UFC 100

With predictions of 1.3-1.5 million pay per view buys, tomorrow's UFC 100 is poised to be the biggest non-boxing pay per view event in history topping WrestleMania 23's record of 1.25 million. As much as the WWE and UFC publicly state that they are not in direct competition with each other by citing that the former is in the entertainment business while the latter is in the sports market, the fact remains that there is a strong connection between the two. The biggest feud in UFC history involved a former professional wrestler (Ken Shamrock) and Tito Ortiz who grew up wanting to become a wrestler. Heck, even with Academy Award winning actors in attendance, the two celebrities that have been cheered the loudest at UFC events are former wrestlers "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Although most people do not believe this, just like in wrestling, in UFC what drives a big buy rate is not necessarily the best fighters (see Anderson Silva) rather it is the characters (see Chuck Liddell). Presently, the UFC's best draw is their heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar who is coincidentally also a former WWE champion. Lesnar was a WWE superstar long before his UFC days. The WWE spent a lot of television hours and money developing Lesnar's character as an unstoppable monster. The WWE's lost is the UFC gain as the MMA giant is now reaping the rewards and profiting on Lesnar's stardom that the WWE helped create. The biggest news of 2008 was the emergence of Lesnar as the year’s most-watched PPV fighter with his three fights combining for 2.2 million buys. The main reason for the optimistic record breaking projections for UFC 100 is primarily due to Lesnar's participation in the main event against Frank Mir where pro wrestling and MMA will be linked once again.

UFC 100 is another chapter in the ongoing MMA vs pro wrestling war that has clogged up internet forums. When Lesnar debuted at UFC 81 against Mir, there were many MMA fans who detested that a former professional wrestler would try to engage in a real fight. Mir himself has been superb in drumming up interest for Saturday's fight through his dialogue in the SpikeTV countdown special (see below) to the upcoming pay per view making comments on how the UFC is "fighting and not pro wrestling." Lesnar was seen as the unwanted outsider and mercilessly booed by these purists in his first fight and his rookie mistake that led to his subsequent loss to Mir was proof to them that a fake athlete did not belong in the octagon. There was another group of fans though, a group of individuals who are (or at one time were) wrestling fans, that pointed to Lesnar's sheer domination of Mir lasting 88 seconds until he got caught in a knee bar. For both groups of fans, Lesnar-Mir 2 at UFC 100 will finally settle the debate on whether Mir got lucky or if Lesnar is for real.



The connection of the UFC to WWE does not solely revolve around Lesnar as UFC president Dana White has many qualities of WWE owner Vince McMahon. White reminds some of a young McMahon in that they both want to crush their competition. McMahon broke all of the rules from back in the territorial days of wrestling, taking his brand of wrestling across the United States and stealing talent from other areas. White has also shown no love to competing brands through free counterprogramming on SpikeTV during their pay per view events (remember Anderson Silva vs Jake Shields going up against the inaugural Affliction pay per view?). In the future it will be interesting to see if White challenges McMahon as it is apparent that even though they publicly say they are not in competition, the fact that they both target the young male audience puts them at odds. Although not probable (since wrestling is like a cockroach and has survived seemingly everything) it is possible that White will do what McMahon did to other wrestling promoters back in the 1980s and run him out of business.

Quick notes about tomorrow:
- Herb Dean will referee the Lesnar-Mir main event. Lesnar has refused to fight with Steve Mazzagatti as a referee due to the incident at UFC 81 where Mazzagatti deducted Lesnar a point for illegal strikes to the back of Mir's head without warning (according to Lesnar). The controversial ensuing standup benefited Mir since Lesnar was clearly in control beforehand. On the countdown special, Lesnar punched a door and said that he would "like to punch his fucking mustache right off his face."
- As always, the odds are way too long on some fights (Lesnar-Mir and St. Pierre-Alves especially). If you want to make money on MMA fights then bet the underdogs, not because they always win but because when they do win the payout is good.
- I am really interested in watching Jon Jones fight on the preliminary card. If he does any crazy moves like he did against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94 then it will surely be shown on the main show and he will be up for additional bonuses.
- Speaking of Bonnar remember how close the decision of his classic fight with Forrest Griffin was? What could have been...
- Akiyama's debut will be missing a special something. My friend Matt wishes that he "could hear that Japanese girl [K1 ring announcer] who screams all the names in a hugely high pitched voice say his name." They should hire her as Akiyama's personal ring announcer.
- And to tie into Michael Jackson, apparently he was at UFC 84 in a wheelchair, wearing a mask and covered head to toe like a burn victim.

Official fight card

Main card
Heavyweight Championship unification bout: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
Welterweight Championship bout: Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves
Welterweight bout: Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago
Middleweight bout: Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
Middleweight bout: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher

Preliminary card
Light Heavyweight bout: Mark Coleman vs. Stephan Bonnar
Lightweight bout: Mac Danzig vs. Jim Miller
Light Heavyweight bout: Jon Jones vs. Jake O'Brien
Welterweight bout: Dong Hyun Kim vs. TJ Grant
Middleweight bout: C.B. Dollaway vs. Tom Lawlor
Lightweight bout: Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty