Archive for the 'Iain Liddle' Category

By Iain Liddle

Discuss this in the Total-MMA.com forums ~!

If you’ll allow me to be self-indulgent then I’ll use this week’s entry to throw out a question that has been niggling away at me of late.

March has already produced another installment in two great boxing rivalries. On March 1st Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez stepped into the ring together for the third time. They were tied at 1-1 in their rivalry having fought twice before in the previous thirteen months and both had been nominated for ‘Fight of the year’ for 2007. In fact, most boxing writers who I respect are unanimous in the view that the second encounter was the best to have taken place last year, despite Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor eventually taking the official boxing writer’s award.

As they prepared to lace up the gloves one more time, fan and promoter expectations were high. Gary Shaw had been proclaiming this fight as the antidote to February’s Klitschko-Ibraghimov snoozefest before it had even taken place. Showtime placed both of the preceding bouts on their website to justify the hype and show fans just how good the sport can be and will be again. It never seemed to cross anyone’s mind that the two Mexicans may disappoint us.

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Cage Rage today announced the name of the first fighter to have fallen foul of their recently introduced drug testing policy.

John Phillips (6-1-0 1NC) tested positive for what was only identified as a banned substance and the result of his recent fight against Jake Bostwick (3-4-0 1NC) has been officially changed to a no contest.

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By Iain Liddle

Despite his status as a former Olympic medallist and the fact that he is widely regarded top five middleweight in the sport, the UFC appears to have no interest in recalling Matt Lindland to compete in their octagon. They seem to have no such qualms though in using his pedigree as a competitor to reflect beneficially on themselves.

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Rob Broughton, who defeated Neil Grove in heavyweight action. Picture c/o Full Contact Fighter.

Cage Rage made mixed martial arts history on Saturday night when they became the promotion to have a father and son both compete on the same event when Ken Shamrock, and son Ryan, both stepped into the cage at Wembley Arena.

An unfortunate addendum to that history note for the Shamrocks is that they also became the first father and son combination to lose at the same with neither man making it to the second round in their respective bouts.

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With company making a habit of delivering a major announcement in advance of every event, tt is almost traditional now that the fights themselves feel like the least newsworthy item when previewing a Cage Rage show.

In recent times we have seen the implementation of drug testing, witnessed a change in ownership with Gary Shaw’s Pro Elite becoming prominent shareholders and watched as Sky television began broadcasting the events live on their sports channels.

Cage Rage 25 takes place this Saturday evening at London’s Wembley Arena and true to form there is another new issue to get people talking.

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By Iain Liddle

I’d like to begin this week’s entry in the style of every unimaginative office worker who finds themselves stood at the shredder, walking down a corridor, in the kitchen or wherever they may be when that inevitably horrific moment arrives as you see a colleague headed directly for you.

“Abort, abort” screams your inner monologue as you look for the nearest possible exit. There’s no way out though. More drastic action is required. Could you? No you couldn’t… could you?

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Bought to you by the two co-editors of Total MMA.

So… UFC 81 is finally upon us. Let’s see if this can in anyway live up to the incredible amount of hype that has preceded it. Can Noguiera remind us all of the basic goodness of human beings by beating Tim Sylvia and we also have the UFC debut of some pro-wrestler with horrible tattoos. Jeremy Horn and Ricardo Almeida return too!

Live thoughts on tonight’s UFC 81 event, as they happen. Click below to see the full results and analysis.

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By Iain Liddle, on location in East London.

Results below - the fighter’s records have been updated to include tonight’s results. Full report on the show will be up later. Believe me, you’ll want to hear the full details of what went down at this one.

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Discuss ‘Contender Asia’ and more in the Total MMA forums

By Iain Liddle

As you might expect with being the co-editor of this website, it sometimes fall on my shoulders to read what the other writers have to say for themselves. Being a fan of fighting in pretty much all incarnations I was intrigued to Tommy Hackett’s tribute to the infamous “Owt Good On Mam” television reviews which were a particular highlight of early newsletters (go buy Stuart’s book if you haven’t already got a copy).

In his column, Tommy took an illness-enforced look at the sheer volume of shows on the box that have something to do with people punching or kicking each other in the name of fightsport. What surprised me most was not the sudden realisation that there is apparently more fighting on TV than I am able to keep up with but rather I found myself disagreeing with one of our esteemed columnists. Rather than fire him on the spot, I read on just to be sure.

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