If you mean, where is the Vitor Belfort that took the UFC by storm at the age of 19 knocking out heavyweights with his blazing speed and earning him the nickname “The Phenom?”  Unfortunately it seems like that Vitor Belfort and those days are long gone.

If you mean, where is the old looking Vitor Belfort?  Then he’s right here on the new Cage Rage 23 poster.  It’s hard to believe that he is only 29 years old.  I’ve always been a fan of Belfort as he represented so much talent and potential in those early days of the UFC that it is a bit sad to see him looking this way.  Unlike many of today’s MMA fighters, I guess no one can accuse him of being on steroids right now. 

The new UFC 74 website just went live and looks slick as usual.  The site is a pretty heavy and if you’re on a dial-up, good luck.  As usual, the website has the  event fight card, fighter bios, main event analysis, trailer, etc.  However, one of the treats of the site is an extensive highlight reel of Randy Couture that covers his ground game as well as his stand-up (in separate video clips). 

The site includes some old school footage of Couture against Tony Halme (UFC 13), Vitor Belfort (UFC 15), Maurice Smith (UFC Japan), Kevin Randleman (UFC29), and Pedro Rizzo (UFC 34).  In more recent fight clips, you’ll see Couture in action against Chuck Liddell (UFC 43), Tito Ortiz (UFC 44), Mike Van Arsdale (UFC 54), and of course, Tim Sylvia (UFC 68).

Gabriel Gonzaga, George St. Pierre, and Josh Koscheck also have their share of highlight reels on the website, but it was seeing Randy Couture circa 1997 that was the coolest.

Karl Noons and Jamie Jara were winners in tonight’s main events, both finishing their fights via KO.  Here are the complete results from tonight’s ShoXC event:

Karl James Noons def. James Edson Berto- KO (Knee) rd 3
Jaime Jara def. Jeremiah Metcalf- KO (Punch) rd 1
Anthony Ruiz def. Jason Geris- TKO (Ref Stoppage) rd 1
Muhsin Corbbrey def. Lee Gibson- Decision
Aaron Rosa def. Jefferson Silva- (Dr. Stoppage) rd 1  
Scott Jorgenson def. Chris David- Decision
Shayna Baszler def. Jan Finney- Submission (Armbar) rd 1
Josh Neal def. Eric Beondo- TKO (Knee) rd 1 
Tony Rubalcava def. Drew Montgomery- TKO (Strikes) rd 1  
Brian Cobb def. John Reedy- Submission (Rear Naked Choke) rd 1

Tonight ProElite will once again stream a live mixed martial arts event.  The first time they tried this was with the Strikeforce Shamrock vs. Baroni event and it was a bit of a debacle as all of the traffic the site recieved seemed to have crashed their server(s).  A lot of people throughout the MMA forum community were pretty pissed off.  Additionally, for the Internet undercard the announcers for the event were pretty terrible.  It wasn’t a good start for ProElite.

Second time out they streamed part of the Cage Rage 22 event and redeemed themselves.  The broadcast quality was pretty solid and the ability to chat on the event real-time is a nice feature.

Tonight you’ll be able to watch part (the undercard) of the ShoXC event on the ProElite website.  Although you may get redirect, this is a starting url:
http://www.proelite.com/live/11/pre

The Showtime broadcast of ShoXC will begin at 11PM PT/ET

Yesterday Dan Doyle of Yahoo! Sports put out an article listing the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in MMA with a little help from some other writers covering mixed martial arts.  You know, you’re never going to please everyone and I’m sure tons of fans will vehemently disagree, but all in all, the list isn’t too bad and it’s getting coverage one on of the top sports sites on the Internet.  Drum roll…the list and some of their comments:

10.  Randy Couture - 43 years old and sitting in an announcing booth thinking “I bet I could win the heavyweight title,” and then you go out and do it in convincing fashion, then, guess what? You earn a spot in the Top 10.”

9. (tie) B.J. Penn -  Some balloters had Penn high on their list. Some left him off entirely. Such is the enigma that is Penn.   Pulver in June. Last year, at 170, Matt Hughes and Georges. St. Pierre both used heart to overcome Penn’s fast starts. Which Penn shows up the next few times he fights will determine whether his poll ranking matches his skill level.

9 (tie).  Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - Perhaps voters couldn’t shake the image of Big Nog getting nearly taken out by Herring. Regardless, Nogueira needs to come up big next time out to stay afloat in a fast-changing world.

7.  Chuck Liddell - Is “The Iceman” past his prime, or does Rampage simply have his number? Word on the streets is that Liddell took his title loss as a wake-up call and has cut out the partying.

6.  George St. Pierre - From a pure skills perspective, many believe GSP has the most well-rounded tool kit in the game. But his stunning upset at the hands of Serra has knocked him down in the polls.

The rest of the list continues on the next page (more…)

The guy who did this to Rashad Evans will be fighting a Welterweight tomorrow!

This may be a first for the sport of MMA.  Tomorrow at the ShoXC event, the current Gladiator Challenge Middleweight Champion is going to cut weight and will be taking on the current Gladiator Challenge Welterweight Champion.

Jeremiah Metcalf (current Welterweight Champ) was originally scheduled to fight fellow welterweight Aaron Wetherspoon until Wethtespoon suffered a last minute injury.  Jamie Jara (Middleweight Champ) will be stepping up to take Aaron’s place. 

This should make for a very interesting fight.  Metcalf might have been better off with his original opponent as his replacement (Jamie Jara) has won 11 out of his last 12 fights.  The one loss was a decision against Rashad Evans. 

Highlights of Jamie Jara