It’s been a busy time for FiveOuncesOfPain.com with the site having finalized a deal to become an official content partner for CBSSports.com’s MMA section as well as having launched video content.

And now we are pleased to announce that we’ve launched our very own store where readers can now buy MMA lifestyle apparel from such major brands as TapouT, Warrior Wear, Code of Silence, and Pimpit.

To access the store, you can either click here or just click on the word “Store” that appears along the site’s top navigation bar.

In celebration of the store’s launch, we are offering readers a special discount where you can receive a 10% discount on all apparel and accessories. In order to receive the special discount, just enter the code “newaccount” when completing your order.

In addition to the discount, we’ll be promoting the stores through a special Code of Silence giveaway (stay tuned) and we plan to add another 10-15 name brands over the course of the next 15 days.

For those who want to support this site, the best way to do it is by supporting our sponsors (Sanctioned Violence, Combat Clothing, Ranger Up, and TSS Radio) and by also ordering MMA merchandise through our store.

“Between the Ropes” can be heard on ESPN 1080 AM in Orlando and online by clicking here. You can call into the show at 407-482-3776.

Five Ounces of Pain makes media appearances on a regular basis with Caplan having appeared as a guest nationally on HDNet’s “Inside MMA,” the “The Scott Ferrall Show” on Sirius Satellite Radio, “Fight Network Radio” with host Mauro Ranallo on Hardcore Sports Radio in Canada and on Sirius in the States, “Sirius Fight Club” with hosts Randy Gordon and Chris Thomas on Sirius, and “The Mr. Sunshine Show” with host Steve Cofield on Fox Sports Radio.

Locally, he has appeared on ESPN Radio affiliates in Las Vegas (1100 AM), Orlando 1080 AM), and Philadelphia/Trenton (920 AM), CBS Radio affiliates in Washington D.C. (106.7 FM) and Dallas (105.3 FM), as well as stations in Toronto (590 AM), Orlando (740 AM) and North Carolina (680 AM).

Internet radio credits include “The Sports Buzz,” Sherdog Radio, “Between the Ropes,” and MMA Rated Radio.

If you’re interested in scheduling Caplan for an appearance on your show, you can e-mail him at: SCaplan8@comcast.net

Since February of 2007, Five Ounces of Pain founder and publisher Sam Caplan has been a weekly contributor to CBSSports.com’s MMA section. Now a greater array of content from Five Ounces of Pain will begin to be featured prominently in CBSSports.com’s mixed martial arts section.

Five Ounces of Pain will continue to expose its brand to a larger audience while also helping the site to continue to grow its daily readership.

Our readers will largely be unaffected by this relationship. You will still see the same great breaking news stories, interviews, and opinion pieces from the writers of this site that you have come to know and appreciate. If anything, this will allow us to expand our coverage of mixed martial arts, as new initiatives are already in the planning stages.

Five Ounces of Pain would like to thank CBSSports.com for their support and we’d also like to thank the regular readers of this site who have allowed us to experience tremendous growth over the course of the last year.

Caplan will be on the show to discuss the day’s latest headlines including recent matchmaking decisions in the WEC; ProElite’s decision to block EliteXC welterweight champion Jake Shields’ bid for free agency, and more.

Fight Network Radio can be heard every Monday through Friday on Sirius Satellite Radio and Hardcore Sports Radio from 3-4 p.m. ET.

If you are interested in purchasing a SIRIUS RADIO please visit our sponsor TSS-Radio.com. Sirius continues to increase and improve their coverage of mixed martial arts across many of their stations.

If you’d like to call into the show, you can do so at 1-888-9-HARDCORE.

Five Ounces of Pain makes media appearances on a regular basis with Caplan having appeared as a guest nationally on HDNet’s “Inside MMA,” the “The Scott Ferrall Show” on Sirius Satellite Radio, “Fight Network Radio” with host Mauro Ranallo on Hardcore Sports Radio in Canada and on Sirius in the States, “Sirius Fight Club” with hosts Randy Gordon and Chris Thomas on Sirius, and “The Mr. Sunshine Show” with host Steve Cofield on Fox Sports Radio. Locally, he has appeared on ESPN Radio affiliates in Las Vegas (1100 AM) and Philadelphia/Trenton (920 AM), CBS Radio affiliates in Washington D.C. (106.7 FM) and Dallas (105.3 FM), as well as stations in Toronto (590 AM), Orlando (740 AM) and North Carolina (680 AM). Internet radio credits include “The Sports Buzz,” Sherdog Radio, Brian Fritz’s “Between the Ropes,” and MMA Rated Radio.

