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As Wanderlei Silva prepares for his first fight in the UFC at 185lbs, that’s the biggest question.  Silva has now lost 5 of his last 6 fights and has only one win since returning to the UFC.  The losses though are nothing to get down about.  Many fighters have fell to the hands of Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, and Rich Franklin.  The test that he faces now is much different.

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We all know the horrible tragedy that struck Haiti on Tuesday has claimed thousands of lives and left many more in a state of emergency.

It’s good to also know that at least one member of the MMA community is “coming out swinging” in support of the survivors.

MMAWarehouse.com is one online retailer among many which has popped up in recent years. (In fact, I’ve never purchased from them, but have only heard good reviews of their service.) But they have released a statement which really sets them apart, as they team with Mercy Corp to send aid to Haiti:

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince Tuesday afternoon, collapsing buildings, including at least one hospital. The quake affected roughly one in three Haitians: about 3 million people. Anywhere between 30,000 and 100,000 are feared dead and even more are injured in the largest quake to strike the impoverished Caribbean nation in 200 years. Power is out, telecommunications are spotty and food and water are reportedly growing scarce.

MMAWarehouse.com is pledging a dollar for dollar match up to the first $5,000 donated here and additionally will donate a portion of our sales now through Thursday, January 21st.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to suddenly lose your home and all your possessions, or worse yet, your friends and family members. I know that everyone’s economic situation these days is far from perfect, but I encourage you to count your blessings in life and give what you can to your fellow brothers and sisters across the globe who are truly in dire need.

You can click here to read the Better Business Bureau’s review of Mercy Corp. There are other great organizations out there, too. Catholic Relief Services and Americares are both noted for having more than 92% of their donations go directly to those in need and keeping minimal administrative costs. WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, who represented Haiti in the 2004 Olympic games, gave an emotional interview to ESPN this week, where he mentioned that he would be offering information about how to help on his website soon, as well.

What more needs to be said? Dig deep, and please give what you can.

Please forgive the recent lack of activity here. Total-MMA is going through a bit of a transition right now, so you can expect a new and improved look in the new year. Thanks for being patient.

Today, MMA legend Enson Inoue’s long battle with immigration will finally come to an end. Recently he left the following message on his blog:

I just got called by the Immigration office and it seems that they have finally made a decision. In fact I’ll get the results on Christmas day Dec.25th. If the Immigration hands me a favorable decision that would be a great Christmas present. Whatever the decision is I’ll consider it a present from God. I’m either going to be able to continue my life here in Japan or I may need to start my new life abroad. Whatever the decision is, I’ll will be okay. But I’m very nervous. While everyone is celebrating Christmas I’ll be in a battle with the Immigration. One of the biggest decisions in my life will be handed to me on the day Jesus was born. Everyone please help me with the power of prayer.

So, I’d ask everyone to keep the man they call “Yamato Damashii,” who may ironically be forced to leave the Land of the Rising Sun, in your prayers — or, just keep a good thought.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed or enjoyed our content in the last year. Merry Christmas, and all the best to you and yours.

All the fighters, pundits and fans have weighed in on this Saturday’s title fight in Los Angeles pitting champ Lyoto Machida against Mauricio Rua, and the verdict is that Machida will have his hand raised. Whether it’s a case of the masses simply overrating the unorthodox “Dragon”, or being oblivious to the dangerous skills Rua possesses I don’t know, but what I do know is that on Saturday night Mauricio Rua will re-claim his spot as the best light heavyweight on the planet. Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow night, Kazushi Sakuraba makes his return to the ring for DREAM in Japan.  It’s a return to action that literally no one has been awaiting with baited breath.  As I point out at Heavy.com, Sakuraba is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Now the hall of famer is firmly in the Ali-Holmes stage of his career. He’s clearly no longer the man he once was, and just as clearly needs to stop fighting to protect his long term health. Yet, promoters keep dragging him back to the ring. And he goes willingly. And audiences still want to watch him fight and in an ugly business that trumps all. Everyone is responsible for the tragedies, yet no one is.

I run down Sakuraba’s back story in the piece.  He’s clearly one of the most important figures in MMA history.  It’s a shame to see him come to this.  Remember this up and coming fighters:  save your money so you can save your brain. 

Don Frye rules. We all know that. From wrestler to EMT to fighter to pro wrestler to actor to legend, the path Frye took was anything but linear. Heavy.com, whose MMA content of late has been great (some Jonathan Snowden fellow), posted an interview with Frye, the whole thing worthy of quotes. Frye talks about many things, what sticks out the most was how compassionate of an EMT he was.

“We got the call, around midnight. We roll in there and put the fire out, find a couple of hotspots here and there. Then we find a suicide note,” Frye said. “That pisses you off because they are endangering your life and the lives of all the other fire fighters.”

This was worse than people calling for an ambulance at two in the morning with mild discomfort, which is how EMT’s spend 95 percent of their time. This was dangerous and irresponsible, and a furious Frye began searching the house for the perpetrator.

