Dave Meltzer on Shane Carwin: “I think he hasn’t done his job in selling this fight, that’s for sure…”
By Zach Arnold | June 20, 2010
From Observer radio on Saturday night, a discussion about a point I made earlier in my recap of UFC’s Saturday night event about how those split-screen segments on TV with PPV headliners usually don’t come across very well. At least those split-screen segments aren’t as bad as the cageside cameo spots they used to do…
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Then we had this really interesting, strange segment. They had Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin there to hype up July 3rd and everybody listening to this is well aware that Brock Lesnar is a big, scary man who lives out in the woods in Minnesota. He hates people. He doesn’t like doing this stuff. He didn’t show up for the big UFC Fan Expo. He’s not the kind of guy, they obviously would have liked to have done the three week Countdown show but they knew Lesnar wasn’t going to go for it, so he’s out there with Shane Carwin hyping up this fight and Shane Carwin looked like Brock Lesnar times 10 on this particular evening as far as absolutely wanting nothing to do with this it appeared.”
DAVE MELTZER: “He looked like annoyed or detached or something.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yes, he was not a happy man here and they asked both guys and I can’t say Brock was jolly, but I guess in terms of your usual…”
DAVE MELTZER: “For Brock, he was.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “For Brock, he was, yeah, per your usual Brock Lesnar, he was in a very jovial mood. He said he hadn’t had a health issue in six months, he was on a war path to destruction, he couldn’t wait for July 3rd and then they went to Carwin and he just was not in the mood to do this and unfortunately that…”
DAVE MELTZER: “He didn’t say a thing.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “No. It led to a segment where I don’t think it added a single buy to this show. I don’t think it took any buys away from people that were going to buy it. Maybe people on the fence watched it and thought, huh, I don’t know about this one, but it certainly did not help matters at all.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I thought Brock was good. I mean, you know, it’s just he was… it’s just like that other, the last confrontation, it’s just like Brock’s… Brock’s trying to promote a fight with no help whatsoever.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah.”
DAVE MELTZER: “And I’m surprised, you know, because it was Carwin you know mouthing off that put him ahead of Cain Velasquez, you know, in getting this shot and now he’s just not… you know, I’m sure he’s training hard and everything.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, yeah, I mean…”
DAVE MELTZER: “He is, kind of, Carwin is kind of a quiet guy in a lot of ways. He’s just not big talker. Brock likes to talk. So… yeah, but… I thought that you know Brock was encouraging him to fire back, like the last time, and Carwin just wouldn’t.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah and you know it’s a week left of hard training and I’m sure Carwin’s all pissed off, just because there’s one more week of hard training.”
DAVE MELTZER: “C’mon, you’re on national TV, you’ve got to…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “For two minutes you can pretend.”
DAVE MELTZER: “You got to sell the fight. I mean, Carwin’s… I don’t know, you know it’s like, he’s 35 years old, he’s got to know the name of the game, you know, and I just… I just think, I think he hasn’t done his job in selling this fight, that’s for sure, and I mean all across the board.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Judges at the UFC show got monitors tonight… but the controversy continues; Update: Spot on Matt Hamill’s back was due to staph infection
By Zach Arnold | June 20, 2010
Thing on Hamill’s back? Staph infection. He just confirmed it. Going on antibiotics tomorrow, he says. Gotta wonder how the NSAC didn’t catch that. Actually, he may have said it was a “sterilized staph infection.” Was kind of tough to understand him. He said he didn’t know he had it. He didn’t say when he found out about it, though. See, that’s what I wonder. How did he get through medicals with that thing?
The red mark on Hamill’s back was a staph infection that he didn’t know he had. He plans to begin an antibiotic regiment on Sunday, he said as he pulled up his shirt to show off the wound, which resulted in a low groan from the media. “It just winked at me,” quipped Leben.
Keith Kizer just informed me that Matt Hamill’s staph infection was inspected at weigh-ins. Doctor cleared Hamill to fight.
There’s no excuses for the NSAC allowing Hamill to fight with this. None. Another controversy involving Keith Kizer’s crew. This may be worse than Forrest Griffin fighting Tito Ortiz last November with a broken foot.
