The Ultimate Writer 02.09.09: My Thoughts On UFN 17, Georges St. Pierre Greasing Up, And Much More

Posted by Dustin James on 02.09.2009

Another weekend has passed and that means another UFC show has come and gone. Is it possible that UFC Fight Night 17 was better than UFC 93 and 94? Is Georges St. Pierre actually cheating in order to win? What are some of the best match-ups that Strikeforce can make now that they have purchased Pro Elite? 411's Dustin James discusses all these topics and more in the latest edition of "The Ultimate Writer"......

Welcome to the latest edition of "The Ultimate Writer" and man, what a week it has been in MMA! Not only did we have the fallout of UFC 94 completely destruct in our faces with "greasegate", but it was also announced that Strikeforce has purchased Pro Elite and they will be televising specials on both CBS and Showtime. This is huge news for MMA fans and fighters alike. The merger of Strikeforce (who can actually run an MMA promotion) with EliteXC (who believe it or not, have talent) is a major bonus for MMA and will help make 2009 the best year ever for this sport.

With so much to discuss.......

LET'S GET IT ON!!!!!

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My Thoughts On UFC Fight Night 17



This past Saturday we had yet another UFC card in the form of Fight Night 17 "Lauzon vs. Stephens". This card didn't excite me much on paper, but is it possible that this card was better than UFC 93 and UFC 94? Let's find out.....

-Anthony Johnson def. Luigi Fioravanti via TKO in Round 1

Anthony Johnson looks downright scary right now. If it wasn't for a bogus loss against Kevin Burns last summer at UFC Fight Night 14 (a loss that Johnson would later avenge), Johnson would be on a 4-fight win streak in the UFC and would stand 6-1 with the company overall. Johnson's stand-up is pretty impressive, but the guy has a long way to go if he even wants to be considered as a contender to GSP's title. As for Fioravanti? He will get another chance with the UFC. He is 4-5 overall with the company and definitely needs a win in his next fight to avoid being released.

-Josh Neer def. Mac Danzig via submission (triangle choke) in Round 2

This was a fantastic fight. I figured with the problems that Neer was having outside of the Octagon his performance here would suffer...and man was I wrong. Neer was obviously the bad guy here getting booed by the crowd and such, however he pushed the action against Danzing and even did a little showboating for the crowd. I knew it was over once Neer sunk in that DEEP triangle, I just figured Danzig was going to pass out rather than tap out. Either way, what's up with Danzig? After winning "TUF" season six he has gone just 1-2 in the UFC. Perhaps season six of "TUF" could be considered the worst considering the finals consisted of Mac Danzig and the very green Tommy Speer. Now...debate about that!

-Cain Velasquez def. Denis Stojnic via TKO in Round 2

I was one of those people who wasn't giving Stojnic much of a chance here against "Brown Pride" Cain Velasquez. But the bottom line is, Stojnic was a tough cookie. He stood up with Velasquez and took some of his hardest shots. I was really shocked that this fight wasn't over in the first round. However, Stojnic was like the "little engine that could" and he kept taking the abuse. The fight ended with very little drama in the second round. Stojnic was taking massive abuse from Velasquez and the referee was forced to step in and call the fight. I thoroughly enjoyed this fight despite the lackluster finish. Velasquez still looks scary good and hopefully the UFC will give him someone like Heath Herring to truly test his skills against.

-Joe Lauzon def. Jeremy Stephens via submission (armbar) in Round 2

I was truly shocked that this fight ended in the second round. I figured it would at least go to the third. I knew it wouldn't go to a decision based on the fact that Lauzon was fighting. The armbar that Lauzon threw on out of nowhere was a thing of beauty and I don't blame Stephens for tapping. Lauzon's submission game is extremely good. He has 18 victories as a pro, 14 of them via submission. Not to mention the guy's stand-up game is pretty damn good as well...just ask Jens Pulver. I'm really interested in seeing where Lauzon goes from here. He's a tough dude and if it wasn't for his loss to Kenny Florian at UFC Fight Night 13, he would be 5-0 in the UFC. The top lightweights in the UFC may have to watch out for this kid.

