UFC 84 After Parties: Arianny vs. Dana

If you’re planning on attending UFC 84 in person, there are at least two after parties scheduled with big names attached as hosts: You’ve got the UFC’s #1 ring girl Arianny Celeste making an appearance at Hawaiian Tropic Zone, and Dana White (no photo available) hosting the official “Ill Will” jammy-jam at Privé. In case you’re having trouble deciding, we’ll run it down for you.

Arianny’s party has an open vodka-bar for ladies until midnight (i.e., awesomely drunk girls); Privé offers no such hookup. Both clubs will surely feature hot bartenders, but the ones at Hawaiian Tropic Zone will all be wearing bikinis. When Arianny eventually shows up and makes her way to the velvet-roped VIP section, she’ll probably be rolling in with Edith Labelle, and their hot friends, and any fighters they’re friendly with (and Ariel Helwani, probably!). When Dana shows up just before closing time, he’ll be in a sour mood from whatever Tito’s post-fight t-shirt slogan is, and he’ll be trailed by the TUF 7 castoffs who followed him in just to kiss his ass. On the other hand, everybody wearing an Affliction shirt will be denied entrance at the UFC’s official afterparty, which could significantly decrease the douchebag ratio.

Questions?

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Still Life With Faber and Watermelon

Tracy Lee of Combat Lifestyle has a new photo set up of Urijah Faber during one of his predictably brutal days of training, followed by a rare day off. Check it out, particularly if you’d like to see Urijah with his hair in some broke-ass cornrows, and Tracy in a bikini. (They may not be real, but they’re still fabulous…)

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Burnt Ends: Lindland, ChuckTV, Ali Sonoma + More

(An early trailer for the upcoming UFC video game.)

The boring but important notes and errata currently floating around this crazy MMA world of ours…

— THQ’s planned UFC video game has been give a rough release date of Spring 2009, which will coincide with “one of the UFC’s major events.”

— Affliction is reportedly close to locking down Fabio Negao as Matt Lindland’s opponent at their debut event on July 19th. Negao (8-3) is a veteran of the Super Challenge and Fury FC promotions who last competed in December, losing to Rousimar Palhares via first-round leglock submission. (Translation: He’s kind of a scrub.) Pedro Rizzo, who’s fighting Josh Barnett at the event, claims that it will indeed take place in California, most likely at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

— The UFC is trying to distract its fans from the fact that a historic MMA event is taking place on May 31st by scheduling a Chuck Liddell-themed programming block on SpikeTV that night. At 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, Spike will premiere “Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddell,” a documentary chronicling Liddell’s life inside and outside of the Octagon. Directly following at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT will be “Liddell vs. Silva: UFC Unleashed - Special Edition,” featuring the UFC 79 fight between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, which has never been broadcast on cable. The UFC might be clever, but I have a DVR, which makes me more clever.

— The WEC has already sold out nearly all of the 8,000 seats in the ARCO Arena’s lower bowl for WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver, and will be releasing tickets for seats in the upper sections for a quite-reasonable $35 bucks a pop. If you’ll be anywhere near Sacramento on June 1st, go get ‘em.

— Ali “#3″ Sonoma will be appearing on the fifth season of ABC’s The Mole, which premieres June 2nd. Catch a glimpse of her in the background on the promo vids at ABC.com.

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Possibly the Best Argument Yet for MMA Regulation in New York

(Could this tragedy have been avoided?)

“I fought in Canada two weeks ago versus a Canadian. So that big 22,000-people crowd was booing my name. How would you feel about that? It was awful. If I fought the same guy in Madison Square Garden things could’ve been different.” — Matt Serra, addressing New York state legislators yesterday.

Racked with guilt over Serra’s loss in Canada and moved by his eloquent oratory, the New York State Legislature declared that the ban on MMA competition would be lifted immediately; furthermore, MMA would henceforth be recognized as New York’s official sport, and May 6th would be known as “Matt Serra Day.”

No, not really. But the UFC is making a heavy push to get New York to fall in line with the other 32 states that now sanction MMA competition in the U.S., sending Serra, Matt Hamill, and Zuffa’s Executive Vice President/general counsel Lawrence Epstein to plead their case in Albany. “We need to educate people about the sport and I think when people have certain perceptions, when confronted with evidence, those perceptions change,” said Epstein, who cited MMA’s increased safety measures since the sport was banned in New York eleven years ago by Governor George Pataki. The UFC lobbyists were also eager to point out the economic incentives enjoyed by UFC host cities, claiming that UFC 82 generated over $11 million in revenue for Columbus, Ohio.

So was their trip a success? Epstein had this to say:

“We’re battling everyday and I think we’ve come a long way, and you know there are always going to be those who don’t investigate this or look at it as deeply as we’d like them to. I guess we will continue to have that, but I think we’re over the hump.”

(Props: FightOpinion)

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Did Forrest K.O. Kimbo? No, and You’re a Pussy

(“Oh, my daughter’s going to be so excited that I met Jay-Z!”)

Via Fightline.com — Kimbo Slice responds to the rumors that he was knocked out by Forrest Griffin in a recent sparring match at Xtreme Couture:

“No, there is no truth to that at all. It’s bullshit and Forrest Griffin will tell you that it’s bullshit too. The fact is it was a good sparring session and I was training with Forrest and he was talking to me about defending yourself at all times and then he threw a big kick and I was like, ‘WOAH I never even seen that coming’. But no, I never got knocked out. Even if I did get knocked out, saying that and putting that rumor out there just makes you a pussy.”

Wait a minute, so did you or did you not get knocked out? And why are you choking that old lady? Is she your accountant’s wife or something? Did she tap or nap?

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I’m Just Sayin’…

Sean Sherk before his completely unjust steroid suspension:

Sean Sherk now:

Maybe it’s a bad angle, but is the Muscle Shark looking…I don’t know…narrower to you?

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Travis Lutter Wants His Damn Money

Our friend Ariel at MMARated did an audio interview with Travis Lutter shortly after he was cut by the UFC, and if you’re curious about where “The Serial Killer” goes from here you should give it a listen. Lutter still sounds a little dazed by his layoff — and bitter that he was cut while other two-time-losers like Kendall Grove are still in the mix — but there were some interesting revelations. For example:

— After his dismissal, Lutter e-mailed Dana White about the $36,000 that Xyience still owes him. That e-mail has not yet been returned.
— When he said that fans of MMA suck, he was specifically referring to the ones that send him hate mail; according to Travis, the only person who deserves that kind of hate mail is Osama Bin Laden. [ed. note: I know, right? If only we had his address!]
— Since his firing, he’s been called by the IFL and HDNet/Affliction; he’d love to fight Matt Lindland.
— Lutter still doesn’t know why he gassed against Rich Franklin. He also hasn’t watched the fight yet, because he doesn’t feel like it.
— He says “y’know” more than maybe anyone else in the world, ever.

If you’ve still got love for Lutter, listen to the interview at MMARated.com.

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