MMA has now risen to the level where it can set its matches on the same date with a boxing match as big as a Floyd Mayweather, Jr. headliner.

Go argue about which production “should” reap more PPV’s. Go argue which venue would fill to the rafters: the MGM Grand in fabulous Las Vegas or the double-A C in Dallas. It doesn’t change the fact that Dana White doesn’t see this as a problem anymore. And this says a lot!

It shows that MMA has finally thought it can take on its elder brother (boxing) in terms of PPV and ticket sales. It doesn’t matter which event gets the most PPV or ticket sales. It’s the thought – the bravado – that that matters. It says a lot about the organization’s growth.

MMA has reached that level of transcending its status as a pseudo-mainstream sport to something more popular. Famous athletes like Shaquille O’neal tweaks about joining the gladiators, but what is most telling is that MMA fighters like Randy Couture getting cast on a Stallone movie alongside the likes of Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Jason Statham, and Sly himself.

Take a load of this: Axe tapped George St. Pierre for its TV commercial ad; Fedor; Cro Cop; Jason “Mayhem” Miller; Wanderlei Silva and Mark Coleman (rubbing each other’s cheek!); even Kimbo Slice (for Norton Security) are enjoying their gigs as product endorsers here and in other countries.

It says a lot about MMA becoming a force to reckon with. Mainstream media and brand owners have now finally acknowledged the octagon warriors enough to trust them with the fate of their products.

What a way to go for a sport that was only played underground just a couple of years ago.

Everyone enjoyed it. It was spectacular. Now, that’s what we’re talking about! Anderson Silva, from now on, that’s how you fight! Again!

Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin was a great show of explosive fists and great talents. The crowd inside Wachovia Center in Philidelphia was in a frenzy.

When the two gladiators went up the cage, the crowd was booing Silva while cheering for Griffin like a homecoming boy. Truly, Silva had lost his luster.

Until.

Silva came back on track not only with such combination of fury and flair, he also did it in a division heavier than his comfort zone, and with a fighter bigger than anyone he fought.

What does this tell us? Anderson Silva has outgrown his middleweight championship belt? He has fought and defeated all the best in that level? Cote and Leites were so below his league that he gingerly fought like a man faced with a kid half his size?

Maybe that is so. Raising his weight 20 pounds higher in a short span of time could do a lot of bad things to his speed and performance, but it did not. He literally brutalized the bigger Griffin.

Within two minutes of the first round, Silva (must have been traumatized by Dana’s tounge-lashing) made sure he ups the ante. Silva was so charged he was like a mongoose against a cobra. And like a mongoose, he works well when the enemy strikes. His counter-punches are lethal, and when it hit its mark Griffin was knocked down. Silva, the counter-puncher, was eeirily cool and controlled. And when the brutal set of Brazilian knuckles found its mark the second time, Griffin was on the floor again. Silva offered his hand to help his opponent up. They touched gloves, and the third knock down must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back (it didn’t seem so much – especially that Silva released that strike while backpedalling).

The first knock down must be what did Griffin in. He must know he’s in trouble he wished the round is over (he checked the clock after that first knock down).

Talk has it that Silva is willing to relinquish his middleweight championship belt and put it up for grabs. Dana White liked the idea and said he can make it happen. Anderson Silva may go up to light heavyweight division and fight a whole roster of bigger and better fighters than he ever had at the middleweight division. That’s a very interesting prospect. A second-grader would surely feel bored and unmotivated if you put him in a kindergarten class.  It's about time to put Silva where he belongs, so he can shine again.

Dana White is pleased with him again. The crowd approves of him again. Why not? Silva made sure it was an explosive fight. His body language showed it during the fight, pumping his fists towards him like telling Griffin, “C’mon! Let’s make it bloody. Hit me!” And when Griffin hesitates, he initiates.

Now, Silva, that’s what we’re talking about. From now on, that’s how you fight! Again!

