Grove vs. Reljic demoted, Petruzelli vs. Romero promoted to UFC 116's "UFC Prelims"
A middleweight bout between Kendall Grove and Goran Reljic has been demoted to UFC 116's un-aired preliminary card, and a light-heavyweight fight between Seth Petruzelli and Ricardo Romero has been promoted to its slot on UFC 116's "UFC Prelims" special on Spike TV.
A source close to Spike TV today confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.com.
The source said Grove prompted the change after the fighter openly criticized the UFC's longtime cable partner and their involvement in "The Ultimate Fighter."
UFC 116 takes place July 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Heavyweights Chris Tuchscherer and Brendan Schaub compete in the other "UFC Prelims" fight, which airs prior to the night's pay-per-view main-card broadcast.
Grove, who was the season-three middleweight winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series, earlier this week told Tapout Radio that Spike TV officials only care about ratings and getting "as much drama and stupidity out of us" as possible with little regard for the cast members' careers.
Grove rejoined the radio show a few days later and apologized to Spike TV officials, UFC president Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva for passing off his personal feelings as fact. He said he "put my foot in my mouth" and thanked Spike TV officials for "giving me my shot" with the UFC.
Unfortunately, it appears it was too little too late with UFC and Spike TV executives, who now have relegated Grove (11-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC) and Reljic (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) to one of the event's four un-aired slots.
"Kendall made his feelings clear about Spike TV," the source said. "Besides, Seth has a great story and is a 'TUF' alum."
Petruzelli (12-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) gets the TV spot in his first fight back in the UFC. The "TUF 2" cast member, who made his biggest splash when he defeated Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson in an October 2008 EliteXC fight, recently re-signed with the UFC following a four-fight win streak in outside organizations. He takes on Romero (10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who initially was expected to fight Steve Cantwell.
The latest UFC 116 card now includes:
MAIN CARD
* Champ Brock Lesnar vs. interim champ Shane Carwin (heavyweight title-unification bout)
* Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben
* Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle
* Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
* Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)
* Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
* Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero
PRELIMINARY CARD (Un-aired)
* Kendall Grove vs. Goran Reljic
* Dave Branch vs. Gerald Harris
* Forrest Petz vs. Daniel Roberts
* Jon Madsen vs. Karlos Vemola
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/19689/grove-v ... relims.mma
