Independent World MMA Rankings – September 17, 2010
By Zach Arnold | September 16, 2010
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
September 17, 2010 – The September 2010 Men’s Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form an independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (Los Angeles Times and Sherdog); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).
Note: Jake Shields, Jason Miller, and Paul Daley have each regained their eligibility to be ranked, because all of their disciplinary suspensions have expired.
Note: Nick Diaz is still not eligible to be ranked because his disciplinary suspension does not expire until September 23 (which is because it did not begin until June 23).
Note: Gilbert Melendez is still not eligible to be ranked because his disciplinary suspension does not expire until October 13 (which is because it did not begin until July 13).
Note: Due to the fact that his recent fights have been in the middleweight division, Jake Shields is eligible to be ranked exclusively in the middleweight division until he makes his return to welterweight. However, several individual voters chose not to rank Shields at middleweight because of the fact that his return to the welterweight division is just one month away.
September 2010 Men’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on September 14, 2010
Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Brock Lesnar (5-1)
2. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 1 No Contest)
3. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Shane Carwin (12-1)
6. Junior dos Santos (12-1)
7. Alistair Overeem (33-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Frank Mir (13-5)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
10. Antonio Silva (14-2)
Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (19-4)
2. Lyoto Machida (16-1)
3. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
4. Quinton Jackson (30-8)
5. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
7. Jon Jones (11-1)
8. Thiago Silva (14-2)
9. Gegard Mousasi (29-3-1)
10. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante (10-2)
Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (27-4)
2. Chael Sonnen (25-11-1)
3. Nathan Marquardt (30-9-2)
4. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
5. Demian Maia (13-2)
6. Jake Shields (25-4-1)
7. Dan Henderson (25-8)
8. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (13-2, 1 No Contest)
9. Yushin Okami (25-5)
10. Jorge Santiago (23-8)
Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2)
2. Jon Fitch (23-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Josh Koscheck (15-4)
4. Thiago Alves (17-7)
5. Dan Hardy (23-7, 1 No Contest)
6. Martin Kampmann (17-3)
7. Matt Hughes (45-7)
8. Paulo Thiago (13-2)
9. Paul Daley (25-9-2)
10. John Hathaway (14-0)
Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. Frankie Edgar (13-1)
2. B.J. Penn (15-7-1)
3. Gray Maynard (10-0, 1 No Contest)
4. Eddie Alvarez (20-2)
5. Shinya Aoki (24-5, 1 No Contest)
6. Kenny Florian (13-5)
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-6-2)
8. George Sotiropoulos (13-2)
9. Evan Dunham (11-0)
10. Ben Henderson (12-1)
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
3. Urijah Faber (23-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
6. Hatsu Hioki (22-4-2)
7. Marlon Sandro (17-1)
8. Josh Grispi (14-1)
9. Michihiro Omigawa (11-8-1)
10. “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (18-4)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (16-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-1)
3. Joseph Benavidez (12-2)
4. Scott Jorgensen (11-3)
5. Miguel Torres (37-3)
6. Takeya Mizugaki (13-4-2)
7. Damacio Page (15-4)
8. Masakatsu Ueda (11-1-2)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (14-2)
10. Shuichiro Katsumura (11-7-3)
The Men’s Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until his first fight in the new weight class has taken place.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Thomson on fight with JZ Calvacante: Hey, it’s just another fight
By Zach Arnold | September 16, 2010
INTERVIEWER: “How have you been since we last saw you in the cage?”
JOSH THOMSON: “I’ve been good. Taking my dog for a walk, you know, eating a lot and putting some weight on, getting fat, that kind of thing. So, by October 9th I’ll be ready.”
INTERVIEWER: “So you have a huge fight on October 9th against JZ Calvacante. How do you feel like you match up against him?”
JOSH THOMSON: “Um, you know, I think we’re just completely different fighters. I mean, he’s shorter, he’s stalkier, he’s probably going to be stronger than me but you know I mean I’ve dealt with everybody that’s always been stronger than me, I’m not a strong Lightweight. I’m not really too concerned, it’s just another fight and I think he’s a great fighter and he’s beaten all the best guys, you know, and his only losses have come to like the best guys so and… it’s just another fight, you know, it’s going to be a good fight, though, I’ll tell you that.
“Two totally different styles are going to clash and we’re just going to see what happens. Flip a coin, we’ll see.”
INTERVIEWER: “Do you think this is a #1 contender’s match?” (for Gilbert Melendez’s Strikeforce Lightweight title championship)
JOSH THOMSON: “Uh, you know… I don’t really know, I mean… Really, I mean, I don’t think there’s any other two other Lightweights better than us in Strikeforce. I mean, there’s Gil, you know the three of us are the three best guys and I think that’s why they matched us. I would have liked to have seen a little buildup from JZ in Strikeforce, you know maybe have him fight Gurgel, which you know he just fought KJ, but you know somebody else I mean, but whatever. I’m down to fight him and like I said I only want the best fights so they threw a line out at me, you know, I was like a fish and just took it. A stupid fish, but hey, I took it.”
INTERVIEWER: “So the main event, KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz. What’s your prediction for that fight?”
JOSH THOMSON: “Who freaking knows? You know, I mean KJ’s fighting at Lightweight, you know the first time they fought people shouldn’t forget that the first time they thought it was at 160, it wasn’t at 170, I don’t know if they even have a catch weight for this fight. Yeah, see it’s 170, that’s for the title so… you know, Nick’s going to be a little bit bigger and Nick’s been fighting bigger guys and I don’t k now, man, it’s going to be really hard to tell but I’m only going to go with Nick because he’s been fighting the bigger guys lately and he’s really looked good his last couple of fights. But it’s going to be interesting to see, too, he’s coming off a layoff. He’s not used to coming off of a layoff like this, you know, he fought Sakurai but I mean you know he’s been suspended and now I mean I don’t know what he’s been doing and doing the normal but hey whatever he’s doing is working, so you can’t underestimate him, man. I got to say Nick right now is probably one of the best at Welterweight in the world. If not, you know, the Top 3 or 4 you know so but KJ, KJ’s he’s a little bit smaller, they’re not fighting at 160 this time, that’s probably the only reason I’m going to take Nick is that I think KJ is a little smaller, he’s been trying to fight Lightweights and trying to keep his weight down, you know, I think the weight might end up being a problem and if they get in the mix up as far as like in the clinch and stuff like that.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Barnett: Hey, a fight with Andrei Arlovski sounds good to me
By Zach Arnold | September 16, 2010
From The Score radio on Mauro Ranallo’s Fight Show on Tuesday:
MAURO RANALLO: “Josh, why did you sign with Strikeforce?”
JOSH BARNETT: “Uh, why not?”
MAURO RANALLO: “Well, why now? Why now?”
JOSH BARNETT: “Um… Honestly, it was because there was a good deal in place. It allowed me to do the things I wanted to do and fight relevant people.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Now, you do the things you want to do, I guess this entails still being active in Japan as a professional wrestler because you’re scheduled to return to the Inoki Genome Federation event September 25th against none other than Tim Sylvia in a pro-wrestling match. What do you make of this match-up?”
JOSH BARNETT: “Well, I’m not the best at carrying people, I’ll admit that so this is going to be just another opportunity for me to try to hone my skills as an all-around professional wrestler.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Why, when you talk about the relevant opponents, I mean Antonio Silva has been, you know, publicly petitioning for a fight against Fedor Emelianenko. Obviously, you know Fedor Emelianenko very well. You’re actually friends, but in terms of your Strikeforce debut, you know, you know how to cut a promo, you know how to call someone out. Who do you want to fight and when do you expect to make your Strikeforce debut?”
JOSH BARNETT: “You know what, it’s too soon to be calling anybody out, really.”
MAURO RANALLO: “But do you want to take on Fedor Emelianenko right away then? Let’s do it!”
JOSH BARNETT: “Well, I’ll take on anybody, you know. That’s my gimmick, right? Any time, anywhere, any place and I’ll see what Strikeforce has to offer up for me and you know sometimes, one of the reasons I don’t call people out anymore, I don’t bother because calling them out is one thing but if you are so insistent to fight that person, the only way to ensure it happens is just go walk up to him and go, hey, put your fists up because I’m going to start swinging on you in about five seconds. That’s the only way to ensure you’re going to actually fight anybody, it just doesn’t… You know, I’ve called people out before only to have it never materialize. I just give up on that.”
MAURO RANALLO: “What are the chances that you will make your debut before the end of the year? Of course I’m talking about the December card, the next major event after the October 9th event in San Jose.”
JOSH BARNETT: “I think it seems pretty good that I’ll make my debut in Strikeforce before the end of the year. I’d like to.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Interesting. OK. Well, what about the UFC Heavyweight picture, I know that you know you’ve now signed with Strikeforce, I know they’re happy to have you. What do you think of Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez and do you believe that the best heavyweight in the sport is, I mean you’ve got to, you know, you got to be the man, do you ever foresee a day when the UFC and other promotions will co-promote Heavyweight fights?”
JOSH BARNETT: “Never. It will never happen.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Will you ever foresee yourself going back to Zuffa?”
