Chicks Heart Fights

- Apparently, Dana White doesn’t agree with my plan to have Clay Guida fight in Chicago at the end of October. Clay will fight Mac Danzig at UFC Fight Night 14 , September 17 (the birthday of the Constitution!) in Omaha.

-If you are in Missouri and you want to go to Ben Askren’s send-off, email Brian Smith at Smithbq@missouri.edu, NOW.

- More Olympic shirts , compiled so kindly by Champ at the Wrestling Talk.

-  Jose Canseco got his ass kicked. Heh.

-  Finally, I have a question for you, my lovely readers. What are you going to do on Saturday? Buy Affliction, DVR the UFC? Say screw it, I’m not spending the money when I get to see the best fighter on the planet? Really say screw it, and catch “Wicked” at the Cadillac Palace Theater? Tell me true, in the comments.

Remember when I whined about the UFC going to other cities not nearly as awesome as my hometown? Dana White heard my cries, and planned UFC 90 in the Windy City , most likely at Allstate Arena on October 25. I could not be happier* about this development because Chicago is a perfect market for MMA. This is a sports hungry town, and it’s an important time to show how Chicago can handle large sporting events. Many MMA gyms are sprouting up around the city, plus the UFC could feature some home grown talent. May I suggest:

Clay Guida

Clay already has lots of fans in the Land of Lincoln!

True, October would be a long layoff for the Carpenter, but I think he’d deal with it to fight in front of hometown fans. (Kind of - he’s from Johnsburg, which may as well be Alaska for a city snob like me, but people from that area like to claim Chicago so I won’t stop them.) The Mac Danzig fight has been on-again, off again, so why not schedule the fight for Chicago?

Stephen Bonnar

Though Bonnar now fights out of Las Vegas, his roots in northeast Indiana and Chicago would be well represented at a fight in Chicago. Bonnar has been languishing in the background of the UFC, and hasn’t fought since last October. A fight in his hometown could be just what he needs.

Others to consider:

• Miguel Torres, if the WEC and UFC were to do a joint show - and how cool would that be - Chicago would be the ideal place for Miguel, a native of East Chicago.
• Roger Huerta - of course I’d want him in my city!

*Though I’m quite pleased that the UFC is supposed to come to Chicago, I will be at the wedding of two dear friends that evening. Liz, Craig, realize how much I love you two crazy kids, or I would not be missing out on this.

I hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day. Me? I’m on my eighth straight episode of Law and Order on TNT, and there is not much chance of me changing the channel. I have a bunch of different items for your reading pleasure today.

From Combat Lifestyle. I wonder if Roger and Kenny are letting us know how their fight is going to turn out.

Leftovers from UFC 84: Michael David Smith enlightens us on the sights and sounds of a UFC event from Octagon-side. Also, Ben Goldstein from Cage Potato is not going to die from drinking ipecac. Good to hear that you’ll keep living, Ben!

If the Chaos That is UFC 85 wasn’t enough for you, UFC 87 has had a few changes, too. Mark Coleman is injured, so he will not be fighting Brock Lesnar; Heath Herring will be. Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch has been added as the main card, and Clay Guida will fight Mac Danzig. Add that to a card that already has Florian-Huerta, and Dan Evenson vs. Cheick Kongo-this gal is getting dizzy just thinking about it.

This weekend is MMA’s debut on network primetime: EliteXC on CBS. I plan to write more later this week, and liveblog the event, but I wanted to share this in the meantime. Kimbo Slice was hoping to advertise for Reality Kings on his shorts. Reality Kings brings us such wonderful sites as Milf Hunter, Round and Brown and We Live Together. (Sorry, not linking to them.) CBS said no dice, and it was the completely right move by CBS. Though advertising for the parent company might not break FCC standards, it’s still not the best idea to have MMA linked to pornography in its first time available to the masses for free.

Finally, if you haven’t stopped by Adam Frey’s blog recently, check it out and give Adam some words of encouragement. Despite good news about the size of his tumor, the daily grind of chemotherapy is starting to wear on him, and some d-bags think that it’s a good idea to leave messages saying that he is going to die. Not cool. Let Adam know that you’re cheering for him.

