FanHouse MMALive

Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy engaged in a long, drawn-out war of words prior to their fight at UFC 99 on Saturday, and Davis now says that verbal battle helped Hardy win their physical battle in the Octagon.

One of the big questions facing mixed martial arts as it attempts to move from niche sport to the mainstream is whether it can attract the millions of Mexican-American fans who love boxing. The most popular Mexican-American MMA fighter right now is World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, but Torres says there's another Mexican-American fighter who is a budding star: UFC heavyweight Cain Velasquez.

UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans said on this week's installment of ESPN's MMA Live that his fight with Lyoto Machida at UFC 98 could be boring -- an admission that isn't exactly the textbook example of the way to hype a fight. But Evans quickly added that he thinks the fight is going to have an exciting ending.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship's heavyweight title will be unified at last when Frank Mir fights Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. But who will get the first shot at the Mir Lesnar winner? In this week's installment of ESPN.com's MMA Live, Mir says he thinks it will be either Cheick Kongo or Shane Carwin. Video and full comments below.

In Thursday's episode of ESPN's MMA Live, Franklin McNeil calls a potential fight between Hasim Rahman and Kimbo Slice, "a tremendous fight," adding, "I think Kimbo could give him a tough fight, even in boxing." I've already made clear that I think Kimbo vs. Rahman is a bad idea, but since McNeil's comments indicate that it's an idea getting some momentum, let me go into a little more detail about why I don't like it.

In Thursday's episode of ESPN's MMA Live, Franklin McNeil calls a potential fight between Hasim Rahman and Kimbo Slice, "a tremendous fight," adding, "I think Kimbo could give him a tough fight, even in boxing." I've already made clear that I think Kimbo vs. Rahman is a bad idea, but since McNeil's comments indicate that it's an idea getting some momentum, let me go into a little more detail about why I don't like it.

UFC interim heavyweight champion Frank Mir appeared on MMA Live to discuss his win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92:

Mir said he went into the Octagon knowing he was in great shape, and that gave him added confidence. Mir has been criticized in the past for being out of shape, and he said that criticism was valid: "A lot of my critics were right about my training," Mir said.

As for his next fight, against Brock Lesnar for the unified UFC heavyweight title, Mir said he has a lot of confidence that he'll beat him again in 2009, just as he did in 2008.

Here's the latest edition of MMA Live:

The main topic of conversation, of course, is UFC 92, and especially the two title fights: Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight belt and Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight belt.

Here's the latest installment of ESPN.com's MMA Live:

The panelists discussed Ultimate Fighter winners Ryan Bader and Efrain Escudero, the upcoming UFC 92 show, and whether Bobby Lashley could follow Brock Lesnar into the UFC.

Here's the latest edition of ESPN's MMA Live:

The show opens with WEC bantamweight champ Miguel Torres in studio, talking about his recent win over Manny Tapia. They then get into the UFC Fight for the Troops and the Ultimate Fighter Finale.