Johny Hendricks wishes GSP ‘would’ve stayed out,’ says return ‘will be harder on him’

Comebacks are tricky stuff. For every Dominick Cruz there’s a B.J. Penn. For every Chan Sung Jung there’s a Kid Yamamoto. Where will Georges St-Pierre fall?

The former UFC welterweight champion and all-time MMA great stepped away from the sport in 2013, after more than a decade of dominant performances. Coming up on four years later, he’s getting ready to return. GSP isn’t far removed from his athletic prime, at just 35 years of age, but it’s hard to know whether all the time he’s taken off will be a benefit, or merely dulled the once-finely tuned reactions of a world class athlete.

Former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks, who met GSP in his final bout before retirement (and took a controversial loss), doesn’t seem to have particularly high expectations for ‘Rush’’s return to competition. In a recent interview on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Hendricks talked about GSP’s comeback and why he expects that it will be harder than expected (transcript via MMA Mania).

“I am (surprised to see him back),” Hendricks responded when asked about GSP’s return. “I wish he would’ve stayed out. But you know what, a competitor is always going to be a competitor and we’ll see how he comes back. I heard he might becoming to 185, so you know I do (want a piece).”

“So like I went through my rough period,” ‘Bigg Rigg’ continued, speaking of his recent three fight losing streak, “ and I did something and was able to bounce back. Whenever he went through his rough period, he got out. Yeah, you can train, yeah you could do these things, but has he done enough to where he is going to be able to come back a different fighter?”

More, perhaps, than even being in a “rough period,” Hendricks seems to feel that his bout with GSP laid out a pretty clear road to defeating the legend. And it’s a gameplan that he feels others could still follow with success.

“Time changes, it always does,” Hendricks said. “One day, the time is going to change where I am not going to be able to compete with these guys anymore. It’s just the way that it is. Once I showed how to defeat Georges St-Pierre, I think people are going to start using that gameplan and it’s going to be harder on him.”

Of course, if GSP is coming back to the cage to face Michael Bisping, he probably won’t have to worry about the same kind of power striking and wrestling attack that Hendricks was able to deploy. Then again, as a 6’ 2” former light heavyweight, Bisping would probably present a whole different list of challenges.

Mike Goldberg was totally shocked to end up on TV during UFC Phoenix: ‘It was unbelievable’

When the UFC came to Phoenix, Mike Goldberg had to be there. He may have been just weeks out from his remarkably discreet release from his duties as ringside commentator for the promotion, but as he explained in a recent interview on the MMA Hour, he was there to see one of his “best friends” step in the cage. “B.J. Penn is one of my favorite people in the world, and I went that night for B.J. Penn,” Goldberg said of his decision to show up at UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs. Penn.

And while he scored some suite tickets from a friend, at some point during the evening the former UFC play-by-play man decided to wander down and see if he couldn’t find a seat a bit closer to the action (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“Random row. I go down, I see empty seats. I sit down with these dudes in front of me, I go, ‘anybody sitting here?’ They’re like, ‘no, no, no. Oooohhhh Mike Goldberg! Mike Goldberg!’ Random seats, could’ve been one in 18,000.

“And I see the camera come up and the lights are on, I know it’s one of live cameras. It’s one of the Steadicams where they come around and get crowd shots. So I see the light on, I give the shaka. And this is what I’m thinking: ‘okay, they’ve spotted me in the crowd and the truck is saying hello. They’re in commercial break, because they’re certainly not putting me on TV. Of course they’re not putting me on TV. They’re in commercial break.’ So I’m like, what’s up? Because I think I’m saying hi to my buddies, Anthony Girodano and everybody in the truck. I’m just saying hi, right?

“Well, much like your phone and your Twitter, whoosh… and I’m like ‘what the?!’”

In the aftermath of his surprise appearance, Goldberg seems to be still tickled pink about the whole thing, especially the complete luck that one of the random crowd shots the UFC takes each event would have spotted him. Not to mention the fact that the brief on-screen highlight seems to have gotten him a lot of love from fans as well.

