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Chael Sonnen’s Testosterone treatments a medical necessity July 2, 2012
After Chael Sonnen’s UFC 117 fight with Anderson Silva, he was suspended for not properly disclosing his use of TRT, Testosterone Replacement Therapy. Since that incident, he has been going through the proper disclosure process and has once again received a medial exeption by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his UFC 148 rematch with Anderson. There are some that say that TRT is cheating, that it is nothing more than legalized steroids. Chael responds “I don’t have an option. I either take this medicine or die”. Hypogonadism is a real medical condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough testosterone and prior steroid abuse only accounts for a small portion of the cases; Chael’s condition is caused by a genetic disorder. TRT has become a blessing to many men suffering from this condition, including professional athletes. Used in proper does and with proper monitoring by a physician, TRT only raises testosterone levels to normal levels. Chael says that as part of his exemption he is paying for blood tests to prove that he isn’t abusing the TRT. “I’ve taken four so far and they’ll do a day before and a morning after test as well”. No matter what the critics try to tell everyone, rest assured the NSAC will ensure that Chael is taking on Anderson without any competitive advantage other than the hard work that he puts in at the gym.










K-1 still isn’t paying its fighters  June 2, 2012
Kick boxing promoter K-1 spent the last couple years in financial ruin, with fighters claiming they weren’t getting paid. This year, the franchise was bought out by a Korean investor and EMCOM, and they put on their first show back in May in Madrid, Spain. Everybody thought this was a new start for K-1 but the show was actually being handled by Simon Rutz and his Its Showtime brand, the old owners. Rutz claims to have been putting on the show for the new owners who never paid him the money that they agreed upon, causing only 2 fighters to get paid for the May show, the two that demanded the money up front. Now it is the IT’s Showtime logo that is being sold off by Rutz. He has agreed to sell the company to Glory Sports International, and says that the sell makes sense for the sport. Glory Sports is planning to combine the best kick boxers into one organization and are prepared to spend the money needed to bring the sport back to prominence. Rutz believes that the Korean investor for K-1 isn’t paying his employees and wasn’t able to find another co-investor, so there is no way that he can come up with the 1 million dollar purse for the winner of the K-1 World Grand Prix Final, thus leaving Glory as future home for top level kickboxing.








Dana White announces UFC officially heading to China  July 3, 2012
Just minutes ago, Dana White announces via twitter “We finally got China done! We’re headed to Macau in November!!!” In November, the UFC hired Mark Fischer, a former NBA executive, and opened up an office in Asia. Dana has been promising a China event and Ultimate Fighter China reality show for some time now. A few months ago, he announced that the deal was really close, and today he made it official. Macau is a former Portuguese colony on the east side of China, across the River Delta from Hong Kong. This region of China depends heavily on gambling and tourism.








Rich Franklin on cover of Fighter’s Only Magazine June 6, 2012
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin’s training camp was cut short 2 weeks, moving from UFC 148 up to headline UFC 147. Now, while the UFC 148 fighters are cutting weight for tonight’s weigh-ins, Rich Franklin is able to spend time with the fans at the UFC Fan expo, and get in a photo shoot for Fighters Only Magazine. He announced to this twitter fans that he is telling his story and will be on the cover of either the September or October edition.







UFC head to Russia soon July 7, 2012
UFC president Dana White and M-1 Global, the high profile Russian MMA promotion, have had an ongoing public feud, but that isn’t going to stand in the way of the UFC. At the UFC 148 post fight press conference, Dana was asked about the possibility of putting on a show in Russia, “I don’t know how I’d do in Russia. I’m joking, It’s funny you say that. We’re taking an event to Russia very soon. Very soon. Sooner than you would think.”










Chael Sonnen to appeal to NSAC July 9, 2012
Sports writer Jonathan Snowden broke the news today that Scott McQuarry, Chael Sonnen’s head coach, plans to appeal the UFC 148 fight between Chael and Anderson Silva. They believe that the knee strike that Anderson Silva threw was illegal, that the intent was to knee the face, that it did strike Chael in the face, that he got eight stitches and he bit his tongue. They are also claim that Anderson grabbed the cage at the point of impact. His camp intends to appeal and have the fight ruled a not contest.



