UFC 106: Preview

Initially, UFC 106 was expected to be the second biggest-selling UFC of 2009 behind only the all-time best-seller, UFC 100. That's no longer expected after a series of setbacks have forced the UFC to cobble together the last men standing in any way they could manage.

First, Mark Coleman (16-9) had to pull out of his scheduled co-main event slot against Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) due to an injury. So, the UFc's head matchmaker, Joe Silva, talked Forrest Griffin (16-6) into cutting his honeymoon short in order to set up Ortiz vs. Griffin II. Tito's long-awaited return from major back surgery was already a major draw at UFC 106, but but the upgraded opponent turned this match into must-see MMA. Ortiz vs. Griffin I was a hard-fought battle that ended in a split-decision victory for Ortiz back in April, 2006.

The struggle to keep UFC 106 from imploding didn't stop there, though.Next, the main event of Brock Lesnar (4-1) vs. Shane Carwin (11-0) was cancelled when Lesnar began suffering from life threatening complications due to severe gut rot. It turns out that he actually had a hole in his large intestine through which bits of semi-digested food were slowly seeping into his abdominal cavity. I'm not a doctor, but even I know that can't be good. Brock has now undergone a major surgery to resolve the issue, but it's still unknown when, if ever, he'll be fit to defend his heavyweight belt.

No problem, the UFC simply promoted the night's stellar co-main event of Forrest Griffin vs.Tito Ortiz II to main event status. Not a lot of harm was done considering they're two of the world's most popular and best known MMA fighters.

The UFC also booked welterweight showdown between Josh Kosckeck (13-4) and Anthony "Rumble" Johnson (8-2) and made it the new co-main event. Both fighters are coming off impressive first-round (T)KO's of their most recent opponents and each will look to use the other to catapult himself into title contention at UFC 106. Please note, if "Rumble" misses weight by six pounds again like he did at UFC 104, he should be banned from trying to fight at a welterweight ever again.

Speaking of lifetime bans, Karo Parisyan (18-5) has been summarily booted from the UFC after he suddenly withdrew from his main card showdown with Dustin Hazelett (12-4). This fight was hotly anticipated by hardcore MMA fans and was being widely framed as a style-clash for the ages between Karo's judo and Hazelett's jiu-jitsu. That said, I suspect that very few people were planning to buy UFC 106 exclusively for Parisyan vs. Hazelett, so not much has been lost there. Besides, the UFC has swiftly promoted another match-up of top welterweights from the under card to the main card to take its place-- Paulo Thiago (11-1) vs. Jakob Volkman (9-0).

Sure, Amir Sadollah (1-1) vs. Phil Baroni (13-1) is a fight that should never have received a main card slot, but the inclusion of light heavyweight Antonio "Little Nog" Nogeuira's (17-3) octagon debut on the pay-per-view portion of the evening more than makes up for it. "Little Nog" is "Big Nog's" smaller brother, who is actually his identical twin. "Little Nog" fights in the lower weight class so that the two can never be asked to fight one another. He's about what you'd expect-- a smaller, faster version of "Big Nog." While he's almost as accomplished as his brother, he isn't known to have "Big Nog's" super-human chin, which might have come in handy against the hard-hitting Luis Cane (10-1). Don't sleep on this fight, it's a real gem.

On top of all that, two of the night's best fights will be shown live and free on Spike TV starting at 6pm/PST. The fights that are guaranteed to air during this commercial free hour are Marcus Davis (16-5) vs. Ben Saunders (7-1-2) and Kendal Grove (10-6) vs. Jake Rosholt (6-1). Also, don't forget that Wednesday night's WEC 44:Brown vs. Aldo will air on TSN starting at 5:00pm/PST.

At the end of the day, it's hard to complain about this Saturday's line up of fights. After all, how often do you get a chance to watch five consecutive hours (5:00-10:00pm/PST) of world-class MMA? Let's not forget either, that the night concludes with the return of one of the sport's most polarizing figures in Tito Ortiz. Will "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" secure a much-needed victory, or will Forrest Griffin exact his long-awaited revenge?

I, for one, am very interested to find out.

Don't forget, reaching B.C. MMA Fan is easier than ever. Don't bother with ".blogspot" anymore, just navigate your way to www.bcmmafan.com, or even just bcmmafan.com

Karo Parisyan Won't Fight On Saturday, Has Been Kicked Out Of The UFC

Karo Parisyan's (18-5) steep descent into an epic fail-spiral continued today when he called off his much-anticipated bout with Dustin Hazelett (12-4) at tomorrow's UFC 106.

