Bob’s your uncle for UFC 100

The Brits certainly do have a way with the language they named after themselves. Even when writing about mixed martial arts they somehow find a way to make it all sound poetic and poncy. Here’s the lead to a story in today’s Telegraph. Of course they start with hometown hero Michael Bisping, who faces Dan Henderson at UFC 100 tonight. Still, it’s entertaining reading.

Time for European fighter Michael Bisping to prove his doubters wrong against the American Dan Henderson, a name, a legend, an Olympian and a man who has proved, at times, impossible to defeat due to his ability to outpoint opponents with obduracy and sheer bloody-minded individualism, and wrestling skills; Time, also perhaps, for considered reflection on 16 years of struggle for the sport’s acceptance into the mainstream athletic landscape.

UFC 100, numerically symbolic in itself, has become a rite of passage. There are silhouettes, moreover, not even on the pay-per-view card, who have carved out a folkloric status in the movement once forced underground, yet now in the spotlight, in the fighting capital of the world, in this city of mirage in the Mojave desert.

There’s also some incredible facts in there about tonight’s fights, that they’re anticipating more than one million pay-per-view buys and more than 300-million viewers worldwide, that it’ll be broadcast live in 51 countries and on tape delay in 24 countries on tape delay in 17 languages. I wonder if Brock Lesnar still sounds like a dick in Tagalog?