Archive for the 'Tommy Hackett' Category

Hard to believe, but the final shows to be held under the name World Extreme Cagefighting are on the way. Fittingly, tonight’s broadcast of WEC 52 from Las Vegas, NV(On Versus network stateside) features the promotion’s most popular fighter, Uriah Faber, against one of the talents that it helped develop into a star for North American audiences, Takeya Mizugaki. This should be an excellent fight to cap off a pretty good show.

But it’s a sad night because it reminds me how I’ll miss this promotion when its gone at year’s end. WEC’s emphasis on the lighter weight divisions often kept the pace up and offered an overall talent pool with a bit greater depth than the more glamorous UFC or Strikeforce. Admittedly, they’d fly under everyone’s radar sometimes with the battery of MMA shows out there. I’ve sometimes wished WEC would throw in some bells and whistles, a human interest story among their broadcasts – anything. But they’ll be missed all the same. With ZUFFA eliminating the WEC brand we’ll probably not see so many of these strong bouts in the lighter classes week after week. 

Don’t it always seem to go… that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone? 

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A quick look at the credentials of Lee Coville, who returns to Muay Thai action this weekend at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, and it would be easy to classify him a rising star.

His hard work has resulted in a half-dozen championship belts and he’s notched 49 victories in his 59 fight professional Muay Thai career. Last month in England, Coville earned another British title at 59 kg., using his familiar aggressive style, heavy on hand combinations and low kicks, to earn a unanimous decision over Mark Brown.

Unfortunately, the English Thai Boxing champion remains toiling in obscurity — spending his days laboring at construction sites in the Cambridge area.

“There’s not a lot of money in it to be honest with you,” Coville relates about his passion for Muay Thai. “So yeah, I have to sort of work in England and save up my money and try and fund myself, really. I don’t have any sponsorships or anything, so spend most of my days working at the building site, and at the end of the day I have to go down to the gym, doing my training.”

“That’s what I had to do at this last fight in the UK, which obviously isn’t ideal,” he explains. “That’s why I try to save my money and get back to Thailand, where at least I can train sort of full time, twice a day, six to eight hours a day six days a week. You need to be doing that really, to compete with the other guys who are training in Thailand full time, that way you’re not at a disadvantage so to speak. Pretty hard life, really!”

Speaking to this fighter recalls the bitter play-by-play commentary of ESPN2’s Bob Papa during the 2001 fight of the year in boxing, between Micky Ward and Emmanuel Augustus Burton. Aware of the sadly low profile and pay of the two combatants, who were offering fans more heart and soul than any other bout that year, Papa yelled as the bout progressed, “would someone get these guys a payday!”

Total-MMA caught up with Coville as he prepares for his bout in Lumpinee stadium in Bangkok this weekend — after which he will begin training for his sixth professional MMA bout next month.

So, maybe that day — the big payday, like the one that rocketed Ward off the construction sites of his native Lowell, MA and onto the world stage — is coming, and hopefully soon.

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Pictured: UFC Heavweight Champion Brock Lesnar (left) and challenger Cain Velasquez face off at the UFC 121 weigh-ins yesterday.

So… at 7 pm PST tonight from the Honda Center in the greater area of La Ciudad De Nuestra Señora, Reina de los Angeles, aka L.A. — fight fans are treated to UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez, perhaps the UFC’s last big show of 2010. What hasn’t been said about this show? Who isn’t excited for this main, featuring a champion who finally stands alone on top of the division against its biggest blue chip prospect? Who isn’t sick of the Mexico vs US theme that the UFC hype machine is spitting out? Who knew Cain’s native California seceded anyway? I was born there — I guess I need a Brown Pride tat so I can piss off all the internets. Oh well. Maybe I’ve lost touch of my roots — but tonight, ich bin ein Mexicaner.

As always, our predictions are for entertainment purposes only, along with my references to Cain’s heritage. You want my opinion? The guy has every right to be proud of it. Sure, a “White Pride” tat wouldn’t go over so well but hey, life isn’t fair. Quit whining and go for yours. Cain’s and his fam are living proof that hard work pays off. So shaddap.

