Eight Sides of Steel 04.27.08: Enter the Dragon
Posted by Wendell Mitchell on 04.27.2008
Two words: BRUCE LEE!!! Join me this week as I start off my "Beginner's Guide To MMA" featuring none other than the legendary Bruce Lee. Also, we have upcoming fights, law suits, and twenty-seven million dollars worth of debt. Let's get it on, inside the Eight Sides of Steel.
Happy Sunday folks. I'm back with more news about and random commentary on the world of Mixed Martial Arts. On with the show.
IS IT THE (LACK OF) SHOES? PONDER THAT AND READ SOME NEWS
Chuck Liddell is out of UFC 85 after suffering a hamstring injury.
I've seen the pictures and that thing isn't pretty.
Chuck was easily my favorite light heavyweight until I discovered Quinton Jackson was the scary black guy power bombing Japanese guys into greasy smears on the canvas. But I still love the Ice Man and was happy when he beat "The Axe Murder" Wanderlei Silva in their highly anticipated fight back at UFC 79.
MMA fans everywhere were relieved when they discovered Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves was the replacement main event instead of a proposed Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin. Nothing against Evans, who's last high profile fight saw him fight a very safe (read: boring) fight, or Irvin, who lived up to his nickname "Sandman" by putting Houston Alexander to sleep eight seconds into their fight, but Hughes is a much bigger name then either of them and is a bona fide main eventer.
Gary Goodridge is out of the main event for Maximum Championship Fighting's MCF 16: Anger Management show.
Wow, first he can't make the Yamma show because he got knocked the fuck out in the middle of nowhere half way across the world, and now he needs back surgery. Goodridge has stated that he would love to fight for MCF in the future and plans to attend the MCF 16 event as a spectator. Not much to say. I hate to be negative, but the guy just turned 42 this year and hasn't really meant much to the sport since the early nineties. I mentioned in a previous column that the guy has not won a fight in 2 years and has been knocked out in four of those fights. I can't pretend to say I support his decision to get back in the game as soon as possible, but if that's what he wants, go for it. Just don't expect me to watch it.
Manny Tapia has pulled out of his match up with WEC Bantamweight Champ Miguel Torres due to a knee injury suffered during training.
And another one bites the dust. Wow, that's three guys in my column alone. Unlike big brother UFC and the MCF organization, Tapia's injury does not affect a main event bout and WEC has tapped Pancrase Featherweight champion Yoshiro Maeda to replace Tapia in the title bout. It should be noted, Maeda made his WEC debut by knocking out Charlie Valencia on the same show where Torres captured the title.
The North American Boxing Council, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and sanctions both professional boxing and MMA, is suing Mark Cuban and his HDNet Fights MMA organization.
The short of it is that NABC approached HDNet back in January 2007 for a proposal for a unifying mixed martial arts organization. HDNet aired two NABC sanctioned events, then rejected the proposal.
The suit stems from allegations made by NABC about HDNet's breach of trust and misappropriation of trade secrets, essentially accusing HDNet of stealing NABC's business model and representing it as HDNet's.
I'm a little rusty on how intellectual property works, but I am interested in how HDNet approaches this.
Elite XC has reportedly lost $27 million dollars in 2007.
Sounds like quite a bit, doesn't it? Good thing they have that CBS deal. I'm about four years away from a business degree, but if I'm not mistaken, this wouldn't be the first business to lose a significant amount of money in its first few years of operation. Elite XC has only been around since December 2006 so they're still pretty young. Considering that nearly twenty percent of that money was spent on acquiring other, smaller organization and that they have implemented a few cost cutting measures since January, I wouldn't worry about them just yet.
The next YAMMA Pit Fighting PPV will be held on June 20th and will feature a eight man middleweight tournament and headlined by a masters super fight and a womens bout.
In the words of Ron Simmons "I'll be damned." Obviously someone has faith in the product. Me, I was less than impressed with the overall presentation of their first offering, but it's not like I'm wishing for their demise. I wish them good luck on this event and hope they learned something from the various feedback about their April event.
Just days after Frank Trigg announced he would not fight for the Dream organization because of their lack of North American television exposure, HDNet announced that they would begin airing all future Dream events.
If I got HDNet, I'd be a little happier with this news, but I'm poor and therefore this will have little effect on me. Though more MMA for the people is always a good thing.
Affliction, the MMA organization promoting the fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia in Dallas on July 19th, has announced that title of their event will be "Banned," which is a subtle jab at the UFC, who recently banned its fighters from wearing any merchandise featuring the Affliction brand.
