Frankie Edgar

Sean Sherk’s last two fights against B.J. Penn and Tyson Griffin respectively have seen him trying to reinvent himself as more of a boxer than the one-dimensional wrestler we’ve come to know and tolerate.  But will he really stick with that approach against Frankie Edgar who, as you can see, has some decent hands of his own?  Current Vegas odds have Sherk as slightly better than a 2-1 favorite, which makes sense if you think about the way he’s outwrestled opponents like Hermes Franca and Kenny Florian, and then compare it to the way Edgar was flat out dominated on the mat by Gray Maynard.  

But if Sherk gets caught up trying to please the fans and placate the people who say he can’t finish fights and isn’t entertaining to watch, he’s rolling the dice.  So which Sherk will we see on Saturday -- the boxer or the wrestler?  And will it matter?

('You may now resume bartering!')

Fedor Emelianenko and the rest of the Affliction/M-1 traveling circus showed up to ring the Nasdaq opening bell this morning, thus signaling that everything is going to be a-okay in the financial world.  Just to make sure everything went smoothly, Fedor again wore his special sweater.  Either that's the only article of clothing he brought to America, or Fedor didn’t go back to his hotel room last night because he wandered around the city looking for scary rollercoasters until morning.

- Sean Sherk will not be wrestling Roger Huerta out of the UFC, as was initially rumored, but will instead be taking on Frankie Edgar at UFC 98.  Edgar, who's coming off a win over Hermes Franca at UFC Fight Night 14, was held down for three rounds by Gray Maynard for his first UFC loss back in April, so at least he knows the drill by now.

- A bout between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Mark Coleman is rumored to be a possibility for UFC 99 in Germany this summer.  Dana White said he wouldn’t offer Cro Cop a one fight deal to accommodate his retirement plans, but says he’s open to bringing him back if they can come to terms.  The other opponent the UFC may be offering him?  Tito freaking Ortiz, seen above bro-ing down with Affliction.  

“UFC sources” say that they’d like to get Ortiz back for the Germany show to cash in on his popularity over there.  Apparently he’s a sort of MMA David Hasselhoff, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  The biggest obstacle between a Cro Cop vs. Ortiz or Coleman bout right now (aside from the fact that only one of those three men is under contract with the UFC) is the difference in weight classes.  Cro Cop doesn’t want to cut to 205, it seems.  Someone should remind him that Alistair Overeem is considering signing on as a heavyweight.  See if that doesn’t change his mind while also creating an ache in his loins.

(Props: MMA Fanhouse)

In this UFC 90 hype video Rich "No Love" Clementi claims that he was the only lightweight willing to step up and fight Gray Maynard, and he did so because he's the type who "looks for challenges and adversity." No disrespect to Maynard here, but since when did he become the guy who makes all other UFC lightweights run and hide? What, he holds Frankie Edgar down for three rounds and now we're supposed to believe that the UFC has trouble finding an opponent for him?

This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder if matchmaker Joe Silva isn't feeding all the fighters the same lines, like an unimaginative pick-up artist. Either he tells you that they're offering you this fight because you're the only one with the balls to take it, or else he says the winner gets a title shot. What's weird is that those are the same pick-up lines I use. The results so far have been...mixed.

Check out the heavily edited and still kind of lame highlight clips of both Clementi and Maynard during this video. Notice how they include Maynard's submission-inducing slam of Rob Emerson, but cut it before you have a chance to realize that he knocked himself out in the process. Clever. Also, is it just me, or are most of Clementi's highlights not really so highlight-y?

(Looks like Jesse Taylor picked the wrong week to quit drinking. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

The UFC's always fluctuating end-of-night bonuses totaled $25,000 apiece for Saturday's "Silva vs. Irvin" event. The four lucky men who left the Palms one-fortieth of a million dollars richer are...

Knockout of the Night: Rory Markham for his skull-crushing head-kick KO of Brodie Farber.
Submission of the Night: CB Dollaway for his "Peruvian Necktie" choke of fellow TUF 7 castmember Jesse Taylor.
Fight of the Night: Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca for their three-round tussle that Edgar took unanimously thanks to his takedowns and GnP.

The must-see Markham/Farber knockout is below, and the Dollaway/Taylor scrap is after the jump — and we threw in Cain Velasquez's beatdown of Jake O'Brien for good measure. (If you find a working link for Edgar/Franca, please post it in the comments section.) Serious props to MMA TKO.

Videos removed by request...

(No ice cream makes Brandon Vera sad.)

Yesterday, we reported on the July 19th event that the UFC was throwing together — definitely not in an effort to siphon off interest from Affliction: Banned, by the way — which will be headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin (ha!). Though the event isn't listed on UFC.com yet, it's being widely referred to as "UFC Fight Night 14," and some notable matchups are coming together:

Brandon Vera will reportedly be making his light heavyweight debut against Reese Andy, a 7-1 Octagon newcomer and IFL vet who holds notable wins over Kala Kolohe Hose, Jamal Patterson, and Krzysztof Soszynski. Vera makes the move to 205 just six weeks after his UFC 85 loss to Fabricio Werdum.

UFN 14 will also see the return of Jake O'Brien — who was dropped from the UFC after losing to Andrei Arlovski in March — as he's been re-acquired to take on AKA heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez.

In the welterweight division, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson (who most recently beat the freckles off of Tommy Speer at UFN 13), will reportedly return to the cage to do battle with Kevin "The Fire" Burns, who's coming off a shocking choke-out of BJJ black belt Roan Carneiro during his Octagon debut at UFC 85.

And finally, the source is unclear but MMA Weekly and MMA Junkie are listing Frankie Edgar vs. Hermes Franca on the UFN 14 card; the lightweight bout had originally been announced for UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on August 9th.

More to come...