It doesn’t seem possible that three days in a row in October would have significant days in history, but none-the-less, they do. Today’s history lesson features WEC 24 for a very special reason. The rest of the report includes an update on Dana White’s Meniere’s disease, Joe Silva talks about cutting DaMarques Johnson, and Bellator 76 news and sound bites. All that can be listened using the player below or download it for later listening on your iPod.

Today’s edition of MMARecap’s Morning Commute features one of the coolest day’s in history going all the way back to 2003. In addition to the history lesson, the stories of the day include Jeremy Stephens’s bail has been set, Jon Fitch talking about the financial stability in MMA, Mark Munoz and Travis Browne give updates on their injuries and DaMarques Johnson got cut from the UFC. Give it a listen in the player below, or download it for a future listen.

The UFC’s return trip to England was filled with spectacular fights and finishes. Headlining the night of action was a heavyweight showdown between Stefan Struve and Stipe Miocic. The co-main event featured the hometown hero Dan Hardy taking on Amir Sadollah.

When it was all said and done, four fighters earned an extra $40,000 for their efforts inside the cage. Brad Pickett picked up the Knockout of the Night award, Matt Wiman earned the Submission of the Night award, and main event fighters Struve and Miocic earned the coveted Fight of the Night.

Quick Results
Stefan Struve defeated Stipe Miocic by technical knockout at 3:50 of round 2
Dan Hardy defeated Amir Sadollah by unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 30-27
Brad Pickett defeated Yves Jabouin by knockout at 3:40 of round 1
Matt Wiman defeated Paul Sass by armbar at 3:48 of round 1
John Hathaway defeated John Maguire by unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-27
Che Mills defeated Duane Ludwig by verbal submission at 3:28 of round 1
Jimi Manuwa defeated Kyle Kingsbury by doctors stoppage at 5:00 of round 2
Akira Corassani defeated Andy Ogle by split decision 28-29, 30-27, 29-28
Brad Tavares defeated Tom Watson by split decision 30-27, 29-29, 29-28
Gunnar Nelson defeated DaMarques Johnson by rear naked choke at 3:34 of round 1
Robbie Peralta defeated Jason Young by technical knockout at 0:23 of round 1

The weigh-ins for tomorrow’s UFC on Fuel TV 5 took place earlier today and almost everyone was on weight. Late replacement DaMarques Johnson however was seven pounds over the limit for his catchweight 175lb preliminary bout.

Both fighters agreed to still fight with the difference in weight, though Johnson will forfeit 20% of his fight purse to his opponent Gunnar Nelson.

The weigh-ins took place at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England, the same venue where the fights will take place. The event airs live starting at 4pm EST on Fuel TV with preliminary action streaming on facebook at 1pm.

The full weigh-in results include:
Stipe Miocic 239 vs Stefan Struve 251
Dan Hardy 169 vs Amir Sadollah 169
Yves Jabouin 136 vs Brad Pickett 135
Paul Sass 156 vs Matt Wiman 156
John Hathaway 169 vs John Maguire 169
Duane Ludwig 169 vs Che Mills 170
Kyle Kingsbury 204 vs Jimi Manuwa 204
Akira Corassani 144 vs Andy Ogle 144
Brad Tavares 185 vs Tom Watson 1856
DaMarques Johnson 183 vs Gunnar Nelson 175
Robert Peralta 144 vs Jason Young 145

 

MMA Recap’s Mike Finch is live on the scene at UFC on FOX Shogun vs Vera reporting live updates. Stay tuned for live results and check in tomorrow for complete play-by-play of the event.

John Moraga defeated Ulysses Gomez via Knockout at 3:46 in round one

Manny Gamburyan defeated Michihiro Omigawa via Unanimous Decision

Phil De Fries defeated Oli Thompson via face crank (rear-naked-choke) in round three

Rani Yahya defeated Josh Grispi via north-south-choke in round one

Phil Davis vs. Wagner Pradon was stopped due to an unintentional foul (eye poke) prompting a no-decision

Nam Phan defeated Cole Miller via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Mike Swick defeated DaMarques Johnson via Knockout in round one

Joe Lauzon defeated Jamie Varner via Triangle in round three

Lyoto Machida defeated Ryan Bader via Knockout in round one

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua def. Brandon Vera via TKO (punches) – Round 4, 4:09.
 

The UFC On FOX 4 Shogun Vs Vera weigh ins took place today in Los Angeles, California in preparation for tomorrow night’s card at the Staple Center. All fighters made weight, and all fights will take place as planned. Below are the full weigh in results.

