Only a month ago, Chad Mendes was expected to headline UFC 133 before UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo had to drop out due to a lingering neck injury. Now it appears Mendes will be featured on the preliminary card of the Aug. 6 event in Philadelphia when he takes on Rani Yahya.
■Tickets for UFC 131 have dramatically plunged to as low as $14 earlier today due to weak sales, with an injury to Brock Lesnar combined with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks run to the Stanley Cup Finals believed to be the culprit.
■The UFC debuted a trailer for the upcoming video game title UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System at this week’s E3 convention. The title will be released for all major platforms June 21 and will use each systems’ motion controls.
■Bellator 48 appears to be headed to the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the news to MMAJunkie and the card is expected to have either Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren or Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez against their respective season four tournament winners.
■World-ranked featherweight Hatsu Hioki has relinquished his 143lbs Shooto championship belt and is now reportedly a free agent after his release from Japanese promotion Sengoku. MMAWeekly also reports that Hioki’s presence in Vancouver for UFC 131 is not a coincidence.
■Polish promoter Martin Lewandowski is holding a fan poll for input on current KSW middleweight champion Mahmed Khalidov’s next opponent. The poll is being done by Polish MMA site MMARocks.pl and includes former UFC contenders Thales Leites and Patrick Cote.
■UFC President Dana White recently said he expects the UFC to close its next major TV deal within six months, with talks ongoing with current partner Spike TV and others.
■Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale averaged 1.8 million viewers on Spike TV, in line with TUF 11 and TUF 12 despite lower ratings for the regular season featuring Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos as coaches.
■Anthony Johnson needs rest but no surgery for a shoulder injury that forced him out of UFC on Versus 4′s main event against Nate Marquardt, where he was replaced by Rick Story.
■Demetrious Johnson suffered a broken leg in his UFC 130 win over fellow bantamweight contender Miguel Torres, but hopes to return at October’s UFC 137, which features UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre vs. Strikeforce title-holder Nick Diaz.
■UFC welterweight Brian Foster has been cleared to return after a brain hemorrhage forced him off April’s UFC 129.
■Middleweight Ryan Jensen has been released by the UFC after after suffering a first-round submission to Jason MacDonald at UFC 129.
