Saturday, April 16, 2011

Randy Couture doesn't want to be the Brett Farve of MMA. Miguel Cotto Vs Antonio Margarito II? TheYamato-Damashii Diaries, Joe Warren and MMA live 15-04-2011

MMA Live 15-04-2011

Randy Couture doesn't want to be the Brett Farve of MMA.

I'm not going to say it's the end. Not going to make any official announcements. it doesn't make sense to do that because they'll throw something at me that's intruiging and interesting to me and I'll be right back in there. And then I will be the Brett Favre of MMA. I did it once, I don't think anyone will buy it a second time anyways. I think when I'm done, when I'm done fighting I'll just fade away.

I think Randy has the right idea here, it's impossible to gauge where he's at with fighting because it's constantly in flux. By not closing the door on his fighting career he allows himself to deal with the competitive itch on his own terms, If he finds a particular fight intriguing he can take it, and if his focus shifts to movies going forward he can, as he puts it, "just fade away" from fighting.

TheYamato-Damashii DiariesDaniel Herbertson has an amazing series of articles chronicling the devastation in Japan and an MMA fighters attempt to help out. The Yamato-Damashii Diaries detail Enson Inoue's efforts to get aid to those in need in tsunami ravaged Japan . Absolutely heart breaking stuff.
Day 1: Tokyo to Fukushima | Day 2: Fukushima | Day 3: Town That Was Taro

Miguel Cotto Vs Antonio Margarito II?

Yep looks like It'll be for the WBA Super Welterweight Title and go down September 17 2011, at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nv. This fight should be one of the most closely followed and intriguing fights in combat sports. The first time these two met it was one of the most brutal and emotional fights in recent memory. With Antonio Margarito stopping an incredibly brave Miguel Cotto after inflicting one of the most violent beatings I can recall. Only to be subsequently busted for using loaded hand wraps immediately before his 2009 loss to Sugar Shane Mosley. Margarito has never been the same since being busted, and Cotto has never really recovered from the Margarito fight. I for one cant wait to see the score settled.

For your live MMA fix we've got The Baddest Man On The Planet Joe Warren, fighting tonight at Bellator 41 on MTV2 check it out.

ht:
mmafighting.com
youtube.com
fightlinker.com
bloodyelbow.com

Friday, April 15, 2011

Jones didn't finish Evans out of Respect? Shogun vs Forrest 2 in Rio? Berto vs Diaz, King Khan vs a Scotsman on HBO, Sergio Martinez vs. Nick Diaz ? and Zuffa's Strikeforce: for better or worse.

Quote of the day:
"We fought each other in practice," said Jones, who pushed his record to 13-1 with last month's triumph. "A finish has been possible several times and it has always been me finishing him. I never did it out of respect that he was the elder of the school. It's against protocol in a way. Some people would do it but I believe in tradition.
"He has a lot to study. I have a lot to study, but I get to study[ing] more in-depth. He gets to study[ing] and gets a headache."
-Jon Jones

Speaking of people that beat Shogun it looks as though Forrest Griffin is going to get the chance to do it twice. As He'll be fighting Shogun Rua at UFC: Rio in a rematch from UFC 76 that saw the big under dog Forrest Griffin choke out the Pride GP Champion in the 3rd round. This fight will serve as the co main event of the evening with The Spider Anderson Silva and Yushin "Thunder" Okami topping the bill.

HBO Boxing Double Bill 16-04-2011:

Khan vs. McCloskey & Berto vs. Ortiz

Buisness as usual? Not so Much. According to Dave Meltzer, Zuffa sent in the WEC crew to over see things at Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley.

"fridays weigh-ins, from an organizational perspective, felt like a World Extreme Cagefighting front-office reunion party (Zuffa merged WEC into the UFC after a final show in mid-December). Among those front and center were former WEC vice-president Peter Dropick, general manager Reed Harris, matchmaker Sean Shelby and P.R. head Dave Sholler.It is no secret that Dropick is being groomed to help run the Strikeforce business going forward. It was expected that Shelby, who is currently the assistant matchmaker for UFC and in charge of the lighter weight divisions he ran at WEC, would oversee the Strikeforce matchmaking in some capacity."