If you’re interested in scheduling Caplan for an appearance on your show, you can e-mail him at: SCaplan8@comcast.net

EliteXC will be going against a replay of UFC 86 on Spike TV, post-season MLB on FOX, and college football on ABC that same night and is hitching its hopes on a main event featuring 34-year old former Internet street fighter Kimbo Slice and 44-year old UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock.

Promotion for the Oct. 4 thus far has been sedate in comparison to the heavy push the May 31 show received. However, the marketing appears to be ramping up as commercials hyping the return of Slice aired this past Sunday during CBS’ NFL telecasts.

The stakes for EliteXC are high but they are also high for the fighters themselves. Slice remains a strong draw for the promotion but that could change if he’s unable to redeem himself following his lackluster effort vs. James Thompson during the first airing of SNF. As for Shamrock, he has refused to address the possibility that this could be his last fight, but for an aging veteran with just one win in his last eight fights, the decision whether to continue his career may be taken out of his hands if he does not come away victorious.

For an extended look at exactly what Slice and Shamrock will be fighting for in a couple of weeks, please read my latest column on CBSSports.com.

Also on CBSSports.com is the first blog from TUF 8 light heavyweight fighter Tom Lawlor. Lawlor, who trains out of American Top Team and is considered one of the favorites to reach the finals, gives a breakdown of all the fights from the first episode and also discusses who he believes he’ll be matched up against in his qualifying bout.

In order not to spoil the outcome of any of the 16 qualifying bouts that will be taking place the next two weeks, we will not reveal the identity of the fighter that will be blogging for us until after the season premiere has aired tomorrow night.

Make sure you check back this Wednesday and each and every Wednesday throughout the duration of TUF 8 for an exclusive blog from the mystery cast member.

Despite the results, a lot of people still are not sold on the reality show concept as a way to develop new talent. But as my top ten clearly demonstrates, TUF has not only created recognizable stars but has produced some damn good fighters.

To see which fighters made my top ten and why, just CLICK HERE.

FiveOuncesofPain.com is giving one lucky reader a prize bundle which includes a signed copy of the book AND five (5) t-shirts from Ranger Up!

Army Officer Kelly Crigger spent a year visiting the top MMA training camps in the USA, to live and train with the sports best fighters. He rolled at American Top Team, Team Quest, Team Sityodtong, and others. The book reveals many personal stories about the fighters at these camps and their trainers. Both hardcore and casual MMA fans will enjoy this read.

FiveOuncesofPain.com will be giving away more signed “Title Shot” books and more Ranger Up gear very soon. So if you don’t win this contest, you’ll have another chance next week! Be sure to visit rangerup.com to check out their new designs and thank Nick P. for supporting 5 Oz of Pain.

Contest is now over: Winner #2 JHouse005

How to Win: be the first reader to correctly associate the MMA fighter with his branch of military service:

1. Tim Kennedy – US Army


2. Damien Stelly – US Army


3. Brian Stann – Marines


4. Mike Marrello – Marines

All answers MUST be posted in the Comment String of THIS CONTEST POST.

DISCLAIMER: Winner will be contacted via email (be sure to use a legit email address) and will be contacted to provide their U.S. mailing address to receive the prize. We will not ship outside of the U.S.

Despite the cancellation, the article is still relevant and worth the read since I decided to focus on the unique appeal Faber has as both a growing star in the mainstream and a favorite amongst hardcore fans as well.

There are stars in MMA and then there are fighters. Faber is not only both but he’s someone who has managed to garner a tremendous amount of respect from his peers. Instead of resenting his success, many up-and-coming fighters hope to follow in the trail he is currently blazing for lighter weight fighters.

For more on why I believe Faber is a rarity in this sport, click here to read my article on CBS in its entirety.

