Five Rounds Of News 05.09.08
Posted by Randy Harrison on 05.09.2008
DREAM 3 is set for this weekend and Five Rounds has a preview, along with notes on the UFC, EliteXC, Affliction, and I happily give up a round for one of the best causes you could imagine....It's all inside for you, so check it out!!
Introduction
Good Friday everyone, and welcome to another edition of the main event, championship fight of MMA news, Five Rounds Of News. Things are somewhat quiet on the UFC front as we're in the lull between 83 and 84, being at the farthest point between both. For whatever reason, that always seems to be when any type of news surrounding the UFC is at its slowest. There's more than enough coming out of Japan and coming out of EliteXC to make up for that gap and there's lots of other things going on as well in the world of MMA, including the latest episode of TUF and the Affliction card. Lastly there's something very important that transcends MMA in Round Four, that I would like you all to take the time to check out because every little bit will help. You've got the rundown so let's move on to my little self-indulgent hockey spiel and then we can get this show on the road.
My beloved Red Wings are still kicking and on their way to the Western Conference Finals against Dallas after an 8-2 ass-beating of Colorado to push them out of the playoffs. Since pulling Hasek out of the nets in favor of Chris Osgood, everything has seemingly fallen into place for Detroit and they are really firing on all cylinders, barely seeming challenged by a very good and very hot Avalanche team. This is also the coming-out party for Johan Franzen, the unsung hero of this playoff run, with eleven goals and fourteen points, putting him one behind Jaromir Jagr for the lead in the postseason scoring race and tied with the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. If the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, there is no doubt who the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for MVP would be. The Wings seem to match up well against the Stars and it seems like it's going to be a very good series. Another update next week and the series won't be over before then so you won't have to worry about reading about me sobbing over them being eliminated....yet.
Everything's out of the way, I'm all stretched and loosened up and ready to go so in the immortal words of Apollo Creed "Ding, Ding". The Five Rounds begin NOW!!
Round One
Every Mother's DREAM
DREAM 3 hits the airwaves of Japanese television and HDNet late on Saturday night here on the West Coast, early Mother's Day on the East, and I'll be here providing the live report coverage for all of those who are unfortunate enough to not be able to have HDNet. There's going to be a lot of tired men struggling to get the mother of their children her breakfast in bed on Sunday morning that's for sure. It looks to be a pretty good card as there are the quarterfinals of the Lightweight Grand Prix (minus Aoki, I'll get to that later), and fights featuring American stars,Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Nick Diaz. Let's take a look at a couple of the bouts a bit more in-depth.
Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue
This on-again, off-again, on-again fight is scheduled to be an eliminator fight with the winner facing off against top welterweight Hayato "Mach" Sakurai for the DREAM Welterweight Championship at DREAM 5 in July. The winner could be in trouble as Sakurai stands to be PISSED after being upset at the Shooto 20th Anniversary show and he'll probably be looking to make an example of whoever gets through. This fight was originally pulled due to EliteXC claiming that Diaz was going to be unable to compete on both the DREAM card and the June EliteXC card in Hawaii, but they've since changed their tune to allow Diaz to fight. Between that turmoil, the turmoil that had him pulled from the earlier Strikeforce/EliteXC joint card, flying to Japan somewhat last-minute, having to re-lose the extra weight he's gained since the fight was cancelled, and everything else, Diaz is going to be happy to just step into the ring and be able to fight. The problem is that he's in against a former King of Pancrase, fighting in Inoue's home country. This should be a stand-up fight most all the way and if Diaz can avoid taking too many shots and getting cut up by Inoue, I think that he should be able to do well. The problem will come if he gets taken deep into the fight, when his conditioning could begin to fade. I'm expecting Inoue to withstand the early flurry from Diaz, take Diaz out to the deeper waters and get the win, either with a late stoppage or a decision.
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Shibata started off strong in his MMA career with two wins in a row after moving away from New Japan Pro Wrestling, but he's lost three in a row and I expect it to be four by early Sunday morning. Miller is fighting in Japan for the first time, but he doesn't have to worry about much other than making sure his cup and mouthpiece make it through customs at the airport. He's a winner of eight of his last nine fights since the beatdown that Georges St. Pierre laid on him, and he should have no trouble with Shibata. Look for Miller to work the clinch, get a takedown and either pound out a finish or force Shibata into giving up his back and choke him out. To finish off, here's possibly the creepiest picture of Mayhem I've ever seen. Dude is looking like an action figure with all those abs, then a concentration camp victim with the emaciated chest.
