Posts from — September 2009

Now I’m just going to post stuff that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson says just because I think it’s funny. This is from an interview with MMA Bay:

“The bottom line is I’m thinking, ‘What should I do?’ My family is standing behind me 100 percent and my kids are too young to even care. All my kids know is I’m always gone and I’m not spending much time with them and I even asked my dog how does he feel and my dog said, ‘Who the hell are you, I don’t know even know you no more. I don’t even know you, why you even talking to me?’ My dog just looked at me, licked his nose, lit up a fart and walked out my room.

“Everybody knows I’m doing this A-Team movie and now I’ve got a lot of other movie offers and it’s for big money. So I’m thinking, ‘What should I do? Should I let an organisation disrespect me, tell me what I can’t do, make loads of money off me and call me a baby?’ I love the fans. I really do love the fans and I’m thinking, ‘Should I go out there and give them what they wanna see?’ The fans buy the pay-per-views, they give you the strength to go out there and put on a show because they’re cheering for you but I’ve grown to like making movies. This movie is really fun, I get to shoot people and that something I’ve never done before because I’m too nice of a guy. But every time I shoot somebody I see Rashad’s face over and over, like I get to shoot Rashad thousands of times and it’s fun. I get to beat people up. I can put anybody’s face on them and beat the hell out of them.

“People are coming up to me with all these other movies and I’m thinking, ‘Man, do I really wanna bust my ass in training every day, have all these injuries, worries about whether I look good and whether I’m going to win?’ I don’t have that with the movies, I already know what’s gonna happen, it’s scripted so there’s just no worries. At the end of the day I go home, I can just kick back and enjoy myself. But I can’t lie, my heart is with fighting. When I meet my good fans on the street and they say, ‘Oh man, you’re the reason why I got into the UFC’ or I see a fan wearing my t-shirt it, means a lot to me. It means a lot to me that the fans like me and my fighting style and I really respect that. That’s a part of fighting that would keep me there and keep me motivated.”

There’s no denying Kimbo Slice has a thug image. Bareknuckle backyard brawls and a face like the ugly end of a wild boar don’t help. Neither does that stocking on his head like he’s about to pull it over his face and stick up a liquor store. And neither does his very real arrest record.

Slice (real name: Kevin Ferguson) was arrested by Miami Beach cops in May 2002 on gun and open container charges. The felony weapons rap against Slice, 28 at the time, was eventually dismissed. He entered a no contest plea to the booze charge and was ordered to attend an alcohol education course, which has nothing to do with learning about hops and barley.

Well, now Ultimate Fighter contender Justin Wren is telling a story that Slice told him about how he once brought a gun to the American Top Team gym where he’s been training after he was armbarred by a training partner. “Kimbo really doesn’t like to tap. He didn’t tap and the guy hurt his arm so he came back in there with a gun,” Wren told TapouT Radio. “Cops were called and everyone went nuts.”

Did that really happen? I believe it’s possible. It could also be a bit of Slice myth-making. Doesn’t matter either way. He’s got a rep and he’s stuck with it and so is the UFC, because whether or not he wins tomorrow night against Roy Nelson – and I’m pretty sure he loses – he’ll get at least one fight in the UFC to prove himself.

And as a heavyweight he should fight right in alongside Brock Lesnar, another gun nut whose dial gets cranked up pretty high on the idiot meter.

Update: Fighters Only Magazine has asked Slice about the gunslinger story, to which he responded, “First of all about my pistol – I carry my gun with me wherever I go man, I don’t have to leave and come back with nothing… Yeah I was at ATT a couple of years ago and I got arm-barred but I didn’t go and get no pistol or nothing like that. But yeah I got arm-barred and I didn’t like it. But I know how to defend that shit now so I wont be having them problems no more.”

Just a quick Abu Dhabi-related update. Men’s -98.9 kg ADCC sub wrestling champion Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro posted to his Facebook status regarding the injury that forced him to tap during the Absolute Final against Braulio Estima:

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR THE SUPPORT. IS A BLESSING HAVE FRIENDS/FANS LIKE THIS. Wasn’t my shoulder, was a muscle injury Chest/biceps, doctor this week, hopefully was just a stretch. THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN….Now is time for Baby Victoria. OSS

I’m pretty sure the new ink on the right side of Chuck Liddell’s skull is fake as his Dancing With The Stars partner Ana Trebunskaya has a smaller version of the Mike Tysonesque tattoo near her right eye. I don’t know what the reason is but it’s ugly. As for his dancing, he did look a lot more comfortable than last week and the tearing-the-shirt-off=arms=flexed/crossed salute is cheesy but classic Chuck Liddell. Best judges’ quote: “Savage and primeval but always a tango.”

Just thought I’d follow up on a post from a couple of days ago with a little video. The next big women’s MMA bout will be Kim Couture vs. Kerry Vera at the November 20 Strikeforce: Challengers event.

