The Greatest MMA News Column 09.08.09: MMA Movie Stars

Posted by Dan Plunkett on 09.08.2009

411's Dan Plunkett discusses the week in news including Penn vs. Sanchez at UFC 107, Rampage Jackson postponing his fight, Kampmann vs. Daley, Swick's next fight, Gina Carano the movie star, War Machine, and much more. Plus, video of the late, great Evan Tanner winning the UFC Middleweight Championship!

It's been anything but a busy news week. I have no idea how long this column will end up being, but to make up for the slow news week I'll put up some fancy videos for your enjoyment. Without further ado, let's get to the news:

BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez to Headline UFC 107

Apparently another network deal has fallen through for Dana White and the UFC. For those who aren't aware, Penn vs. Sanchez was supposed to take place in November, on an event to be broadcast on neither Spike nor pay-per-view. Now the fight has been moved to December 12 in Memphis.

Despite what some think, I like this match-up as a main event on PPV. Penn and Sanchez are two guys that have 100% confidence in their abilities, both will go into this fight thinking there is no way they're going to lose. That will cause some talk between the fighters leading into the fight, which is only a good thing for PPV numbers.

On top of all that, I think this will be a really good fight. While Penn is better than Diego at most, if not all, aspects of the sport, the pace Diego brings should result in an exciting fight.

Initially when this fight was announced, the card for UFC 107 was looking great.

• UFC Lightweight Championship: BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez
• Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans
• Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo
• Thiago Alves vs. Paulo Thiago

For those scoring at home, that's a damn good card, and it would do a great amount of buys. The word out of this season's Ultimate Fighter is that Rampage and Rashad provide some great television, so much so that the fight is expected to be among the most anticipated in company history once the show wraps up. If it turns out like that, UFC 107 could have been a million buy event, but alas it wasn't meant to be…

Rampage Pulls Out of UFC 107 to Film The A-Team Movie

It appears as though the rumors of Rampage taking on the role of B.A. Baracus are true. Jackson has apparently asked the UFC to move his fight against Rashad Evans back a few months in order to get in a full training camp after filming wraps up.

Dana White is not too keen on this move: "I hate it with a [expletive] passion. You're a fighter; you're not a movie star. It's so [expletive] funny because fighters want to be movie stars, and movie stars want to act like they're fighters. Get a [expletive] grip. You're a fighter, and you're a [expletive] movie star. Alright?... Guess what Rashad Evans is thinking about right now, he's thinking about beating your [expletive] ass. He's not sitting around thinking about how him and his mom used to watch the [expletive] 'Love Boat' together and (how) he wants to get the role of Isaac the bartender. Get a [expletive] grip, dude. You're going to make a lot of money. You ain't going to make a lot of money playing B.A. Baracus on 'The A-Team. Jesus Christ. This [expletive] drives me [expletive] nuts. So yeah, I'm not a big fan of fighters doing movies. When your career is over, if you turn into a movie star, that's awesome."

Firstly, I'm tired of having to interpret Dana's vague answers; he just needs to get to the point. Secondly, I can understand why he would be so upset; they've been building to this fight since March and pushing the fight back to a few months after a 13 episode infomercial just aired promoting it could be detrimental to fans interest in the fight.

However, taking the movie role could help Rampage out in the long run. His fight with Keith Jardine drew only 375,000 buys, which wasn't his fault as it was a last minute booking decision and the entire card was pretty much overlooked, but this role could increase Jackson's popularity to the point where he becomes the go-to-guy for headlining events without title bouts.

The UFC's early 2010 run will be something to watch for, as January 2 will presumably take the place of the annual New Year's Eve weekend event, and you have guys like Anderson Silva, Randy Couture, Georges St. Pierre, Lyoto Machida, Rampage vs. Rashad, and many others available to fight in that short period of time.

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How fast a year goes by….

