Posts from — February 2010

Is this one of the grossest arm breaks in MMA history? Cage Potato says it is, claims you’ll puke on your keyboard when you see it. I’m not so sure. I mean, I appreciate the hyperbole and all, but I’m not typing through this morning’s breakfast.

The fight was at Tuff-N-Uff (stupid name, stupider spelling) in Las Vegas on Friday. John Gettle, a student of Frank Mir’s, gets mount on William Kowalski, who seems to have channeled Renzo Gracie and decided that tapping is for pussies (also stupid, very very stupid).

The results are certainly cringe-worthy and wince-inducing. And there is something about the way the arm rubber bands after the snap. But I wouldn’t even say it’s the worst of the of the last couple of months. It’s nothing compared to Shinya Aoki’s brutal mangling of Mizuto Hirota’s wing. What do you think?

Just saw the ad for OxyMorons, a new film starring Tim Sylvia (and, strangely, sponsored by Affliction; watch the end of the trailer) about OxyContin addiction. A powerful – and powerfully addictive – opiate, Oxy is also known as hillbilly heroin.

Someone must think that the same people who watch MMA are the same people who like to get high. Which is maybe why Sylvia, whom Barrett wrote about earlier today, is scheduled to fight against five-time World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski this April 23 in Worchester, Mass. The event is being promoted by Butterbean.

Laugh all you want, but half of you reading this are probably high right now…

I’m finding this hilarious. Tim Sylvia was supposed to fight Wes Sims at an Adrenaline MMA show on March 20, but the Ohio Athletic Commission killed it by deeming the bout “non-competitive.” That’s an understatement. I can’t think of a less-competitive match-up not involving Kalib Starnes or Junie Browning.

But that’s not what I find so funny. No, what makes me laugh is a story I read in the Telegraph-Journal, the first newspaper I ever worked for back in New Brunswick. Turns out that MMA is coming to Saint John, NB, and it’s bringing the Sylvia-Sims sideshow with it.

The battle of the heavyweight has-been vs. never-was will headline a ten-bout International Fighting Confederation event tentatively scheduled for June 5. Never mind that nobody wanted to see Sylvia face Sims the first time it happened, at another no-name event six years ago.

Now, I’m all for MMA coming to my hometown. I think it speaks to the sport’s exploding popularity that an MMA event would be put on in such a small community. And it’s great that the first event there has managed to land a couple of fighters with UFC experience. Hell, Sylvia was UFC heavyweight champ for a while and has lost to some of the best fighters in the game (Fedor Emelianenko, Minotauro Nogueira, Randy Couture, Frank Mir) and Sims was on The Ultimate Fighter.

But something about it has the feel of the Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling cards that used to swing through town like a traveling circus when I was a kid. I’d plunk down two bucks to see guys like Leo Burke and “Big” Stephen Petitpas smackdown with the Cuban Assassin and “Killer” Karl Krupp at the Lord Beaverbrook Arena on Tuesday nights.

Maybe it’s that the event’s promoter, Jack Livingston, is more accustomed to putting on shows featuring Aerosmith and 50 Cent than pro fighters. Maybe it’s his PT Barnum shpiel, declaring Sylvia vs. Sims “a world championship fight with these two super athletes.” A fight that a lot of people – including one very important athletic commission – has declared non-competitive.

Obviously, Livingston knows nothing about MMA and is just looking at this as an opportunity to make a buck. Speaking of which, tickets for the event range in price from $59.50 to $99.50 for cageside, which Livingstone notes is a lot more affordable than similar events in Montreal that charge upwards or $300 or more. I’m assuming he’s referring to the pricey UFC cards Montreal has hosted, although he sounds pretty ridiculous comparing his little event to anything remotely resembling the UFC.

Almost makes me wish I still lived back east so I could see what all of Livingston’s fuss is about.

Here’s how it breaks down, according to the comments made in this promo video:

Georges St. Pierre is on a whole other level than everybody else in the welterweight division. Dan Hardy says that doesn’t matter because he’s has had more fights than GSP.

GSP says that Hardy is the toughest opponent he’s ever faced. Either he’s forgotten about BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, hell even Matt Serra, or he’s just being really, really, really generous.

Hardy’s plan is to hit GSP as many times as he can before he gets taken to the ground and then to get back to his feet and do it again. Okay, I’m with him on the first two parts of that plan. It’s the whole “get back to his feet” part that I’m stumbling over. Who gets back to their feet that St. Pierre doesn’t let get back to their feet?