Couture, the ex-wife of UFC great Randy Couture, has a 1-1 MMA record, although she’s better known for the loss than the win. She took a brutal amount of punishment in her debut against Kim Rose at Night of Combat, including suffering a broken jaw in the early going. By the end she looked like an abused spouse, which must have made for some strange looks when she and Randy were out together in the days following the fight.

Vera, the wife of UFC light heavyweight Brandon Vera, is 1-0 after a unanimous decision over Leslie Smith in May at Bellator Fighting Championships.

Kimbo Slice is facing Roy “Big Country” Nelson on next week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter and I don’t think Slice stands a chance. Slice looks like a badass but lacks the skills to back it up unless he’s in his backyard. Nelson, on the other hand, may not look the part of an MMA fighter, but he’s is a legitimate contender to win the whole show.

He’s a former IFL champion, he’s fought guys like Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson (so you know he’s not going to be intimidated by anyone on the show no matter how scary they look), and he’s competed at Grapplers Quest and ADCC. In a nutshell, he’s better than Slice standing up and he’s infinitely better on the ground. Both of the fights below are definitely worth watching to see what I mean.

This Wanderlei Silva video blog is basically an advertisement for the November 14 Wand Fight Team tryouts that will result in some sort of Wanderlei reality TV show. Fast forward four minutes or so and check out Silva in trainer mode. Makes me want to slap on some gloves and shin guards and jump in there.

Two things: I really like FanHouse’s Ariel Helwani’s interview style. He’s knowledgeable and forthright while also being relaxed and casual. He’s a fan who doesn’t come across like just a fan. The second thing is I appreciate Kenny Florian more outside the cage than inside.

He’s a good fighter and he’s also a good personality, and not in a too-slick shill/TV broadcaster way, at least not yet. Skip the first four minutes or so of this interview to get to the interesting stuff, like Florian’s split with longtime coach Mark DellaGrotte, his decision to train at Montreal’s Tristar Gym under Georges St. Pierre’s trainer Firas Zahabi, and his upcoming battle with the walking Chumbawumba song that is Clay Guida (you know, because he gets knocked down, but h gets up again…).

A quick glance at the UFC welterweight division reveals a dearth of contenders for Georges St. Pierre’s belt. He’s already beaten top-tenners Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck.

And he was expected to face the winner of the Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann bout until that fell through when Swick got a concussion during training and Kampmann lost to his replacement, UFC newcomer Paul Daley, at UFC 103.

Well, Swick (14-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) posted to Twitter yesterday that he’ll meet Dan Hardy (22-6 MMA, 3-0 UFC) with the winner advancing against GSP.

While no date has been announced, Hardy was already scheduled to face Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 105 on November 14 in Manchester, England, so expect Kim to be swapped out for Swick.

Swick is 4-0 since he dropped to 170 pounds in early 2008 with decision wins over Josh Burkman and Marcus Davis and TKO victories over Jonathan Goulet and Ben Saunders.

Hardy has won 11 of his last 12 fights, including a 3-0 mark in the UFC with a split-decision win over Akihiro Gono, a first-round KO win over Rory Markham and a decisive split-decision victory over Davis UFC 99.

UFC 105 currently features hometown favorite Michael Bisping vs. Canadian Pride FC standout Denis Kang and former champion Randy Couture returning to light heavyweight to battle Brandon Vera.

Thiago Alves was the number one welterweight contender until he was dismantled and derailed by champ Georges St. Pierre at UFC 100. But according to a new interview with Tatame, Alves has been reborn (not in an “I’ve found Jesus” kind of way) and rebuilt (not in an Oscar Goldman/Steve Austin kind of way):

“You’re gonna see a different Pitbull. You didn’t see my wrestling and my ground game, because I didn’t have an opportunity to use it, and I feel that my career started after this last fight… I grew up a lot as a person and as a fighter, I’m recharged and I’ll get what I want, the belt. I’ll fight at December 5. I have an opponent, but I can’t say yet.”

Okay, so the Muay Thai stylist whose strikes GSP parried rather easily and whom GSP took to the ground at will has suddenly become a great wrestler? Or is he saying he was a good wrestler even then but he didn’t use those skills against GSP for some reason? Maybe this is some sort of “fake it till you make it” philosophy.

Regardless, I wonder who Alves will face on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale? Jon Fitch, Marcus Davis, Dan Hardy, or maybe it will be Paulo Thiago whom Alves had been rumoured to face at UFC 107 on December 12.

So this is what has been keeping Cung Le from defending his Strikeforce middleweight title: Pandorum, a grimy glowstick-illuminated sci-fi monster movie that owes much – well, pretty much everything – to the Alien films as well as bits of Pitch Black and Resident Evil. Yet for all its genre-splicing derivativeness, it still manages to be a more-than-above-average thrillride.

Pandorum is set aboard an intergalactic Noah’s Ark, where crewmen Ben Foster (3:10 To Yuma) and Dennis Quaid (Any Given Sunday) awake from years of hyper-sleep to find their memories and fellow crewmembers missing. From there it’s a struggle to figure out who they are and what happened to everyone else while also trying to fix their malfunctioning spaceship. Toss in the aforementioned monsters in the dark, a serious case of deep-space psychosis and enough muck and grime to make you feel like you need a shower, and the result is, well, exactly that, a space movie that flirts with Lovecraftian existentialism and the occasional disemboweling.

