Everybody knows that Arianny Celeste's musical masterpiece 'Fight To Love Me' is an example of fantastic songwriting. However, Miss Celeste's auto-tuned vocals, while good, cannot fully bring out the meaning in the song. Only two men have the deep baritone voice needed to fully sing this song - and since Teddy Pendergrass is no longer with us our last hope is SBNation's own Luke Thomas. So please join me in this attempt to get Luke Thomas to sing the song that will most likely be Mixed Martial Arts' anthem. Sorry, nu-metal but we have Ring Girl Pop music now and that is the way that it is going to be from now on.

Sign below and rec to get Luke to sing this masterpiece. This can only help to embarrass him and further his career. Probably only the former however.

-t

Perennial top three welterweight in the world Jon Fitch told his fans on twitter this yesterday that his injury was worse than expected and that he would be getting shoulder surgery. This will take him out of action for four to six months. Fitch, who is coming off a draw against BJ Penn at UFC 127, was expected to rematch BJ Penn at UFC 132 until they both pulled out of the card with injuries. This is a major blow to the UFC's Welterweight division since there is currently no clear cut number one contender after Jake Shields challenges Champion Georges St-Pierre. This also delays the chance of a Jon Fitch-BJ Penn rematch happening in 2011 since Penn's injury is not expected to keep him out as long. Hopefully Fitch will be have a successful surgery and rehab and will be back "in the mix" in no time.

Photo by Dave Mandel for Sherdog.com

Recently all the rage has been the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix that is a tournament that isn't a tournament but actually is a tournament despite what anybody says because it fits the damn Merriam-Webster description of what a Tounament is. I can only think of one tournament that is happening this year that can possibly upstage the awesomeness that will be the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix and that tournament is not from Bellator, not from Dream, not from Sengoku but from the greatest Japanese promotion of them all Grachan!

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Originally posted at That MMA Blog

Note: Since I started picking for That MMA Blog i've gone 29-12-1 for the year with recent events being WEC 53 (7-4) & Extreme Challenge 170 (4-0) 

SRC Jacket match (Lightweights): Sotaro Yamada vs. Kim Lee Sak

Sotaro Yamada by R2 Sub

SRC Jacket match (59 kg): Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita

Kiyotaka Shimizu by UD

SRC Jacket match (Lightweights): Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Jung Jin Suk

Yukio Sakaguchi by UD

Amy Davis vs. Misaki Takimoto

Misaki Takimoto by R2 Sub

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As you should know, Dana White was in Rio (alongside UFC Champions Anderson Silva, Shogun Rua and other UFC talent) recently to announce that the UFC would be returning to Brazil in 2011. After the press conference, Dana White met Will Ribeiro and promised him that he would help him. Here is what Will said on Facebook:

I'll wait for your help with great calm and patience.Thank you Dana White. Be what God wants. Let's see if Dana White and different from my managers Ed Soares and Jorge Guimaraes. He shook my hand, had an attitude of a gentleman. With much determination and sacrificial I Will Ribeiro had access to Dana White here in Rio, was complicated and virtually impossible but I won that battle but the game of interests, I overcame the famous imposter when Panico na TV, I could dribble and got the watchful in man's billfold circfuito fights, he talked to me Ed Smith spoke with him about what I live here in Brazil and Dana White was impressed when he saw me, even then he knew miml mouth by others and some photos, well, he shook my hand and according to Ed Smith, he promised to help. Let's wait and see and it is equal to Ed Smith and Joinha, or if he a different person the same as Andrew Noble Pederneiras.

Will Ribiero was formerly a top 10 ranked Bantamweight fighting in the Zuffa owned WEC promotion. In December of 2008 he was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him in a coma. Will is no longer in a coma but he is still recovering from his near fatal injuries. His struggles have been well documented by James Ryan.

Reposted from my blog That MMA Blog

I follow a couple of the readers here on twitter and wanted to create a quick database here where people can find all of the BE community on Twitter. Just post in the comments with your twitter name and i'll add you to the post. So plug away! 