Hardy also asks how many of the fans’ favourite fighters does he have to beat before they take him seriously. Hmm…good question. First, let’s consider all those fan favourites that Hardy has beaten – there’s Mike Swick maybe, or Marcus Davis, or maybe he means Akihiro Gono. All fan favourites compared to Hardy, who sets himself up as the heel, but none of them are what I’d call favourites in the sense that fans are buying their T-shirts and cheering them on regardless of who they fight.

Okay, on to Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin for the utterly meaningless interim heavyweight belt and a “guarantee” of a shot at Brock Lesnar’s title. Hyperbole all the way considering UFC president Dana White was clear that Cain Velasquez is also in that mix following his destruction of Minotauro Nogueira at UFC 110.

I do get a kick out of Carwin’s comment about his penchant for rendering opponents unconscious: “I’m just competitive and I know that knocking ‘em out wins.”

Oh, and Mir’s obsession with Lesnar is creepy and borderline unhealthy.

Sarah Kaufman is the newly crowned Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champion. No surprise there. Anything but a win would have been considered a huge upset. Kaufman seriously out-struck the challenger, Japanese grappling phenom Takayo Hashi, for five full rounds en route to the unanimous decision win at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event.

She shrugged off Hashi’s few (and feeble) takedown attempts, and while Kaufman is no slouch on the ground, she had no interest in swimming with the shark, preferring to let Hashi get back up every time she was knocked down (which was often). The result was, well, it was a smart gameplan perfectly executed by Kaufman, although watching from home it reminded me of Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites. It was a little on the dull side.

Hashi was clearly powerless on her feet yet Kaufman seemed reluctant to go in for the kill. She played it safe. Safe doesn’t mean exciting but it is smart, especially when there’s a title on the line. I don’t blame Kaufman at all. She showed cage intelligence, never allowed Hashi an opening to mount any sort of serious assault.

Yes, it’s her third straight decision win after eight consecutive KO or TKO victories. As a fan, I want to see knockouts and submissions, especially from a fighter like Kaufman, who’s fully capable of pulling off both. What I got was a striking clinic – stiff, head-snapping jabs, sharp rights and inside leg kids as she stalked Hashi for 25 minutes.

After the fight she apologized to fans for not being able to finish Hashi as she’d hoped. This morning, she went for her traditional day-after-battle run. Think about that – she goes five dominating rounds (that didn’t exactly leave her unbloodied) and less than twelve hours later she’s hitting the pavement. Nothing to apologize for if you ask me.

There were a couple of other notable fights on the rather lackluster card. Rolles Gracie look-alike Luke Rockhold scored an impressive first-round TKO over Paul Bradley in their middleweight tilt. Right hooks and kicks did all the damage to the seriously outclassed Bradley. Meanwhile, the co-main event between wrestler Trevor Prangley and striker Karl Amoussou ended with a poke in Amoussou’s eye and a technical draw due to doctor’s stoppage. Too bad, too, because Amoussou looks like one dangerous cat.

A little dosey doe is going on with the June 15 UFC 115 card in Vancouver. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was expected to meet Ben Rothwell, who pulled out of their UFC 110 fight with an illness, but instead will square off with Pat Barry. Meanwhile, Rothwell will fight Gilbert Yvel, who was expected to face Barry. I really like this switch-up. It puts Cro Cop against an equally dangerous striker in Barry, a former K-1 kickboxer, while forcing Yvel to let his hands fly against Rothwell. Somebody’s going to get knocked out.

For the record, I’m predicting Kaufman by first-round TKO in tonight’s Strikeforce Challengers women’s 135-pound title bout.

I’m pretty sure most or MMA’s female fans would prefer Georges St. Pierre had made that naked workout video. They’ll have to settle for him fully clothed in this Under Armour ad. As a side note, is it just me or does Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps look like Office star John Krasinski?

My gut reaction upon seeing this Peeping Tom video of Chuck Liddell and girlfriend Heidi Northcott getting buff in the buff was to throw up a little bit in my mouth. There are somethings I just don’t need to see. Liddell’s little Iceman slapping thighs is one of them, even if it’s blurry.

Turns out the clip was staged. It’s a viral video advertising the new Reebok ZigTech sneakers, the only thing Liddell is wearing while he exercises. It’s actually the second Reebok video the Ultimate Fighter coach has been in – he appeared, along with a handful of other sports stars, in a video featuring Jersey Shore’s Pauly D and “The Situation.”

