Mind you, there was virtually no clamor in the mixed martial arts world for a drastic overhaul in weight categories. And yet, the ABC is now recommending the institution of 11 weight classes, ranging from flyweight (105-lb. maximum), to super heavyweight, which would remain the domain over the over-265 set.

We have no quibble with fleshing out the weight divisions to give smaller competitors a chance to square off against guys their own size.

But we can tell you this: there is absolutely no good reason to divide the current light heavyweight division into a "middleweight" division of 185.1-195 pounds and a "super middleweight" division of 195.1-205. Likewise for new categories of "welterweight," at 165.1-175, and "super welterweight," 175.1-185.

Not when current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva can finish former PRIDE light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson and then credibly consider a permanent move up to the next level. Not when B.J. Penn can win a title at 170, and then slim down four years later dominate the 155 class. And certainly not when Randy Couture can hold the light heavyweight title in his 40s, retire, return, and whip a man 40 pounds heavier to take the heavyweight crown.

How many of those memorable scenarios would have come about if Penn was fighting in a "super lightweight" division and Matt Hughes at "super welterweight;" if Silva held a belt at 185 and Henderson one at 195; and Couture could have settled for a specially-made "light heavyweight" title of 205-225 pounds?

Fans have turned to mixed martial arts in large part because of the simplicity of its structure. With five champions in the UFC, there's little dispute of the best in each weight class. Where would be the intrigue if say, Ken Florian or Roger Huerta decided to fight at "super lightweight" instead of lightweight and avoid both Penn at 155 and Georges St. Pierre at 170?

These headache-inducing scenarios are no doubt similar to how boxing fans got tired of the absurd number of weight classes and pencil-pushing organizations in their sport.

But no, the commissions can't be content with their attempts to kill one sport; they have to try to step in and ruin the best thing to happen to combat sports in a generation while they're at it.

There were two notable omissions from the ABC meeting: representatives from the Nevada and California commissions, which just happen to be the two most powerful such bodies in the country. My esteemed colleague Steve Sievert already caught up with NSAC commissioner Keith Kizer, who expressed reservation over the proposed changes.

The present weight-class system isn't perfect, and could stand a tweak here and there, but no one was asking for a fix for something that wasn't broken. UFC should keep its five current classes. The WEC should continue to focus on the present bantamweight and featherweight divisions. If Elite XC wants to set a lightweight crown at 160, well, God bless 'em.

The leading MMA promotions in North America would be best advised to treat the ABC's new weight classes the same way one should treat any attention-seeking grandstanders who act like they know: Pretend to thank them for their input and then continue carrying on with their business.

Winning is important to UFC's head honchos but so is the product. Entertaining, aggressive fighters will always get the nod when matchmaker Joe Silva is looking for fighters.

NBC's Mike Chiappetta points out that Lytle rarely disappoints UFC management:

Win or lose, Chris Lytle is a fighter who exemplifies White’s fan-friendly desires. The UFC welterweight certainly has had his share of good fortune and bad during his career. But boring fights? Almost never.

The only boring fight in recent memory was his close loss to Matt Serra in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 4. His life could've been much different with a title shot against Georges St. Pierre.

After the jump, check out Chiappetta's video interview with Lytle and what 'Lights Out' thinks about going into each fight.

“One of my goals is to always be a ‘Fight of the Night’,” said Lytle.

Lytle has put on a show in each of his last four bouts. With a 3-1 record in those fights (losing only because of a cut he suffered against top-five welterweight Thiago Alves), he has won the Submission of the Night Award twice, Knockout of the Night once, and Fight of the Night once.

He opened by taking a shot at boxing's Bob Arum. Arum had pointed the finger of blame at President Bush for the poor attendance at the Manny Pacquaio-David Diaz fight last week at Mandalay Bay. White said UFC had no problem selling out it's event in the same lousy economy.

His most entertaining rants came when asked upstart fight promoter Affliction. He echoed many of the same sentiments during a hilarious interview on Richmond's Y101:

"Who cares about (Affliction)." Everytime I turn around I gotta answer questions about t-shirt guy. This guy sells f**kin t-shirts!!! I'm supposed to be worried about this? (The new competitors) all say we're going to take the UFC out, you f**kin idiots. It's like me putting on a race against NASCAR."

Listen to the interview after the jump and hear what White said about bloggers and readers on the internet.

"That's where all the pussies live. You can use another name and not your real name, and you can say whatever you want to say. There are guy's who never  climb out of mom's basement."

Nice job on the interview by Richmond's Morning Sludge. The only stupid point was alleging the fix in the Elite XC Kimbo Slice-James Thompson fight. White shut that convo down quickly:

"None of the athletic commissions fix fights. When I was the guy sitting at home watching pay-per-views I used to say the same thing. People make bad decisions but it's never fixed, even if it's a competitor who puts on a sh**ty show."

The Morning Sludge also said they've been labeled Dana White kiss-asses in the past by internet MMA fans. To dispel that rumor, next time White is on, they may want to allege that UFC's Michael Bisping-Matt Hamill was fixed too. It clearly wasn't but it was armageddon on the internet in the days following the fight.

Even the most confident physical specimen gets nervous when asked to stand in front of 5,000 people in their skivvies. UFC welterweight Jon Fitch talked about one of the biggest concerns on weigh-in day, to avoid pulling a George Costanza. You want to make sure you look like 'yourself' in front of the hoards of female fans in attendance. Or just in case Octagon Girl Edith tries to sneak a peek!

Fitch talked with Yahoo! Sports about his upcoming GSP fight at UFC 87 and the main event at UFC 86, Quinton Jackson versus Forrest Griffin. The odd process of the weigh-in was also discussed:

"Some guys do take a lot of preparation for their weigh-in. I've worn my Sponge Bob shorts for all my weigh-ins. Nothing intimidates more than a guy in his Sponge Bobs."

After the jump, you can hear the entire interview with Fitch. He explains how to NOT 'pull' a George Costanza.

"When you're weighing in and dehydrated, shrinkage is a major problem. A tug may add a 1/4 pound."

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE FITCH INTERVIEW (Cofield & Cokin on ESPNRadio1100):

Fitch also said he's glad to finally get a title shot. He doesn't want Georges St. Pierre to overlook him because he wants to beat the best GSP possible.

The former Purdue wrestler also built a case for a Griffin win at UFC 86:

"You can never take toughness and determination out of it. Forrest also has a pretty big size advantage, big reach and he's probably cutting an extra 15 pounds over what Quinton is. He could be 230 by the time of the fight."

Griffin, though, had little to say after coming in at the light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds. He peered at the crowd as it was roaring its approval and grinned.
"Nice to be fighting at home," Griffin, a Las Vegas resident, said.

