(Photos:UFC.com)

?As usual we start this episode with a quick recap of the previous show.?? A few fighters as well as Matt Hughes weigh in on Barrera’s failed effort.?? Next clip is a glimpse of Matt Hughes going off in the locker room following the fight… he calls out Barrera’s failure to follow instructions and puts the loss on him alone, allowing no other excuses.? (hard to disagree with that…)

Other words of wisdom from Hughes:

• “You guys are pushing my tolerance. Boy do I want to unleash my fury on you…”????
• ?”To the other two fighters yet to fight “You two, whatever you tell me you are going to do, you better do it”
• ?”See you guys out here, I don’t even want to be here right now….”? (leaves the locker room)

Barrera is o.k. though… “God works in mysterious ways”, he says…. and notes that he will be up again in the morning to run and pick a flower for his wife and then get back to training.

Hughes takes the whining to Dana White, who throws another log on the fire, telling Hughes he needs to beat up his team and punish them for not listening. “Have a come to Jesus meeting” he says… (I don’t get the reference. )

Turning point……? Hughes gathers the team and says, I wanted to get out of here, but “anybody can quit, it takes a man to stay in there”.?? Then a final cut to Hughes commenting that he is losing to Serra who has “cussed” him out on national tv, etc.?? Bottom line here, Hughes is getting punked by Serra and he can’t stand it.??The fights are for the fighters but the war is Hughes vs Serra.? (This is probably the biggest difference between Serra and Hughes.)? Hughes grants Dana White his wish and the team gets a tough workout.?

Post workout, Danzig weighs in that Hughes is being to hard on some of the rookie fighters (Barrera has only had 4 fights?) He points out that the Serra vs Hughes issue is getting to Hughes and causing him to make poor decisions.? Barrera comes back to the house after his trip to the doctor?and Danzig?gives him a nice pep talk.?

Side note: Danzig is all over the map.? He shows moments like this where he is very considerate of the other fighters and mentors them, but then I think back to his berating of Blake Bowman and it makes no sense.? Especially since he mentored Bowman to a point as well.

The next scene is the match announcement.? Team Hughes picks J-Roc (Jared Rollins) to fight the Australian, George Sotiropoulos.? The following glimpse of George isn’t positive.? It seems his team thinks he is only in it for himself and he doesn’t deny it.? The reality seems to be that this guy is one of the best and most prepared fighters on team Serra and maybe some of the boys are a bit jealous.

Now it’s the Jared Rollins training footage, and what do you know.? Team Hughes hurts their fighter during practice.? Rollins seems to have injured his rib.? J-Roc is a mess… absolutely, emotionally devastated with the?prospect of not fighting.?? What is going on with team Hughes?? Next time you lose a fight, when you are looking to punish everyone, ?maybe think back that 3 of your fighters have been injured in training right before their fights. (Bowman, Barrera and now Rollins)? Rollins goes to the doctor and the prognosis is the best news possible.? J-Roc has bruised ribs and will still be able to fight (although he will be fighting?through pain for sure)

Danzig moment again:? Mac puts in his two cents that he considers himself the best fighter this season, with George and Jared as the next best fighters.? So Danzig is particularly interested in this fight, and?he says he would not be surprised to see him vs J-Roc in the finals.

One more scene with team Serra pissed at George for not waking them up in the morning and a couple of hissy fits.? Not sure if these scenes are foreshadowing something or not.

Interesting weigh in and stare-down where the fighters get a bit aggressive in a friendly way.? An odd clip with Serra commenting to George afterwards about?how J-Roc was overly aggressive and compensating for insecurities.? He makes a borderline racist remark when talking about how Rollins is always trying to seek approval from Hughes.? The quote is that he is “Mr. Hughes’ boy”.? Hmmmm … don’t think that one sits too well Matt Serra.

Onto the fight.? Screen stats for?age, reach, etc all look even.

The?round begins with the fighters feeling each other out for the first 30-45 seconds.???George starts to engage and gets his punches off quick.. He scores with 3 rights, two which were solid shots ,within the first 90 seconds.? This is a theme for the round, with George engaging effectively and also showing?solid counter striking and an ability to?box well while backing up.? Jared gets off a good punch and a solid leg kick, but that’s about it.?? With 1:20 left in round 1, George catches J-Roc with a left hook and follows up with a left uppercut that drops him.? Sotiropoulos goes in for the kill and gets the KO with a few quick shots to the downed Rollins.

