EliteXC Pitches Reality Show

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The success of "The Ultimate Fighter" has spawned a hand full of knock-offs attempting to capitalize on the mixed martial arts craze. Some have been decent, others shamefully bad.

With its cable and network television roots, EliteXC has proven itself accessible to mainstream tastemakers. EliteXC CEO Chuck Champion recently told MMAInsider the company is attempting to capitalize on those connections once again with an MMA-themed reality show.

A pilot for the show is complete, and Doug DeLuca, Elite's former executive chairman, is helping it get seen around town. Reality kingpin Mark Burnett has also taken an active involvement with development.

"I've said it before in other industries," Champion said. "If the shoe fits, steal it. The UFC has figured out 'I've gotta have a way for these guys to start getting an audience following' in order to take them into a pay per view environment."

The premise of the untitled show as Champion tells it:

"It's a concept of you roll into town, some kid's been picked on all his life, and somebody picked on him. So let's put the guy who picked on him in the ring with someone who knows how to fight, see how he enjoys that."

Apparently, an EliteXC fighter will square off with the bully to determine the size of a cash prize that goes to the bullied.

"You can make money the longer you're in the ring. If you go into the ring, you're given so much, and you lose so much if you get taken down. So hypothetically, if I give you 10,000 bucks, you lose a thousand bucks every time you get taken down, you don't want to get taken down, do you? And you can make money for every fifteen seconds you can last standing with this professional fighter. You make money.

"So naturally, these professional fighters are selected very carefully, and the contestants are grilled to make sure that they're physically fit. The attendants are on to make sure no one gets hurt...seriously. I've seen the first couple episodes and it's a lot of fun.

"It's the dream we've all had. Who of us have not either picked on someone, or been picked on. I think it's something that will naturally burn deep in people, and Mark's done a fantastic job with production values. It's a very unique concept."

If the show gets picked up, it will not likely go into production until 2009. At that point, local bullies may want to relocate, or get ready for an ass-kicking.

Joe Rogan Is A Bad Man!

Joe Rogan is as sharp as the come on the microphone, whether it be in the comedy club or doing commentary for the UFC, but apparently he's also not the guy to mess with when it comes to training in the gym.

According to Conor Heun, one of Rogan's training partners at 10th Planet jiu-jitsu under famed trainer Eddie Bravo, the former "Fear Factor" host is a legit bad ass when it comes to mixed martial arts.

"He's phenomenal, he's absolutely amazing," Heun said recently on MMAWeekly Radio. "Up until very, very recently he was one of a very, very few people in the gym who I never caught."

"No disrespect, Joe, I love you to death, thank you for all the support, but I did catch him in a triangle recently, it was the first one ever and believe me it made my day."

Heun also commented that Rogan is a force the stand-up realm as well and could be a force if he ever decided to make his move into professional fighting.

"He comes for a traditional martial arts background, some sort of karate or tae kwon do, I'm not sure what it is exactly, but when you see him kicking the bag, the amount of power that guy generates is mind blowing," Heun commented. "His grappling is super technical and intense and he's strong as an ox."

"He's a bad man."

So if you're ever in the crowd for a Joe Rogan comedy show and he cracks on you a little bit, you may want to reconsider heckling him or you may just miss the rest of the show cause you've been knocked out!

Chris Leben: Evolution Of An Icon (2)

Chris Staab and Double Vision Productions created a web-based documentary series on Chris Leben, who is slated to face Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 89 on Saturday, Oct. 18, in Birmingham, England. These are short five to six minute videos that give an interesting behind the scenes type look at Chris Leben and his Team Icon fighters in Hawaii.

In this second episode Chris takes a few members of the Icon Fight Team on a mission to the top of Koko Head Crater. The mission... to replace a damaged heavybag that has been a the top of the mountain for years.

Watch Chris Leben Evolution of an Icon: Episode 1.

Video: Marcus Davis Documentary

Yes, we know this is a little dated, but this documentary on Marcus Davis and his fight team, Team Irish, gives some extensive insight into Davis' background. He talks in depth about his boxing career - more than 20 wins - and how his interest in MMA was sparked much like several other fighters... watching the UFC.