Of course, Karo frequently makes choices so horrible that you'd swear he takes life-coaching from Lindsay Lohan, but you're still probably wondering what's gone wrong now. Well, it's a bit unclear at this time, but my guess is it has something to do with Parisyan having developed a case of what my attorney, Dr. Gonzo, refers to as "the fear."

Karo babbled some nonsense to MMAWeekly about not being able to fight because he has an outstanding fine of $32,000 with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). That might have been believable if the chairman of said commission, Keith Kizer, hadn't recently given this interview in which he details the great lengths to which the NSAC has recently gone in order to help Karo fight:



It was Dana White who first broke this news via his twitter account. Here are the highlights:

"Karo Parisyan has fucked over the UFC, the fans and his opponent again!!! He will not be fighting saturday or ever again in the UFC!!

Pulled out of the fight the day before weigh ins again with a laundry list of excuses!!! Let the press ask karo why! Let him explain.

Dustin will be paid his full purse to show and win. Its not his fault."

Attention All Degenerate Gamblers

That's right, I'm talking to you Mr." I-Have-A-Good-Feeling-This-Time."

Not that I'm judging, of course. Most of my best friends are degenerate gamblers and I've been known to dabble in the delicate art of sports betting myself. Well, if you're like the rest of us, you might appreciate this site.

It's a blog called Beat The Books and it's run by a good friend of mine from my debauched, grossly misspent years as a university student. Each day, he and his co-conspirator scour the oddsmakers' lines for the two bets that they feel have the most value. Each pick features a short, but extremely detailed write-up to justify their decisions. They make picks in a variety of sports, but basketball fans will appreciate Beat The Books' obvious interest in NBA and college ball action.

Currently, their record stands at 21-9 (%70), which means that, if you'd been following their advice all along, you'd probably have more money right now than you actually do. In interest of a bit of friendly rivalry, I'd like to point out that my own MMA prediction record of 115-65 (%63.9) and 14-4 (%77.8) in main events was compiled while picking every fight on various cards. As such, I did not benefit from selective predicting. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Love the site, guys. Keep it up.

Machida vs. "Shogun" II Set For May, 1st in Montreal

According to Yahoo Sports, The rematch between the UFC's light heavyweight champion, Lyoto "The Dragon Machida" Machida (16-0), and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-4) is now set for May, 1st in Montreal, Quebec.

In the post-fight press conference that took place after Lyoto Machida defeated "Shogun" Rua by a highly-controversial unanimous decision at UFC 104, UFC President Dana White announced that there would be an immediate rematch. Originally, White was targeting UFC 108, the year-end show on January 2nd, 2010, but a hand injury sustained during the five-round'er with "Shogun" made Machida unable to fight so soon. Now the two officially have a date to renew acquaintances in Montreal, Quebec on May 1st, 2010.

This is the first I've heard that another UFC is scheduled for Montreal this spring and it puts a bit of a damper on the rumour that the organization is coming to Vancouver in June, 2010. Would they really stage two shows in Canada so close together? I doubt it, but anything's possible.

Couture vs. Coleman Tentatively Set For UFC 109

In what would be the first UFC match ever staged between two members of the Hall-of-Fame, Randy "The Natural" Couture (17-10) has been tentatively scheduled to fight Mark "The Hammer" Coleman (16-9) at UFC 109 (Feb. 6th, 2010).

This fight would also feature the highest ever combined age of two fighters inside the octagon at roughly 91.5 years. Besides the obvious old-man jokes that can and will be made, this fight doesn't make a lot of sense from a rankings standpoint. Sure, both fighters are coming of wins, but Couture's victory over Brandon Vera (11-4) should have put him higher on the ladder than a victory over Stephan Bonnar (11-6) put Coleman. That said, I understand the rationale behind this fight. Randy's days as a draw are numbered and the UFC wants to get as many of their five remaining contracted fights out of him as they can. That explains both why this will be Couture's third fight in just over five months and why he's been given what appears on paper to be a very beatable opponent in Coleman. As will be the case for the duration of this contract: if Randy wins then the retirement tour will continue at a frenzied pace, but, if he loses, his victory lap could be cut short. So the UFC figures there's built-in drama no matter who the opponent is. One drawback to this match up is that a victory over Coleman wouldn't be enough to justify giving Randy a title shot, which is something the UFC is almost certainly angling for.

That said, "The Hammer" didn't make it into the UFC's Hall of Fame for nothing and, given the fact that their wrestling backgrounds should cancel each other out, this fight does have the potential to be a drag-'em-out slugfest. It's also comforting to know that this fight isn't being targeted as a main event-- UFC 109 is set to be headlined by a middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva (25-4) and Vitor Belfort (19-8).

Site Announcement: B.C. MMA FAN Is Now Easier To Find

Don't bother with ".blogspot" anymore. Instead, just type www.bcmmafan.com or even bcmmafan.com into your url field and you'll come straight here.