FiveOuncesofPain.com is giving one lucky reader a prize bundle which includes a signed copy of the book AND five (5) t-shirts from Ranger Up!

Army Officer Kelly Crigger spent a year visiting the top MMA training camps in the USA, to live and train with the sports best fighters. He rolled at American Top Team, Team Quest, Team Sityodtong, and others. The book reveals many personal stories about the fighters at these camps and their trainers. Both hardcore and casual MMA fans will enjoy this read.

FiveOuncesofPain.com will be giving away more signed “Title Shot” books and more Ranger Up gear very soon. So if you don’t win this contest, you’ll have another chance next week! Be sure to visit rangerup.com to check out their new designs and thank Nick P. for supporting 5 Oz of Pain.

Contest is now over. Winner is #1 Mark Willis.

How to Win: be the first reader to correctly associate the MMA fighter with his branch of military service:

1. Randy Couture – Army


2. Rich Clementi – Navy


3. Shonie Carter – Marines


4. Dan Barrera – Air Force

All answers MUST be posted in the Comment String of THIS CONTEST POST.

DISCLAIMER: Winner will be contacted via email (be sure to use a legit email address) and will be contacted to provide their U.S. mailing address to receive the prize. We will not ship outside of the U.S.

During the interview, Couture addressed a number of topics including the situation involving Fedor Emelianenko, his upcoming return at UFC 91 against Brock Lesnar, as well as some initiatives he plans to push for regarding improved rights for fighters.

You can listen to Fight Network Radio at 3 p.m. ET on Sirius Satellite Radio or at HardcoreSportsRadio.com.

Despite some major glitches with our website last week, we still managed to declare a winner for our Frank Edgar Trivia Contest – reader “BG” from Virginia Tech University.

“BG” got all the answers correct and he wins a custom designed Frankie Edgar t-shirt from frankedgar.com.

The trivia contest questions/answers are as follows:
1. Edgar has been an assistant coach for WHAT sport at WHICH New Jersey university?   Wrestling at Rutgers University

2. Training mostly on the east coast, what school does Edgar train at when he heads to California?  American Kickboxing Academy

3. Six of Edgar’s last seven fights ended by Unanimous Decision. HOW did the ‘other’ fight end and at WHICH event was it?  Via TKO by Strikes @ UFC 73

4. Edgar wrestled at WHICH Toms River High School: North, South, East or West?  Toms River East High School

5. WHAT part of Edgar’s body was kicked off during a fight earlier in his career? And WHO kicked it off?  His Ear by Jim Miller

FiveOuncesofPain.com has several contests planned for the next few weeks and we have many unique prizes to giveaway!

A lot of people are surprised that I’m a fan of the MMA. But I grew up rolling with Royce Gracie in Brooklyn before he left and brought JiuJitsu to Brazil. We used to call him “Rolls” Royce. … If I’m John McCain, I’m calling Joe Silva to be my Vice Presidential Nominee. … Great acquisition of the IFL by the UFC. It was neck-and-neck there for awhile and if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. … Mark Dion is the Drew Rosenhaus of our sport, and who wouldn’t want to be represented by Drew Rosenhaus? … At the risk of sounding a little dramatic, Randy Couture vs. Fedor needs to happen in order to bring an end to the Cold War once and for all. … It was a tremendous coup by the folks here at 5 Oz. to land former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. I know that’s a big reason why I enlisted here. “The Duel” is a nice fallback for the former Republica Presidential candidate. … EliteXC missed the boat on Shamrock vs. Kimbo as their CBS main event. I think fans would have preferred to seen Ken and Frank as a tag team one more time against Kimbo and Boss Rutten. Now that’s what I call box office. … It was interesting to hear from Team Kimbo this week that Brett Rogers was once a tire repairman. Did he even need to put a car on a bay lift for a tire change, or did he just lift vehicles with one hand while changing tires with the other? … Saturday Night Live needs to sign up whoever wrote Brett’s recent statement. I laughed so hard I needed to change my suspenders. … It seems a little sexist that there’s a King of the Cage but no Queen of the Cage, doesn’t it? … Every day when I wake up, I put an “X” on my calendar to count the days until Yamma Pit Fighting’s next pay-per-view. I know I’m not alone. … For my money, there’s no better play-by-play man out there right now than Col. Bob Sheridan. … I’m real glad to hear Gan McGee is coming out of retirement. He’s the one heavyweight that Affliction let get away. … How is it that Arianny is a ring girl even though she’s walking around a cage? … Speaking of Arianny, I was shocked to hear that her and Roger broke up. I didn’t see that one coming.

