Former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley takes a big step up in competition tomorrow when he takes on Japan’s most famous fighter, Bob Sapp. The two main event the Ultimate Chaos PPV from the Gulfport Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Five Ounces of Pain’s Jonathan Snowden had a chance to talk to Lashley about his transition to MMA, why it was smart to take it slow, and what he would do if he was a betting man.

Five Ounces of Pain: Tell me about your time in the service. You had already finished college. How did you end up in the Army?

Bobby Lashley: Well, first I was recruited to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. Olympic coach Kevin Jackson offered me a residency. But I had already graduated from college and been out for a year. I had bills and just couldn’t afford to do that. But the Army World Class Athletes Coach called me and told me about that program. So I went in to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) and picked my MOS (Military Occupational Speciality) which was 11- Bravo (Editor’s Note: Infantry Grunt) went to Fort Benning, Georgia, and went to Basic and AIT (Advanced Individual Training). My orders after that were to go to Fort Carson and report to the World Class Athlete Program.

5 OZ: And then it was all wrestling.

Lashley: Yeah. But at WCAP they always said ‘Soldier first.’ Even though I was an athlete we still had to report and had formations in the morning.

5 OZ: You did pretty well there, winning the Armed Forces Championships and doing well in the International meets. What made you decide to get out of the Army and give up on your Olympic dreams?

Lashley: That’s kind of a long story, but I’ll give you the short version. I was in for four years, but in my last year I was having some difficulty. My knee was bad and we weren’t sure I could finish out my last year with my knee the way it was. I tried to keep my knee in somewhat good shape and I was getting it drained, but my bursa sack was very inflamed. It would get better and then had to be drained again. It got to the point that it was going to have to be removed, but I just wanted to get through the year because it was the Olympic year. I went to team trials and placed third and was moving up the ladder at 211 pounds. I only lost one match in that tournament, in double overtime by criteria point. So I was real close to beating the top guy in the weight class. I was gearing towards having a big year in 2004 and making the team but that summer I was in a bank and the bank got robbed. I got shot at. I took a dive down to the ground and landed on that knee one last time. And that sparked surgery. Then they botched the first surgery and I had to get surgery number two. After surgery number two, the guy told me I was pretty much done for a year.

5 OZ: That’s crazy. How many fighters have been injured in a bank robbery?

Lashley: (Laughs). And after my second surgery I was laying on my couch with a leg brace on and I can’t do anything at all because they cut my knee up pretty bad. It was just a botched surgery. If it had been the civilian world I would have been able to sue for millions. But in the military you can’t really do anything but say ‘Oh well.’

5 OZ: I’ve been there. I had a botched wrist surgery in the Army. I haven’t been half the writer since.

Lashley: (Laughs) You’re right with me there.

5 OZ: This isn’t a good advertisement for military doctors.

Lashley: So, then they wanted to medical me out of the Army. At that point the WWE was calling and I thought ‘Man I can make this move.’ Amateur wrestling was out and I rehabbed hard for the WWE tryout. It just went from there. Went to WWE, and I had a great time there.

5 OZ: You put on a lot of muscle for professional wrestling.

Lashley: I trained for the WWE like I was training for the Olympic championship. If you saw any of my stuff in the WWE you know I was in amazing shape. Incredible shape all the way around.

5 OZ: How did you go from the Army to professional wrestling? Did they have scouts everywhere, even in the foxhole? What’s the process like? Do you just get a call one day from Vince McMahon saying ‘Son, we want you in the business.’

Lashley: Well, Kurt Angle was in the WWE at the time and he came to Colorado Springs to the Olympic Training Center. He was doing a little vignette, a promo, and they were talking about his amateur days. That was the first time I met Kurt. And Kurt said ‘Have you thought about it? You have a great look for the WWE.’ At the time I was still wrestling, but I had watched it as a kid. I enjoyed it, but I had never seen myself doing it. We exchanged numbers and talked from time to time. Then I got a call from (WWE Executive) Gerald Brisco because they were discussing me again. This time when they said ‘Come out and we’ll have a look at you’ I did.

5 OZ: How hard was it to go from amateur wrestling to what the WWE does? So much of it is personality and charisma and connecting with the audience. How did you go about creating a character?

Lashley: It was probably the most fun I’ve had in my whole life. Professional wrestlers aren’t actors, so we can’t really play a character. Very, very few are good enough actors to play a character. Vince would say ‘We just want you to be yourself, but with the volume turned up. Think about who you are, and then turn the volume up.’ It was actually a fun transition, because you get to find out who you are.

5 OZ: I talked to Ken Shamrock about this and he told me his time in professional wrestling was way harder on his body than fighting. Did you find it hard taking all those falls night after night?

Lashley: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. At first you’re in your honeymoon period. You don’t realize the toll you are putting on your body because you are just so happy to be there and are having so much fun. but as the years go on, man… We’re doing four shows a week. That’s every week, because there is no down time. Your body is going to suffer because of it, but when it breaks down you can’t quit. Because the show must go on. It’s extremely tough on the body. If there was some way they could regulate it a little bit more, so the guys got a little more time off, it would be great. Because it really is fun.

5 OZ: When you came into MMA you became a heavyweight. How has that transition been for you? In college you were 177 pounds and in the Army just over 200 pounds. Now you’ve got some big boys you are trying to toss around. And no one is bigger than Bob Sapp.

Lashley: I think it helps me. Because heavyweights are used to what we used to call dancing bears. They would just hug each other and you’d see one move or two moves. The lighter you go, the more action you see. Since I was a lower weight guy, I was accustomed to going fast. Moving quick. Now that I’m a heavyweight, I’m doing the same things I did when I was a smaller guy. And it’s going to give these heavyweights trouble. Because they can’t move the way I can move.

5 OZ: What’s been the hardest thing for you about MMA? Obviously, you have the wrestling down pretty well, but how are you progressing with your striking and submissions?

Lashley: I had kind of messed with a lot of it before. I had messed with a little bit of boxing. The biggest obstacle is just getting in there. Getting in there and applying what you learned in practice to a real world situation. I don’t think people realize, a lot of these guys like your Anderson Silvas and your GSP’s , your Rampages, and the list goes on and on, they’re at the top of their games now. But if you rewind the hands of time back to their first or second match, you won’t see those guys fighting then like they fight now. Because through the years of getting out there and doing it, they’ve learned their bodies and what they can and can’t do. And they’ve adapted their game accordingly. That’s what I’m still doing. I’m just trying to collect all the pieces so I can put it all together.

5 OZ: Is that why you’ve started in smaller promotions and have worked your way up, now to pay per view and Bob Sapp?

Lashley: A lot of people don’t realize how many tough fighters there are out there. You can’t just come in and say ‘I could beat the champ.’ People don’t understand MMA if they think they can just go out there and beat the champ. There are people who have never wrestled before who are high calibre wrestlers. People who have never boxed professionally who are high calibre boxers. There are so many tough fighters out there that I believe you have to start off the right way and build yourself up. Then, if you have the ability, you can become a super superstar. As opposed to trying to scratch that lucky lottery ticket and win it all. I think the way I’m doing it is the way most people do it. People come in and think you can bypass the developmental stages. You can’t bypass that.

5 OZ: It’s hard to learn when you are at the very pinnacle of the sport.

Lashley: Exactly. You can’t go to Strikeforce, or Affliction, or the UFC and learn there. Because the fighters there are masters of their game.

5 OZ: I see there being two Bob Sapps. There’s the Sapp that beat up Nogueira and Ernesto Hoost and the Bob Sapp that lost to Jan Nortje. Which Sapp are you ready for?

Lashley: I’m prepared for the best Bob Sapp that makes it out here. We trained for a Bob Sapp that is like Anderson Silva at 350 pounds.

5 OZ: How did you end up choosing Sapp as your opponent?

Lashley: I just train. I let my manager do all that stuff. He comes to me with the different offers and we decide together which ones work and which ones don’t.

5 OZ: Speaking of training, you changed camps and went up to Colorado to work with Nate Marquardt and some other guys up there. Di you just want to stick close to home?

Lashley: Right. I went there because I wanted to start training in Colorado. Nate’s a good friend of mine, but Nate was pretty busy doing his own thing at the time. But he introduced me to a lot of good guys up there and a good camp to train with. I didn’t so much switch camps as go up there and train with some different people.

5 OZ: Who in the world do you bring in to play the roll of Bob Sapp? There aren’t many human beings that large on the planet.

Lashley: I had a guy named Ron Sparks, a big guy out of Louisville. And when I went down to ATT, I had “Bigfoot” Silva there. And Bigfoot’s a way better athlete than Bob Sapp. I had Scott Anthony Johnson, who’s kind of a new fighter, but an extremely talented kid. He’s weighing in at about 340. I used them for weight, but used other people for different things. When I get down to the ground, it doesn’t matter what they weigh when we get there.

5 OZ: A lot of fighters get nervous in front of the big crowds and the pressure of Pay-Per-View. That’s just a day at the office for you though isn’t it?

Lashley: Oh yeah. I don’t worry about that stuff at all. The big crowd doesn’t bother me. I just breathe in the energy from the crowd.

5 OZ: I’m thinking about putting money on this fight. You’re going to beat the crap out of Sapp aren’t you?

Lashley: You can bet your house on it.

5 OZ: If you beat Sapp, where do you see yourself fighting next. There are several options out there to choose from now.

Lashley: I just see myself back in the gym next week. Japan might be next. Who knows? With Bob involved there will be plenty of attention there. We don’t have anything big lined up. We’re keeping our options open.

5 OZ: Everyone wants to know: will we see you in the UFC?

Lashley: You’ve got to have respect for the UFC, because they are kind of the pioneers of the business. If given a chance to go to the UFC down the road, I’d definitely like to get in there and display my skills with some of the best in the world. But you know, at heavyweight, you have some of the best fighters in Affliction or Strikeforce. So, there’s not one organization that is clearly in my sights. But whenever the right door opens, I’m going to step in.

