MMA FanHouse

UFC Live Chat 1 p.m. Eastern Monday

Michael David Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:57:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC, Live Chat

Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern Monday for a live chat in which we recap UFC 86, look ahead at what could be next for new light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin, and talk about anything else you want to discuss in the world of mixed martial arts.

UFC Live Chat 1 p.m. Eastern Monday originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:57:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next for Forrest Griffin: Rampage Rematch? Chuck Liddell? Lyoto Machida?

Michael David Smith — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:40:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC

Now that Forrest Griffin is the UFC light heavyweight champion, who does he fight next? A few possibilities:

Rematch with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson: After last night's fight, with its somewhat controversial decision, this is a distinct possibility. The person who will make the decision, UFC President Dana White, said after the fight, "Rampage wants a rematch. Forrest said he'd give him a rematch. A rematch would probably be good for everyone involved. But there's a lot of different things involved."

And yet I don't see it happening. The UFC's light heavyweight division is so stacked that I just don't think White wants to let an entire year go by with only Jackson and Griffin fighting for the title. I think someone else is going to get the first crack at Griffin's belt. And that someone else will most likely be ...

Chuck Liddell: If Liddell beats Rashad Evans at UFC 88 in September, I think he'll be Griffin's next opponent. Liddell and Griffin are arguably UFC's two most popular fighters, and this would be a huge fight. If Evans beats Liddell, Evans would say, "I'm undefeated. I deserve a shot at Griffin." But I think a more likely undefeated opponent would be ...

Lyoto Machida: The undefeated Machida is the guy no one wants to fight because he has such a unique, frustrating style. But if he keeps winning he's eventually going to get a title shot.

Anderson Silva: The current UFC middleweight champion and world's best pound-for-pound fighter, Silva is moving up to light heavyweight to fight James Irvin in two weeks. He's then expected to move back down to middleweight to defend his title, but could UFC make a change in plans to give him a title shot?

Wanderlei Silva: He'd be a great opponent for Griffin, but I don't see it happening, mostly because UFC would probably rather put him in the Octagon with Rampage first.

Next for Forrest Griffin: Rampage Rematch? Chuck Liddell? Lyoto Machida? originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:40:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 86: What You Need to Know to Fight Rampage Jackson

Rami Genauer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, The Word, MMA, UFC

The following guest post was written by Rami Genauer, contributor at FightMetric.

Let's say you wake up one day and find yourself standing across the Octagon from Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. And it's not the jovial, wise-cracking Rampage either; it's the sneering, howling, intense Rampage who is ready to slam you into next Tuesday. Assuming that running away is not an option, what do you do?

To figure out what you'd be facing, FightMetric tracked all 20 of Rampage's fights in Pride and the UFC (and that one WFA show no one likes to talk about). Making some observations based on the statistical record, below are some things you might want to keep in mind. Forrest Griffin ought to study up before Saturday night's UFC light heavyweight title fight.

Be careful relying on the clinch

Many people have watched Rampage fall prey to the Muay Thai clinch of Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and figured that the clinch is where Rampage's game is weakest. That would be a big mistake.

Statistically, the clinch is actually the strongest part of Rampage's game.

Over the course of those 21 fights, Rampage landed 372 HiPer Strikes (meaning, the most significant kind of strikes). A total of 222 of those strikes were landed in the clinch, which comes out to 60%. That means that Rampage has landed more strikes in the clinch than toe-to-toe and on the ground combined.

It's not just volume either. His accuracy on those strikes is an astounding 82%, on 222 of 270 strikes. Rampage picks his shots well in the clinch and uses an underrated Greco clinch for maximum control.

Of course, it also helps that his opponents are distracted by the prospect of a takedown. While known as an excellent freestyle wrestler, nearly all of Rampage's takedowns come from the clinch (31 of 33 successful takedowns). And much like his striking, his takedown success rate is well above-average. Rampage landed 31 of the 46 clinch takedowns he's attempted for a success rate of 67%, compared to the average fighter who lands about 45% of his attempts.

Protect the body

Most of those hard strikes in the clinch came in the form of knees to the midsection. It's rare you'll see Rampage in the clinch for more than a few seconds without him throwing something to the body. It doesn't matter if it's a knee, a right hook, or something else, the common denominator is that he throws it hard. While jockeying for position and control in the clinch, most fighters will throw a bunch of short little shots (we'll call them "jabs") before setting up a power strike or takedown. On average, you'd expect to see a fighter throw about twice as many jabs in the clinch as power shots. Rampage is the complete opposite. He turns that ratio on its head and throws more than twice as many power strikes as he does jabs.

The body gets no rest once on the ground either. Rampage's ground game is one of keeping exceedingly busy, constantly throwing shots to whatever part of the body is available. Since he's only an average guard-passer, that means lots of time spent sitting in guard working the body. One specific thing you might want to watch out for: the hard forearm to the solar plexus. It's a Rampage specialty and one that was instrumental in his 2003 stoppage of Chuck Liddell.

Don't bet on him running out of gas

Against many fighters, a key strategy might be to try and wear them down early in the fight and take advantage when they're gassed in the later rounds. Though not known for his cardio, this would seem an unwise strategy against Rampage. He successfully went 25 minutes against Dan Henderson and has gone 20 minutes three times. Griffin has only been past the 15-minute mark on one occasion.

There's an interesting trend you see when evaluating Rampage's longest battles: his most effective five minutes of these fights tends to be the last five minutes. FightMetric measures fighter effectiveness using an algorithm that synthesizes the events of a fight to produce an effectiveness score. Here are his round-by-round effectiveness scores against Henderson, Murilo Rua, Murilo Bustamante, and Dong Sik Yoon:

vs. Henderson: 28-48-77-89-117
vs. Rua: 106-49-88
vs. Bustamante: 38-36-63
vs. Yoon: 86-99-89

Keep in mind, the latter three fights happened in Pride, where the first round is twice as long as the second and third rounds. Against Henderson, Rua, and Bustamante, Rampage fought at his best in the last five minutes of the fight and was pretty close in the Yoon fight. Rampage doesn't drop off as the fight goes deeper, he gets better.

Consider yourself lucky the fight isn't in Japan

Knees to the head on the ground were one of Rampage's best weapons. We haven't seen enough of his ground game post-Japan to know whether the addition of elbows has made up for the lack of knees.

And of course ... watch out for the slam

No discussion about Rampage would be complete without mentioning his trademark slams. While it's true that Rampage hasn't slammed any of his last three opponents and it's been nearly two years since his last one, there are still few fighters out there who concentrate so much of their power on takedowns. True to his reputation, Rampage slams well and often.

For an average fighter, slams might make up about 10% of their successful takedowns. A good wrestler might have a slam rate of 25%. Rampage's slam rate is 58%. In practical terms, it means that if you're getting taken down by Rampage, chances are better than not that it's going to hurt.

UFC 86: What You Need to Know to Fight Rampage Jackson originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 86: Preview and Predictions on Rampage Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin and More

Michael David Smith — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:10:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC

UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson steps into the Octagon with Forrest Griffin Saturday night for what might be the best fight in a great summer of mixed martial arts. Jackson is a brutal brawler who has dominated the division in recent years, while Griffin is a beloved fan favorite who got his start in UFC on The Ultimate Fighter.

