Posts from — August 2009

I don’t have a whole lot to say right now about Wednesday’s announcement that Brett “The Grim” Rogers will be the first to fight Fedor Emelianenko in a yet-to-be-determined Strikeforce bout this fall. Too much UFC 102 stuff on my mind.

But these quotes from Rogers himself over at Five Ounces of Pain are worth sharing because it’s almost the weekend and we should start it with a smile.

The first is typical chest-puffing, while the second is, well, see for yourself:

“I’m going to knock him out. He’s going to give me his chin, somehow, someway. He’s going to get sloppy with that overhand right that he loves to do or he’ll try to shoot in for a takedown, and I’ll catch him with either a knee or an uppercut … something. I’m going to drop him. I want the crowd to go (gasp). I want to get that reaction out of people. So I can’t wait.”

“[If I beat Fedor] I’m God then. I’m the god of MMA. I’ll become the god of MMA, right? Isn’t that how it goes? I’m the soul snatcher; I’m The Grim. I’ll take all his wins and put them under my belt, and then everybody can just hush up.”

I think this is worth it’s own post: At Thursday’s UFC 102 pre-fight press conference UFC president Dana White said he stopped doing his video blogs because he felt bad that he was being shown talking about his $500 jeans and designer suits and private birthday parties with the Stone Temple Pilots and driving in fancy cars and flying in jets.

“It’s not the right time for what’s going on in the world right now to be doing the blogs. Let me put it this way. I’ve been very fortunate and have a very fortunate life . . . Other people aren’t that fortunate,” he said.

Umm, Dana? You could put whatever you want in the vlogs, like not showing the extravagant lifestyle you have. Fans just want to see behind-the-scenes of the UFC, not how much money you have. And that still doesn’t explain why you had all your previous vlogs taken down. So what gives?

UFC president Dana White revealed a few tidbits (of varying degrees of interest) at Thursday’s UFC 102 pre-fight pres conference. To wit:

The UFC would be holding a pay per view event in Vancouver’s GM Place will likely host a UFC card in June of 2010, roughly two months after April’s now-regular event in Montreal.

White has changed his “Strike-farce” tune of a month ago, saying, “I’m not anti-Strikeforce. I don’t dislike those guys. I dislike Showtime. That’s who I dislike. They’ve been second-rate at boxing. They’ve been second-rate at programming, and now they think they’re great at mixed martial arts. My fight is with them, not with Strikeforce.”

White hinted at a new broadcast partner – UFC 106 won’t be a pay-per-view nor a Spike broadcast, he said – but it won’t be HBO. So, does that mean ESPN? Maybe VERSUS?

The UFC will be putting on three shows a month in 2010. For those of you who are bad at math, that’s 36 events.

Expect new lighter weight classes to be added to the UFC “and probably real soon.” Featherweight and bantamweight divisions are obvious additions.

Zuffa owns both the UFC and WEC and a merger between the two promotions is again being talked about, which makes sense considering the aforementioned additional weight classes.

Don’t expect a women’s division any time soon, though. “In making a good female fight, Carano and ‘Cyborg‘ were probably the best two you could have, and I don’t think that fight was at UFC level.” (Ed. Note: if that wasn’t UFC level, then what is?)

As expected, Antonio Rogerio “Little Nog” Nogueira, the light heavyweight twin brother of heavyweight Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, is confirmed as signed to a UFC contract. Little Nog is a PRIDE FC veteran with notable wins over Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, Kazushi Sakuraba, Guy Mezger and Kazuhiro Nakamura.

White is taking a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to who will fight middleweight champ Anderson Silva next. It looked like Dan Henderson was first in line but White is saying he wants to see how UFC 102’s bout between Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt shakes out.

Just don’t expect Silva to face welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre in a super-fight. “I think he’s too big for Georges.” White also wants to keep GSP in the welterweight mix (which is looking a little anemic at the moment).

On the other hand, he didn’t rule out Randy Couture dropping back down to 205 pounds to face Silva, depending on how Couture’s fight with Minotauro Nogueira plays out on Saturday.

