Ufc 66

[desflood]

By Thomas Gerbasi

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei ‘The Pitbull’ Arlovski returns to the Octagon for the first time since back-to-back losses to current champ Tim Sylvia when he takes on Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Marcio ‘Pe De Pano’ Cruz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, December 30th.

Also added to this star-studded event - which will be headlined by the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship rematch between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz - is a 205-pound showdown between Forrest Griffin and Keith Jardine.

Tickets go on sale for UFC 66 on Friday, November 3rd at 12pm PST, but members of the UFC Fight Club can order tickets exclusively now, and subscribers to the UFC newsletter may participate in a special presale beginning on Thursday, November 2nd at 10am PST.


I can already guess how AA/Cruz and Liddell/Ortiz are going to go down - but what do you guys think about Griffin/Jardine?

[Mr Dio]

Let me guess, you take Chuck to beat Tito?

[johngateswhiteley]

i think Ortiz can win...he looks like he is confident and in good shape, but i am going to have to go with Liddell.

...should be a good fight, though.

[cornbread]

I will always be a Tito fan and I would love to see him pull off the upset but I gotta go with Chuck on this one. KO first round.

[Rip-Hamilton32]

chuck will ko tito first round bank it

[cornbread]

This is shapping up to be a pretty good card. Tito/Chuck will be an awesome match. Any match with that much history behind it is always intriguing. AA/PDP should be pretty solid. Hopefully AA shows up with a big KO and gets back in the winners circle.

[LEONARD]

Looking pretty good so far...

-UFC 66: DECEMBER 30 IN LAS VEGAS

-Chuck Liddell (#1 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Tito Ortiz (#7 Light Heavyweight)*
-Andrei Arlovski vs. Marcio "Pe de Pano" Cruz
-Nathan Marquardt (#9 Middleweight)* vs. Dean Lister
-Forrest Griffin vs. Keith Jardine
-Chris Leben vs. Jason MacDonald

I see Jardine upsetting Forrest...

and the next night is Pride's New Year's Eve show! What an MMA weekend...

PRIDE NEW YEAR'S EVE SHOW: DECEMBER 31

-Fedor Emelianenko (#1 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. TBA
-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (#2 Light Heavyweight)* vs. TBA
-Josh Barnett (#3 Heavyweight)* vs. TBA
-Wanderlei Silva (#3 Light Heavyweight)* vs. TBA
-Ricardo Arona (#4 Light Heavyweight)* vs. TBA

Silva vs Little Nog is the rumor. Crocop just had surgery but wants to fight Fedor. Can't wait to see how this card rounds out...


i want to see chuck go down....but I don't know if i want tito to be the one who does it.

Same here!! I want Chuck to lose soon, but if the fight with Wandy Silva is ever going to happen I wasn Chuck to still be on his winning streak going into that fight. The Pride card on Feb 24th in Vegas is the hope...

[LaMarcus Bryant]

lil blingy is goign to be REALLY excited when this comes on

[Rip-Hamilton32]

why do you want chuck to lose because hes better then all of your little pride fighters? and it bothers you that much?

[dallaskd]

I fight MMA.
SUPPORT ME!!!

http://americanfighter.com/company-info/photo-gallery.html

Scroll down to me. Im Prince(Mclean)

And my fighter bio at sherdog...

http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?FighterID=15077

[spurs=bling]

lil blingy is goign to be REALLY excited when this comes on
CBF SHUT THE FUCK UP

The same way you all hate Tito its the same way i hate Chuck.

[LEONARD]

why do you want chuck to lose because hes better then all of your little pride fighters? and it bothers you that much?

LMAO!! How do you know he's better?? Because he did so well when he went and fought in Japan a few yrs ago? Because he's fought such high level competition since then??

What's the UFC got at LHW?? Chuck, Tito...uhhhhhhh...Babalu? Forrest? Rashad Evans?? After Tito, there's nobody worthy of a title fight...unless Brandon Vera can drop down...

Pride has Silva, Shogun, Arona, and Little Nog who are all top notch LHW's...even Overeem, who Chuck beat in Japan, would give him a good fight.

If Chuck IS going to fight Wand Silva soon, then I want him to beat Tito so he's still on top when that fight does happen. That's the fight everybody wants to see...

If Chuck is NOT going to fight Wand Silva soon, then I want him to lose because he breeds white trash UFC fans, which drive me crazy. They boo foreign fighters (even after they destroy their golden boy Rich Franklin), they get into fights at the events, and in general act like drunken rednecks. The UFC crowd is a whippin'...

