Archive for April, 2008

Eddie Goldman, for those not in the know, is an ancient, balding, MMA fanboy supreme. He’s best known for hating Zuffa and Dana White and conducting awkward interviews with anyone he can find.

This week he took the MMA media to task for not supporting YAMMA Pit Fighting in a manner he found to be suitable. After all, this was his old boss Bob Meyrowitz, the owner of the company that first put the UFC on the air. That first show featured a fat, 300 pound Kevin Rosier and a clueless Zane Frazier. Neither would have been out of place in the YAMMA. The MMA world has advanced 15 years into the future since Meyrowitz reluctantly put the UFC on the air (don’t let him bullshit you with the idea he “created” the UFC; he didn’t even go to the first show!). Meyrowitz is still living in the past, a past where Kerr-Taktarov is a great fight and Ricco Rodriguez is a hot prospect.

Goldman contended that the media is in Zuffa’s pocket. That they weren’t giving YAMMA a fair shake. What will he say now after that disaster of a show? Goldman, who often questions the professional ethics of other journalists, runs a show sponsored by the very events he covers. Will he be willing to admit:

A. YAMMA was a horrible show. Putting together a collection of fat, old heavyweights was an invitation for disaster. The fights were dull and mostly featured men with large breasts. The YAMMA, which was supposed to keep people from pushing their opponent against the cage and slowing down fights, was an epic failure. Instead people just pushed each other into the YAMMA.

B. The production and announcers were out of the seventies. Blatnick still seemed clueless, Beck didn’t want to be there, and John Peretti is still an asshole. The only bright spot was the incredibly bad ring announcer Scott Ferrall, who at least provided unintentional comedy.

So what will it be Mr. Goldman? Will you step up and call this spade a spade. Or will No Holds Barred, proudly sponsored by YAMMA Pit Fighting, carry on with its regular shills and Dana White attacks? I look forward to seeing how a professional journalist covers this.

ON THE STREET IT’S AGAINST THE LAW! IN THE PIT: IT IS THE LAW!
The owner of the original UFC, Bob Meyrowitz is back with YAMMA Pit Fighting. This is like an SEG-era UFC reunion, with Meyrowitz, Andy Anderson, Jeff Blatnick and John Peretti.

Can Kung Fu beat Muay Thai?

Can Karate beat Jiu Jitsu?

No. Not in a cage. Meyrowitz proved that in 1993. But the question for 2008: can they do it inside the YAMMA? The questions are many. Can someone drag Mark Kerr and Butterbean away from the Golden Corral buffet long enough for them to fight? Can Oleg Taktarov go 15 Minutes?

The card:

Superfights:
Oleg Taktarov vs. Mark Kerr
Butterbean vs. Patrick Smith

8-Man Tournament:
Ricco Rodriguez vs. George Bush
Travis Wiuff vs. Alexey Oleynik
Tony Sylvester vs. Chris Tuscherer
Marcelo Pereira vs. Sherman Pendergarst

So far we are treated to a 60 second promo looped for about 10 minutes. One can only hope that this goes another 20 like this. The only fighter interviewed? Oleg Taktarov. He speaks for a whole 3 seconds. This build up is intense.

We are seriously trapped in the 90’s here, we don’t even have graphics, we are just starting the show with a dead crowd, Jeff Blatnick in the YAMMA and, wow. We are starting off with SAMBO vs WRESTLING. PIT FIGHTING~

SCOTT FERRALL!! GET READY TO SHAKE YOUR OOOOOOH

Marcelo Pereira vs. Sherman Pendergarst

Rd. 1 — The YAMMA is such a good idea that it takes people down. This is incredible. YAMMA is being filmed on Super 8 cameras, it seems. SAMBO wins against 42 years of fighting off peanut butter and chocolate sammiches.

Tony Sylvester looks like a guy who works in a convenience store. Also, his other career is bounty hunting. This is so pit fighting. Chris Tuscherer looks like Tito Ortiz’s half-uncle who shows up to ask for money after losing money on a pyramid scheme.

Tony Sylvester vs. Chris Tuscherer
Rd. 1 — This is the battle of the beached whales. Imagine two fat dudes just pushing each other around, and failing the YAMMA by pushing against the fence. Blatnick seems really confused. This was so bad. Unanimous Dec for Tuecuchechshire.

