Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Sunday media stroll: Alexander wants to reach out to you

By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2007

Print Friendly and PDF

Fightlinker needs some help with WordPress. E-mail him if you can help him out.

Main results from tonight’s K-1 Las Vegas show: Stefan Leko defeated Mighty Mo after 3R by a 3-0 judges’ decision (30-27 scores), Bjorn Bregy defeated Ray Sefo after 3R by a 2-1 judges’ decision, and Doug Viney (the New Zealander who won his reserve fight) defeated Zabit Samedov (Belarus) after 3R by a 3-0 judges’ decision to win the night’s tournament. K-1 claimed 5,770 paid for the show.

Remember the “how to save boxing” symposium I discussed a couple of days ago? Kevin Iole has a beautiful article on what a debacle the event turned into. It makes for great reading.

Here is an online interview with Alexander Emelianenko. That is a fantastic picture of him sitting at a computer.

Chris Lytle won on Saturday night in front of 4,000 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Plus, Sean Salmon is back in the win column.

Sam Caplan wants to let you know that he’s “not some neo-conservative self-righteous prick who is naive about the world.” I guess Sam isn’t a fan of Peyton Manning then. But, but, I thought Manning won a Super Bowl ring and Donovan McNabb didn’t? Nonetheless, Sam is ready to prove his mettle on his latest radio show.

For our fellow wrestling marks out there, a new web site called Slam Addict has just been launched.

Minowaman won, but brother YASSHI lost in Nagoya. Heartbreaking!

Here’s a new sport to add to the list of cross-training that MMA fighters should consider – extreme ironing. Hot.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. Irish Whip Fighting: An interview with the girls behind MMAgirls.net
  2. Bloody Elbow: Fun with rankings – heavyweights
  3. UFC Junkie: MMA Wagering 101
  4. The Fight Network: X(C) Con – interview with Krazy Horse Bennett
  5. The Southern Daily Echo (UK): Cage fighting packs a punch
  6. The Baltimore Sun: MMA rankings galore
  7. Fight Report: Ponce De Leon destroys Rey Bautista
  8. WTHR 13 (Indiana): Controversial sport of MMA gaining audience
  9. The Boston Herald: Randy Couture weighs in on Gabriel Gonzaga
  10. The Anderson Herald-Bulletin (Indiana): MMA referee an apt job for a guy named John Manley
  11. MMA Passport: A list of up-and-coming fighters, including Mauricio Shogun
  12. The Beaver County Times (PA): MMA good for more than just TV
  13. Eddie Goldman: A podcasting association?
  14. Kung Fu Cinema: ‘Enter the Dragon’ remake in the works
  15. Ground and Pound: An interview with Luke Cummo
  16. MMA Weekly: Doug Evans not fighting Jorge Gurgel at UFC 77

Topics: Boxing, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

34 Responses to “Sunday media stroll: Alexander wants to reach out to you”

  1. Brendon says:

    whoah, Doug Viney won the K-1 tourney? Fantastic! Doug Viney has been getting better and better on the K-1 circuit in NZ and is a former olympic boxer. Great guy with a level head, I’ve met him a few times in Auckland and seen him fight locally. A tremendous talent who will perplex many traditional K-1 fighters. I’d love to see him try MMA btw, he seems to have the head for learning and improving.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    Mauricio Rua is an up & coming fighter? I guess winning a feeder system tournament like the Pride Grand Prix means Rua can now be named in the same breath as great Light Heavyweights like Matt Hamill, Michael Bisping, Wilson Gouveia, & James Irvin.

    I was watching HBO Boxing on Saturday Night, and the announcing team was so underwhelming it made it tough to watch. During the first fight, the losing fighter got knocked down with a body shot. Lennox Lewis is talking at the time, and his tone doesn’t change a bit. If you weren’t actually watching the screen at the time, you would have no clue that the fight just ended. Now, we don’t need a guy like Rogan calling a guy like Hermes Franca a world class striker every two seconds, but it would be nice to hear a little enthusiasm in the announcers when the fight is ready to end.

    As for all of these rankings coming out as of late. I see a lot of bad rankings. A guy like Gonzaga beats Cro Cop, and people want to rank Gonzaga below him. What good is two fighters most recent fight if it doesn’t reflect itself in the rankings.

    The general rules to ranking is very simple:
    1. What a fighter has done over his entire career gets him the consideration to be ranked.
    2. What a fighter has done recently against those other top fighter is what gets him his ranking.