Overall, you gotta give UFC Fight Night 17 some major love. The show was pretty damn good and entertaining overall. We are coming off two sub-par UFC PPV's in UFC 93 and UFC 94 and Fight Night 17 reminded us why some of the best fights can often been seen for free on Spike TV provided by the UFC "mid-carders". Good show UFC and let's hope UFC 95 on Spike can continue the hot streak of UFC shows on Spike.

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The Week That Was:

I'm starting a new format for "The Week That Was". Instead of focusing on each day individually, I'm going to focus on each individual company. Trust me, it will be better this way!



UFC



Georges St. Pierre....is a greaser?



Talk about a story that is getting entirely too much play from the online MMA community. Ladies and gentlemen, this story is nonsense. GSP's camp didn't know they were doing anything illegal, but the NSAC quickly informed them that applying Vaseline to GSP's body is a no-no. Does anyone actually think that if the Vaseline had not been applied to GSP that the fight would have turned out different? PLEASE! GSP dominated BJ Penn, and now Penn's camp has an excuse for a possible rematch (aka another huge payday) with GSP. Does anyone actually want to see GSP beat BJ Penn for a third time? I know I don't. Everyone needs to get over it and move on.



UFC Fight Night 18 Officially Announced



On Tuesday the UFC officially announced that UFC Fight Night 18 would be taking place on April 1 in Nashville at the Sommet Center. Not only that, but the main event would feature the UFC debut of WEC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit as he squares off against Martin Kampmann. This is a fantastic fight and Kampmann will surely give Condit a true test in his UFC debut. The following fights are also expected on the card (with the premiere of the new season of "The Ultimate Fighter" to air afterward):

-Junie Browning vs. Cole Miller
-Brock Larson vs. Jesse Sanders
-Ryan Bader vs. Carmello Marrero
-Efrain Escudero vs. Jeremy Stephens
-Tyson Griffin vs. Rafael dos Anjos
-Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Horwich
-Nissen Osterneck vs. Jorge Rivera
-Rob Kimmons vs. Joe Vedepo
-Steve Steinbeiss vs. Ryan Jensen
-Aaron Simpson vs. Tim McKenzie

That card looks pretty stacked and everyone knows my main complaint with this card. It's the fact that the Junie Browning vs. Cole Miller fight is scheduled to be televised. Why? Why must we be forced to watch Miller pound Browning? Because Junie is such a RATINGS GOD?? This will probably push the Tyson Griffin vs. Rafael dos Anjos and Matt Horwich vs. Ricardo Almeida fight to the prelim card, which sucks considering both of those fights look better and more competitive on paper than Browning vs. Miller. Oh well, we still have Condit vs. Kampmann which will be a hell of a main event.



UFC Injuries



The injury bug continued to strike the UFC pretty hard this week. With the intense training these guys go through it's no surprise we have so many fighters currently out with injuries. Let's look at the unfortunate victims of the injury bug this week.....

-Ben Saunders suffers a foot injury forcing him out of his UFC 96 bout in March with UFC newcomer Ryan Madigan. This is a shame considering Saunders has been looking extremely impressive inside the Octagon lately. He will be replaced by Tamdan McCrory (who lost to Dustin Hazelett a few months back...who ironically was originally scheduled to face Saunders before an injury forced him off the card). A McCrory vs. Madigan fight is less-than-appealing, but that's what happens when injuries strike.

-Justin McCully was forced out of his UFC 95 fight with UFC newcomer Neil Grove due to an undisclosed cut. He will be replaced by IFL veteran Mike Ciesnolevicz....and I'm sure someone out there cares. And it's not me!



UFC PPV Buyrate News



Quick question for ya.....guess who's on a major roll right now in the PPV industry?? If you said the UFC then go ahead and give yourself a cookie. Here are the latest updated buy rates for the UFC PPV's from November to January:

UFC 91 "Couture vs. Lesnar" - Has got over 920,000 buys and could finish with over a million.

