Today marks the 14th anniversary of UFC 1, and Dave Meltzer has a great tribute to/history of the groundbreaking event at Yahoo! Sports. Some highlights:

— Though it was marketed as “banned in 49 states,” it wasn’t banned anywhere at the time; the banning would come later.

In the market for a pre-owned vehicle? Well heads up, because Randy Couture is auctioning off the limited edition H2 Hummer that Dana White gave him for participating as a coach on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. The bidding is supposed to start today, so go to Xtreme Couture for details and a full photo gallery of the vehicle in question. It hasn’t been confirmed if Randy is selling off the Hummer to make room in his garage for a more environmentally conscious Toyota Prius, or if it’s just a petty “fuck you” to Dana White, but we’re guessing it’s the latter.

It looks like some scabs will be crossing the WGA picket line after all — specifically, the ones on Forrest Griffin’s face. CBS, the network responsible for such quality programming as The Unit and Shark, could be making a further committment to MMA with one or two UFC-related prime-time specials. The Los Angeles Times has reported that CBS is in negotiations with the UFC, and hopes that these specials could provide a hedge against the ongoing writers strike.

If you’re wondering how the UFC could arrange this so soon after negotiating an exclusive contract extension with SpikeTV, keep in mind that 1) the UFC is exclusive to Spike only in the cable market, and can pursue other opportunities in network television, and 2) both the CBS Corporation and SpikeTV’s parent company, Viacom, share Sumner Redstone (pictured above) as their Chairman. And if you’re wondering how Redstone’s hand got so jacked-up, click here and scroll down to “interesting facts.”

Before he fought Tito Ortiz to a draw at UFC 73, Rashad “Sugar” Evans scored his tenth consecutive win by way of a nasty high kick against Sean Salmon. As Joe Rogan so eloquently puts it, “WOOOOOOOOOOW!”

Note to Michael Bisping: Your strategy against Evans at UFC 78 should closely reflect this classic Wu-Tang jam.

According to Canvas Chronicle, Tim Sylvia will face Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira at UFC 81 for the vacant heavyweight title. Feel free to harass the Chronicle’s editor Ric Gillespie (ric@canvaschronicle.com) until the bastard reveals his source.

Ultimate Ultimate Knockouts, a DVD collection of the all-time greatest K.O.’s in UFC history, hit stores today. Among the fighters featured are Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, but the most frightening knockout on the disc comes from David “Tank” Abbott’s jaw-dropping debut against John Matua at UFC 6. Looking at Matua — a 400-pound beast who, as Michael Buffer manages to say with a straight face, is “a practitioner of Kuialua, the brutal Hawaiian art of bone-breaking” — you’d think he’d be the favorite against the beer-bellied Abbott. But Abbott makes his presence known immediately, punching Matua so hard that he ends up in an Awakenings-style paralysis, and then mocking him for it.

These days, Tank Abbott is seen as a relic of simpler times, when strikers couldn’t be bothered with learning how to grapple. He’s lost seven of his last nine fights (including once to Frank Mir). But on that night…he was brilliant.

UFC.com has reported that ex-WWE star Brock Lesnar’s first opponent in the UFC will be former heavyweight champion Frank Mir; the fight will go down on February 2 in Las Vegas. Mir is best known for his controversial June 2004 title match against Tim Sylvia, where referee Herb Dean stopped the fight 50 seconds into the first round after Sylvia’s forearm snapped in an armbar. Sylvia didn’t tap out, and refused to acknowledge that his arm was broken:



Mir was badly injured in a motorcycle accident three months after winning the heavyweight belt, and has been 2-2 since then. Still, he’s an ideal matchup for Lesnar; as much as fans want to see Lesnar challenged in his first fight, they also don’t want to see him steamrolled by a superstar at the top of his game. And Mir, who has scored six of his ten professional wins by submission, will certainly put Brock’s wrestling skills to the test. I’m not prepared to make a prediction at this point, so instead I’ll present my favorite paragraph from Tim Sylvia’s wikipedia page:

“Despite having been the UFC heavyweight champion and earning six-figures per fight, Tim Sylvia is always seeking new sources of revenue. While champion, he attempted to sell a Playstation 3 on eBay for well over retail price (although he did generously offer to autograph the box.) He also once, while still UFC heavyweight champion, raffled off the opportunity to go bear hunting with him in Ontario…tickets were $100 each, and ticket sales were limited to 100. This adds up to $10,000. There was nothing in the raffle to indicate that the money would go to any sort of charity, or to anyone other than Sylvia himself.”

