Tiki Ghosn

(You may not like Tiki's signature facial hair design, but you have to respect the amount of work he's willing to put into it just to let the world know that he is not to be taken seriously. Photo by Esther Lin.)

If you saw the confrontation between Rashad Evans and Team Rampage assistant coach Tiki Ghosn that was edited out of a recent episode of “The Ultimate Fighter,” then we don’t have to tell you that things got heated in a hurry.  Just like a family reunion, one minute it’s idle talk and the next minute we’re headed out to the parking lot for a fight.  Cooler heads, as they often do, prevailed in the end, and no “Never Back Down”-esque parking lot fight occurred, but Tiki wants you to know that a) he was definitely going to do it, and b) Evans is obviously scared of him: 

“Rashad is a good fighter; I’m not going to tell you any different, but at the same time he's an asshole and I want to shut his face up. Seriously, Rashad hasn’t faced the caliber of strikers I have in my career and only after he fights a couple of top end elite strikers can he talk - until then he has no business criticizing me. It got old real fast watching him get in our faces just to play up to the cameras, so I said 'you know what lets settle this outside like men'. Of course he backs down and starts running his mouth to get out of the situation - I could see the fear in his eyes when we were making our way to the parking lot, he doesn’t want to mix it up with me at all. Seriously, I was seconds away from laying him out but I had to restrain myself because the cameras were rolling.”

This video from MMA4Today is entitled "MMA Is Not Enough," but it could just as easily be called "The Agony of Defeat."  It's basically four-and-a-half minutes of the saddest, most vulnerable moments in the lives of some of the sport's best fighters.  Remember that Sesame Street video "Everybody Sleeps"?  Think of this as the MMA version: Everybody Loses.  Except Fedor.  For the purposes of this analogy, he's the shark of the MMA world.

After the jump, another boxing knockout, plus Tiki Ghosn gets tough with Rashad Evans in an "Ultimate Fighter" scene from the cutting room floor.

(Tiki vs. Robbie Lawler @ UFC 40, 11/22/02. What? He just got cut. And Rasputin just got a little wet.)

If you were listening closely during last night's episode of "The Ultimate Fighter," you might have heard Team Rampage assistant coach Tiki Ghosn commiserating in the locker room with a frustrated "Rampage" Jackson after yet another loss.  Tiki doesn't exactly seem like he's in the kind of friendship with Jackson that would allow him to question the coaching strategies that led them to this point, so instead he joined in on the bitch session by throwing his hands up and saying, "We can't fight for them." 

That's true.  The only problem is, Tiki has never won a fight in the UFC.  Not once in his eleven-year, 11-7 career.  He's had four fights in the Octagon and lost them all.  He's never even made it into the third round of a UFC fight, if we want to get technical.  That's not to say that he necessarily sucks.  He did beat pop sensation Genki Sudo in his pro debut, and he's currently riding a two-fight win streak.  But lest Tiki be allowed to go around disparaging the abilities of the Team Rampage UFC hopefuls as if he's some kind of future hall of famer, we thought a little Tiki Ghosn career primer was in order.  Enjoy.

(Sak: Felled by a weeping sore.)

Helloooooooo! Anybody still alive out there? It seems like the entire MMA world has clocked out early to get a jump on their Good Friday parties. Here's the news we were too disinterested to mention up until now, when we really have no choice:

— Due to visa problems in Brasil, Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos has been forced to pull out of his match against Joey Villasenor at next Saturday’s Strikeforce/EliteXC event. Said Strikeforce veep Mike Afromowitz, "The delay in his arrival would jeopardize him getting licensed in time for the fight..we’re still looking to finalize a replacement.”

— Unrelated to the Santos drop-out, a match between welterweights Tiki Ghosn (9-7) and Luke Stewart (5-0) has been added to the undercard of the Strikeforce/EliteXC show. Ghosn has lost his last four matches; though he's done well in smaller promotions, he went 0-4 in the UFC and 1-3 in WEC fights.

— Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza has been added to DREAM's middleweight tournament — which will kick off April 29th in Japan — and has been working out at Xtreme Couture with Wanderlei Silva and Robert Drysdale. Souza has been undefeated since losing his professional debut at Jungle Fight 1 in 2003, and has never been out of the first round.

— And why isn't Kazushi Sakuraba participating in the DREAM middleweight tournament? "I got a small scab on my leg which was [s]till bleeding." Aw come on man, you gotta fight through that!

— The new EliteXC/CBS TV spots, starring Kimbo Slice, can be seen here.