Fight Talk

WEC presented its first show of 2008 on Feb. 13 on the Versus network. Carlos Condit hung on to his welterweight title with a quick guillotine choke on Carlo Prater.
The champions in the other two title fights didn’t fare so well. Jamie Varner became the new WEC lightweight champion when he knocked out Rob McCullough in the third round.
Also, Miguel Torres won the bantamweight title over Chase Beebe with a rear naked choke in the first round.
The WEC is owned by UFC and features the fighters in the lower weight classes.
Elite XC also started up for the year on Feb. 16 on Showtime. Kimbo Slice destroyed Tank Abbott in the main event, winning by knockout in just 43 seconds.

Mirko Cro Cop is gone from UFC after a year, and he will compete for the DREAM promotion, which will debut in Japan on March 15. Officials from PRIDE, Heroes and K-1 are running the new venture.

Brock Lesnar lost his UFC debut to Frank Mir on Feb. 2 at UFC 81: Breaking Point. Still, he showed the potential to be a force in the heavyweight division someday soon.

Lesnar landed some big strikes early in the fight, but Mir caught his with a kneebar for the tapout at 1:37.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira won the UFC interim heavyweight title with by defeating Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia with the guillotine in Round 3. Nogueira asked for a fight with current UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture, who is sitting out due to a contract dispute.

Middleweight Nate “The Great” Marquardt improved his UFC record to 5-1 by defeating Jeremy Horn in Round 2 with the guillotine.

In other fights, Chris Lytle knocked out Kyle Bradley in 33 seconds; Robert Emerson bear Keita Nakamura by split decision; Tim Boetsch beat David Heath by TKO in Round 1; Tyson Griffin beat Gleison Tibau by unanimous decision; and Ricardo “Big Dog“ Almeida beat Rob Yundt with the guillotine in 68 seconds.

UFC will crown a new heavyweight champion tonight, but all everyone wants to talk about is Brock Lesnar.

That’s because the former WWE champion stands to become a huge star if his fight against Frank Mir goes as well as his MMA debut over Min Soo Kim on June 2.

UFC 81: Breaking Point will begin at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Mir is no pushover, as he enters the fight with a 10-3 record. He used the Kimura armlock to beat Antoni Hardonk back in August.

The winner will be a potential challenger for the new UFC interim heavyweight champion, which will also be decided that night. Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia (26-3) will face Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (30-4-1) for the belt.

Current champion Randy “The Natural” Couture is still recognized as the UFC champion, despite his lengthy contract dispute with UFC.

Sylvia lost the UFC heavyweight title to Couture last March, but he bounced back to beat Brandon Vera in October. Noguiera is coming off a unanimous decision win over Heath Herring in July.

Middleweights will battle in the other two top bouts of the night. Jeremy Horn (88-16-5) will face Nate Marquardt (28-7-1), while Rob Yundt (7-0) battles Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida (8-2).