Promoted from the fan posts by Kid Nate.

Dana’s dream of having a big UFC show in a stadium in Brazil appears to be dead, at least for the city of Sao Paulo, which would host the return of the UFC to Brazil in June and would showcase the TUF Brazil finals, a rematch between Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva and would have as its main event the long awaited rematch between UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and challenger Chael Sonnen.

A non-profit organization called Viva Pacaembu has taken action to prevent the UFC from hosting its show in the Pacaembu stadium. A judicial decision was made yesterday that would prevent the organization from occupying the stadium after 12AM, claiming that after that specific time slot the loudest the noise can reach would be at 45 decibels.

"First was the difficulty with the noise. (Then) the Viva Pacaembu organization demanded that the law of noise ordinance would have the limit of 45 decibels, which is impossible. I even bought a noise measurer and took it to the Mayor’s office, and it measured 60 decibels" said the Secretary of Sports, Bebeto Haddad.

Haddad also showed frustration in trying to explain that the time slot for which the event would take place could not be different; "the UFC is an event broadcasted to 150 countries, we have to adapt to the time zone of many countries. There’s no way we could make this end before midnight" he concluded.

Unfortunately for the UFC, most of the big stadiums are under renovations for the 2014 World Cup, leaving the bigger Morumbi stadium the only other available stadium to host the UFC in Sao Paulo. The Morumbi stadium has its problem though, as they don’t meet all of Zuffa’s demands, such as covering the grass in the case of rain. It also does not have the support of the City Administrators:

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With no Eddie Alvarez in the upcoming Bellator 155-pound tournament and with no chance at a rematch with current champion Michael Chandler, eight men will take a shot at creating their own fight of the year candidate with the champ starting at March 23rd's Bellator 62 in Laredo, TX.

Patricky Freire vs. Lloyd Woodard

Freire (10-2, 3-1 Bellator) lost to Chandler by unanimous decision in his first tournament after knockout wins over Rob McCullough and Toby Imada. He returned to the winner's circle with a first round knockout of Kurt Pellegrino in November and is one of the favorites to win the tourney.

While Woodard (11-1, 1-1 Bellator) isn't a big name among today's lightweight crop, his only career loss was to Chandler and he has finished nine of his 11 opponents.

Rick Hawn vs. Ricardo Tirloni

Hawn (11-1, 3-1 Bellator) drops to lightweight for the first time after advancing to the welterweight finals last spring. The U.S. Olympian in judo has shown power in seven T/KO wins, but has had three straight fights go the distance. He faces Tirloni (14-1, 1-0 Bellator), who enters the tournament on an 11-fight win streak. Like many fellow Bellator fighters, the Brazilian is a finisher with 12 victories by submission or T/KO.

Brent Weedman vs. J.J. Ambrose

Weedman (18-7, 4-2 Bellator) is getting an opportunity despite two straight defeats. After winning his first four fights in the promotion, Weedman picked up decision losses to Jay Hieron and Chris Lozano and is dropping to lightweight to help turn it around. Ambrose (17-3-0-1) makes his promotional debut on a seven-fight win streak with nine overall wins by submission.

Rene Nazare vs. Thiago Michel

After running his record to 10-0 amidst a flurry of first round finishes, Nazare (10-1, 3-1 Bellator) was handed his first career loss last October. Despite that, he gets his first tournament opportunity against Michel (9-2), who is making his promotional debut with two straight wins. The Brazilian has finished all of his wins via T/KO and has been submitted in both of his career losses.

The event starts at 8 PM EST on MTV 2.

Other recent Bellator news on BE:

• Zach Makovsky To Defend 135-Pound Title In April
• Report: Eddie Alvarez, Bellator Contract Extension Talk Not Going Well
• Ben Askren Vs. Douglas Lima Set For April 6
• Ben Saunders, Brian Foster headline 170-pound tourney
• Prindle vs. Santos, 185-pound brackets announced
• 145-pound tournament matches announced

Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director Keith Kizer went on Sirius Radio on Friday and answered questions relating to UFC star Nick Diaz' positive test results for marijuana after UFC 143. Kizer, The NSAC has previously suspended Diaz for the same offense following his bout with Takanori Gomi at Pride 33 in 2007.

