By Jesse Holland
Round two of the quarterfinals featuring Gray vs. Brandon begins with a brief recap of the Cole/Lauzon fight before getting right to a Team Pulver training session where Brandon suffers from yet another sore extremity.
He also appears to be breaking down mentally from being sequestered in the house for so long. In the booth he slams [...]

The PRIDE FC talent hemorrhage continues.
Undefeated PRIDE FC welterweight (185 pounds) standout Paulo Filho is close to signing a contract with World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), which is of course owned by Zuffa LLC — the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — according to Tatame.com.
Speculation swirled recently that the Brazilian Top Team (BTT) [...]

Rampage on ESPN Hotlist 05.29.07Uploaded by kaminoko

“It seems the only people who think UFC 71 was a failure are the sort of mainstream national sports media columnists who never want to take a moment to learn something out of their wheelhouse, and wish mixed martial arts would simply go away.”
– One of the first journalists from a major news organization — [...]

Props: Fizogen-Couture MMA

Earlier this week we passed along a report that put then UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell inside some Las Vegas hot spots and clubs just before his big fight with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 71.
In an article today in the Los Angeles Times, Liddell himself confirms the report and makes no excuses for [...]

Props: TuffNuffMMA.com

UFC President Dana White recently confirmed that the UFC is headed back to New Jersey before the end of the year for the first time since 2005.
We passed along a similar report back in February. However, at that time the timeframe was a little more ambiguous — so too was the possible venue.
The Continental Airlines [...]

 
“I’m coming to write my name in the U.S. and I don’t care who I’m going to fight. I want the belt.”
-Mauricio “Shogun” Rua discussing his recent signing with the UFC in an interview with MMAWeekly. Rua also picks Quinton Jackson to defeat Dan Henderson and says Tito Ortiz would be a good match-up for [...]

I’m back full-time from my self-imposed sabbatical, which was spent caring for mini-Mania.
So, I can’t really call it a vacation, but it was a nice little break from the normal grind.
Thanks again and again for all the “congratulations” emails and comments — it makes Mrs. Mania realize that people really do like me and that [...]