[MajorMike]

Just exactly how often do they have the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship?'

[desflood]

PPV's are usually once a month, with a free fight night every couple of months. But, what do you care? It's not a real sport anyway, right? It's 13-year-old stuff. :lol

[MajorMike]

Well, its like having the "Game of the Century" every month. Sort of lame. Maybe if it was the UFCL or something, but billing every ppv as the ultimate championship is making it over done.

[LEONARD]

Just exactly how often do they have the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship?'

PPV's about once a month for the UFC like was said above. Pride has one about every 2 months or so. There are others too...WFA, Strikeforce, Cage Rage, etc...

There are now SEVEN UFC related shows on Spike TV...

Inside The UFC (new show hosted by Joe Rogan)
The Ultimate Fighter
UFC Unleashed
UFC All Access
Ultimate Knockouts
UFC Countdown
UFC Fight Night (formerly Ultimate Fight Night)...which is like a free PPV.

A week from tomorrow night is the next free show. It's the Ultimate Fighter Finale, which will be at least 4 live fights. Might get to see a 5th if they go quick.

ULTIMATE FIGHTER 4 LIVE FINALE: NOVEMBER 11 IN LAS VEGAS

Main Card Bouts:
-Welterweight Finals of TUF 4: Matt Serra vs. Chris Lytle
-Middleweight Finals of TUF 4: Travis Lutter vs. Patrick Cote
-Michael Bisping vs. Eric Schafer
-Din Thomas vs. Rich Clementi

Preliminary Bouts:
-Martin Kampmann vs. Thales Leites
-Pete Sell vs. Scott Smith
-Jeremy Jackson vs. Pete Spratt
-Charles McCarthy vs. Gideon Ray


And there are 3 different Pride shows on FSN:

1 hr Pride recaps
2 hr Pride recaps hosted by Chris Rose of The Best Damn Sports Show Period
They also showed one round of the Bushido tourny (delayed a week after the PPV)

FSN also carries the Internation Fighting League (IFL), which are 1 hr shows with 5 fights from a couple weeks prior.

Turn on ESPN Classic just about any night and you'll get K-1, kickboxing, Muy Thai, or freestyle fighting (all are re-runs of old fights)....they're trying to get a piece of the action, even though they don't have any MMA...

Combat sports are all over the TV these days...

[LEONARD]

billing every ppv as the ultimate championship is making it over done.

WTF?? :lol

"Ultimate Fighting Championship" is the name of the MMA organization.

Would "Ultimate Fighting Association" be better? It's just a name....

[MajorMike]

Then why is it 'Ulimate Fighting Championship #66' if that's the league name? The NFL doesn't say NFL 40 or doesn't call the league 'The Super Bowl'.

[desflood]

Go ahead Leonard. Handle it.

[LEONARD]

Then why is it 'Ulimate Fighting Championship #66' if that's the league name? The NFL doesn't say NFL 40 or doesn't call the league 'The Super Bowl'.

Geez man, it's not that difficult. They just number their events since they don't have seasons, weekly games, etc...

http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=LearnUFC.History
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=LearnUFC.FactSheet

[cornbread]

Well, its like having the "Game of the Century" every month. Sort of lame. Maybe if it was the UFCL or something, but billing every ppv as the ultimate championship is making it over done.

There's history behind the name of the event. When the first event took place in 1993 it was originally going to be called "War of the Worlds". Rorion Gracie put the event together to market brazilian jiu jitsu to America by putting their unknown style up against other more popular traditional martial arts in a no holds barred fight. The Gracies had already had decades of experience and success in nhb fights so they knew this tournament would be the perfect way to promote their product.

Long story short, some marketing guy tells Rorion that the name sucked and they should change it to The Ultimate Fighting Championship. It makes sense because the event's purpose was to show which style was the most effective in a real fight. The event was originally a one-time, open-weight, 8 man tournament. It ended up being a success on ppv so they put on more tournaments every few months. UFC operated like this for a few years before they started to add weight classes and changed to a non-tournament format.

UFC is the original brand for mixed martial arts/vale tudo in the US. There's no reason to change the name and destroy the brand recognition.

Every event is numbered because, like Leonard pointed out, there's no season.

[desflood]

Then why is it 'Ulimate Fighting Championship #66' if that's the league name? The NFL doesn't say NFL 40 or doesn't call the league 'The Super Bowl'.
After rereading your post, I get your question a bit better. The "Ultimate Fighting Championship" was actually supposed to originally be a one-time tournament, to decide which martial art was the most street-worthy (hey, my karate guy can beat up your juijitsu guy). Hence the use of the word championship. But it caught on so well they kept it going and just stuck with the original name, since that's what people knew.

