These personalities are hard-hitting

LAS VEGAS -- These gladiators are an unusual lot. The sport's biggest star, Chuck Liddell, holds a bachelor's in business from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and could balance your books but, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White says, with his green mohawk and wild eyes would ``look like an axe murderer" while doing them. His aggressive style and knockout power have made him the sport's biggest name, earning him several million dollars last year.

Randy Couture, who recently retired, is another such personality, a seemingly happy-go-lucky guy who says, ``I'm just like your neighbor. I just happen to fight in a cage."

That blend of ferociousness inside The Octagon and showmanship outside it is what White searches all over the country to find. He found Kenny Florian only after he was lured from a family vacation in New Hampshire to scout a small show in Revere. He was not there to watch Florian but the Brazilian Jujitsu master caught his eye and soon signed on for the reality show, the steppingstone to UFC stardom.

``I was looking at some kid who was 27-2," White recalled. ``He's fighting a kid too small to be in with him and I'm thinking, `This poor kid is going to get annihilated.' Kenny lost a split decision, but it was such a good fight I wanted to meet him. We flew him out for a test for the reality show and he made it."

Florian competed at 170 pounds then. Those days are behind him now with a 155-pound weight class in UFC and he's glad. But not as glad as he was to risk a safe desk job for the life of a gladiator.

``I was always a UFC fan," Florian said. ``But that fight in Revere was the first time I ever got hit in the face. That was a test for me.

``I didn't win, but I got a shot on the first Spike reality show and Dana signed me to a contract. I was pre-law and a communication major at Boston College. I intended to go to law school, but it's a funny thing the way life takes you. In soccer I never gave it my all and I had a lot of regrets. When I got into mixed martial arts, I didn't want to feel that way again.

``I have friends who maybe don't understand this, but most of them respect the fact I'm taking a risk. I want to make my mark. I didn't want to be that guy in the rocking chair saying, `I could have done that.'

``I was always a boxing fan and boxing is part of what I do, but mixed martial arts is more exciting to me. There are so many more elements to the game. It's a real test of combat sports. I think it's more interesting to people of my generation."

Florian's first real fight was three years ago and he recently headlined his first show on Spike, winning $12,000 in purse and bonus money after defeating Sam Stout in 1 minute 46 seconds with a takedown and hold that forced Stout to tap out or risk a broken limb. White was watching the fight, but he'll also analyze the ratings because, in the end, those numbers are more important than the win-loss record because they will decide how far a would-be UFC gladiator goes. Yet whether he ends up a pay-per-view star like Liddell, Forrest Griffin, and Tito Ortiz, White believes Florian is doing what the young males in his audience dream about the way their fathers and grandfathers dreamed of being Muhammad Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson.

``Ninety percent of the guys working in cubicles across America wish they could be Kenny," White said. ``These guys are born with something inside that the rest of the people don't have and we know it. That's why our sport is growing. It hits a nerve with a younger generation that wants more excitement than boxing gives people. We're starting to break through. The numbers don't lie. If you want to reach young males 18-49, UFC is a way to market your product. That's why we're getting big corporate sponsors on board now, like BMW. If we do our job, this sport is here to stay."