Frank Shamrock choking Phil Baroni. Photo credit: sherdog.com

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UFC The Ultimate Fighter V - Finals - Saturday June 23, 2007 - The Pearl, Los Vegas NV
1. Jens Pulver vs. BJ Penn
2. Season Five Final: Nathan Diaz vs. Manny Gamburyan
3. Roger Huerta Vs. Doug Evans
4. Floyd Sword Vs. Thales Leites
5. Brandon Melendez Vs. Joe Lauzon (Dark)
6. Andy Wang Vs. Cole Miller (Dark)
7. Rob Emerson Vs. Gray Maynard (Dark)
8. Allen Berube Vs. Leonard Garcia (Dark)
9. Brian Geraghty Vs. Matt Wiman (Dark)
Cancelled: Noah Thomas vs. Marlon Sims

- Show airs live on Spike TV tonight at 9:00 PM EST/PST. If you're in Vegas, doors open at 2:45. We'll be covering all the prelims, main fights, etc., here on the front page, then Tony, Vinny and I will return tomorrow night with a recap of this show plus the Strikeforce event last night in San Jose, plus Vengeance.

- Not a ton of buzz for this show here locally. There are a ton of people putting money on Pulver since the odds are ridiculously long for any top-level fight in 2007 (four-to-one or something crazy). Jens could take it, but my gut says BJ. The TUF finale is also tough to call, though I guess my official prediction will be Manny via decision.

- Everyone made weight for the fight with the exception of Brandon Melendez for his fight with Joe Lauzon. It's still taking place, but he'll be docked pay. How you couldn't make weight after being a participant on TUF V escapes me. BJ and Jens are both looking very lean, though BJ is 155.5 lean on weigh-in day, and Pulver has been around 153 for days. So there is going to be a big weight difference between the two come fight time, and that's probably bad news for Jens. Jens was also at the Brawl in the Barn show last night (more in a second).

- I haven't seen the entire Strikeforce show yet, but the main event was awesome, one of the best fights in a year of great ones. The first round was unreal and both guys were hurting bad going into round two, and Shamrock finally finished him with a choke. He revealed afterwards that he'd torn his ACL and MCL two weeks ago in training. Clearly it affected his cardio most of all because he was sucking wind bad, and he's known as a cardio machine. We have a full live report up elsewhere on this page.

- The craziest thing I've seen in MMA thus far this weekend was during the BRAWL IN THE BARN last night in Vegas. They did a submission rules match that the crowd utterly hated with Babalu beating Frank Mir on points 6-2 after one six-minute round. But the highlight was the K-1 fight which ended in a no-contest after one of the dudes tried a wacky spin kick combination and got punched right in the face, which ended up knocking him upside down over the top rope to the floor like he was being eliminated from the Royal Rumble. This was the second over-the-top incident of the match so the ref called it off for the safety of the fighters. Place went nuts for it. Show was fun.

- We are pleased to announce a NEW SHOW coming to the Empire. KARL STERN IS RETURNING~! You can read all about it here.

- This week's new 25,000-word Figure Four Weekly newsletter is packed with pro-wrestling and MMA news and analysis from around the world! Our headline story takes a balanced look at the five-year history of TNA, including a short history of the group, what went wrong early, where Dixie Carter and Panda Energy came from, and why it's foolish to say they have proven anyone wrong by still being alive. We'll look at the PPV in detail, what was great about it, what was not so great, and the major issues the company is still facing. Also, while I hate to say anyone should lose their job, there is one person in TNA that I feel must, for the good of the company. We've also got a full rundown and analysis of the UFC Belfast PPV, including thoughts on the Griffin/Guida decision, Forrest's new fighting style, the two boring main events, and more. We've got a Sherri Martel bio, a look at her life and death, what she was renowned for in her career, memories, who wanted a tribute to her on Raw and who did not, why one side won out, more on the Vince storyline including all the recent changes and what may change very soon, how it was going to be handled in real life (corporate), ratings notes, the supplemental draft and why certain people went certain places, the new role of ECW, developmental notes, PPV preview, Undertaker update, Big Show update, UFC 75 line-up, odds for TUF finale, Jackson bribed?, hot chick loves MMA, UFC Fight Night ratings, tons of UFC press conference notes, who was a total dick to everyone, very detailed and intriguing Konnan interview, including the latest on his health, kidneys and when he plans on wrestling again, TNA ratings, bio of Portland wrestler, promoter and referee Sandy Barr, indy star hurt bad, ROH notes, Hong-Man Choi update, Royce Gracie fails steroid test, Johnny Morton fails steroid tests, tons of notes about both failures including amazingly high levels, what Royce is saying and what his friends are saying, who has passed and who has failed, Strikeforce and Ultimate Fighter line-ups and notes, IFL update, tons of news from Mexico, Vinny reviews the 1985 AWA Live TV special, full reviews of every major TV show including Raw, Smackdown, TNA and TUF (two episodes, including the semi-finals!), and TONS more! Of course, as a member you also get full access to ALL new and archived radio shows dating back to 2005, plus all the new and archived (280-plus issues) Figure Four Weekly newsletters dating back to 2001. To sign up, please click here, or PayPal users can use the Quick Buy link at the top of this page to be online within 60 seconds. Rates start at just $7.99 per month (27 cents a DAY), so it's a steal. Thanks for your support!

- Our latest FREE radio show, the June 18 Bryan & Vinny Show, can be downloaded here.

- My newest Fight Network column is here with a look at what ratings and buyrates mean for WWE, UFC and TNA in 2007. If you like the columns, they're about 1/25th the length of each issue of Figure Four Weekly, and we've got 300 back issues archived from 2002-today, all available 24/7 with an online membership to this site. See below for more info and ordering details.

- ROH tonight courtesy Dr. Keith. By the way, we're looking for reports of these shows (including last night's ROH, Strikeforce, UFC, Vengeance, etc.) from anyone who attended. Thanks!

Saturday June 23, 2007
Frontier Park Field House (9807 S. Sayre Avenue Chicago Ridge, IL)
7:30pm
1. ROH World Title Match: Takeshi Morishima vs. Jimmy Rave (rumored but not confirmed yet)
2. KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson
3. ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico
4. Nigel McGuinness vs. Chris Hero
5. Naomichi Marufuji vs. BJ Whitmer
6. Daizee Haze & MsChif vs. The Minnensoda Home Wrecking Crew (Lacey & Rain)
Already signed: Brent Albright; Jimmy Jacobs; Adam Pearce; Shane Hagadorn; Roderick Strong; Davey Richards; Rocky Romero; Larry Sweeney; Tank Toland; Delirious; Matt Sydal; Erick Stevens; Matt Cross; Claudio Castagnoli

- Deuce and Domino are confirmed to be defending their Smackdown tag titles tomorrow night, but the opponents are currently a mystery. {plug}