MMA fans are in a lather for this one. Here are the details:

What: UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin

Who: In addition to the main event, the televised fights on the card are Patrick Côté vs. Ricardo Almeida, Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau, Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle and Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with my FanHouse live blog.

Predictions after the jump.

Rampage Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
Rampage is in the prime of his career and hasn't lost in more than three years. But the last guy to beat Jackson, Mauricio Rua, was defeated by Griffin last year. And the guy who beat Jackson before Rua, Wanderlei Silva, has been training Griffin for this fight. Does all that add up to Griffin pulling off the upset? I just don't see it happening. Jackson is just too powerful.
Predicted winner: Jackson

Patrick Côté vs. Ricardo Almeida
Côté has won three straight fights by first-round TKOs, and his striking ability is impressive. But I think Almeida's mastery of Brazilian jiu jitsu will be too much for Côté.
Predicted winner: Almeida

Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Stevenson is fighting for the first time since losing a lightweight title fight to B.J. Penn in January. Look for this fight to go to the ground, where both men are more comfortable, and for Stevenson to win by submission.
Predicted winner: Stevenson

Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
Lytle always gives the fans a good show: In his last four fights he's won submission of the night twice, fight of the night once and knockout of the night once. But while Lytle will entertain, I think Koscheck, who like Forrest Griffin got his start on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, will win.
Predicted winner: Koscheck

Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio
I think these two are basically evenly matched, and I'm baffled that Griffin is a huge betting favorite, but I do think Griffin has the right style to win a hard-fought battle.
Predicted winner: Griffin

More information:
Official web site
UFC 86 at Wikipedia
Betting odds

UFC 86: Preview and Predictions on Rampage Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin and More originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 86 Preview Live Chat 1 p.m. Wednesday

Michael David Smith — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC

Forrest Griffin and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will finally step into the Octagon Saturday night at UFC 86. I'm in the mood to chat about it, so join me today at 1 p.m. Eastern for a live discussion of all things MMA.

UFC 86 Preview Live Chat 1 p.m. Wednesday originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMA Live Blog: EliteXC, Adrenaline

Michael David Smith — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:59:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, Elite XC

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of tonight's mixed martial arts action, where we'll provide live, round-by-round updates of the EliteXC and Adrenaline shows.

Tonight's biggest fight will be the EliteXC lightweight title bout between champion K.J. Noons and challenger Yves Edwards. Other fights I'm looking forward to seeing include EliteXC's Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey, and Adrenaline's Jason Guida vs. Mike Russow.

We'll discuss them all tonight, beginning after the jump.

MMA Live Blog: EliteXC, Adrenaline originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:59:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 85 Preview Live Chat

Michael David Smith — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:45:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC

Beginning today at 1 p.m. we'll be chatting about tomorrow's UFC 85 event. Join me then as we talk about Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves, Michael Bisping vs. Jason Day, Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis, Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera and whether this card is worth your pay-per-view dollars.

UFC 85 Preview Live Chat originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 85 Preview and Predictions: Matt Hughes- Thiago Alves, Michael Bisping-Jason Day

Michael David Smith — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:51:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, UFC

Saturday's UFC 85 has been a star-crossed event, with one injury after another (most notably to Chuck Liddell) derailing UFC's plans. But it's a testament to the depth of UFC's roster that they've still managed to cobble together a good show -- one that won't match UFC 84 for star power but will make for a great few hours of fights on Saturday afternoon.

Here are the details for Saturday's action:

What: UFC 85: Bedlam

Who: The main event features Matt Hughes taking on Thiago Alves in a battle of the ages. Appearing on the televised undercard are Michael Bisping vs. Jason Day, Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis, Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera and Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites.

When: Saturday, 3 p.m. ET

Where: O2 Arena, London

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with my FanHouse live blog. Also be sure to catch my UFC 85 preview chat on Friday at 1 p.m. ET.

Predictions after the jump.

Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Hughes is being hyped as the greatest welterweight in history, although he's a little past his prime, and I'm not sure he was ever as good as UFC welterweight champion Georges St.-Pierre is now. Alves is on a six-fight winning streak and is one of the sport's bright young fighters. It would be great to see Alves win and establish himself as a legitimate threat to St-Pierre, but I don't see that happening.
Predicted winner: Hughes

Micheal Bisping vs. Jason Day
If it's UFC in England you can bet Bisping is on the card: The British Bisping is fighting for the third time in the motherland. Last time he fought in England he won a very controversial decision; this time I think he'll win legitimately.
Predicted winner: Bisping

Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis
Davis is an up-and-comer who has gone 6-0 during his time in UFC. I think he's about to make it seven.
Predicted winner: Davis

Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera
When Dana White talks about Vera, his eyes light up. At age 30, Vera seems to have just scratched the surface of what he's capable of doing, and I think he's going to get a heavyweight title shot some time in 2009. Note: Both of these heavyweights would destroy Kimbo Slice.
Predicted winner: Vera

Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Marquardt and Leites are both submission specialists, so if you like jiu jitsu, this is the fight for you. I think Marquardt applies a choke in the second round.
Predicted winner: Marquardt

More information:
Official web site
UFC 85 at Wikipedia
Betting odds

UFC 85 Preview and Predictions: Matt Hughes- Thiago Alves, Michael Bisping-Jason Day originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:51:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Guide to MMA for the MSM

Michael David Smith — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:34:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, MMA/Boxing, UFC, Elite XC, MMA Media Watch

We're starting to see more mainstream media coverage of the sport of mixed martial arts, which is good. But a lot of that coverage comes from people who don't know much about the sport, which is bad. So I'd like to offer a few suggestions:

Don't call it "ultimate fighting." The name of the sport is mixed martial arts, or MMA. The most popular organization within MMA is Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC. The phrase "ultimate fighting," with those two words lower case, should never appear in your articles. Ultimate Fighting, a phrase that is a registered trademark of the UFC, can appear in your articles, but it should be followed by Championship -- and in general, you can just say UFC.

Know the best fighters, the most famous fighters, and the difference. Any short list of the most famous fighters in MMA would have to include Tito Ortiz, Kimbo Slice and Brock Lesnar. Those guys are all very popular with the fans, and more power to them for that.

But they're not the best MMA fighters in the world. Ortiz is past his prime and nowhere near as good as the top light heavyweights. Slice and Lesnar are still learning the sport and nowhere near as good as the top heavyweights. They're tough, aggressive brawlers, but they're not great fighters.

So who are the best fighters? For starters, there are the five UFC champions: lightweight B.J. Penn, welterweight Georges St. Pierre, middleweight Anderson Silva, light heavyweight Quinton Rampage Jackson and heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Then there are the two WEC champions who are fighting on Sunday night, featherweight Urijah Faber and bantamweight Miguel Torres. And the two heavyweights everyone is hoping to see square off, Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko.

Once you've learned about those nine fighters, you've got a solid foundation from which to build, and you can move on to learn about guys like Dream's Shinya Aoki, JZ Calvan and Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Affliction's Matt Lindland and Josh Barnett, and UFC's Dan Henderson, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Jon Fitch.

