What better way to boost “The Ultimate Fighter: Live’s” struggling television ratings than to break news on the reality show? During Wednesday’s conference call, it was announced UFC president Dana White will reveal during this Friday’s episode who will battle Urijah Faber (Pictured) for the vacant interim bantamweight belt at UFC 148.

Faber, who is currently coaching opposite Dominick Cruz in this season’s edition of TUF, was slated to challenge Cruz for his crown in the July 7th event, but “The Dominator” was forced to withdraw from their shootout last week after tearing the ACL in his knee.

Renan Barao, Michael McDonald and Ivan Menjivar are the respective frontrunners to stand opposite “The California Kid.” Barao is currently scheduled to face Menjivar at UFC 148, while McDonald is fresh off a quick 1stRound knockout victory over Miguel Torres just last month.

Oh, by the way, Vinc Pichel will battle Chris Saunders and Al Iaquinta meets Andy Ogle in Friday’s show to determine who advances to the tournament’s semifinals.

White will likely make the announcement at the conclusion of the 60-minute episode in order to keep views glued to their television sets.

‘TUF: Live’ airs on FX at 10PM ET (7PM PT satellite).

MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada hosts UFC 148. Middleweight king Anderson Silva headlines the pay-per-view broadcast opposite Chael Sonnen.

Middleweight Tom Lawlor (Pictured) is known for being one of the UFC’s most flamboyant characters. To help accentuate that fact, Lawlor donned an empty bucket of KFC on his head during Monday’s weigh-ins.

However, it hasn’t been all fun and games for the “Filthy” one. He’s recently come across some hard financial times. After putting Jason MacDonald to sleep just 50 seconds into their scrap – which netted him ‘Knockout of the Night‘ honors and more importantly, the $40,000 bonus check that comes with it – Lawlor revealed his wallet had been running on fumes for quite some time.

“I felt a lot of pressure going into this fight,” Lawlor admitted in his post-fight interview on FUEL TV. “I’ll be honest, I’m broke. I have no money. This money that I just got [Tuesday], this is going to be the first time I’ve deposited a check in over a year, a year-and-a-half.

“This is like a big deal to me. I had to borrow money from my friends and family just in order to go into this fight. I want to thank them, obviously. This means a lot to me mentally, it means a lot to my bank account.”

The official paydays haven’t been released for last night’s event. However, Lawlor pocketed a reported $12,000 in his loss to Chris Weidman at UFC 139. If he earned at least that salary for showing up in Virginia, he’ll double that amount with his win over MacDonald.

In all, the 29-year-old will walk away with a minimum of $64k for merely 50 seconds of work. Not too shabby.

Depending upon how much he has to reimburse his friends and family, perhaps Lawlor can now afford to buy a bucket of KFC where the chicken is actually included.

Not only did Jeremy Stephens leave Patriot Center in Virginia with another loss on his résumé, but it appears the lightweight will also be taking a busted face back home with him to San Diego, California.

“Broken orbital bone won’t keep me down for too long. Still good times with friends,” Stephens tweeted accompanied with the above pic on Wednesday afternoon.

Most were expecting to witness a back-and-forth slugfest between Stephens and Donald Cerrone. Unfortunately for fight fanatics, “Cowboy” was the only one who showed up to the shootout.

Cerrone cruised to a lopsided (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) unanimous decision victory on Tuesday night.

The bright side for “Lil’ Heathen” fans is that he seems to be in good spirits. It could be a lot worse. At least Stephens’ eye isn’t nearly as bad as when UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre made Josh Koscheck look like THIS.

As a professional athlete, nothing can prove more difficult than accepting the fact that the game has passed you by and it’s time to retire. For a fan, nothing is more heartbreaking than watching a fighter do it when it’s far too late.

However, nothing is more awkward than seeing a mixed martial artist’s retirement be announced for him when he hasn’t yet decided to hang up his MMA gloves.

