You don't know how the fight with Chuck Liddell is gonna go? Really? Have you seen any tape on the guy? Here's a hint: he's been doing the same thing for almost a decade and it involves standing up.
Dana White is seemingly putting all his eggs in one basket as he's spent the majority of his press conferences discussing an event that's over two months away:
"This is a bold statement in a town with the White Sox and Cubs and the Bears, but I guarantee you this will be the most exciting live sporting event you have ever seen," White said. "I can't explain it to you. You have to experience it.
"The closest thing that comes to it is when Mike Tyson was in his heyday. There was so much excitement about someone getting knocked out."
The proposed card is good, but it's not that good. Add another main card draw and then we'll talk.
Though several big strides have been taken in recent years, the sport of mixed martial arts still is trying to break into the mainstream.
But in the National Football League, the most mainstream of all American sports, MMA appears to be gaining plenty of acceptance.
According to the Washington Times, Washington Redskins wide receivers Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El are among a group of NFL players who have incorporated MMA training into their offseason workouts.
"If it was just run, run, run -- that's something I could do, but I was losing some of my muscle mass. But I'm not losing as much this year," Randle El said. "I think the grappling (helps). When you are on the ground wrestling with a guy, that's how it is when you catch a ball and you're tussling with a guy and trying to get out."
Moss trained a few days a week in the offseason with Lonny Intorn, an instructor at Punch Fitness in Miami. Intorn also has worked with Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson.
The past two seasons have been injury-plagued for Moss, but perhaps the training methods are paying dividends. Randle El said his fellow wideout is having his best camp since the two have been teammates.
According to the paper, the training regimen intrigued Moss because he was a fan of fighter Kimbo Slice.
Slice, whose real name is Kevin Ferguson, played football at the University of Miami. He now has his own NFL connection. In a new Internet video, which reportedly is a commercial for Nike, Slice "trains" San Diego Chargers star LaDainian Tomlinson.
In the video, Tomlinson arrives at Slice's house and uses some of Slice's backyard training techniques. Those include boxing a refrigerator, bench-pressing air conditioners and leg-pressing a broken-down car.
New training methods are not the only indication of MMA's growing acceptance.
The San Francisco 49ers brought in former fighter and current MMA broadcaster Bas Rutten to speak to the team at training camp.
"My message to them is about how to mentally deal with things," Rutten told the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News before addressing the team. "Some of what I talk about will be conditioning of the body, but my belief is that everything starts with the mind. You win a fight not with your strength, but with your mind."
Former UFC champion and current free agent Tito Ortiz is once again negotiating with nearly all of the sport's top players, including Affliction, EliteXC, the American Fight League and even the UFC.
I discuss the topic in this week's "MMA Insider" column for the Dayton Daily News.
Although Ortiz announced earlier this month that he was on the verge of signing a "record-breaking" contract with Affliction, no official announcement has been made. And there may be a reason why.
According to some industry insiders, Ortiz has again been hosting meetings with representatives from all the above mentioned fight promotions. Some of the meetings have been happening as recently as this past weekend, meaning a deal with Affliction isn't quite the deal done Ortiz led us to believe.
As mentioned in the column, Ortiz is winless in his past three fights. In fact, aside from a couple of wins over Ken Shamrock, Ortiz hasn't posted a clear-cut victory in nearly four years.
If any other fighter was winless in his past three, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an organization that wouldn't kick him to the curb.
MMA Rated brings us the following tidbits regarding UFC 90:
Dana White announced that Mike Swick will be added to the card but stopped short at saying who his opponent will be.
Chicago is the UFC's #1 market for pay-per-view revenue.
When all is said and done, UFC 90 will be the highest-grossing event in the 28-year history of the Allstate Arena, smashing Wrestlemania 22's record of 2.4 million dollars.
As of Noon today, UFC 90's gate has already reached the two million dollar mark.
White said Anderson Silva could potentially move up to light heavyweight again if he defeats Patrick Cote on October 25th.
Furthermore, he even hinted at a possible GSP vs. Silva bout at an undetermined catch weight.
