About halfway through the UFC's first live go-round on FX last Friday, a compelling thought hit me. Actually, two compelling thoughts hit me. The first was that Christian Morecraft reminds me of Paul Varelans. His striking is truly ghastly to watch, he's okay but clunky on the floor, and he's too big for his own good. All he's missing is a skintight black tee shirt and an infantile Cal Worsham throwing baby punches at him. Okay, fine ... I didn't come up with this thought on my own. But it sure did make me chuckle heartily.

The second thought was much more, for lack of a better word, "macro". When I threw myself into the world of mixed martial arts, PRIDE was the organization to beat, and the UFC was little more than a casino attraction. To hammer this point home, here are the first 5 main events I remember: the Griffin-Bonnar slopfest; Liddell exacting his revenge on Randy Couture; Andrei Arlovski defending his title against JUSTIN EILERS (who had LOST HIS PREVIOUS FIGHT ... imagine if this happened now); Nate Marquardt's dry humping of Ivan Salaverry; Chuck Liddell beating the eyesight out of Jeremy Horn. Not exactly a list riddled with A-List guys.

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