what kind of moron watches ultimate fighting? This kind!

superb recent article on slate.com about UFC programming. here's an excerpt:

And now, an Ortiz-Shamrock matchup! Stoking the fury of aficionados and piquing the curiosity of novices, the announcers began to wind up the hype: "There is dislike. There is distrust. There is simply hatred." In a clip, Shamrock, a veteran known as "the most dangerous man in the world," expressed his belief that Ortiz is a punk. Meanwhile, Ortiz, a punk, forwarded the notion that Shamrock is over the hill. Cut back to Shamrock: "Tito Ortiz is going to find out who Ken Shamrock is, was, and is now." The "is now" in that sentence wasn't really a redundancy. Shamrock was employing a new tense—the ultimate tense—to describe how he was about to be bringing it, how it was about to have been brung.

I might not have anything funny to share, but at least I know where to find some funny. I don't entirely agree with the article; I am a fan of full-contact MMA fights and fight disciplines.

As for the photo, that's Tito Ortiz (about whom it was memorably said over on wwtdd.com "he could beat up godzilla") getting the crap beat out of him by Chuck Liddell. I tend to follow the career of Ortiz because, for a time, we trained at the same gym and shared a boxing coach. Two first-hand observations about Tito Ortiz:

a) He is huge. I can't believe anyone would fight him. He's like a walking eclipse: he's so big he blocks out the sun.
b) I can't believe he ever loses a fight. The fact that Liddell beat him soundly is both amazing and scary.

Boxing is lame and disorganized and corrupt. At least with the UFC and Pride Fighting you know you're going to get a legit fight. It might be brutal, but that is its appeal: it's the rawest sport there is.