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Tonight, a fast-paced MMA autumn continues with the talent-laden and sadly overlooked Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons 2, broadcast on Showtime at 10 pm EST/PST stateside.

KJ Noons looks to live up to the early promise of his somewhat now-stagnant career. Nick Diaz, fresh off a huge win over Hayato Sakurai, comes in ready to prove that his defeat at Noons’ hands in 2008 was an anomaly. Prospects like jiu jitsu luminary Andre Galvao will try to show that his success in the “gentle art” will translate into an MMA career.

But the biggest question may be how much longer can this organization continue to survive as it seems to be overlooked at nearly every turn… even the live gate is down.

On a personal note, for my part, I’d love to see it continue. These are some great fights we’re getting, and without shelling out PPV dough. The MMA world needs competition and not a ZUFFA monopoly.

On another (and less relevant) personal note, tonight’s show is in Strikeforce’s warm weather backyard, my birthplace of San Jose, CA – and its pretty grey out in my hometown of Seattle. So maybe I’m just California dreamin’, and hoping this show ends up more than it should be… but as you can see, I have hopes for it, and Strikeforce’s continued rebound from their primetime disaster earlier this year.

Picks and analysis of the show after the jump….

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It would be easy to describe UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares (aka UFC Fight Night 22) as hobbling its way into the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, TX tonight — with several of its scheduled bouts scratched due to one injury after another. But, it would also be a bit dishonest.

This show, which leads off the new season of Ultimate Fighter, may have lost some of its luster with the loss of such names as Alan Belcher — but it’s also benefitted from some creative shuffling of ZUFFA talent. Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares would be a solid undercard bout for a PPV show; so it’s fair to classify them solid entries for a “free TV” (Cable isn’t free where I live, but whatever) main event. The undercard features some familiar faces like TUF winners Ross Pearson and Efrain Escudero, along with some exciting developing talent like Charles Oliveira.

So many changes occured with this lineup, that I can barely remember the original card. Maybe that’s to its benefit. I didn’t exactly mark this one on the calendar, but the more I look at it, the more I like this show and am looking forward to it.

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Pictured: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza weighs in for StrikeForce: Houston yesterday. Photo by Esther Lin courtesy of StrikeForce. Total-MMA staff agrees on the result of every bout but Souza vs. Tim Kennedy!

It hasn’t been all smiles under the warm California sun for our friends at StrikeForce. The San Jose-based promotion has taken a few hits in its recent attempts to go “international” — among them, the defection of middleweight champion Jake Shields, an embarassing showing on national TV, and most recently, injury issues with their newly crowned champion Fabricio Werdum. But as the lineup for tonight’s StrikeForce: Houston show illustrates, they still have the roster to put on a strong show.

A light heavyweight title bout which would be a good offering on any ZUFFA show headlines, while the absence of Shields makes way for two of the game’s grittiest to take center stage, to contest the vacated middleweight crown. A solid undercard airs in a webcast on Sherdog.com, including the sublime jiu-jitsu of world champion Andre Galvao against old favorite Jorge Patino.

So maybe sometimes things fall apart… but they still end up okay, at least for this viewer who just wants to catch some good MMA action on a Saturday night!

Tonight’s show is handicapped by Jacob Lawton (JL) and me (TH). Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: “Lion” Takeshi and Hatsu Hioki battle it out. Picture from MMAFighting.com.

It’s hard to believe that half of 2010, and then some, has already passed us by! There have been so many great fights this year; sometimes it all comes off overkill, and sometimes it seems every show rewrites the book. Just last weekend’s UFC brought a memorable comeback from Brock Lesnar against Shane Carwin and yet another clinic from George Sotiropoulos.

But on 30 May at JCB Hall in Tokyo, one bout’s combination of passion and skills stood out — to at least one observer.

This is my “Fight of the Half-Year” for 2010: “Lion” Takeshi Inoue vs. Hatsu Hioki for the Shooto Lightweight Title. Some of you may not be familiar with Shooto. An MMA organization with a more than 20 year history, Shooto has brought so many classic fights in the past, and one that I’ve been happy to rediscover this year. This very show also featured a spirited comeback from Rumina Sato, whose Shooto bout against Caol Uno was often described as the best of the 1990’s.

