwig will square off in what will either be a slugfest or a couple of strikers trying to work takedowns. Jacob Volkmann faces Paul Sass in a lightweight bout. Glover Teixeira finally makes it to the UFC when he takes on Kyle Kingsbury. The first fight of the night will see former WEC champion Mike Brown take on Daniel Pineda.

Make sure to come back during the event and share your thoughts as the event goes down.

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

Mike Brown vs. Daniel Pineda - Round 1 - Feeling out to open the fight before Pineda tries to flurry and slips on a head kick, Brown with a big right that just lands and he hits hard again a few moments later. Now Brown with a hard left. Pineda flurries with a hard combination that seems to stun Brown, and Brown responds with a takedown that takes both men all the way across the cage. Brown in half guard and landing some hard elbows, passing to side control. Brown loses the position though and Pineda is on top now. Brown gets up, looks for a single and they are still standing. Big right hand by Brown. Good leg kick by Pineda. Brown throws Pineda to the ground for the takedown, reversing an attempt by Pineda. Brown on top now and that takedown may be enough to steal a very close round. 10-9 Brown as he lands punches on the ground to close out the round.

Round 2 - Both men land big rights and lefts in an early flurry. Pineda with a takedown now. Brown stands up and slams Pineda to the ground. They're back up and back down with Brown on top in north-south and now side control. Pineda with a sweep now and he's looking for a choke on Brown, who is looking for a takedown. Brown with a left hand now and they're striking against the cage. Brown kneeing to the body. Hard right hand by Brown and now a few uppercuts and knees to the body. Brown going hard to the body. Pineda firing back now but Brown is really starting to wear on him. Brown back on top in Pineda's guard now, wearling him out with elbows and punches. Pineda lands an elbow of his back, so Brown smashes him with a harder one but Brown is bleeding badly as the round ends. 10-9 Brown.

Round 3 - Pineda with a nice leg kick early and a head kick that gets blocked. Huge knee to the body by Brown and Pineda crumbles to the mat. Now Brown on top just grinding away. Brown passing to side control. Brown gets pulled back into guard and just keeps punching Pineda in the face. Pineda very slickly takes the back out of nowhere. 90 seconds left or Pineda to finish this off. Pineda has a body triangle and is trying to make something happen, but time is running out on him. Pineda throwing punches and can't finish. I still gave Brown the round.

Official Scorecards: 29-28 across the board. Mike Thomas Brown wins by unanimous decision.

Kyle Kingsbury vs. Glover Teixeira - Round 1 - Both men landing hard early. Teixeira landing stiff punches, but Kingsbury is willing to try to return fire. Big shot by Teixeira stuns Kingsbury and now he's on top in mount. Glover landing a lot of shots from mount now and Kingsbury seems to be lost. Glover moves to an arm triangle choke and that'll do it. Glover Teixeira wins by submission (arm triangle choke), 1:53 of round 1.

Paul Sass vs. Jacob Volkmann - Round 1 - Sass with a wide right and Volkmann grabs on to him and Sass pulls guard. Volkmann looking for a guillotine choke from on top in half guard. Sass avoids the choke and tries to move to an omoplata, but that doesn't work, because they never work. Sass is transitioning between submission attempts and now locks up a triangle choke, adds an armbar and Volkmann taps. Paul Sass wins by submission (triangle armbar), 1:54 of round 1.

Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig - Round 1 - Ludwig cracks Hardy with some hard punches and Hardy looked a bit rocked and reaches for a takedown. Ludwig able to keep it standing but Hardy pushes him against the cage. Ludwig landing knees to the body and some short elbows. Nice two shot combo by Hardy and that got Ludwig's attention a bit. Ludwig slips a few punches. Ludwig with a head kick that just misses and lands a bit in an exchange. Hardy lands a right hand but Ludwig answered. Ludwig with some hard knees and Hardy tries for a takedown again and can't get it. As they're standing at range, Hardy lands a big left hook that drops Ludwig, Hardy follows up with big elbows and it's over. That's a huge win for Hardy. Dan Hardy wins by TKO (left hook and elbows), 3:51 of round 1.

