All Sport Report

Many of you are probably already aware of the phenomenon of mixed martial arts, and the fact is, that it’s posing strong competition to professional boxing as the most popular form of pugilistic entertainment. With different factions all over the world - Pride, K-1, King of the Cage, the UFC; and new ones popping up every day like BoDog Fight and the World Combat League, MMA as it’s known, is making a lot of fight fans forget about the sport of boxing and laugh at the “sport” of professional wrestling.

In it’s humble beginnings the sport was regarded by many to be barbaric and over-the-top in terms of violence but the additions and modifications of rules and the separation of weight classes have arguably made it safer than boxing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not turning my back on the “sweet science”, I’m still wide eyed with excitement for the upcoming duel between Oscar De LaHoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr, I’m just saying that there is room for both MMA and boxing in a fight fan’s world.

If you haven’t already been exposed to MMA, and you have any interest in boxing or wrestling, allow me to make a suggestion - tune into Spike tonight at eleven (or Tivo it if you can’t manage to stay up that late) and check out Countdown to UFC 68. You’ll be able to check out highlights of fights and see some fighter interviews in preparation for the upcoming pay-per-view scheduled for Saturday.

UFC 68 is a perfect introduction to MMA, showcasing four incredible fighters in for different weight classes.

World Class grappler Matt Hughes (pictured below) will fight at 170 lbs, Hughes, is coming back from a tough loss at the hands of George St Pierre and will look to put a hurting on poor Chris Lytle.

Excellent striker Rich “Ace” Franklin is also back after losing his title to Anderson Silva after having logged seven straight convincing victories prior to that. Franklin will battle Jason MacDonald at 185 lbs.

Brazillian Renato Sobral will take on Jason Lambert at 205 lbs, Sobral is one of the most impressive light-heavyweights in the world, he has incredible takedowns and submissions.

Last but certainly not least is the return of Randy “the Natural” Couture in the main event, that’s right Bernard Hopkins isn’t the only fighter out there who doesn’t know how to retire. Couture will move back up to heavyweight to challenge the current champion Tim Sylvia for the belt. Couture was recently inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame and has previously held both the light-heavyweight and the heavyweight championships, he not only has tremendous wrestling skills, but he can stand toe to toe with anyone. The only possible problem for the Natural is size, big Tim Sylvia stands six inches taller than Randy and outweighs him by almost forty pounds.

In addition to these four big fights, there will also be five other fights on the card as well and more often than not these “undercard” fights are just as impressive and entertaining as the ones you would shell out money to see.

Oh hell, who am I kidding, don’t wait until tonight, check out right here why MMA is becoming so popular - the knockouts:

UFC, MMA, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, Randy Couture