FanHouse Brian Stann

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Six months before Ram Vela's notorious sack of Evan Sharpley in the 2007 Navy-Notre Dame game, the Midshipmen linebacker was sacked himself ... by the Secret Service. At the White House.

Each spring the team that wins the Commander-in-Chief's trophy (the unofficial round-robin tourney between the Air Force Academy, Army and Navy) is invited to the White House for a reception. In the spring of 2007, Vela (No. 34 above) was a freshman who had not seen any varsity action the previous season.

"I hung near the back of the line as we approached the security gate," Vela, a 5-foot-9, 193-pound outside linebacker, recalled on Thursday. "I hadn't played so I didn't feel as much like I deserved to be up near the front. I was back with some of the higher-ranking officers, the Commandant and even the dean."

When Vela made it to the gate, a female agent looked him over and spoke into a radio, "He's here."

No one can confidently say Keith Jardine's UFC 102 fight against Thiago Silva is a must-win situation for "The Dean of Mean." Sure, he's coming off a unanimous decision loss to Rampage Jackson at UFC 96, but he also seemed to raise his stock in standing toe-to-toe with the hard-hitting Jackson for three full rounds.

FanHouse spoke to Jardine about reinventing his game for his fight against Silva and the balancing act when it comes to marketing oneself to the fans. The full interview is below.

Welcome to the FanHouse UFC 97 live blog of Saturday night's undercard fights, where we'll have live results and round-by-round updates of the three undercard fights on the pay-per-view show: Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk, Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann and Luiz Cane vs. Steve Cantwell.

The fights are underway and the live blog begins below.

Days after a great show in Sacramento that saw bantamweight champion Miguel Torres and featherweight champion Urijah Faber defend their belts, World Extreme Cagefighting announced that its lightweight, welterweight and light heavyweight champions will fight in August in Las Vegas.

Welterweight champ Carlos Condit will take on Japan's Hiromitsu Miura, light heavyweight champ Brian Stann will fight Steve Cantwell and lightweight champ Jamie Varner will fight the undefeated Marcus Hicks. The fights are part of WEC 35 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 3. The card will be shown on Versus, which had one of its highest-rated broadcasts ever with Torres and Faber headlining WEC 34.

It's a good card, although it's not as good as WEC 34 -- Torres and Faber are the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and no one would say that about any of the fighters on the WEC 35 card. Still, at a time when MMA organizations are popping up all over the place, this announcement is a reminder that as the owners of UFC and WEC, Zuffa has both the best and the second best MMA organization in the world.

It's funny how things work. On the same day that MDS writes a guide for people covering the world of mixed martial arts, one of the country's most venerable newspapers features an article about it on the front page. The New York Times makes a couple of errors, they refer to the sport as ultimate fighting and use the driven into the ground human cockfighting reference, but it's a really positive piece that highlights how far the sport has come.

The U.S. military, realizing MMA's popularity among young men, is using the sport as a tool to aid recruiting, training and soldier morale. Army bases hold tournaments culminating in a branch championship at Fort Benning which looks a lot like events put forth by the UFC and other leagues. The three other branches all utilize the techniques in various ways and there's even a TV show dedicated to MMA on the Military Channel.

A recent tournament drew more than 250 entrants even though most of them would be deployed on active duty during when the Army-wide championship was being held. The effects on morale are pretty clear.


There's a practical purpose as well and all the branches are careful to emphazise training that can help win battles, as opposed to skills that might help in the Octagon.

The little-known Brian Stann won the World Extreme Cagefighting light heavyweight championship tonight, knocking out defending champ Doug Marshall in the first round with a stunning strike straight to the jaw. Here's a look at Stann discussing his preparation for the fight:


Stann, who improved his record to 6-0, spoke highly of Marshall in the cage after the fight and then thanked, "My mom, my wife, my daughter, and all my Marines." Stann's nickname is All-American, and he's got just the kind of wholesome image the sport needs.

WEC is basically a minor league for UFC, and no one should think owning the WEC belt makes Stann one of the top light heavyweights in mixed martial arts. But it was a very impressive showing tonight for a fighter who's still relatively new to the sport. And given Stann's impressive personal story -- he's a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a recipient of the Silver Star for combat in Iraq -- it would be great for MMA if Stann became a star.