Category — Strikeforce

Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs. That’s all anyone wants to talk about in regards to today’s Strikeforce event (all except those who are choosing to hide their heads in the sand and ignore the issue entirely). Can’t say as I blame them when the main event features heavyweights Brett Rogers and champ Alistair Overeem.

Overeen has been missing from U.S. competition for two years – which Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker claims was because the promotion lacked opponents for the Dutch behemoth, which is ridiculous and inexcusable and all kinds of wrong-headed and I’m not buying it. I mean, why even have a heavyweight division if there’s nobody in it? Of course, the division wasn’t empty, it was just (very suspiciously) missing it’s champion.

[Read more →]

While Paul Daley isn’t wasting any time lining up a fight following is dismissal from the UFC for sucker punching Josh Koscheck, UFC president Dana White continues to justify a horrible double standard in regards to fighter transgressions. He fires Daley for punching Koscheck long after the final bell yet he has no problem recruiting Jake Shields or keeping Nate Diaz in the fold, even though both were involved in the Strikforce brawl with Jason “Mayhem” Miller a couple of weeks ago.

In fact, assuming the Tennessee Athletic Commission doesn’t issue a suspension, expect Diaz to face Marcus Davis at UFC 117 in Boston in August. (Davis is coming off  TKO win over Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113, which has resulted in Goulet being dropped by the promotion, according to his Facebook status.)

White tells Yahoo’s Kevi Iole that Diaz and Daley are two entirely separate cases with completely different circumstances – primarily that Diaz is a Diaz and bat-shit insane so you should expect him to suddenly attack a fighter following a bout in which neither of them were involved while live on national television. “When you start a fight next to the Diaz brothers [Nathan’s older brother, Nick, was also involved], what do you think is going to happen, particularly if you start a fight with someone from their crew?” White tells Iole.

Reminds me of the story of the scorpion and the frog. Diaz attacked Miller because that’s his nature so it’s acceptable. Never mind that Daley isn’t exactly a choir boy and by that measure would also be prone to snapping. All of which ignores the basic belief that people are responsible for their actions.

White is essentially laying all blame for the Strikeforce fight on Miller, who acted like a jackass but didn’t exactly deserve to have the shit kicked out of him. He’s blaming the victim. I’m surprised he didn’t kick Koscheck out of the UFC for getting punched.

When it was pointed out that White cut Nick Diaz when he got in a brawl with Joe Riggs in a hospital emergency room immediately following their UFC 57 bout, he explained that it was because it happened in a hospital, where “people are sick and dying.”

Now, I’m not saying Daley shouldn’t have been cut from the UFC – he clearly got what he deserved – but it would be nice is White’s hypocrisy weren’t so blatantly obvious.

Todd Brown, the wizard behind the awesome offbeat movie site Twitch, passed along a message about a film he’s involved with called Breaking Point, which will star Cung Le in his first significant starring role. Here’s the official plot description:

In this action-packed thriller, former DEA agent and recent ex-con Vu Ton (Cung Le) travels to Vietnam to bury his father. Once there, Vu meets business mogul Daniel Park and learns that Daniel is married to Vu’s ex-wife, Lily. Daniel offers Vu a position as bodyguard to Lily and her daughter, Nina, but Vu refuses until Lily tells him that he is Nina’s father. When a business rival with criminal ties firebombs Daniel’s house and kidnaps Lily and Nina, Vu is forced into action.

Sound pretty generic in a straight-to-DVD kind of way, the kind of thing that Wesley Snipes would be involved with (except he’s not Asian), and I’d dismiss it entirely except for a couple of things.

[Read more →]

If it wasn’t for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua tearing apart light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida like a shark on a seal, we’d all still be talking about the blight that was Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley. As it is, one of the most egregious incidents in recent UFC history gets a casual glossing over.

A coaching position on the 12th season of The Ultimate Fighter and a guaranteed title shot against welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre hung in the balance of Saturday’s UFC 113 co-main event. Yet the  bout was memorable for all the wrong reasons and threatened to overshadow the rest of the card (an increasingly familiar story in MMA of late).

[Read more →]

I have no thoughts on this other than to say, Thank fuck. Strikeforce and M-1 Global have settled their differences, paving the way for Fedor Emelianenko to face Fabricio Werdum on June 26. Really, no thoughts. So I’m going to let Joe Rogan talk about a Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar dream fight instead. Enjoy.

Time for some house cleaning. Randy Couture is expected to give boxing champ James Toney his introduction to the octagon at UFC 118, although the deal hasn’t been finalized. While I understand why Couture gets the honour – he asked for it and he gets pretty much whatever he wants – I was hoping we might see Toney face someone like Roy Nelson his first time out. Still, Couture has the dirty boxing and clinching skills to make things messy for Toney.

Speaking of Nelson, he posted a message on his Twitter on Saturday stating that he will face Cheick Kongo at UFC 116. Like Toney, Kongo is a heavy-handed striker, exactly the kind of opponent Nelson really needs to be tested by if he’s to stick around the UFC.

[Read more →]

The photo says it all. Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields getting chummy with UFC president Dana White at Saturday’s WEC 48.

Shields is still under contract with Strikeforce until June, but don’t expect him to re-sign with the promotion. White has made it very clear he wants the natural 170-pounder in the UFC ASAP. White’s most-popular fighter, welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, has also made it very clear that he thinks Shields is the best 170-pound fighter in the world (himself excluded) and wants to fight him next.

[Read more →]

The fallout from Saturday’s Strikeforce post-fight brawl continues. The Tennessee Athletic Commission is investigating and UFC president Dana White has taken aim at CBS for airing a “bush league” event by a “C level promotion.”

No surprise in either case, especially the latter as White rarely misses an opportunity to take a shot at the competition, especially if it takes the heat off of him for the string of under-performing UFC cards of late. (Although in this case I have to agree with him – Saturday’s Strikeforce did look second- or third-tier, particularly once the post-fight fight broke out.)

[Read more →]

Everybody is nailing Jason “Mayhem” Miller to the wall for jumping into the cage to challenge middleweight champ Jake Shields to a rematch at the conclusion of Saturday night’s Strikeforce card in Nashville.

The resulting melee saw Shields shove Miller before Shields’ training partners – lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and brothers Nick and Nate Diaz – jumped into the fray to start kicking and punching Miller. (Ed. note: When the video cuts away at the 0:15 mark, you miss two things: Shields and Melendez each shoving Miller.)

[Read more →]

While in Abu Dhabi, UFC president Dana White was talking again about his white whale, Fedor Emeliananko, saying he’s more obsessed with signing him than the fans are. He even says he’s talked to Fedor’s people “more recently than you would think,” which he’s said numerous times the last few months. And since I haven’t sat around wondering if White has talked to Fedor’s management, M-1 Global, last week, last month, last year or ever, really, he’s right that it’s more recently than I would think. But it’s probably not as recently as he wants me to think.

M-1 Global has denied having spoken with White at all, according to this story on MMA Junkie. “We haven’t spoken to [White],” M-1 Global executive Evgeni Kogan today told MMAjunkie.com. “He is just stirring the pot.”

And at least one reporter is stirring the pot back. I don’t know who asked the question, but when White says he’s talked to Fedor’s people, a reporter puts him on the spot with some fancy Latin legalese that has the UFC boss sounding like he’s trying to cover his tracks. The phrase the reporter used is tortious interference, which involves trying to encourage someone to break a legal contract (as Fedor would seemingly have to do to get out of his contract with Strikeforce, which he’s currently renegotiating).