Yesterday FiveOuncesOfPain.com was offline for about half the day.

And I am sorry if you don’t want to read this long diatribe, but I need to vent. Is that alright? I just need a few minutes… er, a few thousand words. If you are bored by this stuff, that’s cool, read the next article. However, if you want to know why were down for most of yesterday, then feel free to read on.

The reason why we disappeared can be blamed squarely on the shoulders of our former hosting company, Blue Host. Without warning or any communication, the “fine people” at Blue Host decided to not only suspend our account, but they banned us and terminated our contract.

It turns out that the EXCLUSIVE statement released to us by Brett Rogers’ manager and trainer, Mike Reilly, caused the site to crash and brought Blue Host more traffic than they could handle. They claimed that our traffic was effecting the performance of “500 other sites.”

I know we’re good, but good enough to bring down 500 sites? Nice.

Well, the truth is that we’ve been having issues with Blue Host for about a month now. We were told if we gave them more money they would upgrade us and we’d be operating at four-times the capacity. We did that yet we ran into even more problems.

When we’d see a “Account Suspended” message we would call them and they’d tell us that too many requests were being pulled up. This was a plausible explanation except for the fact it started happening at low-peak times such as Saturday night at 11 p.m. or Sunday morning at 7 a.m.

Not only that, but our traffic in August wasn’t as strong as it was in July (a record setting month for us) and things were running well even before we paid to “quadruple” our capacity.

So things weren’t adding up and the site was going offline more and more. We knew upgrading our server wasn’t good enough and we knew we needed to change companies. The problem was that none of us involved with 5 Oz. has a background in systems administration so the move was being done in stages.

Well, we kept trying to work with the incompetent staff at Blue Host to help us out in the short-term but they pulled the rug out from under us and shut us down yesterday. We tried to work with them but what we were subjected to was some of the most inhumane customer service treatment I have ever experienced. If we weren’t dealing with someone who was reading out of a manual, we were dealing with someone who was absolutely miserable about life and wanted to take out their frustrations on us. I mean, some of the people we dealt with made AOL tech support reps from the ’90′s look professional. “Blue” is a fitting name for their company because some of the people I spoke to sounded like they needed to call into a suicide hotline. I think the President of the company should get everyone there prescriptions of Lexipro.

And the best was when I was flat out told “Our administrator says you need to go out and find another company to host your site.” That’s a direct quote.

Matt Cava and I are still trying to figure out how they could kick us off without warning. Look, we had outgrown Blue Host, there’s no denying that. But a call from someone professional there saying, “Hey guys, you’re growth has exceeded our resources. It might be best if you moved on. How about we give you a week to find another hosting solution?”

But no, they didn’t have the courtesy to do anything of the sort and thousands of people were left in the dark as a result. We could have actually had the site switched over in 45 minutes at one point if they had just turned the site completely back on. We pleaded with them to do this but they said “they couldn’t take the risk” even though I clearly outlined to them that since it was after 5 p.m. and people had left work, our peak traffic period was over and I told them it wouldn’t crash. They couldn’t have cared less because the reality was they didn’t need our business anymore.

I’m not sure how wise it was on their part to treat us in such a manner. There’s no logical explanation other than they are just miserable human beings who probably are getting paid like dirt and hate their jobs. That’s fine, but where’s the logic in making enemies with a highly-trafficked site? I am telling you all right now that if you ever decide to start your own site and you choose Blue Host as your provider, you will be making a critical mistake. And if you are a blogger who already happens to use Blue Host, things might be fine but wait until your traffic grows. When you need help you will be dealing with surly reps who don’t know what they are doing and you could be terminated on a whim just like we were. I don’t know how else to put it, but Blue Host sucks. And if you want to blame anyone for what happened yesterday, feel free to go to their site and let them know what you think of them.

