Posts from — February 2010

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.”

Not only is Sarah Kaufman fighting on Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers VI card, not only is she on the main card, where she will square off with Takayo Hashi for the promotion’s inaugural women’s welterweight title, she (and Hashi) are the main event of the evening.

Sounds great to me. I love seeing women’s MMA getting the higher-profile treatment, especially when the bout doesn’t involve the obvious glamour factor of a Gina Carano. Watching these two 135-pounders have at it should be a blast.

Now, I can’t speak for Hashi. I know little about the 12-1 Smackgirl vet and Strikeforce newcomer. But Kaufman – wow. She’s 10-0 with some of the sharpest striking in the game, strong takedown defense and some serious submissions skills. No joke.

As for the rest of the main card, expect Karl Amoussou vs. Trevor Prangley; Paul Bradley vs. Luke Rockhold; Tarec Saffiedine vs. James Terry; and Raul Castillo vs. Yancy Medeiros.

I’m not sure how I feel about this video by Bobby Razak, maker of glossy Tapout commercials masquerading as MMA documentaries. Certainly these two kids have amazing abilities. Their wrestling is particularly impressive. But…

It does give me a faint queasy feeling when I see little limbs twisted painfully behind little backs. And scripted or not, there’s definitely something unnerving about the two brothers announcing that they’re the future of MMA. That’s an awful lot of pressure and expectation to place on kids who aren’t even ten years old. The future of an entire sport? Let’s wait until they’ve been punched in the face a few times before we expect them to walk on water.

Saturday’s UFC 114 in Australia was a B card on paper that played out like a B card, maybe a B+.

Cain Velasquez made sure everybody knew all the pre-fight hype about him being “the future of the heavyweight division” might not just be hot air. He did it by making Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira look as bad as he did against Frank Mir when Nog was coming off a staph infection and a knee injury. I’d expected Velasquez to use his wrestling to put Big Nog on his back, where Nog would work for a submission while eating punches. But Velasquez took a shortcut and put Nog on his back with punches (after softening him up with kicks) and followed up with a few consciousness-questioning blows for the KO a couple of minutes into the opening frame.

Now Velasquez will have to wait to see how Mir and Shane Carwin fair in their interim title bout at UFC 111; only then will UFC president Dana White decide who faces champ Brock Lesnar when he returns in July. As for Nogueira, it was sad to see a legend fall like that and it certainly drops him from the contender mix, probably forever.

Despite Michael Bisping’s whining to the contrary, Wanderlei Silva clearly won his middleweight debut over the mouthy Brit. Although it wasn’t the highlight reel knockout many – myself included – were hoping for. Nor was it a ground-and-pound TKO or an arm-snapping submission or choke out, any of which would have been acceptable, satisfying outcomes.

Instead, Silva took a unanimous decision. He staved off most of Bisping’s takedown attempts, out-punched him on the feet and had him in serious trouble in the closing seconds of each of the three rounds (including a deep guillotine in the middle stanza that Bisping survived only because time ran out).  In other words, it was a win, just not a domination. No matter. Silva gets back on track with a confidence-boosting win and a likely date with Yoshihiro Akiyama while Bisping gets knocked down a peg or two, literally and figuratively.

Fight of the night was Joe Stevenson versus a much lower-profile George Sitoropoulos, who put on a three-round grappling clinic en route to a unanimous decision in front of his hometown crowd. Definitely keep your eye on Sitoropoulos. It’s a name people are going to be mispronouncing for a while as he makes some waves in the lightweight division, and is probably just one or two wins from a title shot.

Keith Jardine may look like what bikers get tattooed on their biceps, but it wasn’t enough to scare up a win over Ryan Bader. In fact, the sight of Jardine crumpled to the canvas in the third round seemed all too familiar, as though it’s the only way he knows how to lose.

And give it up for Anthony Perosh. He took the fight against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on just two days notice and took a beating from the Croation that left him looking like a walking crime scene until the fight was stopped after two rounds. Perosh had heart and it was splattered all over his face and chest. Cro Cop, meanwhile, was less than impressive, to say the least. He dominated, but he didn’t finish the fight against a clearly over-matched opponent. I’m in no rush to hear Wild Boys in the octagon.

A couple of prelims worth mentioning: Chris Lytle kneebarred the hell out of Brian Foster for a first-round submission win that made my knees ache. And Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski battered and bled all over each other until the fight was stopped in the third due to a huge gash in Bonnar’s forehead. Soszynski took the TKO win even though replays clearly show the cut was due to an accidental head butt. The fight should’ve been declared a no contest, although both fighters said afterward that they’d be up for a rematch.

