Five Rounds Of News 06.06.08
Posted by Randy Harrison on 06.06.2008
Lots of thoughts on EliteXC's primetime debut, my take on the smashing success of WEC: Faber vs. Pulver, a preview of this weekend's upcoming UFC 85 card, both in print and video form, and El Guapo returns on this somewhat special occasion. What makes it special you ask? Well, you'll have to click to find that out, now won't you?
Introduction
Hello again, MMA fans old and new alike and welcome to a chock full o' news edition of your main event, championship fight of MMA news, Five Rounds of News. There's a TON of things to talk about this week with EliteXC's primetime debut, the WEC having their biggest show ever, UFC 85 set for this weekend, news about the Affliction promotion and a ton more, including your usual video goodness to set everything up for the UFC this weekend from jolly old England. I might even touch on that little spot of controversy that cropped up on Saturday night and give my thoughts on the whole spiel. But first, it's on to some of Lord Stanley's business.
THEY DID IT!! After what could have been a crushing defeat in triple-overtime in Game Five, the Detroit Red Wings came back and took Game Six and the Stanley Cup on hostile ice in Pittsburgh. It wasn't without struggle though as a late goal pulled the Pens to within a goal and they had a puck dance along the goal line behind Chris Osgood in the last second of the game. They managed to avert disaster and won their fourth Stanley Cup in eleven years, no small feat in a league like the NHL, where the playoff schedule is probably the most grueling in all of professional sports. Henrik Zetterberg, the leading point-getter in the playoffs, won the Conn Smythe trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs and it's a well deserved honor, and Nicklas Lidstrom becomes the first European-born captain to hoist the 35-pound trophy that signifies the best team in all of hockey. Tons of credit goes to role players like Kirk Maltby, who has been around for all four Detroit championships, as well as Johan Franzen, who turned it on down the stretch, scoring a ton of goals in the playoffs and spurring Detroit on through the first three rounds of the playoffs before an injury sidelined him for the early part of the Finals. Congratulations boys, on a great season and a gutsy effort in the playoffs to come out on top. Now to see if we can arrange for a repeat party for next season! Get on it!!
Now, it's time to get to all the news that's MMA-related, and believe me there's a ton of it. Get your cups checked and your mouthguards ready, cause your Five Rounds begin right now!!
Round One
EliteXC Delivers....Something
As everyone knows, EliteXC made their network television debut on Saturday night and it was certainly a show that has gotten everyone talking about EliteXC and MMA in general. Whether all of those discussions are good or not is another question that we can get to later, but for now, let's get to the fights.
Brett Rogers def. Jon Murphy
Rogers looked great and was able to do everything he wanted to do on the huge platform that he was given. He got the TKO in a little over a minute and managed to be the winner of the first fight ever shown on primetime network television. The interesting bit came after the night was over when he called Kimbo's performance in the main event "garbage" and essentially challenged Kimbo to be his next opponent. This could end up being a huge deal for Rogers because he's definitely the guy that is rocketing up to the top of the HW division in EliteXC. A fight against Kimbo where he wins convincingly would put him up at the top with Antonio Silva and those two could slug it out for the soon-to-be created EliteXC Heavyweight Championship. Kudos to Rogers as well, for sticking to his guns and standing up to the promotion's Golden Boy because that could be the move that puts him front and center in the MMA world sometime soon.
Joe Villasenor def. Phil Baroni
After losing the first EliteXC Middleweight Title fight to Ninja Rua, Joe Villasenor has rattled off three straight wins, including this impressive victory over Baroni, and he's poised to challenge whoever comes out of the Lawler/Smith fiasco as the champion for his second shot at the belt. Villasenor showed his great hands and definitely took the measure of Baroni, who is seemingly nearing the end of his run in MMA. The loss dropped his record down to 10-10 in his career and he's lost five of his last seven fights, including the last three in a row. I think he'd be great as a post-fight interviewer or maybe as a color guy to allow EliteXC to take advantage of his personality but to me, his days as a fighter are long gone. Unless he manages to completely overhaul his style and do something different that can lead to more success for him, which is no small task at thirty-two years old, he's going to be doomed to fighting on the smaller circuits or taking losses against stronger opponents in the big leagues. It kills me to say it because I was a big fan of his, but it's time to hang it up Phil.
Gina Carano def. Kaitlin Young
Once all the controversy surrounding the weigh-in for this fight was finished, this actually turned out to be a good little bout. Like it was expected, this was basically a kickboxing/muay Thai fight that Gina came out on top in. She was pushed by Young, but Carano just had quicker hands, beating Young to the punch all night and using push kicks effectively to keep Young out of range to land her power shots. Granted, there might have been something to be said for the weight advantage that Carano had due to her missing weight, but I don't think that played much of a factor into it at all. Love her or hate her, Carano is a talent standing up and throwing punches and kicks and she showed it by marking up and bruising the hell out of Young's face. While I would have liked to see a third round because of how action-packed the first two rounds were, I can understand the doctor's stoppage in this fight since Young's eye was nearly swollen shut and seemed like it would only get worse. My hat goes off to Young for her gutsy performance though and she's earned a fan in me for that and for her very gracious and humble demeanor in the pre-fight hubbub.
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith, No Contest
This is where the wheels started to fall off for EliteXC a little bit. Firstly, I get that EliteXC is trying to legitimize themselves, but when Mauro Ranallo is trying to make the leap from this fight to Griffin/Bonnar in the UFC, it just makes them look like the younger brother trying anything to get attention. They should have let the fight stand on its own and then fans could have made that comparison on their own later. The fight lived up to its advance billing, with Lawler and Smith trading bombs for three rounds, with some great moments like Lawler hurting Smith with a liver shot and then shaking his head, as if to say that he's learned his lesson from Pete Sell's mistakes. Smith hurt Lawler with some good combinations of his own and we were nearly fifteen minutes into what was shaping up to be an epic twenty-five minute war, when fate reared it's ugly head. Late in the third round, Lawler pushed his hands out towards Smith and managed to stick one of his fingers into Smith's eye. While in the midst of his five-minute recovery period, Smith was alleged to have said things along the lines of "I can't see out of my eye, give me my five minutes and I'll be fine", but all that was heard was the "I can't see out of my eye" part, which led the doctor to stop the bout, before Smith's five-minute injury timeout had expired.
To me, this opens up a dangerous can of worms because Smith was being honest with the doctor in telling her that he couldn't see at that point, but that he still had his five minutes. Will fighters be as willing to be honest about injuries of that nature or any injuries at all in the future after they've seen how quickly a doctor can step in to stop a fight. Smith was crushed as it happened and was pleading with the doctor, but it was to no avail, and I can see that there could be a horrible precedent set here where fighters after this moment will be less forthcoming to the doctors that check them between rounds or during stoppages, which could lead to them risking greater injury down the road. Poor showing from the attending doctor at ringside, and a poor showing from the official in not making sure that Smith was given his full allotment of injury time. It was a shame to see it happen because this fight was on its way to becoming a knockdown, drag-out classic, a la the Griffin/Bonnar fight, but it ended up in controversy. Sadly, this wasn't the most controversial moment of the night.
Kimbo Slice "def." James Thompson
Here it is, the fight that's had the majority of the interwebs up in arms for almost a full week now. You all know how things went down and I'm only going to say that if a guy lands 25 straight unanswered elbows, no matter the strength,continues the barrage with punches afterwards, the winning fighter's own trainer says that the fight should have been stopped and his man should have lost, and STILL the fight isn't stopped, you try telling me that something isn't rotten in that equation. Gus Johnson had it spot-on when he called the stoppage at the end of the fight "horrendous" and to me, this was just a case of EliteXC robbing us of a potentially classic MMA moment. To me, I would have been much more entertained seeing James Thompson beat the odds and pull off an upset worthy of March Madness than by seeing Kimbo get handed a fight on a silver platter that he had no business winning.
The main problem that I seem to notice with EliteXC is that everything is manufactured to get to a certain point. If this fight had happened in the UFC and Thompson had been ahead at the end of the second round, I can guarantee you that there wouldn't have been a stoppage in the third unless it was warranted. The UFC always has contingency plans in place, to where it Thompson had won, they'd have billed him as a conquering hero, while Kimbo would be "fighting for his redemption" in his next match. They would have ran with the result and turned it into a positive, instead of trying jam a square peg into a round hole and forcing Kimbo down people's throats, consequences be damned. The crowd turned on Kimbo after that fight because they knew that Kimbo had been exposed and that he didn't deserve to win that fight at all, at least not in the manner he did.
That brings me to the refereeing job done by Dan Miragliotta. I have never in my life called for an official in any sporting event to be fired, but I would be more than happy to see Miragliotta lose his job over this disgraceful display. Again, you all know what happened, but to me, it seemed as if JT was fighting an uphill battle the entire night and that he would have had to knock Kimbo out, revive him and then submit him. Even still, that probably would have only earned him a draw because most of the officials involved seemed more than happy to allow Kimbo every opportunity to win this fight. The official scorecard for the fight is floating around on the 'net and it shows that a judge actually scored the second round FOR SLICE! An absolutely baffling notion if I've ever heard of one and part of what's soured me so far on the promotion. That's not even getting into Miragliotta's rotating excuse wheel, which started after the fight with "your ear is falling off" and then in an interview after the fight it was "JT was out on his feet and took a swing at me, thinking I was Kimbo". Seriously, I'd still be pissed, just not as much, if Miragliotta would just come out and say "You know what, it was a bad stoppage. I should have given the man the benefit of the doubt as I did in the first two rounds when the exact same things happened and he came back to score takedowns and nearly close the fight. I apologize for making a grandstand decision and hope that the MMA fans of the world can forgive me for my mistake." Instead, he ends up sounding like someone trying to cover for something else, and I hope that it's mainly covering for himself making a poor decision, rather than someone telling him to do what was good for the company.
