Brock Lesnar’s UFC career came to a sudden end at UFC 141 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena on Dec. 30 after being stopped at 2.26: of the first round by Alistair Overeem. The 31 year-old British born/Holland based fighter landed a kick to Lesnar’s liver and sent him to his knee on the octagon floor and then followed it up with a flurry of punches that were mostly blocked.

Lesnar credited Overeem after the fight for being the better man, but said he’s had a rough time of it over the past couple of years due to suffering from a disease known as diverticulitis. It was his first fight in over a year after undergoing colon surgery. He then announced that it was his last appearance in the octagon and was retiring. The former pro wrestler made a quick impact in the UFC by winning the organization’s heavyweight title in his fourth bout.

The 34-year-old Lesnar thanked Dana White and the UFC and added that if he had beaten Overeem he was going to fight just once more anyway against heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. He didn’t attend the post-fight media conference and sought medical attention for what he believed to be a broken rib instead.

The 31-year-old Overeem is a former Dream, K-1 champion, and Strikeforce champion who was making debuting in the Octagon against Lesnar. He raised his overall record to 36-11 with one no contest and is now unbeaten in his past 12 fights. It looks like he’ll be the next to face dos Santos for the title.

Dana White, president of the UFC, said he was a little stunned at Lesnar’s announcement since he had no clue the former champ was thinking about retirement. He said he understands the decision though due to his health and the fact he’s made quite a bit of money to live on.

Overeem was a slight underdog going into the fight due to his inexperience in the UFC, but he’s been fighting on the big stage for years now and obviously didn’t suffer from stage fright. He admitted that the UFC is a lot bigger than Strikeforce and K1, but he enjoyed every second of the event and the reception he received from the fans.

Overeem didn’t come out of the fight completely unscathed though as Lesnar cut his right eye early on with a superb jab. Overeem said he had a hard time seeing out of it and picked up the pace since he didn’t know how bad the cut was. He didn’t want the fight to end on a cut so a sense of urgency kicked in and it proved to be just what he needed.

He said he was a little sad that Lesnar was leaving the sport and hoped that he changes his mind. He said no matter if you love or hate Lesnar he always excites the crowd with his fighting style and statements. However, Lesnar may not be done with all combat sports since it’s been rumored that he may head back to the WWE to take part in this year’s Wrestlemania event.

Georges St. Pierre is regarded as one of the best mixed artists around, especially by his countrymen in his native Canada, but even they will admit that his fights are a tad boring. Still, he’s regarded as one of the nation’s best athletes and has no problem selling out UFC cards wherever he fights. But the pressure’s on him now to raise his game to the next level as the UFC is counting on its starts to provide excitement for the fans now that it has a new television deal in place with Fox.

St. Pierre, the organization’s welterweight champion, admits that he’s not really that comfortable when dealing with the media, but realizes he’s going to have to deal with more attention and fanfare because of the unprecedented exposure the UFC is going to get. The native of Quebec has basically steamrolled through his weight division ever since 2008 when he won the championship belt for the second time. He’s disposed of all challengers along the way, but never really in an exciting fashion.

Right now, most UFC fans rank St. Pierre second when it comes to the world’s best pound-for-pound MMA fighters, right behind Anderson Silva of Brazil. The Canadian’s next scheduled fight is a highly anticipated and hyped grudge match against Nick Diaz of the U.S., and he said he wants to be known as the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time after the bout. But the 30-year-old realizes he may have to change his style slightly to achieve that recognition.

St. Pierre owns a fine record of 22-2 and has defended his belt six consecutive times and said he’ll remain in the sport until he feels he’s achieved his goal of being the best ever. He feels the UFC has changed a lot over the years since the time when head butts and groin strikes were deemed legal and his style is more suited to the new style of fighting where these attacks are outlawed.

He added that the new broadcasting deal with Fox will hopefully show doubters that the UFC has changed its style and cleaned up its act to some degree by banning some of the ultra-violent moves. He’s hoping that it can attract new sponsors and viewers by showcasing the organization’s talent on national television.

St. Pierre said the UFC is the perfect outlet for him since it allows him to showcase his fighting skills to a worldwide audience and make a good living at it. He admits that he’s not really a violent person, but everybody has a dark and violent side to them. He realizes he has to win and the only way he can do this is to inflict pain on his opponents, even though it’s not really within his character. Fans have noticed that St. Pierre sometimes lacks the killer instinct and they point to his last four fights as proof of this as they have all gone to the judges’ scorecards.