Jackson, who also weighed 205, was greeted largely by a chorus of boos. He said, "All you Rampage haters out there, you better get used to this. I'm going to be around for a long time."

Other weights:
Josh Koscheck, 170, vs. Chris Lytle, 170.
Patrick Cote, 185, vs. Ricardo Almeida, 185.
Tyson Griffin, 155, vs. Joe "Daddy" Stevenson, 155.

Marcus Aurelio, 155, vs. Gleison Tibau, 156.
Justin Buchholz, 155, vs. Corey Hill, 155.
Cole Miller, 155, vs. Jorge Gurgel, 155.
Dennis Siver, 155, vs. Melvin Guillard, 155.
Justin McCully, 236, vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, 249.

Give us your thoughts on who will each of the nine bouts at UFC 86 by posting your comments below.

One problem though, her memory on how to use the microphone fades as the interview goes on. Maybe it's thoughts of boyfriend Roger Huerta dancing around her pretty head.

Arianny does a nice job of thwarting the advances of a very virile Jackson (four kids!). Jackson also proudly wears and pimps his Affliction gear. He explains that he doesn't want to be in the middle of the war between UFC and the apparel maker.

Helwani keeps reeling in the chicks. He's already done three exclusive interviews (12/6/07, 3/4/08, 6/18/08) with Andrei Arlovski's girlfriend Patrycja Mikula. After the jump, you can see that he's had a lot of 'success' with Arianny as well.

Huerta better watch out, Arianny loves guys with the schnoz!

UFC welterweight title contender Josh Koscheck sat down with Yahoo! Sports on the eve of his fight with Chris Lytle at UFC 86.

He is one of the most hated fighters in the promotion. His antics at UFC 69 are legendary. After a big win over Diego Sanchez, the Houston crowd was booing the pace of the fight. Koscheck got on the microphone and booed the crowd. He also gained initial fame with his antagonizing tactics on The Ultimate Fighter I.

"You've got three options, be loved, hated or in-between. In-between guy, nobody knows who he is and nobody cares. I'll change all those guys who boo and hate to my side. I just need to keep winning."

"At one of the UFC's, Dana White came up to me when I was on the big screen and the place went crazy booing me, he says congratulations they're booing you."

Koscheck also gave his take on Quinton Jackson and building an African-American MMA fan base. Listen to the interview with Koscheck after the jump. 

"Me being half African-American, it's just a mater of time. As we get more champions from our culture, it's going to create more buzz from our people. Now that we have Quinton, more African-Americans will get involved in UFC."

Koscheck said he is rooting for Forrest Griffin but he's afraid to hang around the fighter who may have the most voracious appetite in the sport away from the cage.

"I think Forrest may actually get into the 250 pound range when he's not fighting. When I've seen him training at my house in San Jose, I've gained 20 pounds. The kid loves to eat cookies. He crushes it. I told him, dude you have to go home, you're making me fat and out of shape."

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO KOSCHECK (with Cofield & Cokin on ESPNRadio1100): 

Frankly, after the drama that unfolded today on Coney Island, I don't see how Griffin-Jackson can match the intensity of the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

The great Kobayashi, on the comeback trail from a debilitating jaw injury in 2007, was caught in the final seconds by American Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi made the mistake of not 'chipmunking' enough in the final seconds, allowing Chestnut to close a 1 1/2 dog deficit.

The greatest athlete in the history of sports, Kobayashi went toe-to-toe with the phenom Chestnut for 10 minutes. There was never more than a three hot dog gap. The length of the contest was actually shortened this year and the guys still chowed down 59 dogs before Chestnut edged Koby in a five dog overtime eatoff. Eater X finished a distant 3rd with 42 hot dogs.

Kobayashi made all of his fans worldwide happy at the end of the contest in responding to the question of a 2009 return, "Of course, I'll be back."

Should the line be this big? Griffin is criticized for not having the same resume as Jackson. But a deeper look at Jackson's run in Japan shows his ledger is dotted with lots of wins over smaller, less powerful Japanese fighters.

The game has also come so far in the last four years, I don't think you can say Jackson has faced someone as well-rounded as Griffin. Chuck Liddell is awesome but he doesn't pose a ton of danger on the ground. Griffin does have an underrated submission game.

The key for Griffin is to fight at a distance. He can't get popped by the huge bomb like he did in the devastating KO loss against Keith Jardine. He's going to have to pick his spots and see if he can use his size on the ground on top. That's was a huge problem for his last opponent Shogun Rua.

That all said, Griffin has to do an awful lot right to pull off the upset. If he had legit one punch KO power, I'd feel more confident. Jackson always has the big KO punch in his back pocket to close the gap at any point. I don't think there's much value at -270 but I'll still fire on Rampage. For a little more value, you can try the round props on Rampage. He's 9-to-5 to win the fight in the first and 2-to-1 to finish it in the second. 

PICK: JACKSON -270

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO DAVE DOYLE FROM YAHOO BREAKDOWN THE MAIN CARD:

Also check out UFC 86 picks on SportsNet Canada from UFC middleweight Jason MacDonald.

PATRICK COTE (EVEN) v. RICARDO ALMEIDA (-130) - MIDDLEWEIGHT (185 LBS)

Who knows more about the game, the oddsmakers or the bettors?

Normally, I'd laugh at this question. If the public is overwhelmingly on one side, goes against it. They don't build billion dollar casinos because the sports books lose consistently. But with MMA betting it's a little different. It's a very new, unfamiliar sport to many sports book directors.

They tabbed Cote a big favorite initially and the line has completely flipped towards Almeida. Almeida looked like the next big thing back in 2003 before a long layoff. He had chalked up wins over Ryo Chonan, Kazuo Masaki and Nate Marquardt. He was excellent in his comeback fight against Rob Yundt.

Cote has one big weapon and that's the KO punch. But he can also be lulled into a fight where he scores very little. We saw that he is shaky on the ground in his loss to Travis  Lutter? I'll take an excellent wrestler or jiu-jitsu fighter over a striker anyday.

PICK: ALMEIDA -130

JOE STEVENSON (-200) v. GLEISON TIBAU (+170) - LIGHTWEIGHT (155)

This is a huge fight for Stevenson. He's on the comeback trail after a beating at the hands of UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn. A loss to Penn is nothing to be ashamed of but a loss here would keep Stevenson from another shot at the belt for a long time. The division is so deep, Stevenson would have to fight through 6-8 fighters to get back near the top. 

Tibau is pretty well-rounded. His stand-up isn't great but neither is Stevensons. It's irrelevant because this is a fight that will be be wagered on the ground. 'Joe Daddy' is too good down there to get caught again.

