The MMA 5 & 1 01.25.12: The #KylieForTUF Edition
Posted by Stewart Lange on 01.25.2012
Jennifer Swift is your "& 1" Model of the Week, Matt Hughes takes on Rich Franklin in Vs, a look back at UFC on this past weekend's F/X 1, thoughts on Erick Silva's loss appeal getting denied, five future potential jobs for Brock Lesnar and more!
We're in the middle of another MMArathon, so it's high time to stop, take stock and breath. Remember, surely nothing we'll see this weekend will surpass the hype of Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard. Wait, WHAT? Rashad Evans is fighting this weekend? Against Phil Davis? Wow, ok. A fight someone cares about. Plus, Michael Bisping? Surely nobody will want to see him fight, since it's likely he'll be DEALT with by Chael Sonnen? What? Everybody wants to see that? Jeez, I guess the few drops of MMA goodness over the past fortnight have made us hungry like the wolf for some more FIGHTING.
Before all that though, there's always the small matter of the MMA 5 & 1 to attend to. So, how about we do this, huh? If you don't agree, scroll right the way to the bottom, click the "add comment" button and tell me- but I bet you stop to look at the pictures, you disgusting person, you.
It's the Evan Rachel Wood mailbag!!
What got you all excited last week? Let's dig into the Evan Rachel Wood random mailbag and have a look. We'll start off with 411's very own Vile One, Jeffrey Harris.
Poor Kenny if he does retire. But he does have a strong career to look back on even though he never became champion. He did really help build the lightweight division and make it legitimate.
Also he likely has a UFC job for life as an analyst.
Posted By: Jeffrey (Registered) on January 18, 2012 at 02:11 AM
I'm fine with Kenny commentating on more fight cards just so long as he doesn't call every kick to the body a liver shot like he was doing at UFC 134. That was getting annoying.
Posted By: Alan (Guest) on January 18, 2012 at 11:37 AM
How do you guys feel now? Personally, I thought Kenny and Anik sucked. I couldn't tell the pair apart, although that's maybe just the fact I'm not switched on to all the American accents. He probably will find himself with Zuffa employment for life, which is fine because he's a nice guy and all, but really. It can't just be me.
I've said this over and over about the UFC but if you want your fighters to be looked at as elite athletes then you have to pay them like elite athletes. Sure UFC pays the most for MMA but your bench warmer in the NBA gets $500K a season. A player that qualifies as a "veteran" gets a minimum of $1 million a year. Look at Derrick Rose, his max contract extension is 4 years for $80 million and his lifetime endorsement deal with Adidas is $240 million. That makes UFC pay scale look like chump change.
Posted By: TheR (Guest) on January 18, 2012 at 03:09 AM
Good point. I just find it all pretty odd, but maybe MPMoore can help shed a little light with his take.
Not all fighters are on TV.
Compare the Non televised card to practice squad in pro sports.
They get $30-40k on average.
Fight 3 times a year (and win) and you match that.
The problem also lies with pro sports incomes.
There is a metric fuckton of money in major sports, and they grossly overpay "stars" to perform.
UFC bought Brock, he drew huge, he got payed huge.
Other fighters that build up also get payed well. Plus the locker room bonuses, sponsorship endorsements, they are doing okay.
Sure, the little guy fighting the first fight of the night for the first time in UFC is getting $5k. That's to be expected. If he wins, he doubles.
Imagine if pro sports required performance levels and victories for pay. The lockouts that would be sure to follow would be ridiculous.
Comparing grossly overplayed athletes to MMA fighters is comparing apples to oranges, really.
When MMA reaches NFL recognition and revenues, then the fighters will get a bit more consideration.
Posted By: MPMoore (Guest) on January 18, 2012 at 01:05 PM
Both good points. Anyone else care to elaborate on the state of fighter pay?
ok am i the only one that is going to point out that aldo cheated? did everyone else notice mendes pick aldo up but not be able to throw him down do to the fact aldo was hanging on to the fence... this wasnt one of those little fence grabs that ultimately changes nothing in the fight..we all have to beleive mendes would have gone into the second round if that did not happen right? now im not saying mendes would have came back to win the fight but crazier things have happened and if i were "money" i would be pissed about this. now i dont know what could have been done...but i do believe mendes should have actually gotten something from this because it just may be the reason this one ended the way it did
Posted By: Mike "The Show" Harris (Guest) on January 18, 2012 at 01:44 PM
I did notice that, but for some reason I had detached the fence grabbing and the KO in my mind. Unfortunately, it is a part of the game and is impossible to really get rid of, especially when only really done once.
My comeback to that would be that even after the "grab," Mendes struggled to get Aldo down. Jose showed some great takedown defense, on the fence and away from it, so it's hard to say it would have made much difference. The only defensive argument to that would be Mendes gassed while attempting the halted takedown, but that would have assured his demise in one of the FOUR remaining rounds, regardless.
With only THREE votes in it, Mark Coleman edged out Pat Miletich to advance in the Grand Prix. So, this week, we have the return of a former Wednesday Superfight Match up (ah, the memories) with the season two TUF coaches, Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes, going at it. Wyatt made his prediction with the original match-up, but what do you think? Have your say below!
