$65,000 Bonuses:

Fight of the Night: Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim
Submission of the Night: Rousimar Palhares
Knockout of the Night: Edson Barboza

Anthony Johnson's third weighcutting mistake will be his last in the UFC, at least for now.

Following Saturday night's UFC 142 event at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, UFC president Dana White terminated Johnson's contract.

"This is his third time," White said of Johnson's failure to make weight for the third time in his octagon career. "Three strikes and you're gone."

Johnson (10-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC), of course, missed weight for his co-feature fight with Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC). The UFC president said Johnson came within a pound-and-a-half of the 186-pound limit allowed for non-title middleweight fights but was forced by a doctor to rehydrate because the former welterweight contender "couldn't make it."

"That was one of the most unprofessional things I've ever seen," White said. "The guy was at 170 pounds. He moved up to 185 pounds so this wouldn't happen anymore, and this is the worst weightcutting disaster he's ever had. He almost ruined the co-main event here in Brazil. I don't know what else to say about that one. I'm not happy about it."

On Friday, White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Johnson's job would be on the line, regardless of the result of his fight. While his words made it seem as if Johnson could potentially keep his spot in the promotion, the UFC boss said his decision was already made.

"I knew what the decision was when I talked to you on Friday," White told MMAjunkie.com. "This is his third time. Listen, the guy was having problems making 170 pounds. He wanted to stay at 170 or whatever his deal was. You go to 185, and you blow it as bad as he blew it? That's bad, man."

Johnson previously missed weight in welterweight contests with Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Rich Clementi. With this weekend's infraction, in which Johnson ultimately weighed 197 pounds for a 185-pound fight, White said he simply couldn't allow the fighter's actions to go unchecked.

That said, White said he's not forever ruling out the potential for Johnson to return to the promotion at some point.

"I don't dislike the guy," White. "I like him very much actually. When you talk to Anthony Johnson, he's a good guy.

"I don't know who you blame in this one. Do you blame him? Do you blame his team? Do you blame his camp? I mean who takes the blame in this one? Ultimately, you're a grown man. You're responsible for your own actions."

Welterweight Erick Silva may not have left Saturday night's UFC 142 event as a winner, but he'll be paid like one.

At the evening's post-event press conference at Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena, UFC president Dana White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Silva will receive his win bonus despite being saddled with a disqualification loss.

"We're going to pay him like he won the fight," White told MMAjunkie.com.

Silva (13-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) took on Carlo Prater (30-10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) on the evening's main card and appeared to notch a 29-second TKO win after landing a powerful knee to the body and following up with punches on the floor. However, after referee Mario Yamasaki waved off the fight, he revealed he was ruling the contest a disqualification as Silva's blows were deemed to have illegally landed to the back of the head. While a referee could simply deduct a point for the infraction, Prater was in no shape to continue, forcing the DQ.

White said he disagreed with Yamasaki's assessment of the fight-ending sequence, prompting him to award the win bonus.

Despite the frustrating result, Silva said he felt happy with his performance.

"I went in there to present myself in the best possible means, and I think I was able to do that despite the result not being what I expected," Silva said in his native Portuguese. "I did the best possible and unfortunately, I do also think he made a mistake, but we need to move forward."

Silva has the right to appeal Yamasaki's ruling. With no governing body in place, UFC executive Marc Ratner would ultimately make the decision.

Ratner declined to give his initial thoughts on the ruling but said he would be open to reviewing the contest.

White said he thinks Silva would be wise to appeal in hopes of removing an official loss from his record in favor of what would likely be deemed a no-contest.

"I would appeal it if I was him," White said. "The thing is that when you do it, Ratner is the guy to talk to about this. We try to run things the way that they're supposed to be run, like the athletic commission would."

White, who is never afraid to speak freely when he's upset at an official, was quick to defend Yamasaki's creditability as a referee. Rather than suggesting the longtime official was incompetent, White said the alleged mistake shows the real need for instant replay in the sport as a means of quickly correcting simple mistakes.

"It drives me crazy," White said. "It drives me [expletive] crazy. Every other sport has instant replay.

"Listen, there are refs out there like Steve Mazzagatti that are just plain bad. He's a bad ref. He's got no business in the ring. But you've got guys like Mario Yamasaki and some of the other guys that are going to make mistakes. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes. There's nothing wrong. We're [expletive] human. We're going to do it. But you have to be able to go back and say, 'We made a mistake. Here's the proof. Let's overturn it.'"