JOSH BARNETT: “Uh, you know, anything is possible. If they wanted to have the best heavyweight division in the world, they could have picked me up if they wanted to but it’s their decision. I think they’re happy with at least promoting it as the best division in the world, not saying they don’t have quality fighters but I think as long as they can control the image of it then that’s all that matters to them.”
MAURO RANALLO: “All right, I’m going to give you four names, pick one that you think you would match up best with first from a business standpoint and just from, you know, a personal standpoint. We got Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Silva, and because Fabricio Werdum’s injured right now, I’ll toss in the champion Alistair Overeem. Out of those four, who do you want first? C’mon.”
JOSH BARNETT: “You know, one thing that just seems to keep following me around like a bad small is a match-up with Andrei Arlovski, I don’t know why. It doesn’t matter whether he’s on a losing streak or a winning streak or Japan or the US, his name keeps popping up consistently. So I imagine he’s probably going to be the first on the list.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Some takeaways from The Ultimate Fighter 12 season debut
By Zach Arnold | September 15, 2010
I’ll combine my thoughts on the Fight Night show from Austin and the TUF 12 debut.
But first, I have to bring up something that I got phone calls about when it aired tonight on television and the comments said to me by others was exactly of the same tenor as my initial reaction to it and that was the Tapout commercial. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a commercial with two small kids called The Ruffo Brothers who were punching and kicking and doing sparring in the cage. The first word to come to mind when I saw it was disturbing and then I was quickly reminded of how the commercial reinforced the stereotypes in that horribly unfunny CBC Radio parody about 6 and 7 year old kids getting into MMA because Ontario province is now allowing MMA events to take place in the area. The reaction I got from people in and out of the business who saw the commercial was one of disgust, if not creeped out a bit by it.
And then it hit me like a ton of bricks that ABG, the company partnering/owning Tapout now, wants to expand the Tapout brand to schools and school-aged kids. Never underestimate what parents will allow their kids to choose to associate with these days, but even in today’s climate I would have to think that there will be more than a few parents who draw a line when it comes to allowing their kids to watch MMA, let alone wear MMA-branded clothing. Of course, as noted in last week’s Tapout semi-conference call, the remaining founders of Tapout would like to expand their brand beyond just being affiliated with MMA.
It’s all really… something.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Make your predictions: UFC Fight Night 9/15 in Austin, Texas
By Zach Arnold | September 15, 2010
Of note — Efrain Escudero showed up at 159 pounds and missed weight, so his fight with Charles Oliveira is at a catch-weight.
Tonight (starting at 8 PM) is the Austin, Texas card which is the lead-in for The Ultimate Fighter 12 with GSP & Josh Koscheck as coaches.
Dark matches
- Welterweights: Brian Foster vs. Forrest Petz
- Welterweights: Anthony Waldburger vs. David Mitchell
- Middleweights: Rich Attonito vs. Rafael Natal
- Light Heavyweights: Jared Hamman vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Main card
- Lightweights: Ross Pearson vs. Cole Miller
- Lightweights: Jim Miller vs. Gleison Tibau
- Lightweights: Efrain Escudero vs. Charles Oliveira
- Middleweights: Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mayhem Miller talks about DREAM 16 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba and his future in Strikeforce
By Zach Arnold | September 14, 2010
KENNY RICE: “So, Jason, let’s get to it. You go back to Japan, you’re taking on Sakuraba who lost his last fight to Ralek Gracie. How’s everything been going for yourself? Because you’ve had a little bit of time off here to get ready for this.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Well, you know, I’ve been training anyway and it was just getting ready for whatever came up and luckily, you know, this came up so I just ramped up my training to 1000% and it’s kind of weird for me right now, honestly. I get to fight like a legend, like to me I watched this guy all coming up and kind of modeled myself after him and watching him fight when I was younger was like a passing of the torch from that traditional like “this is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,” I mean you could see where fighting was going, you know like he started beating all the Gracies and you could tell that fighting was becoming this hybrid of wrestling, boxing, and grappling instead of like just style vs. style. So, for me to punch his face in will be very great.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Wow. When you see him, you never realize now looking at him that he’s 41 years old.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah!”
BAS RUTTEN: “And he’s been through some wars!”
MAYHEM MILLER: “He’s been through some wars, yeah.”
BAS RUTTEN: “I mean, the three fights against Wanderlei.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Like, you know, I got to win this fight, you know he’s older, older than me but he’s still dangerous.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Oh, he’s very dangerous. Very explosive power in his punches.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Going for a submission and just trying to tear your arm off or you know his fight before this last fight he lost, I mean he was getting massacred and then just pulls off this submission of the year out of nowhere, you know, gets a kneebar on the guy. I mean, I’m going in there with a clear head and I’m fighting smart.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yeah.”
