UFC Ultimate Fight Night

**Self indulgent post of a different sort. If you don't follow MMA/Ultimate Fighting, you might want to go away and come back tomorrow**

I don't know why they called it "Ultimate Fight Night." Maybe Ultimate Clinch Night. No bombs dropped, no submissions, no knock outs. I'm glad I didn't waste a beer on this one.

• Chris Leben had a match with Luigi Somebody-Italian. Chris is supposed to be this kick-ass, take-names fighter. Well, not last night. I was disappointed at the lack of action. Chris won it be decision.
• Joe Stevenson fought Josh Neer. I expected Joe to win. He had such a strong showing in the second season of Ultimate Fighter, he beat one of my favorites. Call him Mr. Submissive, I guess, because he tried more submission moves than I've ever seen in a fight. Neer dropped elbows, land a few hits, and won it by decision. (The blood on Joe might have been the deciding factor, bright red in dyed blonde.)
• Rashad Evans (MI native) won against a bigger guy, with better reach. But, again, not much action, more clinch. Rashad would shoot, take his opponent down, get him half guard and do nothing with it. Maybe Rashad won because he has better conditioning in his abdominals...
• Keith Jardine and Stephen Bonnar was the best fight by far. Still a lot more dancing than I would prefer (in a ring!), but at least they made the fight worth watching. Jardine unloaded leg kick after leg kick, effectively taking BigMouth Bonnar down a notch or two. Jardine pressed the fight, landed more punches. He should have won. SHOULD HAVE. F*cking Bonnar won it be decision. Dammit. I think that was all a popularity contest.

The first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 3 was a great way to end the night. The new stable of fighters has promise. Although I am eager to see the redhead on Shamrock's team get his mouth shut for him. I hate ego. We've seen that the more smack a fighter usually talks, the less they do to back it up. They've mixed things up this season, adding Canadians and two shaved-head Britons to the mix. (Funny, with the Brits, they have subtitles running, like the average American won't be able to understand them.) Also, there's no 'challenges' this season to see who wins the right to pick the fights. That goes by coin toss, and who wins the fight chooses the next. There's new coaches, too. Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. They hate each other. It's awesome!!

Although, honestly, I never liked Shamrock either. I think he's a pretentious bastard. I like Ortiz so much better. Ortiz might be more cocky, but he backs it up. And, Ortiz is a better coach, he choose his guys by their heart, their desire to win and potential to 'be a star.' Shamrock choose whomever he thought could beat Ortiz's guys. Ortiz is also not 'tearing his guys down' first. He's in there, wrestling with them, sparring with them. He's learning his guys by working with them, not by standing back with a clipboard watching them and barking orders.

I am anticipating a great season, lots of tension, and gods willing, some good fights... And I want Oritz to lump up Shamrock at the end of it all. (again!)