Brock Lesnar did not need the Ultimate Fighting Championship belt to strut around with to make him the guy with a target taped on his back. He WAS the target – plus the words “Hit Me” –the very first moment he entered the octagon.

If you say it’s because of his WWE background, yes, it’s because of that – and more.

There are several fighters who hailed from the world of pro wrestling, and some of them (Ken Shamrock, Mark Coleman, and Dan Severn) are hall of famers now. By “several” we mean a whole bunch of 61 cage warriors to date. So why pick on Brock Lesnar?

It’s his WWE background, and more. Unlike the other MMA fighters who dabbled in pro wrestling at one point or another, Brock Lesnar’s entry to MMA was something you would either hate or envy.

An outsider, an “actor” in the fake, “scripted,” and theatrical world of WWE getting a contract like that, and an exposure like that would surely offend both the “legitimate” mixed martial artists and the hardcore fans. And this is not without a valid reason: In Lesnar’s first foray into the octagon (Dynamite!! USA), he earned $500,000 while someone as big an MMA sensation as Royce Gracie only got $300,000.

You know, MMA fighters are not unlike the warriors of Sparta. They are heavily trained in known mixed martial arts disciplines – for years. And they are a proud lot. They are a special breed of disciplined professional fighters. It becomes quite understandable that it becomes inconceivable, even unacceptable that someone who comes from a “different breed”, from a different (and fake) world, could just comes in with a bigger ticket, on a red carpet, with huge media fanfare and an accompanying huge contract to boot. We could not blame the hardcores for hating Lesnar.

It is in this same breath that we could not blame Lesnar for his attitude towards the fans. Not that we agree with or condone his so-called “unprofessional,” and very “WWE” post-Mir-fight antics. But when you are negatively judged, derided, booed, and taken as a phoney even before (and even after) you prove yourself, you’d surely feel sore. And feel unfairly treated. And, since Brock Lesnar is no lame duck, would eventually want to hit back.

And thus, we get Lesnar’s attitude.

It is not WWEish, it is not unprofessional. It is a fighter’s instinct.

Bobby Lashley, another fighter with the “WWE-turning-MMA” stigma written all over is another case in point. Remember Jason Guida’s “You’ve been faking this for how long” question? Or Mike Cook’s Nacho Libre mask to taunt Lashley?

Lesnar, and the still undefeated newcomer Lashley (4-0) are just some of the exciting things helps a lot in the popularity and growth of mixed martial arts. Wait till you get a taste of Kimbo Slice in The Ultimate Fighter (and God forbids if he gets a slot in the UFC).

And wait…there’s still that genie Kazaam hovering around and threatening to wreak havoc inside that bloody cage after he retires from being a cager – no pun intended.

The future is bright for MMA.

“I’ve never changed my tune on him, I’ve never changed my mind,” was Dana White’s straight answer to the question.

But.

Listen to the rest of the interview and you’ll see the difference in melody now that he’s “climbing in bed with him.”

It was just last year when Dana White led the pack of those who were so critical of Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Fergusson. He called Kimbo a “joke,” a “bum,” “he sucks,” and all sorts of unimaginable demeaning description of the YouTube street-brawling sensation. We also remember White saying Kimbo Slice “will be murdered if he fought in the UFC.”

Now that Kimbo Slice is going to fight to join the UFC via season ten of the Ultimate Fighter, listen to the interview…

“I know he’s a fighter. I know Kimbo is a fighter. The guy fights… he fights. You know, we see him fight in the streets. He’s had professional mixed martial arts fights.” This sounds like someone pitching for Kimbo. Perhaps as a measure, White adds, “Is he a mixed martial artist? We’re gonna find out.”

Here’s more…

“I respect him for coming in and doing the Ultimate Fighter. I respect him, you know. And I did talk a lot of sh@t about him, and he’s here to prove himself.”