JOE ROGAN: “Remember when he popped onto the scene when he first fought Conan (Silveira)? Remember that?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “No! I don’t remember that.”
JOE ROGAN: “Yeah! UFC Japan.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “OH YEAH, I REMEMBER THAT. When they stopped the fight.”
BAS RUTTEN: “All the way back to the days where the arm couldn’t be broken, right? He had that thing on his arm, ‘my arm cannot be broken,’ armbar, he got an armbar.”
JOE ROGAN: “He tapped him, he got him with a far-side armbar.”
BAS RUTTEN: “I was there.”
JOE ROGAN: “Remember when they stopped the fight too soon? He dropped down for a takedown and Big John mistakenly though he got hurt and he stopped the fight and let him come back.”
BAS RUTTEN: “And Sakuraba stayed in the cage, remember? He didn’t go out. He said, no, I’m not going to go out until they change the verdict and they changed!”
JOE ROGAN: “Nobody even knew who Sakuraba was back then.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, yeah, of course.”
JOE ROGAN: “He’s a real icon, he’s one of the few guys, a real true original.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yeah.”
KENNY RICE: “In many ways, this is one of your biggest fights ever.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, yeah.”
KENNY RICE: “I mean, this may be the biggest in some ways.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “I mean, for me, every fight coming up is the biggest fight ever. The name recognition that goes with Sakuraba and you know he’s got this legendary aura around him. I mean, it’s not going to stop me from beating him up. Like I said before, man, I beat up my Dad plenty of times.”
KENNY RICE: “You didn’t get paid for that, did you?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Nah.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Total satisfaction. “The satisfaction knowing that you can take him out.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “He’s still got a better intra-family record than I do, but still, you know, you’re as good as your last fight.”
BAS RUTTEN: “That’s a nice, warm family right there.”
KENNY RICE: “Let me ask you about Strikeforce. Are you still in the mix there with Strikeforce? It was Jacare and Kennedy and, you know, the whole thing, we know all the thing that happened in Nasvhille. Is life still good? Good graces you’ll fight again in Strikeforce?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “I mean, I don’t know, I don’t talk to them directly, you know, I have managers for that but, you know, I still have a contract, you know, with Strikeforce and I’m willing to fight for them.”
JOE ROGAN: “What did you think about Tim Kennedy and Jacare fighting for the title?”
MAYHEM MILLER: (pauses) “I don’t know, I mean… What aspect do you mean?”
JOE ROGAN: “Well, both guys you’ve fought.”
RON KRUCK: “I mean, that’s a title you [fought for], obviously.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know, you know, I thought that was a strange choice for them because I’m the last one to fight for the title, you know, and I lost a decision, a close decision with Shields and then with Jacare and Kennedy fighting, two guys that I’ve fought before, I don’t know. I don’t know where that puts me in the whole mix. I mean, I guess…”
JOE ROGAN: “Have they talked to you about a rematch with Jacare?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “I’d love that! You know, I love that! I would love to kick him in the head legally, you know. I just think that it’s like, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what their plans are for the future and the title picture for Strikeforce, you know whatever it holds for me, you know I’m open to anything. I want to fight.”
JOE ROGAN: “Isn’t it weird seeing Jacare win a kickboxing contest?”
MAYHEM MILLER: “YEAH!”
JOE ROGAN: “Actually, it was a kickboxing fight.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “I kind of knew that Jacare had been working on his kickboxing and definitely that’s the area he had been working on so I think he wanted to kind of showcase it there in the fight.”
JOE ROGAN: “Yeah, a little bit of that but I was surprised he didn’t take him down, there was almost no ground fighting in that fight.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, I mean, I think that his corner was telling him that he was doing good enough to win the fight, you know. I know. I thought it could have went either way.”
JOE ROGAN: “I don’t tune into a Jacare fight to see kickboxing, I tuned in to see one of the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, grappling.”
JOE ROGAN: “And to see some mid-level kickboxing…”
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sean Sherk: I’ve accomplished more in MMA than 95% of the other fighters have
By Zach Arnold | September 14, 2010
Sherdog recently did a radio interview with Sean Sherk to talk about his upcoming fight with Evan Dunham on September 25th in Indianapolis. Even though it was a somewhat short interview at around 13 minutes long, it featured a lot of good questions and even more interesting answers.
(Questions are paraphrased and answers are transcriptions.)
Heading into your UFC 119 fight against Evan Dunham, what does this fight mean to you after such a long layoff?
