(Legend has it that at the exact time the fight re-aired Randy Couture complained of a bizarre pain in his facial region.)

The UFC’s most recent counter-programming effort – a replay of UFC 91 free on Spike TV during this weekend’s Affliction: Day of Reckoning event – apparently did pretty well with its target demographic, according to a Spike TV press release.  The replay peaked with 3.3 million viewers, making it “the highest rated show among Men 18-34 in all of television (broadcast or cable) in its timeslot.”  

Okay, that’s a lot of conditional phrases.  It’s like us claiming to be the most popular website with the word “potato” in the name (so take that PotatoBlossom.org) that is also run by two guys named Ben.  See?  Not that impressive when you put it like that.  Although we are the ones lending a hand to New York MMA fans with our “lift the ban” petition, so give us some credit.

On the whole, the 2.5-hour event averaged 2.3 million viewers, according to Spike, "easily making UFC 91 the most-watched taped UFC event in network history."

Again, more conditionals, but the point is that even if you don’t think the UFC’s event replays work as effective counter-programming to hurt their competitors, they still reach millions of people and are the best thing Spike TV has going for it on any given Saturday night.  Sorry, “Manswers” fans, but it’s true.

(Jens Pulver finds himself in an all-too-familiar spot against Urijah Faber at WEC 38. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv.)

From JensPulver.com via MMA Mania:

Sucks to hear a legend like Pulver come face-to-face with the end of the line. But to me, Pulver’s loss to Urijah Faber on Sunday didn’t prove much — we already knew he couldn’t hang with the California Kid. Any fighter needs to do some serious re-evaluation after taking three straight losses, but the WEC can at least partially be blamed for Pulver’s last one. They’re the ones who booked him against Faber (again) after he was already on a two-fight skid, and didn’t let him postpone the match to March even though he was dealing with a new baby and the death of a close friend.

Between the two losses to Faber, Pulver got wrecked by Leonard Garcia, who may become the WEC’s next 145-pound champion. But in his first fight in the WEC, he choked out the very-respectable Cub Swanson in 35 seconds. Has Pulver really deteriorated that much in the last two years, or did he just run into Garcia on a good night, and Faber on any night? Why pack it in when you’re still skilled enough to beat good fighters (though not great ones), and when fans still love to watch you compete? Or is there no point when you know you’ll never be a champion again?

("Yes, thanks you very much for this commemorative dinner plate.")

Though we enjoyed much hearty debate about how quickly Affliction’s MMA promotion would crash and burn after "Day of Reckoning," the official company line is that a third event will be held this summer, possibly in Anaheim (again) or Atlantic City. As Tom Atencio told FiveOuncesofPain:

Atencio, like everyone else, expects Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett to headline this theoretical third show, saying "That’s what I’m hoping for but right now I’ve got to sit down with these guys and figure everything out." Sounds like they’ve got a lot of figuring to do, so we’ll just leave them alone for now. In the meantime, these post-"Day of Affliction" news bits may interest you…

— The paid attendance for Saturday’s event was 8,946 for a live gate take of $1,512,750, though some of those tickets could have been paid for by Affliction itself. If Tom Atencio’s total attendance figure of 13,228 spectators was accurate, then over 4,000 seats were straight-up given away. Affliction’s debut show, "Banned," brought in 14,832 total attendees. On the same night as "Day of Reckoning," 20,820 people packed the Staples Center in nearby Los Angeles to watch Shane Mosley take out Antonio Margarito.

Dana White’s UFC 94 video blog, episode 2 – Watch more Free Videos

In the second episode of Dana White’s UFC 94 video blog we get a look inside the taping of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and encounter a man identified as Dana White Sr.  Could this really be the father of the UFC prez?  The brief look we get at their relationship seems contentious yet oddly loving enough.  After that it’s off to NYC for more Pinkberry (so no more Men’s Health cover shoots any time soon, then?) and another race through the city streets.  Oh, to be rich and loaded on sugar.  Nothing at all about GSP-Penn in this episode, by the way.

Andrei Arlovski comes home to Chicago and thanks his fans for their support after his loss, which he attributes to a stupid mistake.  His cameraman, playing the role of the enabling sycophant, insists it was just necessary risk-taking, but Andrei knows better.  He also tosses another jab at “pee-pee-pee taster” Tim Sylvia, because that always makes a man feel better when he’s down in the dumps.