As for the other aspects of the show, the production was actually pretty good, though the skanks need to go. I'm all for having beautiful women on my television, but they really didn't add anything to the show, except for lots of awkward moments where I thought I was still watching the show on Showtime and the softcore porn was coming up next. Either go all out and make them skanks that stand around looking skanky, or get real dancers who can entertain me. Trying to straddle the fence on both means you lose both ways and you get somewhat whore-ish looking women who are dancing like they're having a seizure and the floor is coursing with an electrical current. While I'm on the subject, will someone tell women that flipping their hair around like a helicopter blade isn't a dance move. If I get hit in the face with one more shock of hair at a club or a party, I'm going scalping. Ahem.
The rest of the production was good stuff and came off really polished and professional. I liked that they had the little pre-fight rundown of all the pertinent rules and fouls and things. Very good to help the casual fan to stay involved because I've had a lot of people say that their main problem with hockey is that it's exciting, but hard to follow if you don't know the rules. People who are lost watching something aren't going to be entertained and I salute CBS and EliteXC for throwing that together for the new fans of the sport. The announce team was actually really bearable and better than most of the usual EliteXC fare. If they just remind Mauro that he's there as a color man and not as a play-by-play, it would run a lot smoother. I think he may have been doing that in an effort to cover for Johnson's lack of knowledge in certain areas though, which if he was is actually a pretty cool move on his part. Speaking of Gus Johnson, for someone who has never done play-by-play for an MMA event before, he did a very good job in my eyes, and actually came off like he had done his homework and had learned as much of the sport as he could before the show.
Congratulations should also go out to EliteXC for the huge ratings success they had with the show, which has become the most-watched Mixed Martial Arts event of all time, according to the numbers given. This is a big moment for MMA in general, and EliteXC specifically, and while I wish the show had been a lot better in terms of better finishes and a decent main event, it still has seemingly helped draw a lot of new fans to the sport and that should only help the growth of the sport. The telling thing is going to be whether EliteXC can keep these ratings and possibly even improve on them in the next two or three shows, because that will go a long way towards proving if MMA has actual staying power, or is just a flavor of the month deal like poker was a few years ago. With all of that being said, I'm a fan of MMA and will support the sport and watch shows, but it's going to be a long time before I feel comfortable with watching an EliteXC show featuring Kimbo Slice again.
Random Strikes
Squiggle, news. Opinions, bold. You know how it goes, so let's dance!
§ The IFL has announced that co-founder and commissioner Kurt Otto has stepped down as commissioner of the IFL. Otto is now expected to become a matchmaker along with Shannon Knapp and Bas Rutten. The IFL has been having financial troubles as of late, even prompting CEO Jay Larkin to announce that they are looking for new business partners or to even possibly sell the promotion.
The IFL is currently on hiatus while they complete construction of the new six-sided ring called "The Hex". The IFL will return to action in August.
This is just another one of those "writing on the wall" signs that the IFL may not be long for this MMA world. It's a shame because the concept is intriguing, especially now with the camp vs. camp deal, but their shows are, for whatever reason, the most devoid of emotion and excitement that I have seen from any MMA promotion that has made it to a national level. I just can't put my finger on it, but the IFL events always seem so sterile and controlled. I hope I'm wrong, since I'm all for more big-time MMA, but I fear that I'm not and that the IFL could be gone before year's end.
§ MMAWeekly is reporting that Andre Gusmao has been added to the UFC 87 card which will take place in August in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An opponent has yet to be named. Gusmao is currently 5-0 as a pro and last fought in September of 2007 where he defeated Mike Ciesnolevicz via KO.
Gusmao is a hot prospect, who was rumored to be close to signing with the UFC just before UFC 81. He's got a ton of skills and I really enjoyed watching him fight when he was a part of Renzo Gracie's Pitbull team. He's got a ton of potential, and with there seemingly being a wide-open Light Heavyweight division in front of him, he's got a chance to make a big splash with an impressive debut win in August.
§ The WEC has announced that three titles will be on the line at the upcoming WEC 35 show on August 3rd at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit will be facing Hiromitsu Miura. Miura last fought at WEC 33 in March where he defeated Blas Avena by KO. WEC light heavyweight champion Brian Stann will be defending his title against Steve Cantwell. Stann has beaten Cantwell in the past.
