I guess whenever TOPPS starts putting out trading cards of UFC’ers, it’s just further evidence that the sport is growing in popularity.

Nice card though!

2006 Topps “Allen & Ginter’s” RANDY COUTURE autographed trading card.

This should be a decent event. The fight I’m particularly looking forward to is Jason Von Flue -vs- Joe Riggs. I am really hoping Von Flue wins this match. I’ve also bet a few dollars on him at sportsbook.com because they have Riggs heavily favored.

The “main event” is Karo Parysian -vs- Diego Sanchez, this has the potential to be a good fight, although if Diego wins it will be by decision.

Chris Leben -vs- Jorge Santiago.. wow, after the humiliation of his loss at the hands of Anderson Silva, I’m sure Chris Leben is anxious to regain the status he had prior. Personally, I don’t care so much about this fight, I’d like to see Leben win it though, unless of course he gets KO’d in spectacular fashion again, that would be entertaining.

Dean “Boogeyman” Lister -vs- Yuki Sasaki – Dean Lister by sub. Round 1. — awww hell, I just went and put $10 bucks on Sasaki to win, just because the odds are so heavily against him.

Josh Koschek -vs- Jonathan Goulet – I don’t really care about this one either, although it was fun watching Koschek get choked unconcious by Drew Fickett last year. I’m picking Goulet to win this one.

Also, Sam Morgan from TUF is scheduled to fight UFC newcomer Forrest Petz. Petz looks like a strong opponent, but I really hope Sam Morgan pulls off a win in this fight, considering his previous experiences in the UFC cage.

As for the rest of the fights, blah.. I doubt they’ll air them anyway..

UPDATE: oh well, Jason Von Flue lost me a few dollars, he got caught in a triangle choke, but kept me as a fan because he flipped the bird at Joe Riggs right before he tapped out.. WAR Jason Von Flue. I hope the UFC keeps him around.

Yuki Sasaki put up a helluva fight with Dean Lister, and almost won me a small amount of money, but it wasn’t meant to be.

All in all, it was a decent event, and who can complain? it was free!

http://www.rmnmma.com/ 

WAR Pat Smith! This dude was one of my favorites in the early UFC days. It will definitely be interesting to see him back in action, win or lose. I’m kinda hoping he’ll win it, he was one of the most exciting fighters in the bare-knuckle UFC days, and nobody gets knocked out better than Justin Eilers, either.

Phil “The New York Bad Ass” Baroni will be on the show Tuesday night (8/15/06) to promote Pride’s United States debut and other PRIDE events affiliated with Fox Sports Net. Check your local listings for the time the show will air in your area.

Ok, I’ll admit I’ve only watched 3 or 4 IFL (International Fight League) fights so far, so maybe I’m not really entitled to an opinion here, but what I heard is that the IFL banned elbows “to make the fight more exciting”. The reasoning is that elbows cause easy cuts that can cause a fight to end abruptley and prematurely due to a doctors stoppage. Like I said, I’ve only seen a handful of fights (due to the lousy television time slot the IFL had), and I dont remember how much activity took place on the ground or how quickly the referee stands fighters back up after hitting the ground.

I don’t really know how I feel about the “no elbows” rule. Will it eliminate too much action from the ground game? Will it cause us to see more jiujitsu or submissions, or will it just cause for more boring fights? Pride doesn’t allow elbows, but they allow knees and kicks to a downed opponent. What I’m concerned about with the IFL is that we will see too much “lay and prey” and not enough fighting. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough, and I hope for the best. The IFL seems to really be shaping up well and has some big names on its roster.

According to CanadaEast.Com, Dana White is sounding doubtful that the fight will happen. That sucks, most of the Mixed Martial Arts world was really looking forward to the fight. Dana White said we will probably get to see a rematch of Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz at UFC 65. That should be a good fight, but still, I’m anxious to see some Pride/UFC crossover fights.

Here is the rest of the article for anyone that doesn’t want to click the link above.

Ok, here’s an MMA post from me. I just read that Buentello is done fighting for the UFC for now. I’m a Buentello fan, I’ve heard people talk negatively about him, I think he’s entertaining as hell, win or lose. The good news is, I see he’s scheduled to fight Tank Abbott in October in Strikeforce. That should be an entertaining slugfest.

This is happening tomorrow in Tokyo.

Oh well, I was looking forward to a Carlos Newton comeback, but he wont be fighting due to a knee injury. In his place, Crosley Gracie will fight Melvin Manhoef in the opening round of the light heavyweight tournament.

The fight line-up (not in order):

Fight 1 – Light Heavyweight Tournament Bout – change
Melvin Manhoef vs. Crosley Gracie

Fight 2 – Light Heavyweight Tournament Bout
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kestutis Smirnovas

Fight 3 – Light Heavyweight Tournament Bout
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kin Taiei

Fight 4 – Light Heavyweight Tournament Bout
Shungo Oyama vs. Rodrigo Gracie

Fight 5 – Middleweight Tournament Bout
Caol Uno vs. Black Mamba

Fight 6 – Middleweight Tournament Bout
Ivan Menjiver vs. Hideo Tokoro

Fight 7 – Middleweight Tournament Bout
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante

Fight 8 – Middleweight Tournament Bout
Rani Yahira vs. Kazuya Yasuhiro

Fight 9 – Super Fight
Semmy Schilt vs. Min Soo Kim

Fight 10 – Super Fight
Don Frye vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Fight 11 – Super Fight
Kotetsu Boku vs. Alexandre Franca Nogueira

Geez, I’m not much of a fan of this show at all. I don’t like how they call their sparring matches “fights”. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, Final Fu is ok for what it is (sparring), and I guess it at least brings some attention to martial arts. It’s just not a show that I will go out of my way to watch.