Jason Miller vs. C.B. Dollaway - Round 1 - Miller doing some showboating, which is odd given his last fight. Now he tags Dollaway with a hard shot that hurts him and C.B. gets a desperation takedown and almost gets guillotined but escapes. Miller back to his feet, another takedown, and they get up again. They're trading shots now. Miller gave Dollaway a noogie at one point there. Big shot lands for Dollaway and Miller falls to the ground. Dollaway pouring it on now and Rogan thinks Miller blew out his knee. Dollaway has Miller's back and is hitting to the head and body. Miller smiling up at the ref now. Dollaway with a weird hammerlock type position that he uses to get to the mount. Miller gets out of the mount. 10-9 Dollaway.

Round 2 - Jab lands for Dollaway, and another. Another hard jab by Dollaway. Uppercut by Dollaway and a brief takedown. Mayhem lands a hard shot and Dollaway is rocked again and stumbling all over the cage. Miller can't get the finish, Dollaway is looking for a takedown now and Miller is avoiding fairly well. Knee to the body by Miller and Dollaway with another takedown attempt. Dollaway is finally able to get the takedown and he lands an elbow. Dollaway working some hammerfists now. Round ends and I guess we'll go 10-9 Miller for hurting Dollaway, but C.B. was on top for a lot of the round so he probably gets the judges nod. I think I just gave Mayhem a pity round.

Round 3 - They trade early, and C.B. gets another takedown. Dollaway just grinding away here holding position and getting takedowns when Miller does get up. Dollaway landing punches now and he takes the back and has him flattened out. As Dollaway lands punches, Miller tries to show that they're not hurting him, but it doesn't matter...he's not doing anything but getting punched in the head. Miller's UFC career is a miserable, horrible bust. 10-9 Dollaway.

Official Scorecards: 29-28, 30-26, 29-28 C.B. Dollaway wins by unanimous decision.

Edson Barboza vs. Jamie Varner - Round 1 - Hard leg kick by Barboza. And two more. And another. Barboza throws a head kick and Varner catches his leg and takes him down and is landing good shots from half guard now. Barboza manages to kick Varner off after a bit and get back to his feet. Another leg kick lands now, and another. Varner lands a nice right hand, Barboza with another leg kick. Body shot, punch to the head by Varner. Varner with a nice combo and Barboza is hurting. Varner keeps drilling him when he tries to get up and now Varner pours it on and the fight is stopped! WOW! Jamie Varner wins by TKO (punches), 3:23 of round 1.

Diego Brandao vs. Darren Elkins - Round 1 - Brandao with a nice combo and then Elkins looked for a takedown but ended up on his back. Elkins gets up and gets the takedown and Brandao uses a kimura as a sweep and he gets on top. Elkins looked to take and arm, they end up back to standing. Jumping knee by Brandao smashes Elkins and now Brandao is back on top. Brandao ends up letting him back to his feet. Brandao tags him with a series of hard shots and Elkins is badly hurt. Brandao passes to side control and then lands big shots. Now he's tagging Elkins again. This has been an absolute beating thus far but Elkins isn't going away easy. 10-8 Brandao.

Round 2 - Knee lands hard for Brandao, but Elkins does land a punch in there somewhere. Two hard punches by Elkins now. Nice back elbow by Brandao. Brandao slips to the mat now and Elkins is on top. Elkins doing some good work on top now, landing a lot of good elbows and punches. Brandao lands a few elbows off his back. Elkins into mount now and he's landing huge shots. Elkins just won that round convincingly. 10-9 Elkins

Round 3 - Elkins lands a right hand now and gets a big takedown. Elkins working away from on top and now passes to full mount. Elkins is just busting up Brandao and dominating since the first round. After Elkins grinds away for a while, they get to standing and Brandao gets on top with a takedown. Not able to do enough to win back the round there. 10-9 Elkins makes it a draw on my card. I can see a draw, I can see an Elkins win, but a Brandao win would be a bit of a robbery.

Official scorecards: 29-28 across the board. Darren Elkins wins by unanimous decision.

Well, this is an unexpected story. UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste was arrested for domestic violence this morning at 7:30 AM according to TMZ. A search of the "in-custody inmates" at the clark county detention center shows that Arianny (Lopez in this case) is held on $3,000 bail with a hearing set for the 30th at 10:45 a.m.

