musings on mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and all things mano-a-mano

You might’ve noticed something strange at Saturday’s Strikeforce: Houston event. I’m not talking about Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal losing his light heavyweight title to a hard-slugging Rafael Cavalcante or Bobby Lashley losing steam and falling to Chad Griggs. Both Lawal and Lashley have been more hype than execution so far in their MMA careers.

No, what I’m referring to are the oxygen bottles King Mo and KJ Noons sucked from between rounds in what would appear to be a clear violation of the rules. Check out MiddleEasy.com’s full breakdown of the matter. The only argument I can see in favour of allowing the cardio-boosting oxygen puffers is that they merely deliver a more concentrated version of what the fighters and every other mammal on the planet already inhale. But if the rules ban them, then why were Lawal and Noons allowed to use them?

Because I’ve kind of missed Forrest Griffin’s way with words:

“I hope I am not fighting Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. I might be. Fuck it; if I am, I am. I will do it, but I am not even training right now. That is a bad dude. That dude will whoop my ass. Fuck it. What is the worst, I mean, it could not be worse than Anderson Silva. It should not be worse than that, right? Every fight I go into, no matter what happens, it could not be worse than Anderson Silva. Because that shit was a year ago and literally every day people ask me something about that – ‘What happened? What happened?’ [Anderson punched me in the chin] Repeatedly and I was very confused. I tried to punch him and he literally moved his head out of the way and looked at me like I was stupid for doing it. He looked at me like – ‘Why would you do such a stupid thing?’ He looked at me like – ‘Oh, did you really think you were going to hit me? What a stupid thing to think, you slow slow white boy.’ Then he punched me. I felt embarrassed for even trying to punch him.”

What do we make of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s admission that he won’t be 100 percent when he steps in to replace the injured Antonio Rogerio Nogueira against Frank Mir at UFC 119?

This is what he tells Fighters Only:

“I am aware that I am not going to be 100-percent for this fight because in this sport five weeks notice is basically last-minute notice. But I know the UFC had no other solution and so I could not refuse the owner of the UFC, who has made me financially secure, or the UFC fans, who I do not want to disappoint.”

He’s taking the fight on five weeks notice, which isn’t a lot of time compared to the 8-12 weeks a training camp usually consists of,  and it’s common knowledge that fighters rarely – if ever – go into a fight at 100 percent. The toll of training is just too great. But hearing the Croation sensation and former PRIDE terror admit as much, especially given his recent mental lapses, doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm or hope that he’ll take Mir’s head off (or even pose much of a challenge at all). It’s like he’s laying the groundwork for the excuse he’ll give after he loses. I hope I’m reading this wrong and we see some of the Cro Cop of old, but I don’t like to hear any fighter talk about weakness in such blatant terms, even if it is refreshingly honest.

MMA Junkie is reporting that none of the fighters at Saturday’s Strikeforce: Houston event were drug tested. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation overseeing the event doesn’t require testing and only conducts testing at the specific request of the promotion, such as when UFC 103 came to town. And Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker didn’t think it mattered enough to make such a request or to implement his own testing.

This is baffling. Why wouldn’t Coker want the fighters tested? Was it the expense? Was it just a case of “the TDLR doesn’t care so why should we?” The decision makes the promotion look shifty, unprofessional or both. Now, I’m not one of these “steroids are evil” pulpit pounders. I couldn’t care less that Shane Carwin has been connected to a steroid scandal. I think a lot of fighters take advantage of whatever they have available to them, considering the punishment their bodies take not just in the fights but during training. It’s as much about being able to heal muscles and recover quickly and keep training as much as it is building muscles and getting stronger.

That said, if you’re caught breaking the rules you need to pay the price. But the lack of drug testing by Strikeforce sends a message that they don’t care about holding fighters accountable to the rules. And that looks bad.

Here’s Georges St. Pierre wearing perhaps the least offensive Affliction shirt in the history of the brand, with douche bag magician Criss Angel, who I admit does some pretty freaky tricks, like that time he levitated over a parking lot.

Shane Carwin might have used steroids. So says court documents filed in Alabama. So what? If true, he’s hardly alone in the sport of mixed martial arts (hello Josh Barnett). He wouldn’t even the only UFC fighter to enhance his performance with a syringe (hello Sean Sherk, Stephan Bonnar, Chris Leben). And questions continue to swirl around Georges St. Pierre and Brock Lesnar and just about any other fighter with a physique like a Greek statue. I just don’t care. I accept that some fighters use performance-enhancing drugs, just as athletes in baseball and football and the Olympics and probably golf and tennis do. There are plenty of ways to artificially enhance an athlete’s performance, why do we draw the line at steroids but not things like laser eye surgery?

Fighting Words isn’t exactly the most original name for a blog about fighting. Well, actually it is. At least, this was the only blog called Fighting Words when I started it more than a year ago. A fight blog over at the Toronto Star newspaper has since taken up the title, as well. And now there’s Mike Straka’s little video show.

All of which strikes me as a little strange. It’s not as though the Star blog wasn’t aware of my blog – they’ve even quoted things I’ve written and linked to this site. As for Straka, I’d like to think he just obliviously picked the name, that he didn’t do a Google search to see if the name was in use and didn’t see my blog and didn’t think, “Who the fuck’s going to care if I use the same name as some tiny MMA blog in Canada?”

Well, fuck you, Mike Straka. How you like them fighting words?

Houston, we have a problem. Strikeforce hits town tonight and well, my excitement level is humming near a 4-4.5 on a 10-point scale. Sure, there’s “King Mo” Lawal defending his 205-pound title against Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante in the main event, while GI Joe Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza face off in a 185-pound scrap. Both bouts offer the potential for some sick jiu-jitsu (courtesy of Feijao and Jacare), as does Andre Galvao vs. Jorge Patino, although none of them have a “can’t miss” sense about them. Likewise, KJ Noons vs. Jorge Gurgel or former pro wrestling behemoth Bobby Lashley vs. Chad Griggs. Then again, maybe this will be a case of underwhelming expectations leading to a highly entertaining card. My point is that Strikeforce has to do something more than it already is in order to build anticipation for events that don’t feature Fedor Emelianenko or Alistair Overeem.

Having been on vacation for the past week a few things slipped by me in the world of MMA. No, not Chael Sonnen’s remarkable near-miracle against UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, an upset I would’ve enjoyed in the moment even if the thought of Sonnen wearing the belt makes me a little queasy. I’m talking about the BC Medical Association’s intention to lobby the federal government of Canada to ban MMA from coast to coast.

It’s laughable beyond words, but after today’s already great news, I thought I’d toss this out there for a chuckle. The idea that MMA is more dangerous than other sports, that there are more injuries and a higher potential for death, is ludicrous and anybody with half a brain and a few facts already knows this. MMA is no longer stuck in the Stone Age in terms of how it protects its fighters. Boxing is more dangerous, so is Nascar racing, hockey and football. Hell, how many marathon runners collapse and die before they reach the finish line each year? Stories like this don’t make me angry the way they used to. It just makes me angry when the story is being generated by supposed experts – in this case, doctors – who should possess the knowledge and understanding and the facts to back up their claims. “Showdown” Joe Ferraro is far more incensed by the matter and he does a pretty decent job of poking holes in the doctors’ case.