We head first to MMA Weekly for confirmation that John “Doomsday” Howard is no longer a UFC employee. In an update to the story, Howard posted the following on his official Twitter account recently: “Only thing I can say is it is what it is. You get three straight losses in the UFC and this is what happens.”

Next up is a report from MMA Junkie that states that Andre Winner, the runner-up of “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9, has also been released from the UFC. The report states that Winner will more than likely fight in the UK next, possibly in the fast-rising BAMMA promotion.

John Howard debuted in the UFC in 2009 with a respectable 10-4 record. Howard would win his UFC debut in a “Fight of the Night” performance and follow that up with three more wins, with two KO’s. However, Howard stumbled and ultimately fell when attempting to move his way up the food chain. After a TKO loss to Jake Ellenberger, Howard faced tough losses to both Thiago Alves and Matt Brown.

Andre Winner tore through the TUF house on the ninth season of the popular UFC reality TV show, but would lose to Ross Pearson in the season’s live finale. Winner rebounded with two wins, including a big KO win, but would lose his next three fights. Nik Lentz beat him in an incredibly boring fight, then Dennis Siver of all people managed to submit Winner with a Rear Naked Choke, and finally, Winner recently endured a three-round beating at the hands and feet of Anthony Njokuani.

I’ve never really had a problem with either of these two men, so I’m not glad that they’re gone. But I never really considered myself a fan of these two either, so I’m not really upset that they’re gone. I remember watching both men fight, and I think both men are gifted fighters with a lot of determination and heart. I do remember enjoying a few of their fights. But as Howard himself said: it is what it is.

The UFC is the biggest, most profitable, most prestigious Mixed Martial Arts company on the planet. It got that way through a whole lot of hard work, and it’s going to stay that way since the UFC only employs the absolute best fighters in the world. In today’s UFC, you simply have got to keep winning in order to stay employed. Both Howard and Winner had several chances when you consider that the UFC is getting so ultra-competitive nowadays that fighters have been released on two-fight or even one-fight losing-streaks. Both men simply couldn’t handle the UFC’s level of competition.

That’s not to say that they’ll never be able to. It wouldn’t surprise me if both fighters made their way back to the UFC after some big wins in regional promotions. So even though “it is what it is”, I do wish both these fighters the best.

Jeff Hougland vs. Donny Walker: This is an interesting case of two UFC newcomers making their UFC debuts against each other. That doesn’t usually happen, so there must be a good reason for it. I think the reasoning behind this fight is that both men are veterans that are currently on long win-streaks: Walker has fought since 2004 and has won his last six fights, Hougland has been fighting since 2002 and won his last eight. But the fact that Hougland was once 1-4 as a professional, with all four losses by stoppage, shines a very harsh light on him. Plus, Walker has faced some decently-big names in his day. Since I haven’t seen either man fight, I don’t know how likely it is that they’ll finish this fight. So I’m picking Donny Walker to win, period.

Anthony Njokuani vs. Andre Winner: I think Anthony Njokuani still has some fight left in him. Even though he lost his UFC debut, it was a “Fight of the Night” performance. Njokuani is a very skilled striker, and with this fight likely staying on the feet for the majority of the bout, I’ve got to favor Njokuani to win. Winner has never been KO’d before, but I think there’s a first time for everything. Anthony Njokuani wins by TKO in Round 2.

Brad Tavares vs. Aaron Simpson: It’s a tough fight to call, really. Tavares is the one that’s unbeaten, Simpson has lost two of his last three. But Simpson has faced the tougher competition, and that’s the kind of Octagon experience that wins fights. Tavares has only been to a decision once, Simpson started his career a perfect 6-0 with six stoppages. I think it’s going to be a close fight, but ultimately, the high-level fight experience of Aaron Simpson will win out. Aaron Simpson wins by Split Decision.

Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki: Takeya Mizugaki is always willing to step in there with the best fighters in the world… he just never beats them. He’s never beaten a top-flight Bantamweight, and the last time he tried he was choked unconscious so badly that part of me was scared for his health. Bowles looked pretty good in his UFC debut, and I think he’s hungry for another shot at a championship. Brian Bowles wins by either TKO in Round 2 or KO in Round 1.