(You just hate to see a guy like Franca sidelined for anything other than a steroid suspension or drunk-driving arrest.)

UFC lightweight Hermes Franca has been forced to pull out of his scheduled bout with Joe Lauzon at Fight Night 17 on Feb. 7 due to a torn ACL, according to a post by Franca on the UG.  Franca said he injured the knee last Saturday and will now have it repaired.  He added:

Thank you UFC,my fans, friends for the support, i was training hard and i was so excited ,but there’s      nothing i can do, (could be worse), so Hermes franca will take a break for some recovery,and come back  stronger than ever like i always do!!!!

Nothing like referring to yourself in the third person to remind everyone that you are a professional athlete.  This is the second time in the last week that a scheduled opponent of one of the Lauzon brothers has had to pull out of a fight due to injury.  First Chris Horodecki failed his physical exam prior to a fight with Dan Lauzon, which meant “The Upgrade” had to face “Frantic” Bobby Green and get his testicles jostled.  Now Franca is hurt and the UFC will have to find a replacement to take on Joe Lauzon.

Lauzon, replying to Franca’s post, expressed his disappointment at the news and wished Franca a speedy recovery, real gentleman-like.  Then things got a little weird on the ol’ internets, with this remark from Franca:

(Who wants to have their weight proportional to their f*ckin’ height? Image courtesy of UFCGyms.com.)

Don’t renew your Curves membership just yet. From a new press release on UFC.com:

(Still the best heavyweight. Still the best personalized t-shirt.)

Heads up: In the wake of Affliction and WEC’s shows last weekend, we’ve updated our heavyweight, light-heavyweight, and featherweight Power Rankings. Every top-ten list has been updated at least once this month, so swing by and get to debating/complaining, and be sure to check in again next week as UFC 94 may have significant impact on the welterweight and light-heavyweight lists. Fighters that are sitting just outside the rankings include…

HW: The winner of Gonzaga/Carwin at UFC 96 will most likely enter the top ten; also, Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum are close

LHW: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Luis Cane

MW: Yoshihiro Akiyama, Thales Leites, Ronaldo Souza, Michael Bisping, Chael Sonnen

WW: Jay Hieron, Karo Parisyan, Nick Diaz, Matt Serra, Paul Daley, Mike Swick

LW: Jamie Varner, Frankie Edgar, Takanori Gomi, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Gilbert Melendez, Nate Diaz

FW: Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Hideki Kadowaki, Akitoshi Tamura, Joseph Benavidez

P4P: Lyoto Machida and Mike Brown

(BG)

Dana White’s first video blogging effort for UFC 94 seems intent on answering the question: who do pro fighters favor in this weekend’s B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre clash?  Fairly consistently, it seems like they think Penn has it wrapped up.  Some of that might be because Penn has kicked their ass or GSP has kicked the ass of their teammate, depending on who you’re asking.  

The other highlight near the end of the video is the appearance of Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, who is asked by Dana, “You ready to come fight here?”  By here, he means the WEC, where this bad boy is being filmed.  Yamamoto is hindered slightly by a language barrier, but he replies clearly, “Yeah, I want.”  Hey, sounds like a binding verbal contract to us.

(Don’t worry, it’s not all words.  There are even some pictures!)

The good news in the Affliction Pick-em Contest is that a few of you even managed to follow instructions, both by counting up your own scores and by not editing your posts after the deadline and disqualifying your own dumb ass.  Kudos for that.  

The bad news is that plenty of you failed to realize when tallying your scores that a) we scratched the Lauzon/Green fight, which you would have known if you actually read this site, so no one got any points for that, and b) Josh Barnett’s victory was officially ruled a submission, not a TKO.  That’s what happens when someone taps to strikes.  That, and they get called a bitch by B.J. Penn.

If you’re curious how we scored in this one, I beat Goldstein for the second straight event, this time by a comfortable 16-11 score.  Despite this magnificent triumph, I still fell short of our winner (though I would have gotten closer if “Baby Fedor” could have lasted another forty-two seconds in order to lose by decision.  Freaking ringside doctors think they’re so smart).

But you don’t care about us.  You just want to know who won the autographed copy of L. Jon Wertheim’s Blood in the Cage, right?