PICK: STEVENSON -200

JOSH KOSCHECK (-360) v. CHRIS LYTLE (+280) - WELTERWEIGHT (170)

This line is out of whack. Koscheck is very good and his stand-up game gets more explosive with each fight. But he can also have lulls where he's not scoring much. Lytle, in his 46th professional MMA fight, is more accurate on his feet and his submission defense will keep him out of trouble on the ground.

This is going to be a long fight. Keep in mind, this is the same Lytle who basically fought Matt Serra to a draw in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 4. Serra went on to win the title at 170. Would Serra be +280 against Koscheck? I think Koscheck will find a way to win but the value is clearly on the side of Lytle.

PICK: LYTLE +280

MARCUS AURELIO (+250) v. TYSON GRIFFIN (-330) - LIGHTWEIGHT (155)

You have to weigh how fighters generally win their fights in assessing line value. If Tyson Griffin had been consistently finishing fights recently, I'm all over him here. The guy is tough to beat at 11-1. But when you always allow things to go the scorecards, you're asking for funky decision at some point.

Clay Guida showed recently how to beat Aurelio via the takedown. Because Griffin is dangerous standing, I don't think he'll employ Guida's gameplan. This will be a 29-28 fight and with MMA judges you never know. This would be a huge loss for Griffin in his quest for a title shot, he'd better step it up on the aggression scale.

PICK: AURELIO +250

JORGE GURGEL (+120) v. COLE MILLER (-150) - LIGHTWEIGHT (155)

I was really high on Miller (13-3, 2-1 UFC) coming out of The Ultimate Fighter 5. His ground game is top notch and his height (6-foot-1) presents a real matchup problem for the smaller guys at 155. His last fight, a loss to Jeremy Stephens, brought me back to earth. Miller, 24, still needs to develop his stand-up game and his lack of strength was a real issue on his submission attempts. He had Stephens in submission predicaments over the course of 9+ minutes but couldn't squeeze out a tap.

Gurgel (12-3, 3-2 UFC) is a tough customer and a strong guy for the weight, he's also a top notch jiu-jitsu artist (works with Rich Franklin and Dustin Hazelett in Cincinnati). I don't see Miller beating Gurgel at his own game.

PICK: GURGEL +120

GABRIEL GONZAGA (-330) v. JUSTIN MCCULLY (+250) - HEAVYWEIGHT

It's been a strange 17 months for Gonzaga. After an upset win over Cro Cop, he had UFC color commentator calling him the next big thing in the heavyweight division. Gonzaga (8-3, 4-2 UFC) got a title shot against Randy Couture and was mentally broken in the first three minutes of the fight. The pattern repeated itself in a loss to Fabricio Verdum. Amazingly, Verdum destroyed Gonzaga on the feet.

That shouldn't happen here. Gonzaga is too gifted to lose three straight. He's got a size advantage (249 v. 236) and he's more athletic than McCully (8-3, 1-0 UFC). One of McCully's most recent wins is over Ruben Villareal (13-14-3), that worries me. Shop for a good price on this one, bettors may drop the number by being dumb enough to give up on Gonzaga.

PICK: GONZAGA -330

MELVIN GUILLARD (-270) v. DENNIS SIVER (+210) - LIGHTWEIGHT (155)

Guillard (21-7-2, 3-3 UFC) is a nutcase but he does have talent. He just has to keep his composure in the cage. He's really fallen apart against ground fighters like Stevenson and Rich Clementi. It shouldn't be a problem here. He's the better striker. Siver (11-5, 1-3, UFC) is too wide with his punches, he'll get caught.  

PICK: GUILLARD -270

COREY HILL (-200) v. JUSTIN BUCHHOLZ (+170) - LIGHTWEIGHT (155)

Hill was the darling of The Ultimate Fighter 5. Without a pro fight, Hill more than held his own and at 6-foot-4 he oozes potential. The UFC gave him a ridiculous matchup in his debut against 5-foot-5 Joe Veres. Hill (1-0, 1-0 UFC) looked 50 pounds heavier in the cage. Buchholz (7-2, 0-1 UFC) is more experienced but how will he deal with the reach disadvantage? His best chance is to get Hill on the ground. We're all still clueless if Hill can defend submissions. I feel safer with Hill but I wouldn't bet it.

PICK: HILL -200

Forrest Griffin is willing to put his reputation on the line on Saturday night at UFC 86 but would he be willing to do what Big John Studd did?

This was one of the classic WWF matches from the 80's. Studd put up $15,000 dollars if anyone could slam him. Andre 'The Giant' stepped up and did the deed. 

It would be impressive if Jackson pulled off a slam against Griffin. First of all, as you can see in wrestling, the fighters actually jump into the slam to help the person lifting. Obviously, Griffin won't be looking to aid Jackson. Secondly, Griffin is a gigantic 205 pound fighter, maybe the biggest in the weight class.

David Avila points out that Rampage, 30, was a pretty tough customer in his day back in Memphis.

Fighting on the streets was a regular habit for the grappler known as “Rampage.” According to his own estimate, he engaged in probably more than 500 wars on asphalt or dirt in his Memphis hometown. Fighting is what he did best and is naturally gifted in hand-to-hand combat.

Oddly enough, Griffin, 29, would've been the type called in to those fights. Griffin spent time in his early 20's as a police officer.

They could have met under different circumstances in a different unregulated world. Jackson could have been in one of his many street fights and Griffin could have been the police officer called to stop the mayhem. It just wasn’t meant to happen that way.

Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote that Griffin was close to never making the transition from cop to fighter.

On the day the fighters were scheduled to appear to begin filming, Griffin was nowhere to be found.

"He had it set in his mind that he was going to be a police officer in Georgia," UFC president Dana White said. "We terrorized him and pleaded with him to get him out here."

Rampage has cleaned up his act since his days as a teen in Memphis. Griffin says Jackson has also cleaned things up as a fighter.

{ysp:block}“First time I saw him fight was in Pride I saw when he fought (Kazushi) Sakuraba. I didn’t know much about him,” says Griffin, adding that Jackson was a fighter based on pure strength in those days. “He got good quick. He went from a guy who was just brawling, then taking people down, and he evolved pretty much in the sport.”

There are no more Tank Abbott's in the world of MMA. Jackson and Griffin are grear example of the constant growth needed in and out of the cage to survive and succeed in the fight game.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25492039/

Jackson added Wednesday that he doesn't think much of Griffin when compared to his most recent victims, Chuck Liddell or Dan Henderson:

"I don't put him at the same level. Dan Henderson and Chuck have been fighting for a long time. They've fought some really good guys. The good guys Forrest fought, he lost to."

