MMA Notebook:
Atlantic City, UFC 50 Edition

By Joe Hall

Three weeks ago, I broke the record.

In a magical six-day span, I interviewed all 16 fighters that were scheduled to compete at UFC 50. The previous in-house record at FCF was 15, which Loretta Hunt and I pulled off together when working on a previous UFC preview.

Few people understand the terrible struggle it is to reach 16 fighters in the midst of 16 training camps. For six days, I punched numbers and left messages and absolutely obliterated my allotted monthly cell phone minutes. The charges I incurred were heavy, but they were worth it. I thought.

You can imagine my dismay when the card began crumbling. Prangley out, Fryklund in. Marsh out, then Mezger, then Telligman. Lutter in, and a scramble of opponent swaps. My UFC 50 preview for the FCF paper had already gone to print, but would the record stand? Would there be an asterisk beside it?

Forget my dismay. Put yourself in Joe Silva's shoes, or Dana White's, frantically calling around North America in search of replacements, trying to keep track of who could fight whom and at what weight. On second thought, forget Joe Silva or Dana White; put yourself in the fighters' shoes. Are you interested in fighting in the UFC? You are? Well that's great. Huh? No, not in the February show. We have a spot for you next week! Hope you've been training, fella, because we need you to fight up a division.

Many fighters would take such an offer simply because they believe fighting in the UFC is the chance of a lifetime. How could you argue? More power to the guy whose shoulder is shot to hell from his day job and he takes the fight anyway. It may not be smart, but you could argue it's ambitious. Win and he suddenly has a future in the UFC. Lose and well, what did you expect? His shoulder is mangled, and his cardio was nonexistent because he's been sitting at home resting. Of course he lost.

That scenario is just an example. Travis Lutter, the BJJ black belt who has stepped up at the last minute to fight Marvin Eastman, is healthy and had already been training for a fight against at the WEC.

Nonetheless, he'll sacrifice to fight in the UFC. That WEC bout was at 185, which is where Lutter now prefers to fight. The opening he was asked to fill in the UFC, however, was a weight class up. He weighed in on Thursday at 199.3 pounds while Eastman was a much more solid 204.5.

Still, it didn't take Lutter long to accept the fight. "I just had no choice," he says. "It's the UFC. I've been waiting for this for a long time."

It's a bold move to step in and up a weight class on a week's notice. In the worst case scenario, he'll get knocked out and leave a permanently poor impression on the casual fans, whom for all they know Lutter had two full months to train specifically for Eastman. With a bit of luck, though, Eastman's lack of preparation for Lutter will equal the playing field, and Lutter could at least look good in defeat or, at best, score a breakthrough win.

"I'm not a 205-pounder, so if I did happen to get caught, I don't see it as the end of the world," Lutter says. "I feel like I'm going to get other chances too. I feel like if I win, then the door is going to open to a lot of things."

How the lone UFC 50 heavyweight bout died

It was going to be a slugfest: Tra Telligman vs. Paul Buentello. Then it was going to be less of a slugfest and more of a clash of styles: Tra Telligman vs. John Marsh. Then it was going to be the best Zuffa could do: Tra Telligman vs. Mike Whitehead. And now, now there will be no heavyweight bout at UFC 50.

Buentello injured his hand in September, was replaced by Marsh who dropped out last week and was replaced by Whitehead, who was healthy but turned down by Telligman. "I turned that one down just because he was a nobody," says Telligman of the offer to fight Whitehead, "and I didn't think that would do anything for me.... I'd rather be in there with somebody with a lot more skill that when you do something it actually matters."

For about a day, Telligman thought he might be jumping into the main event to take on Tito Ortiz. Ken Shamrock mentioned that possibility to Zuffa after Guy Mezger dropped off the card. Telligman was even willing to shed 25 pounds in a week to tangle with Tito in a light heavyweight match. According to Telligman, his name was among a few opponents from which Ortiz chose Patrick Cote.

