Sherdog.com’s Marcelo Alonso was granted all access toAntonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s UFC 92 training camp, where the interim UFC heavyweight champion will take on Frank Mir. 

Joining “Minotauro” were Vitor Belfort, Junior “Cigano” dos Santos, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Muhammed Lawal

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You nickname a guy the “Axe Murderer,” and you can pretty much figure out what comes next. 

After a short, brutal stint in Brazil’s fighting circuit,Wanderlei Silva washed up — swimming the Atlantic and feeding on raw fish, one assumes — on American shores with the “Axe” handle courtesy of former UFC matchmaker John Perretti. Perretti likely had little idea that Silva would go on to inflict substantial physical trauma on some of Pride’s biggest stars, many of whom wound up looking like they had just been through a paper shredder.

With a third fight against Quinton Jackson tapped for this Saturday — the first two meetings had downright felonious endings courtesy of Silva — now might be the time to reflect on some of the most horrible, viscerally disturbing beatings of his career. Merry Christmas.

10. Keith Jardine (UFC 84, 5/24/08) 

Coming off the worse for the wear in a long-hoped-for war against Chuck Liddell, some doubted Silva’s ability to return to his feral fighting style. Those concerns were put to rest shortly after the Brazilian downed Jardine and then proceeded to use one hand to batter him while half-choking, half-securing him with the other. 

Level of Brutality (LOB): A standard-issue prison assault.

9. Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pride Critical Countdown, 6/26/05) 

Silva may be a good sport, but he’s hardly above using his opponent’s poor timing to his advantage. Against Nakamura, whom he had been steadily punishing, Silva wasted little time in pouncing when the Japanese judoka decided to discard his gi. By the time Nakamura’s hands were near his face again, it was to collect pieces of his nose.

LOB: Delayed reaction to Pearl Harbor.

8. Yuki Kondo (Pride Final Conflict, 8/15/04) 

One can imagine a pre-pubescent Silva watching soccer star Pele treat the ball like it owed him money; as a fighting adult, he’s often tried scoring goals with craniums. The most jarring incident was against Kondo, who lay in the missionary position while Silva drilled heel after heel into his expressionless, empty face. Not a great first fight to show to athletic commission members. 

LOB: A solid puppy kick.

7. Kazuyuki Fujita (Pride Critical Countdown Absolute, 07/01/06) 

Fujita, while thick of skull, is not the most agile of combatants. Once Silva was able to put him in a corner, it was an academic series of knees to the stationary head that robbed the Japanese fighter of his ability to make change without using his fingers. 

LOB: A two-story fall.

6. Kazushi Sakuraba (Pride Total Elimination, 8/10/03) 

The ultimate demise of reasonable premiums for Sakuraba’s life insurance came after his first meeting against Silva. Bored with his last fight against Dan Henderson, which had the ignobility of going the distance, Silva decided to be pithy and end it with a puree of kicks, knees and stomps; Sakuraba’s face resembled a “Fangoria” layout. 

LOB: Anesthetic-free root canal.

When free agent light-heavyweight Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) was announced as a special guest at Affliction’s recent press conference, rumors began to swirl that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” would be fighting for the upstart organization.

Those rumors were immediately halted when Ortiz was introduced as a broadcaster, and not a fighter, for the Jan. 24 “Day of Reckoning.”

But Ortiz later hinted to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the organization may still be in the running for his services as a fighter.

“When I’m 100 percent, I feel really bad for a lot of these light-heavyweights who are competing in Affliction,” Ortiz said. “Because I beat one of the guys — and I guess there’s three more on the card to do. 

“Everybody else keeps saying, ‘What do you think of ‘Babalu’ (Sobral) here? What do you think about (Vladimir) Matyushenko here? ‘Little Nog,’ now Sokoudjou. Like I say, ‘Fresh meat.’ Once I’m 100 percent, people are going to get the best fights possible in a Tito Ortiz fight.”

Ortiz is currently recovering from a recent surgery on his back that included the fusion of three of his discs. The 33-year-old said he still needs another six months of rehabilitation in order to recoup fully from the procedure. That time frame fits perfectly with the termination of his UFC contract.

