**
Forbes reported this past week that Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta have sold their remaining equity in the UFC and are now full divested of the ownership stake in the company. Following last year’s massive sale in July of 2017, the brothers held onto approximately 5.8% of the promotion. Forbes reports that the remaining equity sale to WME-IMG was completed last month. Nether WME-IMG or the UFC have commented on the deal. Forbes added that the latest deal leaves the UFC valued at $5 billion dollars.
**The UFC has announced that a welterweight fight between Donald Cerrone and undefeated Darren Till will headline the Fight Night card on October 21st in Gdansk, Poland. Cerrone is coming off a pair of losses, including a decision loss to Robbie Lawler this past July. Till is 15-0-1 and is coming off decision wins over Jessin Ayari and Bojan Velickovic, who he just defeated last weekend at the UFC card in Holland.
**A middleweight fight between Elias Theodorou and Dan Kelly has been announced for the UFC’s return to Sydney, Australia on November 19th. Both were members of the TUF Nations season of Ultimate Fighter in 2014, with Theodorou winning the middleweight contract on the show. Theodorou has put together a 5-2 record inside the UFC and is coming off a decision loss to Brad Tavares this past July. Since joining the UFC after TUF, Kelly has gone 6-2, including a four-fight win streak that was ended by Derek Brunson this past June with a first round knockout by Brunson.
**The UFC has announced a flyweight fight between Tim Elliott and Justin Scoggins has been added to the UFC on FOX card on December 16th in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the MTS Centre.
**The UFC held their first card in the city of Edmonton this past Saturday night at Rogers Place. The show drew an announced sellout number of 16,232 and a gate of $2,028,307.14. This was a card that had minimal interest heading in considering the proximity to the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight two-weeks ago and hardly a marquee show from the UFC (although on paper, there were a lot of close fights and interesting match ups). Below are the results from the card:
*Kajan Johnson def. Adrian Martins by KO at 0:49 of Round 3 – The first round was extremely dull as Martins boxed Johnson against the cage but threw next to nothing. Johnson won the second round but it was not a marked difference from the first round and then Johnson landed a counter right hand behind the ear and Martins was out.
*Arjan Bhullar def. Luis Henrique by unanimous decision (29-28 all) – Bhullar was making his UFC debut and has come in with a lot of attention as a potential breakout fighter for the Indian and Canadian markets. Bhullar won the first two rounds and dropped the third round.
*Alex White def. Mitch Clarke by TKO at 4:36 of Round 2 – White’s striking was far superior with his range and loading up on combinations. White dropped him towards the end of Round 2 and got the stoppage. Clarke announced his retirement after the fight.
*Rick Glenn def. Gavin Tucker by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-24, 29-27) – This was a one-sided beating by Glenn and there was lots of criticism over the leniency of official Kyle Cardinal to allow the fight to keep going as long as it did. Tucker has defended Cardinal’s officiating but Tucker suffered tons of facial injuries and when you have a score like 30-24 (that is justifiable) that is typically a sign the fight went too long.
*Sarah Moras def. Ashlee Evans-Smith by armbar at 2:51 of Round 1 – Evans-Smith got side control and Moras regained guard, worked from underneath and eventually flipped Evans-Smith over for the armbar. Moras is very flexible and was never in danger once put on her back.
*Ketlen Vieira def. Sara McMann by arm-triangle choke at 4:16 of Round 2 – McMann won the first round and then was caught and taken down in the second round with Vieira on top and set up the fight-ending arm-triangle submission. This was a major win for Vieira and joins Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes as the only women to beat the Olympic silver medalist. McMann is about to turn 37 years old and this snapped a three-fight win streak and it was very possible that McMann could have received a title fight with a win here.
*Jeremy Stephens def. Gilbert Melendez by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-25) – The whole fight was controlled by Stephens administering tons of low leg kicks to the right leg of Melendez, who could hardly stand on the leg throughout the fight. Stephens looked tremendous with the leg kicks and mixing it up with his combinations to easily win all three rounds. There was a great argument to not send Melendez out for the third round, as he told his corner he was done but they convinced him to keep going.
