via mmamania.com

Earlier today I had brought up the possibility of a future UFC event taking place in Minnesota with Brock Lesnar fighting for the HW title in Minnesota... (But that's another story for another day) I had created a dream card of sorts with Josh Koscheck fighting Jon Fitch in a somewhat co-main event. Somehow in my immense knowledge of MMA, I had forgotten that they train together at the American Kickboxing Academy. And boy, do i regret it... All I heard was "they train together, idiot" "Are you retarded? Kos and Fitch are training partners!"

Now, this got me to thinking... Why in the hell is it such a big deal for training partners to fight each other. What better way to test your abilities than by fighting someone who knows your every move.  I would think that it would be a great way for you to see if you can out-gameplan someone who knows your weaknesses. I don't know, maybe they don't want to let their friendship get in the way of fighting each other, they won't want to hurt each other.  But don't most fighters say that it isn't personal when they fight, they're just doing their job.  And most fights almost ALWAYS end with the fighters hugging.

Besides, in today's MMA game, most fighters see each other at pretty much every UFC event, I'm sure they get to know each other well.  I'm sure if Kos were to fight Fitch, Greg Jackson, or the people at Xtreme Couture would be more than happy to help one of them out. All I know is that, if I had to fight one of my friends for 3 rounds in a cage to make some money, and put food on my table... I'd ask if we could do it the next day.

After seeing the payouts for UFC 92. I got to thinking... What were the most expensive fights ever? Now, Pride never released to the public what they paid their fighters, and most of the events outside of Las Vegas and California don't have any data, because those states don't require the organizations to release the payouts to the public.

Anyways, here's what I found... If you come up with anything else, let me know. I'll change the list.

(This list includes win bonuses, but not KO of the Night, Fight of the Night, or Submission of the Night bonuses.)

1. Fedor Emelianenko-$300,000 vs. Tim Sylvia-$800,000 Total-$1.1 Million (Affliction: Banned) all for 36 seconds...

2. Andrei Arlovski-$750,000 vs. Ben Rothwell-$250,000 Total-$1 Million (Affliction: Banned)

3. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson-$225,000 vs. Chuck Liddell-$500,000 Total-$725,000 (UFC 71)

4. Brock Lesnar-$450,000 vs. Randy Couture-$250,000 Total-$700,000 (UFC 91)

5. Chuck Liddell-$500,000 vs. Wanderlei Silva-$150,000 Total-$650,000 (UFC 79)

6. Chuck Liddell-$500,000 vs. Rashad Evans-$120,000 Total-$620,000 (UFC 88)

7. Andrei Arlovski-$500,000 vs. Roy Nelson-$80,000 Total-$580,000 (EliteXC: Heat)

8. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson-$325,000 vs. Wanderlei Silva-$200,000 Total-$525,000 (UFC 92)

9. Chuck Liddell-$500,000 vs. Keith Jardine-$14,000 Total-$514,000 (UFC 76)

10. Royce Gracie-$400,000 vs. Matt Hughes-$110,000 Total-$510,000 (UFC 60)

Honorable Mention: Frank Shamrock-$300,000 vs. Cung Le-$200,000 Total-$500,000 (Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le)

Last week, nothing came out, and I was feeling a little under the weather, but this week, I'm back, letting those who care, know about all the recent MMA DVD's.

The only thing to come out this week is a title from King of the Cage. KOTC: Underground Soldiers.

via ecx.images-amazon.com

A 10 event set, featuring over 20 hours of fights, this set features some of MMA's upcoming fighters, nothing too special here, but worth it, if you have nothing better to do, for only $12.99.

 

Now, something I was excited about when I got it. It came out around 6 months ago, and is definitely a must-buy for any MMA fan.

Rumble on the Rock: Superstar Collection. Featuring UFC Champions BJ Penn and Anderson Silva, former EliteXC Champion Jake Shields, and former Pride Champion Takanori Gomi, this set is jam packed with good fights from the first minute to the last.

via ecx.images-amazon.com

With the mega-main event of BJ Penn vs. Takanori Gomi, ROTR 4 is worth the money alone. But you get fighters like the aforementioned champions, as well as Yushin Okami, Frank Trigg, Carlos Condit, Tank Abbott, Kendall Grove, and Butterbean, all added in the package. I would pay $40 for this if I had to, but luckily it's usually only around TEN BUCKS!!!!! If you're a true MMA fan, you need to own this.

 This is a big week for any MMA fan, well... DVD wise anyways.

First up is my personal favorite of the week, UFC 87. It was in my hometown, and it was my first live UFC event. So it'll be nice to get all those memories back.

 

With Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch and Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring headlining. Also features (for the first time, as far as I know) Spike's Countdown to UFC 87.