“Yes, (the UFC can match any offer I receive until June) if they choose,” Ortiz said. “I’ve got to stick to my fight contract on that and just wait for it to finish out. You know (Andrei) Arlovski did the same thing, too, when he was waiting. Why give them a chance to match it?”

Ortiz said his desire to compete outside of the UFC has nothing to do with financial offers.

“It’s just respect value,” Ortiz said. “It’s not about money anymore. I have all the money I need in the world. I have nothing to worry about money-wise. It’s about respect now, and [UFC officials] don’t respect me as a person. They don’t respect me as a fighter. They don’t respect me as a businessman. 

“I’m going to go somewhere where people do respect me and do treat me the way that I think I deserve to be treated after 11 years of competition and after five title defenses — and doing some of the pay-per-view buys that no other fighter in MMA has ever done. But I’ve got to give thanks to all my fans that have been helping me promote myself and helping me get those pay-per-views.”

Ortiz was in this same position just a few short months ago with EliteXC. The collapse of that organization prevented Ortiz from signing, and the former UFC champion feels that he could have proved valuable in saving the financially doomed promotion.

“There was a little hesitation (in negotiating) there in the beginning after [the EliteXC] fell through,” Ortiz said. “(EliteXC Head of Fight Operations) Jeremy Lappen is an awesome guy, and I kind of feel bad for him. I know that the rug got pulled from underneath his feet, as it did mine. 

“I think CBS should have taken a little look into it and maybe taken a chance and thrown the dice on me. I would have bet on myself.”

Ortiz believes Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio and his organization understand the value he can bring to the promotion.

“Affliction is the group who understands that now,” Ortiz said. “I think bringing Golden Boy Promotions along with it is what intrigues me 100 percent to come aboard, because Golden Boy knows how to promote fighters like no other. 

“I’m really excited to be a part of this. It would be nice to see a ‘24/7′ with Tito Ortiz in it. I think a lot of fans would love to see that, also.”

While it would seem there are many positive signs that Ortiz will soon find himself within the ropes of Affliction, the fighter himself stopped just short of confirming the possibility.

“There’s a possibility of that happening,” Ortiz said. “But right now I’m just going to focus on commentating and let the fight stuff fall in place when it does.”

John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com.

Less than a week stands between interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his title defense against Frank Mir at UFC 92 “The Ultimate 2008” on Dec. 27 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. 
The two men spent six weeks coaching against one another on season eight of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series. Now they prepare to meet inside the Octagon to determine who will face Brock Lesnar for the undisputed UFC heavyweight championship sometime in 2009. 

Nogueira (31-4-1), who has never been finished in 36 professional bouts, believes his training camp has gone according to plan. 

“I’m getting in good shape,” he told Sherdog.com in an exclusive video interview. “I’ve been training very hard. My game on the ground is very tight, my muay Thai’s getting better, [and] my boxing’s good, too.” 

One of the most decorated heavyweights in mixed martial arts history, Nogueira will carry a three-fight winning streak into his showdown with Mir. The 31-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has not competed since February, when he submitted two-time heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia with a guillotine choke to capture the interim belt at UFC 81. Outside of Fedor Emelianenko, Nogueira has defeated every man he has faced in his storied, decade-long career, having avenged losses to both Dan Henderson and Josh Barnett. 

Mir (11-3), meanwhile, has won back-to-back fights since his brutal loss to Brandon Veraat UFC 65. He welcomed Lesnar to the Octagon in February, as he weathered an early barrage from the monstrous former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar and submitted him with a first-round kneebar. 

“I’ve got to pretty much be ready for everything … use my muay Thai, my ground, my wrestling,” Nogueira said. 

Check out Marcelo Alonso’s full interview and see Nogueira profess his hope to finish Mir and discuss training alongside Vitor Belfort, Junior dos Santos and his twin brother,Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, in Brazil.

Most fighters will say that at least 70 or 80% of fight preparation is mentally being ready for the battle ahead. One shining example of a fighter who works to out-think his opponent before the cage door ever closes is No. 1 light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans, who is not only physically ready for his title shot against Forrest Griffin, but he’s as mentally prepared as ever.

