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« | Home | »

Thursday news and notes (1/17/2008)

By Zach Arnold | January 17, 2008

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  1. 15 Rounds: Conference call quotes from Kimbo Slice, Tank Abbott, and Gary Shaw
  2. The Belfast Telegraph: Slog on the Tyne – Colin Robinson
  3. Sports Illustrated (Pramit Mohapatra): Fight Night in the UK
  4. Yahoo Sports (Kevin Iole): Maturing BJ Penn ready to claim crown
  5. KSBY 6 Action News (San Luis Obispo, CA): Hackelman’s Dream Team helps train UFC hopefuls
  6. The Memphis Commercial Appeal: Profile of David Ferguson, owner of Memphis Judo & Jiu-Jitsu LLC
  7. F4W Online: Interview with Zach Arnold

Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

25 Responses to “Thursday news and notes (1/17/2008)”

  1. $35 to go see the Kimbo/Tank fight is almost worth it.

  2. Looking forward to UFC 80 this weekend, lot of people are complaining its a weak card but I think there are some solid fights of interest. Fair enough it’s not exactly PPV material but it’s still got a title fight, a solid HW contenders fight, plus some really well-matched entertaining battles. It’s going to be good.

  3. Zack says:

    What does “title fight” mean anymore anyway?

    Zach your interview on F4W was members only.

  4. IceMuncher says:

    I’m also looking forward to UFC 80. Penn/Stevenson is a very good matchup. Hopefully Werdum and Gonzaga has potential, we’ll see out it turns out. The rest doesn’t have a lot of star power, but they may end up being very good fights.

    It’s hard to judge how good a card will be. I remember thinking Marcus Davis vs Paul Taylor wasn’t intriguing, but it was one of my favorites. I thought UFC 68 wasn’t going to be very good, but it ended up being one of my favorite events. Let’s not forget, Pride 33 was getting flak when the fights were announced.

    The great Shogun was fighting a guy who was 1-3 in his last 4. The best lightweight in the entire world was fighting a mediocre ex-UFC guy (6-4 in the UFC). Sakurai was fighting a relatively unknown ex-KOTC champ that was coming off a loss. Lil Nog was fighting a guy with 3 pro fights who was coming off a loss. Hendo and Wandy was the best fight on paper, and even that wasn’t really terrific due to the weight difference and recent losses of both fighters.

    It was a roster full of marquee fighters on the left half of the card, fighting a bunch of mismatched lesser known fighters on the right side.

    However, because Soko, Diaz and Hendo pulled off the giant upsets (not so giant for Hendo), we ended up with a show that got voted the best show of the year. Who knew?

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m really looking forward to UFC 80. Much more so then UFC 81.

    As for a “title fight” meaning something… I think this fight definitely means something. The winner of these next two titles fights is the #1 LW in the world in my opinion.

  6. Dave2 says:

    Joe Stevenson vs. BJ Penn for #1 lightweight in the world? lol. That is obvious bias. The lightweight division is the only one in the world that the UFC doesn’t have a strangehold on. That and the lighter divisions (featherweight, bantam and fly) but the UFC doesn’t have those divisions. A big chunk of the best lightweights in the world fight in Japan. Gomi, Kawajiri, Aoki, JZ, Ishida, Melendez (well he fights with Strikeforce primarily), Shaolin, and Hansen are all top 10 fighters. You can’t deny the rich talent pool at 73 kilos and below that graces Japan.

    To think that BJ, a guy who hasn’t done anything of significance in 4 years besides beating Hughes in another weight class, and Stevenson (LOL) are going to battle for #1. That is a joke. If anyone is going to claim Fedor to be irrelevant in the world rankings, then BJ Penn surely is. Beating Stevenson would justify a top 10 placing but not #1.

    Despite his great talents, BJ Penn is probably the most over-rated mixed martial artist on the internet. He is talked as if he’s the second coming of Christ but his 6+ year career has been nothing but unfulfilled potential for whatever reason. He beat Hughes at 170 once 4 years ago and he beat Gomi at 155 once just before Gomi debuted in PRIDE but that’s about it. This guy has a lot to prove and beating Stevenson won’t prove much.

