Author: Steve Cofield

Herschel Walker and Bobby Lashley have created the most buzz in South Florida on radio and in newspapers when it comes to Saturday’s Strikeforce: Miami fight card. But the fight that should be getting just as much is "Cyborg" defending her women’s title. The scary looking Cristiane Santos looks unbeatable right now. She’s a giant for the 145-pound class and her aggression appears to be unmatched in women’s fighting. Is she truly an unstoppable force or just in the right place at the right time? Showtime announcer Frank Shamrock is fired up for the fight and likes the vibe coming from  Cyborg’s challenger Marloes Coenen.

The comparisons to fellow pro wrestler Brock Lesnar are never going to stop so Bobby Lashley figures why dump the big checks he’s getting from the world of fake fighting? He uses that money he gets from TNA to make sure he can fund his efforts to become a real fighter training in Denver and South Florida. Lashley thinks continuing a career in pro wrestling is far from impeding his progress to grow as a mixed martial artist. 

"It’s not the same as it was before in WWE, where we were on the road all the time, 250 days a year," Lashley told Cagewriter. "With TNA it’s different, they do TV and pay-per-views, and that’s all they do. It’s five days a month with my dedication toward wrestling and 25 days a month for my [MMA] training."

Lashley’s ties to pro wrestling also make him as easy target for prefight trash talk. Wes Sims, his opponent Saturday, is a great smack talker, as was Jason Guida, the second fighter of his career. Guida’s prefight hype annoyed Lashley. But his attitude has changed.

"If they want to do it, they can continue to do it. It’s not a problem for me. I looked at it a different way [before the Guida fight]. Even know I’m wrestling and fighting, I wanted to make a huge disconnect. I didn’t want people, when I get into a fight with somebody, to start cutting promos and acting like this is fun and this is a joke."

Lashley (4-0) learned his lesson and stayed clear of Sims this time around.

"It got into my head that time and I had a bad fight. I wish I could erase that [decision victory] out of the book, but at the same time my coaches were saying we have 15 minutes of tape. We had a lot of stuff to work on and that fight was the best thing [to look back at]."

Sims (22-12) was chosen as Lashley’s opponent in his Strikeforce debut after weeks of haggling with the Florida Boxing Commission. The FBC turned down several opponents before settling on the veteran Sims. Lashley didn’t allow that drama to affect his training.

"I got taken out of the loop several weeks back. They kept bringing different opponents to me and then we’d look at them and start training for this person." Lashley said his coaches said let them worry about the opponent. "I just wanted to train. I’ve trained in every aspect, so regardless of who I had, I still had to train the same way."

Sims is 6-foot-10 to Lashley’s 6-3 frame. 

"It’s a little bit different … tall guy, he throws some knees in there from time to time. [He’s got the] longer reach. [But] in the grand scheme of things it’s the same gameplan. Go out and stay agressive and take him out."

In the end, Sims’ tall frame is a good target for Lashley, who is primarily still a takedown specialist.

Herschel Walker has done it all on the football field. He won a Heisman Trophy in 1982 and is considered one of the best college football players in history. He had a decorated professional career in the NFL and USFL. Now it must feel like he’s 10-years-old again as he steps into an unfamiliar arena where he’s not guaranteed success. Walker, 47, is rolling the dice as a mixed martial artist. To make sure he was ready for Saturday night’s fight against Greg Nagy, he put his role as the head of a successful business on hold for three months to train in San Jose, Calif.

"It was important to get their OK," Walker said of the crew at American Kickboxing Academy. "I can love the sport. I can want to do it but maybe I’m not ready."

Walker said if he didn’t get clearance from trainer Javier Mendez, he would have backed out of the fight.

"There’s no doubt there’s still questions in a lot of people’s minds. It’s not a joke, it’s not a circus out there. You can get injured," said Walker. 

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Walker is still regarded as one of the best pure athletes to ever step on the football field but his transition to fighting came slowly.

"Because you’re out there working with true fighters, it’s gonna come tough," said Walker, who got some tough love early from the dozen or so pro fighters who train at AKA. "You gotta question me. No matter what kind of athlete I am. The first couple of weeks it was slow. It was very slow. As weeks passed, it got better and better."

