I really hope Lorenzo Fertitta is calling Dana White right about now, starts off with a huge sigh of disappointment and says:

"I should have quit my casino job about a year ago. --another sigh-- I just watched Affliction's , as you called a T-Shirt company's, PPV event and I gotta ask you Dana, W..T..F... Better yet, How TF did you F that up? Why wasn't this a UFC card? Crazy Russians you said? Who cares if they wanted a few bum Red Devil fighters bundled with Fedor? So what? We have bums fight all the time in UFC! I mean, take tonight for example! I wish you didn't have that black mail on me, so I could Fn get rid of your rude "personality" and non existent negotiation abilities. Did you see Arlovski? Did you see Barnett? Did you see Fedor? WTF Dana!"

Anyways, as of now I only caught the few last fights of the event and in short it was awesome!

• John McCarthy is one of the most elloquent commentators/interviewers ever and who comes with the unmatched experience of being "in" the most fights ever. He was always good in interviews, but he was great as a commentator. Why didn't UFC add him on their commentating team?
• Production Quality - who cares!? It's about the fights for me, but I liked the whole "boxing like" atmosphere and the production was pretty good for a first event.
• Celebrities - Affliction by far beat UFC Fight night in this category. UFC had like what? Usher and some basketball dude who was texting instead of watching fights. PFFFFT! Affliction had like a whole part of the show where they showed Donald Trump and announced like over ten+ other celebrities. Say what you will Dana, but "T-Shirt" companies do pretty good with celebrities cause they like "all the cool kids are wearing it" t-shirts.
• Josh Barnett is one the top guys at heavy. It was a pretty good fight and he knocked Pedro Rizzo out cold with a hook ala Roman Zentsov, in a sense that Rizzo fell the same way after a hook. After the fight he said he wanted to avenge his loss to Rizzo from 7 years ago, I don't believe it though. Come on, Rizzo used to be tough, used to. He had way too many knock outs in recent years and since this event was Barnett's return to US and a big deal, he played the revenge angle to get an easy fight. No matter, he'll take other top competition after this warm up.
• Andrei Arlovski was awesome in his third round TKO victory over Ben Rothwell. Arlovski was the agressive fighter he used to be during his UFC heavyweight champion days. He did it all, flurries of puches, kicks, flying knees and leglock attempts. Rothwell did ok for a while but Arlovski kept a fast pace. Rothwell did have a good chance to do some damage after Arlovski's failed leglock attempt, but didn't take full advantage of it.
• Donald Trump is a pimp and I'm glad he's somehow involved in Affliction's  or WAMMA's or whatever event. He was all up Lennox Lewis during last apprentice because he likes fighting. So hopefully he can make an impact in MMA too, especially if this event was any indicator of what may happen in the future.
• Many thousands of Afflictions shirts in one place was making me dizzy. I hope they can scale back on requiring everyone to wear them, especially Fedor's old coach. It was just wrong.
• Fedor Emelianenko is freakin awesome! He yet again proves everyone why he is the number one heavyweight fighter in the world! Cause he is Fedor, that's why. Again when everyone is doubting his chances against an ugly huge and dangerous monstrocity in Tim Sylvia, an effective UFC representative in this case in my opinion, Fedor comes out and punches Tim Sylvia with such ferocity and speed that Sylvia falls where Fedor follows up  to punch him some more, take his back and choke Sylvia out! Fast, furious and easy. About 30 seconds is all it took to dispose of Dana's boy. Dana's next best boy is Noguera who Fedor already beat 3 times!

The stars lined up for Affliction's event tonight, the fights turned out great and they shut Dana's big mouth up with Barnett, Arlovski and Fedor having awesome performances. I don't know who else they have on payroll as far as fighters go, but I'm willing to bet there will be many fighters trying to get involved with these guys. I hope Affliction made good money or please investors to do another event or more.

Oh, ya, I almost forgot a minor happening at the event.  Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture does actually look like a possibility, cause Fedor said he's interested and Randy came out to say he is too and called Fedor a TOVARISH. He messed it up, but at lease he tried. Respect was the aura of that face off. I can't wait for it and will definitely be buying it. If you consider yourself an MMA fan YOU should too, even if you split it with your buddies that's ok too.

 

I think Tim The Lame-iac Sylvia is lame. Why? This loss to Nogueira is a prime example of why Sylvia is lame.  He could possibly have the heavyweight belt all to himself to parade around on his scooter and M-16 in remote areas of Midwest while listening to snappy honky-tonk country songs. Like in his numerous prior outings in UFC he was fighting a hurt fighter and couldn't not finish him no matter what. It was like that against and injured and hurt Arlovski, against a hurt Vera and again last night against a hurt Nogueira. Only this time it was Sylvia who hurt Nogueira, so it should have been painfully obvious to him that he should just go in for the kill instead of just flailing his arms. He has the size and physical attributes that he needs to hurt people standing and thwart most takedown attempts to keep it standing. What he doesn't have and may never will is killer instinct and aggression to go out there and finish fights without being afraid of getting banged up a little in the process. That's why he is lame.

