We’re less than a week away from UFC 100 and that means it’s time for the UFC’s Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights series on Spike TV! A few months ago the UFC set up a voting system so that you could pick your favorite fights - well, so long as your favorite fights don’t include former UFC fighters that have fallen out of favor with the bosses like Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock. Now the results have been tabulated and the 5 part series debuts tonight at 9PM EST.

UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights - Image: UFC

Here’s the schedule to catch these shows on Spike:

Sunday July 5th / 9PM : Part 1
Monday July 6th / 9PM : Part 2
Tuesday July 7th / 9PM : Part 3
Wednesday July 8th / 9PM : Part 4
Saturday July 11th / 9PM : Part 5

If you want to save everything for Saturday, the UFC is showing all the parts from 5pm onwards that day, ending just in time for UFC 100 to start on Pay Per View. And don’t forget the Countdown show as well, which debuts on Tuesday at 10pm and replays Friday at midnight! Long story short, there’s a buttload of stuff for you to watch this week to get you in the mood for UFC numero 100.

Bob Sapp didn’t manage to get a single offensive move off against former WWE wrestler Bobby Lashley at last night’s “Ultimate Chaos” event in Mississippi. Repeating a similar strategy from earlier fights, Lashley immediately shot in and took Sapp down. For the next three minutes Lashley attempted to ground and pound his opponent out, finally getting a tap at 3:17 of the first round.

Bobby Lashley - Image: Zuma Press

Bob Sapp came into this fight at a relatively svelte 322 pounds - a big drop from his typical 375 pounds. Here I was hoping that this meant he was finally starting to take his training seriously but the story he told before the fight revolved around the embarrassment of sitting on a toilet and breaking it rather than any desire to seriously compete in mixed martial arts.

As for Bobby Lashley, Sapp is a nice recognizable name on his record … much better than the second biggest name, Jason Guida. Guida is the older brother of UFC fighter Clay Guida and is best known for his appearance on the Ultimate Fighter where he cramped up trying to cut weight and exposed his junk to the world while rolling around the floor in agony.

Speaking of TUF, earlier this year Lashley was considering breaking into the UFC via TUF but his management has decided to take it slow and let Lashley develop - a good idea in my opinion considering Lashley is still looking pretty one dimensional at the moment. I don’t expect him to be finishing guys with flying elbows off the top rope or anything, but thus far we haven’t seen much from the young prospect past some okay wrestling and not so okay ground and pound. Still, with his record standing at 4-0, he’s gotten off to a good start.

In other Ultimate Chaos results, Gilbert Yvel knocked Pedro Rizzo out in brutal fashion 2:10 into the first round, Chris Horodecki defeated William Sriyapai via rear naked choke at 4:02 of round 1, and Affliction promoter Tom “T-Shirt Guy” Atencio came back from some serious blows in the first round of his fight against Randy Hedderick to win in the second. Well, in between the second and third … Atencio beat on Hedderick in the second that the fighter refused to answer the third round bell. Din Thomas was also originally supposed to fight on the card, but missed weight by half a pound and before he realized it wasn’t okay had already started to rehydrate himself. Oops.

Tim Sylvia wasn’t always hugely unpopular. Up to the point in 2006 when he won the UFC heavyweight strap for the second time, he had amassed a 21-2 record with 16 wins coming via KO or TKO. Then something happened: he became a guy who would rather keep you on the outside with his jab than slug it out with you. Several stinker decisions later and the UFC happily released him from his contract to seek out ‘greener pastures’.

Tim Sylvia - Image: Ben Kevan

A fight with #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction’s first event earned Tim a phat 800,000 bucks but also an embarrassing 30 second loss. And now another nail has been put in the coffin of his career: this past weekend he lost an MMA fight to an Olympic gold medalist boxer. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except this boxer won that medal around the same time the Berlin Wall fell. “Merciless” Ray Mercer is now 48 years old and a rotund 256 pounds. But that didn’t stop him from knocking Tim Sylvia out in 9 seconds.

Mercer had already been dismantled several times in kickboxing and MMA contests, most recently to Kimbo Slice, who choked him out in just over a minute. He wasn’t expected to have much of a chance, especially after the threat of criminal charges forced the bout to be changed from a boxing match to mixed martial arts fight at the last second. But win he did, and in spectacular fashion.

