Filed under: UFC, News

MMAFighting.com has complete UFC on Versus 2 weigh-in results of the Aug. 1 UFC card in San Diego featuring a main event between rising star Jon Jones and former IFL champion Vladimir Matyushenko.

Jones and Matyushenko both checked in at 206 pounds to make their light heavyweight bout official.

The rest of the weigh-in results are below.

Filed under: UFC, Videos

All 20 fighters participating in Sunday's UFC on Versus fight card will step on the scale Saturday for the weigh-in, and if you can't be there in person at the San Diego Sports Arena, you can watch live right here at MMAFighting.com.

In the main event, Jon Jones and Vladimir Matyushenko will both need to make the 205-pound light heavyweight limit, with a one-pound buffer for a non-title fight.

The weigh-in starts Saturday at 7PM ET and will be preceded by a Fight Club Q&A at 5PM ET. The video is below.

Filed under: UFC

Let's face it, UFC on Versus 2 is not the most star-studded fight card the UFC has ever rolled out, even on cable TV. You've got also-rans taking on almost-weres, and has-beens facing off against probably-won't-ever-bes.

That means several men will most likely be fighting for their jobs on Sunday night, and the Cut List is here to tell you who they are and what their chances for continued employment look like. Let's start from the televised portion of the card and work our way down:

Filed under: UFC

A slow July for mixed martial arts has finally passed, and now August is finally upon us, a month so jam-packed with MMA action that it will be hard to keep up with it all. First up is UFC Live on Versus 2, a solid fight card on basic cable with Jon Jones taking on Vladimir Matyushenko in the main event. We've got the full preview and predictions below.

Filed under: UFC, WEC, FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, News

An attorney for the Bellator Fighting Championships is confident a lawsuit filed against the promotion and MMA agent Ken Pavia by Zuffa LLC will prove to be little cause for concern - ultimately.

As first reported by Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole on Thursday, Zuffa, parent company of the UFC and WEC, filed a suit against Bellator and Pavia, as well as unnamed co-defendants, in Clark County (Nev.) District Court claiming Pavia gave proprietary documents to Bellator on request from Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney.

The suit alleges Bellator and Pavia were conspiring to essentially steal trade secrets from Zuffa through the exchange of confidential documents in e-mails. Pavia, head of the MMA Agents representation firm, handles dozens of MMA fighters, including many under the Zuffa umbrella.

Speaking to MMA Fighting on Friday, Rebney said the promotion's attorney, Patrick English, had instructed him to not discuss the suit publicly. And Pavia, also reached Friday, said he, too, was unable to discuss the pending litigation.

But English said he believes if the two sides come together, Zuffa's concerns will be alleviated.

As another slow Friday afternoon squeezes what's left out of your will to work, enjoy some links to articles by our friends around the internet.

- Forrest Griffin ready to begin book tour. (Heavy)

- Japanese Shane Carwin looks surprisingly like real Shane Carwin. (Middle Easy)

- War Machine speaks from behind cell walls. (Watch Kalib Run)

- Dana White previews UFC on Versus 2. (Versus)

- Dan Hardy talks Paul Daley and Josh Koscheck. (Fight Magazine)

- Impact FC hasn't paid fighters; promoters blame each other. (Cage Potato)

- Ben Rothwell out nine months with torn ACL. (Five Ounces of Pain)

- If you love 'Inception,' you'll love this Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva promo. (MMA Scraps)

- Mark Munoz credits instinct for win over Kendall Grove. (Low Kick)

- 'Inside MMA' welcomes Sarah Kaufman, King Mo, and Gene LeBell. (MMA Convert)

- MMA arguments that will split up your family. (Ultimate Fighter)

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, News

A year ago, Jon Jones was what you might call an up-and-comer in the MMA world. He had a couple UFC wins under his belt, mostly on the unaired prelims of pay-per-view cards, and primarily against middle of the pack opponents. He'd only been in the sport for a little over year, and people were just starting to come around to the idea that he was someone worth watching.

