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This tenth episode of THE REEM II will give you goosebumps… guaranteed.

According to Dana White, Brock Lesnar never made any excuses for his loss to Alistair Overeem. During an appearance on The Jim Rome Show yesterday, Dana said Lesnar told him after the fight that he’s “never felt so good in his life” after surgery and had “the best camp he has ever had,” but Overeem was just “that much better than him.”

HT: MiddleEasy

Dana White gives a behind the scenes look at UFC 141 in this first installment of his UFC 142 video blog.

Alistair Overeem has passed his second NSAC-mandated UFC 141 drug test.

The NSAC’s Keith Kizer confirmed the news to MMA Fighting today along with word that all UFC 141 participants with the exception of Jon Fitch were tested and passed.

All drug tests administered at UFC 141 came back negative for prohibited substances, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer on Monday.

Every fighter on the card, except for Jon Fitch, was tested. The news is especially significant considering Alistair Overeem was tested twice on fight week and passed both times. Overeem also passed the test he took in London prior to flying to Vegas, which was asked of him by the commission after he failed to meet their out-of-competition drug test requirements in November.

It’s unclear why Fitch wasn’t tested, however MMA Junkie notes that Fitch may have been in the hospital and unavailable for testing.

Overeem will still have to take two additional random tests over the next six months to satisfy the requirements of the conditional license the NSAC granted him last month.

Image via CombatLifestyle.com

Update: The only explanation Keith Kizer has given for Fitch not testing is “he lost,” which is pretty much the worst explanation ever when every other fighter who lost on the card was tested.

2011 wasn’t the greatest year for the UFC on pay-per-view, especially in the latter half of the year. According to MMA Payout’s Blue Book, most events fell in the 225,000 – 350,000 range with the exception of UFC 135 and UFC 140 (~480,000 each) while it wasn’t uncommon for events to eclipse the 500,000 mark in 2010. Needless to say, the UFC was certainly hoping Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem would give them a strong finish to what was otherwise a relatively disappointing year.

Well if the early estimates are any indication, Lesnar vs. Overeem brought in the kind of the numbers the UFC hasn’t seen since UFC 129 despite major concerns about running the event on a Friday. Here’s The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer with the numbers via BE:

Because of the holiday, our early PPV numbers are somewhat sketchy but early industry estimates have ranged between 750,000 and 810,000 North American buys, which would be slightly higher than most expectations. The show probably would have hit the 1 million mark if it was on New Year’s Eve. The original plan was to do a New Year’s Eve show from Abu Dhabi, but when that fell through, they booked the MGM Grand. Because the strip in Las Vegas is shut down from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, it really would be impossible to run a show like they do in Las Vegas on that night.

As Meltzer mentions, scheduling the show on a Friday probably hurt the buy rate, however 750,000 buys is still pretty impressive considering Brock Lesnar was coming off a loss and Alistair Overeem was just being introduced the UFC pay-per-view buying fan base. I don’t know what the UFC’s expectations were for the event, but I doubt they’re disappointed with the numbers all things considered.

On an interesting side note, here’s MMA Payout’s Jose Mendoza with some interesting updates on Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar’s pay in light of the news.

Image via Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports

If you were one of the lucky 30,000 UFC fans who were able to snag free access to UFC 141 on Xbox Live last weekend, well it turns out your luck ran out at fight time.

Thanks to a variety of technical issues, Microsoft fumbled the UFC’s first pay-per-view broadcast on their shiny new UFC on Xbox Live app, which left 30,000+ UFC fans scrambling to find alternative means to watch UFC 141 at the last-minute. Bummer for sure, but the good news is Microsoft plans to make it up to them by giving them free access to a future UFC pay-per-view.

“The broadcast of UFC 141 through the UFC for Xbox LIVE application was hampered by technical issues appearing in the hours leading up to the fight. Despite restoring service to some users during the course of UFC 141, there is a great deal of room for improvement. All 30,00 users who registered to view UFC 141 for free will be provided access to a future fight at no cost.

“We want to ensure that the 30,000 giveaway recipients for UFC 141 have an optimal experience with UFC on Xbox LIVE, and we are currently working with our partners at the UFC to ensure we deliver just that. The gamertags of the 30,000 users who registered for UFC 141 are being safely kept on file for free access to a future UFC event, and we will have more updates to share in the near future.”

