At “Pride of a Champion,” newly inducted Hall of Famer Mark Coleman announced that he would be returning to the Octagon to fight Brock Lesnar. The match is slated to go down August 9th in Lesnar’s adopted hometown of Minneapolis; it will be Coleman’s first fight since losing to Fedor Emelianenko in October 2006 at PRIDE 32, and his first UFC appearance since 1999.

This is kind of like the UFC’s version of Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott — the much-hyped new crossover star against the faded veteran. The major difference is that Tank, even in his prime, wasn’t worthy of hand-washing Mark Coleman’s jock. And unfortunately for Brock Lesnar, his strengths are basically canceled out in this matchup. Brock was a dominant amateur wrestler? So was Coleman. Brock’s got scary ground-and-pound? Mark Coleman invented that shit. Lesnar’s only advantages are youth and athleticism. Does that trump Coleman’s 12 years of ring experience, during which he threw down with legends like Dan Severn, Don Frye, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, and Fedor?

In retrospect, putting Brock Lesnar up against Frank Mir in Lesnar’s first UFC fight was a bad, bad idea, and this could be just as bad, if not worse. Coleman lacks Mir’s submission mastery, but he’ll test Brock’s chin with his heavy hands, and he won’t go to the ground as easily as Mir did.

We’ve given EliteXC a lot of grief for protecting Kimbo Slice with cut-rate competition, but at least they understand how to build up a franchise star — one can at a time. I’m starting to wonder if building Brock Lesnar as an MMA star was even the UFC’s intention to begin with. Was Dana White’s secondary motivation behind signing him (after the huge PPV buys) to prove that pro wrestlers would get stomped by skilled MMA fighters? I’m not saying I would have particularly enjoyed seeing Lesnar face Justin McCully, but what happens after he goes 0-2?

(Brandon Vera drools all over Frank Mir.)

Hey, good morning.

The latest fight-booking news is that UFC heavyweights Brandon Vera and Fabricio Werdum will likely face each other at UFC 85, which is scheduled for June 7th at the O2 Arena in London. The paperwork hasn’t been signed yet, but the offers are officially out. This would be Vera’s first match after breaking his hand during a loss to Tim Sylvia at UFC 77 in October, and Werdum’s follow-up to knocking out Gabriel Gonzaga last month at “Rapid Fire.” At this point, we’d call the match for Vera, who will likely come out throwing fire in order to avoid a second-straight loss. Brock Lesnar is also rumored to be on the UFC 85 card, against a yet-unnamed opponent, who will probably be someone in the Eddie Sanchez/Antoni Hardonk range. Still, we wouldn’t rule out the UFC sacrificing Lesnar to a bigger name for a giant PPV payday — but then again, there aren’t many bigger names left in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

In other Octagon news, a twelfth fight has officially been added to UFC Ultimate Fight Night 13, which we’re pretty sure is unprecedented. To ensure that at least some fights on the card will be untelevised, the UFC has added a lightweight match between TUF 5 contestant Manny Gamburyan (who happens to be Karo Parisyan’s cousin) and Jeff Cox, who’s sole UFC fight was a submission loss to Gleison Tibau last June. This is the first UFN 13 matchup we’re like “meh” about, but hey, the more fights the better.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported today that the preliminary estimate of pay-per-view buys for UFC 81 was a big, girthy 600,000. As Meltzer wrote:

That show was not going to do more than 325,000 buys with the Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira match and a semifinal of Nathan Marquardt v. Jeremy Horn. In fact, that would be an optimistic expectation. So if this holds up, Lesnar was worth $12.36 million in overall revenue.

Adam Swift of MMAPayout explains that the figure may put UFC 81 among the all-time top-five UFC shows in terms of gross buys, and thanks to the $45 price tag, #3 in revenue after Ortiz/Liddell and Ortiz/Shamrock III. As Swift points out, the final number is usually significantly higher than the early estimates.