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Ishida didn't look great in his decision win over Bu Kyung Jung in the opening round of this tournament, and he comes in against a fresh Caol Uno who got a bye into the second round. However, Uno is not the dynamic Uno of years past and he could be in trouble against the powerful Ishida. With the first round playing out the way it did, Ishida is riding along as a dark horse to make the finals with his wrestling style, despite the relative lack of excitement it brings. I don't think that Uno is going to be able to stuff the takedown attempts to keep the fight standing, and he won't be able to do enough off of his back to negate the points that Ishida will score from being in the dominant position. Ishida moves on with a decision to get to the semifinals where he's going to have to spring an upset to make it into the championship final.
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Speaking of wrestlers, Kawajiri is going to be looking for takedowns and ground and pound through the entire fight against Buscape. Kawajiri has lost twice in his last fifteen fights, to Takanori Gomi and Gilbert Melendez, so there's no shame in his game and he knows that he can get the takedown and hammer away on the mat better than nearly anyone in Japanese MMA today. Buscape knows this since he has already sufffered defeat once at the hands of Kawajiri, a unanimous decision at PRIDE Bushido 8. I don't really expect this fight to go any differently than that one and Kawajiri will either pound Buscape out before the end of the first, or he'll ride him and do enough to earn the decision.
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
The fight I am most looking forward to as it has all the earmarkings of an absolute slugfest. Alvarez has to be on top of the world, coming in off of his upset of Andre "Dida" Amade in the first round and he's going to be trying to keep that momentum going against the always-tough, always-dangerous Joachim Hansen. "Hellboy" didn't have as impressive a first round as Alvarez did, but he's got a resume a mile long when it comes to MMA and is looking to prove that the Lightweight division hasn't passed him by. I think that Hansen's experience will be the biggest factor in this fight, as well as his iron chin. Alvarez is going to work his takedown game and ground and pound like he did against Amade, and I think that his size is going to be a huge factor as he is MUCH bigger than Hansen is and if he ends up on top, Hansen could tire quickly, allowing for Alvarez to continue pounding away or look for a submission. If Alvarez can keep Hansen from catching him while they're standing, I think that he's got a shot to continue his run through the tournament into the semifinals.
Random Strikes
News and opinions coming your way, rapid-fire style!!
§ Spike TV has announced that they will air a 3 hour homage to Chuck Liddell on the same night EliteXC will make their debut on CBS. First they will air "Ultimate Knockouts 4", which features some of Liddell's most memorable MMA fights. Spike will then air an hour long documentary entitled "Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddell", which chronicles the career of Liddell thus far. After that they will air "Liddell vs. Silva: UFC Unleashed Special Edition", which will feature the Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell fight from UFC 79.
SMELL THE INTRIGUE!!! The UFC loves to act as if things like the EliteXC/CBS deal aren't a threat, but then they go and counter-program with their own full night of MMA programming featuring their biggest star. The interesting thing is that Viacom wins either way because they own both Spike and CBS, so whether MMA fans tune in to see Kimbo or they tune in to see Chuck, Viacom gets the money in their pockets. Let's just hope that it doesn't split the market too badly to where the CBS show flops because if it does even moderately bad in the ratings, expect CBS to drop it like a bad habit the first chance they get. If that happens, it could be a long, LONG time before we see MMA on primetime network TV again. Watch the EXC stuff and DVR the Chuck specials. That's what I'll be doing.
§ During a recent interview with ESPN The Magazine, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell confirmed that he still wanted to fight Rashad Evans at UFC 85 in June despite a torn hamstring. Below is a direct quote made by Liddell during the interview:
"I was going to fight, too. But then [Dana] White called and said to forget it, to heal up and come back 100 percent."
That boy ain't right. I'll give Chuck his props for wanting to be a tough guy and fight through the injury, but Dana White was right on this one. Chuck only has a few fights left, one would presume, so why waste one when he's fighting at WAY less than 100%, and why risk making the injury worse to where it could end Liddell's career. Discretion is the better part of valor sometimes and I'm glad that everyone used discretion here to keep Liddell out of this fight.