The one MMA fighter who bridges the gap between those popular but unskilled brawlers and the best fighters is Chuck Liddell, who is a little bit past his prime but still a very good fighter, and who is the most popular athlete in the sport. If you're covering MMA and you don't know Liddell, you're in trouble.

Know the facts about the sport's safety. MMA can look brutal, with its sudden knockouts and bloody wounds. But experts are nearly unanimous in saying MMA is safer than boxing. The great danger of boxing is that a fighter who gets punched in the head continuously over the course of a 12-round fight will suffer permanent brain damage or death. In MMA, the fights are shorter and the knockouts are quicker, and that's why, unlike boxing or even the NFL, UFC can say it has never had an athlete maimed or killed.

At the same time, this is a relatively new sport, and as a result, we simply don't know what the long-term health effects of it are. It's possible that we'll some day see a bunch of retired MMA fighters with many of the same health problems that retired NFL players have, and an exploration of that possibility could make for a very good piece of journalism, provided that it's done right.

Learn the submissions. You wouldn't write about football without knowing the difference between a handoff and a Hail Mary, so you shouldn't write about MMA without knowing the difference between a rear-naked choke and a kimura. There's a great series of videos on YouTube called Submissions 101. Watch them. And in case you don't know, here's what a kimura looks like:

Read the best MMA writers. If you work in the mainstream media, you're probably accustomed to getting most of your information from reading newspapers. But with MMA, most of the best writers are online. So to bone up on the sport you'll want to read the work of writers including, but not limited to, Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com, Dave Doyle of Yahoo, Josh Gross of SI.com, Rami Genauer of FightMetric.com, Jim Murphy of The Savage Science and Kid Nate of BloodyElbow.com. (If you're the type who absolutely must read ink on paper instead of words on a screen, you could try one of the many books about the sport.)

Know a ring from a cage from an Octagon. Just as there are differences between baseball played at Coors Field and baseball played at Petco Park, and just as there are differences between playing tennis on clay and playing on concrete, there are differences between fighting in a ring and fighting in a cage. When you refer to a cage as a ring, you're making a fundamental error that shows no respect for the finer points of the sport.

Also, the Octagon is a type of cage used only in UFC. You might see an eight-sided cage elsewhere, but don't call it an Octagon if it's not in UFC, and use a capital 'O' -- Octagon is a registered trademark.

Keep an open mind. When you set out to write a hatchet job, it shows. Approach MMA like a student who wants to learn from a good teacher, not like a student who just wants to finish an assignment from a bad teacher. This is an exciting time for the sport, and if you're going to cover it, why not try to enjoy it?

A Guide to MMA for the MSM originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 30 May 2008 13:34:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry, Robin Leach: Tito Ortiz, Jenna Jameson and Dana White Story Too Good to Be True

Michael David Smith — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:01:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, The Word, UFC, MMA Media Watch, MMA Gossip

I don't know where former Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach gets the information for his blog, but I wish he'd stop. He's going to give responsible bloggers a bad name.

Leach breathlessly reports on the spat that took place among UFC fighter Tito Ortiz, his girlfriend Jenna Jameson, and UFC President Dana White at the post-UFC 84 press conference Saturday night. Except that Leach wasn't there, and he gets his information wrong.

I was there, and I wouldn't really care that Leach gets his information wrong, but when responsible media outlets like the Los Angeles Times then repeat that information, I feel the need to offer a correction.

Leach writes:

Four Vegas Metro police officers were called to keep Tito and UFC president Dana White apart.

Yes, there were police officers in the room. They were there as security, just as every big sporting event has police officers on hand for security purposes. (I saw police officers at the Super Bowl, too, and it would be only slightly more ridiculous to suggest that they were there to keep Roger Goodell and Bill Belichick from coming to blows.) For the record: The cops didn't need to keep Ortiz and White apart. Although Ortiz and White argued, they never came close to any type of physical confrontation, and at one point, when a reporter specifically asked if they had thought about settling their differences with a fight, they both brushed off the question as ridiculous.

But Leach wasn't done stirring things up:

When [Ortiz] started answering questions UFC media executives told him he had to leave. Jenna ordered him to stay. "It was total chaos and bedlam," said one spywitness.

No, UFC officials didn't tell Ortiz he had to leave. It's right here on tape, Robin. A UFC official told reporters to wait until the press conference started, and specifically added, "He's going to be here for his part of the press conference." As a reporter who was there to ask Ortiz questions, I found it annoying that I had to wait, but I didn't doubt that I would get to ask my questions, I didn't find it to be "chaos and bedlam," and I didn't hear Jameson "order" Ortiz to do anything. This interview I conducted with Jameson came just moments after the UFC official cut off the reporters' questions. Does it look or sound like there's chaos and bedlam going on around us?

Now Leach begins speculating about the future of MMA:

Will Tito join a rival Mixed Martial Arts league or retire and how will White take on his more bitter rivals in the XC Extreme Sports league that starts its CBS TV network coverage next Saturday night from Newark, New Jersey. If a ratings success I am reliably told three further fights would be broadcast live from Vegas.

There are so many problems with the above that I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just point out that there's no such thing as "the XC Extreme Sports league." There is an MMA organization called EliteXC that has a CBS TV card on Saturday night. As for Leach's claim that he is "reliably told" about three more fights, I wonder who his reliable source is. Could it have been the press release in which CBS and EliteXC announced that their partnership would cover four shows?

"This was almost a case of a better fight outside the ring than in it," I was told.

Well, you were told wrong, Robin. Again, Ortiz and White never even remotely came close to fighting each other, and if they had, it would obviously have been nowhere near as good a fight as anything we saw in the Octagon that night.

I don't really care about Robin Leach, but I do care about the way the media portray the sport of mixed martial arts, and I find it fascinating that the Los Angeles Times would repeat, unquestioningly, many of Leach's claims. So many members of the mainstream media operate from the assumption that MMA is nothing but pure no-holds-barred savagery that they don't even think to verify any outlandish claims that are made about the sport.

I note that the Los Angeles Times has now updated its original blog post with a quote from an MGM Grand spokesperson saying, "there was NO incident at all." I have a feeling that if this story revolved around any other sport, the Times would have asked the spokesperson for confirmation before running with the story.

Sorry, Robin Leach: Tito Ortiz, Jenna Jameson and Dana White Story Too Good to Be True originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Tue, 27 May 2008 17:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 84: At Octagonside, the Sights Are Impressive and the Sounds Even Better

Michael David Smith — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:21:00 EST

Filed under: Featured Stories, The Word, MMA/Boxing, UFC

Notes on a trip to Las Vegas.

I had a seat about 10 feet from the Octagon for Saturday night's UFC 84 show, and what I'll take away from it, more than anything else, is the sound. Punches land to faces with thuds. Kicks land to sides with thwacks. The Octagon itself turns into a drum when a fighter is slammed to the canvas.

I'll also remember the sheer noise of it all: The fighters' entrance music, the music played between fights, the introductions and the post-fight interviews were all pumped into the MGM Grand Garden Arena at earsplitting decibels. At 31, I must be older than the target UFC demographic, because I spent much of the night thinking the music was too loud. The guy next to me in press row wore earplugs.

