Chuck Liddell is making the rounds to promote his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 88, and Liddell had a strange interview today with Dan LeBatard.

At one point, LeBatard asked, "Are you taking a bath? It sounds like you're taking a bath."

Liddell replied, "I'm actually getting my toes done right now." Loyal FanHouse readers will recall that we've talked about Liddell's habit of painting his nails before. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Liddell also addressed his infamous TV interview in 2007, when many people thought he was under the influence as he struggled to answer basic questions. No problems like that with LeBatard today.

Here's the audio, via Steve Cofield:

Ken Shamrock is a 5-1 underdog in his October 4 fight with Kimbo Slice, but one person who knows both fighters well is confident that Shamrock is going to win: His brother, Frank Shamrock.

Frank Shamrock is an EliteXC on CBS commentator (he might be calling that October 4 fight), and he tells Kevin Iole that Kimbo is nowhere near Ken's class:

"Ken has 10 times Kimbo's ability, so if he can get just 10 percent of that, and he's focused, he can beat him," Frank Shamrock said. "If not, he's going to get clubbed horribly upside the head and fall down, all scary looking."

Now, before you go assuming that it's simply the bond of brotherhood that causes Frank to say Ken is the vastly superior fighter, remember that Ken and Frank Shamrock are adopted brothers who didn't grow up together and don't much like each other. (There's actually a pretty good chance that Ken and Frank will fight each other some time in 2009.)

Here's another sign of the growing popularity of mixed martial arts, and the role that the Spike reality series The Ultimate Fighter has had in that growth: Netflix is unable to keep up with consumer demand for Ultimate Fighter DVDs.

I first became aware of this when I put The Ultimate Fighter, season 1 disc 1 at the top of my own Netflix queue. That disc was listed as having an availability of "very long wait," which isn't all that unusual for popular TV shows that have recently been released on DVD.

But when I finally got season 1, disc 1 and tried to get season 1, disc 2, I noticed something strange. It was listed as having an availability of "unknown." Wondering what that meant, I called Netflix customer service, and was told that The Ultimate Fighter demand so far exceeded what Netflix expected that they're simply no longer able to fill orders for Season 1.

A FanHouse reader told me he had the same experience in his attempt to get The Ultimate Fighter from Netflix.

It's entirely possible that this is actually about Netflix incompetence and not about the popularity of The Ultimate Fighter, but I've always found Netflix to be good about stocking enough DVDs that I rarely have a hard time getting the movies and TV shows I want. Consider this another data point -- one more indication of the sport's impressive growth.

Michael Brick of the New York Times has a piece about cauliflower ear, the signature injury of mixed martial arts. Brick's story is worth reading, and the YouTube it mentions, while cringe-inducing, is worth watching:

That was Kurt Osiander, an MMA trainer in San Francisco demonstrating how to drain a cauliflower ear with an insulin needle. Personally, I think cauliflower ears look great, and they provide a warning: If you see a guy in a bar with a cauliflower ear, you know that's not a guy to mess with.

I usually like the comedian Lewis Black, but I guess it's safe to say that he wouldn't like me, seeing as the subject of Lewis Black's Root of All Evil tonight is whether bloggers or "ultimate fighting" is the root of all evil:

I shudder to think what Lewis Black might have to say about someone who blogs about "ultimate fighting" (known around these parts as mixed martial arts), but I may tune in tonight to find out.

Spike TV is crowing about the ratings it got for Saturday night's re-run of UFC 84, which topped the ratings for CBS's EliteXC show among the coveted young male demographic. I'd have to say the press release that the cable channel sent out is the funniest press release I've ever read. A snippet:

Overall, "UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk" drew higher ratings than Pro EliteXC in Men 18-49 (1.5 to 1.3) and Men 18-34 (1.5 and 1.0).

Reminiscent of the XFL's rating collapse years ago, the CBS telecast was 69% lower in Men 18-34 and 57% lower with Men 18-49 than its initial broadcast on CBS in May featuring the "He Hate Me" of MMA, Kimbo Slice.

Comparing Kimbo Slice, EliteXC's biggest star, to He Hate Me, the XFL's biggest star, is a rather blunt put-down, and Spike comes across as just a tad mean-spirited in the way it gloats about EliteXC's pedestrian ratings. But it sure was funny.

We're accustomed to TV news reports treating mixed martial arts as though it's the downfall of Western civilization, so it's nice to see a TV news report that actually features people who are excited about MMA:

That was a local news report in Stockton, California, which hosted Saturday night's EliteXC event. The best man-on-the-street quote: "Stockton isn't really known for a lot of good things, but this is nice to see. We usually have a lot of violence, but now we're known for our violence in a good way. So it's a good thing."

Via Steve Cofield.

UFC and Spike TV have confirmed that Americans will not be able to watch the October 18 UFC 89 show on live television.

Instead, the London show will be televised on Spike TV that night, meaning East Coast viewers will see it five hours after it takes place and West Coast viewers will see it eight hours later.

Obviously, this is a business decision for UFC: They figure the show, with a so-so main event of Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben, isn't going to attract a big pay-per-view audience in the United States, so they'd rather put it on basic cable. And since Spike can get better ratings in prime time than it can on a Saturday afternoon, they show it on delay.

But while I understand the economics behind it, I don't like it. I think sporting events should be shown live, and I'd personally rather have the show on live television, even if that means the only way for it to be feasible is to have it on pay-per-view. Just as I don't like the way NBC presents the Olympics on tape delay, I don't like this. Unfortunately, UFC and Spike aren't asking my opinion.

The preliminary ratings for Saturday night's CBS EliteXC show are in, and they show what everyone suspected: Mixed martial arts won't draw big ratings without recognizable stars in the cage.

On May 31, with Kimbo Slice in the main event, CBS got solid ratings for its MMA premiere. But last night's show saw a significant drop in ratings without any big names on the card. From TV by the Numbers:

That airing back on May 31, 2008 scored 4.3 million viewers and a 1.9/6 among 18-49 year olds and since the Kimbo Slice bout for that airing aired past primetime (11p) the most viewed portion wasn't included. But lacking any Kimbo anticipation, last night's fights pulled a mere 2.62 million and a 1.0/3 from 9pm-11pm.

So what do those numbers mean?

Dave Meltzer reports today (via Bloody Elbow) that EliteXC and CBS have tentatively agreed on Saturday, October 4 for the date of the third prime time network television mixed martial arts show, with Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano both slated to face as-yet unnamed opponents.

Although EliteXC's show tomorrow night on CBS is expected to suffer a decline in the ratings from May's premier, Kimbo and Carano are EliteXC's two biggest draws, and with both of them on the card together, the card should do a solid rating for CBS.

A big question about this show will be how CBS uses college football as a lead-in for EliteXC. With the Florida-Arkansas game scheduled for that afternoon, EliteXC would love nothing more than to have CBS spend much of the day reminding viewers to stay tuned for MMA, and pairing MMA with college football would be great for MMA's efforts to enter the mainstream. But CBS considers EliteXC part of its entertainment division, not its sports division, and that means there might not be a lot of corporate synergy.