I spent some time tinkering with CNAMES and DNS Controls tonight, which was all pretty new to me, but the end result is that B.C. MMA Fan can now be reached on the internet a whole lot easier. I've already had some modest success attracting a readership for this feisty little blog and I hope that the increased ease-of-access will help it to continue growing.

So tell your friends to tell their friends, even tell some perfect strangers if you like, the place for British Columbia related MMA coverage, as well as information on all the biggest fights, is B.C. MMA Fan.com.

Poster For 'King Of The Cage: Catalyst" In Vernon

I'll be focusing on UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin for the next two days or so, but please let the nifty poster on the left stand as evidence that I haven't forgotten about the upcoming King Of The Cage show in Vernon.

The show, which has recently been dubbed "Catalyst," takes place at Vernon's +3000 capacity Westbild Centre and tickets are now available in various locations around town. I already wrote a short post on the main event between Jason Volpe (5-2) and Ryan Chiappe (4-5) that you can check out right here.

The rest of the card is as follows, but is, of course, subject to change:

Main Event
Ryan Chiappe vs Jason Volpe
*** for KOTC Canada Middleweight title

Main Card

Chang Hyun Kim vs Vinicius Lemos

Graham Spencer vs Wesley Neil

Brian Coldwell vs Del Melnyk

Mike Adams vs TBA

Matt Bagshaw vs Brad Causley

Clay Davidson vs TBA

Rakan Khatib vs Joe Verbeetan

Mike Reid vs Travis Phang

Sam Flood vs Jeremy Smerek

Jordan Kippelberg vs Darcy James

Brendan Frost vs Upneet Rai

Ethan Owusa vs Ryan Billingal

Amateur MMA

Nick Ghaeni vs CJ Bragg

Curran Allen vs Cam Deleurme

Tyson Vietch vs Jason Clements

Also, check out this video, which, if a bit lacking in specifics, at least proves these fights are real:

I'll be covering this event six ways from Sunday starting, well... this Sunday. So buckle up for that.

WEC 44: Preview

WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo goes down tonight, but I realize that many B.C. MMA fans are about as familiar with the goings on in World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) as they are with the latest season of Desperate Housewives. They may vaguely recognize some of the lead characters, but don't know when it's on or why they should care.

Let's solve one problem at a time then, shall we?

First, when is WEC on? Unfortunately, it's rarely shown on live television in British Columbia, which is frustrating since, in The United States, and I suppose in Canada as well if you've got the right dish setup, the WEC has a broadcast arrangement with the Versus Network. Americans seem to get Versus with their basic cable package, but most Canadians know it only as the American home of NHL hockey. Luckily for us, WEC fights are often shown on TSN within the same week that they happened live, which is almost as rad. In the case of tonight's WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo, TSN will air it just three-days later on Saturday evening (Nov. 21st) from 5:00pm-to-7:00pm/PST. That's extra awesome because WEC 44 will end just as the PPV of UFC 106 is set to begin! Of course it's also a minor problem because during the second hour of TSN's WEC broadcast is when Spike is showing live under card fights from UFC 106. That means you'll need to put your finely honed remote control jockying skills to use. I know you've got what it takes.

Alright, now, why should you care? First, because the WEC is home to some of the very best lighter-weight fighters in the world. In fact, they pretty much have the monopoly on bantamweights (135lb) and featherweights (145lb), with sixteen of those two divisions' top-ten fighters on their roster. These pint-sized pugilists pack incredible excitement into every five-minute round-- it's like watching welterweights at 2x speed. The WEC also features a very solid Lightweight division.

At tonight's WEC 44, there's a title fight between Mike Thomas Brown (22-4, World #1 at FW) and Jose Aldo (15-1, #2 FW). Brown, who will attempt his third title defense, is primarily a hard-working grappler who uses his strength and wrestling to set up submissions, but he can also throw hands when called upon to do so. He'll look to be the first to defeat Aldo in the WEC. Aldo, who has (T)KO'ed all five of his previous WEC opponents including the last three by first-round stoppage, will look to be the first fighter to ever put Brown to sleep. Read more about the main event in this article from Top MMA News.

UFC fans will likely recognize the fighters in the co-main event fight between Ultimate Fighter 5 runner-up Manny Gamburyan (9-4, 2-3 UFC, 1-0 WEC) and that Mexican guy who had that totally awesome fight with Roger Huerta at UFC 69, Leonard Garcia (13-4, 1-2 UFC, 3-1 WEC). Both Manny and Leonard have dropped down from lightweight to featherweight where this fight will be contested.

