TWEEF!  This week BJ Penn and Rory MacDonald went at it on Twitter.  BJ Penn has been posting pictures of himself weighing 180 pounds and looking somewhat lean.  We all know BJ Penn has issues with conditioning and tends to get really chubby.  On the opposite end of the spectrum would be Rory MacDonald.  A young guy with a GSP-like physique.  Check out these two going at it like some teenagers!  BJ and Rory will be scrapping come December 8th as the main event for UFC on FOX 5.  

Rory MacDonald ‏@rory_macdonald
200lbs and @bjpenndotcom thinks i care if hes in shape for the fight or not #newgenerationmindset

BJ PENN ‏@bjpenndotcom
Great!!! I frekin love knocking out 200 pounders

Rory MacDonald ‏@rory_macdonald
Do u meen knockin back quarter pounders? Who r u kidding, certainly not yourself ?

BJ PENN ‏@bjpenndotcom
Quarter pounders?? Really pimple boy? I won’t even RNC you… afraid of all the pimples on your back. #GROSS

Rory MacDonald ‏@rory_macdonald
I didnt think it was possible but somehow u made yourself even less of a threat.

I have to admit, I was one of the many fight fans hating on Jon Jones for not accepting the Chael Sonnen fight at UFC 151.  I still believe he should have taken the fight on 8 days notice, and should have followed BJ Penn’s motto to “Just Scrap”.  

BUT…I think the haterade hath overflown.  Jones has a point in his rant to Ariel Helwani below, and it truly is the fighter’s right to turn down a fight.

Check out the new Jon Jones Pizza special at Chael Sonnen’s Pizzeria.  What a great deal!

There has never been a cancelled Pay-Per-View event in the history of the UFC.  But now thanks to one prima donna fighter, history has been made.

I was laying on the beach the other day enjoying a nice beer when I started getting flooded with texts from my fellow MMA nerds.  ”HENDO IS OUT!”, “Jones is gonna fight Chael!”, “Jon Jones is a biatch!” were few of the many messages I got.  As soon as I had internet access I found Dan Henderson tore his MCL and would be out of the highly anticipated fight with Jon Jones, Labor Day Weekend.

Damn.

Another American Gangster would come to the rescue, Chael P Sonnen, the master troll of MMA offered up his services to fight a top 3 pound for pound fighter on 8 days notice.  My gut reaction was that Chael was suicidal and would be absolutely destroyed by the young champion.  Then the more I thought about it, the more I liked it, Chael is a big star with a similar style to Hendo.  Chael definitely has better MMA wrestling than Dan and was doing extremely well against Anderson Silva at the start of their fight.  Let’s do this!

Almost immediately, Jones turned down this fight.  His coach Greg Jackson convinced him that taking a fight with Sonnen would be the “worst mistake of his career”.  As a result, the Baldfather cancelled the entire UFC 151, and subsequently screwing over every fighter on the card.  Check out this quote from Joe Lauzon, which perfectly sums up what every fighter is feeling right now:

Not only has this screwed over all the fans that bought tickets, non refundable airfare, took off work, made arrangements, etc… but think of all the fighters. Fighters that put in full camps, flew people in that helped them trains, etc. By the time I am actually fight, I spend close to 20k between corners, flights, expenses, coaches, etc… and then to have the whole show cancelled because ONE guy didn’t want to fight. This ONE guy that had trained an entire camp, who was the CHAMP and at the top of his weight class,  who was going to fight someone who didn’t do the camp, and was fighting UP a weight class. 

I have always been a big Jon Jones supporter… but I would be FURIOUS if this happenned to me and I was on the card. To call is scorched earth wouldn’t do it justice. 

So here is list of events that happened after the Jones debacle:

1.  Vitor Belfort will fight Jon Jones at UFC 152 (WTF?)

2. Supposedly, Shogun and Machida both turned down a fight to Jon Jones

3. Anderson Silva offered to fight at UFC 151 against another fighter, but it was already to late (PR stunt?)

In 2010, Jon Jones tweeted that he would never turn down a fight.  Well, 2 years later, he has turned down a fight that could have saved a whole UFC card, fans who already purchased tickets, fighters who depend on a paycheck, and my f’ing Labor Day BBQ!!  All Jones had to do is take a fight with an 185 pound fighter who was moving up a weight class to fight him on 8 days notice.  Nike should make a T-shirt for their upcoming Jon Jones line with the motto, JUST DON’T DO IT.

