What a weekend it was. Friday night fights at the Palace in Lemoore. Saturday's Ultimate Fighting Championship show on Spike TV and the Affliction show on pay-per-view.

If you didn't get enough mixed martial arts this weekend then maybe you need to head to Porterville on Sunday for Gladiator Challenge at Eagle Mountain Casino.

It wasn't easy watching TV with my eye swollen shut after Juan Lopez kicked my tail all over the ring Friday, but I wasn't going to miss one of my favorites, Anderson Silva, fight in the UFC or watch the loaded Affliction card.

So I toughed it out, grabbed my remote and switched back and forth between the two shows.

No question that the UFC show was better in my mind.

Maybe not all the matchups or the big-name fighters, but the production. I had a hard time staying tuned in to the grainy Affliction show.

I didn't much care for the dark atmosphere, the rock-n-roll style show or the fact that I could barely hear what was going on.

Silva's knockout of James Irvin was the highlight of the night and had all my friends and family jumping out of their seats at the house.

He just might be pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world. He comes up from middleweight (185 pounds) and dominates a contender at light heavyweight (205).

I was a bit disappointed in lightweight Hermes Franca, who I had picked to win over Frank Edgar -- that didn't happen.

But the best news of the night was hearing that Palace Fighting Championship World Middleweight champ Nate Loughran defeated Johnny Rees by triangle choke in the first round in his UFC debut.

That kind of gives an idea of what kind of talent that the PFC is bringing in each week.

And Nate is a cool cat and always easy to talk to at the shows.

Fedor Emelianenko showed why he is easily the best heavyweight in the world and deserves mention as pound-for-pound's best, too.

Emelianenko made quick work -- 36 seconds to be exact -- of former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia in the main event of the Affliction show.

It was the only Affliction fight I watched in its entirety, honestly. I just had trouble watching the show because of the production.

I did watch most of Andrei Arlovski's KO win over Ben Rothwell and Mark Hominick's submission win over Savant Young.

All in all, it was an exciting weekend of fights.

I'm not sure there will be too many other weekends that can live up to this one.

Well, maybe if I could have pulled out a win it would have been a little sweeter, but that wasn't in the cards for me.

Just want to say good luck to all those local wrestlers headed to North Dakota for Nationals this week.

I don't have the specifics on who is all going other than Lemoore's Alex Perez, but I'm sure our area will be represented well.

It should be a great experience for all those who go and a culmination of a season of hard work.

Coaches, keep me updated on how all your kids are doing.

(July 22, 2008)