After Jason MacDonald’s (Pictured) 50-second knockout loss to Tom Lawlor on Tuesday, host Jay Glazer reported on FUEL TV’s post-fight show that MacDonald had called it a career. At 36 years of age and having lost three of his last four bouts, with all of those defeats coming in devastating fashion, it would make sense if MacDonald decided to walk away – but it’s not true.

“To set record straight following #UFConFUEL3, @jaymac185 never said he’s retiring. Tough break last night. Hope to see him back soon,” the UFC’s Canadian Twitter posted Wednesday morning.

MacDonald is in his second stint with the UFC. “The Athlete” made his Octagon debut in 2006 and won only half of his 10 fights. After working his way back up the ranks in the minors, he returned in 2010 but has posted a meager 1-3 mark in his comeback.

No more than an hour after Donald Cerrone (Pictured) posted his first victory of 2012 did the lightweight start campaigning for his next assignment. Cerrone unleashed a torrid run last year, going unbeaten in four fights before losing to Nate Diaz on New Year’s weekend.

Following Tuesday’s lopsided unanimous decision win over Jeremy Stephens, “Cowboy” is already itching to get back in the saddle.

“Definitely coming off of that last fight sucked,” Cerrone stated at the post-fight press conference. “Mainly going out there and having fun was what [this fight] was about.

“I was just trying to do what I do and have fun like I do in the gym.”

As they say in sports, ‘Winning cures everything.’ Cerrone would like to make a quick turnaround and appear in the Octagon’s return to Denver. He was requesting to face a top five opponent and Anthony Pettis’ name came flying across the media room.

Cerrone claims he’d be more than happy to exchange leather with his fellow former WEC star on August 11th.

“That’d be a good matchup. Stylistically, it would work out perfectly for me,” Cerrone said of facing Pettis. “He’ll stand and want to fight, try to take me down, and then I’ll beat him up. We’ll keep fighting.

“It’d be a good fight, especially for Denver.”

Cerrone is adamant about performing at UFC 150 because he was born in nearby Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia hosted Tuesday evening’s “UFC on FUEL TV 3″ event featuring featherweights Dustin Poirier (Pictured) and Chan Sung Jung.

It didn’t take long for fans to side with the Korean, as chants of “Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!” echoed throughout the arena during their highly-entertaining affair.

Surprisingly, it was Jung’s much improved striking and equally impressive grappling that had the crowd going for the bout’s duration.

“The Korean Zombie” entered the scrap as a 2-to-1 underdog, but dominated the action up until choking out Poirier in the 4thRound.

Please click the media player below to watch the footage (Courtesy of our partners at FOXSports.com):

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung (Pictured) hardly speaks a lick of English, but he knew exactly what to say after posting an impressive submission victory over Dustin Poirier on Tuesday night – “I want Jose Aldo.”

While the reigning featherweight king has already been issued his next assignment, UFC president Dana White told FUEL TV’s post-fight show that Jung may have catapulted up the 145-pound totem pole with his latest performance.

Hatsu Hioki is pegged by most as the division’s second top dog. However, he declined a scrap against Aldo in order to improve his game prior to entering a title fight.

Hioki now meets Ricardo Lamas at “UFC on FX: Maynard vs. Guida.” It appears even if the 28-year-old reigns supreme on June 22nd, he may have lost his place in line.

Aldo, meanwhile, defends his throne against Erik Koch at UFC 149 on July 21st.  The Brazilian is a heavy favorite to retain his crown, so if the Gambling Gods are correct, there could be a Korean Zombie in “Scarface’s” future.

After hearing he might get next dibs at the featherweight belt, Jung flaunted some more of his English vocabulary by stating, “Woo hoo!”

Jung has rattled off three consecutive wins, with all of them ending in spectacular fashion.

“UFC on FUEL TV: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier” took place Tuesday night inside Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung (Pictured) put on another spectacular performance in his upset special over Dustin Poirier. After 15 thrilling minutes of back-and-forth action, Jung submitted his featherweight foe with a D’arce choke in the opening minute of the 4thRound to secure the victory.

Amir Sadollah took home a highly controversial split decision win over Jorge Lopez in the show’s co-featured attraction.