My own reactions to the sounds aside, UFC 84 was terrific night of fights. A few other thoughts are below.

B.J. Penn destroys Sean Sherk.
The main event lived up to its billing, at least for one of the fighters involved. Lightweight champion B.J. Penn absolutely dominated former champ Sean Sherk, making very clear that he's the best in the division and raising questions about how much of Sherk's previous success was a result of steroid use.

Penn battered, bruised and bloodied Sherk's face through the first two rounds, and then at the end of the third he knocked Sherk to the ground with a knee and bashed him several times with strikes. The bell saved Sherk from a knockout, but Sherk couldn't get up to walk to his corner, so the fight was stopped.

In a surprise move, Penn (who has taunted Sherk for weeks leading up to this fight) hugged Sherk after the fight, kissed him on the forehead, and told him he respected him. But that gesture aside, it was a humiliating loss for Sherk, who was stripped of the lightweight title belt last year because of a positive steroid test and subsequent suspension. Sherk never even looked competitive, he was taunted relentlessly by the fans, and he'll have a long way to go before anyone considers him a title contender.

Penn might not be a lightweight for long.
The most likely next step for Penn will be to defend his lightweight title against the winner of the Roger Huerta-Kennly Florian fight at UFC 87. But Penn hinted in his post-fight interview that he might instead move up to welterweight to fight champion Georges St. Pierre.

"You want B.J. Penn to fight GSP?" Penn asked. When the crowd roared, he said, "I think we have our answer."

More than any other fighter in mixed martial arts, Penn has shown an ability to move up and down in weight class and fight effectively. But I hope he stays at lightweight - he showed tonight that 155 pounds is where he's at his best.

Tito! Tito!
The fans love Tito Ortiz, the former light heavyweight champion whose loss to Lyoto Machida was billed as his last fight in the Octagon. The chants of "Tito! Tito!" were louder even than the cheers for Penn.

Ortiz entered the Octagon to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," clearly suggesting that that's what he had done during his tenure working for UFC President Dana White. Ortiz was introduced first, and he entered the Octagon waving both an American flag and a Mexican flag while wearing a shirt reading, "I did it my way."

Unfortunately, he didn't do much his way once the fight started. The fans who were so boisterous at the start of the first round seemed by the third to be resigned to the fact that Ortiz would lose. Even Ortiz's girlfriend, Jenna Jameson, who sat about 20 feet from me, wore a look of resignation on her face in the third round, although she was upbeat when she talked to me afterward. Ortiz gave it one last submission attempt in the final minute of his final UFC fight, but Machida slipped free and won 30-27 on all three judges' cards. (Donald Trump, seated behind Jameson, tried to console her after the decision was announced.)

"I'm here for another three or four more years," Ortiz said after the fight. "Maybe not in the UFC, but I'll be fighting for a long time."

So where will we see Ortiz next? My money is on EliteXC offering him an attractive financial package, possibly planning a Kimbo Slice fight down the road. But while such a signing would give EliteXC one of UFC's most popular fighters, it would not give EliteXC one of UFC's best. Ortiz in EliteXC would be like Michael Jordan in a Washington Wizards jersey: Still popular, no longer great.

Machida: a great fighter lacking star power.
Once the fight started, Machida (who wears a gi into the Octagon as a tip of the cap to his karate background) was just too quick for Ortiz. But Machida backs away a lot, which doesn't make for particularly fun fights to watch. Yes, he always has a strategy while he's backing away, biding his time for just the right moment to attack, but the fact is that UFC is in the business of attracting fans, and until Machida becomes a more exciting fighter, he's going to have a hard time getting a title shot.

In a classy move, Ortiz gestured to the audience and told them to stop booing Machida after the fight. But the fans will never cheer Machida the way they do Ortiz, because his fighting style, while effective, is not crowd-pleasing.

We finally saw the Wanderlei Silva we've been waiting for.
Silva was once considered among the best fighters in the world, but he entered UFC 84 on a three-fight losing streak, leading many observers (myself included) to think he was past his prime and not as well suited to fighting in the Octagon as he was to fighting in Pride's ring.

But Saturday night Silva turned in an absolutely dominant performance, destroying Keith Jardine in just 36 seconds, winning the Knockout of the Night award.

"It was a big surprise because he's a very tough guy," Silva said of Jardine afterward.

After the show, the buzz at the MGM Grand was that Silva might drop 20 pounds and fight his countryman, middleweight champion Anderson Silva, later this year. That would be a great fight.

Goran Reljic: Star in the Making
Reljic, a Croat who entered the Octagon for the first time after going 7-0 fighting in small promotions, delivered several devastating high kicks on his way to a second-round TKO over Wilson Gouveia. Reljic said afterward that he was motivated by a perceived disrespect from Gouveia.

"The bad blood between me and Wilson started when he started talking bad about me on a Brazilian web site," Reljic said after the fight, which was declared the Fight of the Night. It's good to know that a Croatian fighter monitors Brazilian web sites to see if anyone is dissing him. Future opponents would be wise not to make Reljic mad.

Not all UFC fans are guys in their 20s.
Yes, that's still the target demographic for UFC, and it's the demographic that makes UFC attractive to blue-chip advertisers like Bud Light and Harley Davidson. But there's a lot more than just young men in the crowd.

For starters, the number of female fans is impressive. Some of the ladies in the audience were dragged there by their significant others, no doubt, but most of the female fans I saw seemed knowledgeable about the sport and genuinely happy to be watching it. And there were even some groups of young women without any men in sight.

Also among the fans: A few celebrities. In addition to Jameson and Trump, I spotted Shaquille O'Neal, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, David Spade and Jamie Pressly. That's not quite as star-studded a cast as you'll usually see at a big boxing match, but it's a sign that UFC fights are viewed as a good place to be seen. Entertaining shows like Saturday night's are the reason for that.

UFC 84: At Octagonside, the Sights Are Impressive and the Sounds Even Better originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Sun, 25 May 2008 09:21:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 84 Preview and Predictions

Michael David Smith — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:55:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, The Word, MMA, MMA/Boxing

Saturday night's UFC 84 begins what might be the best stretch of three straight weekends that American MMA fans have ever had. It's a great card in Vegas on Saturday night, and it comes just a week before EliteXC and World Extreme Cagefighting both have the biggest events in their histories, and two weeks before yet another major event, UFC 85. It's a good time to be an MMA fan.

Here are the details for Saturday night's action:

What: UFC 84: Ill Will

Who: In addition to the B.J. Penn-Sean Sherk main event for the UFC lightweight title, four light heavyweight fights are part of the televised undercard: Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine, Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes and Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: MGM Grand, Las Vegas

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with Josh Alper's FanHouse live blog and my coverage live from Octagonside.

Predictions after the jump.