Thursday night Zuffa called Telligman and asked if he could really make 205. "My heart started beating and I said, ‘Hell yes. For Tito, I'll make 205,'" he recalls. But Tito wasn't on the table; they wanted Telligman to fight Marvin Eastman. "Nope," he told them, "I can't do it for Marvin Eastman."

"Once I told them I could go to 205 for Tito, I think they thought I could make 205 easy," Telligman says. "I tried to explain to them that I'd make 205, but it'd be a really big cut; I'd have to drop 25 pounds. So it would be a really big struggle, but for Tito I was willing to do it."

After the Eastman offer, Telligman says Whitehead was offered again. And he said no again. "They weren't happy," he says of Zuffa's response. "And I understand their problem. They had a bunch of things falling through, and they were in a scramble. I feel sorry for them as far as that goes, but they were trying to use every angle to get me to fight Whitehead. I was like, ‘Guys, that just doesn't do anything for me.'"

Whitehead thought he was in when he accepted the fight against Telligman. Little did he know the bout would be declined on the other end, and the lone heavyweight fight on the card would be shot down altogether.

Telligman can't believe it either. "I'm kind of in shock still," he says. "I can't believe I'm in this kind of shape and I'm not fighting."

The 39-year-old may have also hurt his chances of being invited back. "(The UFC) didn't say anything like that, but yeah it could have," he says. "But at the same time, I hope it doesn't because I really want to fight and I've never ducked anybody. I've been the guy that's always stepped up. I'm the guy that always fights injured.... I want to fight, man, and I want to make it worth my while when I do fight."

Cote moves into the main event

Patrick Cote laughed when Stephane Patry asked him if he wanted to fight Tito Ortiz at UFC 50. He didn't believe the offer was real.

Patry assured him it wasn't a joke, told him to think about it and have an answer as soon as possible.

Cote talked to his coach and teammates, who were unanimous in their belief that now was the perfect time for their man to fight Ortiz, since the former champion is coming off two straight losses. "Maybe his mental (strength) is not very good," Cote says.

More than anything, though, the Canadian light heavyweight believes that he'll win because he's, well, unknown outside Canada. "He doesn't know me," Cote says. "He doesn't know me, and I have nothing to lose.... I'm a big puncher and I move myself very well in the ring. I think I have a perfect style to beat him."

Of course, Cote is an enormous underdog. And he should be. He's fighting Tito Ortiz in the UFC 50 main event, which also happens to be his UFC debut. Cote insists, though, that he won't wilt under the pressure, and he won't be intimidated.

Indeed, he passed the first intimidation test Thursday afternoon at the weigh-ins. As he and Ortiz stared each other down for the cameras, the former light heavyweight champion feinted like he was going to strike Cote. The Canadian didn't flinch.

"I'm arrogant too," he says. "I'm able to play that game too."

Friday night we'll see how well he plays the MMA game.

Quick news and notes:
  • Yves Edwards turned a few heads at the Euphoria MFC show last week when he wore a Team Punishment T-shirt into the ring. Word is the team is making a comeback, and Edwards, along with Kit Cope of MTV True Life fame, have joined.

  • Travis Wiuff, who impressively defeated Russian fighter Ibragim Magomedov last Saturday in the Euphoria MFC heavyweight tournament, is considering an eventual move to the light heavyweight class. He weighed about 230 pounds at Euphoria, and manager Monte Cox is confident Wiuff would excel at 205. "As a heavyweight, Travis will beat all the average guys for sure," Cox says. "But when he gets in against a Tim Sylvia or Andrei Arlovski, he's way undersized. At 205 he'll be an absolute monster."

  • Tra Telligman was set to announce a move to 205 at UFC 50. "I was going to announce after this fight that I was dropping to 205 anyway," he says. "I'm wanting to get in the thick of things there. I'd love to fight Chuck Liddell; I'd love to fight Vitor; I'd love to fight Tito. I was going to announce 205 anyway, and now I'm sitting here and not even fighting, with the UFC possibly upset at me and I'm going, this just didn't happen."

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