 

 

Light Heavyweight bout:
Maurício Rua  205 lbs
Brandon Vera  203.8 lbs

Light Heavyweight bout:
Lyoto Machida 201 lbs
Ryan Bader 205 lbs

Lightweight bout:
Joe Lauzon  155.8 lbs
Jamie Varner 156 lbs.

Welterweight bout:
Mike Swick  170 lbs
DaMarques Johnson  171 lbs.

Featherweight bout:
Cole Miller 145 lbs
Nam Phan 145 lbs.

Light Heavyweight bout:
Phil Davis 205.5 lbs.
Wagner Prado 205 lbs.

Featherweight bout:
Josh Grispi  146 lbs.
Rani Yahya 145.5 lbs

Heavyweight bout:
Phil De Fries 235 lbs.
Oli Thompson 232  lbs.

Featherweight bout:
Manvel Gamburyan 145.5 lbs.
Michihiro Omigawa 145.5 lbs.

Flyweight bout:
Ulysses Gomez 125.5 lbs.
John Moraga 125.5 lbs.

UFC On Fuel 2 took place tonight in Stockholm, Sweden in front of a sold out crowd in the Ericsson Globe Arena. The crowd was excited from the first fight on, and was treated to an exciting night of fights. In the main event, it was Alexander Gustafsson dropped Thiago Silva, and although he couldn’t finish the Brazilian, he used the momentum to get the unanimous decision win in front of his hometown. He used his long reach and footwork expertly, keeping Silva on the outside for almost the entire fight.  ”It was a big honor to get the win here in front of my countrymen,” Gustafsson said after the win.

In the co-main event,  it was Brian Stann who survived some early pressure from Alessio Sakara and started landing shots of his own. Stann put him on his back, and worked from guard landing ground and pound. One of the left hands connected perfectly on the chin of Sakara, and he was knocked out cold with a powerful left hand. In the fight before, there was an even quicker knock out.  Siyar Bahadurzada landed a short left hand to the chin of Paulo Thiago and put him to sleep at 42 seconds of the first round

UFC On FUEL 2 Gustafsson Vs. Silva

Stockholm, Sweden; Ericsson Globe Arena

Full Results

Light Heavyweight bout:
Alexander Gustafsson vs.  Thiago Silva
Alexander Gustafsson defeats Thiago Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Middleweight bout:
Brian Stann vs.  Alessio Sakara
Brian Stann defeats Alessio Sakara by knockout (punches) at 2:26 of Round 1

Welterweight bout:
Paulo Thiago vs.  Siyar Bahadurzada
Siyar Bahadurzada defeats  Paulo Thiago by knock out (punch) at :42 of round 1

Featherweight bout:
Dennis Siver vs.  Diego Nunes
Dennis Siver defeats Diego Nunes by unanimous decision (29-28×3)

Welterweight bout:
DaMarques Johnson vs.  John Maguire
John Maguire defeats  DaMarques Johnson by submission (armbar) at 4:40 of round 2

Bantamweight bout:
Brad Pickett vs.  Damacio Page 4:05
Brad Pickett defeats Damacio Page by submission (rear naked choke) at 4:05 of round 2

Preliminary Card
Featherweight bout:
Jason Young vs.  Eric Wisely
Jason Young defeats Eric Wisely by unanimous decision (30-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Welterweight bout:
Papy Abedi vs.  James Head
Head defeats Abedi by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:33 of round 1

Light Heavyweight bout:
Cyrille Diabate vs.  Tom DeBlass
Diabate defeats DeBlass by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)

Middleweight bout:
Francis Carmont vs.  Magnus Cedenblad
Francis Carmont defeats Magnus Cedenblad by submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:42 of round 2

Lightweight bout:
Reza Madadi vs.  Yoislandy Izquierdo
Reza Madadi Yoislandy defeats Izquierdo by submission (guillotine choke) at 1:28 of round 2

Welterweight bout:
Simeon Thoresen vs.  Besam Yousef
Thoresen defeats Yousef by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:36 of round 2

On Saturday, April 14 at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm Sweeden, UFC on Fuel TV will take place.  The night of action is headlined by a light heavyweight clash between Alexander Gustafsson taking on replacement fighter Thiago Silva.  The night’s co-main event will feature heavy handed Brian Stann going to battle against Alessio Sakara.  The preliminary fights will air on Facebook, while the six-fight main card will air on Fuel TV.  All six preliminary fights and four of the main card fights are previewed below.

