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If Dana Can’t Have Fedor, He’ll Take the Rest…

…or at least pretend to want the rest, just to make things more miserable for Atencio and company.  Remember my post the other day about Dana going after Affliction again?  Well check out a couple of quotes the guys over at Fightlinker have put together today.  I think it’s definately on.

Thanks For All The Memories, UFC

UFC 48 - My brother and I arrived early to watch them set up. The place was empty, something you dont see these days and probably never will again. It's interesting to see how the addition of TUF has changed the landscape.

As we approach UFC 100, it makes me think of all the events I’ve personally seen.  How many is that exactly?  Every damn one of them, even during the dark years of McCain.  Only then we (my brother and I) had to go over to our friend Scott’s house because he had satellite and could still purchase them.  That’s when I was also introduced to Pride because he could get those on satellite too.  So I guess I should thank Senator McCain for introducing me to Pride.  But this is about the UFC and why I owe them some thanks.  This thanks isn’t really for all they’ve done for the sport, as that is a vast and incredible list.  This is a thanks for all the personal moments that were made possible because of the UFC.  The memorable times I continue to have with my friends to this day.

I was a young boxing fan in the 80’s, growing up loving the Sunday afternoon Kung-Fu flicks, WWF wrestling, and going to Tuesday night karate classes.  You can already see how the UFC would later fit into my life perfectly.  In the early to mid 90’s, we had Tyson parties.  Each time Mike Tyson would fight, we would watch it with all our friends.  Our house was known for it in circles all over the hood.  Then, my little brother one day told me about an advertisement he saw during a wrestling show and it was about a “no holds barred” event coming up.  It was the first UFC.  He couldn’t wait to see this thing and it sounded awesome to me.  And when it finally aired, we were hooked.  After that, we eagerly waited for each and every event (which were far and few between for many years).  The fight crowds at our house would grow with each event.  And now everyone comes to our house for events.  We are known as the place to watch UFC amongst friends, and friends of friends.  Really, the place to watch fight sports in general, since I get just about every event from boxing to K-1 to MMA.  But the UFC nights are the biggest and most fun by far.

Together with my family and friends, we’ve yelled and screamed in joy and sadness.  We’ve shared our favorite fighters wins and loses.  We’ve had heated arguments and even more memorable laughs.  It’s been incredible fun.  The beer, the food, the friends, the memories.  The nights where the room was divided by the main event and we dueled with drunken witty comments all evening leading up the the fight, to the other nights where we were all united, eagerly waiting to see Big Tim get badly beat down.  I really love our fight nights here at the house.  Thanks UFC.  I’m looking forward to the next 100 shows.

Is Dana Going After Affliction?

Obviously the answer has always been, yes.  His counter programing has been just one example.  But now it seems like he could be going directly after the fighters.  Just over a week ago, Dana mentioned his interest in Josh Barnett.  Remember, Barnett is a guy Dana hasn’t liked much in the past, and was pretty vicious while proving it.  And yes, I know Dana has worked with guys that he hasn’t cared much for, like Tito Ortiz and Kimbo Slice.  But let’s be honest, Josh doesn’t have nearly the money making name Tito does.  It’s sad to say, but he doesn’t put as many asses in seats as Kimbo.  However, Barnett is certainly one of Affliction’s bigger names.  So for Dana to even mention what he did at the Q & A with the fans regarding Barnett is note worthy.  One of Afflictions biggest names has just been called out.

And now we have Vitor Belfort, another big name for Affliction.  In my eyes, he has more drawing power here in the U.S. than Josh does.  He announced his interest in him during the TUF 9 Finale this past weekend.  That’s really a bold move even for the UFC, seeing as how Vitor apparently is still fighting for Affliction.  To go after a signed fighter like that is not within the norm of Joe Silva and the UFC.  So it makes me wonder if Dana and company figured since they can’t have Fedor, they will have the rest.

The UFC have nothing to lose here.

1.) They make it known they want certain fighters from Affliction.  This will force an already cash strapped Atencio to pay more money to keep them on the roster, hurting Affliction more in these tough financial times.

2.) And if Affliction doesn’t pay to keep them, then the UFC will get a good fighter and this still puts a hurting on Affliction by taking away some of their bigger names.

The second phase of the war between the UFC and Affliction has begun.

UFC Fan Challenges Josh Koscheck

Josh Koscheck was challenged by a UFC fan, after the guy said he could whip Josh’s ass at an event.  Later, the guy actually showed up at the gym, and got his ass handed to him in grand fashion.