And while I may need a breath mint after watching it, I have to admit that it does the trick. Now I have no idea what it will do for sales of Reeboks (MMA fighters don;t wear shoes in the cage so I’m not sure how being associated with Liddell will help). But it is bringing MMA more mainstream exposure – latenight talking head Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the naked Chuck clip in his monologue yesterday.

Strikeforce continues to baffle with its scheduling skills. The heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum thought to be on tap for the promotion’s April 17 card airing on CBS has been moved to a yet to be scheduled May event (that will likely air on Showtime, considering there’s little chance CBS will air back-to-back cards).

That leaves Jake Shields to defend his middleweight belt against Dan Henderson and a still-rumoured bout between light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to entertain on CBS. While it makes sense not to put all their eggs in one basket, having Fedor on that card with Henderson, Shields and Mousasi would have been must-see TV. Oh, and still no sign of heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem. Maybe Strikeforce should put out an APB.

I’m going to pimp this again: Sarah Kaufman vs. Takayo Hashi at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers VI. It’s for the inaugural women’s 135-pound title. Sherdog has an interview with Kaufman that does a decent job of breaking down the match-up, especially if you’re unfamiliar with either fighter. I can understand if you don’t know the Japanese fighter – even though she’s ranked top-three in the division this is her North American debut. But Kaufman is one of the top pound-for-pound female fighters in the game. And she’s deserving of the title shot and the headlining berth on the card.

Toronto BJJ regular Andre “Dida” Amade will be back in action at DREAM 13 on March 22. The Chute Boxe-trained striker will face former EliteXC lightweight champ KJ Noons.

Dida will be looking to end a three-bout losing skid that last saw him fall to DEEP lightweight champ Katsunori Kikuno at DREAM 10. Noons, meanwhile, recently signed with Strikeforce and is on a three-fight winning streak, although he hasn’t fought since he knocked out Yves Edwards at EliteXC: Return of the King two years ago.

Also on the DREAM 13 card are Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Jimmy Ambriz, Ryo Chonan vs. Andrews Nakahara and Kikuno vs. UFC vet Kuniyoshi Hironaka.

In other TBJJ-related news, Murilo “Ninja” Rua, brother of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (who’s pictured above working out with Dida), will face Falaniko Vitale at May 15’s Shine Fight III.

Rua (18-10-1) is a PRIDE vet with a pair of knockouts in his last two bouts for the Brazil-based Bitetti Combat promotion. Vitale is a 35-fight workhorse who hasn’t competed since a loss to Frank Trigg under the Strikeforce banner two years ago. Ricardo Mayorga and Din Thomas will headline the Shine event.

"I know nothing. Absolutely nothing."

A couple of months ago, mixed martial arts got into a scuffle with racism when the WEC, UFC and Strikeforce all banned Hoelzer Reich, a “Naziesque” clothing company, to put it politely. It wasn’t the sport’s first encounter with the face of hate, and sadly it won’t be the last.

The story – racism in MMA – lasted all but a single news-cycle, which in the internet era is about seventeen minutes. It was December, after all, and Christmas and Chanukah and BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez were on everybody’s mind. Nazis are such a total downer. Complete killjoys.

Hoelzer Reich may have gone out of business or underground or under a rock or wherever it is fine neo-Nazi clothiers go, but when it comes to fighting racism – or at the very least, racist imagery – MMA continues to be a horribly disappointing opponent.

Okay, so lets refresh our memories on what brought all this up just a few weeks ago: Hoelzer Reich is a clothing line that incorporates Nazi imagery in its designs. The company somehow managed to sneak its hate couture onto the Ultimate Fighter finale on the back of fighter Joe Brammer.

Zuffa banned the company from future UFC and WEC events. Ditto Strikeforce. And that put an end to the story.

What someone decides to wear is their own choice; it’s called freedom of expression. However, there are professional repercussions for an athlete and their sport if they choose to wear something controversial.

Athletes represent their sport when they compete. Inappropriate behavior is a liability to athlete, sponsor and sport alike. Some sports contracts have morality clauses to keep athletes in line. For example, if you’re in the NHL or NBA, you wear a team uniform when playing and a suit when on the sidelines. And players must conduct themselves in the best interest of the team and the sport, like model citizens. It’s that simple. Get nailed for DUI or running a dogfighting ring and there are repercussions, not just in terms of the law, but penalties enforced by the respective leagues. Hell, Frank Mir is catching heat this week just for saying – in typical attention-grabbing Mir-perbole – in a radio interview that he wants nemesis Brock Lesnar to be “the first person that dies due to octagon-related injuries.”