Marcus has made his fifth consecutive trip across the Atlantic for the UFC, as he is scheduled to fight undefeated Paul Kelly on Saturday night at UFC 89 on Spike TV. He is 6-1 in the Octagon, his only loss being a unanimous decision in a his last fight, to Mike Swick, at UFC 85. He looks to rebound against Michael Bisping's Wolfslair teammate at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England.

BetUs.com Betting Odds for UFC 89

Our friends over at BetUs.com have odds up for many of the upcoming UFC and WEC fights. Of course, they've got a couple of lines for Saturday's UFC 89 event in Birmingham, England.

The latest odds for UFC 89 as of Tuesday evening have Michael Bisping favored over Chris Leben, and Brandon Vera over Keith Jardine.

Michael Bisping: -220
Chris Leben: +185

Brandon Vera: -185
Keith Jardine: +145

Click here for the latest UFC 89 odds, and here for the latest MMA lines.

K-1 Readying Dynamite!! Minus Fedor

K-1 has a press conference scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18, in Japan regarding its Dynamite!! 2008 event. This is K-1's big year ending New Year's Eve event, which is typically the promotion's biggest MMA event of the year.

The promotion had started pushing a possible year-end bout featuring the world's No. 1 ranked heavyweight in Fedor Emelianenko, who is extremely popular in Japan.

Fedor, however, has a contract with Affliction Entertainment in the U.S. His Affliction contract does allow for Fedor to fight elsewhere, especially outside of the U.S. Affliction though has partnered with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and has Fedor vs. Andrei Arlovski slated for the new partnership's debut event, tentatively planned for Jan. 24 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Such a high profile bout would have to keep Fedor out of any New Year's Eve battles, because it would be extremely risky for Affliction and Golden Boy to put all of their marketing efforts into Fedor vs. Arlovski, only to have Fedor get injured on New Year's Eve.

So far, details of what K-1's plans are for New Year's Eve have been scarce at best, but are likely to come into the light on Saturday.

JZ vs. Hansen on New Year's Eve?

Just about a month ago, top ranked lightweight Gesias "JZ" Calvancante told MMAWeekly.com in an interview that he was eyeing a December return and a fight against Dream Grand Prix winner, Joachim Hansen.

It appears his dreams may come true.

While nothing has been made official by the promotion, JZ should be returning on the New Year's Eve card to face Joachim Hansen in a pivotal lightweight showdown.

Now the interesting part of the story comes in that the fight is likely to take place on the K-1 "Dynamite" year end show, so with no official affiliation to the Dream brand, the fight would be a non-title affair.

Many of the popular Japanese promotions have become notorious for changing things around last minute, so for now this fight is just a rumor, but all signs point to a JZ-Hansen fight to close out 2009.

UFC Hits the Blu-Ray Market in November

The UFC is heading to Blu-ray disc, according to High-Def Digest. The release of "UFC: Ultimate Comebacks" marks the promotions debut on the Blu-ray format, which earlier this year knocked out the competing HD DVD format.

UFC: Ultimate Comebacks will be released on Nov. 18 alongside the DVD edition of the title. It features highlights of fights that originally aired on Spike TV.

The disk is produced by First Look and will carry a list price of $24.98 for the Blu-ray version.

Blu-ray is basically the next generation in DVDs. It offers at least five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs making it much more suitable for high-definition video, according to Blu-ray.com.

Chris Leben: Evolution Of An Icon (1)

Chris Staab and Double Vision Productions created a web-based documentary series on Chris Leben, who is slated to face Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 89 on Saturday, Oct. 18, in Birmingham, England. These are short five to six minute videos that give an interesting behind the scenes type look at Chris Leben and his Team Icon fighters in Hawaii.

This first episode gives viewers an introduction to Leben and his surroundings at the Icon gym.

VIDEO: Ken and Frank Shamrock Talk Shop

Despite being adoptive brothers, Ken and Frank Shamrock have made no bones about the fact that they just don't seem to get along. Prior to what was supposed to be a fight between Ken and Internet legend Kimbo Slice at EliteXC's recent event on CBS Televsion, Ken and Frank sat down for a brief interview together. Although it didn't last long, it was a pretty emotional couple of minutes with the brothers talking about the family business... and each other.