Yamasaki's disputed call wasn't the only officiating oddity of the night. Many fans and pundits openly questioned referee Dan Miragliotta's repeated restarts of Vitor Belfort and Anthony Johnson in the night's co-main event. While the moves certainly didn't come during the middle of an important transition or submission attempt, they did seem to come in rather quick fashion.

White also believes Miragliotta's actions were indicative of the officiating inconsistencies that often seem to plague the sport.

"Inconsistency," White said. "First of all, I think when there's any stalling and [expletive] like that, you should be stood up. But I saw on Twitter and stuff that people were saying the stand-ups were quick, and I would not disagree. I think it's inconsistent."

UFC 142 was a special situation, according to UFC president Dana White.

Following a weigh-in debacle that ultimately cost event co-headliner Anthony Johnson his job, UFC president Dana White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the organization doesn't plan to make fight-night weights available in the future.

Extenuating circumstances simply developed for UFC 142.

Johnson, a former welterweight making his middleweight debut, weighed 197 pounds (11 pounds over the 186-pound cutoff) at Friday's official weigh-ins at Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena. White told MMAjunkie.com that Johnson got as low as 187.5 pounds but simply "couldn't make it," and a doctor ordered him to rehydrate. The fighter's reps, though, blamed the failure on an illness.

Either way, White said it was one of "most unprofessional things I've ever seen."

In addition to a 20 percent fine, Johnson was forced to weigh no more than 205 pounds at noon local time on the day of the event. Johnson weighed 204.2 pounds and was cleared to continue, but with so much time between his second weigh-in and his fight with Vitor Belfort, fans were eager to learn how much he gained in the following 12 hours.

"This one was so controversial, and I played the whole behind-the-scenes of how it went down and what happened, which we've never done before," said White, who covered the weigh-in fiasco in his video blog and via Twitter.

Prior to the start of Saturday's pay-per-view event, White tweeted that Belfort weighed 205.6 pounds while Johnson was 211.

"We kind of played it out, and I knew people would be curious about the weights," White said of his decision to announce them. "And had I not, people would have thought he weighed 230 tonight. You see how big he was?"

Fans, especially online, recently have campaigned for the inclusion of the information. Ideally, the fight-night weights would be part of the "tale of the tape" that includes heights, records, and official weigh-ins for each fighter. But due to weight-cutting, those weights are rarely accurate since some fighters cut minimal weight while others – such as Johnson – shed drastic amounts.

White knows it's information some fans want, but he doesn't plan to add it soon.

"Right now? No," he said. "There are no plans."

JOE ROGAN UG POST He's a great guy, and I'm always happy to see him. When I step into the octagon however, I represent the people watching at home that might have obvious questions, and when something is controversial I'm forced to confront it honestly because that's what I would want to hear from a person in my position if I was a fan watching it at home.

It was obviously a controversial call, and I'm sure some of you agree with it, but I certainly think it's also possible to argue that it was a bad call. That was my perspective, so I had to express it. I'm not a perfect person, and I fuck up all the time. It's a part of life.
Great referees have made awful mistakes. Even the consensus nominee for the greatest referee of all time, my personal friend the great Big John McCarthy has made mistakes.
Remember when Bustamante had to tap out Matt Linland twice?
Calling fight as a referee is hard as FUCK. If I was a referee Dana would probably hate me more than he hates Mazagatti. I wouldn't want that job! That's a shit load of pressure.

I think Mario Yamasaki is one of the best in the world at refereeing MMA. No doubt about it.
He's got great insight to the sport, he's a life long martial artist, and he's a really smart guy.
What I was acting from, is that I saw an incredible young talent get denied a KO victory for a questionable call. When I entered into the Octagon and was told of the official ruling that Silva was going to be disqualified for illegal blows to the back of the head everyone that I was around who heard the news opened their mouths in shock. Everyone said, "what?"
The people in the truck couldn't believe it. I had to read it back to them because I thought it was a mistake, and when I leaned over to explain it to Goldie he couldn't believe it either.
I had to ask Mario about it. I didn't know how he was going to respond, but I had to ask him.
Erick Silva is a very promising fighter and I felt like I had a responsibility to adress the issue.
No disrespect intended.

In before TL;DR

The usual Vitor Belfort didn't show up post-UFC 142.

A fiery, impassioned statesman at times replaced the placid, Jesus-loving fighter we've come to know over the years. Responsibility outweighed pomp and circumstance.