Rollins takes the loss hard, and starts throwing stuff around the dressing room.?? He goes outside and is consoled by Dorian Price and Dana White.? Is it me, or is Dana White getting a lot of air time as a nice guy on this series?

Preview for next week is the final preliminary fight with John “War Machine” Koppenhaver vs.? Tommy Speer.?? No other drama to speak of, so maybe the fight is good enough on it’s own.? Only time will tell, so we will wait until next Wednesday.

All in all not a bad episode, and George does indeed look like a likely candidate for the final round.? I would love to see him fight Ben Saunders in the future, after arguing these two did on this episode (because Sotiropoulos was too inconsiderate to wake up Saunders every day?… this shared house, no t.v.?thing must be a huge mental factor).? My money is on George for that one.

?(Photo:FCFighter.com)

The UFC held an official press conference this afternoon to clear the air regarding a number of comments made last week by Randy Couture in his own press conference.?? I find it incredibly boring to even discuss the money and what was promised to anyone by anyone… because the bottom line is that it isn’t any of my business, it’s not exciting and it certainly isn’t the kind of fighting that I associate with the UFC.

If you are interested in the details of the press conference, including the clarification of the money matters, you can find it here.

I think the bottom line here is that Randy Couture is winning his next fight already.? Any disclosure regarding back door deals and handshake agreements can only shed light where it shouldn’t be shone in the first place.? It can be fun at times to speculate on the the premeditated planning that goes into building and marketing a champion, but seeing the truth behind it all is somehow less dignified than one would anticipate.? I enjoy the show that is the finished product of the UFC… I really don’t need to know that Randy is a liar or Dana is actually a nice guy…or whatever.? I enjoy my reality as it is presented to me.

I don’t know that the UFC can continue to battle publicly with their most beloved star, but as they stated today, they also can’t afford?unchallenged press from the same star, that makes the company seem to be following unethical practices, etc.?? Based on the first couple of rounds in this fight… I think Randy is going to win a decision, but he will certainly take some shots along the way.? The UFC gets points for continuing to offer Randy his next fight despite the public statements… although as the banter escalates, it appears this next round is more likely to be in the courtroom than the Octagon.

For the record… and although I claim to not care about the money side all that much…. seeing that Randy is pulling in over 1 million dollars per fight doesn’t make me feel too sorry for him.?? It also doesn’t seem fair to complain that your company can’t get you the fight you want and then cry that they offered the guy you want to fight too much money?? Time?for Cashton? Caption? Captain?America to prioritize; you either want the fight or the money.(pssst… right now it’s looking like the money)

Hopefully the kryptonite wears off soon and Randy either fights or walks away…. (and I know that’s a Superman reference, but Captain America was kind of a vague superhero anyway….)

Photos:(UFC.com)

Episode 6 gets off to a quick start… we are right into the fight pick for team Serra and it’s going to be Serra’s Ben Saunders vs. Team Hughes’ Dan Barrera. It looks like we are getting into the better fights now for sure.

The rest of the first half of the show is focused on Dan Barrera. This guy looks like a machine. He is the one guy I have been waiting to watch all season, with that intensity bordering on insanity and a born again attitude that seems to be a perfect fit for coaching from Matt Hughes. Well, he is definitely intense… and he is shown doing all sorts of individual training starting at 4:15 am every day, running for a few miles, carrying small boulders, swimming, and shadow boxing every inanimate object that comes across his path. It is pretty clear that if he ever finds himself in the ring against a garbage dumpster, he will completely pick it apart. The down side of this appears to be that Barrera is too tough in his training with the rest of his team. He roughs up a few teammates and Hughes is getting tired of slowing him down all the time.

Now here comes the drama. It starts with Paul Georgieff returning almost immediately following his cousin’s funeral. He states that he left for that reason and is now ready to get back to training with his team. That’s the last we hear on that topic for the show, but it may foreshadow something later in the season… this kid has a good attitude.

We go back to the next team Hughes practice and Matt Hughes decides it’s time to bring Dan down a notch with a little one on one training. Of course, Hughes is a bit too rough and ends up hurting Barrera’s hand which swells like a balloon only a day or two before the fight….. not to smart for a coach who is so worried about his losing streak. best line of the show goes to Blake who says that Barrera’s hand looks like a 2nd Grader drew it. (hahaha…)

We go back to Barrera for the continuation of the soap opera … scene 2. Barrera talks about his wife and shows a picture, talking about how he gave up his wife and horses and dog, etc to be in the house. Then it’s problem time, as Barrera’s wife has some sort of panic attack that has Dana White permitting a phone call that can’t be great for a fighter on the brink of his most important match ever. Mrs. Barrera is crying and carrying on on the phone, being pretty much inconsolable, so Barrera starts praying which only seems to heighten her stress level and he leaves it at that.

