The idea of Fedor as an alternate in the Strikeforce HW GP is not popular online
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
Everyone’s talking about Fedor, so let’s discuss what the Cagewriter.com crew at Yahoo Sports had to say on the matter. The discussion starts off with talk about Fedor as a Light Heavyweight and then transitions into a discussion about everyone still wanting the Fedor gravy train to continue operating. That’s the starting point for this transcription passage about the idea of Fedor as an alternate in the Strikeforce HW GP (over fighters like Shane Del Rosario & Valentijn Overeem).
STEVE COFIELD: “It’s the way he lost that leads us to the next point, which was Scott Coker talking about the future as maybe an alternate in the tournament, which I got to tell you even a casual fan should be outraged at that. The hardcores will go ballistic. You can’t put him back in the tournament under any circumstances. You got other qualified alternates. I know he’s your big-money guy, but you can’t just make the image of him getting destroyed go away.”
ADAM HILL: “You know, there’s people that have bashed on this tournament. You were not one of them, I was not one of them. I was excited about this tournament. It completely loses credibility if he goes back in. I mean, we both had the same reaction when we heard that. It’s preposterous to put him back in and that’s, to the hardcore fans especially, just throw it out there, nobody cares about this tournament any more if that’s the case. I do think there’s some element and I believe Strikeforce believes there’s some element of fans that just want to see Fedor and I think that they probably have it in their mind that people will be more interested in watching Fedor than they would any of the other fighters going forward. I don’t see that. I think that you completely lose integrity. I think there’s a way to get him back involved in the mix in heavyweight without putting him in this tournament, but there’s already some crazy things about this tournament any way. As much as we both like it, the fact that, you know, Overeem is the favorite to win the tournament and the prize for winning the tournament is to fight Overeem? That doesn’t make any sense.”
STEVE COFIELD: *laughs*
ADAM HILL: “It’s crazy. Is it that much crazier to say, okay, Fedor you lose but you’re back in because you’re the big name, you’re back in, we want you in, people will watch you, so we’re putting you back in. It’s not that much crazier. I think for hardcore fans and people that follow the sport closely, we will say, ‘no, stop it, that’s ridiculous, that’s dumb.’ I think some people out there and I think Strikeforce believes some people out there might say, ‘oh, Fedor’s fighting, let’s watch this.’ I think it’s possible.”
STEVE COFIELD: “I think the solution is easy. I think he fights the loser of Overeem and Werdum. That gives him some time off. He can recover, if he’s got a serious injury. He can also get himself more mentally prepared and physically prepared to fight these big guys and kind of get back on track and that would be a big fight against the loser of that fight and then the winner out of that, especially if they’re impressive, maybe can fight the winner of the tournament at the end of the year or early 2012. That makes sense. Putting him back in? Just crazy.”
ADAM HILL: “Okay, I really like that idea, it’s actually a good idea. I think it would be a marketable fight and one that people, both hardcores and casual fans, would be interested in. Here’s the problem — if Overeem loses, so it’s Fedor vs. Overeem for the title both coming off losses? That would be a difficult sell, I think.”
STEVE COFIELD: “That’s a tough one, too. They better root hard for Overeem to make it to the finals in this thing, at least make it to the finals if not win it.”
ADAM HILL: “And that’s the problem with Overeem having the belt and competing in the tournament and the belt not being on the line. What happens when he loses? That means you have a champion, at some point, defending the title coming off a loss against somebody who either won the tournament or somebody’s coming off three wins, it’s crazy.”
STEVE COFIELD: “It’s like the College World Series (Omaha). You’re doing double elimination. You have to beat Overeem twice. If it’s someone who knocks off Overeem and goes on to win the tournament, they’re going to have to beat him again to get the title. That is weird.”
ADAM HILL: “There you go. Fedor’s back in. It’s double elimination … to move on. It’s just, it is the problem that was set up and it was set in place by having Overeem in the tournament and not defending the title and the title being on the line at the end against Overeem, who’s in the tournament. It’s just a weird mix.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Eddie Goldman: The Strikeforce HW GP show at the Izod Center was a disorganized mess
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
In his own words. It’s funny — every time I post something about Sherdog or someone else in the MMA media discussing Showtime’s role in MMA or how they produce events, the network’s office ends up reading about it (from here) one way or another and phone calls end up getting made.