Sean Sherk vs. B.J. Penn
Penn owns the lightweight title belt that Sherk claims was wrongly stripped of him because of a false-positive drug test. I'm in the minority here, but I think Sherk is going to get his title back.
Predicted winner: Sherk

Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida
Ortiz is stepping into the Octagon for the last time, and UFC President Dana White is cheering hard for Machida to send him out a loser. I think the undefeated Machida will do just that.
Predicted winner: Machida

Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine
Silva has had a great MMA career, but that great career has been in the Pride ring, not the UFC Octagon. He's not the same fighter he was in Japan, while Jardine appears to be improving. I think he's going to win this one and perhaps establish himself as the top contender to fight the winner of Rampage Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin for the light heavyweight title.
Predicted winner: Jardine

Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
Five of the 10 fighters on the main card are Brazilian, but this fight is the only one featuring two Brazilians in the Octagon together. This should amount to little more than sparring practice for the undefeated Silva. Mendes is stepping into the Octagon for the first time.
Predicted winner: Silva

Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
The betting odds say this will be the most evenly matched fight, with Gouveia a very slight favorite. Gouveia is a Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist who showed surprising punching power the last time he stepped into the Octagon at UFC 80, and I think he'll hand Reljic, who is 7-0 in his MMA career, his first loss.
Predicted winner: Gouveia

More information:
Official web site
UFC 84 at Wikipedia
Betting odds

UFC 84 Preview and Predictions originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Wed, 21 May 2008 20:55:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 83: Georges St.-Pierre vs. Matt Serra 2 Preview and Predictions

Michael David Smith — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:10:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, The Word, MMA, MMA/Boxing

Saturday night's UFC 83 is headlined by one of the most anticipated mixed martial arts fights in North American history, as UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra takes on Georges St-Pierre, the man he beat a year ago to take the title belt.

The fight is a big one not just for Serra and St-Pierre, but for UFC itself, which has a lot riding on its first ever show in Canada. Fighting in his home town of Montreal, St-Pierre will be the overwhelming fan favorite for what should be the biggest crowd in UFC history.

Here are the details:

What: UFC 83: Serra vs. St-Pierre 2

Who: In addition to the Serra vs. St-Pierre main event, the televised portion of the undercard features Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter, Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy, Mark Bocek vs. Mac Danzig and Kalib Starnes vs. Nate Quarry.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: Bell Centre, Montreal

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with the FanHouse live blog.

Predictions after the jump.

Matt Serra vs. Georges St-Pierre
Serra hates it when people suggest that he was lucky when he beat St-Pierre last year, or that he's somehow not a legitimate champion. I agree with him there. But I also agree with those who say that if St-Pierre and Serra fought 10 times, St-Pierre would probably win seven or eight of them. St-Pierre is a more complete fighter than Serra and should avenge his loss.
Predicted winner: St-Pierre

Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter
Both fighters are coming off 2007 losses to Anderson Silva, although Lutter's layoff has been much longer. Lutter is under the impression that he's better than Silva, but I think Franklin beats him easily.
Predicted winner: Franklin

Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy
The 14-1 Bisping is coming back from the first loss of his career, a close split decision to Rashad Evans at UFC 78. I expect him to win handily against McCarthy, who's fighting for the first time since the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 4.
Predicted winner: Bisping

Mark Bocek vs. Mac Danzig
Danzig was the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 6, and UFC wants Ultimate Fighter winners to do well professionally. So it's no surprise that they've matched him with Bocek, who's inexperienced and only on the card because he's Canadian.
Predicted winner: Danzig

Kalib Starnes vs. Nate Quarry
I like Quarry a lot and think he could have had a very good MMA career if he hadn't gotten into the fight game so late in life (he's 36 and has only 11 pro matches). He should beat Starnes, another Canadian who will have the crowd behind him.
Predicted winner: Quarry

More information:
Official web site
UFC 81 at Wikipedia
Betting odds

UFC 83: Georges St.-Pierre vs. Matt Serra 2 Preview and Predictions originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is MMA Ready for the Moneyball Era?

Michael David Smith — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:48:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, The Word, MMA, MMA/Boxing

Advanced statistical analysis has made a huge impact on baseball, and it's making inroads in football and basketball as well. Soon enough, it's going to come to mixed martial arts.

There will be skeptics -- the MMA versions of the old-school baseball people who were sure that they knew more than Bill James and that Moneyball was a sham -- arguing that the sport is "fought in a cage, not in a spreadsheet."

But Rami Genauer, who runs the innovative FightMetric.com, thinks MMA is ready for advanced stats. (I agree.) His web site is billed as the first-ever comprehensive mixed martial arts evaluation system, and the work he's doing has the potential to change the way we view the sport.

In a wide-ranging Q&A, I posed some questions to Genauer, starting with why MMA needs advanced stats.

Why does MMA need advanced statistical analysis?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Before we get to advanced statistical analysis we need basic statistical analysis and before that, we need statistics.

People have compared what we're doing to the early days of statistical analysis in baseball, but Bill James and the early guys at SABR (Society for Advanced Baseball Research) had a huge head start: Information already existed, in the form of box scores and other resources, so they could easily populate a database with nearly 100 years of baseball statistics. The genius of those people was in taking the information that everyone knew and creating meaningful metrics people had never thought of, like Runs Created and VORP.

MMA, on the other hand, doesn't have anything. There is no database. Every major fight in MMA history must be re-watched and fully scored.

But just imagine what one would do with all of that information. For instance, I'd be curious to see if fighters who have absorbed a large number of leg kicks early in the fight are less successful with their takedown attempts in the later rounds (normalized against those fighters' traditional late-round takedown success rates). It's exactly stats like those that will allow us to challenge orthodoxies and find statistical truths. But until we have that big database, things are limited.

Will we some day reach a point where we discuss an MMA fighter's stats the same way we discuss a football player's touchdowns or a baseball player's home runs? If so, which stats will we discuss the most?
I think it's reasonable to assume that some stats will catch on. While I'd love to believe that casual MMA fans will discuss some of the more innovative, comprehensive stats we've created, the reality is that people are most concerned with volume and accuracy. How many strikes or takedowns did a guy land and what was his success rate?

The problem is, there is not even consensus on what are the kinds of things that should be measured. Imagine if Bill James would have first had to convince the world that batting average should be Hits/At Bats instead of something like Hits/Total Swings. That's where MMA is currently. FightMetric has its designated 67 statistical categories, but we're fully aware that there are other systems measuring completely different things. As an example, we believe there is no qualitative difference between a punch or a kick of equal power to the same target; it doesn't matter what you strike with, only where you strike to and how hard. So while some folks will concentrate on a fighter's kick accuracy, we think that's a meaningless statistic based on a purely cosmetic factor.

In general, does statistical analysis lend itself more to team sports like football and baseball or to individual sports like MMA? Will statistical analysis in MMA ever reach the heights it has reached in baseball?
I don't think it has to do with teams vs. individuals. The issue is that MMA is a mess in terms of creating comparable data sets. For example, every major professional baseball game is nine innings long and the way to beat your opponent is by scoring more runs than they do. MMA has variable match lengths; some last 20 minutes, some last 20 seconds but result in the same outcome. MMA has variable rules and judging criteria; what won fights in Pride wouldn't work in the UFC. To make things worse, MMA has multiple victory methods or differing quality; you can dominate your opponent or score a lucky cut stoppage or eke out a bogus decision and they all equal a win on your record. Some would look at those factors and say MMA and stats are incompatible. I think it means we have to think more creatively.