There is no indication that he discusses the issue with anyone in the house beyond Dana White after the call. In that clip though, Barrera reveals that he gave up his fire fighter job to be on the show. This is not looking good for Ben Saunders at all. You have a bulldog of a fighter to face who trains like a maniac, leaves everything in God’s hands and has a wife who is on the verge of a mental breakdown… oh, and he lost his job, so he needs this win to feed his wife and kid. You had better believe in yourself to get in the ring with a guy like Barrera.

A small clip showing Ben Saunders, who is basically a clown, but a clown with a lot of martial arts experience.

Barrera again… he goes to the doctor and returns to tell the house that his hand is indeed broken and he is done. Barrera pulls the old rope a dope and tell them JUST KIDDING… never gets old!!

On to the fight. Holy crap…Ben Saunders is 6′3″ @ 170 pounds?… He also has an 8 inch reach advantage. This could be interesting after all. The first round is basically a slug-fest of sorts with Barrera working his way inside while Saunders is throwing pretty accurate kicks from the outside, using his height and reach to his advantage. At one point, Barrera drops Saunders with a punch but after almost getting caught in an arm-bar, he backs away…but not far enough to get a stand-up, which he should have wanted after just rocking Saunders. This is the cycle that repeats itself for the remainder of the round, with Hughes screaming at Barrera the whole time to back away and let Saunders up, although there is no sign that Barrera is even listening. Round one ends and it is advantage Barrera, although a close round overall.

Round 2 starts off with Saunders striking well from the outside again. He is effective and a cut on Barrera’s forehead is bleeding pretty good. Barerra gets rocked with a few knees and kicks and is spending a lot of time running backwards ala David Loiseau vs. Rich Franklin. I have never seen so many kicks in a fight, and Saunders is not showing much fatigue. the fight is almost stopped for the blood in Barrera’s face (and he seems to have wanted to stop for a moment). Barrera steps it up for the last 30 seconds and Dana White and everyone else is expecting a 3rd round.

Dana White must be looking to show he doesn’t rig fights, as the judges disagree and come back with a unanimous decision for Saunders. Matt Hughes is pretty pissed. He sees the scorecard and that 2 judges gave the first round to Saunders. Hughes pretty much loses it and asks the NSAC rep where his judges go to school.. the response is that he thought Matt was more professional than that and probably biased considering his fighter lost. Dana White says the judging sucked as well.

Off to the locker room and White gives $5000.00 to each fighter for putting on a great fight.. Good job Dana. Matt Serra also shows some class by going into the team Hughes dressing room to congratulate Barrera on his fight and to tell him that he did a great job. As for Matt Hughes, the show ends with him whining about the performance of his team again and their inability to follow a game plan. It looks like some more tough love for the next episode and possibly some extra sprains or breaks for the kids that won’t get in line. Maybe even the guy who has to fight next….

The point of the whole show is that Matt Hughes will not have a say in the semi final match-ups as he drops to 1-5. He laments his team picks and shares the fact that he is frustrated this season.

Psst … Matt at 1-5, maybe it’s the coaching. Just a thought.

There are a lot of searches going on for Roger Huerta’s tattoo, as well as other fighters’, so I thought I would put together a compilation of some of the more original pieces that are being sported by the UFC’s elite.

Leave a comment if there is a particular fighter’s tattoo you want to see that hasn’t been included.

Click Here to view the photos.

In an announcement on SPIKE TV’s? 2007 Scream awards show tonight, Dana White confirmed that the Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva fight will indeed take place at UFC NEMISIS on Dec. 29th.? The event will?take place at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas Nevada and will be the co-main event, with the fight of the night being Matt Serra defending his Welterweight belt against former champion Matt Hughes.

The announcement is not particularly shocking, in that with both fighters coming off back to back losses, this may be the last chance to market an “epic” battle between “The Iceman” and the “Axe Muderer”.? This is no easy fight for either man, but especially dangerous for Liddell who has everything to lose if he goes to 3 straight losses in the UFC.? Wanderlei is likely to get more?forgiveness if he takes a loss in what will be his?is inaugural fight in the octagon as a UFC?property.??The fight will either be a proving ground for Liddell and the beginning of an attempted return to the top of the division, or the beginning of what could be one of the quickest and ugliest slides into fighting obscurity that we have seen in a while.