This is one of the worst MMA shows of all time. There are maybe 100 people in the stands. the ring announcer sounds like he is using a voice box. The announcers are Jeff Blatnick and John Peretti. The YAMMA is not really working out. The cameras and production are out of the 1970s. The fighters are fat and possibly disabled in some way. This couldn’t be worse.

Sorry we couldn’t keep it up. It was too painful. Who had the genius idea to book nothing but fat heavyweights for a three hour show? That was the worst PPV in MMA history. That is not hyperbole. This show had no redeeming value. Maybe ring announcer Scott Ferrall, who tried to liven things up with his over the top shenanigans, provided a few laughs. But wow. I have no words.

Discuss this article in the Total MMA forums

I come to this week’s episode hoping simply for a little more of what we saw in week one: Forrest Griffin’s homosocial anxiety, Quinton Jackson’s insistence that everyone but he himself smells terrible, Dana White’s fashion-forward hoodies, and maybe some passable mixed martial arts fighting. The little that we get for free, the little of our earthly trust. Not much. Too much? Let’s find out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Think Cung Le is capable of dissecting Anderson Silva? Do you think Cung Le is a hack that caught Frank while he was doing Mortal Kombat poses? Well, we have a forum dedicated to you!

We’ve all had time to digest Cung Le vs Frank Shamrock now, we’ve gotten our proof that Frank Shamrock did indeed get hurt and that, well, it looks like he was being a tough bastard toughing it out for however long that he did. But the question I want to ask is; where exactly does this leave Cung Le? Right after the fight there was some pretty healthy debate over Cung Le; is he one of the best strikers around, could he challenge Anderson Silva and give him a go for his money, is he one of the best pound for pound, or does he lack knock out power and simply go in there and “point fight” with his fancy kicks that connect but do little damage?
Read the rest of this entry »

Sherdog are reporting the news that Emelianenko Fedor is to take on Tim Sylvia on the debut event of upstart company ‘Adrenaline MMA’.

It is believed the bout will take place on July 19th in Texas and would air on the HDNet television channel.

“[Sylvia] is a good fighter, a strong fighter, the former UFC
heavyweight champion, which is important,” Emelianenko said via
telephone from Stary Oskol, Russia. “I am looking forward to fighting
him and training hard for this fight.”

We’d be neglecting the necessary amount of British bias, as promised in our manifesto, if we didn’t take every opportunity to post videos of Michael Bisping.

Here he is at what appears to be Old Trafford crackin’ da jyokes and generally getting up to mischief. This comes in reponse to McCarthy calling Bisping ‘average’ (not how the writer refers to MMA as UFC there) and went on to claim that nobody in the middleweight division can hang with him on the ground.

Bisping initially responded by calling his oppenent a ‘a fat BJJ player who flops on his back and does nothing to win a fight’ and claiming that his blood was boiling after hearing McCarthy’s comments about him.

Bisping seems to have a anti-chubby agenda with him previously having slammed Josh Haynes for being overweight before their fight at the TUF3 Finale.. although in that he had a good point with Haynes now fighting at 170lbs as opposed to 205.

In other British-based UFC news, the company have announced that Terry Etim will face Rob Emerson at UFC 84. This is an interesting fight and will be a more legitimate test of where Etim is at.

Putting him in there against Gleison Tibau as they did is only going to end in disaster. We’re not known for our wrestling over here and it’s a waste of time to throw such a young guy in there with a high-level grappler before he’s had a chance to train with the right people to get all aspects of his game up to the UFC level.

In taking on Emerson he’s facing a guy who is also likely to want to keep the fight standing if his previous bouts are anything to go by, and he’s shown in the past that he’s more than beatable without the need to take him down and win from the floor. Seems like sensible matchmaking.

Technorati Tags: Michael Bisping, Charles McCarthy, MMA, UFC,

We are aware of the problems some users are experiencing with the fonts on the front page. Please stay with us whilst we sort this out. We strongly recommend using Firefox to browse our site with.

DISCUSS THIS STORY IN THE TOTAL-MMA.COM FORUMS