(An enormous head, filled with 12 pounds of cookie dough. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

We just wanted to share these quotes from Tito’s absolutely stunning broadcast debut at "Day of Reckoning," collected from these threads on the UG:

Sobral/Sokoudjou

"Here we are with Seraldo Babalu, you did an awesome job, saw why you’re a black belt in jiu-jitsu, getting an awesome submission there, I want to tell me what you see, let’s go ahead and see by the fight, what you saw, in the ring."

"You showed the dominance by getting the takedown and looking for a choke in that position. We know the weakness that you had, but you actually showed the heart and determination of a champion of how tough of a light heavyweight you really are, here in the Affliction card. What do you think of the future of you, um, future opponents?"

"Yes, and uh, my back will be better in about three months, so I know all the fans would love to see me and you get it on. You know what, you’re an awesome fighter, congratulations tonight. Everybody lets give a hand to Renato Babalu, one of the greatest light heavyweights, of the night."

Belfort/Lindland

"Matt the Lindland Law…The Law Lindland."

"Well, Belfort, we saw you with an astonishing left hand, that’s the left hand that I used to see you knock people out time and time again, we’re gonna go ahead and go over it. Walk me through it, show me exactly what you seen with this."

"Well, like I said, you show your hand-speed time and time again Vitor, 185 pounds, lady and gentlemen, let’s give Vitor Belfort a round of applause, an awesome 105 pounder, you just beat the number two guy in the world, buddy, you’re on top of the world tonight!"

"Wow! That’s all I got to say. Vitor at 185 pounds. I don’t know. I see him beating the, uh, what was it, Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart because you have two great boxers, and, man, that was amazing. That was the old Vitor Belfort that we all want to see. Him at 131 years old. He’s back for vengeance."

(Come on bro, the handicapped kid falling off his crutches in the middle of the road wasn’t *that* funny…)

BJ Penn on Hardcore Sports Radio, via MMA Mania:

BOOM. You know, if this whole fighting thing doesn’t work out, Penn has a future as an insult comic; he’s got the rhythm down perfectly. Can’t wait to see what other parting words the Prodigy has on the last episode of UFC Primetime, which airs this Wednesday on Spike TV. Assuming he was actually around for the the third episode’s taping, that is — and you can never tell with these hot-blooded Hawaiians.

St. Pierre‘s hype-building style is a little more reserved, but he still slips his shots in when he can. Check out the interview video below, where he brings out the classic "he have said a lot of bad thing about me" chestnut that worked so well for him before his second fight with Matt Serra, and clarifies that he’s also willing to fight Penn to the death, should it come to that. Damn…whoever’s reffing Saturday’s main event better make sure they don’t fall asleep on the job.

(Is there any situation not improved by sound effects from Super Mario Bros.?  Props: MMA Scraps.)

Freddie Roach has figured out what went wrong for Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night.  It’s simple really.  Fighting the world’s best heavyweight proved too easy.  This bored Andrei, prompting him to try the flying knee that he was not awake long enough to finish:

"He made a young man’s mistake," Roach told MMAInsider backstage. "It was too easy for him. He was winning the fight handily I thought, controlling the fight like we planned. He got a little cocky, and he tried the flying knee from too far away, no setup, and he paid for it. … But Fedor swings hard, that’s his thing. He probably had his eyes closed, but he just got lucky, I think. If we had followed a more disciplined fight, and kept to the game plan, I think it was going to be easy."

I agree with Roach on one point: Arlovski did make a mistake.  As for the rest of his explanation, it’s just more evidence that Roach doesn’t understand the differences between MMA and boxing.  In the boxing world, a man who wins via one-punch knockout after landing fewer punches than his opponent until that point is almost always the beneficiary of a lucky punch.  Not so in MMA, especially when that man is Fedor.

You can say he got lucky.  You can accuse him of closing his eyes and hoping for the best.  But you can’t explain away his record.  Arlovski may have helped him out with that mental error, but a right hand like Fedor’s sure improves a man’s luck considerably.

(The t-shirt with short shorts hidden underneath is not a good look for anyone, I don’t care who you are.  Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)

There was a lot to love and hate about Affliction’s second effort, from the free undercard on HDNet to the painfully moronic antics of  Scott Ferrall and Chuck Zito.  We’ve been crunching the numbers on every aspect of the event since it ended on Saturday night, and here’s what we came up with.