Bisping Isn't Title Happy... Yet!

Since making his move to the middleweight division, popular British fighter Michael Bisping has had a very hard time keeping his name away from matchmakers across the globe putting him in a title fight against current UFC champion Anderson Silva.

Bisping takes the fans enthusiasm as a huge compliment, but also knows ultimately it's up to the UFC who he fights and when.

"Me personally, I take the compliment from it, but I don't read too much into it," Bisping said to MMAWeekly Radio recently. "Obviously, it's very flattering."

Never one to jump ahead of himself, the Brit admits that he'd always accept a title shot, but it's not something he wishes for yet at this point in his career as a 185-pounder.

"If a title fight was offered in my next fight, obviously I'd take it, but right now if I had a say in it, I wouldn't want that just yet," Bisping stated. "I'm still maturing as a fighter. I'd still want two or three more fights before I got that opportunity."

First things first, Bisping takes his shot at Chris Leben this weekend in England at UFC 89.

Nick Diaz FINALLY Gets Paid

In a brief news update on Caesar Gracie's website, he posted an update on the status of some of his fighters and what they have going on.

As we posted here in the MMAInsiderBLOG, Jake Shields opened up his new academy over the weekend. It is a new GracieFighter Academy located in Berkley, Calif.

Nick Diaz has been confirmed to fight Eddie Alvarez on the Nov. 8 EliteXC fight card in Reno, Nev., and now he's also been paid for his fight for Dream… which took place FIVE MONTHS ago! According to Gracie, Diaz has agreed to return to Japan, but leaves the door for speculation wide open as he says, "At this point it is unclear for which organization" that Diaz will fight for in Japan.

It has been oft rumored that Nick's brother, Nate Diaz, will be fighting on the Dec. 13 Ultimate Fighter Finale on Spike TV. The update indicates that Nate is still waiting to hear if he will actually be added to the card or not.

Another GracieFighter team member, Damien Douglas, is expecting to return to ShoXC on the November card. Douglas is 3-1 in MMA thus far, winning his most recent ShoXC outing, defeating Joe Schilling in September.

Surprise! UFC Likely to Ohio During Arnolds

Not that it's a big surprise, but Bernie Profato, head of the Ohio Athletic Commission, told the "The Plain Dealer" in Cleveland that the UFC has tentative plans to return to the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on March 7, the same weekend as the Arnold Sports Expo.

The promotion has run events in Columbus the past two years, both times the same weekend as the Arnolds, pulling from the huge crowds that flock there for the fitness expo. The demographic for both has a huge crossover, so it is a "no brainer" for the MMA juggernaught.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship debuted in Columus at UFC 68 in 2007, setting what was at the time a North American attendance record with 19,079 fans in attendance. The Octagon was set up again in Columbus in 2008 for UFC 82, drawing more than 16,000.

J-Lau, Rivera, Herring to Visit U.S. Troops

UFC lightweight contender Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon, 17-4, 4 KOs, 13 submissions), star of The Ultimate Fighter 5 television reality show, leaves Tuesday on a 10-day goodwill trip visiting U.S. military troops in Iraq.

Fellow mixed-martial arts fighters Jorge Rivera and Heath Herring are among the other athletes on the trip. "It's going to be an amazing experience," 24-year-old Lauzon said. "I can't wait to go overseas and see the troops in Iraq."

For more information about Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon, who has a Bachelor's degree in computer networking from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, go online and visit www.joelauzon.com or myspace.com/lauzonrsd.

VIDEO: Dana White On Kimbo Firestorm

UFC president Dana White, in a video interview that appears on YouTube.com, commented on the recent EliteXC controversy surrounding Seth Petruzelli and his knockout of Kimbo Slice. White explains what he believes to be the alleged illegality of the situation.

WARNING: A word of caution, in typical Dana White fashion, there is is some rather harsh language, laced with expletives throughout the video.

Live Wire Demo of UFC 2009 Undisputed

Most UFC fans realize that the promotion has been involved with THQ in developing a completely new video game based on the action in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. If it lives up to the hype and the public demos, it is sure to be the best mixed martial arts based video game on the market.

This video has a demo of the game, extensive details about its playability, and ames many of the fighters - Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson, Anderson Silva, more - that are slated to be included in the UFC 2009 Undisputed final roster.

