I won’t lie and I’ll come out and say it; Andrei Arlovski has been one of my absolute favorite fighters for years now. Part of what made him special was his showmanship on top of his raw power and ability. Not only was there a guy with an incredibly solid build who is fast on his feet in a world of Paul Buentello’s and Ricco Rodriguez’s knocking people out with his heavy and fast hands, but he had crazy hair, a beard and fangs. His interviews were awesome, stuff like “I have a strong arm, can smash” and so on. Andrei Arlovski was a rabid wolf among wild boar and made a name for himself as Heavyweight Champion in the United States when there were no heavyweights to look up to.
It is 2009 now and things have changed. Andrei seems to be done with his mighty Affliction deal involving upwards of 7 figures for him to step into the ring (if you think most guys were locked into three fights, he had two Affliction bouts and an EliteXC paid-for-by-Affliction fight) and seems to be testing the waters with Strikeforce. The only problem is, after an impressive post-Tim Sylvia win streak, he has two losses in a row. One to easily the best Heavyweight in the history of the sport after a great effort, Fedor, the other to, well, Brett Rogers.
I am not attempting to take anything away from Rogers, because Rogers did as he probably planned to and he won. The thing is, Rogers has never shown anything other than his ability to smash somebody in the face with his fists, which is exactly what he did to Andrei. It is hard to say if Rogers is actually a good fighter or not because we don’t know what he looks like in later rounds and we don’t know what he looks like against a top fighter who is ready to fight. Andrei was not ready to fight.
Andrei not being ready to fight is not Rogers fault, it is clearly Andrei’s, and it has cost him a lot. His boxing debut which was weeks away has been postponed due to his medical suspension for being knocked out, and it isn’t clear what or who he could fight in MMA at this point. The heavyweight scene outside of the UFC right now is very grim, while UFC’s is rather bright. Outside of the UFC he did everything he could possibly do, which was fight 3 emerging challengers in Rothwell, Nelson and Rogers, and fighting the best in the world. The only fights he really has left are a rematch with Rogers and a match with Barnett.
I want to see the Pitbull of old, I want to see Andrei have another run at the top, but I’m just not sure he has it in him anymore.
When you hear the name Setanta Sports, generally, you like me probably think (if you live in the US) of a UK station that plays a lot of soccer/footie/football (or whatever you want to call it), but you’ll also note that they work with our very own UFC.
While many here state-side will see this as a glancing blow to the UFC, as let’s face it, it won’t really affect us, it affects many in Europe, just weeks before the UFC is set to try to gain some new turf in Europe, mind you. Hardy/Davis is set for the co-main event at the upcoming UFC 99 in Germany, clearly set to appeal directly to the growing audience in the United Kingdom that the UFC has been pushing so hard to win over.
If Setanta cannot raise the money, 6 days before UFC 99 Setanta Sports will go dark and UFC will of lost one of their biggest broadcast partners in Europe, leaving tons of fans in the dark and UFC scrambling to find a new partner, which at this point will be difficult to come to terms in under a week.
Anderson Silva has quickly found out that the fans (which then turns into the media — CREDENTIAL LUKE THOMAS ALREADY~!) do not love you if you do not give them what they want. They do not care about your health your well-being, they do not care about your reputation, how you feel, they do not care about your artistry or your values. No, not at all. They want you to go out, put on a show, be entertaining and win at all costs.
This is the reality that must sink in for him right now; that people are going to hate him unless he clowns everybody like he did RIch Franklin. I keep seeing the word “pretention” in relation to him from fans, when anybody that knows him always talks about how down to earth and modest he is. Does it translate into his fighting style? Not always. When Silva is fighting and becomes bored he starts doing whatever he wants. It has happened twice in a row for him now, with the second sub par opponent in a row. This is what happens when you are exceptional, it happens in every walk of life; you claw your way to the top and then realize there are no more challenges for you in your current path. Do you accept and revel in mediocrity or do you rise above and seek out new challenges?
Thales Leites was never going to defeat Anderson Silva. He just wasn’t, just like Patrick Cote wasn’t. Sure, anything can happen, but outside of the off chance, it wasn’t going down that way. Even then, these guys are no slouches, it is just that nobody at 185lbs can challenge Anderson Silva. Leites continually dropped to the ground any time Anderson was getting into his groove or even threw a decent strike. We will, rightfully so, hear talk about how there should have been a penalty for essentially avoiding fighting, but don’t blame Silva for that. Silva’s only other options were to engage on the ground, which he waited to do until he worked over the leg of Leites enough to nullify his guard or ability to use submissions.
