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Wednesday news review (2/14/08)
By Zach Arnold | February 14, 2008
The latest IFL SEC filing.
- KSBY 6 Action News: Knockout crowd shows up in San Luis Obispo to meet Chuck Liddell at book appearance
- The Canadian Press: Scalpers move in to fill demand for UFC 83 tickets in Montreal
- MMA Betting Blog: Kimbo or Tank? Find out where the smart money is going
- The Barrie Advance (Canada): Catching up with Gary Goodridge
- CBS Sports: Former student Ian Loveland becomes debut opponent for IFL newcomer Dennis Davis
- Tagg Radio: Interview with Dave Meltzer
- Mainichi Daily News: Taking dives in diapers — did Akebono’s fall from grace also claim his marriage?
- Dave Doyle: Carlos Condit keeps cool when others lose crowns
- Fox Sports: Condit scores first-round submission over Carlo Prater
Our friends at Pro Fight Store send the following:
http://www.sportal.hr/vld/sportal/ostalo/borilacki/3013000/index.do
In brief: UFC allowed Mirko to go, but under one condition – that he returns when he’s ready. And Mirko plans on coming back to UFC.
Cro Cop: “I left cause I couldn’t wait any more. I asked to fight as soon as possible, even on March 1st, but UFC offered me a fight in May or later. I wanted a rematch with Gonzaga in Zagreb, but after his loss to Werdum that option was off. I’m in shape, I have 105 kg and I want to fight. last two fights I was in some sort of mental blockade, before fights I was empty, depressed, full of self-hate.”
Losing is not an option. After 3 wins, all options will be open for Mirko. He wants to come back to UFC, and he wants it to be on some show in England. “I’m sorry I let down english fans who welcomed me like a king. That’s why I wanna come back there. I can’t turn back time, but my time will come again.”
Topics: Canada, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Now standing 6’1, and weighing in at a solid 249 pounds, Goodridge has become one of the most popular MMA fighters in the sport’s history.
Wow. “Brian Smith” sure does seem to be a fan of Gary.
Goodridge’s next fight is supposed to be against Butterbean on that “Yamma Bamma Thank You Ma’amma” debut show, right? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist, it’s just such a ridiculous name for an MMA promotion.) But seriously, is Goodridge vs. Butterbean on?
If Kimbo beats Tank, I think Goodridge would be a great next fight for him.
Cro Cop’s departure for a stint in Japan is, to me anyhow, further evidence that Zuffa matchmaker Joe Silva ( & his boss Dana as well IMO ) is vastly overrated.And, in some instances, damn near incompetent. Seriously.
Say what you will about Filipovic’s shortcomings as a fighter, Silva was handed a potential superstar & within about 12 short months, he reduced him to the scrap heap. Many people have lost their jobs for MUCH less.
Following Cro Cop’s successful UFC debut, then Randy Couture’s inspirational regaining of the heavyweight title for the third time, White & Silva had the ingredients laid out before them to make what could have been THE biggest promotion in MMA history. Something that had the potential to do two or maybe even three times the business that Liddell – Jackson eventually did. Not to mention, garnering the same multiplied amounts of positive attention from the press.
But, they blew it.
Just like Dana has subsequently blown the potential deals with Fedor, HBO & CBS.
Excellent points, Jim Allcorn.
It’s interesting how many times Dana White talked about the ‘Superbowl of MMA’ pitting the best of Pride against the best of UFC. Then he had the opportunity, and blew it.
CroCop just won the Pride Openweight Tournament, and Couture was UFC Heavyweight Champion. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.
Looking back, were White and Silva THAT sure CroCop would beat Gonzaga? They must have been – you can’t believe they wanted to risk a Couture vs. Gonzaga fight instead of their superfight?
Joe Silva didn’t reduce Mirko to a scrap heap, Mirko reduced himself to scrap heap. By all accounts, the UFC and Dana wanted to give Mirko an immediate title shot after his debut, but Mirko and his management team balked at that offer, wanting more fights before then.
Unless one of Joe Silva or Dana White is actually CroCop’s manager, I don’t think you can lay the blame at their feet.
Jim –
So basically your complaint boils down to “Wah, Silva gave him cans that were too tough”. I guess you would have prefered a rematch with Dos Caras Jr.
The fact is, Crocop simply couldn’t cut it, despite having an easy road to the title shot (although both opponents still had a combined record of 13-1). That’s not Silva’s fault, it’s Crocop’s.
Giving undeserving hype-jobs a title shot should never be the UFC’s goal. On the subject, kudos to them for giving Lesnar a very tough fight against Mir to prove his legitimacy. Every other org on the planet would have given him one or two guys with a 1-6 record and then a title shot.
By the way, it looks like quite a few of you owe Dana and the UFC an apology on the Mirko situation.
Mirko was given a timid can in Eddie Sanchez.
