Jake O’Brien

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has just learned of the release through O’Brien’s agent, Ken Pavia at MMA Agents.

The dismissal comes on the heels of the former heavyweight’s second bout at 205 pounds; a loss to the up and coming Jon Jones at UFC 100.

Obrien’s only other two defeats in his professional career came to Andrei Arlovski and Cain Velasquez, while he managed to notch impressive victories over the like of Heath Herring and Christian Wellisch during his time spent with the UFC.

The just 24 year old Indiana based fighter is known for his strong wrestling background and knockout power, finishing eight of his eleven victories by way of knockout or TKO.

The website TheGarv.com was the first to report the matchup and FiveOuncesOfPain.com has since confirmed the matchup as being official with sources close to both fighters.

Considered one of the fastest rising prospects in all of MMA, Jones improved his career record to 8-0 and his lifetime record in the UFC to 2-0 following his stunning unanimous decision victory over Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94. Utilizing his elite athleticism and strong wrestling base, Jones slammed the season one light heavyweight runner-up of The Ultimate Fighter on multiple occasions.

The win over Bonnar was an encore to Jones upset victory over the Renzo Gracie-trained Andre Gusmao during his UFC debut this past August at UFC 87. Relying less on his wrestling and more on his unorthodox striking style, Jones surprised many pundits in handing Gusmao his first career loss.

O’Brien, 11-2, also competed at UFC 94, defeating Christian Wellisch via split decision. The bout marked hiss debut at light heavyweight, as O’Brien had previously competed as a heavyweight. The victory improved O’Brien’s lifetime record in the UFC to 4-2 with notable wins over Heath Herring and Kristof Midoux.

UFC 100 will emanate from the Mandalay Bay Events Center and while the promotion has yet to officially announce any bouts for the card, the show is expected to feature Georges St. Pierre defending the UFC welterweight title vs. number one contender Thiago Alves. Also expected is a head-to-head showdown between rival coaches from the upcoming ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter, Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping.

Also possible for UFC 100 is heavyweight title unification bout between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir that had been scheduled for May 23 at UFC 98 but was postponed due to Mir’s recent knee surgery.

Three other reported matchups include Dong Hyun Kim vs. Jonathan Goulet, Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman and Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty.

According to published reports, negotiations are also taking place regarding possible matchups between Yoshihiro Akiyama and Alan Belcher at middleweight and Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago at welterweight.

PRO: mattfororegon.com. Matt Lindland’s Oregon House run. Nice cowboy hat by the way. Or go to the why he’s running page and see his lovely blame game and why his positions are as boring as his fighting. Don’t get me wrong Matt, I know you probably didn’t write a word on your site and while your family is lovely. I just don’t know where Oregon’s 52nd district is and like nearly everyone reading this I went, “Oregon has 52 districts?” Good luck. Just don’t wear the wrong t-shirt to the Oregon House.

CON: Mike Whitehead’s thighs. Mike, I’m not sure who told you that you could pull off the Muay Thai shorts in your fight with Babalu but they were way off. Melvin Manhoef can pull them off, you just look like a chunky white guy who feels as though I should see his pasty thighs. Please don’t ever do that again.

CON: Buffer card tossing. I didn’t write down which card this was from but I’ll just assume it was Michael on the Affliction card. On the intros you saw Buffer holding his blue cards and after reading one he tossed it behind him like litter only for the refreree to pick up like it was his job. The refs are not your garbage men. I don’t know how the Buffers took complete control of the MMA announce game but do realize the refs are not there as people out on parole to pick up your trash on the highway. Just put the first card in the back like the rest of us do when we give a presentation. The both of you are jackasses.

CON: Referee introductions. I’m getting a little tired of the fighter, fighter, ref intros in MMA fights. I know in combat sports we always mention the referee in charge but I’m a little tired of Mario Yamasaki getting the last intro after the main event fighters. As with all sports I shouldn’t know who the referee is unless that person did a horrific job. I’m not there to see the refs and I don’t care who they are. If you’re going to go on with this atleast announce who the refs are prior to the live card so I can pick my fights accordingly based on their previous horrible calls. If you’re not going to do that spare me the time of introducing the official like he’s one of the fighters.

PRO: Donald Trump, Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson all sitting together. Is that not the creepiest threesome in history? Bad hair, big head and …. I don’t even know what Jenna Jameson is anymore. I’d like to sit with those three for some type of MMA event. I’ll add that to my “things to do before I die” list along with (a) play a round of golf at St. Andrews, (b) visit Tokyo, (c) sleep with 18-year-old Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and (d) recognize someone on America’s Most Wanted. It would be as much fun as hiding behind my bathroom door and yelling my dog’s name only to watch him run back and forth looking for me. My life is very simple.

