Posted on 5/15/2008 3:30:37 PM

This Week in MMA

By Ryan Harkness

What a crap week for MMA news this has been. I have a suspicion that the majority of movers and shakers in the mma betting industry are currently on vacation, leaving us with little to report other than boring fighter interviews where they lie about the quality of their training and their lack of injuries. I swear reporters should just slap fighters in the face when they claim to be "100%" or that they've "never had a better training camp".

Proof of this comes in the form of Melvin Manhoef, who somehow managed to slip the fact that he just had freaking surgery past doctors working for the Japanese DREAM promotion. And we're not talking about some kind of silly non-important surgery ... this was to get blood drained from behind his lungs after a very literal ass kicking from champion kickboxer Remy Bojansky on April 26th. His fight for DREAM was on Sunday the 11th, and congrats to him for winning and not dying or something. Because that would have sucked. So let this be a lesson to all you sports betting enthusiasts out there: Fighters are lying dogs, and you should never trust them not to fight all busted up. Keep that in mind before putting down a couple grand on that online betting 'sure thing' (or as justification on putting a few bucks on a crazy underdog!).

As mentioned before, Brandon Vera (-130) has been documenting his training online for his fight against Fabricio Werdum (EV) at UFC 85. While his attitude sure is good (he promised to make up for his s**t performance against Tim Sylvia), there's also a lot of questionable footage showing an exhausted Vera vomiting into garbage cans and nearly falling over during striking practice. I don't know if we should take this as proof that he's pushing himself harder than ever or that he's really out of shape. Lets hope as the fight gets closer we see the result of this brutal training!

UFC 84 is quickly approaching, and that means more and more attention paid to Wanderlei Silva (-185) vs Keith Jardine (+145). One thing to consider is Silva's comments that he'd rather go down in a blaze of glory than win a boring decision. While that makes for an entertaining sports betting fight, it certainly doesn't help those who put money down on the Axe Murderer. Especially considering his opponent Keith Jardine is more than happy to play it safe and either coast to a safe decision win or capitalize on a frustrated fighter's mistakes.

More changes have been made to the UFC 85 card, which hasn't been able to go a week without a brutal lineup change for over a month now. Originally Chris Leben was set to face off against Michael Bisping in what was guaranteed to be a slobberknocker of a bout. But in order to get a visa to fight in the UK, Leben had to turn himself into police regarding an old probation violation. What was supposed to be a weeklong stint in a jail cell has now turned into a 35 day sentence and the death of that matchup. Stepping in for Leben is Canadian fighter Jason Day, who just annihilated middleweight prospect Alan Belcher at UFC83 with knees, elbows, and even some uber-rare jiu-jitsu stylings known as the 'rubber guard'. No, not that kind of rubber guard, you sicko. Expect Day to be the clear cut underdog, and expect me to bet a good amount of money on him. This guy is for real.

That's it for this week in MMA. Hopefully next week a busload of fighters will drive off a cliff or something so we have more exciting news for you. Knowing UFC 85's luck thus far, that very well could happen too.

This Week in MMA written exclusively for BetUS by Ryan Harkness of www.fightlinker.com