?Either way, the fans are in for a treat with this match?as both fighters are veterans at entertaining the masses.? This is a great fight to end off the year.

Note: Another fight rumoured for the UFC 79 card is Melvin Guillard vs. Rich Clementi.

(Photo:UFC.com)

Canadian lightweight standout?Sam Stout(1-2 UFC), recently confirmed with The Fight Network, that he expects to be fighting on a UFC card in England in early 2008.? The match is tentatively scheduled for Newcastle, England in mid-late January and is reported to be against local boy Terry Etim. (1-1 UFC)

This is good news for anyone who enjoys a good slug-fest, as Sam has shown his ability to stand with some of the best in the division, including his most recent battle with Spencer Fisher, where the two fighters evened out thier records at 1 win each.? The UFN 10 event showcased the two fighters in a main event rematch, providing Fisher with an opportunity to redeem himself? from his UFC 58 loss to Stout.? The UFC 58 fight was the UFC debut for Stout, and a struggle for Fisher who took the fight on short notice , replacing an injured Kenny Florian.? Fisher lost 20 pounds in a few days to make weight and many believe it took a toll on him in the close fight.?? Fisher though, like Stout, has not been one to make excuses for his losses.

?Stout, the Canadian TKO lightweight champion is a great example of many solid lightweight fighters in the division (Fisher,Huerta,Guida,Griffin,Florian, etc) who bring an agressive?style and a desire to finish fights, scrambling and striking from bell to bell every time.? He is a threat to any and all in the division as he is one of only a few lightweights who possess KO power.? This fight should be a good test to see how Stout’s skills are developing, as with Terry Etim, he will be facing the newer subset of lightweights that stretch beyond the 6′ mark.?? That height (6′1″), combined with a tendency to win by submission, makes this a great match for Etim.? While Stout is known to have decent, and visibly improving submission defense, his ground game is a clear weakness in his overall MMA skill set.? (see Florian Vs.?Stout)

So, clearly a good ‘rumoured’ match for the whatever date in lands on, and an opportunity for everyone to watch some solid lightweight action.? The only downside to a January fight for Stout may be that he is unavailable for a Canadian fight card that is rumoured for March of 2008.? Stout, along with Jason MacDonald, Kalib Starnes and the ultra popular GSP would be clear fan favourites to have on the card. (Maybe a return for Mark Hominick and David Loiseau as well…?)

A Canadian UFCFAN can dream can’t he ?

The UFCFAN team just returned from the weigh-ins and it was overall a very positive event.?? Cincinatti is a nice city and the people have been very friendly and helpful.? That said, a 2 hrs wait at the weigh-ins was enough to test our patience a little bit.?

?Once we got in though, we were lucky and moved right to the front of the autograph session with Houston Alexander, Kenny Florian, Matt Hammill and Wanderlei Silva.? As usual the fighters are all really accessible and friendly.? That seems to be a real focus for the UFC and they have maintained that fan interaction factor despite their explosive growth in popularity over the past few years.

Next up was the Q&A session with Dana White and Keith Jardine.? This is another fan focused event with Dana and company?providing a very comical and upfront interaction with the many fans in attendance.?? A lot of interesting questions and some ridiculous ones were tabled, one woman even asking to lick Dana White’s head…permission granted.?

?Key Points from the session:

• Dana indicated that there should be a big announcement tomorrow night at the fight
• The UFC plans to increase the number of UFN events and take them on the road.
• If Sherk loses his appeal, it will likely be BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson for the title.
• UFC event for Super Bowl weekend is confirmed for Las Vegas @ Mandalay Bay.

Dana White did a little dodging?on a question about the under-cards not being included as standard on the Pay Per View events.?? He gave a weak answer about it being a 3 hr slot, etc… but I think that Dana got the message that the fans?can’t understand why they don’t get all the fights?with their PPV purchase.

We managed to get a few photos at the event as well… click here to check them out.

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This is the night before the night before UFC77…. we have met a few folks from Cincinnati,? and some serious contenders from the UFC conglomarate….? Things are going great.?We met Houston Alexander and the Cincinnati masses.? On the way back from the bar, we met a stand out fan - Keith, who is a National Wheelchair Rugby?/ Murderball athelete? and we came to agreement on Jason MacDonald’s opportunity to pull out a huge win (in the first two rounds) over Yushim Okami.? If it gets to the third round, MacDonald is in trouble.

