Archive for the 'MMA' Category

So in case you didn’t hear yet, the UFC announced a deal that will allow you, the wonderous public, to buy action figures of their fighters. God knows how much the fighters will get for having their image on carved into plastic, but then again what the fighters want has never really been a concern of the internet, has it?

Well, there’s a lot of folks still holding their breath for Thursday in the hopes some sort of super announcement that will change the world will occur. The rampant speculation has been bordering on retarded; Floyd Mayweather Jr. signing with the UFC, a WWE buyout, Fox TV deals, and more. Of course, what’s on the UFC’s own website?

http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=12696

Why, its a (likely) giant spoiler for Thursday! On their own website, they’re telling you that its a bunch of merchandising deals for JCPenneys and Visa. In other words, the dreams of many were just that. Dreams. And really absurd ones, to boot. What is so disheartening about this ultimately is the way one “journalist” (and I use the term as loosely as possible) after another after another has bullrushed into repeating such insane claims.  Ultimately, this activity has given them a significant amount of validity within the hardcore fan community by merely repeating them ad nausem. It happens whilst those who supposedly tow the line of high end reporting don’t even think to question the value of the sources from which such enormous news is being emitted. For instance, here is MMAOpinion.com’s terrific look at the story:

Apparently a “realiable source” has stated Vince McMahon and Dana White are buying the UFC from the Fertitta brothers through the remaining shares of the company. McMahon will not have much input, but instead, he will assist with financing the deal and making this happen. Of course this is just one variant of the rumors being spewed out left and round on the internet.

Who cares about checking sources? Publish it, guys! And then make sure to report about the buzz you just created by posting a story with no legs later on. What better way to justify your own existence? And then there’s MMAPayout.com:

Last night a poster on the Underground Forums added the following rumor “from a reliable source” to the mix: “a group of investors led by Dana White have agreed in principle to purchase the UFC from Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for an undisclosed amount. Included in this investment group is WWE’s Vince McMahon who will now own a minority stake in the company. They also have plans on taking the company public by years end.”

Wow. Nothing demands being mentioned on the website of a claimed leader in MMA coverage more than a fairly anonymous post on a message board that’s been filled with complete non-truths in the past. This was merely just a small taste of the fine coverage provided. Going back just a day or so:

Inside the industry, the guessing game has advanced past *whether* the UFC’s sale is Dana’s big announcement and onto *who* such a sale might involve. Odds on favorites include FOX, Golden Boy, and WWE (NOTE: For the conspiracy theorist in all of us, WWE has an ambiguous press conference of its own scheduled for Thursday).

A change in ownership is one of the few things imaginable that would warrant White’s hype and circumstance. Of course this wouldn’t be the first time the UFC over promised and under delivered on an major announcement. And there’s always the possibility, perhaps even likelihood, that whatever White has in store, no matter how grand it truly is, will be overshadowed by the speculation that has proceeded it. But this feels different.

Note the way this was written. There isn’t just possiblity, but actually a sense of certainty that this time, the unmentioned voices of the MMA shadows are really positively sure that the UFC is to be sold, and voila, off to the races! This is not journalism, folks. This is not reporting facts. This is thinly veiled bullshit intended to draw in readers and bring increased numbers of new IP addresses for the purpose of selling ad space. Who are these inside industry people? How often have they been correct before? ”But this feels different”? On what basis? Because ESPN The Magazine printed it?  Maybe the UFC is going to get a weekly fight show, or run Japan, bring in another organization’s ace, or any of the other wide array of things they’ve announced or openly discussed in the past that never, ever happened. Maybe its not going to be any of those things, and it will be another situation like so many others prior in which they just announce that which we already know (in this case, merchandising). Given that the latter happens much more often than the former, I’m gonna bet that.

What the MMA media has done here is spit a lot of e-wrestling fed idiocy while passing it off as intelligent commentary, and using the spikes in interest such outrageous claims generate as the justification behind it.

EDIT 6/11/08: Well, if you believe Sam Caplan, the big announcement was to announce that MMA was approved in the state of NY, which, surprise surprise, would have been something that you, me, and everyone else would have heard about had it occurred two days in advance. And it didn’t end up happening at all. Will anyone have learned a lesson? Hell no they didn’t, because they probably saw their viewership fly through the roof over the last two days.

By Dave Walsh

Really, what were you expecting from EliteXC on CBS? I am looking around the net right now, and it is actually kind of distressing the level of insanity that is coming with the inaugural MMA event on broadcast television and the coverage that it is getting. A lot of the mainstream media is giving this event some positive or simply complacent reviews, while most of the net is going absolutely livid over it. What I see is a whole different level of understanding, and it isn’t in the way which you would think.

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This Saturday kicks off an incredible run of excellent weekend shows that lasts all the way until August. It includes eight consecutive weekends starting on the 24th. Wow.