That should ease the pain for those who snagged the freebie, but what about the people that actually paid for UFC 141 on XBox Live? How many of them will actually give the service another shot? As the saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Alistair Overeem received some good news following his victory over Brock Lesnar at UFC 141. That big check he was supposed to get for demolishing Brock Lesnar? He was actually going to get it.

If you’re wondering why he wouldn’t, then you probably missed the news right before the fight that his former management Knock Out Investments/Golden Glory obtained a pre-judgement to hold his UFC 141 purse in an escrow account until the courts figured out if they were rightfully owed a portion of it. Well, it turns out the wage garnishment was contingent upon KOI/GG posting a $200,000 surety bond and for whatever reason, they did not, so Overeem got paid.

ESPN’s Josh Gross has the details.

A Nevada court, citing an existing and enforceable pact between Overeem and Knock Out Investments, a fighter management group, decreed that UFC parent company Zuffa “is directed to issue a check from the portion of the purse owed to Overeem in the respective amount of $241,285,49, made payable to Knock-Out Investments; and that the Nevada State Athletic Commission shall hold” the check pending further order of the court.

That order was contingent on KOI, also known as Golden Glory, posting a $200,000 surety bond by fight time.

Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer told ESPN.com it was his understanding that the bond was not posted, therefore Overeem received a check for $385,714.28 — his bout fee and win bonus. Overeem will also earn a signficiant portion of UFC 141′s pay-per-view proceeds.

The funny thing was Overeem didn’t even know about it until one of the reporters at the post-fight press conference asked him about it. He kept his emotions in check like always, but you could tell he wasn’t happy. I can only imagine the sense of relief he felt when he got word that was getting paid after all.

It’s only a small victory though. The lawsuit is still pending which means he may still have to give some of it up to his former team.

Image via Dave Mandel for Sherdog

Update: KOI’s lead attorney Roderick J. Lindblom comments on the latest development. Looks like they’re targeting Overeem’s pay-per-view bonus now.

“This was a short-term possibility that KOI and Golden Glory were prepared for,” stated Roderick J. Lindblom, who’s representing the fighter’s former management team, in a release issued Monday evening. “Seeking the initial writ was merely the first step in a long-term litigation strategy that KOI and Golden Glory will prosecute in Nevada. The writ of attachment remedy remains fully available to my clients and will be sought as to Mr. Overeem’s future pay-per-view payout, which we expect will be more lucrative than his initial fight purse.”

“Rest assured, now that we have had the opportunity to troubleshoot complex international hurdles – and without a long holiday weekend to contend with – future writs of attachment will be utilized to ensure that Mr. Overeem makes good on the commissions owed to my clients and his Golden Glory training team, who helped him achieve the success he now enjoys,” Lindblom stated.

It’s UFC 141 fight week for Alistair Overeem in this ninth episode of THE REEM II.

A few observations from UFC 141: “Lesnar vs. Overeem”:

-Anthony Njokuani versus Danny Castillo was the kind of fight you’d show someone if they were curious about MMA and you didn’t like them and wanted them to not like the sport.

-Ross Pearson didn’t exactly look impressive against Junior Assuncao, but he got the job done. And by “job done”, I mean that TUF Lucite slab he earned still has a little bit of luster left on it.

-The way Jimy Hettes absolutely dominated Nam Phan on the ground, you have to wonder if Phan’s black belt in jiu-jitsu was earned from taking a University of Phoenix online course.

-Please. No more Vladimir Matyushenko. He’s done a lot in the cage, and was once a challenger for the light-heavyweight belt. We don’t need to see him die in the Octagon.

-This joke was all over Twitter immediately after the Jon Fitch/Johny Hendricks bout, but it was so good I’m going to repost it here: “Wow, that was the most exciting Jon Fitch fight ever!” Heh.

-Never before has Nate Diaz looked so much like his brother. And folks, that is a very good thing.

-I’m not saying the Brock Lesnar of 2009 could have beaten Alistair Overeem last night, but there’s no question the Brock of old would have at least gone for – and gotten – a takedown.

Rundown of UFC 141 post-fight news and notes…

— 12,158 attendees filled the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a $3.1 million live gate.

— Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone were awarded $75,000 Fight of the Night honors for their thrilling three-round striking affair. Johny Hendricks earned Knockout of the Night for blasting Jon Fitch back into the losing column with a left hand that left his barely conscious opponent trying to wrestle the referee. There were no submissions on the card.

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