When the “Ultimate Fighter” season 2 winner stepped into his fight against Chuck Liddell most people were somehow counting him out before it even started. The Michigan native was happy to disappoint, as he landed a thunderous punch that put the “Iceman” out cold, giving him the win.

After the fight, Evans credited his coaching staff of Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn for coming up with the perfect strategy to beat Liddell. The next fighter to break down will be Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 on Dec. 27.

“We’re working on a gameplan and going over it extensively, me and Coach Winklejohn and Greg Jackson. They see what I do well and they just capitalize on that and try to make me do what I would do, but just do it better and just add a few things here and there,” Evans said recently during an appearance on MMAWeekly Radio.

He understands all to well that Griffin is a much different type of fighter than maybe anyone he’s faced in the past. His fellow Ultimate Fighter champion is seen as a hard worker and sort of a “jack of all trades” when it comes to his MMA style.

“It can be more difficult in some areas because he’s just so well rounded in all avenues, but it just means I have to step my game up another notch,” Evans commented about his fight preparation. “He’s definitely talented in all areas and he has a gas tank that can just keep going and going, so I welcome the challenge.”

The camp at Greg Jackson’s gym consists of the regular rogue’s gallery of training partners including Keith Jardine, Nate Marquardt, Georges St. Pierre, Joey Villasenor, and Eliot Marshall. Still despite an undefeated record and an overall impressive fight resume, Evans will enter the Octagon on Saturday night as the decided underdog.

“I don’t know if I like playing that role, but it’s a role that I’ve gotten used to,” he said about being the underdog in the fight. “I just learned not to pay it any mind. When you’re playing a favorite, you fight from a different position. You’re fighting from a position that everybody you’re telling about the fight is talking about, ‘awww man, I don’t even know if I should wish you luck. I know you going to mop him up.’ So that puts pressure on you in a different kind of way.

“But when you’re the underdog it kind of puts pressure on you in the fact that you want to prove everybody wrong.”

The biggest lesson that taught Evans how to battle out of that underdog role was his 2007 fight against Tito Ortiz. In the bout, Evans was admittedly giving too much respect to his opponent and not fighting his fight, which cost him early on. Now, he feels like he has the mental aspect of his game down as well. 

“You can’t get to the point where you make it such a mental game that saying, ‘Oh I have to win this. This is my only chance. I’m never going to get another opportunity, another title shot.’ I’d like to go in there and win the fight, but I’m going to go in there and compete, and if I go in there and compete to my best then the bi-product of that is going to be a win,” said Evans. “If things aren’t going in my favor, I can definitely climb that mountain again and enjoy the journey all the way up to the top once more.”

With all the hard work and training winding down, Evans is simply happy to get back in the cage and fight again and with a win this time around, everyone will cease calling him “Rashad” or even “Mr. Evans.” He will simply be “Champ.”

“That’s going to be the greatest feeling in the world. I can’t lie,” he stated. “To have that title, it just says that I put in the work and I reaped the reward for doing that work and it would just be an amazing feeling.”

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A matchup between winners from the first and second seasons of The Ultimate Fighter could be in store for UFC 95, according to a report by Sherdog.com.

Sherdog’s Greg Savage is reporting that former welterweight title contender Diego Sanchez has made a verbal commitment for his first-ever bout in the 155 pound division to come against Joe Stevenson.

Savage adds in his report that bout agreements have yet to be signed. However, if the matchup is finalized, it is expected that it would take place at UFC 95 on Feb. 21 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Sanchez, 19-2, won the middleweight championship during the first season of TUF after TKO’ing Kenny Florian at 2:49 of round 1. Following the win over Florian, the New Mexico native immediately dropped to welterweight, where he proceeded to go 5-0 until suffering back-to-back losses against Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch at UFCs 69 and 76, respectively.

Since suffering the first two losses of his career, Sanchez has rebounded to go 2-0 with wins over David Bielkheden at UFC 82 and Luigi Fioravanti during the live finale for the seventh season of TUF. However, Sanchez still made the decision last month to leave the welterweight division and make the cut to lightweight.

