Sunday stroll: Aftermath from UFC 72
By Zach Arnold | June 17, 2007
“Judo” Gene LeBell was a judge at the IFL event in Las Vegas on Saturday night. California won’t give LeBell a referee’s license for MMA. The IFL claimed 3,200 paid for their LV Hilton show. The June 16th date was originally scheduled for the 10,000-seat Reno Events Center in Reno, NV. — which is an hour away from Susanville, CA. (home to The Lions Den).
There is absolutely little discussion on the blogs about the UFC 72 event. After doing a Technorati search, there is next-to-no heat at all for this show.
A new edition of The Fightworks Podcast.
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Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, Pancrase, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 72 Recap
By Adam Morgan | June 16, 2007
By Adam Morgan
Going from UFC 71, which was the most-hyped event in mixed martial arts history, to UFC 72 is like going from eating a nice steak dinner to eating some scraps out of the garbage can. It sucks. The fight card itself was very lackluster on paper. And lackluster is exactly what it was. The only real excitement of the evening came from the two light-weights, Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida. We’ll get to that in a bit. Right now, let’s check the pay-per-view.
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Topics: Adam Morgan, All Topics, MMA, UFC | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 72
By Zach Arnold | June 16, 2007
Event results: Observer | Sherdog | MMA on Tap | F4W Online | Fight Report | UFC Junkie | The Fanhouse | CBS Sportsline | NBC Sports | The Houston Chronicle | THC 2 | UFC HP | The Canadian Press | The Washington Post | The Sweet Science | Sam Caplan | The Long Beach Press-Telegram
The LA Times: Griffin, Franklin win title bouts
Luke Thomas has an audio recap of the UFC 72 event. Luke was critical of Kevin Iole on his radio show for pre-UFC 72 fight analysis on Spike TV. Kevin had a positive take on the 7,850 fans that showed up for UFC 72, even though other media reports (including quotes from Dana White) were anything but 100% positive in regards to the business the show did.
Meanwhile, Mike Swick is busy playing at the WSOP. Also, UFC is once again aiming to run in Montreal. Dana White calls Tito Ortiz a big sissy.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Saturday headlines: Yahoo upgrades MMA/boxing coverage
By Zach Arnold | June 15, 2007
Royce Gracie comments on his suspension from the CSAC.
Loretta Hunt on Fight Network Radio reported Friday that the UFC 72 show in Ireland is not sold out and that UFC is giving out comps. The Odyssey Arena seats 9,000-10,000.
We have been able to confirm that Dave Doyle, frequent guest on Fight Opinion Radio, has left FoxSports.com and will head over to Yahoo Sports to be the managing editor for their MMA/Boxing section.
Jamal Patterson has been pulled off of today’s IFL Las Vegas show due to injury. On Friday night, Showtime announced in a mass mailing that Murilo Ninja Rua did not pass a CSAC physical. Therefore, his fight with Joey Villasenor has been canceled.
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Topics: HERO's, IFL, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Friday fight notes: K-1 reacts to Royce drug test failure
By Zach Arnold | June 15, 2007
The reports of Royce Gracie failing a drug test officially hit Japan, as K-1 matchmaker Sadaharu Tanigawa was asked by the Japanese media for a response to the story. Tanigawa said that he was ‘perplexed’ by the reports. He further stated that K-1 would investigate the matter. Tanigawa originally had a press conference today to promote a July 16th Middleweight tournament show at Yokohama Arena, announcing Kaoru Uno vs. Katsuhiko Nagata.
Royce Gracie failing a drug test is now news on the AP wire. In the AP report, notorious pontificator Mike Kogan (Royce Gracie and K-1 employee – you’ll remember his name) is saying that it is not ‘a clear case yet.’
The Royce Gracie story is also all over the major US sports blogs, so this is going to be a major story for weeks to come.
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Topics: Brazil, Canada, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 Episodes 11 and 12
By Erin | June 14, 2007
Episode 11
Karo is very happy with Manny’s win and is sure he will take it all. Nick and Karo mess around with each other, which then escalates to them really getting pissed at each other. Wha? Huh? Apparently Karo got too touchy-feely with Nate who took exception to this. Not exactly the sanest reason to start a fight.
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Topics: Erin Bucknell, MMA, UFC | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: Royce Gracie fails drug test
By Zach Arnold | June 14, 2007
Mixed martial arts icon Royce Gracie (Pictures), best known as the slender gi-wearing Brazilian who twisted oversized competitors into knots during the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, tested positive for traces of Nandrolone, a commonly used anabolic steroid, following his decision win over Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures), June 2 in Los Angeles, the California State Athletic Commission revealed Thursday.
“Royce Gracie who last competed for FEG Hero’s on June 2, 2007 in Los Angeles, California has been suspended for the remainder of his licensing year and fined $2,500 for testing positive for Nandrolone Metabolite. The suspension period runs from the conclusion of the bout on June 2, 2007 through May 30, 2008.
