Why do a tribute to Gina Carano, you ask? Well, why not? For those of you who don't know Gina Carano, she is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, classically trained in the art of Muay Thai. She has a professional record (MMA) of 5-0, two of which were by knockout, and one recently by submission. She has an affinity for striking, preferring her Muay Thai stylings over other fighting techniques, admittedly, because "it's hardcore"*. She's a tiger in the ring, but surprisingly, she's a doll on screen. She is likely the prettiest girl you'll ever see cross those ropes, without holding a big cardboard sheet above her head that is.

Contrary to what most people may think about full-contact fighters, like Gina indeed is, she doesn't have a tree-trunk neck, cauliflower ears, and deep sunken eyes. Quite the opposite actually. She's very attractive and quite humble on camera. In fact, the combination of her ferocity in the ring and her camera appeal bagged her a deal with NBC to appear as the Gladiator "Crush" on the retro-comeback show, American Gladiators! Let's take a moment to appreciate the finer points of female mixed martial arts :)

^*taken from her pre-fight interview prior to her event at EliteXC: Destiny - February 10^th, 2007

^*Update: With her recent success, Gina has been named "Girl of the Day" on Maxim Online. Good choice, boys.

Charles

I'm a HUGE GSP fan and I am just ecstatic over his win against Matt Hughes at UFC 79:Nemesis. I'm not just a fan of his fighting style or his technique, which are all world-class. What constantly impresses me about him is his attitude and class inside and outside of the octagon! Especially last night, after his win, he immediately invited his mother into the ring to join in his celebration! I've seen a lot of fights and I've *never* seen anyone try and share his success so much as he did. In fact, after his first win against Matt Hughes, when he first gained the welterweight belt, he did the same thing: he brought his mother in and gave his championship belt to her!

Also, when asked about how he feels about this rubber-match win against his childhood idol, he thanks the UFC for the belt and goes on to say that "it’s a good honor, but Matt Serra is the target. Until I get my belt back, I’m not gonna consider myself a real champion", giving credit where credit was due. What a class-act.

GSP is only 26 and he has a *huge* future ahead of him. With his work-ethic and humble disposition, he's a true role-model and a great ambassador for the sport. I can't wait to see him in the Octagon again :D

Charles

E3 2007 wasn’t too long ago, and there were a LOT of big names that showed up. Aside from the Halo 3’s and the Metal Gear Solid’s making an appearance, one game that really piqued my interest was a new old game from THQ. They were the previous developers of UFC: Tapout and UFC: Tapout 2, the first receiving very admirable reviews, while the second receiving less-than-desirable reviews for not pushing the envelope and keeping gameplay generally the same as its predecessor. They promptly stopped the series and left the niche-crowd (including myself) at a loss. But, low and behold, with the rising success of UFC and mixed-martial-arts in general, they’ve revived the title from the grave, and the trailer looks great!

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21750.html

The big question for me is, can this be the next Fight Night? That may seem like a very optimistic question, seeing as how Fight Night is one of EA’s best-selling games, is one of my favorite games, and not to mention, is developed by *the* largest gaming company in the world. Having said that, the UFC 2009 trailer left me with a Fight-Night’ish taste in my mouth, and that’s a good thing. The character movements were smooth, the fighters looked great, and they even had the face deformations that made Fight Night so realistic! Also, UFC has been dominating the Pay-Per-View grounds where boxing events once reigned. Alright. So the graphics are great, the industry has momentum, but there are two other big factors that will come into play that we won’t yet know about until the game’s release…gameplay and depth.

Gameplay can easily and obviously make or break the game. When I say gameplay, I mean how does the controller *control* the fighter? In previous titles in the series, it was the standard controls for any game…thumbsticks move and look, buttons punch and kick. But what we’ve learned from Fight Night is the thumbsticks can be used in much more realistic and entertaining ways…left-thumbstick left hand, right-thumbstick right hand. Now imagine THQ taking some of EA’s vision and applying it to UFC 2009. Left-thumbstick left-hand, right-thumbstick right hand, trigger-left-thumbstick left foot, trigger-right-thumbstick, right foot! This opens up a whole new can of worms for fight simulation games, but I don’t know if THQ has the experience or a developer-pool deep enough to implement this, at least not for it’s first release back.

The second factor is depth. For any fans out there, mixed-martial-arts is far from simple. I am a big enthusiast and have been following the sport for a long time, and I am STILL learning the moves. Put simply, if they make the game too deep and technical, the average joe-schmoe watches-ufc-for-fun player won’t enjoy the game. Almost a little like popping in Madden for the first time…it’s intimidating and almost not enjoyable for the first little while. But on the flip-side, if they make the game too simple, they will lose interest from the target-audience, i.e. the UFC and fight-fans out there.

In short, when I think if UFC 2009 can be the next Fight Night, I think no…not YET. But, I think that the series CAN be…possibly after a few more title releases :)

^*Update: It looks like Cage Potato has found some info on the release date for the game! According to this post, we can expect to hear an official release announcement at UFC 84 slated for May 24^th, 2008. Yeesh, if this is right, then we probably won't get our hands on the game until at least the end of the year, or beginning of next year :s

Charles