In addition to releasing the name for their event, it was also announced that Matt Lindland has confirmed his participation. Also rumored are Josh Barnett, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Ben Rothwell, and Andrei Arlovski. Of these guys, I'm most excited to see Barnett in action because I'm a huge professional wrestling fan, and the guy wrestles part-time in Japan and incorporates professional wrestling into his fights whenever feasible. A bit of controversy surrounds him. A former UFC champ, he was stripped of the belt after a drug test came back positive for steroids. According to some reports, proper testing protocol was ignored and Barnett took another test, which came back negative. The UFC stood by its decision and Barnett left for Japan.
Despite the infamy he attained from being rightfully terminated for disobeying the ref's command to break a chokehold that led to David Heath's unconsciousness, I wouldn't mind seeing him in action again. I don't support what he did, but who amongst us haven't let our emotions get the best of us?
A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Volume 1: And They Called Him Dragon…
Two of the oldest and most wide spread unarmed combat disciplines are wrestling and boxing. So the Greeks being the innovators that they were, combined the two and introduced the new sport Pankration to the Olympic games in 648 B.C.
Over the centuries, Pankration was influenced by western boxing, jiu jitsu, free style and catch wrestling. essentially paving the way for modern MMA.
When one talks about modern MMA, many people, including UFC President Dana White and myself, consider Bruce Lee the "father of mixed martial arts."
Arguably the most well known martial artist in history, Bruce Lee is credited with pioneering the belief that one should not rely on a single discipline and mix various techniques in order to adapt to an opponent.
As with Pankration, Lee was influenced by various styles of fighting and as result created Jeet Kune Do or "Jun Fan" (Lee's given Chinese name) Jeet Kune Do.
Bruce Lee's philosophy on fighting essentially boiled down to "use what works."
In his own words, Lee was not creating a "style." He was simply discarding what he felt did not work in a fight.
The primary principles of JKD have evolved into what modern MMA practioners call the four ranges of combat: punching, kicking, trapping, grappling.
Bruce Lee trained in all four aspects equally and taught his students to do the same. He felt that most martial arts at the time limited their effectiveness by only focusing on one or two of these ranges.
With the advent of the UFC, which we'll discuss next week, we learned that Lee's was ahead of his time.
That concludes this week lesson. Personally, I'm proud that I didn't sound too fanboyish discussing one of my childhood heroes. Next week, we'll discuss the origins of the UFC.
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL…AND BRUTAL
Shayna Baszler vs. Tara LaRosa
AND IN THIS CORNER
On May 24th, UFC will present "Ill Will" and will be headlined by the "Prodigy" B.J. Penn and Sean "Muscle Shark" Sherk.
The current Lightweight champion, BJ Penn is the only other man in UFC to hold championships in two different weight classes. He has stated in interviews that if he beats Sherk, he's moving back up to Welterweight, where he could have a high profile showdown with current Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre.
For those of you unaware, Sean Sherk was stripped of the Lightweight Title after testing positive for steroids. Sherk fought the ruling, arguing about flawed testing procedures, but the California State Athletic Commission upheld its ruling. Interestingly enough, they did reduce the length of his suspension and UFC reinstated him this month.
My prediction? Get ready for that GSP/Penn showdown sooner rather than later.
ALL THAT GLITTERS...
Middleweight:"Ruthless" Robbie Lawler (d. Murilo Rua on September 15, 2007 – EliteXC: Uprising)
If you've ever seen the guy fight, you know why the call him ruthless. Some say his style borders on "reckless" but hey it's working, evident by the fact in 19 fights, he's knocked out 12 men and up until he was stripped of the Icon Sport Middleweight title, held two World Titles simulataneously. He Up next for him is a very game Scott Smith, who is fresh off a KO victory in his deubt with EliteXC. They will be featured on EliteXC's premier CBS event May 31st.
Lightweight: Karl James "KJ" Noons (d. Nick Diazi on November 10, 2007 – EliteXC: Renegade)
Don't know much about this guy other than that in an interesting twist of fate, he defeated Diaz via doctor stoppage due to facial cuts, which in pre-fight interviews Diaz mentioned was the only way he was going to get beat that night. No rematch has been signed between the two and Noons is scheduled to defend his belt Yves Edward on June 14th.
RANDOM MUSING AND BRUSING
The Man, the Myth, the Legend
The Ice Man Cometh… out to my future theme music
SPREADING THE LOVE
The Card maybe Subject to Change but the quality of The Fight Stance remains the same.
Five Rounds of News has me hoping Matt Serra destroys Matt Hughes and gets another shot at GSP.
Speaking of GSP, Asian Sensation Don Nguyen wants to know if you think GSP is a better fighter than Anderson Silva I'm thinking, no.
Sergio takes us back in time to the final days of Pride Fight Championship.
OUT OF THE CAGE AND OFF THE CHAIN
And there we have it friends. Be sure to keep coming back to 411mania for all your MMA needs. Thanks for hanging out with me inside the Eight Sides of Steel.
