Vince Russo

Because nothing has the voice of moral authority like a man facing a two year suspension for failing a drug test. And if you're going to complain about Punk being in the UFC, at least be fair and make the same point about Mickey Gall, who no more belongs in the UFC than Punk does, and wouldn't even be there if they didn't need the absolute lowest pro fighter they could find so that Punk had a remote chance of not being destroyed inside of thirty seconds.

Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone is confirmed for UFC 205 at MSG. Ray Borg is off this weekend's UFC 203 due to illness. UFC 202 (Diaz vs. McGregor 2) looks to have edged out their first fight as being the biggest drawing UFC PPV of all time. And UFC is aiming for Conor vs. Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205. Great to see Lawler and Cerrone confirmed, because that should be an exciting fight while it lasts, and I don't see it going the distance. I'm not entirely surprised to see how big UFC 202 was, and it guarantees, as if there was any doubt, that we'll see a third fight between them at some point. Conor vs. Alvarez is not a shock, especially with how Conor has reaffirmed his status as the biggest draw the company has and it's natural that they'd want to load up the MSG debut as much as possible.

UFC's MSG debut, UFC 205, will see Thiago Alves vs. Al Iaquinta, and it's looking like we'll be getting Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero too, and there's even talk of Donald Cerrone fighting Robbie Lawler. They are loading that card up with fights that should be exciting. All it needs is that one big money fight to put it over the top, and UFC 205 will be the next in the line of 'biggest shows of the year'.

Whether Jones is out for six months or two years, I expect his next fight to be non-title, because I think the UFC will want him to prove he can be trusted before putting him in a title fight again. If this was Jones first strike, he probably would walk right back into a title fight, but this was his second strike, officially, and it screwed up the biggest UFC event of all time, so I think the UFC will want him to jump through some hoops before he fights for the title again. What can I say; I find Ryan Bader to be very boring. If the fight doesn't end quickly, Bader has this remarkable ability to suck all the excitement out of a fight. Prior to getting knocked out by Anthony Johnson, Bader had five straight fights go to a decision, and they ranged from boring to excruciatingly dull. There were no highlights to speak of, no moments where the fight almost ended; there was nothing worthy of being on any highlight reel. Bader can occasionally produce something exciting, but those moments are rare, and in many ways, Ryan Bader is the perfect embodiment of Saturday night; long periods of boredom punctuated by brief moments of excitement.

Ryan Bader delivering the highlight of the night tells you all you need to know about the latest Fight Night. It was long periods of boredom punctuated by brief moments of excitement.

Demian Maia put the exclamation mark on his claim for a title shot by walking right through Carlos Condit. The only problem is that Stephen Thompson has already earned the next shot at the welterweight title, at least in theory; whether he actually gets that shot remains to be seen, because if GSP does return. he'll almost certainly face Woodley for the title. If that happens, it would make sense for Thompson and Maia to be the co main event, so they can fight for the chance to face the winner, and also so the UFC can plug either one of them into the main event if GSP or Woodley get hurt.

Yes, He was quite pleased about it, too. UFC quickly had him dialling back on his comments because they knew how it sounded.

It's remarkable but not surprising that people conveniently find a way to disregard morality when someone they don't like is on the receiving end of scumbag behaviour. If Bisping does the same thing to Henderson in the rematch, those same people will just as quickly regain their morality and start calling for Bisping to be fined, suspended, or even fired.

It wasn't just a punch, Henderson threw; it was a leaping, diving hammerfist, giving it so much more power. If Bisping returned the favour, I would not feel any sympathy at all for Henderson

Stargate Atlantis. Cancelled way too soon, forcing them to write a finale that was too rushed and too overloaded, even with so much left out.

I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see Nate getting the second round because, although he was dominated for four minutes and knocked down, Nate always got right back up and never looked like he was rocked or was dazed. Yet when Nate took over on Conor in the final minute, Conor looked to be in worse shape than Nate had been. Conor was pressed up against the fence, he was getting rocked, and he was taking a barrage of punches with little defence. I can see why a judge would look at that and say, from a visual perspective, that Nate did more in this one minute than Conor did in his four.

It was a fight that could have gone to either Conor or Nate, and it could even have been called a draw, so any claims that one man definitively could or could not have won, are way off the mark. Conor should defend his title next. Whether he will, is another matter entirely.

That Johnson fellow packs a hell of a punch, doesn't he? It was a very competitive fight, but Conor did enough to win. He might not have finished Nate, but only two people have, so there's no shame in not doing so. Conor was tiring late in the second and it allowed Nate to get into the fight, and whilst Conor seemed to find a second wind, welterweight is still a weight class too much for Conor to fight at his best for the whole fight. I'd like to see Conor defend the featherweight title against Aldo, and we'll probably get that fight next, and probably what happens in that fight will decide when we get Conor and Diaz again, because if Conor wins, I think he'll make another play for a shot at the lightweight title.

