[NCRadioMan]

UFC 109 took place Feb. 6 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired on Spike TV (two preliminary-card fights) and then pay-per-view (main card).

In addition to Couture, other top earners from the card included Matt Serra ($150,000), Chael Sonnen ($64,000), Demian Maia ($62,000) and Coleman ($60,000).

The full payouts included:

Randy Couture: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mark Coleman: $60,000

Chael Sonnen: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Nate Marquardt: $45,000

Paulo Thiago: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Swick: $43,000

Demian Maia: $62,000 ($31,000 win bonus)
def. Dan Miller: $15,000

Matt Serra: $150,000 ($75,000 win bonus)
def. Frank Trigg: $30,000

Mac Danzig: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
def. Justin Buchholz: $8,000

Melvin Guillard: $28,000 ($14,000 win bonus)
def. Ronys Torres: $4,000

Rob Emerson: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
def. Phillipe Nover: $10,000

Phil Davis: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Stann: $17,000

Chris Tuchscherer: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
def. Tim Hague: $7000

Joey Beltran: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Rolles Gracie: $15,000

The UFC 109 bonuses were worth $60,000 and awarded to Serra (Knockout of the Night), Thiago (Submission of the Night), and Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt (Fight of the Night).

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Hidehiko Yoshida is retiring

The retirement match of Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida has been announced. The fight will take place in J-Rock MMA event “Hidehiko Yoshida Farewell Fight ~ASTRA~” at the Nippon Budokan on April 25th.

Also on the card will be Michihiro Omigawa, Makoto Takimoto, Kazuhiro Nakamura, and future king Tatsunao Nagakura.

No word yet on if this new ASTRA will be a new promotion or just a one time thing.

Update: Yoshida said at the press conference that his number 1 most interesting/fun fights were the ones against Wanderlei Silva. Both Japanese fighters and foreign fighters are on the candidate list.

Update #2: Yoshida said that the reason for his retirement is that since the Mark Hunt fight in PRIDE he has had pain in his left shoulder which has been tough on him (he has had A LOT of other rumored injuries as well) and almost made him retire in the past. He wants to continue with his own Judo dojo after retirement.

Update #3: Former WVR PR Kokuho said that they have both Japanaese and foreign fighters outside of Yoshida Dojo for the event and they’ll announce these names as time goes from now on. For now this is only a one time thing but if they receive cooperation from a lot of promoters and gyms, they’ll hold more events in the future.

Update #4: Kokuho said that they want Yoshida’s last fight be a meaningful one. Kazuhiro Nakamura then appealed for a fight with his teacher.

Update #5: The fights will be 3×5 minutes and the plan is 7-8 main fights and 3-4 opening fights. There will be a retirement ceremony for Yoshida after the main event. Yoshida is very familiar with the Nippon Budokan.

Hidehiko Yoshida Farewell Fight ~ASTRA~
Date: April 25th, 2010
Place: Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan

Participants:
Hidehiko Yoshida, Makoto Takimoto, Michihiro Omigawa, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Tatsunao Nagakura