Check out the MMA Forum for results, don’t open the thread unless you want to know the winners and losers.

The Yarennoka! show by M-1 Global featuring Fedor/Choi will be aired at 6:00am EST in the United States on HDNet. I think it will be replayed later in the day, but unless you want the fights spoiled, I suggest staying away from any MMA news sites that might have the results on their front page.

UFC 79 was a great event. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva was every bit as exciting as I expected, but whu would’ve thought it would go to a 3-round decision? Wanderlei’s chin is unpredictable, he got caught with some nasty shots and kept standing.

Matt Hughes was totally dominated by Georges St. Pierre. GSP scored takedowns at will and controlled the fight before finally catching hughes in a nasty armbar submission after going for a kimura. Matt Hughes verbally tapped out. No, Matt Hughes won’t retire on a loss. I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t think he’ll go out like that. I see Matt Serra healing up and fighting St. Pierre, Matt Serra will lose that fight and set up a “bad blood” match between Hughes and Serra sometime towards the end of 2008.

Lyoto Machida choked Sokoudjou to submission and remains undefeated.

Other results from UFC 79 are:

Rich Clementi defeated Melvin Guillard by Submission (Choke) round 1
Eddie Sanchez defeated Soa Palelei by Technical Knock Out round 3
James Irvin defeated Luiz Cane by Disqualification (illegal knee) round 1
Manny Gamburyan defeated Nate Mohr by Submission (Leg Lock) round 1
Dean Lister defeated Jordan Radev by Unanimous Decision
Roan Carneiro defeated Tony DeSouza by Technical Knock Out round 2
Mark Bocek defeated Doug Evans by Unanimous Decision round 3

not as many people seem stoked about this event as i am.. i love the freakshow fights..

Melvin Manhoef vs. Yousuke Nishijima – awesome.. i’d love to see Nishijima win this one, dude is tough as nails (judging by his fight with Mark Hunt) and has some boxing skills, he’s an underdog though, not many people giving him a chance.. NISHIJIMA by KO

IKUHISA MINOWA vs. ZULU!!!! – awesome x2.. i love Minowa, the dude trains for fights by foot-racing airplanes, dodging baseballs from a batting cage, and…
(click here to read the rest of this entry on the MMA forum picks thread)

Yes, it seems Mark Cuban has talked to Floyd Mayweather Jr. about possibly fighting for HDNet under MMA rules. I really, really hope this happens, and I hope he fights a legit contender and not some washed up MMA tomato can.

Personally, I think Mayweather will never fight in mixed martial arts, I believe this is just some hype to keep people talking during his break between boxing matches. Mayweather wants to keep his name in the public.

Supposedly, Mayweather and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban struck up a friendship on the “Dancing With The Stars” television show, on which they were both competitors. Mark Cuban owns HDNet and the HDNet Fights MMA organization.

Many people consider Floyd Mayweather to be the best boxer on earth right now. However, unless he does some serious training and focuses on takedown defense, I think he would get schooled hard by most MMA fighters.

In an interview with ESPN, Mark Cuban is quoted as saying “Floyd is considering fighting with HDNet Fights. We are going to let him visit some gyms to talk to some folks about what it would take to learn. He knows it won’t be easy. But he is getting involved with MMA and HDNet Fights one way or another. He is pumped about it. He wants to go on to the next big thing. Floyd is a brilliant marketer. He follows the money.”

Mark Cuban went on to say “If I said there’s a guaranteed $30 million payday, Floyd would be lacing them up, if not, I could see him working to train and develop and invest in MMA fighters, knowing the upside. He can teach them how to be a better boxer and add to their other skills.”

Leonard Ellerbe, an associate of Mayweathers said the boxer is seriously interested in transitioning to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Ellerbe is quoted as saying “When Floyd makes his move, obviously it’s going to be a mega event. We don’t have a timetable. Floyd is taking some time off, but Floyd understands what is involved. You have to take time to go out and understand what you’re getting involved in, and he’s ready to do that.”

“Floyd is about taking on challenges,” Ellerbe said. “This ain’t some kind of prank. That is one of many things we’ve talked about with Mark. Floyd would have to take time to really understand it, but it is most definitely something he is interested in.”

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt and veteran PrideFC fighter, Ryan Gracie has long had troubles with the law. It seems as if those troubles are over now, as he was found dead in his jail cell according to GracieMag.com.

Ryan Gracie was grandson to Carlos Gracie, one of the original founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. When Ryan Gracie fought for PrideFC in Japan, he was billed as the “bad boy of the Gracie family” because of his reputation for getting into trouble.

MMA-Extreme.com

Supposedly, Ryan has been arrested before for various troubles, and was recently arrested for stealing an automobile (carjacking) and injuring a 77 year old man. He was later found dead in his prison cell.

From the GracieMag website:

News to make the fighting world tremble. According to news carried by Globo TV, the black belt Ryan Gracie was found dead in the cell where he was being held at a police station in Sao Paulo after having been accused of car theft yesterday in the city of Sao Paulo. According to the Sao Paulo State Secretariat of Public Security, Ryan was alone in the cell.

GRACIEMAG.com sympathizes with the Gracie family and should be back shortly with further information as to Ryan’s death.

10:24

According to the G1 news website:

“Ryan was sent to the 91st PD, after having toxicology exams done at the central IML at around 2:30 am. He arrived at the police station in Vila Leopoldina at 3 am. According to the officer on call of the 15th Police District police officer Daniella Ranna, where the athlete’s case was registered for having tried to steal a motorcycle, he was sent to the 91st DP because it is a traffic station. From there, he would have been seen to the “most recommendable” location.