MMAPlayground.com is Cool

I have been playing at MMAPlayground.com for some time now.  I haven’t been jamming on it lately because of work, but I’m going to make another 10 event run.  If you have ever wanted to practice your ability to bet on MMA events just to see how you would actually do without losing any real money, it’s a good place to start.  They have the major league which is all UFC events only betting & picks only.  Then there is the secondary league, which contains the other big players in the sport, like the WEC, Dream, Strikeforce, and so on.  You make bets and picks on actual events coming up.  The secondary league is the most fun, and obviously has the most action due to the number of shows going on now.  You can play in teams, or just on your own.  They have a points leader board, and a money leader board, and the winner of each season (10 events) get’s some real cash.  And, if you’re any good and happen to make a lot of play dough, you know you have a shot at making it real by hitting the bookies with a small investment.  If nothing else, maybe you will at least be more confident.

Now, the site does feel a little dated, but it works for what it has to do.  For help, just visit their forums.  I know there are others out there like CagePlay.com, Fantasy.ufc.com, and MMAMadness.com, but I haven’t had time to check them all out to compare.  There are too many.  So if you’re reading this, and play at any of the MMA Fantasy sites, let us know your experience in the comments section below.

The Best MMA Rankings, Ever

Finally, an excellent rankings by some quality folks in the MMA industry.  I really believe this is the best one I’ve seen.  Great job by the newly created Independent World MMA Rankings panel.

TUF Finale, Strikeforce, Stinking Stoned Thoughts

OK, I know I missed a few days updating, but I’m a one man show here and work a full time job (which I just pulled a 28 hour shift).  Did I miss this weekends two big shows?  Hell no.  I stride to never miss an event.

I’m just going to combine all my thoughts and just let them sort of ramble on between both events because it will be simple and easy for me (aka lazy).

1.)  Decisions.  Lots of them.  Too many.  Way too many.

2.) Did you know Dana White twitters?  So does Joe Rogan.  And let’s not forget Mike Goldberg does too now.

3.) Guida has one of the toughest chins I’ve seen.  The guy really is a monstor in the ring.  He lost the fight, but damn, if it wasn’t for him it wouldn’t of been a fight because Diego was ready to run over whomever they put in front of him.  Lesser men would of failed that test. Guida didn’t.  Diego Sanchez versus BJ Penn would be great.  But so would a rematch with Kenny and it appears to already be gaining traction in the forums.  It’s interesting to see how they have both really made names in the sport with the UFC.  The forums are already lighting up for this fight but it wasn’t always like that.   Just a few years back in 2005-2006, it was just the opposite.  They were being made fun of in those days by the “hardcore” fans.

4.) Strikeforce’s Challenger Series are fun.  The show over all was good.  But I think some of the referee’s were fucking idiots.  Did anyone else hear the morons start yelling for action the very moment the fights hit the floor?  Then continue to yell it as the guys were working?  Holy hell I wanted to go all Gilbert Yvel and drop kick my fucking television screen.

5.) Dana White has a twitter, check out his twitter, go play with Dana’s twitter.  And while you’re there, gargle your tonsil’s with Joe Rogan’s twitter.

6.) Mauro Renallo can really help you appreciate both Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.  He doesn’t annoy me as much as he does others out there, but man, sometimes he just needs to turn off the bullshit.  He certainly has his own voice though.  You can’t miss it.  It’s a calling card, bad or good.  He’s becoming the common voice of the opposition to the UFC, and it started with Pride.

7.) Vitor Belfort has apparently signed with the UFC to fight in the 185 weight class.  Interesting stuff happening here.  Some great fights for him, including the obvious of Anderson Silva.  You also have fights like Nathan Marquardt, Michael Bisping, Demian Maia or even a rematch with Dan Henderson.  Good things happening here.

8.) Joe Stevenson was impressive.  Joe is impressive in a lot of his fights but tonight he was even more so.  Really great showing by him.  The way he handled Nate Diaz on the ground was just art.

9.) I like the attitude the Diaz brothers bring to the game.  They really know how to make it interesting by just going in there and getting mean.  Nate Diaz is the spitting image of his brother Nick.  They both know the whole show, the fight and the marketing.  Neither one of these guys get paid enough for what they bring to the show.  I hope we get to see Nick back in the UFC one day.  Until then, both Strikeforce and the UFC have some good signings with these two.  However the UFC needs to get Nate some more exposure though.

10.) Did you guys hear about Dana’s twitter?  Check it out, just make sure you’re not under the age of 18.  Joe Rogans twitter is also there and it’s doing something with a monkey’s space after the show.

