Category — Squared circle

Before I get into the meat of things make sure you check out the video below. It’s really one of the best UFC promos ever. No annoying voiceover from the UFC’s equivalent of the movie trailer guy (“In a world where…), cool taiko drums, set a mood for what should be a classic clash. [Ed. note: Scott Wallace over at the BJJ blog ScottOnTheNet confirmed my suspicions that this is a fan promo by Socawarrior. There's no way the UFC would come with something this cool.] Okay, onward:

UFC president Dana White doesn’t think much of the way professional boxing handles itself. It’s a joke, in his eyes. But that’s not stopping him from getting the hell out of the way when he sees a freight train headed his way.

UFC 113, originally scheduled for May 1 in Montreal, will move to May 8 because the previous date is also when Floyd Mayweather will headline a pay-per-view against Shane Mosley. Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua II will still be the main event at UFC 113, although the long-awaited, much-hyped clash between Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is expected to move to UFC 114 on May 29 in Las Vegas. That date, of course, puts it just a couple of weeks in advance of the June 11 release of the A-Team movie in which Rampage co-stars.

Heavyweight boxing champ James Toney says he wants to fight in the UFC, says he knows more than boxing, that he knows takedown defense, he knows wrestling, he knows sidekicks and back kicks and whatever else he needs to know. At least, I think that’s what he says. He chews up his words so badly it’s hard to tell sometimes and the whole time I’m listening to him, especially in the interview with MMA Connected’s “Showdown” Joe Ferraro, I keep remembering Eddie Murphy’s James Brown impression.

I don’t think Toney knows anything other than boxing. He hasn’t got a clue. Just look at how he reacts in the second clip when he’s asked about his MMA skills. He’s just chasing dollar signs. And putting him in the octagon would be a freakshow event, a Kimbo Slice times ten. Then again, Slice draws an audience, so I can see why UFC president Dana White would be giving Toney the time of day. Doesn’t mean it’s good for the sport. It’s a little too WWE for my taste.

I missed this 10.16 piece in the Globe and Mail story on the rising popularity of chessboxing in the U.K. (thanks, Vern). As you can imagine, this “sport” combines chess and boxing as two players/fighters alternate between four-minute chess rounds and three-minute boxing rounds with a winner determined by checkmate or knockout. As the story explains, “It’s like the Fight Club, only with tiny plastic queens.”

This doesn’t surprise me a bit. MMA has been described as kinetic chess. My club has a chess board set up in the reception area where members often play a game before or after rolling. Chessboxing just takes it to the next geeky level. Although sometime around the third or fourth round I think all I could manage is checkersboxing.

Here’s an abridged version of the shootfight between past-his-prime showboat Muhammad Ali and Japanese catch wrestler Antonio Inoki from 1976 that is glimpsed in the Fight Network video I just wrote about. It was pretty much a joke as no grappling was allowed, strikes only, and Inoki could kick only when he had one knee on the ground, which is why he spends the whole time on his back. Ali landed just six punches in the fight, which went what I can only imagine was an exceptionally boring 15 rounds, resulting in a draw. For my money, I’d rather watch Rocky vs. Thunderlips.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s comeback win over Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday was a joke. Sure, Mayweather hasn’t fought in almost two years, so he had that going against him. But Marquez was at a serious size disadvantage for the 144-pound clash. Marquez moved up two whole weight classes for the once-in-a-career bout while Mayweather weighed in four pounds over the limit and was penalized $600,000.

Even so, Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) was unable to finish the smaller, lighter fighter despite knocking him down in the second round and peppering him with countless damaging shots thereafter. Still, a unanimous decision win is still a win. Marquez, meanwhile, drops to (50-5-1).

Mayweather landed 290 of his 493 blows (59 percent) while allowing just 12 percent of Marquez’s 583 punches to land. Mayweather landed more jabs in each round than Marquez landed total punches, and just 16 percent of Marquez’s power shots even got to Mayweather.

