Posted on
5/8/2008 2:24:19 PM
This Week in MMA Betting
By Ryan Harkness
If you're privy to the backstage machinations going on in the world of MMA, you were probably sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the results of 'random' steroid testing performed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on several of the fighters off the UFC 84 card. Normally, testing is only done right before a fight, which would be useful if most fighters weren't also self-taught bio-chemists on the side who know exactly when to stop juicing so they'll piss clean. Now any fighter scheduled to compete in Nevada can be tested at any time and boy did the NSAC follow through on that. Both fighters in the Sean Sherk (+190) vs BJ Penn (-240) fight were tested, as well as Tito Ortiz. All three passed their tests. Still up, Lyoto Machida and who knows who else???
Speaking of Tito Ortiz (+175) vs Lyoto Machida (-220), Tito is now 5 weeks into a 9 week training camp up at his Big Bear training facility. Most fighters usually go for the 4-6 week camp, but Tito is saying he's never been more motivated for a fight. Of course, he still makes the time whenever he can to badmouth Dana White and the UFC's payscale - at this point I think a reconciliation between these two would be followed by hell freezing over and pigs flying gracefully through the sky. You get the feeling that Tito wants to beat Machida less for beating Machida and more so he gets a final "Suck it!" on his way out of the organization.
It's a great time to be a Hispanic fighter in the UFC. The UFC has just announced another television show in an attempt to raise interest with the spanish-speaking market. This means at a time when the UFC is officially set to cut around 50 fighters over the coming months (latest casualties: Din Thomas, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, and TUF's Tommy Speer), having a tenuous latina link is a definite advantage in holding onto your job. Also expect the UFC to pay extra attention to an upcoming August 8th bout between Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian (who's parents are apparently Peruvian).
Let's hope Wanderlei Silva (-185) isn't looking past his May 24th bout with Keith Jardine (+145). The "Axe Murderer" has been engaged in a war of words with current UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson after Jackson dubbed him "The Chump Murderer". This is an interesting thing to call someone who drubbed Jackson twice in Japan, once to the point that Jackson was left face down in a pool of his own blood. Wanderlei promised more of the same if he gets the opportunity to face Jackson, but first he'll have to beat Jardine. To do that, he's continuing to work hard on his conditioning but also promised he'd be spending more time sparring, something he says he felt he ignored too much coming into his battle with Chuck Liddell.
EliteXC has released the lineup for their June 14th show in Hawaii. While a welterweight title fight between Jake Shields and Drew Fickett has been postponed once again, the card still packs a punch with KJ Noons vs Yves Edwards for the lightweight strap and Nick Diaz vs Muhsin Corbbrey (yes, that's a real name ... I think) for what many assume will be #1 contendership. If you were one of the people betting on Nick Diaz for his last fight which was cancelled last second due to Athletic Commission malarkey, don't worry: Hawaii's commission still doesn't regulate MMA, so Nick can toke all he wants coming into this bout.
Those of you who want inside info on the Brandon Vera (-130) vs Fabricio Werdum (EV) fight (June 7th) can go to BrandonVeraTraining.com to watch videos of his training regiment. It is interesting to hear his coach issue a disclaimer at the beginning of videos on why Brandon looks tired and exhausted, but when you see the actual training you'll understand why. It's very high intensity, and should make you feel lazy and out of shape watching it for longer than two minutes. I'm going to go do some crunches right now. Or get a chocolate bar. Mmmm, chocolate!
Written exclusively for BetUS by Ryan Harkness of www.fightlinker.com