§ Dana White recently conducted an interview with Yahoo! Canada and spoke on numerous different subjects:
On the UFC returning to Canada:
"Everywhere I go, it doesn't matter if we do a fight in Houston, Texas, Anaheim, California, if we do fights over over in the U.K., so many Canadians shows up, it blows my mind. We never expected this thing to be this big in Canada. Not only are there a ton of fans, but there's a ton of great talent coming out of Canada. Canada is going to be a part of our roadshow from here on out."
On merging WEC and the UFC's weight classes:
"We're going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights. We'll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC. We're still trying to figure that out."
On Fedor Emelianenko being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world:
"The guy hasn't fought anybody since 2005 and people want to call him the pound-for-pound best in the world? Give the respect to the guys who deserve it. The guys who come in and fight everybody three times a year, they fight the best fighters in the world. (UFC middleweight campion) Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. End of story."
Other news and notes from the interview:
-White mentioned the UFC is still negotiating with Andrei Arlovski.
-He mentioned that if Renato "Babalu" Sobral can put together a few quality wins, the door is open for his return to the UFC.
-He dismissed the idea of a UFC women's division.
-Mentioned that he would love to see a fight between Urijah Faber and Kid Yamamoto, but the Japanese star comes with a huge price tag.
-And in closing, White mentioned that the UFC has a "major deal" in place with a current television network.
Canadian fans have been known to be quite rabid about their combat sports and the UFC is proving no exception. Good to hear that they'll be back up there again soon. As for the WEC/UFC weight class thing, I agree with making the WEC be about lighter weight classes because they need to have a hook. Otherwise it's just going to be thought of as UFC-Lite. If they can separate themselves and stand on their own with lighter weight classes and less crossover with the UFC, it will only benefit them as a brand down the road. Anderson Silva is pound-for-pound the best, no question about that. I'd love to see Andrei Arlovski be able to get back into the UFC as I've always been a fan of "The Pitbull". Ditto for Babalu. Faber and Kid would rock my face and they need to make that match post-haste. In terms of the television deal, I'll believe it when I see it because there have been way too many cries of wolf for me to just trust what's being said about a network deal now.
§ The Wrestling Observer is reporting that the UFC has released Din Thomas, Tommy Speer, & Kuniyoshi Hironaka. Thomas last fought at UFC Fight Night 13 where he lost via decision to Josh Neer and he is now contemplating retirement. Speer's was the runner-up to Mac Danzig on "The Ultimate Fighter" season 6. He also fought at Fight Night 13 losing to Anthony Johnson via TKO. Hironaka last fought at UFC 83 where he lost via TKO to Jonathan Goulet.
I'd say that I'm shocked about the Speer cut, but he has seemed really one-dimensional in his fights and they're probably hoping for him to catch on and do some things in the WEC, where he was previously. Hironaka is neither here nor there because he didn't do much of anything for me when I saw him fight and they could probably bring in any of ten other Japanese fighters more talented to take his place. The real surprise is Din Thomas, who at one time was thought of as possibly being in the Lightweight Title picture. It's a shame that injuries and inconsistencies have seemed to plague Thomas because he's always an exciting fighter and always ready to lay it all on the line in every fight. Hopefully he'll reconsider retirement and catch on either in the WEC at 145 or with another promotion to continue fighting.
§ Adrenaline president & CEO Monte Cox has confirmed that Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell will both be fighting at the upcoming Adrenaline 2 card in September in Moline, Illinois. However, he didn't name an opponent for either fighter.
The new Adrenaline promotion is set to run their debut card on June 14th.
Here's to hoping that the horse isn't out of the barn and they're not hemorrhaging money by the time the second show rolls around. I get that Monte is one of the guys who is all about having guys be able to fight wherever they want to, but by giving up his two biggest stars to another promotion, he's making me question his business sense. I know he's promoted forever, but why would you send Sylvia and Rothwell to fight in Affliction and leave yourself with a main event of Mike Russow vs. Jeff Monson? Seriously, he'd better hope that he's able to get past the first card and that he even gets a chance to take advantage of signing Syliva and Rothwell.