Walker hopes win or lose, he helps MMA in the long run.

"I just hope my name can boost this sport a little bit. Get people to come out and watch it, and get more people to like it. I think this can be an Olympic sport. If we can get more people recognizing it, I think we can make it happen."

Walker cautioned people on expectations.

"I’m not trying to go in there in fight a champion. I’m going in there fighting someone like myself. He’s young. He’s trying to become a great MMA fighter like myself."

For that reason, Walker is confident he’ll do well and is free of nerves.

"I’m stepping into something totally different but I’ve been around the best. That’s why I feel great now because I’ve been around the best."

Walker said he had more butterflies before he played in big football games.

"It’s totally different. I think sometimes the guys around you [before a football game] make you nervous. Right now, I’m not nervous at all. Maybe in the lockerroom [on fight night], that’s when the nervousness might hit. I think because I have confidence in my gym, I have confidence in the people I’ve been working with, I think they put me at ease a little bit."

Walker is part of a big Showtime/Strikeforce Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla., at the Bank Atlantic Center. He faces the 26-year-old Nagy, a former high school football player, who has just two professional fights.

The most tortured man in MMA matchmaking is Jay Hieron. The welterweight fighting out of fame Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas has long been regarded as a guy ready to break through into the top 10. But Hieron has caught bad break after bad break and missed out on getting that much needed elite fight.

Now it’s here in the form of Joe Riggs. Riggs, a veteran of 44 pro fights, has reached the pinnacle before losing a title shot against UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes back at UFC 56. He’s also been in there with Kendall Grove, Joe Doerksen, Chris Lytle, Nick Diaz. Mike Swick, Diego Sanchez and Phil Baroni. The resume is impressive yet many internet fans/media are giving Riggs almost no shot of defeating Hieron. The sportsbooks reflect that lack of confidence in Riggs, tabbing Hieron a minus-275 favorite. 

Randy Couture’s role in mixed martial arts is so much bigger than just a main event fighter next week at UFC 109. The 46-year-old has really set the standard for maturing fighters on how to train, stay in shape and get better with age. Couture fought Chuck Liddell, three times, losing twice, yet his career is steaming along while "The Iceman’s" time in the Octagon appears to be on life support. Couture doesn’t believe it’s quite that bleak for the guy who has lost 4-of-5 five fights.

"Chuck can do anything he sets his mind to. I think there were some lifestyle issues that were more the issue with Chuck," said Couture. "It’s not that he doesn’t have the ability to fight anymore."

It’s interesting that Couture mentioned "lifestyle issues." It was just four days ago during the season 11 "Ultimate Fighter" media day that Tito Ortiz flippantly threw out the allegation that Liddell, 40, was alcoholic who needed an intervention back in November.   

"He’s trying to clean up some of that extracurricular stuff and focus more on what he really wants to do," Couture said, certainly not going as far as Ortiz.

Couture suggested if Liddell can regain his focus and drive, hitting 40 isn’t all that bad.

"That’s the nice thing about getting older. We tend to get smarter. Hopefully he’s made the adjustment. He sees the opportunity here so he can rally and keep things simple in training and go out and perform."

It was a slam dunk for Strikeforce. In spite of being slammed by the sport’s most influential personality, UFC president Dana White, Herschel Walker and Strikeforce appear to be a match made in PR heaven. The Pro Bowl is just days away in South Florida and Super Bowl 44 a week later, so a football legend like Walker is going to draw some attention. Especially at the age of 47, as he tries mixed martial arts.

Walker’s presence turned out a solid crowd of media types at Strikeforce’s workout day at American Top Team in Ft. Lauderdale. Walker was a bit surprised it was mostly for him and not the more established fighters:

"I’ll say it’s kind of embarrassing that I’m getting all this publicity when you
have true fighters out there that can fight and do a lot of things," Walker told the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
"In some ways I’m happy to see it because I want to bring recognition to the
sport. But I don’t want to embarrass the sport. I’m going to go in there to
fight."