It was very interesting. I thought Punk came off very well, in that he's clearly taking this seriously and this isn't some kind of joke or something he's doing just to see if he can do it. Punk is determined to do the best he can. It was his first couple of weeks of training so he obviously didn't look good in a lot of the things he did, but with his drive and determination, I think Punk is going to end up surprising people. Not that I think he'll win, but I think he's going to look like a very competent fighter, and given that most people were or are expecting him to look like shit, being competent is not that bad. In any event, I respect the man for not just taking a risk but in putting in the effort to make the most of the opportunity he's been given. Punk's debut comes in the middle of a very busy period for the UFC, as UFC 202 marks the start of nine consecutive weekend's of events

UFC's debut at MSG looks to have its first fight; get ready for the fun and excitement of Rashad Evans fighting Tim Kennedy.

UFC 204 has been confirmed for October 8th in Manchester, with Michael Bisping defending the middleweight title against Dan Henderson. It'll start at 11pm with the main card starting at 3am so that it fits in the usual PPV window in the states. Other fights also taking place that night; Gegard Mousasi v Vitor Belfort Jimi Manuwa v Ovince Saint Preux Stefan Struve v Ruslan Magomedov Brad Pickett v Iuri Alcantara Davey Grant v Damian Stasiak Adriano Martins v Leonardo Santos

John Dodson vs. John Lineker is the main event of UFC Fight Night 96 on October 1st in Portland, OR. That should be a great fight.

I think they'll put it on first on the PPV to get it out of the way and then put two fights that they think will be exciting right after it so that whatever bad taste the fight may leave is long gone before the co-main event and main event roll around.

Ben Rothwell is out of his UFC 203 fight against Fabricio Werdum due to injury. Taking his place is Travis Browne.

The GSP return moves one step closer to reality as he has entered the USADA testing pool. GSP was offered the same exemption that Brock Lesnar received, but he insisted on undergoing the standard four months of testing before being able to fight again. Four months of testing would likely put his return, if it happens, on the final major show of the year, which is usually one of the bigger events of the year.

I'm sure Phillipe Nover was the toughest test they could give to a Brazilian fighting in Brazil who struggled in his last fight and needs a win to stay relevant. I'm sure Antonio Silva, a man who has been KO'd or TKO'd in four of his last five fights, was put against Roy Nelson as an honest test to see where Silva is and not because of the exceedingly high chance of a knockout win for Nelson. I'm sure Mike Jackson was literally plucked from the ranks of MMA journalists and put against Mickey Gall because the UFC wanted to give Gall a big test to see if he was worthy of facing CM Punk. I'm sure they put virtual unknown Vaughan Lee against Norifumi Yamamoto's in order to give Yamamoto a big test on his first fight in Japan in almost two years. I guess it's lucky nobody is given a win in the UFC, or one might think the instances I've mentioned and others like them were UFC stacking the odds to get a certain result.

Some interesting fights have been made. Jimi Manuwa vs. Ovince Saint Preux and Stefan Struve vs. Ruslan Magomedov have been added to UFC 204, set to take place in England on October 8th, and apparently where Bisping vs. Henderson will take place. Manuwa is a gatekeeper type, so this looks to be OSP being given a win after losing to Jon Jones. Struve vs. Magomedov could go either way, depending on whether Struve's comeback is more than just a quick knockout of the easily knocked out Bigfoot. According to reports from Brazil, Cris Cyborg is in the main event of UFC Fight Night 95, which takes place on September 24th in Brazil, and she'll be fighting Lina 'Elbow Princess' Lansberg. Also on that card, Renan Barao will be fighting Phillipe Nover. It's rather obvious those fights have been made with the intention of giving the home town fighters a big win in front of their countrymen. Cyborg should come through, and Barao should beat Nover, but Barao didn't look good in his return to featherweight against Jeremy Stephens, so we'll see.

They let Ed Herman fight because his fights are generally exciting or they have an exciting finish. He's fairly tough and durable; like @Cymbols said, this is only the second time he's been finished by strikes, so he makes an excellent gatekeeper for fighters moving up the card. If you're having fights like Ed Herman has, UFC aren't letting you go unless you really hit the skids, and even then, they can sometimes give you one last chance. Look at Jake Ellenberger. The guy was 1-5 in his six fights prior to Saturday, and even though he was putting on exciting fights or having exciting finishes, the UFC still cut him. But he begged for one more chance, they gave it to him, and he went ahead and became the first person to stop Matt Brown via strikes. And for all the reasons above, even though Brown is now 1-4 in his last five fights, he'll probably be another fighter kept around when most think, just looking at his record, he should be gone.

Lawler got cracked good and proper. Woodley probably faces Stephen Thompson next, or Nick Diaz if Woodley forces the issue. The ideal opponent next to rehab Lawler is Johny Hendricks because it's got built in interest due to it being the trilogy fight, and it's a fight that Lawler should win. Jake Ellenberger looking good in stopping Matt Brown. It's one thing to submit Brown but this is the first time he's been stopped with strikes. I'd like to see Ellenberger against the winner of Rick Story vs. Donald Cerrone. Overall, UFC 201 was pretty good.

Holm looked good against Tate and was winning, but she did show weakness, in that whilst she has good takedown defence, if you can actually get her on the ground and keep here there, she has real trouble defending if you get her back. Shevchenko also showed the blueprint to beat Holm, which is don’t rush in and give her the chance to play counterstriker, which is where Ronda blundered, and it’ll be interesting to see if she’s able or willing to change up if she ever returns.