Swift also calls into question the sustainability of Lesnar’s drawing power, and the show’s success in taking wrestling fans who were first-time UFC buyers and converting them into regular fans. We’re of the opinion that Lesnar’s wrestling fans will keep paying for UFC events whenever he’s on the card — and only those events — meaning that Lesnar’s appearances will continue to translate to a spike in UFC PPV buys, but not an overall bump of the average buyrate. But hey, we don’t need those yokels anyway.

These things don’t last long on YouTube, so stop what you’re doing and watch. One major topic of discussion that has resulted from “Breaking Point” is Steve Mazzagatti’s questionable stoppage/point-deduction after Lesnar hit Mir in the back of the head. Though fighters usually get multiple warnings before a point is taken away for rabbit-punching (see most recently: St. Pierre vs. Hughes at UFC 79), Mazzagatti jumped in immediately, deducted a point, and put the fighters back on their feet. As the theory goes, Mazzagatti actually jumped in to stop the fight, but when he realized that it was a mistake, he covered his ass with an illegal-strike call. Did that cost Lesnar the fight? Let us know what you think…

All fighters made weight yesterday for UFC 81:

Tim Sylvia (261) vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (237)
Brock Lesnar (265) vs. Frank Mir (255)
Jeremy Horn (185) vs. Nate Marquardt (185)
Ricardo Almeida (185) vs. Rob Yundt (185)
Tyson Griffin (155) vs. Gleison Tibau (156)
Chris Lytle (170) vs. Kyle Bradley (170)
Tim Boetsch (205) vs. David Heath (205)
Marvin Eastman (185) vs. Terry Martin (186)
Rob Emerson (155) vs. Keita Nakamura (155)

I can’t remember the last time a UFC heavyweight weighed at the maximum of the 265-pound limit. From all accounts, Brock Lesnar will be looking enormous in the Octagon tonight, as illustrated in this report on Yahoo! Sports by Dave Meltzer:

Even though Lesnar is listed at 6-2 ½, he was slightly taller than Mir [6'4"]. At 265 pounds, he looked gigantic next to Mir, who weighed in at 255. Lesnar will likely be closer to 275-280 come fight time…

[Lesnar] is only the second man in the history of combat sports in Nevada to wear size 4XL gloves, the other being South Korean giant Choi Hong-man, who is 7-3 and 367 pounds…

Lesnar is guaranteed $250,000, the highest of anyone on the show, plus has a $200,000 win bonus. Generally speaking, most UFC headliners earn substantially more than their contracted guarantees. Mir, who has a chance to revitalize his career with a win, has a $40,000 guarantee with a $40,000 win bonus.

Not only is $250k per fight more than anybody else is making at “Breaking Point,” the figure puts Lesnar at the Liddell/Couture level of highest-paid fighters in the UFC. Quite an investment for someone who hasn’t proven himself in the Octagon yet. But if Lesnar’s WWE fans show up to support him with pay-per-view buys, he’ll easily earn his keep. The question is, will the hype of Brock Lesnar be enough to convince the UFC’s usual PPV-buyers to shell out for what could easily be dull event overall?

— The hype of Brock Lesnar washed over us like a dark, awesome wave.

— We ranked the members of the legendary Gracie family in order of importance.

— You bastards went all-out in the first Chuck Liddell caption contest, and three people won autographed copies of Chuck’s new book. Come back Monday and at least two more signed books will be up for grabs.

— Details started to leak about The Ultimate Fighter 7.

— We never thought we’d write the phrase “pit fighting” again, but here we are.

— We took our Power Rankings to the next level.

— The gory image of a post-fight Joe Stevenson compelled the Potato Nation to dispute the specific legalities of inserting fingers into orifices.

— What we do in life echoes in eternity. Also, a bunch of losers share a very ironic nickname.

