The UFC knows how to get some bang for their buck. They’re going to pack the Target Center in Minneapolis in August when native son Brock Lesnar takes on Heath Herring in the main event.

Lesnar’s varied resume includes winning the 2000 NCAA wrestling championships as a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He had a short but meteoric career as a pro wrestler before trying out for the Minnesota Vikings. When that failed, Lesnar made the switch to K-1 in 2006 before signing a contract with UFC. He was a heavy favorite in his debut against Frank Mir at UFC 81; Lesnar was physically dominant but lost to a surprise Mir kneebar after just 90 seconds.

Lesnar was supposed to fight Mark Coleman at the Target, until the 43-year-old and fellow NCAA wrestling champion injured his knee while training for his comeback fight. Herring’s Sambo style might prove more difficult for Lesnar to deal with.

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B.J. Penn proves he’s the better boxer, striker in UFC 84

By the time he was done with him, B.J. Penn left Sean Sherk’s face completely covered in blood. Ah well, what counts is that Sherk attempted to make a comeback following his suspension for steroid abuse. Turns out that getting cleaned up before this title bout proved ineffective as Sherk (the better wrestler) failed to reclaim the UFC Lightweight Belt from Penn (the better striker and boxer).

“I finished with the lead punch, and I was thinking, it’s got to be finished. I know the time is done in the round but I don’t want to keep beating him like that,” Penn said. “Sean Sherk is a great competitor.”

UFC 84 Main Card Results

Light Heavyweight bout: Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
Silva defeats Mendes by TKO (strikes) at 2:24 of round 1.

Light Heavyweight bout: Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida
Machida defeats Ortiz by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 30-27.

Light Heavyweight bout: Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
Reljic defeats Gouveia by TKO (strikes) at 3:15 of round 2.

Light Heavyweight bout: Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine
Silva defeats Jardine by KO (punches) at 0:36 of round 1.

Lightweight Championship bout: B.J. Penn VS. Sean Sherk
Penn defeats Sherk by TKO (strikes) at the end of round 3 to retain the UFC Lightweight title.

UFC 85 ‘Bedlam’ goes down on June 7th from London, England and you can get your UFC 85 odds now!

Set to go down Saturday, May 24th (10 p.m. ET on PPV) live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC 84 “Ill Will” promises to deliver huge hits with fans of mixed martial arts. The main event pits UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn against Sean Sherk. So what’s the deal with these guys? Sherk tested positive for steroids awhile back and it cost him his title. Penn has the title and is hell bent on defending it. So yeah, there’s a lot at stake here.

“I see both of these guys as having the potential to win this fight, for sure,” said lightweight contender Kenny Florian. “I don’t think it’s one of those fights where there’s a clearcut winner.

Main Event:
UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn (12-4-1) vs. Sean Sherk (32-2-1)

Main card (televised):
205 lbs.: Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1) vs. Keith Jardine (13-3-1)
205 lbs.: Goran Reljic (7-0) vs. Wilson Gouveia (10-4)
205 lbs.: Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (12-0)
205 lbs.: Thiago Silva (12-0) vs. Antonio Mendes (14-2)

Under card (may not be broadcast):
185 lbs.: Rousimar Palhares (7-1) vs. Ivan Salaverry (12-5)
205 lbs.: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7)
155 lbs.: Terry Etim (10-1) vs. Rich Clementi (31-12-1)
170 lbs.: Jon Koppenhaver (5-1) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (9-2)
170 lbs.: Dong Hyun Kim (9-1-1) vs. Jason Tan (5-2)
265 lbs.: Shane Carwin (8-0) vs. Christian Wellisch (8-3)

B.J. Penn (-250) is favored to win against Sean Sherk (+200), but this one isn’t going to unfold that easily. Sherk wants his belt back and Penn is going to make it extremely difficult for that to happen. My prediction? Penn by decision.

Being named a coach on The Ultimate Fighter is a sure sign you’ve made it in the UFC. It’s also a great way to sell some pay-per-views.

