The Sunday Junkie: Feb. 5 edition

The MMAjunkie.com e-mailbox could hardly contain the flood of entries that came in this week for The Sunday Junkie.

Nor surprisingly, Carlos Condit’s heavily debated victory over Nate Diaz in Saturday’s UFC 143 headliner was a popular topic, and readers tackled all aspects of the pay-per-view fight.

This week’s winner of our weekly reader-feedback feature, Indiana reader “Gallbladder_Flush,” thinks angered Diaz fans need to look at the facts and realize there was, in fact, a clear winner in the title fight.

UFC boss praises Roy Nelson’s durability but unsure what his future holds

LAS VEGAS – On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Roy Nelson did what Roy
Nelson does best: Walk forward, opponent be damned, and wing right
hands.

And while his gutsy performance earned “Big Country” one-half of UFC
143′s “Fight of the Night” bonus, the loss leaves Nelson at just 1-3 in
his past four fights.

So despite earning one of the loudest welcomes of the night from the
Mandalay Bay Events Center crowd, is Nelson’s spot in the UFC’s
heavyweight division secure?

Will Nick Diaz’s retirement stick? Following UFC 143, UFC boss not so sure

LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White understands why Nick Diaz is upset, even if he doesn’t agree with the fighter’s belief that he won Saturday’s UFC 143 main event.

He also understands if Diaz goes through with an announced retirement, even if he thinks it’d be financially foolish to do so.

Quite simply, White has given up on trying to predict the 28-year-old’s often-erratic behavior.

Chavez Jr impresses in victory over Rubio

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr retained his WBC middleweight title with a thrilling points victory over Marco Antonio Rubio at the Alamadome in Texas.

Rubio started positively in the first round, stalking his man and landing a right hook to the head but Chavez soon started to use lateral movement to keep off the ropes and avoid danger.

The hooks to the body became quite prominent in the fight from Chavez as he began to land it regularly, and from the third round onward he began to walk forward, being content to work inside for the remainder of the contest.

UFC 143 winner Barao wants title shot; boss says contender becoming Brazilian treasure

LAS VEGAS – The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s own media notes on
Brazilian bantamweight Renan Barao sum it up nicely:
“Has best record, on paper, in all of MMA.”

On Saturday night, Barao earned his 28th-straight win by downing onetime
title-challenger Scott Jorgensen via unanimous decision.

The 24-year-old is now 5-0 under the Zuffa banner, and while UFC
president Dana White isn’t ready to grant him a title shot just yet, he
admits the Nova Uniao product is quickly becoming one of Brazil’s most
popular fighters.

With Josh Koscheck’s AKA relations strained, is Jon Fitch fight finally possible?

LAS VEGAS – UFC 143 winner Josh Koscheck dropped
the first hint of trouble at this past Thursday’s pre-fight press
conference, when he talked about the importance of “Team Me.”

Following his split-decision win over Mike Pierce at Saturday’s event in Las Vegas, Koscheck opened the flood gates.

“I’ll be training out of Fresno for now,” Koscheck told MMAjunkie.com. “I’m no longer affiliated with some of the people
at the gym that I’ve been training at.”

Dana White, new champ Carlos Condit perfectly content with UFC 143 result

LAS VEGAS – Depending on who you talk to, Carlos Condit’s
unanimous-decision win over Nick Diaz in the main event of Saturday
night’s UFC 143 event in Las Vegas was either a brilliantly designed and
perfectly executed gameplan or a mockery of mixed martial arts.

While it’s obvious, of course, which Condit believes, you can also count
UFC president Dana White among those who thinks the “Natural Born
Killer” did all the right things.

“Carlos Condit won,” White said following the evening’s post-event press
conference. “He went in there, and he fought a great fight.”

Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II set for June in Brazil

LAS VEGAS – The rematch is happening.

At Saturday night’s UFC 143 post-fight press conference, UFC president
Dana White confirmed that both UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and his nemesis Chael Sonnen
have verbally agreed to meet in Brazil on an as-yet-undetermined date
in June.

Silva was in Las Vegas for Saturday’s fight card, and White said an agreement was reached during the event.

Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva II set for June in Brazil

LAS VEGAS – The rematch is happening.

Silva was in Las Vegas for Saturday’s fight card, and White said an agreement was reached during the event.

UFC 143 draws a reported 10,040 attendance for $2.3 million live gate

LAS VEGAS – Saturday’s “UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit” event drew a reported
10,040 attendees and generated a live gate of $2.3 million.

UFC president Dana White revealed the figures at the evening’s post-event press conference, which MMAjunkie.com attended.

Featuring an interim welterweight title contest between former WEC
titleholder Carlos Condit and former Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz, UFC
143 marked the company’s first 2012 event in Las Vegas.

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