Bloody Wraps - January 19: Fedor Emelianenko's Management, Ortiz vs. Nogueira and More

We're trying to come up with a plan to keep this piece rolling on the nights where I'm out of the house (writing it early in the day is kind of difficult given that it wouldn't cover everything that's been written on the site that day). So, hopefully, we won't have those nights where the piece doesn't go up.

Fedor Emelianenko's management talked drug testing in the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament. When it was posted on the site earlier today it was immediately met with speculation that this was how the Russians would bail from the tournament after the first round. I think it's a little paranoid to read so much into a statement ran through Google translator. The way I read it was more of a "we want to make sure that no matter what drug testing is used" as opposed to looking for some sort of new testing to avoid having to fight Overeem.

I understand that for people who are sick of M-1's tactics this is a good time to expect the worst. And for those who are expecting (or wanting) the tournament to fall apart they've been thrown something of a bone here. But (and this is hard in the modern age) how about we wait to see what happens before we assume we know how things are going to play out?

Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will meet at UFC Fight Night 24 in what should be an entertaining and, more importantly, attention grabbing fight for Spike TV. It's weird to think back to the time when Tito was a huge draw and running through the competition and now see him 0-4-1 since October of 2006 and headlining a second-tier show.

It's still early but we saw in Ryan Bader's handling of Nogueira that he can be outwrestled, which will be Tito's path to victory. Still, Ortiz was outstruck by Matt Hamill and I don't imagine Nogueira will have any trouble doing the same. There are legitimate ways to see either guy winning but I'm pretty confident that Nogueira will add a sixth fight to the Ortiz winless streak. But having Ortiz's name on a "free" show should help boost the ratings, even if his overall name value is diminished.

Quick Hits:

- Leland's previews of UFC Fight for the Troops 2 are rolling with his look at the undercard. I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that you can get on Yves Edwards for as low as -225.

- Jon Jones was in a car accident but appears to be completely uninjured. Hopefully it turns out that the other party is fine as well.

- Jonathan Snowden continued his look at the history of the lineal heavyweight title. Anything that gives an excuse to read the Cracked.com description of Fujita/Kerr is a good thing. But the piece is very good on top of giving a laugh, so go read it.