If the proposed bout with Stevenson becomes official, it would mean an ambitious lightweight debut for Sanchez. Stevenson became the welterweight winner for the second season of TUF after defeating Luke Cummo via unanimous decision during the show’s finale in November of 2005.

Stevenson, 29-9, dropped to lightweight following a unanimous decision loss to Josh Neer at UFC Fight Night 4. He then went on to win his next four bouts while competing at 155 pounds and earned a chance to fight for the vacated UFC lightweight title last January at UFC 80. Facing former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn, the experienced Stevenson was still no match, being forced to submit at 4:02 of round 2 in a bloody encounter that saw the 26-year old bleed profusely from the head.

Stevenson rebounded with a second round submission victory over American Top Team’s Gleison Tibau at UFC 86 this past July but he was unable to maintain the momentum, as he suffered a first round submission defeat to Florian last month at UFC 91.

News that Dutch striker Gilbert Yvel was scheduled to face Josh Barnett at Affliction’s upcoming “Day of Reckoning” raised many eyebrows.

Few fighters in the game are as controversial as Yvel. Despite one of the most exciting and explosive skill sets in the heavyweight division, his career has been marred by several in-ring incidents that made him unemployable to most big promotions. Among the most notorious: biting a referee in a 1998 bout in Russia, eye gouging Don Frye at PRIDE 16, and most alarmingly, knocking out a referee in 2004 at a show in Finland.

In February of 2007, the Nevada State Athletic Commission denied Yvel a license to fight for his past misbehaviors.

To ensure he will licensed for “Reckoning,” Yvel and his representatives will meet with Assistant Executive Officer Bill Douglas in early January for a closed-door session.

But Yvel has another advocate in his quest to fight on American soil—Barnett.

“As much trouble as he’s encountered in MMA circles, at least he’s not like football,” Barnett told MMAWeekly.com. “Gilbert has his troubles, but I can actually see allowing that guy to fight under circumstances. But a guy like ‘Pacman’ Jones can go into a strip club and have him and his friends assault dancers and shoot up the place, and the NFL will bring him back; coaches will vouch for him and people will give him a second chance, when he’s just a dirtbag.”

Barnett says the amount of controversy Yvel generates is mostly undeserved.

“The funny thing is reading about how vehemently people feel about Gilbert Yvel, a guy who’s broke some rules in the ring, but to date, nobody’s ever been seriously injured by him,” he said. “Then you’ve got a guy like that, who shoots places up and acts like a total buffoon, and people will go out there and vouch for him just so he can intercept a few passes.

Barnett and Yvel share history. The two fought for PRIDE in its formative years, although never against each other. Yvel never found his stride in the now-defunct Japanese promotion, losing all but two of his appearances there. Barnett, on the other hand, cemented his reputation as a top-ten heavyweight. Barnett says the two hung out several times and got along well.

“I say the majority of his fights are less controversial than the few we think about,” Barnett continued. “According to his last two fights, he hasn’t had a single incident. So he seems to be doing his thing without causing so many issues, and I’ve always had a decent relationship with him.”

And ultimately, Barnett needed a fight, whoever it might be. After Affliction scratched the Oct. 11 date for “Reckoning” and re-booked the show with Andre Arlovski vs. Fedor Emelianenko, Barnett was out in the cold. The waiting was getting to him.

“I need to be active,” he said. “I’m not here to sit around and watch TV and play video games and listen to heavy metal. I need to be out there punching somebody in the face. It’s gotta be somebody.”

To be fair, it’s been almost five years since Yvel’s last major incident. Barnett feels Yvel is not the same man who knocked out a referee and kicked him while he was down.

“I’d like to hear his side of the story on that one,” Barnett said. “Because sometimes, there have been a few referees I could have knocked out, although it’s not anything I’m ever going to do. We’re human beings.”

But when it comes to fighting dirty, if Yvel tries anything, Barnett won’t tolerate it.