Next up is another Zuffa released Pride event, Bushido 12. Ever since they released Bushido 13 with the finals of the Survival Tournament, I've been dying to get the first 2 rounds. Why they're releasing them in reverse order I'll never know, but I'm just glad they're being released.

Matchups include Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki, Gegard Mousasi vs. Akihiro Gono, and Paulo Filho vs. Ryo Chonan.

And finally we have EliteXC: Lawler vs. Smith 2, with the highly anticipated rematch of Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith after their first fight ended somewhat controversially, they had to finish the job.

via ecx.images-amazon.com

Features 3 title fights, Lawler/Smith for the MW title, Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson for the WW title, and Antonio Silva vs. Justin Eilers for the HW Championship.

Stay tuned for more next week!

Well, there was nothing new released today, so instead, I'll take a look at something that was released awhile ago...

Cage Rage: The Superstar Collection, 5 event set.

via ecx.images-amazon.com

Featuring some of the biggest stars to fight for Cage Rage, such as Anderson Silva, Michael Bisping, Matt Lindland, "Cyborg" Santos, Babalu, Melvin Manhoef, Lee Murray, and Paul Daley, this is a must own for any MMA fan. Coming on 3 discs, this set has 5 events on it. Disc 1 includes The Battle of Britain, with a co-main event of Michael Bisping vs. Mark Epstein and Jorge Rivera vs. Mark Weir. Disc 1 also has has the Knights of the Octagon, with a huge main event of Lee Murray vs. Anderson Silva. Disc 2 also contains 2 events, No Mercy, with matchups of Babalu vs. Cyrille Diabate, and Paul Daley vs. Jess Liaudin as well as Matt Lindland and Michael Bisping, and Deliverance, with "Cyborg" Santos, Melvin Manhoef, and Babalu on the card. Disc 3 has one event, Face Off, with a main event of Anderson Silva vs. Jorge Rivera, it's a battle of a UFC veteran, and a future UFC Champion. Face Off also has a stacked undercard with fighters such as Paul Daley, Brad Pickett, and "Cyborg" Santos.

Well, there you have it, you can pick it up off of Amazon for $13.49, or try to find it at a Suncoast or FYE store. That's where I found mine, but I would suggest Amazon to be safe, because not every store carries the same DVDs.

I found this @ MMAFighting's Japan section.

"It seems to me that Mikey (Yoshihiro Akiyama) is making fun of our event," Aoki said Sunday on the "Fighting Talk of the Treasure House" radio show. "His demand is nothing but self-centered. I won't fight anybody except Mikey on NYE. I'll defeat him without gaining any weight. If he doesn't take this offer, I will consider that he is afraid of fighting me, and runs away."

via www.hero-s.com

And from the WTF?! section...

DREAM producer Keiichi Sasahara is working to comply with Aoki's request.

"We were thinking about Badr Hari and Choi Hong Man as Aoki's opponent, but now we are only negotiating with Akiyama."

Badr Hari or Hong-Man Choi!?!?!?!?!? Does FEG not like Aoki, are they trying to get him killed? I've added an image for what I would assume would be the size difference...

via img.news.yahoo.co.kr

Anyways, here's the full article, with a link to more on the Aoki-Akiyama situation...Aoki will only fight Akiyama on NYE

From MMAJunkie, comes this matchup for the Jan. 4th event.

via mmajunkie.com

Sengoku 7 is shaping up to be a pretty good card so far with Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki for the MW belt, and Takanori Gomi, despite his loss to Sergey Golyaev, facing Satoru Kitaoka for the LW title. Also, Roger Gracie, and Paul "Semtex" Daley are rumored to be on the card.

And with Josh Barnett's Affliction deal in limbo for the moment, hopefully there's a chance we'll see him on the card as well.

Sengoku 7 takes place January 4th, 2009 at the Saitama Super Arena, in Saitama, Japan.

Full article here...Yoshida vs. Kikuta

If you're like me, you have to have every single MMA event that's released on DVD. Well, if you are, I'll help you out, I'll try to post a blog on Tuesday's letting everyone know what's out for the day. (Unless there isn't anything of course.)

First up is this, for the first time ever, the UFC comes to Blu-Ray, hopefully we'll see more of this.

UFC: Ultimate Comebacks

And it's also available in Standard Definition.

via ecx.images-amazon.com

More next week!

From MMA Junkie, Rich Franklin was the Q & A guest before the UFC 91 weigh-ins. (I feel kind of slighted, we got Amir Sadollah @ UFC 87, but he was good, so it's ok...)

Here's some of what he said....

 "I'd fight him," Franklin said. "The thing about a Machida fight that isn't appealing to me is that stylistically, Machida is kind of a boring fighter.

"That's not a putdown. It's not a putdown. He's very, very effective. He's good at what he does. He's constantly backing away and forces his opponent into mistakes, and that's how he catches you."

More of the Q & A session here...Rich Franklin talks Machida, TUF, and more.