Fedor Emelianenko +312

The tough part about being Fedor is that it’s hard to do anything too impressive at this point.  Just winning isn’t enough.  As if sensing this, he went ahead and finished a top five heavyweight with a one-punch KO in the first round.  Now that’s sufficiently impressive.

Andrei Arlovski  -43

Let’s be honest: right up until he began feeling too good about himself and leapt into unconsciousness, Arlovski looked good.  His striking was sharp and accurate and fast, and he was using his reach well.  For about three minutes, he seemed like the better fighter.  And then…

Josh Barnett +30

Great, he pounded on a guy with no ground game for three rounds until said guy decided to quit.  Big deal.  This is exactly why this was a bad fight for Barnett.  There’s nothing for him to gain at this point by beating a guy like Yvel.  At least it clears the way for a fight with Fedor.  Assuming Affliction can hang around that long.

(Madison Square Garden — the Promised Land.)

Hey Potato Nation. As you might be aware, MMA competition has been banned in New York since 1997, during the height of the "human cockfighting" scare. Though 37 states including California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois, have passed laws regulating mixed martial arts, the Empire State is still officially opposed to the sport — and old, crusty, and illogical forces are at work to keep it that way.

But rather than complaining about the situation, we’re going to do something about it. That’s why we’re asking you to take a moment out of your day, go to our online petition, read it (that part’s optional), and sign it. The petition is directed at the New York Assembly Committee on Tourism, Arts & Sports Development, who sunk last year’s effort to get MMA sanctioned in New York, and will be voting again on the issue in the very near future. Our hope is that opponents of MMA in New York’s State Legislature will get a little more education on the issue, and realize that public opinion — which every politician lives and dies by — is firmly on the side of our sport.

We know what kind of emotion-driven, infuriatingly uninformed arguments we’re up against. We know that having to compete out-of-state affects Matt Serra’s performance. And I think we all agree that MMA should be legal everywhere in the country, particularly in a major city like New York. (I’m just saying, it would be nice to take a subway to a UFC event rather than an airplane.) Please spread the word about our petition to any MMA fans you know, and as always, keep hope alive.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION!

(And if you have a Digg account, please show some love.)

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly; gif courtesy of the UG.)

Former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber was able to score a victory over Jens Pulver for the second time last night at WEC 38 — and in 23 minutes and 26 seconds less than it took in their first meeting last June. Their co-headlining bout started fast and physical, with Pulver tossing Faber to the ground after a high kick attempt. But it wasn’t long before Faber drilled a vicious left hook to Lil’ Evil’s ribs, doubling over the former UFC champ and backing him up. Faber seized the opportunity and fired off punches until Pulver hit the ground, then followed Pulver to the mat and set up a fight-ending choke. The win earned the California Kid a $7,500 Submission of the Night bonus.

Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone also got some extra cash for the evening’s Fight of the Night, in which Varner defended his lightweight title and gave Cowboy the first loss of his career. Though Cerrone was the aggressor for most of the fight, and won many of the striking exchanges — thanks in large part to the long reach of his left high kick — Varner was able to take the challenger down at will, and inflicted major damage with his ground-and-pound. In the middle of round three, a punch from Varner opened a cut near Cerrone’s left eye that clearly inhibited his vision; his right eye was already swelling shut from previous abuse.

In the fifth round, Cerrone scored a successful takedown of his own, but made the mistake of bouncing a knee strike off Varner’s head while the champ was still kneeling. The action was immediately halted, and was never restarted, as a seemingly agonized Varner told doctors that he couldn’t see, and shouted "fuck!" more times than I’ve ever heard on basic cable. The fight went to the scorecards, where two judges saw it for Varner, and one judge (possibly blind himself) called it for Cerrone. The crowd booed Varner; distraught about how the fight ended, he told the fans "fuckin’ boo me, I’m better than that," and promised Cerrone a rematch as soon as he was cleared by the athletic commission.

Be honest, when Fedor’s legs went briefly wobbly at around the 0:17 mark, you thought to yourself, ‘Oh shit, Arlovski might actually do it.’  Then Arlovski jumped into one of those "overhand murderballs" that Goldstein warned against, and you remembered, ‘Oh yeah, it’s Fedor in there.’

More videos from last night’s fights after the jump.