Four fighters from Saturday's UFC 123 card in Auburn Hills, Mich., have been given medical suspensions by the Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission. Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan, T.J. O'Brien and Mike Lullo are all out following their fights at The Palace. The Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission confirmed the suspensions to MMA Fighting on Tuesday.
Co-main event fighter and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was given a 60-day suspension. Hughes was knocked out by BJ Penn just 21 seconds into their fight, which completed a trilogy for the two former champions. Penn submitted Hughes the first time they fought at UFC 46, taking Hughes' welterweight title. In their rematch at UFC 63, Hughes won by TKO late in the third round.
Lullo, who made his UFC debut Saturday with a short-notice fight against fellow newcomer Edson Barboza, was suspended for 30 days. In addition, he must get medical clearance before returning to fight. Lullo was repeatedly kicked in the leg by Barboza, a champion Muay Thai fighter in his native Brazil, until he was unable to stand back up early in the third round, when the referee halted the fight.
Parisyan, who lost by TKO to Dennis Hallman in his return to the promotion, was suspended for 30 days. After the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White said he doesn't believe Parisyan can compete at the UFC level anymore, effectively confirming he would be cut following the loss.
And O'Brien was also given a 30-day suspension after eating dozens of elbows from Paul Kelly's mounted crucifix position. Kelly won by TKO in the second round.
In addition, main-card winner George Sotiropoulos must be cleared by a doctor before he will be able to return – though a spokesperson for the commission said Sotiropoulos was not given an actual medical suspension. Though he submitted Joe Lauzon in the second round en route to a Fight of the Night bonus, the Australian was poked in the eye during the fight. At the post-fight press conference, he confirmed that his left eye had already been looked at during a post-fight trip to the hospital and that he doesn't anticipate any trouble with it. He also got his next opponent at the press conference – White announced Sotiropoulos will fight Dennis Siver at UFC 127 in Sydney on Feb. 26.
UFC 123 was the promotion's first trip to Michigan since UFC 9 in 1996. After the event, White announced the attendance as 16,404 with a gate of $2.1 million.
The Michigan commission will not release individual fighter salaries for the event, but told MMA Fighting the purses and "other media contracts" for the event were in excess of $2 million.
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