There is no word on the victim of the battery, so speculation would be inappropriate.

One can only assume that she will not be working tonight's UFC 146 event, with duties likely falling to Brittney Palmer.

This is the latest in a very weird week for the UFC, which saw top star Jon Jones arrested for a DWI despite claims from him in the past that it was the last thing he'd ever do, and then word coming out that Jon had had his car towed previously for driving recklessly while on a suspended license after he was pulled over in a strip club parking lot.

We'll have more on the situation as details emerge.

Update: Yahoo! Sports' Maggie Hendricks got a quote from UFC president Dana White:

"Arianny is our baby. She has been with us for over five years. She is a good girl and an amazing ambassador for the UFC. I don't know all the details of what happened but we have her back and support her 100 percent," White told Yahoo! Sports.

It all comes down to this. The first "Ultimate Fighter Live" season will see the end of the fighters "in the house" with two semi-final bouts.

James Vick will face Michael Chiesa while Vinc Pichel takes on Al Iaquinta. Things worked out well from a "reality show" perspective as Vick and Pichel head into the semis representing "Team Cruz" while Chiesa and Iaquinta are a part of "Team Faber."

Last week's episode was the lowest rated episode in Ultimate Fighter history, so it will be interesting to see if the drama and "importance" of determining the finalists will lead to a bounce-back in the ratings.

Join in the comments here to talk about the action while it goes down and we'll update the post with the results of the fights.

And make sure you stick around Bloody Elbow this weekend for all the action from UFC 146, which goes down tomorrow (Saturday) night.

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Frankie Edgar is certainly familiar with the art of the rematch. After having edged out a narrow decision win over B.J. Penn to win the UFC lightweight title, Edgar granted Penn a rematch and earned a much more emphatic win. He then fought Gray Maynard to a draw in what was already a rematch, resulting in them fighting yet again, this time with Edgar earning the dramatic knockout victory.

Now, having lost an exciting, competitive fight with Ben Henderson, Edgar will be in the role of challenger receiving a second chance.

Frankie getting that rematch doesn't seem to sit well with Penn, who talked about the situation on MMA Uncensored Live (transcribed by MMA Mania):

Honestly, I don't think he should have [received a rematch]. He could make the case for it. He gave me a rematch. He had to give Gray (Maynard) the rematch, because they had a draw. I'd like to see Benson Henderson fight Nate Diaz. Fight someone else.

...

I got the rematch, some people say it was a close fight or not. Frankie's fight, I guess you could have made a case that he did well with Benson. But to me, I look at fights -- I don't know who took the guy down more. I don't look at stuff like that. Who woke up in the morning and who was in more pain? I think Frankie Edgar was hurt the next morning. Benson told me he (Edgar) had his 'stunner shades' on. I think he probably got hurt more.

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Since the announcement that, once Miguel Cotto was no longer an option, Tim Bradley would be the man to get a shot to knock off Manny Pacquiao, I've been extremely vocal that I think Bradley will win the fight. Bradley is young, physically capable, mentaly strong and eternally willing to "dirty it up" in a way that Pacquiao hasn't dealt with in ages. His power, or lack thereof, is an obvious issue (and likely part of the reason behind his selection) but I still like him to pull off the major upset.

But, when I'm truly honest with myself, I have to admit that there is probably more to it than simply looking ahead and parsing out what qualities make which fighter better at what aspects of a fight. While I do honestly think Bradley will win the fight, there is a big part of me that wants Tim to win the fight just to help blow the whole damn thing up.

I'd never pretend to follow the sport as closely as Scott, but I do keep up on things and watch every major broadcast, both out of a long standing love of boxing and an obligation to be able to help around BadLeftHook when needed. But when I'm really unleashed on boxing coverage is for the truly "major" fights, when I grind away with 50-100 posts in a week about Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather's latest fight for SBNation.com. I love it, it's one of my favorite parts of being a blogger. For some odd reason, there is a part of my brain that loves throwing myself into that level of coverage on one subject.