Rampage also explained why he lost twice to Wanderlei Silva, alleging the fight game was crooked in Japan:

"Anywhere outside of Pride, Wanderlei will get his ass whooped. As has been proven. He has no one to cheat for him like referees who stand him up when he's getting his butt kicked on the ground. You guys go back and watch the tape, you'll see it."

There's a great discussion in the video about political correctness and the term 'African-American.' 

"Who is African-American? You mean the black americans? I never liked that term. Once I met a white guy, who said he was African-American. He can he be, he's white? I've never been to Africa and I'm African-American."

Jackson also talked about diversity in MMA:

"Be honest, white folks need a sport like MMA. Black folks and Mexicans took over boxing. I'm happy for white folks, I ain't a hater."

Jackson did say he was uncomfortable with his new found fame. Living in Orange County, California, he said it's weird having people approach him. He'd better get used to it. If he crushes Griffin and more importantly, does lots more of these funny, honest interviews, he's going to be a household name with ALL sports fans.

Ibarra did confidently say his guy would beat Chuck Liddell's ass and Rampage delivered. But based on his horrific coaching record with the fighters on The Ultimate Fighter 7, Juanito may want to tone down the rhetoric. If Jackson evers falls from grace, we may reference Ibarra as the 'George Seifert of MMA.' Without immense talent to work with, maybe he brings little to the table. Only time will tell. 

This battle between big boy UFC and upstart Affliction gets funnier each day. The apparel maker, Affliction, is being counter-programmed on its big pay-per-view debut, July 19th. UFC is putting a free MMA card on SpikeTV the same night at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

As Yahoo! Sports first reported earlier this week, Affliction then decided to hold its closed circuit viewing party at the Gold Coast Casino which is directly across from the Palms on Flamingo Road. Affliction seems to get a real kick out of having its event on the big sign in front of the Gold Coast.

As you can see, Affliction is pulling out the huge bucks to trump (no pun intended) UFC in Times Square.

Thanks to TriStateFighter.com and MMAMania.com for the photos.

The challenger for Quinton Jackson's UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 86, had a few moments of levity but was mostly serious during his initial fight week meeting with the media.

Brad Young from VegasInsider.com fired off the first question but was greeted by the same Forrest who put his foot through a door during the The Ultimate Fighter 7.

Young asked, "What was more important the loss to Tito or the win over Shogun?"

Griffin responded, "That's a f**kin stupid question."

He's clearly grown tired of the increased media responsibility that comes with fighting in a main event for a UFC title:

"I'll keep those thoughts to myself, it's better for all of us."

He did loosen up from there, discussing many topics ranging from his acting career to his No. 1 temptation living in Sin City:

"Everybody's got their own thing. My temptation is cookies. It's turns out there's an Albertsons everywhere I move to. I wish I had other addictions, it would be cooler. I can eat 24 ounces of Oreos in the span of a movie."

Griffin also went into detail about his brief career as a police officer.

{ysp:block}"I drove fast, carried a weapon and some chicks dig a guy in uniform. Not a bad gig."

Griffin was asked about the dirty Georgia cop who tried to swindle Matt Hughes as Yahoo Sports documented earlier this week. He wasn't familiar with the story.

He may the baddest man in the 205 pound class in UFC but his kids (8, 8, 2 & 1) are ruining his life. Between breaking things and urinating wherever they want, Rampage has his hands full:

"I got four kids I gotta put through college. I have to save up for tuition and possibly bail money."

"They come to Big Bear on weekends and terrorize the house. They make a big mess,  piss all over the place and then leave. And I was talking about the 8-year olds."

"Sorry, I got some pissy boys. I wish they wasn't. They just don't care. What am I supposed to do? You can't really whoop your kids in California. I'm thinking about military school but they might blow up the whole school!"

This is hilarious stuff. Watch the second part of the video after the jump. Nice job by MMAMadness.com.

Jackson has four kids, three of them boys. The boys all have the middle name 'Rampage.' His one-year old girl sounds like the boss of the whole crew:

"My little girl doesn't care. She beats up everybody. She terrorizes the dog. I give her the mean look and she smacks me right in the face."

Make sure you watch around 5:40, Rampage gives some fashion advice to media members Carlos Arias from Orange County Register and Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole. He gave kudos to Carlos for going with the untucked 3x shirts. He wasn't as keen on Iole's tucked in looked.

This came after mocking Adam Hill from the Las Vegas Review Journal. Rampage said Hill had the biggest head, he'd ever seen and that he wanted to shave it and put tattoos all over it making him the next Bam Bam Bigelow. When challenged to a wrestling match, Hill responded by saying, "I'll play you in H-O-R-S-E." Great line considering how awful Rampage was playing hoops on The Ultimate Fighter.

So much for drama and secrets, B.J. Penn spilled the beans with Fighters Club TV. He talks about moving up to 170 in his next fight. This is contingent on the Georges St. Pierre-Jon Fitch winner at UFC 87 in August coming out of the fight healthy. The Penn v. GSP/Fitch fight would be the main event at UFC's annual close to the year card on December 27th in Las Vegas.

It sort of ruins the pitch that the Roger Huerta-Kenny Florian winner, also on the UFC 87 card, was getting the next title shot against Penn at 155 pounds. Technically, I guess they can still make that fight sometime in 2009.

If YOUR an MMA fan in Hawaii, Fighters Club TV does a radio fight show on Mondays from 9-10a on AM 1500 The Team. Mark Kurano hosts the show. The bad news is you will miss that vital first hour of the taped Dan Patrick Show on Mondays in Hawaii.

The video is watermarked courtesy of Fox9 in Minneapolis. I can't imagine this guy is an on-air personality. All mocking aside, the guy does get some interesting quotes from White and seems to know his stuff.

On Donald Trump entering the MMA fray with Affliction:

"Donald Trump, I have a lot of respect for. Back in the day when we couldn't get venues, the first two fights we did with a casino, we did fights with Trump Taj Mahal. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to go into the real estate business to compete with Donald Trump."

UPDATE: MMAMania found the produced, clean version of this video. Amazingly the interviewer, Leif Knutson, does appear to work for Fox9. I still like the Youtube video shoot better!

White is ready to expand internationally beyond Great Britian:

"We're looking at the Phillippines, we're looking at Germany. In India right now there's 300 million males 18-to-34. We're going everywhere."

White addressed the issue of non-English speaking MMA star:

"People don't show up to see Anderson Silva's speech. You can be a deaf-mute, you come and fight the way Anderson Silva fights...it doesn't matter if Anderson Silva speaks English or not.