What this means for current Strikeforce Match maker Rich Chou, who knows, but I have never been a fan of his "It'll be a fun fight" mentality. As to How much he's to blame for the lack of foresight in the Strikeforce booking, I don't know, but either way it's ended up leaving alot of their best fighters on the bench and wondering why they aren't getting fights. Guy's like

Jacare Souza:

I don’t know [when I’ll be back]. I get upset. I am an MMA professional, a guy who’s always ready to fight, I keep waiting approximately six months to fight. It sucks, I don’t like that. They’re thinking of July [for my return], but for me that’s a long time. I’m going to relax in training right now, I’m going to travel. Maybe I’ll fight in July again. I hope my new boss puts me to work more often.

So if Sean Shelby can work a little of his WEC voodoo on the Strikeforce roster I'm all for it and with vets like Reed Harris and Peter Dropick running the back end, we should have a more organized and polished promotion to go along with the improved matchmaking. But with the good comes the bad, like for instance Zuffa's heavy handed media policy. Which according Yahoo's Dave Meltzer, was in full effect:

Security was handled by the UFC. Media credentials were handled by the UFC, including a story that came out days earlier where several reporters, most notably Josh Gross of ESPN.com, Loretta Hunt, who was going to freelance the event for CBSSports.com, and anyone associated with Sherdog.com, one of the largest MMA web sites, were denied credentials. All had been banned by White from UFC events but were fixtures at Strikeforce shows.

Sports Illustrated thought the move was bush league.

Then again, maybe the farce hasn't gone away from Strikeforce after all. Maybe it's just arrived.
On the same night that Strikeforce ascended to the major leagues of MMA, running what by all accounts was a smoother, slicker show while bidding adieu to insufferable window dressing such as the pyrotechnics that at past events had rattled bones during fighter introductions, the organization also apparently stooped to the amateur-hour vindictiveness of its new ownership. Two reporters assigned to cover Saturday's event by major media outlets were denied press credentials, just as they have been refused access to all UFC events in recent years after writing stories White evidently didn't consider worthy of his company's PR clip file.

It's understandable that not all outlets that apply for credentials can be accommodated. But it was curious that Strikeforce, which doubtlessly dreams of riding in tandem with the UFC into the mainstream of American sports, would bar writers representing such prominent outlets as ESPN and CBS Sports from press row. The reporters denied credentials were ESPN.com's Josh Gross and freelance journalist and author Loretta Hunt, who was assigned coverage by CBSSports.com. (Both have contributed to SI.com, Gross as this site's main MMA writer for several years.) Hunt's exclusion was especially bizarre, since CBS shares ownership with Showtime, which televised the event. CBS has itself broadcast Strikeforce in the past. In essence, Strikeforce couldn't find a place for a representative of its own TV partner.

Professor Roy Peter Clark thinks that Zuffa's media policy has a limited shelf life.

"It would be a good thing if news organizations applied some counterpressure," said Roy Peter Clark, who teaches writing and sports journalism at the Poynter Institute. "When the leaders of a sport start screwing around with press credentialing in response to what they perceive to be unfavorable coverage, that sends a big message to all responsible journalists who are covering that sport."
It might take a while for that message to sink in with enough media members for it to make a difference. Perhaps nothing will change until the UFC and Strikeforce are firmly entrenched in the American sports fabric, and company officials are regularly dealing with editors who demand the professionalism of mainstream sports leagues and teams. Clark, for one, believes the time will come.
"Any time someone tries to control coverage in this way, it backfires," Clark said. "They look like jerks. They look like bush leaguers. And the actions that they take against journalists become stories in and of themselves. They end up inviting negative coverage."