Plus, as 411mania reported last week, WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner will be defending his title against Marcus Hicks.
Should be a good night of fights, but to me I see three champions walking in with their titles and three champions walking out. Hicks is on a roll, but Varner is just a little bit better in most aspects of the fight. Condit is an animal and I don't see him getting stopped any time soon, and Stann is going to be riding high on his KO of Doug Marshall while facing someone who he's previously beaten. I love the three title fight cards, both in the WEC and in the IFL, so I'll be in front of my TV on August 3rd to check it out
§ I have got word that the Chuck Liddell/Rashad Evans fight has been re-scheduled and the fight could headline UFC 88 on September 5th in Atlanta, Georgia. Liddell & Evans were suppose to face each other at UFC 85, but Liddell suffered an injury causing him to pull out of the fight.
Our own Dustin James reported this, and I have to say that if it happens, it fits right into Chuck's wheel house of facing a wrestler with a somewhat limited striking background. I'm not that jazzed about it though because I'm MUCH more interested in seeing the Shogun/Liddell match we were supposed to be getting tomorrow.
§ The Nevada State Athletic Commission has announced that all the fighters who fought at UFC 84 "Ill Will" on May 24th in Las Vegas have tested clean for drugs of abuse and performance-enhancing drugs. BJ Penn and Sean Sherk were also tested prior to the event as part of the NSAC's new year-round, random drug testing initiative.
This is the kind of news I like reporting on, because there's nothing that agitates me more than someone cheating to win in this sport. I'm happy to hear that the pre-testing is effective as well and that the random drug testing in the weeks before the event is starting to work as well.
§ During the pre-fight conference call for UFC 85 today, Matt Hughes was asked if his twin brother Mark ever plans on returning to the UFC:
"This is an unexpected question, I do know that Mark is going to sign a contract with the UFC where he won't compete for anybody else. And that'd be right here coming up. That's all I can really tell you. That's all I can really comment on. There's no fight scheduled, but he is going to sign a contract with the UFC to fight for them and nobody else."
Mark Hughes has a pro record of 6-2 and hasn't fought since 2003. His only appearance in the UFC was at UFC 28 where he scored a decision victory over Alex Stiebling.
Great, just when we thought that we were going to be rid of Hughes in the near future, we get ANOTHER ONE!! I think that just once, they should pull the Kurt and Eric Angle routine and have one of them hiding under the Octagon to swap out between rounds of a particularly tough fight. If they don't do that, this isn't really exciting to me because Mark hasn't fought anywhere in five years. Yawn.
Round Two
WEC Delivers A Great Event On A Huge Stage
EliteXC wasn't the only company that had themselves a watershed moment this past weekend, as the WEC had arguably their biggest fight and biggest event ever, and drew the largest rating they've ever had for their live events on Versus. Was it merely because of the main event being a fight that people wanted to see, or was it because there were a lot of people who had their appetites whetted for MMA on Saturday night and then came back for more? I'd lean a little more towards the first because Pulver/Faber was one of the more anticipated fights in recent memory, but I'm sure they took a little bump from being directly after one of the biggest events ever in terms of viewership. We previewed the four main card fights last week, so let's take a look at the results of those now.
Rob McCullough def. Kenneth Alexander
I've heard a lot of people say that if this fight had been the first fight on the EliteXC show that it would have been disastrous for MMA. I'll agree with that to a large extent, but honestly I don't think it mattered what EliteXC put on, because people were drawn in just as much by the spectacle as the sport. In terms of this fight, it was a boring and somewhat lackluster performance from McCullough, who merely seemed to be putting work in towards trying to better himself down the road, rather than finishing the fight. Alexander hung around, but minus a few brief moments, didn't really have anything for McCullough and this ended up looking like a sparring session that counted in the record books really. Hopefully Rob will get his shit together in time for his next fight, which if you're to believe the rumors and rumblings, he hopes will be a rematch with Jamie Varner for his WEC Lightweight Championship, if Varner can get past his first defense in August.
Mark Munoz def. Chuck Grigsby
Munoz looked like a wrestler early on, trying for his takedowns and looking fairly awkward on his feet, which didn't bode well for his chances. Somehow though, a switch got flipped and he started using beautiful, guard-passing, right hands to really punish Grigsby and then finally put him out for the stoppage. This is interesting because now, not only does Munoz have the incredible wrestling pedigree behind him, it appears he has some power now as well, which means that with a little more seasoning, we could be looking at Brian Stann's next opponent. A very smooth and impressive debut for Munoz, and it says a lot that he was able to remain composed in front of what was tantamount to a hometown crowd and get the job done in front of the biggest crowd he's ever fought before. A big win that shoots him well on his way up the rather thin WEC Light Heavyweight division.