If you haven’t set aside your Wednesday night, do it now. Hire a babysitter, unplug the phone, leave work on time for once-do what you have to do to make sure that you are in front of a television at 7 Eastern, 6 central. Check out this line-up of fights:

• Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon
• Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parysian
• Matt Hamill vs. Tim Boetsch
• Kurt Pellegrino Vs. Nate Diaz
• James Irvin Vs. Houston Alexander
• Gray Maynard Vs. Frank Edgar*
• Josh Neer Vs. Din Thomas*
• Ryan Roberts Vs. Marcus Aurelio*
• Jeff Cox Vs. Manny Gamburyan*
• Samy Schiavo Vs. Clay Guida*
• Roman Mitichyan Vs. George Sotiropoulos*
• Anthony Johnson Vs. Tommy Speer*

Lots of good articles have been written about both tomorrow’s Fight Night and the premiere of the Ultimate Fighter. MMAJunkie takes a look at the State of the TUF Franchise. Kevin Iole writes about Joe Lauzon, computer nerd and ass kicker. Cage Potato has a profile of Clay Guida, whose fight, unfortunately, will probably not be televised.

Here are two great wrestling links. First, Rock M Nation has a great multimedia profile of Ben Askren. Jason Bryant at Intermat took a look the NCAA Championship by the numbers: everything from the number of neckties that Tom Brands wore to the total attendance of the tournament.

Tomorrow night, I am planning on live blogging Ultimate Fight Night, and I will also write recaps of the Ultimate Fighter. So many great fights-so little time!

Finally, for some shameless self-promotion, I will be on the Blogcritics Treehouse Fort on Thursday night, discussing MMA.  Listen to my dulcet tones!

I’m just getting home from a Christmas party, so I’ll do my best to write a recap before falling asleep. However, they served vodka egg nog at this party - it tastes like a sugar cookie, but with vodka, which is SO much better - so I might be a little sleepy.

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Hmmm, Finale Preview seems like an oxymoron. Anyway, another brilliant season has passed us, and we are left to ponder if Tommy Speers has his strength from throwing horses and knocking out cows, if doo-doo= hostility, or who is the bigger pooooooosy, Roman or Joe Scarola. Ok, maybe we don’t have to ponder that last one - Roman is not a pooosy, Joe Scarola is.

The whole season was supposed to lead up the Serra/Hughes rematch, but Serra’s herniated disk has stopped that fight from happening. So, we have an all-Team Hughes fight to watch, and I think it will be a great one. (more…)

Though the Cubs did try to kill me this weekend, the Missouri Tigers and the Chicago Bears rescued me. (For the record, this was the first time Mizzou held Nebraska touchdownless since the Eisenhower administration.) Phew. Now that work has become normal again, and the Cubs are finished torturing me, I can turn back to what really matters: men pummeling each other.

A few notes:

- Dan Gable “stepped down” as assistant coach of Iowa wrestling. He will stay on as special assistant to the AD at Iowa. Translation: the good Lord will have to drag Dan Gable out of Iowa.

- To fill Dan Gable’s spot, the Hawkeyes have named Doug Schwab interim assistant coach. I wonder why the interim is attached? Who cares-it gives me a chance to post this picture of Schwab.

- The TUF 6 Finale fight card has been officially announced, with Huerta-Guida as the main fight on December 8.

- It doesn’t look like we’ll see any fights on HBO anytime soon. That’s fine with me, since I cancelled my subscription right after the Sopranos ended.

- I don’t usually write about boxing here but this worries me. Apparently, Evander Holyfield just won’t stop boxing. I’m a fan of the sport and the fighter, and it would break my heart to see any lasting damage done on the man. Please, for the love, Evander, quit fighting!

Tomorrow - another recap of the Ultimate Fighter. (I can’t wait to Dorian go ca-razy!) and soon, more wrestlers/coaches/teams to watch.

Yep, I can’t come up with a more creative title than link dump. Well, not one that hasn’t already been used. Lots has been going on in the UFC, and due to work and celebrating the Cubs, I’ve been a little slow to post. So sorry about that, my four readers.

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