“When it comes to going crazy, like fouls or infractions or anything like that, I don’t worry about that, because nobody will take it as far as I will…that much I know,” he said. “If somebody wants to poke my eyes or bite me, that’s my career, and if it’s not an eye for an eye, it will be an eye for both your eyes, some of your teeth, your limbs, whatever I can get before somebody pulls me off of you.”

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Throughout the second half of 2008, observers of UFC television ratings have noticed a change in the composition of the audience.  The audience is getting older, and the ratings breakdown of Ultimate Fight Night 16 provides yet another example.  As opposed to being entertainment solely for the 18-34 crowd, UFC fights are drawing a decent amount of older viewers.  As you can see in the breakdown at MMA Payout, the 18-49 rating is stronger than the 18-34 rating in a way that it simply wasn’t in the past:

“UFC Fight For The Troops” earned a 1.43 household rating — a 1.72 in Men 18-49, a 1.30 in People 18-49, a 1.62 in Men 18-34, and an average audience of 2.0 million viewers.

The audience for The Ultimate Fighter is also getting older according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

Ultimate Fighter on 12/3 saw the first hour do a 1.28 rating and 1.6 million viewers, and the second hour did a 1.21 rating and 1.6 million viewers. The trend of the viewers getting older continued, as the shows did a 1.43 in Males 18-34 and 1.71 in Males 35-49.

What caused the change?  On MMA Nation, Dave Meltzer speculated that it was the CBS shows that brought in older viewers who stuck around.  It seems like a plausible theory, but regardless of the cause, it’s a serious trend that has continued over the last 6 months.  What does it mean for the UFC?  On one hand, bringing in more 35-49 viewers isn’t going to help them with the advertisers lining up to get at the 18-34 demographic.  On the other hand, these older viewers are more likely to have disposable income to spend on PPV.  It’s possible that this trend explains the growth in PPV buys in the second half of this year, though there are numerous causes.  This has to be considered a change for the better, considering the fact that the UFC’s revenue is overwhelmingly driven by PPV numbers.  The 18-49 demographic is also the second most targeted demographic, so it’s not as if they’ve started drawing women over 60 or something, it is still a good thing for advertisers.

The people at the UFC are very aware of this trend, the question is how they are going to respond to it.  The 35-49 demographic is hardly the “Manswers” crowd, and I don’t think they will be all that interested in the antics from this season of The Ultimate Fighter.

A drop in viewers among 18-34 year old males has been mitigated by an increase among older viewers, which has kept ratings relatively steady.  Is the drop among younger viewers a reason for concern?  I think the answer could be yes in the long run, but that was always a possibility with a young audience prone to quickly jumping from fad to fad.  Gaining a foothold among older viewers is a very important step for long term stability.

The newest welterweight contender in King of the Cage comes by way of one of the top grapplers on the planet, Dean Lister, who sent Waachim Spiritwolf into his fight last week to not only get a win, but earn a shot at the 170-pound divisional championship.

Squaring off against undefeated prospect Rick Legere, it was Spiritwolf who knew that he had a ton of pressure going into the fight, but he stayed composed throughout.

Landing an early takedown, Spiritwolf unloaded a series of solid elbows to Legere’s head, before the fighters got back to their feet and began trading leg kicks. It was then Legere’s turn to land a takedown where he proceeded to hit a good knee to Spiritwolf’s midsection as the fighter tried to get off the canvas before suffering the shot and getting put back down.

Eventually the fight got back to the feet where Spiritwolf and Legere traded shots until the round ended. It was the second round that brought more stand-up and a very quick ending.

Almost immediately when the round started, Spiritwolf launched forward with a huge left hand that blasted Legere and sent him crashing to the canvas. Legere was out before he even hit the ground and with that he suffered the first loss of his career, and Spiritwolf landed a shot at the King of the Cage welterweight title.

“After the first round, my trainer told me to stand and trade, so I did,” Spiritwolf said after the victory.

Next up for Spiritwolf is a showdown with new King of the Cage welterweight champion Mike “Joker” Guymon on Feb. 26 at San Manuel Casino in Riverside, Calif.