The latest middleweight ranking…

No shake-ups to report on paper, but the believed gulf between 1 and 2 is a lot shorter after Silva snatched Sonnen’s win from him in the last minute of their title bout.  Here’s how I shake out the top ten… 1. Anderson Silva Well, he didn’t exactly look like the pound-for-pound best on the [...]

Do A-list movie roles by Rampage Jackson, Gina Carrano and others suggest MMA has gained mainstream acceptance?

MMA appears to be going Hollywood. One of the biggest challenges in this sport of “bar-room brawlers” has been gaining mainstream acceptance. Little by little that concern is falling to the wayside. One of those signs is MMA’s widespread acceptance by Hollywood.

Looking back at seasons seven and eight of The Ultimate Fighter

Leading up to the premier of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, we will check in with a look at some of the show’s previous contestants. With season 10 of the Ultimate Fighter upon us, I thought it fitting to see where the show has come from between now and the past ten seasons, or [...]

Women’s MMA will suffer if Gina Carano does not compete for the title again

“Well that was interesting.” That’s the reaction MMA fans most likely had to Strikeforce’s Carano vs. Cyborg Aug. 15, the first-ever major promotion headlined by women. The end result was not pretty for Gina Carano, the face of women’s mixed martial arts, who was mounted and finished with punches just prior to the close of [...]

The UFC will continue to evolve without Fedor Emelianenko

So I spoke too soon last week. I jumped the gun over reports of Fedor Emelianenko signing with the UFC. Those reports turned out to be erroneous when earlier this week the Russian heavyweight signed a contract with fight promotion Strikeforce. This blocks any notion of MMA’s fight of the century between Emelianenko and UFC [...]

With UFC 100 approaching, we take a look at how far mixed martial arts have come in the last 15 years

Alright, I’m going to admit it: I’m giddy this week, school-girl giddy. And I’m not dissuaded by the UFC’s decision to hold Jackson vs. Evans in Memphis, instead of Detroit, or by a washed up boxer knocking out a fairly relevant mixed martial artist. July 11 will be mixed martial arts’ Super Bowl, if the [...]

Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos demonstrate their different personalities in how they choke out TV reporters

Female mixed martial artists Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos both earned some headlines (click on ‘Reality Check’ under ‘playlist’) in anticipation of their Strikeforce match-up in August, which will be the first time a major promotion leads with women. These two elite female fighters were built up through the now defunct EliteXC promotion, and now [...]

Forget about the trade to Cleveland, could Shaq really succeed in MMA?

As some saw on ESPN last week, Shaquille O’Neal has called out the first guy he wants to fight in mixed martial arts and it isn’t Kobe Bryant.It seems the 7-foot-2 MMA enthusiast wants to face the guy who just recently TKO’d Jose Canseco, 7-foot-2 kickboxer Hong Man Choi. I’m not sure if this is [...]

The perfect venue for a Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans fight would be Joe Louis Arena in Detroit

Now this is just hypothetical, but for years I’ve wanted to see the UFC bring a card to Michigan, particularly the real fight capital of the world, Detroit. What other city has a major arena named after a fighter (Joe Louis)? So there’s a perfect venue: a historic arena named after the first iconic fighter. [...]