WEDNESDAY NEWS DIGEST 12/12: Dominick Cruz injured again, Jacare frustrated that ‘sh**ts’ like Anderdson Silva get title shots, more

By Michael Hiscoe, Managing Editor

Cruz injured once again

Just days after a fight between Dominick Cruz and John Lineker was announced, MMAbrasil is reporting that Cruz is injured and likely to pull out of the fight scheduled for UFC 233 next month. Neither Cruz nor UFC have made any official announcement but, if true, the injury would be the latest in a long string of struggles for the former bantamweight champion. Cruz has not fought since he lost his title to Cody Garbrandt in Dec. 2016. Cruz fought three times in 2016, but before that had a 23-month layoff before fighting Takeya Mizugaki followed by another 16 months on the shelf. All in all, Cruz has only fought six times in a UFC run that dates back to July 2011.

Wednesday Notebook

-Jacare Souza is very frustrated with they way he perceives championship fights are handed out in UFC. Speaking to PVT this week (transcribed by MMAFighting), Souza said “The reality is, Anderson is coming off doping, man. Anderson is out of the ranking. Do you understand that?… You see shits like that. A guy jumping the fence to beat another one, and other shits, and you… I think I’ll start doping, I’ll start doing a bunch of shit, call everyone names. Maybe I’ll fight for the belt.”

-Tony Ferguson tweeted back to Dustin Poirier who expressed frustration with the holdup in UFC’s lightweight division. “I liked you better when you were quiet kid. Don’t ruin a good thing you got goin’ Diamond.”

https://twitter.com/TonyFergusonXT/status/1072647709386047488

 

-UFC released a statement on featherweight Grant Dawson, who was flagged for a USADA violation last year. His violation has been dismissed because it was determined that he likely ingested the prohibited substance prior to coming under UFC’s anti-doping program.

Scott Coker told MMAJunkie that he tried to book the Paul Daley-MVP fight for England but DAZN requested the fight take place in the U.S. Coker was then able to convince DAZN CEO James Rushton to hold the fight in London but there were no available venues for the Feb. 16 fight.

-California State Athletic Commission Executive Director Andy Foster told MMAJunkie that he feels Jon Jones’ case for a July 2017 drug test failure went on too long and that USADA shouldn’t be dictating punishments for UFC fighters. “The main thing is we’re not going to yield executive discretion over fighters’ livelihood to a third-party drug testing company who has a potential – not saying its real – conflict,” he said.

In case you missed it

-The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from UFC 231

Latest podcast

MMATorch Today with David McGrath discussing the idea of scrapping UFC 233 and Max Holloway as the greatest featherweight of all-time.

Fight Announcements

-Juan Archuleta vs. Ricky Bandejas at Bellator 214 on Jan. 26 from Inglewood, CA.

-Ricardo Ramos vs. Said Nurmagomedov at UFC Fight Night Fortaleza on Feb. 2.

-Jimmie Rivera vs. Aljamain Sterling is being reported for UFC Fight Night Phoenix on Feb. 17

-Lucie Pudilova vs. Liz Carmouche at UFC Fight Night Prague on Feb. 23.

-Peter Queally vs. Myles Price at Bellator 218 on Feb. 23 from Dublin.

 

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