Jon Jones' fifth consecutive light heavyweight title defense at UFC 159, finishing Chael Sonnen, leads to natural comparisons with Tito Ortiz, whose record he tied.

Ortiz was UFC's light heavyweight champion from 2000 to 2003 when he defended his title five times and set the record. It has since been broken by Anderson Silva as the longest lasting champion in UFC history. And even after losing ...

Various, little things can do a lot to annoy die hard MMA fans, and there's not a week that goes by where something happens, someone says something, or someone does something that draws my ire. Let's see what sent me on a warpath over the past week in this second edition of Ring Rants.

Spike TV, the cable network that's supposedly comparable to Fox according to certain lawyers, believe the bes...

In the coming weeks I want to take the opportunity to thank the Bloody Elbow community for all of it's support and encouragement by writing about as many of the most requested fighters for analysis as I can fit in. While I may be forced to focus on one fight for some of them, as I am today, I hope that I can satisfy some desire to learn more about these fighters and whet the appetites of my reade...

Before writing this Guy Mezger article, it just occurred to me that KFC is selling a sandwich entirely composed of meat. There's no bun. I'm pretty sure Nostradamus predicted this in one of his quatrains, which means that it's another sign this world is coming to an end -- eventually. Just imagine being in that KFC boardroom when that idea was approved. Better yet, imagine how much whiskey ...

Wanderlei Silva returns to the site of many of his most famous victories when he headlines at the Saitama Super Arena one more time to face Brian Stann for UFC Japan 2013 on March 3, UFC officials announced Wednesday.

The show, which will be promoted in the U.S. as UFC on Fuel 8, takes place in the morning in Japan, and air in prime time on Fuel in the United States on March 2. It will be the U...

I watched Ong Bak 2 (which is apparently one the best movies ever made) and at the end, I realized I just watched an entire movie in Thai and it made more sense than every movie Tom Cruise has put out since 2004. I also realized that it's not unreasonable to consider Kazushi Sakuraba as the greatest of all time. You've probably heard of Rampage Jackson. Yeah, he RNCed him in Pride FC back in ...

We're back with the final installment of the Bas Rutten GIFathon. We left off with Rutten's second victory over Maurice Smith, but the big story was his second loss to Ken Shamrock. That fight marked the first and only time in his career where Bas was unable to avenge a loss. Bas credits that defeat for inspiring him to shore up the holes in his ground game. Up to that point, his only losses came...

Kicking in mixed martial arts has gone through a great evolution since the early days when the only fighters who would attempt it were pure kickboxers. These kickboxers would then get taken down and submitted or have to hug from closed guard until the referee restarted the bout on the feet. Once cross training became a common occurrence, strikers learned to sprawl and (some) wrestlers learned to ...

With a distance of roughly 1,800 miles between Macao and Tokyo, the countries of China and Japan aren’t exactly next door neighbors, but on November 10th, Japanese MMA will be well represented on the first UFC event to take place in China, as standouts Takanori Gomi, Yasuhiro Urushitani, Riki Fukuda, and Takeya Mizugaki all take to the Octagon for what promises to be an historic event not just fo...

With the dust settling in from the fallout of the cancellation of UFC 151, UFC fans were greeted with a surprising result. It would not be Chael Sonnen or Lyoto Machida to challenge Jon Jones, but rather long time MMA veteran Vitor Belfort. While many fans are likely aware that Belfort held a UFC Light Heavyweight title at some point in his career, others might not be aware of the special, and so...

This article series has tracked the migration and progression of the marital arts competitions that lead to the creation of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. That was the first goal. The second goal is to track the evolution of the competition and fighters within the sport.

The migrations of the Japanese art of Judo to Brazil and European Catch Wrestling to Japan touched off the movement towards ...

In MMA, we often see a changing of the guard, whether it be with fighters, promoters or even the media. Recently, there was a change on Spike TV's MMA Uncensored Live. Luke Thomas, a well respected journalist, has replaced Mike Straka as one of the hosts of the show. While Straka is an equally competent journalist, as well as a very nice guy, the relationship between him and the show unraveled du...

Two of the most recognizable and experienced light heavyweights in UFC history will settle the score this Saturday night as former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz takes on former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin for the third time in Ortiz's retirement fight in the co-main event of UFC 148 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tito Ortiz is still the longest reigning UFC light heavyweight champ...

At UFC 148 this weekend, we will see the true end of an era as long-time UFC superstar Tito Ortiz fights his last fight. The Huntington Beach Bad Boy will complete his trilogy with Forrest Griffin Saturday night, and then will walk away from the UFC and MMA, seemingly for good (though of course, you should never say never when it comes to MMA retirements). With the retirement of Ortiz looming, al...

The first time I spoke to Tito Ortiz in 2000, he was days away from the first defense of his UFC light heavyweight title against Yuki Kondo, and he talked about he and his then-wife buying a new bed and computer and laughing at how far this whole mixed martial arts thing had come for him.For the young guns in the sport who are now making significant paydays while being able to train and fight ful...

Previous experiments have involved a flat iron and a tub of Crisco.

We enjoy a great hairdo as much as the next guy, but it's not often that one plays a role in the outcome of a fight. Back in the day, Jason Fairn and Guy Mezger famously made a gentlemen's agreement not to tug on each other's locks during their fight, and more recently Louis Gaudinot has considered chopping off his tresses after...

The staredowns, the loosening of his wrists before a fight, the berserker fighting style. If you don’t know who we’re talking about at this point, you’ve apparently reached the wrong website. But on June 23rd, all true fight fans will be celebrating the return of “The Axe Murderer,” Wanderlei Silva, as he takes on Rich Franklin in a rematch that headlines UFC 147 in Brazil. Here are the bouts tha...

I have been quite vocal before about how much the hey day of Japanese MMA influenced me, and my time spent training in Tokyo. Thinking of many of the great fighters that I admired but who have fallen to injuries, terrible gameplanning, or natural decline, Wanderlei Silva is among the most saddening. The Axe Murderer was perhaps the most frightening incarnation of martial arts excellence at his pe...

It's almost shocking Wanderlei Silva never actually killed someone inside the PRIDE Fighting Championships ring.

I'm sure he would have been devastated -- he's a jovial guy from all accounts -- but the aggression he displayed in Japan was second to none and more often than not left his opponent unconscious on the canvas.

Brutal knockout after brutal knockout litter his PRIDE résumé and the list...

I was out the other day and found a guy selling a bunch of old video store copies of early UFC events on VHS so I picked them up. Given that the only true way to watch the early UFCs is on a VHS that has been passed around and dinged up a little bit, I've decided to do some "retro recaps" of each tape I purchased over the coming weeks. And what better day to resurrect these old shows, than today ...