The fans only love you when you excite them, and exciting them means taking risks and turning into Chuck Liddell eventually, who suffered ths third brutal knockout within the past few years, each one scary in their own right. The big difference is Chuck is Chuck, a dude that likes to have fun and just hang out, Silva is a martial artist and does the things he does for respect and honor, not for the cheers and love of the fans. He needs to remember that, because the path he has chosen is not the one of the Chuck Liddell’s of the world who are big money draws and make tons of money.
If you are here, reading this, you probably read a lot of Mixed Martial Arts sites. You might have a RSS viewer, a Google Homepage or you just know the sites you read by heart and read them every day. Total MMA is not a site for you to come and scope out the latest news tidbits or to hear some rumor. Honestly, our hearts are not in the concept of reporting news, or more aptly, copying and pasting news and trying to present it in an original yet uninspired manner.
There is no bullshit here, because, honestly, you can get bullshit anywhere. Easily, you can read something on here and declare it bullshit, that is your opinion. But it is what we, fans of MMA find interesting or is on our minds. When I check my feeds every day, there are only a few sites that I check, do you know why? Because every site has the same information from the same sources saying the same thing. What does this remind me of? It reminds me of how the internet was in the late 90’s and early 00’s when it came to pro wrestling sites.
If you don’t love this, I don’t know. This is exactly what I’m looking for in MMA; Nick Diaz antics, Frank Shamrock talking about honor, fighting, his family while still coming off like an incredible dick. This fight is going to rule.
The big news this week has revolved around the signing of Yoshihiro Akiyama, the Japanese-born Korean Judoka-turned-fighter by the UFC. The Japanese national Judo hero who is best known by fans across the world as the “slippery” fighter who fought Kazushi Sakuraba while oiled up in December 2007 in K-1. This news is seen as a large coup to many fans, especially with the UFC planning to enter into the asian market at some point, namely Japan.
For Dana White & Co., the entrance and possible success in Japan is not exactly about business as much as it is about pride (no pun intended). After the purchase of the PRIDE Fighting Championship assets and finding out they essentially purchased the shell of a company, some rights to the tape library and an office crew that didn’t really do anything. It was a 50+ million dollar mistake of a purchase just to put a competitor that was already on its very last legs, most likely promoted their last show, and had no television contract and disgraced its own name, out of its misery. PRIDE only has fringe name value in the United States, and the hype behind certain fighters on UFC shows from Dana and the announce crews have undoubtedly helped turn PRIDE from a Japanese promotion fans watched to a mythical entity where every fight was an intense showdown, where the best fighters faced off and everything was a spectacle.
There are a lot of questions buzzing around the bleached blond locks on top of Josh Koscheck’s head after the stunning loss to Paulo Thiago last night at UFC 95 in London. The biggest question is, where does Koscheck go from here, and what does UFC do with him now that he lost a fight that he should have easily won? I pose the question;
“Quo Vadimus” — Where are we going?
Koscheck fought the fight that UFC fans tend to prefer; standing up, throwing bombs and aiming for a knockout. Throughout the commentary on the fight, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg kept talking about Koscheck’s improved stand up and how he resembles Chuck Liddell now; the wrestler with the amazing sprawl, the takedowns and aggressive stand up style that puts opponents down. Has this new “style” truly served Koscheck well, though? He is a company man, stepping forward to take fights other fighters won’t take, working a more fan-friendly style and rarely ever speaking a bad word about the company.
Last night we saw a dominant Georges St. Pierre take on the much hyped BJ Penn in what was an unprecedented champion vs. champion bout. This was Dana White’s gift to both the company and to BJ Penn, the unstoppable Lightweight Champion who had always wanted to prove his meddle in higher weight classes. As part of BJ “playing nice” he would receive a rematch with Georges St. Pierre.
There was a lot of talk leading into the fight, and there will be a lot of talk about the fallout of the fight. Sadly, a lot of what I’ve been seeing today revolves around one of St. Pierre’s cornermen wiping down his body with vaseline after wiping his face with it. While I understand Penn’s camp and why they are complaining, I think what it comes down to is a matter of pride. Vaseline on a fighter, even if wiped off with a towel isn’t just going to disappear. It isn’t water soluble, hence why it is applied to a fighter’s face; the sweat won’t affect it too badly. We all know that after a while it does, and hey, maybe BJ’s complaint is a legitimate one, who knows?
There are times when it takes a while to come down off of a buzz, and for the second time, a fight card presented by a t-shirt company has done just that. The internet will be abuzz, as usual, with talk of production values, buy rates and attendance. I think pushing all of that aside for a moment what you will see is an ultimately satisfying fight card, with each of the fights providing excitement rarely seen on your average $45 PPV card. Capped off by a fight for the ages, an emotional rollercoaster that was Andrei Arlovski challenging Fedor Emelianenko for the WAMMA Heavyweight Championship.
