The mixed martial artist formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, and Ultimate Fighter 6 contestant,  has been posting some pretty creepy tweets on his twitter account lately. War Machine’s latest set of tweets read like this:

• What makes you think you’re safe when I HATE myself?


• When I am ready to die I will kill many and I will then kill myself and I will tape it. It will be rad.


• If I shed a tear in life it’s because I was born too late. Not in a time where I could live to my potential…I deserve glory.


• I give it 3 years tops till I decide to end this life. All you mother (expletive) against me will go first, thats a promise. Sleep on that.

UFC main event fighters are dropping like flies.

A fourth potential main event  has been scrapped for UFC 108, as Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin and Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua were all scheduled for that date.

Brock Lesnar has been diagnosed with mononucleosis, a viral infection causing fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands, especially in the neck. He has suffered from this for some time now, and an interim heavyweight champion may have to be named if Lesnar cannot get healthy soon.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is suffering from a severe staph infection that has entered into his bloodsteam.

”(It’s) bad, to the point now that it’s in his bloodstream,” White stated after UFC 105, according to TSN. “He’s probably going to have to be hospitalized and intravenously given antibiotics.”

This may open the door for a Cain Velasquez vs Shane Carwin heavyweight fight, perhaps for an interim heavyweight title.

UFC has now upgraded Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva from co-main event, to the main event.

Follow me at twitter.com/insideoctagon to see live quotes from Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, and Dana White.

Follow me at twitter.com/insideoctagon to see live quotes from Randy Couture and Brandon Vera, the headliners for this Saturday’s UFC 105 card.

A TITLE SHOT IS ON THE LINE AS NOGUEIRA AND VELASQUEZ HEADLINE UFC 108

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is a heavyweight legend looking to climb to the top of the mountain one more time following his win over Hall of Famer Randy Couture in August. Unbeaten rising star Cain Velasquez has moved rapidly up the ranks, but he needs one more win to get a shot at the belt. On Saturday, January 2nd, the main event of UFC 108 will see these two heavyweight standouts meet to determine a future challenger for the title. Also, former UFC light heavyweight champion ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans begins on his road back to the title as he attempts to avenge his teammate Keith Jardine’s loss against Brazilian knockout artist Thiago Silva at UFC 108: Nogueira vs Velasquez, presented by “Bayonetta” and live on pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Nogueira vs. Velasquez is a great matchup between the present and the future of the heavyweight division,” said UFC President Dana White. “Nogueira showed in the Couture fight that he still has plenty left to offer at the top level of the game, and Velasquez was devastating in his win over Ben Rothwell, so with both guys in top form, we’re definitely going to see a number one contender emerge from this fight to take on the winner of the Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin title fight.”

Tickets for UFC 108 are priced at $600, $400, $300, $200, $100 and $50, not including applicable service charges, go on sale Saturday, November 14 at 10 a.m. at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at UFC.com , www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com .

According to his facebook page, Wes Sims is selling some items from the TUF 10 house.

I’m selling personal stuff from The Ultimate Fighter show that I was on. The ninja gear from the show yesterday will be for sale next week. Go check it out and buy some stuff, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get stuff from the extremely popular show The Ultimate Fighter 10. Thanks, Wes Sims http://shop.ebay.com/iwawrestling/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

He is even selling a Kimbo Slice skull cap, worn by the man himself.

Happy bidding!

In what may be one of the worst decisions in MMA history, the California State Athletic Commission awarded Lyoto Machida a unanimous decision victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua this past Saturday.

Not one judge awarded a round for Rua, who was clearly controlling the fight. The “ten point must system” is used when judging MMA fights. The “system” is based on effective striking, grappling, aggression, and octagon control.

Mauricio Rua was clearly pushing the pace for most of the fight. Machida was on the defensive most of the time. There is your octagon control. As far as aggression, Shogun was throwing strikes with vicious intentions the entire night. Neither fighter hit the mat, and no take downs were scored so grappling is nullified.

Whenever there is a close fight like we saw this past Saturday, and an obvious poor decision is granted, I check the CompuStrike data immediately.

According to their website, The CompuStrike program produces data in 21 categories, including arm strikes (power strikes and clinch strikes), leg strikes (kicks and knees) and ground strikes. Tallied arm strikes, leg strikes and ground strikes produces a “Total Strike” stat. The CompuStrike program also tallies takedowns, takedown attempts, reversals, submission attempts, and dominant positions.