The MMA Dick-tionary
Well, I don't know how, or if, any of you enjoyed the first ever MMA Dick-tionary last week, so please, let me know however you can! For those of you who missed it, I'm going to take a look at over-used MMA terms that piss me off. Last week, it was "Gut Feeling." This week, something a bit more commonly used.
This week:
"Stand And Bang"
Well, what else can I say other than I hate this phrase? When the commentators use it, which they do, a LOT, it just sounds stupid. Regardless of this sickening over-use, I think it's just dumb.
Whenever you hear a fighter saying "I just want to stand and bang" in a pre-fight interview, they rarely do. In fact, it's almost always a guarantee they're going to be stood and banged upon. Take Donald Cerrone recently against Nate Diaz. Or Paul Daley against Nate's older brother.
I can almost guarantee we'll hear it at least once over this weekend's card too, so look forward to that and a subsequent Twitter rage. Follow me below to enjoy the outburst.
Speaking of following me, does anyone still use Facebook? Yeah? If so, you have no reason not to click the like button for your favorite dose of MMA with enough pictures of girls to keep your eyes from falling asleep. Thanks!
Fight Night Cards Suck on Fridays
.....and Weigh-ins suck on a Thursday
There are a few unlucky bastards in this world who work in the retail division. If you, like me are saddled with this fate, you will be well aware of the joy of working on Saturdays. Grim at the best of times. Now, if you add in a 6(ish) hour time difference to the UK and the fact that last week's UFC Fight Night card was on Friday night at around 2am my time, it wasn't really feasible to watch it considering I need to be ready and, more importantly, able to open my shop at 9am. This meant a ridiculously long day avoiding spoilers on Facebook, Twitter and not even being able to go on 411 for fear of having something given away. Given I'm a social network junkie, I found this to suck.
Eventually though, I found myself home from work, sitting down with every intent to watch the card, when I found myself on total auto-pilot. I refreshed my RSS feed on my phone, bringing up complete spoilers for the event. DAMN.
Anyway, it was a pretty fun event, with Josh Neer and Jim Miller scoring impressive submission wins over Duane Ludwig and Melvin Guillard respectively. Both pretty good, fun, short fights. Perfect for an under-promoted TV card, if you ask me. Pat Barry also did his best to remove Christian Morecraft's head from his shoulders with a great KO. Barry is always around that "next level" mark; perhaps we'll see him finally put a run together.
The fight that ruined it for me, which is weird because I seem to be the only person that didn't enjoy it was the Mike Easton/Jared Papazian match-up. I just couldn't get into the weird pace of the fight, as neither man seemed like they could really go in anything other than 10-second bursts. Perhaps I'm just being overly critical, or maybe it's just that there is NOTHING worse in MMA than watching a fairly mediocre decision victory when you already know the result- am I right?
You know it.
Finish Of The Week
He DONE KILLED HIM!
The Last Superfight!
Not so true anymore, is it?
With the career of Fedor Emelianenko no doubt in its twilight (not to be confused with Twilight) years, many people have been looking at potentially huge showdowns for him to go out on. Would Randy Couture come out of retirement? What about the move to the UFC for a battle against Cain Velasquez?
None of those fights are big enough. Not when Emelianenko could be facing Bobby Lashley on an M-1 card near you soon. That's right folks, your favorite wrestler-turned-martial artist (what?) could soon be knocking outsubmitting grinding out a decision loss against the second-ish greatest Heavyweight of all time! Can you think of anything better? I can. And they're twins.
Seriously though, promoted correctly, this could be a pretty fun match up that would probably draw quite well with the casual audience. Lashley is in a no-lose situation, M-1 or possibly Shark could promote the "biggest" fight of their existence and Mark Radulich could quite possibly just punch a wall whilst crying tears of sheer excitement at the prospect of two hopeless Heavyweights holding each other against the cage. It's a Win-Win-Win, folks.
Also, expect amusing MMA podcasts as Radulich and Harris argue about this being the best/worst match up ever. Pick a side, folks- whoever wins, we lose.
A deal is very close to being finalized for a new Ultimate Fighter Nation Vs Nation showdown, this time with the UNDEFEATED UK taking on the Australians. This could be another great season of the reality show, with there being plenty of untapped talent in both countries. As far as coaches were to go this time however, we're slightly thinner on the ground as to who we can guess with. As for the UK team, it's highly unlikely to be Michael Bisping again. It would be his third coaching stint on TUF and regardless of a win or a loss to Chael Sonnen, it's too soon for another turn. Dan Hardy? No. Ross Pearson? Possibly, but he's hardly a big name.
The Australian side has far fewer options, with us looking towards George Sotiropoulos, Kyle Noke or Hector Lombard. My pick would be Lombard, but again, very little fan recognition. I think the best bet would be looking towards a couple of old hands, with experience and possibly a back story. Ortiz Vs Griffin 3 after UK Vs Australia? It'd be a fun show.