Affliction’s second card has been plagued since the day it was announced, being cancelled due to poor ticket sales and Affliction trying to seal a deal with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions to help create a buzz around the show. The talk was always that Fedor was not a draw in the United States, but when push came to shove, the card not featuring Fedor was not selling tickets. When Barnett vs. Arlovski was no longer the featured main event, instead Arlovski vs. Fedor a few fans grumbled that Barnett was the better fighter and more likely the better fight for Fedor.
Instead Affliction chose the more memorable UFC Heavyweight Champion to headline against Fedor, and ultimately, it was an incredible decision. Not many fights get me excited anymore. Mixed Martial Arts is growing, and as a part of the growth comes a lot of cards featuring a lot of good, not great fighters facing off against each other. Even if the fighters facing off are great, the match ups are not exciting, they are competitive. They are guys with similar skillsets cancelling each other out, or simply guys with opposing skillsets trying to avoid the other’s strength. But this fight was different, this was two guys who aren’t afraid to engage, who are explosive, and easily the best heavyweights in the world.
I shit you not. If you understand how the finance markets work in the United States you understand just how surreal this is. I can safely say that this was the work of the Donald, but I am still completely baffled by this.
While it is kind of amazing to see Fedor and Tito ringing the opening bell for the Nasdaq market, something that is primarily reserved for politicians, board members of large public companies, companies with a new IPO and so on, having a fight promoter and fighter declare one of the world’s premier markets as open is just weird. Not only is it weird, it is a strange PR move. If you think about this logically, what fight fan outside of your random finance nerds really pay attention to the Nasdaq opening bell daily? Affliction tends to spend a lot of money and time on promoting their shows in places where their audience could not care less.
Do you care about this? Will your average UFC fan who might be interested in this show but has yet to see a television or magazine advertisement see this and get excited? Outside of the “EDOR IS COMING” ads during the last EliteXC show and Arlovski fighting there has been no mainstream press for this event. As Zach Arnold has pointed out, Oscar De La Hoya is the center of attention for the recent press conferences, with passing mention to some obscure ‘Martial Arts’ show he is promoting. Merely a parlor trick, a new passing interest for the biggest name in boxing.
I won’t lie and I’ll come out and say it; Andrei Arlovski has been one of my absolute favorite fighters for years now. Part of what made him special was his showmanship on top of his raw power and ability. Not only was there a guy with an incredibly solid build who is fast on his feet in a world of Paul Buentello’s and Ricco Rodriguez’s knocking people out with his heavy and fast hands, but he had crazy hair, a beard and fangs. His interviews were awesome, stuff like “I have a strong arm, can smash” and so on. Andrei Arlovski was a rabid wolf among wild boar and made a name for himself as Heavyweight Champion in the United States when there were no heavyweights to look up to.
Anderson Silva has quickly found out that the fans (which then turns into the media — CREDENTIAL LUKE THOMAS ALREADY~!) do not love you if you do not give them what they want. They do not care about your health your well-being, they do not care about your reputation, how you feel, they do not care about your artistry or your values. No, not at all. They want you to go out, put on a show, be entertaining and win at all costs.
The big news this week has revolved around the signing of Yoshihiro Akiyama, the Japanese-born Korean Judoka-turned-fighter by the UFC. The Japanese national Judo hero who is best known by fans across the world as the “slippery” fighter who fought Kazushi Sakuraba while oiled up in December 2007 in K-1. This news is seen as a large coup to many fans, especially with the UFC planning to enter into the asian market at some point, namely Japan.
There are a lot of questions buzzing around the bleached blond locks on top of Josh Koscheck’s head after the stunning loss to Paulo Thiago last night at UFC 95 in London. The biggest question is, where does Koscheck go from here, and what does UFC do with him now that he lost a fight that he should have easily won? I pose the question;
Last night we saw a dominant Georges St. Pierre take on the much hyped BJ Penn in what was an unprecedented champion vs. champion bout. This was Dana White’s gift to both the company and to BJ Penn, the unstoppable Lightweight Champion who had always wanted to prove his meddle in higher weight classes. As part of BJ “playing nice” he would receive a rematch with Georges St. Pierre. 
There are times when it takes a while to come down off of a buzz, and for the second time, a fight card presented by a t-shirt company has done just that. The internet will be abuzz, as usual, with talk of production values, buy rates and attendance. I think pushing all of that aside for a moment what you will see is an ultimately satisfying fight card, with each of the fights providing excitement rarely seen on your average $45 PPV card. Capped off by a fight for the ages, an emotional rollercoaster that was Andrei Arlovski challenging Fedor Emelianenko for the WAMMA Heavyweight Championship.
I shit you not. If you understand how the finance markets work in the United States you understand just how surreal this is. I can safely say that this was the work of the Donald, but I am still completely baffled by this.