He said he definitely wants to reverse this trend against Diaz at UFC 143 and wants to knock him out or force him into submission. In fact, the easy-going Canadian seems to have made that his immediate mission and said Diaz is the most disrespectful person he’s ever met. St. Pierre said he understands the fans’ criticism of his fighting style, but he’s always looking to finish his opponents off instead of going the distance. However, he said it’s his aim to retain the title for as long as he can and he’ll take a win no matter how he achieves it.

St. Pierre will have the chance to show off his skills to the fans again on Feb. 4 when he takes on Diaz at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

With many of the world’s martial arts originating in Asia, most UFC fans figured it was just a matter of time before the mixed martial arts organization would head there to hold cards. UFC president Dana White recently confirmed that he plans on taking his show on the road to the Far East in the near future.

With a new American television deal in its back pocket, the UFC is pretty stable in the U.S. and Canada for the time being and also has its foot solidly in the door in Great Britain and Australia. Lorenzo Fertitta, CEO of the UFC, said the company is now planning on growing globally to make sure its long-term future is just as solid as the present.

Fertitta said the UFC plans on holding cards in Macau, China in 2012 and then the next year hopes to break new ground in Singapore as it makes its way across the Asian continent. He said the organization has been laying a lot of ground work in China and they’re going to dip their toe in the water to test things out, but are hoping it turns into something more permanent.

He said the show in Macau will depend on what dates work with local Chinese authorities and the broadcasters around the world, but it should take place next year. He added that the UFC recognizes Singapore as a growing market and they’ve been focusing on that nation for some time now for an event in 2013, possibly at the Marina Bay Sands, which is a popular Singapore casino-resort.

It took the UFC a little while to get up and running since the first few years of broadcasts weren’t on mainstream television networks. But you can now see UFC events in over 130 different nations across the globe. In America alone, the seven-year deal it signed with Fox in August rakes in close to $100 million each year. The first card aired on Nov.12 when heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez lost his title to Brazil’s Junior dos Santos by first-round KO in the main event.

Fertitta and his brother paid just $2 million for the UFC in 2001 and have turned it into one of the world’s most popular and recognizable sports organizations. However, some fans still see MMA as nothing more than sheer brutality with little skill and several American states refuse to sanction fights, including New York.

The company started out under the Fertittas with four employees in 2001 and now has about 300 people working for it with offices in Toronto, Las Vegas, London, and Beijing. They’re planning on opening another in Sao Paolo, Brazil and Mumbai, India in the next year or two. In addition, the pay-per-view numbers for the UFC were about 40,000 a year a decade ago and have now grown to approximately seven million, making the company the biggest pay-per-view provider in the world.

Fertitta realizes he’d have a better shot at cracking Chinese market if the UFC had a Chinese fighter to draw crowds. The country’s interest in the NBA rose rapidly when local player Yao Ming made it big and it could be the same scenario if the UFC can find a Chinese fighter that will be able to challenge the best the UFC has. Fertitta said several Chinese fighters will be brought over to train for a month in Las Vegas and it’s his organization’s job to find somebody with MMA talent or to help develop it.

Don King’s been called a lot of things during his 80 years on the planet, including murderer, cheat, and swindler. But love him or hate him he does know how to promote a boxing match. At least he used to. King’s boxing promotions have been suffering quite a bit over the past few years since a new era of boxing stars are raking in millions of dollars by using other promotion companies such as Top Rank and Golden Boy.

Back in his heyday though, King used to put on some of the best cards in history. Who can ever forget the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire when Muhammad Ali shocked the world by knocking out George Foreman and the “Thrilla in Manila” when Ali and Smokin’ Joe Frazier went toe to toe for 15 rounds in one of boxing’s all-time greatest fights?

But these days it’s boxers such as Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Amir Khan who are making the big money and King doesn’t promote any of them. This could be why the senior citizen is now considering getting into the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) and wants to start promoting fights in that sport to compete against the UFC.

King sees the dollar signs spinning in his head when thinking about MMA and is impressed with the way that UFC president Dana White runs his organization. He says he’d like to get in on the action now and that’s the reason he wants to start up his own MMA promotion company. King, who’s always had a way with words and goes by his own dictionary, said he likes MMA because it’s “sophisticated barbarism.” But he said it’ll never be more popular than boxing.

He said he doesn’t have a name for his future MMA promotional company, but he’s definitely looking forward to being involved in the sport. He adds that boxing is committing suicide by not giving the public the fights that it really wants to see such as Pacquiao vs Mayweather. He places a lot of the blame for the downfall of boxing on big shot cable television executives and said they have too much power these days.

King said their experience lies in broadcasting not in sports promotion and they don’t know the first thing about boxing. He said all of a sudden they’re trying to become managers, matchmakers and promoters, but they don’t know a left hook from a right jab. He said the TV networks don’t usually put the best boxers against each other and when they do the public has to pay for it.

Surprisingly, King gave credit to his nemesis Bob Arum, and said he and Arum are the only ones who give the public what they want. Of course, that’s a pretty debatable statement when you consider his top boxers these days are Cornelius Bundrage, Ricardo Mayorga, and Tavoris Cloud, no disrespect to those fighters intended. In addition, King’s biggest event this year has been the Mike Marrone vs Guillermo Jones card which aired on something known as WealthTV.

It’s highly unlikely that King or anybody else is going to be able to challenge the UFC in the near future. That organization basically has a stranglehold on MMA cards and has signed its best fighters even though their paychecks don’t come anywhere near those earned by world-class boxers.

Toronto, Canada used to be a pretty good fight town years ago. The old Maple Leaf Gardens used to get packed to the rafters whenever the likes of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, and Jimmy Ellis came to town.

But over the years the sport of professional boxing has become almost distinct there. You’ll get to see the odd pro card at some smaller venues just outside of the city, but they usually feature no-name fighters and those who have just entered the sport.

There’s no doubt that Toronto is a hockey town and the NHL’s Maple Leafs are the number one draw. Everybody else takes a back seat to the woeful Leafs, who last won the Stanley Cup in 1967; these teams include the NBA’s Raptors, the MLB Blue Jays, Toronto FC of MLS, the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, and the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL.

Strangely enough, the city drew some huge crowds in the past for wrestling events and is now the North American hotbed for the UFC. Dana White, head honcho for the UFC has noticed this and that’s the reason the missed martial arts organization is heading back to Canada’s largest city.

The Air Canada Centre will host UFC 140 on Dec. 10. The card’s headlining fight will pit Jon Jones up against Lyoto Machida. The first UFC event held in Toronto took place back in April at the Rogers Centre, the home of the Blue Jays, when UFC 129 took place. Toronto probably would have hosted a UFC event before that, but the local government banned MMA shows until the start of this year.

UFC 129 proved that Toronto area fans still love their fights as 55,724 of them showed up for the event, which is a UFC record. White and his organization made just over $12 million on the live gate as well as the usual pay-per-view sales.

However, UFC 140 will only be able to hold about 20,000 since the Air Canada Centre is a hockey rink and home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors. White didn’t say why a smaller venue was being used, but it could be because the UFC is slightly worried about ticket sales. The first event in Toronto featured Canadian hero Georges St. Pierre and since it was the first ever UFC card in Toronto it was guaranteed to be a sellout.

White might have a hard time trying to sell 55,000 tickets for Jones vs Machida and he knows it. He said the Rogers Centre will be used again when the UFC has the right fight to bring to town. He added that while Las Vegas is known as the boxing Mecca of the world, Toronto could be considered the same for UFC events.

Montreal was the first city to host UFC cards and it hasn’t been forgotten as White said he plans on hosting another event there in the near future. If he follows through on the promise, it’ll be Montreal’s fifth UFC show. White added that between Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, Canada is definitely the organization’s strongest market.

Mixed martial arts (MMA), holds events under the organization called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. These fights are no-holds barred types of “sanctioned combat”, but there are still judges that score these matches to determine a winner. There has been, for quite some times, large screens that allowed the judges better views, but due to the nature of the fighting cages, there are certain blind spots the judges have difficulty seeing around, and thus could alter the score and outcome of a match.

On Friday, May 20th, the Nevada State Athletic Commission, in a unanimous ruling of 5-0, decided that a petition for 7-inch screens that would provide a viewpoint for the judges to these previously blind spots was passed. The ruling goes into effect immediately, starting with the light-heavyweight fight on Saturday, May 28 at the UFC event between “Rampage” Jackson and Matt Hamill in Las Vegas. These cameras, which will be mounted on movable “arms” will be available for all UFC fights that take place in the state of Nevada from here on out.