A sponsor, in essence, tries to buy an athlete’s reputation to enhance theirs. In return, the athlete endorses the product giving it support and approval. When the sponsor is a merchant of hate, it reflects dreadfully on the athlete and the sport they represent.

Despite a T-shirt proclaiming “The Fourth Riech has begun” in German, Hoelzer Reich claims they’re not racist: “We do not have any political affiliations with any organizations, nor specific views of any controversial parties,” read a statement on the Hoelzer Reich website back when it still worked. (A more complete sense of the HR side of the situation can be found in a statement they released here.)

The similarities between Hoelzer Reich and neo-Nazi clothing company ayanware.com are blatantly obvious. Until recently, Hoelzer Reich prominently displayed a picture of WestWall, a band with neo-Nazi ties, on its website. WestWall’s lead singer, Ed Wolbank, is the former leader of a white supremacist skinhead organization called the Northern Hammerskins and is a member of Bound For Glory, one of America’s most-influential hate-rock bands. He also was one of the founders of (BFG) Productions, a white power music company.

Furthermore, Hoelzer Reich is the proud sponsor of Niko Puhakka, a fighter with neo-Nazi tattoos, including one that reads “blood and honor,” which sounds really cool and bad-ass and MMA except for the tiny fact that it was the slogan of the Hitler Youth and later the name of a neo-Nazi music promotion network. Puhakka also has the Life Rune tattooed on his chest. The Life Rune is associated with the National Alliance, which was one of the largest and most dangerous hate groups in America.

Hoelzer Reich looks neo-Nazi, it is worn by neo-Nazis, and it sponsors fighters with neo-Nazi tattoos. If it talks like a goose and steps like a goose… Enough said.

Your clothes in many ways are a reflection of who you are. Often they represent your interests and personality. Affliction says you like MMA, Prada does not. Wearing Sean John makes a statement about you that Hoelzer Reich does not.

Mac Danzig is a vegan MMA fighter and has lent his voice to animal rights causes. He was also sponsored by Hoelzer Reich. I doubt he would use his reputation as a vegan athlete to help bolster sales of KFC (if he had, we would call him a hypocrite). By allowing Hoelzer Reich to be his sponsor he gave them credibility, in the same manner he did with animal rights. Danzig no longer has Hoelzer Reich as a sponsor.

Zuffa and Strikeforce seriously messed up and let this slip through. What is equally disturbing is that a clothing company with no moral compass has enough money to pay the UFC’s sponsorship fee (upwards of $100,000 in some cases).

Interestingly, this is not the first time the UFC has been in a racist T-shirt incident. All-American golden boy Matt Hughes was once photographed holding a T-shirt that said “White Boy” and featured the SS symbol. Hughes had been signing autographs and posing for pictures all day and he was unaware of the shirt’s logo. An easy mistake to make, I suppose, but it still reflected badly on both the fighter and the sport. You would have thought afterward that fighters and the UFC would have exercised more caution. As Joe Brammer’s Hoelzer Riech T-shirt clearly demonstrates, you would have thought wrong.

Melvin Costa

Obviously this is not just a UFC problem or a Hoelzer Riech-related problem. Melvin “Man-o-war” Costa fought for King Of the Cage. He also has a classic Nazi eagle-and-swastika insignia tattooed across his chest. A loyal following of skinheads used to show up to watch him fight; he is openly racist, to wit:

Sherdog: In regard to the swastika that is tattooed to your chest, is that an accurate representation of your views?

Melvin Costa: Yeah.

After some complaints, Gary Shaw, the live events president of the parent company that owns King of the Cage, issued this statement:

“I try not to allow anyone to fight in the cage or the ring that has anything inappropriate either on their gear or tattooed permanently on their body. And that means either ethnic, or racial, or anything offensive to the general public. I was unaware of the situation but I’m in the process of handling it now. Hopefully, it will never happen again.”

Less than two months later, Costa fought in another King of the Cage event.

Toni Valtonen is another fighter with “white is right” tattoos. The Finn has a swastika tattoo on his shoulder and the words “white pride” tattooed on his back. Valtonen claims they part of a misspent youth of which he is not proud. M-1 Global had required him to wear a patch over his ink while he fought. During a televised bout in the U.S., the patch fell off.