Think about Court McGee and Kris McCray, who fought in that cage after Hamill’s fight. Think about Keith Jardine, who bled during that fight. This is a major health and safety issue. Staph infections are nothing to mess with.
A few takeaways from tonight’s UFC event from Las Vegas…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Video: Court McGee reflects upon his win and where he’s headed next in the UFC
By Zach Arnold | June 20, 2010
He certainly had some of the best of the best helping him out with training and conditioning.
DANNY ACOSTA: “You know the biggest thing on The Ultimate Fighter is opportunities. What kind of opportunities did it open up for you in this camp?”
COURT MCGEE: “Well, you know, I was able to go spend you know almost a month with Chuck (Liddell). Chuck invited me into his home and I stayed at his house and trained with him while he was getting ready for his fight and you know that’s part of the reason why I dedicated this fight to Chuck. You know, because he did everything you know to help me. He picked me you know third to last but that didn’t matter, man, as soon as we got in there and started fighting he was cutting weight with me, telling Dana, ‘hey, man, this guy is the dark horse, man, he’s working you know and he’s going to do it, he’s going to win this.’ Jake Shields and you know, all them guys man, were just behind me 100% you know and I just kept my nose down and I kept working and I outworked everybody in that house, man, and you know that’s what I do. Always work hard and never give up on my dreams and that’s why I’m here today.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “What’s the biggest difference in your training that you took away from the show? You know, on the other side of the tunnel, what did the show teach you about being at this level?”
COURT MCGEE: “Just to not be so open and out there and make sure to stick to my game plan and focus on the little things, you know, the basic things, you know, Howard Davis Jr., I mean he’s a ’76 Olympic Gold medalist, you know, so he’s got a little bit to teach, you know, and it was the small things he said, you know, keep your heart towards your opponent, you know, throw straight punches, you know and Sammie Henson you know following through on my shot and that’s exactly what I did and you know Hackleman you know hit and move, hit and move, and constantly keep moving you know and the conditioning’s good, Jason Mertlich at The Academy and The Pit. I’m training out of The Academy in Orem, Utah and The Pit in San Luis Obispo or Arroyo Grande and so you know I had two different camps and I took the best from both of them and you know did what I learned over the last three years, man, and just put it all into one night and stayed focused and came out on top.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “You know in the past on The Ultimate Fighter people have been celebrated or at least given more attention for you know using alcohol or abusing substances, so is it kind of great for you to be on the other side of that and be the role model for the opposite of that?”
COURT MCGEE: “That’s kind of ironic that everybody gets in there and they party and they drink and you know that’s not how it was, man. I rested in between practices and I tried to get as much as each practice and I stayed focus and stayed close to God and made sure you know I did what I went there to do and it wasn’t to go there to see what I could get out of the experience or see what I could get out of here but what I could bring to the table and you know I came here for two reason, you know, one to carry a message you know that if you’re struggling you know there’s a way out and number two was to win and that’s, you know, I achieved both of those.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “And what are you going to bring to the future now that you’re The Ultimate Fighter champion, what are you going to bring to the future in your UFC career?”
COURT MCGEE: “You know, I want to make sure that you know that I’m followed closely and make sure that everybody knows what I’m doing and stay focused and represent Utah and represent me as a person and represent my family and my friends and what I stand for and that’s being an upstanding citizen and you know an overall good person.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Video: Kenny Florian ready for Gray Maynard and a long career in MMA broadcasting
By Zach Arnold | June 20, 2010
Both he and Bruce Buffer flew into Las Vegas for Saturday’s UFC show and then immediately got on a flight to go up to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for Sunday’s WEC event on Versus.
LARRY PEPE: “Kenny, you have a big fight coming up in Boston, hometown, talk about that fight with (Gray) Maynard.”
KENNY FLORIAN: “Very excited, you know. I get a great opponent in my hometown, it’s a dream come true. This is definitely, you know, I consider the biggest challenge of my career right now. Gray has a lot of momentum. Undefeated and has a lot of very tough skills to deal with, so I’m looking forward to the challenge, man.”
LARRY PEPE: “Do you think if you win this fight has there been any discussion about whether you’ll get a title fight off of it?”
