Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

("I came here to catch dreams and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum." Photo courtesy of URdirt.com.)

According to a new post on M-1global.com, Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi has confirmed that he will be participating in a title fight at the upcoming "Fedor vs. Rogers" event on November 7th:

Yes, they're referring to steroid-using donkey-man Paulo Filho, who was recently engaged in a war of words with Mousasi. We're hoping that Filho is booked for this fight, because while Sokoudjou has been kicking ass in the highly competitive Super Hulk division, he hasn't beaten a top-level light-heavyweight in two-and-a-half years. (As you might recall, Sokoudjou's last fight at 205 pounds ended in him getting choked out by Strikeforce's previous LHW champion, Renato Sobral.) At least Filho poses a threat on the ground, even if he'd probably get the snot knocked out of him in the standup exchanges. The Reward Hunter most recently took a light-heavyweight tune-up match at last month's Bitetti Combat event, where he won a decision over TUF 1 vet Alex Schoenauer. In other Strikeforce news...

After years of watching Bob Sapp fight in Pride, K-1, and now Dream, I always assumed his pre-fight preparation involved weightlifting, a little bit of stairmaster while flipping through a copy of Self magazine, and a nightly regimen of practicing scary faces in the bathroom mirror.  But this video would have me believe that he's actually in the gym training MMA moves in advance of his Super Hulk tournament bout against Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou on October 6.  By training, really I mean he's throwing extremely slow strikes in between exhausted gulps of air.  But like the really fat people you see plodding their way through a slow motion workout at the gym, at least he's in there doing something, right? 

To give Sapp the benefit of the doubt, it's possible that this video was shot near the end of a grueling training session, and that's why the act of throwing ten consecutive kicks seems as though it might make his lungs explode.  Or it could just be that Sapp's body isn't made for prolonged periods of activity, and no amount of encouragement from Antonio McKee is going to change that.  Good thing he's got that acting career to fall back on. 

(Sapp gets embarrassed by Ikuhisa Minowa at the DREAM Super Hulk Tournament's opening round in May.)

With Gegard Mousasi out of DREAM's freaky-deaky Super Hulk tournament due to a Fedor-related shoulder injury, DREAM went back to the well to find a replacement. Unsurprisingly, they're bringing back Bob Sapp to take on Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in the GP's second round, which goes down at DREAM.11 (October 6th, Yokohama, broadcast in North America on HDNet). During the Super Hulk quarterfinals at DREAM.9, Sokoudjou snapped a two-fight losing skid by wrecking Jan Nortje, while Bob Sapp got leglocked by Minowaman. The following month, Sapp tapped to strikes against Bobby Lashley at "Ultimate Chaos."

Tangling with Sokoudjou could bring Sapp yet another painful loss, and incredibly, he has a kickboxing match in Hong Kong scheduled for the next day, and may have another MMA fight slated for the next week in Texas. Said Sapp:

(Props: BloodyElbow)

At least DREAM knows that their "Super Hulk Tournament" is a cartoonish freak show. Judging from the comic-book-style promotional clip shown above, they're taking it about as seriously as we are. I don't speak Japanese, but I was able to gather the following from context clues:

— Minowaman is a big fan of Kinnikuman, and vice versa.
— Hong Man Choi was relatively normal-sized as a child, but started to look like a Korean Rocky Dennis by the time he was a teenager.
— Jose Canseco is a filthy Communist.
— Jan Nortje is an ex-convict. If I had to guess, I'd say tax evasion.
— Like many Africans, Sokoudjou has the ability to speak to giraffes. His KO of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at PRIDE 33 was so beautiful it made Harrison Ford cry. (Ford is referred to here as "Indy Jones.")

After the jump: In the latest installment of Matt Serra's UFC 98 video blog, Matty does a media day in New York on two hours of sleep; as usual, Ray Longo is dragged along for comic relief. Also, Sean Sherk's workout at API is so intense we threw up just watching it.

#7: MAC DANZIG

A five-time King of the Cage lightweight champion with appearances in PRIDE and the WEC, Mac Danzig was one of the most seasoned mixed martial artists to ever appear on The Ultimate Fighter, and few were surprised when he blazed past guys like Ben Saunders, War Machine, and George Sotiropoulos to make it to the sixth season’s finals. After choking out Tommy Speer to win the contract and doing the same to Mark Bocek in his next outing at UFC 83, it seemed that Mac was on the fast-track to success in the UFC lightweight division.

Then, disaster struck — in the form of Clay “Energizer Blanket” Guida, who laid on top of Danzig en route to a unanimous decision last September. It was a frustrating setback, but we still thought the TUF winner would bounce back against Josh Neer at UFC Fight Night 17 in February. Unfortunately, Mac would fall short again, succumbing to a second-round triangle choke. Now, the once-promising fighter is just another scrapper at the bottom of the UFC’s lightweight ladder, and one more loss could spell the end of his run in the Octagon.

#6: BRANDON VERA

How’s this for a return-on-investment: The UFC paid “The Truth” a total of $76,000 in contracted salary for his first four wins against Fabiano Scherner, Justin Eilers, Assuerio Silva, and Frank Mir — all of them by brutal stoppage, mind you — then paid him $500,000 for his subsequent 1-3 stretch against Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum, Reese Andy, and Keith Jardine. Did the fat paychecks make him soft? Did his long legal dispute with his manager throw off his mental game? It’s hard to know for sure, but by the end of 2008 it was clear that this wasn’t the same Brandon Vera who entered the UFC’s heavyweight division three years before and rocked it like a hurricane.

After Vera’s split-decision loss to Jardine, Dana White lamented the disappearance of Vera’s killer instinct and passionate cockiness. But instead of firing him, the UFC gave Vera a chance to regain his confidence against an outmatched, out-of-shape Mike Patt at UFC 96 — at a drastically reduced pay-rate, of course. Luckily, Vera chopped Patt down and saved his job. The Truth is slated to return in August against Matt Hamill at UFC 102, in a fight that will either re-establish him as a rising star at light-heavyweight, or forever define him as an overpaid can-crusher.