There are a few kinks still needed to be worked (like no images and an inability to access sub pages) out but the bottom line is we’re back online and I’ve got some big posts planned for today to make up for yesterday. These are good posts and I hope they don’t crash us again. But you’ll be able to read them today thanks to the heroic actions of David Andrest. Dave is a friend to the site and dropped everything when we placed an emergency call to him when we pleaded for his help. He stepped up and worked through the night to make the server switch and he did it for nothing more than a thank you. If Dave hadn’t come to our rescue, it might as been as long as a week for us to come back online (not an exaggeration because like I said, we’re not IT guys or systems administrators and we don’t have the money to pay for one).

So it’s been a real crappy week and I’m sorry if the posts haven’t been the best or if you’ve had trouble bringing us up. But in addition to dealing with Blue Host’s crap, I also have a wife who has a torn ACL and is in a lot of pain. I’m not having a lot of fun right now but we’re not going anywhere and I hope you don’t go anywhere either because all of the setbacks are only going to make us a better site in the long-term and I’d hate for you to miss out on all the great content we’re going to keep bringing you.

I try to find a silver lining in everything and there was something that lifted my spirits yesterday which was that I received a TON of e-mails and phone calls from people asking if we knew the site was down and if we knew when it would be back up. We were contacted by regulars and we were also contacted by some important people in the MMA industry as well — people that I can’t believe even read the site. I mean, I got some calls from people and I’m still trying to figure out how they got my number. But a lot of people were unhappy they couldn’t get their 5 Oz. so I guess that means we’re doing something right?

Check out Frankie’s new website or other MMA websites to find “The Answers” to these trivia questions.

Contest is now over. Winner is #2 BG.

How to Win: be the first reader to correctly answer the five questions below.

1. Edgar has been an assistant coach for WHAT sport at WHICH New Jersey university?

2. Training mostly on the east coast, what school does Edgar train at when he heads to California?.

3. Six of Edgar’s last seven fights ended by Unanimous Decision. HOW did the ‘other’ fight end and at WHICH event was it?

4. Edgar wrestled at WHICH Toms River High School: North, South, East or West?

5. WHAT part of Edgar’s body was kicked off during a fight earlier in his career? And WHO kicked it off?

All answers MUST be posted in the Comment String of THIS CONTEST POST.

DISCLAIMER: Winner will be contacted via email (be sure to use a legit email address) and then must email their U.S. mailing address to 5 Oz of Pain. We will not ship outside of the U.S.

This is an update on my wife that I really did not want to have to write, but I feel like I owe it to everyone who reads this site to tell them what’s going on.

But Andria will not be fighting against Shannon Schade at Combat Sports Challenge 26 in St. George, Virginia this weekend due to a severe knee injury.

Andria actually suffered the knee injury on Monday, August 11, the same day we found out that Ed Hsu’s Combat in the Cage card for Saturday, August 16 in Newark, Delaware was being shut down by local politicians. She was pretty tired from having extended her training camp twice and really didn’t want to train that night but went anyway since we had learned that Brian Crenshaw was willing to host her match vs. Shannon on his Aug. 30 show.

While on the phone with a sponsor, I got a call from the gym that Andria had messed up her knee pretty bad. During a sprawl drill her knee stuck to the mat and she injured it so bad that she had to leave training early. When she came home she was upset and in a lot of pain. We knew then that there was a chance she might need to pull out of the fight, but we weren’t sure and with 19 days to go, we wanted to explore all the options we could.

We kept this a secret from virtually everyone because we could not take the risk of it getting back to her opponent and her opponent then gaining a strategic advantage. I feel bad about keeping the injury a secret from some people, but as a husband/manager I have to protect the best interests of my wife/fighter. Being a reporter, I know that it takes just one person to leak information that can wind up in the wrong hands. The only way to guarantee that nothing gets out is to become hyper-paranoid and not tell anyone. Because we believed she still had a good chance of fighting, we felt that keeping the information under wraps was the right course of action.

