By Brett Okamoto (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 24, 2009 | midnight

Before every fight night, Harris can be found in the cage itself, checking every last detail to make sure it’s safe for his fighters.

“Just prior to the event, I always go into the cage and check it,” Harris said. “It’s just a habit I have from the first show I put on.

“In the old days I would find out that they hadn’t attached one of the corners, that doesn’t happen anymore. I still want to check the post and the fence; make sure everything is secure and padded and done right.”

The sport of mixed martial arts has become a little more glamorous than it used to be — particularly in Las Vegas.

When the UFC held its first-ever event in Las Vegas in 2002, it drew an attendance of 7,663 and generated $898,850 worth of revenue at the gate. Compare that to UFC 100 in June, which drew an attendance of 10,971 and $5,128,490 at the gate.

The WEC, owned and operated by the same parent company as the UFC, has experienced a similar growth.

With that kind of success, it would be easy for Harris to take many of the responsibilities he’s had since founding the company in 2001 and hand them off to his staff.

Instead, Harris remains involved with nearly every aspect leading up to an event.

“Fight week in Vegas typically has a lot of meetings,” Harris said. “I meet with my public relations coordinator Dave Scholler about 5-to-10 times every day. He lays out my schedule for me.”

On the week of a fight, Harris has such a full schedule he checks himself into the Las Vegas hotel where the event is being held.

Thursday mornings he can be found sitting in his hotel room, assembling binders filled with fighter info that get distributed to WEC matchmakers and commentators.

It’s the kind of work normally reserved for interns, however Harris says he enjoys putting together the binders because it helps him learn more about each individual fighter competing on the card.

“I’ve always done them, it really forces me to learn a lot about each fighter,” Harris said. “When these guys show up, if I’m able to understand their background it just makes me able to familiarize with them and tends to ease them up a little bit.”

Fighters usually arrive in Las Vegas on Wednesday before working out for media members Thursday.

Because of his knowledge of the every fighter’s background, Harris takes the media portion of a fight week very seriously.

More so than probably anyone, Harris knows the remarkable stories behind some of the athletes that compete for him — many of which he feels are his responsibility to share with the fans.

Just before becoming WEC featherweight champion in a fight last month, Jose Aldo told Harris that he was like brothers with teammate Wagnney Fabiano.

When Harris asked why, Aldo told him it was because when he first started going to the gym in Brazil, Fabiano would always ask him if he had eaten yet that day.

“Sometimes Jose would say no, and on those days Wagnney would take him and feed him before they worked out,” Harris said. “So you can see what coming to The Palms and winning a belt would be a dream come true to him.

“That’s something you’ve got to get out to the public and let them experience, because personally, that’s something very gratifying to me.”

To fans, one of the best days of a fight week is Friday. That’s when they get a free chance to see the fighters on the card at the official weigh-in.

Harris treats weigh-ins more like family reunions, making the rounds and catching up with fighters, trainers and even fans.

“Our fighters are like our family,” Harris said. “If I have a Christmas party, I’ll them all over. We’re friends. We’re really happy when we see each other. I spend a lot of time with them and I also understand what they’re getting ready to do, so I have so much respect for them.”

Of course, the best part of fight week in Vegas is the night of the event itself.

The fights of Saturday night were so popular in fact, that Harris received so many ticket requests he had none left for some of his biggest VIPs.

“I actually bought four tickets for my kids,” Harris said. “I didn’t have any more to give away and I felt bad asking the ticketing office for more so I just told my wife to go ahead and buy them. I bought tickets to my own event.”

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com. Also follow him on twitter: LVSunFighting.

By Elias Cepeda

Talk about highs and lows. Steve Cantwell became a world champion at just 21 years of age in 2008, but went winless in 2009. So as he prepares for a new year and a bout against respected veteran Vladimir Matyushenko on January 2nd at UFC 108, the young light heavyweight admits to having struggled with the ups and downs of these past two years.

In August of 2008, Cantwell scored a dramatic second round TKO win over Brian Stann. The victory not only avenged a prior KO loss to Stann but it also earned Cantwell the WEC 205-lb title belt.

His championship status was short lived, however, as Zuffa, the parent company for both the WEC and UFC, decided to do away with the light heavyweight division for the WEC and bring the organization’s top guys from that class, like Cantwell, over to the UFC. One can imagine Cantwell being disappointed at going from being a titlist to just another contender in a crowded division, but he says he wasn’t fazed by the transition.

