I hate that every time a fighter sustains a bad cut people immediately start calling for elbows to be banned. While you're calling for the banning of elbows, why don't you push for head-kicks and chokes to be outlawed? I just don't get it. An elbow is a very effective offensive technique in a fight that can do serious damage to a fighter. Why is it different from other techniques? Because it can cause a cut? Cuts are part of the game. Look how drastically it impacted Stevenson on the weekend. Why push to ban a technique that adds another layer of depth to the fight? Don't want to get cut? Defend elbows better. It's that simple.

The "rankings" topic is one that's frequently debated. I don't think you can "rank" a fighter based on their talent, and thus have to rely on what they've actually done in the ring/cage (and who's rankings matter anyways? It's not as if there is one governing body overseeing all of MMA that can establish universal rankings). I think, as Marcus Davis has argued, if a fighter has been completely inactive against top level competition for a period of time (and I think 18 months would be the perfect length of time), then they should no longer be "ranked". Yes, I believe Fedor is the most skilled heavyweight in the world, and I think he can beat every other heavyweight in MMA. But, if I was doing the rankings, he'd be dangerously close to being dropped from the HW rankings (as his wins over Coleman, Hunt, Lindland, and Choi don't exactly read like a who's who of top level heavyweights). However, if a fight is put together with Fedor and Barnett or Fedor and another elite heavyweight, I'd be willing to keep Fedor as the #1 ranked HW (assuming a victory).

Another good example is BJ Penn. I think he's the best LW in the world (and a win over Sherk would go a long way to proving that). But he can't be considered the #1 ranked LW in the world. Not when his only recent wins in the division have been over Jens Pulver (now fighting at 145 and coming off a loss to Joe Lauzon) and recently Joe Stevenson. You have to rank fighters by what they've done lately- it's the only method of approaching objectivity.

Horn almost got the gogoplata which would have raised his personal favourite ranking from "forgotten about" to 3rd place.

Nogueria has probably had HIV (from a hot Brazilian chick) and cancer three times each but come back to beat those diseases each and everytime. I don't know how he trains for that, it's simply incredible.

I thought Lesnar would win by decision grinding out a boring decision like most wrestlers do, but I was happy to see Mir get that leg-lock. UFC 81 was a great night for jiu jitsu.

I was happy to see the guy from Mythbusters win his fight against David Heath. I've been reading about the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team and those guys are insane. So anyone that appreciates Dan Gable is pretty cool in my books.

Nice prediction on Almeida, Hurtch.

Did anyone else think it was absolute bullshit that they stopped the Lesnar/Mir fight for "hitting in the back of the head," handing Mir the fight on a platter? I've NEVER seen them stop a fight and stand em up for that. Fucking bullshit.

I'd be extremely surprised if that fight ever comes off. Couture seems to think he will have satisfied his contract by August, whereas the UFC obviously thinks he has 1 fight left and cannot fight elsewhere until he has done so in the UFC. Couture will probably wait until then to sign a contract for a fight, at which time Zuffa will probably try to step in. It seems almost certain to me that this will end up in a lengthy court battle. It's really too bad, because I think that's the best HW fight to be made.

I will say up until UFC 81, I had been wrong about almost every main event in the last year in this crazy-ass sport before Big Nog finally saved me, so expect these predictions to be wrong.

Silva vs Henderson - Henderson by decision.  We haven't seen Silva in a long fight since his Pride days, so it will be interesting to see how he does after 2 rounds, because we know Henderson loves those late rounds (assuming he isn't knocked out before that.)

Herring vs Kongo - Heath looked to be in better shape at the weigh-ins than in his past few fights, and I would love for him to get the win here, but I have a feeling Kongo wins a decision.

Sakara vs Leben - Leben sub

Okami vs Tanner - Okami decision

Wilson vs Fitch - Fitch sub

O`Brien vs Arlovski - Arlovski TKO

Sanchez vs Bielkheden - Sanchez by whatever he wants

Koscheck vs Hazelett - Hazelett upset special

I was reading some rumours on the internet and it seems that in the next Saw movie one of the victims is going to have to fight Anderson Silva to try to save their life.

I met Henderson this weekend down in Atlantic City.  He was cornering a guy (who, incidentally, won by DQ following six [four called, two told to fight through] nut-shots) on the card I was attending.  I was in the casino afterwords and my friend saw him and went to get a picture with him.  While he was doing so, Jason Miller, clad in a fur coat, saw that my shirt had Miller Brothers MMA on it and came up to me and asked who they were and if he was related to them.  Hendo seems like a really good guy, since roughly every time we saw him throughout the casino he was stopping to pose with fans. All-in-all, Henderson is just as intimidating-looking and Miller is just as much of a goof (whether you like his shtick or not [I do] I'm pretty sure it's who he really is) as I had always pretty much assumed.

Also, one of the fighters I was there for got a frontpage story on Sherdog and MMAWeekly out of the fights, which while meaning very little to everyone else here, I found to be rather awesome.

Dan Miller - youtube dan miller Brutal Guillotine Choke . That's Dan
Jim Miller - up and comer? Definetly. His ground game only gets better each time i've seen him.

The Miller's are still learning more and more ground game which is bad for their opponents because as they learn more technical fighting that only makes them more dangerous.

Really excited to see tonight's event. I can't remember the last time the UFC put out a card with this many competitive match ups and so many potential fight of the nights. So props to Zuffa for putting together this card, and props to Spike for giving it a 3 hour time slot.

I could see quite a few fights on this card going either way, but I'm going to try and make picks on the relevant fights anyways:

Kenny Florian over Joe Lauzon- SUB 2. I think Lauzon's been a bit over-hyped. The biggest win of his career is Jens Pulver, a guy who's been known to get KO'd when guys can connect with his chin. Other than that Joe's lost to every high caliber fighter he's fought. I don't think Lauzon has anything for Florian other than maybe his wrestling, but I expect Kenny to dominate this fight and take another step up in the crowded 155 division.

Karo Parisyan over Thiago Alves. DEC 3. Should be a battle, but I think Karo's top control and pressure may wear down Alves en route to a tight decision win. Alves' low kicks could change this fight though.

Tim Boetsch over Matt Hammil. TKO 2. I sense from the Bisping fight that Hamill may have fallen in love with his hands, and now he's in there with a guy with more power than he has. Matt tries to take it to Tim on the feet and gets caught with a punch somewhere in the second round.

Nate Diaz over Kurt Pellegrino. SUB 3. This should be an upset pick, except for the fact that Diaz is favoured in the betting lines. I think he catches Kurt with something crafty from the bottom late in the fight.

Other picks:
Alexander
Edgar
Thomas
Aurelio
Gamburyan
Guida