As he’s said many times already, this no publicity stunt for the NFL legend and 1982 Heisman Trophy winner. Walker even put aside his love of Santa Claus to make this trip to the cage:

"I gave up my Christmas, my New Year’s and all that," he said. "And I love Santa
Claus. To give that up, I had to be serious about it."

Walker makes his pro debut against Phoenix’s Greg Nagy on the undercard of Strikeforce’s event Saturday at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise. Pro wrestler Bobby Lashley (pictured on the right) is also featured on the card along with female star Marloes Coenen (pictured with Frank Shamrock).

Kevin Iole reported Tuesday that UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi is a go. The first card in the Middle East is going to be huge with two title fights. Anderson Silva returns to defends his UFC middleweight title against Vitor Belfort and B.J. Penn defends his lightweight strap against Frank Edgar. 

Check out an artist’s rendering of the venue. 

Maybe Business Week should stick to … business. Leave sports to the rest of us. The magazine posted its Power 100 2010, ranking the world’s most powerful athletes. Only two mixed martial artists made the list with Fedor Emelianenko checking in at No. 82 and Brock Lesnar at No. 96.

So what is this based on? Who knows? Does Business Week even know how its list was put together? Check out the research done on the Fedor selection. His earnings are not available and the magazine says Fedor has zero endorsement deals. Huh?

Nothing against Fedor, Cagewriter has had the Russian legend ranked No. 1 on its pound-for-pound list since it joined Yahoo! Sports in June of 2008, but it’s hard to make a case that he has the biggest financial might in the MMA world. By the end of 2010, with two more CBS fights under his belt, maybe. But right now Lesnar, who just appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter last week, and American stars Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz along with French-Canadian phenom Georges St. Pierre would all appear to have more economic impact.

The list has to based solely on U.S. influence since the top five athletes are Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Phil Mickelson, Albert Pujols and Peyton Manning. If it’s a worldwide ranking, there’s no soccer player worthy of the top five? Or international stars with huge followings in their homeland like Yao Ming or Manny Pacquiao? 

Tip via MMAJunkie.

I wonder if the RVCA shirt Fedor is wearing in the MMAJunkie photo counts as a "key sponsor?" Wow!

Jean Claude Van Damme could whip anybody. Throw in one caveat — on the silver screen. Now the 49-year-old Belgian star of dozens of action films wants to show he can do it for real again.

Repeating what he said in September, Van Damme is trying to land a professional kickboxing match against former Olympian Somluck Kamsing in Macau as the capper to a proposed reality show. During a press conference in Ukraine (VIDEO), Van Damme explained his motivation.

"[It’s]
dangerous but life is short," said Van Damme. "I want to prove to young
people and even to mature people that a man can go into some very
strong physical effort and training, and also be a movie star." 

The fight was originally slated for a March K-1 event in Las Vegas. As Cagewriter told you at the time, the fight had zero chance of coming off in Nevada:

Kamsing, 35, was the
1996 Olympic Gold medalist in boxing at 126 pounds. He also fought in the 2000
and 2004 Olympics, losing to Rocky Juarez and Benoit Gaudet, respectively … we’ll rain on the parade with a
reality check, the Nevada State Athletic Commission would never approve a fight with the [49-year-old] Jean
Claude facing a former Olympian.

We nailed it. Van Damme (pictured with UFC fighter Michael Bisping) got word that the fight could not go down in the U.S. as many states have strict guidelines for fighters over 35.

Randy Couture, 46, will fight 45-year-old Mark Coleman next week in Las Vegas in the main event of UFC 109. Along with 37-year-old Frank Trigg and 35-year-old Matt Serra, Couture and Coleman had to go in front of the NSAC to undergo neurological testing and gain approval to fight. Vam Damme has zero professional fights. The four UFC fighters have a combined 93 pro fights and were still scrutinized before they were given their licenses. The only "real" fight we know of recently for Van Damme was a rumored scrap against fellow action star Chuck Zito. While in his 20’s, Van Damme was an active fighter from 1976-80.

For Van Damme, fighting a former Olympian is a brave thing to attempt, but let’s hope it’s closer to a reality show fight than one where he may get injured badly.

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Coach has now become enemy. Shawn Tompkins worked for years at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and helped Randy Couture through many of his recent fights. Now he’s the mastermind on the other side as Mark Coleman preps for his fight against Couture next week at UFC 109. 

