Post by 1992 on May 27, 2012 2:13:39 GMT -5
Before I confuse anyone...neither of these stories are directly related, but they literally JUST broke at the same time so I just made a single thread for both instead of creating two threads...
On Saturday, White initially thought that would be the arrest of octagon girl Arianny Celeste, who was taken into custody Saturday morning by Las Vegas police.
Then the phone rang again, and White found out Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) was out of the main event of June's UFC 147 event.
"I wake up this morning, and Vitor Belfort breaks his hand, and he's in [expletive] surgery," White said. "It never ends for me. Every day we get up, and bad [expletive] happens. And guess what? I can guarantee you that when I wake up tomorrow, something else is going to happen."
UFC 147 takes place June 23 at the 25,000-seat indoor arena "Mineirinho" (Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Belfort was slated to meet fellow "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" coach Wanderlei Silva (34-11-1 MMA, 4-6 UFC) in UFC 147's pay-per-view headliner.
Tickets for the event went on sale this week, and White reported 13,000 seats were sold on the first day. Now he and UFC brass will scramble for a replacement. The UFC president said he has at least one candidate in mind but declined to name the potential replacement until a deal is done.
"I'm working on it," White said. "Wanderlei will fight."
White said he was uncertain how Belfort's surgery unfolded but assumed there were no issues since he hadn't received any updates. A timetable for Belfort's return has yet to be determined.
UFC officials initially announced UFC 147 at Joao Havelange Stadium (also known as Engenhao Stadium) in Rio de Janeiro. However, conflicts with the United Nations' "Rio +20" meeting, which is scheduled for June 20-22 in Rio, prompted changes. When the event was moved to Belo Horizonte, the event also lost a planned headliner between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.
That fight now takes place in July at UFC 148 in Las Vegas.
mmajunkie.com/news/28926/vitor-belfort-pulled-from-ufc-147-main-event-undergoes-surgery-for-broken-hand.mma
Arianny Celeste was arrested early Saturday morning in Las Vegas on a charge of domestic violence, but UFC president Dana White is not pulling his support from the UFC octagon girl.
According to records with the Clark County inmate database, the 26-year old Celeste was booked into the Clark County Detention Center under her real name, Arianny Lopez, at 7:30 a.m.
She was held on $3,000 bail and released after 7 p.m. PT. Celeste is slated for a hearing on May 30.
Celeste missed the majority of the UFC 146 event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but was met with a resounding cheer from the crowd when monitors panned to her sitting next to fellow octagon girl Brittney Palmer just before Roy Nelson's knockout victory over Dave Herman. Prior to her arrival at the MGM Grand, White released a statement showing his support for Celeste.
"Arianny is our baby," the statement read. "She has been with us for over five years. She is a good girl and an amazing ambassador for the UFC. I don't know all the details of what happened but we have her back and support her 100 percent."
Celeste joined the UFC in 2006 and has since become the longest-tenured and most popular octagon girl. In addition to her duties with the UFC, the Las Vegas native has modeled and appeared in Maxim, FHM, and was on the cover of Playboy in November 2010. She was named Ring Girl of the year from 2009-2011.
Celeste was active on her Twitter page in the hours leading up to her arrest today.
Near midnight, she posted a photo of her herself in evening attire sitting at a table, with a caption that read: "Dinner at Mizumi," refereeing to a new restaurant at the Wynn Las Vegas.
A few hours later, she tweeted another photo of herself with a male companion who was kissing the side of her face, with a caption: "??! forever n always??"
An additional tweet came around 3:30 a.m. with her making a crazy look and the caption: "I be going crayyyy ha hey bay bayyy."
Celeste's arrest comes on the heels of a couple of high profile issues with fighters within the UFC.
Light heavyweight champ Jon Jones was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after crashing his Bentley into a telephone phone in Binghamton, N.Y. on May 19. Also, his past week welterweight title contender Nick Diaz was suspended for one year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive for marijuana metabolites following his interim title fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 on Feb. 4.
"I'm going straight home tonight so I don’t get arrested," White joked with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) at Saturday's post-event press conference.
Nevertheless, he said the recent issues haven't necessarily raised any serious concerns about issues among his employees.
"These are all real people," White said. "These are human beings with real lives. Bad things happen sometimes. We're just going through a streak of bad things happening."
In Celeste's case, White said fame and money didn't play any factor in her arrest.
"There's always a level of fame, a level of money," he said. "And it's always hard to manage. It's not as easy as everybody thinks. But that wasn't the case with Arianny. Arianny's been around for a long time and she's been making money for a long time.