Yahoo! Sports has reported that Sean “Muscle Shark” Sherk — who tested positive for an anabolic steroid in July after his title defense against Hermes Franca at UFC 73 — will remain the UFC’s lightweight champion. Dana White had originally planned to strip Sherk of his title, but changed his mind due to his frustration with the California Athletic Commission. Sherk has denied taking steroids, and appealed his one-year suspension, but had his hearing postponed until November 13 when members of the CAC realized they had not received a 17-page brief that Sherk’s attorney had submitted on his behalf. “The way this whole thing has been handled has been a mess,” White said.

UFC lightweights BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will fight for an interim title at UFC 80, with the winner potentially facing Sherk after the case is settled. We at CagePotato wish Sean the best in his fight against the California Bureau of Whatever; just because a guy looks like he’s on every steroid under the sun, doesn’t necessarily mean he is. Let’s give the man a fair shake, people.

[Refresh page every few minutes to read the latest verbal brutality from Dana and the gang (and my own take on it). Enjoy.]

Today at 1 p.m. PT, UFC prez Dana White and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta will hold a press conference to address recent statements made by Randy Couture and answer questions for the media. MMAjunkie.com reports that UFC’s chief financial officer John Mulkey will also participate in the press conference, hopefully to illuminate some of the mystery behind the UFC’s signing bonuses, “locker-room bonuses,” and pay-per-view percentages. The press conference will be streamed live on UFC.com; stay tuned for wild liveblogging action, which will hopefully run a lot smoother than last time.

[Refresh page every few minutes to read my sage insights. Enjoy.]

3:55-4:15: Spent the last 20 minutes downloading bullshit plug-ins to listen to audio on Yahoo! Sports. Jesus H. Christ. What did I miss? Dana is fielding questions…

4:17: UFC was talking to HBO for a TV deal, but it fell through. They’ll still be on Spike. So, it’s more of a non-announcement.

4:18: “As far as I’m concerned, [Randy Couture] is still the heavyweight champion.”

Today at 4 p.m. ET, the UFC will hold a media conference call to announce a new television deal, as well as the signing of Brock Lesnar and the UFC 79 fight between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.

A half-hour later, Randy Couture will be holding a press conference in Las Vegas to explain his disassociation with the UFC — and hopefully comment on his future plans. Couture’s press conference will be broadcast live on HDNet as well as on ProElite.com. (Hmm…could this mean a signing to EliteXC is a possibility? Could a Randy Couture/Kimbo Slice fight be far behind?)

Stay tuned for live-blogging madness…

UPDATE: The UFC media announcement will be broadcast here.

The most shocking moment of UFC 77 was the announcement that former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar has decided to switch his career focus from works to shoots, signing with the UFC as a heavyweight fighter.

As of now, Lesnar’s professional MMA record is a scant 1-0. Now, if I was an a-hole, I might say something like “Wow, a pro wrestler? The depths that Dana White will sink to inject interest into his flailing, star-less heavyweight division…” But I’m not that kind of a-hole. The truth is, Lesnar was absolutely terrifying as a amateur wrestler, amassing a 106-5 record in four years of college; his single pro fight resulted in a very credible submission-via-strikes victory over Min Soo Kim at K-1 Dynamite; and he might be the most physically imposing MMA fighter since Bob Sapp. Remember, this is a guy who once power-bombed a freakin’ shark:

It’s rumored that Lesnar will make his UFC debut at a February 2, 2008, event in Las Vegas, and we’re already looking forward to the WWE-style trash-talking. Stay tuned for the details of EliteXC’s imminent signing of “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Superfly Snuka…