A classic matchup of youth versus experience will be on display Saturday when Brock Lesnar faces Randy Couture for the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title in Las Vegas. But the fight also represents a generational shift for both mixed martial arts and amateur wrestling.
Couture, 45, is the crafty mixed martial arts veteran, the standard-bearer for the sport for more than a decade. Lesnar, 31, is the up-and-coming star, a former World Wrestling Entertainment fan favorite whose popularity prompted the U.F.C. to grant him a shot at the title after only three bouts.
Couture is also a member of the old guard of amateur wrestlers who turned to fighting when doing so offered little money or fame. Lesnar is part of a growing trend of amateur wrestlers who hope to make top dollar as professional fighters.
Nothing revelatory, but its pretty significant that the New York Times is treating this as a legit sporting event:
The UK newspaper The Daily Star reports on Ricky Hatton’s plans for the weekend–not *next* weekend, when he’ll be fighting Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas but *this* weekend:
Hatton will be among the sell-out crowd at the MGM Grand to watch the most eagerly-awaited Ultimate Fighting Champion bout for years.
Randy Couture will be defending his UFC heavyweight crown against man-mountain Brock Lesnar in the same arena where Hatton will appear next week.
The ‘Hitman’ will be fighting New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi here but he’ll be taking a break to watch his first live UFC fight night tonight.
Hatton, a huge UFC fan, tells me: “I’ve watched the UFC on TV lots of times but I have never yet experienced the atmosphere of watching it live.”
Hatton is certainly in for a night to remember with Couture determined to return to the Octagon in winning style after a year out because of contractual problems.
Here’s a promo video for the K-1/DREAM Dynamite! New Years’ Eve show. Probably won’t make much sense unless you’re a Japanese fight sport geek, but its pretty much awesome. Only two MMA matches announced for the card so far, but both are killer–the Sakuraba/Tamura fight might be coming a few years too late but its a historic matchup. The JZ Calvan/Joachim Hansen bout, meanwhile, will almost certainly be a ‘fight of the year’ candidate. It’s as close to a “can’t miss” fight as we’ve had all year (at least now that Eddie Alverez vs. Nick Diaz has been scrapped). If you’re one of those UFC nuthuggers who has been drinking the Dana White kool-aid and actually *believe* that there aren’t any light heavyweights in the world who can hang with BJ Penn, here’s a matchup between two who’d give “The Prodigy” everything he wants and then some….we’ve got a full length preview of the Hansen/JZC fight coming this weekend and a preview of the Sakuraba/Tamura fight early next week…
And, no, we have no clue why this appears to be a video shot on a big screen on the side of a building. We can’t promise you that it wasn’t shot that way intentionally by the DREAM/K-1 producers. They get a little “high concept” at times…
Not sure what happens next, but Showtime won’t be auctioning off EliteXC’s assets after all:
Showtime has halted plans for a public auction of ProElite assets.
The auction was scheduled for Monday, at which time Showtime was to sell ProElite’s remaining assets, including fighter contracts. However, Showtime in a statement today indicated that it has, at least temporarily, decided not to hold the auction.
“Showtime Networks Inc. has adjourned the previously announced public sale of personal property of ProElite, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries scheduled for November 17, 2008. Showtime reserves all of its rights, including the right to further adjourn or cancel the public sale and thereafter dispose of such property in a public or private sale or in any other manner provided under its agreements with ProElite and by applicable law.”
Showtime has claimed rights to ProElite’s remaining assets after ProElite defaulted on two promissory notes of $4 million that Showtime lent to the company in June and September. The premium cable network notified the public markets earlier this month of its intentions to auction off those assets.
We’ll be giving you live coverage of the UFC 91 weigh in starting right around 4 PM Pacific….
ESPN Live coverage has Stephan Bonnar and Frank Mir in the house. Mir sheepishly admits that he’s never had to cut weight, and that if he did “with his height and build it wouldn’t go very well”. Bonnar, meanwhile, gives a lengthy discourse on weight cutting…
We say this every time he’s on the WEC broadcasts, but Mir is already such a good broadcaster its scary. He’s already smoother and looks more comfortable on camera than any of the broadcast professionals. Hate to see any guy’s fighting career end but we can’t wait to hear Mir on the mic more often. He’ll quickly be neck and neck with the great Bas Rutten for best color commentator in the sport….
Prelim fighters getting weighed right now…we’ll only mention it if one of them fails to make weight or anything else significant happens…
Brock Lesnar up first to a cascade of boos….obviously anyone would get booed against Randy Couture, but Lesnar has been playing heel leading up to the fight. Freak of nature Lesnar “cuts” to 265, he’s expected to come in at 275 to 280 on fight night..
Couture gets a huge round of applause…he weighs in at 220 and looks better than any 45 year old dude should…
Matt Brown could get a bodywax and cut 5 pounds…
All prelim fighters make weight…Dustin Hazlett and Tamden McCrory up now. Both fighters right on the money. McCrory’s nickname “The Barn Cat” one of the best in the sport…
Demian Maia up next…he’s got **sick** BJJ skills and Mir concurs. Nate Quarry up next–he looks in great shape. Both guys right at 185…
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Josh Hendricks….Hendricks weighs in at 238. Gonzaga up next…he weighs in at a beefy 256…
Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson up next–Stevenson gets a nice round of applause and weighs in at 156. KFlo gets a huge response with some boos. KFlo also at 156–both guys a pound over but that’s OK in a non title bout.
Main event up next, but we’re going to hear from both fighters first….we say this every time Lesnar fights but the dude is just a monster. A guy that big shouldn’t move that well. Lesnar weighs in at 265 on the button and he’ll probably be 275 to 285 on fight night. Couture comes in at 220 and looks better than a 45 year old guy should have a right to….
MMA Junkie is reporting that Todd Beard has resigned from Affliction. Like any good celebrity or wanna-be celebrity in this case he’s going to seek alcohol rehab *and* anger management counseling. Here’s Beard’s mea culpa from his press release:
“I would like to apologize for my comments that may have offended Kim and Randy Couture and (Couture attorney) Mr. (Sam) Spira,” Beard stated in a press release. “I had a long-standing relationship with the Coutures, and I was deeply and emotionally hurt by some of their recent business decisions. I have only the best of intentions for the success of the Affliction and Xtreme Couture clothing brands and understand that there are personal issues I must address.”
FWIW, we had a big Xtreme Couture “new products” email land in our in-box today.
UPDATE: TMZ, the gossip bottom feeders that broke the story, have published the update:
The guy who threatened the wife of UFC champ Randy Couture is blaming booze and a bad temper for making the fighter’s life a living hell.
Two days after a judge ordered him to stay away from Couture’s wife over a series of nasty threats, Todd Beard has officially quit his job as the president of the Affliction clothing company and says he will seek treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.
Beard, who’s company carried Couture’s fashion line, also issued an apology to the UFC champ and his wife, saying that the whole thing started because Beard was “deeply and emotionally hurt by some of their recent business decisions.”
Randy and Kim alleged Beard began terrorizing them after they asked him for an accounting of profits.
Couture is set to fight Brock Lesnar in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
In the latest episode of ESPN’s MMA Live, Dana White who along with Matt “Barefoot and Pregnant” Hughes have been some of the biggest critics of women’s MMA has suddenly changed his tune. He indicated that he wouldn’t be opposed to promoting a fight between Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg though, if it did happen it would “probably be in the WEC”.
We’re thinking that Dana’s past opposition to women’s MMA had more to do with the fact that the biggest promoter of the sport was his old nemesis, EliteXC. Now that they’re no longer an issue he’s probably down with it if it can make some money. Matt Hughes, of course, just wants a woman to get his (expletive) dinner ready and no woman of his ain’t got no time to be fightin’. If she wants to fight she can “fight” the laundry and the vacuum cleaner…
In his ubiquitous Las Vegas gossip column, Norm! reveals that his sources indicate that none other than Jack Freakin’ Nicholson could be in attendance at UFC 91:
Maybe it’s on his “bucket” list.
Jack Nicholson, a ringside fixture for decades at the biggest boxing matches in Las Vegas, is rumored to be making an appearance at Saturday’s big UFC battle between Randy Couture and former pro wrestler Brock Lesnar.
The Hollywood icon, the Los Angeles Lakers’ No. 1 fan, played a hard-boiled CEO in “The Bucket List,” a 2007 movie about things you want to do before “kicking the bucket.”
Dana White was quoted as saying that “Jack (F-bomb) Nicholson is one of the biggest (F-bomb) celebrities of the last (F-bomb) century and we’d be (F-bomb) honored to have him in attendance at (F-bomb) UFC 91 when Randy (F-bomb) Couture fights Brock (F-bomb) Lesnar–his hands are as big as (F-bomb) canned hams by the way. Let’s see that (F-bomb) t-shirt guy Tom Atencio get (F-bomb) Nicholson at one of his (F-bomb) shows…”
Just kidding…Dana didn’t really say that. He might have though…
Norm! also reveals that rapper Fitty Cent, along with the usual cavalcade of C-listers (David Spade, Laura Prepon, Rob Schneider) will also be in the house…
UPDATE: Fitty Cent is in the house as part of a promotional deal with the UFC, who’ll be plugging his new single. Fitty’s new single is actually the lead story on the UFC website at the moment….