?To finalize our adventures for the first night in the sleepy Cincinnati, we busted a gut with Mark DellaGrotte and Mike Goldberg in the elevator over Bonnar’s chances to beat Eric Schafer.? Bottom Line? - Schafer in first two rounds.?? Third round advantage goes to Bonnar - for stand-up strategy without KO power.

Bottom line….? We stick with UFCFAN.CA picks and Houston Alexander is our new boy.

(Photos:UFC.com)

This episode seems to be a turning point for this season of The Ultimate Fighter; the drama was more real and the level of fighting seems to be picking up, or at the very least levelling out.??

A primary focus for this episode is a bit of spill over from last week, with a lot of camera time on Mac Danzig, portraying him as a pseudo funny, certainly opinionated and somewhat abrasive guy.?? the pinnacle of the Danzig?experiment is reached after the fighters are given permission to watch the TUF 5 finale.? Blake Bowman, whose lack of seriousness grates on Mac’s nerves, is friends with Cole Miller who takes a TKO win over Andy Wang… who just so happens to be a close friend of Danzig.? Blake shows some contained elation, while Mac can’t seem to contain his frustration and anger at watching his friend take a beating.?? Mac starts some passive aggressive rant about teaching these lanky hicks a lesson,etc… only to find that Blake had already snuck away for a private cheer.? The verbal abuse continues as Mac starts up a conversation with Bowman about the fight.? Mac makes some insulting comments about Cole Miller and can’t handle the witty response from the better verbal combatant that is Bowman.?? Mac then goes off about Bowman not deserving to be in the house and that he is not a real fighter and so on…. and on… and on… then he goes and pouts with his plate of veggies.

In the mean time, more sobering news hits the house as Paul Georgieff receives news of a death in the family.? Paul is weighing the options of staying vs. leaving the show and giving up his opportunity, when Dana White swoops to the rescue and advises that Paul can go to the wake and return to the house…. the only catch; he has to fight first.?? This screws up Matt Hughes’ plan a bit, as he was going to put in Jared Rollins for a sure thing victory.? You see, Hughes the competitor,?isn’t dealing with losing the game to Serra very well.? Hughes is still confident and the deal is done.??Team Hughes put their grappler Paul Georgieff against team Serra’s striker Troy?Mandaloniz?.

Meanwhile, a little fallout from the hissy fit that Danzig?had with Blake Bowman is ramping up.?? Bowman is notably agitated in the house and it doesn’t take much for the other fighters to get?Bowman to spill about the?verbal abuse that he suffered from?Danzig.??Word gets back to Hughes, who is not at all impressed, especially considering the recent run of losses and a heightened expectation for Danzig who is a veteran and assumed to be providing more of a leadership role in the house.??Hughes?shares his concern in fron of?the whole team and leaves it at that, assuming the message has been sent loud and clear.? Mac says nothing, but speaks up for the camera?back at the house… he isn’t planning on apologizing, so who knows where this is going to end up.

A little training and background montage for the two lucky candidates this week, then it’s on to the fighting.???Paul Georgieff, who looks quite solid considering he is a 6′2″ 170lbs, steps in and throws a quality jab and kick against the mush more dangerous striker that is Troy Mandaloniz.? Mandaloniz fires off a couple of shots that scare away Georgieff, and the grappler pulls guard, dragging Troy to the ground.? Georgieff has an active guard from his back and is throwing elbows ala Griffin vs. Ortiz.? He also isolates an arm that he can’t quite get into a Kimura.? Georgieff looks solid on the ground for sure and Troy realizes the problem at hand. Mandaloniz raises up and throws some big punches at Paul while he is on his back.? The shots look pretty dangerous and Paul makes the right decision to get out and on to his feet for a bit.?? The fighters square off again and Paul is looking pretty confident standing with Troy…. until a couple of exchanges go by… and Troy catches Georgieff with a big right that just folds the lanky lad in half.? It is?the?one of the nastiest KO’s I have seen in a TUF episode.

?After the fight, Hughes is pissed?that Georgieff didn’t follow the game plan and decided to?stand with Mandaloniz.? Matt Serra actually is the more encouraging coach to Hughes’ losing fighter, as is Mac Danzig, who probably sees a lot?of Andy Wang in this type of?ground guy striking when he shouldn’t be kind of loss.???

