(Sonnen and Okami: Bros before foes.)

By CagePotato.com contributor Mike Russell

When Chael Sonnen was asked after beating Yushin Okami at UFC 104 whether or not he was upset that his fight was relegated to the undercard, his reply was:

“We got men and women at war right now – they got real problems – so me complaining about where I come out on the card would be very arrogant. But with that said, there are guys that I’m opening the show for that would never fight after me had Okami not been my dance partner. They call him Yushin “Thunder” Okami, I call him Yushin “Anchor” Okami; he pulls people down, whereas if you get a fight with me – if you get me on the docket, I’m going to pull you up. I’m going to get exposure and attention and people to care about the fight and “Anchor” Okami’s got the opposite effect. So was it annoying? Yes.”

Two months later the Team Quest middleweight apparently had a change of heart, and invited his former opponent to stay with him for a month at his home in Oregon to help kick off the training camp for his UFC 109 showdown with Nate Marquardt on February 6.

“I’m actually on my way to practice right now and Yushin is sitting next to me in the car.”

The UFC sent out an email today announcing the ticket pre-sale for UFC 109 in February.  Maybe it’s just a lighting issue, but this poster really drives home the geriatric nature of the fight card.  Between Randy Couture and Mark Coleman, you’ve got 90 years worth of life experience in one event.  God forbid anyone gets them talking about how much things used to cost when they were kids, or what the best episode of "Matlock" was — they may never actually get around to fighting.  Instead they’ll both just nod off in front of Fox News and then wake up briefly confused about which grandchild you are.

But while we have to wait for UFC 109 to finally tell us which aging legend still has more steam left in him, there’s at least one point of contention we can settle right now.

(‘Have I won yet?’ Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Despite his belief that he is the "number one freaking contender" in the UFC’s welterweight division, Josh Koscheck is going to have to wait until Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy do their thing in March before he’ll get a chance to act on it.  Koscheck wants to fight once a month in 2010, so odds are he’s not going to be content with just sitting around and working on his memoir (tentatively titled, What Are You Looking At, Geek?) until then.  In the meantime, a rematch between Koscheck and Brazilian police commando Paulo Thiago seems to be in the works for UFC 109 in February. 

It makes sense.  The first time they met Kos seemed to be in control until a surprise uppercut from Thiago floored him, leaving him complaining about an early stoppage and thus generating our very own ‘WTF is your problem?’ rule.  Thiago looked competent, though not spectacular against Jacob "Christmas" Volkmann at UFC 106, so why not see if his win over Koscheck was just a beautiful fluke?  Of course, this isn’t without its risks for our bleached blonde friend.

(Whaddya say, old-timer? One last job, for all the Lipitor?)

According to Sherdog, UFC hall-of-famers Randy Couture and Mark Coleman have verbally agreed to a light-heavyweight headlining match at UFC 109 (February 6th, Las Vegas). Combined age for the fight: 90. At 46 years and five months old at the time of his decision win over Brandon Vera last weekend, Couture is the oldest person to score a victory in the UFC. (If only Ron van Clief had pulled off the upset.) Coleman, who made his Octagon debut at UFC 10 in July 1996, has had the longest career of any fighter currently under contract with Zuffa.

The pairing tells us two things. First, that the UFC realizes a razor-thin decision over Brandon Vera isn’t enough to throw Couture directly into a 205-pound title fight; he’ll need at least one more win over somebody he can beat, preferably by stoppage. And second, that the UFC is absolutely desperate for headlining bouts. Couture vs. Coleman may turn out to be a #1 light-heavyweight contender’s match, but it certainly doesn’t deserve to be. Unfortunately, there are no bigger fights available to main-event the card. Though a middleweight title match between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort was previously expected to headline UFC 109, Belfort says he may be fighting someone else at the February show.

Fun fact: In 1989, Couture and Coleman met in a freestyle wrestling match at the 1989 Olympic Festival at Oklahoma State; Coleman won by one point. So you can expect the UFC to start referring to this fight as a "MAIN EVENT GRUDGE MATCH."

(Renzo owns Maurice Smith in 50 seconds at the Rings King of Kings tourney in December 1999. Fight starts at the 1:35 mark.)

We should have seen this one coming as soon as Lorenzo Fertitta "popped his tweet hymen" by asking fans if they’d like to see Renzo Gracie in the UFC. Fertitta must have gotten more yays than nays, because according to Heavy.com, Gracie is being penciled in for a scrap against Matt Hughes at UFC 109 (February 6th, Las Vegas).

Though Renzo has had a long career in vale tudo and MMA, this would be the first time he competes in the venue that his family made famous. However, he hasn’t fought at all since his disqualification win against Frank Shamrock at EliteXC: Destiny in February 2007. By comparison, Matt Hughes’s last appearance was his unanimous decision over Matt Serra in May.

At 42 years old, Renzo nicely falls into that beatable aging legends category of opponent that Hughes is currently pursuing, at the expense of more meaningful fights against those AKA jokesters. We wouldn’t say Hughes vs. Gracie (Not That Gracie) is a bigger fight than Hughes vs. Swick, but it definitely gives Matt a better chance of retiring gracefully. And in the end, isn’t that what we all want?

Rolles Gracie loses his Fight Virginity – Watch more Funny Videos

Here’s a fun MMA trivia question for you: when is the last time a member of the Gracie family won a fight in the UFC?  If you said 1995, you’re wrong.  That was when Royce Gracie fought to a draw against Ken Shamrock.  The correct answer is 1994, otherwise known as the Cretaceous Period of MMA, when Gracie defeated Dan Severn to win UFC 4.  But Rolles Gracie Jr., the son of deceased jiu-jitsu legend Rolls Gracie, has reportedly signed with the UFC and is expected to make his debut against Mostapha Al-Turk at UFC 109.  So does this mean the Gracie drought in the UFC is finally over?

Short answer: probably.  Al-Turk has yet to win a fight in the UFC after two attempts, and he’s never been known for his submissions prowess even outside the Octagon.  Gracie, as you probably guessed, is pretty good on the ground.  In addition to his jiu-jitsu accomplishments, he’s won all three of his professional MMA bouts via submission, though he’s yet to really face any tough competition.  As for the UFC, you can bet they’d like to see someone with such a famous name in the MMA scene make a run, so starting him off with a relatively easy fight against Al-Turk only makes sense.  The only question on our minds is, does this mean we’re going to see the Gracie train entrance make a triumphant reappearance?

After the jump, watch Rolles do a little grappling, with mixed results.