This reality-based MMA DVD has been out for a while, but I just finally got around to checking it out.  If you are a fan of The Natural this is a good DVD to add to your MMA collection.  Even if Couture isn’t your man, you’ll get to see some cool behind the scenes footage of other fighters that make it worthwhile.

Review: This is a classic MMA story of Randy Couture’s preparation to convert himself from a world-class amateur wrestler to a UFC competitor under the coaching of former Iowa Hawkeye wrestler and MMA trainer, Rico Chiaparelli. Also, a section about female fighter, Victoria Schiltz, shows how even normal people somehow get into this sport. She was definitely a pioneer in woman’s MMA. The last part about the 2 newbies to the cage is a reflection of how new and unorganized the sport was 10 years ago. Inspirational and informative. Click the image below for more details.

In case you haven’t seen the Strikeforce at the Mansion event, I’ll save the official fight results for late.

In the meantime, you can watch an entire replay the event via Yahoo Sports.

Strikefore Replay Here

 Keep your eyes open, lots of celebrities and bunnies to be seen.

Holding a mixed martial arts event at a location such as the Playboy Mansion is a double edged sword.  On the one hand it gets the event tons of publicity and raises awareness of MMA in general.  On the flip side, you can take away from the attention of the actual fights at this celebrity-filled event .  Staging MMA fights in the presence of Heffner, the Playboy Bunnies, A-list celebs and the paparazzi guaranteed the card would garner far more attention that it would otherwise, and give the show the atmosphere of being the place to be and be seen. Reports are that the Strikeforce event experience both the good at the bad at the Playboy Mansion.

“You see all the people here tonight, right?” asked Frank Shamrock. “This is why you stage an event at a place like this, to get your promotion noticed. People are talking about our show.”

For much of the night, the matches were secondary to the scene, as much of the crowd displayed more interest in partaking of Heff’s legendary hospitality than watching the fights. Heffner himself made a fashionably late appearance front-row appearance and took in about half the show before calling it an early night. Fighters the caliber of Andrei Arlovski, Urijah Faber and Renato “Babalu” Sobral (who announced Saturday night he has signed with Strikeforce) were largely left alone to watch the fights while fans looked to catch the attention of the celebs in attendance.

The payoff for the ground-breaking Strikeforce show? We’ll have to wait and see.

At least that’s what Yahoo Sports is claiming.  Tonight at 9PM/PT Yahoo will stream the Strikeforce event live from the Playboy Mansion.  Free MMA, you gotta love that.  It will be interesting to see what the video quality will be like.  Regardless, it’s a pleasant surprise that we get to watch for free and I’m sure there will be plenty of Playboy playmates on hand to enhance the action.

Click here to go to Yahoo Sports to view Strikeforce at the Mansion. 

In preparation for tonight’s Strikeforce event at the Playboy Mansion, I thought it would be worth a look at one of Gilbert Melendez’s previous fights.  Undefeated Melendez will fight in the Strikeforce main event to defend his lightweight title.  Is Melendez worth the hype, you decide. 

Yahoo! Sports is showing the fight that took place between Melendez and UFC vet Clay Guida last year in June.  This is a classic battle, better then anything we’ve seen in the UFC lightweight division lately.  Frank Shamrock is in the commentator’s booth while Phil Baroni provides fight analysis between rounds. 

Gilbert Melendez vs. Clay Guida Video Here

Oh how the mighty have fallen.  This week former UFC heavyweight beast Andrei Arlovski made an appearance on the Jerry Springer show as a guest bouncer.  At one point during the show Arlovski’s girl comes out of the audience to take Andrei’s shirt off, much to the delight of the crowd.   Trash TV at its finest. 

…and just in case you want a better look at Arlovski’s girlfriend