What. A. Fight. This one got three full rounds in before Maeda's eye swelled up to the point that he was unable to see out of it. Maeda was in it the entire way, but just seemed a step slower than Torres when it came to the stand-up battle, as well as the scrambles on the mat. Torres earned every bit of this win though, as Maeda landed some solid shots of his own and even managed to cut up Torres across the nose. Torres is just too much though, running his record to 34-1 and managing to get some interesting debate going about whether there could be a potential champion vs. champion fight in the making between him and the current WEC Featherweight Champ, Urijah Faber. This was an exciting fight that had a decisive finish and if this fight and one following had been on primetime on Saturday night instead of Smith/Lawler and L'affaire de Kimbo, MMA could have been blown up huge with the amount of excitement generated by these two men and by the two men who gave their all in the main event.
The main event delivered twenty-five minutes of MMA that was everything the sport should be about. Two great fighters standing toe-to-toe and deciding who is the better man at the end of it, while giving each other all of the respect in the world for the fight they had endured. Jens Pulver gets a ton of credit from me for accepting the fight and stepping into the jaws of the shark to fight Urijah in his hometown. I'm sure that this fight could have easily taken place at one of the bigger arenas in Las Vegas, but Pulver had to know that by having it in Sacramento, it would help elevate the profile of the champion, the challenger, and the event, as well as providing the company with their biggest show to date. Well it was a definite yes on all accounts as Faber looked like a million bucks in the win, Pulver showed a ton of heart and skill in the loss and seems like he may still have a little gas left in his tank at 145, the event ended up being huge because a great crowd came out to see their hometown hero in the main event, and the promotion itself looks huge because they gained a ton of new fans, both live and on television, and they look big league now because they've been able to take their show on the road twice this year and draw huge crowds on both occasions.
Onto the fight itself, the scariest thing that came out of this fight is that Faber, the guy thought of as a great wrestler and ground fighter, now can add dangerous stand-up and punching power to his list of skills as well. He's never really had to show his stand-up skills in the WEC like he did against Pulver, but they are there and they are plentiful. His footwork was spot-on all night, except for the odd off-balance moments, and his head movement was superb as he used it to avoid most of Jens' heavy shots for the night. He had great combinations working for him the entire fight and showed that he had a great left hand, using it to bruise and swell the right side of Jens' face to the point that during the fifth round, he had Jens reaching for the bruise and grimacing after every punch.
Now, what this does to the rest of the division is probably two-fold. One, they realize that they'll have to wait for Faber to tire of being champion before any of them are able to get a sniff of it. Faber is probably the most well-rounded and talented fighter that there is because he's shown that he can wrestle with amateur champions and that he can stand with a former professional boxer and that the result will still be the same. Two, they now realize that someone is going to have to get lucky to catch Pulver on a bad night, or they'll have to fight the fight of a lifetime, with complete perfection and not a single mistake. As if the pressure wasn't enough in being the challenger for a major championship, but now when you add to that the extra pressure of feeling like you have to fight perfectly, without any mistakes, to win? That makes it an incredibly daunting task just to step into the cage with "The California Kid".
As usual, the camera work and announcing was great as it has been for all of the WEC events since they began their partnership with Versus and I can't wait to see their next event this August.
El Guapo Says...
The greatest fighter to ever live hasn't graced the column in a while, so I figured I'd pull him out on this special occasion. What's the occasion you ask? Well, that comes later, but for now, enjoy Bas at his finest.
El Guapo says!!! Godspeed and party on!!!
Bas Rutten vs. Frank Shamrock – Pancrase: Truth 5
And once more, just because it's awesome and it continually cracks me up (and mainly because I can't find Bas dancing to YMCA anymore), here's Bas' cameo in GTA:IV
Bas in the Men's Room
Round Three
UFC 85's On Tap For Saturday Afternoon
The UFC has taken their Octagon across the Atlantic again, and after all of the changes this card has gone through, it's almost hard to remember who is fighting on it. The main event, after Shogun/Liddell was called off and after Liddell/Evans was called off, is now set to be a Welterweight eliminator fight between Matt Hughes and Thiago Alves, and we're also going to be seeing Michael Bisping, Nathan Marquardt and Thales Lietes among others. Let's check out the card and see what I think about things.
Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick
This one should be a LOT of fun as both guys have shown the ability to finish fights quickly and both guys can do it either with their fists or with submission skills on the mat. Swick is going to be trying to remove the bitter taste from his mouth that his debut fight at 170 left as he plodded his way to a decision against Josh Burkman at UFC Fight Night 12. He's got a tough test in front of him though, as Marcus Davis is trying to put together one or two more wins to get himself into title contention. Davis hasn't lost since his reinvention as a fighter, over three years ago. Eleven straight wins have "The Irish Hand Grenade" ready to assert himself near the top of the division and looking to get a title shot in 2009. As much as I like both fighters, I think that Davis is just a little bit stronger at this weight class in terms of being comfortable in it, and I think that Swick is still trying to adjust, which is going to cause him some problems. Swick puts up a great fight, and this one has the potential to be a war, but I think that Davis is going to use his superior boxing and clip Swick on the chin, probably in the second round.
Michael Bisping vs. Jason Day
Bisping is looking to continue to make a name for himself in his new weight class and Day is going to try to be the guy that can finally take Bisping out and stop him, in front of his hometown crowd no less. Day is explosive, but Bisping looked great at middleweight in his fight against Charles McCarthy at UFC 83. Hedoesn't look like he sustained much damage at all, which bodes very well for him when it comes to stepping back into the cage so quickly. Day also fought at UFC 83 and scored a TKO victory over the always-tough Alan Belcher. To me, this fight is going to come down to Bisping's experience and home-field advantage, as both are probably going to do a bit of a psych job on Day and leave him open to Bisping picking him apart on the feet a bit before he takes Day down and inflicts a little bodily harm, ground and pound style. Day has submission skills, but I don't think that he's going to be slick enough to catch Bisping and that means that Bisping should be coming out on top in this one.
Brandon Vera vs. Fabricio Werdum
Two fighters seemingly at a crossroads in the sparse UFC Heavyweight Division, as Werdum comes off of his big win over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 80 and steps back into the cage in England to face off against heavyweight prospect, Brandon "The Truth" Vera. Vera suffered a bit of a setback in his last fight, a decision loss to Tim Sylvia that slowed a bit of his momentum as he was thought of as the next great hope for the division. Werdum does well on the mat, but the thing of it is that he's going to have trouble getting this fight to the mat with Vera's size and strength. Vera is going to keep things standing, learn from the Sylvia fight and keep his distance well and use his striking with his fists and knees to keep Werdum on the defensive for the length of the fight. Vera gets a big win in impressive fashion and gets himself right back into the hunt for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, possibly even earning himself a shot after Frank Mir, since there's nothing going in the division at the moment.
Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Doesn't seem like too much of a co-main event for a UFC PPV does it? Marquardt is going to be trying to re-solidify himself as the number-one challenger to Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva's throne and getting past Leites is going to be a good way to do it. Marquardt looked impressive in his win over Jeremy Horn at UFC 81 and with 185 looking a little thin, he could end up being the guy that gets another chance to take the belt from Silva after Anderson is done swatting Yushin Okami. Leites has been working his way up the UFC ladder too, winning three straight fights after his debut loss to Martin Kampmann. While these two may not be "name" fighters, this is going to be a really good ground battle and it's just going to come down to who is going to catch the other guy first. For some reason, I see Marquardt being able to get a hold on Leites and slip him in a submission, or just being able to use top position to ride out a decision. I mean, it's all a bit moot to think about when you see that the winner is probably next in line on the Anderson Silva Destruction World Tour, but still, it's a big fight for both guys and they should both come out guns blazing.
Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Another big fight as both guys are going to be looking for the win, obviously, but for differing reasons though. Alves is viewing himself as being part of the new guard in the UFC and thinks that this is his time to shine and that Matt Hughes has had his day in the sun and that it's time for him to step aside or be forced aside by some punches and kicks. Hughes is looking to prove that he still has something left after his devastating loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 79, and he's also going to be wanting a win here as he's due to fight Matt Serra, win, lose or draw, and I don't think he wants to go into a fight of that magnitude with two losses in a row to his name.
To me, this looks like a fight that Alves is going to have trouble winning. When he fought Spencer Fisher at Ultimate Fight Night 2, he had trouble with Fisher's wrestling and we all know how his bout against Jon Fitch went at Ultimate Fight Night 5. Hughes still has the strongest wrestling base of anyone in the division not named GSP, and he's going to be taking down Alves and dropping hard elbows with bad intentions on them at the first chance he gets. I think Alves is going to obviously have to use his sprawl to keep the fight on the feet where it's to his advantage, but at the same time, he should also look to throw some knees as Hughes is shooting in like Hermes Franca did with success in his fight with Sean Sherk. If Alves can catch Hughes with a knee with all of his weight behind it while Hughes is coming in with all of HIS weight charging forward, it could be pretty devastating and enough to allow Alves to get on top and pound out a stoppage. Outside of that though, this one looks like it's going to go much like the fights against Fisher and Fitch, with Hughes working top position for nearly all of the fight and riding out a decision win.
