Elliot Worsell

He may be snugly wrapped in the gold of the UFC world heavyweight title, but there was nothing golden or, indeed, snug about Brazilian Junior dos Santos' upbringing. No silver spoon in sight, either. Rather, the puppy-eyed, perennially-smiling heavyweight -- unbeaten in his UFC career to date -- was raised...

One thing was certain -- UFC 146 would feature heavyweights. Some big, some small, some great, some not so great. That was the plan from the get-go. A main card dominated by heavyweights, with bouts carrying varying degrees of importance, from pivotal title scraps down to thrilling three-rounders with little...

For better or worse, the heavyweights are making themselves heard again. Big, clumpy, unsightly footsteps left in the ground of combat sports, the type that stick and cast shadows over those with less power and size. And, it's true, heavyweights make the world go round. When the division is rich...

For the sake of the entire light-heavyweight division, I sincerely hope 'Suga' Rashad Evans is able to, at the very least, show a way of one day solving the Rubik's Cube that is current UFC 205 lb champion Jon 'Bones' Jones this coming Saturday (April 21) at UFC...

Okay, so the last time I offered ten reasons why so-and-so may be the future of something-or-other, my forecast came true. It was July 2010 and the fighter's name was Jon Jones. The 24-year-old New Yorker has since become UFC light-heavyweight champion and the most feared fighter on the planet....

A staggering 14 of the 24 fighters competing at the UFC's first ever event in Sweden next month are European. They include home hero Alexander Gustafsson, England's Brad Pickett, Germany's Dennis Siver and Italy's Alessio Sakara. Not bad going. Moreover, this upcoming event on April 14, televised live on Fuel...

The UFC's Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality TV series returned to our screens last Friday night, but arrived with a twist -- as well as the fastest knockout in its history, at just eight seconds. While the show carried the same format and dangled the same prize at the end of...

Character arcs are vital components to the success of any story. Find character, develop character, introduce character to conflict and then, by the end of act three, the character should have changed, for better or worse, as a result of aforementioned conflict. Writers of books, films, plays and television spend...

Roll up, roll up, all flyweights welcome. If you want to be a star, the newly constructed UFC flyweight division could be the place for you. Well, so long as you're able to cut to a fighting weight of 125lbs and match the pace of some of the most frenetic...

Japan has been good to Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson. Scene of such crimes as 2003's knockout of Kevin Randleman and 2004's epic slam victory over Ricardo Arona, as well as a series of Grand Prix showings, Yokohama, Saitama and Tokyo were offered a taste of Rampage long before he became one...

Recent main events have promised plenty beforehand, but delivered little when the talking stopped and fists threatened to fly. The light-heavyweight five-rounder between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis carried a bucketload of trash talk and bad blood, while the welterweight clash between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz paired off two...

If the Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded world title belts for sheer fitness and intestinal fortitude Nick Diaz -- who fights Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight championship in Las Vegas on Saturday -- would have felt the weight of gold around his waist many years ago.

While some fighters...

Heavy on foreplay, but little in the way of prolonged action, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's debut on Fox lasted all of 64 seconds. That was all it took for Brazilian threshing machine Junior Dos Santos to cuff Cain Velasquez around the ear and rip his UFC heavyweight title from his...

So let's get one thing straight from the get-go. If the great Fedor Emelianenko loses to Dan Henderson this Saturday (July 30), he is officially done, finished, spent, kaput and discarded as a legitimate force in the 2011 heavyweight division. Agreed? Okay. That's not a slight on Henderson, of course,...

History tells us there are no Hollywood endings in mixed martial arts, and I'm sure Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, also known as B.A. Baracus, has heard the same morality tale ahead of Saturday's (May 28) light-heavyweight bout with Matt 'The Hammer' Hamill. Fighter-turned-actor-turned-fighter, 'Rampage' continues to flourish inside the UFC's Octagon,...

What was the tune they sang in Bugsy Malone? So you wanna be a boxer? Well, apparently top mixed martial arts contender Nick Diaz wouldn't mind giving it a try at some point in the near future, despite very little evidence suggesting it's a wise career choice. Moreover, you'd have...

With a grand total of 10 Canadians competing on next Saturday's (April 30) UFC 129 event, you'd be forgiven for assuming Brazilian Jose Aldo may be way down the priority list for Toronto fight fans. The 24-year-old doesn't speak a word of English, has yet to compete in the Ultimate...

Just 12 months ago Dan 'The Outlaw' Hardy was supposedly one punch away from becoming the UFC welterweight champion of the world. He met champion Georges St. Pierre in Newark, New Jersey and, in doing so, became the first British mixed martial artist to ever compete for a UFC championship....

Whether in the sandpit, the park or positioned around a board game, we're told from an early age that friends are supposed to play together, not fight. It's okay to be competitive and seek victory, so long as nobody gets hurt or cries and you still remain friends at the...

So-called pioneers and innovators are often only relevant for as long as it takes the rest of the world to catch up. In a sport as impatient as mixed martial arts, it doesn't take long for fresh-faced originators to become blurred images on a VHS tape. In the blink of...