White also chuckles about former UFC owner Bob Meyerowitz trying his hand again at fighting:

"I'm actually surprised Bob got back into the business, I thought he lost enough money the first time."

You know a guy is creeped out when he uses the crutch phrase, "at the end of the day," seven times during a short conversation.

Liddell confirmed that he did propose to Erin Wilson while in Europe for UFC 85 back in early June. He did NOT pop the question in London as previously reported. The Iceman was smooth, he did the deed over dinner near the Eiffel Tower.

Greenman tries to pry and is rebuffed when Liddell questions his manhood. Rookie media guys! There is nothing an MMA star can say to me that will keep Yahoo from getting the dirt!

It's pretty cool that Liddell would allow folks into his estate for an onsight interview. A little FYI, Liddell does own MMAJacked.

Fightlinker did a nice job of spotting the Affliction banner (above) quoting UFC president Dana White on Affliction 'Banned' headliner Fedor Emelianenko.

Clearly the gloves are off now that UFC has decided to program head-to-head against Affliction's July 19th pay-per-view in Anaheim.

UFC announced last week that its top fighter Anderson Silva will headline a card on Spike TV live from the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort the same night. The Spike fight card costs $0 while Affliction's show is $39.95.

Now word comes that Affliction will engage in a battle of the billboards in UFC's backyard.

The apparel maker was looking around Las Vegas for closed circuit outlets and it just so happened to settle on a location roughly 1,000 feet from the entrance of UFC's event. Affliction's closed circuit location is directly across Flamingo Road at The Gold Coast Casino.

Pacman has now won titles in five weight classes. The guy always brings it. His fights are action packed. He essentially retired Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. And both of his fights against Juan Manuel Marquez were fight of the year candidates.

So why wasn't Mandalay Bay sold out?

With a capacity of roughly 10,500, the Events Center had only 8,362 to the see the world's best boxer on a pretty solid card.

Top Rank's Bob Arum blames one guy according to the Las Vegas Sun:

“There’s one guy you can blame, and that’s George Bush,” Arum said. “With gasoline prices the way they are, people just can’t afford to come in from California.”

Arum employed a similar tactic this month after Kelly Pavlik failed to pull his usual big crowd from his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, to a fight in Atlantic City.

“I mean, 400 bucks to drive from Youngstown,” Arum said. “What the hell is this coming to? I don’t care if it’s Obama or McCain. We want a change and we’re going to get a change. These eight years have been the worst eight years that I can remember in the United States.”

That might well be, but the fact that David Diaz is not a household name in boxing surely also played a role this weekend.

Not a bad point by Arum but it doesn't explain why the day before, in a rough economy, Strikeforce packed in a solid 7,448 to the HP Center in San Jose to watch Josh Thomson upset Gilbert Melendez. Boxing has some self-examining to do if their best fighter can only outdraw a Strikeforce card by roughly 800.

Forrest Griffin may have the edge in this department. It's also nice to be coached and mentored by a guy who has stymied your opponent in two tries. Wanderlei Silva is part of the camp at Xtreme Couture and he's got two absolutely destructive victories over Rampage Jackson.

This was noted nicely by MMAWeekly.com:

He has acquired some fight advice from Wanderlei though. “The one thing he said was immediately grab the head and throw the knee instead of trying to set it up and make the perfect… bam! Grab and go, start throwing, don’t sit there and let him think about it.”

More from MMAWeekly.com:

That aggressive, in your face style, patented Silva and Shogun Rua's former team, Chute Box, has been quite successful against Jackson. Over the past several years, Jackson has racked up wins over Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, Murilo Bustamante and Matt Lindland. In his last 15 bouts, only Silva and Rua have cracked the code of the current UFC Light Heavyweight champ.

Taylor hinted at that possibility during a discussion with Yahoo! Sports the day before the The Ultimate Fighter Finale on June 21st and there's been more rumors all over the net about a fight on the The Ultimate Fight Night card July 19th.

But with each rumor comes more details about Taylor's behavior during the rampage that got him booted from the finals in the first place. It all begs the question: Is a four-month suspension long enough to teach Taylor his lesson?

TUF 7 cast member Matthew Riddle (the Jeff Spicoli of MMA) spoke with TAGG radio last week (good tip from MMAJunkie.com):

"I was in the limo when [Taylor kicked out the window], and it wasn't just the window," Riddle said. "The night before, he got kicked out of another club for wrestling around all in the bathroom, out of control.

"Then the following night, we went out with Rampage to PURE (nightclub), and the security didn't want to kick Jesse out because he is so big and a fighter, and the last thing they needed was this guy going crazy. So they asked me ... and a bunch of guys from the show to escort him out. When we told [Taylor] he got kicked out, he flipped out in Caesars Palace."

Listen to Riddle speak more about Taylor and the most disliked member of the cast, Jeremy May, after the jump.

"We were all dragging [Taylor] through the casino and trying to get him out the front door, and security was threatening to hit him up with pepper spray and Tazers because he was out of control. We finally got to the front door, and we literally couldn't find a taxi, so I had to pay for a limo.

"In the limo, we are still holding him down because he was so pissed off and going crazy. Eventually, about 10 minutes into the ride, he calms down, and we get back to the Palace Station. Now, Zuffa (the UFC's parent company) owns the Palace Station, so that's why they have all the video footage. So what does JT do the second we park? (He) lies down on his back and kicks out the biggest window in the limo."

"From what I hear, JT is going to be back really soon."

Listen below to the Riddle interview (w/George on TAGG Radio):

Is this real? Any Atlanta folks out there? This guy Larry Wachs was fired from his last job for this:

Wachs lost his job at 96rock (now Project 9-6-1) in October because of a prank he pulled on sister station Viva 105.7’s morning hosts Yogi & Panda, taping their conversation in the bathroom, then airing it last October.

Yogi, whose real name is Juan Tapia, and Panda, whose real name is Jose Carias, filed a civil lawsuit against Wachs, Wachs’ former co-host Eric Von Haessler and 96rock’;s radio owner Clear Channel for invasion of privacy and negligent hiring. Clear Channel fired Wachs and Von Haessler soon after “with cause,” meaning they would not get paid the rest of their contract through March, 2007. Tapia and Carias soon dropped charges against Von Haessler, but filed a criminal lawsuit in Fulton County for alleged illegal eavesdropping against Wachs.

This is a serious violation of radio hosts brotherhood. More investigation is needed before putting a curse on Yogi and Panda (nice name for a show). This may be another attempt by Cheap Channel to cut costs.

