Mark La Monica

Mark La Monica 7/8/13 MMA pound-for-pound rankings

If you found it weird to see Anderson Silva in the cage with the referee ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/25/13 Fast & furious, flyweights pack heavy punch for UFC

There will be nothing wrong with your televisions if they're set to Fox on Saturday ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/2/13 MMA pound-for-pound rankings heading into 2013

A new year, a new set of MMA pound-for-pound rankings. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/16/12 The return of Georges St-Pierre

The most talked-about right knee in UFC history will enter the Octagon this Saturday night ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/1/12 Sefo makes a difference for World Series of Fighting

The World Series of Fighting debuts Saturday night with a handful of well-known and accomplished ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 8/13/12 MMA pound-for-pound rankings mid-year 2012

Most pound-for-pound MMA rankings have the same five fighters in the top five slots, so ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/8/12 La Monica: Time for Sonnen to get humble

For two years, we heard Chael Sonnen talk a tremendous amount of trash about Anderson ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/5/12 Ortiz leaves behind historic legacy

Mixed martial arts can be viewed on no less than seven television stations, not including ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 5/31/12 Thoughts on how to fix 'Ultimate Fighter'

The first season of "The Ultimate Fighter" on FX, and the series' 15th overall, concludes ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 4/13/12 Bad blood continues between Jones, Evans

A lesson in the power of video editing: Selecting the right quote from a fighter ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 3/8/12 Quality, quantity tough foes for MMA women

Ronda Rousey nearly tore Miesha Tate's left arm off her body Saturday while winning the ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 2/1/12 UFC 143's Diaz-Condit shouldn't be for title

Many words will be written and spoken this week about Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/9/12 New faces in MMA pound-for-pound rankings

Jon Jones won every fighter-of-the-year award imaginable in 2011, but how far did his meteoric ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 12/31/11 La Monica: Lesnar's MMA experiment ends

Four fights into his career, Brock Lesnar stood inside the cage with a heavyweight championship ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 12/3/11 UFC 140 features fighters with points to prove

Tito Ortiz enters UFC 140 in Toronto on Saturday as the mixed martial artist with ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/19/11 UFC's First Amendment path to legalization?

The fight for the right to fight in New York State took a fascinating turn ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/11/11 UFC on Fox: Financial loss will be a win

It is without question the most important fight in the history of the Ultimate Fighting ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 10/23/11 Diaz stirs controversy, draws attention for UFC 137

Nick Diaz trended on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, reaching No. 7 in the United States, two ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 10/8/11 La Monica: Let Jon Jones fight in peace

Anderson Silva will move up to light heavyweight and fight Jon Jones. After that, Jones ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 9/24/11 LIer fights way to 'Ultimate Fighter' house

One weekend spent back in his hometown of Saugerties, 100-plus miles north of New York ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 9/17/11 Can Jon Jones stabilize UFC's 205 division?

Take caution in anointing this time in mixed martial arts as the "Jon 'Bones' Jones ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 8/23/11 La Monica: UFC's 'Ultimate Fighter' live and kicking

Watching the UFC on three new networks will take little more than updating the DVR ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 8/3/11 Let Fedor decide when to retire

First, this topic requires a disclaimer using the first person: I'm not one of these ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/23/11 La Monica: Strikeforce Grand Prix is light fare

One by one, the men walked onto the stage. Much fanfare and fireworks met the ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/12/11 Mid-2011 MMA pound-for-pound rankings

Yes, we know no championship belt exists for the fighter on top of this or ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/9/11 Does exciting style hurt Faber?

His body sore, his muscles in agony, Urijah Faber pushed forward. And that was five ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/30/11 Tito Ortiz's last line of defense

Tito Ortiz, the bold and wildly outspoken former UFC champion, has spent the better part ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/25/11 La Monica: Villante loses but grows as fighter

One lesson at a time for young mixed martial artist Gian Villante. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/19/11 MMA bill languishes in committee

It's a tagline in commercials, a slogan on a magnet, a saying printed on T-shirts. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/11/11 Sell hopes comeback has different ending

Last time we saw Pete "Drago" Sell fighting inside a cage, he got knocked out ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/4/11 La Monica: MMA assembly vote has fighting chance

New York City trades on its highly marketable reputation as the capital of the world, ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 5/14/11 A medical plan for MMA fighters

The NFL lockout began its 66th day this morning, give or take a few hours ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 5/1/11 La Monica: Couture ends legendary career

When Randy Couture first started in mixed martial arts, he had hair on his head. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 4/16/11 La Monica: LI's Jay Hieron continues on journey

Calling Jay Hieron a journeyman mixed martial artist wouldn't be inaccurate. The 34-year-old middleweight has ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 4/2/11 Jon 'Bones' Jones may be future of MMA

He's young and energetic, exciting and good looking, charismatic and magnetic. Let's just hope Jon ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 3/18/11 UFC's Jon Jones no underdog in public eye

The coronation of Jon "Bones" Jones took place a short time ago. He just hasn't ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 3/5/11 La Monica: Weidman wouldn't quit on UFC dream

Funny thing, this modern medicine stuff. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 2/19/11 UFC 129: Whoa, Canada! Take notes NY

In his 10 years as president of the UFC, Dana White has carved out this ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 2/5/11 Levittown's Villante a first-round force

Fedor Emelianenko headlines the fight card. The bout takes place in East Rutherford, roughly 45 ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/22/11 La Monica: Herschel Walker can fight, too

Sharply dressed in an olive green suit, Herschel Walker walked through the lobby and restaurant ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/5/11 New year, new MMA pound-for-pound rankings

Six months passed and created quite a shake up in our pound-for-pound mixed martial arts ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 12/25/10 No question Frankie Edgar deserves respect

When Frankie Edgar entered the cage in Abu Dhabi last April to challenge BJ Penn ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 12/12/10 La Monica: Friends fighting? It's business

If two athletes who share the same sideline in a professional team sport were to ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/27/10 La Monica: 'Ultimate Fighter' needs a face-lift

The wild-card entry was a nice touch last season, but "The Ultimate Fighter" needs a ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/16/10 What is Matt Hughes now?

After three straight victories inside the octagon in the past 18 months, UFC Hall of ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 11/13/10 Urijah Faber reflects on end of WEC

Urijah Faber hopped on Takeya Mizugaki's back Thursday night, and it became just a matter ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 10/9/10 La Monica: Can Hardy return as top contender?

With his refusal to tap out to champion Georges St-Pierre's compromising situations, Dan Hardy won ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 9/25/10 Pace gets call and is ready to answer bell

The phone rang a few weeks ago, and within minutes, Nick Pace's life, all 23 ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 9/11/10 La Monica: Is Weidman LI's next big thing?

Might Chris Weidman be the next Long Island fighter to work his way into people's ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 8/28/10 La Monica: Strikeforce takes hit, stays on its feet

Peep this rundown of things that looked promising for Strikeforce a few months ago but ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 8/14/10 Boxing's Toney ready for MMA's Couture at UFC 118

James Toney has a puncher's chance to beat Randy Couture. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/31/10 Lots of fireworks before Silva-Sonnen fight

If Anderson Silva did what he did to Demian Maia last April - punch, kick ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 7/18/10 Midyear MMA pound-for-pound rankings

Mixed martial artists don't fight frequently enough to warrant monthly rankings like you see in ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/19/10 Werdum hopes to derail Emelianenko's plans

Before Fabricio Werdum even steps into the cage Saturday for Strikeforce, everyone is planning his ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 6/2/10 La Monica: Super Bowl in NY, but not MMA?

If the NFL can vote to bring the biggest sporting event to a cold-weather city, ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 5/22/10 'Rampage' and 'Suga' sweeten UFC 114 pot

A wild conference call to hype UFC 114 shows Jackson and Evans as fast with ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 4/24/10 La Monica: WEC busting out of its cage

With Aldo-Faber highlighting first pay-per-view card, World Extreme Cagefighting grows up ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 4/10/10 La Monica: Silva needs to switch weight classes

There are no middleweights left for Anderson Silva, so let's move him up or down ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 3/28/10 La Monica: NY needs to legalize MMA

Thousands of fans went into a tizzy for a few hours inside the Prudential Center ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 3/14/10 Jones-Vera fight headlines first-class UFC Versus card

UFC's debut on Versus on March 21 offers a pair of Next Big Things against ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 2/28/10 La Monica: Frank Mir's fightin' words for Brock Lesnar

Welcome to the mainstream media cycle, mixed martial arts. You wanted it, you got it. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 2/14/10 La Monica: LIers Villante, LaFlare get title shots

Ryan LaFlare and Gian Villante will attempt to win the belts at Ring of Combat ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/30/10 La Monica: Serra has fun, then tends to business

The Terror turned the corner, and business, as they say, picked up. Ladies and gentlemen, ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/16/10 Frankie Edgar deserves title shot against Penn

The New Jersey native will fight BJ Penn for the UFC lightweight title, thanks to ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 1/3/10 5 MMA questions for 2010 and our answers to them

Mark La Monica looks at the five questions that need to be answered in 2010. ... Read more »

Mark La Monica 10/24/09 Say it! You care about UFC's Tito Ortiz

He's the most outspoken fighter in MMA, and you either love to love or love ... Read more »