George Sotiropoulos vs. Rafael dos Anjos: Rafael is good, make no mistake about that. It’s just that George is better. This fight will play itself out almost exclusively on the ground, and that fight favors the man who was thought of as the UFC’s Lightweight submission magician. Dos Anjos is too good on the ground, so he will not get submitted. But he will be controlled, and George Sotiropoulos will take a Unanimous Decision win.

Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller: I really think this new Melvin Guillard can’t be stopped, at least not until he faces some of the best talent in the division. Guillard still has the tenacity and explosive finishing ability he’s always had, but he now has the technique and skill that comes with training at one of the best MMA gyms in the world and quite possibly ever. Roller certainly won’t make it easy for him, but I do think Guillard wins this fight. So I’ll play it a bit safe and say that Guillard will take a Unanimous Decision, although it wouldn’t surprise me if either of these fighters finished this fight quickly and dramatically.

Here’s what Hardy had to say in another This is Nottingham blog post: “I was just expressing my view, as a fan of the sport as much as a fighter, and I was happy to see a lot of fans out there agreed with most of what I wrote. Sadly, there were some people who clearly couldn’t grasp the points I was making. The column wasn’t about wrestling’s place in MMA, it was about using wrestling purely to stall and avoid fighting.  One guy who struggled to keep up with the points I made was UFC middleweight and charisma donor Nate Marquardt, who always seems to have something to say about me, for no other reason than I once competed against one of his friends. Sadly, we can now add ‘literacy test’ to the types of tests Nate has failed, because he either misread the whole thing or – like writers from AOL and Yahoo did – just read the first paragraph or two and had to stop because reading gives him a headache. Ultimately, people can agree or disagree with what I wrote, but the facts are on my side. The Nick Lentz fight at UFC 118, which was the catalyst for my column, was the only UFC Prelim fight to ever lose TV viewers. That hurt the pay-per-view buy rate, it hurt Andre Winner‘s career, it hurt lightweight Joe Lauzon – who had an amazing performance immediately after Lentz’s effort, which fewer people witnessed because of Lentz – and it hurt the sport as a whole.”

Taken purely at his word, I wholeheartedly agree with Dan Hardy. I was one of the ones that had to suffer through Lentz vs. Winner, and let me tell you: that fight blew the big one. I’ve talked in the past of the “beautiful ugliness” that results in a dominant wrestler grinding out his opponent, but that fight was just plain ugly. Lent grounded his opponent for three rounds and did virtually nothing other than land pitter-patter shots. I’m honestly not surprised that the fight lost a lot of viewers, it was downright boring and had I not been watching it only halfheartedly, mostly as background noise in fact, I can honestly say that I too would have switched the channel. And I too might have missed one of the best performances of Joe Lauzon’s career.

What I think Dan Hardy is trying to say is that stalling as a whole is detrimental to this sport, and that wrestling is at the forefront simply because it’s much more prevalent in fighters with wrestling backgrounds. If he means what he says and believes what he means, and isn’t doing this just to keep his name in people’s minds, then Dan Hardy has an excellent point. Even if you’re of the “if you don’t like it, learn to defend against it” opinion, you have to at least grudgingly admit that a boring fight is a boring fight, and that fight that goes to a decision with virtually no action in the fifteen/twenty-five minutes beforehand is a potentially powerful blow to a fight card’s bottom line.

But as always, it’s the fan’s opinions that matter. So what do you think, fans and friends? With this new follow-up blog, do you find yourself continuing to disagree/agree with Hardy, or has this new post changed your stance somehow?

1.1 million viewers tuned in to see Nik Lentz defeat Andre Winner via Unanimous Decision and Joe Lauzon steamroll Gabe Ruediger before submitting him via armbar at 2:01 of round 1. UFC 109’s prelims garnered the highest of any “Prelims Live” special, with 1.9 million viewers that watched both Melvin Guillard and Mac Danzig fight to a Unanimous Decision win over their opponents, Ronnys Torres and Justin Buchholz. One would think that the star-studded UFC 118 card would have drawn more interest than the less-than-stellar UFC 109 card, which was headlined by Randy Couture taking on Mark Coleman. But the UFC 116 card, featuring the return of current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, only drew 1.3 million viewers for their two fights, which saw Ricardo Romero armbar Seth Petruzelli and Brendan Schaub TKO’ing Chris Tuchscherer.