Mr. Gracie has 30 days from the date on his suspension letter to appeal.”
Further analysis at MMA Weekly. The obvious question that comes to mind is why Royce would get busted for nandrolone in a fight against a washed-up Kazushi Sakuraba, but not in last year’s fight against Matt Hughes where cheating would have been more necessary. Answer to that question — David Avila reports that there was no steroid testing in California at the time of the Royce/Hughes fight.
Topics: HERO's, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quote of the Year
By Zach Arnold | June 14, 2007
Tommy Morrison in an interview at Doghouse Boxing:
It was a f*cking fiasco, I’ve never been involved in anything like that in my life. I had no idea what the rules were, no one was telling me. I walked into the cage and I didn’t know if this guy was going to be kicking me, headbutting me, elbowing me. The guy charged at me and threw me all the way across the cage, smashed me into the fence, and grabbed me in a chokehold. The guy rams me into the cage and I looked at the referee like “what the f*ck?” The referee was like “hey that’s part of the rules.” I got out of that one, and put him in one.
Runner-up: Latest Free Information on Mixed Martial Arts and Anabolic Steroids by iSteroids.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 in Hong Kong
By Zach Arnold | June 14, 2007
The promotion announced today that they will run the Asia World-Expo Arena on July 29th in Hong Kong, with Badr Hari defending the K-1 Heavyweight title. Also scheduled on the show: Remy Bonjasky, Choi Hong-Man, Musashi, Yusuke Fujimoto, Hiraku Hori, Nicolas Pettas, Randy Kim, and many other South Korean fighters.
The inclusion of Hong-Man’s name on the list is interesting because Armando Garcia stated on Sherdog radio that he did not want to see Hong-Man participate elsewhere in fighting (unless he filed for an appeal with the CSAC and was successful) due to failing medical requirements to fight on the K-1 Dynamite event.
K-1 announced a return date to Las Vegas on August 17th. Plus, Sankei Sports is reporting that we may see the K-1 return of Bob Sapp against Peter Aerts on June 24th in Holland.
Topics: K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thursday trash talk: PRIDE never dies
By Zach Arnold | June 14, 2007
Oh dear… rapper Rich Boy will appear at the StrikeForce show for the Frank Shamrock/Phil Baroni fight… to perform. More on who Rich Boy is:
In his song “Let’s Get This Paper” he mentions how he used to sell crack and that his brother got 10 years, his uncle got 20 years, and his cousin got life in jail.
I hope we don’t have a DJ Hapa situation here.
Over at NHB News (Japanese), they spotted a teaser for the upcoming edition of Friday, which is promising to report about a ‘secret meeting’ that Kazuyoshi Ishii had before heading to prison.
I found the report of DSE sending Quinton Jackson a legal letter to be amusing. I thought Sakakibara and his management were going to quit the business after the last show… Fightlinker has more thoughts.
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Topics: BoDog, Boxing, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quote of the Day
By Zach Arnold | June 13, 2007
From the Salt Lake Community College Globe on the comparison between boxing and MMA:
If you don’t think today’s standards of appropriateness are different than your parents’ standards go to a Blockbuster and buy “Dirty Harry,” an R-rated movie from their generation, and then watch “Saving Private Ryan” (PG-13).
Our society has experienced the same numbing effect that drug addicts face: One hit might get you to a high for a while, but eventually you’re going to need more and more stimulus to reach that level. So you up the dosage, you increase the concentration to get that feeling back, no matter the cost.
And that’s just what MMA does in comparison to boxing.
The article was unsigned. They can be contacted at [email protected].
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Bob Arum’s idea of promoting an event
By Zach Arnold | June 13, 2007
A great article in The Chicago Sun-Times today, filled with quotes from boxing promoter Bob Arum on many topics.
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Topics: Boxing, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Red meat Wednesday: PRIDE goeth before the fall
By Zach Arnold | June 12, 2007
More ridiculousness about the Tommy Morrison ‘MMA’ debut in The Verde Independent. Speaking of Morrison, he appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio yesterday. Larry Holmes is not happy about Morrison’s PR blitz.
The LA Times is reporting that both James Toney and Danny Batchelder tested positive for steroids. The two men fought in San Jose on May 24th. Both men are suspended for one year.
It was interesting to see Kevin Iole (formerly of The Las Vegas Review-Journal and now Yahoo Sports) on the UFC 72 preview special on Spike TV. Luke Thomas says that he has had enough of Iole’s MMA analysis.
If you watched the Fight Night show, you heard Joe Rogan comment that ‘he read on the Internet’ that someone said that Jason Black looked like a skeleton at the weigh-ins. Fightlinker wrote this on Tuesday. Is Joe Rogan a closet mark for Fightlinker? I guess drunk radio really does sell! Or not.
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Topics: Boxing, Brazil, Canada, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |