Low Sponsor Pay At Last UFC Event, New TUF Coaches, Gegard Mousasi's Bellator Debut Set, UFC On FOX
- UFC has uploaded the full "Road to the Octagon" episode for Saturday's UFC on FOX 25. The show will be headlined by Chris Weidman against Kelvin Gastelum and it'll be special for Weidmann as the show will take place from his hometown in Uniondale, New York. The event will air on FOX with the early prelims taking place on UFC Fight Pass. Watch the latest episode of "UFC Road to the Octagon" embedded in the video above.
- Fighters on Sunday's UFC Fight Night 113 card took home a total of $77,500 under the UFC Athletic Outfitting program, the second lowest amount since the promotion signed its deal with Reebok. No one received higher than the second tier of the program payout structure, meaning the largest pay out was just $5,000, according to MMAJunkie. Fighters that received $5,000 included Santiago Ponzinibbio, Gunnar Nelson, Joanne Calderwood, Paul Felder, Stevie Ray, Neil Seery and Leslie Smith. Everyone else took home $2,500 under the outfitting program. Note that this does not include their fight pay or any other bonuses they may have received.
- The UFC announced that Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethe will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Alvarez and Gaethje will lead 16 flyweight women throughout the season with the winner of season 26 becoming the inaugural women's 125-pound champion. The season will premiere on FOX Sports on 1 on Wednesday, August 30 at 10 p.m. ET.
- Former UFC fighter Gegard Mousasi will debut with Bellator MMA against Alexander Shlemenko on Friday, October 20 at Bellator 185 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. They will be the show's main event. "King Mo" Lawal will also be on the card, in the show's co-main event, against Liam McGeary. The event will broadcast live and free on SPIKE at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, while prelims will stream on Bellator.com and the Bellator Mobile App. Tickets start at $30, with a presale offer on Wednesday, July 19 at 10 a.m. ET through Thursday, July at 10 p.m. ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, July 21 at 10 a.m. ET and are available at the Mohegan Sun Arena Box Office, as well as Ticketmaster and Bellator.com.