“That’s one of the things I respect about him is that he’s honestly…legitimately trying to get into mixed martial arts and trying to get into the big show.” Now, that’s a lot of “respect” as a word coming out of Dana’s mouth talking about Kimbo. How time flies! He even talked about the guy getting some offers in boxing and, not unlike a concerned friend, he said there’s no money in boxing unless you fight a Mayweather or a Pacquiao. Then he proceeded in praising Kimbo Slice’s manager for really taking good care of him.

All in all, we sense a sweeter tune…a love song, in fact, coming from Dana White as regards to Kimbo Slice. In fairness to the guy who made UFC MMA’s biggest outfit, he can easily say he didn’t change his tune. In fact, he reminded us of what he said before, “The only way this guy will ever get to the UFC is through the Ultimate Fighter.”

Interestingly, Dana White and the Fertitta brothers have been griping about the lackluster treatment the so-called “real media” (White’s terminology) gives to mixed martial arts. This gives us the feeling that the UFC triumvirate is revving up their efforts at marketing the sport to a wider audience base. What better way to do this than to have the name that earned the highest rating in the history of MMA television – Kimbo Slice.

The fact that The Ultimate Fighter’s format was changed– from requiring wannabe TUF fighter to win a qualifying fight – to simply handpicking the 16 contestants, speaks so much about what Dana White and company want.

This also makes it difficult for us not to think that Kimbo would linger longer in the show by not having him fight early on. Why risk eliminating Kimbo Slice so soon? Just having this hulk do his reality drama without the fight, would be enough to keep the ratings sky high – this will not be a very bad idea.

However, what if Kimbo proves to still possess his crowd-drawing powers, would TUF or UFC fake a Kimbo Slice win so he could join the ranks of UFC gladiators to further boost UFC’s popularity?

How would the fans react to a Kimbo Slice win? Would they cry “fake”? Would it backfire? We see a lot of questions arising from this change of tune. The more reason for us to watch TUF 10.

Dana White, I see what you did there!

By simply telling us folks how wonderful Pepsi tastes, or how great the products that he endorses are, Fortune and MSN Money individually listed Shaquille O'Neal as number 7 in their list of top ten endorsement superstars at $15 M a year. Never mind if you like him or not, he sure does stir awareness and influences positive response to the products or brands he endorses.

Like it or not, the UFC – or mixed martial arts in general – is still in its infancy stages when compared to NBA, NFL, or even boxing. How else would you explain the pay differences between an Arlovski or an Ortiz to a Mayweather or a Pacquiao? In case you don’t know, $1.5 million is the rumoured highest paycheck to an MMA gladiator. Compare this to Manny Pacquiao’s guaranteed purse of $11 Million for his fight against Oscar De la Hoya.

Now comes the Dr. Shaq, or Shaq Fu, or Superman (however you want to name this media magnet) practically telling everyone he intends to fight inside the octagon (perhaps a career change?) after he retires from NBA. Now, that’s directing the entire world’s attention to the world of mixed martial arts that’s still in the Mesozoic Era.

Never mind if you like him or not, but the guys sure knows how to stir a hornet’s nest. Whether he stars in Kazaam (voted by “Rotten Tomatoes” as “The Worst Movie of All Time”) or weave flop poetry through his rhymes, or by thrashing Kobe Bryant, Shaq sure knows how to create buzz.

When Shaquille O’Neal called out on Hong Man Choi, and kissed Chuck Liddell’s lips after he topples him – ok, it’s not Chuck, it’s his standee poster – the guys from UFC and everyone else in the world of mixed martial arts should consider saving $3 Million dollars on promotions (PepsiCo pays Shaq this amount annually).

Never mind if you like Shaq or not, but the 7’1” tall, 340 lbs “Shaqovic” (who have trained in MMA for several years already) clashing out with the 7’2” tall, 340 lbs MMA warrior from Korea is something we don’t wanna miss.

Heck, this could even be better than a stale Kobe-Shaq verbal tussle.

