The Weekly Wrap: Dec. 27 - Jan. 2

Odds and Ends

• UFC lightweight Josh Neer, who faces Mac Danzig at UFC Fight Night 17 on Feb. 7, was arrested for driving while intoxicated on New Year's Eve in Iowa after leading police on a high-speed chase. Neer's car hit a police cruiser as well as a car stopped at a traffic light. No one was hurt, but Neer's agent told Sherdog.com that police were overly rough with the fighter, bruising him in several places while making the arrest.

• The parent company of Spike TV, Viacom, nearly pulled its television programming out of millions of homes this week in a standoff with cable company Time Warner over how much Viacom is paid in rights fees per subscriber. A last-minute deal was struck as the parties approached a contract deadline. Details of the deal were not released per an agreement between both sides. The move could have pulled all-important UFC television programming like “The Ultimate Fighter” and “UFC Fight Night” live events out of 13 percent of the homes that now receive it, a serious blow to the industry leader’s reach.

• UFC middleweight submission ace Demian Maia announced on his Web site this week that he has agreed to face Chael Sonnen at UFC 95 on Feb. 21 in London, which will air on Spike TV. The fight will be the first for Sonnen since World Extreme Cagefighting eliminated the middleweight class, which he stood atop after handing Paulo Filho the first defeat of his career last November.

• NBC is among the networks interested in all-female MMA reality show that has held auditions at Bas Rutten's Elite MMA gym in Thousand Oaks, Calif. “Ultimate Women Combat,” produced by Lyle Howry and others, will feature 16 female fighters in an elimination format, Sherdog.com's Loretta Hunt reported. Notables Tara Larosa and Rosie Sexton are on board as coaches of two squads of fighters. Cesar Gracie is also involved.