Tompkins said at first he was apprehensive about facing Couture.

"In the beginning I didn’t know if I wanted to get involved," said Tompkins. "Because the politics that seems to follow our sport. The way the fans are and the way some of the media covers the sport."

Tompkins knew he had to put that aside and do his job. Now he has to find Coleman that edge. 

"I think that I know a few things, but it’s a fight and Randy Couture is always more than prepared for a fight. Once we walk in that cage, we’ll roll the dice and hopefully we’ve just a little better gameplan."

Tompkins said Couture’s last two fights, a win over Brandon Vera and a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, were interesting to study.

"Do I think there’s holes in Randy’s boxing? Absolutely. He can look at us the same way. I think Mark Coleman has one helluva chin though. And I think that Randy’s is a little bit questionable now."

Having guys to run his training camp is a new experience for the veteran Coleman, who often trained on his own without a coach.

"He’s never had anybody who is his specific coach. Shogun fight he barely had a camp. I don’t think he had a day of training. We trust each other. Sky’s the limit for him," said Tompkins.

Coleman’s stamina was definitely affected in the Rua fight. He could barely stand and defend himself when the Brazilian finished the fight in the third round. Tompkins says it won’t be an issue for this fight.

"There hasn’t be a day he missed of training and there hasn’t be a day that he’s left early."

But there the day-to-day battling with Coleman in trying to break old, stubborn training habits. 

"Mark has helped me as a coach. If I can deal with Mark I can deal with anybody in the sport. He’s got his certain way. He lets me know where he’s at. He’s obviously an older fighter. He’s got to listen to his body."

Coleman is looked upon by many as an old fighter yet Couture, 46, is actually the older of the two by 18 months.

Nice job by John Morgan. MMAJunkie’s lead reporter attended the season 11 "Ultimate Fighter" media day and caught a matter-of-fact statement by Tito Ortiz about Chuck Liddell. Ortiz, who always seems to be in mocking mode, sounded heartfelt when he said he was happy that Liddell beat alcoholism (1:22 mark) to make it back to the UFC.

"I think [Liddell] had a problem," Ortiz said. "A lot of people go through
addiction. I think his deal was he was an alcoholic. He loved to party."

Ortiz claims Liddell’s ego got the best of him.

"When you have all the money in the world and you can do what you want,
no one tells you, ‘No.’ You’re one of the baddest men on the Earth; no one tells
you, ‘No.’ You can do what you want."

Ortiz then claimed UFC president Dana White had an intervention (1:40 mark) for "The Iceman."

"Thank God that (UFC president) Dana (White) gave [Liddell] an intervention, and
he’s sober now," Ortiz said. "He’s been sober since November, and he looks like
a different person. It’s awesome. I’m proud of him – really proud of him. A lot
of people can’t do that. I kind of went through that myself, but I looked in the
mirror and I realized that wasn’t the life I wanted to lead.

Liddell avoided rock bottom and a disasterous outcome.

"I’m proud he’s found sobriety. A lot of fighters, and a lot of people in
general, don’t do that. They fall off the face of the earth, and sometimes
they’ll find them in a hotel, dead, or behind a wheel, dead. Thank God Chuck
isn’t one of those guys. Thank God he found sobriety, and I’m proud of him –
very proud of him."

Ortiz made sure to ruin his well-wishing with a silly quip.

"When my friend see him out at night, I’ll tell them to buy him a drink," laughed Ortiz. 

Ortiz followed Liddell during the media session, so Liddell did not have a chance to respond to Tito’s claims. Yahoo! Sports reached out to Liddell after the session, but he declined the opportunity to comment.

Did this really happen? One of the sport’s biggest stars, Liddell, was an alcoholic? Or is this another Ortiz ploy to anger, embarrass and punk Liddell? It’s tough to completely ignore the claims because Liddell has had some shaky public incidents in the past including his 2007 Dallas television appearance. Yet Tito is often the sport’s biggest buffoon. 