But wait! It gets worse! Tim Sylvia was set to fight on the upcoming Affliction card August 1st for another huge paycheck (we’ll talk about Affliction’s out of control salaries in another post), but was removed from the card last night due to medical concerns stemming from his defeat. To say this has been a bad week for Timmy would be an understatement. Not only has he damaged his reputation, but he’s cost himself one of the last big paychecks he’s liable to be making for a very long time.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Marcus Jones - Image: Zuma Press

Those debating how well Kimbo Slice will do on the Ultimate Fighter haven’t had much information to work with one way or the other. Without knowing who he’s going up against, how can you assume he’s going to fail or succeed? But now the full 16 heavyweight roster for the Ultimate Fighter 10 has been sniffed out, and rather than try to speculate on their skill level, I’m just going to order them from most intriguing to least:

• Kimbo Slice: Mr Youtube Sensation himself, Kimbo Slice took Dana White up on his challenge to get into the UFC via the Ultimate Fighter.
• Roy Nelson: Former IFL heavyweight champion the UFC refused to sign because he was too fat. Seriously.
• Wes Sims: Went 0-3 in the UFC a few years ago. Can never seem to beat anyone above regional level, and even then it’s often a toss up.
• Marcus Jones: NFL defensive end from 1996 to 2002. Training MMA since early 2007.
• Matt Mitrione: Former NFL player and MMA virgin. Trains with UFC fighter Jake ‘the Blanket’ O’Brien.
• Wes Shivers: NFL veteran and a late replacement for Rex Richards (who was also in the NFL … real invasion this season, huh?).
• Jim York: New Zealand fighter who shares a common opponent with Kimbo Slice in James Thompson. York managed to knock Thompson out in the first round.
• Justin Wren: A gigantic guy who has more wrestling trophies than most colleges do.
• Mike Wessel: Wessel made it into the UFC by accepting a fight on a week’s notice. He lost, but was given a spot on TUF as a consolation prize.
• Scott Junk: Another fighter who dropped the ball the first time the UFC gave him a try in 2007.
• Zak Jensen: Wrestler out of Minnesota, has a 7-3 record with losses to TUF alumni Brad Imes and Mike Whitehead.
• Darrill Schoonover: US Army veteran with a 10-0 pro and 5-0 amateur record.
• Brendan Schaub: Trains out of Greg Jackson’s gym and is a Shane Carwin sparring partner.
• Jon Madsen: Newb fighter out of Matt Hughes’ gym
• Tom Blackledge: 8-6 fighter out of Michael Bisping’s camp.
• Abe Wagner: Mystery man out of Nebraska with a 6-2 pro record

Fortunately for Kimbo, he doesn’t have to be the best out of the 16 … he just has to be better than the three fighters he’ll need to beat to make it to the TUF finale.

And just to get a few more TUF related tidbits out of the way so we can move on to other MMA related insanity, UFC president Dana White revealed in Germany that the Ultimate Fighter has been renewed through season 14 and another US versus UK season was on it’s way.

In the world of mixed martial arts, there’s no doubt that Kimbo Slice is the most controversial figure in the sport. Either you are a big fan or you despise him.

Although he hasn’t fought since October when he lost, expect to see much more of Kimbo Slice. It was recently announced that he’ll be on The Ultimate Fighter — the popular reality television series on Spike.

MMA fans were already excited after it was announced that Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson were going to be coaches in the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter. Now with Kimbo Slice added to the equation, the excitement will be undeniable.

Even if he isn’t the most polished MMA fighter, Kimbo Slice is extremely popular. In fact, the highest rated MMA fights on television featured the 35-year-old fighter. Originally rising to fame with help of his street brawls that were made popular on YouTube, Kimbo Slice remains arguably the most popular MMA fighter in the United States.

Will Kimbo Slice survive on TUF 10? This video examines that question:

It looks like I’m a couple of days behind on this one, but it was announced on May 28th that Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will be the next coaches for The Ultimate Fighter season 10.

The Ultimate Fighter Logo

Season 10 will feature all Heavyweights, with 16 coming in to fight for a chance at a contract with the UFC. This is the first time Heavyweights have been on The Ultimate Fighter since season 2 when Rashad Evans started his climb in the UFC. This is the second time Jackson has coached and the second time he’ll be coaching and fighting against a TUF winner.