No matter what happens we'll have to wait until June to further asses the evolution of Zuffa's version of strikeforce

The promotion is taking two months off from running a show, partially because Showtime is busy with boxing in May. But the schedule takes off from there. Scott Coker said plans include approximately 17 live events on Showtime between June 18, when they return for a major event in Dallas, and March 2012.
The Dallas show features two more first-round matches in the yearlong heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, with Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1) vs. Alistair Overeem (34-11, 1 no contest) and Josh Barnett (29-5) vs. Brett Rogers (11-2). Two heavyweight alternate matches feature former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain Daniel Cormier (7-0) vs. Shane del Rosario (11-0) and Chad Griggs (10-1) vs. Valentijn Overeem (29-25), as well as the return after nearly two years of Gina Carano (7-1), who put women’s MMA on the map, against a TBD fighter.

Lou DiBella want's to see Sergio Martinez box Nick Diaz? looks like it.

Why?

Why would a top three pound-for-pound boxer waste his time fighting someone like Diaz, with little professional boxing experience? Sadly, DiBella can't find Martinez (47-2, 26 KOs) a top-notch opponent or a network to take the fight. Martinez is coming off one-sided victories where he dismantled and finished Paul Williams and Serhiy Zdinziruk. While they are plenty of intriguing fights out there at 154 and 160 for Martinez, nothing has materialized. HBO turned down a Martinez-Sebastian Zbik fight in lieu of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. versus Zbik on June 4.

All I know is Sergio Martinez is one my favorite fighters to watch right now, he's an athletic action fighter that finishes fights. The fact that they cant get him a televised fight is just another shameful example of how Boxing is broken.

ht:
fightlinker.com
bloodyelbow.com
cagewriter.com
SI.com
sports.yahoo.com/mma/

Thursday, April 14, 2011

News: Vitor Belfort Calls Out Wanderlei Silva, Norm Macdonald Cracks Wise, NSAC's Keith Kizer Talks Chael Sonnen, plus Njokuani vs. Winner, Mcdonald vs Pace, Fukada vs. Natal, but not Gomi vs. Barbosa?

Nsac director Kieth Kizer was recently on Pro MMA Radio and gave a quick run down of the issues Chael is going to have to get straightened out if he wants to get sanctioned in California and inturn Nevada.

"There are four issues involved here. One is his PED use. He's claiming now that he used testosterone for fights here in Nevada. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I don't know. I'm not even sure if I believe that. His tests came back negative. He wasn't over the ratio. His T/E ratio was 16.9 (in Oakland). We have a high cut off ratio here of 6.0 and he wasn't above that when he fought in Nevada. Maybe he was in a situation where he's thinking 'I'm in a world title fight, I need to do something special.' We've had that with other people in world title fights where guys have a lot on the line and they get caught."

"The second thing is being dishonest. Not to me, but to the California commission. That's who he was disrespectful for."

"The third issue was with the referee. That ties more to the second issue. It's a person's character. Sonnen after the meeting wrote me a long e-mail and he told me he wasn't honest with people after the (Paulo) Filho fight (in the WEC) and he had verbally submitted and he'd been frustrated because he'd been doing so well. It was out of frustration of being so close to the belt. There are still people to this day who think he got screwed over for that fight, that he hadn't yelled out in pain ... Even now though, it's been months since the hearing, I haven't heard anything publicly from Sonnen admitting that he hadn't spoken with me. It's one thing to criticize if a ref does a bad job but just lying about what happened is never an acceptable situation. That comes into play as well. What can be done, if anything, going forward especially if you have no public correction of the mis-statements."

"The fourth issue is his legal case. Every fighter has to list on their applications if they've ever committed a felony and he has to check 'yes' on that now because he pleaded guilty. That's the least of the issues but these are all serious issues. The people that know Chael Sonnen and know Keith Kizer didn't believe him over me. You hope that he'd do the right thing but I'm not holding my breath."

Sounds like Mr.Kizer, is looking for Mr.Sonnen, to eat a bit of that bullshit, he's been shoveling at every turn. That said If Mr. Sonnen's willing to be a good sport and own up to his misdeeds we should see the west Lynn lip is back in action in no time.
transcribed by mmamania.com
Norm Macdonald Cracks Wise On The UFC.