MMA warriors, get a hint from that “little Filipino” pugilist.

Manny Pacquiao, who has just cemented his slot to becoming one of the the greatest boxers in history, must be today’s most popular fighter.  What makes him so?  It’s not the number of fights he won, it’s not the number of championship belts he collects – it’s how he fights.

The thoroughness, the intensity, the power – the heart! Now, that’s what we’re talking about.

It’s the process. It’s how you do it.  It’s how you win.

I heard my little girl sing this song from whoever-she-is-montana-hanna.  It goes something like this:

“Ain’t about how fast I get there/Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side/It’s the climb.”

Yessir! It’s the climb.  It’s the experience you give the audience.  It’s the spectacle.

We don’t want to go see two “intelligent” fighters dancing around the octagon thinking the fight out, and whoever outhinks the other wins.  Leave that to chess players.  Otherwise, I’d rather watch my son play Kung Lao in Mortal Combat – it’s more exciting.

What is MMA?  It’s a bloody fight!  Remember when it was still in its heydays, when it was still an underground (legally banned) sport.  It’s a bloody brutal fight.

No, we’re not saying that MMA gladiators kill each other.  No, we’re not saying MMA warriors should all be brawn with no skill or intelligence.  Au contraire, we’d love our fighters bright, with style… heck, we’d love them fighting with flair and class.  Do that Silva, and MMA fans would multiply overnight like twitter users.

And only then would you see the day where you earn by the millions of dollars, PER FIGHT.

Hardcore Anderson Silva fans are quick to justify their hero’s lackluster performance during the main event of the UFC 97 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.   Oh yes, Silva is the octagon’s finest artist (this is supposed to be grander that simply being a “martial artist”?)  He’s a champion.  He knows how to win.  How? By making sure he doesn’t lose?

You see, you can do it by avoiding a collision course against your opponent.  And that’s precisely what he did last April 18.  Oh yes, Silva was just showing his “technical skills” and a “smart fighter” doesn’t just attack and put himself in danger.  C’mon.  This is UFC, not some freakin’ chess tournament.  People go to watch action.  Why else would they be offered knockout bonuses?  To encourage the fighters to be more aggressive and show more action.

Yes, technical skills count, but this trait is supposed to make the fight more interesting – not boring.  If you want technical skill, running away is the best technical skill.

While Leites’ performance sucks, Silva’s was quite a letdown.  Silva’s defenders say, the pressure should be on the challenger to force the fight.  Normally, yes.  However, when things become obvious that Leites does not pose any danger, and that he was not even showing an aggressive campaign at snatching the champion’s belt, Silva should have stepped up his game plan.  While he intends to win, he should also not forget that fans would always want a spectacular win.  Why else would they pay to watch?

What he did was, “Oh, Leites doesn’t know how to snatch the championship belt on me.  Good.  I’ll just let the rounds pass by without breaking a sweat – without endangering myself – and i’m still sure of retaining my belt. And I’ll be UFC’s record-holder of the most number of consecutive wins.”  Well, that sucks.  That smacks of avoidance.  As I’ve said, this fight seems to say that you can keep your belt by avoiding contact.  No points earned by both dancers – er, fighters, the championship title doesn’t change names.

We expected more from Silva.  He IS Anderson Silva in the first place.  He even went back to Rio de Janiero to sharpen his BJJ skills, right?  When obviously, he wanted a stand-up fight and Leites proves to be less inclined, he should have changed his game plan.  But no, he wanted to play it “technical” and safe.  You call that a good showing?

Silva’s defenders say casual MMA fans do not understand the technicality of a fight.  They insist that Silva did a good showing.  Yes of course, and so does a chess player.  We seem to forget here that fans (especially the “ignorant” casual fans) didn’t come to see thinking, “technical” competitors;  the fans came to see gladiators – in a fight.  Again, being highly “technical” is a good trait of a fighter, but it should not get in the way of a good fight.  If you want “technical,” run around inside the octagon and avoid contact – that’s what happened to Silva’s kind of “technical” that night in Canada.