— At the time of this posting, 39% of you think Frank Mir will beat Brock Lesnar by submission, while 38% of you think Brock Lesnar will beat Frank Mir by TKO/KO. We shall see, won’t we…

Since it was such a success* last time, we thought we’d take another crack at predicting which fighters will pocket tomorrow‘s end-of-night bonuses. But first we’d like to predict the amount of the bonuses themselves. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that the UFC’s Fight/Submission/Knockout bonuses have decreased from $55,000 to $50,000 to $35,000 over the last three pay-per-view events. After the last drastic reduction, the general opinion was that the amounts were going down to recoup some of the money lost to the UFC’s European expansion effort. Now that the show is back in the U.S., they can be a little more generous. And they will — but just enough to demonstrate improvement and shut people up. We’re saying the bonuses will be $40k each. Now let’s get to the fight card:

MAIN CARD
Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (heavyweights)
Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar (heavyweights)
Jeremy Horn vs. Nate Marquardt (middleweights)
Rob Yundt vs. Ricardo Almeida (middleweights)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Gleison Tibau vs. Tyson Griffin (lightweights)
Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley (welterweights)
Marvin Eastman vs. Terry Martin (middleweights)
David Heath vs. Tim Boetsch (light heavyweights)
Keita Nakamura vs. Rob Emerson (welterweights)

Knockout of the Night: Eastman vs. Martin is a battle between two good fighters who have had terrible luck in the Octagon. The winner will prove that he still belongs there; the loser could very well be banished forever. Thus, we expect both men to come out swinging their asses off. We were tempted to give this a Fight of the Night nod, but it feels too much like a first-round-TKO kind of match. Marvin Eastman has been knocked out every time he’s fought in the UFC. Four of Terry Martin’s last five fights have resulted in KO/TKO victories — and we think he’ll do it again tomorrow night, picking up the bonus in the process. Dark horse: Kyle Bradley. If you want to talk about good fighters who have had rough times in the Octagon, Chris Lytle is Exhibit fucking A (34-15-4 MMA record, 3-7 in the UFC). There’s nothing to suggest that his fortunes will improve at “Breaking Point,” and his opponent Kyle Bradley is a guy who has been paying his dues in regional promotions as a knockout artist. His current seven-fight win-streak includes five first-round KO/TKOs, and he could be on his way to adding one more.

Yeah, you’re probably sick of this one by now. But we thought we’d run it One! More! Time! as we enter the home stretch to Lesnar’s UFC debut tomorrow against Frank Mir. Lesnar’s opponent at K-1 Dynamite USA (6/2/07) was an overfed can whose most notable fights were losses against Bob Sapp and Don Frye. And what did we learn? Brock has no time for the customary pre-fight fist-bump. Yes, that’s ex-WWE superstar Bill Goldberg freaking the fuck out when his homeboy scores his first MMA win.

And sure, why not — here’s the video of Frank Mir breaking Tim Sylvia’s arm.

(It’s his party, and he’ll cry if he wants to!)

The usual UFC event parties hosted by fighters are being planned, one for tonight and another for Saturday when UFC 81 blows up in Vegas. Of course, you actually have to be in Vegas to join in the merriment.

Joe Daddy Stevenson – who fought at UFC 80, losing to BJ Penn – will be the man of the hour this evening at TAO, which is in the Venetian. On Da Strip, no less. It is open to the public and Joe Daddy will be there signing autographs with his blood and posing for pics starting at 10 p.m. (PST). Luckily, you’ll have two days to get rid of the hangover before the next par-tee.

On Saturday, Frank Mir will host a post UFC 81 party at Rum Jungle, which is in the Mandalay Bay. How convenient since that is where he will be fighting Brock Lesnar. This will be the party to be at since a lot of fighters and MMA execs usually attend the closest after-party. It’s being sponsored by Xyience Warrior Wear and MMA Warehouse. If you have trouble finding Rum Jungle, just follow the pieces of the penis tattoo that Frank Mir ripped off of Lesnar during the fight.

If trying to find Joe Daddy’s party, follow the blood trail.

He also talks about some other stuff, like his love of steak. But my goodness, if Lesnar can withstand the questions lobbed at him by these boring hacks, he can withstand just about anything. I got to the 4:41 mark before tapping out.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

I just came across this video from Brock’s WWE days, where he demonstrates a few of the exercises responsible for his behemoth-like build and athleticism. In particular, watch how he picks up that 180-pound log like it’s a toothpick. Though his technique on the heavy bag may be questionable, he certainly makes up for it in sheer aggression.