Andria went to her regular doctor and then a specialist and underwent X-rays and an MRI. The X-rays ruled out a fracture but thanks to the great state of healthcare, we were told that the MRI results would not be available to be read until Sept. 3. We were pretty upset about this considering that she had made an appointment with one orthopedist and everything was set until they waited two days before the appointment to tell us they didn’t accept our insurance. That was info we could have used when we scheduled the appointment.

We also made the appointment with the second orthopedist because a nurse there told us we’d have a followup appointment with the MRI results the Wednesday before the fight, meaning she might be able to get a cortisone shot. After she underwent the MRI she called back to officially schedule the reading and we were told that Sept. 3 was the earliest. So they essentially lied to us. We have to pay 20% of the MRI costs and I can tell you that if we knew Sept. 3 was the best they’d be able to do, we would have never made the apppointment with them. But if I start going off on thje start of the healthcare industry then this update will go past 10,000 words.

We knew that they would have the results before Sept. 3 and we asked them that if there was no way they could move up our appointment, could they at least give us a phone call or mail us the results? We were given a big fat no on both accounts. I just don’t understand why doctors overbook themselves with appointments and then adopt a policy that they have to tell you test results in person. We’re trying to get the results of an MRI, not an HIV test. It’s a damn joke.

Both doctors told Andria not to fight and her trainer wanted her to pull out. Andria would hear none of it. She took a week off from training, bought crutches and walked around on them to take pressure off her knee, she bought a brace and a bunch of other crap from the pharamacy; she iced it for a while, then started using heat, etc. She needed more time off but was told that in order to fight that she had to start training again to prove she was ready. Even though she wasn’t ready, she went back last Monday.

Andria not only went back but she resumed her old training schedule because she had to show her trainer that her knee wasn’t going to be an issue during the fight. She trained in the morning and she trained at night. The knee was sore but it was starting to heal. I was able to watch her train a few times and she looked good. Each day she was able to do a little more and I was 70% sure she’d be able to get to the fight. However, last Friday her knee started to hurt and I told her she needed to take a day off. She wanted to but was afraid that if she skipped practice that she’d be pulled from the fight. I felt she was going to need to nurse the knee in order to make it to the fight as opposed to pushing herself like she was doing.

While attempting a kick during Muay Thai practice on Friday her knee buckled and Andria fell to the mat and could not get up. She was in severe pain and visibly upset. She was in such pain that I had to take her to the emergency room. All they were willing to do was tell her to take some motrin for the swelling (which she was already doing) and they fitted her for an immobilizer. I don’t know what we were expecting, but when your wife is in severe pain and you’re about to be hit with 20% of the costs of the ER visit, you expect a little more. We told the ER doctor the situation and he told her there’s no way she should even be training, let alone fighting.

Based on the fact that we had multiple doctor recommendations not to fight and that Andria is unable to walk without an immobilizer, I had no choice but to contact our trainer, the promoter, and our sponsors and let them know that fighting on the 30th was going to be impossible.

To say we’ve had terrible luck this summer is an understatement. It’s like someone has a voodoo doll and is constantly putting needles in. I really don’t know what to say and we’re both devestated that Andria won’t be able to fight. I especially feel bad for Shannon Schade, who is healthy and ready to fight. I had heard that Shannon also lost out on a fight in June when her an opponent, who was in the reserves, was called back to active duty.

If Shannon or someone who knows her is reading this, I want her to know Andria did everything she could to fight and she probably caused additional damage to the knee by going back after only a week off. She knew that additional damage was a possibility but she assumed the risk because that’s how bad she wanted to fight. She still would like to get an opportunity to fight Shannon in the future.

I do want to thank this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us. I wanted to thank everyone from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United who have asked how Andria was doing. I want to thank CSC promoter Brian Crenshaw and all the sponsors who were more concerned about Andria’s condition when I told them she wouldn’t be able to fight as opposed to anything else. I also wanted to thank all the people who have e-mailed me or left words of support in the comment threads that the proceeded updates on Andria.

A lot of people have told us to let them know as soon as Andria is ready to fight again and we really appreciate that. We will definitely let everyone know but right now, it could be a while. Andria is still unable to walk on her own power and we really feel she might have torn ligaments and could require surgery. It could be a few months before she is able to get back into the gym. We won’t know for sure though until we get the MRI results back. But Andria has no intentions of quitting and plans to fight as soon as she’s physically able.