F JON JONES!

I think UFC reporter Ariel Helwani is finally snapping after being verbally and sometimes physically abused by UFC fighters over the years.  The Bob Costas of MMA has been pushed around by the likes of Rampage Jackson and Nick Diaz for awhile now.  In this video, he calls Chael Sonnen a mid-tier Middleweight fighter, and shows a side of the little mermaid we have yet to see.

Anderson looks like he wants to beat Chael into a living death a la Ken Shamrock/Tito Ortiz.

Last weekend, Nick Diaz who is currently suspended from MMA was supposed to take on world-class Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Braulio Estima.  This grappling super-fight was going down at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo organized by NYC’s own Renzo Gracie.  Many MMA nerds praised Diaz for taking on such a high-level grappler in his own domain.  Don’t get me wrong, if this was MMA, Nick would have laced him up badly, but this was pure Jiu-Jitsu.

The buzz around this match was super hyped, but unfortunately this fight did not happen.  Diaz was nowhere to be found at the time of the match and conflicting stories arose immediately.  I read many different accounts on what happened, but now we have official statements from both parties.  Check it out:

Nick Diaz/Cesar Gracie’s side:

Despite all of this Nick was still going to compete. He brought up Kron Gracie and prepared himself. Around this time I was informed by Junior that Braulio wanted to weigh in the day before and not right before the match as is the custom in IBJJ competitions and Abu Dhabi. At the time Nick was about 186lbs so I consented to both guys weighing in at 180lbs the night before.

Nick boarded a plane on Friday for Long Beach having cut 6 pounds for the weigh in that night. On his way there I got a call from Junior telling me Braulio would not be making weight! “Cesar Braulio is complaining about the weight cut. Can we have him weigh in tomorrow? He can’t make the weight tonight how about 185 in the morning?”

Nick arrives in Long Beach to the news that there will be no weigh ins that night. As a professional with over 30 fights this was the final straw. The disrespect and total lack of professionalism given him convinced him he was at a circus not a professionally event.

At 3:20 in the morning I received a text from Junior that Braulio would in fact make the 180lbs weight class at 10:00AM. With no other option available I said fine I’ll check with Nick in the morning. At 10:00AM Braulio did weigh in at 180lbs but by that time Nick had already left.

Braulio Estima’s side:

Hi César I was reading your statement. very interesting points..

1st- When Junior approached me to offer me the fight I was actually training at the Blackzilians at the time so obviously I was training MMA. Junior told me about Nick not wanting to fight an MMA fighter. I never fought before so [Junior] said it was fine & why [didn’t you] cancel the fight before if this was really an issue..??

2nd- Nobody has ever bended no rules for me. Because there was no rules set to start off with, it wasn’t going to be a UFC match but a superfight on a BJJ Expo so the whole point here was for us to show a fight.. has Nick signed a contract that stated the date time and weight that we both need to reach? I didn’t. And since this whole thing was going to be a friendly event I really don’t see any issue here even if Nick turned up 10lbs overweight. Still when asked I went and dropped the weight to meet the requirement. Actually to put things straight it was myself that called Junior around 10pm Friday to check if there is going to be a weigh in at all. He kept contacting you and got back to me saying I need to be 180 that time, of course I said I can’t for the simple reason I was away in Irvine and it was already late at night but I said sure no problem I’ll make it first thing in the morning if needed, even if it would put me in a bigger disadvantage I didn’t care I just came to fight. Junior had actually called me back no later than midnight that he spoke to you and confirmed the weigh in for 10am.

Besides when did Nick actually weigh in? And who witnessed that if we are being so strict and professional?

3rd – You are saying Nick had left by 10am Saturday morning? Why you never said anything then? I even asked you I’d like to see him and his weight and you said he’s not gonna come down because he ate already and wouldn’t make the weight anymore. And Lana, after speaking to you, called his room and said he was actually there sleeping. Nobody at any point had mentioned he could have left. Leaving me believing we would fight till the very last minute, now you’re talking about lack of professionalism in the organisation of the superfight and this was very professional behaviour right?

There is many more points here that I don’t agree with but I am just fed up of this whole situation and don’t agree for anyone to ever release the blame from Nick for whatever reason, we were there to fight and that’s what should happen no excuses, we are both professional athletes and should respect one another no matter what. And this is inexcusable.