“Imagine the production truck now: ‘Joe Lauzon!’ They go ‘take three’ or whatever to that crowd shot, and out pops Goldy,” Goldberg said, laughing. “Oooohhhh, just think about it for a second. One of 18,000 seats. One of how many crowd shots. They could’ve taken any camera other than that. And it was just meant to be. I mean, it was unbelievable. The chances of that happening… it wasn’t even my ticket. I wasn’t even supposed to be in the stands. I was ‘that dude’ getting past the usher, grabbing an empty seat to get closer to the action.

“And the fans were great,” Goldberg added. “(The reaction online was,) first off, what a great guy, he’s there with the fans, which I was, because I am a fan and I am going to support ‘The Prodigy,’ my buddy B.J. Penn. Second, why isn’t he on the floor? Third, I hope he didn’t have to pay for the ticket. It just got better and better. It was just awesome. I just shook my head, and right after that, I should’ve gone and played the lottery. I really should’ve put some numbers down, because I was on a roll right then. I really was on a roll.”

And while he didn’t go play the lotto (apparently), that roll may end up carrying Goldberg into a potential deal with Bellator. Promotion president Scott Coker recently revealed that the Spike TV property is in negotiations to potentially bring on the former UFC employee. It may be that the next time you hear “It’s all over!” will be on a Bellator broadcast.

Welcome to the UFC: Spitz, Calvillo, & Soukhamthath

The UFC’s recent roster purge doesn’t mean the promotion isn’t still awash in new talent, and continually bringing in more. They may have released a whole slew of fighters lately, but for every one that’s gone there seems to be a new face to take their place. This week, at UFC 209 in Las Vegas Nevada, three new faces will step into the Octagon for the first time. Heavyweight Daniel Spitz replaces Todd Duffee against Mark Godbeer to open the FS1 prelims, women’s strawweight Cynthia Calvillo will make her debut against Amanda Cooper, and bantamweight Andre Soukhamthath will open the card against Albert Morales. So…

Who is Daniel Spitz?

The 26-year-old heavyweight comes to the UFC training out of Sikjitsu in Spokane, Washington. It’s the camp that’s brought Michael Chiesa, Julianna Pena, Elizabeth Phillips, and Sam Sicilia to the UFC. He’ll enter the Octagon with an undefeated 5-0 record. His most notable victory comes over long time veteran and former notable UFC talent, Wesley “Cabbage” Correira. But even with that win, his record so far consists entirely of debuting fighters and .500 journeyman vets. He’s only been to decision once, in his bout with Correira. Outside of MMA, Spitz played football for Washington State as an offensive lineman.

What you should expect:

Standing 6’ 7” and with a reasonable amount of coordination from his football playing days, there’s a lot of basics to like about Spitz. He seems to have a natural feel for striking, working behind a jab (even throwing it to the body occasionally!) and shows signs of potentially developing some combinations behind it. Without a doubt, he does his best work from the clinch, using his long frame to throw powerful knees. But he does a reasonable enough job not “fighting tall” that he doesn’t have the sitting target feel at range that a lot of other really tall fighters do.

Because he is as big as he is, however, he doesn’t seem to be much of a wrestler. Most of that is probably just down to physics and the difficulty of getting a frame that big low enough to generate takedown leverage. But given his clinch work, it’d be nice to see him develop at least a trip and drag game.

The biggest thing that could potentially hinder his UFC success is that he just doesn’t look particularly fast. His hand and foot speed aren’t great, which could mean he’ll lack the dynamic offensive potentially of Travis Browne who is about the same size. He does show signs of a surprisingly decent gas tank, fighting well into the third round of his one decision.

What this means for his debut:

The only real question I have is, is Mark Godbeer durable enough to fight guys as big as the UFC has been signing. Because if he is, he should have this fight sewn up. He’s giving up 3 inches of height to Spitz, but should have a major foot speed and technical striking advantage. I don’t see anything in Spitz’s wrestling game to suggest he’d even try to take Godbeer down, let alone have the technique to do so. So it should be mostly a kickboxing battle. That would be Godbeer’s fight, but at heavyweight, it’s often all about durability and gastank.

To get better acquainted, here’s Spitz’s recent bout against “Cabbage” Correira:

Who is Cynthia Calvillo?

