• One of boxing's biggest problems has been a failure to plan for the future. The UFC will be doing a great job of setting itself up for the future if it follows through and offers UFC 70 on Spike TV. By airing the card on Spike, it will generate more exposure for Mirko Cro Cop, who will be in line to fight Randy Couture for the UFC heavyweight title if he's able to defeat Gabriel Gonzaga. An upset by Gonzaga would also be witnessed by a larger audience on Spike as opposed to PPV, possibly making him a star. Offering UFC 70 for free will pay off in the end for Zuffa, due to an increase in the pay-per-view buy rate for Couture's first defense, expected to take place sometime this summer.
• A group picture of the cast of the upcoming fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter made its way onto the Internet last week. The fighters identified in the picture are: Gabe Ruediger, Joe Lauzon, Cole Miller, Matt Wiman, Nate Diaz, Andy Wang, Gray Maynard, Robert Emerson, Brandon Melendez, Noah Thomas, Corey Hill, Brian Geraghty, Marlon Sims, Manvel Gambaryan, Wayne Weems and Alan Berubie. Jens Pulver and B.J. Penn have been selected to coach the teams with the premiere scheduled for April 5 on Spike TV.
• Tito Ortiz could be in store for his second consecutive loss if he ends up fighting Rashad Evans at UFC 71 in May. Evans, while being less experienced than Ortiz, is a superior standup fighter. Ortiz is noted for his ability to take down fighters and beat them with his superb ground and pound game. But he did a poor job of setting up his takedowns against Chuck Liddell at UFC 66 and could struggle to get Evans, a former amateur wrestler at the collegiate level, to the ground. This could be the beginning of the end for Ortiz, who has failed to evolve as a fighter or earn a notable win since 2002. One could counter and say that Ortiz's split-decision victory against Forrest Griffin last April at UFC 59 qualifies as a "notable" win, but many felt Griffin was the true winner of that fight and Griffin was TKO'd by Keith Jardine at UFC 66. Few fighters are more dangerous than Ortiz when it comes to striking from someone's closed guard, but his standup is still suspect and his submission ability is questionable, at best.
• During my CBS SportsLine interview with Dana White I asked him if any other fighters acquired in the WFA deal in addition to Heath Herring, Quinton Jackson, Marvin Eastman, and Ryoto Machida would be making their way to the UFC. White indicated it was a possibility but didn't have any names to offer me at the time. However, Ivan Salaverry, who has fought in the UFC before, could be the next in the line of WFA fighters to migrate their way over to the UFC. Salaverry is rumored to be facing Terry Martin at UFC 71.
• Bad luck has once again found former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. He had been scheduled to face Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9 on April 5 but has pulled out of the bout due to a shoulder injury. Justin McCully is now scheduled to fight Hardonk. Anthony Torres, Jeff Joslin, and Hector Ramirez have all been scratched from the original card as well. Seth Petruzelli, from the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, will step in for Ramirez against Wilson Gouveia. Joslin was supposed to face Kuniyoshi Hironaka and Torres was set to go against Roan Carneiro but replacement fighters have yet to be announced.
Sam Caplan is a Philadelphia-based sports talk show host and freelance sportswriter. He's also an amateur mixed martial artist (and we do mean amateur) who trains out of the Mixed Martial Arts Academy of Philadelphia. Sam can be reached via e-mail at SCaplan8@comcast.net or you can check out his blog.