You can find Bobby on the web at http://www.bobbylashley.net/

Five Ounces of Pain will be covering the Ultimate Chaos event live and will have updates all evening long, including a liveblog of both the undercard and Pay Per View portions of the card.

For the first time since the dark ages of the UFC, Mississippi will host major league MMA when Bobby Lashley and Bob Sapp square off for Fight Force International on June 27. While Sapp is one of the biggest drawing cards in Japan, still capitalizing on the sudden fame that changed his life from football failure to icon, it is the former WWE Champion Lashley that promoters hope will draw a crowd to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and live on PPV.

“We needed a main event that appealed to the average fight fans, something that would attract the casual person that just likes to be entertained by an intriguing match…It [Lashley’s WWE fame] will definitely help,” promoter Ricky Derouen said in an exclusive interview with FiveOuncesOfPain.com. “Anything that draws the attention of ‘other’ fans is a positive thing because it exposes MMA to a different group of people and gives them a little taste of what it’s all about. Let me tell you, if Tiger Woods started competing in MMA, every single golf fan in the world would start watching and take an interest.”

Derouen comes from a family of boxers and promoted shows for years on the Gulf Coast. But like many boxing aficionados, he saw a bright future in MMA. In 2007 he stopped running boxing and toughman cards to concentrate on MMA. He and his brothers used their vehicles for collateral and started putting on events for the rabid local fans. Fourteen shows later and Fight Force International feels confident that they are ready for the big time.

“We have promoted 14 events in South Mississippi with 7 of them being at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum,” Derouen said. “We have entertained over 50,000 fans during those events. That is something I am very proud of. I was born and raised in Biloxi. I went to my very first concert in that building in 1978 and now we are bringing the biggest MMA event and first Pay-Per-View event ever to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. I can’t describe how that feels!”

This PPV is more than a one-fight show. A solid semi-main event features former PRIDE and RINGS standout Gilbert Yvel duking it out with former UFC title contender Pedro Rizzo. It’s an interesting contrast in styles. Yvel is one of the sport’s most aggressive fighters, sometimes aggressive to the point of breaking rules and assaulting officials. Rizzo is a notoriously cautious counter puncher. Matchmaker Russell Schenk is confident that Yvel pressing forward into Rizzo’s devastating counter attack will make for an exciting action fight.

“I think Yvel will bring it and Rizzo will give it right back,” Derouen said. “These are two of the best strikers of all time in MMA history. Yvel is a veteran of Pride with 35 victories and 30 of those were by knockout. Rizzo has knocked out an impressive list of some of the biggest names in the sport. I asked Russell [Schenk] what his thoughts were on this fight, he just grinned, shook his head and said ‘It’s gonna be fireworks!’”

The undercard includes former UFC star Din Thomas and IFL wunderkind Chris Horodecki, but the most talked about fight will feature an outspoken MMA executive trading the boardroom for the training room. Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio will battle Randy Hedderick, a matchup that has led many to speculate that Affliction is co-promoting the show.

“Affliction has no involvement in this event as a promoter. This is a co-promotion between Fight Force International and Prize Fight MMA,” Derouen said. “Tom is passionate about this sport, you can hear it in his voice when he speaks. He truly loves MMA and just wants to train and compete and this is his opportunity. How many people are sitting around talking about doing something and they never do it. I have much respect for Tom and for anybody that steps in the cage.”

Although Sapp and Lashley have each headlined successful MMA shows, they are both coming off of disappointing performances. In March, Lashley went to a decision against lightly regarded journeyman Jason Guida, quieting comparisons with fellow WWE refugee Brock Lesnar. Sapp’s American MMA debut last year saw him last less than a minute against handpicked opponent Jan Nortje. Lashley realizes he needs to prove he can do more than rack up victories. To be a success financially in MMA, he has to entertain as well as win.

“I’m going to try and be good this time,” Lashley said. “Let’s be honest, this fight is going to be a train wreck. It’s two guys going out there to bang and it’s not going to take three rounds to do it, either. One, maybe two. The fans are going to get what they want.”

Strikeforce made its Showtime debut last night, attempting to put its best foot forward with a main event of Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz. As always, the show did well locally, attracting almost 15,000 fans to the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Nationally, it was another story all together. Promoters had hoped that the voluble Shamrock and the trash-talking Diaz would get tongues wagging. Instead, there was very little talk about this fight at all. Some of that was because of the nature of the catchweight fight. Shamrock has competed for years at light heavyweight and then middleweight. Diaz has competed as a welterweight and a lightweight. To put it another way, no one was demanding this fight.

The other problem ended up being Diaz’s reticence to engage Shamrock in their prearranged storyline. The idea was to focus on Shamrock’s win over Nick’s jiu jitsu instructor Cesar Gracie, but Diaz rarely addressed the issue and Shamrock was forced to switch to the angle that Diaz was “bad for the sport.” This was when Strikeforce could get Diaz to talk to the media at all. He wasn’t willing to do many interviews, and the fight buzz just never really got started. It will be interesting to see how well the show does, especially with competition from SPIKE TV (UFC 94 replay) and HBO (a big Winky Wright-Paul Williams boxing match).

1. Benji Radach and Scott Smith engaged in a pitched battle that was both the best and worst fight of the night. Let me explain. The two had a spirited slugfest, there can be no doubt. The action was furious (until they got tired) and they were evenly matched. Sometimes a fight like this can stand on its own merits.

Unfortunately for Strikeforce, just having a solid action fight wasn’t enough. With Gus Johnson and the rest of the broadcast booth touting the two as among the very best fighters in the promotion, it was important that the fight be more than just spirited. It needed to be good-and neither guy looked particularly good.

It’s hard to see Strikeforce as real competition for the UFC if these are supposed to be two of their very best 185-pound fighters. Does anyone believe that either guy would be a favorite against a mid-level fighter in the UFC like Alan Belcher? Strikeforce would be better off selling these fights for what they are-good action fights between experienced professionals. These aren’t the best fighters in the world, and it makes the group look bad promoting them like they are.

2. The California Athletic Commission should be embarrassed for letting the Cyborg-Akano fight go forward. The two fighters were clearly not in the same weight class and it just makes the sport look bad to promote this kind of mismatch. Can we all just agree that Cyborg and Carano are not little women and are never going to be 135 or 145-pound fighters? Make a weight class at 150 and make them fight there. Constantly missing weight makes the whole operation look unprofessional.

3. Gilbert Melendez made short work of Rodrigo Damm, a late fill-in for Lightweight champion Josh Thomson. This is especially impressive because Melendez had focused his training on Thomson; Thomson and Damm couldn’t be more different fighters. I was amazed that Gilbert not only engaged Damm on the ground, where he is at his best, but knocked him out there. I hope Thomson gets well soon, because this is a fight I need to see.

4. Frank Shamrock looked completely finished, a shell of his former self who could barely even move around the cage. Announcer Gus Johnson pushed Shamrock to announce his retirement post-fight, but Shamrock vowed, to a decidedly tepid crowd response, to fight again. If Frank is likely to lose regardless of opponent, it may be time to pull the trigger on a Tito Ortiz rematch. Unless they can sign a big name UFC free agent to fight Ortiz, this is the best matchup the promotion has available and Ortiz is certainly angling behind the scenes for this fight.

5. Why did SPIKE TV run endless commercials touting the controversial fight between Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn, encouraging fans to see what the fuss was all about for themselves, and then cut out all the action between rounds in favor of commercials? How were fans supposed to “see for themselves” what happened during “Greasegate” if SPIKE didn’t even air it? It wasn’t really addressed in the commentary and I’m sure many people tuning in left that broadcast a little confused about what the heck was going on.

Another UFC in the books, a card that delivered exactly the kind of tepid entertainment it promised, and we’re left with more questions than answers. Who is fighting whom? And when? It seemed fairly clear during the PPV broadcast that Rashad Evans would defend the light heavyweight title at UFC 98 against Rampage Jackson, while Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir would hook it up again at UFC 100 two months later. Apparently, despite advertising those fights to the fans on television, neither fight is set in stone. Just another unprofessional moment in a night full of them.

1. Yves Lavigne channels his best Mazzagatti:

It didn’t change the outcome of the bout, but referee Yves Lavigne’s decision to intervene in the Matt Brown-Pete Sell fight was truly a head scratcher. Brown had Sell reeling when Lavigne jumped in and corralled him. Fight over right? Not so fast: Yves took a second look at Sell and decided the fight could go on. After he had already physically restrained Brown! Yes, the stoppage would have drawn fire from many of MMA’s blood thirstiest fans. But you can’t go back once you tell a fighter to stop or put your hands on him. There are no do-overs. Can you imagine if that had happened in a fight that was actually important? Unacceptable, but hardly surprising. While the fighters get better and better, MMA officiating just gets worse and worse.

2. UFC channels its best WWE:

In the 1980’s and 1990’s it was a fairly common business practice for professional wrestling companies to sell tickets for shows by advertising stars who wouldn’t be on the card. Stars that they knew wouldn’t be on the card because they were injured, they were on vacation, or they weren’t with the company any more. Despite the pro wrestling overtones of UFC’s promotional strategy, despite Dana White’s bombastic public persona, despite the trash talking and backstage shenanigans, I’ve always held Zuffa to a higher standard than the WWE. Not anymore.

If Frank Mir is telling the truth, and there is no reason to believe he isn’t, Zuffa put tickets on sale for Mir-Lesnar II knowing full well that the fight wouldn’t happen at UFC 98. I understand they were put in a tough spot, but there is only one word for that kind of bait and switch: unacceptable.

3. Shane Carwin Wins; Fails to Impress:

Last week, I was tough on Shane Carwin. He was a prospect of unknown potential, thrust too early into a semi-main event fight. This despite never even appearing on the main card before! It seems strange to say, but after knocking out the impressive Gabriel Gonzaga, Carwin still has plenty of questions left to answer.
His knockout of Gonzaga was great, but let’s not forget that Gonzaga was steamrolling him right until the final punch landed. Carwin looked bad, getting knocked down and even taken down. For a prospect, he looks awfully old and slow. I remember being told backstage about the UFC’s plan to replace Randy Couture with three young wrestlers: Velasquez, Lesnar, and Carwin. After seeing them all fight, it’s clear that Carwin is the least of the three. But, we learned last night, he’s sure got a puncher’s chance.

