Former NCAA Champion Wrestler and UFC Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman joined Lex and Ian on the latest edition of the PWB Podcast Hotline. Randleman discussed several topics, including:

• His recent victory over Ryo Kawamura at World Victory Road’s Sengoku 2
• His plans for fighting in 2009
• What it meant to be the UFC Heavyweight Champion
• Fighting in Pride
• Being the first man to knock out Mirko “Cro Crop” Filipović
• Who he’d like to have a rematch with
• Mark Coleman’s upcoming fight against Shogun Rua
• Brock Lesnar’s MMA ability
• The top fighters in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions
• Wrestling for HUSTLE in Japan
• The BCS system in college football

This is a great interview–Brock talks about his strategy in the fight and his weight advantage.

It’s also pretty interesting watching Frank Mir interviewing him, especially considering there could be a re-match down the line.

Tonight’s UFC 91 event features what many are calling the biggest MMA fight in history: former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar v. UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture for all the marbles.

Dana White has gone on record predicting that tonight’s UFC 91 card will garner 1.2 million buys, setting a new UFC record. Of course, with Brock Lesnar on the card, it’s a distinct possibility that WWE fans could push this card to that level.

I just found out yesterday that this PPV costs $49.95. That’s up from the $44.95 I paid for UFC: 88 featuring Rashad Evans v. Chuck Liddell. As excited as I am for tonight’s fight, I think $50 is a pretty steep price to pay for any MMA fight, especially considering that there’s always the possibility of the fight not making it out of the first round.

Ben Fowlkes, MMA writer for CNN/SI, makes a great point about tonight’s card:

But the UFC’s mistake is in pinning all its hopes on the main event, hoping fans won’t notice the lackluster undercard. It’s more like something you’d see on a boxing pay-per-view: one big fight, and the rest mostly filler. That’s simply not the UFC at its best. It’s the opposite of the strategy that got the organization to this point, one of stacking cards with compelling bouts like they’ve done with December’s UFC 92 card.

That’s why if UFC 91 doesn’t live up to White’s expectations (and it almost certainly won’t) he can’t blame Lesnar and Couture, but rather the mediocre lineup he’s backing them with.

So know this if you do buy tonight’s show: outside of the main event, this is not the UFC at its finest. Here’s tonight’s televised card:

• UFC Heavweight Championship: Brock Lesnar v. Randy “The Natural” Couture (c)
• Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian v. Joe “Daddy” Stevenson
• Heavyweight bout: Gabriel Gonzaga v. Josh Hendricks
• Middleweight bout: Demian Maia v. Nate “Rock” Quarry
• Welterweight bout: Dustin Hazelett v. Tamdan McCrory

Discuss UFC 91 here, and cast your prediction for tonight’s main event in the podcast poll:

Bobby Lashley will make his long-awaited MMA debut on December 13, according to MMA Mania.

He’ll be fighting for the Mixed Fight Alliance promotion at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. No opponent has been announced, but I’d imagine it will be someone Lashley should handle pretty easily.

Lashley is signed to a contract with the American Fight League, but that promotion has put off it’s first show until early 2009.

The MFA show sounds like the type of the smaller MMA show that might end up on HD Net Fights, so if you’ve got that channel on your HD package, stay tuned.
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FYI, I’ve decided to move all MMA coverage back to this blog and scrap MMA Shoot. I simply don’t have the time to maintain two blogs and a podcast right now, so I think this will work out better. Of course, the bulk of our coverage will still focus on pro wrestling, but I think there are enough of you guys that still like talking about MMA that I can get away with writing the occasional MMA post.

Of course, tonight’s UFC PPV, UFC 90, features Anderson Silva. That means, unfortunately, that this PPV is not worth purchasing.

Why, you ask? Simple: because the outcome of the main event is not in question. Côté actually looked horrendous in his last fight against Ricardo Almeida, so I see no reason for him to even get this shot, regardless of what they were trying to set up with that fight. It would be the upset of the century, in my opinion, if Côté somehow beat Silva. I doubt he’ll even get out of the second round. But then again, this is MMA, so anything could happen.

If you drop your money on this show, you’ll probably get some good matches on the undercard. Alves v. Koscheck and Sherk v. Griffin figure to be good bouts. Still, in my opinion, there’s not enough here to warrant a purchase, especially after we saw UFC 89 for free last weekend.

Here’s tonight’s card:

• Middleweight championship bout: Flag of Brazil Anderson Silva vs. Flag of Canada Patrick Côté
• Welterweight bout: Thiago Alves vs. Josh Koscheck
• Heavyweight bout: Fabricio Werdum vs. Junior dos Santos
• Lightweight bout: Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin
• Lightweight bout: Gray Maynard vs. Rich Clementi
• Middleweight bout: Thales Leites vs. Drew McFedries (may not be televised)
• Lightweight bout: Spencer Fisher vs. Shannon Gugerty (may not be televised)
• Middleweight bout: Matt Horwich vs. Dan Miller (may not be televised)
• Lightweight bout: Hermes Franca vs. Marcus Aurelio (may not be televised)
• Welterweight bout: Josh Burkman vs. Pete Sell (may not be televised)

Discuss UFC 90 here, and remember to stop by tomorrow night to discuss WWE Cyber Sunday.

Brock Lesnar was the subject of a nearly 10-minute piece with ESPN that was posted on their web site Tuesday. Everything was going smoothly until the interviewer made overtures toward Brock about past steroid use. Lesnar was upset by the question and walked off camera. ESPN continued to film him off set, and that’s when he told ESPN reporter Tom Farrey that he’d never done steroids.

This would have actually been a really great piece if it weren’t for the steroids question. In their usual “investigative” style, ESPN had their reporter ask him questions about his life, etc., before blindsiding him with the steroids question. In fact, they even set up the question by showing a clip from an interview with Bret Hart talking about the addiction in wrestling. While none of us were obvioulsy at this interview, I’m wondering if they saved the steroids question for the end of their interview, knowing that it might upset him.

I’m really tired of seeing ESPN’s “reporters” pull this kind of crap by trying to make athletes look stupid. Lesnar is no longer a wrestler–it’s in the past. Just leave it alone. Funny thing is, he was even frank about abusing alcohol and pain pills, but the reporter had to push it even further.