Ultimate Fighting Sport

Were boxer Antonio Margarito's fists of steel actually aided by concrete? Did Ultimate Fighting Champion Georges St-Pierre defend his title bout with enough Vaseline so that he was as slippery as a greased pig? Fighting lore is sprinkled with colorful tales of questionable gamesmanship, yet even in this age of high-definition cameras and intense state testing, athletes are still swayed to sometimes bend the rules.

For the third consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas, one question dominates: So, when is Brock Lesnar fighting again? The UFC will stage a third straight title-less Vegas main event Saturday night when veteran light-heavyweights Randy Couture and Mark Coleman lead the card of UFC 109 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. "There's great fights on this card . . . me and Mark are a couple of old wrestlers banging heads, two active Hall of Famers," Couture said. The undercard features a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, with the winner getting a future title shot against the winner of April's title bout between champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

The promoter of a mixed martial arts card March 7 in Tulare, Calif., confirmed Friday that one of the competitors was allowed to fight despite testing positive for Hepatitis C and having no test results on file for HIV. Al Joslin, who has promoted nine cards in California, said he learned of the situation about a week ago, when he was leaked a copy of a memo from the California State Athletic Commission. The commission is responsible for medical clearance of all MMA and boxing shows in the state.

Herschel Walker used to tell friends at the University of Georgia that he aspired to be considered one of the greatest athletes in history. "And not just in football," Walker recalled this week. Since running the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1982, Walker rushed for more than 13,000 yards in the USFL and NFL, then retired in 1997 with the second-most all-purpose yards in NFL history. During his pro football career, he also earned a spot on the 1992 Olympic two-man bobsled team, and won television's "Superstars" event three times.

Former USC and NFL wide receiver Johnnie Morton tested positive for elevated levels of the steroid epitestosterone before suffering a June 2 knockout loss in his mixed martial arts fighting debut at the Coliseum, the California State Athletic Commission announced Wednesday. Armando Garcia, executive director of the commission, said because Morton refused a post-fight drug test and has since failed to explain his actions, he is subject to a permanent revocation of his fighting license.

The mixed martial arts world is abuzz by post-fight comments made by Seth Petruzelli, the little-known, last-minute replacement on CBS' national broadcast of Elite XC fights Saturday who needed only 14 seconds to knock out popular heavyweight Kimbo Slice.

AT a gym tucked away on a grungy block above Sunset Boulevard, 18 heavy punching bags swing slowly from a rack of steel girders, like carcasses on butcher hooks. A barefoot man with a soft face begins to stalk one of the bags, breaking the silence with two jabs and a thunderous kick. Soon, he is joined by a lanky woman with black, spiky hair and her mother's name, Rhea, tattooed in Gothic script on her left wrist. They turn on each other, striking with fists, feet, knees and elbows.

The champion of UFC 1 who later won two more titles in the era when mixed martial arts champs were crowned after four fights in a single night, and when there were no gloves or weight classes, took a look at a poster for tonight's UFC 100 and sized up the competition. "Brock Lesnar? Been there, done that. Bring him on," Royce Gracie said of the UFC's 265-pound heavyweight champion. "[Georges] St-Pierre? I'm a prize fighter. Put me in any card and I'll sell it out. I can do it, man.

After losing two out of three fights to Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and a tearful retirement in 2006, it was believed that Randy Couture had run out of chances. But before a packed house at the Nationwide Arena on Saturday, the 43-year-old UFC Hall of Famer pulled another surprise, dominating Tim Sylvia for five rounds, scoring a shutout decision that earned Couture a third UFC heavyweight championship.

Brock Lesnar's second-round technical knockout Saturday of Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Randy Couture delivered the widely seen adrenaline shot that organization executives anticipated. But as Couture fell to the canvas, some casual fans of mixed martial arts may have wondered why Lesnar was allowed to pounce atop Couture, hold him down and then deliver more than 30 punches to the 45-year-old's head before being awarded a technical knockout.