“The long term goal was always to fight in the UFC,” Cantwell says. “I was enjoying the WEC and getting exposure, experience and ring time. But I grew up wanting to become a UFC champion.”

And Cantwell certainly seemed ready for the UFC stage with a first round finish of Razak Al-Hassan in his Octagon debut back in December of ’08. But in April and again in September of 2009, Cantwell followed that big win with two decision losses, including the rubber match with Stann.

Cantwell could deal with losing his title and moving to the UFC, but not with losing in the Octagon. His first ‘09 loss to Luiz Cane and the one that followed to Stann were very different in Cantwell’s eyes, but equally dissatisfying.

“The sky was the limit for me going into 2009 but I bombed this year. I had some little things to work out; personal issues, spiritual issues. I think I have them all figured out now,” he says.

Cantwell feels that he got robbed in the decision loss to Cane but admits to a “horrible” fight against Stann last September.

“Brian Stann is the kind of guy you never want to fight. I don’t want to fight war heroes and good, hardworking guys like him. He’s the hardest guy in the world to train for because it’s like having to beat up your brother. It just wasn’t a motivating fight for me. I trained as hard as I could because I don’t know any other way, but I didn’t do as well as I should have,” Cantwell says.

Cantwell is having no issues getting motivated for his next opponent, Matyushenko, a wrestling legend and experienced fighter with world championship level experience. To prepare, Cantwell has been putting in work at his usual spots, going to One Kick’s Gym for striking and MMA work and Sergio Penha for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Cantwell knows he’ll need to bring everything he can to the table come fight night against “The Janitor.”

“He’s a big, gnarly, Russian wrestler and a tough fight for anybody, especially for me because I have these decision losses and this is a guy who wins decisions,” Cantwell says.

“In the back of my mind I know I have to go out there and finish this guy. I don’t know how to win decisions. He’s a good guy with decent stand up and real good control on the ground and he looks strong as hell. I just have to keep it in his mind and show him throughout the fight that I’m the younger, stronger and faster fighter out there.”

Ever since Stann began watching the UFC at 13 years of age, it was his dream to become a mixed martial arts champion. Even before that exposure he says he knew he wanted to be, “a tough guy of some sort.”

Barely out of his teens, he became a champion but that soon slipped out of his grasp. Now he’s driven to get back to where he was and surpass his former accomplishments. Surrounding himself with the right people and making the right life choices, even while living in a city of temptation like Las Vegas, is crucial for Cantwell.

“Being 21 and winning a world title on national television, the hard part was not getting too ahead of myself and not getting too cocky – partying and stuff like that, especially living in Vegas. I just tried to stay grounded by staying in the gym. I’m also surrounded by good people, good trainers, a great girlfriend, a good family, and they all have healthy lifestyles. I live in ‘Sin City’ but the last place you’ll ever see me is in a bar or club. You are who you hang out with,” Cantwell says.

Impressive wisdom from a young man, to be certain. But it’s because Cantwell knows what is at stake – bringing his childhood dream to fruition.

“What’s motivating me in the gym every day is keeping my dream alive. It’s always been a dream of mine (to become a UFC champion) and I’m real close to achieving it. I stumbled the last couple times but I’m doing work to come back and make it happen.”

Dana White

Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

UFC will be the biggest sport in the world by 2020.

People were saying I was a lunatic 10 years ago when we first got this going, but the stuff we’re working on right now on so many levels is mind-boggling.

The UFC will be on network television in the coming years, but we’re not going to go out and do a stupid deal because we don’t need them. We built this thing without help from anybody, and that’s why the UFC has been able to flourish even in these hard times.

The sport was just sanctioned in Massachusetts and Vancouver. We’re going to get it done in Ontario and New York in 2010. And we’re already working on taking the UFC global. We’ve already done Germany, England and Ireland, and we just sold 22,000 seats for an event in Australia in 15 minutes.

Think about this: Right now in the United States, there is nothing bigger than the NFL. It is huge. But the NFL has been spending billions of dollars trying to break into other countries and it’s not working. You know why? Because these people in other countries don’t care about American football. They didn’t grow up playing it and they’re not invested in American teams.

I take two guys and put them in an octagon and they can use any martial art they want — that transcends all culture barriers. Right now we are on some form of television in over 175 countries. We’re all human beings and we all “get” fighting.

