In the Cage – Askren Released, Jones-Teixeira Off UFC 170

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.

The Bellator MMA welterweight championship no longer as a waist to call home.  The promotion has released Ben Askren, vacating the title in the process.  Askren is free to sign with whoever he wants, as he is now a free agent.

The championship will remain vacant until Douglas Lima takes on the winner of the season nine welterweight tournament championship fight between Rick Hawn and Ron Keslar.

Just a day after it was announced that the main event of UFC 170 was a light heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira, it has been announced by UFC president Dana White that that fight will not happen at that event.  It appears as though the fight may be pushed to March.

Currently, UFC 170 is without a headlining fight.

Bellator MMA fighters tipped the scales this evening as the promotions ninth season starts to wind down.  The evenings card will be headlined by former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson taking on Joey Beltran.  “Rampage” was originally supposed to debut for Bellator two weekends ago, however with Tito Ortiz pulling out of the fight due to injury, Jackson was given a new assignment for this card.  The co-main event will feature a heavyweight championship bout between champion Alexander Volkov and challenger Vitaly Minakov.  Also on the main card will be the season nine featherweight tournament championship as Patricio Freire battles Justin Wilcox.  The winner of their fight will receive a guaranteed title shot and a check for $100,000 dollars.

MAIN CARD:
Catchweight Feature Fight (210 lbs): Joey Beltran (208.5) vs. Quinton Jackson (210)
Bellator Heavyweight World Title Fight: Vitaly Minakov (249) vs. Alexander Volkov (235)
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Tom McKenna (135.3) vs. Marcos Galvao (135.9)
Bellator Featherweight Tournament Final: Justin Wilcox (145.5) vs. Patricio Pitbull (145.8)

PRELIMINARY CARD:
Catchweight Feature Fight (174lbs): Chip Moraza-Pollard (169.8) vs. Sam Oropeza (173.8)
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Jason Lambert (203.5) vs. Tom DeBlass (204.5)
Catchweight Feature Fight (180 lbs):  Nah’Shon Burrell (179.3) vs. Jesus Martinez (179.5)
Catchweight Feature Fight (150lbs): Anthony Marrison (147.8) vs. Kenny Foster (149.7)
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Najim Wali (205) vs. Liam McGeary (204.5)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Kevin Roddy (145.8) vs. Will Martinez (145.1)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Dan Matala (145.5) vs. Ryan Cafaro (146)
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Sergio de Silva (136) vs. Rob Sullivan (135.6)

Bellator 108 takes place tomorrow night in Atlantic City, N.J.

While everyone who was allowed to step on the scales for the ONE FC 12 weigh in earlier today successfully hit their mark, the event will not go as originally scheduled.  The original main event fight between Vitor Pinto and Nobutatsu Suzuki fell apart after Pinto failed his pre-fight medical examination.  In the interest of protecting an unhealthy fighter, Pinto was taken off of the card and unfortunately, the fight was scrapped entirely as the promotion did not have enough time to secure an opponent for Suzuki.  The matchup between Adriano Moraes and Yusup Saadulaev has been pushed to the top of the card as the evenings new main event.

MAIN CARD
Catchweight bout: Adriano Moraes (60.8 kg/134 lbs) vs Yusup Saadulaev(60.9 kg/134 lbs)
Middleweight bout: Brayan Rafiq (83.5 kg/184 lbs) vs Leandro Ataides (83 kg/183 lbs)
Heavyweight bout: Chris Lokteff (112.3 kg/248 lbs) vs Tony Johnson (120.1 kg/265 lbs)
Lightweight bout: Alaa Mazloum (70 kg/154 lbs) vs Peter Davis (70.3 kg/155 lbs)
Flyweight bout: Gianni Subba (56.7 kg/125 lbs) vs Chen Yun Ting (56 kg/123 lbs)
Flyweight bout: Tok Sophon (56.6 kg/125 lbs) vs Saiful Merican (56.7 kg/125 lbs)
Malaysian National Featherweight Championship Final: AJ Lias Mansor (65.7 kg/145 lbs) vs Melvin Yeoh (65.3 kg/144 lbs)

UNDER CARD
Featherweight bout: Steven Durr (65.1 kg/144 lbs) vs Samir Mrabet (65.8 kg/145 lbs)
Welterweight bout: Zuli Silawanto (77 kg/170 lbs) vs Nik Harris(77 kg/170 lbs)
Bantamweight bout: Casey Suire (61 kg/134 lbs) vs Raymond Tan (61.3 kg/125 lbs)

ONE FC 12 takes place tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In an effort to improve their roster, Cage Warriors Fighting Championship has gone out and signed Benny Alloway and Damien Brown to their roster.

The welterweight and lightweight, respectively, both hail from Australia.  Alloway was most recently with the UFC, but was released after going 0-2 with the promotion.  Each fighter signed a five-fight deal with CWFC.