The UFC today announced that Pat Healy, who was suspended three months by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board yesterday after testing positive for marijuana following his UFC 159 submission victory over Jim Miller, has been stripped of each of his $65,000 “Fight of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” bonuses and Bryan Caraway, who submitted Johnny Bedford on the undercard, has been awarded the “Submission of the Night” award. Here’s what UFC president Dana White today wrote on Twitter in regards to taking the bonus away from Healy: “It’s known up front that checks are held until everyone passes the drug test. Brian Caraway get the SON now. Healy did himself dirty.” In my opinion, the fact the UFC took away Healy’s bonus is absolutely ridiculous. Whether or not Healy broke the rules, it’s not like marijuana is a performance enhancing drug so to take away $130,000 from Healy because he had some pot metabolites in his system is incredibly harsh and is a complete contradiction to White’s previous comments about marijuana, as he said he wants it off the banned list. The UFC didn’t have to take away Healy’s pay but they did and it’s a shame because he won that fight against Miller on skill and skill alone; a joint he smoked a month ago wouldn’t have helped him in the fight. Congrats to Caraway on his bonus, because he deserved to make a little extra money for his incredible win over Bedford, but it sucks that it was at Healy’s expense. With the “Fight of the Night” bonus money still free, the UFC should split it between Kurt Holobaugh and Steven Siler, who engaged in a war on the UFC 159 undercard, because it obviously wouldn’t be fair to take the bonus money away from Miller for a mistake his opponent made. UFC Adds Omelianczuk And Krylov The UFC has signed two new heavyweight fighters, both of European descent. They are Daniel Omeliancuk of Poland and Nikita Krylov of Ukraine. The signings were reported by mmarocks.pl and Bloodyelbow.com but have yet to be made official by the UFC. Neither fighter has had their UFC debut announced yet. Although neither fighter is well known these signings are further proof the UFC is trying to deepen their heavyweight division, as well as make further inroads in Europe. Plus, signing these guys before Bellator or another organization gets them is a great move, too. Bellator Summer Series Heavyweight Tournament Booked Bellator today announced the bracket for the upcoming summer series heavyweight tournament, which commences at Bellator 96 on June 19. In the first bout, Rich Hale takes on Vinicius Queiroz, while the other matchup sees Ron Sparks take on Vitaly Minakov. I haven’t had much of a chance to dissect these fights yet but I would lean Hale and Minakov in the bouts. Queiroz just isn’t that good of a fighter while Hale is actually pretty decent for a Bellator heavyweight, while Sparks is a huge fade and Minakov is an up-and-comer. Keep in mind though that these are heavyweight bouts and heavyweight bouts in Bellator often end in stoppages, so be careful if you plan on betting them because one punch can end any fight.