As soon as the fight started it was very obvious that Sylvia had the reach and size advantage over Nogueira. In the begining of the first round both fighters did some light striking with Sylvia getting more in. Nogueira tried a half hearted attempt at a takedown and pulled guard, which moments later Sylvia just stood out of. Some where mid first round, Sylvia slipped to the left and landed a left hook and right cross combination right on Nogueira's chin sending him down to the mat. Sylvia pounced on Nogueira, landing in his guard to try to finish the rocked Nogueira, but couldn't and eventually stood out of the guard again. While standing, Sylvia failed to land any significant punches again and Nogueira actually managed to finish a single leg takedown and landing in the side mount only to have the round end.

Getting the takedown in the first round probably gave Nogueira some confidence in his ability to take Sylvia down again, but in the second round he didn't manage take Sylvia down at all. Sylvia though continued to land shots throughout the round. In the third round Nogueira gain shot for a takedown and instead of pushing through, he rolled under Sylvia and pulling a half guard. From there he was able to reach under Sylvia's other leg and managed to sweep him. He immediately passed guard to sidemount and moments later went for a step over armbar. Sylvia rolled to his knees and Nogueira switched to an arm in guillotine choke. Sylvia quickly tapped.

Nogueira took a lot of punishment but found a way to win after being nearly out. He is one of the most resilient fighters out there. I was very happy for him and his win, but I'm really starting to doubt his longevity in the sport. I hope these last two fights were just a streak of bad luck and he won't be nearly out again in his next championship defense. Will his recent performances draw out Couture for one more fight?  Or is Mir next in line? Both would be good fights.

What's next for Sylvia? Fight with Mir or winner of Kongo vs Herring?

Tim "The Lame'iac" Sylvia is fighting a former PrideFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira tomorrow night at UFC 81 for UFC's interim Heavyweight Championship belt.  Can't say I'm too excited for the fight, you know, being that Nogueira isn't fighting Randy Couture and because Randy's was substituted by incredibly boring "fighting not to lose" Tim Sylvia.  I'm mildly interested in seeing Nogueira because of all his past glory, durability and experience in taking out a few giants like Semmy Schilt, Bob Sapp and Zuluzinho.  For his debut in UFC he already had to fight a crappy fighter, now he has to do it again.

I can't stand Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia. He, his public and private persona, even his nickname, are just so incredibly repulsive and lame. Ever since he started fighting in UFC I have always looked forward to seeing his opponents fight, but never wanted to see him. Even though he did get the UFC belt from Ricco Rodriquez, Ricco lost it without ever defending it to the Lame-iac by trying to hurry the fight up and getting caught. Had Ricco taken Lame-iac down, I believe he'd put him away and we'd never see him fight as much as we had to in the coming years after that unfortunate incident.

The Lame-iac then lost his second title defense to Frank Mir and blowing up Frank Mir hype to incredible levels, who's biggest accomplishment TO DATE is beating the Lame-iac. I share a very similar sentiment toward Frank Mir with Fightlinker. Lame-iac then goes to beat a staple idiot in MMA Wes Sims, who Mir had to fight twice, and lost to then aggressive Andrei Arlovski. After that loss he regroups and collects 2 KO wins over some nobody and a disabled Lion's Den fighter Tra Telligman. After that he couldn't hold all the excitement of fighting on free TV and later admitted that he crapped his pants while getting a boring decision over Assuerio Silva, someone he should have destroyed with ease. He then goes on to get the biggest win of his career by getting knocked down, recovering and catching an over committed Andrei Arlovski to get the heavy weight championship belt.

The Lame-iac immediately starts to demonstrate, and numerous reports confirm, disturbing behavior of wearing the championship belt everywhere and anywhere, like scooter riding, hunting and apparently even during sex. He developed such and unhealthy attachment to it that he held on for dear life to try not to lose it in his next two fights that were widely considered some of the most boring and uneventful fights ever. Luckily for us Randy Couture's itch for fighting again was getting unbearable to him and he fought and dominated the Lame-iac to take the precious belt away and bring some life to the UFC heavyweight championship fights once again.

I recently came across CagePotato's few Top 10 lists, which are a common recommended blogging thing to do, and decided to come up with my own about Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia. Since, it's my very first one,so please, let me know how I did with it.

10. The Lame Beginnings

9. Lame Break

 8. Eating a beatiful right hands - The Lame-iacs favorite

7. Crapping your pants on free live TV = LAME

6. Vihicle of choice for the Lame-iac.

5. Playing with guns in your kitchen while wearing your UFC belt = LAME

4. Desperate to fit in your own fight camp = LAME

Lame-iac: “There’s nothing more that I want than to be accepted by you and the rest of the guys.”

Hughes: “You don’t become accepted by buying yourself a ticket to Vegas, following us around while we’re there when no one really invited you, and then crying – again – when Jens calls you out on it.”

