News and notes from around the MMA world …

- If you didn’t watch it this weekend, you can read our play by play of UFC 80.

- B.J. Penn makes history.

- Mike Swick talks about his move to welterweight and why he fought at middleweight for so long.

- Harley-Davidson is the UFC’s newest sponsor.

- CBS Sportsline previews UFC Fight Night 12 and everyone made weight.

- Tito Ortiz agrees to a fight with Lyoto Machida and rips the UFC.

- Here’s another look at Randy Couture vs. Zuffa.

- Dave Meltzer writes about Brock Lesnar and how his being a former WWE superstar helps in the promotion of his fight with Frank Mir at UFC 81.

- Frank Shamrock says he’s promoting his fight against his brother Ken.

- Antonio Silva’s opponent for February’s EXC event is Ricco Rodriguez.

- Where has Keith Jardine been?

- Bob Sapp fights Jan Nortje for Strikeforce’s Tacoma Dome show.

Talking Points

If you ever get a chance to watch UFC in HD, do it. Don’t even worry about the extra $10. It’s worth every penny. I was having issues with my cable company on Saturday morning while I was trying to order the UFC 80 show and the technical service representative basically told me that I was out of luck. I immediately called my ex-wife and told her I was going to order it at her house and she said she wasn’t home anyway so it was fine. I live only a couple minutes away so I was at the house at a minute before the 12:00PM start time and immediately turned everything on and looked at the PPV menu on Direct TV. I noticed that they offered the show in HD (my cable company doesn’t) and bought the HD version. I then turned on the surround sound and sat for the next three hours in what felt like a mini theater.

There really is no comparison between watching sports in high definition and the regular broadcast television signal. Everything is so crisp and you don’t miss anything. There have been times when I’ve watched UFC and had to rewind the DVR because I didn’t see what the announcers saw. That isn’t an issue with HD. You see everything so clearly. In the main event, I was able to see the exact moment when B.J. Penn split Joe Stevenson’s head open because I saw the small splatters of blood immediately. And I know this is a bit morbid, but seeing Joe Daddy’s crimson mask was eye opening to say the least. Even though I won’t be able to watch every UFC show in HD, I don’t know how I’ll cope without it. It was a beautiful three hours.

Yes, there’s another UFC show tomorrow night. Fight Night 12 will be the second of three shows in two weeks and I have a feeling that not too many people will be watching. However, we never sleep and we’ll have a blog post with the results and a longer show review on the site later in the week.

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