Quick Results (Play-by-Play):

Preliminary Card:

(Facebook)

Francisco Rivera Defeated Alex Soto via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Johnny Eduardo Defeated Jeff Curran via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Rafael dos Anjos Defeated Kamal Shalorus via Submission (Naked Choke) at 1:40 in the 1stRound

TJ Grant Defeated Carlo Prater via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Cody McKenzie Defeated Marcus LeVesseur via Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 3:05 in the 1stRound

Brad Tavares Defeated Dongi Yang via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Main Card:

(FUEL TV)

Tom Lawlor Defeated Jason MacDonald via KO (Punches) at :50 in the 1stRound

Igor Pokrajac Defeated Fabio Maldonado via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Yves Jabouin Defeated Jeff Hougland via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-27)

Donald Cerrone Defeated Jeremy Stephens via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Amir Sadollah Defeated Jorge Lopez via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung Defeated Dustin Poirier via Submission (D’arce Choke) at 1:07 in the 4thRound

Fight Night Bonuses:

Fight of the Night:

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung and Dustin Poirier ($40,000/each)

Submission of the Night:

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung ($40,000)

Knockout of the Night:

Tom Lawlor ($40,000)

Post-Fight Press Conference Notes:

UFC president Dana White didn’t attend the event. He’s in California set to undergo surgery.

According to UFC officials, 4,592 fans packed the arena for live gate of $343,175.

Jung believes he made a statement for a title shot with his win.

He wouldn’t have called for champion Jose Aldo had it gone to a decision.

Cerrone was disappointed after his loss to Nate Diaz, so he wanted to go back to having fun during his fights.

Jung practiced the D’arce choke a little bit in training, but focused on the uppercut and flying knee for this fight. Thinks he was lucky to win by D’arce.

Cerrone wants to return at UFC 150 in Denver. Would be down for Anthony Pettis if offered.

Poirier said he got into his groove too late. The better man won.

Sadollah was disappointed he didn’t make a more exciting fight.

Poirier felt he should have stuck to his game plan better.

Jung said he looked into Poirier’s eyes at the beginning of the 3rdRound and knew he was going to win.

White told Ariel Helwani that Jung will get the winner of Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch. Jung’s response, “Woo hoo.”

After a night of freebie MMA action, UFC president Dana White awarded Dustin Poirier and Tom Lawlor each an additional $40,000 for their special performances Tuesday night at “UFC on FUEL TV: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier.” Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung (Pictured) double dipped and pocketed a pair of checks for his efforts.

It took Lawlor all of 50 seconds to earn ‘Knockout of the Night.’ A straight left and right uppercut combo had Jason MacDonald planking on the Octagon canvas before “Filthy” could even break a sweat.

As main events are presumed to do, Jung and Poirier unleashed the most exciting action of the evening. “The Korean Zombie” wobbled his opponent with an uppercut and flying knee in the 4thRound, then slapped on a D’arce choke to end their thrilling featherweight affair.

Both were awarded with ‘Fight of the Night,’ while Jung also scored ‘Submission of the Night’ honors.

‘UFC on FUEL TV’ took place inside Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.

Fight of the Night:

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung and Dustin Poirier ($40,000/each)

Submission of the Night:

Chan Sung “The Korean Zombie” Jung ($40,000)

Knockout of the Night:

Tom Lawlor ($40,000)

Now that “UFC on FUEL TV: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier” is officially in the books, make sure to stream tonight’s post-fight press conference live right here on 5thRound.com.

The presser is scheduled to start at approximately 11PM ET/8PM PT.

The card’s featured fighters and the other notable athletes who won’t require medical attention are expected to face the firing squad.

UFC president Dana White will not attend the powwow. For the first time in his 11-year tenure, White missed a live Octagon event. He currently is in Los Angeles, California set to undergo surgery for Meniere’s disease.

‘UFC on FUEL TV 3′ took place Tuesday inside Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.

Please click the media player below to watch the post-fight presser:

(Pictured: UFC featherweight Dustin Poirier)