“Um, it means a lot. It’s exciting. I’ve been out for a little while, struggled with some injuries, had to kind of take a little of bit time off, lick my wounds, get myself healed up again and now I feel great, you know, physically and mentally I feel better than I have in a long time so I’m ready, ready to go to war.”
Evan Dunham is the undefeated up-and-comer who has a lot of good skills. What kind of challenge does he present?
“Obviously I think he’s got some great athleticism, got some good wrestling, good jiu-jitsu, good striking. I think he’s very well-rounded, young, up-and-coming, he’s hungry, so I think he poses a lot of problems, you know, I mean he wants to be the best-of-the-best and in order to be the best-of-the-best you’ve got to beat the best of the best and I’m the guy standing in his way right now, so we’ll see.”
After initially talking about the Dunham fight, a lot of the questions talked about his injuries, the layoff, and what his future goals are in the sport. Plus, his attitude on MMA fans and the way he is perceived.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s homophobic slur and death wishes for Jamie Varner
By Zach Arnold | September 14, 2010
Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner are set to fight on the September 30th WEC card.
You can tell when a radio appearance goes horribly wrong PR-wise when you are apologizing like Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone did a couple of hours after appearing on Monday night’s Tapout radio show.
@TapouTWorldWide I don’t really wish death on anyone!! Just got caught up in talking s***! My apologies @jamievarner! Took it to far
There’s just one problem with that apology — we listened to the interview and transcribed some of his comments about Jamie Varner. Not taken out of context and we give them to you in full context. I didn’t censor the language that he used in his comments, so you’ve been warned. Full-page mode gets you the quotes.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce signs Josh Barnett
By Zach Arnold | September 13, 2010
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MMA HEAVYWEIGHT SUPERSTAR JOSH BARNETT SIGNS WITH STRIKEFORCE
NEW YORK (Sept. 13, 2010) – Two-time champion and top world-ranked heavyweight superstar Josh “The Babyfaced Assassin” Barnett has signed a multi-fight agreement to compete for world championship Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion STRIKEFORCE.
“STRIKEFORCE is the home of the best heavyweight division in the world and I’m proud to be able to call it my home now,” said the 32-year-old Barnett (29-5), an expert in catch wrestling who hails from Seattle, Wash.
“I’m looking forward to competing amongst the greatest fighters in the world and fighting my way to another world title.”
The 6-foot-3, 255-pound Barnett became the youngest UFC champion in history at age 24 when he scored a second-round TKO (4:35) on MMA legend Randy “The Natural” Couture in Las Vegas, Nev., on March 22, 2002. In his sixth career fight, Barnett submitted wrestling and MMA legend Dan “The Beast” Severn with an armbar in the fourth round (1:21) in Hawaii.
In addition to his achievements in America, Barnett has spent a good portion of his career competing in top tier promotions overseas, including the now defunct PRIDE Fighting Championships in Japan where he notched memorable victories over the likes of Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Hunt and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. On Oct. 21, 2006, Barnett took part in PRIDE’s first event on U.S. soil, submitting Pawel Nastula with a toe hold in the second round (3:04) at Las Vegas’s Thomas & Mack Center.
In 2008, Barnett competed in another Japanese promotion, Sengoku. After submitting (heel hook) Hidehiko Yoshida in Tokyo on March 5, 2008, Barnett returned to action on May 18, 2008, and earned a unanimous decision over top-ranked rival and fellow American Jeff “The Snowman” Monson.
Barnett signed an agreement to compete in Japan’s DREAM promotion earlier this year. Last March 22, he made his debut with the organization, submitting former K-1 tournament champion and devastating power puncher, “Mighty Mo” Siligia, with a kimura at 4:41 of the first round.
On July 10, Barnett followed up the strong showing with a first-round TKO (punches) over Geronimo dos Santos in the main event of a fight card in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
About STRIKEFORCE
STRIKEFORCE (www.strikeforce.com) is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, STRIKEFORCE, sanctioned by ISKA, has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts (MMA) series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” In May 2008, West Coast Productions, the parent company of STRIKEFORCE, partnered with Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E), an entity created in 2000 to oversee all business operation aspects of the San Jose Sharks and HP Pavilion at San Jose. In March 2009, STRIKEFORCE signed a multi-year agreement with SHOWTIME® to stage live events on the premium cable television network. The promotion has since also produced two live, primetime events on the CBS Television Network.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tim Sylvia vs. Josh Barnett…
By Zach Arnold | September 12, 2010
… has been booked as a super fight for Antonio Inoki’s IGF show on 9/25 at JCB Hall in Tokyo. It’s being marketed as Sylvia’s pro-wrestling debut and a clash of former UFC Heavyweight champions.
