Fight Talk

Brock Lesnar has a new opponent for his MMA debut on Saturday. Instead of facing “The Techno Giant” Choi Hong-Man, Lesnar will battle judo expert Kim Min-Soo.

As you can see, the promoters are still hoping for a strong turnout from the Korean community in Los Angeles.

K-1 needs a strong performance by Lesnar to establish him as a Pay-Per-View attraction, considering how UFC got even more powerful last week with the acquisition of Pride.

The other big match on the PPV is a battle of legends between Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba. K-1 must hope these two have some gas left in their tanks. If this match flops, it could sour fans on buying future K-1 pay-per-views.

Former NFL star Johnnie Morton is questionable to fight on this show. His opponent may not be licensed by today’s deadline, according to a report by The Wrestling Observer.

Other bouts on the PPV include Ruben Villareal vs. Mighty Mo; and Yoon Doon Sik vs. Melvin Manhoef.

Before the PPV begins, Showtime will be live with a pair of preliminary bouts. They are Tim Persey vs. Jonathan Wiezorek; and Jake Shields vs. Ido Pariente. The Showtime portion of the show will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

UFC president Dana White announced that his company’s long-rumored purchase of its top competitor, Pride, went through late last week.

Pride lost its TV clearance in Japan last year, which weakened the company financially. However, Pride still has a ton of strong talent. So now White has to choose from two ways to make a lot of money:

1. World Series. Keep the UFC and Pride talent separate, and have an annual supershow where the champions collide.

2. Bring all of the top stars of Pride to UFC. It looks like that’s what White is planning to do. He’s already begun setting up Pride light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson as the next challenger to new UFC champ Quentin Jackson.

White also talked about promoting another interpromotional battle, between UFC’s Chuck Liddell vs. Pride’s Wanderlei Silva. The thinking is that these matches are possible now, so why wait?

The problem with herding all of the top talent to UFC is that it makes Pride either a clear No. 2 promotion or totally obsolete. Here’s what I would do:

In each weight class, I would have an eight-man Pride tournament to earn a shot at the UFC title, and vice versa. I would also do the World Series show with neither title on the line. This way, both promotions would survive and look like major leagues – just like the American and National leagues in baseball.

Mixed martial arts is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity right now. Sports Illustrated recently ran a huge cover story called “Ultimate Fighting: Too Brutal or the Future?”
The article went on to say that “The future” is winning out over “Too Brutal.” In fact, SI writer L. John Wertheim makes the point that MMA is safer than boxing. When one fighter is getting clobbered, the ref stops the fight. He doesn’t take head shots for 10 rounds, as he would if he were a boxer.
ESPN is covering MMA more than ever before. The last two UFC shows that featured Chuck Liddell had enormous media coverage.
The question is … can it last? Is MMA destined to be the fad of this decade, like roller derby was in the Seventies? Or, will MMA take root as a major sport with a passionate following, like NASCAR?
It’s too soon to tell, but I am going to say the latter. MMA may not become as big as NASCAR, but it should be a thriving mainstream sport for years to come. A huge number of young people are interested in MMA, and many athletes are getting into MMA when their sporting careers would otherwise be over. So, there will always be a plentiful supply of talent available to move up to the top of the sport.
It was a big deal when MMA was featured in Sports Illustrated. Someday, an MMA fight will be featured on the cover of SI, and it won’t be a big deal. That’s when you’ll know that MMA is here to stay.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is the new top man in UFC after blasting Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell at the UFC 71 pay-per-view in Las Vegas on Saturday Night. Liddell’s four-year winning streak is over, and Jackson is the new light heavyweight champion.

Jackson floored Liddell with right to the jaw in the first round. Jackson seized the advantage and pummeled Liddell until referee John McCarthy stopped the fight.

Dan Henderson appears to be next in line for a title shot, as UFC announcer Joe Rogan invited him into the ring to talk about a possible bout against Jackson.

In other featured fights, Karo Parisyan won a unanimous decision over Josh Burkman. Karo then challenged the winner of the upcoming Matt Hughes-Matt Serra fight for the welterweight title.

Houston Alexander made a strong UFC debut by knocking out “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine in 48 seconds.

Also, Terry Martin won by TKO over Ivan Salaverry; Kalib Starnes beat Chris Leben by unanimous decision; and Din Thomas made Jeremy Stevens tap out to an armbar.

Next up is UFC 72: Victory in Belfast, Ireland, on June 16. The main event will be Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami.

Tomorrow night’s UFC 71 pay-per-view fight between Chuck Liddell and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is building up a good amount of mainstream press attention. Sports Illustrated finally gave the sport of MMA some play, which is only fair after its recent cover story on boxing.

Jackson (26-6) has a good chance to win the UFC light heavyweight title, since he is the last fighter to defeat Liddell (20-3). However, that was in 2003. If you go undefeated for four years, you must be doing something right. I expect Liddell to come out on top.

In a welterweight fight, Karo Parisyan (24-4) will battle Josh Burkman from Season 2 of The Ultimate Fighter. Burkman is 19-3, and a win over the veteran Karo would be a huge boost for him.

A pair of middleweight veterans will clash as Ivan Salaverry (12-4-1) takes on Terry Martin (17-2). Also“The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine (12-3-1) will compete in a light heavyweight bout against Houston Alexander, who is making his UFC debut. Alexander is 6-1 in smaller MMA promotions.

The weigh-in will take place today at 3:50 p.m. on ESPN News and www.ufc.com, while the pay-per-view starts on Saturday at 10 p.m.