KENNY FLORIAN: “I haven’t heard anything from the UFC but I suspect that that’s probably going to be the case and maybe even more so for Gray you know considering he hasn’t had that opportunity so I think for Gray it’s a tremendous opportunity if he gets my be I assume he’ll get the shot. If I do, who knows. For me, I’m just focusing on dealing with what Gray brings into the Octagon that night.”
LARRY PEPE: “Doing a lot of work on MMA Live with (Jon) Anik and whoever happens to be the third wheel that week, right? And now you’re doing the broadcasting for the TUF Finale. Talk about the broadcasting side, do you really enjoy that? And do you enjoy the play-by-play?”
KENNY FLORIAN: “I do, I have a lot of fun, man, doing this. I get to pretend to know what I’m talking about and it’s much easier than being in there, you know, and getting hit in the face. But I really love it. I’ve been blessed in my life, I get to do a lot of things that I’m very passionate about and I think great cards all the way around, Ultimate Fighter finale, and doing the WEC card this weekend, so a lot of traveling but it’s a lot of fun.”
LARRY PEPE: “Kenny, you switched camps not too long ago and you’ve had a couple of fights since then, looked a lot better, a lot of crisper. What would you say is the biggest change in Kenny Florian since making the move to Firas (Zahabi)?”
KENNY FLORIAN: “I think it’s the approach that I have now to Mixed Martial Arts and the striking. I think as far as my striking game, it’s definitely more catered towards, to being Mixed Martial Arts friendly and compatible.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Judges given monitors at UFC event tonight; TUF 11 Finale (6/19 Las Vegas)
By Zach Arnold | June 19, 2010
Dark matches
- Heavyweights: James McSweeney vs. Travis Browne
- Middleweights: James Hammortree vs. Chris Camozzi
- Middleweights: Kyle Noke vs. Josh Bryant
- Middleweights: Brad Tavares vs. Seth Baczynski
- Lightweights: John Gunderson vs. Mark Holst
Television matches
- Middleweights: Jamie Yager vs. Rich Attonito
- Lightweights: Spencer Fisher vs. Dennis Siver
- Middleweights: Chris Leben vs. Aaron Simpson
- TUF 11 Middleweight finals: Court McGee vs. Kris McCray
- Light Heavyweights: Matt Hamill vs. Keith Jardine
Esther Lin has the photo evidence tonight of judges at the UFC event having monitors to look at.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Gay couple allegedly attacked in Vancouver hate crime claim UFC was the reason
By Zach Arnold | June 19, 2010
Photos of alleged B.C. gay-bashing released
It’s a sad article to read for a few reasons. One of the two alleged victims blames their beating on UFC because…
“People just shouldn’t get beat up downtown for no reason,” said Holtzman.
I am not oblivious to the fact that there is a heavy strain of homophobia that exists within the business, but to simply blame a hate crime due to UFC putting on a show is really scraping at the bottom of the barrel. I understand the tactic — mention UFC, get press coverage in Canada because of the amount of detractors there are to “ultimate fighting.” And if the purpose is to get more media coverage to find the assailants…
UFC’s PR struggles in Canada are not the case elsewhere in the media in other countries
You know how firm of a grasp UFC’s PR department has on media coverage and getting the storylines they want out in the media that covers them? I must have seen 10 different major media outlets cover the exact same angle (from the LA Times to the Salt Lake Tribune to The London Telegraph) about Court McGee and his battle to come back from a drug overdose.
Don’t get me wrong — the media has to find some angle to try to make tonight’s card interesting to the masses and I’m not sure that a “loser might get cut by UFC” storyline relating to Matt Hamill and Keith Jardine is the kind of friendly press that makes UFC happy.
Fedor not a UFC fan
He sounds like a PRIDE fan from Japan, the kind I heard from for a couple of years after PRIDE died and tried to explain to me why UFC isn’t their cup of tea.
Or, in other words, he sounds like he’s an online message board poster.
As for his way of hyping up the fight against Fabricio Werdum on the 26th, here’s how he puts it:
“I usually don’t think about my opposition as a person who can bring me concerns,” Emelianenko told The Times on Friday as he relaxed in a Santa Monica hotel room. “I work hard in training. I work on my own things I do strong and weak.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joseph Benavidez on fighting Urijah Faber: “The only place you guys are going to see us fight is in the gym”
By Zach Arnold | June 19, 2010
If you recall Dave Farra’s interview with Reed Harris last week, the topic of Urijah Faber vs. Joseph Benavidez in the Bantamweight division of WEC came up. While Reed expressed interest in booking the bout, he was also slightly hedging his bets when the topic came up and brought up the fact that Urijah would probably move back up if Faber and Benavidez were going to be matched up at 135.