Saturday May 24th, UFC 84- PPV

LW Title: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk
Lyoto Machida vs. Tito Ortiz
Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva
Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Jon Koppenhaver
Rousimar Palhares vs. Ivan Salaverry
Shane Carwin vs. Christian Wellisch
Dong-hyun Kim vs. Jason Tan
Terry Etim vs. Rich Clementi

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DISCUSS THIS STORY IN THE TOTAL-MMA.COM FORUMS

Norway’s Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen is my favourite athlete in all of combat sports. For me, picking favourite fighters in this great sport is a challenging task. In general, I respect all fighters that step into the ring/cage and put it on the line. Some of my favourite fighters include Fedor, Nogueira, Machida and GSP, but Hansen easily takes the cake. No one embodies the qualities I respect in a mixed martial artist quite like “Hellboy”.

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While the first four months of 2008 haven’t produced tons of fight of the year candidates, there have been some incredible performances from individual fighters thus far.

B.J. Penn(vs. Joe Stevenson, UFC 80)

Hardcore MMA followers know what B.J. Penn is capable of. When he is mentally focused, and in-shape he is arguably the best pound for pound combatant the sport has ever seen. Read the rest of this entry »

The PRIDE & Shooto legend and the budding UFC & TUF6 star talk to Total-MMA about their different martial arts paths and fighting spirit they share

“We always say, we’re cut from the same cloth,” Enson Inoue says with a smile. The pioneering MMA legend is about to begin conducting a jiu-jitsu seminar with current UFC star George Sotiropoulos at Fisticuffs Gym in Vancouver, WA. The two are friends from the days when Sotiropolous was cutting his teeth in Guam, fighting MMA at a show promoted by an old friend of Inoue.

“When I first met George, I looked at him,” Enson begins. “He was to fight this guy Sergio, this famous jiu-jitsu guy. And look at George, he doesn’t look like this mean dude. He looks like a nice guy, you know. I mean, he’s not a nice guy.”

“Hey! Come on now!” Sotiropoulos yells in a sarcastic protest.

Enson continues, mimicking George’s Australian accent: “‘Hey! I know you, Rites of Passages! Yeah!’ He wants to shake my hand… and I think, oh my God, this guy’s gonna get his ass kicked.”

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DISCUSS THIS STORY IN THE TOTAL-MMA.COM FORUMS

At this time last year, we had already witnessed two fights that ended up being strong candidates for fight of the year. Thus far this year there have been some very compelling bouts–technical wars, slugfests, and epic title clashes–but nothing as spectacular as Gomi-Diaz or Griffin-Edgar from last year. Where these early offerings from January through April will stand at the end of the year is anybody’s guess, but they likely won’t be top candidates for fight of the year when it’s all said and done.

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We celebrate too much, sometimes, the failures of our heroes.

This point was brought home to me last night by the Twin Towers of American sports media - Sports Illustrated and ESPN.  I have an SI subscription.  I couldn’t tell you exactly why; the issues tend to sit around unread for a few weeks before I finally get to them.  When I do, the first thing I do is comb through for anything fight-related - an upcoming boxing match, a wrestler mentioned in Faces in the Crowd, the rare MMA fighter featured on the Pop Culture Grid, or even the rare full sized article - then football, then basketball, and then, if I’ve very, very desperate for reading material, whatever else is between the covers.  The April 14th issue, which focused on the NCAA basketball finals, had one of those rare full sized articles.  It wasn’t about Floyd Mayweather and it wasn’t about some young wrestler you’ve never heard of.  Unusually for SI, it wasn’t even about an American. 

It was about a Brit.  A British MMA fighter, of all things.  Not the rising British MMA scene, not UFC prospect Michael Bisping or soon to star on CBS James Thompson.  No, instead it was about (arguably) British MMA’s greatest public embarassment - Lee Murray.  His career is addressed, and his devotion to training, but that’s not what the article is really about.  It’s about one of the most stunning robberies in history.  Murray and his associates, many of them fellow fighters, got 53 million pounds, or about $100 million.  Then they absconded to Morocco, where Murray holds dual citizenship and a nation which forbids extradition of its nationals.  Of course, Murray’s history of non-professional violence caught up with him there, too, and he sits in jail while the Moroccan and British governments argue over who gets to sentence him to something.

Murray’s story is a crime story; it’s sports related only because of Murray’s other profession.  ESPN2, though, had a story of pure sports, and a story of pure loss.  In south Florida sits Brandon High School, nondescript enough except for one spectacular thing.  The school’s wrestling team, as of the 2007-08 season, had a winning streak dating back to the mid 70s.  It spanned 440 meets - a record for any high school sport, besting the old record by over 150 contests.  The Streak, they called it - both the record and the program about the record.  ESPN2 spent two hours showing BHS’s ‘07-’08 season.  The team won early meets by ridiculous scores - 65-2, 66-6, 75-0.  Then came the Graves.

The Graves was a mid-season tournament conceived by the Brandon High wrestling coach for one reason - to end the streak.  Local competition simply couldn’t challenge his team, so he opened it up to anyone in or out of the state of Florida.  For decades, no one who showed up could manage the job.  This year, someone did.  And ESPN showed it to the world.

