Videos

(All hail the new Cro Cop. Props: lqdocelot19)

Dream Welterweight Grand Prix champion Marius Zaromskis — who recently scored his third-straight first-round head-kick knockout at Dream.12 — has signed a multi-fight contract with Strikeforce, according to Sherdog. The 29-year-old Lithuanian will still be able to compete in Dream, but could make his U.S. debut at Strikeforce's December 19th event in San Jose. As you can see on Strikeforce.com's fighters section, Zaromskis's awesome but slightly-racially-tinged nickname "The Whitemare" has been changed to the more generic (but still appropriate) "Raging Demon."

It's a fantastic pickup for Strikeforce, which has been basically waiting for Nick Diaz to get his shit together before they can crown somebody their welterweight champ, to the great disgust of Jay Hieron. Now, Zaromskis can take on Hieron for the vacant belt if Diaz continues to act squirrelly, or kick the crap out of someone like Joe Riggs to establish himself in America first. More to come...

Semi-related: Undefeated lightweight prospect Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm signs two-year contract with Strikeforce.

Fighter Knocked Out by Brutal High Kick - Watch more Funny Videos

It takes about fifty seconds for this Sambo match to get started, but once it gets underway it isn’t long before someone catches the old head kick express bound straight for Concussionville.  Once there he’ll be greeted by Mayor Memory Loss and the fine gentleman from the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Brainbleeding.  Come, let them take you on a tour of the town, from the Vertigo River to the Migraine district.  Okay, this flight of fancy has officially gone too far, but I could only stare at the computer screen trying to come up with a Yakov Smirnoff Soviet Russia joke for so long before something in me just snapped. 

The point is, they don’t play around in Sambo.  Not only do you get dropped on a hard surface after your brutal head kick KO, you wake up to the sound of polite applause while some guy holds your feet in the air.  I think I’ll stick with grappling tournaments, thanks. 

(Props: SNETCF)

With UFC 106 poppin' off in three weeks, it's time for the replacement headliners to start selling their match. In the above video, Tito Ortiz talks about going from a wrestling-based training camp for Mark Coleman to switching things up for Forrest Griffin. He says that main event status is comfortable for him, and that the pressure is on Forrest. And of course, he takes time to dump some hate onto his old nemesis Lyoto Machida for running his way to a "robbery" decision against Shogun Rua last Saturday: "Step up and be a man and fight, man. This is MMA, this is not boxing where you win by points...I'm going to look for a knockout, or I'm just gonna look to hurt [Griffin]. My job is to prevail and to make sure I entertain the fans who watch."

After the jump: A somewhat less focused interview with Forrest Griffin, in which he and Ron Frazier touch on Griffin's refusal to wear condoms, to the great disgust of Todd Duffee.

(Antoni Hardonk vs. Sherman Pendergarst @ UFC 65, 11/18/06)

Leg kicks may not seem impressive to everybody, particularly certain MMA judges whose names rhyme with Schmecil Feeples, but as anyone who has ever been hit with a good one knows, they really, really hurt.  Sometimes they hurt so much that you want to quit fighting.  Other times they hurt so much that you have to quit fighting.  Still other times they just gradually chip away at you until you're a fraction of the man you were when you entered the cage.  Leg kicks are not only an effective weapon that deserves to be scored with some respect for their cringe-inducing power, they can also end a fight.  They have ended fights, in fact, and probably will end a few more before this grand MMA experiment draws to a close.

And so, as a tribute to the power and majesty of the leg kick, we offer the following.  Take note, Cecil.

(Props: DrTurboFightChannel)

Before he was a spinach-eating heavyweight wrecking machine, Alistair Overeem was just a wiry kid with a dream. Here's the video of his MMA debut at the age of 19 against the very insane-looking Ricardo Fyeet, at the first "It's Showtime" event in the Netherlands in October 1999. It's amazing to see how far Overeem has come in the last ten years. Check out his broke-ass gong-and-dash when the fight starts at the 1:45 mark, and that sad attempt at a guard-pull at 3:01. In what would later become a recurring theme, the Demolition Man manages to finish his opponent by guillotine choke. Overeem didn't have long to savor the victory; he fought again just four days later at a Rings event in Tokyo, losing to Iouri Kotchkine by majority decision.