[cornbread]

.

But cornbread beat me to it, the bastard :lol

My bad!

[desflood]

That's okay. Yours has more detail that I was just too lazy to put into mine :tongue

[LEONARD]

and you both typed way more than I wanted too, because I know CaptMike REALLY doesn't give a $hit... :fro

[desflood]

But it's not a bad way to waste some time.

[MajorMike]

Thanx, guys. At least I got an educated answer to a simple question and not the typical 13-year-old personal attack by leo.

[LEONARD]

Thanx, guys. At least I got an educated answer to a simple question and not the typical 13-year-old personal attack by leo.

You've talked nothing but trash about MMA in the past...I think my replies were pretty civil. I figured you were just doing a bit by asking goofy questions...

[Rip-Hamilton32]

LMAO!! How do you know he's better?? Because he did so well when he went and fought in Japan a few yrs ago? Because he's fought such high level competition since then??

What's the UFC got at LHW?? Chuck, Tito...uhhhhhhh...Babalu? Forrest? Rashad Evans?? After Tito, there's nobody worthy of a title fight...unless Brandon Vera can drop down...

Pride has Silva, Shogun, Arona, and Little Nog who are all top notch LHW's...even Overeem, who Chuck beat in Japan, would give him a good fight.

If Chuck IS going to fight Wand Silva soon, then I want him to beat Tito so he's still on top when that fight does happen. That's the fight everybody wants to see...

If Chuck is NOT going to fight Wand Silva soon, then I want him to lose because he breeds white trash UFC fans, which drive me crazy. They boo foreign fighters (even after they destroy their golden boy Rich Franklin), they get into fights at the events, and in general act like drunken rednecks. The UFC crowd is a whippin'...

do you have prove that any of these pride guys are better then liddell or even tito? tito beat silva did he not? and chuck will do the same to anyone of those steroid using chumps

[LEONARD]

do you have prove that any of these pride guys are better then liddell or even tito? tito beat silva did he not? and chuck will do the same to anyone of those steroid using chumps

:lol

Of course I don't have PROOF...just like you don't have proof that Chuck would beat all of the Pride guys!! I'm just going by what I see with my eyes when I was all these guys fight. What are you basing your opinion on?? How much Pride have you even watched??

Yes, Tito beat Silva 6 yrs ago...who cares about MMA math, especially when you're talking about 6 yrs ago. I can make it work against your argument just like you're trying to do to me...

I just want Liddell - Silva to happen so at least one argument can be settled. UFC fans thought Rich Franklin was an unbeatable badass too...but he ran into a middle of the pack MW that had mixed success in Pride and was thoroughly embarassed...

Silva is fighting Arona on New Year's Eve...was hoping for Little Nog instead...

[Rip-Hamilton32]

i agree with chuck vs silva but i don't think dana wants it to happen even though he said he did

[cornbread]

i agree with chuck vs but i don't think dana wants it to happen even though he said he did

I think Dana and Sakihabara(spelling?) want the fight to happen but nobody wants to give up the homecourt advantage.

If you ask me it's Pride's turn to send over some talent. Chuck's already fought in Pride 3 times and I'm pretty sure he was signed to UFC at the time. I can't think of any contracted Pride fighters that have been sent over to UFC.

[LEONARD]

i agree with chuck vs but i don't think dana wants it to happen even though he said he did

:dizzy

[IX_Equilibrium]

If you ask me it's Pride's turn to send over some talent. Chuck's already fought in Pride 3 times and I'm pretty sure he was signed to UFC at the time. I can't think of any contracted Pride fighters that have been sent over to UFC.


I definately agree with you on that point.

[MajorMike]

You've talked nothing but trash about MMA in the past...I think my replies were pretty civil. I figured you were just doing a bit by asking goofy questions...


Is this diff than Pride? I have dirctv and they hype Pride all the time. Is that just another show, like WWE has Raw and Smackdown or whatever? Or is it another league?

[desflood]

It's a different organization, based in Japan. While the UFC has mainly American fighters, Pride fighters come from all over the world, so while it's not as well known here in the states it has a much broader fan base in the rest of the world. They have lots of Japanese fighters, Russian, Brazilian, a few Americans...

[MajorMike]

Are these outcomes scripted, like WWE?

[desflood]

No. There have been a few fights that have been so bad there were rumors that they were fixed (Dan Severn is the one fighter attached to most of these rumors, because he's old, his fights are boring, and he was never very good to begin with), but the outcomes are not pre-determined.