"This was just a personal issue that I don't know enough about. But I know enough about her that we've got her (back)."
mmajunkie.com/news/28925/arianny-celeste-arrested-in-las-vegas-but-ufc-boss-pledges-support-to-octagon-girl.mma
Vitor Belfort pulled from UFC 147 main event, undergoes surgery for broken hand
On Saturday, White initially thought that would be the arrest of octagon girl Arianny Celeste, who was taken into custody Saturday morning by Las Vegas police.
Then the phone rang again, and White found out Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) was out of the main event of June's UFC 147 event.
"I wake up this morning, and Vitor Belfort breaks his hand, and he's in [expletive] surgery," White said. "It never ends for me. Every day we get up, and bad [expletive] happens. And guess what? I can guarantee you that when I wake up tomorrow, something else is going to happen."
UFC 147 takes place June 23 at the 25,000-seat indoor arena "Mineirinho" (Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Belfort was slated to meet fellow "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" coach Wanderlei Silva (34-11-1 MMA, 4-6 UFC) in UFC 147's pay-per-view headliner.
Tickets for the event went on sale this week, and White reported 13,000 seats were sold on the first day. Now he and UFC brass will scramble for a replacement. The UFC president said he has at least one candidate in mind but declined to name the potential replacement until a deal is done.
"I'm working on it," White said. "Wanderlei will fight."
White said he was uncertain how Belfort's surgery unfolded but assumed there were no issues since he hadn't received any updates. A timetable for Belfort's return has yet to be determined.
UFC officials initially announced UFC 147 at Joao Havelange Stadium (also known as Engenhao Stadium) in Rio de Janeiro. However, conflicts with the United Nations' "Rio +20" meeting, which is scheduled for June 20-22 in Rio, prompted changes. When the event was moved to Belo Horizonte, the event also lost a planned headliner between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.
That fight now takes place in July at UFC 148 in Las Vegas.
mmajunkie.com/news/28926/vitor-belfort-pulled-from-ufc-147-main-event-undergoes-surgery-for-broken-hand.mma
Arianny Celeste arrested in Las Vegas, but UFC boss pledges support to octagon girl
Arianny Celeste was arrested early Saturday morning in Las Vegas on a charge of domestic violence, but UFC president Dana White is not pulling his support from the UFC octagon girl.
According to records with the Clark County inmate database, the 26-year old Celeste was booked into the Clark County Detention Center under her real name, Arianny Lopez, at 7:30 a.m.
She was held on $3,000 bail and released after 7 p.m. PT. Celeste is slated for a hearing on May 30.
Celeste missed the majority of the UFC 146 event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but was met with a resounding cheer from the crowd when monitors panned to her sitting next to fellow octagon girl Brittney Palmer just before Roy Nelson's knockout victory over Dave Herman. Prior to her arrival at the MGM Grand, White released a statement showing his support for Celeste.
"Arianny is our baby," the statement read. "She has been with us for over five years. She is a good girl and an amazing ambassador for the UFC. I don't know all the details of what happened but we have her back and support her 100 percent."
Celeste joined the UFC in 2006 and has since become the longest-tenured and most popular octagon girl. In addition to her duties with the UFC, the Las Vegas native has modeled and appeared in Maxim, FHM, and was on the cover of Playboy in November 2010. She was named Ring Girl of the year from 2009-2011.
Celeste was active on her Twitter page in the hours leading up to her arrest today.
Near midnight, she posted a photo of her herself in evening attire sitting at a table, with a caption that read: "Dinner at Mizumi," refereeing to a new restaurant at the Wynn Las Vegas.
A few hours later, she tweeted another photo of herself with a male companion who was kissing the side of her face, with a caption: "??! forever n always??"
An additional tweet came around 3:30 a.m. with her making a crazy look and the caption: "I be going crayyyy ha hey bay bayyy."
Celeste's arrest comes on the heels of a couple of high profile issues with fighters within the UFC.
Light heavyweight champ Jon Jones was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after crashing his Bentley into a telephone phone in Binghamton, N.Y. on May 19. Also, his past week welterweight title contender Nick Diaz was suspended for one year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive for marijuana metabolites following his interim title fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 on Feb. 4.
"I'm going straight home tonight so I don’t get arrested," White joked with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) at Saturday's post-event press conference.
Nevertheless, he said the recent issues haven't necessarily raised any serious concerns about issues among his employees.
"These are all real people," White said. "These are human beings with real lives. Bad things happen sometimes. We're just going through a streak of bad things happening."
In Celeste's case, White said fame and money didn't play any factor in her arrest.
"There's always a level of fame, a level of money," he said. "And it's always hard to manage. It's not as easy as everybody thinks. But that wasn't the case with Arianny. Arianny's been around for a long time and she's been making money for a long time.
"This was just a personal issue that I don't know enough about. But I know enough about her that we've got her (back)."
mmajunkie.com/news/28925/arianny-celeste-arrested-in-las-vegas-but-ufc-boss-pledges-support-to-octagon-girl.mma