What is your sense for how receptive the MMA establishment would be to statistical analysis?
There will be people who love it and people who hate it, same as for every sport. Baseball has its statheads and its people who still think Billy Beane wrote Moneyball. I do think that acceptance of stats will be a bit harder for MMA than for other sports. I've encountered people who are not comfortable with the idea that math can be used to measure something as primal as fighting. While I understand the urge to want to believe that you can't measure things like this because "in a fight, anything can happen," I completely disagree with it. If you asked them to, an actuary could tell you what the chances are that you will be killed on a Tuesday while choking on some Fruity Pebbles based on factors like frequency of Tuesday Fruity Pebble consumption and the ratio of average Pebble size to the circumference of your esophagus. Just because anything can happen, doesn't mean we can't measure it.

To what extent does statistical analysis help you predict the results of future fights? Could a person consistently make money in Vegas by using stats to pick winners?
If you subscribe to my newsletter, I can reveal to you the miracle secret THEY don't want you to know about., which will triple your gambling winnings with no risk...

Just kidding.

One thing I should say is that stats can't make predictions, but they can make probability-based projections. You could say that Fighter X should beat Fighter Y 80% of the time, but that doesn't mean that Fighter X is going to win.

As for the Vegas part, I am fascinated by sports gambling from an economics perspective. The reason is that it's not like betting on red or black on a roulette wheel, where a known probability (47%) produces a standard payout (1:1). Fight odds are based on the public's perception of how close a matchup is. The oddsmaker needs to keep the odds at a place where bettors have the incentive to bet equally on both fighters. If someone came along with great stats that could predict winners with a high degree of confidence, all it would do would be to make the favorite a bigger favorite and the underdog a bigger underdog. If everyone had access to this information, the net gain in money for gamblers would be zero compared to what they have now. The market would correct for any improvement in information. The only way to beat the system is not to play.

If you're curious, I did a study of betting lines before and after the debut of The Ultimate Fighter and found that spreads have gotten wider in the last few years, as newer fans put disproportionate money on (usually better marketed) favorites.

Every college football fan understands that Hawaii's 12-1 finish last season was nowhere near as impressive as LSU's 12-2 finish, and we have metrics like the Sagarin ratings that help us assess teams' schedules. But do we have anything like that in MMA? Do we have any way of objectively comparing two fighters who have the same record against two totally different slates of opponents?
Not yet, but we're working on it. The goal is for it to function like the BCS, but less evil.

Has your statistical analysis led you to conclude that any particular fighter is overrated or underrated?
I can't speak to whether fighters are over- or underrated, but I know what kinds of fighters the system does and doesn't like. Lay-and-pray fighters do not get high performance quality ratings from our system because we don't give points for simply maintaining positions. You have to do something to earn points. On the flip side, the system loves quick finishers like Anderson Silva and hyperactive guys. Clay Guida and Karo Parisyan, win or lose, are two good examples.

What is your opinion of Kimbo Slice?
Don't have a large enough sample size to say anything statistically, but I admire the fortitude it takes to grow a beard like that in the face of what must have been constant pressure to shave.

Do you hear MMA announcers say things that your statistical analysis has proven wrong?
Sometimes you'll hear things that are based more on reputation than fact. For instance, every indicator we have says that Georges St. Pierre is a better MMA wrestler than Matt Hughes. But since Hughes is known as a great wrestler, that was considered a controversial statement.

What does the mainstream media consistently get wrong about MMA?
The general issue is that media is an echo chamber. When I worked as a journalist, I would often have to write a story about a topic with which I wasn't familiar and I didn't have a lot of time to become an expert. The way I educated myself was by reading articles others had written on the topic. While I didn't copy their work and I certainly conducted my own interviews, my article was based on their article, which was based on another, etc., etc. The fact that Senator McCain once called MMA "human cockfighting" is a worn out cliché, an opinion which he has since recanted. Yet you'll still see it mentioned in every new MMA piece as if it were news because the journalist who wrote it read that same thing in all the other articles he's seen. There's a reason why articles about MMA sound so similar. In fact, as a joke, I created some Mad Libs for MMA articles, one cautiously optimistic, the other a hatchet job. I've been curious to see if someone could really fill one out and get it published in the traditional media.

Is MMA Ready for the Moneyball Era? originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:48:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the AP Gets MMA Wrong, the Entire Mainstream Media Follows

Michael David Smith — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:09:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, MMA, MMA/Boxing

There is not, to the best of my knowledge, a single American newspaper reporter whose primary job is covering mixed martial arts. That means to the extent that newspapers (or newspaper-dependent sites like the Drudge Report) feature any MMA coverage at all, it usually comes from the Associated Press.

And that's a serious problem, because the AP apparently assigns reporters who don't understand the first thing about the sport to cover it. That's the conclusion I'd have to draw from this dispatch that moved over the AP wires Thursday morning. The piece is misinformed from the very first word:

Ultimate fighting was once the sole domain of burly men who beat each other bloody in anything-goes brawls on pay-per-view TV.

There is no such thing as "ultimate fighting," any more than there is such a thing as "major league baseballing." There is a sport called mixed martial arts, and the most popular league in that sport is called UFC, an abbreviation for Ultimate Fighting Championship. When you begin a story about mixed martial arts by referring to the sport as "ultimate fighting," you are announcing to your readers that you know nothing about the sport you're covering.

But it gets worse.

The story continues:

But the sport often derided as "human cockfighting" is branching out.

We've now reached the point where the only fun thing about reading newspaper stories about MMA is trying to guess when the words "human cockfighting" will appear. If you predicted the 31st and 32nd words, you win. The next sentence begins even worse

The bare-knuckle fights are now attracting competitors as young as 6 whose parents treat the sport as casually as wrestling, Little League or soccer.

Emphasis mine, because I can't imagine what bare-knuckle fights the AP is talking about. All sanctioned MMA fights feature competitors wearing gloves. What's more, the photo accompanying this AP dispatch clearly shows that the competitors are wearing gloves.

As for parents who send their kids into MMA: Good for them. Have you ever seen 6-year-olds play sports? They're clumsy and weak. I would be much more worried about a kid with no coordination accidentally hitting another kid with a bat in Little League than I would be about a kid hurting another kid in MMA.

The changes were evident on a recent evening in southwest Missouri, where a team of several young boys and one girl grappled on gym mats in a converted garage.

Two members of the group called the "Garage Boys Fight Crew" touched their thin martial-arts gloves in a flash of sportsmanship before beginning a relentless exchange of sucker punches, body blows and swift kicks.
No blood was shed. And both competitors wore protective gear.

I'm guessing the writer means "sucker punches" in the same way he meant "bare-knuckle," which is to he doesn't mean it at all. But it's good to hear that no one was hurt and they were wearing proper padding. And so we can conclude that these little kids, who in most cases wouldn't be strong enough to do serious damage to each other even if they tried, aren't getting hurt, and we can all have a juice box and go home happy, right?

The trend alarms medical experts and sports officials who worry that young bodies can't withstand the pounding.