Evans recently lost his light-heavyweight title to Lyoto Machida at UFC 98.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 will premiere on September 16th on Spike tv.

If you’re an international UFC fan in Europe and are planning on attending UFC 99 at Lanxess Arena in Germany, don’t expect to get in if you’re under 18. Yahoo! Sports reports that the UFC has unfortunately agreed to ban the event to fans under the age of 18.

UFC Logo

Dave Meltzer reports that a local Child Protection Commission pushed for a band to restrict the event from fans under the age of 18.

In Monday’s edition of BILD, the country’s biggest newspaper, Marek Lieberberg, UFC’s local promoter, said child protective services of Cologne asked for a ban on minors’ attendance at the card, and he accepted it. However, the article itself had incorrect information, stating that everything is legal in UFC fights with the exception of biting and eye poking.

I don’t understand how organizations that have obviously no knowledge of the sport can push for restriction of an event without every really researching it thoroughly and knowing the facts. This is plainly B.S..

A well known boxing announcer by the name of Werner Schneyder said the event “We have to ban this insanity, We have to accept crippled fighters and deaths. They are trying to sell brutality as something impressive. ” By reading the article it’s obvious that boxing promoters may fear that MMA will become more popular than the sport of Boxing and will do anything to criticize and/or defame MMA so that their sport, athletes and promoters do not lose money when MMA becomes more popular than Boxing.

In recent years MMA has sky-rocketed in popularity. While there are more deaths and serious injury due to boxing than MMA, most people do not have much knowledge of the sport and think it’s still the UFC of yester-year where there were no gloves, weight classes and no rules. Regulated MMA events are more safe for fighters than ever. Nobody in their right mind wants to see a credible career MMA fighter get seriously injured or killed for that matter.

If you know nothing about MMA and have never watched a real MMA fight, do not criticize or compare it to the crap you see on youtube or other non-sanctioned or regulated fights. MMA is here to stay. Live with it!

Block Quote and Italicized quotes from Yahoo! Sports.

In case you missed Dr. Phil the other day, UFC president Dana White, Forrest Griffin and Kenny Florian were on the show. I normally don’t Dr. Phil but I planned on watching on Friday as they discussed teens doing stupid things such as fighting, underage girls hooking up with guys online and things of that nature. The show was titled “Dangerous Teen Trends“.

Unfortunately I was working and by the time I remembered that it was on, that segment of the show about street-fighting was over. Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 10 years, kids have been doing stupid things, recording it and putting it online. They think it’s cool and hope to gain some kind of credibility for it. Dana White, Forrest Griffin and Kenny Florian talk about the dangers of unsanctioned fighting. We, as adults know the dangers but kids are all about the “Now” and rarely do they use their heads in achieving their goals in the right fashion. I don’t do any MMA fighting, but if I were to consider it I would first do my research and then train, train and train some more before even attempting to engage in anything close to a real MMA fight. With that said, enjoy watching these two idiots that think they are UFC material in their little “Fight Club”.

In WEC Featherweight Champion, Mike Brown ’s latest blog he talks about his current weight, training with guys that are much heavier than he is, hanging blinds and getting ready to watch the new X-Men movie this weekend. It’s not the most training detailed or overly revealing blog but it’s good for a quick entertaining read. Here is a snippet.

(Image: WEC.tv Press Extranet)

Read more

UFC.com announced that The UFC, WEC and UFC President Dana White are now on Twitter. Now, I’m not sure how many F’ words Dana is going to be able to fit in a tweet of 140 characters or less, but I’m sure there will be a few every now and then. Dana has actually been on twitter for a couple of months and already has over 5000 followers but only follows 23 other twitterers.

Twitter Logo

He keeps it quite tame compared to some of his video blogs.

The WEC is also on twitter and has been for about the same amount of time that Dana has, with only 734 followers. The UFC twitter has the most updates and has a little over 2000 followers. Below are the twitter addresses as well as the twitter address to keep up with daily updates from here using the old Jab And Grapple twitter feed. Enjoy and happy tweeting.

Dana White Blog: http://www.twitter.com/DanaWhiteBlog

UFC On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ufc

WEC On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/weconversus

Follow Every Joe UFC/MMA On Twitter: http://twitter.com/jabandgrapple