Here's what Kizer had to say on Posterous:

"The complaints have been mailed to him. He'll receive the complaint by mail and he'll have 20 days upon receipt to file an answer.

"With the complaint, those are just allegations at this time. There's been no finding against him. He'll have ample opportunity to respond to the complaint and then we'd put it on for a hearing at a time that works for him as well as the Attorney General's office.

More On Nick Diaz
In Defense of Nick Diaz's Weed Habit | Diaz Is to Blame, But So Are Meaningless Commission Marijuana Tests | Diaz Should Be Released By The UFC | Diaz' Drug Test Failure Was Inevitable | White: 'I Am Beyond Disappointed' | Fighters React to Diaz's Positive Drug Test | Nick Diaz Tests Positive For Marijuana

Probably April based on past disciplinary complaints and at that time, there'll be a hearing before the full commission and then they make a decision at that time and if they found the athlete guilty, they'd then impose whatever discipline they felt was appropriate."

Diaz lost a unanimous decision to Carlos Condit at UFC 143. At one point it appeared that the UFC had secured agreements from both fighters for an immediate rematch. Diaz' test failure immediately scotched that possibility.

SBN coverage of UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit

I was fortunate enough to attend XFC 16: High Stakes in Knoxville, TN Friday night. It was a solid show, even if being crammed into the small Knoxville Civic Auditorium meant that the press were relegated to floor seats in the crowd. The view wasn't great, but the fights were still entertaining and the energy in the arena was fantastic.

We had three prelims fights before the main HDNet broadcast started. First of all, we had a 180 lb catchweight fight between Shane Machette and Daniel Crockett. Crockett came in heavy at just over 183, which didn't make him popular with the crowd. But he didn't let the boos affect him. The fight went the full 3 rounds, with Crockett getting several takedowns and controlling most of the fight on the ground.

Crockett wasn't able to finish his opponent, but he was dominant for most of the fight, leading the judges to award him the decision win. That takes the Bristol, Tennessee fighter's record to 4-0.

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Name:	Dileno Lopes
Nickname:	--
Age:	23
Height:	--
Location:	Brazil

We've finally made it. This is the end of the line for the 2012 World MMA Scouting Report, so without further adieu -- I present to you our #1 flyweight prospect -- Nova Uniao's Dileno Lopes (8-0). Lopes is hands down the smoothest operator in the prospect pool, utilizing a slick, effortless Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappling game that's coupled with calculated, above average striking. Those well-balanced attributes have helped him record eight wins since his debut in late 2007.

Lopes' rise to prominence has been slowed by his low rate of activity during his early years, fighting only three times in three years. Once he signed to fight for Amazon Show Combat, work got steadier, submitting Adriano Balbi and Samuel Xavier in bouts a little over a month apart in late 2010.

Last year was by far the busiest of his career, beating Josenaldo Araujo Silva and Adson Jander by submission, then narrowly edging Wellington Davila in a rematch of their encounter two years prior. With the inclusion of the 125 lbs. weight class in the UFC, he should begin fielding phone calls for more action, possibly from Joe Silva.

Lopes' record is heavily weighted in submission wins, seven of his eight to be exact. While that's an obvious sign that he possesses quality grappling chops, most readers would glance at those stats and deem Lopes a one-dimensional fighter who will never make it without some semblance of a stand-up game. Fortunately, many of those wins were created from stunning shots that Lopes delivered on the feet. He has solid defense, good footwork and head movement, and counter punches accurately, leaving more aggressive strikers reeling.

Against rangier competition, Lopes has problems trying to get inside to land punches, and he isn't much of a knockout threat. Those issues haven't been problematic as of yet due to his top-tier grappling game, and some of those opponents were outside of his natural weight class. Regardless, Lopes has gotten far too aggressive when he's facing fighters with similar striking styles, going for broke at times when he can't use a ranged striking attack of his own.