Clearly, the interest in the main Pay-Per-View card didn’t play nearly as big of a role as many thought it would in attracting viewers to see the prelims. I’m moderately surprised at this, but it’s not exactly a revelation either. I think fight fans are judging these “Prelims Live” specials on the strengths of the actual fights, not on their interest in the fights to come. Fight fans are far more familiar with Melvin Guillard and Mac Danzig than with Andre Winner or Ricardo Romero. Also, the quality of the initial fight likely had a huge effect on people either staying plugged in or switching the channel: the Lentz vs. Winner bout in particular was very boring, and I can see how many fight fans would have switched to other programming without even giving the second fight a chance.

And at the end of the day, I think we all know what the problem here is: these are preliminary fights, they’ll never do that good in the ratings. I’m not trying to discredit any of the talented fighters that fight on the UFC’s prelims, but these “Prelims Live” specials lack the appeal of a Fight Night Live card, since they’re smaller parts of a bigger whole and not an event in and of itself. I don’t ever see these “Prelims Live” specials doing so badly that Spike nixes the idea entirely, but I don’t see them breaking any records either.

That is, of course, unless the UFC gives us preliminary fights like Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung, which was a preliminary fight showcased by their sister-promotion the WEC. It’s a fight which is in serious talks for Fight of the Year candidacy. A great fight is a great fight, and a great preliminary fight can overcome the stigma of being a preliminary fight. But honestly, have we really seen a can’t-miss preliminary fight in the entirety of these “Prelims Live” specials? Don’t give us mid-level but sometimes virtually unknown fighters fighting mostly good but sometimes incredibly boring fights and then wonder why your ratings are so up-and-down. Unless the UFC puts some real effort behind making the preliminary fights worth watching in their own right, they should be satisfied with whatever number they get.

And what about you, fans and friends? Why do you think the “Prelims Live” specials continue to fluctuate in terms of ratings?

Florian weighed the limit at 156 pounds and Gomi weighed 155 pounds.

The Ultimate Fighter 10 champion “Big Country” Roy Nelson (14-4) and 6? 11? heavyweight prospect “SkySkraper” Stefan Struve (23-3) both also made weight for their matchup.  Nelson weighed 263 pounds while Struve weighed 248 pounds.

Fight night 21 will air live on SpikeTV at 8:00 PM EST.  The rest of the weights below:

Nate Quarry (186) vs. Jorge Rivera (186)
Ross Pearson (156) vs. Dennis Siver (156)
Rafaello Oliveira (156) vs. Andre Winner (156)
Ronys Torres (155) vs. Jacob Volkmann (155)
Rob Emerson (154) vs. Nik Lentz (155)
Gleison Tibau (156) vs. Caol Uno (156)
Lucio Linhares (184) vs. Yushin Okami (184)
Gerald Harris (186) vs. Mario Miranda (186)
Charlie Brenneman (170) vs. Jason High (170)

As speculated Monday, the UFC welterweight contender matchup between American “Quick” Mike Swick (14-2) and Brit “Outlaw” Dan Hardy (22-6) was officially announced for Manchester.

The co-main event pits Brit “Count” Michael Bisping (17-2), returning from a highlight reel knockout loss to “Hollywood” Dan Henderson (25-7) at UFC 100 in Las Vegas in July, across the Octagon from Canadian Denis Kang (34-11-1).

The rest of the card includes:

Matt Brown (10-7) v “Lightning” James Wilks (4-2)
“Real Deal” Ross Pearson (14-5-1) v Aaron Riley (28-11-1)
Terry Etim (13-2) v Shannon Gugerty (12-3)
“Relentless” Paul Taylor (10-5-1) v. “Hitman” John Hathaway (10-0)
“Slick” Nick Osipczak (5-0) v Matthew Riddle (3-0)
Alexander Gustafsson (7-0) v Jared Hamman (2-1)
Andre Winner (10-3-1) v “Crazy Cuban” Rolando Delgado (6-4-1)