The film is heavy on atmosphere, and it’s a pretty heavy atmosphere at that – paranoid, claustrophobic and just plain icky. Fortunately, you can tell that the man at the helm, director Christian Alvart, loves the space monster genre and does his best to hold our attention, even when it slips into the occasional blackhole of bleakness and boredom. Sure there are plot holes big enough to swallow a supernova – how many times can Foster fall down a shaft, tunnel or tube without collapsing a lung? And how many glowsticks did he stuff into that tight little flight suit of his? But those are minor quibbles. I mean, what movie about a spaceship infested with cannibalistic creatures hasn’t had a few tumbles in logic? It’s the nature of the beast and in Alvert’s hands, and aided by solid performances all around, Pandorum pretty much pays off.

Now, if you’re seeing this for Cung Le, you might be disappointed. He has an important but minor role and his ass-kicking is kept to a minimum and is unfortunately shot in that Bourne-inspired shaky-cam style that prevents any appreciation of his martial arts ability. Still, he’s a charismatic presence even when he’s speaking only in Vietnamese. That he only speaks in Vietnamese and his dialogue has no subtitles makes it difficult to know how good his line delivery is, but he seems convincing given the restraints and limitations of his role.

Is he good enough to warrant abandoning MMA for acting? That’s hard to say. On a scale of one to ten, with one being Steven Seagal in Fire Down Below and ten being Jean-Claude Van Damme in JCVD (and yes, JCVD really is that good), Le comes in around a Chuck Norris-circa-Code of Silence level six.

Mat rat Scott Wallace over at Scott On The Net has compiled a bunch of videos of matches from the weekend’s ADCC in Barcelona as well as links to interviews with some of the winners. Below is Pablo Popovitch vs. Marcelo Garcia in the -76.9 kg final.

In the ADCC Men’s Absolute Final, divisional champ Xande Ribeiro suffered an arm injury during an inverted triangle escape and had to tap out to Braulio Estima. Estima, who also claimed the -87.9 kg title over Andre Galvao, is now slated to face Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in an ADCC superfight in 2011. Third place went to Vinny Magalhaes, who defeated Gunnar Nelson 3-0 in overtime.

The Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Wrestling Championships handed out its hardware today with Rafael Mendes, Pablo Popovich, Braulio Estima, Xande Ribeiro and Fabricio Werdum each earning men’s divisional titles while Luanna Alzuguir and Hannette Staack Quadros took home women’s titles.

Men’s -65.9 kg

There is a new name on the world jiu-jitsu stage and it’s Rafael Mendes. Mendes is just 20 years old and has had his black belt for less than a year, but he showed no signs of youth or inexperience en route to capturing the ADCC title.

Mendes earned a 7-4 win in a 30-minute double-overtime over Ruben “Cobrinha” Charles in the final, avenging a loss to Cobrinha at the Mundials earlier this year in the process.

In the third place bout, Ryan Hall defeated Jeff Glover 3-2 after taking his back in the final seconds of the bout. Hall and Glover advanced against each other only after semi-finalists Rani Yahya and Leo Vieira bowed out due to injury following their contests with Charles and Mendes, respectively. Vieira’s loss to Mendes marked only the second time he’d ever been submitted in competition.

Men’s -76.9 kg

Pablo Popovitch upset his arch-rival and three-time defending champ Marcelo Garcia 3-2 after losing to Garcia in the finals in 2005 and 2007. In the division’s third place bout, Gregor Gracie outpointed Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura 10-0.

Men’s -87.9 kg

Braulio Estima earned his first ADCC title with an inverted triangle submission over Andre Galvao. In the third place match-up, David Avellan slapped an Achilles lock on the injured foot of Raphael Lovato Jr. to force a quick tap. Lovato’s injury came in the semi-final loss to Estima.

Men’s -98.9 kg

Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro repeated as divisional champ with a 2-0 win over Gerardi Rinaldi. In the third place bout, Ultimate Fighter vet Vinny Magalhaes subbed Glover Teixeira via armbar from a triangle set-up.

Men’s +99 kg

Defending champ Fabricio Werdum took a 9-0 points win over Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu to earn the title. In the bronze-medal match, 2005 champ Jeff Monson defeated Saulo Ribeiro on points. Afterward, Ribeiro, a six-time BJJ world champion and two-time ADCC champion announced his retirement from competition.

Women’s -59.9 kg

Luanna Alzuguir beat Sayaka Shioda 3-0 to win the division while Hillary Williams dispatched Laurence Cousins 9-0 to take third.

Women’s +60 kg

Hannette Staack Quadros picked up another ADCC belt with a kneebar submission over Penny Thomas. Quadros won the +67-kg title as well as the women’s absolute in 2007. Meanwhile, Strikeforce champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos won on negative points against Rosangela Conceicao in a bout that remained almost entirely on its feet.