Also scheduled to make his pro-wrestling debut on the IGF card is Wakakirin, the disgraced former Sumo wrestler who got busted for marijuana last year. He’ll face Mark Coleman on the 25th.
Don Frye
20 quotes from the man on Saturday night. IGF also said that he and Tank Abbott might also be at their JCB Hall show, too.
Mid-major Outsider MMA show coming up
Akira Maeda’s promotion has a big show coming up on 10/11 at Yokohama Bunka Gym. The top half of the card will feature an interpromotional war theme of “The Outsider vs. ZST” and an interpromotional war theme of “The Outsider vs. US Armed Forces” in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the US-Japan accord. Also on the card are the semi-finals and finals of their 70-75kg tournament (Teppei Hori vs. Hiroyuki Tani & Takeshi Goda vs. Hisato Izawa) and a few other amateur fights as well.
The Outsider vs. ZST card
- 70 kg: Keinosuke “Tattoo Man” Yoshinaga (Outsider) vs. Masayuki Okude (ZST)
- 60 kg: Yuki Takei (Outsider) vs. Toshihiro Shimizu (ZST)
- 70 kg: Takayuki Urano (Outsider) vs. Yuki Yamamoto (ZST)
- 68 kg: Apache Kojiro (Outsider) vs. Yutaka Shimamura (ZST)
- 75 kg: Tetsuya Sano (Outsider) vs. Masayuki Hamagishi (ZST)
The Outsider vs. US Armed Forces card
- 70 kg: Ryuma Asano (Outsider) vs. Devon Edwards
- 65 kg: Takahiro Kuroishi (Outsider) vs. Samuel Aguilar
- 75 kg: Fumihiro Yamada vs. Jimmy Canals
- 72 kg: Yoshihiro Saegusa (Outsider) vs. Alex Ghana
- 100 kg: Yoshitaka Ideta (Outsider) vs. Lamont Kirkland
Two new Japanese books coming out
The first is a new book by former Weekly Gong writer/editor and New Japan TV personality Katsuhiko Kanazawa called “Jinsei no ring” and it largely talks about past wrestlers, what happened in and out of the ring, and what they’re up to now. A top focus of the book is Akira Katayama, a wrestler who was paralyzed after a diving move at a Korakuen Hall show in Tokyo. I bring this up because a couple of weeks ago, Dave Meltzer posted an old Observer from the early ’90s on his web site that focused on the Japanese wrestling styles becoming more ‘extreme’ and pushing the envelope. It was around this time that Pancrase and the MMA pioneers were starting to build their promotions. I remember vividly at the time (and still have all the old Weekly Gong & Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazines) that the weekly magazine publications that the fight organizations relied on so heavily for PR used to cover MMA as “other” and often had photos from the events in the back of the magazines.
Anyhow, Kanazawa’s new book takes a look back at some of the things that happened in the early 90s and the last decade.
The second book, which I said was coming out, is in fact coming out. Kodansha will officially release the final book of Mr. Toshiro Igari this Friday. Appropriately, it’s a black book. A lot of people will be paying attention to this book, moreso now because of Igari’s death than they would have if he was still alive. Our eyes will be open on this one…
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Transcript of Yves Lavigne’s complete denial of quotes attributed to him in Montreal publication
By Zach Arnold | September 11, 2010
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ARIEL HELWANI: “I know it’s been a rough of couple of days for you.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “That’s an understatement. Personally, but not professionally.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Absolutely. How have you been dealing with all of this?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Umm… it’s been rough. You know, when you did nothing wrong, it’s been rough. I don’t know how the heck I came in the middle of all of this.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So you say you’ve done nothing wrong and by that you mean you have never talked to this individual, [name redacted] I believe his name is, who claims to have interviewed you and have gotten all these comments from you about things that you said about Josh Koscheck and GSP. You never talked to this guy before, right?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “No, I… maybe I spoke with him during an event, you see a lot of people but you’re going to have to help me out here, Ariel. What words should I choose. You know I’m going to try to make a few sentence and tell me if it’s suitable for what I want to say. I did not give him an interview on or off record. Those are not my quotes. This is not me. Is that enough?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “That is enough.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Thank you. Because, you know, I read a few things on the Internet and I’m like, OK, maybe I should have said it differently but my English is not as good as I want to and I don’t see all the nuance or subtlety in the words. So, look, I didn’t do it, basically.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How does something like this even happen? Do you think this guy is targeting you, he’s trying to, you know, ruin your career in some way. I mean, why would this guy come here and make up these quotes about you? Have you been able to find out if he has some of sort vendetta against you or anything like that?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Hopefully not, you know. People know me, you know I’m easy-going person so I don’t know. You know I read on the Internet, I think it’s Dave Simon from Team 990 put something on the internet that apparently David Loiseau has this beef or he’s in court with him, against him sorry because of things that he wrote in the past and apparently other fighters in Quebec has the same issue with him.