The night will kick off with a featherweight bout as Jason ‘Shotgun’ Young (8-5 MMA 0-2 UFC) taking on American Eric Wisely (19-7 MMA 0-1 UFC) in the first match of the prelims. Young looks to rebound from unanimous decision defeats to notables Dustin Poirier and Michihiro Omigawa. Wisely, who is a replacement for the injured Akira Corrassani, looks to get back to winning ways following a submission loss to up and coming Brazilian prospect Charles Oliveira in his UFC debut. With both guys coming in with losing records in the UFC both could possibly be fighting to save their UFC careers and continue their tenure with the company.

The second match of the evening will see two UFC debuts as Norwegian Simeon Thoresen (16-2-1) takes on Swedish Besam Yousef (6-0) in the welterweight division. Thoresen was Ultimate Warrior Challenge welterweight champion and Yousef was Zone FC welterweight champion before signing up for their UFC debuts. 14 of the Danes 16 wins have come via submission whilst 5 of six of Yousef’s wins have also been by submission so this one could be a good encounter on the mat.

Another match of newcomers to the UFC sees Swedish ace Reza Madadi (11-2), who comes in to his debut on a six fight win streak which includes notables Junie Browning, Carlos Prater and Rich Clementi, taking on Cuban born American Yoislandy Izquierda (6-0). There has been a lot of talk of Madadi and it will be interesting to see how he fares in his first fight in the big leagues.

Francis Carmont picked up the biggest win of his career in his UFC debut with a unanimous decision win against Chris Camozzi back at UFC 137. Now his role is reversed from newbie as he takes on debutant Magnus Cedenblad. The French Tristar Gym member, Carmont, is now on a six fight win streak whereas his Swedish counterpart brings in a seven fight win streak which has earned him a spot on the card in his home country.

Dangerous kickboxer Cyrille Diabaté (17-8-1) has skipped between wins and losses so far in his UFC tenure winning against Luiz Cané and Steve Cantwell but losing to Alexander Gustafsson and most recently Anthony Perosh. Diabaté was set to face world renowned kickboxer Jorgen Kruth who has made his way to the octagon at 37 years old. “The Last Viking” who holds a 1-0 boxing record, 71-14 kickboxing record and now 5-0 MMA record is a man who has fought all of his life and is a former two time World Muay Thai Council Super Heavyweight World Champion. Kruth’s UFC welcoming has been put on hold for the time being though as he was forced to pull out citing an injury and has been replaced by newcomer Tom DeBlass. The Ricardo Almeida taught fighter takes the fight on just a weeks’ notice and brings in a perfect 7-0 record, most recently defeating Randy Smith by heel hook after just 41 seconds at Ring of Combat 39 in February.

Two guys face off looking to bounce back after almost identical losses at almost identical times are welterweights Papy Abedi and James Head. Abedi lost at UFC 138 by rear naked choke at the hands of Thiago Alves whilst Head lost, also by rear naked choke, at UFC 131 to Nick Ring. The losses came at 3.32 and 3.33 of the first round. The Alves loss was the first of Abedi’s (8-1) career so far and he will be looking to get back on track against Head (7-2).

Main Card;

Top British bantamweight Brad ‘One Punch’ Pickett gets back in the octagon following a UFC debut loss in the co-main event at UFC 138 in England to the impressive Renan Barao. Pickett (20-6), who holds notable wins over Demetrious Johnson and Ivan Menjivar, faces off with “The Anger of Death” Damacio Page in what could be a ‘Fight of the Night’ contender. Page (12-6) recently suffered a second loss to Brian Bowles, in what could have been a re-run of their first bout, with Bowles sinking in a guillotine choke and forcing the tap at 3.30 of the first round. This was the exact same time and way that their first meeting ended at WEC 35. I spoke to Brad recently and he had this to say about the fight;
“Yeah he’s a very dangerous opponent. Were both coming off losses and its very clever match making because we both have kind of like aggressive styles so I think it’ll be a very exciting fight”

The Ultimate Fighter 9 finalist DaMarques Johnson (16-9) returns to action for the first time since a November knockout of Clay Harvison at UFC on FOX 1. Johnson’s opponent is British welterweight John ‘The One’ Maguire (17-3) who comes in following a debut win over Justin Edwards at UFC 138 in his homeland of England. Maguire brings a six-fight win streak into the fight that saw him win the UCMMA and OMMAC welterweight titles and winning his UFC debut. Maguire’s last defeat was actually at the hands of aforementioned Norwegian UFC debutante Simeon Thoresen at BAMMA 3 back in May of 2010.

