Author: Ben Fowlkes

UFC 121 Live Blog: Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill Updates

Filed under: UFCANAHEIM, Calif. — This is the UFC 121 live blog for Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill, a a light heavyweight bout on tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the Honda Center.

There will be no “bad blood” in this Tito Ortiz (15-7-1) fight. Ortiz, who…

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — This is the UFC 121 live blog for Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill, a a light heavyweight bout on tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the Honda Center.

There will be no “bad blood” in this Tito Ortiz (15-7-1) fight. Ortiz, who coached season three of The Ultimate Fighter, will face off against his former student on the show. Hamill (10-2) has won his last four fights.

The live blog is below.

UFC 121 Live Blog: Patrick Cote vs. Tom Lawlor Updates

Filed under: UFCANAHEIM, Calif. — This is the UFC 121 live blog for Patrick Cote vs. Tom Lawlor, a middleweight bout on tonight’s Spike TV portion of the card from the Honda Center.

Both fighters are looking to avoid a three-fight losing streak. Cote…

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — This is the UFC 121 live blog for Patrick Cote vs. Tom Lawlor, a middleweight bout on tonight’s Spike TV portion of the card from the Honda Center.

Both fighters are looking to avoid a three-fight losing streak. Cote (13-6) lost to Alan Belcher this year. Lawlor (6-3) lost to both Aaron Simpson and Joe Doerksen in January and May, respectively.

The live blog is below.

Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 121 Picks With ‘Mayhem’ Miller

Filed under: UFCJason “Mayhem” Miller appeared only briefly at Tuesday’s EA Sports MMA demo at Universal City Walk. He beat “King” Mo Lawal via first-round TKO in the game, talked a little smack, then suddenly disappeared.

When I tracked him down aft…

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Jason “Mayhem” Miller appeared only briefly at Tuesday’s EA Sports MMA demo at Universal City Walk. He beat “King” Mo Lawal via first-round TKO in the game, talked a little smack, then suddenly disappeared.

When I tracked him down after the event had wrapped up, he and his friends were just finishing up in a nearby skydiving simulator, during which one of his friends lost a tooth that had been superglued into his mouth after being knocked out. This was treated as a hilarious misadventure that everyone, including the loser of the tooth, seemed to enjoy.

Just another day in Mayhemland.

After he’d calmed down enough to form sentences, Miller agreed to go head-to-head with me in a prediction contest for UFC 121. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

UFC 121: By the Odds

Filed under: UFCIf the time it took me to get out of the Honda Center parking lot after this afternoon’s UFC 121 weigh-ins was any indicator, a vast and enthusiastic mob is about to descend on Anaheim for Saturday night’s event. Expect no shortage of M…

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If the time it took me to get out of the Honda Center parking lot after this afternoon’s UFC 121 weigh-ins was any indicator, a vast and enthusiastic mob is about to descend on Anaheim for Saturday night’s event. Expect no shortage of Mexican flags when Cain Velasquez enters, and the requisite boos when Brock Lesnar strolls in.

In other words, get ready to see the exact fan response you’d expect after the way the “Primetime” series framed the main event bout.

Now that the match-ups are set and the fighters are hunkered down in their hotel rooms until fight time, let’s take a look at how oddsmakers see things playing out on Saturday.

For One UFC Heavyweight Prospect, the Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Filed under: FanHouse ExclusiveANAHEIM, CALIF. – It’s fight week in Southern California, but for the fighters on the UFC 121 card, the hours pass tortuously slow. There’s a lot of sitting around in hotels. A lot of glancing at the clock. There’s just s…

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ANAHEIM, CALIF. – It’s fight week in Southern California, but for the fighters on the UFC 121 card, the hours pass tortuously slow. There’s a lot of sitting around in hotels. A lot of glancing at the clock. There’s just so much time to think, and thinking only leads to more thinking, which inevitably leads to not sleeping.

For UFC heavyweight up-and-comer Brendan Schaub (6-1), the insomnia is just part of the routine.

“Friday night I won’t sleep,” he says. “I’ll get maybe three or four hours. That’s it.”

The night before the weigh-ins Schaub heads downstairs to one of the workout rooms that the UFC has set up for its fighters, just to get a sweat going. Schaub is one of the lucky ones. As a 240-pound heavyweight, he doesn’t have to cut weight. Others who surround him in the sweaty little hotel conference room aren’t so lucky.

Trainer: Velasquez Must Be Technically Better, Not Faster Than Lesnar

Filed under: UFCLOS ANGELES — Conventional wisdom in the fight game tells us that if you want to prepare for a specific opponent, the best way to do it is to bring in sparring partners that can mimic that opponent’s signature attributes.

But when yo…

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LOS ANGELES — Conventional wisdom in the fight game tells us that if you want to prepare for a specific opponent, the best way to do it is to bring in sparring partners that can mimic that opponent’s signature attributes.

But when you’re facing Brock Lesnar, whose success is built at least in part on his uncommon physical attributes, where do you even find such a training partner?

This is the problem that Cain Velasquez‘s trainer, AKA’s Javier Mendez, had to confront over the last several weeks as they prepared for the UFC 121 title fight.

“See, that’s the dilemma. Where do you find someone like Brock to train with? You don’t. There is no one like him,” Mendez told MMA Fighting. “All we can do is bring Division I, high-level wrestlers in, like Daniel Cormier, Mark Ellis. That was it. You can’t duplicate Brock.”