§ EliteXC's Vice President Jared Shaw has confirmed that Drew Fickett has pulled out of his June 14th fight against Jake Shields for the EliteXC welterweight title, due to a knee injury. Shields had mentioned a few days ago that he might be interested in pushing the title fight back to July so it could featured on a "EliteXC on CBS" special.
Booooo!!!! The second time this fight has been postponed, and it's a fight that I'm REALLY wanting to see, so I hope that it finally gets a chance to happen. If it ends up happening on CBS even better. The sad part is that I'm a huge Fickett fan, but I'm thinking he's going to get squashed by Shields. Either way I'll still be rooting for him. KNIGHT RIDER!!!!
§ The IFL has announced that they will debut a new six-sided ring that will be used in all of the promotion's future plans. The IFL plans to debut the new ring at the promotion's August 15th event in New Jersey. The following is a quote by IFL CEO Jay Larkin on the new hexagon shaped ring:
"From a production and live event standpoint, the ring has proven to be the most fan and media friendly environment, as well as providing the safest possible environment for our athletes. The Hex allows for the larger surface that is utilized in other MMA organizations while still retaining the advantages we have enjoyed with the ring."
I've seen some events in a ring of that nature and it will be interesting to see if they make it a larger-sized structure like the Octagon, since most of the six-sided rings I've seen on smaller shows have been smaller rings. I'm not willing to completely bag on it yet because it seems like it could be an innovative idea that hasn't been seen by the MMA masses. I hope that they'll have it ready for the August 15th event because it will be interesting to see how it works and if it could be a viable third option to the cage and the regular four-sided ring.
Today, Chris Leben was sentenced to 35-days in jail due to a parole violation, which he turned himself in for. He will be released on May 27th, as he is being given credit for days served, but that will allow him the proper time to train for the June 7th fight with Michael Bisping in London. UFC's Joe Silva did have a back up plan in case Leben wasn't able to do the fight, but there is no confirmed replacement as of this report.
Well, UFC 85 certainly seems like the most cursed show in MMA history doesn't it? I commend Leben for stepping up and taking care of this, but honestly, it shouldn't have taken an international fight for him to do it and he should have taken care of it when it first came up. Now, he's out the payday he would have received for a co-main event fight, and he's possibly on the bad side of the UFC at a time when they aren't thinking twice about cutting people. At least Chris will get to train some grappling in jail trying to keep himself...intact.
§ The state of Arizona recently passed a legislation introduced by state representative Jonathan Paton that would allow the state boxing commission to regulate the sport of MMA. UFC Hall-of-famer Ken Shamrock was a huge advocate in getting the law passed in Arizona:
"I wanted to clear up any misconceptions members had about MMA. It is far from the "human cock-fighting" analogy used years ago by John McCain. There are rules in place to ensure the safety of participants. Over the years fighters have sustained fewer injuries during MMA competitions than in boxing. Mixed Martial Arts is a legitimate sport that takes considerable skill and intelligence."
The new law, which was signed in by Governor Janet Napolitano, will officially go into effect 90 days after the legislation ends.
Some good news to end the Random Strikes on as it's always nice to see another state regulate this great sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Congratulations to Shamrock for helping to push to get the regulation through and thank you to the state of Arizona for seeing past all of the half-truths and scare tactics to see that MMA is safe when done properly by people who are professionals. I can't wait for the day that MMA is regulated in every state in the country and there are no more misinformed politicians who feel like they can use MMA for their own personal agendas.
Round Two
Sticking With DREAM...No Matter What?
Like most Japanese promotions, DREAM is subscribing to the theory that the event itself is the draw and that the fighters on it are merely the icing on top of the cake. The problem with that theory being that their fight cards are usually far from complete or finalized, even days before an event takes place. With both DREAM 1 and DREAM 2, there have been issues that have necessitated the fight card being changed, and DREAM 3 is no different. The back-and-forth on the Nick Diaz/Katsuya Inoue fight, as well as the mess that has become the Lightweight Grand Prix, has left DREAM scrambling up until earlier today when their card was finally set. The Diaz/Inoue fight is official, and I can't completely fault DREAM for that one since it was EliteXC that was holding it up, but if there was even a hint that there could have been a problem, DREAM should have dropped Diaz from consideration and held him off for a fight on a later card. With the fight being pulled Diaz has apparently gained back a bunch of his cut weight and will have to deal with a drastically quick cut, along with jetlag before his fight with Inoue. To me this seems like a really unfair situation for Diaz to have to deal with and hopefully it won't have too large of an impact on the outcome of the fight.
