Posts from — November 2009

Rumours are out there that UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy will meet at UFC 111 on March 11. And while the timing of the bout fits, the location doesn’t. Those same rumours are reporting that the event will take place in Newark, NJ, which strikes me as odd considering just last week UFC president Dana White gave an interview on MMA Junkie Radio in which he stated that the UFC had no plans to return to New Jersey in 2010 given that shows in Australia, Vancouver, Montreal and New York are already in the planning stages. Maybe White misspoke, or maybe the rumour is wrong. We’ll see.

Another one bites the dust. Gabriel Gonzaga has now joined the UFC heavyweight triage alongside Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Shane Carwin, Todd Duffee and Pat Barry. The Brazilian fighter has a staph infection and will not fight Junior dos Santos at UFC 108 as expected.

Meanwhile, it seems Nogueira might be recovered enough from his staph infection for his heavyweight contender bout with Cain Velasquez to be rescheduled for February 6’s UFC 109. The pair were supposed to meet at UFC 108. Also on the UFC 109 card are middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, assuming Silva’s recovered from elbow surgery in time, and Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman.

According to several sources, Shane McMahon, the silver-spoon-sucking son of World Wrestling Entertainment mastermind Vince McMahon and sometimes wrestler, is looking to buy a minority financial interest in the UFC. I know this is not going to win me any friends at FightingWords, but I think it’s awesome.

First, he’ll be able to help market the UFC more effectively. He’s put Hulk Hogan and John Cena T-shirts in every boy’s closet in North America and he’s delivered the all-American WWE image to countless countries around the world and he’ll do the same for the UFC. He’ll build the brand from its current niche market – no matter how much UFC president Dana White talks about the UFC being as big as football or basketball, it’s still small potatoes in the global sports arena.

But the addition of McMahon, should it happen, will also have a much simpler yet more profound effect: he’ll bring showmanship to the show.

People have been talking smack about Brock Lesnar bringing his WWE antics into the octagon for a while now and this will only add fuel to the fire. Which I’m down with, ‘cause I’m a pyro.

Since childhood, the WWE has been providing me with some of my favourite things in life: a spectacle of violence and scantly clad woman wrapped in soap opera melodrama; television Pablum distilled to its most basic elements, easy to digest no matter how wasted I am on the couch. God bless ‘em.

The McMahon family has been bringing us sex, violence and hullabaloo since before Dana White was a glint in his daddy’s eye and MMA fans disparage such antics. However, for many, I believe it’s our guilty little pleasure.

Many of us watched Anna Kournikova without any love of tennis. We watched Mike Tyson long past his best before date as a boxer: “I want to eat his children!” Unfortunately, I will remember Jesse Taylor and Junie Browning long after contenders with far superior talents have faded into memory.

These theatrics have always existed in MMA. Have we forgotten the Kimos and Baronis, the circus atmosphere of PRIDE, the ramblings of Rampage, the David-and-Goliath matches with Fedor and Hong Man Choi? Hell, the UFC has such characters that the “dreaded” WWE snagged Tank Abbot and Ken Shamrock away from it.

I watch MMA because I love the physicality of it, the technique, the strategy, the god-given talent and yes, the spectacle. The spectacle does not necessarily cheapen or distract from the sport, it can possibly even enhance it. It puts asses in seats and that means more money and more money means better talent and better fights.

I’d like to say I watch MMA (or any sport for that matter) solely for the athleticism, but I’d be lying. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

I find it very strange that Tito Ortiz’s name isn’t on the list of medical suspensions from last Saturday’s UFC 106 considering he complained in the octagon after his loss to Forrest Griffin about having a fractured skull or orbital bone (or something) coming into the fight. Sure, the injury was sustained during training a day or two before the fight but if it’s serious enough for Ortiz to use as an excuse you’d think that it would get noticed during the medical examination after the fight and earn him at least a couple of weeks suspension with no contact. Very strange. Unless of course Ortiz just had a black eye and not a fracture, as he claimed. Or he’s got Wolverine-like healing abilities.

Forrest Griffin spoke with Anderson Silva after UFC 106 last Saturday and here’s what he said: “I didn’t intend to disrespect him by running out of the cage like I did. I was just in a bad place. I give him all the respect for beating my ass. I just wish I could have put up a better fight against him.”

Why couldn’t Griffin have spoken like this after his loss to Silva at UFC 101? Coming after his win to Tito Ortiz it’s just too easy to be gracious and it’s too little too late.

Fighters Only is reporting that Wanderlei Silva will now face Michael Bisping instead of Yoshihiro Akiyama at February’s UFC 110 in Australia. Silva and Bisping were previously rumoured to fight at UFC 105 but the Brazilian underwent surgery to his nose and to remove scar tissue from his face. Bisping is coming off a win over Denis Kang at UFC 105 while Silva is coming off a decision loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 99. While any fight with Wanderlei Silva has my interest, this match-up doesn’t scream UFC main event to me, even if it starts airing at 9 a.m. on this side of the world.

After watching Antonio Rogerio Nogueira’s impressive-as-hell knockout win over Luis Cane in his UFC debut at Saturday’s UFC 106 I started thinking about who the PRIDE vet and brother of UFC heavyweight Minotauro Nogueira should face next. I wouldn’t mind seeing him face Forrest Griffin or Brandon Vera. But then I attended an MMA seminar at Toronto BJJ on Sunday with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and somebody asked him what he thought of a rematch with Lil Nog.

Rua and Nogueira fought a three-round war during the 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix quarter-finals that Rua won by unanimous decision. “Yes, I think that would be a very interesting fight, a good rematch,” Rua said. “We had a good fight the first time and it would be fun to do again.” Of course, an octagon rematch (minus head stomps and soccer kicks) will have to wait until after Shogun has his rematch with light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida on May 1 in Montreal.

Fabricio Camoes looked to have a win in hand in his debut at UFC 106 until an accidental upkick to the grounded Caol Uno cost him a single point and led to a rare majority draw. The Royler Gracie black belt was punishing in the stand-up with hooks and knees against the cage and pushed the ground attack throughout the undercard three-rounder, putting Uno in submission peril at several points in the match. Too bad the UFC didn’t show this fight to fill time during the pay-per-view instead of replaying two preliminary bouts that were already shown on Spike TV. Bad call if you ask me.