Another Sunday morning and we’re only 29 days deep into 2012. We now have two titles fights mapped out for the remainder of the year, and they are exactly what you expected. By this time next week, we’ll have a third title fight etched out, which means living your life will be just that much easier. Now it’s time for a Sunday Morning Rumor Mill to fulfill your gossipy appetites. Enjoy.
- ESPN planned to release a rebuttal to ZUFFA’s rebuttal of ESPN’s ‘Outside The Lines’ feature on the pay structure within the UFC. It appears ESPN’s rebuttal will still be released, but at a later date.
- M-1 recently released their media relations staff member and webmaster, citing necessary cutbacks to the promotion.
- It appears there’s a new promotion brewing up in Russia with a notable amount of potential funds behind it. Yeah I know, we’ve all heard in so many variations over the years — but this seems rather legit.
- It’s not really a rumor now, but FORM athletic is no more. The website is gone and don’t expect any fighters to rock their gear in the future.
- Apparently FORM athletic flew a few MMA journalists out to check out Urijah Faber’s camp just before the company collapsed. FORM wanted to ‘influence’ certain journalists to include a mention of FORM in their article, fortunately the media outlets did not.
- Earlier this month, Vinny Maghales visited Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi and made ‘Anderson Silva’ money from teaching the co-owner of the UFC. It’s been suggested that Vinny’s trip to Abu Dhabi is just a precursor to the ADCC champion joining the UFC.
- A UFC role-playing game for PC/Xbox/PS3 was pitched to the promotion earlier this year. No word on the status of the concept.
- It appears Frank Trigg was released from HDNet.
- During last night’s UFC on FOX broadcast, Randy Couture gave Jon Jones a ‘pep talk’ during a commercial break due to an uncomfortable bout of silence from the UFC light heavyweight champion during the broadcast.
- Someone named ‘ChunkLite-Light’ claims the UFC hired his ‘hacker group’ to deter the attacks on the website from last week.
- It’s rumored that Mark Hunt may face Lavar Johnson in his next bout, although this rumor seems a little premature.
- Judging from current estimates, it appears last night’s UFC on FOX will shatter the ratings of UFC on FOX: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos.
- It appears ZUFFA somewhat freaked out when FOX published their official UFC co-branded fighter rankings during last night’s UFC on FOX broadcast. Expect a few mangers to ask substantially more for the fighters they represent if they made the list.
- Chael Sonnen intended to bring his replica UFC belt to the octagon, but was nixed by UFC officials.
