The World Extreme Cagefighting peeps just put out this fight poster for their next event (much better than the UFC 78 poster). Should be a solid event with three title fights on the line. From the WEC website:

WORLD EXTREME CAGEFIGHTING® ANNOUNCES THREE TITLE FIGHTS
CARLOS CONDIT vs. CARLO PRATER
ROB MCCULLOUGH vs. JAMIE VARNER
CHASE BEEBE vs. MIGUEL TORRES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2008 LIVE FROM THE SANTA ANA STAR CENTER IN ALBUQUERQUE
LIVE ON VERSUS 9 P.M. ET/6 P.M. PT
Tickets Go on Sale Saturday, January 12 at Noon

Former UFC Champion Ricco Rodriquez has never recovered from his loss to Tim Sylvia ages ago and it looks he’s got some other issues he needs to recover from. Ricco will appear on this season’s VH1 Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (on tonight). I don’t know if he leaves early or what, but in the video promo for the season they don’t show Ricco even once.

Ricco Rodriquez as a celebrity is a huge stretch. Who in the hell outside of the MMA community would know this guy? Here is Ricco’s Bio as presented on the VH1 website:

Ricco Rodriguez
Born: August 19, 1977

Rodriguez nick named Ricco “Suave” Rodriguez is an American mixed martial arts fighter with a professional MMA record of 26-7-0. He has fought in most of the major fight organizations–UFC, PRIDE, King of the Cage–and was renowned as the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Ricco has a daughter whom he raised as a single dad for two years.

Everyone out there seems to have some sort of best fighter list, but Yahoo! Sports has done a pretty good job with their most recent pound for pound MMA fighter list. My biggest point of contention is slotting Quinton Jackson ahead of Fedor Emelianenko (#’s 3 and 4 respectively). Sure, props to Jackson for beating Liddell but his showing against Henderson (who truly belongs in the Middleweight division) wasn’t overly impressive. A KO over Hendo would have easily justified his ranking at number 3. Yes, Fedor fights another non A-level fighter which doesn’t bring him any added respect. What people don’t understand is that the guy he fought was an absolute giant. ANY other heavyweight (265lbs or less) would have had their hands full with the guy undoubtedly. If you think Couture would have done any better than Fedor then you are nuts. But enough of my opionion, on to Yahoo’s top 10 MMA fighters list:

10. Mauricio Rua Points: 9 Affiliation: UFC Weight class: Light heavyweight Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil. Record: 16-3 Last month’s ranking: unranked Most recent result: lost to Forrest Griffin, submission, Sept. 22 Analysis: Shogun sat at No. 11 since his loss to Griffin, when he dropped all the way from the No. 2 spot. But with Matt Hughes and Gilbert Melendez out, and Faber vaulting up, Shogun nudged back into the Top 10. He’s presently rehabbing after knee surgery.

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Points: 33 Affiliation: UFC Weight class: Heavyweight Hometown: Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil Record: 30-4-1 Last month’s ranking: 8 Most recent result: def. Heath Herring, unanimous decision, July 7. Analysis: Nogueira already established himself with UFC fans when he rallied from a nasty high kick against Herring and scored the win. Now he has a chance to be the saving grace of a heavyweight division with no Emelianenko, no Randy Couture, and a fan base that doesn’t want a third Tim Sylvia title reign. Nogueira faces Sylvia for the interim title at UFC 81.

8. Urijah Faber Points: 38 Affiliation: WEC Weight class: Featherweight (WEC featherweight champion) Hometown: Sacramento, Calif. Record: 20-1 Last month’s ranking: unranked Most recent result: def. Jeff Curran, submission R2, Dec. 12 Analysis: It became impossible to deny the WEC featherweight champion his spot after his live, nationally televised win over Jeff Curran on Dec. 12. Faber used world-class defense to fend off a bad situation in the first round, then showed his trademark inventiveness en route to submitting a BJJ black belt for his 12th consecutive win.

7. B.J. Penn Points: 46 Affiliation: UFC Weight class: Lightweight Hometown: Hilo, Hawaii Record: 11-4-1 Last month’s ranking: 8 Most recent result: def. Jens Pulver, Round 2 TKO, June 23. Analysis: With Sean Sherk’s steroid situation resolved, the lightweight title is finally off ice. Penn, a former UFC welterweight champ, will look to join the short list of multiple weight class champions when he faces Joe Stevenson for the vacant title on Jan. 19.

6. Dan Henderson Points: 62 Affiliation: UFC Weight class: Light heavyweight/middleweight (final PRIDE 183 lb. champion) Hometown: Victorville, Calif. Record: 22-6 Last month’s ranking: 5 Most recent result: lost to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, decision, Sept. 8 Analysis: Even with a bunch of strong cards on the horizon, Henderson’s March 1 matchup against Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title stands out as one to circle on the calendar.

MMA pound for pound top five here… (more…)

It’s actually not as far-fetched as it my sound. Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser and best friend, told ESPN.com Friday night that the five-division world champion, who generated 3.25 million pay-per-view buys and more than $200 million in revenue in two mega fights in 2007, came away from a Thursday meeting with Cuban giving serious thought to taking his game and considerable drawing power to MMA.

“It’s definitely something he is interested in, and when Floyd makes his move, obviously it’s going to be a mega event,” Ellerbe said. “We don’t have a timetable. Floyd is taking some time off, but Floyd understands what is involved. You have to take time to go out and understand what you’re getting involved in, and he’s ready to do that. But it’s something he’s definitely interested in doing.

“Mark Cuban is a very successful business man and has some very, very successful business ventures that we’ve discussed. We’re looking to do a lot of business with Mark. He’s a great guy, and we had a great meeting. Doing an MMA event with him is most definitely something we are looking at, among many things we are looking at doing with Mark Cuban.”

Mayweather’s interest in participating in an MMA event was sparked after he struck up a friendship with Cuban during their participation this season as contestants on the ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Floyd is considering fighting with HDNet Fights,” Cuban told ESPN.com. (more…)

As mentioned the other day, there was a long article about Fedor Emelianenko that appeared on Esquire.com. This quote in particular jumped out at me,

“He has to regenerate psychologically. After my fight with him, he just broke down. In his soul, something just broke down, cracked…There are some psychological problems when you have all the time fight, fight, fight, without rest.”

If you look back at Cro Cop’s last couple of fights (two big UFC losses) you can definiely see that he was not the same fighter as he was pre-Fedor fight. However, he did smash Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett on his way to winning the Pride Grand Prix title post-Fedor fight. So I’m not sure if I buy what Fedor is selling 100%.

Source of above quote: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/fedor-emelianenko-121807

“Can undefeated martial artist Fedor Emelianenko single-handedly knock out the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s dominance over the emerging sport?”

This is the question posed by Esquire magazine writer Sean Cunningham in his article that appeared on www.esquire.com today. It a pretty bold assertion and I’ll answer his question. No. As great as Fedor is, the UFC will remain alive, well, and on top in the USA for a while (like it or not). What is interesting is that the somewhat mainstream media is highlighting a MMA fighter from a different country and a different MMA organization than the UFC. Sure, many mixed martial artists have graced many magazines but for the most part all of them have been UFC fighters (Hughes, Huerta, GSP, Serra, Couture, and Liddell are the biggest that come to mind). Is the media trying to stir up controversy? Is it possible that the UFC is starting to piss off the media? And if so, could this move to spotlight fighters outside of the UFC be payback? I’m going out on a limb, but the fact that Fedor has gotten some media attention here in the state shows that MMA continues to grow and that the UFC may not be as dominant as Dana thinks.

It’s a pretty interesting article, check it out here.