But a similar thing happens across all forms of media for those same fight. People who don't handle the daily boxing grind are thrown into the position to write about (or talk on TV about) boxing. Except these aren't even men and women who follow boxing on a casual level. And it leads to the thing boxing fans have come to dread...the endless discussions about Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.

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Today at 3 p.m. ET, Tim Bradley will participate in an open to the public and media workout in advance of his June 9 clash with Manny Pacquiao. That workout session will be streamed live online and you'll be able to watch it right here at Bad Left Hook.

I always want to mention that these media workouts are boring, but then I always end up sucked in and watching them anyway. Plus, it's at three in the afternoon on a Thursday. So, aside from whatever job you have, it's not like there are an overwhelming number of "better things" you could be doing (other than going outside and enjoying the weather or being productive).

The live stream of the workout can be found after the jump...

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission will be meeting today at 12 p.m. ET for a a commission meeting that will see a pair of items with significant impact to the UFC. A 28 item agenda will conclude with two items featuring some of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts as Chael Sonnen and Nick Diaz have their fates determined in different ways.

First up, Sonnen will be requesting a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy. After having been busted after his first meeting with Anderson Silva for elevated testosterone levels, Sonnen is trying to get everything in order prior to their UFC 148 rematch.

Nick Diaz's punishment should also finally be sorted out as he is finally on the agenda after a lengthy (and kind of stupid) process that saw his team as well as the NSAC seem to go to painstaking lengths to ensure nothing happened quickly or was done in anything resembling an orderly fashion.

Having covered a ton of these meetings previously, sometimes they run quickly, other times an agenda item or two take forever and, as such, those final two items may come up quickly, or after a lengthy discussion and then maybe a bathroom break.

We'll have a live video stream after the jump, so make sure you hang out here and talk about what happens.

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As a follow-up to this weekend's story of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones' arrest for driving while under the influence of alcohol, word began to leak of Jon having ran into some prior issues with the law while behind the wheel.

After seeing a report on Saturday of this incident, we awaited word from the Albuquerque Police Department and we now have confirmation that it was legitimate so we have provided a copy of the police report from a November 24, 2011 incident.

Jon was pulled over for flying around a corner in his car and losing traction before pulling into the parking lot of a "fully nude club" (Fantasy World).The police pulled him over in the parking lot and ran his license, they then realized it was suspended and, as a result, Jones' car was towed. The charges were dismissed in a March 8, 2012 trial (as pointed out by The MMA Corner).

Follow after the jump for more details and a PDF copy of the official police report.

Thanks to Luke Thomas for his assistance in confirming this report.

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When Dominick Cruz suffered a knee injury that forced him out of his UFC 148 bantamweight title defense rematch against Urijah Faber, fight fans lost an exciting fight from the upcoming schedule. The UFC hasn't let fans down though, as Dana White announced that Renan Barao will replace Cruz for the fight on tonight's episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live in a bout for the interim bantamweight title

The move was seen as slightly "spoiled" by some when Barao began sending tweets during the day reminding fans that Dana would be announcing Faber's new opponent tonight.

Still, Barao vs Faber is a very good, very competitive fight and with big wins over Brad Pickett and Scott Jorgensen, Barao has certainly earned his way into this major fight. Barao also holds a #3 ranking in the USA TODAY / SB Nation Consensus Rankings.

The bout will be the co-main event of UFC 148. The event is headlined by the UFC middleweight title rematch between champion Anderson Silva and his nemesis, Chael Sonnen.

Tonight sees yet another episode in the saga of this season's Ultimate Fighter Live and it should be an interesting one as not only are there going to be two fights on the show, but it's expected that Dana White will announce the replacement opponent for Urijah Faber following Dominick Cruz's injury. The two live fights see Vinc Pichel square off with Chris Saunders and Andy Ogle face Al Iaquinta.

The winners of those fights will make the semi-finals as we move closer to the finale of the season. Last week Michael Chiesa and James Vick punched their tickets to the semis and await word of what comes next.

We'll bring you updates of those two fights as well as news of whoever is announced as the man to face Faber.

So join in the discussion here in the comments and talk about all the lame pranks, big news and fights on tonight's show.