4. Quinton Jackson Doesn’t Come Ready to Rumble:

I didn’t like Quinton Jackson-Keith Jardine as a PPV main event. It would be fine for a free television show, but for a show they’re asking $50 for, it seemed a little weak. A semi-main featuring a relative unknown just made matters worse. In this situation, you’d expect Rampage and Jardine to come in with something to prove. Instead, it was clear fairly early in that we weren’t getting either man’s best.

There’s no excuse, none, for a professional fighter in the main event of a pay per view broadcast to get tired before the second round is even over. But there were Rampage and Jardine, right before our very eyes, gasping for air and even putting their hands on their knees, in the second round. After an opening round that hardly set the world on fire. We got the hard sell from Goldberg and Rogan that we were watching a great fight. We weren’t. These were two great fighters, but two great fighters that didn’t come to fight. If that Jackson shows up in May, Evans is going to kill him.

5. Quinton and Rashad Take it to the Streets:

It wasn’t all bad news. Assuming that they actually run with Jackson-Evans, the promotion for the fight is off to a great start. The stare down in the cage after Rampage disposed of Rashad’s teammate Jardine was the night’s most memorable moment. Nose to nose, the two spit fire back and forth. The crowd remains cold to Evans, booing him anytime he’s on the big screen. Maybe this will finally be the fight that lets the fans embrace Rampage and give him the love he so desperately wants. Assuming Rampage even takes the fight.

Every week it feels like we’re being bombarded by a endless succession of MMA news stories. Promotions are starting up (and all too often) folding. Fighters are vowing to vanquish their foes. Others are explaining away an ugly loss. All too often, someone is making an excuse for why they’ve failed a drug test, lost an important fight, or slathered themselves in Vaseline. It’s hard to follow it all, so every week I intend to pick out the five most important events, people, and stories.

Five Things:

1. Kirill Sidelnikov fails his steroid test…

“Baby Fedor” did little to make anyone remember his name after a lackluster performance against Paul Buentello at January’s Affliction PPV. Kirill seemed destined to slink back to Russia, never to be heard from again when suddenly, after failing a CSAC drug test, the pudgy Russian is suddenly the talk of the sport. Performance enhancing drug use never surprises me anymore. There’s so much money involved in professional sports, it seems intuitive that athletes will do whatever they can to get the smallest edge.
Seriously though: Kirill Sidelnikov? The guy looked like Fedor after about a thousand McDonald’s Apple Pies. Why is it that the heavyweight steroid failures have all been guys with less than stellar physiques? Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Kirill Sidelnikov: all need to get their money back.

My favorite part of this whole scandal was the e-mail M-1 sent to try to diffuse the test failure, essentially using the Russian’s flab as an excuse.

“For those that are skeptical of this explanation, we believe Kirill’s account is true based in large part to his physique. If he had been using large amounts of Stanozol on a regular basis, we believe that the frame of his upper body would have contained leaner muscle that had more definition.”

Ouch.

2. Keith Jardine…

Too many fans are treating the Quinton Jackson fight with Keith Jardine as a glorified tuneup. If Jackson is looking ahead to a title shot, it could be the biggest mistake of his career. Well, of anyone else’s career. Jardine is a tough matchup for Jackson, specializing in the kind of leg kicks that Rampage just can’t seem to defend.

Jardine’s career has been a series of ups and downs. He’s beaten Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell to propel himself into contention, but lost to nobodies like Houston Alexander to send his status crashing back to earth. Jardine can’t handle a fighter that comes at him hard and overwhelms him with punches early. Luckily for Team Greg Jackson, Rampage is a counter fighter just like Jardine. That will allow Keith to attack from range, cracking Quinton’s range while Jackson waits for his time to strike. I see Jardine in a three round decision-and Dana White pulling Joe Silva’s hair out when Jardine refuses to fight his teammate Rashad Evans.

3. Mike Brown…

Appropriately, the face of the WEC is as non-descript as your average investment banker. Brown is an amazing fighter, but when I’ve seen him at the UFC events in Las Vegas he’s gone entirely unrecognized. It’s a shame that the WEC reaches such a small audience. If some of Brown’s wins had happened on the main card of a PPV, or even better in the main event of an Ultimate Fight Night, he would be a rising star. It may be time for the UFC to do a better job of cross promotion, or risk throwing away the primes of potential superstars like Brown and Urijah Faber.

Or, maybe it is time to fold the WEC into the UFC and call it quits. The promotion got its spot on Versus as a way to prevent the IFL from getting a solid television deal. It has served its purpose, and the resources would be better off helping bolster some of the weaker UFC cards.

4. Jens Pulver back in the boot…

Pulver has long been a Zuffa favorite. Even when he left the company high and dry for a world tour, despite being the lightweight champion, there was never any bad blood. When he returned he was immediately given a prime spot as an Ultimate Fighter coach.

It’s strange in this hostile business, but the UFC brass really cares about Pulver. That’s why they asked Frank Mir to step back so they could insert Pulver in the WEC broadcast booth. No one wants to see Pulver fight again, but they recognize he needs money to get bye. If he is cut by Zuffa, he’ll find fights elsewhere. This is a nice way of keeping him busy and out of the cage for his own good.

5. Will the real Shane Carwin please stand up?

Shane Carwin is an enigma, a fighter built by the UFC hype machine and billed as a potential world title contender. He’s a gargantuan wrestler, packed with muscle, the kind of fighter that Zuffa loves to get behind. But is he a real fighter? Will he be the next Mark Coleman, a dominating and powerful wrestler who can beat anyone on a good night? Or will he be the next Ron Waterman, an overly hyped journeyman who looks the part but can’t fight a lick? Because of the parade of nobodies he’s been carefully fed by Joe Silva and the Zuffa machine, no one knows for sure. He’s never been out of the first round and has never fought anyone approaching the WAMMA top 20, let alone the top 10. He’s a mystery, but a mystery that will soon be revealed to the world. We’ll all know after this weekend, because Gabriel Gonzaga is the real thing.

You remember Gonzaga right? He’s the vaguely Cro-Magnon looking Brazilian who catapulted to fame after knocking out the legendary Mirko Cro Cop with a high kick for the ages. Gonzaga is a monster, an all-round fighter with good standup and great jiu jitsu. It seems likely to me that Gonzaga will either submit Carwin after a big takedown, or knock him out after Shane gasses. If I’m wrong, and Carwin imposes his will on the mentally weak Gonzaga, we’ll know who Shane Carwin is: a title contender.

It all started so well for Josh Koscheck. With just six months of training, he was competitive with the very best young fighters in the world on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter. His future seemed limitless. He was the best active wrestler in a sport that had been dominated for more than a decade by strong grapplers. With the athleticism and the work ethic necessary to learn how to defend himself from strikes and submissions, it was only a matter of time before Koscheck succeeded Matt Hughes as the top fighter in the world at 170 pounds. Along the way, something went horribly wrong.

Koscheck has become a victim of the internet, of bad advisers, of high expectations. His path to success seemed obvious-he would and could ground and pound his way to glory. Instead, after facing early criticism from fans and UFC insiders because of his deliberate style, Koscheck made catastrophic changes to his training regiment. He no longer worked on wrestling-at all. Instead, he made it his mission to become a crowd pleasing striker. Koscheck wanted more than just success in the Octagon, he wanted to be loved by the fans and respected by the hardcores and his peers. His desire to be a “well rounded” fighter has cost him the chance to be a champion.

Instead of the most dominant welterweight in the UFC, Koscheck has become an average kickboxer. It’s like Barry Bonds deciding to become a singles hitter, or Peyton Manning taking on the challenge to see if he can play tight end-just to see if he can. Look at Koscheck’s fight with Brazilian Paulo Thiago last Saturday in London. He never even considered a takedown, insisting on throwing a succession of loopy punches, each one a swing for the fences. And the reason why was right there in the commentary: Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg were incredibly positive about Koscheck’s approach, believing that his decision to eschew wrestling in his training was a positive development. It wasn’t and it isn’t. It’s time for Josh to make some hard decisions to rescue his career, before he becomes just another fighter. Here’s three ways he can start.

Step One: Train wrestling. Everyday. Hard. It’s smart to learn how to strike and defend strikes. It’s smart to learn how to apply and defend submissions. But, at the end of the day, whether the fans like it or not, wrestling is your bread and butter. It’s what brought you to the dance. Use it. Your hands aren’t going to make you a world champion. You’ll be an average fighter, winning some and losing some, just one of the guys in your division. Wrestling gives you the opportunity to be great-just look at Hughes, Fedor, Couture, and a host of others. The best fighters with your skillset use striking to set up their ground and pound attacks. You should be doing the same.

Step Two: Stop fighting so frequently. We’ve seen, over the course of the sport’s 15 year existence, that frequent fights are never a good thing for a championship level fighter. The fights, and more importantly the training, leave you exhausted and unable to heal properly. The long term costs are staggering-look at the precipitous decline of Kazushi Sakuraba for one example. You have fought three times in four months. It’s time for a break.

Step Three: Be responsible. The post fight display after the fight in London was uncalled for and dangerous for the sport. You were knocked cold. You were out and the referee was right to stop the fight. Encouraging officials not to stop fights when a fighter has suffered a concussive blow is dangerous. It’s the blows after a devastating brain injury that are the most traumatic. Allowing the fight to continue after one of the fighters is impaired is how deaths happen. Let’s be responsible, as fighters, fans, or media, and keep our priorities in check. Safety first.