CON: Affliction’s audio. I know I’m not the only person to get the first part of the broadcast either on mute or in Spanish. I don’t know anything about television broadcasting, I’m a poorly educated blogger, but I do know major cards don’t have their events streamed in Spanish to the buying public. Video and audio are the two top problems you need to tackle…. just ask Rio Heroes.

CON: Deer. Yes, deer. I walked my dog last night and as we went out on my porch there was a deer standing on my driveway. Now as I assume most of you are thinking, “I can take a deer.” Yeah, that makes sense until you see a deer. I looked at the deer, the deer looked at me, the deer looked at my dog, my dog looked at the deer. Suddenly we’re in this strange threeway glancefest wondering who will run away first. It was the deer, yet I’m here thinking I’m going to have to fight a deer to save my dog. But coming into this event I was fairly certain I could take a deer…. after having seen a deer up close I’m not very confident. It’s easy to think of a deer as a nice, tranquil creature. They’re not, they’re very large and scary, especially when you’re not in your car missing them by a foot on a rural highway. My point? You can’t beat up a deer. They’re much scarier than they may seem as you drive by them. Just another fun life fact from me to put in your memory bank.

Pro. July 19th UFC show. Awesome, something to tivo for after I buy and watch Affliction. I’m not going to complain about free MMA, I just fail to see the point. Who was going to get the Affliction show that won’t now? Like 7? Only like 200 people in the entire world even know about the Affliction show and like 20 of them are fighting on the card. The only thing I could think of is that they wanted to make sure random bar TVs were tuned into the UFC instead of Affliction. That I could see. But at the same time you’re then basing your business decisions around people at Hooters. Thanks for the show though.

Con. Evan Tanner losing. We all know this was the top con to come out of the show. I’ve seen multiple people write that it makes them uncomfortable to see him get beat up. Maybe it’s a father figure thing. Or maybe I’m the only one with a bearded alcohol father. Either way it’s like Rich Franklin fighting Anderson Silva. We just kind of cringe and wish he’d get out of there because it’s like watching a homeless person get beat up by an unruly teenager. Props to Kendall Grove for showing up and handling your business but stop beating up our dad.

Pro. Cecil Peoples. My boy continues to rep by adding to his record of times he’s been the only differing score after a fight. I’m not going to beat a dead horse but we have MMA stat people and analysts at this point, right? People that come up with all these fancy sabermetric figures and statistics? Can we get one on how many times Cecil Peoples has had a different score than two agreeing judges? Ballpark me. I want to know this. Sam, can you hire Stats Inc.?

Con. Al Lefkowitz. Who in the hell do you think you are giving that Grove/Tanner fight to Tanner? You sir are no Cecil Peoples and you never will be. Cecil does it for fun because he’s a wacky guy, you saying Tanner beat Grove is just a dick move. Did they sit you behind a concrete beam? Do you like beards? Did you want to thank him for breaking out that picture that showed the UFC gets that awesome misty black background by having a chubby lady stand on a chair with a spray bottle? I don’t even have the words. I tried to Google image search that name just to project anger at a face and I swear to God the first picture is a guy in a football helmet from a 1950′s era picture eating a raw steak being held up by an old Spanish woman.

Con. UFC official records. We’re all used to seeing each and every official record be slightly better than what a fight finder would show it to be. This can be understandable and explained that early smaller fights were never officially recorded. I get that. Could someone explain CB Dollaway’s record progression this year? I believe he came to the show 6-0 and when he fought on the finale he was 7-1. Obviously they counted his semi-final loss as an official fight. And then I suppose his second semi-final comeback as a win. Were these really official? Is it because they start the three round format then? You can’t tell me the early round fights are amateur fights when you have the NSAC there overlooking everything and the winner gets thousands of dollars. I thought the very definition of an amateur was someone that doesn’t get paid for their work. Or maybe there are loopholes everywhere and this is all exactly what they’re supposed to do. Hopefully we’ll never see anything as bad as former TUF cast member Kristian Rotharmel and his hundred fights when Sherdog had him at 4-3 again.

