Friday, July 10 7:00 pm PT: Would 5,000 people show up to watch Peyton Manning stare really,
really hard at an opposing quarterback the day before a game?
There is no other major sport that attracts a crowd of thousands,
television cameras, and media in order to witness some heavy tension,
but here’s the exception: the UFC and their weigh-ins, which have by
now become as accepted a ritual at events as getting drunk and nearly
throwing up on Mandy Moore.
7:01 p.m. ET: Announcer Joe Rogan busts out the f-word, just to stick
it to those mainstream cameras. Shannon Gugerty is first to take the
stage. 156 lbs. Matt Grice clocks in at 155.
Friday, July 10 6:05 pm PT: UFC President Dana White did nothing to slow the runaway train that is the UFC 100 hype machine during a pre-fight press conference for the event on Thursday in Las Vegas.
A record 240 media credentials were issued for the show, headlined by a heavyweight title unification bout between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. According to White, the event will air live in 51 countries and on tape delay in 24 more. He expects the event to infiltrate 300 million homes worldwide.
In addition, it marks the first time a UFC event will be carried in Mexico and China, and White anticipates more than one million pay-per-view buys.
Friday, July 10 1:28 pm PT: When you’ve earned the moniker “The Inventor of Ground and Pound,” it seems only fitting that you’d be on the UFC 100 card. Thirteen years to the month of his debut at UFC 10, Mark Coleman (15-9) will take on Stephan Bonnar on the preliminary card of UFC 100 this Saturday.
“I said back in 1996 I was going to be around for a long time and I meant it,” Coleman said on the Sherdog Radio Network’s Beatdown on Monday.
Friday, July 10 1:25 pm PT: CraveOnline’s Paul Heyman discusses his friendship with UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who once, um, accidentally injured him:
“Brock Lesnar broke my neck.
I'm not kidding. In January, 2003, WWE Smackdown ran an event at the world famous Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. The main event was Brock Lesnar against The Big Show, with Brock's former "agent" (that would be me) in the Big Show's corner. Brock's coup de grace was to pick up his opponent, place said human being squarely on Brock's shoulders, and then spin them in mid-air as both performers went crashing to the canvas. Now while pro wrestling is based on the cooperation between the two men in the ring with each other, performing this move on the 500-pound "Big Show" was no small task.”
Friday, July 10 1:04 pm PT: A calm, cool and collected Thiago Alves, two days ahead of the most important fight of his career, spoke in plain terms when it came to UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.
The 25-year-old American Top Team ace will get his shot at 170-pound gold when he meets St. Pierre in the UFC 100 co-main event this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Alves (16-3), one of the division’s most feared strikers, will carry a healthy respect for the champion into the bout, along with a seven-fight winning streak.
Friday, July 10 9:32 am PT: Saturday’s UFC 100 card may be subtitled “Making History,” but it’s really more a case of building on a foundation of the fights and fighters that came before. Most stepped in simply to win a fight -- a few wound up changing how we think of the sport.
Machida can do everything others can do, but he is successful because he can do one thing no one else can do: Using his father Yoshizo’s house blend of karate to parry and feint, he frustrates opponents, leaves them swinging at nothing and emerges from the cage looking as though he has just experienced nothing more than a brutal hot shower.
Friday, July 10 12:17 am PT: Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and middleweight king Anderson Silva will not collide inside the Octagon until at least 2010, according to UFC President Dana White.
A super fight between the two superstars has had mixed martial arts fans salivating for months, but White cooled those jets at a pre-fight press conference for UFC 100 on Thursday in Las Vegas. The 28-year-old St. Pierre (18-2) will meet American Top Team ace Thiago Alves in the co-main event on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
“I’d like to see GSP defend his title at 170 pounds a couple of times,” White said. “If he wins, then who knows? Maybe next year.”
