MMAVu

In the wake of Quinton Jackson bolting out of his main event match against Rashad Evans, the UFC has added a solid bout, pitting former interim UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir against Cheik Kongo.

Mir of course, is coming off of a pounding at the hands of Brock Lesnar in July. Mir lost that title unification bout, and has been beefing up his strength, the main factor in his loss, according to Mir.

Kongo was knocking on the door of a title shot before being derailed by Cain Velasquez. With a win over Mir, Kongo would be right back in the mix, after Shane Carwin’s title shot later this fall. This bout will likely serve as the co-main event, along with the main event of BJ Penn taking on Diego Sanchez.

By the way, how does this Jackson fiasco happen by the way? The company spends millions of dollars, months of building the fight, hours of prime time on tv, stage the fight in the guy’s hometown…only to have Jackson pull out with no good reason? Filming the A-Team isn’t a good reason; Jackson is a fighter first. Bad, bad, bad all around.

Quinton Pities YOU!!

The UFC brass can’t be too happy about this one. After lamenting about Quinton Jackson’s role in the upcoming A-Team movie, Dana White and the boys apparently have no choice but to re-schedule the fight to another time, likely after the new year. This is another reason why I dislike using the Ultimate Fighter to build fights. It takes forever, and something comes up (like this) and you have two of your main draws, in their prime, sit idle for up to a year!! What sense does that make? Jackson last fought March 09, and Evans May 09.

Personally, unless they’re injured, I think guys should be fighting every 5-6 months. That gives them 2-3 months to heal up any nagging injuries, and gives them 2-3 months for a training camp.

The UFC had booked Memphis, TN on Dec 12 for the Jackson-Evans bout, hoping to cash in on the fact that it is Jackson’s home town. Double d’oh!! Again, how does this happen? It’s like the UFC plans to go to England, spends months (and millions $$$) building up Michael Bisping vs Fighter X, and have Bisping pull the rug out from under them to do a side project. Lame.

The UFC has offered up another very good main event however, as BJ Penn will defend his 155lb title against Diego “YES” Sanchez.