If there was an intervention because Liddell had a drinking problem, the UFC needs to follow the path set forth by Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers. Cabrera had a problem, got help and came clean in early January. Liddell needing an intervention and beating alcoholism, is nothing to be ashamed of or hide.

Tip via MMAConvert. Thanks to John Morgan and MMAJunkie.

Imagine if Greg Oden were an MMA fighter. Remember the Georges St. Pierre cup joke?

If you’re not getting it, check Sports By Brooks, The Big Lead or Deadspin. It’s been an awful day for photos on the blogosphere. 

That’s yours truly pictured with Oden during the Warren Moon Charity Bowling outing last summer in Las Vegas. And I thought I felt small that day. At least I have bigger hair. 

Just like his mentor, Cole Konrad was a an NCAA Div. 1 heavyweight wrestling champ. In fact, Konrad did Brock Lesnar one better by winning the title twice, in 2006 and 2007. Now we will find out if he can match Lesnar’s quick results in the world of MMA.

Konrad made his pro debut this weekend at North Dakota’s Max Fights 8 in Fargo. The initial returns were good, as the 6-foot-3, 265-pounder was a winner over Gary Hamen. After being easily dropped to the mat in the opening seconds of the fight, Hamen eventually submitted to what looked like a choke or neck crank just 1:18 in the fight. Watch the fight here. 

Kyle Shiely from the Minneapolis Star-Tribue had this from the promoter:

"Cole looked loose and calm. He came out and got a clinch early, and I think
everyone knew once that was accomplished, what would happen next. Cole showed
dominating top control and landed several right hands to the kidney area and
some short elbows from inside his opponent’s half guard as well. Hamen started
to turn slightly, and Cole took the opportunity to look for a choke, but it
looked like he actually had more of a neck crank. Due to the force and angle
though, it caused his opponent to tap. [UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock] Lesnar,
Marty Morgan and Chris Tuchscherer were all in Cole’s corner."

Maggie Hendricks wrote about Konrad’s decorated amateur career. 

Tito Ortiz is never going to admit any sort of concession in his protracted fight against Dana White. In fact, he keeps pounding away at White saying that he outsmarted him. 

Ortiz came back with a loss against Forrest Griffin at UFC 106 and made sure everyone knew that he won the battle.

"(You) have to understand, it’s all negotiations. It’s all a tactic. I’m slick,
man. I’m smooth. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m
smart," Ortiz told the Las Vegas Review-Journal just before UFC 106. "I went to college and got educated. I understand
negotiations. I understand what you’ve got to do to make your brand better.
That’s why I’m Tito Ortiz. There’s no one like me." 

He reiterated those thoughts during a media day for season 11 of "The Ultimate Fighter" and by the looks of his garb for the show, he may be right. For the first time ever, a coach will get to push his clothing line, Punishment Athletics, during the 13 week run of the show on Spike. 

Tip via WatchKalibRun and Bloody Elbow

Chuck Liddell is back! Well sort of, the process for Liddell’s comeback to the Octagon has begun. Taping for season 11 of "The Ultimate Fighter" started a few days ago and today was Spike’s TUF 11 media day. Coach Chuck and his longtime nemesis, Tito Ortiz, were on hand. For Liddell it feels like home, nine months after being told by UFC president Dana White he was retired following a loss at UFC 97 to Mauricio Rua.

"I don’t think I have anything to prove, really, but I’d like to prove [Dana]
wrong and show him I’m not done. I’m not too old and I can still fight," Liddell told the Las Vegas Sun.

Liddell said Ortiz will provide plenty of motivation over the next six weeks.

"I did one interview with [Ortiz] today and I’m already getting pumped about
punching him in the mouth. I knocked him out twice already, but
I have no problem getting up to fight him."

Even after losing four-of-five fights (Quinton Jackson, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Rua), Liddell hasn’t lost any confidence.

"But the funny thing is, after I lost [the Jackson and Jardine] fights I
beat Wanderlei and everyone was saying, ‘Oh, you’re back.’ Then, if that punch from Rashad is one inch off and he doesn’t knock me out,
I probably would have won that fight and got a title shot."

This is why we post dozens of stories on Brock Lesnar each year. People care. When a casual MMA follower like Jim Rome opines on Lesnar, you know the big guy has broken through with the mainstream.