Mike Chiapetta from NBC Sports talks about Anderson Silva's fight against James Irvin as simply a way to get him a challenge. It's hard to believe UFC doesn't have a grand plan of getting 'The Spider' acclimated at the weight to set up a major fight against one of the 205 big boys.

Chiapetta also talks finances with the American Fight League and the IFL. Tiffany Simons, one of our favorites, also feeds him emails about Amir Sadollah and Brock Lesnar.

NBC is very high on Sadollah. I agree, I think he has potential to be a real terror if he drops down to 170 pounds.

Griffin mentioned  that he put a bigger focus on staying in shape during his downtime. Word was that the light heavyweight (205 lbs) Griffin was as high as 245 before the Rua fight:

"Last time I got fat before the fight, I decided I was never going to do that again. I tried to keep it down."

Here is an inside look at the teleconference questions/answers with Griffin.

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN:

You can see the trim Griffin in a great video interview with RawVegas.tv after the jump.

UFC light heavyweight Quinton Jackson is ready to go after a nine month layoff. He was jovial but focused as he readies for his second title defense against Forrest Griffin.

Jackson covered a bunch angles during the UFC 86 teleconference:

"The layoff won't affect me at all. I needed a layoff, I had three hard training camps last year."

"I don't care where this fight goes. That's the way I train. It's an MMA fight. If I feel like I want to take it down and do some ground & pound, I'll do that. I don't plan to keep the fight in any one place.

On the lack of heat between the fighters:

 "I'm not pissed off. I don't think it would be fair if I fought pissed off. They shouldn't even let me fight if I was pissed off. I'm happy to be making money and be in the UFC."

On Griffin's victory over Shogun Rua. Rua is last man to beat Rampage:

 "I wasn't really impressed. You could see Shogun wasn't the same guy who fought in Pride. It looked like Shogun got tired in the first round and Forrest got tired in the second round. If Shogun was the same guy I fought, and Forrest beat him, I would've been more impressed."

For you listening pleasure, we've clipped and put all the Rampage questions/answers in one tidy package.

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN:

The next scheduled MMA fight for Rodriguez should've been last weekend against Jeff Monson in Charlotte, N.C. That Godz of War card was canceled. Instead he'll box Chad Davis (0-1), a cruiserweight from Phoenix, on July 8th. 

FoxSports.com did a nice job of chronicling his odd journey after he had a ton of success in his mid-20s.

Since then Rodriguez ballooned to 350 pounds and is 14-6 fighting in front of many tiny audiences. Aside from developing a huge gut that he's had trouble shedding, Rodriguez is battling a drug addiction. That cocaine addiction was made very public during his stint on VH1's Celebrity Rehab.

That's where he told this story:

>While driving with a suspended license; high, and with his girlfriend Karmen in the car, Ricco slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler truck and then hit a wall. Believing that his girlfriend was dead, he dragged her body to the driver’s seat so that the cops would think she was driving.

Ricco said that even though the cops could tell he was driving due to the position of the seat, the girlfriend — after surviving the incident — told cops that she was driving. According to Ricco, their “attorneys took care of it.”

Rodriguez made his professional boxing debut on in October of 2006 by beating 19-year old cruiserweight Brandon Baker by KO.

It wasn't that long ago that a 240-pound Rodriguez was one of the world's top MMA heavyweights. He had wins over Gary Goodridge, Randy Couture, Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson. His best moment may have come in a close loss to current UFC heavyweight king, Minotauro Nogueira. I still think he won that fight.

Vera said he was initially offered Wanderlei Silva and Dan Henderson. Both Silva and Henderson turned down the fight.

About a possible fight against Lyoto Machida, Vera said:

"I said no. I was watching his last fight against Tito, he's got a funky style. It's got karate, kung-fu. I don't even know if you can find training partners. I'm not dodging nobody. I really want to fight him but he's someone I definitely need to get prepared for."

Vera also said his plan now is to bounce between 205 and heavyweight.

The folks at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas got wind of our Tuesday Yahoo! MMA Experts Blog post and also listened to our show on ESPNRadio1100.

We brought up the many safety concerns we had from the Kim Couture-Kim Rose fight last Friday.

Couture wanted to come on the air for a debate about her fight and the women's fight game.

Aside from a swollen jaw, Kim looked pretty good considering the beating she took less than a week ago. She did confirm that she did NOT break her nose in the fight. Couture said her jaw was broken by the first punch thrown by Rose. And she repeated that she was trying to touch gloves when she got cracked by that first punch. You can check out the first round video here. It didn't look like she was trying to touch gloves.

You can watch the short version of the interview and listen to the long after the jump.

Couture was annoyed that we said women's fights should feature three minute rounds, not five minute rounds:

"I did the five minute rounds, no problem. I was training for five, five minutes round with 20 seconds recovery. If you want to be looked at as a professional athlete, it's all in your training"

"For people who've never done the sport, I don't expect you guys to understand. I didn't feel gassed at all. Just dealing with the blood. And I felt confident. At the end of each round they asked me if I was fine. I said I know I can beat this girl."

Couture also addressed the massive downside for MMA if a woman gets severely injured in a fight:

"It's too bad, we've come so far. We just need to educate people. That's why we came on here today, to tell people I'm okay. I would've been really upset if the fight had been stopped."

"I don't want people to look down on women's fighting. I think you guys would feel differently if I won."

"We go in there expecting this. We train for this."

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH COFIELD & COKIN

Every MMA fighter should take note of this odd case with former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes.

Hughes settled out of court last week on a case that dates back to the Friday before UFC 64 at Mandalay Bay. Jed Leist, a former police officer in Rockmart, Georgia, asked for a photo with Hughes during UFC's autograph session.

Mike Sloan of Sherdog.com tells the story:

An anonymous source in the fight community who was not an eyewitness to the incident told Sherdog.com that Leist approached Hughes and asked the wrestler to put him in a rear-naked choke for a photo.

According to the source, Hughes obliged Leist's requests for him to tighten the choke "for realism" and forced Leist to tap out. Hughes then walked away, though Leist appeared to be nearly choked unconscious.

Leist filed suit in Clark County District Court on March 28, 2007:

The suit contended Hughes and/or other unnamed defendants "grabbed and placed" Leist in a hold "as to cause injury and damage." Hughes' actions were "unwanted, not consented or authorized," by the plaintiff and inflicted "over his protests," stated the documents.

Prior to the dismissal, Leist was seeking damages in excess of $10,000 per each charge plus attorney's fees and additional expenses due to "severe humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress."

The case was due in court on June 30, Hughes settled. It couldn't have been too big a blow to Hughes' bankroll since Leist sounds like a slimeball and is facing 20 years in a federal pen.