So, Dave asked Joseph Benavidez for his thoughts on the matter and essentially got a blanket statement that he would not fight Urijah any time, no matter how big the platform would be. Actually, Joe is saying two different things at once — he says he’d only fight Urijah if it made both men rich, but then turned around and said he wouldn’t fight him on PPV even if the PPV was at Arco Arena in Sacramento like last April’s event was.
The topic of teammates not wanting to fight each other and move up or down in weight is becoming a bigger issue by the day for the top MMA matchmakers. It’s also the kind of thing that could really hurt the growth of the sport as far as giving the fans the big money match-ups that they really want to see. This topic is not going to die down any time soon.
I encourage you to read what Joe had to say to Dave on the radio.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Rashad Evans: Michael Bisping lied to Rampage Jackson
By Zach Arnold | June 18, 2010
“So why is it if I get finished it’s the greatest fight ever but when I win it’s a boring fight?”
That was originally going to be the headline quote, but there are many quotes in this four minute interview with Rashad Evans. To the victor goes the spoils and Rashad Evans is having the time of his life right now. His accusation that Michael Bisping lied to Rampage Jackson will probably be the big takeaway from this interview, but I think the overall tone and the chip on his shoulder about how the fans view him is more interesting.
So, I transcribed the interview, naturally.
Rashad’s message to the fans at the end of the video about how to be a true MMA fan…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Keith Jardine views his fight with Matt Hamill as a starting-over process
By Zach Arnold | June 18, 2010
His interview on The Ultimate Fighter podcast was an introspective one in many ways. Keith noted that he understands his losing streak going in perhaps puts his job in the UFC at jeopardy, but that it’s not weighing him down heavily and that he feels he has made some improvements to where he’s gone from 80% of his capability to getting up to 90% in the future and hopefully 100% when everything is said and done.
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “What do you think was holding you back from showing [your top potential] Keith?”
KEITH JARDINE: “Just… probably it was an understanding of my own fight game. Until recently, I was working with Greg Jackson and I didn’t understood really what made me good and what made me not good. I never really understood like you know watching film I was like OK … what is it that makes me do well and I’m finally starting to get a real good understanding of that and I’ll be able to turn it on and off when I need to.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So what exactly is it, though, what is it that you saw?”
KEITH JARDINE: “I’m not giving that away. But it’s just a certain… I tried to make my boxing too clean because the thing with me is I work so hard and I’m always trying to get better but sometimes I was trying to get better in the wrong. I was trying to clean up my boxing too much and not work on what I was already good at and so now I feel like I can bring everything together and still use the real clean crisp boxing that I’ve been trying to learn.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Was there one kind of particular moment where this all came together in your mind or was it looking at tapes, you know, in you know progression of your fights that kind of put in your mind of what you did wrong or was it one of the coaches, what exactly led to this realization?”
KEITH JARDINE: “It was a combination of a lot of things. It was a combination of my coaches. I remember the video session sitting down with Greg Jackson and we’re looking at one of my sparring sessions and he’s saying… now it was really crap and now at this point on the video like you turn it around and you’re doing excellent and now what is it, we tried to break it down. And then my fights, fight by fight you can see how I’ll show glimpses of greatness and then I’ll be really boring and predictable and it’s just I know myself a lot better, I guess…”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Well, I guess, these things takes time. I think people don’t always realize that you know fighters are work-in-progress and things take time, right? I mean, do you think people have a hard time wrapping their heads around that as well? Because people you know in this sport I think more than any other people jump to conclusions based off of one fight and you know they’re ready to kind of make someone The Next Big Thing or bury them based on one performance where we don’t always know the back story of what exactly led up to it.”