According to the Secretariat, at around 7am, when policemen at the station were checking the cells with their detainees, they found the fighter fallen in a corner. They entered and confirmed that he was dead. At around 10 am, coroners were already at the location to do the necessary exams and send the body to the institute.

This looks like a great WEC event, and it airs on the Versus Network. I want to see Jens Pulver win this. The cards main event though is Urijah Faber vs. Jeff Curran, and I’d like to see Curran win that fight, and I think he can.

MMA-Extreme.com

Paulo Filho has a bout against Chael Sonnen tonight, both fighters are veterans, but Filho is considered by many to be the best middleweight in the world right now.

The rest of the fights on the card are:

Doug Marshall Vs. Ariel Gandulla
John Alessio Vs. Todd Moore
Bryan Baker Vs. Eric Schambari
Alex Karalexis Vs. Ed Ratcliff
Ian McCall Vs. Charlie Valencia
Brian Bowles Vs. Marcos Galvao

Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Ricky Hatton at 1:35 of round 10 by KO.

Wow, what a war between Roger Huerta and Clay Guida. I was hoping for a Clay Guida victory, and it looked like he almost had it a few times, but Huerta toughed it out and ended up connecting with a knee in round 3 that turned the tide completely in his favor. He was able to takedown Guida and secure a rear-naked choke to force a tapout from Guida.

Other fight results from The Ultimate Fighter finale show were:

Paul Georgieff was choked unconcious by Jonathan Goulet (RNC)
Roman Mitichyan defeated Dorian Price in only 23 seconds with an ankle lock
Matt Arroyo armbarred John Kolosci

Troy Mandaloniz vs. Richie Hightower – great fight! – This one was back and forth, Hightower is a tough SOB, but Mandaloniz got a KO victory in the last minute of the first round. On a sidenote, Jason Chambers from The History Channel’s Human Weapon was in Hightower’s corner.

Ben Saunders defeated Dan Barrera by unanimous decision, and Dan Barrera was boring as hell. All he did was takedown and lay on top of Saunders. On the other hand, Ben Saunders is a tough sumbitch.

George Sotiropoulos defeated Billy Miles via rear-naked choke.

Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver and Jared Rollins fought a war. Those dudes shed a lot of blood and fought like hell. The fight was back and forth, they kicked each others asses. Just when it looked like “War Machine” was mounted and almost done, he managed to sweep Rollins and take mount, then proceeded to blast away at Rollins head until he knocked him out and the referee stepped in to stop the fight.

And of course, Mac Danzig defeated Tommy Speer to be declared to winner of this seasons The Ultimate Fighter series.

At the end of The Ultimate Fighter finale show on SpikeTV, Dana White announced that one of the coaches for next seasons show will be Forrest Griffin, who himself won the first season of The  Ultimate Fighter by defeating Stephan Bonnar in a historic brawl. Dana White says we have to “tune in” to the Video Game Awards show tomorrow on SpikeTV to find out who the other coach will be. Speculation by some is that the other coach will be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the current light-heavyweight UFC champion.

Mac Danzig won in relatively easy fashion, as he did his previous fights on The Ultimate Fighter this season. Tommy Speer started the fight by clinching with Danzig against the fence and threw a few knees, but Danzig scored a takedown and dominated the fight from there on. Mac Danzig got mount and landed several strikes to Tommy Speers head before Speer rolled to give Danzig his back, where Danzig tapped him out with a rear-naked choke.

I’ve procrastinated in making picks for the winner of The Ultimate Fighter finale tonight, so here are some quick picks, I also tend to pick underdogs, so…

Clay Guida over Roger Huerta
Tommy Speer over Mac Danzig
John Koppenhaver over Jared Rollins
George Sotiropoulos over Billy Miles
Ben Saunders over Dan Barrera (via Jeet Kun Do)
Richie Hightower over Troy Mandaloniz
Matt Arroyo over John Kolosci by submission
Dorian Price over Roman Mitichyan
and in the upset of the night Paul Georgieff will defeat Jonathan Goulet. Yeah, it’s doubtful, but I’m sticking with it.

On another note, Ricky Hatton will KO Floyd Mayweather Jr. tonight.

It seems as though the sport of Mixed Martial Arts has had it’s first death from a sanctioned fight in the United States. I’m sure you’ve already read about Sammy Vasquez  being comatose and battling for his life since an October 20th MMA fight with Vince Libardi during a Renegades Extreme Fighting show in Houston, Texas.

Vasques took a number of punches from Libardi before collapsing in the ring and the fight was stopped at 2:50 of the third round. Medics tried to revive Vasquez in the ring for several minutes before he was taken St. Joseph Medical Center, where he remained until being transferred hospice care, where he died on November 30th.

Sammy Vasquez lived in Houston, Texas, and he left behind a wife (Sandra) and child (Ronin Rickson). A memorial fund has been set up by TEXAS MMA Fight Shop. Donations can be sent to:

TEXAS MMA FIGHT SHOP
c/o Sandra Vasquez
5720 Mobud
San Antonio, Texas 78238

Well, it’s the last episode anyway, then Saturday we will know who the overall winner is for this season.

Tonights episode of The Ultimate Fighter airs at 10pm EST and will include two semifinal matches featuring Mac Danzig vs. Matt Arroyo, and also Tommy Speer vs. George Sotiropoulos. Of course we found out last week that one of the fighters won’t be able to compete for some reason. Obviously from watching the previous episodes, it seems likely that Tommy Speers will be that fighter. He has sustained some beatings to his face, even though he won his fights on the show so far. It is rumored that John Kolosci will be the replacement fighter.