Nick Pace debuts the "Pace choke" on Will Campuzano.

UPCOMING FIGHTS

Anthony "the Nigerian Money Scam" Njokuani vs. Andre Winner Set for UFC 132, Clay Specialist Rafael Natal will take on Riki Fukuda and Mayday Mcdonald will fight Nick Pace at UFC 133.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up For Edson Barboza Vs. Takanori Gomi. Barbza's Manager Alex Davis called TATAME this morning and poured cold water on the rumored fight between Barboza and The former Pride champion Takanori Gomi.“We don’t have any information about that fight, and we’d be honored if the UFC wants Junior to fight in Rio, against Takanori Gomi”, Davis told TATAME. Refering to the UFC planned for Rio on August 27^th.

Pacquiao vs Mosley Ring Girl Contest, Rnd 1.

Vitor Belfort: "Wanderlei needs to learn to talk less and fight more”

Do you know when you’ll be back in the octagon, or do you have any Idea of who you might confront next?

I’m still waiting. They’ve offered me Wanderlei and I accepted it, but it seems that he didn’t want to fight me after all, so I’m waiting now for an opponent.

Wanderlei challenged you via TATAME and you accepted his proposal. Dana White seemed favorable to this rematch and things were all good, then Wanderlei started asking for Leben on his Twitter. What are your thoughts about that?

Well, my friend, what can I do? The thong is a men’s whip and he needs to learn to talk less and fight more. But, what I can do, right? That’s life, bro, I don’t care about it, I’m focused for my next challenge. I don’t care about names, I don’t pick my opponents, and I always focus 100% in my next fight, independently of who I’ll fight with.

Were you disappointed when you heard you weren’t fighting Wanderlei anymore?

For me it’s ok, I don’t live to build up my expectations on men, I hope things come through God, and that’s just life. Sometimes we lose, you can get surprise other times and we have to be prepared and ready for it, because we can’t guarantee results. I’m the kind of guy who likes to do what I say, I don’t like saying and don’t keep up with it.

HT:

bloodyelbow.com

mmafighting.com

tatame.com

middleeasy.com

fightlinker.com

mmamania.com

UFC 129 Primetime St-Pierre vs Shields and TUF 13 Ep. 3 (HQ)

UFC 129 Primetime St-Pierre Vs. Shields

Tuf 13 Lesnar Vs. Dos Santos Ep. 3

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

News: Dan Henderson, Feijao, Fedor, OSP, Rumble Johnson, Nate Marquardt, Jake Ellenberger, Dominick Cruz, Martin Kampmann, Frankenstein and Doomsday Howard.

Dan Henderson Talks Feijao, Fedor, The Strikeforce Sale, The UFC and More.

Speaking of Feijao , it looks like Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante Vs. Ovince St. Preux . has been added to the rumored Fedor Vs Henderson card along with Roger Gracie Vs. King Mo Lawal.

Dominick Cruz Talks His Style, Breaks Down Urijah Faber, UFC 132, Frankenstein, July 2 and More.

Jake Ellenberger will fill in for Brian Foster against Sean Pierson @ UFC 129.
Foster is out with a brain hemorrhage of some kind, cue Jake Ellenberger and his three fight win streak as he's set to take on the real Canadian hero Sean pierson who comes into this fight fresh off kicking Matt Riddles ass at UFC 124.

Martin "The Hitman" Kampmann will take on Jon "Doomsday" Howard at UFC on Vs. 4 The bout will take place at 170 lbs and will be the first for the Hitman since he was robbed against Diego. Jon "Doomsday" Howard comes in to this fight having lost back to back fights to the aforementioned Jake Ellnberger as well as Thiago "Pittbull" Alves. The card goes down June 26 on versus and is headlined by Rumble Johnson vs Nate "the great" Marquardt.

ht: heavy.com-youtube.com/clinchgear-mmafighting.com-fightlinker

Nate "the Great" Marquardt vs. Anthony "Rumble" Johnson @ UFC on Versus 4.

