Author: Ben Fowlkes

‘Thankful’ Brock Lesnar Shows a Softer Side Before UFC 121 Showdown

Filed under: UFCLOS ANGELES – For most of Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 121 pre-fight press conference, it was a kinder, gentler Brock Lesnar sitting in the champion’s chair. He smiled. He cracked jokes. He even answered questions about his new beard, and …

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Brock LesnarLOS ANGELES – For most of Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 121 pre-fight press conference, it was a kinder, gentler Brock Lesnar sitting in the champion’s chair. He smiled. He cracked jokes. He even answered questions about his new beard, and there were plenty of them.

“I finally hit puberty and I just wanted to try it,” Lesnar joked, to the delight of the fans in attendance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. “No, It’s wintertime, I’m going hunting, and I’m from Minnesota. It’s that time of year. We just grow beards.”

See that? No more of the gruff goliath who, at some points in the past, treated media responsibilities as if they were the worst kind of torture. This time when he encountered a question he didn’t like, such as when MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani asked if he enjoyed filming the “UFC Primetime” series that brought a film crew into his gym and dangerously close to the boundaries of his closely guarded personal life, it was as if you could almost see Lesnar suppressing his natural urges.

Randy Couture Breaks Down Lesnar-Velasquez Fight at UFC 121

Filed under: UFCLOS ANGELES – When it comes to assessing a fight between Brock Lesnar and a smaller heavyweight with college wrestling credentials, Randy Couture may be uniquely qualified. He’s been there himself, even if it didn’t turn out how he’d ho…

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Randy Couture celebrates his win at UFC 118.LOS ANGELES – When it comes to assessing a fight between Brock Lesnar and a smaller heavyweight with college wrestling credentials, Randy Couture may be uniquely qualified. He’s been there himself, even if it didn’t turn out how he’d hoped.

That’s why it’s interesting that when he looks at the match-up between Lesnar and Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 on Saturday, he sees a challenger with a very good chance at victory, despite the significant size disparity.

“Cain’s definitely going to give Brock a go,” Couture said Tuesday at the EA Sports MMA launch, adding that the fight was a difficult one to predict.

“It’s an interesting match-up. Both guys have great wrestling backgrounds, and I know from my own experience that my toughest fights were against guys with good wrestling backgrounds. If [Velasquez] can stay away and not end up underneath Brock early, not take any serious damage there, the longer it goes the better it is for Cain. He’s one of those guys at that weight class who has an unlimited gas tank. He’s not going to get tired.”

After Virtual Fight, Emelianenko and Couture Discuss Uncertain Futures

LOS ANGELES – Fedor Emelianenko may hail from a small town in Russia that most Americans couldn’t find with a map and a magnifying glass, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have Xbox in Stary Oskol.

They do. And, as it turns out, one of them is located…

LOS ANGELES – Fedor Emelianenko may hail from a small town in Russia that most Americans couldn’t find with a map and a magnifying glass, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have Xbox in Stary Oskol.

They do. And, as it turns out, one of them is located in Emelianenko’s house, or so he told MMA Fighting via an interpreter after showing off his video game skills at Universal City Walk on Tuesday afternoon.

“I play a little bit,” said Emelianenko, who described the feeling of seeing himself pummeling people in video game form as “fun.”

This information might have been useful to former UFC champion Randy Couture, who took on Emelianenko in a head-to-head match-up of the new EA Sports MMA video game that hit stores today. It was a spirited battle, but in the end the Russian, playing as himself, handed Couture a brutal TKO loss.

The Unsolicited Advisor: Stop Complaining About UFC Spoilers

Here’s a helpful reminder for those people who are still fuming on the internet today: we live in what is often referred to as the Information Age. As far as age names go, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as cool as the Bronze Age, but it is almost certa…

Here’s a helpful reminder for those people who are still fuming on the internet today: we live in what is often referred to as the Information Age. As far as age names go, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as cool as the Bronze Age, but it is almost certainly more fun to live in. Not only do we have iPods and antibiotics, but also vastly superior cutlery.

But there are, we must admit, some drawbacks to this brave new world of ours. For one, the practice of plundering and pillaging is frowned upon. For another, we live in almost constant fear of the spoiler, which is a uniquely modern invention.

Take UFC 120, for instance. The event went down on Saturday night in London, which was Saturday afternoon in most of the U.S. While the Brits and the Canadians got to see it on live TV, we Yanks had to wait for the tape-delayed broadcast on Spike TV, presumably because Spike just couldn’t dare to preempt its five-hour block of “UFC Unleashed” episodes.

Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC 120

Filed under: UFCNow that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in Londo…

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Now that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in London this weekend.

Maybe it wasn’t such a great night for most of the British fighters on the main card, but the event still got a great reaction from the always enthusiastic U.K. crowd, even if there weren’t quite as many soccer chants and sing-alongs as I’d like.

But enough with the preamble. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between from UFC 120.

John Hathaway Unfazed by Mike Pyle’s Pre-Fight Remarks

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveSome fighters talk trash; John Hathaway hands out compliments. The 23-year-old kills with kindness, and he does it all in a delightfully genteel accent that almost lulls you into thinking that, once the bell rings, h…

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Some fighters talk trash; John Hathaway hands out compliments. The 23-year-old kills with kindness, and he does it all in a delightfully genteel accent that almost lulls you into thinking that, once the bell rings, his goal won’t be to punch you in the head until you fall down. Almost.

Take his response to some his opponent’s pre-fight remarks, for instance. While Mike Pyle‘s plan seems to be to downplay Hathaway’s skills and accomplishments ahead of their bout at UFC 120 in London this Saturday night, Hathaway is adopting the opposite approach.

When Pyle says he beat a “lesser Diego Sanchez” at UFC 114?

“That’s just Mike’s opinion,” Hathaway quips. “He’s been saying quite a bit leading up to this fight.”