Heavyweight Brock Lesnar, speaking publicly Wednesday for the first time since suffering a major intestinal infection that could have ended his Ultimate Fighting Championship career, said he expects to return to the octagon in the summer. "I have a different outlook on life from this, but when it comes to fighting, I'll still be dishing out pain," Lesnar said. He anticipates fighting against the March 27 winner of the Frank Mir-Shane Carwin bout. After defending his UFC heavyweight title in July with a second-round demolition of Mir, Lesnar, 32, had to scrap two scheduled bouts with Carwin as he struggled through diverticulitis, a severe intestinal infection that can cause extreme pain and even prove fatal.

Last summer, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship prepared for its 100th event, its owners were poised to celebrate that the combat sport of choice was no longer boxing but mixed martial arts. Things have changed a bit. Today, fight fans are whetting their appetites for the most anticipated bout in years. And it's boxing that has the buzz because of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight scheduled for March. And the UFC? It's been hit with a slew of injuries to key fighters and other negatives that have watered down its recent events.

A heavyweight fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Brock Lesnar is the bout most mixed martial arts fans want to see, but contractual obligations and medical problems are likely to prevent a showdown between the two for another year, Emelianenko's camp said Monday. Emelianenko survived a cut nose Saturday to retain his unofficial standing as the top MMA heavyweight in the world by defeating Brett Rogers in a second-round technical knockout. He closed the victory with a stand-up, right-handed punch, then pounced on Rogers to deliver a left-right combination on the canvas before the referee ended the fight.

The last time the Ultimate Fighting Championship was held at Staples Center, the unknown was whether a gifted Brazilian champion could be defeated. More than three years later, the question remains the same. Lyoto Machida, the UFC's new light-heavyweight champion, is 15-0 and has never lost a round on a judge's scorecard in seven UFC fights. "If I think about that, that's a lot of pressure," Machida said Tuesday, when he stopped across the street from Staples at LA Live to promote his Oct. 24 title defense -- his first -- against fellow Brazilian Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. The most recent Staples UFC show was headlined by Brazilian mixed martial arts legend Royce Gracie, but he lost to Matt Hughes.

The California State Athletic Commission has faxed a letter of apology to the promoters of a mixed martial arts card on which a fighter with a positive test for hepatitis C was allowed to compete. The commission also said it had been told, but had no documentation as of Tuesday, that the test had been a false positive and the fighter did not have hepatitis C. Al Joslin and Shelly Matlock, owners of PureCombat Promotions, which held a March 7 MMA card in Tulare, said they received the letter Sunday.

The promoter of a mixed martial arts card March 7 in Tulare, Calif., confirmed Friday that one of the competitors was allowed to fight despite testing positive for Hepatitis C and having no test results on file for HIV. Al Joslin, who has promoted nine cards in California, said he learned of the situation about a week ago, when he was leaked a copy of a memo from the California State Athletic Commission. The commission is responsible for medical clearance of all MMA and boxing shows in the state.

B.J. Penn has been an Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor since 2001, and he's participated in some form of fighting since he was 17. He's 30 now, wears the UFC's lightweight belt, and tonight attempts to beat the skilled welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in a mixed martial arts battle scheduled for five rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. If victorious in the 170-pound bout, Hawaii's Penn will become the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold two belts.

Pastor T.J. O'Donnell thought that by offering mixed martial arts training, he had found a sure way to lure young people away from vice and direct them toward the word of God. He didn't expect to encounter the long arm of the California State Athletic Commission. O'Donnell rented out the second floor of a San Bernardino carpet store where volunteers at his 777 Ministry taught aspiring fighters jiu-jitsu, karate, wrestling and boxing.

Former mixed martial arts fighter Kim "Kimo" Leopoldo woke up Tuesday afternoon not knowing friends and fans were deeply concerned about his welfare. His manager Ron Kort, of Santa Ana-based New Era Fighting, broke the news to him: "According to the media, you're dead," Kort recalled saying. Reports of Leopoldo's demise originated from MMA websites that incorrectly reported the 41-year-old died from complications of a heart attack late Monday night, Kort said.

The champion of UFC 1 who later won two more titles in the era when mixed martial arts champs were crowned after four fights in a single night, and when there were no gloves or weight classes, took a look at a poster for tonight's UFC 100 and sized up the competition. "Brock Lesnar? Been there, done that. Bring him on," Royce Gracie said of the UFC's 265-pound heavyweight champion. "[Georges] St-Pierre? I'm a prize fighter. Put me in any card and I'll sell it out. I can do it, man.