In terms of the Lightweight Grand Prix, the tournament was supposed to be back on track after the DREAM 2 rematch between Aoki and Calvancante, but that just turned into another dramatic episode with Aoki allegedly being out, Calvancante allegedly turning down the spot, Aoki claiming to be back in the tournament and his fight in the second round being moved back to DREAM 4. I had said previously that if the second round wasn't fully completed by the end of DREAM 3, it was going to appear that they were trying to give Aoki an advantage by having him be completely well-rested while the other fighters have been running the regular schedule the tournament was supposed to run. There have also been rumors that the Middleweight Grand Prix is in shambles as Kazushi Sakuraba may not be continuing in the tournament. The problem with running tournaments in such short order, as they do in Japan is just these kinds of things, with fighters pulling out, injuring themselves, etc. etc., which ends up leaving the tournament as a shell of what it started as and keeping it from being the best against the best.
I've always been a big fan of Japanese MMA, from Shooto to DEEP, from PRIDE to DREAM, but the thing that I'm not liking is that I can never expect to see anything on a card until a day or two before, which gives me no time to get enthused or excited for any particular event. I still check them out, but it's always with a sense of "Oh yeah, it's time for the show", rather than "I've been hearing about this for a few weeks and I'm excited as hell to see this". To me, this was one of the big problems that plagued PRIDE, especially after the Yakuza scandal, and to see DREAM repeating history like they have been is extremely frustrating. I'm hoping that it's merely a situation where the company is slowly finding their way and that once the events get a little further on that they'll be able have things a little more solid, earlier on in the process. If not, they could be shooting themselves in the foot in terms of ever considering an expansion beyond Japan and missing out on a huge opportunity to become global as the MMA world continues to look for a definitive competitor to the UFC's throne.
Bands That Rock My Face
After the Queen live footage from last week's Random Strikes section, I had to go ahead and throw some more musical goodness at you and bring back this particular feature. This week there's not a lot that needs to be said about one of the originals and one of the best punk bands of all time. Enjoy some of the best of Dead Kennedys and I'll see you on the other side for Round Three.
Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles
Dead Kennedys – Police Truck
Dead Kennedys – Holiday In Cambodia
Dead Kennedys – Pull My Strings
Round Three
Affliction Card In Doubt, Changes Venues, Apparently Back On In Seven Short Days
News out of the Affliction camp came fast and furious this week, with them apparently losing their venue, verifying another heavyweight tilt, and continuing to build towards Fedor/Sylvia despite all of the bumps in the road. Matt Lindland is still slated for the July card as well and it's looking like he's closer to getting a firm opponent as well.
First things first, the venue has seemingly changed from the American Airlines Center in Dallas to the Honda Center in Anaheim. There have been whispers and rumblings as to why this is and what this means to any potential deal that Affliction might have had going with HDNet founder and owner of the arena, Mark Cuban, but nothing is set in stone yet as to why the deal fell through or what the ramifications may be for the promotion and their chances to be shows on the network. Losing the venue AND the lucrative perks that a spot on HDNet (even delayed) would have given them could be potentially crippling to the fledgling fight company. All of this is still a static situation and could end up changing at any moment, but for now it looks as if the first Affliction card will be taking place in Anaheim and I am about 95% certain to be there. Sorry for the luck, Bren, but I'm glad to hear that your family was pro-active and kept you from doing anything rash.
The new heavyweight bout I was referring to was the match, or rather the rematch, between Pedro Rizzo and Josh Barnett. These two fought previously at UFC 30 in 2001, with Rizzo getting the knockout victory over Barnett. Josh has been looking for a chance to avenge that loss for years and it appears that with both camps confirming the fight he's going to get his chance to do just that. The only problem I can see is that Rizzo still seems like the same fighter he's always been, while Barnett is a year and a half removed from facing any decent competition. He's 2-2 in his last four fights, beating Pawel Nastula and Hidehiko Yoshida, while losing to Mirko Filipovic and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. I'm not saying that Rizzo is on either Mirko or Nogeuira's level, but he's sure not anywhere near being as bad as Nastula or Yoshida, and he's still got the same knockout power he had six or seven years ago. I'm not suggesting that Barnett WILL lose, just that it wouldn't be surprising if he did because of his inactivity over the past couple of years.