UFC 92 "Ultimate 2008" - Has got over 1 million buys and is about 50,000 buys away from breaking UFC 66's record.

UFC 93 "Henderson vs. Franklin" - Has got around 320,000 buys

UFC 94 "St Pierre vs. Penn" - Dana White expects the PPV buys to end up at around 1.3 million

As you can tell, the UFC has had a fantastic few months in the PPV market. Even UFC 93 was considered a huge success considering it was an overseas show and taped. The UFC fully expects UFC 94 to set the new company record for PPV buys and Dana White has even gone on record and stated that he believes UFC 98 featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir II will end up with the record in May. The UFC is on a fantastic roll and the company will let the fans wallets take a little breather by offering UFC 95 for free on Spike TV, which is great news considering the card looks less than impressive. The big question surrounding everyone is....will UFC 100 be the "greatest UFC show ever"? I get goose bumps just thinking about a possible card for that event.



BJ Penn to retire?



After his loss to GSP at UFC 94, UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn revealed that his plan was to defeat GSP and then retire as the UFC Lightweight & Welterweight Champion. Needless to say, that didn't happen and now Penn is undecided about his future. One would think that Penn is leaning towards fighting again considering he has shown interest in a third fight with St. Pierre in the future. However, if Penn decides to fight again he will no doubt face the #1 contender to his title, Kenny Florian. Penn really needs to decide what he wants to do here and focus on fighting. I don't want to see a half assed Penn decide not to retire and come out looking like shit against Florian. I want to see the motivated Penn that defeated Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk. That Penn would have no problem with Florian. Please BJ....don't retire. You still have it and there are still numerous guys you can fight in the UFC at either lightweight or welterweight.



Affliction



Andrei Arlovski.....professional boxer!



On Friday, Sherdog.com reported that the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and current Affliction heavyweight would be making his professional boxing debut on the preliminary card of the Golden Boy promoted Winky Wright/Paul Williams fight on April 11. All I can truly say is....good luck Andrei. I think this is a horrible move in so many ways, but Arlovski will never get to hear my opinion on the matter anyway. His manager has confirmed that Arlovski will fight at Affliction's next show, but who will he face? Hopefully it's someone who doesn't punch very hard.....



Early Affliction "Day Of Reckoning" PPV Buyrates



The early PPV buyrates for Affliction "Day Of Reckoning" according to Affliction CEO Richard Schafer are in the range of 150,000-200,000 buys. If this stands correct than Affliction can consider "Day Of Reckoning" to be a success. Now, if the company would only chill out with the outrageous pay for some of these fighters. Affliction really has a chance to compete with the UFC in today's MMA market, but if you are throwing out more money to your fighters than you are earning at the gate alone....something is wrong. Affliction has some good things going for them right now in the form of Fedor Emelianenko, Vitor Belfort, Renato Sobral, among others. I honestly hope Affliction can stick around because I'm HUGE on competition. Competition makes everyone better, which is one reason why the WWE sucks such a big one today when you compare it to the days when WCW was breathing down their necks.



Strikeforce



Strikeforce purchases Pro Elite



And of course, the biggest news of the week comes from the wonderful world of Strikeforce. It was announced this week that Strikeforce has purchased Pro Elite (the company that ran EliteXC) and will not only add EliteXC veterans Robbie Lawler, Gina Carano, Nick Diaz, Scott Smith, Kimbo Slice, Benji Radach, Jake Shields and others....but the company will also run shows on CBS and Showtime in hopes of doing PPV in the very near future. I can't express how huge this news is for MMA fans. EliteXC had a lot of promise when it was running shows on CBS, but the promotion was just ran horribly. Building Kimbo Slice up as the next big star in MMA was just plain stupid. True MMA fans knew how green Slice truly was, which is why his loss to Seth Petruzelli wasn't much of a shock. I can't wait to see the first CBS special that Strikeforce throws together. Strikeforce already has a ton of talent in Gilbert Melendez, Renato Sobral, Josh Thomson, Cung Le, Alistair Overeem and others. I can't wait to see a potential Robbie Lawler/Cung Le bout. BOOK IT!!

