Things were looking pretty grim for Mark Hunt a few days ago – his visa into the United States to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 160 was denied because of an arrest from 10 years ago. Why does that come up now? Because of increased security since the Boston Marathon Bombing. Thank you government for making us safer. Things were to the point where Hunt was getting ready to give up and just eat cake, which is apparently what he’s all about when not about to fight in the cage. But now:

That’s right, the fight is on! And while Hunt is thanking The Father aka God, I’m going to thank The Baldfather aka Dana White, hallowed be his name. Have faith in Him and he will always come through with good fights.

Curses!  The issue of what to do with the bantamweight title just a little more clusterfuckery.  Brazilian news source Tatame reported this weekend that interim title holder Renan Barao injured his right foot and would likely be forced out of the main even bout against Eddie Wineland at UFC 161.

Dana confirmed that Barao would “probably” be off the card pending tests on his foot, but it opens up a some problems for 161 and the stalled bantamweight division.  It’s unlikely that someone would step in on short notice to fight Wineland for a meaningless interim interim championship belt, so the expected option is moving the Rua / Nogueira or Henderson / Evans fight up to the main even for the sold out show.

But what to do about a division that’s been going nowhere for almost two years now?  Just last month Dana reassured titleholder Dominick Cruz that he wouldn’t be stripped of his belt, and stated he was confident that Cruz would return to the cage by the end of 2013.  In hindsight, recovery time would have been much faster if Cruz had replaced his bum knee with a bionic counterpart. Time’s ticking!  There are a lot of hungry 135s lining up at the gate and it’s getting harder to shuffle them around without someone defending the title.

(Pic by Lee Whitehead via MMAWeekly.com)

Vitor Belfort looking every bit his age against Luke Rockhold

Jacare Souza puts Chris Camozzi to sleep as part of a popular Brazilian sex ritual

More HD goodness thanks to reddit user undead420 after the jump:

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FX Card (9pm EST)

• Vitor Belfort vs. Luke Rockhold
• Chris Camozzi vs. Ronaldo Souza
• Rafael dos Anjos vs. Evan Dunham
• Rafael Natal vs. Joao Zeferino

FUEL prelims (6pm EST)

• Hacran Dias vs. Nik Lentz
• Mike Rio vs. Francisco Trinaldo
• John Cholish vs. Gleison Tibau
• Michel Prazeres vs. Paulo Thiago
• Yuri Alcantara vs. Iliarde Santos
• Roger Hollett vs. Fabio Maldonado

Facebook prelims (4:30pm EST)

• Azamat Gashimov vs. John Lineker
• Chris Cariaso vs. Jussier Formiga
• Jeremy Larsen vs. Lucas Martins

Four weeks from now, Josh Burkman will fight in the main event of the third World Series of Fighting event on the nationally-syndicated NBC Sports network.  He faces a familiar opponent in UFC castaway Jon Fitch, whom he suffered a second-round submission loss to seven years ago at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas – the same venue the World Series of Fighting will visit next month.

Burkman has enjoyed much success since a three-fight losing skid in 2008 cost him his position with the UFC.  He has won seven of eight fights since then, including the recent demolition of 12-time UFC veteran Aaron Simpson under the World Series of Fighting banner.  A win over Jon Fitch next month would not only leave Burkman alone atop the World Series of Fighting’s welterweight fold but would also solidify his claims as one of the ten best welterweights anywhere.  If you ask Burkman, though, he has much more to win.

Fitch beat me worse than anybody’s ever beat me in my career inside or outside the cage.  He beat me at a time when I was probably buying my own hype a little too much and I definitely underestimated Fitch and overestimated myself.  That’s where my career started to go up and down and it’s a fight that I performed well under my abilities and now coming back in my career, it’s just a fight that I want back.  I think every fighter wants a chance to avenge his losses.

Since his UFC tenure, Burkman has relocated to his home of Orem, Utah, where he is part of the Pit Elevated fight team alongside UFC fighters Court McGee, Ramsey Nijem and Steven Siler.  According to Burkman, the linkup with the Pit was a byproduct of McGee – another native Utahan – working with Chuck Liddell on the eleventh season of the Ultimate Fighter.

I’m a much different fighter now and having that performance that I had will not only help me avenge that loss but will also [help me prove] I’m one of the top welterweights in the world.  That’s my ultimate goal, to prove that I’m one of the top fighters in the world and I think the World Series of Fighting has given me an opportunity to climb that platform by bringing Jon Fitch in.  He’s a top ten guy in the world.”

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