Lights Out Radio

Today there was a teleconference between UFC officials, and members of the media… including Matt Bishop, Sports Editor of The State News (and coincidentally host of Lights Out Radio)! It turns out that the estranged UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy “The Natural” Couture will be back in action against rising star Brock Lesnar on November 15th. Not salivating yet? It’s for the title!! Even though Nogueira is still slated to fight Frank Mir for the Interim Heavyweight Title, the winner of the two contests will fight for the Undisputed Title afterwards in what will no doubt be another blockbuster.

“What about Fedor?” you might be asking?

(more…)

Matt and I got done recording the UFC 86 review a little over twelve hours ago, but after seeing a few of the non-televised fights, I had a few more things I wanted to touch on…

(more…)

I was thinking about this TUF Finale and this is really the first one in quite awhile where the UFC would be in good shape with either guy winning. Both CB and Amir are extremely popular for one reason (pedigree in CB’s case) or another (determination, toughness in Amir’s case). This isn’t like Bisping-Haynes or Stevenson-Cummo or even Danzig-Speer.

Both of these guys have attributes that make them likeable and thus the fans will be the ultimate winner tonight. That fight should be a barnburner. I can say without hesitation that it’s the first TUF final that I’ve looked forward to seeing with anticipation since Griffin-Bonnar.
(more…)

The time to record has come and gone, and due once again to Mr. Bishop’s schedule, he’ll be a one-man show! This season’s The Ultimate Fighter run has come, and will soon come to a close on Saturday the 21st, leaving us with not only a few good fights, but also the newest TUF winner for the UFC to whore out promote. I’m not going to go crazy with this, but here are some thoughts on the card…

Dean Lister vs. Jeremy Horn: WOW, how did this fight end up on the undercard? Do we seriously need to see Dante Rivera vs. Matt Riddle? This should be a fairly competitive fight, given that it will be between two world-class grapplers. With that in mind though, I see Lister as the winner; Horn has looked pretty craptastic in his last few fights, and unless he can make a big turn-around, I expect more of the same. What’s crazy about this fight are the Vegas odds: Horn -135 to Lister’s +105 (according to Sportbook.com). Matt and I had a conversation earlier in the week and I believe that there was an even bigger disparity then, and I immediately began looking for an easy way to put $50 on Lister… which I promptly forgot about. I won’t go as far to say that this is a “for-sure five-star” bet, but those are some sweet odds on a fight that I feel very confident in saying that Lister will submit Horn.

Josh Burkman v. Dustin Hazelett: I really, really hope that we see some knockout’s on the main card, and can squeak this fight in. We’ve got two very good fighters who are both coming off loses: Burkman recently lost to Mike Swick via decision, and Hazelett suffered a knockout loss to Josh Koscheck. I’m not entirely sure how the fight will play out, but I expect Hazelett to submit Burkman some time in the second round. He was impressive against Koscheck, and although Burkman is a favorite to win, I think that Hazelett will have improved enough since his loss to continue his rise in the welterweight division.

(more…)

So due to Matt’s schedule (and overall laziness — [Editor's Note -- complete lie]), he’ll be doing the show solo, and I’ll be posting my thoughts here. Nice change of pace for someone else to be doing it by their lonesome, eh? Here we go!

Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares: Wow, who knew that Wiman had that kind of BJJ skill? I don’t think that many people gave Wiman a chance, which is evident of the +305 betting line (to Tavares’ -405). This just makes Wiman’s stock in the UFC even more valuable, with his now four-fight win streak.

Nate Marquardt vs. Thales Leites: When has a fighter who won two rounds solidly ever lost the fight on points? I had Marquardt to win via a submission in the second round, but Leites held on and survived to a finish … and by survived I mean he coasted the rest of the fight, knowing he would win unless he ate two 10-8 rounds. I think with the way things played out Marquardt at least got shafted out of a quality draw due to points; the point that was taken away due to the strikes to the “back of the head” was nothing short of a travesty. However, Marquardt should have lost the point due to the pro-wrestling-esque pile driver that we saw to end the third round. Shame on Marquardt for getting those points taken away, but just as much shame on Leites for not trying to do a damn thing to win the fight.
(more…)

I just got done watching the UFC 84: Ill Will countdown show and one thing came to mind: the UFC has some weird marketing problems for several of the main card fighters. By this, I mean that things are a little lopsided on two fights in particular: BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk, and Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida.

BJ Penn doesn’t need marketing. BJ has enough clout with longtime fans that he’ll be a draw wherever he goes, whoever he’s fighting, and his exposure on The Ultimate Fighter 5 has him won in the hearts of more recent fans. I mean, how many fighters have the cojones to leave Joe Rogan hanging in the Octagon? “Go to BJPenn.com!” is all we get? It’s a good thing the guy can pull it off, because most other fighters would probably get booed to the moon.

His opponent though, Sean Sherk, is a different story all together. The last time I remember him being a “big deal” was shortly after he captured the lightweight title in his fight with Kenny Florian at UFC 64. KenFlo is a pretty loveable guy, so it’s understandable that people didn’t clamor over Sherk following the fight. After he steamrolled Hermes Franca at UFC 73, the crowd went … mild. The crowd just didn’t go bananas as they had done for champions in the past. Sean Sherk just isn’t a guy people seem to want to get behind, and after the steroid debacle, his stock, which was just starting to rise, has sunk to an all time low.

(more…)