Superlist: UFC 87

- 6'3" 265 pound man with a large penis-sword tattooed across his pasty white chest spotted while pointing his finger, hopping around, and giggling.

Is there anything more grotesque?

-Don't look at the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
Kenny Florian wins the Track Suit of the Night Award. Channeling the spirit of Bruce Lee, Florian sported a yellow, Game of Death-inspired jacket and pants ensemble, and kicked Kareem Abdul Jabar in the face on his way to the cage.


- Foot in mouth.
Somewhat literally.
After claiming that Georges St. Pierre was just a wrestler after the champion's second fight with Serra, Jon Fitch assured audiences that St. Pierre would be too scared to stand and trade in their bout, with a hint of self-satisfaction that was curiously absent following their fight. That smugness must have gone missing somewhere in between pre-fight and when St. Pierre launched an unidentified object out of Fitch's mouth and across the cage.
Impressive in losing, Fitch displayed his trademark toughness to his largest audience yet, getting battered on the ground and on the feet en route to a lopsided decision loss. St. Pierre, for his part, dispelled any suspicions (originating mostly from rival camp AKA) that he lacked the drive and grittiness to defeat someone of Fitch's caliber across 5 championship rounds.

- Foot in mouth II.
With hype and momentum fast-abandoning him, Roger Huerta has been forced these last few days to "clarify" statements he made during interviews in the months leading up to the fight. Often quoted as being dissatisfied with the UFC's compensation, support, and general treatment of their fighters, Huerta has, since his loss to Kenny Florian, recanted his assertions that he was being over worked (as in the UFC's strenuous PR campaigns) and undercompensated (as in the $50.00 per diem that the UFC gave to Huerta on said campaigns). Huerta now claims that his words were put out of context and exaggerated. "I never bashed the UFC," he said at the post-fight press conference. "I was never saying that the UFC is bad."
Of course, while he can claim that his print interviews were taken wrongly, there is little to misunderstand about the interview Huerta gave at the weigh-ins for UFC 84, which I attended. When asked plainly if he thought that the UFC fairly compensated their fighters, Huerta replied, after a long, awkward pause, "No."
As a Florian fan, I was happy with the outcome of their fight, but as a fan hopeful for greater company responsibility towards, and compensation for fighters, the results don't bode well. Had Huerta won, he would have had a huge bargaining chip going into his upcoming contract negotiations, and, more importantly, a great deal of influence over both fans and company men when it comes to fighters' rights and pay. To date, those who have been most vocal over the UFC's financial abuse and lack of loyalty, such as Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture, have been dismissed as washed up, their concerns stemming from desperate greed at the end of their careers. For Huerta, a young fighter at his peak, to come out against the UFC's business practices surely would have opened more eyes to how uniformly the UFC mistreats its fighters.
I was never that impressed with Huerta as a fighter, but I greatly appreciated how strategically and responsibly he used the leverage that fame had given him to stand up (or begin to stand up) for himself and his peers.

Lambert to 185

Word around the old internet is that Jason Lambert is back in the cage this September for UFC 88...at middleweight. MMAMania.com reports that a fight with Jason Day has been set for the Atlanta fight card.
Lambert had shown flashes of brilliance at light-heavyweight (most notably his TKO of Renato Sobral in 2007) but was always a little undersized for the division, as evidenced by his inability to close the distance in his losing efforts against Luiz Cane and Wilson Gouveia (who, interestingly, is also moving down to middleweight). So long as Lambert's power carries into the lower weight class, and he takes advantage of the greater endurance that should come with a leaner build, Lambert ought to enjoy more consistent success at middleweight, and add some much-needed depth to the division.
Plus, maybe this will save me from having to explain the many loose folds of flesh that hang off his body.

Pleasant Surprise of the Day: David Loiseau won by TKO this past June.

Loiseau, who many considered effectively ruined after a thrashing at the hands of Rich Franklin, knocked out the now 5-2-0 Andrew Buckland last June at a relatively small Canadian show. This is the first time Loiseau has been able to string together two consecutive wins in almost 3 years. Buckland might not be considered huge game (especially for someone who was at one time a UFC top contender) but isn't bad competition for a fighter on the mend like Loiseau.

I was a little surprised that it hadn't been reported any earlier that Loiseau was fighting. He was appearing on a card populated with other big show veterans (Dan Hornbuckle, Carlo Prater, Travis Galbraith), and he himself still has a pretty decently sized fan base. Sometimes I wonder if this, and similar news bits, are purposefully not covered by sites like Sherdog.com as an attempt at showing impartiality to the UFC (and, by extension, its stable of fighters). That is, a fighter like Loiseau (or Dave Menne, or Anthony Perosh, or any number of TUF castaways) isn't newsworthy simply because he fought in the UFC.

I certainly hope this isn't the case. While such a policy initially seems like a step towards a less UFC-centric view of mixed martial arts, all this really does is hurt fighters. The UFC cut them anyway, and their infamously (and perhaps mythically) cold, bottom-line-focused relations with fighters leaves little room for sentiment--it's doubtful that Dana White is feeling slighted that some news site or another isn't covering UFC veteran David Loiseau. But I bet David Loiseau sure would appreciate some publicity.

And why not give it to him? Fighters like these, who at one point put their body and mind on the line in order to fill a money-making card for the UFC, deserve a little recognition. And in a relatively inexpensive medium like online journalism, websites like Sherdog.com (with an increasingly burgeoning set of ad banners) can afford to keep up with David Loiseau, (or Ricco Rodriguez, or Gideon Ray) even if he is only rebuilding his record in smaller shows. Certainly the fan interest would justify at least a small blurb.

Altruism and potential fan service aside, such reports would also serve to contextualize, and re-contextualize, the sport, where it was, and where it's going. It's interesting to see that at one point a fighter like Junior Assuncao, with a bit of momentum behind him, was considered good enough to compete for the world's premier mixed martial arts promoter, whereas now he is having trouble in the smaller shows. These details hint at the growth of the sport, and the evolution of its fighters.

It's a hard enough business without getting your UFC contract (which was probably underpaying you anyway) abruptly terminated, and certainly hard enough without what should have been a blessing (greater exposure) becoming a source of resentment among the MMA community. And honestly, instead of reading a bunch of pre-fight hype out of Michael Bisping, I'd rather keep up with David Loiseau, or Mark Kerr.

Speaking of Mark Kerr...


Absolutely Unpleasant, Depressing Surprise of the Day: Mark Kerr has fought twice since his loss to Oleg Taktarov in the YAMMA, and lost both fights.

Dear God, no.

I'm a huge fan of Mark Kerr, and I love to see him win. Though his best days are behind him, I had hoped that "The Smashing Machine" would be able to find a rhythm and continue winning against less notable opposition so long as he wished to keep fighting. However, Kerr has already suffered two losses this summer--one to a then 2-0-0 Tracy Willis, and the second to a then 3-4-0 Ralph Kelly.

Ultimately, one has to respect the fighter's decision to compete or not, but these losses seriously put in doubt the efficacy of any further in-ring contests. I've been hoping for a while now that Mark Kerr will make the physical and psychological adjustments necessary to compete successfully, but at this point, I'm not sure if that will ever happen.

My heart is broken. A piece of it lies in Mark Kerr's mutant pectorals of yesteryear. Unbreak my heart, Mark Kerr!