I took a drive down the coast to Belmar, NJ recently and chatted it up with Kurt Pellegrino about his fight with Josh Neer at UFC 101.

TriStateFighter.com contributor Dan Holzhauer dialed in on one of the undercard fights which will contend for Fight Of The Night honors this Saturday in Philadelphia at UFC 101.

By Dan Holzhauer:

With every passing day, and passing legislation, the world of MMA in the Northeast, United States continues to grow. Area talent will take center stage at UFC 101, when the octagon makes its Philadelphia debut. Boston native Kenny Florian will showcase his world-class talents in the main event, but the true depth of local talent will be measured when up-and-coming fighters John “Doomsday” Howard and Tamdan “The Barn Cat” McCrory collide on the undercard.

Both Howard and McCrory have become poster-boys for the unknown talent that can be found throughout the Northeast. Before signing their first UFC contracts, both men competed solely in local shows such as Combat Zone and Ring of Combat. “We’ve fought in a lot of the same circuits in the Northeast and I’ve seen his fights,” says McCrory. They combined for an 18-4 record across NJ, MA and CT, crossing paths several times. UFC 101 will mark the third time that the two fighters will compete on the same card.

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New Jersey’s Ricardo Almeida is coming off a key win over Matt Horwich after a difficult loss to Patrick Cote. Now he is on deck at UFC 101 to fight Hawaii’s Kendall Grove in a ‘fight of the night’ candidate at 185 on August 8. I recently spoke with Almeida at his gym about Grove, Cote, and fighting in Philly. This video is also rolling on FoxFightGame.com.

The only fashion show for MMA clothing hit the Mandalay Bay hotel on July 10 and was the place to be the night before UFC 100. Cage Fashion CEO Marcus Mera had the biggest labels and fighters in the sport on the runway. Check out Randy Couture, Urijah Faber, Lyoto Machida and many more at Cage Fashion 2.

Vitor Belfort may be in for a huge opponent change in Fedor Emelianenko, if he is tapped to step in for Josh Barnett at ‘Affliction: Trilogy’ on August 1st (at press - it is only a rumor). If the Brazilian does take on the #1 fighter in the world, he will need to add about 30 pounds to ramp up from 185 and also be sure to pack the powerful left hand he used to dismantle Matt Lindland from his senses on January 24th in the last match for both fighters.

Despite the savage nature of his victory over Lindland, both fighters were all smiles when they met, by chance, at Xtreme Couture on July 8. Belfort had just finished an intense training session for his originally scheduled fight Vs. Jorge Santiago and Lindland was entering the gym to help Dan Henderson prepare for his UFC 100 fight Vs. Michael Bisbing.

Good to see these two warriors have no hard feelings and were able to exchange kind words in a short impromptu meeting.

Click thru to see large picture.

(note: I took this photo and originally gave it to aol fanhouse as a favor to mike chiappetta and they ran it for a day … but it is tristatefighter.com property … just was slow to post it.)

Brock Lesnar set the MMA world on fire with his post fight antics at UFC 100. Love or hate his behavior, Lesnar’s personality is a huge win for the UFC. Nothing is better for ratings than a good villain. This is not revolutionary analysis, but the knee-jerk response that he ticked off Bud Light and was not a gentleman to Frank Mir is short sighted and thin-skinned.

Bud Light can handle hurt feelings and witnessing the birth of a UFC cash cow is good for all involved. And, always expecting fighters who talk trash for weeks leading up to fight night, to instantly ‘hug it out’ the moment they end a brutal war appears disingenuous. Brock’s actions after the fight showed his pre-fight words to be that much more honest and true.

The UFC certainly allows just about any kind of language to hype a fight in the lead up - heck, BJ Penn said he wanted to kill GSP before their match. Now, we all know that is just BJ being BJ and the UFC encourages the selling of a fight, but if the pre-fight talk is honest and not just hype, as I believe it was from Lesnar, I find it completely human to still hold a little, if not a lot of animosity for one’s opponent after the final bell. Not every fighter is as holy as Roger Huerta and Leonard Garcia doing the kneel and pray thing after pounding each other. It often makes for nice announcer talk about how honorable this sport is, and it is, but turning off the kill switch against your opponent cannot be expected in every case and this is what we saw in Brock … a guy who does not turn off the kill switch on a dime.

Going forward, look to football’s Terrell Owens as the Brock Lesnar blueprint. Why do the sports networks schedule TO’s team for Sunday Night and Monday Night national broadcasts so often? Like America at large cares about his current team, the Buffalo Bills? It’s all about TO. Fans love to hate TO which means eyeballs = nielsen ratings = ad revenue. The UFC’s Brock Lesnar will lap TO in this category and take the world of “player hating” to new levels.

UFC President Dana White may have scolded Lesnar for being unprofessional (uhhh … Paging Loretta Hunt), but he knows this monster is a pot of gold and will likely re-write Pay Per View records in the years to come, thus the post-fight lecture about good behavior rings a bit hollow.

I found it refreshing to realize that Lesnar’s pre and post fight feelings were consistent and genuine. He was just being honest. I will take that any day over trumped up pre-fight hostility for theater sake yielding suspect hugs and back slaps after the blood.
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Here is Mike Straka and the gang from Fox Fight Game talking about Brock Lesnar

Brooklyn’s Phillipe Nover lost his second consecutive fight at UFC 98 to Kyle Bradley in controversial fashion. Nover believes it was an early stoppage and is adamant about a re-match.

Nonetheless, I found the Carnarsie Kid in good spirits last week after he logged a serious workout at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. No, he has not moved gym’s but noted it was helpful to spar with the talent at 4055 W. Sunset Rd. in Las Vegas. Listen to our chat below.