Mirko was given a guy who once he gets hit, he crumbles.
Mirko was given a guy who has less high level kickboxing experience then him and no ground game.
And he went 1-2 in those fights. I’m sorry, but Joe Silva did nothing wrong. Mirko just failed miserably in the UFC. Nothing more, nothing less.
So, what’s your collective thumbs up thumbs down on Dan Henderson and his two consecutive shots at being stripped of a Pride title?
If he loses the second one, where to then, and who will be to blame for destroying another of Pride’s superstars?
Sorry IM, while I totally respect your opinion & your right to disagree with mine, there will be no apologies from me headed White or Silva’s way. I STILL think they screwed up on their handling of the Cro Cop deal.
They had a ready made superstar ( for this hemisphere anyhow, as he obviously already had that status in the other one ) coming off of his biggest MMA accomplishment in winning the Open Weight Grand Prix, they’d signed him to a mega money deal & they failed miserably at getting anything back from their investment.
A big part of a good matchmaker’s job is getting the most out of a fighter without having him fight scrub opposition, but also without setting him up to fail when there’s the potential for a BIG match up on the horizon.
I’m not saying that they should have been in the business of protecting Cro Cop, but I am ctiticizing the choice of Gonzaga as an opponent for what was supposed to be a showcase for the Croatian. I realize that the heavyweight devisiion isn’t all that deep, but I refuse to believe that Gonzaga was THE best possible opponent for Silva to go with that night with all things considered.
Just as I think that Silva could have found a more appropriate opponent for Cro Cop to come back back against following the Gonzaga disaster other than Kongo.
Again, a matchmaker’s job is to know “his” fighters as well as any member of their own camps do & be able to intuitively know which potential match ups will play to their strengths & which ones could be troublesome for them. And anyone worth their salt in Joe Silva’s position should have been able to forsee that Kongo was a dangerous match up for Filipovic. Especially coming off of the sort of loss that he’d suffered against Gonzaga.
You’re doing a lot of criticizing of the opponent choices here, but you aren’t offering any potential alternatives that would have been available at the time.
Jim, Kongo was clearly the best choice for a rebound fight. Who was Cro Cop supposed to fight? The alternatives:
Christian Wellisch
Carmelo Marrero
Antoni Hardonk
Scott Junk
Brandon Vera
Justin McCully
Jake O’Brien
Frank Mir
Colin Robinson
Fabricio Werdum
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Who would have been the better choice? Wellisch, McCully, O’Brien, Robinson, Junk and Hardonk are all unheralded and would’ve been panned as cans in the Don Caras Jr. mold.
Wedrum, Vera and Nogueria are hardly bounce-back material.
Kongo was the logical choice – a limited fighter with a stand-up game most would consider inferior to Mirko’s, yet someone dangerous enough to pose a credible threat, especially in light of Mirko’s loss to Gonzaga. You can blame White and possibly Joe Silva for some poor decisions, but feeding Cro Cop Kongo is not one of them.
I wish Cro Cop’s first fight in the UFC would’ve been against Sylvia or Arlovski. A loss to either of those wouldn’t have dropped his stock as much, plus those are the fights fans had wanted to see for years.
I can’t blame Cro Cop for looking bored in his first UFC fight…he went from fighting Wand/Barnett in the same night to fighting Eddie Sanchez. That fight probably shouldn’t have even been sanctioned.
Ah well, at now Cro Cop will fight for K-1?FEG/DSE/DREAMS/Yarenokka!/whatever other wacky promotion names in Japan and will probably do well again. I am not making excuses for cro Cop, but transitioning from a four-sided roped ring to an octogonal cage could have been a factor in him doing poorly in UFC, but he did win his first fight, so I don’t know. He has been a kickboxer fighting in four-sided rings his entire fight career. And the change in rulesets could have been a deciding factor too. Hell, we all agree that Rickson Gracie is one of the greatest BJJ guys ever, right? He is just an all-around great grappler. Well, back in 1993, he lost in a Sambo tournament (so much for him being “undefeated” eh?) and he attributed his loss because of the ruleset. Of course, this is a Gracie we are talking about, so he made excuses up the wazoo. But the different ruleset is a deciding factor in doing poorly. It was for Rickson in the Sambo tournament (he should be less of a baby though), it was a deciding factor in Cro Cop losing two fights in UFC, and I am sure there are many more examples out there, but I don’t care to think right now.
Aaron & ilostmydog, I see. And I understand your points. But then, I’m definitely NOT getting the big bucks like Silva is for making the fights. LOL
Honestly though, were I faced with Silva’s task, I would have definitely used Hardonk instead of Gonzaga or Kongo. ESPECIALLY instead of Kongo.
I mean, let’s say for a minute that the Gonzaga match was an unforeseen circumstance. Fine. These things happen. In fact, the fight game would be pretty dull without them.
So, let’s give Silva a pass on the Gonzaga result for this argument.
