The Fight Capital

MMA news: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Hector Lombard, Alistair Overeem and more

Hector Lombard

Photo Credit: 5thround.com

During an interview with Just Scrap Radio, Marloes Coenen, Alistair Overeem’s former Golden Glory teammate, hinted at, but didn’t divulge any specific, knowledge of improprieties by the heavyweight contender, as well as more information that is still to surface. “If you do stuff like that and get caught, just like Alistair now, just suck it up and don’t complain about it. I think the truth will always come out…We know a lot of things about Alistair, a lot of negative things but we never talked about it and knew that the truth would come out. More dirt will come up…Alistair will receive his punishment for what he has done and we don’t have to deliver that to him because karma will come and get him.”

This could just be sour grapes because Overeem burned Golden Glory, or it could be legit. If he did any shady while under Golden Glory you can bet everyone knows and it may only be a matter of time before it comes out.

Alistair Overeem’s camp initially requested a continuance of 45-60 days in order to gather more expert testimony to support his case, NSAC chairman Raymond “Skip” Avansino elected to proceed with the hearing instead, and after a lengthy Tuesday hearing, Overeem was denied a license to fight in Nevada and must now wait nine months before reapplying with the commission. The suspension was backdated to the failed March 27 drug test, meaning Overeem is free to apply again on Dec. 27. Commissioner Francisco Aguilar suggested Overeem would be eligible for the UFC’s customary year-end event, which is expected to take place Dec. 29 in Las Vegas.

Can’t say I’m not disappointed, but it seems the commission wasn’t buying his “prescribe medicine” defense. Good thing for Overeem is that they could have put it at a year instead of 9 months. As for the year-end event, I don’t know if the UFC would risk putting him on that card given the very small window, but we’ll see.

According to multiple published reports, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will return to the Octagon on July 21 at UFC 149, his first fight since breaking his arm against Frank Mir, where he will meet Cheick Kongo.

This is a good fight and one I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time. Three or fours years ago I would say Nogueira wins this hands down. Now though? It’s going to be interesting.

During Tuesday’s UFC Tonight program on Fuel TV it was announced that the headliner for the UFC’s fourth event on Fuel TV would be a middleweight bout between Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. The event takes place July 11.

Excellent fight and one that makes sense since ever other top contender was already booked, save for the newly acquired Hector Lombard. I’m pretty sure the winner will most likely get a title shot, or have to fight the winner of Bisping/Boetsch to get a title shot.

In an interview with MMAFighting.com, Bjorn Rebney revealed that Bellator is no longer with a Middleweight Champion, as they have elected not to match the UFC’s contract offer to Hector Lombard.

“We have a business model where we make decisions based on analyzing data. Since the first day we came into being, we made decisions based on real models, not hypothetical. The UFC model is largely based on pay-per-view, and the offer they made to Hector is going to be monetized via pay-per-view. While pay-per-view could play a role in our future, today it doesn’t.

“So, we did our due diligence to review the UFC contract, analyze in terms of charging our audience to see Hector vs. putting him on free TV, and we decided to allow the UFC to sign Hector, where I am extremely confident he will win the UFC middleweight title on pay-per-view. He was a great fighter here, and there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll be a great fighter when he goes to the UFC. I’ve said for a long time he’s the best middleweight in the world, and I think he’ll win the UFC title in short order.”

Well, there you have it. The seemingly unstoppable force is now on the UFC roster, and I eagerly await his first match up. Beating up Bellator-level (no disrespect intended) opponents is one thing, but now he’s in the deep end of the pool, and it only gets deeper should he survive his first test.