Once again, great news for MMA fans. Way to go Strikeforce!



Strikeforce to air first show on Showtime in April



Following the announcement that Strikeforce had purchased Pro Elite the company announced that it's first special on Showtime would air on April 11 and will feature the following:

-Scott Smith vs. Benji Radach
-Nick Diaz vs. To Be Announced
-Josh Thomson vs. To Be Announced
-Frank Shamrock vs. To Be Announced

I'm not a psychic, but let's see if I can't find some opponents for Diaz, Thomson, and Shamrock. Nick Diaz's opponent is easy.....give him KJ Noons. Everyone wants to see it, so let's just get it over with. I would also like to see Thomson vs. Noons, but a Noons/Diaz rematch is just too appealing. As for Thomson, I wouldn't mind seeing him square off against Mitsuhiro Ishida. Ishida made his Strikeforce debut at "Strikeforce at the Mansion II" and defeated Justin Wilcox with an extremely impressive armbar, so why not book a Thomson/Ishida bout? As for Frank Shamrock? Give him Robbie Lawler....I know I'm not the only one who wouldn't mind seeing that fight. I personally can't wait for this show and I'm excited to see who else Strikeforce decides to add to the mix.



WEC



"Kid" Yamamoto....WEC-bound?



Perhaps the biggest story to come out of the WEC this week was the fact that Dana White confirmed that he has talked with Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto about possibly joining the WEC when his contract with FEG is up. White mentioned that he would like Yamamoto to come into the WEC, fight in a tune-up fight, then face WEC Bantamweight Champ Miguel Torres and if he's victorious over Torres he would then face Urijah Faber at 145. It's also possible that "Kid" could end his fighting career in the UFC as a lightweight. This is huge news for Yamamoto fans like myself, but you have to ask the question. With the amount of time that Yamamoto has been on the sidelines, will he be the same "Kid" that we have known and loved for all these years? If so, then this could perhaps be the greatest news of all-time. I'm just dying to see Yamamoto fight again and frankly don't care who he fights for.



WEC drops welterweight division, adds flyweight division



On Wednesday the WEC confirmed that they have completely dropped the welterweight division and have actually gone on to add a flyweight (125lbs) division. Everyone and their mother knew about the WEC's plans to drop the welterweight division, so that news is no shocking news. However, I'm actually surprised that the WEC is adding a flyweight division. Why you ask? Mainly because I didn't know adult males who weighed 125lbs were walking around. That's shocking news I tell ya....shocking! All jokes aside, the flyweight division is an extremely exciting division to watch and this is a great move by the WEC.

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Where are they now?

This feature looks at fighters who have been inactive for some time. Where exactly have they gone? I don't know and I'm reaching out to you guys to help us find these missing MMA stars......

MISSING

Mikey Burnett

Man, whatever happened to this guy? We haven't seen him since his stint on "The Ultimate Fighter" season 4 "THE COMEBACK"~! Burnett may best be known for running his head into a wall and sustaining major neck injuries while on the show. Burnett later sued the show for the injuries he sustained, and his surgery was considered a success, which is good for Burnett because now he can get back to doing what he was doing before the surgery......which was absolutely nothing. Seriously...the last time this guy fought was in 1999 at UFC 18 where he defeated Townsend Saunders via decision. After that Burnett left the UFC and attempted to become a trainer, which I believe is what he is doing right now in Oklahoma. Would you pay a man who loves to run into walls big money to train you how to fight? So would I......

If you know the whereabouts of Mikey Burnett, please contact Dustin James at [e-mail], or go to his myspace located here.

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Random Top 10 List Time!