Pro. Phil Baroni cutting to 170lbs. I more or less go out of my way to not insult the fighters but my exception to the rule seems to always be Hammer House. I love Phil Baroni. I love his pre-fight talking, I love his lack of vocabulary and I love watching him gas in 40 seconds. So what’s the answer for the man who can’t fight longer than four minutes? Why cut another weight class of course. Brilliant news. Yes, cutting 15 extra pounds should certainly help. The only way this is smart is if he’s naturally going to lose 15lbs of muscle for some mysterious reason. Hmmm…. what, don’t look at me, it’s not like it’s just speculation.

Con. People calling out Kimbo. Okay, I just added this one. We get it, you don’t respect him enough to think he deserves all of this fame and publicity yet you respect it enough to want to cash in on a match with him yourself. Isn’t that like insulting the people on that MTV show “The Hills” and then lobbying to get a guest appearance? I’ve worked with Paul Buentello in the past and to his credit he’s a really smart, decent guy that was doing it while Kimbo was still the internet guy. But he started a trend of every Tom, Dick and Harry popping up rambling on with a pro wrestling monologue calling him out. Who will it be tomorrow? Oh, Kevin Randleman and Kimo. Yay. We know when guys like Jeff Monson call him out that (a) he ain’t gettin’ the fight and (b) he’d beat him. So what’s the point? It’s especially funny when you hear it from guys that probably couldn’t beat him anyway.

PRO: Cecil Peoples scored a fight correctly. But how funny is it that the first time this happens in the history of the world that the wrong guy won? It’s poetry in motion. With two points taken away from Marquardt and Leites winning the first round the correct score was indeed 28-27 for Thales Leites. This was the first time Cecil Peoples has been right about anything since giving someone an accurate fatality code for Raydan in Mortal Kombat (toward 2, away 3, A) at an arcade in 1993. Yet even then Marquardt clearly dominated the fight and was the better fighter. There is just something beautiful about that. The first time you’re right in 15 years and you’re still wrong.

CON: Marcus Davis: YOU’RE NOT IRISH. This needs to be said. Look we have this understanding in the United States that it’s assumed we’re all American so we frequently talk about our ancestry as we’re a melting pot from around the globe. Namely it’s the Irish and Italians but people have Native American history, Jewish history, Polish history and any number of places their grandparents came from. But when you travel internationally you’re an American. To fight in the UK and be UBER-IRISH with the kilt and clovers and shorts and overkill like having a drunk leprechaun as your #2 (okay, I made that one up) is just too much. He even said in this interview with BK, “I see a lot of kids who are from European decent ignore that and grab a hold of this MTV generation and hip hop culture and run with it. I am Irish, Scottish and Welsh and proud of it.” What? We all know MTV sucks and while many of us have considered hating our country over it that’s a bit of a lame reason. Over at 411, “My mom raised me as my dad was not a part of my life growing up. He was an in and out kind of father you know. I mean I haven’t spoken to him in over seven years. My mom’s side of the family is Irish so I feel closer to them. I wear my kilts as my way of saying this is who I am.” So because your mom’s family is kinda Irish you’re totally Irish? Do I even need to mention that your nickname, The Irish Hand Grenade, was so offensive the UFC had to change it for your UFC 72 fight in Ireland itself? Did this not tell you anything? Isn’t that like Akihiro Gono being born and raised in Canada and nicknaming himself “The Japanese Enola Gay?” What exactly is wrong with you?

CON: The crowd booing at some point during nearly every fight. Isn’t this England? The country that loves soccer? So let me get this straight, you can watch two hours of guys lazily kicking a ball to each other on grass with a final score of 0-0 but a ten minute fist fight upsets you and bores you to tears? Then you’re doing the wave and chanting 10 seconds later? I don’t know what the hell you people are on but I want some.

PRO: Jason Lambert. Despite what I’m about to say I love Jason Lambert; I believe I listed Lambert when I once listed my ten favorite fighters. Just something about that belly is unsettling. I remember the main critique I heard from the media after the highly publicized Liddell/Rampage II UFC event was that Liddell didn’t look in shape or like a dedicated athlete. Enter Lambert. Who could probably cut to 145lbs if he wanted and has the reach of Vern Troyer. Seriously, Jason, I love you. I was rooting for you (even against Adam Morgan’s man crush Cane) but you gotta do something about the belly. Cut to 115lbs, move to Bangladesh and maybe Jordan Breen will rate you in a top 10.

