First there were Rashad Evans' claims that a missing priest derailed Fedor Emelianenko in his bout against Antonio Silva in the first round of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament.

Next came the accusations of "forbidden psychological technology" from Fedor's trainer Vladimir Vorono, which were answered by Silva's manager Alex Davis.

Now it seems that another theory has emerged from Fedor's camp as Alexander Michkov, Fedor's striking coach, offered up a theory that seemed to imply something other than vitamins helped Silva to defeat Fedor by a TKO on Saturday, February 12th.

Michkov said he was amazed by the fact that Silva gained approximately 20 pounds between Friday's weigh in and Saturday's fight. Of course it amazed us. Think about it, how can the normal human being gain 10 kg in 24 hours? There is something fishy here. The truth is, all our fighters, I am talking about Russian fighters here, that are fighting under M-1, train on their natural abilities. Of course, they take vitamins, but that's it. At the same time, all the foreign fighters, I think about 99 percent of them, are taking chemicals," BloodyElbow reported via Championat.ru.

"Obviously it was not a problem for Silva to make a weight. He weighted 264 pounds in the day of the weigh-ins, and the next day, he was already over 280, he gained 10 kg...It's very hard to fight with opponent like this."

Not content to point fingers at only Silva, Michkov openly declared that Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is using steroids. "We hear rumors that two other quarterfinals may be fought in the state that is very liberal with the testing. Why? Because any kind of semi-deep testing will prevent Overeem from fighting. With an naked eye, you can see that he is gormandized with steroids. "

It should be noted that none of these excuses for the loss have come from Fedor himself, only from those that surround him.

Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski recently suffered his fourth consecutive loss when he was felled in the first round by Sergei Kharitonov on Saturday, February 12th during their quarterfinal bout of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament.

In preparing for the fight, Arlovski trained with one of the best trainers in mixed martial arts, Greg Jackson.

Following the fight, Jackson spoke to Sherdog Radio Network's "Beatdown" program and offered the following thoughts on Arlovski's future, "I think he’s going to come back a better fighter. You have to remember I’m a diehard optimist. It’s really hard to discourage me or tell me it shouldn’t be done or it can’t be done. I’m a guy that I think I know what to do to fix it. I’m going to try everything I can to do that."

Jackson thinks he has identified the mistake that Arlovski has been making in his recent bouts. "I’m really identifying the mistake. It went a little deeper than I thought it did,” Jackson said. “Identifying that mistake and changing what we do there is going to be a big, important factor."

As far as those that have been questioning Arlovski's chin, "I don’t think he has a weak chin," Jackson opined.  "I think he’s fighting in a heavyweight division where these guys would knock down a house if they hit it.”

“I really learned a lot about Andrei and what we need to change and do differently,” Jackson stated. “I don’t discourage easily. I want to go right back to the drawing board and attack what I think we need to attack to make him a better fighter.”

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Bob Arum, who promotes boxing under the Top Rank name, spoke to USA Today's Sergio Non in regard to the future of mixed martial arts recently.

As expected Arum, who has denigrated that sport in the past, painted a future with limited growth potential.

Arum's logic is that MMA appeals to only one demographic: "It's the same audience over and over," Arum told Non.

"It's white males, and they have never been able to expand their demographic."

Arum obviously did not listen to or receive notes from UFC president Dana White's UFC 127 media call, where he laid out plans for international versions of the popular "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show.

The first of which will most likely film in 2011 in the Philippines, according to White.

Arum also missed the news when UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre travelled to the Philippines and drew huge crowds.

“If people think I’m popular in the United States, they should have seen how it is over there. It was insane," St. Pierre recalled.  

"I needed to have three bodyguards everywhere I went, and people were stopping the cars and buses in the street to come see me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s hard to believe that the sport is even more popular than even in America.”


Arum, who has called the published pay-per-view numbers of the UFC suspect in the past, also ignored the huge popularity of the sport in Japan. In that country, MMA has generated millions of television viewers in the past, with the highest number being 54 million people tuning into a 2003 K-1 event.

Arum continued to dismiss MMA's growth: "The Hispanics don't care anything for it. Most African-Americans don't watch it. Hey, this country is becoming more and more Hispanic, and it's growing African-American (in the) audience."

"So the future success of UFC is limited. The success of boxing is not, because boxing reaches those groups. The only demographic that boxing has lost is the white, young males, period."

Arum's words are suspect from the start, as he has proven in the past to have an axe to grind with MMA and the fans of the sport.

In 2009, he told Ariel Helwani that "UFC fans are a bunch of skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys."

Helwani then called Arum out saying, "I'm not a skinhead, I'm actually a Jew, I'm not a 'white guy' so nothing like that, no tattoos and a lot of people I know in MMA don't have any tattoos."

Helwani's words failed to stop Arum's tangent: "It (MMA) is not something I would ever care to see, guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground, it's not a sport that shows great, great talent."

In the end, Arum comes across as the bully who is finally getting pushed back.

Earlier in the week, Fedor Emelianenko's trainer Vladimir Vorono accused Antonio Silva and his camp of using "forbidden psychological technology" to win the recent fight between Fedor and Silva.

On Wednesday, Alex Davis, Silva's manager, responded to those accusations on "The Underground Forum."

"Jeez!! I got caught! I will have to come out with the truth now! I hired a Macumbeiro (Brazilian witch doctor) and we killed a black chicken on the cross roads. After this, over a few beers, I showed the witch doctor Fedor's fights, and he was worried that a chicken wouldn't be enough, so we went out and killed a black goat, just to make sure! Very potent stuff! Really messed Fedor's brain waves up!"

Davis continued his sarcastic response a little later, posting, "We wanted to try that other military stuff Voronov is talking about, but it's expensive technology and we were broke! The chicken and the goat came out way cheaper. [The] Witch doctor is a friend, [he] did it for a few beers and an autograph!"

Later Davis took a more serious note, "You know, I really admire Fedor. Guy is always humble and respectful...ship load of Russians that come with him every time...but who knows? I don't speak Russian! Didn't expect to hear this kind of thing! To now come out with this B.S. is just bizarre, and to talk about the weight difference? Fedor has knocked way bigger guys flat!"

Davis then finished his post with a final poke at the "psychological technology" accusations, "It must be the side effect of the macumba!"

Silva handed Fedor his second straight loss on Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Izod Center in N.J. The fight, a quarterfinal bout in the Strikeforce World Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament was stopped between the second and third round when the cage-side doctor deemed Fedor unable to continue due to damage to his right eye.

Silva will move in the tournament and face the winner of a Fabricio Werdum versus Alistair Overeem quarterfinal bout.

The UFC has made some moves over the last few days that may have not gotten much notice with all of the other happenings in the word of mixed martial arts.

Undefeated Phil Davis (8-0) was recently left without an opponent at UFC 129 when Matt Hamill was pulled from their fight. Hamill, according to MMAJunkie, is being inserted into Thiago Silva's spot in a bout against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 130.

MMAJunkie is now reporting that Davis does have a fight on the UFC 129 card. He will be facing Jason Brilz on April 29th at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on a fight card that will be headlined by a Georges St. Pierre versus Jake Shields welterweight-title bout.

George Roop, despite having gone 1-2-1 in his last four fights, has inked a new, five-fight deal with the UFC, according to MMAFighting. The first fight in Roop's new deal will be against Josh Grispi on June 4th on The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale card, which is set to take place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Nik Lentz and Waylon Lowe have been added to the Ultimate Fight Night 24 card, according to MMADiehards. That card is set for March 26th at Seattle's Key Arena and will be headlined by a bout between Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

Lastly, MMAJunkie is reporting that "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 12 winner Jonathan Brookins will face Jeremy Stephens on The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale card. The fight will mark the first UFC competition for Brookins since winning the "TUF" Season 12 crown, while Stephens' last fight was a third-round knockout of Marcus Davis at UFC 125.