There’s no guarantee that this guidance can help Koscheck become a champion. He’s going to be 32 this year, an age that denotes a drastic decline in athletic ability in most sports. It may not make the difference, but it certainly can’t hurt. Josh Koscheck’s championship potential is dwindling away while the UFC announcers and the fans stand and cheer. It’s up to him to rebuild his career. And it starts in the wrestling room.

At every UFC show, there is one fight designated by matchmaker Joe Silva as a potential show stealer. At UFC 95 this Saturday in London, the match expected to set the night on fire is Rory Markham against hometown star Dan Hardy.

Hardcore fans know all about Markham’s penchant for amazing fights-UFC fans got a taste for the first time with his dynamic knockout of Brodie Farber at UFC Fight Night 14 this past July.

FiveOuncesofPain.com recently had the chance to talk with Markham about his fight with Hardy, keeping his mind right, and stepping into some big shoes in Bettendorf.

Jonathan Snowden: Dan Hardy is on his home turf. How much inspiration does it give you, to know the odds are stacked against you and that the crowd will be solidly against you? How does that affect your mental preparation for the fight?

Rory Markham: It adds a little extra anxiety, a little extra stress. Of course, if you know how to use that as fuel, you can turn it into a positive emotion, which I have learned over the years. I’m using it to get out of bed earlier, make sure I do my miles, my sprints, just making my life training a little easier.

Jonathan Snowden: I’ve talked to other fighters that have gotten offended in your situation, like Zuffa is putting you in to lose to the hometown guy. Do you think that’s the case, or are they just looking for an exciting fight?

Rory Markham: I think they are absolutely looking for an exciting fight. More than anything, I’m very pleased with where the UFC has put me on this card. I think anyone that would think I’d be brought in there to lose wouldn’t be a very educated fan. I think this is a very well matched fight. I see a lot of strengths where I can implement my game plan and I think this is a very good fight for me. I think I was brought in to England because I’m exciting, he’s primarily a standup fighter, and it’s a good recipe to fill a card that needs an exciting bout. That’s why it’s taken the priority it has on the night’s televised card.

Jonathan Snowden: Obviously, like you said, he’s a standup fighter. He’s been over to China to explore the striking arts.How will that play into your game plan, knowing many of the British fighters have a weakness defending the takedown? Will you try to exploit a weakness and take him to the ground?

Rory Markham: I going to try, in every fight not just this one, to go out there and be a better fighter. Be a better version of my former self. I model myself after Georges St. Pierre. Georges is doing the right things. He still goes out there, implements a game plan, but still finds a way to make it very exciting for the fans. Every time we see GSP compete, he’s a better version of himself. That’s something I’m looking for, from the educated MMA fans. I want them to tune in and say ‘Every time I see Rory he just looks better and better.’ That’s something I’m looking forward to in this journey.

Jonathan Snowden: You’ve never fought to a decision before. Win or lose, it’s always been decisively. What does it mean to you? Is that kind of a by-product of trying to be an exciting fighter?

Rory Markham: Yeah, I think it’s directly a by-product of trying to be an exciting fighter. My biggest concern, coming up in the IFL and now trying to reestablish myself in the UFC, is that I want the fans to tune in and know they’re going to get an exciting bout. I don’t want anyone to go ‘Oh God, here’s this kid fighting again. Everybody go make popcorn.’ I want to make sure that they now when they tune in they’re going to get their money’s worth. I don’t want them glued to their seats. I want them standing up when I’m fighting. That’s something I really pride myself in.

The layman can identify with a back and forth standup fight easier than they can a fight on the ground now. I would love for, ten years from now, everyone to understand the ground game. But let’s be honest-more often than not, guys come to a fight and they want to see knockouts. They want to see exciting standup fights. And that was always a very big concern. It’s still an enormous concern for me, but I also want to go out there and prove to my fans that I’m becoming a better mixed martial artist.

Jonathan Snowden: Chris Lytle and others publicly proclaim that they are going to try for fight of the night honors. Is that something that you think about? How important is it, as an up and coming fighter, to get that extra cash bonus? Is that a big motivator for you?

Rory Markham: Absolutely, but that’s something that’s so out of my control. If you focus on that, it’s going to take away from your game. All you can do is hope you have the style to produce the end result- a fight of the night, a knockout of the night, a submission of the night. You’ve just got to let that become a by product of the fight and not focus on that at all.

Definitely against Farber, I didn’t go in there and say ‘Alright, it’s time to get knockout of the night.’ I just went int there to fight how I fight and what’s going to come to me is going to come to me. I just think my style is made to win fight of the night or knockout of the night more often than not.

Jonathan Snowden: I just finished reading the book Blood in the Cage?

Rory Markham: Yeah!

Jonathan Snowden: It features you quite a bit. Are you still living above the gym?

Rory Markham: That’s where I’m at right now.

Jonathan Snowden: Besides having no excuses for missing practice, how does that help you stay focused on the fight game? Is it that healthy to be so tied into that world, even when you try to go home?

Rory Markham: What’s great about it for me, is that I get to come up here to Iowa I get to live above the gym and you’re right. There’s no excuses. There’s no travel. It’s kind of like I’m on a ship. I don’t have to go anywhere. I’m all set. My foods here and I just have to walk downstairs. The gym door is directly next to my front door. This is my Rocky environment. I come down here, the apartment’s not in the best shape, there’s a draft, there’s no T.V. Marvin Hagler (legendary boxer) said it best: ‘How do you get up and run at 4 a.m. when you’re sleeping on silk sheets?’ This is my domain. It puts me in the right state of mind and gets me ready for war.

At the same time, to answer the other part of your question, a big part of my training camp is going back to Chicago on the weekends, going back to my hometown. Every single weekend without fail. I own a house there, stay with my girlfriend and we hang out. We push the reset button, unplug, turn off both of our phones, and focus in. It’s a good time to let the fight world go. My friends know not to try to call me and talk about fighting. So when I come back here, to Iowa, I’m ready to focus and do my work. I couldn’t even tell you how to get to a bar in Iowa.

Jonathan Snowden: That’s a good plan. It sounds like you are keeping your life balanced that way.

Rory Markham: I model it after Matt Hughes. He was the first to do it. I really looked hard at him and figured if he could do it, I could do it. He had such great success with it and that’s what I’m finding.

Jonathan Snowden: What does Pat Miletich provide as a trainer that makes him stand out?

Rory Markham: What’s great about Pat, and under no circumstance am I knocking any other trainer, I really truly believe that when Pat invests himself 100 percent, he is the best trainer in the world. Most trainers out there, in some way, shape, or form, have modeled themselves after Pat. He was the first one to find the successful recipe to make champions. He has more world champions than any trainer in the entire world.
When I get my morning sessions with him, when I get my hour alone with him, it’s just like Yoda teaching me the Force. He just knows all these little nuances. I can do something 110 percent perfect, but he can always find a way to change it and make it just a little bit better. He has so many outs and options for me. He’s just a wealth of knowledge. I know I’ll never be able to tap that well.

Jonathan Snowden: How has the split, even though it’s been friendly, between Pat and Hughes affected you and your training? I know Robbie Lawler has been a particularly inspirational voice in your corner in the past?

Rory Markham: It’s a little different. For me, I just always look for the positives. I get a little bit more of Pat’s time now. Now I’m one of the premiere leaders in the gym. I’m one of the two or three guys who help lead the gym. Most importantly I get more of Pat’s time. I know that Pat was the one who made Matt and Rob the fighters they are today. That’s just the reality of it. Having more of his time is only going to benefit my career.

Matt and Rob, they helped me out immensely. They’re very, very missed. I still stay in touch with them. We’re still great friends. Rob especially, in my corner and as such a great friend. And Matt, in that he showed me the ropes. I wasn’t as nervous at my first UFC, because I’d been to a couple with Matt. I’ve gotten a lot from them and I welcome my new position as a leader in the gym.

Jonathan Snowden: How much pressure is it to step into a leadership roll in a gym that’s seen Jeremy Horn, Jens Pulver, Hughes, and Tim Sylvia. You’re kind of filling that roll now. How much pressure is that on you?

Rory Markham: None at all. It’s very welcome. I’m a little more apt to tell guys what to do. In a very nice way of course, in a learning environment. I get to show them how to do certain techniques. Guys are looking to me now wondering ‘How does he do it? Okay, I’ll do it like that too.’ It gives me great introspection into my own technique. If I’m going to reiterate it and try to teach it, I’m going to make sure I’m doing it properly and saying it correctly. I think it’s making me a better fighter. I welcome the responsibility.

Jonathan Snowden: You guys still have plenty of great fighters, but in the overall scheme of things it seems to be a down period in the history of Miletich Fighting Systems. How does that affect the training and attitude in the gym? Does it make you hungrier to try to regain that status?

Rory Markham: The great thing about it is that it’s made Pat hungrier. He’s reinvested himself. Everybody goes through hills and valleys. There’s time when you need to invest yourself in your gym and there’s times when you need to invest yourself in other things. With Pat reinvested in us, every morning we’re back to team practices, he’s teaching us things. Just from this six to eight week camp alone, I’ve learned a ton. Enough to go over for a year and work on. Having him back, you’re going to see a lot more champions. Not only that, but after a changing of the guard, it takes everyone a year or two to catch their stride again. We had all those champions and now it’s young guys. Myself, Ryan McGivern, Ben Rothwell, L.C. Davis, Jesse Lennox. It’s a changing of the guard. Those guys are going to come forward and we’re going to show the world a new Miletich team.

Jonathan Snowden: How has fighting in the UFC been different than fighting in the IFL or Adrenaline MMA?

Rory Markham: Me and Mike C. (Mike Ciesnolevicz) were talking about this last night. We were sitting next to each other and Mike C said ‘I could fight all over the world, any country, any continent, any show, and if I didn’t make it to the UFC, I wouldn’t have accomplished what I set out to do.’ I felt the same way. AS a fighter, we all aspire to be there. It’s the pinnacle of the sport. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to convince themselves of something that’s not true. It’s the pinnacle of the sport. We all know it. It’s where the best talent is, the best competition. In all reality, it’s the big leagues. When you make it, you can say you’ve been to the end of the earth in this sport. I really don’t think if I’d gone on to have a very successful career elsewhere in other organizations, I don’t think I’d feel 100 percent satisfied. I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

Jonathan Snowden: All that said, I was a big fan of the IFL. Why do you think the IFL didn’t make it? Everyone associated with it seemed to love it? What are your thoughts about coming up in the IFL as a young fighter?