If you say it was a good fight “technically,” you’re missing the forest for the trees.  MMA thrives on its popularity, and its popularity depends on its being spectacular – it being a spectator sport.  As I keep on saying, mixed martial arts is still show business – minus the staged or theatrical nature of fights and further spiced up by antics and dramatics of the players in the world of professional wresting.

And the “casual fans” booed because they’re ignorant?  Think again.  These new, casual, ignorant fans are the future of MMA.  They are the ones we need. We need to get more new, albeit still uninitiated, fans to sustain the growth of this, still young, sport.

We have almost forgotten about that frustrating letdown on Silva’s performance during UFC 90 last year but the first 3 minutes of the main event of UFC 97 at the Bell Center in Canada just gave us an idea of how horribly boring and irritating things are going to be. It was all dancing and tentative strikes all the way till the end. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites was horribly frustrating we felt we waz wobbed.

Leites was like someone in heat that at the slightest chance, he flops on his back to the ground, legs raised to expose his bottom. It would have been okay if Silva would oblige, but no. He just stands there, hands akimbo, feasting his eyes on Leites’ exposed derriere. A lot of instances, Silva would bend over gingerly trying to touch his opponent’s splayed legs. It was such a bizarre sight.

And we thought it was the only time we’ll see Anderson Silva in a “ bizarro world” with that dismal performance against Cote in UFC 90 last October.

Now comes UFC 97…what? “Redemption”? Nothing was redeemed here. Silva just sank deeper into his “bizzaro world.” We felt robbed.

When someone whose reputation is being peddled as one of the world’s best MMA fighters; one who is not only a martial artist but maybe the finest artist inside the octagon; one with eight consecutive wins (the highest record in the history of MMA); one who is hitting accuracy rate is touted at an astounding 80% while the rest of MMA gladiators only have an average 35% hitting accuracy, you would always expect nothing less than an explosive display of skill and power. But no, we waz wobbed.

A couple of months back, we remember him through a translator saying, “What’s important to me is to step into the octagon and give the public and the world a good performance.” What good performance was he talking about?

After the fight, when asked by Joe Rogan how he felt about the crowd’s boos, he said, “unless you’re here inside the octagon, you wouldn’t know what’s happening,” or something to that effect. He also said, sometimes even though you want a good fight, things just don’t go your way – or something to that effect. But Silva, YOU are one of the world’s finest fighters. You are supposed to have a lot of techniques in your mojo to force an attack against Leites.

We understand you want to keep a standup fight but when Leites have repeatedly flopped his back to invite you on the mat repeatedly, and it was obvious that he would not do it with you otherwise than by rubbing body parts on the ground, you should have obliged. You trained specifically for this in Rio, right?

But you didn’t. We, the spectators who paid a total of $ 4.9 million on tickets, and the several other millions of fans around the world who watched this game on TV felt we waz wobbed.

Anderson Silva now has the impressive top record of 9 consecutive undefeated matches. This does not mean anything to the fans. Mixed martial arts is a spectator sports. The fans wouldn’t mind if a fighter wins or losses as much as they would mind a lousy performance. They watch to see a fight. Mixed martial arts is about the fight, the skills, the action, the drama. Who wins or losses is just the anti-climax of the event.

Unlike fellow WWE alumnus Brock Lesnar who skyrocketed to MMA stardom via UFC, Bobby Lashley wants to take the slower route.

When asked if he would be invited, would he want to fight for the UFC, the former WWE champ said no. What?!! Ain’t that a bit lame? Lashley said he needs to stay on the undercards or on smaller gigs before he considers moving up on the UFC. Oh, he respects UFC so much that he calls it the “pinnacle of the sport” that he won’t even consider being with the UFC now. We’d say it’s still lame.

