Archive for the 'Dave Walsh' Category

(Ishida and Misaki are among Japan’s best. How would their first stateside forays go? [Pictures: Sherdog])

This past weekend saw a pair of live events broadcast in the US for the benefit of American MMA fans. Each was shown on what would be considered “21st century media”, as Strikeforce made a return to the Playboy Mansion that was shown by webcast on Sherdog, while HDNet put on yet another live event, this time the 24th installment of Sportfight from Portland, OR. Dave Walsh is on board to help out with this weekend’s fight action.

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Tommy Hackett referred to the B-Show Assault blog in his last post here, and from now a brief look back at a show in the history of MMA will be a regular component of Total-MMA. Today’s edition looks back at the career of Evan Tanner through many of his most memorable UFC fights, starting back all the way back at UFC 18. Read the rest of this entry »

Affliction today made their big announcement, and amidst the hyperbole, conjecture and everything else, what it breaks down seems to be about right, if not a little disappointing to fans. After Affliction canceled their October show due to what seemed to be poor ticket sales, they announced that they would be bringing forth some huge announcement today, which seemingly would involve Golden Boy Productions. Well, they did.

Affliction will now be the official apparel company of Golden Boy events and Ring magazine. As a part of this deal, Golden Boy has decided to co-promote shows with Affliction. What this actually means has not really been explained all too well, but once again, this can only leave us to stew about it and come up with possible scenarios. Will Golden Boy provide undercards to Affliction shows? Will Affliction provide undercards to major boxing cards? Will they combined put on mediocre fighting cards? Will this involve HBO in some way?

While there are many of us that are fans of both MMA and boxing, these two sides do not always work well together. There are still many boxing fans that see MMA as a passing fad, just some cheap, unsophisticated garbage for the masses. Then you have the MMA fan that sees boxing as the old dinosaur that is going to be extinct soon due to the new, more evolved and somehow more humane sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Both sides do have their merits, but I’m not sure if they make good bed fellows in this case. This wouldn’t be the first time a promoter has attempted to toss together boxing and MMA, or even the first time somebody has mixed MMA with something else, but history isn’t smiling too kindly on this. For some reason I am thinking of U-File Camp shows, where they would blend together MMA, sparring matches, demonstrations and pro wrestling and how tepid the response was to that, or K-1 shows that featured MMA matches to supplement the lack of name value their current generation of kickboxers has with fans. 

I know that I’m willing to give this a chance, but I’m not exactly sure of the pull that Affliction has right now to make this work, or exactly how well these two will work together. This could either fail miserably or could bring this concept to the mainstream and get a good buzz going and attract fans to both sports. 

Late last night, it was made official that the body of Evan Tanner had been found in the desert of Southern California. Tanner was champion for the United States Shoot Wrestling Federation, a UFC Middleweight champion, and a one time challenger to the light heavyweight crown in the UFC. He has been on a myriad of adventures over the last few years and has blogged extensively about them. Recently, Evan notified the MMA community at large of his plans to enter the desert, informing all that “any failure of equipment” could prove deadly. Sadly, it is apparent that such has occured.

Our various writers now remember Evan Tanner:

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This Saturday, ZUFFA presents their best-ever lineup of semi-main events and undercard bouts.  UFC 88 is stacked top to bottom with compelling matchups in four weight divisions, many with title fight implications.  Though it lacks a title bout or the kind of transcendent matchup which would cap off a truly classic card, it’s a night of fights which, on paper, should not disappoint.  Our panel -

• CH: Chris Henderson
• AC: Alan Conceicao
• TH: Thomas Hackett
• DW: Dave Walsh
• LC: Lee Casebolt

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This right now is a pivotal point in history for the fledgling sport of Mixed Martial Arts. In the past few months we have seen one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s self-proclaimed rivals, the IFL crumble to the ground, with EliteXC looking like it might follow. Both are publicly held companies, and if anything, there are lessons to be found in each one, as every aspect of their business plans are available for us to view. There is still no word if Zuffa has outright purchased the IFL or if they have simply bought out a few fighter contracts and licensed some footage to use for highlights for said fighters. The IFL announced earlier today that they are 35.7 million dollars in the hole, with a grand total of 4 remaining employees right now. It is safe to say that the International Fight League was an interesting approach to capitalizing on the MMA boom, but an untimely failure.
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