UFC 138 took place last night in Birmingham, England, featuring Chris Leben vs. Mark Munoz in a blood-soaked main event.   Munoz sliced and diced his way to TKO victory, leaving Leben a bloody mess and unable to answer the bell for the third round.  It wasn't a domination on Munoz's part by any means, with Leben landing some good shots and even taking down the acclaimed wrestler a few times.  But Munoz's swarming attacks on the ground were effective in keeping Leben on the defensive for much of the fight, and by the end of round two the fight had turned into a blood bukakke-fest.  Leben was bleeding heavily from facial cuts which resulted in his corner stopping the bout.

With the UFC about to make its debut on Fox TV, people are talking about how the sport is going "mainstream" and will become huge.  However, I disagree with this assessment.  Not to be a debbie-downer, but small fingerless gloves and the use of elbows results in lots of cuts.  For hardcore fans this is no big deal, but for casual viewers the sight of all that blood is just not something they want to see.  Think back to the Kimbo vs. Thompson fight on CBS.  Thompson's ear exploded out of the cage into our living rooms and made a lot of people sick to their stomachs.  PPV will always be where MMA does best, because hardcore fans, the ones willing to shell out money for the fights, don't mind the blood.  Still, you won't find me complaining about the UFC on network television, because at 60 bucks a pop, those PPVs fatten up my already fat cable bills.  It's just that all this talk of MMA becoming bigger than the NFL is, to use the British vernacular, a bloody pipe dream.

The rest of the card featured some terrific bouts.  Thiago Alves welcomed undefeated UFC newcomer Papy Abedi to the Octagon with a right-left combo that rocked the Swedish-Congolese fighter.  Alves followed up with some brutal ground and pound and when Abedi turned his back to avoid the blows, Alves sunk in the choke for his first UFC submission win.  Before the combination that floored Abedi, Thiago was landing some vicious kicks to the body.  Thiago Alves is an electrifying striker, with an ever improving ground game, and his skills were on full display last night.  Already looking forward to his next fight.

Also on the card was Brazilian wrecking machine Renen Barao.  After losing his first professional MMA bout by razor thin split decision, Barao has wracked up 27 straight wins.  He landed a huge knee on Brad Fickett last night, which put Fickett down.  Barao's killer instinct then kicked in and he finished Fickett with a rear naked choke.

All in all some great fights last night, especially considering that the card was free on Spike.  Complete results after the jump.

(Dana White: 800 Pound Gorilla)

Whoa!  Talk about juice, and not the kind that Dana White's mom June says her son probably does, but the kind that allows Zuffa to pull the plug on a video she uploaded to YouTube where she talks about her son.  There was no Zuffa-owned content in that video, unless Zuffa owns Dana's mom, which I doubt because it's been illegal to own people since Abraham Lincoln was president.  Still, the video is gone due to a "copyright claim" by Zuffa.  This is totally unfair to June, and hopefully someone at YouTube will actually watch the video and see that any copyright claims are totally bogus.  And for the people saying that she made the video for profit, you are wrong.  She got paid nothing for it.

Fortunately, CagePotato did a nice summarization of the video, some of which I will post here:

• She believes her son takes steroids

• She accuses Dana of cheating on his wife, calls the marriage “a joke” and says he “puts Tiger Woods to Shame”

• She claims to “know for sure” that Dana is sleeping with plenty of the ring card girls including Amber Nicole and Rachelle Leah

• She says Dana slept with his sister-in-law in her house

• She alleges Dana got the worst black eye she’s ever seen and nearly lost his eye after his wife attacked him on their honeymoon

There's lots more too, which you can find at the link.  As soon as the video gets back online, I will post it here.  Also, here's a pic of June White and her son Dana in happier times, back when Dana had hair not only on his head, but on his arms too.  Intersting how Dana went from having Olive Oyl's arms to Popeye's.  He must eat lots of spinach!

Well, he's already been called the Muhammad Ali of MMA, and now he's being called the Michael Jordan of MMA.  If this keeps up, eventually people will be called the Jon Jones of their sport.  Then we'll know that Bones Jones has really transcened MMA and has become a legendary sports figure.

Rolling Stone Magazine's article comparing Jones to Jordan started off well, but I got turned off by their fact checking.  At one point the author said:

"Blessed with a six-foot-four frame and a freakish athleticism that runs in the family (his brother Arthur plays linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens), Jones, 24, brings a set of skills the UFC could only dream of in its early days of eye-gouging and head butts."

Oh really, jackass?  A simple fact check would have shown that eye-gouging was never legal in the UFC.  But why bother with facts when you're trying to write a sensational article?

One the positive side, it's great that the sport is getting recognition from mainstream media outlets. Even if some of them get their facts wrong.

As for the Rolling Stone article's title comparing Jones with Jordan, they even got that wrong.  The title was: UFC Champ Jon "Bones" Jones Might Be the Michael Jordan of Anything-Goes Combat.

Anything goes?  Please.  The words you were looking for are "Mixed Martial Arts."

Still, like I said, nice to Rolling Stone covering Bones Jones, who does seem to be transcending the sport.  We'll have to wait and see if guys like Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans have what it takes to spoil his special place in rock and roll.

Dana White has certainly beefed up over the years.  He's a buff dude now, all muscle.  But is it all natural?  That's the big question.  And if you ask Dana White's Mom, June, the answer is: No.

June was pretty surprised to see how big her son had gotten over the past few years.   On her Twitter account she said:

"I was very surprised when I saw a pic of him with no neck & the shoulders on his jacket were pulling."

In his vanity weight lifting video, which was presented to the world by yours truly, Dana was pushing up 315 pounds, so he is definitely strong.  But then again, who isn't strong if they're on the juice.

I asked June White point blank: Do you think Dana is on steroids.  Her reply:

"It seems obvious if u look at pictures of him when all of a sudden he started to bulk up big time. I haven't seen any recent pictures, if he lost that no neck look or not, but I've heard from people that everyone knows he was doing them."

Is that definitive proof?  No, it's not.  But a mother's insight is usually a good indicator.  Of course people will, so what? And that's a valid response.  He doesn't compete after all.  Still, he is the president of organization that has taken a lot of flack for its fighters failing drug tests, and it would lend more credibility to his assertions that he won't tolerate steroids in the UFC.

I guess it's simply a case of do as I say not as I do.

June White also wrote an excellent book detailing the life of her famous son.  It's a no holds barred look at Dana White's life, and contains some very revealing information.  You can purchase it from Amazon here: Dana White King of MMA by June White. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.

As for me, I get accused of doing roids all the time, just because I've got those gigantic beach muscles.  And I must confess I have some experience with this stuff.  Check out my YouTube confession after the jump:

After losing three straight fights in the UFC, all of them in the middleweight division, Yoshihiro Akiyama, better known as Sexyama, was in danger of being cut from the organization.  Dana White's advice to Akiyama was to drop down to the welterweight division and try fighting there.  This would keep the Japanese fighter in the UFC, but he'd have to cut a lot of weight to make 170.  He decided to give it a go, and just completed a test cut where he dropped 33 pounds in 4 weeks.  Here is a pic of Skinnyama at his new weight. Still sexy after all these pounds!

Sweet promo video.  No WWE-style fire this time, just the two best heavyweights on the planet preparing for their epic showdown next month on Fox TV.

A subdued Nick Diaz spoke to reporters yesterday ahead of Saturday's fight with BJ Penn at UFC 137.  Nick gave BJ a lot of respect and said that he loves training and competing but that the money takes the fun out of fighting.