Bleacher Report's Sal DeRose reports:

No matter how you look at it, a late punch like the one Brendan Schaub threw last Saturday against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic will always come out looking bad.

Many believe the final punch, after Schaub had seemed to knock out Cro Cop, was unnecessary.

Herb Dean, the referee for the fight, ran over but was just a second too late to stop the final blow that Schaub threw. Schaub now regrets that final blow that many see as unnecessary.

“When people are first telling me, I’m like 'what are they talking about?' I didn’t have any clue, and I asked my coaches, and they’re like 'no, I don’t get it.' I re-watched it and I get what people are saying,” Schaub told MMAWeekly Radio about the final strike in the fight.

Click here to read the entire article.

The postmortem is almost complete on UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones, which took place on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

 

Live Gate and Attendance:

The much anticipated fight card drew 12,619 fans for a live gate of $2.14 million.

 

Bonuses:

The $70,000 fight night bonuses were paid out to:

Erik Koch: Knockout of the Night

Brendan Schaub: Knockout of the Night

Edson Barboza vs Anthony Njokuani: Fight of the Night

*No submissions took place, so UFC president Dana White awarded two Knockout of the Night bonuses.

 

Preliminary Card Viewers:

1.3 million viewers. This number (thanks to MMAJunkie) puts the card tied for ninth as far as viewers for a televised preliminary card. The high is 2 million for UFC 126, while the low was 714,000 for UFC 127.

 

Pay-Per-View Buys:

Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reports that the pay-per-view estimates for the event are between 415,000 and 470,000.

Phil "Mr Wonderful" Davis will meet Antônio Rogério Nogueira on Saturday, March 26th at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. Davis and Nogueira will fight in the main event on the card which will be televised on Spike TV at 10 pm ET/PT.

While going through his workout, Davis saw a helpless ladybug on the mat. The former NCAA wrestling champion stopped his workout in order to relocate the defenseless creature to a home full of flowers and bamboo.

Davis told UFC.com the story, "There was a ladybug that almost got trampled. I can't just let it get crushed by me and some neanderthal."

"I just want to save the little guy. I'm doing ground and pound and you see a ladybug there, it's a sign. It's screaming 'Save me Phil. I don't wanna die here, in a crack of a mat."

"He wants to live a long healthy life and he should."

"I save ladybugs. It's a small job I have, but I enjoy it."

Will this act of heroism land Davis a spot on a talk show after his fight on Saturday? Stay tuned to find out.

UFC Fight Night 24 will be broadcast on Spike TV at 10 pm ET/PT on March 26th. Spike TV will air the four fight main card for the event. The UFC will stream five preliminary card fights beginning at 7:30 pm ET. Three preliminary card fights will go unaired.

Bleacher Report's Elliott Saltares reports:

"Yeah, we are going to start at 9 on the East Coast and 6 West Coast".

This was the answer to the question posed by AOL.com's Ariel Helwani on MMAFighting.com in reference to the start time of the upcoming Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 129.

Dana White chimed in on the news of new start times for UFC broadcasts and where the decision came from.

According to Dana, the UFC has been conducting studies, polling fans at their events to gauge the response to the possibility of earlier start times and whether they wanted them.

"Everybody did. It makes sense. On a Saturday, if you can get the fight in early and still have time to go out or if you're not [normally] up until 1 am on the East Coast. People like it, so we are going to do it."

Click here to read the entire article.

Bleacher Report's John Heinis reports:

Okami has been a contender in the middleweight division since debuting with the organization in August of 2006.

During that time, he has compiled an impressive 10-2 record, with his biggest win a unanimous decision victory over Nate Marquardt at UFC 122.

Technically, Okami is next in line for a middleweight title shot, but many are expecting Anderson Silva to square off with welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre before Okami gets a middleweight title fight.

Okami was not shy in letting off some stream about the situation to CagePotato.com.

"(With Silva vs. GSP) there is the problem of weight…and GSP will go for the takedown. But the middleweight division is for the fighters who are there, and have been fighting there, so I don’t think there’s much point in that fight.”

Click here to read the entire article.

Bleacher Report's Sal DeRose reports:

Newly-crowned Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Dan Henderson (27-8), will be making his first title defense against the winner of the fight between Gegard Mousasi (30-3-1) and Mike Kyle (18-8-1).

Lately, there have been rumors surrounding Henderson and who he would be making his first title defense against. One man whose name was tossed around was Fedor Emelianenko. Rumors have been swirling about Fedor making a drop to light heavyweight against Henderson.

But Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker, confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that Fedor would not be Henderson's first title defense

Click here to read the entire article.

Newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was a guest on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on Thursday, March 24th.

Much of Jones' time on the show was spent retelling the tale of how he and his coaches, Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn, chased and captured a would-be mugger just hours before he defeated Maurcio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128.

While the tale he told on The Tonight Show was not as animated as the story Jones told on Saturday, March 19th at the UFC 128 post-fight press conference, he was a great representative for mixed martial arts and the UFC.

Jones also gave a brief description of what MMA is all about and then let the crowd know how he has progressed through his training in different aspects of MMA.

Leno showed a brief clip of the Jones versus Rua fight, which received loud cheers from the audience.

Jones seemed to have gained a new fan while on stage, as Kirstie Alley, who was also a guest on the show, was clearly enamored of the new UFC champion.

Click here to watch the video.

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

The co-main event at UFC 127 featured Michael Bisping and Jorge Rivera in what had developed into a grudge match in the weeks leading up to their middleweight contest.

Rivera had been posting videos on YouTube that took pointed shots at Bisping. By the time the pre-fight press conference rolled around, it was clear that Bisping was annoyed with Rivera.

During the question and answer session, Bisping took every chance he could to direct a biting comment at Rivera.  Rivera, for the most part, sat silent on the dais; his baseball cap pulled low.

When the fighters faced off for the staredown, Bisping unleashed a string of insults at Rivera.

The bad blood spilled over into the weigh-in when the two fighters had to be physically separated by UFC president, Dana White.

In a way, the fight was anti-climatic due to the way it ended. Bisping landed an illegal knee to the head of Rivera during the first round. The knee caused Rivera to spend several minutes recovering while he was attended to by the cageside doctor. Rivera eventually opted to continue, only to be TKO'd in the second round from Bisping's punches.

Following his TKO victory, Bisping approached Rivera's cornermen and spat in their direction.

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Bisping apologized for his behavior at UFC 127 stating, "As a father, as a mixed martial artist, or possibly even as a role model, it’s not a way I should be behaving. It’s not how a mixed martial artist should be acting; not how any man should be acting. Of course, I do regret it, and I owe Dana [White, UFC president], and the UFC an apology and I won’t be acting like that again.”

Bisping's tolerance may be put to the test if he faces one of the fighters who has requested a fight with him.  This includes Chael Sonnen, who is known as one of the top trash talkers in the UFC.

At this time, no opponent has been chosen for Bisping's next fight.  But he has no shortage of interested parties—including Sonnen, Nate Marquardt and Vitor Belfort.