Forget about the Super Bowl, it’s time to focus our attention on this weekend’s UFC 81 and, needless to say, I am really looking forward to this one.

Basically, whenever a former WWE champion makes his UFC debut it’s cause for excitement in my world. Of course, I am talking about Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mir. That said, I am not expecting a great MMA fight from these two. And while Nogueira-Sylvia and Marquardt-Horn should be fairly entertaining my prediction for fight of the night rests on Tyson Griffin (10-1) vs. Gleison Tibau (15-4).

One can make a case that, win or lose, no fighter had a better 2007 than Xtreme Couture’s Tyson Griffin (10-1). When you consider the fact that all three of his bouts (wins over Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares and, of course, his unbelievable loss to Frankie Edgar) were the best ones on their respective cards you would be foolish to expect anything less against Tibau. The American Top Team Member has won four in a row and is one of the more underrated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the UFC.

Oh, and in case you were as surprised as I was when you looked at the official card on UFC.com and noticed the Griffin-Tibau tilt would not air live on pay-per-view, fear not as Griffin confirmed his bout would be shown on the main portion of the telecast.

Anyhow, I caught up with Griffin to break down his bout against Tibau, his string of great fights and why he thinks Urijah Faber has no interest in ever fighting him again.

Tyson Griffin – 01/28/08

Remember the last time we featured an interview with UFC Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste? Well, her presence generated the most amount of traffic to Jarry Park…EVER. Seriously, it did. Kurt Angle, Bas Rutten, DDP, GSP – they should all bow down to the queen of the Octagon.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that we should start featuring Arianny a hell of a lot more around these parts so we have “signed” her to stop by The Park after every big UFC event to offer her unique views from the best seat in the house.

This was a particularly busy week for young Arianny as she worked UFC 80 in Newcastle over the weekend and then Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 12 at the Palms in Las Vegas. We talked about her travels as well her thoughts on:

* The Penn-Stevenson blood bath

* Sean Sherk’s promo after the main event

* The lackluster Burkman-Swick fight at UFN 12

* Why she was eating snacks during Pellegrino-Crane fight

* Her budding singing career

* What special sign she will flash to the Park faithful at UFC 81

We’re just trying to recreate the old high school days when the neighborhood park seemed to be the cool place to go after class.

Arianny Celeste – 01/25/08

Leading up to The Ultimate Fighter 3, all the hype seemed to surround a fighter from Vancouver, WA, named Ed Herman (left). He would eventually make it to the finals of the show only to lose to Maui’s Kendall Grove but, as we all know, both men were rewarded with a guaranteed UFC contract for their great fight. It seemed as though Grove and Herman were well on their way to UFC stardom.

At first, Grove held up his end of the bargain but Herman surely didn’t. Grove won his next two fights while Herman followed his loss to the Hawaiian with another to Jason MacDonald.

Then, a funny thing happened: Herman regained his confidence and reeled off three victories in a row – most recently at UFC 78 against Joe Doerksen. Meanwhile, the once-dominant Grove is still gathering himself after a bitter loss to Jorge Rivera at UFC 80 – his second in a row. It’s kind of like a TUF 3 bizarro world nowadays.

Up next for Herman is a meeting with BJJ wiz and Abu Dhabi Combat Club vet, Demian Maia. A tough test indeed.

It was initially reported that Herman-Maia would take place at UFC 83 in London but that event has since been scrapped. So, I caught up with the Team Quest member to talk about when and where the fight will go down, his recent wining streak, the fall of Kendall Grove and so much more.

Ed Herman – 01/24/08

The oh-so knowledgeable Jesse Holland of MMAMania.com stopped by JarryPark to help sort out the influx of UFC news from the last few days. No shortage of interesting topics to discuss but here are some of the ones we touched on:

* BJ Penn’s victory over Joe Stevenson

* What to expect from a Penn-Sherk matchup

* The way the Sherk situation was handled on the UFC 80 telecast

* Fabricio Werdum’s place in the Heavyweight division

* The rise and fall of Kendall Grove

* Mike Swick vs. Josh Burkman, Patrick Côté vs. Drew McFedries and the rest of the UFC Fight Night 12 card

* Andrei Arolovski, Mirko Cro Cop and Evan Tanner’s UFC future

A great tuneup for tonight’s Spike telecast and always a pleasure to welcome an astute MMA blogger like Jesse to The Park. Enjoy.

Jesse Holland – 01/23/08

We’re just a couple of days away from UFC Fight Night 12 and if this one’s half as good as UFC 80 then, well, it will be great! And you know what? Top to bottom this card (on paper) looks like it should be better. It’s a safe bet that Mike Swick vs. Josh Burkman, Patrick Cote(!) vs. Drew McFedries and Alvin Robinson vs. Nate Diaz will be exciting but there are tons of great untelevised fights too.

