A couple of days ago I recommended the Fertitta brothers take Dana White out for a quiet lunch Thursday. Apparently Frank and Lorenzo aren’t readers of MMAOpinion. Then again, it’s been said before by many analysts, experts, and armchair quarterbacks alike that Dana White’s mouth might be best muzzled as mainstream national sports media gets used to the idea of Mixed Martial Arts being newspaper, sports channel, and talk radio ready. A sentence later all of us write the answer to our own open-ended thought: Frank and Lorrenzo Ferttita are literally the silent partners much more then they are figuratively. Dana White is steering the ship, regardless of good or bad sound bites to the ESPNs and Sports Illustrateds of the world. Read the full story

Missed the first 10 minutes. sorry, no feed.

-said he didn’t get bonus from Zuffa (off the books) like many fighters do after August 25th fight with Gonzaga

-was going to resign in Anahiem at Sept. 22 show. Had letterof resignation with him, but didn’t do it.

-doesn’t want to get into war of words with Dana. No ill will towards Ferttita’s, doesn’t wanna bash Dana, but feels he doesn’t always wield power fairly. feels unappreciated.

-On his own contract: feels 18 month contract with 4 fights means those 4 fights would have to happen in the 18 months, or it expires.

-Bodog offered him 3 million to fight Fedor Emelianenko “a year ago”. He went to Dana White and the Fertitta’s and they offered a fight with Tim Sylvia, so he took it. Feels he’s been loyal.

-Says he has “fights” left in him, but only wants Fedor.

-Under UFC contract for “a minimum of nine months”, and will only fight Fedor if he fights in UFC again.

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-on Wanderlei Silva coming to UFC “Silva is the biggest star coming out of Pride”

-12 live fight cards next year on Spike TV

-26 episodes of The Ultimate Fighter a year over next two years (over 2 seasons, so 13 a season)

-two (2) seasons in ‘08, ‘09, one in ‘10, one in 2011 (I believe, it was said VERY quickly)

-new fight series being developed for Spike for 2010-2011. a “live fight show”, “a level above” TUF contestants. Dana’s words.

2009, 2010, 2011 will have a “minimum” of 12 live fight cards.

-”you know my philosophy, I like to give big fights on free TV”

-On Randy Couture: “He just signed a new contract. I got’em. He’s fighting for the UFC.” He said he hasn’t heard Randy Couture. The Internet said Randy wants to fight elsewhere, hasn’t heard that from Randy.

-HBO deal still dead. Dana says two big powerful brands that wanted to do it there way “50 reasons” it didn’t happen.

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After UFC 77, it’s not just a forgone conclusion to me, it’s a fact everyone needs to latch on to: the lightweights are the structure that builds a UFC card – the best matches on the show.

UFC 76 and UFC 77 both saw $40,000 Fight of the Night bonuses go to the 155 pound fighters as they battled for two close decision wins in the octagon. Other weight classes have their highlights, but it’s the smaller guys that seem to be getting the crowds excited, and exhibited the most hotly contested matches.

During UFC 76, Tyson Griffin and Thiago Tavares proved to be one of the more stimulating fights on live television lately as both men battled back and forth on their feet and on the mat for the full 15 minutes. During the ensuing battle, there were flying knees, omoplatas, and judo throws. The stand up was there. The ground game was in play. Hold-reversal-counterhold-countermove. Griffin took the win and Tavares racked up his first loss. If I wanted to hook someone on MMA, this might be one of the newer fights I would show them. Griffin and Tavares were able to capture the $40,000 fight bonus for showing everyone that they were both fighters to watch in the future.

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After more years then most of us have been fans, I guess we found out Monday who plays the game at the level of Dana White. Maybe Monte Cox. Perhaps I say “maybe” because he’s about to lose a lot of someone else’s money with a start-up promotion very shortly. But that qualifier out of the way, the man who follows Dana’s manager to executive path to the big time only has to come in under 40 Million dollars before he turns a profit to be the new kid dynamite. The real trick is still being around at 30 million in the red. Read the full story

Look, we all know we’re sick of reading and writing Couture/Dana break up story blogs just as much as we all can’t stop reading or writing them. It’s like compulsive eating: you know it’s wrong, it’s become a job you might not even enjoy, and yet you can’t stop doing it. Who am I to be any different with my commentary? I could write another open letter to Dana-style article, but after so many in the last two weeks, boy did Greg Doyel really put a dagger in that concept. Ouch!

I would like to point out that for the two people who haven’t heard, Randy Couture’s gonna be all over the place Thursday afternoon. Couture - ah heck, to me he’s just Randy - is gonna be having a press conference. Everyone’s favorite middle-aged man is gonna be eloquently discussing with every media person ever to write a blog his future, Dana White, his contract, Dana White, Fedor and M-1, and um…did I mention Dana White.

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I’ll admit that I was expecting two hours of boring and cheesy TUF commentary on Spike TV last night. That is until I saw a bruised Forrest Griffin and and his TUF co-pilot Stephan Bonnar as the shows’ two co-hosts. This should be a good time for all. We have the two goofiest light heavyweights in the organization discussing the best moments in the show that they helped to propel into the mainstream. We’ll talk more about their role in the history of TUF on the second part of this article. On to the Top 25!