Before I end this update, I really need to thank the awesome support we got from our sponsors. They put up with a lot of drama and never once complained. It’s my sincere hope that we get to work with everyone in the future. I want to thank Gary from Graffight, Angie from Aggressive Athletics, Jeremy from Pimpit, Dave from Punch Drunk Gamer, Tony from Toez Up, Athletic Body Care, and Jesus Didn’t Tap/NoSubmit.com. Obviously, all sponsorship funds will be returned but there were products sent that can’t be returned so it’s really important that I acknowledge their contributions and ask you guys to support them with your business, when possible.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com is looking to expand its writing staff and is seeking an MMA news reporter.

If you feel that you can meet the qualifications below and are an ideal candidate for the position, please e-mail me at: SCaplan8@comcast.net

– Applicant must be willing to only serve in the role of an MMA news reporter. At this time, we are not looking for opinion-based writers or someone to do blog posts (i.e. copy and pasting). We are looking for someone who is able to break news, advance existing stories, and provide unique content to 5 Oz. of Pain. If you do not fit the description, please wait until we seek an applicant with your skillset before applying.

– Must be able to follow basic principles of AP-style writing. You will not be able to editorialize in your reporting.

– A reporter with existing sources is preferred, although we will consider someone who has the proper training and is willing to build up a network of sources by attending local events and contacting fighters through their websites and MySpace accounts. If you do not have reporting experience, we need to see that you are willing to take the initiative to begin building a network of sources.

– Applicant must be willing to work on a volunteer basis. The position could one day include compensation but we don’t have a timetable as to when we might be able to do that and we make no promises. Ideal applicant should view the primary benefit of the position to be exposure and work-related experience.

– Applicant must be able to contribute on a consistent basis with no fewer than four stories per week. Interested parties unsure that they can commit to four stories a week should refrain from contacting us until they know for sure they can make such a commitment.

– Must be able to work creatively and independently. All contributors to 5 Oz. of Pain work for the site on a part-time basis and our editors will not have the resources to be able to micro-manage you.

– We will accept applications from those working for other sites. However, unless you are an owner of the site you write for, we will ask that you leave your position so that you can focus on being a 5 Oz. of Pain contributor.

The UFC and Spike TV announced the 32-member cast for the upcoming eighth installment of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality television series. Of those 32 fighters, only 16 will be invited to move into the TUF mansion and become official members of the TUF 8 cast.

With the premiere of the new season now less than 30 days away, I decided to take an extended look in my column for CBSSports.com at some of the names I feel viewers should keep an eye on.

To get the lowdown on this season’s hopefuls, just click here.

Aggressive Athletics specializes in clothing for combat sports and bodybuilding. Andria and I would personally like to thank Angie and everyone at Aggressive for all of their support. It’s greatly appreciated.

For more information on Aggressive Athletics, please click here.

The sponsorship is extremely crucial considering her fight was moved from Aug. 16 in Delaware to Aug. 30 in Virginia. For the Delaware show, our expenses were going to be relatively small considering that the weigh-ins were the day of the fight card and we were just going to drive from Philadelphia the same day. Now that we’re competing five hours away on a Pro-Am show with weigh-ins the day before, that requires additional expenses such as a multi-night hotel stay.

We still have several sponsorship opportunities remaining and if interested, you can e-mail me at: SCaplan8@comcast.net

And remember, if you’re in the Virginia area, make sure you check out CSC 26. It’s going to be a great show with Dwayne “Diesel” Shelton taking on Sedico Honorio in a 140 lbs. fight in the main event. Both are fighters that I believe have a good chance of fighting in the WEC within the next twelve months. Also on the card is a welterweight battle between LeVon Maynard and John Doyle. Don’t be surprised if the winner of the fight gets a shot with a major national promotion. FiveOuncesOfPain.com will be sponsoring both fighters for the bout.

You can click here for the full card and ticket information. We hope to see you there!

CLICK HERE to see 5 Oz. of Pain’s updated rankings for August. Not too many changes, but at least they are up to date now.