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UFC 115 was expected to feature two heavyweight battles in the form of Mirko Cro Cop vs. Ben Rothwell and Pat Barry vs. Gilbert Yvel. However, it appears the UFC has decided to shake things up and switch the match-ups around.

Pat Barry so badly wanted to fight Cro Cop at UFC 110 he was willing to hop on a plane to Australia on a day’s notice and fight Cro Cop in his jeans. It didn’t work out then because of visa issues, but the UFC apparently took note of Barry’s enthusiasm and offered him the fight for UFC 115.

A battle of former K-1 strikers has been lined up as rising star Pat “HD” Barry will face former Pride Grand Prix champion Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on the main card of the Vancouver show.

Sources close to the fight on Friday confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that the bout has been verbally agreed upon. The fight was initially reported by MMA Scraps Radio.

Meanwhile, their former opponents, Rothwell and Yvel, will now face each other on the card instead.

Nice job by Joe Silva if you ask me. He managed to take two pretty solid fights and make them even better.

Anthony Perosh wasn’t too crazy at first about stepping in on two days notice to fight Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 110, but apparently the UFC was able to convince him to take it by offering him a four-fight deal in exchange.

It was not all bad news for Perosh though. He took a beating but he accepted the fight on condition that he get a multi-fight contract. He ended up with a four-fight deal, although there is nothing to say he will not be dropped if he loses his next clash.

Perosh took a beating and sustained a huge cut, so he definitely earned it, but if you ask Cro Cop, it could have been worse.

“I admire Perosh for accepting the fight. There were much better fighters there who turned it down but I understand why; they did not have time to prepare. [But] I am very sorry that I had to hurt Perosh. I tried to fight with as much consideration for him as I could. I even avoided the ground because I am 7, 8 kilos heavier than he is.

Filipovic added that UFC president Dana White had questioned why he did not finish Perosh off. “I just couldn’t do that to him when he was so bloody,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cro Cop’s original opponent Ben Rothwell is still in Australia recovering from the traveler’s flu.

“It was a really bad virus,” Roufus said. “He got really sick and lost a lot of weight and hadn’t eaten for 48 hours. He was still pretty crappy when I left.”

Bummer for Rothwell, but the good news is he’ll still get his shot at Cro Cop, possibly at UFC 115 in Vancouver.

Image via Sherdog

UFC 110 took place earlier this evening at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.

In the night’s main event, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira took on Cain Velasquez in a heavyweight bout that could determine Brock Lesnar’s next opponent.

In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva made his middleweight debut against Michael Bisping.

Joe Stevenson and George Sotiropoulos met in a lightweight bout.

Ryan Bader looked to climb the light heavyweight ladder against Keith Jardine.

Anthony Perosh stepped in on short-notice to take on Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

Results, thoughts, bonuses and live gate (when available) after the jump.

Not that this will come as a surprise to anyone, but Kevin Iole is reporting that Mirko Cro Cop is in serious danger of being cut by the UFC if he loses tonight against Anthony Perosh. Not only is the UFC disappointed in his performances in the Octagon, but they’re apparently getting a little tired with his lack of cooperation with the media.

Filipovic fights late replacement Anthony Perosh on Saturday (Sunday in Australia) in the opener of the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 110. “He hasn’t done great,” White said of Filipovic’s UFC bouts. “Like I said, he’s a guy I respect because of his accomplishments. But we have some in-depth conversations, he and I. I’m real interested to see how [his fight] goes.”

“When there’s a press conference, you can’t find him,” White said. “He’s like Batman. He gets lost and you just can’t find the guy. It’s like you have to send out a Bat Signal to find him. I’m in a business where I deal with lots of different personalities, lots of different egos. There’s a lot of crazy [expletive] I deal with, and I try to deal with each guy a different way.

“Brock Lesnar wanted what he got and he had to come in and prove himself. Mirko Cro Cop didn’t. Mirko Cro Cop, everybody knew what this guy accomplished and what he had done. … Mirko has made a lot of money and he lives in Croatia somewhere. He’s a different animal, he really is. He’ll always be a part of the UFC history, but he hasn’t been the guy maybe we thought he might be. It would be good to see him prove what he can do.”

While Cro Cop may be in a must-win situation tonight, chances are he’s going to win rather easily. Even though he hasn’t lived up to his potential in the Octagon, he’s won all his fights against clearly outmatched opponents since he debuted with the organization in 2007. Tonight shouldn’t be any different.

Meanwhile, Dana says that Stephan Bonnar and Wanderlei Silva will be with the promotion for life.

Moving on, Michael Rome of Bloody Elbow reported on a lawsuit between the UFC and Rampage Jackson. Here’s the gist of the dispute:

To boil the dispute down to simpler terms, the issue is Jackson’s current contract and when it ends. Jackson wants his period away from the UFC to count towards his contractual term; the UFC is arguing that since he retired they were able to properly suspend the term for that period.