Though this camera system has only been previously used in 3 UFC events, which took place in California, Vancouver, and Pennsylvania, many think this is a great way to ensure proper scoring of these events. Judges will know have a truly full view of all areas of the fighting arena, which means that scoring will be more on point and accurate. There will be no obstructed views that judges have to try to see around.

These screens will not be mandatory, meaning that judges can choose not to use them. Being attached to movable arms, they can easily be moved out of the way. The small size of the screen means the screen, in and of itself, will not be a distraction. The screens will be live during the action only. The screens also black out between rounds. There is also no replay function, which means the judges will not be using these screens to review the action, they are merely a tool to help provide for more consistent and accurate scoring during the entirety of the fight. These screens are also not equipped with audio, as they aren’t meant to do anything more than allow the judge a fuller view of the fighting arena.

While this is a fairly new change, it seems that it will make the overall scoring of MMA matches a lot easier and more consistent. It does not present a challenge to the judges or the fighters. And the fact that these cameras are optional, and not required, seems to me that it is a tool of choice, if the judges choose to utilize them. I think we should all be for more transparency – but not more complication – in the scoring of these fights, and these screens are a good step in that direction.

It’s no secret that the UFC is raking in money hand over fist, but where the money’s going appears to be one. The mixed martial arts (MMA) company is selling out arenas all over the world. It just held its biggest ever promotion in North America on April 30^th when it sold 55,724 seats at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, for a live gate of $12.1 million. But the fighters are still being paid peanuts when compared to other sports, especially boxing.

This has led Nick Diaz, who’s signed with Strikeforce, to say he wants to enter boxing to make some real money. He’s hoping to take on former IBF and IBO super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (25-4, 17 Kos), who’s now 33 years old and has lost three of his last four fights.

But UFC boss Dana White doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He admits that Diaz has a clause in his contract which states he’s allowed to box and that deal should be honored. But he doesn’t think it’s in Diaz’s best interests to do so and he’s going to try and talk the MMA fighter out of it. It could be that White doesn’t want one of his fighters being embarrassed in a boxing ring, because there’s not really any other reason to not wanting him to take on Lacy.

However, Diaz, who recently defended his welterweight crown for the third time, isn’t necessarily taking the fight to prove he can box. He said he’s overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by Strikeforce, which is owned by the UFC.

You can’t blame Diaz for wanting to jump ship, at least temporarily, because MMA fighters are and have been grossly underpaid for years. When you look at the numbers, mixed martial artists are simply getting ripped off by somebody. Brock Lesnar, the former UFC heavyweight king, took home $5.3 million in 2010, which was tops in the organization despite sky-high ticket prices and millions of pay-per-views sold.

Compare that to boxer Manny Pacquiao, who raked in $32 million and only had to fight twice to earn it. Boxing has long been associated with shady characters and the underworld, but compared to mixed martial arts, the elite boxers are making a hell of a living.

This is hard to understand since White would have you believe the UFC is a lot more popular than boxing and the pay-per-view numbers and live gates would support him. So just where is all of the money going? It’s definitely not going to the fighters who put their lives on the line every time they step into the octagon.

UFC fighters are getting a bigger piece of the pie these days, but it’s not enough. Kobe Bryant made $24.8 million last year for throwing a ball through a hoop and Alex Rodriguez took home $32 million for hitting a ball with a bat. MMA fighters are getting kicked in the face literally and figuratively when you consider what they’re getting paid.

For example, UFC 126, which was held in Las Vegas on Feb 5, drew a live gate of $3.6 million. It would have been higher, but more than 10 per cent of tickets were given away. The average price for a ticket was $373.00, ranging from $75 to $750. The base salary of all the fighters combined was just over $1.3 million, with the top salary being $275,000 and the lowest being just $6,000. Out of those salaries, insurance, taxes, and licenses etc. had to be deducted.

This means the fighters were paid off by just 36 per cent of the live gate, leaving 64 per cent as profit. However, we haven’t added in the money made from broadcasting the preliminary bouts on Spike TV and the pay per view totals. It was estimated that 750,000 pay-per-views were sold at about $50 a shot for $37.5 million. Therefore, the total gate was about $40 million, with the fighters receiving $1.3 million, which translates to just over three per cent.