I’ve been batting around the match-ups for tonight’s UFC 110, trying to make some picks. My buddy, Evan, who trains at Toronto BJJ and knows fighting, hit me up for some thoughts, as well. Mostly he was looking for a pigeon, I think. He’s taken a dime or two off me the last two UFCs. So I hit him back for some picks. Here’s how the card shakes out for us (and yes, Evan, I’m even giving you the last word, although you may regret having written it):

Evan: I got Minotauro Nogueira just because he’s been there before and this is Cain Velasquez’s first international trip to fight, his BJJ is suspect under Dave Camarillo, and Nog’s half-guard sweep pass and top game is too stellar. However, all that being said, if Nog doesn’t show up then Cain will look really good.

Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiro – who the fuck can spell his name really! -  is the fight to watch, I think. Two really well-rounded guys who have to figure each other out. Stevenson should win but he may just walk into a knee. Man, I’m tripping over the Michael Bisbing vs. Wanderlei Silva fight – I just can’t pick. Everything in my head says to go for Bisbing: he’s been able to adapt different game plans in the past, he’s a outside striker, if only he’d learn some fucking defense and footwork, geeze! But it comes down to whats left in the tank of the Axe Murderer – is it still an Axe or is it more like a small hatchet??? I love Wanderlei, he always leaves it all in the ring but I think maybe it’s time for him to hang it up. He’s tried something new however, well it’s old but working with Rafael Cordeiro hopefully has put some air back in the sails of the old warhorse. We shall see though.

Keith Jardine over Ryan Bader. I don’t care how hard he hits I think Jardine’s length and experience will be the determining factor. Stephan Bonnar over Team Quest’s Kimura-liking Krzystof Soszynski. Mirko Cro Cop got a can to kick so that should be fun. The thing that scares me most about the card is that I’ll once again have to put up with the BS of Goldberg and Rogan, and with that it’s ALL OVER!!!

Me: I like your analysis. Everything except Bonnar taking it. I don’t see how he gets by Soszynski. Speaking of which, you can spell his name but not Sotiropoulos or whatever. And yeah, Bisping is a wildcard right now; we don’t really know what he can do, and with Wand dropping to 185 and hoping to prove something, well that’s a lot of ifs in the air.

I’m not sure about Jardine either. I like him, he fights like a drunk homeless man, which can be about as predictable as Machida at times. Other times he’s just a drunk homeless man. And Bader is no joke. Jardine throws a kick and Bader will hug it like it’s his high school sweetheart and once it’s on the ground, well, if Bader can keep it there that’s all she wrote.

Evan: That’s what’s awesome about MMA – it puts so much importance on one word, “if.” As far as Bonnar I just think he’s due. I mean it’s almost two years since he’s won so I think he’s got the stand-up to win a decision against a cardio-depleted all ‘natural’ Polish Experiment. I hope I’m right and the Polish experiment doesn’t “polish” him off! lol, I had too.

When it comes to Saturday’s UFC 110 co-main event, in my mind, there is no winning this fight for Wanderlei Silva.

Wanderlei is an MMA great, a PRIDE legend, having fought some of best the sport had to offer (Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, Sakuraba, Quinton Jackson). The only time Micheal Bisbing touched gloves with PRIDE greatness was against Henderson, who knocked him out so badly, I still flinch when watching the replay. Other than Henderson and Rashad Evans (both of whom beat Bisbing), Bisbing’s fights have been against far less impressive opponents – not that I’m dismissing a ‘roided-up Chris Leban – than Wanderlei’s.

Don’t get me wrong Bisbing is an asshole, a card-carrying douchebag. His behavior as coach on The Ultimate Fighter was immature and egomaniacal. Even if watching Henderson knock Bisbing out made me flinch, it also gave me a sense that justice and karma existed in this world. However, I did not gain any new respect for Henderson as a fighter for knocking Bisbing out – I could have only lost respect if Henderson did not win.

This is pretty much how I feel about tomorrow night’s fight. If Wanderlei wins he beat a fighter with a far less impressive career. If he loses, Wanderlei’s stock (which has already been taking a beating lately) continues to plummet. Even if Wanderlei wins tomorrow, all Bisbing will be is a stepping stone for Wanderlei as a middleweight. And how far can Wanderlei climb in that division when Anderson Silva is at the top of the ladder?