KEITH JARDINE: “Exactly and with those small gloves, anything can happen. Nobody goes undefeated in this sport. If you are, you just haven’t fought the right guys, yet. So, yeah, you can’t put too much stock into one fight but for me there’s been a common occurrence with my fights and a lot of is I was putting in the hard work, but I wasn’t necessarily working the right way. I wasn’t working necessarily what I needed to be working on and now I feel that I’m definitely on the right path. This goes beyond the (Ryan) Bader fight. After the Thiago Silva fight, I really started to break this stuff down and look at it and with the Bader fight I was just another step closer but I wasn’t there yet obviously and now I think I’m ready to shine a little bit.”
As far as Saturday’s fight coming up…
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “OK, so what are your expectations on how Matt Hamill will go after you? Because obviously he’s got that great wrestling background but it seems like he doesn’t always use it.”
KEITH JARDINE: “Matt Hamill’s kind of a bully, actually, he’s going to run across the ring and try to put a lot of pressure on. He doesn’t care about getting hit, he just wants to go mix it up and if he’s starting to get the worst of it he’ll start working that take down and that’s pretty much what you’re going to get. There’s a not of whole lot to it.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Is that the kind of fight that you like to take, a guy who’s the bully as you put it?”
KEITH JARDINE: “Oh, absolutely, that’s the best. I want someone who’s going to try to bring the back and not dance around and try to win on points. I want someone who’s going to come and actually fight the fight and that’s what we’re going to get.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Women – Independent World MMA Rankings (June 18, 2010)
By Zach Arnold | June 18, 2010
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
The June 2010 Women’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.
The members of the voting panel for the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).
June 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on June 15, 2010
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Gina Carano (7-1)
4. Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka (9-1-1)
5. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
6. Shana Olsen (4-0)
7. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
8. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
9. Emily Thompson (3-2)
10. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Roxanne Modafferi (15-5)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Shayna Baszler (12-6)
6. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Julie Kedzie (14-8)
9. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
10. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Rin Nakai (6-0)
5. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
8. Monica Lovato (5-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)
Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Jessica Aguilar (8-3)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)
The Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, 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 she 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 her 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, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ben Askren gives Dan Hornbuckle the business to win Bellator Welterweight tournament
By Zach Arnold | June 17, 2010
This was not the outcome that the pundits had predicted. Yeah? Yeah.
Ben Askren was fighting on home turf, sort of speaking, when he took on Dan Hornbuckle Thursday night in Kansas City. The KC crowd was definitely lively for the fight and by the third round you could hear them doing “Mizzou” chants, given that Columbia is only a couple of hours Southeast from KC.
In round one, Askren just manhandled Hornbuckle and did what he wanted. He landed strikes to the back, got top position, hammered Hornbuckle in the face with punches, and repeated the process. When Hornbuckle tried to stand up, Askren easily took him down. There was one point where Hornbuckle got up while Askren was on his back and within a couple of seconds, Hornbuckle was on the ground and Askren was on top of him. As far as the game of positioning goes, this was about as one-sided of an affair as you could get.
In round two, Hornbuckle tried a front neck lock but Askren got out of it and was back in top position. Dan tried for a triangle and Askren ended up using leg scissors on Hornbuckle’s throat. At that point, Ben was doing whatever the hell he wanted to do. In round three, Hornbuckle showed some life by going for a kimura from his back and then managed to get on top position while applying the hold. However, Askren gave up his back to get out of the hold and Hornbuckle would go for a choke sleeper hold. Unfortunately for Dan, Askren escaped that predicament just like he escaped everything else and regained his position.
All three judges scored the fight 30-27 in favor of Ben (though you could easily have given him the 29-28 score) and he now gets to face Lyman Good, who is Bellator’s season one Welterweight champion. It is not a fight that a lot of the pundits expected would take place, but it’s definitely going to be a very intriguing fight. When you add in the element of it being a five-rounder, we will see what kind of conditioning Askren has for a 25-minute fight. In tonight’s fight, his pacing seemed really good.
Ben Askren will always hold a place in my memory. Ben Askren will forever be the punchline to Dana White’s infamous rant about Jake Rossen and how Jake had spent time writing an article on Sherdog talking about Askren being one of the top prospects to enter MMA. Jake was onto something.
Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Can’t-miss report on the chaos and disorganization with Strikeforce and Showtime
By Zach Arnold | June 17, 2010
This is the passage from this morning’s Observer radio show that I wanted to focus on. Believe me, just reading this and not even listening to the audio, your first impression is to pull a Vince Lombardi and say ‘what the hell is going on out here?!’
Take note of a big injury issue that has surfaced to one of the champions in the company. It’s bad enough that the promotion can barely get title defenses out of their guys (and the titles mean nothing), but listening to the confusion about who’s fighting in what weight division is amazing for a promotion backed by the resources of Showtime.
The most amazing thing is despite Middleweight being the strongest division for Strikeforce, they still don’t seem to have a concrete plan in place for the talent that will fight in this proposed 8-man tournament once Jake Shields likely signs with the UFC. (I have a Scott Coker interview to transcribe later on this matter.)
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Ultimate Fighter’s ceiling for potential due to poor casting
By Zach Arnold | June 17, 2010
With Court McGee vs. Kris McCray happening this Saturday night on the TUF 11 Finale on Spike TV, it seems more and more people are wondering if The Ultimate Fighter is suffering from a law of diminishing returns on developing legitimate prospects who could become champions one day in the UFC like McGee’s predecessors on the show did.
A passage from a discussion between Josh Gross & Jordan Breen on the SI podcast:
JORDAN BREEN: “When you think about what the show was originally designed for, if you re-watch the first season the intimations and the implications being made about what it means to be The Ultimate Fighter is the idea that you go on to be a Forrest Griffin or a Rashad Evans or whatever. These guys don’t have that kind of potential. I think Kris McCray, if he can work on the cardio a bit get kind of a strategic element to his game, he can stick around the UFC. And I think Court McGee will be there for a while, but neither one of these guys, I mean… we’re waiting for a Middleweight title fight coming up between Chael Sonnen & Anderson Silva. The gulf between Court McGee & Kris McCray and Chael Sonnen & Anderson Silva is an ENORMOUS one and far more dramatic than the gulfs we’ve seen in the past between guys coming off the show and the champions that happen to rule in the division at that point in time. Really, one of the weaker season in terms of talent all around and a final that I don’t want to say it’s tainted but you know Nick Ring, most people felt his fight on the show with Court McGee should have been a round-a-piece, that he didn’t deserve to win, but Nick Ring probably was the most talented guy on the show and because of injury issues you know he doesn’t get to compete in the final, which is extremely unfortunate. I think both of those guys stick around the UFC for a while but it’s not going to be a season of The Ultimate Fighter that we look back and say, wow, look at what it gave us.”
JOSH GROSS: “We haven’t had one of those in a while. And the thing about guys like Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Joe Stevenson, I mean all these guys who are well-established fighters who had careers outside of The Ultimate Fighter well before they were on the show and it was sort of just a stepping stone for them at least promotionally. As far as like identifying prospects, guys with five fights and under, I mean I don’t think this show’s delivered in any kind of way in terms of fighters on that level. The UFC does a much better of finding prospects and putting them directly into their shows than filtering them through The Ultimate Fighter, don’t you think?”
JORDAN BREEN: “I absolutely agree. The only kind of guy The Ultimate Fighter serves a purpose for at this point in time is guys who just don’t actually have experience but for whatever reason their learning curve is a bit screwed. A guy like Amir Sadollah for instance, who had basically no MMA experience but had enough skills and had enough requisite toughness to be able to take out guys like Gerald Harris and CB Dollaway and Tim Credeur and guys who actually had considerable experience or relatively talented and belonged on the show. Apart from unearthing guys like that, it really doesn’t serve a whole lot of purpose which now when they go into these tryouts, they’re telling guys you got to have at least three fights, you’ve had to had at least four fights, they’re actually kind of undermining the most effective guys that they were getting out of it. If a good guy already has three, four, five fights, he can just get signed already. We know this. We know that these guys aren’t going to pass on the potential Next Big Thing as a talent to put them on The Ultimate Fighter, so I do think that it’s kind of weird that really now they’ve really narrowed the margins and pigeon-holed themselves into taking a specific kind of guy, a guy who has enough experience but in that experience hasn’t really been so impressive that he gets signed in the first place, so yeah I’m definitely with you. The way that The Ultimate Fighter’s being cast now definitely undermines the ability to find really those sorts of Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin type characters.”
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