Lame-iac: “Is there anything I can do to be friends with you?”

Hughes: “Well, right now I have enough friends and I don’t need any more friends,” I said. “Is that it? Are we done here?”

(more from Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History )

3. Talking a tonn of smack and then getting schooled by a 44 year old = LAME

2. Looking like a complete moron = LAME

1. Wearing your UFC belt everywhere 24/7 = LAME

Yes, this is who we have to watch for possibly around 40 minutes plus in two days.......

So I just got a chance to catch SpikeTV's "Countdown to UFC 79 Nemesis". It was mostly a good show except for the narrator, but as most UFC's tv shows it'll get better I'm sure.  I think they really got some good footage, quotes and to a trained eye, like myself, lots of insight with some hints as to what may actually happen during UFC 79 this Saturday night on December 29th.

Georges St. Pierre had the best quote of the whole show: "I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head" - I love it! I really hope he does, even though I also like Matt Hughes most of the time, just not when it comes to St. Pierre.

When asked about the lovely incident immediately following St. Pierre's TKO loss to Matt Serra (who is a prick btw, but more on that later) when Matt Hughes together with Sean Sherk were laughing and hugging each other in cause they were both apparently very happy see Geoges lose in the biggest upset in MMA of 2007, St. Pierre seemed a bit ticked off but said "he laughed...what are you going to do...now I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head". St. Pierre is such a respectful guy that he's just going to do his talking and laughing in the octagon.

St.Pierre's loss to Matt Serra was good for him in retrospect, he himself expressed how much it grounded him, made him re-focus on his training. He seemed to be really enjoying himself getting better at each of separate MMA disciplines, Muya Thai, Wrestling, Boxing and Brazilian JiuJitsu and combining them for a complete package. This approach has worked for him in the past.

By the way, did I mention, how smart he was to anticipate the boolsheet (wallid's famous words) of Matt Serra dropping out the fight with Hughes and being in shape and getting another crack at cementing his top contender status and beating MMA legend, again? Well, it was very smart of him to anticipate the fight falling through and being right there to jump on it. There are also numerous reports of St. Pierre looking veerry sharp in final days of training.

Matt Hughes...for the record, I really like the guy, he is what some may say a "straight-shooter" (at fightlinker.com for example). He was great on the last season of Ultimate Fighter TV show opposing the short "kofee and kake" prick Matt Serra and now came across some wonderful excerpts telling it like it is to Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia from his new book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History.

Back to the UFC 79 Nemesis Coundown. So it looked like he didn't have a good gym to train in or lots of good sparring partners, well except for current EliteXC middle weight champion, man no words, Robbie Lawler. Hughes's thinking when taking this fight was that St. Pierre didn't have too much time to train and would be unprepared, but as everybody in MMA knows now that wasn't true at all and Georges St. Pierre was very much prepared when he took the fight.

I gotta point out Joe Rogan's thinking that if Hughes has a desire to not to just avenge his loss to St.Pierre BUT re-establish himself again as the most dominant welterweight champion, we could, potentially see Hughes become that dominant champion again. Thing is, Hughes has been saying this whole past year that he's almost done with MMA as a fighter and generally portraying himself as not too motivated.

So I think Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes will be an exciting and possibly lengthy fight with St. Pierre fighting smart and beating Hughes again.

Now, Wanderlei Silva...his english improved quite a bit! So now we can actually understand his interviews. There are also lots of other good news for him from the show:

• his head does not look swollen any more and looks almost normal (no more juice?). He also generally looked leaner so his cardio has got to be great
• for the first time in his career he has a whole camp of trainers and sparring partners JUST FOR HIM. So all the personal attention he is getting will be great for him all around.
• the fact that Wanderlei trains at Xtreme Couture gym and I'm sure will have Randy Couture's support as far as strategy and game plan
• I doubt the fight will go to the ground at all, but Silva's Brazian JiuJitsu coach is Andre Galvao. Awesome! This guy is a Ninja! Marcello Garcia type.

The bad news? Well he was knocked out twice in his last two fights, but I don't think it'll be a factor. Silva had a nice long break since then.

Chuck Liddell... good ol Chuck and Hackleman are singing the same ol tune of "Ima gonna knock him out". Chuck said he doesn't get bored with training but he does. His late night outings right before fight nights and same old routine isn't going to do him any good.  Granted Hackleman does put together good game plans, but he also puts together bad ones and can't control Chuck very well if a first round of the fight isn't going well. We saw this with first Quinton Rampage fight in Pride, his first fight with Randy Couture and lately against Keith Jardine. So Hackleman saying that he didn't really see anything in Wanderlei Silva's game they could capitalize on, they're back to same old stuff and Chuck will be bored through training.

I think Wanderlei Silva has everything going for him to beat Chuck Liddell and put himself in the mix for the UFC's light heavyweight title.

More on the rest of the card of UFC 79 in the next post or two.

Oh, yeah, don't forget to check out Matt Hughes's new book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History. Should be a blast!