Rome picks out the Lesnar lightning rod moments from last week’s return teleconference and rips him:

"Awesome, Brock Lesnar weighing in on healthcare reform now. Anybody want to check in on Roy Nelson for his thoughts on global warming? Or the guy he beat, Kimbo Slice, for his take on the war in Iraq?"

According to Rome, Lesnar’s opinion anything non-fighting is invalid. 

"Easy Brock … stick to what you do best, calling out stalkers and that cats will soil themselves waiting for you to return. And leave issues like healthcare reform to people who know what they’re talking about."

When Rome gets an interview with Lesnar before his fight this summer, it’ll be interesting to see if he presses the big guy on any of these issues. I say "no" goes off at minus-900.

Some media outlets called it the upset of the year. It was shocking to see Brian Bowles take out Miguel Torres at WEC 42 and it did upset the former bantamweight champ. Torres realized he had gotten into a comfort zone, was surrounded by yes men and was fighting with the wrong approach.

"I’ve used the same training partners for 11 or 12 years, and I haven’t brought any of them back for this fight," Torres told the Las Vegas Sun. "What ended up happening was — I wasn’t getting cocky, they got cocky. They would say, ‘Oh, you’re going to kill this guy. He’s only got seven fights.’"

Torres knew he needed a fresh set of faces around. 

"The guys I had coaching me were there just to give me water and talk my face off. They weren’t giving me anything I could use. Looking back, I can see there were a lot of things off. But I was in a bubble at the time and couldn’t see it."

He just spent a month in Las Vegas working with a whole new team. And he heads to Boston next, to live and work with Mark Dellagrotte. His time in Sin City was spent with Robert Drysdale, a dynamite jiu-jitsu instructor while Dellagrotte’s speciality is striking. Torres wants to get back to using all elements of his game.

"I want to change the way I finish fights," Torres said. "I was trying to go out there and put on a show, impress the crowd and make them look at the 135-pound division. I’ve done that enough. It’s time to put my health and safety first."

Torres’ had a repuation as one of the most well-rounded fighters in the world and for the last few years submissions and a ground game disappeared. Torres got to thinking he could outslug every opponent. He got caught against Bowles.

Torres comes back on March 6 against top 135-pound contender Joe Benavidez. Bowles defends his new WEC bantamweight belt on the card as well. If Torres gets by Benavidez that should set up a Bowles rematch. Torres said he wants Bowles, whether the champ beats Dominick Cruz or not.

"I want Cruz to win," Torres said, thinking fighters are best after a loss. "I want Brian to lose. He’ll want to come back strong and then I’ll have the best Brian Bowles there is. If he loses that fight against Dominick and he loses the belt, I wouldn’t want a fight with Cruz. I would want Brian Bowles."

Torres is taking this seriously and making sacrifices. He spent his birthday away from his wife and daughter in Chicago.  

Brock Lesnar is back and guys like Chris Tuchscherer and Cole Konrad are feeling the effects of the big guy being out of action for three months. The heavyweight prospects are training partners of the UFC’s heavyweight champ. So more than anyone they can tell you what it’s like to be in the monster’s clutches. Combating Lesnar’s freakish strength is something every UFC heavyweight contender has to deal with. It was such an eye opener for the 243-pound Frank Mir at UFC 100, that he embarked on a weight gain mission to make sure he isn’t physically overpowered by the 280-pound Lesnar if he gets another shot. 

As Tuchscherer looks forward to his second fight in the UFC, he spoke with ESPNRadio1100 about Mir’s efforts to bulk up.

"Frank Mir can put on all the weight he wants but when you’re not someone who is used to having all that weight on you, you still have to know how to use that muscle weight."

It may not make any difference for Mir, who is hoping to eventually cut down from 280 pounds to the 265 limit. 

"It’s not like if he puts on 30 pounds of muscle that he’s just going to all of a sudden be this monster of a guy. Learning how to control someone on the ground that’s what Brock does the best."

