The Afternooner for December 10

(The Afternooner is our daily lunchtime roundup of news from across the combat sports landscape.)

-Contributor: Ben Kohn

Hi. Remember me? No? Well, eat it then. I’m Ben Kohn and I’m the host, creator, and deity of the Afternooner. Your news reports and all you know comes from my fingertips as they push small buttons on my keyboard. Bask in my glory ye’ all who are thirsty for knowledge.

• In case you’ve been living under a rock, the UFC has signed former WWE superstar CM Punk (Phil Brooks is his real name). Punk has never competed in any combat sports style competitively and is a hobbyist BJJ trainee at best with a blue belt under Rener Gracie. He has seemingly committed himself to this career as a fighter, despite being injury ridden and 36 years old. Supposedly, he will get a very inexperienced opponent but I take nothing the UFC says seriously at this point. I understand why he was signed as he brings lots of eyeballs to the sport but unless he is some phenom, I don’t see it going well for Punk.
  Mark Hominick is retired but he was interviewed and spoke about Conor McGregor, like everyone else of course. He spoke about how he feels Conor is good for the division overall and will bring attention to it, not just himself. While he thinks he would lose to Aldo, he nonetheless made good points regarding Conor’s place in the division and the effect he has had.
• Anderson Silva talked about something not often discussed in MMA. He talked about his feelings on homosexuals in MMA, saying he would be fine training with them and saying he believes many fighters are gay but have not come out in public. He also discussed his being teased for being gay because of his propensity to groom and take care of himself and he had the most badass response ever: “Look, not to my knowledge. But I’m still young, it could be that in the future I’ll find out that I’m gay.” Now that’s a man right there.
  Robbie Lawler has entered the UFC’s Pound-for Pound rankings at #11 after his win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 181. The loss drops Hendricks from 9th to 12th.
• There are reports that are going around (from TMZ) that Floyd Mayweather was face-timing his friend, rapper Isaac Hayes, and was either informed by or talking to Mayweather about supposed infidelities by his wife Stephanie Moseley. Apparently, Hayes said he would kill her and Mayweather tried talking him out of it to no avail as Hayes shot his wife approximately a dozen times before killing himself. I wish the families my condolences and while Floyd is no saint, I do feel for him for having to witness such a horrible event.
• Fight bookings! UFN McGregor vs. Siver is getting a LW fight between Undercards patron saint Gleison Tibau vs. Norman Parke. UFC 182 has had to replace Rustam Khabilov from his fight against Paul Felder and is being replaced by Team Alpha Male stablemate Danny Castillo in a LW bout. UFC on Fox 14 has a bunch of fights added to the card. Neil Seery vs. Chris Beal, Mirsad Bektic vs. Alan Omer, Makwan Amirkhani vs. Andy Ogle, and Akira Corassani vs. Sam Sicilia. Bellator has booked some fights as well by the way. It’s going to be Melvin Manhoef vs. Alexander Shlemenko as the main event for Bellator 133. In a BW title fight, Eduardo Dantas will face off against Mike Richman on Bellator 134.
• Joe Rogan sat down with Brendan Schaub on a live podcast and the two engaged in a serious discussion about Schaub’s career, skills, and KO’s received to date and the ones he may receive in the future. Rogan, who is good friends with Schaub, essentially staged an intervention when telling him that he is not an elite fighter and can’t/won’t ever be. Schaub, while quietly listening for the most part, eventually fired back that it was easy for Joe to say because of his bank account. He also answered he will for sure fight again when asked by Rogan. It was tense to listen to and I am not sure how I feel about it.
• Anthony Pettis may be out for six months unless he gets his hand cleared by a doctor. That’s seriously fucked up considering Lawler has no medical suspension at all and he had a grueling 25 minute fight.

-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.