Hopefully you feel the same. Is it a perfect fight? No. Everyone knows how much I love a bout on the mat and that never developed here. But, nothing else this half year had quite this combination of guts and skill. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it too. At least you may agree that while MMA in Japan may not enjoy the glamor of years past, this bout shows it still has the passion.

Please click here for the video.

Tonight, Strikeforce and M-1 Global offer a huge show for any MMA fan — as the greatest of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, takes on one of the world’s top ten heavyweights in Brazilian jiu-jitsu luminary Fabricio Werdum. The bout will be broadcast live 10 pm EST from the HP Pavillion in San Jose, CA on Showtime, delayed on the West Coast, and likely streamed illegally everywhere else.

Earlier this week, I enjoyed a Fedor Emelianenko interview — and yes, I realize there’s nothing unusual about that. He’s had some classics, like earlier this year where he took some of his fellow sportsmen for “forgetting their flags,” describing his religous faith, and more. His quiet integrity is what makes me a Fedor fan, the qualities that Dave Meltzer references when he dubbed the man the “anti-Brock Lesnar” recently.

But what struck me about this interview, which was sent from Strikeforce’s office and posted on Youtube, was that Fedor Emelianenko, the greatest of all time, appeared almost as burned out as I am about MMA lately. Among other things, he admits he doesn’t enjoy watching MMA fights; and essentially struggles to say anything at all about his opponent.

Still, the fights are on — and they should be well worth watching.

The show will mark the first time the world’s #1 male and female fighters will appear on the same show. There’s still honor in this game.

As Fedor puts it in that very interview, “I do not consider myself to be the strongest fighter or be a very special person… there are a lot of people who pray for me and that’s why I want to be the representative of my country… I just want people to remember me as the honest person, the person who loves his country, his motherland and who glorifies the Orthodox Russia.”

My predictions follow.

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UFC 115, which will be broadcast live on PPV at 10 pm US EST tonight from GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, was never hailed among ZUFFA’s top shows of the year. The main event of Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz wouldn’t have made sense in 2007 when both were closer to their primes — as Chuck stopped Tito twice in two lopsided bouts in the mid-2000’s. Today, with both in the twilight of their careers, it’s even less palatable. But Ortiz has been replaced by Rich Franklin, offering a bit more compelling a bout — if not much of a more relevant one. A mediocre undercard isn’t much of a help. This would be an interesting UFC Fight Night, but a PPV it ain’t… particularly on a World Cup weekend.

However, two masochistic stateside Total-MMA staff members find themselves drawn to this show. Please join us. So, sit down, enjoy a recommendation from the world’s greatest wine reviewer, Sadat X of Brand Nubian fame, and let’s get down to it!

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Pictured: Renzo Gracie demonstrates how to begin a guard pass at his seminar in Fife, WA last Saturday.

There are a few figures in the MMA world which require no introduction. Fewer still are all but universally admired.

He’s quick to deflect any such praise, instead casting favor to his family and their art which has changed the martial arts world — but Renzo Gracie, who enjoyed his first visit to the Seattle area last Saturday to conduct a jiu-jitsu seminar, may just stand alone to many of us.

After the seminar, the legend smiles his way through requests from area fans — everything from autographs, to questions about technique, to a request for a chokeout. In a brief Total-MMA interview, Renzo laughs as he’s reminded of some of his vintage MMA battles — including a win over the man who helped put the Seattle area on the MMA map, Maurice Smith. In the 1990’s, Bellevue’s Smith had won titles in UFC and Battlecade, and actually released instructional videos marketed as the solution to the Gracie family’s dominance. They eventually met in 1999 in Japan’s RINGS organization.

“He made those videos, ‘How to Beat Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,’ to tell everybody how it’s done!” Renzo laughs. “And, I armlocked him! (laughs) But I love the guy. He’s a great competitor and we were very fortunate to have him in the game.”

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