I love this program. It’s a great post fight analysis tool.

According to their data, Rua outlanded Machida 89-50 in the total strikes landed department, including 73 Leg Strikes . Shogun completely dominated the fight and did everything he needed to do to beat the undefeated Machida, including outlanding Machida in every round.

The Arm Strikes were virtually the same as both fighters landed 16 total Arm Strikes but it was Rua who dominated every position by landing the damaging Leg Strikes. Rua was able to land 46 kicks when going toe-to-toe with Machida, and landing 27 knees when in the clinch.

Check out the round by round stats here.

Brock Lesnar will not defend his UFC heavyweight title at UFC 106.

According to UFC.com, Lesnar has an illness that has forced him out of training camp for almost a month. The UFC hopes to re-schedule the bout for early 2010.

Lesnar’s opponent, Shane Carwin, posted on his twitter account earlier today. He claims that the match will take place on January 2, 2010.

UFC 106 will now feature a main event of Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. This is rematch from UFC 59 where Tito Ortiz was awarded a very close split decision win over Forrest.

With Lesnar’s withdrawal, the UFC will have two consecutive events without a title fight. UFC 105 will air free on Spike TV and features a light heavyweight main event of Randy “The Natural” Couture and Brandon “The Truth” Vera.

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida will make his first UFC light heavyweight title defense tomorrow night in the main event at UFC 104. The challenger is Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Lyoto is heavily favored, and I am confident he will walk away with the belt. In order for Rua to be successful in this fight, he has to have more patience then Lyoto and I just don’t see that happening. I think Lyoto will wait out the first 3-4 minutes of the fight, frustrating Rua. Rua will start to press the action a bit and get sloppy in the process. Lyoto is like a sniper. His accuracy is dead on and every time his opponent makes a mistake they pay for it dearly.

Rua has a violent, aggressive style. Coming out of the Chute Box academy, this is to be expected. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I can only see Rua chasing Machida down for so long before the former Pride Grand Prix champion makes a technical mistake.

The co-main event features ranked heavyweight Cain Velasquez vs journey man heavyweight Ben Rothwell. I am not terribly enthused for this match. If Cain wins, he gets winner of Brock/Carwin. If Rothwell wins, he will probably get a pat on the back.

Spike TV is going to air two preliminary match ups from 9-10 PM EST. TUF alumni Ryan Bader will take on Eric “Red” Shafer. This is Bader’s first fight since injuring his knee in a decision victory over Carmelo Marrero last April. Bader is 9-0 and will look to continue his undefeated streak.

The second bout to air will be Pat Barry vs. Antoni Hardonk. This match pits two guys with serious professional kickboxing backgrounds.

Pat Barry weighing in

This fight is interesting for a couple of reasons. One, each fighter has zero ground game. I’m interested to see if one tries to out shoot the other thinking they can get the upper hand in the fight. Although if the fight goes to decision and there is a stalemate on the feet, a take down or two will definitely sway the judges.

Secondly, there is a huge size difference. Antoni Hardonk is 6’4, and weighs in around 245 pounds. Pat Barry is 5’11 and weighs in at a solid 230 lbs. Pat loses a lot of height in the heavyweight division, but also carries a lot of muscle mass. It will be interesting to see if and how Barry closes the gap on Hardonk, and if he will be able to use his strength and speed to put Hardonk on the canvas.

Entire fight card is as follows:

Main Card Bouts:
-Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
-Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell (30-6)
-Josh Neer (25-8-1) vs. Gleison Tibau (17-7)
-Joe Stevenson (30-10) vs. Spencer Fisher (23-4)
-Anthony Johnson (7-2) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (11-3)

Preliminary Bouts:
-Yushin Okami (23-4) vs. Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
-Pat Barry (4-1) vs. Antoni Hardonk (8-5)
-Jorge Rivera (16-7) vs. Rob Kimmons (22-4)
-Ryan Bader (9-0) vs. Eric Schafer (11-3-2)
-Kyle Kingsberry (7-2) vs. Razak Al-Hassan (6-1)
-Chase Gormley (6-0) vs. Stefan Struve (17-3)

Countdown to UFC 104 will air on Spike TV at 11 p.m. ET/PT tonight.

I am watching it right now. Good stuff. Don’t miss it.