This is the part where the reader expects a quote from one of those medical experts -- or at least a name of some medical authority who is alarmed.

But no, the AP doesn't quote any of these alleged medical experts. It does quote parents who have positive things to say about their kids' participation in the sport, "which is also known as mixed martial arts or cage fighting," the AP casually mentions.

"Cage Fighting"? Again, the reader waits for the next paragraph to describe Missouri youths shoved inside a chicken-wire box and brutally pummeling each other with one bare-knuckled sucker punch after the other. Alas, the image never comes. Maybe that scene was cut by the editor.

(For the record, "cage fighting" is a phrase like "arena football." It's not an activity you can enjoy unless you have a cage handy. Some mixed martial arts organizations use a ring like boxing, others use a mat like wrestling, still others use a cage. Because of the cost and availability of cages, I seriously doubt there's a single youth MMA organization that uses them.)

Now, back to the misinformation:

Joe Miller, administrator of the Oklahoma Professional Boxing Commission, said youth fights are banned in his state, and he wants it to stay that way.

"There's too much potential for damage to growing joints," he said.

Now, Miller is the only person quoted in the story who says anything negative about young people participating in MMA. And, from what we can glean from the story, Miller isn't a "medical expert." He's a boxing administrator.

Asking a boxing administrator to evaluate the merits of MMA is like asking the CEO of Pepsi to judge the merits of Coke, or a Democratic politician to evaluate the work of a Republican president. Miller might be an exceptionally forthright and unbiased voice, but it's not in his interests to be one.

Everyone who follows either boxing or MMA knows that many supporters of the former worry it will be eclipsed by the latter, and that the relationship between the both sports has been contentious. As such, Miller's opinion is a shoddy basis for judging whether MMA is healthy for kids.

The story ends with a very nice, very positive picture of how parents feel about their children's participation in MMA. So why did the story get off to such a harsh start, with the "bare knuckles" and the "human cockfighting"? I see a few obvious reasons.

Because that's the way newspaper articles about MMA are always framed. This AP writer played it safe by regurgitating the scenes he saw in other stories, and simply added the youth angle.

Because fear sells. I'm no media basher, and I have no problem with a report leading with the most engaging or salacious facts when those facts actually exist. I know "MMA Enriches the Lives of American Youths," is something of a dog-bites-man story. Which is fine. If there's no story here, just don't write the story.

But now it's out there. As shoddy as this story is, now that it's appeared on Drudge, there's a very good chance it may jump all the way to one of the national morning talk shows or evening cable shouting matches.

There's no competition to call the AP out: The culture of newspaper reporting has long revolved around the urge to not get "beat" by competitors at other papers or news services. With few papers covering MMA, the AP doesn't have to worry much about being shown up by anyone other than bloggers like me.

There are some exceptions. The Orange County Register provides excellent MMA coverage. So does the Dayton Daily News. The Baltimore Sun has had a good MMA blog for the last 16 months, and even though blogger Pramit Mohapatra recently left to start his own blog, the Sun says it's still committed to covering the sport.

But even in those cases, the papers don't have full-time beat reporters assigned to the sport, and considering the way newspapers across the country are cutting staff, it's unlikely that any paper will hire a full-time beat reporter to cover MMA.

Which means it's basically up to the AP to provide almost all the coverage of MMA that American newspaper readers consume, and up to blogs and other new media sources to call them out when they don't.

When the AP Gets MMA Wrong, the Entire Mainstream Media Follows originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko in UFC?

Michael David Smith — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:51:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, The Word, MMA

Well, this is weird. We've been hearing for ages that the top heavyweights in mixed martial arts, Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko, won't fight each other in UFC because they think UFC rips off its fighters, and that they can't fight each other elsewhere because Couture's contract with UFC won't allow it.

But now ESPN the Magazine reports that a Couture-Emelianenko fight, under the UFC banner, is a real possibility.

According to the report, Emelianenko is about to get out of his M-1 Global contract, and, in the words of his manager, "Officially, yes, Fedor will be a free agent." UFC President Dana White responded to that news by saying he would try to sign Emelianenko, "Absolutely, 100 percent, in a heartbeat. ... People think he's the best -- I don't, not even close. But if it's somehow possible, I would make it happen."

And that, according to ESPN the Magazine, means a Couture-Emelianenko fight could happen in UFC. But there's just one problem not addressed in ESPN the Magazine's report: Mark Cuban. Although Couture's contract with UFC has prevented Cuban from signing him as a fighter, the two do have a deal in place that has included Couture appearing in a non-fighting role on Cuban's HDNet, and everyone assumes that as soon as Couture is free of UFC, he'll fight for Cuban. I can't imagine that Cuban would just sit by and watch as Couture re-joins UFC and takes the biggest fight of the year out from underneath him.

Ultimately, a Cuban-White fight in the courtroom is going to precede any Couture-Emelianenko fight in the cage.

Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko in UFC? originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:51:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 82 Preview: Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson, Heath Herring-Cheick Kongo

Michael David Smith — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:48:00 EST

Filed under: Columbus, Fighting, Featured Stories, MMA

For all the talk of how UFC is beginning to enter the mainstream, Saturday night's UFC 82 is actually a good example of how far it has to go: The main event, featuring UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva against Pride middleweight champion Dan Henderson, is a great fight as far as hard-core MMA fans are concerned. But the fight has been almost totally ignored in the mainstream sports media.

And that means a lot of casual sports fans are missing out on what could be this weekend's best sporting event. Here are the details:

What: UFC 82: Pride of a Champion

Who: In addition to the Silva-Henderson main event, the televised undercard includes Heath Herring vs. Cheick Kongo, Evan Tanner vs. Yushin Okami, Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara and Jon Fitch vs. Chris Wilson.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with our FanHouse live blog.

Predictions after the jump.

Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson
Henderson, who is coming off a loss to Rampage Jackson, is better suited to take on Silva at 185 pounds than he was to take on Jackson at 205. But Silva is such a phenomenal fighter that I give Henderson less of a chance against Silva than I gave him against Jackson. Henderson is a very good fighter, but Silva might be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Predicted winner: Silva

Heath Herring vs. Cheick Kongo
Herring is coming off a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and is fighting for the first time in eight months. Kongo is coming off a win over Mirko Cro Cop, and I think he has a better future in UFC than Herring, even though Herring is younger. I look for Kongo to win a unanimous decision.
Predicted winner: Kongo

Evan Tanner vs. Yushin Okami
Tanner is a 37-year-old former middleweight champion whose best days are behind him. Okami is 26 years old, and although his loss to Rich Franklin last year slowed down his path to a title, he looks like a real threat to win the middleweight belt some day.
Predicted winner: Okami

Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara
The Hawaiian Leben is a popular fighter dating back to his appearance on The Ultimate Fighter, and he's the favorite in this fight. But while Sakara has lost three of his last five fights, I like him to surprise Leben with an early knockout.
Predicted winner: Sakara

Jon Fitch vs. Chris Wilson
This fight is actually kind of ridiculous. Fitch is a very good, very experienced fighter. Wilson is so anonymous that UFC doesn't even have a picture of him on its web site. Wilson just needs to get out of this thing alive.
Predicted winner: Fitch

More information:
Official web site
UFC 82 at Wikipedia
Betting odds

UFC 82 Preview: Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson, Heath Herring-Cheick Kongo originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:48:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 78: Preview and Predictions

Michael David Smith — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:02:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, MMA

UFC 78 doesn't have a title fight, and it doesn't have Chuck Liddell, and that means it's not going to get much mainstream media attention.