Teaser for next week is focused on Matt Hughes grinding his guys with some viscious training after the loss and really making an issue about it being do or die time for Team Hughes if they are going to? have a shot at dictating the quarter final fights.

All in all not a bad episode, and the fights are only going to get better, so I am looking forward to next week.?? The only bad part will be listening to Serra screaming the same things over and over from his corner again…. man that kills my ears.

?Note: We also got almost 3 minutes into the show without Serra using some expletive(s) to describe Matt Hughes.? He steps it up this time with some borderline language for TV…. I can’t ever recall seeing or hearing the?term “Cock Head” on regular TV?? Wow… all class Matt… all class. ??

(Photo:UFC.com)

Stephan Bonnar looks to be getting another chance in the UFC… and not just a chance, but a REAL clean slate, let’s give it another go kind of chance.

Bonnar who shot to stardom following his stint on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, gained the majority of his fan base during his Light Heavyweight finale against Forrest Griffin. That non-stop slug-fest of a fight is openly referred to, even by UFC management, as the most important fight in UFC history. Although losing the decision to Griffin, Bonnar was awarded a 6 figure contract with the UFC as well, although his travels have been down a somewhat rockier road than Forrest Griffin’s.

Following his “sort-of” TUF success, Bonnar racked up 3 consecutive wins in the UFC against Sam Hoger, James Irvin and a controversial victory over Keith Jardine. Things were certainly shaping up nicely for Mr. Bonnar. His next match would be a lopsided loss to Rashad Evans and then a UFC cash grab rematch against Forrest griffin that wasn’t nearly as close the second time around, with Griffin notching the “W” again. More controversy hit Bonnar as he tested positive for steroids following the Griffin rematch and would serve a 9 month suspension for the faux pas.

With his forced sabbatical, including a trip to Thailand completed, Bonnar returned to the Octagon at UFC 73 in July and took a quick victory against Mike Nickels. This is where the clean slate comes in… a fight against Nickels was pretty much a guaranteed win for Bonnar and a surprising gift from the UFC for a fighter coming back from suspension.???The assumption would have to be that Bonnar still is a solid draw based on the Bonnar? Vs. Griffin epic,and the UFC is looking to cash in rather than cashing out, with a few fights remaining on Bonnar’s TUF contract.

Well, it’s UFC 77 next for Bonnar and the fights are ramping up a bit.? Bonnar will be facing a former training partner in Eric “Red” Schafer; who in my opinion is a highly underrated fighter. An interview on TheFightNetwork.com provides some insight from Bonnar on the difficulty of facing a friend in the Octagon,

“I like the kid; he’s a nice guy, Bonnar says. You try to just let it be another fight, because you know you’re fighting a guy who’s preparing for you. A voice with which Bonnar has grown familiar will be stationed in Schafer’s corner, too. Duke Roufus, a former world kickboxing champion who once served as Bonnar’s muay Thai coach, plans to corner Schafer (7-2-2, 1-1 UFC) in the light heavyweight tilt. Mutual respect and admiration exists between Roufus and his former student, who parted ways when Bonnar relocated to Las Vegas earlier this year.

I believe this is going to be a good test for Bonnar and will play out as a war of wills with Bonnar wanting to stay on his feet and throw some leather (as any Golden Gloves champion would…) while Schafer “Ravishing Red” (who has an entertaining myspace page) would love nothing more than to get this fight to the ground early. Check out the UFCFAN picks for UFC 77 to get see who gets the nod as the expected winner of this fight. Win or lose, we will see Stephen “The American Psycho” Bonnar again. He has a clean cut image that is only slightly tarnished with the steroid suspension… and still somewhat marketable in the 205lb weight class.

With the recent toss up of fights and unexpected results, the Light Heavyweight division could use another steady fighter. I have no doubt that Stephan Bonnar can keep up with most of the better fighters in his division and can entertain while he gets it done.  I like the fact that he submitted Nickels rather than beating the crap out of him, which he likely would have had little trouble doing.  It shows some maturity as a fighter and perhaps an appreciation and effort to round out his MMA game. The boxing background has tended to get Bonnar into slugging wars, where he seems to lack the KO power in this weight class, so any direction toward utilizing his solid ground skills would be a welcome improvement for Bonnar and a nice “I’m sorry” present for the fans.

No hard feelings Bonnar… and good luck!