Of course, Brock’s physical abilities once convinced him that he could land a shooting star press from 20 feet away. But as long he avoids this sort of thing on Saturday night, he’ll be fine:

(Lesnar, pre penis tattoo.)

“If Brock Lesnar can back up all the things he’s saying, he might become the biggest star in mixed martial arts.”
–Dana White

Good God, the build-up to Brock Lesnar stepping into the cage this weekend at UFC 81 can only be likened to the feeling of downing three cans of refried beans with a twelve pack of Arrogant Bastard – then not being allowed access to the john. We’ve touched on this and have totally expected it, but when it’s actually here – it’s still a little overwhelming. Everywhere you turn, there is a Lesnar story, update, quote, picture of him scowling or a link to a new video. As if we couldn’t see enough of his penis tattoo…

As expected, the UFC is pushing the Brock drug on their site – they even print it twice on the page in case you have trouble reading it the first time:

UFC All Access: Brock Lesnar hosted by Rachelle Leah
Go behind the scenes to see how the former WWE star Brock Lesnar gets ready for a real battle against Frank Mir in his first fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The show’s premiere is this Thursday (January 31st) at midnight on Spike TV. It will show again on Saturday (February 2nd) at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. MMA Junkie also had a piece about the show. But wait…there’s more Lesnar for you pro-wrestling, NFL-hating fans. Bloody Elbow’s Luke Thomas has a good description of Lesnar’s abilities – or what we kinda’ know about them, at least via this video:

1. His striking is god awful. He has good power (I think), but this video clearly shows his rudimentary footwork and awkward guard position. People don’t realize it, but the stand-up game is incredibly complicated and takes a long time to master. 2+ years isn’t enough, not even for an athlete of Lesnar’s caliber.

2. He does look to pass the guard. This is a good sign for Lesnar. He’s not content to sit in guard. He actively works for better positioning once the fight hits the floor, a tactic that could easily overwhelm Mir if he’s not careful.

3. His wrestling is fantastic. We already knew this, but his reflexes in catching Kim’s kick and immediate knee-tap takedown are impressive.

4. He is aggressive from the outset. Expect Lesnar to close the distance on Mir very quickly and look to put him away with every punch or pass.

Beyond this, it’s hard to say anything else. We don’t know about his gas tank and we don’t know about his submission defense. I’m sure he’s working at break neck speed to bring those up to par, but until we’ve had a chance to evaluate them, they are unknowns. But all that and more could change Saturday.

Former pro wrestler and NFL failure Brock Lesnar will be on a Los Angeles radio morning show tomorrow (Friday, January 25th). The Kevin & Bean Show on 106.7 KROQ will have the phallic tattoo-sporting meathead on the air to promote UFC 81 and talk about his MMA future. Lesnar will be facing Frank Mir in a heavyweight battle on February 2nd at the aforementioned event.

If you aren’t in the L.A.-listening area, you can listen on-line.

So maybe David Heath will fight at UFC 81 after all. It was widely reported yesterday that David Heath was being dropped from the February 2nd card due to the lack of time to find an opponent. Heath was left alone in the octagon after Tomasz Drwal dropped out because of a knee injury. Well, looks like two fighters have risen to the challenge.

MMA Weekly is saying that Heath will fight Anthony “El Toro” Ruiz on the card, keeping the night at nine fights. Ruiz would be making his debut for the UFC. El Toro has been somewhat of a journeyman in his career and has been impressive in recent years. After three straight losses back in 2005 he has gone 11-2, including winning his last six fights in a row. Heath wouldn’t be the first UFC talent he’s faced, either. He beat Brad Imes – TUF 2 finalist – at the Palace Fighting Championship event last week. He also won via TKO against Bobby Southworth back in November.

But shortly after that report came out, the UFC claimed otherwise:

February 2nd’s UFC 81 card in Las Vegas is back up to a full slate of nine fights after Pennsylvania light heavyweight prospect Tim Boetsch agreed to step into the Octagon to face David Heath. Boetsch (6-1 in pro MMA) replaces Tomasz Drwal, who was forced to withdraw from the Heath bout due to injury.