Here you will see a random top 10 list put together by yours truly. It may be Top 10 submission fighters, Top 10 stand-up fighters, or hell, even Top 10 ways that Anderson Silva could kill you. Seriously, don't mess with that man. He's dangerous.

My Top 10 Strikeforce/EliteXC Fights: (With Strikeforce's purchase of EliteXC this week, here are the match-ups that Strikeforce needs to book....RIGHT NOW)

ARE YOU READY?

(This list is in no particular order)

10. Gina Carano vs. "Cyborg" Santos - This one is the biggest no-brainer on this list. MMA fans have been clamoring for a Carano vs. Santos fight for some time now. EliteXC missed the boat with it, but something tells me we will see this fight on CBS at some point in 2009.

9. Robbie Lawler vs. Cung Le - This would be a great stand-up war between two good middleweight fighters. Consider me interested.

8. Nick Diaz vs. Josh Thomson - Umm....yes please!!

7. Gilbert Melendez vs. Nick Diaz - See above

6. Jake Shields vs. Joe Riggs - Jake Shields needs to face some tough competition and the majority of the tough welterweights reside in the UFC. However, Riggs has UFC experience and is a veteran with around 40 fights under his belt. He may not be the greatest test for Shields, but the fight would still be a good one.

5. Renato Sobral vs. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante - This fight wouldn't get a lot of mainstream love, but it would be a war between two great fighters. Count me in.

4. Alistair Overeem vs. Kimbo Slice - Oh, come on. You know if they were willing to show this for free on CBS or Showtime you would so watch. If you say you wouldn't, then you sir are a big fat hairy liar.

3. Robbie Lawler vs. Frank Shamrock - For some reason, a part of me wants to see this fight bad. It features two veteran fighters who have never faced each other. Count me in....

2. Josh Thomson vs. KJ Noons - This would be a fantastic bout and is one that definitely needs to be scheduled. Noons needs to put that mess with EliteXC behind him and focus on facing someone like the Strikeforce Lightweight Champion.

1. KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz - EliteXC missed the boat in the biggest way with this fight. The first fight between the two ended in controversial fashion and there should have been a rematch months ago. However, problems between EliteXC and Noons escalated to the point that EliteXC stripped Noons of his EliteXC Lightweight Title (news that was broken by yours truly!) and before you know it....EliteXC itself was dead. Now that all that crap is in the past, perhaps we can get over it and finally schedule the rematch. If they decide to show it for free on CBS then perhaps Strikeforce really does love us after all.

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Current Champions:

This feature is pretty self explanatory. I list the current champions in each relevant promotion, and you guys sit and read. Easy enough for ya?



Brock Lesnar - UFC Heavyweight Champion

Won the title from Randy Couture back on November 15, 2008 at UFC 91.

Frank Mir - Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship

Won the title from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira back on December 27, 2008 at UFC 92

Rashad Evans - UFC Light Heavyweight Champion

Won the title from Forrest Griffin back on December 27, 2008 at UFC 92

Anderson Silva - UFC Middleweight Champion

Won the title from Rich Franklin back on October 14, 2006 at UFC 64

Georges St. Pierre - UFC Welterweight Champion

Won the title from Matt Serra back on April 14, 2008 at UFC 83

BJ Penn - UFC Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Joe Stevenson back on January 19, 2008 at UFC 80



Alistair Overeem - Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion

Won the title from Paul Buentello back on November 16, 2007 at Strikeforce: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives

Renato "Babalu" Sobral - Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion

Won the title from Bobby Southworth back on November 21, 2008 at Strikeforce: Destruction

Cung Le - Strikeforce Middleweight World Champion

Won the title from Frank Shamrock back on March 29, 2008 at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le

Josh Thomson - Strikeforce Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Gilbert Melendez back on June 27, 2008 at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson



Gegard Mousasi - DREAM Middleweight Champion

Won the title from Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza back on September 23, 2008 at DREAM 6

Joachim Hansen - DREAM Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Shinya Aoki back on July 21, 2008 at DREAM 5



