Fight Talk

After last week’s sudden departure of heavyweight champion Randy Couture, things were looking glum in the UFC. The promotion turned things around with a series of major announcements.

1. Brock Lesnar is coming to the UFC. After only 69 seconds of MMA competition. Lesnar is stepping up to the world’s No. 1 promotion. If anyone can make this jump, it’s Lesnar.

Lesnar has been successful every where he has competed. He won the NCAA national wrestling title, the WWE championship and the IWGP title in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Lesnar stepped into the cage for the first time on June 2, and he walloped Min Soo Kim in just over a minute.

Lesnar is an intriguing substitute for Couture in the UFC’s heavyweight division, simply because we don’t know if he will go all the way to the title or get dropped along the way. Either option is exciting.

2. Chuck Liddell will fight Wanderlei Silva in December. Liddell (20-5) has lost his last two fights, but he is still one of the UFC’s top stars. He is the perfect marquee opponent for the UFC debut of Silva, one of the biggest stars from PRIDE. Silva (31-7-1) is coming off losses to Dan Henderson and Mirko Cro Cop, so both men will be hungry for a win.

3. UFC will air on Spike TV for the next three years. This doesn’t sound like blockbuster news, but it will allow UFC to continue its growth over the next few years. Spike TV will air a new weekly fight series, 12 Fight Night specials and four more seasons of The Ultimate Fighter.

UFC 77 RESULTS

One year didn’t change things between Anderson Silva and Rich “Ace” Franklin. Silva won again in the UFC welterweight title fight at UFC 77 in Cincinnati. Silva retained the title with a TKO in Round 2.

In other top fights, Tim Sylvia beat Brandon Vera by unanimous decision; Alvin Robinson beat Jorge Gurgel by unanimous decision; and Stephan Bonnar beat Eric Shafer by TKO in Round 2.

Randy “The Natural” Couture stunned the MMA world when he vacated the UFC championship and left the promotion. Just weeks ago, it looked like UFC fans would enjoy a dream fight between Couture and Fedor Emelianenko. Now, neither one will compete for the top American promotion.

That’s because Fedor decided to sign with M-1 Mix-Fight Championships in his homeland of Russia. Apparently, the UFC wanted to throw a lot of dollars Fedor’s way, and that ruffled the feathers of Couture.

This means that the UFC has already failed to take advantage of its purchase of PRIDE. UFC folded the PRIDE office, signed Quinton Jackson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, but failed to land Fedor.

When the WWE purchased WCW in 2001, one of the few things WWE did right was to avoid overpaying the WCW guys. That would have rankled its established stars, which seems to what happened with Couture.

UFC 77: Hostile Territory is coming on pay-per-view this Saturday from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rich “Ace” Franklin will get the chance to recapture the UFC middleweight title from Anderson “The Spider” Silva, who beat him for the belt one year ago.

Former UFC champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia, who dropped the title to Couture on March 3, will try to stay in contention when he faces Brandon Vera (8-0).

Other fights include Eric Schaefer vs. Stephan Bonnar; Alvin Robinson vs. Jorge Gurgel; Matt Grice vs. Jason Black; and Forrest Petz vs. Josh Burkman.

The pay-per-view will begin at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Say goodbye to PRIDE, as its parent company (UFC) officially shut the promotion down last week. It looks like UFC had no interest in keeping PRIDE open as a separate brand, especially since PRIDE lost its TV clearance in Japan.

UFC is promoting a battle of unbeaten light heavyweights as Michael “The Count” Bisping will battle Rashad Evans on Nov. 17 in Newark, N.J. Also on that show, Houston Alexander will fight Thiago Silva.

UFC has also started a syndicated show called “UFC Wired.” For a list of television station, go to http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=misc.wired&gid=7830.

Cage Fury Fighting Championships will celebrate its one-year anniversary on Oct. 12 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The main event will feature longtime favorite Tank Abbott (9-13) vs. Kimbo Slice (1-0).

Bodog aired its seventh episode of action from its show in Trenton, N.J. on July 14. The featured bout was Trevor Prangley’s middleweight title win over Yuki Kondo.

Travis Fulton and Jason Riley scored upset wins over UFC veterans at the Fightfest event in Columbus on Sept. 29. Fulton beat Wes Sims by unanimous decision, while Riley downed Josh Shockman by unanimous decision.

The next Fightfest show is scheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 13, at the House of Blues in Cleveland. Female boxer Kelli Cofer and former New York Giant Bobby Jones (pictured) are among the fighters on the card.

Koa Ramos scored the biggest win of his young career, beating Rhalan Gracie in the main event of the Gracie Proving Ground show at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu on Oct. 6.

Hope you enjoy the new format. Thanks for reading Fight Talk!