Sports > October 30, 2008

By Allison Lange | Sports editor

In the past year, I’ve discovered a new favorite sport to watch. In it, truly anything can happen. This sport isn’t soccer or basketball or even golf – it’s Mixed Martial Arts fighting (MMA).

I started following the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) because my dad would order the fights on PPV and my sister and I would occasionally watch with him. Slowly, we started to grow more interested and excited when a new fight night was coming up, approximately once a month.

Each UFC fight consists of three rounds of three minutes, with five rounds of three minutes for championship fights. Each fight night has roughly ten fights, with the last five normally televised.

UFC, owned by Dana White, fosters the best of the best fighters in a close and intimate fight atmosphere. Although I’ve unfortunately never been to a UFC fight, I’ve watched my fair share in person, and listening to Joe Rogan, the commentator for UFC, makes it almost as enjoyable as I imagine being there in person would be.

My dad has been looking forward to the next UFC fight, UFC 91, since the main event was announced. Randy Couture, a UFC fighter who has been around the block multiple times and had retired in January 2008, is coming out of retirement to fight Brock Lesner, a new face to the UFC having only fought three UFC fights in his career.

The best thing about these fights is that anything can happen. Even if it’s a no-name fight that normally wouldn’t draw much attention, it can turn into the most exciting fight of the night with one amazing hit, knock out, submission or a blood filled octagon.

Recently, Elite XC, a company in competition with the UFC, went bankrupt. With this bankruptcy, all of the Elite XC fighters are without jobs and without fights to participate in. Kimbo Slice, a big name in the Elite XC world, probably will have to search long and hard for another cage to fight in. There’s little to no chance that White and UFC would extend an invitation to him. However, there are many other Elite XC fighters with the talent and athleticism needed to compete in the UFC, and many of them could be making the switch to fight in the UFC’s octagon.

However, the fighter that I’m most excited about the UFC taking on is female competitor Gina Carano. This woman is a beast, to say the least. Although the UFC currently hasn’t ventured into the world of women’s MMA fighting, Carano is a big name with big talent, and White has the perfect opportunity to branch out.

With names fighting in the UFC like Anderson Silva, the best pound-for-pound fighter; Forrest Griffin, my personal favorite; Michael Bisping, the British big name fighter; Chuck Lidell, who has been fighting for 10 years in the UFC; and BJ Penn, the lightweight champion, it’s obvious that the UFC has the ability to produce and keep the big name fighters.

So, for the excitement, the fighters, the drama and the knock-outs, I watch UFC. Although the last fight night happened Oct. 25, I’m already researching my picks for the next fight, UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesner, taking place Nov. 15 on PPV live.