Jamie Varner - WEC Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Rob McCullough back on February 13, 2008 at WEC 32

Mike Brown - WEC Featherweight Champion

Won the title from Urijah Faber back on November 5, 2008 at WEC 36

Miguel Torres - WEC Bantamweight Champion

Won the title from Chase Beebe back on February 13, 2008 at WEC 32



Fedor Emelianenko - WAMMA Heavyweight Champion

Won the title from Tim Sylvia back on July 19, 2008 at Affliction "Banned"

Shinya Aoki - WAMMA Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Eddie Alvarez back on December 31, 2008 at FEG FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008



Jorge Santiago - Sengoku Middleweight Champion

Won the title from Kazuo Misaki back on January 4, 2009 at Sengoku 7

Satoru Kitaoka - Sengoku Lightweight Champion

Won the title from Takanori Gomi back on January 4, 2009 at Sengoku 7

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Watch Out For This Guy:

In this feature I will showcase a fighter who I believe is on his way up in the MMA world......

Ricky Story

Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the newest member of the UFC's welterweight division. His name is none other than Ricky Story. Story (who hails from my stomping grounds of Portland, Oregon) has signed a four-fight contract with the UFC and is expected to make his UFC debut real soon. Story fought six times in 2008 and was an unbelievable 6-0! He is 7-2 overall and is really looking to make an impact in the UFC's welterweight division.

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Upcoming Events:

Here are a few of the upcoming events in the wonderful world of MMA:




UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson - February 21 at The O2 Arena in London, England

-Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson
-Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia
-Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham
-Demian Maia vs. Chael Sonnen
-Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago
-Junior dos Santos vs. Stefan Struve
-Troy Mandaloniz vs. Paul Kelly
-Shannon Gugerty vs. Tom Lawson
-Terry Etim vs. Justin Buchholz
-Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Neil Grove

WEC 39: Brown vs. Garcia - March 1 at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas

-Mike Brown vs. Leonard Garcia (WEC featherweight title)
-Rob McCullough vs. Marcus Hicks
-Bart Palaszewski vs. Richard Crunkilton
-Mike Budnik vs. John Franchi
-Johny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov
-Jose Aldo vs. Chris Mickle
-Douglas Lima vs. Justin Haskins
-Damacio Page vs. Marcos Galvao
-Danny Castillo vs. Phil Cardella
-Alex Karalexis vs. Greg McIntyre
-Rafael Rebello vs. Kenji Osawa

UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine - March 7 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio

-Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Keith Jardine
-Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Carwin
-Matt Hamill vs. Mark Munoz
-Brandon Vera vs. Mike Patt
-Gray Maynard vs. Jim Miller
-Kendall Grove vs. Jason Day
-Tim Boetsch vs. Jason Brilz
-Pete Sell vs. Matt Brown
-Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley
-Tamdan McCrory vs. Ryan Madigan

DREAM 7 - March 7 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

-Featherweight Grand Prix:
Wicky Aiko, Micah Miller, Bibiano Fernandes, Masakazu Imanari, Kim Jong Won, Chase Beebe, Hideo Tokoro, Takafumi Otsuka, Daiki Hata, Shoji Maruyama, Atsushi Yamamoto, Joe Warren, Hiroyuki Takaya

World Victory Road's Sengoku 7 - March 20 at the National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan

-Muhammed Lawal vs. Ryo Kawamura
-Featherweight Grand Prix:
Chris Manuel, Hatsu Hioki, Marlon Sandro, Ronnie Ushiwaka, and Nick Denis

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UFC Undisputed 2009 Update:



It's no secret that I'm a huge UFC and video game fan. I currently own an Xbox360 and a Wii, and will gladly take a PS3 if it's offered to me. With that out of the way, I can't WAIT for the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2009 video game. Therefore, "The Ultimate Writer" will be your headquarters for all the updates and news on the upcoming video game!