Imagine that.  You’re a seventeen year old kid.  You excel in a sport with no promise of monetary gain.  You’re never going to be LeBron James or Peyton Manning, and you know that.  Your sport might get you to college, but it won’t get you further.  In the meantime, though, you’re a local celebrity.  You are the caretaker of a legacy with a lifespan that doubles yours.  It was carried by your older brother, even your father, before you.  Thirty four years without a loss.  The record is celebrated throughout town - at the local garage, in the newspaper, even in church.  The coach has teenage girls wearing t-shirts with his face on the back; a grizzled, middle-aged Justin Timberlake.

And you just lost that.  Furthermore, ESPN just showed it to the entire country, and to significant portions of the rest of the world.  How do you feel?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Too often in sports, we remember competitors’ losses rather than their victories.  The New England Patriots won eighteen consecutive games last season, an unprecedented feat, but lost in arguably the greatest Super Bowl upset of all time.  The accomplishment is now portray as some sort of tragicomdey, as if eighteen times some other team rolled over to set up the Patriots for a great fall at the end.  No match of Dan Gable’s legendary career is talked about as much as his final collegiate contest - the one he lost.  In years to come, it’s a fair bet that the same will be true of the Olympic career of Aleksander Karelin.  In MMA, we talk about Royce Gracie’s defeat at the hand of Matt Hughes and Kazushi Sakuraba more often than his tournament victories.  Is this because the defeats are more recent, or because they satisfy something in us?

Do we, the ones who watch, get some sort of glee in the failures of those who do?  Perhaps.  Many fans seem to show up in the hopes of seeing something bad happen to someone, rather than because of any interest in seeing athletic competition or of a genuine rooting interest.  Truth to tell, I haven’t been to a live event in six years, despite living in an MMA hotbed.  In eastern Iowa, I could see live MMA every weekend if I had the money and the time.  I don’t, partially because I don’t have the money or the time.  Mostly, though, the crowds I saw disturbed me.  My first live show featured a riot in the crowd.  My second had a spectacularly drunk gentleman offer to fight security, in the person of Andre Roberts.  Since then, I’ve seen people boo ground fighting (”No wrestling!” they scream, like drunken Heath Herrings), and cheer as a young Robbie Lawler pummelled an overmatched and punch-drunk amateur in a bout that should’ve been stopped much earlier. 

MMA’s a brutal game, and I’m kidding myself if I pretend it’s not.  The brutality is integral to it.  It is what brings out every positive quality of the sport.  The technical wizardry is all the more impressive for having been performed in the face of personal danger.  The athletic prowess, likewise, amazes all the more for being demonstrated under the most grueling conditions.  Courage, well, courage can, by definition, only be proved under the harshest duress.

As fans, though, we have a responsibility to not add unduly to that necessary brutality.  We should be celebrating victories, yes, and honoring defeats.  It is unseemly, though - no, it is inhuman - to celebrate defeats the way many of us do.  It is one thing to criticize a fighter for a poor performance, to cite poor preparation or lack of will as the reason for defeat.  It is quite another to actively root for that fighter’s ill health.  It is one thing to admire a fighter’s willingness to endure punishment, and another entirely to encourage the Nate Quarrys and Kazushi Sakurabas of the world to continue to fight long after they should have retired.  We owe them better.  We owe the sport better.  We owe ourselves better.

Oh, and if Eric Grajales is reading this, I’d like to remind him that Iowa has a very nice wrestling program that he’d fit into perfectly.

ZST - Hideo Tokoro vs. Masahiro Oishi

FFC - Chris Leben vs. Joe Doerksen

Pride FC - Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

ICON Sport - Robbie Lawler vs. Falaniko Vitale

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Maybe they’re not all thunder gods, but it’s safe to say that the Scandanavians have something of a fighting heritage. Blame the Vikings who conquered most of Europe, or blame Wagner for writing the immortal Ring Cycle, I don’t know, blame Stan Lee for the Thor comics. But it’s hard to think of that peninsula without images of reindeer hide capes, helmets with mastadon horns pointing from either side, slaying giants, killing wabbits, and so on. Sure, they’ve got great pancakes too, but mostly, it’s warrior country.

So it may surprise you to learn that the good people of Norway and Sweden have often found their modern combatants in MMA, boxing, and kickboxing with no battles to fight. Yep, all three sports have been struggled to survive legally on the professional level. That’s why last year, following the sale of PRIDE, Norway’s Joachim Hansen took a series of amatuer boxing bouts to stay in shape, and not make a dime, as his career was left in limbo. In a video interview Hansen revealed that his trainer and manager left the sport behind entirely, and “had to go back to his normal job… because he has to make a living.”

So it’s tough going for a Viking in 2008, but there’s signs of hope too. This year, Sweden’s MMA community has rallied together to re-attain legal status. The Zone FC promotion ran a show in Solna, Sweden last month which featured an appearance by Enson Inoue. Earlier this month, the fine folks at Asgard MMA ran a story on Jörgen “The Last Viking” Kruth, the Swedish Muay Thai standout now making the switch to MMA.
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