According to the Rome News-Tribune, Leist hid a felonious past in order to become a police officer. He also lied to the FBI:

For some time before Jedson Edward Leist applied to become a police officer, he and Sgt. Carey Higgins of the Rockmart police conspired about how to keep a background check from finding Leist’s felony convictions.

Leist is also accused of avoiding another background check, that done by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when a gun is purchased.

He allegedly had his wife buy many firearms, some of which he used at RPD. In testimony it was revealed Arneth purchased “between 20 and 30” firearms, according to ATF records. When arrested Leist had three of those guns on his person and several more at home.

The case went to trial in November of 2007 and Leist was sentenced earlier this year on February 28th. This from the U.S. Department of Justice:

JEDSON EDWARD LEIST, 36, of Acworth, Georgia, was sentenced this morning to 20 years in federal prison by United States District Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr., for crimes including false statements; wire and mail fraud; possession of a firearm by a felon and by a domestic violence misdemeanant; and a mail and wire fraud scheme involving the use of fake fingerprints.

United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, "The evidence proved that Leist, with help from his wife, circumvented the gun laws that prohibit a convicted felon from possessing a firearm."

With a set of clean fingerprints and help from a co-conspirator, Leist lied to the Rockmart Police Department and the FBI so that he could acquire a badge and carry a gun despite his criminal past. In convicting Leist, the jury unequivocally condemned these criminal acts as unacceptable. The 20 year prison sentence speaks for itself.

LEIST was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.

The next fighter to be sued? Maybe Phil Baroni.

Paulie Howard of ESPNRadio1100 was forced to tap 17 times before Baroni let go of the hold at a recent party in Las Vegas. Howard's eyesight was damaged. He received lasik surgery to repair the damage less than a month later.

It's a must see because of human submission dummy, Joanne. This girl takes a beating each week to demonstrate different submission moves.

I'll admit, I'm a big fan of the girl on girl submissions (check out the video after the jump). But there's nothing worse than watching the creepy Marc Laimon gets his jollies choking out poor Joanne.

You'll remember Laimon pissed off Matt Serra on The Ultimate Fighter 4. Laimon irked many MMA fans and fighters by trashing Royce Gracie after his loss at UFC 60 to Matt Hughes.

Not only does she allow herself to be humiliated each week, Joanne also knows her stuff. Click here for her predictions on UFC 86.  

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Former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes is still in limbo with his knee injury. He fell awkwardly after withstanding a flying knee from Thiago Alves at UFC 85 back on June 7.

Mike Chiapetta from NBCSports spotted this one on Hughes' website:

I found out my results, I’ve got a totally torn MCL that is still attached
to my femur. I’ve got a partially torn PCL. They really think that the PCL
will repair itself and that MCL has a chance of repairing itself. So we’re
going to hold off on surgery right now. I am going to get a second opinion
this week, so that might change; but for now we’re going to hold off on
surgery.

Just a guess, Serra will wait for that Hughes' knee to get healthy. He told Joe Fernandez of Newsday two weeks ago:

"It's a fight that he wants, that I want, the fans want. Noboby is going to be a supporter of both Matt Hughes and myself. It's either one or the other. I have to punch guys in the face, guys I like, nice guys like Georges St. Pierre and Chris Lytle. You think I'm not going to want to jump at a chance to fight Matt Hughes? Come on."

MMARated's Ariel Helwani is in San Jose all week covering the Friday Strikeforce show. He caught up with Coker about the future with NBC and his next scheduled show:

The next Strikeforce at the Playboy mansion show will take place the weekend of September 19th. Kazuo Misaki will be making his Strikeforce debut on the Playboy card. Also scheduled to fight at the mansion is Renato "Babalu" Sobral, the winner of Thomson/Melendez and, assuming his visa issues are straightened, Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos.

There have been preliminary talks between Strikeforce and NBC to air a live event. sometime in the future.

UPDATE: Click here for the full convo with Coker.

When they did, he didn't like the fighter they were about to throw his way. Unbeaten Lyoto Machida, who is coming off an easy win over Tito Ortiz, was offered up.

According to Machida, Vera said no thanks. This from Tatame.com (good spot by MMAMania.com):

"It’s true. I was offered to fight at [UFC Fight Night 14], but Brandon Vera did not want it. I do not know what happened, but he did not accept the fight."

Is it fair to rip Vera for not taking the fight? It seems a little harsh. The guy did step up for UFC fighting on less than four weeks notice. More importantly, he needs to recondition his body to drop from his fighting weight of 223 pounds and make 205 for this light heavyweight fight. His opponent is UFC newcomer Reese Andy.

Tatame.com also confirms that Brazilian Rousimar Palhares will fight former Pride champ Dan Henderson at UFC 88 in Atlanta in September:

One of the leaders of the Brazilian Top Team, Bebeo Duarte, informs us that Dan Henderson accepted the offer to face Rousimar Palhares. The fight was confirmed today by Joe Silva, the matchmaker of the UFC.

Obviously Henderson is a difficult one to face, but we have conscience that this is the route to get Palhares a title shot.

The Tito Ortiz sweepstakes are not officially in motion until late July.

He has a non-compete with his last UFC contract and hasn't spoken with Affliction or Elite XC. It also means UFC has exclusive negotiating rights until roughly July 24.

Jennito (Jenna and Tito) was very visible all weekend long around Las Vegas. That includes some prime seats at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale.

Jennito was actually seated on the floor next to Frank Mir. After two fights, the couple moved to a higher profile spot on the stage at the Pearl overlooking the ring. It also made them highly visible to everyone in the arena. That includes UFC president Dana White and owner Lorenzo Fertitta who were sitting on the right side of the cage.

Ortiz also was made sure that he was noticed during the Josh Burkman and Kendall Grove fights. He yelled throughout both fights coached both fighters on Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter. After the jump, you can check out the video of Ortiz coaching Burkman from his perch above the cage.

They were also a hit on the party scene in Sin City according to Robin Leach:

Wherever you went in Vegas the past few days you were certain to run into lovebirds, former porn queen Jenna Jameson and her UFC fight champion hunk hero Tito Ortiz. They were everywhere, and miraculously Luxe Life’s spywitnesses tracked them on their whirlwind party club crawl.

First they were spotted out at Green Valley Ranch watching Steel Panther, formerly known as Metal Skool. They were at Grove’s after party at the Blush boutique nightclub inside Steve Wynn’s resort. The night was young enough for Tito and Jenna to go onto nightclub czar Victor Drai’s after-hours club at Bill’s center-strip Gambling Hall where they partied as dawn broke with singer Cee-Lo Green from the Gnarls Barkley music group.

