UFC 98

If it wasn’t for bad luck, Strikeforce’s upcoming “Carano vs. Cyborg” card wouldn’t have any luck at all. Despite the best intentions, some MMA events are destined to be magnets for injuries, unwelcome surprises, and other bizarre occurrences. But which events have been screwed by fate the hardest? Knock on wood, grab your crotch, and read on…

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#10: UFC 67: All Or Nothing, 2/3/07

The aptly-titled “All or Nothing” event was the first UFC pay-per-view in nearly a year to lack a title fight by the time it finally took place.  That’s all the more disappointing when you consider that it had two a couple months out from the event, pitting TUF “Comeback” winners Matt Serra and Travis Lutter against the champions in their respective weight classes.

The first title fight went down the drain when Georges St. Pierre injured his knee during training and had to put off the fight with Serra (and we all remember how that went when it finally happened).  Fortunately they still had Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter to fall back on…right?  Only Lutter failed to make weight for his title shot, downgrading his “Rocky” storyline to a “Bad News Bears” one.  Instead they just had themselves a normal old three-rounder, with Lutter holding his own in the first round before getting triangled/elbowed to death in the second. What fun.

#9: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida, 5/23/09

The event that famously launched “the Machida Era” only included Lyoto as a last resort. Originally, the card was to be headlined by the heavyweight title scrap between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, until Mir informed the UFC that he was still recovering from knee surgery. The main event was then changed to a light-heavyweight title fight between Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, but Jackson — who had just gone the distance with Keith Jardine two months earlier — bowed out due to lingering hand and jaw injuries. And so, the UFC decided to give a well-deserved light-heavyweight title shot to that weird Brazilian guy with the unibrow.

If you’re Rashad Evans, that would be enough to make this one of the unluckiest fight cards ever. But UFC 98’s string of setbacks extended to the supporting cast as well. Josh Koscheck pulled out of the event due to a broken toe and was replaced by Brock Larson; Koscheck’s scheduled opponent, Chris Wilson, missed the show because of incomplete paperwork. James “Born Under a Bad Sign” Irvin suffered one of his many knee injuries and was replaced by Xavier Foupa-Pokam. Yushin Okami also went down with a dodgy knee and was replaced by Chael Sonnen. And finally, hard-luck-case Houston Alexander broke his hand during training and was replaced by Krzysztof Soszynski. Later, it was discovered that the MGM Grand Garden Arena had been built on an Indian burial ground.

(Throw the damn towel, indeed. Props: MMA Videos.)

We in the MMA world always assumed that Fedor Emelianenko was Ivan Drago.  You know, if you take away the height and impressive build and advanced training techniques and replace them all with the opposites of those things.  Only now do we see how wrong we were.  Lyoto Machida is clearly the unbeatable destroyer of worlds with the funny accent, leaving us only to wonder, who's Rocky in this analogy?  "Shogun" freaking Rua? 

After the jump, Raw Vegas goes to Wal-Mart to watch "Rampage" Jackson sign some boobies.  It's a pretty decent life, even without the UFC light heavyweight title. 

(Lyoto may have put an entire weight class to sleep on Saturday. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Over the last couple years, we've heard the same lines repeated about the UFC's marquee weight-class: The light-heavyweight division is freakin' stacked. Eight or nine of the top ten 205'ers in the world live there. It's a shark tank, where any fighter could be champion on any given day. But after Lyoto Machida dethroned Rashad Evans in a lopsided sparring clinic at UFC 98, it suddenly didn't feel that way any more.

If Machida can defeat Quinton Jackson later this year — and there's no reason to think he won't, since Jackson's increasingly one-dimensional boxing style is virtually tailor-made for Machida — he'll establish an Anderson Silva-like dominance over the light-heavyweight division; the contenders in his weight class will appear relatively weak since nobody can touch him. Or maybe the UFC's light-heavyweights really have gotten weaker. Let's run it down...

(When you've got a championship belt on your shoulder and 200k in your pocket, all the ladies want a piece of you — even the old and busted ones. That's your mom @ 0:37-1:01. Props to TATAMETV.)

The fighters who did battle at UFC 98 took home $1,196,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses, according to figures released today by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Though Rashad Evans came into Saturday's event with the highest to-show salary in the building ($200,000), Lyoto Machida tied his purse when bonuses were added in, and Matt Hughes actually surpassed both of them thanks to his bumps. The numbers — which don't include any undisclosed backstage palm-greasing — are below...

Matt Hughes — $260,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus and $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Lyoto Machida — $200,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus and $60,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Rashad Evans — $200,000
Matt Serra — $135,000 (includes $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Brock Larson — $102,000 (includes $21,000 win bonus and $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus)

(Props: MMA Bloodbath)

If you were paying attention during UFC 98, you probably noticed that every time referee Yves Lavigne was introduced, he was booed as if the crowd just saw a video of him farting on sandwiches. No, it wasn't leftover hate from the Brown/Sell fiasco — the crowd actually turned on him thanks to his controversial handling of the preliminary match between Kyle Bradley and TUF 8 lightweight finalist Phillipe Nover. Taking a look at the video above, we see the following...