CON: “Defend at all times.” I really hate this saying and it never bothered me more than seeing a couple of people type it after Marquardt hit Leites with the illegal knee. I’ve also seen it said on multiple occasions when a fighter went to touch gloves and his opponent just took an easy swing at him (hi Manny Gamburyan and the guy from that boxing clip). I understand the sentiment but how are you supposed to protect yourself from something you can’t see coming or an illegal shot? It’s the same reason you never see a sucker punch coming, that’s why they call it a sucker punch. You can only defend yourself from things that are probable. Will someone on the Sherdog forums complain when a nut with a gun hops in the cage and shoots Ryo Chonan because fighters should always protect themselves while in the cage? Fighters aren’t preventing shots to the back of the head because it’s illegal and they have more pressing concerns at the moment.

CON: Joe Rogan, I enjoy your thoughts on fights. But please stop with the superior striker/grappler thing during the match. None of that crap is valid unless you apply it to MMA. I remember him saying Leites was above and beyond Marquardt on the ground. REALLY? Nate Marquardt has been submitted only twice in almost 40 fights by two of the best MMA submission guys you can find, Ricardo Almeida and Genki Sudo. Leites is a fine fighter and excellent athlete but to say he’s leagues better than Marquardt on the ground is an insult not just to Marquardt but to the things Marquardt has done to adjust the style to MMA. Yes, in a pure BJJ tournament I’m taking Leites but this is MMA and Marquardt was going to pound the crap out of him and avoid submissions easily. Marquardt is a powerful tank and he’s not going to be tricked by a gi-induced choke. This isn’t Abu Dhabi. Like when they say Alessio Sakara was a pro boxer. Have you ever looked at Alessio Sakara’s boxing record? According to boxrec the guy was 6-1 and the combined win total of all 6 guys he beat? ZERO. A combined 0-19 record of the six guys he beat when he beat them. This is probably why you pick against him whenever he fights anyone that knows how to punch. Sure, he was a pro boxer…. and he also gets knocked out by anyone with power. You have to look beyond the general background and adapt it to the actual sport they’re competing in.

PRO: Fightfinder MMA Experts. This was a big day for us, the crazy people that actually watch all of the fights. Mark my words, a couple of years from now someone (again, probably on the Sherdog forums) will make a statement in favor of Thales Leites winning a fight and will reference how he beat Nate Marquardt. We will know that person is an idiot. This is one of those fantastically obvious fights we will remember and down the road someone will simply look at fightfinder to back up their argument and pick a fight result without actually knowing that fight. We’ve all ran into it before but a fight like this only picks up our spirits. You can’t know a fight unless you saw it. How many fights end in a random punch or bad decision? People that watch the fights remember these things, people that just use fightfinder for results and arguments do not. Down the road this fight will be used by someone that didn’t see the card to argue for something and we’ll all be there to laugh. Rejoice. Rejoice.

PRO: Me remembering I’m a man. Earlier this week I closed my garage door, which takes about eight seconds, and a mouse ran in. For the first four seconds I reacted like a girl and made a high pitched “EEEEEEEE” sound and might or might not have had my hands at my head shaking. Then in the second four seconds I remembered that I possess a penis and testicles, grabbed a broom and swatted it out with a baseball bat style swing. Way to go me.

PRO: Cecil Peoples. Yeah, people complain that he has no idea what he’s watching but dammit he makes it fun. When a fight goes to the judges you have NO IDEA what the hell he just saw. It adds another level of drama. Frequently you’ll see two judges score a fight 30-27 one way and yet he somehow has the other person winning almost every time. It’s amazing. You could see the closest fight in history and when it goes to the judges one has it 29-28 for one guy, another has it 29-28 for the other guy, then Cecil Peoples has it 21-6 for the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s the same reason we love Gary Busey and Paula Abdul. Cecil Peoples is insane and adds alot of entertainment for your television dollar. How can you train in martial arts for that long and still have no idea what the hell you’re doing? It’s impressive at the very least.

PRO: Affliction. I know some people are fanatical UFC fans and some people are fanatical UFC haters. Simply put, competition breeds new ideas. If you need a package to get to a friend across the country by tomorrow morning where are you headed? The US Postal Service or Fed-Ex/UPS? If it were just the USPS would that industry be as highly thought of as it is? It takes competition to improve the product to get your business. Thanks to Fed-Ex and UPS if I need a package shipped at 9:30pm it can be in Mashhad, Turkmenistan by 10pm. I don’t know how they do it and I don’t question it. I just know I shipped something at 4:30pm and it was thousands of miles away by the next morning. I assume wizardry or leprechauns but in the end it doesn’t matter. The introductions of Donald Trump and Andrei Arlovski to the Affliction family can only be good for mainstream acceptance. How would the UFC react to seeing EXC and Affliction discussions on ESPN when their fights are never discussed? I don’t blame Dana White for a second for not signing a deal that wouldn’t be great for his company but at the same time you have to realize the infancy of our sport. Our sport isn’t at a point where the UFC can call itself the NFL of fighting. Yes, it is now, but that can go away in an instant. All that matters is what happens when it breaks mainstream and if other companies are getting more coverage no one will care about your history and depth of fighters because they won’t know. The World Poker Tour, I believe, invented the hole card cameras yet the WSoP had the bigger tv deal. I believe Domino’s invented the big pizza chain delivery idea, the little white thing in the middle to not mash your pizza and the idea of a bag to put the pizza in to keep it hot. Are they the most popular chain? Nope. It’s easy to steal ideas and steal thunder. You have to be on top when the idea hits the mainstream, what you did before doesn’t mean a thing.

CON: That damned Triple Crown horse and his messed up hoof. No one cares. I don’t care, you don’t care, no one we know cares. Yet Jim Rome had a 6 minute interview with his trainer. Like ESPN feels every show needs “here is Tim Jones, last year he had the chance to pet Big Brown…. how majestic is he?” Yes ESPN.com, bury MMA in the “MORE” section on the front page instead of listing it (hilariously enough under three separate horse racing sports) and add no additional comment but put Big Brown on every single program possible. Hey ESPN, what were the ratings the last couple of years for the Belmont Stakes? Oh, lower than what EXC got on Saturday night? Interesting. Yeah, I’m aware, alot has to do with a Triple Crown threat. Not the point. The Kentucky Derby is much more important with their killing the second place finisher on the track and steroids being legal in all but 10 states that have horse racing. Top notch decision.

CON: TUF drunken stupidity. Could you guys please stop destroying the house after a few beers? I think my personal one night record was 25 beers and even then I didn’t come home, destroy my house and do anything I was ashamed of doing. I just woke up to TIVO’d episodes of Lassie, Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck for no apparent reason, made an embarrassing message board post and forgot to drink water before I went to sleep leading to a day of hell. Take your liquor. Why do you guys constantly feel the need to destroy the house? How stupid do you want to make fighters as a whole look? Oh and Jesse Taylor, I’m 80% sure he can’t read. I have no evidence, I’m just saying. You’re everything that is wrong with fighting and stereotypes the athletes receive from the media. Why is the UFC the only organization, from Starnes to Taylor and others, that can get away with saying “fag” frequently with no consequence? I’m hardly Mr. Politically Correct but Jesus. You guys need to read some books and settle down. I need me some more Diego Sanchez and Luke Cummo in these houses.

PRO: Awesome Sam Caplan interview with James Thompson right here on 5oz. I made the point from the start that Thompson took harder shots from Slice in the first two rounds and it wasn’t stopped. Also a very interesting comment on Jared Shaw I was unaware of yelling at the referee to stand the fight up. Look, this is a major problem with the sport. I fully believe Rampage’s claims that he was bribed to lose to Sakuraba in PRIDE. I also fully believe anyone that took Wanderlei Silva down in PRIDE was immediately stood back up. Much like James Thompson, I have all of the DVDs. Favoritism needs to stop. That’s easy for us to say but hard for the people with millions invested in their company and a certain guy to stop. If Thompson did eat those 22 straight elbows that Slice did it would have been over, no question about it. At the same time certain vets (not Kimbo) deserve more respect when it comes to taking damage. If you’re 35-2 you deserve more respect taking shots than a guy that is 4-2. Like Jordan or Kobe getting fouls you’ve proven your point that you’re a step above. It’s earned.

CON: People saying Kimbo is getting hand-picked opponents. Yeah, so? But he’s had three fights. Yes, he might be the six figured main eventer but he’s not the World Champion. It would be one thing if they handed him the title and had him fight Bo Cantrell and Tank Abbott. He just happens to be the biggest name and the biggest draw they have. That’s not his fault. It’s like Wrestlemania VIII when the WWF World Title match was in the middle of the card and a Hulk Hogan vs Sid DQ main event ended the show. Hogan was the draw. That’s how sporting/entertainment events like these work. If Kimbo were the champ I’d share your displeasure but the fact is he’s just a marketing machine making good money for being in the right place at the right time. Good for him. Kimbo has faced a KotC vet, a PRIDE and UFC vet, then another PRIDE vet with a 14-8 record. That’s hardly child’s play. Admit it, you’re not upset with the level of competition to start his career, you’re upset he’s making so much money. You make as much money as you’re worth. When young Lebron James signed a $60 million contract it was for a reason. He filled that arena. He put the butts in the seats paying $75 for tickets and filled that place up every single night when it used to be fairly empty. You earn the money you’re worth in life. Kimbo draws huge ratings, gets major coverage and puts butts in seats. What do you want him to do? Say no to the ESPN the Magazine cover?