Dana White reveals TUF Smashes coaches July 11, 2011
Shortly after the Fuel TV 4 event tonight, UFC president Dana White gave Fuel TV an exclusive interview where he revealed the coaches for the upcoming Ultimate Fighter Smashes show. “The coaches are Pearson and Sotiropoulos”. When asked whether or not they will fight at the end, Dana said that they would. Ultimate Fighter Smashes will pit the United Kingdom up against Australia. Ross Pearson won season 9 of the Ultimate Fighter when his UK teammates took on team USA. George Sotiropoulos was a contestant on season 6 of the Ultimate Fighter. Dana White had previously indicated that shortly after the conclusion of tonight’s show, he was getting on a plane and headed to Australia to begin filming.









TUF season 16 to be coached by Nelson and Carwin July 12, 2012
Dana White gave a USA Today a peek into Season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter. The UFC will be casting 32 welterweights to fight for 16 available spots in the Ultimate Fighter House for season 16. The two 8 man teams will be coached by heavyweight contenders Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson and Shane Carwin. Taping for the show will begin next month and will air on FX in September. Roy Nelson won Season 10 of the Ultimate fighter and is coming off a win at UFC 146 against Dave Herman. Shane Carwin was been out of competition for over a year and coming off back to back losses to Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar. The two coaches will fight in the live finale.








UFC 150 to include Donald Cerrone and Melvin Guillard  July 13, 2012
UFC officials have just announced an addition to the UFC 150 card that takes place next month in Denver, Colorado. After his last fight, Donald ‘cowboy’ Cerrone was practically begging the UFC to put him on the Denver card, and it appears that the UFC made his wish come true. He will compete in the co-main event against fellow lightweight Melvin ‘the young assassin’ Guillard. Cerrone is coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Jeremy Stephens back in May. This will be a quick turnaround for Guillard who just beat Fabricio Camoes via unanimous decision last weekend at UFC 148.










Flyweight title and Stann vs Bisping added to UFC 152 July 14, 2012
UFC 152 is scheduled to take place September 22, 2012 in Toronto Canada. The four man flyweight tournament will come to a close and the first every UFC flyweight champion will be crowned, as Joseph Benavidez takes on Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson. Johnson beat Ian McCall last month in a rematch of their March fight that was incorrectly scored a victory for Johnson, but was in reality a draw. Benavidez has been waiting on the sidelines since March, when he scored a TKO victory over Yasuhiro Urushitani. Middleweight contenders Brian Stann and Michael Bisping recently both pulled out of fights due to injury, and have now signed on to face each other in September. Bisping compiled a 4 fight win streak before losing a unanimous decision to Chael Sonnen back in January. Brian Stann also lost to Chael Sonnen, but has since rebounded with a KO victory over Alessio Sakara in April.








Rachelle Leah returns for UFC 149 July 18, 2012
UFC Octagon girl, Rachelle Leah informed her twitter followers today that she is returning to her former job this weekend at UFC 149 when the UFC puts on its first show in Calgary, Canada. The 27 year old Leah has been modeling professionally since she was 18 years old, making her start as a model for Ford Motor Company, and only a year later was discovered by the UFC. Although she took a break from her octagon girl duties, she continued to host UFC All Access on Spike TV. She made a brief return to the octagon in 2010. Leah has also hosted other Spike TV shows such as NYC Bartenders and TVs Women of Action and been featured in Maxim, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, and Playboy magazines.











Nick Diaz ends retirement      July 27, 2012
Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz’s coach and manager just announced on the team’s website that Nick wants to return to MMA. “For the last couple of months I’ve watched Nick begin to frequent the gym more and more. He’s training harder now than he has for many of his fights. It was obvious that training and fighting is in his DNA. It is who he is. This week we had a great talk and he made it clear to me that he is ready to get back to the cage. Nick Diaz will return.”
After his February 4th fight with Carlos Condit, Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites on his post fight drug test. In May, he received a one year suspension, retroactive back to the February test. Cesar Gracie says that they have appealed Diaz’s suspension to the courts and if everything goes as they plan, he may be able to fight later this year. With Anderson Silva’s camp wanting a catch weight fight with GSP, who has a fight scheduled with Condit, Nick is offering to go up to the 185lb Middleweight division and take on Anderson.