All that's changed now. After demolishing Matt Hamill (okay, so he lost via disqualification, but we all saw where that fight was headed) and then Brandon Vera, he has since been officially upgraded from up-and-comer to bright prospect. Instead of asking if he might one day fight for a title, fans have started asking when.

The hype is growing, and with it, the expectations. Only now that Jones has got the MMA world's attention, he's not entirely certain that he wants it.

Filed under: UFC, News

Based on the success of its first two Fan Expos in the United States and high hopes for its third next month, the UFC on Friday made official a Fan Expo in London for October.

The first two UFC Fan Expos were in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The first was held in conjunction with UFC 100 in July 2009. A second was held leading up to UFC 114 in May. And prior to UFC 118 in Boston next month, the UFC will hold its first fan event on the East Coast.

The London UFC Fan Expo will be Oct. 15-16 in advance of UFC 120: Bisping vs. Akiyama and will take place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, News

Phil Baroni has never been known to hide his emotions, and when MMA Fighting contacted "The New York Bad Ass" to discuss his recent collarbone injury, which forced him to pull out of his UFC 118 fight against John Salter, Baroni provided one of his more heartfelt interviews to date.

Like many other fighters in a similar position, Baroni clearly recognizes that he is at a crossroads in his career. But his brutal honesty concerning his current status in the sport and what he needs to survive in the UFC is something you don't often hear from professional fighters.

The 13-12 veteran has experienced his fair share of highs and lows, and it seemed he viewed this August fight as the beginning of his final run in the UFC. Unfortunately, a freak injury got in the way, and as he explains in the interview below, the 33-year-old has been forced to take a deep look within himself to see if he still has what it takes to hang with the best middleweights in the world.

Check out the interview below.

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive

The first thing John Williams wants you to know about his record-breaking MMA fight this past weekend is, it wasn't a gimmick. It wasn't a novelty act, some cheap ploy to sell tickets or attract headlines.

Well, maybe attracting the headlines was important, but for a good reason.

The 70-year-old from New Brunswick, Canada became the oldest person to ever compete in a professional MMA bout when he took on 49-year-old former pro wrestler Larry Brubaker on July 24 in Moncton. On paper it sounds like a carnival act, but the fight was serious business, Williams said, done to prove a serious point.

"I was trying to bring attention to the fact that when a person becomes a senior, society kind of pushes them out of the loop. The attitude toward them is that they're dumb, they can't do anything, physically they're just vegetables, and they're sort of shunned by society," Williams told MMA Fighting. "I wanted to find a way to show that life isn't over at 55 or 60 years old. You're not useless or obsolete. We live in a use-oriented society, and you get told that enough that even you start to believe you're useless."

Filed under: UFC

It's easy to forget that Wanderlei Silva is only 34 years old. After the wars he's been in, competing in over 40 pro fights over the course of a 14-year career, he seems to have the body (and the scar tissue) of a much older man. But as this oddly touching video documenting his recent knee surgery shows, he also has the wisdom of someone far beyond his mid-thirties.

The occasion of the surgery seems to bring out the reflective side of "The Axe Murderer." He thinks back to his childhood spent working in his parents' bar and his days as a young, poor fighter before making it big.

As Silva points out, "Who sees Wanderlei Silva today, with all the marketing, with a good gym and getting paid well to fight, they don't know the difficulties I went through. I went through a lot of hardships in my life."

Filed under: News

Just seven months after its official launch and less than a year in operation, Form Athletics has been acquired by sneaker giant K-Swiss.

Form Athletics is an athletic apparel company based in Laguna Beach, Calif. co-founded by former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber and is most visible in the MMA scene through Faber's involvement with the brand.

Filed under: UFC, News

The UFC's return to London on Oct. 16 will be televised on Spike TV on a same-day, tape-delay basis and is slated to feature at least five bouts, the basic cable network announced Thursday morning.

The UFC has assembled its who's who of top British fighters for this UFC 120 event at the O2 Arena. The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Michael Bisping, former No. 1 welterweight contender Dan Hardy, rising star John Hathaway and The Ultimate Fighter 9 winner James Wilks are all competing on the main card.