UFC, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson

UFC will kick off its big weekend with an episode of The Ultimate Fighter 5 tonight at 10 Eastern on Spike TV. A fight breaks out between two of the contestants, and the first quarterfinal bout takes place in the lightweight tournament.

Following TUF 5, Spike TV will replay its “UFC 71 Countdown” show, which first aired on Monday night. The show is designed to get fans excited for Saturday’s pay-per-view between light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson.

On Friday, the Liddell-Jackson weigh-in will air live on ESPN News and on UFC.com. The pay-per-view will air at 10 p.m. on Saturday, and we will have a full preview tomorrow.

Looking ahead to future pay-per-views, “UFC 72: Victory” will take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on June 16. The top bouts are Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami at 185 pounds, and Hector Ramirez vs. Forrest Griffin at 205.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva will headline “UFC 73: Stacked” against Nate Marquardt. That show will take place on July 7 at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

After, that, UFC 74 is set for Aug. 25 with heavyweight champion Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga; and Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck.

Former WWE champion Brock Lesnar will step into the world of mixed martial arts for the first time on June 2 in Los Angeles. ProElite is promoting the show, called Dynamite USA, on Showtime pay-per-view.

Lesnar will battle 7-foot-2 Hong Man Choi of South Korea. Choi, nicknamed “Techno Goliath,” is 1-0 after a TKO win over Bobby Ologun on New Year’s Eve.

In a recent press conference, Lesnar said he has been training for the fight for a year. He also said he will rely on his 18 years of amateur wrestling experience.

This isn’t the first time Lesnar has taken up a new sporting venture. He walked out of the WWE in 2005 in order to take a shot at an NFL contract with the Minnesota Vikings. He didn’t make the team, and he has been wrestling on and off in Japan ever since.

The Dynamite USA card will also feature Royce Gracie vs. Kazuski Sakuraba; as well as the MMA debut of former football player Johnnie Morton.

You can learn about the event at http://www.elitexc.com/

PRIDE Fighting Championships is promoting “Decade,” a retrospective of the first 10 years of the promotion. It is available on demand on pay-per-view.

Stars of the ‘Decade’ show include Chuck Liddell, Mark Kerr, Don Frye, Kevin Randleman, Frank Trigg, Nobuhiko Takaka, Quinton Jackson and Renzo Gracie.

Speaking of Gracie, he was in the main event of the Pride TV show on Fox Sports Net last week. Gracie faced in Kazushi Sakuraba in a fight from PRIDE 10: Return of the Warriors back in 2000.

The first 10-minute round was painfully slow, as the fighters spent more than a minute in a clinch. The action revved up in the second round, and Sakuraba caught Gracie in a wicked-looking kimura armbar for the victory.

PRIDE also aired a fight from Shockwave 2005 with James “The Debt Collector” Thompson against the 7-foot-2 Giant Silva from Brazil. Thompson knocked the former WWE wrestler off his feet and clobbered him in less than 90 seconds.

You can learn everything about PRIDE at www.pridefc.com

PRIDE, Renzo Gracie, Giant Silva

The main event at IFL’s Chicago show on May 20 was a battle of former UFC stars as Maurice Smith defeated Marco Ruas. Both men were coming off five-year layoffs from MMA competition. It was a rematch of a 1999 fight that saw Ruas lose due to a knee injury.

This time, both men showed their age (mid-40s) as the action in the first three rounds was painfully slow. Many of the fans booed or left the building. Ruas finally ran out of gas in Round 4 and was unable to stop Smith from pummeling him into submission. Just like in 1999, Ruas’ cornermen threw in the towel.

Earlier, a pair of IFL team competitions took place. The Southern California Condors eked out a 3-2 win over the San Jose Razorclaws at the IFL show on May 19 in Chicago. Antoine Jaoude, Adam Lynn and Emanuel Newton won their fights for SoCal.

Similarly, the Quad Cities Silverbacks knocked off the hometown Chicago Red Bears 3-2. Winning for Quad Cities were Bart Palaszewski, Mike Ciesnolevicz and Ben Rothwell.

With the victories, Quad Cities and So Cal are both 2-1 and are still alive for a spot in the playoffs.

IFL Battleground is on tonight at 8 on MyNetwork TV. Quad Cities, coached by Pat Miletich, will battle Ken Shamrock’s Nevada Lions.

You can learn about IFL at http://www.ifl.tv

IFL, Marco Ruas, Maurice Smith

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell is the top fighter in the world right now, even at the age of 37. Things can change quickly, however. Liddell will defend his UFC light heavyweight title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 71 on May 26 in Las Vegas.

Liddell (20-3) has won seven fights in a row, and the last man to beat him was Jackson at Pride Final Conflict in 2003. Rampage won by a TKO with a flurry of elbows in Round 2.

Since then, both fighters have been on a roll. Liddell won the biggest fight in mixed martial arts (MMA) history when he stopped Tito Ortiz at UFC 66. Jackson (26-6) made his debut by knocking out Marvin Eastman at UFC 67 on Feb. 3. Now, he has a chance to win the title and become the first man to beat Liddell twice.

As Fight Night approaches, we will be looking at the undercard, which includes Josh Burkman vs. Karo Parisyan; and Terry Martin vs. Ivan Salaverry. You can get all of the info on UFC 71 at http://71.ufc.com

Finally, I want to thank you for getting in on the ground (and pound) floor of Fight Talk Online. We will cover the entire world of MMA and have a great time doing so!

UFC 71, Liddell, Rampage, Jackson