highlights

(Props: CRE)

The best UFC highlight-reel of the week comes from BH, who has compiled some of the greatest Octagon moments of 2008-2009 (and Nick Diaz's 2007 PRIDE fight against Takanori Gomi, for some reason) — into this uplifting clip. Using Coldplay to soundtrack an MMA video is a risky move, but it actually works here, in a "Where the Hell Is Matt?" sort of way. From Akihiro Gono's legendary entrance at UFC 94 to the various disappointments of Chuck Liddell — it's definitely worth a look.

After the jump: A Lyoto Machida-specific highlight reel from firelotus09. Just like Lyoto's fights, the action doesn't start right away; if you're impatient, skip to the 1:43 mark and prepare to be Dragon'd.

(Chuck picks the exact wrong time to go to his happy place.)

I know, I know -- more Chuck Liddell stuff.  But remember Howard Davis Jr. saying that Liddell needed to work on avoiding right hands and keeping his eyes open when the punches are coming at him?  Well, Zak over at Watch Kalib Run found this picture of him doing neither, and it really drives Davis Jr.'s point home.  Turns out keeping your eyes open is pretty crucial to avoiding punches, and avoiding punches is pretty crucial to winning fights.

If you want to feel even worse for Liddell, TMZ has a somewhat strange video of his pre-fight warm-up (thanks to OB&I for the tip) and Fightlinker has a gif of Dana White nearly knocking Chuck down with a friendly slap on the back in the Octagon. 

If you want to be reminded that it wasn't always depressing losses and the inevitable ravages of age for "The Iceman," we got you covered after the jump.

(ESPN talks redemption with "Shogun" Rua.)

While much has been made about the ‘dazzle me or hang ‘em up’ ultimatum that Dana White issued Chuck Liddell in the press, the man across from him in the Octagon is also in an obviously dire situation.  Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is 1-1 in the UFC and has yet to look like he belongs in a light heavyweight division thick with talented fighters.  But unlike Liddell, Rua’s problem isn’t that he’s slowing down as a natural side effect of age.  Instead he seems to have lost his explosiveness while at the same time developing the cardio of a toddler.

There are two commonly offered explanations for why this happened to the man who looked like Pride’s best 205-pounder just a couple years ago.

1) Knee injuries, followed by surgeries and rehab, have left him with too little time to train hard, resulting in him fighting at far less than 100%.

2) Now fighting in the UFC and subject to actual drug tests, he has to perform without the oft-rumored pharmaceutical assistance that was said to be rampant in Pride.

(Props: fightface.blogspot.com)

It's the start of another month, which means it's time to check out the latest highlight reel from Facey. The March '09 edition features Matt Hamill's thunderous head-kick KO of Mark Munoz, David Gardner's "Hello Japan!" epic fail, Shane Carwin's triumph over Gabriel Gonzaga (watch the inset to see proof that Carwin's victims always fall into an Indian-style sitting position), Jose Aldo's latest destruction, King Mo body-slamming another Asian, the Jackson/Jardine war, Mike Brown's first title defense, and more. Great stuff, as always.

Below: lookoutawhale's new installment of the "Riddum Revenge" series, a short but sweet tribute to George St. Pierre's superman punch.

(Props: TheGarv)

If you missed the UFC's video tribute to Charles "Mask" Lewis during UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann, check it out after the jump.

Loyal readers of this site know how much we love video highlights and lists of things, so it should be no surprise that we really enjoyed the latest effort from KingAtRock (who you might remember from such videos as this one or that one).  So yeah, we probably would have posted this regardless, but it sure didn’t hurt that he gave us a little shout-out at the end.  Let this be a lesson to the rest of you: never underestimate the power of pandering to our collective ego.  

On the real though, this is a pretty solid list of upsets.  It does seem a little strange, considering what we know about each man’s career trajectory, to think of Rashad Evans’ brain cell-destroying knockout of Chuck Liddell as an upset.  At the time it was a shocker, sure, but now it seems like we probably should have seen it coming.  Who knows, maybe someday we’ll be saying the same thing about Thales Leites’ dramatic victory via flying triangle choke over Anderson Silva.  Probably not, though.