Posts from — July 2009

If you’ve trained in a gi for any length of time then you’ve encountered this problem. Leave it to the Gracies to have a technique for every situation.

M-1 Global officials are denying this report in the L.A. Times that Fedor Emelianenko has inked a deal with the UFC. “I can give you a guarantee it’s not accurate,” Apy Echteld of M-1 Global, the Russia-based promotion and management company of which Emelianenko is an equity stakeholder, told Sports Illustrated.

Echteld declined to comment on negotiations between M-1 Global and the UFC, which are rumored to be taking place Tuesday in Los Angeles. He pointed to a press conference Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif., for “important” news on Emelianenko’s fate.

Accurate? Or is this just a way to throw us off the scent and cover up a leak, especially considering UFC president Dana White would probably love to deliver the news of Fedor’s signing at his own press conference, like the one he has planned for Friday.

MMA picks and random insanity from Eddie Bravo buddy Joey Karate.

Okay, let’s assume for a moment that all this talk of Fedor Emelianenko signing a UFC contract is just that, talk. Or assume it isn’t talk and that Fedor fights Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight crown and loses for like the first time ever. Who, besides Fedor and perhaps Optimus Prime, can dethrone Lesnar?

Consider – 18 months ago Lesnar was a WWE poster boy and real fighter wannabe. Now, he’s 4-1 and no one is doubting that he’s the real deal. He has freakish physical gifts beyond a dimension that has to be starved to qualify as a heavyweight. The former NCAA wrestling champion is a juggernaut, like the Rhino from those old Spider-man cartoons (minus the horn of course), with explosive speed, Mack truck takedowns, vicious ground-and-pound and the unique ability to remove horseshoes from assholes. He ruined Frank Mir, Randy Couture and Heath Herring. And he’s only getting better. Five fights into his MMA career, he’s still learning, still growing. The “gimme” kneebar he offered  Mir in their first encounter will never happen again.

Seriously, rip the sword off his chest and slap it into his hand and he’s a goddamn Frank Frezetta ‘roid nightmare! Which begs the question: Who can solve the Lesnar puzzle? And more importantly, who wants to climb in the cage and really take that shot? Who has the steel in his guts, the resolve in his heart to go toe-to-toe with him?

Contestant No. 1: Cain Velasquez (6-0), a heavy-handed puncher and top wrestler whose biggest test was a gut-check victory over Cheick Kongo at UFC 99 that saw Velasquez weather the storm of Kongo’s sledgehammer right hand to win the fight on the ground. He might be able to match Lesnar’s wrestling, but can he handle his size? Let’s see how he does against the Lesnar-like Shane Carwin at UFC 104 first.

Contestant No. 2: Shane Carwin (11-0), a physical presence as imposing as Lesnar’s, one-punch knockout power and nasty ground-and-pound. Like Velasquez vs. Kongo, Carwin was rocked early by Gabriel Gonzaga before landing a lunchbox right of his own. Also a former college wrestler, meaning he matches up well with Lesnar.

Contestant No. 3: Junior Dos Santos (8-1), a kickboxer with knockout power (ask Fabricio Werdum), all eight of his wins have come in the first round. Again, his big test will come at UFC 103 when he meets Mirko Cro Cop. But at age 25, seven years younger than Lesnar, there’s no rush to challenge for top spot.

Contestant No. 4: Mirko Cro Cop (25-6-2, 1 NC), not really in the same league any more, but you can never count out a well-timed head kick from the Croation sensation. Depends on whether he still has the fire inside to want to be the champion. Again, his UFC 103 bout with Dos Santos will tell us a lot.

Contestant No. 5: Antonio Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 NC), PRIDE legend, BJJ wizard, tons of experience, a chin of granite and a heart the size of Brazil. He’s fought and beaten more-skilled fighters than Lesnar and he’s done it while dishing out and taking a shitload of punishment. And he doesn’t need a “gimme” to submit anybody. Minotauro meets Randy Couture at UFC 102, which should tell us just how much he has left in the tank.

In the end, though, I think the best tactic may be for these fighters to employ a few pro wrestling tactics, hit him across the back with a folding chair, maybe tagteam him. Or they can bet on Fedor to beat Lesnar and then worry about how to beat him. Of course, in that scenario, Lesnar becomes he gatekeeper of th heavyweight division, meaning all roads to the title lead through him.

A Fight Network-produced look at Affliction, from images of death on T-shirts to deadly knockouts to death throes to just plain dead.

Okay, this is weird. Yesterday I posted a blurb about UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva’s boxing aspirations and how he wants to fight Roy Jones Jr. Old news, I thought. Very old. But it was an excuse to put up this clip of Silva boxing that I’d come across.

Except today I come across a story on the Fighters Only site that makes the Silva vs. Jones story very new.

“It is undoubted that I will face Roy Jones,” he’s quoted as saying. “We have talked too much, have signed some contracts and we want to make it the sooner the better. It’s not for money or spotlight, it’s for my desire. I watch Roy Jones since he competed as an amateur and in the Olympic Games. I’m looking forward to this fight to put in the ring everything I know, to show my students in the future that I understand what I may say over this or that and don’t seem a pirate parrot.”

Okay, I’m not sure what he means by “pirate parrot.” I’m pretty sure that’s more of a translation issue from Portuguese to English. As for indicating that some contracts have been signed, who knows? Sounds kind of hinky.

But Silva’s desire is certainly there. He’s got four fights on his UFC contract including his UFC 101 bout with Forrest Griffin, so any boxing match is still a year-and-a-half or more away. And that’s not considering the infamous “champion’s clause” in his contract which enables the UFC to extend his contract indefinitely and at their discretion if he is the champion at the end of his existing contract. And I can’t imagine Silva being allowed to just walk away from the UFC after just four more fights.