25: Season 1 - Chris “The Crippler” Leben decides he is going to get drunk enough to urinate all over another bed. He heartedly calls it a “spritz” and makes sure that it’s rubbed into the sheets before the victim returns to his bed.

24: Season 4 - Shonie Carter wants to train with the other team and jumps into their van uninvited. He proceeds to drop the F bomb about 27 times mostly in the phrase “I don’t give a fuck” for apparently no reason. Mr. International shows how us to be dumb on television.

23: Season 4 - Mikey Burnett thinks he is a football player and runs into a wall of the TUF house repeatedly. Awesome! Sorta. I guess…

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First, the face of UFC’s marketing juggernaut, Chuck Liddell, gets handed a loss for the second time by Rampage Jackson. I hear whispers of retirement from the minute the blogs can write up the show. A summer passes, and many mock the legitimacy of a Liddell-Jardine main event. After all, they’re both “losers”, and maybe Chuck should retire. And besides all that Jardine mess, what people really wanna see is the past it’s drawing prime Liddell-Silva match. Finally. I agree, that’s the match to see even four years later, but Jardine knocks out the Iceman.

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I learned two fun facts this weekend. Anderson Silva worked at McDonalds in Brazil before becoming a professional fighter. Two, Silva is a Spiderman comic book fanatic to a scary devoted degree. There was a third thing, now that I think about it. Oh yeah, “The Spider” might be the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Better then Couture? Better then Kid Yamamoto? Even better than BJ Penn? MMA opinion makers are saying so. Who am I to disagree? But how can you be the best in the world at what you do (regardless of weight) when the people at your weight -185- aren’t on a level to test you? Ask Fedor.

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With the very exciting news of Fedor Emelianenko finally finding a home with M-1 Global, the internet pundits are raving that the real UFC competition has arrived. For the brief time that this information has been available for the MMA public, it appears to be the case.

M-1 Global has made a great choice in President/CEO Monte Cox. Cox is a seasoned fight manager and has enough understanding of the business to make me feel comfortable with his handling of the new organization. After all, Dana White was once manager to some of the biggest names in MMA today. They have the backing of Sibling Entertainment, who…well I guess I have no clue what they have done, but hey, they have the collective cajones to approach an undertaking of this magnitude. M-1 Global even did what the mighty Ultimate Fighting Championships could not- sign the biggest free agent, the aforementioned Fedor Emelianenko.

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Adam Morgan over at Five Ounces of Pain has a notable quote from Jake O’Brien’s agent on a message board. Apparently O’Brien wants to take on newly signed WWE wrestler turned UFC fighter Brock Lesnar.

Jake O’Brien called begging for the fight. I had to remind him he just had titanium rods put in his neck and he is out for 6 more months at least. He forgot.

I honestly don’t care who fights Lesnar first, but if O’Brien gets first shot, he better not repeat his boring smotherfest during UFC Fight Night 8 last January. Laying on top of Heath Herring was not fun, exciting, or even legit MMA. It was Division 1-A wrestling on Spike TV. No thanks!

Not only will O’Brien not get this shot at Lesnar due to the rods in his neck, but the UFC won’t risk their newest star to someone who has slight chance of beating him. (Sorry evil FightLinker guys, Lesnar is the UFC’s newest financial breakout even if he is an evil American wrestler) Lesnar is worth a lot of money to Dana and Co. and they will let him rack up a few easy wins before handing him to the big dogs for a real fight. It’s the same thing they do to most other young MMA fighters and it’s completely logical from a business standpoint. So that brings us to the question: who should Lesnar fight first?

In yet another turn of events in the labyrinth of rumor mills that we call MMA news reporting, Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva will apparently meet in UFC 79. Again. Not that it happened already. Instead it was rumored to happen about 17 times before.

So what does this mean? Well, nothing. Not until both fighters show up for the weigh-ins, at least. Even then it could just be a ploy. Who knows anymore.

Liddell says he has some “news” to share with us per his MySpace blog and I’m guessing he will indeed confirm that he is fighting the Brazilian ex-Pride legend. Or that he is retiring. Or training. Or eating walnuts in my backyard with my dogs. I call BS until I see it happening live on a television on December 29th, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Please Mr. Dana White, stop toying with us!

In an attempt to actually fill a venue, it looks like the IFL is offering tickets to its World Grand Prix on November 3rd in Chicago for only $12. The semi-finals, held in Florida, supposedly pulled in over 7,000 attendees, but those numbers (from the IFL) can lie and it’s hard to believe they are selling these tickets if they are so cheap. But tt’s a great deal if you live in the area and there should be some exciting matchups on the card. Some of the better fights include:

Chris Horodecki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Jay Hieron vs. Patrick Healy
Delson Heleno vs. Brad Blackburn
Matt Horwich vs. Brian Foster
Reese Andy vs. Roy Nelson

I would pay $12 just to see Horodecki vs. Palaszewski go at it again. Their last bout ended in a narrow split decision win for Horodecki in a very well matched fight.