Iole also reported that Rampage signed his bout agreement to face Rashad Evans at UFC 114 this weekend in Australia. It sounds like the UFC and Rampage are making amends because the lawsuit will likely be dropped now. Plus, Dana White admitted he was impressed with what he’s seen so far with the “A-Team” movie.

Jackson went ahead and did the movie, which White said “is a real movie. Watch the trailer of this thing and you’ll see, that’s a real, big-time movie. Some of these guys come to me and tell me they’re filming a movie and you see the thing and it’s like it was filmed on a little home camcorder. Rampage’s movie is not like that. It’s definitely the real thing.”

Sherdog has a complete list of notes from the UFC 110 Fight Club Q&A session you should check out too. My favorite is Dana proclaiming Herb Dean is the best referee in the history of the sport…

Video via Cagewriter

Rumors that the UFC offered Rampage Jackson and Randy Couture the opportunity to step in and fight Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 110 proved to be false. That doesn’t mean Anthony Perosh was their first choice though. They offered Pat Barry the fight first and he was more than willing to take it.

Heavyweight kickboxing specialist Pat Barry was one guy considered. On Wednesday, he was asked by his trainer Duke Roufus if he was interested.

“He asked me if I wanted to step up and take the fight,” Barry told Cagewriter. “I said absolutely. I told them I would fly in the day of the fight and fight him in my jeans.”

“Of course I’d love to have that fight. If I had more notice that would’ve been awesome,” said Barry. “I [expletive] wanted that fight so bad, bro. I told them ‘y’all don’t even have to pay me. Really! All you have to do is send me a plane ticket.’ Either way I win.”

“I haven’t trained in three months. I’ll fight the dude in my jeans,” Barry sounding like the WWE’s John Cena or Uncle Elmer. “I would’ve fought him while I’m fat.”

Unfortunately, Barry was unable to obtain a work visa in time and couldn’t make it, so the UFC had to go with a local fighter. Still, Cro Cop vs. Barry would be a badass fight. If Cro Cop manages to keep it together, it’s a fight I hope the UFC makes in the future.

Following yesterday’s news that Ben Rothwell has pulled out his fight against Mirko Cro Cop comes a report from Croatian website MMA Axion that Cro Cop has sustained a cut during a training session that required stitches. Despite the minor injury, Cro Cop apparently still wants to fight and declined to pull out of the match against Anthony Perosh.

In the US, a state athletic commission would forbid a fighter from competing under those circumstances, but in Australia, at least to my knowledge, there isn’t a commission that would enforce such rules. That said, the UFC typically assumes the commission’s role overseas and follow the NSAC’s guidelines, so you would think they would have to make the tough decision to pull him off the card.

There is reason to question the validity of the report though. It also said that the UFC asked both Randy Couture and Rampage Jackson to step in for Ben Rothwell before eventually settling on Anthony Perosh. That sounds pretty fishy. Is Randy Couture in Australia? Why would they risk the Rampage-Rashad fight by putting him in with Cro Cop? Is Rampage even close to being in shape? The report said they both declined, but still, I’m having a hard time believing Couture or Rampage was ever on their short list to begin with on basically two days notice.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a swarm of reporters from the MMA media down in Sydney to get to the bottom of this. Kevin Iole is the only one I know of, so hopefully he’s able to do a little digging and find out what’s going on.

Until then, I guess we chock this one up as a rumor and assume the Cro Cop vs. Perosh fight is still on.

Update: Both Kevin Iole and Jeremy Botter are reporting that this rumor is false. Both Cro Cop and Perosh weighed in, so the fight is definitely happening.

Well this sucks. The UFC just announced that Ben Rothwell and Elvis Sinosic will no longer be competing at UFC 110.

A shoulder injury suffered by Elvis Sinosic has forced the cancellation of his rematch with countryman Chris Haseman, and heavyweight Ben Rothwell has been sidelined by an illness, forcing him out of his bout with Mirko Cro Cop. Australian veteran Anthony Perosh will step in to face Mirko Cro Cop.

With the Sinosic-Haseman cancellation the card will now feature nine fights instead of ten. It’s unknown what kind of illness Rothwell has come down with.

As for Cro Cop’s opponent, he’s 10-5 with notable losses to James Te Huna, Christian Wellisch (UFC 66) and Jeff Monson (UFC 61). He hasn’t beat anyone you’ve ever heard of. Needless to say, we’re probably not going to get any answers about Cro Cop’s future this weekend.

Here’s Perosh’s fight against Te Huna, so you’re not completely unfamiliar with him. Perosh is in the white trunks.

Image via All Elbows

Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic and Ben Rothwell meet in a heavyweight bout this Saturday, Feb. 20, at UFC 110.

MMA For Real and WKR have engaged in a little friendly debate over who’s on the chopping block at UFC 110. Wanderlei Silva, Stephan Bonnar, Keith Jardine, Mirko Cro Cop and Ben Rothwell are all coming off losses so they’re at the center of attention. That doesn’t necessarily mean all five are in danger of losing their jobs, but at least two of those fighters are approaching their fights with “must-win” attitudes.