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From Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The best book on the real history of MMA that I’ve seen will be released next month, called “Total MMA,” by Jonathan Snowden, published by ECW press. The 400-page book dates MMA back to the days of the fathers of judo, Jigoro Kano and Mitsuya Maeda (better known in some parts of the world as Conde Koma). Maeda did a lot of pro wrestling and carnival con style wrestling in North America, and wound up in Brazil, the original teacher of Carlos Gracie. It covers both the Japanese, Brazilian and American history of MMA up to the present including the ups and downs of the early UFCs, the heyday of Pride, the modern era up through the build-up of Lesnar vs. Couture. The book is thorough and honest and tells, at least over the 15 years that I know how things evolved. It doesn’t run from the pro wrestling connection, and goes into the UWF movement that preceded true shooting, and covers the first generation of Pancrase largely for what it was and wasn’t. This book really is so great I couldn’t put it down and this week I hardly had any time to be reading a huge book. I don’t necessarily agree with all the conclusions but agreed with the vast majority, and understand where he was coming from on all of them. It’s a thorough history dating back to the turn of the 20th century, covering the heydays in Brazil, Japan and major UFC opposition groups over the past 15 years in North America.

Total MMA is available in stores the first week of December. Perfect holiday gifts…I assure you.

This isn’t what I have in mind when I hear Shonie Carter’s nom de guerre “Mr. International.” But…

Two days ago, the veteran MMA welter, well known for his offbeat personality, posted asking for help at the Underground Forum:

Ok last time I was in california when it all starterd, but this time I have really messed up! I was out one night pARTYING IT UP AND BEFORE I knew it, I am on a private jet. I laughed at first and passed out on the plane. I woke up in istanbul, turkey. The reason I know because I am looking at the Black sea! WTF! I got a ride to bulgarian/ turkish border looking for American Embassy. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get back? The onetime I leave my friggin passport at home I need the damned thing!

The thread is here.

My first reaction to this kind of thing is that it’s got to be fake, but this is Shonie Carter we’re talking about, so nothing would surprise me. For what it’s worth, the site’s owner says the posts are indeed coming from Bulgaria.

So, Total-MMA readers, if you’re in Bulgaria and have some pull, or if you’re in the US and would be kind enough to feed Mr. Carter’s pythons and tarantuals in his absence, by all means, please help a brother out.

Enjoy bodily fluids week on The Ultimate Fighter.

Since day one of the WEC purchase and subsequent Versus TV deal, its been clear that the focus of the promotion has been centered around the one fighter that Zuffa felt was both marketable and dominant. Urijah Faber was well known due to his success on the west coast in promotions such as Gladiator Challenge and King of the Cage, and up till tonight, it seemed that the faith of Zuffa in him was more than justified. Faber regularly came up in P4P discussions and was at least partially responsible for the biggest rating ever pulled by the organization.

Another man brought in from the onset was an undefeated middleweight considered by some the true linear middleweight champion of the world. Paulo Filho’s outstanding physical strength and submission game had earned him a perfect record and wins over a number of name middleweight contenders. It had always been assumed that Filho’s entrance in the WEC was due to a friendship he had with UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and a subsequent refusal to fight him. Would he ever be willing to take on the challenge, he and the middleweight division would almost certainly be integrated with the UFC’s, and Filho might be the only survival of such a culling.

Coming into tonight, the combined 37-1 records of the two men were among the most impressive in the sport and largely representative of a future in which fighters are carefully handled and brought success. Now that the cameras are off, nothing is so sure anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the running themes among MMA journalists in recent months is to claim that MMA’s boom is merely a boom for the UFC. Its an interesting thought, and there’s some basis to that fact given the financial woes of organizations such as EliteXC and Affliction, along with the lingering death of others such as the IFL. The argument, as it is best said, is that their failings (along with similar failings on the parts of YAMMA, the WFA, etc) establish that MMA success can thus only be posited to the folks making the biggest sums of money: Zuffa.

While such postulation is cute, this viewpoint shows an awfully small worldview for the sport. Gary Shaw himself admitted that he entered the sport because he saw that it was becoming incredibly successful on the lower and mid levels. The explosion of the UFC demands that far expanded numbers of new talent be developed, and that realistically can only be done long before they reach the “Super Bowl of Mixed Martial Arts”. To that end, we arrive to discuss that very sort of thing.

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(Perhaps the most feared man in boxing pound for pound, Paul Williams headlines the return of boxing on Versus tonight)

Tonight on Versus at 8PM EST, the somewhat surprising relaunch of their boxing programming kicks off for the fall season. It is surprising in that it seemed likely at the onset of 2008 to not even happen. Versus’ boxing budget per show was 5 times that of what ESPN paid per event for their boxing programming, and yet they saw cards that were below par even for that network. Heavyweight fraud Tye Fields benefited most from the Versus exclusivity contract with Bob Arum, as well as the over the hill Hasim Rahman and potentially exposed Kid Diamond. Fans recieved piteously little. By all rights, Versus had every right to give up the ghost, particularly with WEC providing higher rated programming.

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M-1 Challenge is the newest program to enter the MMA TV lottery and is the brain child of Vadim Finkelstein. In the US, it’ll be brought on a weekly basis by the good folks over at HDNet, who have to be considered something of a necessity for the hardcore fan by now. The one hour show will, on a weekly basis, show 5 full and edited fights from the M-1 Challenge Tournament. This tournament features 10 teams from across the globe with 5 fighters per team in weight classes from 155 to heavyweight. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? There are 2 teams from Russia (Team Legion and Team Red Devil), then the US, Japan, South Korea, Finland, France, Spain, Germany, and Holland. Interesting that no UK team was chosen for the inaugural season or whatever they wish to call this. Our first episode comes to us from The Netherlands and there’s a pretty good size live crowd present. Recording date goes all the way back to March of this year.

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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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