The UFC announced today that it will run a free fight card on Spike TV July 19th. This is to combat the start of the new Affliction card that is taking place that night. While Affliction seems to moslty be made up of fighters who washed out of the UFC after having sucess then falling on hard times it does boast Fedor Emilianenko a heavy weight many consider the best fighter in the world. He will face Silvia one of those who washed out of the UFC.  Silvia, once the Heavyweight Champ of the UFC lost his title to Randy Couture and then lost to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a fight for Couture's vacated title.

The free UFC card will be headlined by Andrson Silva the UFC middle weight champ at 185 who will move up to 205 pounds to face James Irvin in a Light Heavyweight non title fight.

The rest of the card shoudl be announced soon. check it out at UFC.com

Also,

For fans of TUF. Last night the shocking conclusion to this season showed Jesse Taylor a finalist set to fight in the ultimate finale live in Vegas blow his UFC dreams. Jesse got drunk, kicked a window out of a limo and the proceeded inside the Palace Station casino where he "terrorized" woman while yelling "Don't you know who I am? I'm a UFC fighter." Dana kicked Jesse out of the UFC and off the show. Which opened the door for cast members CB Dollaway and Tim Credeur. After a fierce battle Dollaway won the final spot in the finals.

The TUF finals are part of "The ultimate Finale" live Saturday night on Spike TV.

Also, I saw an interview over at mmarated where Roger huerta says his friend is movin gup to 185. His Friend...George St. Pierre. Pierre vs Silva.. That would be one epic match-up.

Chad wants the Bengals to better their defense. Well I have a solution.

Trade Chad for Jason Taylor.  Let Chad enjoy catching from Miami's QBs. While we enjoy a class guy who can sack QBs and dance.

A few other shorts while I'm here.

Paul Daughtery is terrible to listen to on radio. I listen to the best radio crew in baseball and then he follows them up. He's cocky and boring at the same time. I didn't know that was possible.

I cast my all star ballot today. The AL is pathetic. If the NL can't pull this one off then it's a curse or something. I had a hard time finding an AL 2b, C, or 1B that was deserving.

Chase Utley is really good. I think he is Ryne Sandberg's love child. They look similar.

Moe's blog makes me feel dirty but I like it.

Has anyone picked up and girls from farmersonly.com ?

UFC 87 is still 2 UFC's away but that card is looking really impressive.

St. Pierre vs Jon Fitch 

Kenny Florian vs Roger Huerta

Brock Lesner vs Heath Herring.

That's a nice start to that card.

Speaking of Lesner he is the perfect example of the difference between Elite XC and UFC.

Elite XC feeds Kimbo chumps to pad his record. UFC snds Lesner in against a former champ in Frank Mir. Then for his next fight he faces a guy in Heath Herring who is very experianced. I think Lesner will kill him but he's not a tomoato can. You wan tto be good in the UFC, you earn it.

Cincinnati Freaks out over Thunderstorms. That dude with the big butt chin was on my TV for over an hour and caused me to miss some of Oprah.

Over the weekend I had the experiance of watching Elite XC with some fringle MMA fans. Hearing their comments I think it's important your know what you are watching. My first impression is this is NOT good for MMA.

Here is why..

First, I loved the ladies fight. Gina Coranno is such a merketing tool. She's hot, She's tuff and her dad was even there worried about her. She's even an American Gladiator. What a great story. She looked good and battered her opponent.  No problems with this fight.

The rest of the night for me was a big disappointment.

The second fight was an aboslute war of a  fight until Scott Smith was poked in the eye. The fight was stopped and honeslty for know good reason. Smith was immedialty better and could see fine. His eye wasn't ever watering by the time the decision was announced. It was the dumbest stoppage I have ever seen. That said, while the fight was a war neither of those guys would last a round with a half way decent UFC fighter. Know when you are watching EliteXC you are essentially watching washed up or never were that good type of fighters. The casual fan was not introduced to any ground game in this fight. It was an old fashioned street fight. Except it was stopped for a three stooges eye poke. Wow.  

Which brings me to Kimbo Slice. Everyone I was with was saying this guy is a bad **** wait till you see him fight. Please...Kimbo showed his colors almost getting beat and being completely helpless on the ground against a sub par tin can of a fighter. I knew when they showed his fighting style that guy was a chump..Freestyle!! I thought that was a style of rap not MMA. Kimbo will never be a great MMA fighter. Elite XC might keep feeding him chumps and he might chew them all up but put him in the ring with a top 20 heavyweight or hell a light heavyweight and he would be done. I believe George St. Piere could beat the guy and Kimbo has what 75 pounds on him. Listen I have nothing against Kimbo I'd like ot see him become more well rounded but right now he is a strret fighter and watching him is not in any way impressive. It is certainly not a good way to introduce fans to MMA.

Was it good for the sport? NO... I was disappointed in the lack of ground skills displayed. There was very little skill on display at all. To the casual fan MMA looked Saturday like what it used to look like 10 years ago..brawling or human **** fighting. The technical side of things is what makes it so much better now. The problem is Elite XC fighters are not better. They are not what casual fans need to be introduced to. 

If you are a casual fan and liked the fights Saturday then do yourself  a favor and check out the next UFC unleashed on Spike TV. It will be like seeing Kevin Federline in concert one night and then seeing Micheal Jackson in his prime the next night.  

Anderson Silva is tuff and considered by most MMA polls as the #1 pound for pound mixed martial artist in the world but after back to back dismantlings of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. I might give the nod to George St. Pierre.

He absoloutley overwhelmed Hughes in their match-up a few months ago. Leaving the fight with barely a scratch. Meanwhile Hughes face was beat up badly. In that fight GSP showed every angle of his MMA skills from stand-up to kicks to wrestling before submitting Hughes with an arn bar.

He then comes in tonight and has his way with Serra submitting him with powerful knees to Serra side and ribs. All Serra could muster was a decent submission defense while GSP once again showed talent in both the stand-up and ground dominating Serra on the ground when many thought that is where Serra had an advantage.  Serra's face was swelling and bruised as he gave GSP congratulations on the win while St. Pierre looked untouched.

What a fight Silva vs GSP would be. How cool would it be if they coudl meet at a middle ground weight?

Until that happens I give my nod to the #1 pound for pound Mixed MArtial Artist to George St. Pierre.