Joe Rogan has a very good MMA show these days called UFC Wired. The last one had some good fights. Wilson Gouveia vs. Jason Lambert. BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson. Lyoto Machida vs. Sokoudjou.

Just looking at Jason Lambert and Wilson Gouveia, Lambert is much huskier, has a broader chest, looks like a much bigger guy. We were told that Gouveia is a great BJJ fighter. As the fight developed, Lambert was manhandling the smaller man, but then out of nowhere Gouveia landed a left hook that clocked Lambert. It was one of those Holy Shit moments. Gouveia won by KO. Lucky punch? More or less, maybe. These MMA guys don't box as well as professional boxers do, and they leave themselves open to shots like that pretty often.

Sokoudjou embarrassed Pride again. The announcers were talking about how Sokoudjou was the latest superstar from Pride to come over to the UFC, and then Machida beat the crap out of him. Sokoudjou is bigger and stronger than Machida too, by the look of him. Yet he got his ass handed to him just like Pride stars Shogun Rua and Cro Cop. Can't fault Pride too much though - they did give the UFC Spider Silva and Big Nog.

Machida fights with more of an old time karate pacing than the usual MMA Muay Thai craziness. The Muay Thai attack is like Spider Silva or Axe Murderer Wanderlei Silva, two great Muay Thai fighters. They come rushing at you with knees flying, grab the back of your head and bash you in the chin with a knee. They swarm over you. But Machida began with a karate background, and he picks his spots and relies on timing. It was fun to watch.

Machida is also good at submissions. In fact, after getting the best of Sokoudjou in stand-up, Machida won the fight with a submission. It was the choke hold I learned years ago where you trap the guy's arm in between your body and his own throat, and you use his own arm to choke him, while you are using your arm to choke him from the other side of his throat. Rogan called it a triangle arm choke, but I didn't learn it under that term. I don't remember what the hell they called it, but it wasn't that.

You can do it from on top or when you are on your back and he's on top. Once you have positioned his arm in that extremely awkward and helpless position, his hand way above his head, his arm against his throat, your body shoving his own arm across his throat, you pretty well have it. Just give him a little squeeze with your arm from the other side. And make sure he doesn't have you in his guard. You will probably need to move your body a little to get the right leverage on it, and you can't do that if he has you trapped in a guard. It cuts off blood circulation to the brain. Nighty night.

The most dramatic fight on the card was BJ Penn fighting Joe Stevenson for the 155 pound UFC championship. They had just stripped Sean Sherk of the title for testing positive on steroids, and he swears he doesn't know what the hell they are talking about and he never took steroids. The wrong cough medicine maybe?

The matchup of the great BJ Penn against ole Joe Stevenson looked like a mismatch on paper. Sure, Joe is a good groundfighter. But come on, BJ Penn?

Penn made a big deal out of the fact that he finally has his head on straight, after all these years in the business, and he actually trains for fights now and gets his cardio in some kind of shape. He had beaten the living piss out of Matt Hughes before he ran out of gas. You know what happens to people who run out of gas. Ask the Desert Fox, Rommel. He ran out of gas too.

So BJ Penn opens the fight with a great flurry of punches and hurts Stevenson that way. He totally dominates Stevenson in a stand-up fight. Then he gets on top of Stevenson and opens up his forehead with a vicious elbow. Stevenson starts bleeding like a pig. That continues for the rest of the fight. When Stevenson comes out for round two after his cornermen have worked on him, Stevenson is still bleeding. There's red blood falling everywhere. Stevenson doesn't care. At least it's not in his eyes.

Penn beats him up some more, gets on top of him again, and then chokes him out with the rear naked choke, the old standby, the lionkiller. I said it was a dramatic fight. I didn't say it was a competitive fight.