According to HeavyMMA.com, all 24 fighters who competed at UFC 129 last weekend have received medical suspensions, including welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

Out of the 24 suspensions given out, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and six others earned the lengthiest with 60 day suspensions. The other six include Mark Hominick, who fought featherweight champion Jose Aldo in the evening’s co-main event, Randy Couture, Jason Brilz, Kyle Watson, Charlie Valencia, and Sean Pierson. Hominick and St. Pierre were the only ones out of the seven to avoid being knocked out.

From the evening’s preliminary card, Nate Diaz was given a suspension of 45 days following his loss to Rory MacDonald, while Jake Ellenberger will be out the same amount of time following his knockout victory over Sean Pierson.

UFC 129 took place at the Rogers Centre in Toronto and featured St. Pierre’s welterweight title defense against Jake Shields. In the co-main event of the evening, featherweight title-holder Aldo managed to outpoint Hominick on the judges’ scorecards.

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Spencer Kyte of HeavyMMA.com outlines ten stories that emerged from UFC 129 at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on Saturday night.

LAST NAME EVER. FIRST NAME GREATEST.
Quoting Toronto’s Drake seems fitting in the wake of the UFC’s debut in his backyard, but also because the lyrics ring true for UFC 129; this was the greatest event in UFC history.

Plus, Drake was in the building.

The magnitude of this event will remain the benchmark for the organization for some time. It was the UFC’s first stadium show, and it was a resounding success both inside and outside of the cage.

Each of the first four fights ended with a finish, with Pablo Garza’s opening bout flying triangle choke earning Submission of the Night honors, and John Makdessi replacing Shonie Carter as the man attached to a spectacular spinning back fist knockout inside the Octagon.

When you add the 55,000 exhilarated fans who packed the Rogers Centre with the tremendous layout and outstanding production of the event, it will be hard to top this event. Of course, you can be sure that Dana White and the UFC will try, and after being blown away in Toronto, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull it off down the line.

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UFC 129 takes place tonight from the Rogers Centre in Toronto featuring a very exciting card with two title fights.

Here are my picks for each of the five main-card bouts. The PPV begins at 9PM ET.

Also, be sure to check out MMABlitz.com for more UFC 129 coverage and news.

UFC Welterweight Championship – Georges St. Pierre (21-2) vs. Jake Shields (26-4-1) – Shields may be the toughest opponent St. Pierre has faced in a while, but I still see the champion running through him. Shields’ striking is miles behind GSP and Shields’ takedown ability is nothing St. Pierre hasn’t seen before. I see St. Pierre keeping the fight standing and picking Shields apart before finishing him in the fourth round by TKO.

UFC Featherweight Champion – Jose Aldo (18-1) vs. Mark Hominick (20-8) – Aldo is an absolute beast and seems unstoppable. Hominick has very quick and powerful hands, but he has not had to deal with someone that has the leg kicks of Aldo. I see Aldo landing a few leg kicks in the first and throwing Hominick off his strategy. From there, look for the champion to pounce and eventually knock the challenger out in the second round.

Light Heavyweight Bout – Randy Couture (19-10) vs. Lyoto Machida (16-2) – My heart says Couture, but my head says Machida. I think Couture will have a good strategy and look to leave it all in the cage, but Machida has some solid grappling ability and will be too elusive in the striking to allow Couture to really implement his game plan. Give me Machida by decision in Couture’s retirement fight.

Lightweight Bout – Mark Bocek (9-3) vs. Ben Henderson (12-2) – Henderson is making his UFC debut and looking to make a statement against Bocek. I see Henderson controlling the fight on his feet and on the ground as he will be too strong for Bocek in both areas. Henderson is smart enough to stay out of submission attempts by Bocek, and that is all the Canadian really has to offer. Give me Benson by decision.

Light Heavyweight Bout – Vladimir Matyushenko (25-5) vs. Jason Brilz (18-3-1) – This fight should be competitive, but I like Brilz to win by decision. He has a good chin and he is relentless with his pursuit to grapple. I suspect once Brilz gets a hold of Matyushenko, he will be able to consistently get him to the ground and get the win in the judges’ eyes.

E. Spencer Kyte of HeavyMMA.com compiled a list of 10 things he learned from UFC 118.

The Shifting Legacy of B.J. Penn

Before the fights Saturday night, I wrote a piece at my blog for the Vancouver-based newspaper I work for asking if we’ve all been buying into the B.J. Penn mystique for far too long. Watching “The Prodigy” look decidedly non-prodigious, it looks like maybe we have.

Make no mistake about it: Penn is a supremely gifted talent who could be one of the greatest fighters of all-time, but his legacy might be moving closer to “imagine what could have been” territory.

Some fighters work every day to prove why they are considered the best in the world (see St-Pierre, Georges), while others are willing to accept the accolades and get by on their natural gifts. That is where Penn rests right now, and he’ll stay there for eternity if he doesn’t make some changes.

Read the full article here.

E. Spencer Kyte previews Saturday’s UFC 118, inlculding the big bout between Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn.