White could also see Couture fighting light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida.

Middleweights Denis Kang and Michael Bisping will be the co-main event at UFC 105, also as expected.

A couple of weeks ago I reported that Diego Sanchez would fight BJ Penn for the UFC lightweight strap in December. I got the news straight from Sanchez’s coach and BJJ instructor/competitor extraordinaire Saulo Ribeiro.

Well, UFC president Dana White confirmed yesterday that the bout is in the works for UFC 106. No date’s been given but with UFC 105 expected for November 14 in Manchester, England, then December seems likely (although there’s another rumour it may actually be a week later on November 21 in Las Vegas).

As for the rest of the card, Brock Lesnar will defend his heavyweight belt against Shane Carwin, the returning Tito Ortiz faces Mark Coleman, Karo Parisyan ends his painkiller suspension to meet Dustin Hazelett, Jon Fitch takes on Ricardo Almeida and Kenny Florian will look to bounce back from his loss to Penn by challenging Energizer bunny Clay Guida.

Of course, any of those fights are subject to change, but right now that is one huge card. Add to that the fact that White stated that the card will not be a pay-per-view and not air free on Spike TV. What does that leave? The long-rumoured network TV deal White has been drooling over?

Two weeks out from her loss to Cris “Cyborg” Santos at Strikeforce and Gina Carano is finally giving her thoughts on the fight. Here’s what she posted on her MySpace page:

I wanted to take time to collect my thoughts and speak from the heart rather than spew out some cliché anecdote about a tough loss. I know I am a better fighter than the way I performed that night and was heartbroken to not give more to those who have been inspired. However, I find some relief in knowing that this has never been only about me, and now more than ever I feel freedom to learn and grow at my own pace. I make it a point to constantly remind myself throughout this journey who I am, what I am doing, and why. Life is the most amazing gift and I want to live it for the right reasons. To my family, coaches, management… thank you from the bottom of my heart for believing in me, loving and encouraging me. Also a special thanks to the fans who support me from their computers at home, watch me on television and scream for me in the stadiums. Because of you, barriers have been broken down and you have inspired me to believe in a larger dream. Congratulations to Cris Cyborg and the women of MMA who have a great platform to shine. I am more excited than ever for female fighters and this amazing sport which has transformed my life. God Bless.

Not sure what else I expected her to say. She’s still the sweet, beautiful face of women’s MMA. Although a little edge post-loss would’ve been refreshing.

Saturday’s UFC 102 main event will be like a couple of slabs of Mount Rushmore colliding.

In one corner, five-time UFC champion and hall-of-famer Randy Couture. In the other, former Pride FC and UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira. A combined professional MMA record of 47-14-1.

It’s a match-up that won’t have much impact on the UFC heavyweight division. But who cares? It’s Ali-Frazier time as two ageing warhorses slug it out for pride, relevancy, bragging rights, a paycheck, just to see if they still can, whatever.

Couture has a modest 16-9 pro record, including 13-6 in the UFC. But he’s almost always faced top-level opponents, including nine current or former champions, against whom he is 7-6. Couture has never lost to someone who wasn’t a belt holder at one time or another. And he’s fought for or defended a title 15 times in two different weight classes. His last fight was a loss to current heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar at UFC 91. Oh yeah, Couture’s also undefeated in fights that go the distance, so it’s in Nogueira’s best interest to keep it out of the judges’ hands.

While Couture is legendary, Nogueira is a fucking mythic. He’s a submissions miracle worker with a granite chin and a heart the size of Brazil. When he was 10 years old he was run over by a fucking truck and hospitalized for 11 months – there’s a very visible chunk of flesh missing from his back as a result. The truck was a total write-off. Big Nog’s not always the victor, but he’s a goddamn survivor.

Minotauro has nearly twice as many pro bouts as Couture at 31-5-1 (2-1 in the UFC, with wins over Heath Herring and Tim Sylvia back when they mattered). Like Couture, he’s always faced the best of the division – he’s fought eight current or former Pride or UFC champions and has a 5-5-1 record against them. And he’s never lost two fights in a row.