"I think the platform that we have is such that I didn't see a better moment in time to really make people aware that it's important for us to fight for the causes we believe in," Belfort said through a translator following this Saturday's pay-per-view event.

Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) was victorious in UFC 142's co-main event when he submitted the bigger Anthony Johnson (10-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in one of many triumphs for Brazilian fighters that night.

The fight card took place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.

Afterward, the former champ was asked why he didn't show any visible support for a tremendously popular soccer team, which was a question that might be expected from a press conference in a country where the sport towers over others. In the same turn, however, Belfort was asked to give his thoughts on the rash of kidnappings that continue to plague Brazil.

"This is a daily death for people who go through this," he said. "There is no such pain as when a mother or father loses a kid. When a kid loses his or her parents, he becomes an orphan. But there's not a word to describe the pain that parents face when they lose kids."

Belfort's sister was kidnapped and murdered in Brazil in 2004, just weeks before he was to fight Randy Couture for the light-heavyweight championship at UFC 46. He won the belt in 49 seconds when a punch he threw sliced Couture's eyelid and prompted a doctor to call off the bout.

Three years later, the kidnappers were arrested. But the experience left Belfort devastated.

Religion became an increasingly central part of Belfort's public figure in subsequent years, and fans came to expect constant references to God during interviews. Faith was hardly mentioned, though, when he continued after a spontaneous burst of applause from those at the press conference.

"I think we need to have solidarity, to be able to disseminate [information]," he said. "There are more than 250 people disappeared. There are so many people that are missing. Sometimes people are afraid of making phone calls and denouncing the (kidnappings). I think people need to have solidarity, and the UFC has extreme solidarity.

"They could favor any country, but (UFC executive) Lorenzo (Fertitta) believed in Brazil; they invested in the Brazilian people. I think the platform that we have is such that I didn't see a better moment in time to really make people aware that it's important for us to fight for the causes we believe in."

Belfort's next platform is "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil," which is scheduled to begin filming later this month in Sao Paulo. He coaches opposite former PRIDE champ and current UFC middleweight Wanderlei Silva. The reality show debuts in March on FUEL TV.

Shepherding a new generation of fighters into the limelight and away from Brazil's harsh realities is one of the things Belfort cherishes most about his involvement with "TUF."

"I believe in the Brazilian people, that through the sport, men and women of character – men like (Rousimar) 'Toquinho' (Palhares) who went hungry (and) Jose Aldo, who used to sleep (on the floor of his gym) – will help change this country," Belfort said. "So this world is going to bring us possibilities to really fight for causes that are priceless. So may all of you please take a look at your conscience and check what you can do with your platform and what you can really do.

"To every family that has a missing person and has faith, never give up. God is faithful."

In the minutes and hours since Jose Aldo trounced Chad Mendes at UFC 142, the question has returned to the lips and fingertips of MMA fans and pundits. It’s a proposition the featherweight ace has heard before, and one which has been asked of many dominant prizefighting champions: What could he do at the next weight class up?

According to Andre Pederneiras, Aldo’s trainer and the leader of Brazilian squad Nova Uniao, the question won’t be answered anytime soon.

“If it depends on me, it won’t happen. Unless he leaves the team to train somewhere else and someone agrees with that, because I will not,” the coach joked in an interview with Sherdog.com. “It won’t happen for now, unless he goes straight for a title shot. Not, ‘Oh no, he left the featherweight belt, moved up to lightweight and started from the beginning,’ no way.”

At Saturday’s post-fight press conference in Rio de Janeiro, UFC President Dana White left open the possibility of Aldo moving up to challenge current lightweight titleholder Frankie Edgar, but ultimately left the call to “Scarface” and his team.

“I would have no problem with him staying at his weight now and defending his title there or moving to 155 pounds, whatever he feels like he wants to do,” said White.

Talk of Aldo shifting weights got new legs after his rousing finish of Mendes, a previously unbeaten stud wrestler from Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male who many viewed as Aldo’s toughest remaining test. The next obvious contender, former Shooto and Sengoku titleholder Hatsu Hioki, saw his prospects cool after a lukewarm win over George Roop in his October UFC debut.

Crucial to Aldo’s victory was takedown defense, which the champ used to shut down seven Mendes takedown attempts. While Aldo spent time sharpening his wrestling with lightweight contender Gray Maynard during his most recent training camp, Pederneiras asserts that the complete fighter on display Saturday was a result of much more than three months’ work.

“The staff of the academy trains every day for this, and Aldo has been training since he came to MMA,” he said. “This training wasn’t done in three months, but over five years. So, he put into practice what he has done in these three months, the physical, and that was it.”