Rory Markham: What a great experience for me. It was the perfect opportunity. It groomed me for these moments in the UFC. What an excellent idea, especially for fighters. We had five other guys fighting next to us. We had our coaches with us. That was the best part of it, that team camaraderie, busting chops and joking around with one another.

I fought some pretty tough guys in the IFL and it gave me a great sense of security in these upcoming fights. I’m not really that nervous about going to London to fight a guy in his hometown. I’ve been there and done that against guys from the hometown teams in the IFL. It’s nothing new to us.

Jonathan Snowden: How concerned are you about the referee in a fight. I know you’ve been knocked down several times and then come back to win. How much do you worry about an early stoppage? How much do you think about how the referee will respond in the cage?

Rory Markham: You think about it for a second or two when you get hurt. That’s when I tell myself, ‘You better get moving because I’m not going to have this guy stop it on a phony call.’ I try to give the referee the look, an eyeball, to let him know, ‘I’m okay man.’ I hope to God he’s watched some tape on me, because I can take a beating.

Jonathan Snowden: That’s for certain. One thing we’ve learned, watching you fight, is that you have a lot of heart and determination. How much of your success is skill and technique, how much is athleticism, and how much of it is that warrior spirit?

Rory Markham: I’d say 50 percent technique, zero percent athleticism, and 100 percent heart and warrior spirit.

Jonathan Snowden: There are so many great fighters in the UFC in your weight class. You talked about GSP being one of your role models. Are you ready to compete with the likes of GSP?

Rory Markham: I think this fight will definitely give us a barometer for where I am. That’s why I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s the perfect opponent for me-he has one win in the UFC and I have one win in the UFC. He has roughly 20 fights, I have 20 fights. We will see where I’m at. It’s the perfect test for me.

Jonathan Snowden: How much did training with an elite 170 pounder like Hughes help? Does it give you confidence that you can compete with a guy like that?

Rory Markham: Rolling with Matt, getting my butt kicked by Matt, was always great for me. Him and Pat, the two most dominating welterweights to ever grace the UFC, going with them full out always gave me great confidence.

Jonathan Snowden: What should fans expect from your fight on Saturday

Rory Markham: Obviously, excitement. If anyone knows me as a fighter, they know I fight with my heart. It’s no secret that I can take a punch and I go out there and immerse myself in the fight. I try to have fun with it. That’s the biggest thing for me. I hope to get hit less, have an exciting battle, and hope I win a lot of fans. Especially the ones in England, because my ultimate goal is to be an internationally recognized fighter.

A couple of days ago, I opined right here at Five Ounces of Pain that Scott Coker and Strikeforce had plenty to prove when it comes to running a national MMA promotion.

Yesterday, they took a strong first step, showing me they understand what it’s going to take to attract a significant audience. The first main event for the newly national Strikeforce features not just great fighters, but also two guys that can sell the promotion and the show to both casual fans and (just as importantly) the MMA media. Nick Diaz and Frank Shamrock are both awesome.

I know this is editorializing (this is an editorial after all), I know this is purely my opinion, but how could you possibly deny that both these men are endlessly entertaining? Frank Shamrock is arguably the greatest fighter in the short history of MMA. He destroyed everyone in his path, winning the light heavyweight title despite weighing 185 pounds soaking wet. Not only was he a dominant fighter, he also has a unique gift of gab and a special ability to get under his opponent’s skin. His promos prior to the Cesar Gracie and Phil Baroni fights are legendary. His trash talk towards Gracie is part of what made this fight happen.

Diaz was offended for his mentor and challenged Shamrock on the spot. At the time, the fight didn’t interest Frank. He was looking for opponents that he could draw a crowd with and rightly saw Renzo Gracie, Baroni, and Cung Le as more appropriate prey. Today, it’s a different story.

Diaz has established himself, not just as a great grappler and solid boxer, but as a character. His feud with K.J. Noons set the sport on fire (before Elite XC and Noons unwisely let the heat fizzle out). He understands how to bring passion into the cage, whether it is real or feigned, and he will no doubt be smoldering by the time Frank is done with his inevitable verbal assault.

“Nick Diaz is similar to me. He grew up in a broken home, had abusive parents, and really had a tough childhood,” Shamrock said. “So we have common bonds…I know he wasn’t too happy when I knocked out his coach Cesar and he said some words afterwards that got him into this fight. We’re in a fight. I don’t care about Nick. He’s a nice guy and I’m going to knock him out and we’ll go on to the next one.”

Internet critics are already complaining about the weight disparity for this catchweight fight that will be contested at 179 pounds. Despite Diaz fighting primarily at 170 pounds and Shamrock at 185, the men are very similar in size.

Shamrock walks around at close to his fighting weight, while Diaz has to cut significantly to reach 170 or 160.

“My natural body weight is about 184 pounds,” Shamrock said. “I don’t know how these other guys gain this weight and do this crazy stuff (extreme weight cutting), but I’ve always weighed 184 pounds…I think I’m just going to skip a meal, stop drinking beer for lunch, and I should be 179 pounds.”

Both will be healthy and strong at the catchweight, and a past-his-prime Shamrock is a winnable fight for a top-of-his-game Diaz. This should be a fantastic contest between two of the sport’s very best trash talkers-and two guys who can bring exciting action on their feet and on the mat.

“We’ve had a few fights at a catchweight,” Strikeforce President Scott Coker said. “But not too many. Once in awhile, when you can put something special together… This story just made sense between Cesar and Frank and the Gracies and the Shamrocks.”

The other good news was a proposed undercard featuring Benji Radach-Scott Smith and Gilbert Melendez-Jorge Gurgel. Other featured fighters could include Josh Thomson and Cris Cyborg. This shows me that Coker and company are serious about providing recognizable and competitive fights from top to bottom. And a proposed Kimbo Slice-Bob Sapp fight for a future card in Tacoma shows they understand what they need to do to score the kind of ratings they will need for a CBS show.

“UFC is very good at what they do and we’ll be very good at what we do,” Coker said. “We’re going to run our business and provide the best fight in the history of Strikeforce with this matchup.”

Yes, Strikeforce is off to a very strong start.

There was much rejoicing in the insular MMA community when it was finally announced that Scott Coker and Strikeforce would be taking over the coveted CBS and Showtime television contracts from the (nearly) defunct ProElite.

Not only did Coker gain control of the sport’s first network television time slot, he also took control of EliteXC’s top fighters like Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields, Gina Carano, and even the infamous Kimbo Slice.

Fans and the MMA blogging community were quick to proclaim the revamped Strikeforce was a potential UFC killer, the first real North American competition of the eight year Zuffa reign.

Not so fast-Coker and Strikeforce still have a lot to prove.

It’s true that Strikeforce is one of the only other promoters outside of the Zuffa umbrella in the black. In an era that has seen the IFL, BoDog, and ProElite drop tens of millions of dollars in an effort to compete with the UFC, this is an accomplishment in itself. Strikeforce has gotten by with smarts and moxie and a team with decades of promotional experience in both kickboxing and MMA. And by being conservative when others have been bold.

However, right now, Strikeforce is a regional promotion. They essentially run one town, San Jose, while branching out into other parts of California and the pacific northwest with limited success.

Strikeforce cards are usually based around a single strong main event. The bulk of the card is an afterthought, the occasional national name mixed in with a hodge podge collection of local fighters and instructors. This approach can work well when your main source of income is the gate, because a local star like Cung Le or Frank Shamrock can attract a huge crowd in their home base.

But it remains to be seen how well it will translate into national television. Unfortunately for Coker and Strikeforce, MMA fans have been spoiled, not just by the great cards UFC routinely puts out on television and PPV, and by the largess of promotions like Affliction and EliteXC.

A major league MMA card in 2009 is expected to be packed to the brim with recognizable stars and compelling matchups. Putting on a card that attracts national attention is, frankly, expensive. Perhaps prohibitively so for the amount Showtime and CBS are willing to pay.

Coker and Strikeforce have stayed afloat for years with the exact opposite instincts: to play it safe, look for the base hit, never taking the kind of risks that can result in a homerun. That approach isn’t going to work on CBS, where the demand for a ratings bonanza requires more than a local star and a big gate.

Strikeforce needs to be prepared to swing for the fences. The talent is out there to make it happen — I just hope they have the will.

B.J. Penn is no flash in the pan. He’s one of the most respected and successful fighters in UFC history and has been for a decade. Penn is one of two men to win UFC titles in two different weight classes. His skill set is multi-faceted-he’s a legitimate jiu jitsu world champion and has developed his striking game to the point that fellow fighters call him the best boxer in the sport.

And Georges St. Pierre just beat him senseless.

St. Pierre pounded, slammed, and kicked him until his friends and family decided he couldn’t take any more. He sent Penn to the hospital. If Penn was a hall-of-famer, one of the most talented men to ever step foot in the Octagon, what does that make GSP?

Simply put, he’s the G.O.A.T. The greatest of all time.

I can hear the outcry already. After all, St. Pierre is just 27 years old and has been fighting for only seven years. How can he be the best fighter of all time? What about the Gracies, Rickson and Royce, the men who introduced Gracie Jiu Jitsu to the world?

What about the Shamrocks, Frank and Ken, champions in both America and Japan?

And what about the Russian wrecking machine Fedor Emelianenko, a fighter without a real blemish on his record?

All of them are great fighters, among the very best we’ve seen in a cage or ring in the last 15 years. However, none of them are Georges St. Pierre.

