Minute byMinute: UFC 97 weigh-ins
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
Friday, 5:46 p.m. ET: Organizers havereplaced the analog scale with a digital one for reasons unknown.Big turnout to ogle the dehydrated guys in their underwear.
6:07 p.m. An unkempt Matt Wiman,looking like the Unibomber, weighs in at 155; opponent Sam Stout isthe same.
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6:08 p.m. T.J. Grantclocks in at 169; Ryo Chonanuses the one-pound allowance to make 171. Hair is average.
6:10 p.m. DavidBielkheden is 157. Time to get into a Glad bag. Mark Bocek is154.
6:11 p.m. Local hero DavidLoiseau is received like the cure for cancer. He weighs 185.EdHerman, roundly booed, logs 186.
6:14 p.m. JasonMacDonald looks like an anatomy chart at 186; Nate Quarryweighs the same, give or take the metal Steve Austin stuff used tofix his back.
6:16 p.m. XavierFoupa-Pokam and Denis Kang areboth 185.
6:17 p.m. VinnyMagalhaes records 204; EliotMarshall is 205.
6:19 p.m. Vowel-hating KrzysztofSoszynski is 204; WEC exile and Captain America lookalikeBrianStann weighs 206.
6:20 p.m. SteveCantwell, who beat Stann in the WEC, comes in at 205; Luis ArthurCane looks slightly soft at 206.
6:22 p.m. Big, scary kickboxing animalsAntoniHardonk and Cheick Kongoare 249 and 232, respectively.
6:25 p.m. ChuckLiddell and Mauricio Ruaget big cheers despite not being able to say "aboot." Rua looks tohave been using the Thighmaster. He’s a fit and lean 206 pounds.Liddell comes out to a bigger chorus of cheers. His belly isslightly engorged, but it’s been worse. He’s 206. Upper body looksextremely sinewy. If these guys come in as their ’06 selves, it’sthe fight of the night.
6:29 p.m. ThalesLeites enters to a funeral atmosphere compared to theLiddell-Rua reception. 185 on the potentially broken nose. AndersonSilva is all smiles. He removes several layers of clothing,wipes his nose, then steps on the scale. 182 pounds, not an ounceof it ego.
Live weigh-inresults
By Mike Fridley (mike@sherdog.com)
Friday, 6:30 p.m. ET: The weigh-inshave completed. Sherdog.com associate editor Brian Knapp has anin-depth report here. Below is a quick rundown of the tallies.
UFC 97 Weigh-in Results:
AndersonSilva (182) vs. ThalesLeites (185)
ChuckLiddell (206) vs. Mauricio Rua(206)
CheickKongo (232) vs. AntoniHardonk (249)
SteveCantwell (205) vs. Luis ArthurCane (206)
KrzysztofSoszynski (204) vs. Brian Stann(206)
EliotMarshall (205) vs. VinnyMagalhaes (204)
DenisKang (185) vs. XavierFoupa-Pokam (185)
JasonMacDonald (186) vs. Nate Quarry(186)
DavidLoiseau (185) vs. Ed Herman(186)
MarkBocek (154) vs. DavidBielkheden (157)
RyoChonan (171) vs. T.J. Grant(169)
SamStout (155) vs. Matt Wiman(155)
Faux-livebloggin’ from UFC 97 weigh-ins
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
Friday, 5:30 p.m. ET: Disclaimer: I’mnot physically in Montreal. Canada has yet to issue me an officialapology for exporting Howie Mandel. Until then, we’re not onspeaking terms.
Things to look out for as events unfold, with live updates asbody-fat percentages warrant:
Chuck Liddell’s gutsy performance
As seen on Spike’s “Deadliest Warrior” series, Chuck Liddellsuffers from central obesity. If he weighs in with some muffin topspillover, it should not necessarily be seen as a sign of poorconditioning or preparation.
Having said that, a streamlined torso would add credence toLiddell’s claim that he’s been working hard to put on a late-inningperformance Saturday. Watch the gut. The gut tells all.
Anderson Silva’s reach
Height statistics are traditionally the most scrambled of any MMAfactoids; two guys can both be listed as 6-foot-one, but when theyfinally face off, it could look like an NBA forward staring down ahorse jockey.
Keep an eye out for Silva’s reach compared to challenger ThalesLeites. If his knee looks like a good fit for Leites’ nose,maybe back off on that underdog wager a little bit.
Ryo Chonan’s hair
1-2 in the Octagon, Chonan appears miles away from a rematch withAnderson Silva -- a fight where he jumped into a flying heelhook toexecute the most embarrassing moment in Silva’s career.
A guy like that, he looks for crowd support however he can get it-- up to and including suffering skin reactions to hair dye. I’mthinking red streaks with a “Hello, Kitty” punching Garfield fromthe mount shaved into the temple.
Joe Rogan’s struggle withtechnology
Detours into sensory deprivation tanks aside, Joe Rogan is one ofthe best assets this sport has ever had: passionate, informed andrabid in his delivery. He still does not embrace the concept of nothaving to scream into a microphone in order to be heard.
The microphone yells for you, Joe. It’s an awesome exampleof human ingenuity. Please don’t abuse it.
White: that Liddell retirement thing? Yeah, uh… scratch that
Something happens to Dana White when a microphone is placed nearhis mouth. At this point, he must feel an overwhelming compulsionto say something provocative, controversial or offensive, lestlisteners feel let down. It’s like going to a Springsteen concertand then the big jerk doesn’t play “Born to Run.”
At a pre-event press conference for UFC 97, White paved over hispreviously concrete statements on a ChuckLiddell loss Saturday leading to his retirement. Now -- shockof shocks -- he says it’s up to Liddell when to walk away.