All in all, this looks like one of the more competitive cards in recent memory, with every fight being a fairly close call. Despite the lack of big names, this should be a dandy and I know I can't wait for Saturday afternoon. Remember that Larry will have you covered for the live PBP of the PPV on Saturday, beginning at 3pm EST/Noon PST.
Affliction Continues To Stir The Pot And Make Noise Doing It
The MMA promotion that can't stop making news has made more of it this week as at a press conference in New York City, Donald Trump announced that he was going to become an equity partner in Affliction's Mixed Martial Arts venture. In what seems to be an "anything you can do, I can do better" move with fellow billionaire Mark Cuban, Trump is now going to be backing a promotion that has amassed one of the larger talent pools in the heavyweight division that has ever been seen.
With the heavyweight division coming up, the other large portion of news made by Afflliction this week was the official announcement of the signing of Andrei Arlovski to a three-fight deal, with the first of those fights to come on July 19th in Anaheim against Ben Rothwell. This was one of the worst-kept secrets in MMA for some time now, but those involved continued to rigidly deny the reports until finally confirming them yesterday. Whether that was to allow for the finer details of a contract to be hammered out, or whether it was just delaying for dramatic effect, the fact remains that Arlovski is now a part of Affliction and we could be possibly looking at an Arlovski/Fedor fight down the road if Arlovski can regain the killer instinct and form that we saw on his brutal march to the UFC Heavyweight Championship. A good signing for the company, though one has to wonder just how deep the budget for the roster is, even with the Donald seemingly manning the purse strings now. If the throw all their money into the fighters, and don't market the show properly, they're going to end up drowning in the red ink. No supercard in with world can just draw on its own without promotion, and if they can't get some good numbers out of the PPV's this could be a situation where they don't survive many more than one or two events.
There have also been rumblings from the press conference that Donald Trump is looking to team up with his former Apprentice protege, Tito Ortiz to bring him on board to the Affliction promotion. Ortiz was quoted on Howard Stern earlier in the week as saying that he was looking to start his own MMA promotion, but I have a feeling that his friendship with Trump, and Trump's rather large wallet is going to do some talking and Ortiz could be under the Affliction banner before too long. There are some interesting match-ups that could come out of his signing, with potential matches with Vitor Belfort, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, or perhaps even a wrestler vs. wrestler match with Matt Lindland moving up in weight. While this is good for the top of the card, Afflicition is going to have to scout for talent pretty hard to fill up the bottom of their card because there are a ton of MMA promotions that have their feet dipping in the talent pool and the skimmings are starting to get a little thin. Much like Affliction isn't going to do well unless their PPV numbers do well, their PPV's will only do as well as their talent pool will let them.
If the cards after this first stacked show end up featuring one or two big fights and ten fights worth of ham and eggers, then there's going to be a definite problem. Before all the people think that I'm just going into this with some sort of blind bias towards the UFC and that I somehow don't think that the UFC is guilty of the same thing, they are. There have been occasions where they have put on terrible cards but the difference between the UFC and Affliction is that the UFC has branded themselves so deeply into the grain of MMA that the UFC name alone probably makes for a hundred thousand buys easily. Affliction is a clothing line, that despite being a known commodity in the MMA world because of that clothing, has no real pedigree when it comes to promotion of events, MMA or otherwise. They are going to have a tough sell after this first card if the talent isn't there, and even if it is, they could still be swimming upstream if they aren't able to keep fans interested for more than a single card chock full of great matches.
Random Strikes Part Deux
UFC 85 Fight Video Preview
With another UFC event on the horizon, it's time for another crop of fight videos to get everyone ready for a big afternoon of fights from across the pond!
Matt Hughes vs. Jorge Perreira – WEF 8: Goin' Platinum
Thiago Alves vs. Marcus Davis – Hardcore Fighting Championships 2, Round One
Thiago Alves vs. Marcus Davis – Hardcore Fighting Championships 2, Round Two
Thiago Alves vs. Marcus Davis – Hardcore Fighting Championships 2, Round Three
Nathan Marquardt vs. Steve Gomm – IFC: Global Domination
Fabricio Werdum vs. Aleksander Emelianenko – 2 Hot 2 Handle: Pride and Honor
Brandon Vera Highlight Video
Round Five
This Is The End, My Only Friend, The End (Sniff, sniff)
The Usual TUF Stuff ends up taking a bit of a back seat this week, but if you're itching to find out what happened and haven't checked it out already, I've linked to Lambert's excellent report on the show, so he'll have you covered. This week, I'm going to be a little selfish and take the fifth round up for myself and I hope you'll all allow me the moment to get some thoughts out.