[MajorMike]

Not flaming, but didn't most WWE fans say for years (and the WWE itself) that it wasn't scripted?

Didn't some journalist get whacked in the head 10 years ago or so for saying that to wrestler?

[desflood]

Not the fans - the WWE. The fans knew it was scripted. That's why pro wrestling is losing so many fans to fighting - because, unlike the usual recycled crap WWE story line, you actually don't know what's going to happen during a fight.

[MajorMike]

I wouldn't say that at all. Stone Cold was perhaps the biggest name in the sport for 5-6 years, and he lost a suprising amount of the time.

[desflood]

Of course. Don't you know that people love to see the hero finally triumph over his enemies after being knocked down, bloodied and bruised multiple times? :lol

[LEONARD]

WWE type wrestling = COMPLETE GARBAGE

Who goes to those shows???!!!! Truly sad...


Are these outcomes scripted, like WWE?

:bang

Surely you were joking, or have you really paid that little attention??

MMA is a sport...sanctioned just like boxing...

[cornbread]

Not flaming, but didn't most WWE fans say for years (and the WWE itself) that it wasn't scripted?

Didn't some journalist get whacked in the head 10 years ago or so for saying that to wrestler?

MMA is as real as it gets. You can go to Vegas and put money down any of the major fights.

It's ironic because the professional wrestling evolved from real competition like amateur wrestling ( freestyle & greco roman), early 1900's folk wrestling like traveling carnival/circus catch wrestling. Abraham Lincoln was actually a feared catch wrestler in his time. Now prowrestling is a joke. It had some merit in the 80's with creative characters, good guy vs bad guy storylines, but it's truely turned into garbage as of late.

Unfortunately, many prowrestlers are starting to incorporate mma techniques into their routines. I flipped on Monday Night Raw recently and saw the Undertaker wearing mma gloves and the announcers referred to him as "the most feared striker in sports entertainment." They also referred to his "dangerous submission skills". I was pretty pissed about it and a little worried that this could hurt the public's image of mma legitamacy. But wrestling has always imitated what's real so I guess I shouldn't be too concerned.

I predict that prowrestling model will soon evolve into a fake mma ripoff. We should've seen it coming when Ken Shamrock jumped ship for WWF.

[LEONARD]

Good points...

I don't like see WWE guys in MMA for the most part. Some have legit college wrestling backgrounds like Brock Lesnar (who IS training for MMA now).

I did enjoy seeing Sean O'Haire get KO'd a few weeks ago though...

Bart Gunn lost on Saturday (fought Minowa at the Bushido).

WWE fans think those guys are badasses, so it's good to see one get smashed every now and then, even if it doesn't do anything for the advancement of the sport...

[dallaskd]

How can you watch WWE when the guys dont even hit each other and sit on their knees and let someone through a fake knee in their face?

[MajorMike]

I don't watch WWE; I think it is just a fad, too.

[desflood]

From MMAWeekly.com:

BISPING OFF OF TUF4 CARD; OTHER UFC CHANGES
Monday, November 06, 2006 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Staying busy as ever, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has two dates upcoming in as many weeks. As inevitably happens, there have been a few changes to both of the proposed fight cards, most notably the recent cancellation of Michael Bisping’s participation on this weekend’s The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale on Saturday, November 11th.

Bisping was scheduled to face returning UFC veteran Eric Schafer. It is believed that there was trouble with him being able to secure his Visa, but it is unclear what the details of that situation are.

This is definitely a blow to the TUF 4 finale show as Bisping was slated to be on the televised portion of the event as he was the light heavyweight winner of season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter. He has also been present at recent UFC events signing autographs and doing other promotional activities.

His opponent, Schafer, said that the fight “is officially 100% off [as of] this morning.” Obviously disappointed, he is hopeful of a date with Bisping in the near future, “They were not expecting such a problem obviously... I guess they could not solve it on such short notice. There is no replacement [due to the timing], but they do plan on a match between Bisping and me rescheduled for December.”

Bisping was unable to comment on the particulars of his situation and being unable to fight this weekend. He did say that he believed that the UFC would be able to reschedule the fight for "sometime in December," though he does not know whether it would be on the December 13th UFC Fight Night show or on the December 30th UFC 66 card.


That's a damned shame, I always like watching Bisping fight... and now what are they going to do Saturday night? This was the main event.

[cornbread]

^^^This is bad news. Bisping is a great fighter and super exciting to watch. I'm pretty bummed about this. :depressed

[LEONARD]

Big hit to the TUF Finale card...that blows...