“I walked into the bedroom and found the son of a bitch on the bed,” Frye remembered. “I grabbed him by the ankles and yanked his ass right on the floor. Boom! He screamed and I drug him down the hallway. I hit him against every wall on the way out the door. Boy, it’ll be the last time he tries to commit suicide by fire. I picked him up and threw him out on the lawn. You lose your compassion real quick when people do stupid shit like that.” 

The Internet is abuzz with what unbelievable news is in store for Friday coming from a bunch of random sources, some of whom no one’s really heard of. Reminds me a bit of last year when the same thing happened. Did you forget about that? You know, the big announcement that was Floyd Mayweather, a network deal, Fedor, or something like that…and ended up being delayed a week and was Lorenzo Fertitta moving from the contracting casino market to the UFC full time. Well, I expect something similar this time around too. Probably an ESPN UK deal and maybe the official return of Tito. Big enough news to merit a conference call, I suppose. Not big enough for the dreamers. I’ll be happy to be wrong.

There’s been a lot of nonsense out there on the internet about this in the last few days coming from all angles, and I think it should probably be addressed in a fashion becoming of adults rather than petulant man-children:

-Affliction’s death by no means guarantees the end of competition to the UFC just as DREAM’s potential any-day-its-gonna-happen demise would prove the end of Japanese MMA. Last I checked, Sengoku and Strikeforce are still around, and there’s always talk of new money entering the sport.

-The sudden death of Affliction and cancellation is good for the sport only if the talent migrates to the UFC, where it would obviously be best used and tested. Since that likely isn’t going to happen given the nonexclusive nature of the contracts (as I said last week and Meltzer reviewed again yesterday), we’re no better off as fans. Long term, Affliction was going anyways. We just didn’t get to see the fights.

-I keep hearing that one of Affliction’s problems was “booking for the internet fans.” Its an interesting argument, I suppose until you realize no one can define what that means. Would Affliction have been better off taking the cancelled Vernon White/Babalu fight and using it for themselves? I suppose its possible. Would have been cheaper than Whitehead or Sokoudjou. Then again, what do I care? I’d prefer to see good fights. Those were good fights on paper. Tiger White/Babalu isn’t.  If Affliction decided to spend money on a bunch of lousy squashes, they’d have been panned even harder than they were for running what they did, and I see no reason they would have necessarily been successful doing it, or why I should cheer for more economical but crappy fights. If that’s a side effect of being into the “biz” first, I’d argue you don’t actually care about the sport of MMA.

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So, today, Affliction as an MMA promoter died. It went out in about the most shameful fashion possible: On its knees. After the loss of Barnett and Showtime’s disapproval of any replacements, the show was doomed into cancellation, leaving guys without big paydays who may not have necessarily deserved them. Ignoring that for a moment, I have my own personal feelings about them:

-The key mistake was to never poach a guy who mattered. Tito teased them but they spent millions on Arlovski. When guys like GSP started to come up for contract renewals, they weren’t around talking money. That could have brought them the attention they needed. They paid a lot for other guys though.

-Their two shows were great. Some of the better PPVs over the last couple of years, stacked with all sorts of wild matchups. The third was that way…until this week. But you know what? I didn’t spend a dime on that. The others I got my money’s worth on. Most of us complaining or cheering their demise didn’t spend a dime either. Don’t lie.

-Someone needed money fast. Business deals can often wait a weekend. For Affliction to give up immediately because some guy was at a hotel that probably has a fax machine couldn’t help them tells me something was up on their end.

-Its for the best for MMA fans assuming that the guys in the company that people want to see show up in the UFC. Gomi won’t. Babalu probably won’t. Mousasi probably won’t. Jorge Santiago probably won’t. I don’t predict what will happen with Fedor, but history ain’t looking good. Right now, you’re looking at maybe Vitor Belfort coming in. That’s nice and all, but he probably wouldn’t have beaten Santiago this weekend (yes, I’m serious) and he’s in really tough with almost anyone in the UFC’s middleweight division. Honestly, he might lose to Alan Belcher. I’d actively pick Akiyama over him. From the perspective of seeing good fighters against one another, we might actually lose out. I will hope, however, that we don’t.

It was a night of surprises over in the Land of the Rising Sun. Mario Zaromskis shocked everyone by landing two head kicks, one against heavy favorite Hayato Sakurai and again against equally unexpected finalist Jason High. Zaromskis was a fairly obscure fighter based in the UK and noted for funny kicks prior to this stunning change of status. Its still enormously difficult to accept Zaromskis as anywhere near a top 10 welterweight, but certainly the discussion will begin. As exciting as his win was, the performance of the favorites, particularly Andre Galvao, left much to be desired. Galvao showed no capability to defend or throw strikes whatsoever in his embarassing loss to Jason High.

The main card also saw a less than epic encounter between Vitor Ribeiro and Shinya Aoki that stunningly turned into an amateur kickboxing match for all but perhaps the last 2:30. Ribeiro finally succeeded at forcing Aoki to the mat, but did nothing with it, earning a unanimous decision loss. Melvin Manhoef succeeded in providing the most entertaining fight of the card against favorite Paulo Filho, but failed to win. Filho, after being dropped and stunned with numerous strikes in the first, was able to take down Manhoef and, once there, surprise no one at all with Manhoef’s distinct lack of ground game, submitting him by armbar.