Season 8 of the ongoing reality series has been announced, and decorated heavyweight fighters Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir will be the coaches. This will be the third year in a row that the coaches are the selling point right up front - this season is called Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir.

Conveniently enough, Nogueira and Mir will fight for the Heavyweight title following the conclusion of the series. Nogueira is the “Interim” champion after defeating Tim Sylvia via submission at UFC 81. Mir is the former champion who spoiled Brock Lesnar’s UFC debut at the same show with a first-round kneebar submission. Both Nogueira and Mir were getting pummeled before trapping their opponents, and the crowd was against them. It’s true: Red means green.

One year ago, Mixed Martial Arts was all the rage. UFC had just bought PRIDE, promising fresh matchups in the octagon between the best fighters from the two promotions. Chuck Liddell was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine in anticipation of his bout with PRIDE middleweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. And then Liddell lost. Badly.

How has MMA held up in the year since UFC 71? The sport remains healthy at the top levels, but has taken a step back. Liddell-Jackson earned 675,000 PPV buys; Liddell vs. Keith Jardine at UFC 76 drew 475,000 buyers, and last month’s UFC 83 featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra pulled in 525,000 according to early estimates. Those are still impressive numbers.

Meanwhile, smaller organizations like the International Fight League are trying to stay afloat long enough to capture a piece of the growing MMA media footprint. Their new hexagonal cage is a concession to UFC’s success. Others will follow.

I believe it was Robbie Burns who said the best laid plans of mice and men get punched in the face. Next month’s UFC 85 show at the O2 Arena in London was supposed to feature Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua in the main event. Then Rua needed surgery on his knee. And then Liddell injured his hamstring.

Those two headliners have been replaced by Rashad Evans and James Irvin. Not a lot of star power there, so there’s a new main event. Here’s the card as of Thursday:

Main
Welterweight: Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Middleweight: Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben
Welterweight: Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis
Light Heavyweight: Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin
Heavyweight: Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera

Preliminaries
Middleweight: Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
Middleweight: Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Lightweight: Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
Light Heavyweight: Jason Lambert vs. Luis Cane
Welterweight: Roan Carneiro vs. Ryo Chonan
Heavyweight: Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain
Welterweight: Jess Liaudin vs. Paul Taylor
Welterweight: Jonathan Goulet vs. Paul Tellies Kelly

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The inevitable happened two weeks ago in Montreal. Georges St. Pierre won back his UFC welterweight strap in his hometown, overwhelming Matt Serra by TKO in the second round. It wasn’t even close. St. Pierre avenged his upset loss to Serra in April 2007 and ran his MMA record to 16-2.

There’s more where that came from. St. Pierre will be 27 years old on May 19 and has many more years of learning ahead of him. The time he’s put in the gym at Greg Jackson’s Gaidojutsu facility in New Mexico has only made GSP more lethal. He stunned Serra with his versatility, going for takedowns instead of relying on his vaunted striking skills.

The champ’s next opponent is expected to be Jon Fitch; that’s not expected to be much of a contest. “St. Pierre will just maul him, easy,” Karo Parisyan told Brawl Sports last month. Perhaps a middleweight fight with Anderson Silva is in order.

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According to the Nevada Athletic Commission state records, Bernard Hopkins and Foe Calzaghe were each paid $3 million for their fight on April 19th, but the other fighters on that card were paid $5,000 or less.

Manny Pacquiao made $3 million and Marquez took home $1 million for their fight back on March 15th, but there were fighter on that show who made $3,500 or less.

At the UFC 81 show, the lowest pay for any of the 18 fighters on the card was the $4,000 (Kyle Bradley). The UFC also paid out $60,000 bonuses that night for knockout of the night, submission of the night and fight of the night…and there were plenty of bonuses handed out that night. The total disclosed purse for the event was $1,132,000, including disclosed performance bonuses.

Based on those figures you would think that boxing does pay better than mixed martial arts. And according to UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, that’s one of the main reasons why he left the UFC.

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