The video comes to us via IGN.com and is the E3 2008: Live Wire Demo of UFC 2009 Undisputed.

Chris Leben Relishes Role as the Evil Villain

There's no denying that Chris Leben will be the one stepping into the lion's cage when he faces Michael Bisping at UFC 89 on Saturday night... and that's fine by him.

Bisping is far and away the biggest mixed martial arts star in England and the crowd will be whole-heartedly behind him when he and Leben enter the Octagon.

Leben addressed the crowd situation in a recent UFC conference call promoting the fight:

"Michael's a star over here and it's an honor to fight him over here. I wouldn't want it any other way. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I like being the bad guy. I really do.

There's nothing cooler than... he can make thousands of people scream, that's cool, but when, come the 18th, when I make 'em all go dead still and quiet, that's going to be something real special."

Of course, Bisping couldn't let that lie, and you could hear the Cheshire grin on his face through the phone line when he responded, "Well, just don't count on that experience."

Georges St. Pierre Gets His Black Belt On

UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre seems to find success wherever he goes, even when he isn't in the Octagon. He's been filming a new movie, signed with the highly touted CAA Sports alongside David Beckham and Derek Jeter, and is preparing for a likely mega fight against lightweight champion B.J. Penn.

On Saturday, however, he achieved another milestone in his martial arts development. St. Pierre was awarded his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, according to Gracie Magazine.

St. Pierre evidently went to train jiu-jitsu at the Tristar Martial Arts Academy in Montreal and, unbeknownst to him, his instructor, Bruno Fernandes, had determined it was to be the day that St. Pierre received his black belt in BJJ.

Laying out three of the high points of his career, according to Gracie Magazine, St. Pierre said, " When I received my black belt in karate, when I conquered the UFC belt, and today."

Fernandes is a Gracie Barra black belt and holder of several jiu-jitsu titles. He has been one of St. Pierre's instructors for several years.

UFC 90 Silva vs. Cote Promo Video

This is the Ultimate Fighting Championship's official promotional video for UFC 90 in Chicago. The Oct. 25 fight card features a main event between current middleweight king Anderson "The Spider" Silva and Canadian Patrick Cote.

The main card is scheduled to air live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT:
-Anderson Silva (#1 Middleweight in the world)* vs. Patrick Cote
-Thiago Alves (#3 Welterweight in the World)* vs. Diego Sanchez (#8 Welterweight in the World)*
-Fabricio Werdum (#6 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Junior dos Santos
-Tyson Griffin vs. Sean Sherk
-Thales Leites vs. Goran Reljic

Check out the full UFC 90 fight card in MMAWeekly.com's Rumors section.

*Based on the MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings.

GSP and B.J. Throw Down at the Movies

Before UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and lightweight titleholder B.J. Penn step into the Octagon for their much anticipated superfight, they'll do battle in front of the camera. Not with each other, sadly, but in a movie coming soon to a theater near you.

St. Pierre spoke about the project Tuesday in a non-descript West Los Angeles hotel, where he roomed only steps away from former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski.

Tentatively titled, "Sex, Blood, and Fight" - a family film, no doubt - St. Pierre will appear in three scenes alongside other UFC veterans.

"It was very fun," St. Pierre said of his first film experience. "The producer of the movie really helped me a lot. In the movie, when you punch somebody, it isn't by the book when you learn how to punch. You don't keep your elbow close and you don't rotate with your core. You have to really show the move, totally the opposite of what you learn in the academy."

Penn's manager and brother, J.D. Penn, confirmed B.J.'s participation in the movie, but said he was not shooting any scenes with Georges. "I wish," he said.

Georges hopes his new relationship with CAA sports will open new opportunities for him in the entertainment realm. The talent agency is among the vaunted "big three" in talent agencies, and St. Pierre is the first MMA fighter they've signed.

It's unknown whether the movie is MMA-themed or not - heaven help us if it's a sequel to "Never Back Down" - but St. Pierre's participation certainly adds to MMA's visibility, and a shade of class to the project.

Unless, of course, he plays a psychopathic killer.

Fighting each other, though, you'd think B.J. and Georges would have a little less trouble getting into character.