My apologies for big-footing the other great articles on the page. Scroll down to find other articles from the last few days. Please read this article thoroughly, especially the end. I think we as a community have the power to be part of something bigger then ourselves. It’s not saving lives, but it’s a small component to helping the sport we all love.

I instituted some experimental scoring on Saturday night while watching UFC 77. We’ve had whispers of complaints as a community of Mixed Martial Arts fans every few months, but the Bisping-Hamill decision threatened to start a fan mutiny for a week or two, and many feared scoring decisions like that one would cost the UFC new fans and casual fans who pay for selected pay-per-views, but haven’t fully bought in to the sport as part of their lives.

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Desperation. That’s what I saw out of UFC 77 from Cincinnati. I saw desperation on Kalib Starne’s face as his chances faded and his cut widened. I saw desperation in Brandon Vera at times, frustrated by the size and clinch of a dull Tim Sylvia, who turned it on in the third as Vera scrapped to try to knock the giant out. I saw desperation in Rich Franklin, among other things, in the intense by predictable minute he survived after the first round. I even saw it in Dana White, who didn’t appear on camera, but was spooked enough to pull the trigger on signing Brock Lesnar. I felt desperate as a fan watching UFC 77, because though it was an entertaining three hours, it seemed that something was just out of reach the entire whole evening.

I decided to experiment on this show with an adjusted scoring system. Though we’ve had problems with the ten point must system, I also never liked Pride’s scoring system, or many of the other suggestions. An adjusted 10 point must has been kicked around by many, at length by Bryan Alverez and Dave Meltzer during radio broadcasts, so I decided to tweak the idea for myself. it’s a more liberal usage, in which I decided close rounds were 10-10 (I agree Jordan Breen), but more dominant rounds would be 10-8 or 10-7, instead of the strict 10-9 most give. Also, a round that probably should have been stopped or one opponent had no offense would go 10-6, instead of 10-8. I won’t go 10-5 or lower, because it creates an unfair mathematical advantage.

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A follow up on the Lesnar article, as Brandt beat me to it. Lesnar has not competed in a WWE ring since March of 2004. He will probably be close to four years out by the time he debuts in the octagon. He was nicknamed the “Next Big Thing” by the WWE for marketing purposes, and certainly lived up to that. His entire career in WWE was only 2 years. He started the night after Wrestlemania in 2002 and finished at Wrestlemania in 2004 (a belligerent uninformed crowd heckled him and Pro Elite commentator Bill Goldberg, who was also leaving, with “You sold Out” chants in a unique moment).

Lesnar had been the prize signing of the WWE developmental system (like a baseball farm system; minor league) thanks to Jim Ross, Talent V.P., who liked grabbing athletes from high-level college sports instead of bodybuilders. There had been a bidding war for Lesnar between WWE and then-competitor WCW in 2000, as well as Japanese wrestling promotions and MMA groups (you could have seen Lesnar in Pride as early as 2000).

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Not that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is undeserving as a heavyweight fighter in the UFC, but does he deserve this title shot in the UFC so soon? Perhaps Tim Sylvia was just a little dazed after his victory during UFC 77 last night. Sylvia, in his post-fight interview, mentioned that he may fight Cheick Kongo if the UFC can’t work something out with Couture. Doesn’t he already know that he will be up against Nogueira? The internet says so! Perhaps Sylvia knows something that we don’t.

I know it wasn’t much of a lead-in, but the premise of this article is pretty simple. Does Nogeuira deserve an immediate title shot after his weak victory over Heath Herring? It’s not just the Herring bout that has me doubtful; his last four fights (3-1) went to a decision. There are other deserving UFC heavyweight fighters who should have first crack. Now that we can temporarily cross Vera off ourlist, let’s take a quick look at who is still out there.

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While WWE fans are crying and Sambo fans are rejoicing, Brock Lesnar just made a lot of money to continue his undeveloped MMA career. As much as it hurts a lot of MMA fans to hear this, but Dana White doesn’t need Fedor to keep the UFC chugging along. And I know all of you hardcore fans (myself included) want this Couture vs. Fedor bout before we see anyone else fight for the heavyweight belt. That’s probably not going to happen soon. The next best thing for the UFC heavyweight division? WWE standout Brock Lesnar. And you may be thinking “WWE to MMA?!”, but White already beat you to the punch. In his press release on MMANews, he says:

“I don’t think there are any other pro wrestlers that can make the transition to MMA, except for Brock Lesnar,” said White. “And if you look at his amateur wrestling credentials, his size, and what he’s done, this guy can end up being a force in the heavyweight division of the UFC.”

While I don’t agree that White is correct by saying that there are not any other pro wrestlers that can make the transition to MMA because it has already been done. The big difference, however, is a WWE star is being signed directly into the UFC, an organization filled with many developed heavyweight fighters, after only one short MMA bout this summer. Considering Lesnar was a part of the largest wrestling organization, it would only make sense for him to move over to the largest MMA organization to keep the move at least lateral in his mind and of course; his wallet.

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