Tuchscherer is hungry to make up for what was a frustrating debut at UFC 102 against Gabriel Gonzaga. He got drilled by a kick to the groin and laid on the ground for nearly five minutes. When he got up, he was out of it and Gonzaga pounced on him like wounded prey. Tuchscherer knew he wasn’t ready to fight but it was an unclear mess in the Octagon.

"I’m asking them, ‘If I quit is it a no contest or is it a loss on my record?’ All they could tell me was ‘can you continue?’ They couldn’t give me a straight answer. That told me they didn’t know what the hell to do. I was just mad at the whole situation and said ‘let’s just go.’ "

Tuchscherer (17-2, 0-1 UFC) admitted in hindsight that was probably a bad move. He gets another opportunity in three weeks against Tim Hague at UFC 109. 

The trash talk has begun between Matt Serra and Frank Trigg in anticipation of their fight at UFC 109. It’s slowly building. Trigg called Serra an angry midget and short guido. The Long Islander didn’t take it too badly.

"Is that a diss? What’s the point? I am," said Serra.

The midget comment did perplex him.

"I wouldn’t say I’m angry, I’m ain’t tall but I’m not angry. I like it. It’s like you’re the automatic underdog all the time because you’re up to everybody’s nipples."

Serra fired back ripping on Trigg’s tramp stamp and his nail polish. 

MMA’s No. 1 character, Ray Longo, is back. He gets cracked on for wearing his sweet pleather fanny pack. Our favorite part of the video is the random explosion in a health food store when Serra complains about the "Jersey Shore fist-pumping" music. There’s also a great "oh" when Serra walks into one of his gyms. 

Mark Coleman has done it all in the cage and ring, and he’s traveled the world. But he isn’t treating his second trip around the UFC as a farewell tour. Stubborn as it gets, Coleman is finally mixing his off-the-charts natural talent with cutting edge training. The 45-year-old is pulling out all the stops to be his best when he steps into the Octagon at UFC 109 against fellow legend Randy Couture.

He’s spent much of his time the last 9 months in Las Vegas, away from his daughters back in Columbus, Oh. Coleman is working out of the TapouT Training Center in Sin City. Josh Burns, an MMA prospect and exercise physiologist, is running his camp. Coleman is also working with Shawn Tompkins and his training partner is former UFC fighter and collegiate wrestler Branden Lee Hinkle.  

It’s nuts to hear, but Coleman, an NCAA freestyle wrestling champion in 1988 and a 1992 Olympian, did all that without being a big fan of coaching and structured training.

"I may bitch once in a while. Just out of habit. [But] it’s really nice having somebody tell you what to do," Coleman told Cagewriter. "I pretty much trained myself how to wrestle. I was considered uncoachable and I was. But I did pretty well, so I thought it was the right thing, but I probably could’ve did better. Before, maybe I worked hard but there was no reason behind my hard work." 

It took some convincing but Coleman (16-9) likes his new rigid schedule.

"I normally don’t like that. I normally don’t allow that," said Coleman as he described the new things he’s mixed into his training camp. "Just all kinds of different workouts. Getting in the pool, aquatics training. Hard cardio training with [Burns] leading the way. It’s been a good camp. I’m still learning."

Coleman said his regrets, about less than stellar training habits in the past, are minimal because the trade off was getting to spend lots of time around his two daughters, MacKenzie 12, and Morgan, 11.

"I’ll never give back getting to see my two daughters grow up. They’re old enough now to understand that I have to be away doing this. It’s hard, I hear it in their voices."

Coleman said he was lucky last week when MacKenzie came to Las Vegas for a gymnastics tournament. He said Morgan is an athlete too with huge potential in softball.

His early days in MMA were also spent with the very unique Kevin Randleman and Phil Baroni. Coleman, by comparison is the sane one. Although, this footage (NSFW) after his first Fedor Emelianenko fight, doesn’t back that up. Coleman is one intense dude. The Fedor loss is a great example of where Coleman’s lack of training killed him at times. He scored two early takedowns and actually mounted Fedor in the first 30 seconds of the fight. He made one mistake and got armbarred less than two minutes later. Too often, Coleman fell victim to stamina issues during his other losses.

We’ll see if those innate qualities that allowed Coleman fight at the highest level combined with new training techniques pays off in less than three weeks.