  7. Ivan Trembow says:

    Aaron Crossen wrote: “$35 to go see the Kimbo/Tank fight is almost worth it.”

    I really hope that you’re being sarcastic when you say that.

    45Huddle wrote: “The winner of these next two titles fights is the #1 LW in the world in my opinion.”

    And I really hope that you’re being sarcastic when you say that, although that statement is at least closer to being true than the first one I’m quoting.

  8. Michaelthebox says:

    Woah, Dave2, scale back some. A lot of the best talent is in Japan, but when you include Hellboy as top ten, your credibility takes a huge hit. And all of them top 10 fighters? Sure, if you want to go back to the rose-colored glasses Japan is better than US days of yore.

    Anyway, once the BJ/Stevenson winner fights Sherk, the winner of that fight will have a very good case for #1, depending on what Gomi, Aoki, and Calvancante do over the next few months. But we’ll never know who is really the best until all those guys are in one promotion.

  9. Steven says:

    Check out this report on Meyrowitz’s statement on the CNBC doc.

    http://www.mmafighting.com/news/2008/zuffa_seeks_retraction_of_statements_by_meyrowitz.html

  10. I live in Michigan. The fight is in Florida. The KOTC fights around here cost $100.

    But I don’t know how EliteXC expects to make any gate with that kind of pricing.

  11. Zack says:

    I’m looking forward to Kimbo vs Tank. I’m not being sarcastic, I just don’t have a stick in my ass.

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    Aaron— Oh, I was skimming and missed the word “go” before the word “see,” so I thought you were saying that it would be worth it for a $35 pay-per-view to see that fight.

  13. Dave2 says:

    Hellboy had one blip in Shooto a couple months back. But that’s it. Everyone that he’s lost to otherwise hasn’t hurt his rating. Aoki, Kawajiri and Sakurai (whom is fighting at 170 now) are basically among the cream of the crop at lightweight. He’s at top 10 or at the very least near it. One loss doesn’t drop you off a list like crazy. It seems that ever since his Shooto upset, the UFC fanboys have been saying, “good on Dana for not signing this guy, he sucks!” UFC fanboys hold a grudge against every fighter that doesn’t sign with the UFC. Can anyone blame for Hansen to want to go to where the money is? Hansen is a lot more known in Japan than he is in America, that’s why he signed with FEG. The brand loyalty of UFC fanboys is pretty sad. They have this mindset that if fights are not in the UFC, they don’t matter. The UFC vs. PRIDE stuff reminds me of the video game fanboy wars (Nintendo vs Sony vs Microsoft).

    And if anyone is going to start arguing with me that BJ Penn deserves to be ranked, they lose credibility because he has done NOTHING at 155 since 2004 besides beating Pulver. If Penn beats Stevenson, I see the case for a top 10 ranking but not #1.

    Sherk on the other hand is tricky to rank. At 155, he beat Florian and Franca officially. However Sherk, even though I believe he’s innocent, was found guilty when he beat Franca. So his win over Franca shouldn’t affect his ranking. So for now at least, Sherk isn’t top 10.

    Japan is home to the best lightweight competitors. You can’t go by the recent performances of Wanderlei, Shogun and Cro Cop to say “well if those guys did poorly in America, then I’m sure the Japanese-based lightweights would!”

    Heck a lot of these former PRIDE fighters (except Rampage, Anderson Silva, Big Nog) that have been losing only had 1 fight thus far. You can’t judge their skill on one fight. That’s the problem with MMA fans. As soon as a fighter gets a loss, they say he sucks and then if the fighter gets back on winning ways, they say he rocks again (ie. Chuck Liddell). This industry is so cut-throat. If a guy loses once, he “sucks”.