Team Alpha Male’s Calvillo is a 29-year-old strawweight fighter. Coming from one of MMA’s more prestigious camps, she should be arriving in the UFC with a lot of solid training and sparring experience under her belt working alongside Paige VanZant, Lance Palmer, and Chad Mendes among many others. Calvillo is set to maker he Octagon debut carrying a 3-0 record, most recently beating 6-3 Montana Stewart. Otherwise her level of competition is about what you’d expect for a prospect with less than 5 bouts. It is worth noting, however, that Calvillo does hold an amateur win over undefeated Invicta prospect Aspen Ladd.

What you should expect:

If MMA is Cynthia Calvillo’s first martial art, it seems she’s taken to the wrestling aspect of it really naturally. Calvillo has a solid understanding of trip and drag takedowns as well as getting in on double legs against the fence, and does a great job not just finishing takedowns, but keeping control once the fight hits the mat. She’s got a very flowy grappling game, that emphasizes quick back takes and body locks.

Standing, Calvillo looks like she’s spent a lot of time working on the fundamentals of footwork and head movement, but she still doesn’t have the mechanics of being a comfortable puncher. When she chooses to throw, she can be a bit stationary, and often ends up eating a shot or two when trying to land her own. She also doesn’t seem particularly willing to really commit to strikes at this point in her career. But she does use her movement nicely to set up takedowns either as opponents come in or disguised by her own feints as she enters the pocket.

What this means for her debut:

This should be an interesting fight. Cooper is the far, far more comfortable striker on her feet, but she’s hardly a knockout artist, instead tending to favor lots of quick movement and volume over sitting down on her punches. That could leave room for Calvillo to get in on her takedowns. Calvillo has good takedown defense, so I think she’ll be able to dictate whether she stays standing or not, and she’s got a much more patient, controlling ground game than Cooper. I’ll lean Calvillo here, but she has to make sure she gets the fight to the ground early in rounds.

To get better acquainted, here’s her last bout against Montana Stewart in Legacy Fighting Alliance:

Who is Andre Soukhamthath?

“The Asian Sensation” is a 28-year-old Laotian-American bantamweight and former Blackzilian team member now training at Combat Club under Henri Hooft along with Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson and many other former Blackzilians. He’ll be making his debut in the UFC with an 11-3 pro-record and his status as the current CES bantamweight champion. He has wins over once-rumored UFC signing Carlos Galindo, as well as Bellator vets Blair Tugman and Kin Moy (the latter avenging an earlier career loss). Of his 11 career wins, only one comes by way of decision. Prior to MMA, Soukhamthath played soccer as a goalie.

What you should expect:

When Soukhamthath’s striking game is clicking he’s an incredibly dangerous fighter. Soukhamthath often works behind a very solid jab, picking his spots to throw more powerful combinations. He’s got great hand-speed and looks like he hits hard. His defensive movement when boxing is reasonably slick, and when he’s focused on finding counters, he does a marvelous job getting just barely out of the way of strikes to fire off a 2 or 3-punch combination in return.

The flip side of this is, that he has a bad habit of shelling up against incoming strikes. When he’s not pulling the trigger on the counter, Soukhamthath often defaults to backing straight up with a high guard and just letting his opponent try to punch around it. He can also be a bit lazy blocking head kicks, trusting that having one hand high on the kicking side will do the defensive work for him. Surprisingly for a former soccer player, he doesn’t seem interested in kicking much at all. Although he will occasionally throw one out if the opportunity arises.

Otherwise, Soukhamthath’s not a bad wrestler, focused mostly on staying upright. He can get caught out being a bit defensively lazy, just like with his stand up, but does well to emphasize getting to his feet quickly. He also does a decent job landing some ground and pound when he can stuff a shot or finding an opening to jump on a submission. But his ground game all seems more a part of an emphasis on transition striking and grappling than any interest in staying on the mat for more than a few seconds.

What this means for his debut:

This should be a firefight. Morales is likely the faster of the two fighters and the more consistently aggressive. But both men hit hard and want to box first and foremost. They also both seem very durable, despite having some real defensive liabilities. I might pick Morales, just because his speed and aggression could catch Soukhamthath out early (especially if he shells up and lets Morales flurry). But, if the fight lasts more than a round, Soukhamthath’s more patient and more technical approach could win out. Soukhamthath throws his hands a lot cleaner and tighter than Morales. It is also worth noting that Morales has an aggressive back take game that he uses really well if he can open the opportunity. Either way, I’d expect it to be a barn burner.