The L.A. Times is quoting an unnamed source claiming that Fedor Emelianenko has signed a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The story goes on to state that it’s expected UFC president Dana White will announce the deal at a Friday press conference. Unless Fedor beats him to the punch since he has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday in Anaheim, CA. (the L.A. Times makes no mention of this presser).

Unnamed source? Hate those. But the deal has been all but inevitable since Affliction folded last week. Now we can start tearing apart the Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar heavyweight bout that White has always said would be the Russian’s first fight in the UFC. So, who’s gonna win? Well, besides the fans who have been clamoring to see Fedor in the UFC for years.

What do you do when you fail a drug test that results not only in your being pulled from the biggest fight of your career but also leads to the downfall of the organization that you were supposed to fight for? You turn to wrestling, that’s what.

Josh Barnett, whose positive test for steroids was the last nail in Affliction’s coffin, has agreed to wrestle in Japan’s Inoki Genome Federation, according to MMA Fanhouse. The 31-year-old heavyweight contender is no stranger to the IGF, as you can see in the clip below. MMA gets Brock Lesnar, I guess it’s only fair pro wrestling gets Barnett.

UFC veteran Jeff Joslin knows the ups and downs of being a pro mixed martial artist. He’s a really good guy and he’s also got a pretty good sense of humour about what he does. He takes the job seriously, not himself, which is a good attitude to have. Take, for example, his latest blog entry over at JeffJoslinmma.com, where he writes about the “5 Downfalls to being a UFC fighter.”

In a nutshell (although I recommend you clicking on over there to read all of them), there’s the unwanted and utterly useless advice from complete strangers (“Do more squats!”), the “my face is not as pretty as it used to be” problem, and the fact that being a professional fighter is not an automatic ticket to picking up chicks. Really, Jeff? It’s not? I find that one a little hard to swallow, but if you say so, although maybe it has a little bit to do with that whole unpretty face problem. Just saying.

If there’s one certainty in Forrest Griffin’s light heavyweight bout with Anderson Silva at UFC 101, it’s that Griffin’s book, Got Fight? 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat, will sell a few more copies as a result.

“I don’t think they’re actually going to let him kill me,” Griffin has joked a few times. “And if he does kills me, book sales will really go up. Boom…win-win, bitch.” (BTW, it’s a great fuckin’ book, way funnier than anything I’ve ever read, like the Bible or the Kama Sutra.)

And if he happens to beat Silva, well, “I’ll probably just never fight again. I’ll probably just retire, and say I was the greatest ever. Fuck all you, bitches.”

And that’s what we love about Griffin, his jockish self-deprecating, no bullshit attitude and willingness to say what everybody else is thinking. That and his empty-the-tank fighting style and willingness to put his face on the line. “If you think about what a bad dude Anderson Silva is, you can fuck yourself silly,” Griffin told MMA Weekly. “He’s gonna hit you. You’re gonna miss him, and he’s going to hit you again. But you’ve got to keep pressure, keep moving. Once you close the distance, make it count for something. Go in, get hit, and then change your angle and go again. Look for the takedown, look to drive up against the fence.”

It’s the kind of strategy that could get ugly, especially if you’re on the receiving end of Silva’s precision strikes (Rich Franklin’s face, anyone?). That means taking Silva to the ground and punishing him. “Yeah, I’ve got to get on top of him, no doubt,” said Griffin. “I’ve gotta find a way to get him on the ground, make him carry my weight on the fence, on the ground, be heavy on him, hang on him. Otherwise, I’m just a big slow guy. I’ve gotta use the weight.”

And now that I think of it, there are actually two certainties in the Griffin/Silva fight – Griffin, the scrappy, swing-for-the-fences former 205-pound champ, will make the elusive and occasionally very cautious Silva fight back. Silva’s last two fights at middleweight were snoozes, especially the most recent against Thales Leites that almost had Leites napping on the mat, and not in a “I didn’t tap fast enough and now he’s choked me out” kind of way. Two boring fights and UFC president Dana White sends him packing to the next weight class up, pitting him against a fighter who isn’t afraid to mix it up.

And Griffin is no walkover. He will have the size advantage and being the underdog – as everyone is against Silva – has always worked for him. When he’s the favourite, as he was against Keith Jardine or Rashad Evans, it hasn’t turned out well. If he can keep his composure, not get too aggressive, which will only open the door for mistakes, he’s got a chance to give Silva a run for his money. Silva is a tactician who looks for weakness to exploit, openings to penetrate, Griffin just needs to take those away from him, frustrate him.

Was about to end this post when I came across an interview with Griffin over on MMA Fanhouse. I’m going to excerpt a little of it here just because it’s so damn entertaining (and I know you lazy clods can’t be bothered clicking on over to some other site and to be honest I’d rather you stick around Fighting Words anyway).

Griffin on a re-match with Tito Ortiz: Yeah, I think me and Tito would be a good fight. I think it would be a good seller. I know I want to fight him; I’m pretty sure he wants to fight me. So I think there’d be two guys with pretty decent names that could maybe put some asses in seats.

Griffin ranks Silva as the best pound-for-pound fighter above Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St-Pierre. On where he’d rank himself: Um … just under Bob Sapp.

On whether he’d ever do a pool jump stunt like BJ Penn did: If I jump out of a pool, I’m coming out naked wearing only a cock ring. So I mean, I would be the ultimate Internet sensation.

On who he’d like to fight before he retires: My fantasy is to fight Kenny Powers. Kenny Powers is probably the guy that I most pattern myself after.