That said: Las Vegas is a Mecca for fighting.

Between the UFC and our sister company the WEC, World Extreme Cagefighting, the economic impact fighting has in Las Vegas is astronomical. And I’m from here. I lived in Boston for a while, I love it too, but the reality is I’m from Las Vegas.

Every time I walk through the back of the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay, valet parkers and waiters will stop me and say, “Dana, thank you for bringing the event here this weekend.” That’s when these guys make their money. We bring a lot of people into town for these events, and we bring them regularly.

So, in the next 10 years, Las Vegas will benefit even more from UFC’s success.

Me and Lorenzo Fertitta will sit down and figure out a game plan for the next 10 years, and we’ll execute it.

So, is 10 years enough time to make this the biggest sport in the world? Hell, yeah.

Dana White is the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Six years ago, in his firstprofessional fight in mixed martial arts, Brazilian Rafaello “Tractor” Oliveira had to face a boogieman who was crushing opponents from his neck of the woods—the fabled Wigman Big Big. Wigman obviously has one the greatest, most mythological names in the sport. But, just as former basketball star Manute Bol had to kill a lion with a spear in his Sudanese youth—a feat that would raise the western world’s collective eyebrow for many years—that night in Pernambuco became a rite of passage for Oliveira.

“Big Big is a name of a gum in Brazil, just as Babalu is the name of a gum, only a cheaper gum,” he says. “His nickname was Big Big, and he was my first fight. He was undefeated, 4-0 at the time, and he was from another state. He used to beat everybody from my state but I beat him that night and then again later on, thank God.” See fighter profile

Thus Oliveira came of age. Nicknames aside, that night became the moment that the BJJ black belt and two-time North American Grappling Association champion realized there was nothing he’d rather be doing than fighting. Though he was already a well-seasoned practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu, a few crash courses in the other disciplines paid off for him in a hurry.

“I had been training Jiu-Jitsu for five years in Brazil and we had an MMA tournament, and a friend of mine was supposed to step into the cage but he got hurt,” he recalls. “So I studied for one month for a fight. I was just training Gi at the time, and I just took some boxing classes and I stepped in the cage after a month. I beat Big Big by a TKO, and it was the best feeling in the world. I just thought—I want to keep doing this.”

Five years later, he is, and on the world’s biggest stage. Now a resident of Tennessee and training in New Jersey at American Martial Arts (AMA) in Whippany with the likes of Mike Constantino, Jamie Cruz, the Miller brothers and Frankie Edgar, the lightweight Oliveira (9-2 overall) is looking to follow up on the buzz the preceded him. He became a highly-touted prospect for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that, of his previous 11 fights, he has TKO’d, submitted or slammed seven of them. In short, Oliveira is exciting to watch. He has sick BJJ. He has a great chin. He keeps coming forward. What more could you ask for in a fighter?

But as he makes a name for himself in North America, Oliveira has had to do it with a fluid sense of adaptability. Not just to pugilistic techniques and clinch-work, but also in shifting opponents.

Originally set to take on Dan Lauzon at UFC 103 in Dallas, Oliveira ended up fighting the tough-nosed wrestler Nik Lentz in his debut when Lauzon got hurt. It didn’t matter to the man they call “Tractor”—a name given to him by Jiu-Jitsu teacher Latuf Kezen because, at 17 years old when he was just starting out, he was already so strong that he plowed forward against all resistance. He was just grateful to get his first fight in the Octagon.

“I was happy,” he says. “I was walking to the cage and I had good energy, and I wasn’t nervous at all. But once I got in the big cage, you know there are a lot of people watching, I just wanted to do good job and make Joe Silva and the owners happy. I wanted to win, but I didn’t want to do a [crappy] fight, or a boring fight. I wanted to put on an exciting fight. It was a good experience.”

Lentz was able to take the decision that night, but Oliveira gave him all he wanted in three back-and-forth rounds. He can indeed check one thing off his list—it was definitely an exciting fight, one that showed a lot of promise from the 27-year-old Brazilian John Deere. What’s more, his character showed through in defeat.

“No excuses,” he says. “I could use a little more strategy. I could be a little more smart, and I think I made some mistakes. I think he won the fight in the third round when he took me down in the last two and a half minutes and he impressed the judges. But no excuses.”

Oliveira was set to take on one of the sport’s legends in Sean Sherk at UFC 108 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on January 2, but with the rash of injuries and subsequent bout change he will now face another UFC debutant in John “Guns” Gunderson. Gunderson is riding a tidy three-fight win streak after time spent in the IFL and other promotions.

Though Oliveira was looking forward to testing himself against the “Muscle Shark,” he is very much up to the challenge of taking on a “dangerous” Gunderson, whom he has been studying on YouTube.

“He’s very well-rounded,” he says. “He’s 22-6, and he has good hands. He has a lot of submissions, hehas some knockouts, so I think it will be a really good fight. I think I’m just going to feel it out, whether I want to keep things on the feet or take it to the ground. He wins more from submissions, so it’ll be a good challenge. I think he has 15 or 16 submissions on his record. But I’m ready. I just want to win this fight and improve my record in the UFC to 1-1.”

Oliveira is married and has three young kids in Tennessee, a six-year-old boy and two girls, ages three and six months old. Hetalks as warmly about being a father as he does about dropping haymakers. In fact, he comes off like the nicest guy in the world in a conversation. But there’s another thing that comes through, too—this is a very confident person.

And he wants you to see the best Rafaello Oliveira no matter if it’s Sherk, Lentz, Gunderson or one-time training partner/idol/friend BJ Penn that’s put in front of him.

“It’s the heart,” he says. “I’m always going to have a big heart and when I’m going to war, when I step into that cage I’m going to go 100%. In the UFC, I want to be in the cage all the time, and I want to go 100%.”

By Thomas Gerbasi

It may be the single most exciting event in all of sports – the knockout. In baseball you go nine innings, in football and basketball you’ve got four quarters to decide a winner, and hockey requires three 20-minute periods.

In mixed martial arts, a bout scheduled for three or five five-minute rounds can end in seconds if the right punch or kick is landed. That makes every fight a war of nerves, and when the end comes suddenly and spectacularly, there’s simply nothing like it. Read on for the top UFC knockouts of 2009.

10 – Todd Duffee KOs Tim Hague – August 29 – UFC 102
In 2008, James Irvin crashed the Ten Best list with his then-record tying eight second knockout of HoustonAlexander. This past August, Todd Duffee did “The Sandman” one second better by blitzing and finishing Tim Hague off in seven ticks of the clock. This spectacular performance was a double whammy, introducing Duffee to UFC fans and the record books with one big straight left to the jaw. Watch video

9 – Shane Carwin TKOs Gabriel Gonzaga – March 7 – UFC 96 
With just 10 pro fights, Shane Carwin’s big step up fight was an enormous one as he took on the man who CroCopped Cro Cop, former heavyweight title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga. And 30 seconds in, Gonzaga welcomed Carwin to the big time with a flush right hand that broke his nose. This would have been the perfect time for Carwin to fold up his tent and go back to his engineering job, but instead, the big man from Colorado roared back with a right hand of his own that put Gonzaga out and earned Carwin his stripes in the heavyweight division. Watch weigh-in video

8 – Nate Marquardt TKOs Wilson Gouveia – February 21 – UFC 95
Nate Marquardt probably could have coasted in the third round of his bout against Wilson Gouveia at UFC 95 and just grabbed a decision win, but in that final stanza it was as if something went off in his head that said (Mortal Kombat style) “FINISH HIM.” What followed was a dizzying array of fists, feet, and knees that took Gouveia out at 3:10 of the round and propelled Marquardt ever closer to a rematch with middleweight boss Anderson Silva. Watch weigh-in video

7 – Mauricio Rua TKOs Chuck Liddell – April 18 – UFC 97 
Once considered the most feared man in the world at 205 pounds, former PRIDE star Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua saw his reputation take a direct hit after a loss to Forrest Griffin, two knee surgeries, and a lackluster win over Mark Coleman. So entering his UFC 97 bout with Chuck Liddell, the Brazilian needed not only a win, but a spectacular one. He got it, courtesy of a left hook followed by a series of ground strikes that brought a halt to the bout at the 4:28 mark of the first round. And though most of the post-fight chatter focused on the future of Liddell, don’t forget that the bout could also have been dubbed the ‘Resurrection of Rua’. Watch video

6 – Paulo Thiago KOs Josh Koscheck – February 21 – UFC 95 
If you expected Paulo Thiago to pull off the huge upset win over Josh Koscheck earlier this year, congratulations — you’re one of a select few. If you thought the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt was going to knock Koscheck out with an uppercut in the first round, you’re probably lying. That’s how out of left field this knockout was, especially considering the bombs ‘Kos’ ate and shook off from Thiago Alves four months earlier. But when you add perfect timing to small gloves and some lax defense from Koscheck, one of 2009’s biggest KOs usually results. Watch video

5 – Nate Marquardt KOs Demian Maia – August 29 – UFC 102
Nate Marquardt is without question one of the nicest guys in MMA today. Unfortunately for him, he fought too nice at times, leading to some clear-cut but less-than-scintillating victories. That changed after his loss to Anderson Silva in 2007, and since then, Nate The Great has gotten downright mean in the Octagon. You won’t get any arguments from Jiu-Jitsu ace Demian Maia, who took a crushing right hand from Marquardt in their UFC 102 bout and was finished in just 21 seconds. The fact that Marquardt earned two places on the best KOs list for 2009 speaks volumes. Watch video

4 –Dan Henderson KOs Michael Bisping – July 11 – UFC 100 
Yes, Michael Bisping talked a lot leading up to his UFC 100 showdown with Dan Henderson. But the Brit’s mouth had nothing to do with his demise at the hands of Hendo. Instead, once the former two-division PRIDE champion realized that Bisping wasn’t hurting him and that he was pulling straight back AND circling into his power hand, the end was inevitable. Once Henderson’s vaunted right hand crashed into Bisping’s jaw in the second, it was lights out, with the final shot delivered to his downed opponent legal, but ultimately unnecessary. Watch video

3 –Matt Hamill KOs Mark Munoz – March 7 – UFC 96 
It’s no secret that when two quality wrestlers lock horns in the Octagon, it’s usually the signal for a standup battle, and that was certainly Matt Hamill’s intention when he took on decorated amateur wrestler Mark Munoz.  Hamill’s hands have gotten better with each fight he’s had since his stint on season three of The Ultimate Fighter, but his feet got the job done against Munoz in the very first round — more specifically, his right foot, which drilled Munoz in the head and sent him down and out for one of the most frightening finishes of the year. Get the wallpaper

2 – Lyoto Machida KOs Rashad Evans – May 23 – UFC 98 
“Karate’s back,” said Lyoto Machida seconds after winning the UFC light heavyweight title from Rashad Evans. Do you want to argue with him after another technically flawless performance that was capped off by a final sequence in the second stanza that was certainly – to use the Joe Rogan term – a ballet of violence. In 19 previous pro bouts, no one had ever seen Evans hurt and taken out like this, but Machida, MMA’s most complex puzzle, did it with his usual cool and precision, beginning what may be a long reign at the top. Watch Countdown to UFC 98

1 – Anderson Silva KOs Forrest Griffin – August 8 – UFC 101 
If at one point in your life you can say that you witnessed greatness in person, you’re lucky. Those fans in attendance at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on August 8th had that opportunity as middleweight champion Anderson Silva went back to the light heavyweight division and put on a clinic of precision striking in taking out former 205-pound titleholder Forrest Griffin at 3:23 of the first round. Call it over the top, but this performance was a potent mix of a Ted Williams swing, a John Coltrane solo, and a Barry Sanders run out of the backfield. Enjoy Anderson Silva now because there won’t be another like him. Watch video

Honorable Mention – Ben Saunders-Marcus Davis, Andre Winner-Rolando Delgado, Dennis Siver-Nate Mohr, Lyoto Machida-Thiago Silva, Dan Hardy KO1 Rory Markham, Matt Brown TKO1 Pete Sell, Brandon Vera-Michael Patt, Aaron Simpson-Tim McKenzie, Nate Quarry-Jason MacDonald, Drew McFedries-Xavier Foupa-Pokam, Mike Swick-Ben Saunders, Brock Lesnar-Frank Mir, Alan Belcher-Wilson Gouveia, Roy Nelson- Brendan Schaub, Matt Mitrione-Marcus Jones, John Howard-Dennis Hallman, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira-Luiz Cane, Dennis Siver-Paul Kelly, Alexander Gustafsson-Jared Hamman, Pat Barry-Antoni Hardonk, Paul Daley-Martin Kampmann, Thiago Silva-Keith Jardine.