Vinc Pichel beats Chris Saunders by decision in the first fight of the evening.

Al Iaquinta knocks out Andy Ogle with a right elbow on the feet and hammerfists on the ground.

The highly anticipated June 23 rematch between Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz has already been pushed back once, and now it looks like it could be canceled completely. It is being reported by multiple sources that Berto has tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.

It is extremely likely that this will result in the fight being called off completely.

Here's a tweet with some information from MaxBoxing's Gabriel Montoya:

Berto, of course, works with Victor Conte, the notorious head of BALCO who was tied to PED use across multiple sports.

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Amir Sadollah's career has certainly stalled out. Since winning The Ultimate Fighter, Amir has struggled with steps up in competition and, in cases such as this past Saturday night's UFC on Fuel TV 3 card, struggle at times against even middling opposition.

It's been a disappointment for many UFC fans in many ways. After all, Amir won his season of TUF despite never having fought professionally, only having a 4-0 amateur fighting record when he started his time in the house. Beating Gerald Harris, Matt Brown and C.B. Dollaway (twice) to win the competition was a huge moment that seemed to cast Sadollah in the role of a mixed martial arts prodigy.

After beating unheralded Jorge Lopez by controversial, and quite boring, split decision on Saturday, many fans feel they have seen enough of the 31-year-old to write him off. Chad Dundas of ESPN still thinks fans should note the extreme circumstances of Amir's career:

It would be a little like playing a few touch football games, winning a televised punt, pass and kick contest and then, in your late 20s, getting a starting job in the NFL.

Could anyone succeed under those circumstances? Could anyone be reasonably expected to compete? And while they tried to compete, would a bunch of people sit around posting messages on Twitter about what a crappy job they were doing tackling Adrian Peterson? Because that's essentially what happens to Sadollah.

SBN coverage of UFC on FUEL TV 3

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Josh Thomson holds a win over Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, something only one other man on Earth can say. With that 2008 win, Thomson won the Strikeforce title, a belt that Gilbert won back in their rematch the following year.

Thomson will face Melendez for a third time this Saturday in the co-main event of Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier and he spoke to "TheSHOOT" about the fight and what it means for him:

Quote after the jump...

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier

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This past Saturday night, while watching ShoBox and talking with Scott Christ of BadLeftHook, I noticed a story bouncing around Twitter a little bit. Apparently, Manny Pacquiao had taken issue with Barack Obama's coming out in support of same-sex marriage.

Initially, I read the story on Digital Journal, which stated that Pacquiao had quoted Leviticus and the whole "they must be put to death" thing (I even started yelling about it on Twitter). As I talked to Scott about writing the story up for BadLeftHook while he continued the live coverage of ShoBox, I clicked through to the original story on Examiner.com and noticed that the quoting of Leviticus never really appeared to come from Manny, but rather was a weirdly written tangential point by the author. Oh, there were quotes about "putting God's law before that of man" and a kind of weird reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, but not so much on the Leviticus thing. Some people say that the original article had Manny quoting Leviticus, all I can say is that it never read that way to me.

I'd decided at that point that the story wasn't really a story. Pacquiao, a senator in the Philippines, has always had some pretty conservative stances. He opposes safe sex education and birth control, it's not exactly a shock that he'd oppose the idea of legalized same-sex marriage. Simply saying that it is against the will of God didn't make for a particularly compelling story, it's a stance that a good portion of the country falls on. It just didn't feel like a story to me, and given how much I love traffic, I can promise I'd have run Manny effectively saying that homosexuals should be put to death in a heartbeat.

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The future of UFC great B.J. Penn has been in a bit of doubt following his apparent retirement following his UFC 137 loss, when he said "Joe, this was probably the last time you'll see me in here. I can't keep performing at the top level. That's it Joe. I got a daughter and another daughter on the way, I don't want to go home looking like this. I'm done." Last month, UFC president Dana White said that despite having "heard some s**t" about Penn being retired, when he talked to B.J., he said that he was going to fight again.

There was also a story earlier this month where Dana said that he had tried to make a fight between Penn and Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez, but that Penn told him he wasn't fighting for a while.

Now it's Josh Koscheck who looks like he may have won the Penn lottery:

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