In the Cage – Silva Meets Weidman at UFC 162, Coleman Retires, Overeem Out with Injury

Each day, The MMA Corner will provide a recap of results, event announcements, fight match-ups, and injuries/cancellations from throughout the world of MMA.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will defend his belt against challenger Chris Weidman on Independence Day weekend at UFC 162.

Weidman last competed in July and has been out of action due to a shoulder injury, and now faces the champion on his return. This will be Silva’s 11th time defending his belt.

Two additional bouts were announced for UFC 162 today as well. Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Rafael Cavalcante will face Thiago Silva and middleweights Mark Munoz and Tim Boetsch will meet on the main card.

UFC 162 takes place July 6 in Las Vegas.

The 48-year-old Coleman, known as “the godfather of ground and pound,” officially announced his retirement from fighting via his Facebook page.

Coleman ended his career with a record of 16-10. The UFC Hall of Famer won two UFC tournaments and held the UFC heavyweight belt. In 2000, Coleman won the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix. He last competed in MMA against Randy Couture at UFC 109.

Renan Barao will defend his interim-bantamweight title for the second time against Eddie Wineland for the main event of UFC 161

Also announced this week for UFC 161 is a meeting of former champions Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans in a light heavyweight bout. The main card includes a meeting of welterweight standouts Jake Shields and Tyron Woodley and a heavyweight bout between Pat Barry and Shawn Jordan.

UFC 161 takes place June 15 from the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Canada.

Alistair Overeem was scheduled to meet former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 160, but is now out of the fight with an undisclosed injury. No further announcements have been made.

Bellator 92 will feature four Season 8 tournament semifinal fights, with two in the featherweight division, and two at middleweight. All eight main card fighters made the limit on their first try and are cleared to square off for Thursday night’s fights on Spike TV.

The lone hiccup was welterweight Ricky Legere, who came in two pounds over the 171-pound limit and will have two hours to make weight.

Full results:
Frodo Khasbulaev (145.8) vs. Marlon Sandro (145.8)
Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra (146.0) vs. Mike Richman (145.4)
Dan Cramer (185.6) vs. Brett Cooper (185.1)
Sultan Aliev (185.8) vs. Doug “Rhino” Marshall (185.1)
Nick Piedmont (146.0) vs. Cleber Luciano (144.6)
Sabah Homasi (170.6) vs. Ricky Legere (173)*
Akop Stepanyan (156.0) vs. Chris Saunders (154.5)
Richard Rigmaden (178.6) vs. Keith Berry (186.0)
Josh Appelt (247.0) vs. Manny Lara (254.2)
Shad Smith (146.0) vs. Aaron Miller (146.0)
Rocky Ramierz (204.8) vs. Brandon Halsey (205.0)

It was announced today that Sam Alvey, fresh off a losing bid for the MFC middleweight title at MFC 36, will meet Chase Degenhardt on the main card in a middleweight fight.

This fight joins the four other officially announced bouts on the main card, which will be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Chris Barnett and Smealinho.

“MFC 37: True Grit” takes place May 10 from the Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The main card will air live on AXS TV starting at 8 p.m. ET.

XFC 23 takes place April 29 in Louisville, Kent. and will include a featherweight fight between recent signee Deivison Ribeiro and Zach Underwood to establish a divisional contender.

The main and co-main events will see title fights with Shamar Bailey vs. Luis Santos for the XFC welterweight title and a WMMA bout with Stephanie Eggink vs. Angela Magana for the straweight title, respectively.

These three fights will be half of the six total shown live on AXS TV at 9 p.m. ET.