To get better acquainted, here’s Soukhamthath’s CES title winning fight against Kody Nordby:

UFC 209 media call – Khabib to Ferguson: ‘I want to break your face, I want to break your heart’

UFC 209 is built around the welterweight title fight at the top of it. Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson ended up with a draw when they faced off at UFC 205 back in November. It’s the kind of result that practically demands a rematch, that demands clarity as to just who is the best in the world at 170 lbs. But, it’s not what’s driving the hype for next weekend’s card.

UFC 209 may be headlined by Woodley vs. Thompson II, but the focus has shifted squarely on Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson. The lightweight top contenders will square off in the co-main event for the interim title, but by the time they get to the cage, they’ll already have had several rounds of verbal sparring under their belts.

The latest round took place on the UFC 209 media conference call. Ferguson took jabs at Khabib for his conditioning, while Nurmagomedov reaffirmed his desire to break off various parts of Ferguson’s anatomy (transcript via MMAJunkie).

“I want to break your face – I want to break your heart,” Nurmagomedov said.

“Your hat is covering your ears – you’re not listening to me,” Ferguson responded. “(Expletive) you, Khabib. You didn’t do nothing. I’m the matador. You’ve got 1.9 million people that are going to be sad as (expletive) when I finish your ass.”

Check out the full video above as it mostly consists of Ferguson and Khabib trading barbs at each other. Hopefully that animosity translates into a great fight on Saturday, March 4th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The MMA Vivisection – Bellator 173: McGeary vs. McDermott

With the UFC on break this week, it’s Bellator’s chance to shine. And to help that happen they’ve got… a card. More notably, they’ve got a strong BAMMA undercard (that will run as a separate event on the same day in the same venue). Otherwise, Bellator is leaning heavy on SBG prospects to bring some fire to an otherwise lackluster offering. The main event will feature Liam McGeary vs. Brett McDermott, who replaces Vladimir Filipovic on late notice, who himself replaced Chris Fields. Fields was supposed to join Sinead Kavanagh and James Gallagher all from SBG Ireland, as the top 3 fights on Bellator’s 5 fight offering.

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Here’s a look at the Bellator and BAMMA cards from Northern Ireland this Friday:

Bellator 173 Spike TV Card:
Liam McGeary vs. Brett McDermott
James Gallagher vs. Kirill Medvedovski
Sinead Kavanagh vs. Iony Razafiarison
James McErlean vs. Shay Walsh
Colin Fletcher vs. Alex Lohore

BAMMA 28 Spike TV Card:
Norman Parke vs. Paul Redmond
Andy Young vs. Dominique Wooding
Ronnie Mann vs. Damien Lapilus
Rhys McKee vs. Tim Barnett

BAMMA 28 Prelims:
Niall Smith vs. Daniel Rutkowski
Andrew Murphy vs. Stephen Kilifin
O. Olejniczak vs. Jonathan Reid
Glenn Irvine vs. Keith McCabe
Will Fleury vs. Kyle McClurkin
Adam Gustab vs. Paul Hughes
Decky Dalton vs. Jonathan Brookins

MMA Depressed-us: Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites

It’s not UFC fight week. And as usual that means your MMA fueled social calendar suddenly has a gaping hole in it. You could fill that with friends, or family, maybe take in a movie or go for a hike. But, who are you kidding? It’s time to fill that void with the worst fights you can find. Or in this case, the worst fights we can find for you.

This week we’re watching the good-bad: Danny Mitchell vs. Igor Araujo. The bad-bad: Jared Rosholt vs. Stefan Struve. And the disappointing: Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites. Remembered by many as one of the all time most disappointing UFC fights, there was no way we could miss a chance to re-watch Anderson Silva.

So, turn on Fight Pass, cue up with us, and get ready to take your MMA medicine.

As always, if you enjoyed the show, give us a “Like” over on YouTube. And while you’re there, consider subscribing to MMANATIONDOTCOM. That way you’ll always be among the first to get the latest BE shows, interviews, and analysis.