Will Be Released: Spring of 2009

Platform: Xbox360, PS3

Current Updates: A lot of character models have been added to the UFC Undisputed official website.....including Brock Lesnar's. Check it out at www.ufcundisputed.com.

Current roster for UFC Undisputed 2009: (These are the confirmed fighters in the game thus far. The game is rumored to feature over 80 fighters.)

Heavyweight:
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira*
Brock Lesnar*
Randy Couture
Frank Mir*

Light Heavyweight:
Forrest Griffin*
Wanderlei Silva*
Quinton Jackson*
Chuck Liddell
Rashad Evans*
Rich Franklin*

Middleweight:
Anderson Silva
Amir Sadollah
Michael Bisping*
Dan Henderson*

Welterweight:
Georges St. Pierre*
Jon Fitch
Matt Hughes

Lightweight:
BJ Penn*
Roger Huerta
Kenny Florian*
Joe Stevenson*

UFC Legends:
Royce Gracie

Non-playable Characters:
Mike Goldberg
Joe Rogan
Bruce Buffer
Mario Yamasaki
"Stitch" Duran
Arianny Celeste
Juanito Ibarra

*You can view this character's stats and profile as well as game model by visiting the official website at www.ufcundisputed.com

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Current 411mania.com MMA Rankings:

These are the current MMA rankings as voted on by the staff of 411mania.com. You can catch the updated version every Thursday on 411mania.com!

Heavyweight: (last voted on January 6, 2009)

1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Andrei Arlovski
3. Josh Barnett
4. Frank Mir
5. Brock Lesnar
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
7. Randy Couture
8. Gabriel Gonzaga
9. Alistair Overeem
10. Cheick Kongo
11. Cain Velasquez
12. Fabricio Werdum
13. Tim Sylvia
14. Aleksander Emelianenko
15. Ben Rothwell

Light Heavyweight: (last voted on January 20, 2009)

1. Rashad Evans
2. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
3. Lyoto Machida
4. Forrest Griffin
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
6. Thiago Silva
7. Keith Jardine
8. Chuck Liddell
9. Wanderlei Silva
10. Luis Cane
11. Rich Franklin
12. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
13. Vladimir Matyushenko
14. Tito Ortiz
15. Renato "Babalu" Sobral

Middleweight: (last voted on January 27, 2009)

1. Anderson Silva
2. Dan Henderson
3. Yushin Okami
4. Robbie Lawler
5. Gegard Mousasi
6. Nathan Marquardt
7. Yoshihiro Akiyama
8. Thales Leites
9. Jorge Santiago
10. Kazuo Misaki
11. Vitor Belfort
12. Michael Bisping
13. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza
14. Frank Trigg
15. Demian Maia

Welterweight: (last voted on February 3, 2008)

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Thiago Alves
3. Jon Fitch
4. Jake Shields
5. Josh Koscheck
6. Carlos Condit
7. Matt Hughes
8. Karo Parisyan
9. Mike Swick
10. Marcus Davis
11. Brock Larson
12. Matt Serra
13. Dustin Hazelett
14. Nick Diaz
15. Jay Hieron

Lightweight: (last voted on January 13, 2009)

1. BJ Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante
4. Kenny Florian
5. Sean Sherk
6. Eddie Alvarez
7. Josh Thomson
8. Gilbert Melendez
9. Joachim Hansen
10. Tatsuya Kawajiri
11. Mitsuhiro Ishida
12. Nate Diaz
13. Takanori Gomi
14. Gray Maynard
15. Tyson Griffin

Pound For Pound: (last voted on December 30, 2008)

1. Anderson Silva
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Georges St. Pierre
4. BJ Penn
5. Miguel Torres
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Urijah Faber
8. Rashad Evans
9. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto
10. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
11. Eddie Alvarez
12. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
13. Kenny Florian
14. Forrest Griffin
15. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

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Thank you for joining me again for this wonderful column. I hope you continue to read every week and don't forget to check out the other wonderful columns here on 411mania.com, which is updated daily because that's how we roll.