If you were constructing the perfect fighter, wouldn’t he look an awful lot like Georges St. Pierre? You’d want exceptional athleticism, the kind of natural ability that would allow a man to out wrestle opponents who had practiced wrestling their whole lives and beat a top striker to the punch. You’d want the kind of work ethic that drives a champion to continue to improve. You’d need a supple mind, one capable of out planning and out thinking his foes in both the training room and in the cage. And more than anything else, you need a competitor, someone who will fight back from adversity and continue striving, not just for victory, but for excellence.

St. Pierre is more than an athlete and much more than a physical specimen. He’s driven, not just to win, but to be the very best. His challenge isn’t an individual opponent, it’s within himself. His credentials are impeccable. He’s beaten every top fighter in the world in his weight class. Twice he’s destroyed the previous consensus best at 170, farm boy Matt Hughes. He’s beaten every challenger the UFC has put in front of him: wrestling stalwarts like teammates Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, jiu jitsu wizards like Matt Serra, and all-around talents like Sean Sherk and Karo Pariysan.

None of his competitors for the coveted G.O.A.T. honors has a resume like this. The Gracies and Ken Shamrock were invaluable in creating the MMA revolution, but never beat any truly great fighters. Fedor is the best heavyweight MMA has ever seen, but that division has never been among the strongest in the sport. Frank Shamrock comes closest to measuring up to GSP at his height, but Frank was like a proto-GSP. He had the resume, the athleticism and the will to win, but Frank never developed the complete package of skills Georges has.

Most importantly, when GSP has faced adversity, he has come back stronger than ever. A loss to Hughes was avenged, not once, but twice. A flash knockout at the hands of Serra was definitively answered by taking Serra down and manhandling him. Even losing a single round was unacceptable. It had to be avenged. And it was. Just ask B.J. Penn.

It hurts me to say it, but Dana White is the best and most important promoter in the history of MMA. No one else is even close. White took a sport that was floundering, a promotion that was giving away tickets to a five thousand seater in New Jersey (available only on satellite television) and turned it into a billion dollar company.

Today, I walked the Las Vegas strip and saw the fruits of White’s labor everywhere. There were giant video screens promoting the fight at the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and the Monte Carlo. Fans were out in force, sporting Tapout, Affliction, and UFC gear along with their ubiquitous and copious tats.

The after-parties aren’t at a Hooters anymore, or a disgusting local strip joint. B.J Penn will celebrate, win or lose, at the classy Studio 54. The UFC, and with it the whole sport of MMA, has arrived — and Dana White deserves the bulk of the credit. It’s an obvious point, but one worth making as White continues to face constant criticism from hardcore fans and the online media (often one and the same). And it’s why when bloggers and Dana clash, I’m putting my money on White.

Some fans vehemently oppose Saturday’s superfight between B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre, claiming the matchup isn’t fair to possible title contenders like Thiago Alves and Kenny Florian. Because Penn and St. Pierre are both champions, it will be months before these worthy contenders get an opportunity to fight for the title. If Penn wins Saturday, it could mean that each title is only defended once a year. White’s response at yesterday’s press conference was clear and to the point: “Who gives a shit.”

Dana has yet to take a single lesson in tact, but he makes a strong point. Critics are everywhere. If he listened to them, he would have never brought back legends like Gracie and Shamrock to headline his most successful shows. He would have never revitalized the business with a reality television show that many thought was demeaning to the athletes. He would have never brought in a pro wrestler like Brock Lesnar and given him the opportunity to be the promotion’s top star. And he wouldn’t be a multi-millionaire. In short, the UFC would have followed the other promotions that catered to hardcore fans right into bankruptcy.

It takes a certain gift to understand what people want to buy. It’s equally hard to sell people something you have, but that they don’t know they want. White has both of these gifts. He and Joe Silva understand that fans want more from their fights than technically proficient challengers like Alves or Machida in lackluster main events. The fans want big, they want spectacle, and for $50 you better deliver.

Saturday, the UFC delivers and what’s bigger than the two best fighters in the world stepping into the cage? Despite being a rematch, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see two champions collide. The UFC hasn’t had a fight like this since UFC Champion Mark Coleman took on Extreme Fighting Champion Maurice Smith all the way back at UFC 14. It’s two huge stars, in their fighting and physical primes, two of the very best at the height of their powers. It is an epic fight. But White’s too good a promoter to leave the fight to sell itself.

He’s taken the best from boxing and created his own 24/7, the amazing UFC Primetime. Now the super fight is also one of the most highly anticipated of all time. After watching the last installment of the brilliant three part special, how could you not want to see who prevails? How can you not love B.J. for his brash words and running the rock? How could you not love GSP and the circle of great people he’s surrounded himself with?

How could you not want to see the biggest fight of all-time?

Dana White wins again.

Whether or not Affliction made a dime from their second mega-card, “Day of Reckoning,” it would be hard to deny the event was a huge success from an aesthetic viewpoint. Every fight on the card was everything fans could of wished for (although it took Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Vladimir Matyushenko a round to get going). At the end of the year, this will surely be in the running for best fight card-it was that good.

The Good:

Fedor Emelianenko proved, once again, why he is the best fighter on the planet.In a fight against a physically superior opponent, he remained composed and waited for his opportunity. The resulting knockout was one that no one watching will ever forget. He targeted a man’s chin perfectly — while that man was flying at him 100 miles per hour through the air. Absolutely fantastic.

The phenom is back. Even at the ripe old age of 32, Vitor Belfort looked just as quick as he did hurtling across the cage to dismantle Wanderlei Silva in Brazil. It was a timely performance for Belfort. The UFC is in desperate need for credible opponents for middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva. Belfort has a big name and the credibility that only a former champion can bring to the cage. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, who was sitting near the ring, had to be thinking about making this fight. I hope he does.

This show also provided some nice comic relief. Albert Rios with his gold plated chain and silly glasses made me laugh. Maybe after the win he can trade it in for one actually made of solid gold? And how about Bobby Green taking the time out from kicking a guy in the balls to mark out over Donald Trump and Oscar De La Hoya sitting ringside? Act like you’ve been there before!

The Bad:

Tito Ortiz on commentary. Some ex-fighters are great. Both Shamrocks, Randy Couture, and Frank Mir all bring an expert viewpoint and make solid points. Tito brought a giant head. And awkwardness. Don’t forget the awkwardness. Tito still gets a reaction from the crowd, but this didn’t seem like a group enjoying booing him and looking forward to rooting against him when he makes his return later this year. The crowd hated him and seemed to just want him to go away. Perhaps the bad boy has worn out his welcome?

What was going on with Vladimir Matyushenko? He sleep walked through the first round before getting stopped in the second. Horrible performance and the one fight on the card that failed to live up to expectations.

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou looked like a world beater in the first round, but ran out of steam in the second. It seems like a consistent pattern at this point. Is it just me, or is it unacceptable for a professional in his prime to be unable to fight for three rounds?

The Ugly:

Why didn’t the broadcast cut away from a disoriented Matt Lindland receiving medical care? After suffering a career changing knockout, the Olympic Silver Medalist was acting erratically in the ring. It isn’t appropriate for an incoherent fighter to dictate his own medical care. I talked to my uncle, an emergency EMT, who agreed the whole scene was a debacle. At least have the courtesy not to show it all to us. The disoriented fighter deserves more than that base voyeurism.

Dan Lauzon put on quite a show after some questionable low blows. But his sloppy rear naked choke was truly ugly. Greene may have made a name for himself, but he needs more work if he’s getting finished by a fighter whose balls are too sore to get his hooks in.

Josh Barnett’s post fight comments were not exactly in good taste, talking about losing his friend Justin Levens to “suicide or something.” That “something” consists of two deaths being investigated as a possible murder/suicide. Maybe glorifying a killer on live television isn’t the best idea, Josh? Levens may have been a friend, but his final moments were clearly nothing to be proud of.

“Baby Fedor” Kiril Sidelnikov took a horrible beating. Young fighters, take note of what Fedor’s style looks like when the fighter employing it doesn’t have the champion’s unique athleticism. Not everyone can lead with their head with their hands hanging at their waist.

Affliction is promoting what will likely be the biggest non-UFC MMA fight card of the year Saturday-and almost no one is talking about it. Fans that are talking are discussing the finances above all else. How can Affliction afford to pay its undercard fighters in the mid six figures for fights that are unlikely to contribute to the precious PPV buyrate? How will the company make any money when it is paying more than a million dollars each for two untested (and Russian!) box office draws? Will this put the clothing company out of business?

As a fan, my answer to all of those questions is a resounding, “who cares?” The important thing is that someone is willing to pony up to bring two of the world’s best into the ring to test their skills. It’s not my job as a fan (or as a journalist) to make these shows profitable. That’s the promoter’s job. It is the job of the journalists to cover it, not promote the show for the “good of the sport.” And if you look back at the history of combat sports, much stranger ducks than Tom Atencio and Affliction have dropped millions of dollars to put on vanity shows for a number of reasons.

In 1974, Mobuto Sese Seko paid Don King millions to bring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Zaire for the now famous “Rumble in the Jungle.” Seko was a brutal dictator, a man who once had his political rivals rounded up and executed in front of 50,000 awestruck countrymen. He was so despised by many in his own country that he needed no less than three separate special forces squads acting as personal bodyguards. How was he going to make a profit herding his people into the Mai 20 Stadium to watch the fight for free? How will a bad turnout affect Seko’s future shows?

These are the questions today’s MMA fans would be asking if they were transported back 35 years. Again, who cares? Who remembers? The fight turned into a cultural landmark, with the unforgettable images of Africans shouting “Ali, bom-ba-ye!” and the shocking conclusion being replayed in print and in film countless times to this day. Does anyone remember how much money was lost? Imagine George Plimpton ignoring the bout itself to focus solely on how the papered crowd would react to future events.