CON: This might be my last post on 5oz. There is a massive wasp/hornet nest I have to get rid of tonight (how the hell should I know the difference? What am I, Gil Grissom?) and I feel I have about a 55% chance of living through it. I called my Mr. Fit It and he said my idea of putting multiple mattresses on the ground to flee upon was funny but not wise and they’d be sleepy at night and not destroy me. Whatever, I’m climbing a ladder to kill stinging insects with a shovel and flashlight and have nowhere to flee. If I don’t post for three or four days I hope Mr. Caplan will call my mother. Fine, he doesn’t have her number but he has connections. If Roger Huerta were 10% the pimp I’d be if I were him I’d have my mom’s number. You should have seen me out there earlier today taking care of the smaller ones with a can of bug spray and swinging a giant shovel at them. I’m fairly certain my neighbors now believe me to be mentally retarded if they didn’t before.

CON: Brett Rogers cursing. Immediately after the Rogers/Murphy fight I saw Gary Shaw talking to Rogers and my first thought was that he was reminding him he’s on CBS and this is the first fight and he needs to make sure to be professional and sound good. And Rogers comes right out and gets us a five second mute. If that isn’t what Gary Shaw was saying to him what the hell was he saying? This was the first fight ever on major network television and that wasn’t the chat you had? Seriously?

PRO: Big Black. Like all civilized human beings, I realize Rob & Big was the greatest show in the history of MTV. While I’m sad that he apparently left the show to do things like stand behind Brett Rogers on television wearing a t-shirt I’m just happy he’s around. Simply seeing him brightened my day.

CON: Whore dancers. Seriously, if there was one thing everyone agreed on it was that EXC needed to lose the strippers dancing on the ramp. Oh yes, dancing to rap music and closeups of ass shorts, exactly what all of us were praying for on the network debut. The whore dancers are the equivalent of K-1′s horrible DJ. Just stop it.

CONFUSING: Phil Baroni has a college degree!?!? Phil Baroni? I was 80% sure he couldn’t read let alone finish a four year degree at a D-1 university. This information has made me question everything I thought I knew.

CON: Stoppage of the Lawler/Smith fight. Doctor Sherry Roken (sp?) apparently felt everyone paid to see her and step in the way of a man’s career and future. What is the point of giving five minutes if you take a man’s comment 30 seconds after something happens as the final word? What is the point of telling a doctor the truth? And to hell with the NJSAC for blaming it on Smith saying he couldn’t see. No, it was your fault, not his. Don’t pass the problem off because you were incompetent. Give him his five minutes and then talk to him. Smith obviously didn’t want to stop and you just robbed us of a great ending to a great fight. You’re not protecting anyone, you’re trying to steal the show. I don’t care how hard you try, you’re never going to be as incompetent as Armando Garcia so stop with the effort.

PRO: Carano/Young. Nothing else to add, well played.

CON: James Thompson’s ear. I got a phone call during the fight asking if there was a new trendy Hollywood plastic surgery that involved inserting pool balls into ears. That’s just not right. That ear made Mark Coleman’s head tumor look like a scratch.

PRO: Kimbo’s scissor sweep. Sure he was seemingly confused in the crucifix but I was really impressed by the sweep. Long way to go but a great sign.

CON: Dan Miragliotta’s stoppage. Just awful. Our own Adam Morgan strongly disagrees but I feel he’ll be in a huge minority. They were looking for a reason for Kimbo to win. And I should note I like Kimbo and have defended him time and time again so this is hardly hatred towards him. Thompson took 5 shots worse than those throughout the course of the fight and it wasn’t stopped. Yes, his disgusting ear exploded and he might have been killed with the next punch but that fight should not have been stopped. Apparently the scorecards are out and Thompson was winning the fight. That certainly doesn’t help the case for EXC and that end was a sham.

OVERALL: I loved the show. The fights were fantastic and despite the two horrible stoppages and the dancing whores I think it went off very well. All things considered over how bad it could have went I think this was as nice as we could have hoped for as mixed martial arts fans on a national stage. Just please stop with the strippers. Please.