Frankie Edgar (12-1-0) vs. BJ Penn (15-6-1)

This might be the fight I’ve been most excited about seeing all summer. No disrespect to the UFC 116 or 117 mains, but this one was so unexpected the first time around that I really want to see if (a) Frankie can do it again and (b) BJ comes with a different level of ferocity than we saw in Abu Dhabi.

Edgar rightfully earned the title in my books the first time around; his executed perfectly, darting in and out, scoring points, and avoiding damage, and he most certainly could do it again. He also scored a takedown, and could turn to his wrestling a little more this time.

That night in Abu Dhabi, Penn looked lethargic to me. I don’t know if anything was wrong – illness, injury, bad cut, whatever – but he didn’t look like the guy who had dismantled Diego Sanchez just four months earlier. If that same guy shows up, he’s losing two-in-a-row for the first time in four years.

I expect a better BJ to show up in Boston, but Edgar will be better too; now that he has the belt around his waist, there is no way he wants to give it up. These are two of the best lightweights in the world and it should be another exciting contest.

Read the full preview here.

With UFC 118 coming up this Saturday, the entire HeavyMMA.com team is on hand in Boston for the pre-fight press conference. Check out Jeremy Botter’s notes below.

- The fighters and Dana White make their way to the stage to huge cheers from the fans in attendance. This venue is really, really cool. It’s called the Great Hall and it’s a historic building.

- James Toney is wearing some serious bling around both of his wrists. He says he’s a warrior and something else. I need live subtitles for this man. Says he’s going nowhere when the cage closes.

- Penn says when you come out and star beating people the way he did ten years ago, people are going to put expectations on you. All of the pressure that people put on him over the years made him stronger today, and he feels like he’s going to blow a lot of people away on Saturday night. People will be surprised at just how good B.J. Penn is.

- Florian says Boston is one of the most passionate sports towns in the entire world and he expects the Garden to be a crazy atmosphere on Saturday night. White agrees, saying that while the UFC is great on television, it doesn’t compare to being in attendance.

Check out all of HeavyMMA.com’s UFC 118 presser notes here.

Nate Lawson of HeavyMMA.com writes that the UFC is heading back to the big screen on August 28.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is making its way back to the big screen.

On August 28, UFC 118 will be broadcast live in high definition in select movie theaters nationwide. The event features a lightweight championship rematch between title-holder Frankie Edgar and former longtime champion BJ Penn. As a part of the evening’s co-main event, boxing great James Toney will take on fan favorite and former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Randy Couture in what is being billed as a “Boxer vs. Mixed Martial Artist” bout.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at www.fathomevents.com and a list of theaters participating can be found there as well. For parties of four looking to attend the event, an exclusive offer is available through www.ufc.com/4pack. If the fans elect to buy “The Ultimate 4 Pack”, which includes four tickets to the broadcast, they will receive one free TapouT t-shirt.

The event is set for August 28 at select theaters with the five-fight main card broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. ET. Tickets are available now.

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I wanted to chew on UFC 116 for a few days before I really made any statements about it. The event took place last Saturday and featured the heavyweight collision between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.

Lesnar won the fight by second round submission after taking a pummeling from Carwin in round one. It was a compelling fight and very entertaining, but I think Lesnar is garnering a little too much praise for his performance. While you have to give credit where credit is due, as he won the fight, Lesnar looked far from polished. Here is a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from his title defense.

The Good: Obviously the good came in the win. He survived a hail storm and still came out in the second round and was aggressive. Lesnar also showed improved skills on the ground, as he scored a takedown and transitioned into mount and then into a head-and-arm choke from side control. These were all things he probably couldn’t do two years ago. I was also impressed with the way Lesnar handled himself after the fight. He seems to have embraced a little humanity since his health scare in November.

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My hands were sweaty, my face was red but I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass.

“Dana, could you tell me where you see Jose (Aldo) on your pound-for-pound list.”

The question was simple enough. I mean I ran it through my head a million times in a little over two minutes. The wording, the timing, the tone all needed to sound just right. After all, this question was directed at Dana White, President of the UFC and WEC.

Following Saturday’s WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber pay-per-view event, which was sponsored by AMP Energy, White and select fighters addressed the media. And there I was, covering my first MMA live event thanks to the people at AMP Energy.

At 27, I have been a dedicated MMA fan for seven years. Having seen the early days of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, I was re-introduced to the UFC with Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture at UFC 43 and have been hooked since.

But I am not just a fan, I am a sports writer, and have been for about 10 years now.

I knew that the opportunity of covering MMA for Bullz-Eye.com and The Scores Report was one I wanted to be a part of because I knew that I could do it objectively and with the respect and knowledge that MMA fans want from their writers. I’m not just a fan. Still, even having interviewed some of the top athletes in the world, my eyes were locked in with White’s as he awaited my question.

As any MMA fan knows, if White thinks you asked him a stupid question, he will let you know and he will probably sprinkle in a few expletives to describe his feelings.

So I asked my question.

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