posted April 24, 2008 at 15:10 in UFC / MMA Betting Trends

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of This Week in MMA. An edgy weekly column on the goings on in the MMA and UFC online betting world. Last weekend the UFC was in my hometown of Montreal, and originally I was hoping to have some unique stories to regale you with from that experience. Unfortunately, I ended up three sheets to the wind the entire time, so I don't really remember all too much. Here are two fun facts for you though: you never realize how short those shorts are that the UFC ring girls wear til you see them in person. And if you happen to approach them while they're doing their job, you'll find yourself thrown out of the floor area. This started to get pretty annoying the third time around ... someone needs to tell the UFC that there's no law against hugs in Canada.

So onto the news! Georges St Pierre soundly thrashed Matt Serra, setting up his next title defense against Jon Fitch sometime later in the summer or early fall. Matt Hughes was also watching this fight closely, and has already called out Matt Serra so they can finish what they started on The Ultimate Fighter last fall.

While that's two great matchups made, one matchup has also fallen apart this week: Chuck Liddell versus Rashad Evans in the UK was axed when Chuck tore a hamstring in his leg. Graphic pictures of his groinal area were plastered all over the net in an attempt to kill any rumor that Liddell was just faking it, so now you too can see the Iceman from the same angle half the women in Las Vegas have.

Another fight that's still got a few question marks floating around it is Fedor Emelianenko / Tim Sylvia. While Fedor's people have claimed the fight is signed, sealed, and done, Tim Sylvia's manager Monte Cox has stated that Fedor still needs to repay a 1.5 million dollar debt to him from business dealing before the fight can go ahead as planned. If that sounds sketchy to you, it's because it is. I'd explain more, but then this column would then approach War & Peace lengths. For now let's just take a wait and see approach, and I'll update you next week with what's going on.

Evan Tanner will be returning to the octagon on June 21st to headline the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale against Kendall Grove. It will be interesting to see who the oddsmakers peg as the underdog in this fight ... Grove is coming off back to back knockout losses, while Tanner looked rusty in his own knockout loss to perpetually boring but always victorious Yushin Okami.

Kalib Starnes is finally getting some attention, but it's not exactly the good kind. After backpeddling his way to a decision loss at UFC 83 that saw one judge score the fight 30-24, he has become the pariah of the MMA scene. The hate hasn't been limited to message boards either: UFC boss Dana White had a number of derogatory things to say, but the gist of his whole spiel was that Kalib is no longer fighting for his organization.

After promising that a deal with HBO was "close to being done" for months and months, Dana White has finally said that the deal is done! But not the good kind of done ... I'm talking done like the UFC is done trying to sort things out. White claimed money and 'corporate culture' issues kept the two companies from doing business, while the whispered consensus behind the scenes is that Dana White acted like Gollum with the One Ring when asked to give up control on the production side of shows.

The Ultimate Fighter took a turn for the gross last week as contestant Paul Bradley had to be removed from the show due to a neck rash caused by the "herpes gladiatorum" virus. While it's not the kind of herpes you get from bumping uglies with the neighborhood bicycle, it's still one of the kinds that you don't want to have. Readers who train wrestling or jiu jitsu may want to skip researching this one or you may find yourself wearing a hazmat suit to all your classes in the future.

This weekend is pretty dead for MMA action, so can I recommend volunteering at your local soup kitchen or taking the time to plant some trees. Haha, just kidding. I plan on re-watching last weekend's UFC event to see if the cameras catch me being dragged away from ringside by security. And I plan on drinking more. Always drinking more.