11.) Shayna Baszler’s fight with Sarah Kaufman was OK.  I couldn’t tell if Shayna was hurt early in the fight or if she just gassed, but she didn’t look all that good this time out.  It happens.  Sarah was there to fight and it showed.  Nice showing by her.

12.) Jorge Gurgel was pissing me off early in his fight.  Jorge hurt Conor Huen 3 times in less than a full two rounds and failed miserably at noticing it and following up.  He made up for it by going out there and putting on a great fight.  But I think it could of been easier on him had he noticed the first few times he hurt Conor and actually followed up.  I think it was late in the second when he hurt Conor for the 4th time that he noticed it and took advandtage.  I was glad to hear Pat Miletich mention this same thing.

13.)  Demarques Johnson did not look impressive tonight.  He lost decisively to James Wilks (who is also an American, no matter what you say).

14.) Chris Lytle and Kevin Burns had a killer fight.  I didn’t think it was as awesome as Joe Rogan did, but I hear the dark matches were pretty bad so that could of shifted my opinon had I been there watching them live.

15.) The finale fights for TUF were nothing special.  Not shitty, not great.  Overall I liked the show.

16.) Dana White just had his twitter cut off and thrown out a car window, into a cow field.  Joe Rogan got his twitter viciously mauled by a monkey from space.

Randy Couture Slams Bas Rutten

I really enjoyed it when Dana took Chuck and Ricco over to Japan to fight. Would he do that today? Hell no, fuck no, damn no, shit no, wtf ever no. How times have changed. It’s sad because that was one of the most memorable moments in MMA. I don’t know if we can blame him though, as it was rumored that Sakakibara was going to send Wanderlei over to the UFC for a match in return. It never happened. Then years later we were teased again, and again Sakakibara backed out. He tooled Dana twice. And now Mirko and his management are at it.

UFC Launches Japanese Website

The UFC has launched a Japanese website over at www.ufcjapan.jp.  I find this a little interesting because I never really think of the UFC when I think of Japanese MMA.

Mercer’s KO of Tim Sylvia Getting Attention

There are some serious questions about this catastrophe that need to be answered, or at least, discussed. For starters, what the fuck was Monty Cox thinking by booking this fight? It was  a terrible idea to begin with, but then to keep it going after all the shit that happened leading up to the fight was just stupid. There was a lot going against this fight and he ignored all the signs.

Just about everyone in the MMA community knew there was a good chance that Tim would get his ass handed to him. Ray Mercer wasn’t fighting Fedor or Couture in a MMA fight, it was Tim Sylvia in a boxing match. Tim Sylvia, a slow punching, flat footed, awkward fighter. Ray was a former champion as a professional boxer.  And not just that, but a gold medalist. Did everyone forget what the fuck that takes to acheive?  Have people lost their damn minds?  Ray knows how to move his hands, how to hit slow goofy rednecks, hard. To top if off with even more stupidity, it was a boxing match… in a cage. See, fucking stupid. Things like that never go well, history has taught us this before.

And when you think it can’t get any worse,  it got worse. It went from a freak boxing match to a mixed martial arts match (circa UFC #1) at the last minute because other professionals in the sport had a problem with it. So many people were bagging on it, that it was later moved to Alabama by the promoter because Alabama is a non sanctioned state.  Another bad sign in the long list of bad signs.

How the fuck did this fight go on? After all that shit?  Was Monty Cox afraid to pull the plug on the main event to save his own ass? I know that would of sucked and people would of been pissed at him, but now he has a real problem on his hands. Tim Sylvia just took a huge blow to his career. MMA just got stabbed in boxing alleys all over the web. People are now asking why this carnival act went forward, which is really asking if Monty Cox is a dumb ass? Canceling the fight and setting up something that wasn’t reminiscent of early UFC’s would of been much easier to deal with. Nobody’s career would of been in serious jeopardy. Now both Tim and Monty need to look at themselves in the mirror.

And speaking of Tim, he needs to never come in at 310 pounds for a fight again. He needs to take fights seriously if he wants to salvage anything left he might have of a career in MMA. Coming in at a disgusting looking 310 pounds is just unacceptable, not to mention it shows complete disrespect for your opponent and your fans.  Tim was at one point, the UFC’s heavyweight champ.  He’s nothing like that now.  Even if you hated the guy then, you have to admit he was a better fighter in those days than he is now.

And on a final note, Monty deserves some props here because this weekend, he managed to steal the spotlight from the UFC, which is no easy task.  Too bad it was like this.