Douche Of The Week
As King Mo still argues his innocent, I wonder how long he'll argue it out for. At least Chris Leben came out, held his hands up and accepted his fate. Lawal, not so much. Still though, being on the shelf for a little while beats fighting for Strikeforce!
Erick Silva is Still a Loser
But I wouldn't tell him that.
At UFC 142, we saw one of the weirdest refereeing decisions in a long time. Mario Yamasaki ruled that Erick Silva had punched Carlos Prater in the back of the head and reversed Silva's TKO win to a DQ loss. This was particularly harsh, with the likes of Dana White coming out and saying he held the result as a Silva win, but we all know some things in life aren't made different by what Dana White thinks, regardless of what he tells you.
The review panel said this:
"Based on the referee's verbal warnings and his determination that the blows were intentional and a disqualifying foul, this is not the type of decision that can be reviewed," said Ratner. "Therefore, the decision stands. Recently, Zuffa has decided to implement the use of instant replay at all international events that are self-regulated, and to encourage all regulators to consider the feasibility and effectiveness of instant replay in the sport of MMA. While instant replay would not have reversed the call in the Silva-Prater bout, we believe that it could be valuable to referees and the sport in the future.
I don't think I'm being too dumb, but where was the verbal warning? I think I missed it, so obviously, it couldn't have happened. Maybe Erick Silva just didn't understand Yamasaki. We'll never know. What we do know, however, is that you should never hit someone on the back of the head. Unless they really, really annoy you and you're sure they won't recover to hit you back.
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What to do With Brock......
Yes, Brock, yes you do.
Well, now that we've seen the back of Brock in the MMA game, it's as worthy a time as any to stipulate what he may go on to do. Also, it's a pretty quiet news week, so that has something to do with my decision too. In true 5 & 1 style, I'll give you a list of (wait for it) 5 things could Brock do with his time for some extra beer tokens.
1- Return to the WWE: Yes, yes,. Everyone is jumping on this bandwagon. From a match against the Undertaker at WrestleMania, to being the #30 ranked entrant in the Royal Rumble, there are certainly many ways Lesnar could get back into Sports Entertainment. He could also move to TNA for the reduced schedule. Who knows. Judging by his book, Deathclutch, Lesnar has a lot of issues with the wrestling world so I'd be surprised.
2- Bodyguard for Bieber: Lesnar could watch over this little prick and earn mega-bucks. He'd also be able to Brock-Smash anyone, or indeed, anything that tries to do this to everyone's favorite Canadian Rodent.
3- Pro Huntsman: Now, we all know that when Brock isn't on top of his wife, he likes nothing more than to go and slaughter some shit. I don't have particularly strong views on hunting either way, but a big guy like Brock could earn some dollar with hunting and selling it on. Wouldn't you love a hand-skinned grizzly fur? I sure would.
4- Movie Star: There is plenty of room in Hollywood for a big guy like Lesnar. He could quite easily be in the Expendables 7, or perhaps he could be cast in a remake of Kindergarten Cop? He'd do a fine job raising those kids, making chicken shit out of chicken salad. Or whatever.
5- Walmart Cashier: If times get hard on Brock, he could always become a cashier at Walmart. Please, believe me I'm not bashing the fine folks who scan through our shopping, but it is a bit of a drop from being the UFC Heavyweight champion. He'd be able to work near his home, not have to deal with the media -short of the newspapers should he work in the little kiosk at the door- and be able to get his pick of all the top foods- with a staff discount no doubt.
So, I think it's clear we can all stop worrying for the future of Brock Lesnar. If he feels the pinch, he can read this and see that he DOES have options. Brock, you can thank me later, but please, if I've upset you, don't hurt me.
This week, you get the lovely Ms Tapout, Jennifer Swift. Wowza.
The Post-Fight Press Conference
That's it for another week here in the 5 & 1, so I hope you enjoyed the column! Please, leave a comment below and be sure to check some of the other amazing work here on the 411.
Well, that about wraps us up for another week. I hope you had fun and voted in the Versus match up! As always, I'd love to hear from you below, so don't be shy and leave a comment!
You're not the only one who had a hard time telling Anik and Florian apart, I also had a hard time hearing them at all at parts.
Oh, and Franklin via decision.
Posted By: Robert Winfree (Registered) on January 25, 2012 at 01:31 AM
shame that hardy is on a losing streak otherwise him and ebersole could have been coaches
Posted By: Matt (Guest) on January 25, 2012 at 03:26 AM
Brock - movies.
Tank was a monster, the other boy wore basically an outfit and deserved a ko
Stand and bang ftw.
Posted By: Martyboy (Guest) on January 25, 2012 at 07:05 PM
I also didn't understand why everyone thought the Easton/Papazian fight was so good. It was good for 10 seconds followed by three minutes of not much and then 20 seconds of action. Anik and Florian were talking about what a great pace they were setting and I didn't see it all. Just seemed like they were dancing around more than actually doing anything.
Posted By: Jimjoebob (Guest) on January 25, 2012 at 07:33 PM
Matt Hughes all the way.
And Jennifer Swift is gorgeous.
Posted By: Jeffrey (Registered) on January 25, 2012 at 09:39 PM
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