One of the more intriguing ones has Gray “The Bully” Maynard (4-0-1) battling Dennis Siver (11-4-0). And guess what? Maynard was kind enough to stop by The Park to discuss his upcoming bout against Siver. He also spoke about:

* His gameplan going into the fight

* The Rob Emerson fiasco

* His thoughts on the decision seven months later

* His nine-second KO over Joe Veres

* Training at Xtreme Couture

* His thoughts on Couture being sued by the UFC

* Who he would like to fight next

Gray Maynard – 01/21/08

(Can’t listen to the interview right now? Subscribe to our site by clicking on the iTunes or Odeo link at the top right of the page and you can listen to all our great interviews whenever you want.)

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson is responsible for one of the best knockouts of 2007. His disposal of Chad Reiner in just 13 seconds at Ultimate Fight Night 10 in June was as solid a UFC debut a fighter can hope for. At UFC 76, it appeared as though the 23-year-old Johnson would go 2-0 in his UFC career but Rich Clementi caught him a rear naked choke and brought him back to earth.

Now, Johnson (4-1) looks to get back to his winning ways on April 2nd at UFN 13 against Tommy Speer. Yes, the same Tommy Speer that stopped by the Park just a couple of days ago. Funny how that worked out, eh? Take a listen as Johnson talks about:

* His bout against Speer

* His response to some of Speer’s comments from a couple of days ago

* His tough loss to Rich Clementi

* The stunning Reiner KO

* Training with Kendall Grove before his fight against Jorge Rivera at UFC 80

* Which fighter he would like to fight next

Anthony Johnson – 01/18/08

The Park goes a little country today as we welcome TUF 6 finalist, Tommy Speer, for a talk on all things, well, Tommy Speer. Topics discussed included:

* His upcoming fight against Anthony Johnson at Ultimate Fight Night 13 on April 2, 2008 in Denver, CO

* His thoughts on Johnson

* How their styles match up

* His unlikely road to the TUF 6 finals

* His experience on the show

* His contract status with the UFC

* His relationship with Matt Hughes

* His thoughts on Matt Serra’s behavior on TUF

* The big one: Has he read Matt Hughes’ book

Tommy Speer – 01/16/08

Check out my latest Fight Network column about Justin McCully here.

UFC Heavyweight contender Justin McCully stopped by The Park today to discuss a whole host of MMA/wrestling topics. Some of the issues we talked about included:

* How he missed a chance to fight Cheick Kongo

* Why he deserves to fight the winner of Kongo-Herring

* His health status

* His ten-year journey to UFC stardom

* How he got involved in professional wrestling and MMA

* His experiences while wrestling in Japan

* Turning down a WWE developmental deal to wrestle in the original ECW

* Why Bill DeMott ruined his WWE dreams

If you’ve seen McCully’s appearances on HDNet’s “Inside MMA” you know the man brings a lot of knowledge to the table. Add to the fact that he has a background in professional wrestling and he’ll always have a permanent seat at the JP Head Table.

Justin McCully – 01/15/08

On my last Fight Network Radio appearance, I mentioned that I was anxiously looking forward to Travis Lutter’s return to the Octagon. Sure, he messed up by failing to make weight before his title bout against Anderson Silva at UFC 67 but that just makes me want to see him fight even more.

It’s a great story, really. He wins TUF 4 to get the title shot of a lifetime, fails to make weight, and then, despite everything, gives Anderson Silva his toughest challenge in the UFC.

While I don’t expect Lutter to get a title shot anytime soon a win in his next bout (rumored to be against Rich Franklin) would go a long way in helping people forget about last February.

That fight was supposed to happen at UFC 82 in March but Franklin suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee so the bout was postponed. Then came word that the two would get it on at the rumored April card in Montreal(!) but the recent news of Franklin’s father passing away has thrown everything up in the air.

So many questions, very little answers so I invited Lutter to The Park to discuss his bout with Franklin, when it will take place and his thoughts on weight-gate a year later.

Travis Lutter – 01/11/08

For the last hour or so, I’ve tried to find the history of the ring card girl but to no avail. For most of us (except maybe my 90-year-old great uncle who checks out the site from time-to-time), ring card girls have been a part of the combat sports world forever. But my research has led me to believe that they were actually introduced in the late 60’s after promoters realized that fans would rather see beautiful women carrying around the signs instead of middle-aged men.

That said, most of us could never put a name to the faces of these mysterious women holding these cards. And, to be honest, no one really cared to. That is until the UFC starting using the same ones at each event and marketing them as personalities.

The first popular Octagon Girl (as they are known in UFC-land) was Rachelle Leah but she has since moved on to hosting UFC: All Access (anyone else find it weird that they continue to bill her as the host of that show but it hardly ever airs?). But then, my friends, came Arianny Celeste.

To help quench our fascination for what life as an Octagon Girl is really like, we invited the 22-year-old Celeste to talk about her experiences in the UFC, all the rumors about her personal life and what it’s like to work for Dana White. Take a listen below.

(By the way, after Rachelle and Ali Sonoma put down their signs for good, a lot of UFC fans were afraid Arianny would follow suit but she assured us that she plans on sticking around the Octagon for a while. Thank heavens.)

Arianny Celeste – 01/09/07

(photo courtesy of the UFC)