    Not a very difficult concept. So if Matt Serra just beat GSP, he gets ranked above him. Now, if Serra loses to Hughes and GSP beats Koscheck, then it is probably fair to rank GSP above Serra because the next fights altered those rankings. Overall, Sherdog.com’s rankings are surprising good. There are a few areas I disagree with (Ortiz not being ranked), but overall I was kind of surprise. Their Heavyweight Division is exactly how I have them ranked. And people giving them grief over the Lightweight Division need to relax. In a year, that division will hopefully be so much clearer, with #1 & #2 in the world likely being the UFC & K-1 Hero’s Champions.

  3. Rollo the Cat says:

    MMA Passport must be a practical joke. The question is, who is behind it?

  4. Jordan Breen says:

    No shame in Brother YASSHI losing. Takesuke Kume was the All Japan amateur Shooto champ at 168 last year, and put on an awesome debut performance against ’05 All Japan winner Tomokazu Yuasa in one of the best Class B Shooto bouts this year.

    Also, Ponce de Leon is so technically inept that it truly tickles me when he’s throwing windmills and crushing guys in the world title picture. It’s a shame he’s gonna be left ass out for a while while Vazquez and Marquez wrap up their trilogy, with Caballero looking to face the rubber match winner. Molitor-Ponce is some hilarious shit I’d pay to watch though.

  5. Brendon says:

    I’d just like to add a comment about the latest roundof Heavyweight rankings. Gozonga should be above Crocrop, he beat him after all, but neither man should be above Couture. He is the 2 time UFC champion, beating against all predictions the longtime UFC champion Tim Sylvia who should ALSO be in any top 10. He loses one fight, which was a war, and drops 10 places in some rankings?? Mark Hunt beat Crocrop not that long ago so he should be in there, not to mention the fact that he’s the only PRIDE fighter apart from Nogueira to cause Fedor any trouble.
    So it should be:
    1. Fedor
    2. Randy (He’s the UFC champ after all!)
    3. Nogueria
    4. Gonzaga
    5. Tim Sylvia
    5. Mark Hunt
    6. Mirko
    7. Josh Barnett
    8. Arlovski
    9. Werdum
    10. Any fighter from Alexsander to Brock Lesnar

    From #5-#7 are all pretty much equal in my eyes. Crocrop is NOT in the top 4 after being beat by Hunt and Gonzaga. Barnett was beat by Crocrop and needs to erase that.
    #8 downwards is much of a muchness, none of them stand out hugely, I put Lesnar in there as a joke but if he was to fight a couple more times and beat fighters of this level he could catapult into a top 10, as could any of the fighters outside of the top 7.

    In conclusion…Mirko is overranked, Randy is underranked… and forget about Mark Hunt at your peril.

  6. Zach Arnold says:

    You’re putting Mark Hunt ahead of Barnett? Did you see their July ’06 fight? 🙂

    Putting Sylvia ahead of Mirko or Barnett… you’re going to draw heat for that. Along with the fact that Barnett beat Couture in ’02.

  7. Brendon says:

    Yeah I saw it, but I also saw Barnett blow it against Crocrop, thats why I said Hunt, Barnett and Crocrop are pretty much even in my estimation. They all have one bad loss that is holding them back, I do think Hunt went some way to wiping it with his performance against Fedor, I know everyone jokes about his ground game but he still did more than almost any other fighter has in recent times against the Russian, it was a brave showing and deserves ranking. As for Sylvia, he has to be ahead of them, he is one loss away from a title he held for a long time which is more than any fighter below him on my list can say, It would tak another loss from Sylvia(or for him not to fight for a year) to knock him down in my rankings. Can anyone absolutely predict that Mirko or Barnett would beat Tim Sylvia? I’d be sitting on the fence on both those fights (I reckon Hunt would beat him, He bombs big guys easily) My heart would go with Barnett but he hasnt won a belt or tourney in a looong time and Crocrop is just too up and down, I could see Sylvia doing a Gonzaga on him.

    As For Randy vs Barnett,that was a long time ago and Couture has the belt, that has to count for alot. I just realised I screwed up the ranks with two #5s but you get the gist. The more I think about it though most of the fighters under #2 are interchangeable in rank because most of them havent fought each other yet. The UFC needs to sign Fedor, Hunt and Barnett and settle this, hell sign Lesnar, Sapp and Butterbean as well and duke it out Royal rumble style.

  8. Zack says:

    Oh god are there trolls on this site now too?

  9. Zach Arnold says:

    I’ve argued in the past that arguments relating to a > b > c, therefore a > c don’t work. However, in the case of Barnett, Couture, and Sylvia it would. Couture and Barnett are both strong amateur wrestlers (albeit Barnett more well-rounded as a fighter now). Couture at age 43 had little trouble putting Sylvia down to the mat for five rounds. Barnett, an upgrade in every category over Couture, dismantled Couture in ’02. He would likely squash Sylvia if he decided to use his wrestling skills, which he would.