Dennis Siver (19-8) makes his long awaited debut at featherweight against division veteran Diego ‘The Gun’ Nunes. ‘The Gun’ (17-2) has faced top competition in the division including Raphael Assuncao, Mike Brown, Kenny Florian and Manvel Gamburyan and has won all of those fights except Florian. Siver was expected to face Ross Pearson in a rematch of their fight at UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Gomi which Pearson won by decision. That fight fell through and Siver took the fight with Nunes whilst Pearson is now matched up with Cub Swanson at UFC on FX 4. The rematch does look like it will happen at some point though as both fighters have expressed an interest in it. For the time being we have this very exciting bout which should be fast paced with some brilliant striking on show.

Paulo Thiago burst on to the welterweight scene back in 2009 with a knockout win against Josh Koscheck at UFC 95. That win took Paulo to 11-0 and he looked destined for great things. Since that win Thiago has gone just 3-3, taking his record to 14-3 overall. He recently bounced back from consecutive defeats to Martin Kampmann and Diego Sanchez with a win over David Mitchell at UFC 134 back in August. He will have his hands full however with a debutant who has paid his dues on his way to the big show and who a lot of people have been raving about for a long time. Siyar Bahadurzada has acquired a 20-4 record over during his career so far and has also picked up many fans as well as nicknames in this time. Going by ‘Siyar the Great’, ‘Killer’, ‘Unstoppable’ and ‘Afghan Killa’ the 27 year old Afghanistan native has trained with such fighters as Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Sergei Kharitonov, Gegard Mousasi, Muhammed Lawal, Rashad Evans, Mark Munoz and other notable fighters. Coming into this match on the back of six straight wins, Bahadurzada will look to a win in this fight to prove himself among the elite and catapult him into contention in a division which really seems to be heating up in the wake of dominant champion Georges Saint-Pierre’s current long term injury.

 

DaMarques Johnson (9-7) was originally scheduled to fight Peter Sobotta at UFC 105, but the fight got pulled after Sobotta was forced out of the fight due to military commitments.  Instead of trying to find a last minute replacement for Johnson, he got shuffled to UFC 107 in Memphis, Tennessee.  FiveOuncesOfPain was the first to report that Edgar Garcia (7-1) would be challenging Johnson at UFC 107.

Garcia was on a seven-fight win streak before making his UFC debut against Brad Blackburn at “The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale”.  Garcia lost a very close split decision in which many fans had Garcia as the victor.

Johnson was a favorite to win season nine of “The Ultimate Fighter” but he fell short in the finals against James Wilks being choked out with just six seconds left in the first round.

UFC 107 is set to take place on December 12 in Memphis Tennessee.  The rumored card now includes:
•    Champ B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez (for lightweight title)
•    Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida
•    Cheick Kongo vs. Frank Mir
•    Thiago Alves vs. Paulo Thiago
•    Paul Buentello vs. Todd Duffee
•    Alan Belcher vs. Wilson Gouveia
•    Edgar Garcia vs. DaMarques Johnson
•    Kevin Burns vs. T.J. Grant

UFC Officials announced today that Randy Couture (16-10) has agreed to fight Brand Vera (11-3) at UFC 105 in the main event.  UFC 105 takes place on Saturday November 14 from the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, England and will air on tape-delay on SpikeTV.

Couture will be returning to the light heavyweight division after a 2-2 run in the UFC’s heavyweight division.  After losing back-to-back fights against Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Couture decided to take another run at 205.  Couture last competed in the weight class at “UFC 57: Liddell vs. Couture 3″ where he was knocked out for the first time in his career.

Additionally, Inside Fights is reporting that if Couture is victorious against Vera, he will get a title shot against the winner of Machida/Rua that takes place at UFC 104.  While many will question if Couture would deserve a title shot, due to Quinton Jackson postponing his fight with Rashad Evans, it prevents the light heavyweight title from being held up.

Vera, like Couture, dropped down to the light heavyweight division after suffering back-to-back losses to Fabricio Werdum and Tim Sylvia.  Vera is 3-1 in his last four fights, most recently winning a decision against Krzysztof Soszynski at “UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira”.

With the addition of the main event, UFC 105 now looks like:

• Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera
• Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang
• Dan Hardy vs. Dong Hyun Kim
• Matt Brown vs. James Wilks
• John Hathaway vs. Paul Taylor
• Terry Etim vs. Shannon Gugerty
• Ross Pearson vs. Aaron Riley
• Nick Osipczak vs. Matthew Riddle
• DaMarques Johnson vs. Peter Sobotta
• Roli Delgado vs. Andre Winner
• Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jared Hamman