Lesnar Takes the Title

This past Saturday was UFC 91: Lesnar vs Couture. I posted about it last week, noting Brock Lesnar's amazing physical gifts and his amazing athleticism. Well looks like strength and speed have prevailed over strategy and experience. Brock Lesnar connected with a glancing blow off Randy Couture's temple in the 2nd Round on Saturday and before Couture had a chance to even breathe Lesnar was all over him with, as Joe Rogan said, "hammerfists from hell."


What's possibly more impressive than Lesnar's size and speed is the fact the UFC has proven tough economic times won't affect their business.

After garnering the fourth-largest live gate in company history at "UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar," the UFC has shown it can thrive in economic conditions that have forced other promoters out of the industry.

But while EliteXC's recent demise has left an apparent programming void on network television, UFC President Dana White said at Saturday night's post-UFC 91 press conference not to expect the world's largest MMA promotion on CBS any time soon.

"Network deals are what's helping put these other companies out of business," White said. "Just because you get a network deal doesn't mean it's a good deal. When we get a good network deal, we'll be on network television."

When pressed further as to when a good deal might arise, White pointed to the current difficult financial situation in the U.S. as a reason why the process might take some time.

"(We are) not very close (to a network TV deal) now with this market like this," White said. "The economy is bad. I don't know if anybody else in this room feels it as bad as some of the other people in this country we live in, but the economy is really bad right now.

"There's no money out there. Sponsors aren't spending as much money as they used to. They've cut way back. Some sponsors are pulling out of advertising. Some sponsors are going out of business. It's really scary times right now." [MMA Junkie]

Links:
UFC 91 Salaries
UFC 91 Pictures
Lesnar Punch Blindsided Couture
Brock Lesnar: "Inexperience has gotten me this far"

Weekend Preview - UFC 87

I swear this weekend preview thing won't solely feature MMA events but its just worked out that there's been two good ones in back to back weekends. Tomorrow night I am definitely looking forward to UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Here's the event info:

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy
Date: Aug 09, 2008
Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Venue: Target Center
Broadcast: Pay Per View

MAIN CARD
* Champ Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch (for welterweight title)
* Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring
* Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta
* Rob Emerson vs. Manny Gamburyan
* Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia

PRELIMINARY CARD
* Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory
* Dan Evensen vs. Cheick Kongo
* Jon Jones vs. Andre Gusmao
* Steve Bruno vs. Chris Wilson
* Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas

My reasons for being excited for this event are as follows:

*St. Pierre is the future of MMA, the guy has no holes in his game, he out wrestles wrestlers, can strike, and even stepped up his Jiu-Jitsu game by training in Brazil before this fight. He truly is a hybrid fighter and is well rounded in every aspect of MMA.

*Brock Lesnar is a physical specimen. Don't think this guy was only a WWE pro wrestler, he was an NCAA All-American for 4 years at Minnesota and also won the NCAA championship at heavyweight. After walking away from millions offered by the WWE he tried out and made the practice squad for the Minnesota Vikings after not playing football since high school (I recently heard that during his try out, while weighing 295lbs, he ran a 4.7 40yd dash)

*Florian/Huerta has been talked about for "Fight of the Year" and while I don't think it will be as much of a 3 round war as everyone thinks, it should still be a great fight. Huerta is a really tough guy and will stand and trade with no fear but I think Florian's Muay Thai is too sharp for Huerta and he either picks him apart on the feet or puts his BJJ Black Belt to good use and locks in a submission.

*I'm also very interested to see Demian Maia fight. He is one of the most elite grapplers in the world. His Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu credentials are some of the best in the world and I'm very interested to see how he transitions over to MMA. Maia has won the BJJ Mundials and also the 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Grappling Championship.