Get caught up with everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours with today’s edition of the Daily MMA review with notes from a new UFC main event being announced, Bellator fighters missing weight, more fight announcements and much more.
The News
1. A major lightweight fight between Jim Miller (24-4-1) and Donald Cerrone (23-6-1) was reported by the Press of Atlantic City to be the main event for a UFC card in Atlantic City on July 16th.
Both lightweights were successful in recent outings with Miller submitting Yancy Medeiros at UFC 172 last week, and Cerrone extended his winning streak to three two weeks ago with a submission victory of his own over Edson Barboza.
2. A pair of Bellator 118 main card fighters missed weight yesterday. Rafael Silva (21-3) weighed in at 136.9 for his interim bantamweight title fight with Joe Warren (10-3), and Sam Oropeza (11-2) weighed in at 172.4 for his welterweight fight with Andrey Koreshkov (15-1).
Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said in an interview with Jason Floyd that if Silva didn’t make weight on his second try, the only person that will be eligible to win the interim bantamweight title would be Joe Warren, and if Oropeza didn’t make weight on his second attempt, he would be withdraw from the Koreshkov fight and Justin Baesman would replace him.
Both fighters would not end up making weight and Bellator made the official announcement on late Thursday evening in a statement by Rebney.
3. A lightweight bout between Yosdenis Cedeno (9-3) and Jon Tuck (7-1) was announced for the UFC Fight Night card in Albuquerque on June 7th. In his last fight, Cedeno lost a split decision in his UFC debit against Ernest Chavez, while Tuck is looking to get back in the winners’ circle after a loss to Norman Parke in 2013 that regressed his UFC record to 1-1.
4. MMA Junkie reported earlier yesterday that Danny Mitchell (14-5) is out of his welterweight fight against Jingliang Li (8-2) on the May 24th UFC 173 card. The reason for Mitchell’s absence is due to an injury, and according to a follow-up report by MMA Junkie, Li will take on UFC newcomer David Michaud (7-0).
5. The UFC continued it’s battle against online piracy as it was announced that the promotion will be suing a 27-year-old Steven Messina for $32 million. Messina is alleged to have uploaded 141 different UFC events and asked for donations for his uploads. To read more details, check out this New York Post article on the situation.
6. The latest addition to the TUF 19 Finale card on July 6th was a lightweight fight that pits Kevin Lee (7-1) against Jesse Ronson (13-4). Lee lost a decision in his UFC debut against Al Iaquinta, and Ronson also remains winless in the UFC after two fights in the organization.
Stuff I Enjoyed
1. Jason Floyd is on the ground in Atlantic City for Bellator 118, and he conducted several informative interviews.
Here’s his interview with Bjorn Rebney where he discusses the Bellator 118 fighters that missed weight, Patricio Pitbull’s recent comments as well as several other topics. Also, here’s Jason’s interviews with Mike Mucitelli and Liam McGeary.
2. On MMA Junkie, Ben Fowlkes, Mike Bohn and Steven Marrocco wrote about MMA’s greatest overachievers.
3. In the last part of Bloody Elbow’s Trent Reinsmith’s series on Jim Miller in the lead-up to his UFC 172 bout, Miller talks about some of his recent fights as well as his future.
4. Speaking of concluding parts of riveting MMA articles, John S. Nash completed his pieces on “The Secret History of Strikeforce.”
5. Bleacher Report’s Scott Harris wrote about an athlete that could up being one of the best fighters on the planet.