Moving on to Matt Lindland, it appears that his opponent for the card is tentatively scheduled to be Fabio Negao, perhaps a somewhat disappointing turn of events after rumors had him possibly facing David Terrell or Murillo Bustamante, both of whom seem like they would have given Lindland a tougher test than Negao. Negao has fought in Brazil for his entire career and trains with Team Oyama, with the likes of Jared Rollins, Rob McCullough and Hector Ramirez, while in the US. He doesn't have any big wins on his resume and it looks like he's going to favor more of a striking style, which will play right into Lindland's wrestling background. As much as it's disappointing to see that Lindland might be getting a bit of a can to face off against, it will just be good to see him back in active MMA again against someone in his weight class.
There's not a lot else known about the card yet, but at this point it appears as if they're going to be leaning on the three bigger fights and fill the card as they see fit as it comes closer to the event. As much as I understand why they'd be running things that way, the fight fans in the United States have become accustomed to having a card solidified well in advance, as well as a card that has quality fights or quality fighters sprinkled all the way through, not just at the top of the card. Not that it really matters anyhow, because I have a feeling that this show will do incredibly well with hardcore fight fans, but will flop in the mainstream, falling way short of what some MMA pundits and fans have predicted in terms of PPV buys. As much as people have become accustomed to full fight cards, they've also become conditioned to think that anything on PPV that isn't UFC is second-rate and are less likely to spend their money on it. Add in that Fedor isn't well-known amongst the casual crowd, and that Sylvia is a less-than-popular fighter, the troubles could only be just beginning for Affliction as a promotion. And with word that EliteXC has joined the UFC in the ban of Affliction clothing on their fighters, if the Affliction promotion fails, they'll have really shot themselves in the foot in terms of ever having a foothold in MMA again.
Links In The Cage
The usual great content from the ever-expanding 411mania.com's MMA zone. Take a moment to give them all a look and I guarantee you'll be back for more!
There Are Things More Important Than Fighting In This World
I'm going to give up one of my rounds this week in the hopes that it can do a little good for someone who really needs it right now;
The following message was sent by Tim Sylvia:
"A couple weeks ago a childhood friend and classmate of mine had a tragic fire and he lost his 12 year old son and everything he owns. In an attempt to save his son, Ricky was severely injured and was in ICU for a week. I am hosting a benefit for him on May 18th in Eastbrook Maine at the Eastbrook Community Building. We are going to be selling T-shirts, posters, and hunting gear. Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, recognized names in the hunting industry such as Michael Wadel, Mark and Terry Drury, Lee and Tiffiany Lacosky, and Cuz Strickland, as well as prominent country artists, Rascal Flatts and Kelly Pickler, and well known actor Kevin James(King of Queens, Hitch) have all been kind enough to donate items.
If anyone is interested in donating anything to this cause please contact Linda Davis at 207-565-2713 or just send donations to:
Linda Davis
28 Sugar Hill Road
Eastbrook, Maine 04634
Thank you!"
Please give what you can to a worthy cause. I can't imagine how it would feel to deal with the pain of being burned by fire, but more importantly to lose a child. For all the crap he gets from people for his fight performances, kudos and a tip of the hat to Tim Sylvia for being a quality person and a good friend.
Random Strikes Part Deux
After seeing Dancin' Rampage on the last episode of TUF, I figured that it would be time to see some fun stuff from the ultra-talented, ultra-entertaining Quinton Jackson.