And if you’re looking for our shows in podcast form, you can find those on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Welcome to the UFC: Cindy Dandois

If you’ve been following WMMA for a while now, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of who Cindy Dandois is. Once considered something of a notable ‘specialist’ in the game, her recent run of success for Invicta has made her one of the most notable women in MMA outside the UFC. Or at least she was, right up until she signed a contract with the promotion. The UFC announced Dandois’ signing via press release. She’s currently set to take on Alexis Davis at UFC Nashville on April 22. So…

Who is Cindy Dandois?

“Battlecat,” as she’s also known, is 32-year-old fighter from Deurne, Belgium. She trains out of Perfect Team at home, but has also spent a lot of time lately working with Miesha Tate in Thailand. Dandois will make her way to the UFC with an 8-2 pro record, holding notable wins over Marloes Coenen (in her pro debut), Sheila Gaff, Jorina Barrs, and Megan Anderson. Dandois’ only two losses come to current Invicta bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger, and the woman who just defeated Evinger (later overturned) Yana Kunitskaya. Dandois notably took nearly 4 years away from MMA in the middle of her career, returning in 2014 to face Evinger. Since that return loss she is 3-0.

What you should expect:

Despite her strong winning record and good opposition, Dandois was considered something of an afterthought in MMA by the time she returned in 2014. Part of that was due to her long layoff, but mostly it was down to her extremely specialized skill set. Dandois is a very good grappler. So much so that it overshadows any other part of her game.

And while that’s still true, the key to her success in MMA hasn’t just been a very aggressive and dedicated grappling game, but an unexpectedly nuanced wrestling game to go with it. Dandois’ striking is not good, but she knows it and uses front kicks to create separation, forcing opponents to try and rush in from way outside and close distance on her as she waits on her back foot. From there, she has a really well timed double leg, and a number of foot-sweep body-lock takedowns she can work if her first attempt is stuffed.

Even if Dandois can’t take an opponent down and maintain top control, she’s completely willing to go for a sacrifice throw or just pull guard. Anything that gets a foe to the mat and in contact with her. She’s got a great triangle-armbar series off her back, and when on top, does a fantastic job cutting through guard to get mount and look for ground and pound. Much like Eric Spicely, Dandois is a dangerous opponent because she is dedicated to working a versatile ground game that only requires an opponent to engage her.

What this means for her debut:

There’s no reason that Alexis Davis can’t beat Cindy Dandois. Evinger subbed her, Kunitskaya KO’d her. However, Davis is one of the better veterans for Dandois to enter against. Davis is a much better, more natural striker than Dandois, but she’s hardly a KO threat, and often has to win standup battles by pressuring and staying busy. More than that, Davis is completely unafraid to go to the ground, as she does her own best work there. Hopefully that makes for a grappling heavy fight that may be something of a tossup as to who gets the submission or dominates position. I’d still lean Davis as she has more tools and does better keeping control, but I’d expect a pretty back and forth fight if Davis can’t keep it standing.

To get better acquainted, here’s Dandois’ last bout against Anjela Pink at ExciteFight in November 2016:

Manager: ‘Everybody at the UFC’ has confirmed that ‘Michael Bisping wants no part of Yoel Romero’

As talk of Georges St-Pierre’s return to the UFC has gone from theoretical to an official reality, talk of a potential Michael Bisping vs. GSP fight has grown with it. It’s an idea that’s been kicking around since the middle of 2016, when rumors that GSP was set to make a comeback first gained real steam. Bisping, fresh off winning the middleweight title, jumped on the opportunity and has yet to let go.

As GSP was sorting his contract status with the UFC, Bisping ended up facing Dan Henderson. But, with that fight now in the rear-view mirror, and with GSP officially back, “The Count” seems to be making a heavy play to face the welterweight GOAT in his MMA return. And Yoel Romero’s manager, Malki Kawa, sounds concerned that the UFC will make that fight and pass his client up. Kawa spoke about the middleweight title situation on the Luke Thomas Show (transcript via MMA Fighting):

“What I’ve seen from Mike is that he’s gonna call his shots and he’s gonna make smart moves, which I can’t blame him for. If you were managing Michael Bisping or you were Michael Bisping and you had your choice of waiting on a guy who’s been out for two and a half years, which might get you your largest payday, or fighting a guy who’s probably the scariest person in the UFC at this point. You’re talking about 10 fights, nine of them are knockouts? I don’t know that you’d want to fight this guy either.