In the long term, fans will remember the fights that made them feel. No one remembers the promoters, because they are interchangeable. Does it truly matter if it is Affliction, or the IFL, or Showtime, or Mark Cuban, or the Fertittas? It’s the fights that are important, that will stand the test of time.  MMA fans and reporters would do well to focus on them and leave the promoters to get ulcers worrying about what will draw. That’s their job. Our job is to watch great fights. Enjoy the show.

It’s amazing how something as simple as expectations can change the way you see a fight. By any reasonable analysis, Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle just had a hell of a fight. It was a nice mix of boxing and kickboxing, with Davis using smart movement to avoid the worst of Lytle’s attack and countering his way to victory. Both men took home an extra $40,000, sharing fight of the night honors with Mark Coleman and Mauricio Rua. But despite this solid effort, with Davis throwing a great bodykick/jumping knee combination we are sure to see repeated all year long, despite Lytle throwing bomb after bomb at a desperately covering up Davis, despite a great back and forth fight- I was left disappointed.

Before the fight, both men told anyone who would listen that they weren’t just looking for a great fight. They were going to have the fight of the night. Of the decade. Of their lives. Of all time. “A lot of times people talk about fights and then they’re not that great,” Davis said prior to UFC 93. “This fight is going to be better than the buildup.” It wasn’t. It was a fight damned by expectations.

There’s also something dangerous about the mentality Zuffa has inspired in many of its fighters by offering bonuses that often exceed the fighter’s regular purses. It has created an atmosphere where winning isn’t a fighter’s main goal. Don’t take my word for it. Chris Lytle explained his thought process before the fight in a Five Ounces of Pain exclusive.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this ended up being fight of the night. I’m not really planning on the fight going to the ground and I doubt he is either. That’s kind of what I’m anticipating. I’m expecting a stand up war,” Lytle said. “Back to back fight of the night honors would definitely make me very happy. That’s my main goal this year, when people hear that I’m going to be on the card I want them to want to order the pay-per-view because they know it’s going to be an exciting fight. I want to be in high demand and I want people to want to see my fights.”

Winning “Fight of the Night” — that was his main goal. Not winning fights, just fight of the night honors. After all, he could make more money losing the kind of fight he knows Zuffa loves than he ever could with a Yushin Okami style winning streak. Caring more about entertaining than winning is the beginning of the end of integrity, the first step down a slippery slope from sport to spectacle. And it leads to the type of gentleman’s agreement we haven’t seen since the days of Pancrase. In those early 1990’s fights, stalwarts like Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten agreed not to hit each other when the fight went to the ground. Davis and Lytle took it one step further, announcing beforehand their intention not to take the fight to the ground.

“We never made any type of agreement and Chris will tell you that,” Davis protested to reporters after the fight. “We both said we wanted to do this because we knew that we could bring it out of each other and have an exciting fight. Other people ran with that.”

Whether or not there was an agreement set in stone, it was obvious neither man was going to the ground. Even when it became evident that Lytle was losing the standing exchanges and didn’t have the quickness to keep up with the elusive Davis, he never once thought about taking the boxer down. He wasn’t driven by a will to win. He was driven by his pocketbook. And the distinction between pro wrestling and MMA just got a little bit blurrier.

As The Ultimate Fighter’s ratings continue a precipitous decline, now down 36 percent from their Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock fueled heights, Zuffa has quietly been searching for replacement programming to take over as their flagship show on Spike TV.

Despite the success of live fight specials, that couldn’t be the answer long term. The shows are simply too draining on the entire staff, not to mention a fight roster and audience already worn thin by an increasing barrage of MMA on television and pay per view. At a certain point, panic began to set in. “We really don’t know what we’re going to do when The Ultimate Fighter runs its course,” one UFC insider told me backstage at UFC 91. Now they know. Forget Brock Lesnar. UFC: Primetime is the next big thing.

Last night, Dana White and company went a long way towards ensuring their next contract with Spike TV and even further towards making the Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn fight a mega success on pay-per-view. It was a show obviously inspired by HBO’s groundbreaking 24/7 and their seminal NFL training camp show, Hard Knocks. What separates UFC: Primetime from these other excellent programs are the UFC fighters. As always, I’m impressed by the personalities. Both B.J. Penn and St.Pierre came across as great ambassadors for the sport. The audience saw, perhaps for the first time, what makes a fighter tick. And, despite eight seasons of TUF, many saw for the first time just how hard it is to be a professional fighter. These aren’t just born warriors, stepping out of the bar and into the cage. It takes work to be GSP. Maybe a little less to be B.J. Penn, and that was the story of this show, the first of three broadcasts leading up to UFC 94.

The story they are telling here is simple but effective. B.J. Penn is the rich kid, growing up in paradise and fighting because he can. He’s good at it and success comes easily for him. Georges St. Pierre’s is a more typical story, at least for a fighter. He grew up poor and struggled to make it to where he is, even quitting school for a time to work as a garbage man. He’s seen poverty and despair and this drives him, keeps him going back to the gym when others might be taking it easy, terrified to go back to his old life.

Penn’s is a more comfortable lifestyle. He’s on the beach, taking it easy with his boys and laughing about the dumb Canadian plunging through the snow in Quebec. The editing of the show clearly indicates the producers value making Penn appear as if he is not training hard, using footage of a routine break in training to push the idea. But those close to Penn say he is more dedicated than ever to ensuring his legacy in this sport and is training like never before. Even the noted training fanatic Frank Shamrock took a week off during his preparation for the Tito Ortiz fight in 1999 to make sure he was hitting all cylinders in the cage, not in the training room before the fight.

Manufacturing this conflict is understandable. It allows an opportunity for Dana White to make an appearance (always a good thing) and helps the audience decide between two popular fan favorites. Programs like this need some conflict, and while the specifics of this particular issue were contrived, Penn’s dedication to training is always ripe for speculation. One could expect in coming episodes that Penn will be shown making a concerted effort to train like a demon and this will simply be a narrative device to tell the story of his renewed commitment to greatness.

Despite some minor quibbles, like Penn providing stock material for the sport’s critics by threatening to kill GSP and vowing to die in the cage, this was a triumph. This show is masterfully produced, by far the best work we’ve ever seen on a UFC program. I can’t wait to see what comes next and I think many fans will feel the same way.

After impressing coach Frank Mir and his fellow “The Ultimate Fighter” housemates with a dominant win over Shane Primm to advance into the semi-finals, Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Eliot Marshall was eliminated from the competition by the prohibitive favorite Ryan Bader.

Marshall sat down to talk to FiveOuncesOfPain.com about Bader, respect, urine, and anything we wanted. Except Junie Browning.

Jonathan Snowden: Last night they aired your fight with Ryan Bader, a fight that looked more like a wrestling match than a MMA bout. What were your thoughts going in and know that you’ve had time to think about it?

Eliot Marshall: Bader did a great job of winning the fight.  He did what he had to do to win.  What can I say?  You watched it. So?  He took me down and held me on the cage, waited, and he won.  That’s my responsibility.  It’s my responsibility to deal with those sorts of tactics.  That’s what people are going to try to do to me.

Jonathan Snowden:  What can you do when you are matched up with a superlative wrestler like that?  If he doesn’t want to do anything but take you down and watch the clock, what can you do?

Eliot Marshall: I’ve been doing a lot of work to be able to deal with this.  I’ve been just working on getting back to my feet, my footwork when I’m striking.   Moving in circles.  That’s it you know?  What else can you do?  I’m getting better, adapting my jiu-jitsu game towards that kind of wrestler’s style.

Jonathan Snowden: The good news is, you’re not going to have to deal with many wrestlers better than him in your career.

Eliot Marshall: Right. And I deal with Rashad (Evans) in practice all the time. There’s not a better one than Rashad. So, that’s my practice.

Jonathan Snowden: After your fight with Shane, you challenged Bader in the cage. Why did you guys agree to fight? What was the thinking…

Eliot Marshall: There was no thinking behind it. It was a joke. He was drunk in my room one night before everyone went to bed, everyone was all joking around talking shit. That’s all it was man. It doesn’t matter to me who I fight. I’m not scared to fight anybody. If Bader and I are going to fight, then Bader and I are going to fight. Plus we knew if Krzysztof and Vinny made it to the semi-finals that there was no way they were going to let them fight in the finals. Because at the time they trained at the same gym (Team Quest in California). How would that work? How would you train?  So it was going to be me and Bader. I was pretty sure Jules wasn’t beating Vinny. I was pretty sure Kyle wasn’t going to beat Krzysztof. So there it was.

Jonathan Snowden: How have you bounced back from the loss?

Eliot Marshall: It’s not hard at all. You’ve just got to go. If you’re the type of person that losing is going to crush you like that, then this isn’t the sport for you. You’re going to have to deal with that a lot in this sport. It’s just inevitable. You lose. The best guys in the world lose.

Jonathan Snowden: Overall, looking back, what did you think of the Ultimate Fighter experience.  This season seemed especially crazy?

Eliot Marshall: It was a great experience you know? It’s not a fun one,but its a good one that’s worthwhile. Hopefully I’ll be able to take my career to the next level because of it. “The Ultimate Fighter” is not as easy as you think it is. Talk to any of the guys that have done it before. It’s terrible. It’s not fun. You go kind of crazy in that house. Not being able to get your own stuff, your own food. They’ll eventually bring you whatever you want, but if you want a cheeseburger-not being able to drive down the road to get that cheeseburger… it’s kind of weird when those freedoms get taken away.

Jonathan Snowden: It reminds me of basic training. Or prison.

Eliot Marshall: At least in jail you get TV.

Jonathan Snowden: Let’s talk about some of the crazy stuff that went down. The first question, because of the focus on him in what seemed like every episode, what did you think of Junie?

Eliot Marshall: I’m not going to talk about Junie.

Jonathan Snowden: Not at all?

Eliot Marshall: Nope. You can put that in there: ‘I’m not going to talk about Junie.’  Junie’s a jackass. He can do his own thing.

Jonathan Snowden: The pranks this season were kind of taken to a new level. You guys were doing some crazy stuff…

Eliot Marshall: Don’t say ‘you guys.’ I wasn’t doing anything.