Ironically it was a boxer, James Toney, who was paid the most at UFC 118. Toney embarrassed himself in the octagon and was paid $500,000 for lasting just 199 seconds against Randy Couture, who was paid $250,000. It was Toney’s first and last fight in the UFC. The headliner that night, lightweight champ Frankie Edgar, earned $96,000.

The UFC does have some overhead like everyone else and gives out bonuses at its card for things such as KO of the night and fight of the night. But when you see how little these guys are getting paid by Dana White’s organization, you can’t be blamed for thinking maybe Don King’s not such a bad guy after all.

The UFC’s quest for total domination within the MMA world took a giant step closer to realization with the purchasing of Strikeforce – rumored to be for $40million – the other day. But, really, what does the UFC plan to do with its former rival? The UFC was the major force anyway, so is buying Strikeforce just a way to kill off any competition? Or will the UFC allow Strikeforce to operate as a separate entity?

Well, Dana White, the UFC president, has insisted that Strikeforce will remain detached from his mixed martial arts organization, but also hinted that his leading fighters could well face the best Strikeforce has to offer in the not-too-distant future.

That’s all very exciting, but does this secondary plan not remind you of what has happened to boxing? How many different belts can be won for any single weight division for pugilists? Let’s see – we have the WBO, WBC, WBA, WBF, WBU, IBF, IBA, IBC, IBO, IBU and WPBF. That’s 11 in total  – and 10 too many.

MMA should not go down this path. Certainly, White has previously been unwilling to cross-promote and, although fans are eager to see the big names of both organizations fight, it should only happen under a single banner.

Essentially, either unite the organizations or allow them to remain self-governing and as independent as possible. A halfway house will result in a watered down product, although Strikeforce spokesman Mike Afromowitz has stated it will be “business as usual” for the companies.

It’s pretty obvious the UFC has still to make a definite decision on how to progress with Strikeforce, with White saying he “wouldn’t rule anything out”, but stressing that he wants to “put on the best fights that the fans want to see”. That’s what everyone wants, of course, so a complete integration is the only possible solution.

However, for now, Strikeforce – with veteran chief executive officer Scott Coker still in charge – is to carry on signing its own fighters and will remain on subscription channel Showtime through 2014.

Strikeforce also has promotions scheduled over the next few months throughout the United States. That TV deal and planned events would suggest that no amalgamation is forthcoming, unfortunately.

However, the UFC might use Strikeforce to penetrate global markets after Lorenzo Fertitta, the chairman of Zuffa – the sports promotion company that controls both organizations – admitted that “we’re not fulfilling what the demand is…going to London one time a year, we’re kind of shortchanging that market”.

Fertitta sees the benefits of Strikeforce as a way to have “more fighters, more options…the ability to have a stronger presence in a meaningful way”, primarily throughout Europe and Asia.

This is an interesting development as it may be that Zuffa promotes the UFC as the North American arm of MMA while utilizing Strikeforce as the overseas promotion. That could work. But the crossover of fighters is still a problem – as might be White’s relations with former UFC members – including Dan Henderson, Josh Barnett and Paul Daley – who quit his organization, and not always on the best of terms.

White has also criticized Coker and once referred to the promotion as “Strikefarce”, but he maintains that Strikeforce’s leading fighters should not be concerned as “Scott Coker is the guy who’s going to be running the day-to-day” business, before adding that fighters are “never going to have to deal with me, so it’s not a big deal”.

That might be true now, but what of the future when the UFC absorbs Strikeforce? It’s going to happen – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise as this exciting sport garners more fans and bigger bucks. The UFC brand is already thought to be worth anything from $1billion to $2billion, depending on who is quoted.

Remember World Extreme Cagefighting, the World Fighting Alliance and Pride Fighting Championships? Yes, they have all been incorporated into the UFC. So how will certain fighters fare under White once Strikeforce ceases to operate? There could be a few internal fights over the next few years. But it’s very rare that purchases of rival companies run completely smoothly.

However, White remains thoroughly optimistic right now, believing that “it’s a great day for the fans” as the UFC pushes into new markets, adding that “we need more fighters” to grow the sport.

This latest deal, as well as the vagueness of Strikeforce’s prospects, has left more questions to be answered. However, it seems no one is quite sure what the future holds – least of White, Coker and Fertitta.