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Swick Out; Daley in Against Kampmann at UFC 103

Just when we think we're getting a legitimate number one contender fight on a stacked card, Josh Koscheck has to go and injure his training partner. Due to a concussion, Mike Swick has been removed from the card and replaced with Paul Daley.

You may remember Daley from his fight against Jake Shields on EliteXC's final show. In that fight, Shields had a surprisingly tough time finishing Daley on the ground, though he found passing to mount to be no tough task.

Daley needs to keep this fight standing to have any chance at picking up the victory. If he is successful in this, there's no doubt in my mind he can defeat Martin Kampmann. Should Kampmann take this fight to the ground, which I believe he will, he shouldn't have a problem getting past "Semtex," who needs to further develop his ground game before becoming a real contender.

It will be interesting to see what the UFC does if Kampmann does get upset by Daley. The only other man in the title picture that hasn't been dominated by Georges St. Pierre already is Mike Swick. But what if Mike Swick also loses his next fight? I have no idea how they would handle that situation, since Dana White doesn't want to see GSP move up and take on Anderson anymore. However, with the welterweight division cleaning itself out, there's nothing left for him there. It's not like they can reschedule Swick vs. Kampmann for UFC 104. Oh wait….



There you have it. The UFC should have just pushed back Swick vs. Kampmann instead of finding a replacement. However, the UFC needs a main event for UFC 105. Even though Matt Hughes stated he probably won't fight until 2010, I could see the UFC putting together Hughes vs. Swick to main event that show on Spike. It would certainly be a stronger main event than Bisping vs. Kang.

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Speaking of the UFC welterweight division….

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Gina Carano to Star in Knockout

Here is the description: Carano will play a girl, from the wrong side of the tracks, who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes.

Any movie where the main character is from "the wrong side of the tracks," I'm in, you'll never have to ask me twice to see a movie with that description.

This movie should help Carano's star grow, and it will make her eventual return to MMA an anticipated one (hopefully on CBS this time). I'm not convinced Cyborg can carry the women's division by herself, so by the time Carano returns the division will once again be starving for recognition from the general public. Gina can get that attention. A rematch will take place folks, and I can't stress enough, hopefully on CBS.

War Machine Wins Again

War Machine, the artist formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, won his fifth consecutive fight on Saturday. Sadly, I can't talk about the fight since those damn commies at Comcast don't carry HDNet. However, I can talk about War Machine's recent success.

It wasn't too long ago that everyone was hoping he would just go away, and War Machine has. During that time, he has put everything together and has a nice string of wins going. Should he return to the big show just yet? I don't think so, but he's certainly on the right track, and for that I applaud him.

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Couture vs Nogueira by Machinemen from Machine26 on Vimeo.

Strikeforce Close to 8-Fight Deal with Daniel Cormier

That is a very long commitment for both parties to make, but I assume Strikeforce likes Cormier's potential. For those who don't know, Cormier is a great wrestler and a good addition to Strikeforce's heavyweight division.

I wrote some time ago about the Strikeforce Challengers series and what I liked about it. This is one of the things I like about it. Now I can follow Cormier's career by watching instead of reading. It will also gain him some much needed experience in the sport. I like this move by Strikeforce.

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Anderson Silva 06 - 09 By Machinemen from Machine26 on Vimeo.

Anderson Silva Out until 2010 After Elbow Surgery

The real news out of this isn't that Silva is out until early next year, the real story is what will Dan Henderson do? He has stated many times the only fighter at middleweight that interests him is Anderson Silva, and he'd move back up to light heavyweight if he didn't get his title shot. Everyone knows how I feel about this; I think Hendo should get the title shot.

With the UFC needing a main event for UFC 105, could the UFC come calling for Henderson to fight Nate Marquardt? It's a possibility. If they do, I don't expect Henderson to take that fight. I think it may be more likely we see Hendo headline UFC 105 at light heavyweight.



That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed both the column and the videos. Feel free to leave a comment, or email me here. Thanks for reading, hopefully there is more to write about next week.


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