    Also it’s true that all the lightweights are not under a single promotion but boxers aren’t under a single promotion either! Boxing is a lot more divided than MMA. From heavyweight to lightweight, Zuffa has about 2/3 of the top 10 fighters (across weight classes) in the world. But yet they have rankings for boxing. In MMA, there will always be some noticeable competition for the best fighters in the world. Everyone needs to learn to accept that. Given how much Dana White likes to lowball fighters and talks smack about them in public, there are always going to be fighters who would rather fight elsewhere.

  14. ilostmydog says:

    You’ve gone off on a tangent that really was quite unnecessary here, Dave2. While it’s true that outside of Eiji Mitsuoka, Hansen has generally lost to top ten fighters. However, rankings are based on both wins and losses. In the former area, Hansen comes up drastically short with only one high quality win over Yves Edwards over two years ago. I that regard, Hansen’s combined lack of quality wins as well as his 4-4 record over the last two years make a strong case for him dropping out of the top ten. It has nothing to with UFC fanboys, so to accuse others of such merely shows that you know the case for Hansen is weak and have to supplement it with personal attacks.

  15. Dave2 says:

    I didn’t go off on a tangent. Huddle said BJ Penn vs. Stevenson would be #1. I disputed that claim and pointed out his obvious UFC bias by showing the talent pool depth in Japan. Then Mike brought up Hansen and I addressed that.

    If you believe Joachim Hansen doesn’t have the quality wins to warrant a ranking, then who does? Sherk was suspended. Penn only beat Pulver at 155 since 2004. Outside of the 8 Japanese-based lightweights I listed, Stevenson and Florian are in the top 10. Tell me whose the next UFC fighter that deserves the top 10 now. Who? I don’t see anyone else on the roster that does.

  16. Dave2 says:

    I know the Sherdog rankings disagree with me (whereas MMAweekly has Hansen ranked and they do a better job than Sherdog). Sherdog has BJ Penn at #8 despite the fact that he’s done nothing since 2004 but beat a washed up (for LW), too small for 155 Pulver. (ROFL) They have Frank Edgar at #10 but he’s beat, let’s see, Tyson Griffin and Spencer Fisher (who is nothing special at all). So it’s not like he has such a splendid win column either.

  17. ilostmydog says:

    Yeah, you actually did. You went from talking about Hansen’s ranking to ranting about the brand loyalty of UFC fanboys. That’s a tangent.

    And why question me about Sherk and Penn? I never mentioned either of them and I don’t rank either of them anyways. Not to mention that neither of them has any relation to whether or not one ranks Joachim Hansen in the top ten. If BJ beats Joe Daddy, I’ll bump him up to my 6 or 7 spot, but until then he’ll remain unranked.

  18. ilostmydog says:

    Honestly, Frank Edgar is a better rank than Vitor Ribeiro. I’d take wins over Spencer Fisher and Tyson Griffin any day compared to the guys Shaolin has been beating since losing to Kawajiri.

  19. cyphron says:

    Edgar and Griffin comes to mind. With the way the Japanese conduct their “sport” I would be careful with listing any of these fighters on there without an asterisk. Look at the supposedly #1 lightweight in the world, Gomi. The guy lost a bout to journeyman Nick Diaz in a fight that he was lucky to have been overturned.

    Penn hasn’t done anything since 2004? The fact that he didn’t fight in the lightweight division doesn’t make him a lesser fighter. He beat Hughes at welterweight and then fought GSP to a decision that could’ve went either way (in which he destroyed GSP before gassing badly). He lost to Machida in a decision in a fight he had no business fighting in. He defeated Renzo Gracie at middleweight. You can dispute his #1 ranking, but to say that BJ Penn has no business in the top ten ranking shows your obvious anti-UFC bias. The guy would destroy Gomi again if they ever fought.

  20. Dave2 says:

    Here comes the the UFC fanboy brigade. Putting asterisks beside the names of Japanese-based fighters? LOL. That says it all. If Penn hasn’t done anything since 2004 at lightweight, he shouldn’t be ranked. Simple as that. That doesn’t mean he’s a lesser fighter. So he has no business in the top 10 rankings.

