With UFC 118 coming up this Saturday, the entire HeavyMMA.com team is on hand in Boston for the pre-fight press conference. Check out Jeremy Botter’s notes below.

– The fighters and Dana White make their way to the stage to huge cheers from the fans in attendance. This venue is really, really cool. It’s called the Great Hall and it’s a historic building.

– James Toney is wearing some serious bling around both of his wrists. He says he’s a warrior and something else. I need live subtitles for this man. Says he’s going nowhere when the cage closes.

– Penn says when you come out and star beating people the way he did ten years ago, people are going to put expectations on you. All of the pressure that people put on him over the years made him stronger today, and he feels like he’s going to blow a lot of people away on Saturday night. People will be surprised at just how good B.J. Penn is.

– Florian says Boston is one of the most passionate sports towns in the entire world and he expects the Garden to be a crazy atmosphere on Saturday night. White agrees, saying that while the UFC is great on television, it doesn’t compare to being in attendance.

Check out all of HeavyMMA.com’s UFC 118 presser notes here.

Nate Lawson of HeavyMMA.com writes that the UFC is heading back to the big screen on August 28.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is making its way back to the big screen.

On August 28, UFC 118 will be broadcast live in high definition in select movie theaters nationwide. The event features a lightweight championship rematch between title-holder Frankie Edgar and former longtime champion BJ Penn. As a part of the evening’s co-main event, boxing great James Toney will take on fan favorite and former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Randy Couture in what is being billed as a “Boxer vs. Mixed Martial Artist” bout.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at www.fathomevents.com and a list of theaters participating can be found there as well. For parties of four looking to attend the event, an exclusive offer is available through www.ufc.com/4pack. If the fans elect to buy “The Ultimate 4 Pack”, which includes four tickets to the broadcast, they will receive one free TapouT t-shirt.

The event is set for August 28 at select theaters with the five-fight main card broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. ET. Tickets are available now.

Get more MMA news here.

I wanted to chew on UFC 116 for a few days before I really made any statements about it. The event took place last Saturday and featured the heavyweight collision between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.

Lesnar won the fight by second round submission after taking a pummeling from Carwin in round one. It was a compelling fight and very entertaining, but I think Lesnar is garnering a little too much praise for his performance. While you have to give credit where credit is due, as he won the fight, Lesnar looked far from polished. Here is a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from his title defense.

The Good: Obviously the good came in the win. He survived a hail storm and still came out in the second round and was aggressive. Lesnar also showed improved skills on the ground, as he scored a takedown and transitioned into mount and then into a head-and-arm choke from side control. These were all things he probably couldn’t do two years ago. I was also impressed with the way Lesnar handled himself after the fight. He seems to have embraced a little humanity since his health scare in November.

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My hands were sweaty, my face was red but I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass.

“Dana, could you tell me where you see Jose (Aldo) on your pound-for-pound list.”

The question was simple enough. I mean I ran it through my head a million times in a little over two minutes. The wording, the timing, the tone all needed to sound just right. After all, this question was directed at Dana White, President of the UFC and WEC.

Following Saturday’s WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber pay-per-view event, which was sponsored by AMP Energy, White and select fighters addressed the media. And there I was, covering my first MMA live event thanks to the people at AMP Energy.

At 27, I have been a dedicated MMA fan for seven years. Having seen the early days of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, I was re-introduced to the UFC with Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture at UFC 43 and have been hooked since.

But I am not just a fan, I am a sports writer, and have been for about 10 years now.

I knew that the opportunity of covering MMA for Bullz-Eye.com and The Scores Report was one I wanted to be a part of because I knew that I could do it objectively and with the respect and knowledge that MMA fans want from their writers. I’m not just a fan. Still, even having interviewed some of the top athletes in the world, my eyes were locked in with White’s as he awaited my question.

As any MMA fan knows, if White thinks you asked him a stupid question, he will let you know and he will probably sprinkle in a few expletives to describe his feelings.

So I asked my question.

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