Tito Ortiz at Cage Combat

Props Bloody Elbow

Affliction Wants To Get Physical With The UFC

“They threaten us personally which is hilarious. Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta they’re tough guys. They’re old school mafia guys or wanna-be old school mafia guys. Their grandfather built their business. They’re nothing. They put (Station Casinos) $5 billion in debt. They’re in big trouble right now. They’re going out of business in February, guaranteed. Lorenzo Fertitta … kiss my fucking ass motherfucker.”

Props Fightlinker.com details here

UFC/Affliction Agree To Not Be Friends

MMAWeekly.com is reporting that in late September the two sides met to see if they could come to an agreement on ending their dispute over apparel and fight promotion. Affliction would produce apparel for the UFC, while ceasing fight promotion and the UFC could sign the available fighters if they wanted. Things went south, expletives were throw and respective challenges of manhood exchanged, you know the usual sort of stuff one sees in the boardroom. More details are here

WAMMA talks about Arlovski/Barnett "Elimination Match"

It is an interesting interview and the COO of the WAMMA has some great quotes, check the interview here.

"Without question, WAMMA would have very much liked to have a WAMMA Championship on the line between GSP and Fitch. It is a natural fit - the fighters occupy the #1 and #2 WAMMA rankings respectively. However, the UFC is not cooperating with WAMMA at this time and even if we were to award a WAMMA title to the winner, the fighters could not accept them. WAMMA has the utmost respect for the UFC and we hope this situation changes as the UFC is clearly the dominant MMA promotion. Just look at our ranking on www.gowamma.com - Zuffa fighters dominate most weight division. Back to GSP v. Fitch, I personally will be glued to the television Saturday night to watch that fight."

How strong is the UFC financially?

MMAPayout.com has two awesome articles that look at Zuffa in depth. Many of you out there probably don't know that Zuffa just had their corporate debt rating downgraded. Which is not surprising because the economy is heading straight for the tank meaning people will tighten spending habits, which ultimately will reduce the number of PPV dollars out there to be made. In short, the downgrade is less about the status of the company that it is the state of consumer spending, inflation, credit crunch etc etc. Here are the articles definitely good reads.

Article 1(Discusses Bond Rating Change)

Article 2(Discusses PPV Distribution)

UFC Fight Night 14 Averages 3.1 million viewers

According to Fiveouncesofpain.com, UFC Fight Night 14 averaged 3.1 million viewers and peaked with 3.8 million viewers.

According to Spike, UFN 14 was number one during its time slot compared to all basic cable and broadcast networks in the males 18-34 (903,000 viewers); males 18-49 (1,550,000); males 25-34 (622,000); and Male/Females 18-34 (1,326,000) demographics.

When comparing the UFN 14 rating to other programs that aired over the weekend, the event attracted more viewers that Fox’s baseball coverage on Saturday afternoon. According to Spike TV, UFN 14 also did better in the males 18-34 and males 18-49 demos than ESPN’s Sunday night telecast of the ESPY awards.

Those look like solid numbers to me and shows that MMA has very relevant viewership. It will be interesting to see Affliction's PPV numbers.

UFC acquires IFL?

Fighter.com is reporting that the UFC has indeed purchased the IFL.....no official announcement has been made by Zuffa.

Buy a Piece of MMA History

From Craigslist via Cagetoday.com

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Shredded Tire from Chase. Small pieces. Will send pics to serious inquiries.

My co-workers and I were driving back from lunch Tuesday, and almost got hit by this big a** truck being chased. His front tire landed in front of our car as pulled over to let the cops do there thing.

If your out of town, you will need to pay for shipping costs.

Unfortunately the post was taken off craigslist. So check ebay...

Video of Rampage's Arrest

Here are two clips of Rampage's arrest from mmamania.com via tmz.com(Scroll Down):

Arrest Video

Day before arrest

UFC 2009: Undisputed

Checkout the new UFC video previews here

IGN Game Review here

Dans White says "Let's Compete"

Apparently he's got no love for his T-Shirt buddies, just Joe Rogan and the signature all black button up.

Tito close to signing with the UFC?

FIGHTHYPE is reporting that Ortiz will finish out his career with the UFC and has been offered shots at Sokoudjou, Houston Alexander or Stephan Bonnar. This definitely seems like the best route for Tito to go, because even if other organizations such as Elite or Affliction offer him lucrative deals I am not sure they have the stable of fighters at 205 to make any interesting matchups. It should be noted that Ortiz does have a relationship with Donald Trump, a current investor in the Affliction promotion, from his days on the Apprentice. Additionally, there have been some rumors that Elite XC would like to setup rematch between Ortiz and Frank Shamrock.

How much does it pay to get your face smashed?

With Leather points out just how little some of these guys get paid for the punishment they receive. The Bushwhackers couldn't be happier with the state of the UFC, but let's be honest when you do the math it's really hard to believe what some of the fighters are getting paid to fight in the sports premier league. The numbers haven't been tallied yet for UFC 86, but this page from MMAPayout gives you an idea of what the UFC brought in during 2007 from PPV buys alone. Dana has made a point in recent weeks to trim the UFC roster down from its current position of 250 fighters, which we agree is far too many, but in doing so we think it's worth it to up the salary of guys like Lytle who put on a great shows when they step in the Octagon.

UFC in the New York Times

The article by R. M. Schneiderman discusses the UFC's effort to expand into Europe...

The Ultimate Fighter Season 8

Recently in Kevin Iole's MMA mailbag at Yahoo! Sports Dana White says he’s discovered “the next Anderson Silva” and he is competing in Season 8 of TUF. Dana declined to release any other information so as to not ruin the outcome of the show. “I was going off when I saw this guy,” White said. “He’s 24 and he’s destroying people. It’s sick how bad ass he is. I’m getting goose bumps talking to you about him.”

Its hard to tell when Dana is really excited or just blowing smoke and pumping up his product. However, in this case it might be a Joe Rogan "That's craaaaaaaaaaaaazy" situation.

The Clinch is the Key

An aspect of the upcoming fight between Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson that has been getting some publicity is Rampage's ability to fight within the clinch, specifically when he is on defense. As noted in the Spike TV preview, Countdown to UFC 86, Forrest and his team have specifically cited this as an area of Rampage's game that they wish to attack. They feel that Forrest's height and reach advantage will allow him to control Rampage's movement, as well as wear him down physically by landing knees to the body. Plus it will neutralize Rampage's biggest assets which are his vicious slams and powerful punches. Still don't believe me? Checkout what Forrest's training partner, Wanderlei Silva, did to Rampage over in PRIDE with just that game plan.

Hmmmm that’s not pretty, for more on that see MMA Weekly's interview with Forrest, where he specifically highlights his Wanderlei influences. Oh and to make matters worse, Forrest just beat Shogun Rua, who was the last guy to take out Rampage. Here's are the highlights from that fight. Notice the similarities....

Hold on a minute. Before you all rush out to your local bookie or hit up Bodog to change you bets, it should be noted that those fights are three years old and Rampage is a much more polished fighter than he was in those losses. Secondly, those bouts were fought under PRIDE rules and in a ring versus a cage. I still am not sold that Forrest is going to come through with the upset, but I definitely see him making a very very good match of it. Perhaps it will be as excellent a match as the TUF 1 finale, but with Forrest on the losing end of the decision.