Those are minor issues however. By all indications, Lopes is a legitimate talent who could have a long, successful career in the sport with steadier work and continued improvement. At only 23 years of age, time is on his side, and he's already one of the smoothest transition fighters we've seen among our prospects, moving effortlessly between striking and grappling as if he's done it for years. With any luck and a couple of more wins, Lopes will undoubtedly call the UFC home in 2012.

Tune in tomorrow for our honorable mentions for this year's report.

Footage of Dileno Lopes after the fold...

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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson got a chance to regain his title at UFC 135, but was submitted in the fourth round by reigning champ Jon Jones. In this month's issue of Fighters Only magazine, Rampage discussed the fight and stated that he would have actually considered retiring if he had won the fight (transcribed by BJPenn.com):

"Believe me I still want to retire as champion. I want to hold the belt once more. I guess if I had won that Jon Jones fight and if the Japan show wasn't next then there'd have been a very good chance I would have retired already. It would have been a great time to bow out. But I almost certainly would have stayed around to fight in Japan anyway, to defend the belt. Then if I would have successfully defended it on this [UFC 144] show, I definitely would be retiring - and retiring a very happy man too!"

It's a moot point now, but the statement is interesting. Would he have really gone through with that? I tend to think he wouldn't. In addition to that, it's unlikely that the UFC would have had Rampage defend the light heavyweight title on the Japan show anyway. Back in the real world, Rampage is set to face Ryan Bader at UFC 144 in the co-main event. How many more times are we going to see Jackson in the octagon? It seems the the clock is winding down on his career.

SBN coverage of UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson

So ONE FC just concluded their second show, and here's a quick round-up and immediate thoughts after attending the event:

• Not that it surprised me that flyweights would bring the most excitement, but the Fight of the Night for me, was definitely the undercard bout between Team Lakay's Geje Eustaquio, and Alex Silva of Evolve MMA. Silva took a lot of hard shots, and was heavily bleeding throughout the fight, but the guy kept on coming. Geje fended off several very near submissions, and grinded out an exciting back and forth bout that had the Filipino fighter winning most of the striking exchanges.
• The main event bout between Ole Laursen and Felipe Enomoto was very very entertaining as well. First round went back and forth with Laursen winning most of the stand up exchanges. On the second round, I'm not sure if it was just fatigue, too much show-boating, or a mixture of both... But Laursen had his hands down when that head kick dropped him, and led to being choked out.
• I really enjoyed the leg kicks and strikes from the clinch that Laursen threw, but Felipe proved to have an excellent chin though, taking all those hard shots throughout the fight.
• I also want to see how the video from Yasubey Enomoto's GoPRO camera turned out. If you didn't notice, Felipe's brother and cornerman (who is an M-1 Champ), was wearing a camera on his head and was recording their entire fight.
• As for Bob Sapp... Well, he got his paycheck, and I don't think a lot of people are surprised.
  

More thoughts, and maybe a few weird rants after the jump.

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It didn't take long for kickboxing ace and undefeated MMA fighter Stephen Thompson to get his next fight after a first round knockout win in his UFC 143 debut. He'll take on fellow UFC 143 victor Matt Brown at April's UFC 145 in Atlanta, GA.

Thompson (6-0, 1-0 UFC) used a great head kick to knock out Dan Stittgen in the opening bout of UFC 143, but he'll face a much more experienced fighter in Brown (13-11, 6-5 UFC) who beat Chris Cope by second round TKO on the same event. After three straight second round submission losses, the 31-year-old came through and beat John Howard in a must-win situation.

Brown then proceeded to lose again by second round submission to Seth Baczynski in November before his recent win over Cope. While Thompson will likely want to keep the fight standing, he does have one submission victory in his young career. Brown has been submitted nine times in his career, but has never been knocked out.

The fight is expected to be on the Fuel prelims portion of UFC 145, headlined by Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans.