Rampage Fined $10K, Bellator CEO Rips UFC PPVs, Cormier Vs. Hendo UFC 173 Countdown Video
- "Countdown to UFC 173" aired recently on FOX Sports 1, highlighting the three main bouts for this Saturday's UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw event, which WrestlingInc.com will have live coverage on.
In the video above, check out training camp footage from the co-main event fighters, Daniel Cormier and Dan Henderson. The two will meet in a light heavyweight title-eliminator.
Cormier (14-0) is 3-0 since joining the UFC, including a first round TKO victory in his 205-pound debut this past February. Henderson (30-11) snapped a three-fight losing skid in March when he finished Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the second time.
- Quinton "Rampage" Jackson walked away from Bellator 120 this past weekend the winner, but his pocket book was hit hard by the Mississippi Athletic Commission. The commission fined Jackson $10,000 for his behavior during the weigh-ins.
Jackson, a former UFC light heavyweight champion, pushed his opponent, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. He went on to defeat Lawal via decision Saturday night.
"His behavior was the worst I've ever seen in professional sports," chairman Jon Lewis told MMAjunkie.com. "Hitting him for ($10,000) is light, I will say. I believe that he had another offense like that that was a several thousand dollar fine recently."
Lewis was referring to a shove of Christian M'Pumbu ahead of their fight in February in Connecticut. The money was taken out of Jackson's fight purse.
- Bjorn Rebney, CEO of Bellator, came out in defense of the decision to go ahead with a pay-per-view card recently despite losing the main event. The same thing happened to Bellator last year, and the promotion shifted the card from PPV to Spike TV.
During his post-fight media scrum, Rebney discussed the reason behind keeping the event on pay-per-view, taking a shot at the UFC in the process.
"I used to watch the UFC years ago, and I used to buy pay-per-views when they were significant and every pay-per-view had big fights on it, but that's not the case anymore," Rebney said (thanks to MMAjunkie.com for the quotes). "They do one every three weeks, and some of them, I'm like, 'I wouldn't watch that if it was on (FOX Sports 1).'"
The Bellator card lost Michael Chandler vs. lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, but included Chandler facing Will Brooks for the interim title, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson against Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko.
"I just think that you've got to load them up," Rebney said. "You've got to have cards like the card we had (Saturday) to make it make sense."