“So I understand Michael Bisping but I also put this on Georges St-Pierre… Honestly, if he said, ‘I want to fight 170,’ he could easily come down and fight Tyron Woodley. But pick between Tyron Woodley and Michael Bisping. If you’re managing Michael Bisping, who do you choose and if you’re managing Georges St-Pierre, who do you choose? I think at the end of the day you stay clear of Yoel Romero and Tyron Woodley for as much as you can. And that’s the problem that we’re having right now.”

Or, to put it more bluntly…

“I don’t care what anybody says, he is absolutely ducking Yoel Romero right now. It’s been confirmed to me by everybody at the UFC. Michael Bisping wants no part of Yoel Romero at this point. None whatsoever.

“I’m not telling you that he’s necessarily ducking him because he doesn’t want to ever fight him, I just think that right now, at this point he’s just trying to sidestep that fight, take this Georges St-Pierre fight, hope he wins, and if he wins, ‘I’ll fight Yoel Romero.’ If he doesn’t win, ‘I got my payday,’ and then Yoel can go and fight Georges.”

Kawa also added that, as far as his client is concerned, it’s “Michael Bisping or bust” and they wouldn’t consider a fight for anything other than the middleweight title. If that is the case, and if the UFC does book GSP vs. Bisping, it may be a little while until fans see Romero in the cage again.

Matt Mitrione feeling ‘tremendous guilt’ over kidney stone debacle, won’t wait for Fedor

Whether it was out of blind fandom, curiosity, or just taking what may be one of a very few last chances to see an MMA legend before he fades from the sport entirely, Bellator 172 featuring Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione was a big deal. Fedor may not be the fighter he was at the height of his Pride FC glory days, but he’s still a fighter fans want to watch. And given that he wasn’t even a betting favorite over Mitrione in the lead up their bout, his Bellator debut came with a fair bit of intrigue.

Only, it didn’t – happen, that is. Or at least, not yet. The fight that was scheduled for February 18th, 2017 got cancelled at the last minute. The reason? Matt Mitrione had a kidney stone to pass.

On a recent episode of the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Mitrione described those hours leading up to and following his fight getting cancelled, and the emotional roller coaster he’s gone through (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“It really started to kick in on Friday, and I didn’t know if I got sick all of sudden, just what the problem was, but it kept magnifying and amplifying,” Mitrione said. “It got to the point where I was absolutely miserable. At weigh-ins, I had to put on a show and be like, ‘hey, I look good,’ because I don’t want Fedor to see this puking, doubled-over-in-agony kind of guy. It just was really difficult, and then it just kept getting worse.

“On Saturday, Bellator was like, ‘look dude, we have to go to the hospital, this thing isn’t right, something’s going on.’ We went to the hospital, told them what’s going on. They said, ‘look, it’s probably kidney stones.’ They hooked me to my IVs to try to flush it out, and then they gave me a CT scan to see what was really going on, and that’s when they saw the stone. The stone hadn’t even passed.”

If the kidney stone wasn’t painful enough, the aftermath of such a big fight getting cancelled hasn’t been much kinder. Mitrione has been dealing with a ton of fan backlash following the event, as well as his personal guilt over such a big fight getting scrapped. To prevent it happening again, he’s going to have to undergo surgery to remove an additional half dozen stones.

“I apologized,” Mitrione said. “I was like, ‘dude, I’m so sorry, man. I can’t believe this happened. I’m devastated, man. I’m really sorry.’ I know how much money they put into this, I know how much stock they put into it. I know that was no counter-programming. We were the only show in town. It was a massive, massive fight, and I dropped the ball. It’s just, it sucks. It’s a feeling of absolute tremendous guilt. And then what really sucks, man, is to see every single douchebag on the planet who could possibly create any kind of something, writing something on Twitter, being like, ‘oh you coward, you didn’t even try, you should’ve known months ahead of time.’ Dude, go f*ck yourself. Are you for real?

