MMA fever sweeping the nation, nay the world
Just a little over one week since we had three top-level MMA events in three days, we will have three more MMA events this week.
UFC has two events scheduled this week. The promotion kicks things off Tuesday night with "UFC Fight Night: Sam Stout vs. Spencer Fisher", which airs live from Florida on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. EST. On Saturday, UFC travels to Northern Ireland for "UFC 72: Victory", which will air live on pay-per-view starting at 3 p.m. EST. While UFC 72 isn't a star-studded affair, the two biggest fights on the card feature Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami in a middleweight showdown and Hector Ramirez vs. Forrest Griffin in a light-heavyweight battle.
IFL holds its last regular season event on Saturday, traveling to Las Vegas for its final stop before the playoffs. The Vegas event features two team matches -- Toronto Dragons vs. New York Pitbulls and Nevada Lions vs. Tuscon Scorpions. The Lions, Dragons and Pitbulls are all still fighting for two remaining playoff spots, while the Scorpions look to play the role of spoiler.
For those of you who aren't satisfied with just the live events, there's plenty of other MMA TV programming as well. Spike TV has a full slate of UFC programming this week, including the latest episode of TUF 5 Thursday at 10 p.m. Versus has pre-packaged WEC programming as well as their weekly one-hour reality show Tapout (the next episode airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST). MyNetworkTV has the two-hour IFL Battleground show this Monday at 8 p.m. EST.






Kevin Richardson has been a fan of mixed martial arts competition ever since UFC 3, when 600-pound sumo wrestler Emmanuel Yarborough was beaten by Keith Hackney. Kevin will cover the world of MMA — in Baltimore, nationally and internationally. He plans to take readers into the locker rooms and MMA schools, where they'll hear from local fighters and trainers. If you have a news tip or suggestions for the blog, please 