Main Card Details:

Main event:

145 lbs.: WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Thomas Brown (22-4) vs. Jose
"Junior" Aldo (15-1)

Main card (Televised):

145 lbs.: Manny "Pitbull" Gamburyan (9-4) vs. Leonard "Bad Boy" Garcia (13-4)
155 lbs.: "Razor" Rob McCullough (17-5) vs. Anthony "Showtime" Pettis (7-0)
155 lbs.: Shane Roller (6-2) vs. Danny Castillo (8-1)

So, to review, if you're an MMA nut like me you'll get the chance to watch these awesome fights, ones that you've already read all about of course (because you're a nut), this Saturday at 5:00pm/PST on TSN. If, on the other hand, you can resist the urge to look up results from WEC 44 before Saturday, you can watch it fully in suspense before dropping into UFC 106. To help you out with that goal, I promise not to publish the results on this site until after Saturday.

Spike To Air Live Prelim Fights For UFC 106

As has become a fairly frequent offering from the UFC and Spike, two fights from the under card of UFC 106 are set to air live on Spike this Saturday (Nov. 21st) starting at 6:00pm/PST.

The first time this was done was preceding UFC 103 this September; the second time was at UFC 104 in October. After skipping UFC 105, because the entire main card was shown on Spike, they've teamed up yet again to bring MMA fans Marcus Davis (16-5) vs. Ben Saunders (7-1-2) and Kendall Grove (10-6) vs. Jake Rosholt (6-1). All four guys are fairly exciting fighters, which should make for some solid action on Spike.

I can't emphasize enough how thrilled I am that Spike and the UFC have continued bringing us live fights before pay-per-view events. Not only does it mean that my night of MMA-watching goodness is extended significantly, it also increases the likelihood that every undercard fight will eventually be shown either on Spike or via tape-delay during the PPV broadcast. On top of that being awesome for the fans, it's also great for the fighters because many sponsors pay more if a fight is televised.

Forrest Talks Redemption, Tito Fight, Having Fun Again

In the video below, Forrest Griffin (16-6) opens up about how it feels to lose and why he thinks loosening up and having fun again will help him in his main event match against Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) at UFC 106.

B.C.'s Rory MacDonald To Make UFC Debut In January, 2010

Longtime readers of BC MMA Fan may remember that the very first post focused on Rory MacDonald (9-0), a young welterweight and King Of The Cage champion from Kelowna. Since then, MacDonald has won a fight by TKO and been signed by the UFC. It now appears that his UFC debut will go down on the undercard of Ultimate Fight Night 20 on January 11th, 2010. The show set to air live on SpikeTV and will be headlined by Nate Diaz vs. Gray Maynard.

A win in January would make the then twenty-year-old MacDonald one of the youngest fighters ever to notch a victory in the octagon, but wouldn't top Dan Lauzon's record of 18 years, 14 days. Unfortunately, MacDonald's fight isn't likely to make the televised portion of the card.

Rory MacDonald's likely opponent is Mike "The Joker" Guymon (11-2-1). A fellow King Of The Cage champion, Guymon is currently on a five-fight win streak with one of his two career losses coming to current UFC lightweight #1 contender, Diego Sanchez. Guymon should prove a stern test for MacDonald.

More on this story as the fight approaches.

See complete UFN 20 line-up below:

Date: January 11, 2010
Location: Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia
TV: Spike TV

Nate Diaz vs. Gray Maynard
Evan Dunham vs. Efrain Escudero
Chris Leben vs. Jay Silva
Nik Lentz vs. Jeremy Stephens
Tom Lawlor vs. Aaron Simpson
Kyle Bradley vs. Rafael dos Anjos
Jesse Lennox vs. Rick Story
Nick Catone vs. Steve Steinbeiss
Mike Guymon vs. Rory MacDonald

Brock Lesnar's Ilness Finally Revealed, Carwin's Injury Not That Bad After All

It was revealed today that Brock Lesnar (4-1) is suffering from a serious bacterial infection of his intestinal tract. He's also suffering from mononucleosis, as was announced earlier. There's no word on whether the two conditions are connected or if it's just a terrible coincidence.

This revelation ends weeks of speculation in the MMA community, but questions still linger. It's not known how serious Lesnar's condition is or what the prognosis is for recovery. It's similarly unclear when, if ever, Lesnar can be expected to defend his heavyweight title.

The future of Lesnar's intended next opponent, Shane Carwin (11-0) is also up in the air. It was announced today that Carwin's leg injury is not as serious as once thought and won't require surgery. He'll be ready to compete in early 2010.

My best guess is that, with "Minotauro" Nogueira (32-5-1) sidelined by his own serious illness, Shane Carwin will probably face Cain Velasquez (7-0) early next year to determine a new interim champion. The winner could face whichever of Nogueira or Lesnar is healthy first.