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Extreme Challenge 170

Vince Lucero vs. Tim Sylvia 
Sylvia by R1 KO

Richard White vs. Travis Wiuff 
Wiuff by R1 sub

Ryan Williams vs. Tommy Speer 
Speer by UD

Ted Worthington vs. Paul Bradley
Bradley by UD

Nemesis Fighting: MMA Global Invasion

Lightheavyweight bout: Francisco France vs. Keith Jardine
Jardine by R3 KO

Heavyweight bout: Kerry Schall vs. Paul Buentello
Buentello by R1 TKO

Lightheavyweight bout: Chris Davis vs. Eliot Marshall
Marshall by UD

Lightweight bout: Jeff Curran vs. Travis Marx
Curran by UD

Middleweight bout: Marcus Hicks vs. Terry Martin
Martin by UD

Flyweight bout: John Dodson vs John Moraga
Dodson by UD

UFC 124

Welterweight Championship bout: Georges St-Pierre (c) vs. Josh Koscheck
Koscheck by UD

Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Sean McCorkle
McCorkle by KO R1

Lightweight bout: Jim Miller vs. Charles Oliveira
Miller by UD

Lightweight bout: Joe Stevenson vs. Mac Danzig
Stevenson by UD

Welterweight bout: Thiago Alves vs. John Howard
Alves by R3 TKO

Lightweight bout: Mark Bocek vs. Dustin Hazelett
Hazelett by R2 sub

Middleweight bout: Joe Doerksen vs. Dan Miller
Miller by UD

Middleweight bout: Jesse Bongfeldt vs. Rafael Natal
Natal by UD

Welterweight bout: Matt Riddle vs. Sean Pierson
Riddle by UD

Welterweight bout: TJ Grant vs. Ricardo Almeida
Almeida by R2 sub

Lightweight bout: Pat Audinwood vs. John Makdessi
Audinwood by UD

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I recently started an MMA blog (very creatively titled 'That MMA Blog') and instead of the standard rankings I was going to have four different sets (World, UFC, Strikeforce, International [fighters outside the UFC & SF -- like Bellator, Dream, free agents, etc]). Well at 1am after being very sleep depraved I came up with the first draft of my Strikeforce rankings which will no doubt be changed a ton after SF Henderson vs Babalu 2. I'm also sure I made a lot of errors and am just looking for some general feedback

So without further ado:

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Note: I did not write this nor am trying to claim I wrote this. Just trying to spread the word and I wanna give credit to FightOpinion.com for telling me about this story. All credit goes to James Ryan.

For those of you who might not already know, WEC bantamweight fighter, Will Ribeiro (MMA record 9-2), is still making progress as he attempts to battle back from a life-threatening motorcycle accident, dating back to December 2008.

Ribeiro was critically injured while riding on the back of a motorcycle on rain-slick roads without a helmet. He was in a comatose state and lost vision in one eye. Doctors gave Ribeiro a 50/50 chance of ever waking up.

And he did.

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via www.cdn.sherdog.com

It's late February, one man gets a phone call from Art Davie, the founder of the UFC. An injury to Ken Shamrock has opened up an alternate spot in the tournament. The brave man on the other side of the phone accepts the offer and will enter UFC 2: No Way Out in less than 2 weeks. This man is Fred Ettish, Karate Master.

Fred Ettish stepped in for an injured Frank Hamaker to fight Johnny Rhodes in the second round of the one night tournament. During the fight Ettish pioneered many tactics such as the butt-scoot and fetal position that would later be used by MMA champions Shinya Aoki and Brock Lesnar respectively. Ettish was truly a pioneer for the sport and even in defeat, Ettish became a legend.

View the epic battle in it's entirety below:

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I got into a debate online and want to see what the general consensus is among educated MMA fans.

Here is my case for why he is a legend (note sorry for poor grammar and typos this is just a slightly edited version of what I posted on a forum):

Tank was one of if not the most popular fighter of the early UFCs (love him or hate him - you either wanted him to win or see him lose). He backed up his popularity with a pair of runner-up finishes at  two UFC tournaments including the Ultimate Ultimate 96 which was a tournament compiling the best fighters of that year (it didn't turn out as great as expected but most single night tournaments don't).

For a short read about what he introduced to the sport check out this: 
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/story/2007/10/13/231714/61 (in short: he proved strikers had a place in MMA) 

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