http://www.touchgloves.com/news/2007/03/ray_mercer_vs_kimbo_slice.html

w00t! this should be great, I really expect Kimbo to get his ass handed to him by Ray Mercer. Ray Mercer after all, is a former World Heavyweight Boxing champion and has faced some world-class opponents.

Interesting that they’re using MMA rules, I can’t imagine either fighter wanting this bout to go to the ground, unless one of them has been doing some grappling training I’m not aware of. I know I’ve heard Kimbo trains some MMA, let’s hope Ray Mercer is also.

from the L.A. Times (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-ufc25mar25,1,6496012.story?coll=la-headlines-sports)

Ortiz doesn’t show up for bout with UFC boss White

Tito Ortiz’s planned three-round boxing exhibition Saturday against his boss, UFC President Dana White, was canceled when the former light-heavyweight champion from Huntington Beach failed to appear.

UFC officials declined to comment on Ortiz’s decision, but one organization source said Ortiz was seeking more compensation for an unofficial event that was so intriguing to mixed-martial arts fans that cable network Spike TV had planned to air preview and fight shows in April.

A UFC spokeswoman said neither White nor Ortiz would comment about the cancellation.

However, Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer said White told him Ortiz had left a voicemail for the UFC president telling him, “I decided to let you off the hook.”

Kizer was expecting White and Ortiz to attend a formal weigh-in Friday in Las Vegas. White appeared, and weighed in at 197 pounds. Kizer said when Ortiz failed to appear within the hour, he canceled the boxing exhibition that the commission had approved earlier in the week.

“Tito’s always been the consummate pro in his mixed-martial arts events,” Kizer said. “I’m surprised he didn’t show up. I’m surprised he didn’t tell us he wasn’t coming. I told Dana not to waste his time asking the commission again for something like this. We were very disappointed.”

Ortiz negotiated the boxing exhibition into the multi-fight promotional contract he struck with UFC after previous contract talks had left him estranged from the organization and White, Ortiz’s former business manager.

White told Kizer that Ortiz had been calling and e-mailing him earlier in the week, “saying things like, ‘This is real, Dana. No headgear, we’re going to use 10-ounce gloves.’ Dana had told me he was ready for his ” beating.

Ortiz suffered his second loss to light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell on Dec. 30, a three-round technical knockout.

“Dana told me he didn’t think Tito was afraid to fight him, but it would’ve been a lot harder to live down a defeat to Dana than it would have living down the loss to Chuck,” Kizer said.

This is HUGE news. This year is definitely shaping up to be the biggest breakout year that MMA has ever seen. Zuffa reportedly bought Pride for just under $70 million.

“We have been talking to Pride for probably about 11 months,” Lorenzo Fertitta (co-owner of Zuffa, UFC) said. “It’s been a long, drawn out process but we finally we were able to put the two brands together.”

The Fertitta brothers created a new company named Pride FC Worldwide Holdings LLC. The new company will take over the old Pride assets, including trademarks, video library and roster of high profile fighters, from Dream Stage Entertainment.

The sport of MMA belongs to the UFC now. Sure, there are a couple of start-up organizations that seem really interesting, but UFC is setting the standard right now. This is just the latest in a series of acquisitions by Zuffa. They already bought World Extreme Cagefighting and World Fighting Alliance last year.

I believe MMA is destined to be the world’s most popular sport in the future.

On Saturday March 17th (St. Patricks Day) SpikeTV is hosting some kind of marathon and the hosts will be Ken Shamrock, “Irish” Jake O’Brien, and “The Irish Hand Grenade” Marcus Davis.

Ok, now that I’ve had time to sleep since last nights event, which by the way was the largest crowed ever in attendance at a UFC show, I’ll write a little bit.

Randy Couture is simply amazing. WTF was that? Every sane person fully expected him to get thrashed by the 6’8″ Tim Sylvia, but Couture’s plan was executed perfectly. Couture actually outboxed Sylvia, giving up a 12″ reach advantage. This was easily one of the most exciting fights in recent years, whether or not it was one of the best fights is another story, because it was definitely lopsided in that the whole 5 rounds were dominated by Randy Couture. The reason it was exciting was just because I didn’t want to see Randy KTFO’d again. When he came out and knocked big Tim Sylvia on his ass within the first 10 seconds was great. Now Randy Couture is talking about fighting Mirko CroCop Filopovic sometime this summer, as long as CroCop makes it past Gabriel Gonzaga in his next fight, and if CroCop doesn’t jump ship from the UFC to head to another fight organization.

Jason Lambert KO’d Renato “Babalu” Sobral with a nasty left hook to the jawpiece. This is a big win for Jason Lambert, and a bad loss for Babalu career.

I wisht Lytle would’ve won his fight against Matt Hughes. Hughes scored takedowns and landed some elbows to cut Lytle open, but more than anything, he just layed on top of him. Bah.

Rich Franklin won his fight over Jason McDonald via corner stoppage.

UFC 69 is coming up on April 7th , check to find tickets at the best prices.

He totally dominated Tim Sylvia from the first punch of the night to the closing bell of the 5th round, proving why Randy Couture is a living MMA legend.

argh, because it’s late Friday night/Saturday morning and i’m going to bed.. So i’m gonna make my picks for UFC 68 short & sweet.. Yeah, these probably aren’t the wisest picks, but rather who I would *like* to see win.

Randy Couture via GNP stoppage

Chris Lytle by whatever (wishful thinking, but hey..)

Drew McFedries by whatever (don’t really care either way who wins)

Rich Franklin by whatever

Renato Babaly Sobral by sub (triangle)

Matt Hammill by GNP stoppage

Luigi Fioravanti

I heard about this, and found the video at UFCMania.com. This is great stuff, apparently Chuck Liddell claims he just took some NyQuil a while earlier and was woke up too early, or something like that. Regardless, it makes for a funny interview. Homeboy says he wants to fight Tommy Morrison next, LOL. The dude that’s interviewing him said later that Chuck even fell asleep during the interview, and that’s when he asked if Liddell was OK. I dig it at the end when dude tells Chuck to “hang in there” or something like that, Chuck gives a delayed reaction and says “I’m workin’ on it.”..