The winner of the Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago Alves bout will receive a welterweight title shot.
Speaking of Alves, he vowed to have no more issues making weight at 170 lbs.
When Georges St. Pierre stepped into the Octagon last Saturday night, he understood that Jon Fitch could possibly end up being the toughest opponent he had ever faced. The end result lived up to the hype as Fitch stuck around for five rounds, but ultimately it was the champion who defended his title and once again proved why he is considered one of the best fighters to ever compete in the sport of mixed martial arts.
St. Pierre came after Fitch with an onslaught of weaponry throughout the fight. From takedowns to strikes, he battered his opponent for 25 minutes en route to his championship victory, but he was very impressed with Fitch's ability to keep coming back in every minute of the fight.
"Everything went perfect. The only thing that surprised me is I was not able to finish him," said St. Pierre on MMAWeekly Radio Tuesday night. "He was like The Terminator, always came back to life. It was crazy. It was discouraging at one point, but I kept working hard until the end."
During the opening round of the fight, St. Pierre was once again able to display his dominant wrestling game by taking Fitch, a former NCAA Division I wrestler, to the ground and impose his will.
In the second round, St. Pierre seemed more than content to stand and trade shots with Fitch while showing his well rounded skills by once again being one step quicker than his opponent.
"I wanted to make him believe that I wanted to shoot more so that he would have been more careful in his attack standing up because he would respect my takedown," St. Pierre commented about his strategy in the fight. "That's part of the gameplan. My gameplan was to beat him with the strikes standing up, because I knew on the ground he was very hard to submit."
Following a hard fought fourth round, St. Pierre went to his corner as everyone noticed a large gash over the Canadian's left eye. While it eventually took seven stitches to close the cut, St. Pierre says it was like it was never there.
"It was nothing. When I came back in the corner, I had a cut. I think it was a knee. I got cut with a knee to the face," said St. Pierre. "When I came back to the corner to give my confidence, my cornermen said, 'oh, it's just a little scratch.' It didn’t mess me up at all."
Ultimately, the entire gameplan and strategy to beat Jon Fitch worked and St. Pierre said that style of attack is something he does in every fight.
"To break my opponent down and to make him accept my dominance," said the UFC welterweight champion about his fight strategy.
While he will never forget the first time he attempted to defend his welterweight title, which resulted in a loss to Matt Serra, it's St. Pierre now that is on top of the world and the best in the business.
"That's exactly where I failed last time. So I had the opportunity to succeed where I failed last time," St. Pierre stated about the title defense. "The guy you saw fight Saturday was the best Georges St. Pierre you have seen."
"I'm happy, but I'm back on training because I might come back in September to defend my belt. I passed a week with my family and it was great, but I'm back here (ATT) now," said the athlete.
This is a great move on EliteXC's part. With dismal ratings, it's important to have as many title defenses as possible.
Bloody Elbow has put the pieces together and revealed that Chris Horodecki (ex-IFL star) could take on Dan Lauzon at the next Affliction event. Dan, owner of an 0-1 UFC record, is also the younger brother of UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon. Dan is just 20 years old and considered one of the top prospects in the sport.
Herring had high expectations heading into the octagon against Lesnar, but was caught by a right hand in the opening moments of the bout that sent him and his expectations crashing to the canvas.
"I think that shot pretty much changed the whole dynamic of the fight," said Herring. "I sure would like to know what would have happened if it hadn't landed."
"Once that right hand landed it was like I was fighting half blind, or pretty much blind at that point. It was all pretty much downhill from there," explained the 30-year-old heavyweight. " I just tried to come back and mount some type of offense. Unfortunately, I was never able to mount anything that significant...After getting rocked with a shot like that, and not being able to see, you're more in survival mode."
"It doesn't sit very well with me. I'll be honest. I mean, you go out there and right at the beginning of the fight get caught with probably the biggest shot ever and you're starting off right away in a negative position."
So, would it be different next time? Could it be different? I don't think Herring had his best night but I doubt he'd be able to overcome Brock's huge physical advantage.
