Pictured: Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn square off at UFC 118 weigh-ins yesterday. Picture from Tracy Lee of CombatLifeStyle.com

The TD Center in Boston takes center stage for one of UFC’s bigger shows of 2010 tonight, as BJ Penn rides into New England to try and take his lightweight crown back from the man who took it from him: Frankie Edgar. UFC 118 also features the MMA debut of James “Lights Out” Toney (I think this is a bad idea, but hey, it’s a free country), squaring off against UFC legend Randy Couture, and a strong undercard to boot — including Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis.

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Say what you will about Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.

Say that they have only a handful of fights, that they perhaps don’t merit discussion with all time greats like Fedor Emelianenko, that the split screen interview segment hyping the bout recently for the TUF finale was the worst in history. Go ahead. Maybe I’ll join you (comfortably on my couch, and far away from them).

But they’ve made UFC 116, eminating live tomorrow night from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a huge event. Despite the loss of Wanderlei Silva (who pulled out due to injured ribs), the show is sold out and Dana White predicts a million PPV buys. Two of the biggest and baddest in our sport’s short history are set like planets waiting to collide, and it looks like the whole world is watching. So who’s coming out on top? Read on…

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UFC 115, which will be broadcast live on PPV at 10 pm US EST tonight from GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, was never hailed among ZUFFA’s top shows of the year. The main event of Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz wouldn’t have made sense in 2007 when both were closer to their primes — as Chuck stopped Tito twice in two lopsided bouts in the mid-2000’s. Today, with both in the twilight of their careers, it’s even less palatable. But Ortiz has been replaced by Rich Franklin, offering a bit more compelling a bout — if not much of a more relevant one. A mediocre undercard isn’t much of a help. This would be an interesting UFC Fight Night, but a PPV it ain’t… particularly on a World Cup weekend.

However, two masochistic stateside Total-MMA staff members find themselves drawn to this show. Please join us. So, sit down, enjoy a recommendation from the world’s greatest wine reviewer, Sadat X of Brand Nubian fame, and let’s get down to it!

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Rampage and Rashad stare-down at UFC 96

This wrap up comes a little late but the show still deserves its due publicity so here we go.

The main event featured one of the most anticipated grudge matches in UFC history. Rampage has had a problem with Rashad Evans ever since he fought Rampage’s teammate Hector Ramirez back in 2004. Ramirez suffered an injury in a fight the day before and basically fought Evans on one leg. Rampage felt Rashad did a little too much showboating in the fight and let him know about it when Rashad approached him after the fight about training with him. The bad blood started there and continued after Rampage beat Rashad’s teammate Keith Jardine at UFC 96 and continued into The Ultimate Fighter show.

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Hello, fight fans, and welcome to another round of Total MMA predictions. The event getting the attention his week is UFC 114, a card headlined by the long awaited fight between TUF 10 coaches Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Rashad Evans. Other featured bouts see two top Middleweights in Dan Miller and Michael Bisping look to get back to winning ways and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira attempt to get past tough wrestler Jason Brilz.

And for those of you who aren’t going to purchase the PPV, you can check out a couple of prelims fights on Spike, between Welterweights Amir Sadollah and Dong Hyun-Kim and Lightweights Efrain Escudero and Dan Lauzon. We won’t be predicting those here, but still, free MMA is free MMA, right?

Unbroadcast prelims include consensus Top 10 Light Heavyweight Luis Arthur Cane against UFC debutant Cyrille Diabate and a renewed Melvin Guillard taking on another UFC newcomer in Waylon Lowe. Look out for vicious finishes in both, and therefore appearances on the PPV should they be required.

Joining me (JL) for predictions are regular Bryan Belangia (BB) and prediction debutant David Bateman (DB). Tommy Hackett is currently abroad and unable to contribute, but he should make his return for our next round of predictions. As always these predictions are just for fun. On no count can we be held responsible if you lose the pension fund on them.
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Pictured: Overeem and Rogers square off at the weigh ins.

This card had a decent amount of compelling stories on paper and the finished product as a whole lived up to the billing.

There was an interesting story and angle for every televised fight. In the opener you had two hungry light heavyweights looking to move up the rankings. This was followed by what I called a really irrelevant fight, but the fan in me was still interested to see Gracie and how he would perform in only his third pro fight even if it was up against a one dimensional over the hill Kevin Randleman. The rest of the card featured their top middleweight prospect, one of the biggest heavyweight stars against one of the biggest heavyweights, and the return of the champion against an up and coming dangerous challenger.

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Tonight in St Louis, Strikeforce looks to bounce back from last month’s debacle with a solid card of talent — particularly at heavyweight. Two of the top ten face off in the main for the promotion’s crown, with another longtime contender is featured in the co-main. Roger Gracie, now campaigning at light heavy, is among the featured talent on the undercard, against a former UFC heavyweight champion, no less. So, can they do it? Staff writers Jacob Lawton and Bryan Belangia offer their predictions on each feature bout. Jacob sees only one bout going to the judges’ scorecards, and Bryan doesn’t see any of the bouts going past the second round. We’d guess fireworks are in the air…

We do know the show will kick off 10pm EST from the “Show Me” state, and will be televised live on Showtime.

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Pictured: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua face off at yesterday’s weigh-ins.

So, will it be a new day in the Machida era? Or is a revitalized Rua the new puzzle in MMA? Tonight’s the night, fight fans, as UFC 113 thunders in from the childhood home of Arturo Gatti (RIP).

This week Tommy Hackett is nursing a flu, and antibiotics have him making less sense than usual (seriously, Tommy picked Jake Shields over Dan Henderson? Oh wait…) – so Bryan Belangia (BB) and Jacob Lawton (JL) are forced to carry the prognostication honors, without our peerless leader. As always, our predictions are for entertainment purposes only, so don’t blame us if you foreclose.

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Pictured: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida celebrates his 2008 victory over Tito Ortiz. Machida defends his title for the second time against Mauricio Rua tomorrow night.

The clock is ticking on one of the most anticipated UFC rematches in recent memory.  The first fight resulted in a controversial decision- one that most fans thought that Rua had won, and also saw the aura of “unbeatable” that Machida had developed slowly disappear round by round.

For all of Machida’s praises as being elusive and a master strategist, it was actually Rua that that was the elusive one in the first fight and the one who seemed to have finally developed a solid strategy and possibly solved the puzzle that is Machida.  The question that is on most fans’ minds now is whether Rua can be at a minimum equally as effective in the rematch.

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So Strikeforce has gone from a small to medium sized San Jose based promotion with a lot of local talent and a few big names to network television and cable TV in very quick fashion but you have to wonder are they getting too big too fast. 

In Strikeforce’s MMA debut they came out guns blazing with a lineup that included Frank Shamrock, Cesar Gracie, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, and the MMA debut of Cung Le.  The event still holds the record for the largest paid attendance for MMA in the United States. 

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