Rampage Is A Dancin' Fool
Rampage Loves His Video Games
Bas Meets Rampage And Awesome Ensues
Round Five
The Usual TUF Stuff
Another solid episode so far in one of the better seasons that I can remember. It was a two fight episode, which are always entertaining because it means that the in-house nonsense will be kept to a minimum. The fights this week were Matt Brown vs. Jeremy May and Luke Zachrich vs. Daniel Cramer. After last week's core meltdown, Rampage is still desperate for a win and if he didn't get one out of one of these two fights, there's a pretty good chance that he might not have gotten one at all. We all know the bad blood between Brown and May and as I said last week, it was my hope that Brown would at best cripple May and at worst, only crush him. Let's get to the thoughts on the show, and see if my dream came true. Before we start though, just cause it's Rampage and it's funny...
Even In DEFEAT, He's STILL A Douche
Jeremy and Matt had their fight and Jeremy came on early but got a SEVERE beating before all was said and done, eating a beautiful high kick for a KO. My issue came after the fight when he was talking about how he feels like he should have and could have won the fight and all of his other nonsense, I still wanted to put my hands into the television and choke him. There's such a thing as being humble in defeat, but Jeremy apparently has never heard of it. He beat you, you sandbagged so you could be "ready to fight" and yet had no cardio when the fight came, sit down and shut the fuck up. This was also the fight that scared me the most in that I thought that Forrest was going to have a stroke before it was all over. I've never heard a man that size have that much of a shrieking tone in his voice before, but Forrest had it when he was yelling at Matt during that fight. Here's the beatdown finish for everyone to enjoy, over and over and over again.
Team Rampage Finally Wins One/Zachrich's Chin May Just Be Stone
This one is a double, because in the second fight Daniel Cramer finally managed to get Team Rampage off the losing side of the bracket, picking up a HUGE win by stopping Luke in the second round. The fight was a really solid slugfest with both guys throwing huge shots in the first round. Cramer must have been wondering if he should have brought a baseball bat with him though, because he was PUMMELING Luke's face with as many straight punches and hooks that his arms could throw, yet Zachrich still wouldn't go down. They weren't exactly glancing shots either, but power punches that landed solidly and shook Zachrich, but he just would not accept defeat until Cramer finally beat it into him. Great fight from both guys and Zachrich showed a TON of heart in this fight, and proved that he probably didn't deserve to get picked last. As for the team portion of things, Rampage was a lot happier after this fight than at the end of last week's episode.
Dancing Rampage
To that end, Dancing Rampage while singing "I got controlllllllllllll" like Eddie Murphy in Delirious was just fantastic. I really think that they made the right choice in picking Rampage and Forrest to be coaches this season, strictly from an entertainment standpoint. From a coaching standpoint, they seem to be fairly awful because Rampage himself has said that he's a terrible trainer because he hates doing it, and Forrest has mishandled a coaching situation twice already. Two separate occasions where he's told his fighter to do something, they've gone against him, done the proper thing and then won. Forrest even admitted so after both fights that he was glad they didn't listen to his advice. I'm not saying that these kids will learn nothing from professionals like Forrest and Rampage, but it's apparent that this isn't like other seasons with coaches like Couture, Liddell, Hughes and the like. They've made it an incredibly entertaining season though, so I have no complaints, but it'd be good to see the coaches use their wits in the training center as much as they've been using them against each other.
Post Fight Wrap-Up
That does it for me for this week folks, thanks for stopping by for your weekly dose of Five Rounds. I'll be back next week with an IFL preview, a look back at the DREAM 3 card and more of the crazy happenings in the world of MMA. Until then, have a great weekend, enjoy the DREAM show, and to all the Moms out there, have a very Happy Mother's Day. Good night Springton, there will be no encores.
Be sure to check out my fellow Canuck, Joe Ferraro and his "Showdown" radio show, every Thursday at 10 PM EST, on FAN 590 or the archives of the show at Showdown Entertainment.
I think it may be a little premature to write off Forrest as a coach. I don't
think Page would be the champ right now if not for Juanito, so it is not
surprising QJ is not the greatest coach. Forrest however has been very involved
as a coach (I thought that was great when they showed him and Matt Brown still
banging away after the bell) Sure he was tentative in some of his coaching
calls, but there are two reasons for this; as a team maintaining control is far
more important than an individual getting the sub bonus, so Forrest is logical
in telling Credeur to just hold position, the other reason is that Forrest has
not had that long to spend with these guys, so he may not have the greatest
idea of their skills and abilities, so he plays it safe.
Posted By: Matt (Guest) on May 09, 2008 at 01:03 AM