Mayweather often appeared to be toying with Marquez, who’s generally considered among the world’s top handful of fighters. Just 18 months ago, Marquez lost a narrow decision to unofficial pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao — who’s likely Mayweather’s top choice for his next bout despite being called out by “Sugar” Shane Mosley in the ring immediately after the fight.

In keeping with the MMA vs. boxing theme of the day, here’s a good interview with Rich Franklin, who faces Vitor Belfort in tonight’s UFC 103 main event. I like what Franklin has to say, I like his casual frankness, and I hope his face doesn’t get too messed up by Belfort, who might not be a top-10 boxer as his Xtreme Couture coach Shawn Tompkins claims, but he’s still got serious striking ability.

And if you’re still thinking Franklin will come out on top, that quantity of strikes will win out over quality of strikes, remember that Belfort was volunteered to step in against Fedor Elemianenko after Josh Barnett failed his drug test back during Afflictions’s death throes.

Tonight is UFC 103 Franklin vs. Belfort. I don’t know anybody who will be watching the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez card. I don’t know anyone who can even name another boxer on that card. Which may explain why Mayweather continues to run his mouth off with some outrageous statements about being a black fighter:

“If you’re rich, you’re a rich nigger. If you’re poor, you’re a poor nigger. If you’re smart, you’re a smart nigger. At the end of the day, they still look at me as a nigger.”

There was plenty more in Mayweather’s tirade, including accusing the media of whitewashing Oscar De La Hoya’s misdeeds — namely De La Hoya’s two children out of wedlock, and the lawsuit he settled with an 18-year-old who accused him of rape. He also said he’d be more beloved if he were from a different country.

Well, Steve Cofield over at Cage Writer asked UFC president Dana White what he thought of Mayweather and boxing in general.

Among the highlights:

“Let’s say Floyd does a million [pay-per-view] buys out there… there’s a million stupid fucking people out there. All right? That doesn’t mean, oh God, boxing’s better and bigger than the UFC, that’s not true. The reality is, the UFC is bigger than boxing and the WWE combined. The funny thing about the Floyd Mayweather thing is he runs around and he says, you know, money money is all he’s talking about… You talk about how much you fucking hate him and you don’t like the way he fights and you don’t want to see him run around in circles and you’re the ones giving him that money.”

“As a boxing fan the fight that I want to see is [Manny] Pacquiao and Mayweather. Is there anybody that will fucking disagree with that? That’s the fight people want to see… My opinion is, my fucking job is to make these fights. Dude, there’s plenty of fucking people that I don’t like that we put fights on with. It’s not up to me whether I like ‘em or dislike ‘em, it’s up to what the fans want to see. You know? I don’t think Fedor’s the best fucking heavyweight, he’s definitely not anywhere in the Top 10 in the fucking pound-for-pound, but if you fucking guys want to see that fight then I want to see that fight and I did everything I could to try to make it happen. You know, you’re not going to hear me fucking say, ‘yeah, we’re not going to go after Fedor, we’re not going to try, probably not going to happen’, I want it to happen, I want to see it, to be honest as a fan I want to see it if he can beat Brock [Lesnar].”

On Saturday, September 19, boxing will go head-to-head with MMA. Floyd Mayweather Jr. will face Juan Manuel Marquez in the ring while Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort will headline UFC 103.

Many are seeing this as a test: does boxing still have it audience-wise or has MMA truly usurped the sport? I think the answer is pretty simple. Boxing is dying. Anecdotally, eight of the top ten pay-per-views last year were UFC events, consider how many MMA gyms there are compared to boxing gyms, ask a 10-year-old how many boxers they can name compared to MMA fighters, etc. Taking nothing away from the sport of boxing, but it’s popularity is declining. Plain and simple.

All of this is just my way of introducing this interview with lunatic boxing promoter Bob Arum conducted by FanHouse’s Ariel Helwani. It is incredible how out of touch Arum is, how desperately he’s clinging to boxing by throwing barbs at MMA. He says fans of MMA are tattooed skinheads, the fighters can’t throw a punch, have weak chins and like to roll around on the ground like homosexuals. It starts at around th 4:10 mark but it’s all entertaining stuff (as the ramblings of the town fool often is).