“This thing, a kidney stone in this situation that came out of nowhere, just cost Bellator millions of dollars. It cost the fight world an incredible fight that I really believe everybody wanted to see (and that people) were really excited about and really hyped. I owe the fans a fight. I owe Fedor a fight. Fedor and I owe the fans a fight. And I’m going to get it taken care of, man. It sucks that I’m going to have a metal rod stuffed in my pee-hole to get this thing taken care of so it never happens again, but I can at least eliminate this from any kind of concern in anybody’s eyes that it’ll never come up again.”

Strangely however, it sounds like Mitrione’s potential return date, even with surgery, is a lot shorter than Fedor’s. After the bout against Mitrione dissolved, Fedor told reporters that he would be targeting May or June for his return. A time table that Mitrione doesn’t sound all that willing to meet, telling Helwani “I have not been re-booked, but if Fedor wants to wait until May or June, if that’s what his heart is, then that’s cool. I’m not going to wait that long.”

That leaves only one question: if a fight with Mitrione falls off the table, who should Fedor face in his Bellator debut?

Ian McCall on weight cut scare: Doctor told me ‘You could die’

At this point, Ian McCalls struggles getting from camp to cage are well known. Despite being part of the UFC’s inaugural flyweight tournament back in 2012, “Uncle Creepy” has only fought six times for the promotion. In-between those six bouts he’s suffered a knee injury, a hand injury, a groin/hip injury, and a viral infection. That’s enough to give any fighter pause about their career. But, McCall’s latest run of bad luck has made those past problems seem almost insignificant.

Back in August of 2015, McCall was scheduled to fight Dustin Ortiz, before withdrawing due to injury. Almost exactly a year later McCall’s planned bout with Justin Scoggins was cancelled at the last minute, as Scoggins couldn’t make weight. Soon after, a bout with Ray Borg fell through, when Borg became ill just days out from the fight. Go forward another two months and this time it was McCall dropping out due to illness against Neil Seery, and another three months after that, it happened again.

McCall’s planned fight at UFC 208 against newcomer Jarred Brooks was cancelled just hours before the event. This time the culprit was a shrunken galbladder. McCall described his battle to stay in the fight and deal with his condition on a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s Fight Companion (transcript starts at the beginning of the episode via MMA Fighting):

“I’ve never made weight that easy in my entire career. You ask anybody, usually you stop drinking water 24 hours out from weigh-ins. I cut weight Thursday night and it was going so well that I had five glasses of ice water throughout the night. So then I figured I could eat a little bit. So I tried to eat a little bit of salad and I threw that up. But I figured that was just the dressing or something messing my stomach up. So I had at least a cup of almonds, about five cups of water, I cut the rest in the morning and then when I was trying to gain weight back my body wouldn’t. I couldn’t hold on to anything. I kept throwing up everything…

“By the next morning, I had still only gained five pounds. Everything I tried to eat, I threw up. And I was throwing up in front of all the other fighters. Every single chance we ended up having to be in a group in public, I ended up f**king throwing up.”

After that, McCall ended up going to the hospital where he got some less than comforting words from the physicians:

“I asked them, I’m like. ‘Listen, just let me fight…’ And they looked at me like, ‘No dude, you need to go to the hospital.’ Then they were gonna do emergency gallbladder surgery which they didn’t have to do thank god. This whole thing scared the s**t out of me. When the doctor says, ‘Oh well you could die, you never know,’ I’m like, what the f**k do you mean you never know?”
…
“[My gallbladder] was super shrunk – contracted. I guess [from the dehydration]. And then they saw shadowing and some other stuff [on the tests] and they thought I had gall stones… Then they did a more advanced version of the ultrasound and they didn’t see anything so they didn’t have to do [surgery]. So basically we’re just running tests, been running tests all week.

“I’m still skinny. I went home a day later than I was supposed to go home and I was still under 135 pounds – 132 pounds. I wasn’t able to hold food down until Tuesday. My body just f**kin’ failed me.”

That sounds like an exceptionally serious side effect to weight cutting, and the kind of thing that McCall may not be able to afford happening to him again. UFC welterweight Brian Melancon was forced to retire from his MMA career after a failed weight cut in preparation to face Robert Whittaker at UFC Brisbane back in 2013. Hopefully McCall can bounce back from this, but there’s no word yet on when he’ll be fit to fight again.