One thing that’s beyond discussion: If Liddell does hang it up inthe UFC, it won’t be to retreat to a series of special-attractionfights in Strikeforce or overseas. Liddell and Matt Hughesare among the promotion’s most loyal employees.
On Silva’s‘best ever in the history of … ever’ status
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
JeffSherwood/Sherdog.com
Friday, 5:10 p.m. ET: From Thursday’snews conference comes trademark Dana White hyperbole: If AndersonSilva defeats ThalesLeites this weekend at UFC 97, he is, without doubt, the best“pound-for-pound” fighter in the world. (I’m paraphrasing. Add yourown helping of profanities.)
He’s excellent. No debate needed. But the best champion the UFC hasever had? What about Matt Hughes’eight title defenses to Silva’s four? What about RandyCouture circumventing decomposition on multiple occasions tobeat young punks, oftentimes at their own game, in a “prime” thatlasted 11 years?
In his UFC tenure, Silva has fought three truly elite fighters:DanHenderson, RichFranklin (twice), and NateMarquardt. All decorated champions, all formidable. Cote,Leben, Lutter -- while all are dangerous in their own way, they’renot likely to occupy any substantial portions of MMA history.
So -- four tippy-top-level fights, assisted by the fact that helooked sensational in all of them.
Compare his tenure to Hughes, who fought top-level contemporariesCarlosNewton, HayatoSakurai, Frank Trigg,GeorgesSt. Pierre, B.J. Penn andSeanSherk. Or St. Pierre, who fended off Jon Fitch,Hughes himself, Trigg and Penn.
MMA is very much a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately climate. Silvais on TV right now, in front of huge crowds, and backed by a PRmachine that runs on rocket fuel. Any discussion of “best ever,ever” status is probably best held over until careers have wrappedup and there’s a little more perspective on the situation.
Of course, tomorrow’s pragmatism doesn’t sell today’s tickets.
Dave Menne istired
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
Friday, 4:40 p.m. ET: “UltimateFighter”-weaned fans might not remember Dave Menne, whoposted up two lackluster performances against JoshKoscheck (untelevised) and LuigiFioravanti in 2006.
Menne was part of the original breed of Midwest attrition guys whowould wear you out from sheer relentlessness, dragging opponentsinto a quicksand of an endurance run. It didn’t make for flashyhighlights -- there’s no “Ultimate Dave Menne” special planned andhis lone replay-value fight was when he was demolished againstPhilBaroni in 2002 -- but he did win a UFC middleweight title.
Larry Vollmer Jr.’s LoHud.com MMA blog reports that Menne is set tomake a return in tonight’s Bellator III after spending severalyears suffering from Lyme Disease, an infectious agent often causedby rolling around in the woods near a bunch of ticks. Fatigue andgeneral malaise are the most common symptoms, though the same mightbe said of some spectators during one of Menne’s fights. (Thatattrition thing? Not always sports nitrogen.)
All the same, here’s wishing Menne a successful return.
Can AndersonSilva Make History Saturday?
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
MarceloAlonso/Sherdog.com
Friday, 3:15 p.m. ET:Sports fans love statistics. I’ve seen guys rattle off the runsbatted in of obscure ballplayers born in the late 1800s (I’ve seenthese same men oblivious to the mustard stains on their shirts, butthat’s another story). There are maniacs who can tell you how manytimes Michael Jordan has dunked while wearing blue Nikes. It’s funfor them. I guess.
I prefer the broader strokes, which is why Saturday’s bout betweenAndersonSilva and ThalesLeites carries a little bit of extra intrigue. Should Silva useLeites’ head as a percussion instrument, as most expect, he willrecord a record ninth consecutive win in the Octagon, breaking thetie with Royce Gracieand JonFitch, who was up there with eight but ran into GeorgesSt. Pierre.
The qualifier “in the Octagon” is important, as it’s relativelyeasy to chalk up a streak in smaller shows against local airconditioning repairmen. Silva has fought a murderer’s row in theUFC and finished all but Patrick Cote-- unless you argue he used Combat Ki to bum up Cote’s knee.
It’ll be only his fifth title defense, though. TravisLutter didn’t make weight after earning a shot on “The UltimateFighter,” and James Irvinwas at 205 pounds. He could tie Matt Hughes,who defended his title five consecutive times.
Or not -- Hughes regained the title and defended it three moretimes. That’s a hell of a thing to do.
Shamrock/Miletich Back-Burnered?
By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)
Friday, 3:00 p.m. ET: From FightHype.com comes informal, unofficial word that discussionswere recently taking place for a FrankShamrock-Pat Miletichsummer scrap in Strikeforce. Hey, at least somebody wants to goretro for UFC 100.
With Shamrock losing to Nick Diaz,talks may have stalled -- and I have no idea why. It’s a terrificfight for both men, who peaked at roughly the same time in the late1990s. Miletich actually expressed a desire to fight Shamrock then;Frank had other plans, some of which included wearing a ceremonialtribal headgear and reinventing himself as “Frank Juarez Shamrock”in Japan. There was also a full schedule of spending the next nineyears gushing a vomitorium’s worth of smack.
I’ve long petitioned promotions to cease the pointless pairings ofaging pioneers and modern-day killers. There’s very little suspensein watching a young man beat up an old one. Not everyone can beRandyCouture. Let’s move on already.
Check the blog all day for more entries.
Thursday Blog: ‘Shogun’ on Chute Boxe, FormerTeammates
Wednesday Blog: Liddell Retirement Talk;Coleman-Bonnar; 'Braveheart'
Tuesday Blog: Rocky Balboa; Oscar De La Hoya;Fighter Landlords
Monday Blog: Strikeforce Fallout; AfflictionCounter-Programming Rumors; Diaz-Jones Jr.