  10. chis says:

    They should do a remake of Game Of Death.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    The most interesting thing about the Heavyweight Rankings will be if Fedor doesn’t sign with the UFC. At what point does him fighting scrubs mean so little, that the UFC HW Champion surpass him as the #1 Fighter in the world? Especially if you have a guy like Gonzaga go out and beat Couture and then Nogueira.

  12. THX-1138 says:

    Game of Death really needs to be remade. While Enter the Dragon has aged a bit, there is no martial arts actor that can fully emulate Lee’s screen presence.
    Even if the remake is loosely linked to the original, it won’t escape comparisons to the original. Game of Death was not completed by Lee, therefore leaving room for improvement in a remake.

  13. Jonathan says:

    Guys…rankings are DUMB. They serve no real information, and everybody is just going to debate them over and over. I do not know why Sherdog put out their rankings, but I have my idea that it has something to do with ESPN.

    Overall, I personally feel that rankings are worthless…especially since being the #1 fighter in the world gets you absolutely zero.

  14. SergioTX says:

    WHAT THE FUCK HAS MARK HUNT DONE TO BE CONSIDERED A TOP 10 HEAVYWEIGHT?!?

    Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

    STOP putting him in Top Ten lists immediately.

  15. 45 Huddle says:

    I agree about the rankings being for ESPN.com. That was the first thing I thought of when Gross said they were working on it a month back.

    Well, rankings will have close to no purpose if Fedor signs with the UFC. At that point HW, LHW, MW, & WW will all eventually have the UFC Champions as #1 in the world. I know for boxing fans, that will be such a weird thing…. To have the actual champions of one organization all being the best in the world. A unique and novice concept…..

    Mark Hunt beat Crop Cop. Since then, he has gotten beaten by Fedor & Barnett. The same goes for Gonzaga. If all of a sudden he loses to Couture & then Arlovski, he shouldn’t be ranked either.

  16. Jonathan says:

    I really wish that we could channel all the time spent talking about MMA rankings and instead direct that energy towards solving the world’s problems or what not.

    Also, Isn’t Josh Gross the one that has a;ways come out and said that “championship belts” don’t matter? If so, then aren’t doing these rankings perhaps in the same vein? Also, I think that these rankings are a bit to TUF related. Just because a guy wins a TV show does not automatically make them world class.

    But then again, someone at Sherdog told me that I had no clue how rankings work or what they are….so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

  17. Rollo the Cat says:

    “Guys…rankings are DUMB. They serve no real information, and everybody is just going to debate them over and over.”

    Unless they are official ranking of a single organization that determine who gets a title shot, you are correct. I hardly pay attention. And look at the criteria some of these guys use to make their rankings. They need a course in critical thinking.

  18. Fluyid says:

    “Guys…rankings are DUMB. They serve no real information, and everybody is just going to debate them over and over.”

    And there’s the purpose for them. To encourage debate.

  19. Jordan Breen says:

    Rankings don’t hold any kind of absolute Truth (with the capital T) or cosmic bearing, but I think they serve a variety of functions. As someone who often writes about the nichiest parts of a niche sport, I gets tons of email asking me who the top 123 pounders are in Shooto; rankings are always there for people.

    Also, as the sport continues to develop, law of averages simply says we’re gonna have more talented fighters left out in the cold, outside the public eye. If some guy is fighting in the Benelux and somehow securing quality wins, an established and relatively objective ranking has to be there to declare the guy a worthy fighter for the public consciousness. Plus, they can have value as historical documents once we start looking back and trying to make evaluations of guys’ resumes.

    Rankings aren’t any kind of magical key which are going to open the door to enlightenment or anything. But anyone who follows boxing knows what a solid set of rankings can mean to a sport, and I think it’s good MMA heads are trying to nail it down while the sport is still in its infancy.

  20. Brendon says:

    I like the arguement Zach but Barnett has to beat the champ to be above the champ. i know he has beaten Couture but it was a long time ago and it was clouded. The loss to Crocrop has to bring Barnett down in rankings. I wondered about Fedor as well, should he be #1 on prowess alone. He has’nt fought the absolute best all of the time(Zulu anyone?) and I can see him dropping in rankings if he doesnt. Hunt will drop out of the rankings too if he doesnt fight and losses to Barnett and Fedor aside, he still beat Crocrop and I really could not see Crocrop beating Hunt ever, he cant knock him out, he doesnt have the skills to submit him, short of bringing a baseball bat to the ring ala Kimbo Slice, Hunt will beat Crocrop every time.

  21. 45 Huddle says:

    Josh Gross says titles have no meaning because if he did, he would have to admit that the UFC Titles actually mean something. Whether he, or anybody on Sherdog like to admit it…. The UFC Titles are the “World Titles” for MMA at this point. That is the reality of things.

    Boxing needs rankings because the sport in general is so horribly run that there is a lack of organization outside of The RING Magazine’s rankings….

    Personally, I prefer organizational rankings. They all have common opponents within the same set of rules and matchmaking. They make the most sense.

  22. Brendon says:

    You’re right about organizational rankings I think. No one can say for sure what order a top 10 should be because most of these guys have yet to fight each other, and if they have its been too long ago to impact on a ranking. I found it very hard to rank those fighters below Couture(yes I wasnt even sure Big Nog deserved his placing) because we have so little to go on except thier abilities . And Sherdog is wrong about titles, every fighter wants to be the champ, the belt DOES mean everything, its hard to get it, its harder to keep it, but while a fighter has it they can rightly say they are the best in the world. It should only be through inactivity that a champion slips in the rankings or from consistently fighting fighters outside of the top 10, which Fedor as much amazing ability as he has, may find himself slipping as those fighters who are signed start racking up wins against other top 10 fighters.

  23. The Gaijin says:

    How can you use the argument that Couture should be ranked ahead of Barnett, simply based on the fact that he’s the UFC’s HW champion? Granted the UFC HW division is NOW very deep, but at he time the only reason Randy left retirement is b/c the HW division was totally weak and weak to the point that a guy that got chased out of the LHW division following two big losses, went into HW championship fight with ZERO fights at HW and absolutely mauled its long champion…etc. etc.

    Couture has yet to face anyone else at HW than Sylvia, who imo sucks big time, and since Barnett BEAT Couture he’s gone on to face and for the most part BEAT top flight competition but somehow this counts for LESS than the fact that Couture has a belt that really hasn’t gained much meaningfulness since none of the infusion of talent into the HW division has had a chance to vie for? Right….

  24. 45 Huddle says:

    Since May ’06, Barnett has wins over Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, & Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. That is more then Couture has done.

    The good thing about something even as inexact as the Sherdog rankings….. With many of the Pride fighters making their way into the mix, the fighters will be sorting these rankings out themselves.

  25. E says:

    Granted Barnett has more quality wins than Couture (as of late), but if he tested positive for steroids after their fight back in 2002, is it appropriate to use the outcome of that fight in the ranking analysis? I guess it’s ultimately up to the individual(s) doing the ranking…

  26. Brendon says:

    Barnett cant be ranked higher than Crocrop who he lost too, everyone seems to forget this loss when ranking Josh Barnett. And Crocrops subsequent loss in UFC against Gonzaga has changed the landscape as far as the eliteness of the Pride fighters. Before that fight I would have had every Pride fighter in my top 10 above most of the UFC fighters. Now I just dont know and I dont think the UFC HW division was as bad as everyone made out, The Pride fighters who havent fought in a cage seem to struggle so far(this may affect Fedor too?). Tim Sylvia AND Fedor didnt always fight the best but they were still the Champs and that counts for alot, Randy beat the champ so he deserves a high ranking regardless of past losses. The Pride fighters need to fight the UFC fighters for us to really know and rank appropriately and I have a feeling the results wont be as clearcut as everyone thinks. Barnett needs to fight and beat one of these guys in the cage this year and it really should be Couture. After what he did to Tim Sylvia I am never underestimating Randy Couture again. He is the champ, Barnett isnt and if he hadnt lost to Crocrop I would have him higher but I cant look past it.
    The LHW division seems far more clear cut with guys like Rampage and Henderson having fought in cages, thier styles probably suit the cage. BUT why is Shogun so high, he should be below Rampage and Dan Henderson who had fantastic wins to become Champions, and maybe below Wanderlei and Liddel who simarly seem ranked too low, again its a case of they are one loss from being the two best fighters in the division. Some rankings have them below #5 Cmon, They both RULED the division for ever.

  27. Jonathan says:

    Contrary to what alot of people think…I do not think that this batter is really all that great. We have one guy giving his side of the story on who should be ranked higher and then the other guy is just giving his side of the story. This is what rankings across the board do…it is like debating politics or religion. Most people have their own views and their own ways, and they are not going to change from them. Does that make me a bad person? I do not know.

    P.S. I am typing this post from in front of my University’s like. I had to hack/pry my way into the campus powergrid to power my laptop and I am leaching some of the free wifi from in the middle of nowhere. Given, it is Oklahoma in August and it is 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity…but I challenge on.

  28. Brendon says:

    lol, dont worry, in 2 weeks everyones ideas of rankings will change. I think its a good thing for people to be talking about rankings, its positive and sure beats talking about steroids all the time.

  29. MickDawg says:

    All I got to say is that whoever ranks Couture top 3 is insane.

    Couture has 1 Heavyweight win in OVER 5 YEARS!!!!!

    He beat an overrated Tim Sylvia, who was never top 3.

    For Brendon to rank Couture #2 in ridiculous.

    Because he is UFC champion, he deserves a #2 ranking?

    This is a WORLD RANKING, so belts should matter little to none.

    StrikeForce may be a rival to the UFC in a couple of years. Should we automatically put their Heavyweight champion top 5 every time?

    If this was strictly a UFC HW ranking, then it’s justifiable to have Couture as Champion, then contenders 1-10.

    But this is a ranking across multiple organizations, so belts need to be ignored.

    When did nuthuggers make their way to FightOpinion.

  30. Brendon says:

    Should we automatically put their Heavyweight champion top 5 every time? If its the top promotion in the world, which UFC is, the answer is yes, unless there is a major reason not to eg steroid use, until Tim Sylvia is beaten by Pride fighters he also deserves the ranking, which only hypes Coutures ranking. And the realistic view is that ALL of these rankings ARE UFC rankings, because they are the only legitimate promotion out there and the HW champ is the top of the food chain. Strikeforce isn’t going to be a rival to UFC in North America let alone the world, they dont have a proper HW division to start with. And at least I have the nuts and the herewithall to debate the issue of rankings and explain my own views without acrimony.

  31. Rankings aren’t so bad in and of themselves, unless they’re undefended in an abstract manner: names next to numbers don’t mean much of anything, but when accomapnied by a spirited defense, they can make things clearer to newcomers to the sport, journalists, and what have you.

  32. Jonathan says:

    I realize that my spelling on my last post was horrible. As I mentioned in the note, I was in the boonies of Internet Land when I wrote that…I was being eaten alive by bugs…and well, sweating like a race horse.

    But someone did bring up a valuable point regarding Couture. While he no doubt will take the cake for being the nicest person out there…should one win over a legit Top 10 heavyweight make him #2 or #3 in the world in that division.

  33. MickDawg says:

    Brendon, while I don’t disagree with most of your list…my gripe is with Randy Couture at #2.

    Randy was handpicked an opponent and jumped over many guys to get a shot at Sylvia.

    He was given a title shot against a guy that probably most of the top 10 guys would would beat.

    I really want to hit home this point here:
    HE HAS 1 HEAVYWEIGHT WIN. 1. ONE!!! IN OVER 5 YEARS.

    He was dominated by a light heavyweight before retiring.

    I think you even have your own list messed up.

    Why don’t you put Randy Couture at #1? The UFC does have most of the top heavyweights, and is the largest promotion in the world.

  34. Brendon says:

    If Fedor doesnt fight soon and Randy wins in the weekend he probably will be #1. I just dont agree that most of the top 10 guys would beat Tim Sylvia, I think thats a dangerous underestimation. I think Sylvia would take apart Crocrop, Barnett especially would possibly beat Sylvia but cant rank Barnett above Crocrop cuz Crocrop beat him in a very very important fight. Hunt would have a punchers chance, that leaves Werdum, Arlovski, Alexsander who Sylvia has to be ranked above at this time. Sylvia will drop if he doesnt fight or if he has another loss but until then he has to stay in that top 10. Couture does have one heavyweight win in 5 years sure but that win was a beating on a dominant champ, Tim Sylvia who has fought in my estimation the same calibre of opponent barring Noguiera as Fedor has. Should Randy be ranked below the Pride guys with no belts?No way, because they ALL have flaws in thier records too,as does Couture, difference is Couture has the gold, and that reflects in his ranking above them, and dont forget their so called Pride #2 guy Crocrop got his ass handed too him by a ufc fighter who a few months ago wouldnt have been in ANYONES top 10, Crocrops loss brings the rankings of those he beat in Pride down and tarnished the usual train of thought that Pride was superior, The reality is that the UFC fighters and Pride fighters are much closer in ability than everyone thought and the bottom line is, are you willing to put money against Couture ever again? He can beat the Noguiera we saw fight in the UFC recently, after what he did to Sylvia I would go 50/50 on Couture/Fedor.

Comments to Jordan Breen

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image