As I said, he’s a jiu-jitsu wizard (19 of his wins have been by submission) with an inhuman ability to absorb punishment and overcome adversity. He wins ugly, taking punishment and appearing on the verge of defeat – being kicked in the head by Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic or piledrived (piledriven?) onto his head by Bob Sapp, for example – only to pull a submission out of thin air. Of course, there’s questions about the toll the abuse has taken, especially after being TKO’ed by Frank Mir at UFC 92, the first knockout loss of Big Nog’s career. (Not to make excuses but it was subsequently revealed that Nogueira was suffering from a serious knee injury and staph infection going into the Mir fight.)

So who wins? Let’s break it down.

Couture is 46 and Nog is 33. No matter how good a shape Couture is in, or how many miles Nogueira has on him, the years have to catch up eventually. Nog also has a slight size advantage, a couple inches in height and upwards of 20 pounds, which is crucial when you consider that all three of Couture’s UFC heavyweight losses were at the hands of bigger, stronger grapplers or wrestlers: Brock Lesnar, Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett, none of whom are on the same planet skills-wise as Nogueira. While Couture is an Olympic-level wrestler, he’ll be in deep water if the fight goes to the ground.

So the battle will be decided standing up (even if it doesn’t end there). Couture has good dirty boxing – he put on a clinic when he fought Tim Sylvia – but Nogueira is a great boxer who works with Freddie Roach, who trains Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquaio.

Couture needs to get the fight up against the cage, work the clinch and if it goes to the ground he has to keep it up against the cage (and preferably on top) so he can limit Nog’s submissions arsenal and work the ground-and-pound.

For his part, Nogueira wants to keep things in the open and work to get things to the ground – no easy feat against Couture’s takedown defense. But Nogueira will get it there, and once he does he’ll throw up every submission in the book until he either catches Couture – a distinct possibility – or he impresses the judges enough to earn the victory the hard way.

MISSING: FORREST GRIFFIN
Case Type: Runaway
DOB: July 1, 1979                            Sex: Male
Missing Date: August 9, 2009      Race: White
Age Now: 30                                     Height: 6′3″ (191 cm)
Missing City: Philadelphia            Weight: 205 lbs (93 kg)
Missing State : PA                           Hair Colour: Brown
Missing Country: United States   Eye Color: Brown

Circumstances: Griffin was last seen wearing shorts and a T-shirt and running barefoot from the Wachovia Center sports arena at 3601 South Broad Street, Philadelphia. Griffin’s flight was witnessed live by 17,411 people and millions more on pay-per-view, making his disappearance even more mysterious. There have been several reported Griffin sightings in the last few weeks, although none are any more credible than the typical Bigfoot sighting. If you see Forrest Griffin do not approach him as he may get spooked and flee again; please observe from a safe distance and if possible take his photograph or video to post on YouTube.

Is MMA the last hope for washed up, has-been and never-quite-were pro athletes? That’s the basic thesis behind a New York Times blog post about all the ex-NFL players on the upcoming tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Marcus Jones was a former first-round draft pick and defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Matt Mitrione was a backup defensive lineman for the New York Giants, Brendan Schaub was a fullback on the Buffalo Bills practice squad and Wes Shivers played one season at offensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons.

None of them had much martial arts experience: Mitrione studied karate in high school while Jones admits that until he and his buddies started goofing around in the living room after a UFC event two years ago he’d never thrown a punch before (he tired easily and was quickly submitted by one of his smaller pals).

The gold standard, of course, is Brock Lesnar, the almost-Minnesota Viking and current UFC heavyweight champ. Too bad the story buries the fact that before Lesnar joined the UFC, before he was a WWE wrestling star, and before he failed to make the Vikings, he was an NCAA wrestling champion. It’s not like he studied some Mr. Miyagi instructional tapes as a kid and decided to become a mixed martial artist. It’ll be interesting to see how the heavyweight contenders on TUF will make out.