Testosterone Festival Welcomes a Former UFC Champion

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez has confirmed he will be attending the SugarBaby Swimwear exhibit space at The Texas Testosterone Festival both August 15 and 16. All attendees can meet Ricco and if your camera can stop taking pictures of the lovely ladies from SugarBaby Swimwear, maybe you can take a picture with Ricco too.

Ricco is the first American to win a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship and he won the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship Absolute Division in 1998. Ricco defeated Randy Couture to become UFC Heavyweight Champion at UFC 39 and was 4-0 in the UFC before facing Couture, defeating Andrei Arlovski, Pete Williams, Jeff Monson, and Tsuyoshi “TK” Kohsaka. Ricco boasts a 5-2 record in the UFC and a 34-10 MMA record overall including an 11 fight win streak that included stops in the UFC, Pride Fighting Championships, and King of the Cage. Ricco has recently returned to his dominating form, fighting 9 times in 2008 and recently winning via keylock in 62 seconds at the Armageddon event in Tyler, TX.

In one of the largest controversies in MMA history, Ricco faced Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at the height of Nogueira’s reputation as the greatest Heavyweight fighter in the world, manhandling Nogueira and controlling the fight. Everyone but the three judges ringside gave the decision to Ricco and Pride officials were forced to publicly attempt to explain how Nogueira’s victory was possible. The world remains unconvinced.

Come to The SugarBaby Swimwear exhibit area in Texas Testosterone Festival - and stay to be key-locked by a former UFC champion.

UFC 96’s Card is Weak… UFC 98 in Danger (Frank Mir v Brock Lesnar is Off) Updated

Fiveouncesofpain.com is reporting Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar II is off the UFC 98 card due to a back injury to Mir that may require surgery. 

Update: Zach Arnold at Fight Opinion has collected a number of the conflicting reports on Mir’s ability to fight as scheduled.

In a weekend that is pretty devoid of good news for MMA fans, this may be the worst. Besides a Rampage vs. Keith Jardine headlining bout that does little to change the fact Machida should be next in line for a chance at Rashad Evans’ Lightheavyweight belt and the rest of the card devoid of both starpower or interesting matchups, the UFC is now trapped between a plethora of fight cards over the next few months all needing starpower and the high expectations of UFC 100, the UFC has little to go with to headline UFC 98 that is actually sellable.

UFC 98 is in danger of being just like UFC 96. Not only are there no belts on the line this Saturday in Columbus, OH there is also no matchups that really define #1 contender status. The only fight that comes close is Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Carwin and the argument that fight is possibly to define a #1 contender status is destroyed when another contender is matched against Lesnar while Mir recuperates.

And with Fedor, Josh Barnett, Andrei Arlovski, Paul Buentello, and so many of the world’s top Heavyweight fighters not fighting in the UFC it is tough to take the UFC Heavyweight belt, and the man with the 2-1 record holding it, very seriously.

For UFC 98, Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra is a matchup fans have been waiting for a long time for but is simply no more than a grudge match - neither will be anxious to fight Georges St. Pierre again. The only other interesting fight on the card is Dan Miller vs. Yushin Okami, a fight that pits a guy who already should have gotten his second chance against Anderson Silva (Okami beat Silva due to DQ a few years ago) versus a guy who has to be taken very seriously at Middleweight but doesn’t yet have the rungs on the ladder to be seriously sold as a #1 contender even with a win versus Okami.

These cards are fragile and when a single injury cripples the marketability of a PPV it makes the lack of star parity and the inevitable talent dissolution as a result of so many fight cards much more apparent. Reaching 1,000,000 PPV buys now seems unapproachable for most UFC cards and the 300,000-400,000 sales something much more difficult to attain.

Dripping Springs’ Buentello Crushes Baby Fedor

Affliction’s show Saturday night was a good one, featuring amazing KO’s of Andre Arlovski by Fedor Emelianenko and Matt Lindland by Vitor Belfort, who looked like the clock had moved back 10 years. Another fight worth discussion is Dripping Springs’ Paul Buentello’s dismantling of ‘Baby Fedor’ Kiril Sidelnikov.

Kiril is a tough kid with KO power in both hands. A rising prospect from Emelianenko’s team of tough-chinned, cold-hearted machines built in Fedor’s image, Kiril has faced a number of Heavyweights determined to stand and trade with him. None had reached victory with that gameplan before. 

Buentello made a name for himself in the UFC with impressive KO’s of Justin Eilers (RIP) and Gilbert Aldana (RIP) as well as a first-round KO of Tank Abbott last year in Strikeforce. He’s 12 and 2 since 2003 against impressive competition, his only losses against Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem.

Kiril ate jabs from Buentello for three rounds and got rocked on a number of occasions, including from some perfectly-timed kicks. Eventually the doctors put a stop to the devestation and Buentello was granted the victory.

With Affliction’s future in doubt, at least among bloggers, and Fedor’s next appointment surely with Josh Barnett, Buentello is in the unenviable position of waiting to see what Heavyweight Affliction can come up with to put in front of him. A rematch with Arlovski must be considered a possible but not making too much sense for matchmaking in its wake. Pedro Rizzo, Ben Rothwell, and Roy Jones are all coming off losses and may not make much sense for Buentello to position himself for a date with Fedor. Looking outside the promotion a rematch with Alistair Overeem is possible but most observers just don’t see Affliction spending the money to bring in another European Heavyweight in 2009.

Funny enough, there are a lot of very interesting matchups at Heavyweight in the UFC - Cheick Kongo, Patrick Barry, Antonio Nogueira (who reportedly was suffering from a staph infection during his lackluster loss to Frank Mir), et al - but what are the chances of Buentello coming back into the fold?