But it does have two popular Ultimate Fighter winners going against each other in Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping, and that means it'll be a good show as far as most UFC fans are concerned.

Here are the details of Saturday's event:

What: UFC 78: Validation

Who: In addition to the Evans-Bisping main event, the fights on the main card are Karo Parisyan vs. Ryo Chonan, Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva, Spencer Fisher vs. Frank Edgar and Ed Herman vs. Joe Doerksen.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: Prudential Center, Newark

How: Follow along for free with the FanHouse live blog, or watch it for $39.95 on pay-per-view ($49.95 in HD).

Predictions after the jump.

Rashad Evans vs. Michael Bisping
Evans fought Tito Ortiz to a draw at UFC 73, and everyone seemed to agree that his next fight should be a rematch with Ortiz. Instead, he gets Bisping, who won The Ultimate Fighter 3 and has a perfect 15-0 record in his MMA career. Evans is a pretty big step up in class for Bisping, though, and his undefeated record ends here.
Predicted winner: Evans

Karo Parisyan vs. Ryo Chonan
Parisyan had a very impressive performance at UFC 71 and I really thought it was going to make him a star, but I haven't heard a lot about him since then. He should beat Chonan decisively.
Predicted winner: Parisyan

Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva
Speaking of fighters who had very impressive performances at UFC 71, Alexander absolutely destroyed Keith Jardine that night, knocking him out in less than a minute, and he made similarly quick work of Alessio Sakara at UFC 75. Look for him to make it three straight Saturday night.
Predicted winner: Alexander

Spencer Fisher vs. Frank Edgar
Edgar is 6-0 and is getting his toughest test against the much more experienced Fisher. I think he passes the test.
Predicted winner: Edgar

Ed Herman vs. Joe Doerksen.
The Canadian Doerksen has an MMA record of 39-10, which makes him one of the sport's most experienced athletes. I think he'll get his 11th loss against Herman, though.
Predicted winner: Herman

More information:
Official web site
UFC 78 at Wikipedia
UFC 78 at MMA Mania
UFC 78 at MMA Junkie
Full betting odds

UFC 78: Preview and Predictions originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:02:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Dana White Bad for Mixed Martial Arts?

Michael David Smith — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:38:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories, The Word, MMA

Imagine if, in October of 1993, Michael Jordan had said he was retiring from the NBA not just because he had nothing left to prove in basketball, but because he was sick of the lack of respect that Commissioner David Stern had shown him. And then imagine if Stern had responded by saying Jordan was retiring because of his "scumbag agent," whom Stern claimed he had "bitch slapped."

If that had happened, there would have been a whole lot of people saying it was time for Stern to go. Sports leagues are big businesses. The heads of big businesses aren't supposed to drive valued employees away, and they're supposed to conduct themselves with some decorum.

But that's exactly what has happened in the UFC this week. Its best and most popular fighter, Randy Couture, has retired, and he cited his belief that UFC President Dana White takes advantage of him. White responded by calling Couture's agent a "scumbag" and saying he had "bitch-slapped" him.

White has been great for UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts. In fact, the sport of mixed martial arts literally might not even exist in the United States if it weren't for White, who saved it when legislators were calling it "human cockfighting" and threatening to make it illegal. But just as the kid who launches an internet start-up out of his parents' basement eventually needs to bring in an MBA if he really wants to turn it into a legitimate business, the sport of mixed martial arts might now need to push White aside.

That's not to say UFC can push White aside, because in many respects White is UFC. I guess it's technically possible that the Fertitta brothers, the co-owners of UFC, could force White out, but that's not going to happen.

But maybe another mixed martial arts organization needs to hire a commissioner in the David Stern / Roger Goodell mode, someone who's a businessman and a marketer, someone who understands how the head of a sports league needs to conduct himself. Someone who can attract the best mixed martial arts talent, pay the fighters a fair wage while still running a profitable enterprise, and not infuriate the talent.

Randy Couture is the best thing going in the sport of mixed martial arts, a guy who's smart, articulate, great at what he does and doing something absolutely extraordinary, stepping into the Octagon at the age of 44 and beating guys who are 20 years younger than him. If Dana White has driven Couture out of the sport, then Dana White is bad for the sport.

Is Dana White Bad for Mixed Martial Arts? originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:38:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC 76: Chuck Liddell - Keith Jardine, Mauricio Rua-Forrest Griffin, More

Michael David Smith — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:11:00 EST

Filed under: Fighting, Featured Stories

Chuck Liddell is back.

That's really what the Ultimate Fighting Championship's promotion of UFC 76 comes down to: Its biggest star is back in the Octagon for the first time since losing his title to Rampage Jackson at UFC 71. He's fighting Keith Jardine, who also suffered a knockout loss at UFC 71. But there is more to Saturday night's show than just Liddell.

What: UFC 76: Knockout

Who: In addition to the Liddell-Jardine main event, other fights on the main card are Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez vs. Jon Fitch, Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Lyoto Machida and Tyson Griffin vs. Thiago Tavares.

When: Saturday at 10 p.m. ET

Where: Honda Center, Anaheim, California.

How: The pay-per-view is $39.95 ($49.95 in HD), or you can follow along for free with our FanHouse live blog.

Predictions after the jump.

Chuck Liddell vs. Keith Jardine
There are whispers that Liddell isn't training hard enough and that he's ripe for his second consecutive loss, but Liddell is clearly the better fighter here. If Liddell loses, that shriek you hear will be UFC president Dana White bawling. UFC needs Liddell to win. He will.
Prediction: Liddell

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Forrest Griffin
This is the first UFC fight for the former Pride fighter Rua, whom many MMA fans consider the best light heavyweight in the world. The popular Griffin, a former Ultimate Fighter winner, will be the fan favorite, but if he wins it'll be the biggest upset of the night.
Prediction: Rua

Diego Sanchez vs. Jon Fitch
Other than the main event, this is the only fight of the night matching up two Americans. It is also probably the most evenly matched fight of the night.
Prediction: Sanchez

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Lyoto Machida
The Japanese-Brazilian Machida is undefeated, but he's a little out of place in a show called Knockout, seeing as he's won most of his fights by decision and has never had a true knockout of an opponent. He won't this time, either, but he will win.
Prediction: Machida

Tyson Griffin vs. Thiago Tavares
Griffin's victory over Clay Guida at UFC 72 got him some attention, and he's the favorite to beat Tavares, but I think Tavares will make it a clean sweep for the three Brazilians on the main card.
Prediction: Tavares

More information:
Official web site
UFC 76 at Wikipedia
UFC 76 at UFC Mania
UFC 76 at MMA Junkie
Full betting odds

UFC 76: Chuck Liddell - Keith Jardine, Mauricio Rua-Forrest Griffin, More originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:11:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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