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Yeah, famously David Loiseau had the problem, Steve Bosse, a lot of people have problems with this guy and it kind of leads me to wonder how he even still has a job if there are people accusing him of making up quotes.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “I don’t know, look. All I know is that I’m in the middle of this, I spoke with my lawyers, apparently they are down or not on the Internet any more, but I think the damage has been done, so…”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So what does someone do if they’re in a situation like this? You say you’ve talked to your lawyers. What can you do about this?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “I can bring him to court but you know I have different options I have to weigh and every option that I have, you know, with lawyers you have a $$$ stamped to it if you go that way it’s going to cost you maybe that much and that much and that much so I’m in the process of evaluating everything and to see if I have the financial, you know, back-up to go all the way because this is a big corporation but I don’t know yet, I’m still thinking about things that I can do.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How has this affected you professionally?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Professionally?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Yes.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “There’s nothing.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Well, in the sense as an MMA referee…”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Oh, yeah, because I don’t do that for a living. This is a hobby, being a ref. I don’t earn my living doing that. So, professionally, yeah, I’m still you know the CFO of a manufacturing company in Montreal and this is business as usual. However, as yet I don’t see, the only downside that I can see and I’m going to tell you that right away because I spoke with my athletic commissioner over the weekend and we’ve been in contact, he knows it, all the story he knows it, where it’s going and I can assure you one thing — the last thing on earth that I want is to have an influence on that fight of Mr. Koscheck and St. Pierre. So what we decided, me and the athletic commissioner here, and to not screw up with the training camp or Mr. Koscheck or St. Pierre having that in the back of their mind, we decided not to have me ref that fight so Mr. Koscheck can put that aside for certain. I will not be the ref of that fight that night so that way he can train 100% without having me on the back of his head maybe wondering if I’m going to ref his fight and Georges St. Pierre can do the same not wondering if I’m going to leaning in favor of Mr. Koscheck because of all this because I will not be the ref of that fight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Were you supposed to be the ref of that fight?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “It was not decided as we speak but you know since it’s my backyard, it’s in Montreal, everything you know the last three UFC here in Montreal I was like the guy doing the finals so…”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Will you still be working that event?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Oh yeah, why shouldn’t I?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Yeah, no, no, just asking.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Just curious, Josh Koscheck, we actually had him on the show earlier today.”
YVES LAVIGNE: “How is he?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “He’s not too happy right now. He didn’t really want to talk about it. He said some things that I will not repeat here. You can listen to it yourself. But he says that he doesn’t you to ever ref any of his fights and he thinks you shouldn’t actually ref ANY MMA fights ever and to that I ask you… you maybe think that you want to reach out to him and tell him your side of the story because who knows if he listen to this interview?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “No, I don’t want to reach out to him. I don’t want to reach out to any of the fighters. This is, you know, I’m a ref, we should have a healthy distance between the fighter and the ref so you know unfortunately that thing happened. My lawyers are going to take care of it and I’m going to check whatever I can do about it but rest assured, Mr… look, for that fight, he can be sure that I will not ref it. For the other ones, I think it’s up to the athletic commissioners who’s been appointed to ref, I don’t think it’s in the hands of Mr. Koscheck or his camp or anything.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Has any other commissioner out there reached out to you and asked for you to explain the situation as you’re doing right now?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “Yes.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And, so how did that go? I mean, are they like, OK, we believe you, let’s move on or have some raised some red flags?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “So far, so good.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “That’s good. So, from you know, right now, this has not effected your career as an MMA referee at all? You have been able to tell these commissioners that quotes were manufactured or fabricated and all that other stuff?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “I’m not sure if I heard the question correctly, I’m sorry.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “No, no, no problem. Basically, you have been successful in convincing the commissioners that these quotes were not yours, you never said anything?”