Nate "the Great Marquardt" will make his debut at welter weight in the main event of UFC on Vs. 4 against Anthony Rumble Johnson. Also expected at UFC on Vs. 4, is Matt "Meat Head" Mitrione vs. Christian "War craft" Morecraft and Pat "Hype or Die" Barry vs. Cheick "King" Kongo it all takes place at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh June 26th.

ht:versus.com

Chael Sonnen On Money Laundering, Licensing, "The Cowards" At 205, Karate Guys and More.

And if You were looking for a more comprehensive breakdown of Chael's legal follies look no further than Saskatoon's own Dirty Dave Diebert. He's got the whole thing broken down in an easy to understand, nicely palatable article here. Did I mention he's from Saskatoon?
via: mmafighting.com - fightlinker.com - thestarphoenix.com

Word On the Street is King Mo vs Roger Gracie Is On Tap For Rumored Strikeforce: Fedor Vs. Henderson Card.

Word On the Street is that, King Mo Vs Roger Gracie Is On Tap For The Rumored Strikeforce: Fedor Vs. Henderson Card. It's a great fight that pits Mo's world class wrestling against the best heavyweight jiujitsu practitioner in the world in Roger Gracie. The clash would be at the light heavyweight limit of 205lbs with the winner probably ending up as the defacto #1 contender for Dan Henderson's light heavyweight title.

ht:twitter.com/MiddleEasy

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Nick Diaz Would Not Do Well In The UFC.

Nick Diaz Would Not Do Well In The UFC.

There I said it. It pains me to have to say it, as I am a big Nick Diaz fan but there is a big gap between being the best in Strikforce at 170lbs and being the best in the shark tank that is the welter weight division in the UFC.

Since 2008 Diaz has fought Katsuya Inoue, "Iron" Mike Aina, Mushin Corbrey, Thomas "Wild Man" Denny, Scott Smith, Marious Zaromskis, Mach Sakurai, Frank Shamrock, KJ Noons, Cyborge Santos and Paul "Semtex" Daley. Of those eight fights only KJ Noons and Paul Daley were ranked, you'll also note that there is not a grappler in the bunch

- In his prime shamrock had the chops but by the time he fought Diaz his knees were gone and so were his take downs, so he's not a good barometer -

If Strikeforce goes ahead with Tyrone Woodley against Diaz, I guess we'll finally get to see Diaz's take down defense, but again, against an un-ranked opponent who is still very green. After that who knows but, all signs point to the UFC and when it comes to the UFC's welter weight roster there are plenty of grapplers and non of them are green.

Guys like Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez, even guys like Anthony Johnson, Rick Story, and Johnny Hendricks are all tough matches for anybody, in that they all have the tools to get on top and rough you up. This is particularly troublesome for Diaz, for as much as we've seen him improve his stand up, and show off his BJJ, we have yet see him show off any wrestling. Seeing is believing and until I see Nick Diaz avenge his loss to Sanchez or beat some one with comparable wrestling/grappling IQ any pound for pound talk, even any #1 contender talk is pre mature.

Nick Diaz is compelling, entertaining and painfully talented. But he wouldn't do well in the UFC.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Michael Katsidis vs. Robert Guerrero / Erik "El Terrible" Morales Vs Marcos "El Chino" Maidana

Michael Katsidis
Vs.
Robert Guerrero

PT:I,-PT:II,- PT:III.

Erik "El Terrible" Morales

Vs.

Marcos "El Chino" Maidana

Fabricio Werdum Throws Down With Anderson Silva @ Kings MMA.

dogged.tv

Strikeforce Grandprix Heavyweight Tournament Poster and Updated Card

June 18th, live on Showtime / Super Channel from The American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas:

Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum (GP Bout)
Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers (GP Bout)
Gina Carano vs. TBA
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal vs Ovince St. Preux
Daniel Cormier vs. Shane del Rosario
Chad Griggs vs. Valentijn Overeem