  21. cyphron says:

    I was wondering when you’d resort to personal attacks when you run out of things to say.

  22. Dave2 says:

    I didn’t run out of things to say.

    “If Penn hasn’t done anything since 2004 at lightweight, he shouldn’t be ranked. Simple as that. That doesn’t mean he’s a lesser fighter. So he has no business in the top 10 rankings.”

    Did you see that? You are quite simply biased in favor of the UFC and BJ Penn (and obviously some members of Sherdog’s staff are seeing that they voted him in the top 10). Unlike the, “only the ufc matters” crowd, I don’t have any reason to be a fanboy of any sort of organization. I watch what I want to see and I’ll be watching UFC 80. I’m an MMA fan, not a UFC-only fan.

  23. cyphronkd says:

    Fair enough, Dave2. If you don’t like to be accused of being a fanboy, perhaps you should lay off the accusation on others as well?

    Just because you disagree with someone, doesn’t automatically make them biased. Case in point, you believe that mmaweekly is more balanced than Sherdog because their rankings agree with yours. You do realize that MMAweekly has always rate Pride fighters higher than UFC fighters? Furthermore, they continue to rank Pride fighters higher than UFC fighters even after they lose. They have ranked CroCop higher than Gonzaga after his defeat and they have ranked Rua #2 and Griffin #7 right now. Now, is Sherdog biased or is MMAweekly biased? MMAWeekly one of the most, if not the most biased rankings out there.

    You argue that BJPenn shouldn’t be ranked as a lightweight if he hasn’t fought in lightweight. You forget that he has fought at lightweight beating Jens Pulver and right after UFC 80, he would have fought twice in the lightweight division. Now why shouldn’t he be ranked? As you know, Fedor has only fought once at HW in two years. Should he be dropped from the heavyweight rankings as well?

  24. Dave2 says:

    “ou forget that he has fought at lightweight beating Jens Pulver and right after UFC 80, he would have fought twice in the lightweight division. Now why shouldn’t he be ranked? As you know, Fedor has only fought once at HW in two years. Should he be dropped from the heavyweight rankings as well?”

    Did you even read what I wrote? I mentioned Pulver a gazillion times in this thread and I said that beating a washed-up (for 155) Pulver doesn’t cut it. As for UFC 80, that hasn’t happened yet. Hold your horses. That’s not in the bag yet. If he beats Stevenson, he warrants a lower top 10 ranking. Until then, he shouldn’t be on a top 10 ranking at 155. And it’s quite ridiculous how Sherdog has him at #8 for doing nothing else but beat Pulver at 155 in the past 4 years.

    As for Fedor fighting once at HW in the past 2 years, LOL. My God, you really don’t watch outside of the UFC do you? He beat Coleman, Hunt, Lindland (who fought at HW) and Choi. All four of those fights were at HW (205+). If you weren’t a UFC-only fanboy, you’d know that there’s no upper limit for HW in Japan. If you’re going to use 2 years as a cut-off, don’t even rank BJ Penn. Fedor has done more than BJ in the last two years alone. Beating Hunt > Beating 2007 Pulver at 155.

    The BJ Penn fanboys are so biased. BJ has no business being on a top 10 ranking until he actually beats Stevenson. But you guys and the BJ fanboys on the Sherdog staff who voted for him have been ranking him for quite awhile, which is a joke. It would be funny if Joe Stevenson pulled the upset and beat him. BJ Penn, aside from Dana White, has the most annoying fanboys on the internet.

    MMAweekly is more fair than Sherdog because they don’t do something stupid like rank BJ Penn, whose only beaten Pulver in the past 4 years at 155, on the top 10.

  25. cyphronkd says:

    So you just called me a UFC fanboy and now you’re calling me a BJPenn fanboy. Then you accuse me of not watching anything outside of the UFC enough. I think you just burst a blood vessel.

    For a minute there, I thought I was back at Sherdog. I’m done arguing with you. Goodnight.

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