*Ilir Latifi def. Tyson Pedro by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) – This will stall the momentum on Pedro, who came in undefeated and had never been out of Round 1. Pedro is only 25-years old and this will be a good learning experience for him to have under him.
*Henry Cejudo def. Wilson Reis by TKO at 0:25 of Round 2 – Cejudo’s striking has progressed significantly and it’s been evident for a while, but was on full display in this fight. Cejudo lit up Reis throughout the first round and then dropped him with a right hand to start Round 2 and got the finish with strikes. Cejudo says he wants to fight for the flyweight title again and made a hell of an argument for a rematch with Demetrious Johnson in this fight.
*Rafael dos Anjos def. Neil Magny by arm-triangle choke at 3:43 of Round 1 – RDA got Magny down with a leg kick and eventually worked to mount and then applied the submission. The welterweight division is low on contenders for Tyron Woodley and RDA has placed himself in a great spot with two wins since moving up from lightweight.
*Amanda Nunes def. Valentina Shevchenko by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) to retain the UFC bantamweight title – It was a close fight. It was even going into Round 5 and Nunes getting the pair of takedowns and taking the back of Shevchenko was the difference – not all that different from the first Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler fight at UFC 171, where it came down to Hendricks getting a takedown in the final minute and Lawler having a look on his face like he knew he just lost the fight based on the takedown. Shevchenko was very upset after the fight and complained when Joe Rogan interviewed her and could not fathom that she lost the fight. It is a tough spot for Shevchenko, who is 0-2 against Nunes and this is hardly a fight that did the business to warrant a rematch, even though Nunes doesn’t have an obvious contender next in line. The Edmonton crowd booed the fight at times and also chanted “Let’s Go Oilers”, this was hardly an awful fight and significantly better than the Tyron Woodley vs. Demian Maia fight in July.
**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Jeremy Stephens and Gilbert Melendez with the Performance bonuses handed out to Henry Cejudo and Rafael dos Anjos for $50,000 each.
**Gavin Tucker posted a statement on Monday morning following his loss to Rick Glenn. Tucker defended the discretion of referee Kyle Cardinal and gave the following update regarding the injuries he sustained in the fight:
I have four broken bones in my face. the first which started on the jaw in rd 1 and the fight went down for me from there. i have 2 fractured orbital and another vertical fracture in the jaw according to the x ray/CT scan. the heartbreak of losing hurts much worse. throughout the day i wiped alot of blood off my cheek and i can’t say for sure there weren’t some tears in there. I fought w blurred vision and 3 different Rick Glenns kicked the fuck out of me for the last two rds. (i tried to hit the one in the middle) congrats to my opponent. i hope you go far because i plan on seeing you again.
I fought my heart out. I’m a rare breed of straight savage and i don’t need social media to tell me that. however…i am appreciative of all the support i received on here. which is why I’m writing this. I have no excuses and won’t stand for anyone making them for me. that’s not how the north folk get it done.**Amanda Nunes is planning to have nasal surgery coming out of this fight (this has been an issue that has affected her in both the Ronda Rousey fight last December and was the reason she pulled out of the fight with Valentina Shevchenko this past July on the day of UFC 213) and doesn’t expect to fight until 2018. There are a lot of moving parts within the women’s bantamweight division as your next set of contenders would be Holly Holm (who could be going up to 145 if they can make the Cyborg fight) and Raquel Pennington. It will also be interesting to see if any of the top ranked bantamweights look at moving down to the newly-created flyweight division and could be an option for Shevchenko if she doesn’t believe a rematch is possible for the title.
**The UFC continues next Saturday with a Fight Night card in Pittsburgh featuring Luke Rockhold’s return against David Branch in the middleweight main event. This will be Rockhold’s first fight since dropping the middleweight title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199 in June 2016. This card is also going up against the second biggest boxing fight of the year with Gennady Golovkin fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez on HBO.
**Justin Ledet will be fighting this Saturday on the Fight Night card from Pittsburgh and has received a new opponent. Ledet was scheduled to fight Dmitry Sonsvskiy and he has been replaced by 36-year old Azunna Anyanwu, who has a 14-4 record. Anyanwu defeated Greg? Rebello on the inaugural edition of “Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender’s Series” with a second-round knockout.