According to Brock Lesnar in this new promo video for UFC 81, the outcomes in pro wrestling “may be pre-determined.” (!!!)

Dude, you’re going to break this guy‘s heart. Check out 81.ufc.com to see the rest of Lensar’s interview, as well as an interview with Frank Mir in which the former UFC heavyweight champ discusses his gameplan against Lesnar and the motorcycle accident that nearly ended his career.

Oh, and also? Lesnar isn’t really a big fan of the gays. Which is surprising coming from a guy with a big schlong tattooed on his chest.

Related: If you haven’t already taken the new poll on our homepage (“Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir — who takes it?”), please do so now.

As we roll towards UFC 80, the hype machine is already revving for UFC 81. I, however, still have the burr of Sokoudjou’s hype rammed up my ass and am going to proceed with caution. My particular focus is on the building hype surrounding Brock Lesnar, the former college wrestling champ, WWE champ, NFL shit-causer, Japan pro wrestling star and now undefeated MMA fighter (1-0). It was announced at UFC 77 that Lesnar had signed with the UFC, so we knew it was just a matter of time before we started hearing the hype drums in the distance. He faces off against Frank Mir on February 2nd in Las Vegas.

Lesnar’s story might be an interesting one, but only because he’s earned a reputation for pissing in the face of success. I’m not convinced he’s going to be a force in the UFC, but if he does pull his shit together and starts making waves, I wouldn’t be surprised if he bolted like he always does. However, if he does become a huge UFC force, I will erase this post and replace it with one where I predict Lesnar will be the next UFC king. That’s how I roll.

Let’s glance at our most recent hype example. The bad taste of The African Assassin’s loss has been particularly rank for bettors. Some of the lines had Sokoudjou and Machida almost even at UFC 79 with some giving the edge to Machida. Yet most sites like this one still suggested betting Sokoudjou. Message boards around the MMA world threw more fuel on the hype fire and by the afternoon of the 28th, it was being reported by BloodyElbow that wages were being placed overwhelmingly on Sokoudjou. Not that the Assassin didn’t have a shot. He had impressive KO’s in PRIDE, is a ball of muscle and those dreds look badass. But this is the UFC and Machida has been winning in Dana World already. He’s a counter strike specialist and his ground game is one of the best (notice BloodyElbow saw past the Sokoudjou bullshit).

Did we – and bettors – pay attention to this? We’d like to say yes, but the hype monster is too fucking strong sometimes and we don’t realize it until we see the guy we bet (Sokoudjou) on his back for most of the fight looking like a turtle flipped on his shell. I don’t blame us. We just want to be there when the next dominating fighter bursts on the scene — is that so wrong? So when you feel the urge to throw down your life’s savings on Brock Lesnar just because something inside is telling you to, that’s not intuition. It’s Dana White’s hype machine.Note: We should mention that one of Lesnar’s nicknames is “The Next Big Thing”. Subtle.

(Tim Sylvia-as-mongoloid sketch courtesy of tim-sylvia.com)

Perhaps trying to make himself look tough after being portrayed as a total feeb in Matt Hughes’ book, Tim Sylvia has been on a trash-talk streak lately. In Gary Herman’s post-UFC 79 column on 15rounds.com, the Maine-iac addressed Fedor Emelianenko’s decision to fight in M-1 Global rather than the UFC:

“I think he’s being a (expletive). I think Fedor is very good, but you have to fight the top level competitors all the time to keep that status, and he is just not doing that.”

(Plugging the column on Five Ounces of Pain, Herman revealed that the expletive in question was “pussy.”)

