(He knew that if he lost to a guy with a bleached-blonde ‘fro all the murderers and crooks back home would never let him live it down.)

One of the genuinely interesting fights that’s being largely overshadowed by all the epic-ness on the UFC 100 fight card is the Jon Fitch/Paulo Thiago Battle for the Honor of the American Kickboxing Academy.  Or, if you prefer, you can think of it as our opportunity to find out whether Thiago is for real, or just a guy who landed one lucky punch on Josh Koscheck.  Either way, the fun story on Thiago is his day job as a BOPE officer in Brazil, which is basically a special forces police unit with the coveted title of “deadliest military force in Latin America.”  

Here’s what Thiago had to say about his work to Fighters Only:

“I live through ordinary situations for a person who chose such an occupation,” Thiago shrugs when asked about his day job. “We pray for action like shooting or whatever. I cannot use the aggressiveness like in MMA but I had to submit and strike many times during my job. I don’t like to hurt people but I had to fight them.”

(Combat Lifestyle captures Bisping’s wrestling practice at the brand new TapouT training center in Las Vegas.)

Here’s Michael Bisping, or as he will soon come to be known, “Johnny Takedown,” working on his wrestling skillz in advance of his UFC 100 bout with Dan Henderson next weekend.  You’ll recall that we previously laughed off the idea that Bisping might try and take Hendo down rather than just focusing all his energy on trying to stay upright.  And sure, maybe double-legs were only 10% of a wrestling practice that was 90% about sprawling and scrambling back to the feet.  Still, training takedowns this close to the fight makes it seem suspiciously like Bisping intends to turn Henderson’s greatest strengths against him.

If that is the plan, it’s now officially the worst kept secret in MMA.  Imagine how shocked Henderson would have been to see Bisping shoot for a takedown right off the bat.  Not now though.  After his wrestling coach blew up his spot and these pictures hit the internet, it’s safe to say the element of surprise is gone.

(The secret to a good striking workout with Frank Mir?  Tell him that the focus mitts called him chubby.)

After Brock Lesnar’s unfortunate UFC debut against Frank Mir you may be wondering whether we’ll see the same full-steam-ahead Lesnar that got himself kneebarred in the first encounter, or whether he’ll look to change it up for the heavyweight championship showdown at UFC 100.  Well, as long as it’s up for debate, Mir would like to offer a suggestion via an email sent out by the UFC.  It goes a little something like this:

"If Brock really comes out and tries to abandon the running at me, heads over heels and just trying to knock, bull rush me over, I honestly think that’s his best approach," said Mir, with a black shine circling his eye. "I would just come after me – take a chance, ’cause to sit there and play the cat and mouse game with me, and jab and slip and move around, I think that’s a slow death for him that he can’t possibly win."

(This night was going so well, and then Bisping just had to launch into a chorus of "Rule Britannia" and make everyone uncomfortable.)

Here’s a crazy idea for you: what if Michael Bisping decided that instead of making his gameplan at UFC 100 all about avoiding the takedown and keeping the fight on the feet, he went out and tried to take Hendo down?  You know, Hendo as in Dan Henderson.  The former Olympic wrestler who has lately been winning fights purely by holding people down and battering their faces until they look as bad as he does.  What’s that you say, it would be a ridiculously poor and self-destructive strategy?  Well maybe you should tell that to Bisping’s wrestling coach, Zach Light:

"He will take Dan Henderson down more than one time in the fight. He will, that’s how he is going to win the fight. That is how I see it. When they start trading I think Mike will win the scrambles. Dan is a great scrambler but in a scramble situation I think Mike is going to come out on top every time.”

Okay, there are two ways we can interpret this remark: