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 | »

News round-up

By Zach Arnold | December 29, 2006

Print Friendly and PDF

The Fight Network says that the NSAC has filed for visa paperwork to get Mirko Cro Cop’s work visa in time to fight on the UFC 67 event on 2/3.

At tonight’s IFL event at Mohegan Sun Arena, Pat Miletich’s Silverbacks faced off against Matt Lindland’s Wolfpack team. Event results here.

Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

7 Responses to “News round-up”

  1. So what’s the over/under on when Cro Cop will face Sylvia for the heavyweight title? I’m thinking early summer 2007, because I think Dana will be itching to have Cro Cop beat Sylvia and make the heavyweight title scene relevant again.

  2. The MMA Critic says:

    I just came back from the IFL event. It was horrible in ever sense of the word. It also marked the first time I have ever booed a fight live.

    Renzo Gracie vs. Carlos Newton….. At one point, Carlos knocked down Renzo, and then wanted the fight standing up. Renzo put out his arm, and Carlos actually helped him up…. During the fight…. The fans were upset and a lot started to walk out of the building. It was pathetic. If it wasn’t for 2 or 3 swinging punches that Carlos threw, I would have thought it was a Pro Wrestling work.

    The event was also 4 hours and 45 minutes. A lot of fans left before the main event. And the quality of the athletes overall was very poor. Outside 4 or 5 fighters, it looked like an amateur fight league.

    There is a lot more things to discuss…. I’m just tired from the event. However, a person I went with, who is a casual fight fan put it best when it comes to the IFL:

    “It is all bells and whistles…. No substance….”

  3. Mr. Roadblock says:

    I try to avoid any personal attacks, but MMA Critic you are an uniformed ignoramus. I too was at the show and loved it. OK, that is a subjective disagreement between us. However, you wrote: “The event was also 4 hours and 45 minutes. ” Apparently you’ve never been to a UFC show. That is exactly how long a UFC show is.

    The crowd was hot all night, with the exception of the main event that was a lackluster fight. However, it was lackluster because Newton didn’t come to fight. The reason Newton stepped back at the point you describe is because Renzo slipped on a painted advertisement on the canvas as he threw a kick.

    I won’t give away any spoilers for the show, let me just say I highly reccommend watching the special on FOX Sports on Sunday. Of the 5 team fights that are guaranteed to be shown, there are 2 phenomenal finishes that would make a top 50 All-Time MMA Highlight reel. There are two other very good to excellent finishes and one very lackluster fight.

    There were also four “Super-fights” that were held before the 5 team fights and they saw some excellent action.

    The quality of the athletes in IFL is obviously not what it is in UFC, but I guarantee last night’s IFL show was better top to bottom than tonight’s UFC is going to be in terms of fight quality. Two evenly matched B to B+ level fighters often put on a better fight than two A level fighters because both guys have holes in their games that can be exploited.

    IFL has an excellent product on their hands and I expect the league to have an excellent 205. They have a number of really talented young fighters that could become stars.

    MMA Critic, you should just stick to watching your boxed set of TUF DVDs.

  4. Mr. Roadblock says:

    The second to last sentence should read … “an excellent 2007”.

  5. The MMA Critic says:

    *******SMALL SPOILER ALERT********

    I’ve been to 4 UFC shows. Never has the show been almost 5 hours. The shows I have been to lasted around 4. Not to mention that the crowd always stayed around for the main event. A lot of fans didn’t even wait around for the main event, which is a sign of how long it was.

    As for the crowd…. It was absolutely DEAD after Bart KO’d Schultz. I even heard fans screaming….. “IT GOT QUIET IN HERE”.

    The quality of the fights was without question a step below the UFC and Pride. If you take away the coaches and “team concept”, it is a KOTC level card….. Maybe worse…. Nothing more, nothing less. The casual fans I was with even noticed how sloppy the fights where.

    Hardcore MMA fans will walk away saying: “This is the greatest thing in the world”, because they want to see it become good. However, it was no different then the WEC event I went to a few years back at the same building.

    Also note, a lot of other forums you will see fans say it was fantastic. In the next sentence, they will say it was their first live event. I think this is why you are seeing some positive reviews out there. From this hardcore fan, it wasn’t as advertised.

  6. Mr. Roadblock says:

    When you go to UFC shows do you not watch the prelim fights? I’ve been to 7 or 8 UFC shows on the West Coast they always start at 5pm and end around 9:45.

    Bart got carried out on a stretcher. No doubt it got quiet in there. But the crowd was really into the the Rory Markham fight, which was a real fun fight to watch.

    I thought there was a good mix of styles. You had two very technical jiu jitsu fights in Erik Owings vs I forget the guy’s name and in the Renzo/Newton fight. You had two flat out brawls the Whitehead/Soszynski and Rothwell/Cole. You had a fight that was a complete war and needs to be on TV that featured great stand up and some excellent groundwork between Andre Gusmao and Brent Beauparlant. That’s one of the most exciting fights you’ll see. Mike C vs Aaron Stark was a fun fight too, awesome finish (and a prime example of how bad a ref Mario Yamasaki is, he did a horrible job all night). If you’re into just flat out wrestling you’d enjoy McGivern vs Horwich. I’m not and I thought that fight was a dud.

    I’ve been to a lot of fight shows and thought this one was great. Several different sytles and types of matches and only 3 fights went to the judges and one of those was because the guy who lost appears to be impossible to KO even though he was a bloody mess.

    The talent in College football isn’t as good as the talent in Pro Football but there is a very good chance USC vs Michigan in the Rose Bowl will be a better football game than the Super Bowl. Last year’s USC/Texas match was 100 times more interesting than the Steelers vs the Seahawks (a game that looked like it had been reffed by Mario Yamasaki).

  7. The MMA Critic says:

    Schultz was carried out on the stretcher, not Bart.

    Gusmao vs. Beauparlant did not feature “great stand up”. It featured very sloppy striking with each swinging for the fences. Gusmao showed solid striking skills, and zero defense and left his chin for the taking on multiple occasions. They had the striking skills around the level of Pe De Pano. It was fun to watch like toughman is fun to watch…. It gets the fan excited, but it also lacked any sort of credible technique.

    One thing I have to question is the Renzo Gracie camp’s conditioning. Just like the Lion’s Den of a few years ago, it seems like their fighters can’t keep a level pace throughout the fight. From Serra in the UFC, to Renzo in the main event…. And even Owing and Jamal on the undercard. They come out strong in the first round and their level of ability drops dramatically later in the fight. You don’t see that with the Miletich camp.

    When I go to see fights, I expect professional level fights. This border lined toughman for the first few fights. Outside of Rothwell, Bart, Schultz, & Wilson…. The fighters didn’t belong on the “big stage” like that.

    The Bart/Schultz fight was the first fight of the night (and 8th overall), that remotely could have been features in the UFC. The rest where at least 2 notches below that level. And for a show that is featuring a “World Team Championship”, that is pathetic.

    As a side note…. I am not saying that some fights didn’t go back and forth. Some were dominated by one fighter and then BAM, the other fighter won. For me, a lot of this is because of the poor level of the fighters. They can’t keep proper conditioning throughout the fight. Or they can’t keep their arms up to protect themselves. It was “Rookie Mistake Night” in a way. That is not fun MMA to watch.

Comments to Mr. Roadblock

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