Calling Fedor a pussy is basically like spitting in the face of a member of the vory v zakone. I’d imagine an exchange like this went down before Tim dared to open his mouth…

Tim Sylvia: [knocking on Dana White's office door] Hey boss, gotta minute?
Dana White: [to self] Fuck. [to Tim] Yeah, what.
TS: Hey, yeah, you know that Fedor guy? The crazy Russian, Enemanenko or whatever?
DW: Yeah, what about him.
TS: He’ll never fight in the UFC, right?
DW: No fuckin’ way, him and his manager are dead to me.
TS: So you’re saying there’s no chance he’ll ever fight me?
DW: Fuck no, not on my watch.
TS: That’s aaaall I needed to know. Thanks boss! [leaves]
DW: [to self] Christ, what an asshole.

The rumors are true — Fedor Emelianenko will be fighting in Japan on New Year’s Eve, according to an announcement on Greg Savage’s Savage Radio Show. And now for the truly bizarre details…

— The fight will not be M-1 Global’s first event. Instead, the event is being organized by a Japanese outfit called Hustle Pro Wrestling. It looks like Fedor’s already taking advantage of the wiggle-room in his M-1 contract.

— His opponent will be Hong Man Choi. Choi is a 7’2″, 352-pound behemoth, who, according to MMA Junkie, “suffers from a rare disease that causes him to continue growing throughout his life.” Which must be really frustrating during weigh-ins.

— Choi built up a 12-3 record in the K-1 kickboxing league, but has only one MMA fight to his credit, a 16-second TKO victory over Bobby Ologun, who weighed nearly 150 pounds less than him.

— Choi was supposed to be Brock Lesnar’s first MMA opponent, at the K-1 Dynamite!! USA show in June, but the California State Athletic Commission wouldn’t clear him to fight, reportedly because of a benign tumor on his pituitary gland. Lesnar went on to cream replacement Min Soo Kim in 69 seconds, and we’re left to dream of what could have been…

UFC.com has reported that ex-WWE star Brock Lesnar’s first opponent in the UFC will be former heavyweight champion Frank Mir; the fight will go down on February 2 in Las Vegas. Mir is best known for his controversial June 2004 title match against Tim Sylvia, where referee Herb Dean stopped the fight 50 seconds into the first round after Sylvia’s forearm snapped in an armbar. Sylvia didn’t tap out, and refused to acknowledge that his arm was broken:



Mir was badly injured in a motorcycle accident three months after winning the heavyweight belt, and has been 2-2 since then. Still, he’s an ideal matchup for Lesnar; as much as fans want to see Lesnar challenged in his first fight, they also don’t want to see him steamrolled by a superstar at the top of his game. And Mir, who has scored six of his ten professional wins by submission, will certainly put Brock’s wrestling skills to the test. I’m not prepared to make a prediction at this point, so instead I’ll present my favorite paragraph from Tim Sylvia’s wikipedia page:

“Despite having been the UFC heavyweight champion and earning six-figures per fight, Tim Sylvia is always seeking new sources of revenue. While champion, he attempted to sell a Playstation 3 on eBay for well over retail price (although he did generously offer to autograph the box.) He also once, while still UFC heavyweight champion, raffled off the opportunity to go bear hunting with him in Ontario…tickets were $100 each, and ticket sales were limited to 100. This adds up to $10,000. There was nothing in the raffle to indicate that the money would go to any sort of charity, or to anyone other than Sylvia himself.”

The most shocking moment of UFC 77 was the announcement that former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar has decided to switch his career focus from works to shoots, signing with the UFC as a heavyweight fighter.

As of now, Lesnar’s professional MMA record is a scant 1-0. Now, if I was an a-hole, I might say something like “Wow, a pro wrestler? The depths that Dana White will sink to inject interest into his flailing, star-less heavyweight division…” But I’m not that kind of a-hole. The truth is, Lesnar was absolutely terrifying as a amateur wrestler, amassing a 106-5 record in four years of college; his single pro fight resulted in a very credible submission-via-strikes victory over Min Soo Kim at K-1 Dynamite; and he might be the most physically imposing MMA fighter since Bob Sapp. Remember, this is a guy who once power-bombed a freakin’ shark:

It’s rumored that Lesnar will make his UFC debut at a February 2, 2008, event in Las Vegas, and we’re already looking forward to the WWE-style trash-talking. Stay tuned for the details of EliteXC’s imminent signing of “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Superfly Snuka…