In the end, Aldo’s ability to stay vertical and escape from Mendes’ grasps set up a blistering, highlight-reel finish. But while his in-cage skills may be rapidly maturing, the 25-year-old from Manaus showed after the win that he still has plenty of youthful exuberance. In a repeat of his celebration at WEC 38 in San Diego, Aldo sped out of the cage as soon as the fight was stopped and dashed into the crowd at Rio’s HSBC Arena, where he was engulfed by a sea of his ecstatic countrymen.

“I expected him to do something stupid, especially here,” Pederneiras laughed, producing from his pocket the Flamengo soccer jersey which Aldo was supposed to wear after the win. “He did [the same thing] in San Diego and he had to hear a lot from the commission staff. But here, with all that crowd, I knew.”

Dan Miragliotta hasn't yet sat down to watch the replay of this past Saturday's UFC 142 bout between Vitor Belfort and Anthony Johnson, but as the contest's referee, he remembers it vividly in his mind.

And while Miragliotta has come under fire for what some MMA pundits consider a series of "quick" restarts in action, the veteran referee believes his calls were more than appropriate.

"If there's two guys on the ground that aren't doing anything or if they're in a takedown position and they're just very tired so they're leaning against each other and they're not going for a single-leg or they're not trying something different to change their position, I give them some time," Miragliotta today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I warn them, and then I'll separate them."

Belfort and Johnson met in the co-main event of this past weekend's UFC 142 event in Rio de Janiero. When the UFC visits foreign countries that lack an athletic commission to oversee the events, UFC vice president and former Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner serves as the lead regulator.

Miragliotta, Mario Yamasaki and Leon Roberts were all hired by Ratner and the UFC to serve as officials at UFC 142.

Miragliotta was also in the cage for Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ednaldo Oliveira and Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim, but it was the Belfort-Johnson matchup that had some fans up in arms.

Miragliotta's critics say his three restart calls, two that came with Johnson in top position and one with "Rumble" in a takedown position against the cage, were unfair and far too hasty, but the referee said he felt his decisions were all warranted.

"[Johnson] established position and then just held his wrist and laid on top of him," Miragliotta said. "He had that one real nice, heavy punch that kind of busted up Vitor's face in the very early beginning of the first round, and then after that his takedowns had just kind of stopped."

Some critics suggested the rowdy HSBC Arena crowd had something to do with Miragliotta's calls. After all, the arena was decidedly pro-Belfort and made it clear they weren't enjoying Johnson's time on top.

Miragliotta, a veteran of big fights all over the world, said that simply isn't true.

"Honestly, the way the fans were screaming and hollering for the fight, I don't think it would have mattered if it was up or down," Miragliotta said. "They were just into the fight. I don't listen to the crowd. They don't bother me."

But some conspiracy theorists have taken it a step further, suggesting that perhaps the UFC played a role in Miragliotta's call. After all, Johnson had missed weight for the contest by a stunning 11 pounds. Perhaps the official was given a little backstage pep talk from UFC president Dana White about the importance of giving Belfort the best possible chance at winning?

No way, said Miragliotta.

"The UFC never talks to us," Miragliotta said. "You go out there, and Marc Ratner is the one that's responsible for us. We never talk to Dana or Zuffa or any of the other guys. I may have talked to Dana once or twice since I've been doing this. They don't bother us.

"Never, ever have you ever heard the UFC grab an official and say to them, 'Let's change the criteria,' or, 'Let's do something different because we need to keep the fans happy.'"

Miragliotta said he wasn't immediately aware there was any public backlash to his work. In fact, he spoke with Johnson's camp the following day and didn't hear any gripe from the fighter's corner.

"Neither corner came up to me and said anything negative," Miragliotta said. "I rode with Anthony Johnson's corner in the bus on the way to the airport, and he thanked me for giving his guy a chance to fight. He never said, 'I wish you would have let them stay on the ground a little longer,' or, 'I wish you would have stood them up faster.'"

In the end, Belfort won the fight on the floor, anyway, so it's tough to say precisely what effect, if any, Miragliotta's call had on the final result, a submission win for "The Phenom." But Miragliotta wants one thing to be perfectly clear: Whether or not you agree with his decision, know that it wasn't based on anything other than his interpretation of the action at the time.

"I don't care who wins the fights," Miragliotta said. "I'm honored and privileged to be there. I'm not interested in who wins. I just enjoy doing what I do."