Eight Sides of Steel 4.13.08

Posted by Wendell Mitchell on 04.13.2008

Is the YAMMA organization trying to make MMA look bad? Is Travis Lutter good enough to beat Anderson Silva? Will I shamelessly insert another picture of Gina Carano? Dare to step inside the Eight Sides of Steel and find out for yourself.

Welcome back to the column so new most of you probably still haven't read it. That's okay; I'll win you over someday. Let's get to it, shall we?


NEWS YOU CAN COUNT ON…MAYBE

YAMMA held their first event Friday night.

Where to begin, where to begin. I haven't had a chance to read Larry's Take on the event yet, and I assume he did one because the man seems to have a small fortune set aside to watch every PPV no matter how much of his sanity is sacrificed for you people, but all other reports I've read have less than favorable reviews about the event.

Pat Smith made Butterbean tap to strikes after Butterbean fell down and could not get back up. Some described him as looking like a helpless turtle. What do you think?



Not the most dignified way to go out I think.

The former "Smashing Machine" Mark Kerr was said to look horribly out of shape and even one of the commentators remarked that "he didn't used to look like this." Oleg Taktarov made him submit to a knee bar in just over a minute in the first round.



Yep, that's the whole fight.

Travis Wiuff was crowned the first Heavyweight champ after beating Chris Tuscherer by Unanimous Decision to end the night.

It seems the five-minute first and second round eliminator bouts that I actually thought might show promise were horrible as all but the very first bout ended by decision because most of the competitors simply chose to lay and pray for the duration instead of going balls to the wall like I had anticipated. Oh well.

All in all I have seen nothing yet that suggests you should watch this or that this company will even be around long enough to have another event.

In a recent interview regarding a potential rematch with UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, Travis Lutter had this to say: "I'd kick his ass, you know, that's the way I look at it.

All I have to say is, let's see how you do against Franklin first, buddy. You gotta respect the confidence, but this is Anderson Fuckin' Silva we're talking here. He already beat Lutter. Not to say Lutter hasn't been training or getting better, but Silva's at the very top of his game. Not to mention as I said earlier, we have to see how he does against Franklin, who much like Liddell a fight or so back, can't really afford another loss right now.

Speaking of Silva, in a recent interview, he was quoted as saying "I respect Dana and the UFC, but a fight with Roy Jones would be personal win."

I seem to be the only guy that wants to see this fight, so you know where I stand on a potential showdown. I'll be rooting for Silva by the way if it goes down.

Though Kurt Angle says it's a done deal, Randy Couture says their potential submission match is still speculative until Couture is completely certain about his UFC contract status

I'm all for this too. I know, crazy, right? A lot of people hate Kurt and/or thinks he's delusional, and while he may be a bit out there, I think he could do well in this sort of environment. I'd buy a PPV pitting one of my favorite fighters against one of the best pro wrestlers in the business before I watch Tim Sylvia and Fedor for free. As much as I'd like to see Fedor in a match that took place after 2005, I don't see Tim breaking out of his "most boring fighter in the business" mindset anytime soon. I hope Randy gets this settled so I can see Angle "shake and break" and get it on like it was 1996 again.

Fedor and Sylvia are tentatively scheduled to clash on July 19th for Adrenaline MMA's Innagural event, but Sylvia's manager and CEO of Adrenaline MMA Monte Cox says that they are still reviewing the 42 page contract.

The fight that wins "well if we can't have Randy on our show" award seems to be delayed for the time being. I'm not sure how many people care about this fight, but I'm sure they're out there so for those people I hope this gets straightened out so Sylvia can collect his teeth off the mat after Fedor ground and pounds him to apple sauce and collect that elusive million dollar pay-off that he desires.

Fresh of a KO loss that kept him from participating in the YAMMA event this past Friday, UFC, Pride, and K-1 veteran Gary Goodridge will main-event Maxium Fighting Championships MCF 16: Anger Management event on May 19.

What can I say that hasn't been said about all the has-beens that took part at the YAMMA event? Interestingly enough, he's fighting INKED star Eric "Big" Pele. Pele has impressive record of 34-3, and currently holds the KOTC Super Heavyweight Title. I don't want to presume just because I've never seen Pele fight or the fact that Goodridge has not won a fight since April of 2006 (that's 7 losses – four of which by KO and a draw) that this fight will automatically suck. I won't presume it, but I'll be thinking it.


BUTTERBEAN WASN'T ALWAYS THAT BAD, RIGHT?

The guy did have stopping power on his feet



THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL…AND BRUTAL

More Gina Carano goodness


Another Kick boxer - Ms. Lisa Mills



AND IN THIS CORNER
Doing something a little different this week. Here are a couple of videos to hype the match-up between two of the best fighters in the world today and the headliners of next week's UFC 83.

The Upset


Preparing for the match up


GSP Doing His Thing


Matt Serra Doing His



WHAT'S CAUSING ALL THIS



The International Fighting League (IFL) is arguably the second largest and successful MMA organization out there today. Dana White has criticized the team concept of the promotion dismissing it as "stupid." To appease the many critics of their team concept, IFL established a mini-tournament between the top fighters in each division to crowd individual champs. And here they are.

Heavyweight: Roy Nelson (d. Antoine Jaoude on December 29, 2007 - IFL World Grand Prix Finals)

Light Heavyweight: Vladimir Matyushenko (d. Alex Schoenauer on November 3, 2007 - IFL World Grand Prix Semifinals)

Middleweight: Ryan McGiven (d. Matt Horwich on February 29, 2008 - IFL Las Vega)

Welterweight: Jay Hieron (d. Delson Heleno on December 29, 2007 - IFL World Grand Prix Finals)

Lightweight: Ryan Schultz (d. Chris Horodecki on December 29, 2007 - IFL World Grand Prix Finals)

Featherweight: Wagney Fabiano (d. L.C. Davis on December 29, 2007 - IFL World Grand Prix Finals)

Next week we'll take a look at Urijah Faber and the rest of the champions of WEC.


RANDOM MUSING AND BRUSING


One of the more memorable finishes from the early days of UFC…




LINKS

Unfortunately, my girlfriend's computer and 411 aren't cooperating, so no links this week, but we have some of the best writers on the web, so be sure to check them out.


OUT OF THE CAGE AND OFF THE CHAIN

That's it for this week. Next week we'll see how well I did predicting the winners of UFC 83 and talk more about this sport we love so much. I'm Wendell Mitchell and you've survived another round inside the Eight Sides of Steel.