Jonathan Snowden: The guys around you were. There was a minor furor online when they showed guys drinking urine and generally being gross. How does that affect how fans and critics see fighters and the fight game?

Eliot Marshall: I thought it was a very bad and poor representation of what a professional athlete is supposed to be. If you look at basketball, football, and baseball, when their athletes travel they have to dress appropriately. In a very professional manner.  They try to portray this image of professionalism. I thought it was terrible. We’re trying to be professional athletes. I want to make money like the basketball players and the football players. But then, people are going to act like that.  Not good.

Jonathan Snowden: One of the other incidents you had a role in was an issue of “respect.” There was criticism online that some of you guys weren’t appropriately deferential to Nogueira. What kind of respect do you owe a fighter like Nog when he comes to talk to you about something?

Eliot Marshall: Give Nogueira a call and ask him if he felt disrespected by me. He an I had a conversation like two adults. I’m not going to put any person on a pedestal. He’s not my father. If I disagree with you, I’m going to speak to you about it. We had a conversation at the end of it, we shook hands, and he left. That was how it was. He didn’t feel disrespected. He went out and bought me a cheeseburger after the fight with Ryan Bader.

Jonathan Snowden: Did you see the backlash against you online?

Eliot Marshall: I read it. People were going nuts. Online? Whatever. These are 15 year-old kids that sit in their mom’s basement. He’s a great fighter, but he’s been wrong before in his life.  People have disagreed with him before. You’re allowed to disagree with people aren’t you?

Jonathan Snowden: Certainly. About the training: Obviously, you’ve got this world-class facility with with the world class coaching, but people complain about the lack of intensity. Does the competitive nature of the show keep guys from giving their all in training with someone who could be an opponent?

Eliot Marshall: That and you know you’re going to have to fight when you show up at the show.  Right?

Jonathan Snowden: Right.

Eliot Marshall: So, you have to be prepared for a war right then. So, you have to prepare for four or five weeks before. When you get to the show you have six more weeks. That’s a lot of intense training and you have to find some rest time. You can only peak and be fighting well for so long.  Ten weeks is way too long to do that. So you have to find a way to modify your training.  You can’t always go as hard as you can and kill yourself everyday. It doesn’t work. You’re going to get injured, you’re going to get hurt, you’re going to over-train.

Jonathan Snowden: How did the coaches handle that?

Eliot Marshall: I thought Mir did a great job. He didn’t try to make us do anything. He gave us opportunities and showed us things. But he didn’t necessarily kill us.

Jonathan Snowden: In your blog you said: “I know that when I trained with Krzysztof during our time on TUF Vinny would get upset.” How did you navigate the politics of the house?

Eliot Marshall: What can you do? There’s nothing you can do about things like that. You have to worry about yourself. Krzysztof and I were friends. I liked Vinny. Vinny and I got along fine.  Krzysztof and I were about training our overall games. We sparred together, we rolled together, we wrestled together. Vinny just liked training a lot of jiu-jitsu. In the early parts of the show, before we knew Krzysztof and Vinny were going to fight, Krzysztof and I ended up training together a lot because nobody else really wanted to spar. And Krzysztof and I would spar.

Jonathan Snowden: You fought Bader and trained with Vinny for weeks. How do you see that fight going down?

Eliot Marshall: I don’t think it’s going to go to the ground. I think Bader is going to keep it standing.  I feel like with me, Bader had to take the risk of going to the ground because I could beat him on the feet. I don’t believe Vinny is going to be able to beat him on the feet. So I don’t believe Bader is going to take the risk of going to the ground with Vinny. Bader did a really good job of avoiding my submissions, but that can only last for so long. Eventually you get caught. You make a mistake.

Jonathan Snowden: Plenty of fighters have gone from where you are right now to solid careers in the UFC, guys like Koscheck and Leben and Hamill. What’s next for you? You must feel good about being matched with Jules at the Palms.

Eliot Marshall: Anybody can win a fight. That’s why you fight the fights. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I’m mentally prepared. I’m very ready to go. I didn’t take this fight with Jules lightly.  I’ve been in Albuquerque for five weeks. I’m ready to go you know? I’ve been training with Rashad and Keith and Nate and Duane. All the big boys. There’s no easy fights. You work, you train to win the fight. Then afterward, you know? Train hard, fight hard, party hard.

Jonathan Snowden: How helpful is it to have multiple guys at Greg Jackson’s preparing at the same time. Rashad is obviously getting ready for a big fight too.

Eliot Marshall: Man, Rashad! Whew. Rashad is looking great. Rashad beat me up for the last couple of weeks. It’s great. And in Colorado, sparring with Duane (Ludwig). Duane can put it on you. When he puts it on you it’s probably the worst experience in the world.

Jonathan Snowden: You called him “terrible” in your blog. Is there pressure now, because if you lose, you lose to a dude you said was terrible?

Eliot Marshall: That’s what gives you those nerves. That’s what makes you feel you’re alive.  I’ve got to put my money where my mouth was.

Jonathan Snowden: Good luck to you. Anything you wanted to say to the fans who have been watching you on TV?

Eliot Marshall: I want to say thank you to “The Ultimate Fighter” crew. The camera crew guys and the guys who got all of our food and stuff like that.  Without “The Ultimate Fighter” we’d all have a different job. All of us, me and you. It made MMA kind of, so I wanted  to say thank you to all of them. I appreciate it. Tune in on the 13th, watch the fights, and you’re going to see a dominant and impressive performance.

Mike Russow is on the brink of something big. The Monte Cox managed prospect is 10-1 with six wins in a row. In a depleted heavyweight division, this makes him something of a prospect. And prospects have to be managed carefully. As Cox looks to secure a big future fight for his fighter in the UFC, in Affliction, or in Japan, it’s more important than ever that Russow take fights he can win and win impressively.

Enter Braden Bice on the December 10 Adrenaline MMA show in Moline, Illinois.

“I know I’ve got myself into a fight. I know I’m not going in there and taking an easy one. But I’ve never fought anyone easy before. I don’t fight cans. I don’t want to. I want to fight the best. If I take a couple of losses along the way-it’s all experience. I like competition. I just want to fight tough guys. If I take somebody on that’s not going to be much of a fight, it doesn’t make me feel like much of a fighter. I want to fight people who are going to challenge me,” Bice said. Despite more than a dozen pro and amateur fights, this is a big step up for Braden. “It’s crazy to think that Pat Miletich and (Ben) Rothwell are on the same card as me. I’ve fought on cards with guys that have been on TV before, but I haven’t been on TV before. That’s what I’m more nervous about. But I’ve been in front of 8000 people at the state wrestling finals so I know how to get it done under fucking pressure.”

Bice is what old school boxing writers would call an “opponent.” On MMA message boards he’d be called a “can.” And Cox has seemingly targeted Bice, first lining him up for former “Ultimate Fighter” star Sam Hoger (a fight that fell through when Bice didn’t get his medical paperwork together in time). Now he’s bringing Bice in to fight another of his heavyweight prospects. There are whispers that Cox knows something, that Bice is more than just an over-matched young wrestler. He’s coming off a suspension in Ohio where there were accusations of wrong-doing. Is Cox looking to buy a win for his hot prospect?

“Ohio accused me of throwing a fight there against Josh Hendricks. I was goaded into taking a fight against a guy I didn’t have any business being in the ring with. He kicked my ass and I got suspended for it. They eventually overturned it. They thought I took a dive for a paycheck. I would never do that. I get pissed off if I lose a game of checkers,” Bice said. “The fight lasted 50 seconds. I threw a couple. I knew if I was going to win, I had to hit a homerun. So I came out throwing bombs and high kicks and all kinds of crazy stuff. He got a hold of me, picked me up, and slammed me. Took my back and pounded me out. I tapped due to strikes. I was hurt and hurt bad and I wasn’t going to win the fight. It was over.”

Bice says he wasn’t dirty. He was just fighting a tough guy on short notice and got caught. It’s savvy matchmaking by Cox, doubling his duty as Russow’s manager and the event’s promoter. Bice is a young fighter with a losing record, seemingly tailor-made for Russow, who wins the majority of his fights on the ground with slick submissions. That’s where Bice has lost all of his fights. But that was the old Bice.

“I am a very different fighter than I was a year ago. I’ve improved 100 percent in all aspects of my game. I know he’s a good guy, but our styles clash pretty well to make a good fight,” Bice said. “I know he’s going to come out there and take me down and try to submit me. I’m a pretty good Greco guy and I wrestled all my life. I think I can stop his takedowns and stay out of his submissions. It will not be a lay and pray match. It will not on my side. My Jiu-Jitsu is pretty game. If anything, it will turn into a jiu-jitsu match. I don’t think he wants to lay around either. He wants to come in there and get his job done quick. He wants to make his money and go home.”

Despite the differences in prominence and pedigree, Bice thought this was a good matchup for him. People might expect a big underdog to look to pick up a check and call it a night. Not Bice, who is confident his wrestling background will help him avoid a very dangerous ground fighter.

“He’s probably imagining he’s going to walk through me for sure. But I’m there to make him earn it. If he looks past me, he’s made a bad mistake,” Bice said. He’s traveling to Fight Firm in Philadelphia to train for a fight he took with just two weeks notice. “As soon as (manager) Mike Camp called me I took it almost instantly. I told him to give me an hour to look up some info on him because I’d only seen him in his M-1 fight. About an hour later I called him and told him I’d take it.”

For Russow it is another step on a ladder that leads to the UFC and the big leagues of the fight game. He’s been close enough to smell it before, with a cup of coffee in PRIDE. There’s pressure to stay perfect, waiting for that call from Joe Silva that could change everything. There’s pressure for Bice, too. He isn’t thinking about being the next Randy Couture, yet. He’d be happy to walk in Mike Russow’s shoes.

“I have no other choice than to perform on this one. If I pull a dud, I’m done,” Bice said. “I’ll be stuck on the lower shows. It drives me, man. I’ve got to do it.”