Well, I promised an announcement of sorts in last week's column and here it is. As you all may well know, there haven't been any video reviews or other report-type goodness this week from yours truly, and that's because I've been slowly ramping down my duties here as I'm going to be leaving the 411mania.com MMA zone after this column to take my "expertise" over to the fine people at nokaut.com. I may be back from time to time down the road to offer up my two cents here and there on a variety of topics, but for the most part, this will be the last you'll be seeing of me in the MMA zone. It's bittersweet for me because I'm moving on to a different site where I'll be getting a wonderful opportunity, but it's still difficult to leave after having made some good friends here at the site in a little less than eight months.
First of all, I'd like to thank Ashish and former editor Caleb for taking a shot on me and hiring me on to begin with. I've never written anything before for public consumption like this and I just figured I'd end up getting shot down and I'd just continue reading the site like the fan I was and still am. For whatever reason though, they saw something in me and took me on as a video reviewer and a short time later, I had worked my way up to getting a nice weekly news column. I appreciate the chance you guys gave me, and I'm happy for my time that I've put in here as it's been the most fun I've had working at something in my entire life.
Next, I want to give a thank you to Larry Csonka for taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes when I was a new guy here at the site. It would have been rather easy for someone to just brush off a new guy and not have time for them, but Larry was always around for questions to be answered or advice to be given and for someone who didn't have a ton of confidence in their writing ability to begin with, it was a great deal of help. He took me on as a pet project or protege and really helped me along through the rough early patches of my writing career here at 411mana.com. He takes a lot of grief from people who visit the site sometimes, but it's completely undeserved in my eyes because he's one of the guys that helped build this place into the awesome site that it is today. Probably the hardest thing I had to do was to break it to the Boss that I was going to be leaving, because he's someone that I consider a friend as well as a colleague and I didn't want to seem like I was abandoning him or letting him down. In Larry-like fashion, just as he was when I started, he was totally supportive and has told me that I'd be welcomed back with open arms to the zone, should my new opportunity not pan out like I hope it will. Of course, he's also told me to expect a hazing if I have to come back, so I'm expecting it to be a lot like when Homer had to go back and ask Mr. Burns for his job after he had quit the nuclear power plant if I end up coming back someday. I know he'll probably be pissed at me for ruining his gimmick as a curmudgeonly tyrant, ruling with an iron fist, but Larry, it's been a pleasure working for you and I'm glad to call you a friend. You're one of the good ones in this world and I have a ton of respect for you.
To the rest of the writers that I've had the pleasure of working with, either in Roundtables, Fact or Fictions, or any of the other deals that we've come up with in this crazy MMA zone in the past few months, thanks for everything. You guys bust ass and deliver the content and even though I won't be writing in the zone anymore, I'll still be reading everything that you guys put out because it's all quality work. Keep on keepin' on and good luck to all of you moving forward.
Post Fight Wrap-Up
Well, that does it for me and for my tenure here in the MMA zone. I'm sure I'm grossly overstating my importance and I hope that you were all able to bear through my moment of self-indulgence, but I wanted to make sure that the people that helped me break in and the people I had the pleasure of working with were acknowledged publicly. Thanks to all of you for reading week in and week out and whether you loved me or hated me, agreed or disagreed, I appreciate all of you who left feedback and comments or took the few seconds to drop an e-mail my way. Sometimes when you're writing for a website and there's no central office, you can feel like you're working within your own bubble and you forget that what you're doing is actually being read and enjoyed and debated on by others. Again, I thank you all for stopping by every week to see what I'd come up with and I'll see you all around when I see you. Goodnight 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.
Damn, congrats on the new job - this column has always been the best MMA column on the site and i for one am going to miss it.
Posted By: Craig (Guest) on June 06, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Randy - Congrats and good luck.
Posted By: Kuch (Guest) on June 06, 2008 at 09:36 AM
Matt Hughes by murder
Posted By: MBD (Guest) on June 06, 2008 at 01:07 PM
Dan Miragliotta doesn't work for EliteXC, he works for the state of New Jersey so the "good of the company" idea goes out the window.
That being said, anybody who lives in NJ knows our government well enough to suspect corruption in the Athletic Comission.
Posted By: KSTi (Guest) on June 06, 2008 at 01:15 PM
"fighters after this moment will be less forthcoming to the doctors that check them between rounds or during stoppages"
Proof of that the next night in the Pulver/Faber fight. Pulver accidentally caught a finger in the eye, and after informing the ref about the eye poke, he nearly immediately said he was fine. It could be coincidence, but it looked like the eye gave him some more problems in later rounds.
Also, I think we can all agree that Thomson slapping the ref was probably more for the bullshit calls than it was him thinking the ref was Kimbo.
Good luck with the new Job Randy
Posted By: Toddo (Registered) on June 06, 2008 at 02:12 PM
I say next time Elite is on I will watch something else. Bush league!
Posted By: T-Mac (Guest) on June 06, 2008 at 03:18 PM