Filed under: UFC, News

When Vladimir Matyushenko looks across the Octagon at Jon Jones on Sunday night, he'll see an opponent who's younger, bigger and faster. He'll see a fighter who's been all but officially anointed as the next big thing in the UFC light heavyweight division. He'll see a fighter who is essentially undefeated in a little over two years of competition, and one who is a 6-1 favorite with online oddsmakers.

None of this, of course, is news to Matyushenko. He knew what he was getting into when he accepted the fight, though the decision to do so wasn't automatic.

"I won't say I hesitated, but I thought about it for a few days and had a team meeting with my coaches and teammates," Matyushenko told MMA Fighting. "When it comes to a fight, if [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva gives you something, that's the offer. I don't think it's right to try and pick fights, say, 'I want to fight this guy or just new guys.' No, to be in this sport you have to be willing to fight the best. That's what I'm here to do."

Filed under: Strikeforce, News

Ryan Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, has signed a multi-fight contract with Strikeforce and will make his professional MMA debut at Strikeforce Challengers 10 on Aug. 13 in Phoenix, AZ.

Randy Couture first revealed the signing Monday to ESPN's MMA Live and Strikeforce has since confirmed the bout details.

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, Strikeforce

Newer fans of mixed martial arts know Jason "Mayhem" Miller as the goofy guy who hosts Bully Beatdown, not as a bully himself. Even when Miller instigated a brawl at the end of Strikeforce's last CBS show, it came across more like a prank gone bad than an attempt to pick a fight. And in the clip above, Miller decries Nick Diaz for making MMA fighters look like "thugs."

But it wasn't that long ago that Miller had a reputation as one of the thugs in MMA. He was placed on probation for beating someone up in a bar and later charged (and acquitted) with first-degree burglary. Miller doesn't talk about that part of his past very often, but he opens up about it to Michael Schiavello in an interview that will air on HDNet Friday night.

Filed under: UFC

As James Toney talks up his UFC 118 fight with Randy Couture, he makes so many outlandish, over-the-top comments that you're never sure how much of it he actually believes and can back up in the Octagon, how much is a delusional overestimation of his own boxing skill and underestimation of Couture's MMA skill, and how much is pure hype that he doesn't believe for a minute.

But whatever the case, it's always entertaining.

In a live chat with MMAFighting.com, Toney belittled the punching prowess of MMA fighters in general and Couture's striking in particular, and he said that while he admires Couture for having the, um, guts to fight him, he doesn't think anyone in MMA can touch him standing up.

Filed under: Strikeforce, News

Just two weeks before its first women's tournament, Strikeforce might be losing one of its competitors.

There have been reports that Carina Damm, of Brazil, is having a hard time getting her visa secured so she can travel to Phoenix for the Aug. 13 welterweight (135 pounds) tournament, and Strikeforce spokesman Mike Afromowitz confirmed that speculation on Wednesday night in an e-mail to members of the media.

Damm is scheduled to be one of four participants in the tournament, which will be held at Phoenix's Dodge Theatre as part of a Strikeforce Challengers event that will air live on Showtime. The main event of the card is a 182-pound catchweight bout between Joe Riggs and Louis Taylor.

Damm (15-3) hasn't fought outside her native Brazil in more than two years. She has a 10-fight winning streak.

Recently the Maximum Fighting Championship organization sent out a press release with a quote from lightweight champ and MMA vet Antonio McKee, who vowed to retire if his upcoming fight with Luciano Azevedo on Sept. 10 goes to a decision. This raised some eyebrows around the MMA world, because if there's one thing McKee (24-3-2) is known for aside from his dominating wrestling-based style, it's winning decisions.

McKee likes to point out that he hasn't lost since his 2003 defeat via decision against Karo Parisyan, but during the unbeaten streak that consisted of thirteen wins and one draw, all but two of those fights went to the judges' scorecards.

With that kind of track record, is the 40-year-old McKee really willing to wager his career on his ability to finish the very tough Azevedo, or is this all a publicity stunt? To find out, I sat down for a conversation with the always outspoken lightweight.