YVES LAVIGNE: “I didn’t try to convince them, I just told them my side of the story and what happened. I didn’t do it. You know, whether they believe me or not, it’s not up to me any more. It’s like, the only reason why I’m talking to you today is because you know I want to do one interview and that’s it and like I want to be done with this. I’m like, geez, how come I’m stuck in the middle of this? I don’t know but, look, I didn’t say it. I didn’t give him an interview and that’s what I’m repeating to the athletic commissioners. You know, we’ll find out soon enough if they believe me or not because I’m going to be assigned, or not, to other shows.”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Shark Fights 9/11 Amarillo & Sengoku 10/30 Ryogoku Kokugikan fight cards
By Zach Arnold | September 10, 2010
The card line-up for this Saturday’s Shark Fights card in Amarillo, Texas:
- Eric Davila vs. Pete Spratt
- Karen Darabedyan vs. Daniel Straus
- Aaron Rosa vs. Devin Cole
- Paul Bradley vs. Johnny Rees
- Doug Evans vs. Ronnie Mann
- Brock Larson vs. Tarec Saffiedine
- Danillo Villefort vs. Joey Villasenor
- Paul Daley vs. Jorge Masvidal
- Sokoudjou vs. Houston Alexander
- Trevor Prangley vs. Keith Jardine
Sherdog will have the undercard fights streaming live on their web site.
The Glendale News-Press has an interview with Karen Darabedyan before his Saturday fight. MMA Junkie will have the Shark Fight weigh-in results later today.
Other headlines
MMA Junkie reports that George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Lauzon has been added to the PPV undercard of the Quinton Jackson/Lyoto Machida UFC event this November at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
USA Today reports that Bellator has booked Ricco Rodriguez vs. Dave Herman for 9/30 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Boxing Scene has an article about the relationship between Wladimir Klitschko and Jacob “Stitch” Duran.
Dan Hardy’s comments about wrestlers in the UFC not finishing fights has sure created an uproar amongst a lot of fighters. Maybe the wrong messenger to deliver the message, perhaps?
Josh Gross has an update on what’s next for Todd Duffee. The last two nights on both Twitter and FB, the conversation has been all about Duffee and where he’s going next. UFC did invest some PR capital in building him up only to cut him abruptly… BTW, we have links on the sidebar for both Twitter and FB, so hop on board…
In a where are they now kind of story, Doug “Rhino” Marshall lost to Kyacey Uscola last night at Tachi Palace Fights in Lemoore, CA.
AFP has a report stating that Satoshi Ishii wants to challenge triple-world heavyweight champion Teddy Riner of France. Notice in the report that Ishii wants to fight Riner… as a US citizen?
Sengoku 10/30 Ryogoku Kokugikan card line-up
- Lightweights: Maximo Blanco vs. Leo Santos
- SRC Welterweight GP: Yasubey Enomoto vs. Taisuke “Goten” Okuno
- SRC Welterweight GP: K-Taro Nakamura vs. Takuya Wada
- SRC Bantamweight ASIA 2010 Tournament: Manabu Inoue vs. So Jae Hyun
- SRC Bantamweight ASIA 2010 Tournament: Shunichi Shimizu vs. Wataru Takahashi
- SRC Bantamweight ASIA 2010 Tournament: Akitoshi Tamura vs. Shoko Sato
- SRC Bantamweight ASIA 2010 Tournament: Taiyo Nakahara vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, UFC, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What has and hasn’t been said yet about Tapout’s new deal with ABG
By Zach Arnold | September 9, 2010
When Bloomberg News broke the story on Tuesday morning about Tapout, Silver Star, and Hitman Fight Gear selling their companies to Authentic Brands Group LLC, a lot of concern and panic set in initially as far as major players in the Mixed Martial Arts industry were concerned. Was Tapout cashing out while the getting was good? Do they think the MMA industry has peaked? Are they broke? Lots of questions were raised by the Bloomberg article.
Dealmaker Salter to Bring Cage Fighting T-Shirts to the Masses
It was an article, in terms of research, that had a lot of MMA media writers cringing (including HDNet host Mike Straka). It also caused a stir amongst Tapout management, who addressed rumors of Tapout appearing in Walmart stores in the future.
“NO! NEVER! No. I think there was a lot of confusion. You know, I mean, these guys are trying to put together, they did an interview, I don’t know where that I came from, I saw it and I did an interview with them but they got some facts wrong. They were kind of mixed up. You know, sometimes people… we do interviews with people who don’t understand the MMA space and sometimes we try to explain it to them and they, you know, it gets it’s like you know somewhere it gets lost in translation but no that’s not true. They asked, the question was are you guys going to Walmart and I said no, I said we do have brand segmentation where we have other brands that we’ve developed that maybe in the future, you know, could go to Walmart but it wouldn’t be the Tapout brand, by no means.”
Tuesday night’s semi-conference call, if you want to call it that (listen here to the hour-long discussion on TapoutRadio.com), was part pep-talk, part-reassurance speech to the masses.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |