Birthday Party at the Fights

My son Avi and I celebrated my birthday in style at StrikeForce's Heavyweight Grand Prix at the Izod Center last Saturday night. Our seats--courtesy of my son Benjy and his pal MMA talkshow host Ariel Helwani--were six rows off the stage allowing us to rub elbows with the royalty of the mixed martial arts world. That's me with former UFC heavyweight champ Bas Rutten, and my son Avi with Renco and Igor Gracie (who Avi trained under at Real World Martial Arts, a Gracie Ju-Jitsu dojo), as well as runningback legend Herschel Walker. We were also fortunate enough to meet George Saint-Pierre, Kenny Florian and Vitor Belfort.

The StrikeForce card was one of the best I've seen. Not a single decision went to the judges; all serious submissions and TKOs. Big Foot Silva's impressive victory over former Pride heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko was the icing on the cake.

Josh Koscheck: The Ultimate Jerk

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Karate-do without courtesy is not karate-do.

Thank you, Georges St-Pierre, for closing this fool's mouth last night. To say nothing of his eye.

Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin: Role Models for this Generation of Ring Warriors

On Saturday evening, Chuck Liddell broke Rich Franklin's arm. And about five minutes later, Rich knocked Chuck out, effectively ending his UFC career.

One week later, someone caught this perfect moment on film: Chuck Liddell singing Rich Franklin's cast.

"Karate-do without courtery is not karate-do." --Gichin Funakoshi

Cain Valasquez TKOs Brock Lesnar

For my money, tonight's fight wasn’t about finally having the first Heavyweight Mexican Champion, despite how it was promoted. It was about Cain Valasquez, a serious wrestler and better MMA fighter finally showing that the UFC’s bad-attitude bully Brock Lesnar was beatable. And the brutal asswhooping he gave him.

I stood in a room crammed with dozens of hooting Jersey billies and their drunken female know-nothings who bayed like dogs at the wide-screens the minute big, bad Brock strutted in to the tune of “Enter Sandman.” And it occurred to me once again that no one who knows and follows MMA could cheer for this roid-raged WWF goon; that this legion of lemmings in bars across the fruited plains are just bandwagon followers who have never wrestled, never boxed, never trained in any martial art, and never known anyone who did; idiots who yell “woo-hoo!” and chant “U-S-A!” at inappropriate times. Nothing made me feel better than watching them shut up as their thyroid freak Viking-wannbe got his head kicked in. Staggering around like a broken marionette, Lesnar didn’t even make it out of the first round. A TKO at 4:12.

Wrestlers and karateka salute Cain Valasquez, the new undisputed heavyweight champion of mixed martial arts.

Paul Daley Sleeps with the Fishes (and he wrestles like them, too)

Call it a vice, but I bet fights. And my money was solid on Paul Daley last night. I should’ve bet that he’d end up in jail.

My sons and I watched in amazement as Daley, frustrated by Koscheck's wrestling dominance for three straight rounds (doing a perfect imitation of what wrestlers call a fish), threw a blind sucker punch at Koscheck well after the fight was over, while Koscheck’s back was turned to Daley.

"Are you kidding me?!” screamed Big Dan Miragliotta the ref as he grabbed the sucker-throwing thug around the neck and held him against the cage. “You're a professional!"

Wrong. Daley used to be a professional. Now he’s a bum. Have we learned nothing from Richard Nixon?

Within hours, UFC ceo Dana White dropped Daley like a bad habit from his organization. In a sport working hard for legitimacy, Daley's sleazy sucker punch will be MMA’s shot heard round the world. Nice move dickhead.

So Josh Koscheck now steps up against reigning champ George St. Pierre (the king of class) as counter coach on next season’s “The Ultimate Fighter.” And Daley can get his resume ready tomorrow as he pounds the pavement looking for work. He’s already practicing the line, “You want fries with that?”

Of course, we’ll likely see Paul Daley fight again, only next time it will be in front of dozens of people in some bar within driving distance of his apartment.