The Buzz by Mike Schaffer

UFC 100: The Biggest Pay-Per-View in MMA History?
Guest Buzz by Gary Cantrell

Well unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you might have noticed the monumental rise of

UFC Head Honcho Dana White

Mixed Martial Arts in the sports world. In fact, to many its considered the fastest rising sport in history! This Saturday night in Las Vegas, NV will be that next big leap for MMA as the Ultimate Fighting Championship puts on their 100th Pay-Per View. The UFC is no stranger to the PPV world. It didn’t take too many years for Dana White and Zuffa to oust Vince McMahon as the top sellers on PPV, in fact in 2007 UFC did over $100 million dollars more in PPV revenue than World Wrestling Entertainment according to MMA and Pro Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. You can attribute that to many things such as UFC’s attention to detail in promoting their fights and rotating different fighters into the Main Events among other things as opposed to WWE with they’re oversaturation in the PPV market and their refusal to put different guys in the Main Event picture. But lets keep this about MMA, ok?

This Saturday, MMA fans are being treated to a monsterous card that includes three huge fights that we’ll cover here. This card is similar to UFC 92 in the since that we’ve seemingly got a TRIPLE Main Event on our hands. Lets check the card shall we?

World Heavyweight Championship Unification
Heavyweight Champ, Brock Lesnar vs. Interim Heavyweight Champ, Frank Mir

This is the Main Event and a fight that alot of people are looking forward to. You’ve got Lesnar who made his UFC debut

UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar

in 2008 and suffered his first loss against Mir by submission and then went on to gain very impressive wins over Heath Herring and former Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture before the year had ended. Couture was the Heavyweight Champion despite being absent from the UFC for quite some time due to contract disputes, once he returned he was still recognized as the Champion so when Brock defeated him at UFC 91, he became the new champion. Frank Mir on the other hand, defeated Antonio Nogueira at UFC 92 who had previously the interim champion while they were sorting out all of the mess with Couture. Mir was quite impressive in this bout which made the rematch fight with Lesnar all the more intriguing. Mir, appears to be in the best shape of his life following a terrible Motorcycle accident in 2004 and shoulder injury in 2007. He’s won the last 3 fights he’s had, two of which were by submission.

When it comes down to it, I’m a big fan of Brock Lesnar. He’s quite impressive and he has some thunderous strikes. However when it comes down to this fight, I’ve gotta go with Frank Mir. Remember Mir is the only one who’s been able to defeat Lesnar and as much as it kills me to say it, I believe he will do it again and become to new Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.

Next up, we’ve got the Welterweight Championship
Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves

What else can be said about Georges St-Pierre? This guy simply stated is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the

#1 Welterweight Contendeer Thiago Alves

world. Few can hold that title and he’s one of them. It’s pretty easy to pick him as the winner because he is just that good. However, on this night he’s gotta go head up with Thiago Alves who has also got some impressive BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) skills. Alves whos won his last 7 out of 10 fights will not be an easy run through for St-Pierre who has won the last 5 fights he’s had including his most recent which was highly controversial against BJ Penn. I’m still going to go with St-Pierre in this fight, he’s just such a well rounded fighter and out of those last 5 fights he’s proven that he can beat you in a variety of ways. It won’t be a quick win though. Expect this one to reach at least the 2nd round.

Finally we’ve got the two coaches of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK
Dan Henderson vs. Michael “The Count” Bisping

If you’ve caught this past season of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK, you’ve seen these two go at it outside of the octagon. There’s isn’t much beef between the two other than the back and forth we saw on the show which really hasn’t given us much reason to get super excited about this fight. With that being said, it still should be a good fight. I expect Henderson to come out of this one as the winner. He’s got great wrestling skill and not to mention he hasn’t even been knocked out yet in a fight. Bisping is quite impressive himself winning his last 3 fights, two of which are credited to TKO victories, so it will be interesting to see if he can give “Hendo” his first knockout. I doubt it, i believe that Dan Henderson will wrestle him and win this fight by decision.

So there you have it. If your an MMA fan, you’re going to absolutely love this card. If you’ve heard of MMA but haven’t yet given it a chance you probably want to consider heading out to a local bar showing the fight, and give this one a chance. Its going to be an exciting evening and as I stated before another stepping stone for the UFC as they continue to rise and help MMA become the fastest rising sport ever. The Buzz on this show is incredible and for good reason. Do yourself a favor and clear your schedules this Saturday night. If your going to be at Bailey’s in Ballston Commons stop by and say hi. Thanks for reading!

Gary Cantrell is the host of the internet radio show, The Shoot. Which specializes in Professional Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts. You can check out the show for yourself at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theshoot The show airs LIVE each and every Thursday Night at 8pm ET and you can catch the podcasts after the show. Be sure and follow Gary on Twitter as well! http://www.twitter.com/gctheshoot]

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UFC Head Honcho Dana White