We’d say that’s a major issue on the self-confidence department. Lashley tries to justify it by saying, “When I get to the UFC, I want to be a serious contender for the title.” Major confidence issue, indeed.

Last we’ve heard, the guy would rather be on the reality TV. With this letdown on the guy’s aggressiveness on going up, when “reality TV” was mentioned, we thought he meant “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” or “Supernanny.” Pardon the slip, he meant “The Ultimate Fighter.”

He’d house up with other MMA no-namers in a house outside of Las Vegas, show the world how he bitches up, er, we mean show the world how he trains and take down other wannabes. Yeah right, reality TV… as a means of moving up to UFC. That’s cool. We just can’t help feeling let down his “no” to the rhetorical question of “if offered a slot on the UFC.”

But then…

The guy starts to make sense when he said, “I don’t want to just be another guy going into the UFC because it’s a grand stage and build there. I don’t think that’s what I need to do.” Oh, yeah. The octagon could be a very unforgiving stage. To say the obvious, a premature exposure could break you more than it could build you.

Oh, yeah. We remember how that other WWE guy, Lesnar, was not spared from belittling remarks when he first set foot inside the octagon, “He’s a freakin’ wrestler!” We remember how Jason Guida “screwed with his head” during a pre-fight presser.

We remember how we wrote last week how “it is easier to work yourself upwards when everyone’s looking somewhere else, than having pot shots thrown at you while you fight your way up.”

So, okay. Good luck on your play safe mode, Lashley. We find it a bit lame. But then, you’ve got some wisdom there.

The days seem to roll slowly. Barely three weeks on the countdown and we’ll see how Anderson Silva’s trip to the Carnival paradise Rio de Janeiro turns out during the April 18 UFC 97 “Redemption” at the Bell Center in Montreal. Besides perhaps learning a couple of samba steps or looking for that Girl from Ipanema, or lounging at the Copacabana, “The Spider” actually hied off to Rio for an octane-fed top-level jiu-jitsu training with BJJ legends Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Andre Galvao.

Galvao studied and tries to imitate Leites’ fight style and uses this during Silva’s fight trainings.

While Silva (23-4-0) is known for his primary skills of Muay Thai and Brazilial Jiu-jitsu, his top-level jiu-jitsu training in Brazil speaks a lot about what he thinks about his BJJ skilled opponent in Thales Leites (14-1-0). “Thales is a new kids who’s just starting out, but he’s already proven that he deserves this opportunity,” Silva declared. “He’s a dangerous opponent, just like all the others I’ve faced. He has this opportunity to fight for the title because he impressed the promoters enough to get this chance.”

The 27-year-old Leites (14-1) has never been finished in 15 career fights and has enjoyed a relatively stealth rise up the middleweight ladder.

Other fighters that makes us want to time-travel to April 18 are Cheick Kongo (13-4-1) who will clash against Dutch kickboxing hero Antoni Hardonk. Former World Extreme Cagefighting light heavyweight champion Steve Cantwell (7-1) also highlights this card with a showdown with world-ranked Luis Arthur Cane.

Here are more reasons for the excitement:

Chuck Liddel vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

Brian Stann vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk
Luis Arthur Cane vs. Steve Cantwell
Denis Kang vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam
Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry
Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau
Eliot Marshall vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz
Mark Bocek vs. David Bielkheden
T.J. Grant vs. Ryo Chonan
Sam Stout vs. Matt Wiman

On a side note, we just can’t help but wonder how the so-called previously unrecognized regulations of Regie des Alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ), the government agency that oversees combat sports in Quebec, would affect the over-all outcome of the fights. This so-called previously unrecognized regulations for the sport is the prohibition of elbow and knee strikes. The RACJ regulations, which were actually intended for “mixed boxing” in the 1990’s also asked referees to intervene whenever a fighter is knocked down. We hope this will not result to a watered-down scuffle at the octagon.

More reason for us to shiver in anticipation.