Not to sound like a “know it all” or anything like that, but I quite honestly thought that Kongo was a bad match up for Cro Cop coming off of the Gonzaga KO loss. I just had a feeling about it.
Kongo is FAR from an elite level heavyweight at this stage, but physically & stylistically I thought he’d be a difficult, dangerous opponent for a fighter coming off of a spectacular KO loss who might be a bit tentative & gunshy.
With Kongo’s size, reach & strength advantages, I could tell that he stood a very good chance of frustrating Filipovic & “stealing” a three rounder.
And that’s just what happened.
I just don’t understand why, if I could see that, why Silva couldn’t. When it’s his jon to.
Again, it wasn’t his job to feed Cro Cop easy wins, but, he did have a significant investment that he should have been able to get more positive results from.
IMO, Hardonk or McCully would have been much better choices. Silva could have even gone outside of the organization for an opponent & brought in a Paul Buentello for instance.
That’s my take anyhow.
Peace.
I thought in the UFC you were supposed to pit the best fighters against the best fighters. If CroCop couldn’t beat fighters that he was supposed to beat (mind you, Gonzaga and Congo was mid-tier fighters (most fans thought he wasn given cans) before they fought Mirko “star maker” CroCop.
If you lose, the fault is your own, and not the match maker. This isn’t the WWE. Stars are made on their own merits, not through the efforts of the match maker. Silva can only do so much. Cro Cop SHOULD have beaten the fighters given to him. One can and two mid-tier up and comers wasn’t too much to ask was it?
So now CC is “going back to Japan where the competition is easier.” Good riddance. I was a fan of his and he was exposed. Let’s just come to the stark reality of the situation rather than reminiscing about what could be. A great fighter will win regardless of the competition given to him. Great fighters thrive on tough competition. The fact that he didn’t train in a cage at all proves to me that not only is CC a bad fighter, he’s also a stupid fighter.
Perhaps the UFC should’ve kept CC and used him as a “star maker.” Every single fighters he lose to goes up several notches in the fan’s eyes.
“Stars are made on their own merits, not through the efforts of the match maker.”
Really? You sure about that pal? You ever seen Butterbean fight? He fights nothing but cans (many of whom with losing records). If you really believe that match-makers have nothing to do with “making a star” then I have a beach side resort in Iowa that I want to sell you. The job of the match maker is to make matches, correct? But match makers have to take into account who are going to be stars, what will make money, etc. of course Silva tried to give Cro Cop winnable but somewhat tough fights. Cro Cop fucked up, so that is on him.
“A great fighter will win regardless of the competition given to him. Great fighters thrive on tough competition.”
Oh yeah? So great fighters are warriors like Joan of Ark, King Richard The Lionheart, King Saladin, Spartacus, General George Patton, Musashi Miyamoto, etc. and great fighters WILL WIN REGARDLESS of the odds being stacked against them!!!!!!! Bro, have you ever taken into account that fighters, warriors that I mentioned (even though this isn’t about them), etc. are JUST HUMAN?? Like all of us, fighters have their good days, their bad days. They get sick, they get injured. They get inspired to do greatly, or they don’t get inspired so they half-ass their fighting and not give a shit (could have been the case against Kongo. I would have to see that fight again to make sure). Fighters could get into arguments with the people in their lives (lovers, management, family, promoter, etc.) and that could get into their heads. Your comments about great fighters doing great regardless is completely ludicrious and unfair, and maybe even naive. How many times do YOU go to work and not give a shit about doing a good job, and wanting to just get through the day and get home at the end of the work day? I bet it happens quite often.
Oh, and I just looked up that right now Cro Cop is 33 years old, will turn 34 in September. He is getting up there in age. And some age quicker than others when it comes to reflexes and abilities. Maybe it has happened to cro Cop? Even though when going to UFC he was coming off winning the PRIDE Open Weight GP, he suddenly got “older”? It happens. He’s only human after all.
So great fighters are warriors like Joan of Ark, King Richard The Lionheart, King Saladin, Spartacus, General George Patton
Great leaders and great fighters are too separate animals.
Cyphronkd:
Those who I mentioned fought in the battles and wars they were affiliated with. Even King Saladin and King Richard I. Hell, Richard was one of the few kings of England that was more known for his military accomplishments than his title and royal heritage. And, oddly enough, he didn’t speak a word of English (only French). Hell, Joan Of Ark HAD to fight on the front lines to prove herself because 1)she was a seventeen year-old girl, and 2)she was nuts and claimed she had visions of God telling her she had to free France from the English. Spartacus fought on the front lines, all military did way back then. Even if Patton didn’t fight on the front lines as a general in WWII (he was sixty years old) he had a VERY decorated military record. One that you CAN NOT deny. I mentioned actual warriors and fighters, I didn’t mention leaders like Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Henry VIII (hell, any of the Henry’s), etc.