A Monson-Kimbo fight will never happen. Monson is way too experienced and also the last type of fighter that Elite XC wants Kimbo matched up against. Thompson dominated Kimbo on the ground, imagine what a slick jiu-jitsu artist like Monson would do?

The scariest part of the video might be when Monson rips apart a copy of ESPN: The Magazine, like it's a paper towel!

The Fight Network subscribers can get the undercard for free. That's an hour lead-in to the pay-per-view. TFN's CEO George Burger spoke along with Affliction VP Tom Atencio at a press conference this weekend.

While addressing the head-to-head matchup against UFC's Ultimate Fight Night 14, Atencio said:

"You guys can TIVO that (UFC card) and buy our pay-per-view. What's going to be better, a card stacked from top to bottom or one with just two fights?"

The Fight Network's CEO George Burger echoed the same sentiments:

"There are some tremendous changes going on (in MMA). The Affliction "Banned" event is the peak of this wave. There is a widespread move to recognize MMA well beyond one very high profile promotion. This is going to be the greatest collection of fighters under one roof in the history of the sport."

MMAWeekly reports the UFC card features these fights:

Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin 
Hermes Franca vs. Frankie Edgar
Reese Andy vs. Brandon Vera
Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns
Nate Loughran vs. Johnny Rees
Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'Brien
Rory Markham vs Brodie Farber
Dale Hartt vs Shannon Gugherty
Brad Blackburn vs James Giboo

Here is the Affliction card:

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia 
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Andre Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell
Renato Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vernon White
Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin
Justin Levens vs. Patrick Speight
Mike Pyle vs. J.J. Ambrose
Trenell Young vs. Mark Hominick

Atencio also said:

"I'm real happy about this. It's a dream come true. We're putting this together for the fans."

He also introduced what could be an interesting concept, fans voting on future matchups:

"You guys will be able to go online and pick the next fight."

And there's a blueprint for future events:

"Right now we're looking at three events, July 19th, November and February."

Atencio told MMAWeekly:

“Right now we’re looking at a couple different places, one outside of the west coast, one on the west coast and then the third is possibly on the east coast, so if we can get over there.”

The event will also debut WAMMA as a viable entity. The World Alliance of Mixed Martials Arts is ranking fighters across the world with a crew media members.

The Fedor Emelianenko-Tim Sylvia fight on the Affliction card is for the WAMMA heavyweight strap.

You can watch the entire Affliction/Fight Network press conference here.

Strikeforce's Melendez v Thomson dominates the MMA scene this week. The card is slated for Friday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Gilbert Melendez is one of the top lightweights in the world. Josh Thomson has wins over Hermes Franca, Duane Ludwig and Rob McCullough.

The card also features the MMA debut Raymond Daniels, a world class kickboxer. If he's anything close to Cung Le, Strikeforce may have something special.

Some sickos in the blogosphere are reveling over the beating Kim Couture took on Friday in her MMA pro debut at the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas. I don't get it.

Couture did draw 8,962 to the T & M for the fight but many left sickened.

It wasn't a good night for MMA and it certainly wasn't a great night for female fighting. Couture, 33, was ill-equipped to defend herself. She suffered a badly broken jaw and bled heavily throughout the fight.

Kim Rose smashed Couture with an overhand right seconds into the fight. That punch may have been the one that split Couture's jaw and broke her nose. I was disgusted and uncomfortable sitting two rows from the ring so I can't imagine watching the fight on the ring apron as photographer Tracy Lee did:

The bell rang and Kim Rose rushed in. With a quick flurry of punches, an uppercut found its mark within 5 seconds and had Couture collapsing on the ground. Referee rushed in, ready to stop the bout, but Couture was able to find her bearings and fight back. For the entire 3 rounds, Dave Mandel and I watched as she fought the fight, but wasn't quite "all there". She took a beating, although didn't ever give up, and fought back and gave a beating of her own.

After all was said and done, we were told that the first uppercut split her jaw in two, and the left side was hanging about a quarter of an inch lower than the right. She fought the ENTIRE fight like that, not quitting or giving up. She took a NUMBER of punches to the face, as well as got caught in a few guillotines that for SURE stressed on her jaw. Even an elbow at the throat pushed against the bone had to be excruciating.

Three issues developed today on Las Vegas sports-talk radio where ESPNRadio1100 took calls on the event and Couture for 90 minutes.

Did her husband Randy make an error by not throwing in the towel? 

Is the Nevada State Athletic Commission at fault for licensing someone as inexperienced as Kim Couture?

Why was this bout fought with three, five minute rounds? We just watched the much more experienced Gina Carano battle Kaitlin Young with three, three minute rounds in place.

There is no better commission than Keith Kizer and Co. in Nevada. So if it erred in allowing Kim Couture to fight, it's scary to think the kind of matches that could be put together with inexperienced female fighters around the country but lesser qualified commissions.

The sport would be obliterated by the mainstream sports and news media if there were ever a female death in the cage or ring. This should serve as a serious warning.

Kim told Fighthype.com, that she will be back.

UPDATE: Bloody Elbow reacted to this fight. The guys over there did bring up a very important point:

{ysp:block}I wanted to add another thought that occurred to me about this fight. Its not so much that this was a woman's MMA fight. This fight should be questioned regardless of the competitors' sex. Anytime a fighter suffers a major fracture the fight should be stopped between rounds. Its one thing for Frank Shamrock to conceal an arm break from his corner for a couple rounds against Cung Le. Presumably the corner had no idea. But I have to think that Kim couldn't talk to her corner after the first round and they should have known that something was very very wrong.{ysp:/block}

Hard to believe the Scott Smith-Robbie Lawler fight at Elite XC was stopped because Smith got poked in the eye. He wasn't given five minutes to recover and the fight was ended. et Kim Couture is allowed to fight for over 14 1/2 minutes with a broken jaw and nose.

UFC light heavyweight champ Rampage Jackson was hanging out, as was heavyweight title contender Cheick Kongo. Former UFC middleweight Rich Franklin was there with Dustin Hazelett.

The media's top MMA fighter Jay Glazer, from Fox NFL, was there as well. He appeared to be there supporting finalist C.B. Dollaway.

Plus the entire cast from TUF 7 was in attendance. And I mean the entire cast.

That's right Jesse Taylor, who just made reality TV history by being booted from UFC's show after the taping had ended, was milling around the Palms.

He looked to be in good spirits and the fans were 100% supportive of Taylor.

Yahoo! Sports spoke with Taylor on Friday about what's next:

"I'm still with (UFC). I just want to fight again. After this week we're going to see how things go. So I have to be good in Vegas this week. No hanky-panky. As of right now, more likely than not, I'll be back in the UFC."

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW (Cofield w/Taylor):