M-1 Global issued a statement saying, “M-1 does not allow Mr. Valtonen to fight with any of these tattoos exposed. Before each of Mr. Valtonen’s fights there are patches placed over his tattoos. M-1 regrets the fact that there were still tattoos shown when the patches got loose in the fight. By this statement M-1 wants to state that we do NOT in any way support the views of any individual in particular.”

Not exactly the thorough condemnation of his tattoos or the beliefs behind them that one would have hoped for.

Even Fedor Emelianko’s brother, PRIDE and sambo vet Aleksander, has questionably racist tattoos. Fedor is also a part-owner of M-1 Global, for which Valtonen and Puhakka have fought.

What your brother chooses to have tattooed on his body has nothing to do with you. Just like his beliefs are his business, too. Except when those beliefs reflect on your business. Having people with racist tattoos or wearing racist clothing represent your company makes you an ignorant fool at best and a sympathizing douchebag at worst.

MMA must be more vigilant with racist imagery if it ever wants to be considered a legitimate sport. It is up to MMA where it draws the line. For better or worse, any sponsor that might alienate any viewing audience is probably best avoided. This is not censorship of an athlete’s views but a standard that needs to be upheld so MMA’s audience is inclusive to all and exclusive to none.

Last week, in an utterly dunderheaded move, Premier Dalton McGuinty said that it was not a priority to legalize the sport of mixed martial arts in the province of Ontario – henceforth to be known as the Alamo of MMA, the last, desperate, died-with-their-boots-on holdout against the inevitability of being over-run by the fastest-growing sport in North America.

Well, today McGuinty announced that the province was seriously considering legalizing something far more insidious and harmful to the public good: internet gambling.

Now, I’m no gambling prude. I bet on the fights among friends and drop a few bucks when I’m at a casino. It’s fun, it adds a little extra juice to fight night (especially when the match-ups struggle to hold my attention).

But gambling can also be one of the most-destructive socially acceptable activities there is. Like drugs and alcohol, it’s addictive and it can tear lives and families apart. Certainly it does far more harm to the social fabric than one single solitary sport, even if that sport involves a cage and some five-ounce gloves.

McGuinty sees money to be made in gambling. Too bad he doesn’t see the same thing in MMA.

Here’s an excerpt from the Canadian Press news story about McGuinty’s view of online gambling. As you read it, mentally replace every reference to gambling with “MMA” or “MMA fighting.” It makes for a much better read.

Ontario is looking at cashing in on Internet gambling, following the lead of other Canadian provinces in having its lottery corporation possibly deliver online wagering.

Virtual gambling is a reality and the Ontario government obviously cannot ignore it for long, said Premier Dalton McGuinty.

“The issue is whether or not we should be involved in that, and I think we’re going to have to make a call,” McGuinty said.

“It’s something we can’t avoid.”

Paul Godfrey, the freshly minted chairman of Ontario Lottery and Gaming, said last week he wants the province to provide Internet gambling instead of watching potential revenues go to other provinces and offshore websites.

Canadian governments know they’re losing out on money that’s being spent at the more than 2,000 online gambling sites, said Jeff Derevensky of McGill University.

“They’ve done the studies,” said Derevensky, with the university’s International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviours.

“If they can recoup a slice of it, then that (money) could be better used in government-run programs.”

Allowing the gaming corporation to offer gambling in the wild, unregulated world of the Internet doesn’t raise the same type of ethical questions as blocking the sale of beer and wine in corner stores, said McGuinty.

“We can control whether or not there’s corner-store sales for beer and wine, (but) Internet gambling is taking place,” he said. “The issue is what do we want to do in the face of that.”

Governments should be concerned about normalizing gambling, but they’ve already gone that route and even changed the name to gaming, said Derevensky.

“They’re selling a form of entertainment,” he said.

Young people who are taught about the dangers of alcohol, drugs and unprotected sex aren’t learning anything about gambling in school, added Derevensky, and many already use online gambling sites.

“It puts more young people at risk, (but) the reality is, they’re already doing it,” he said about governments getting into online gambling.

The Opposition said the Ontario government would need to make sure young people who shouldn’t be gambling don’t access gambling sites.

“The issue we need to deal with is the impact of it,” said Progressive Conservative critic Christine Elliott. “We need to make sure there are some controls in place to protect young people particularly.”