“I got to say that the way this event was organized at the Izod Center managed to
pissoff and annoy and alienate most of the New York/New Jersey & East Coast Mixed Martial Arts media and notable people. They did not know how to set up the event for the media, putting people all over the building, behind fans. They did not have one media section like you do in boxing and has been done at other events. The seating showed no understanding, ZERO understanding and zero care for who were the people that really understand the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. And it showed some type of favoritism, even to the point where there were empty seats and some people that have been covering the sport while some of the people who did these credentials and did this seating were still in diapers and watching Hulk Hogan. It annoyed people so much that it was done in such an irrational way. The end result is that many people that I spoke with, despite a lot of people being positive about the event overall particularly the main event, not wanting to come back to any Strikeforce events. That is a huge failure because people felt that way before the first fights started.“They really blew an opportunity to become the anchor in the New York/New Jersey area and hopefully we will have Mixed Martial Arts in New York this year, again we’re fighting for it. We had our great rally on February 8th, Strikeforce Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem came to that, of course. Frank Shamrock, who announces Strikeforce events for Showtime, came to it and many, many other people and we put up a lot of information for that. Strikeforce was in a position, by supporting the really and working with the MMA community and media here, to really build some good will. Well, y’all squandered that Saturday night, February 12th. It’s not even just a question of apologies being due, it’s a question of having people that are respectful. Otherwise, you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to run this damn sport into the ground very quickly, just like has happened with boxing and people aren’t going to put up with it. You’re going to be run into the ground much faster than boxing because you won’t have that long, long period of prominence as a sport to buoy you up as is continuing to happen with boxing, which is really going on fumes to a large degree at this point. But we’ll see if there are changes made and, if not, you know it’s going to be bad for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and if it does get legalized in New York, it won’t be the national promotions that exist that are going to be able to capitalize that much off it. They might run some big shows once or twice, but it will be somebody new, somebody brand new from this New York area that’s going to develop, that’s going to use this as a base and develop a major organization.
“So, you blew it boys. It’s time to fess up to that and make some damn changes.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 42 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Simon Rutz: Yeah, K-1 is likely heading to bankruptcy soon
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
When we last left you on the Simon Rutz/K-1 front, he was supposed to promote an It’s Showtime event at Amsterdam Arena with K-1 fighters. He ended up announcing a cancellation for the event due to what he said was K-1 not paying some fighters and not being able to get him a roster to book a card. So, the show fell through.
In this new interview today (Dutch), Simon says (pardon the pun) that K-1 is headed towards bankruptcy. Now, I should note that bankruptcy is nothing new in the Japanese fight business. It’s happened many times with various pro-wrestling companies where a shell company will declare bankruptcy, avoid or minimize payments to creditors, and either transfer assets or start over anew under a new shell company. So, the idea of FEG declaring bankruptcy doesn’t mean that K-1 in theory would die.
(On a side note, Dan Herbertson reports that Dave Herman has been released from his Sengoku contract and may be heading to the UFC. Dan also notes that several more fighters may get their releases in the near future.)
The crux of the Dutch newspaper article is that Simon Rutz cannot run kickboxing events in the city of Amsterdam. The political climate is hostile, he claims, because the city’s Mayor (and police) feel that criminals from the underworld appear at major fighting events to show off and/or recruit new members and/or create trouble. As a result, Mr. Rutz says that the mayor wants to keep It’s Showtime events out of the area. When Simon talked about the canceled Amsterdam Arena show due to problems with K-1, he expanded his comments by saying he wondered if he could even run a show at this point in the city due to legal pressure. He said that he’s welcomed with open arms around the world to run It’s Showtime events but he can’t run shows now on home turf. Mr. Rutz said that the community complains about not having big sporting events and yet he wants to bring big shows to town and he’s facing pressure to not run shows. He says that he is tired of political/legal battles and that it takes a lot of stamina to organize fight shows. He claims that in order to run shows in Amsterdam he has to go out of his way to prove that he’s not connected to organized crime and that the legal fees would cost him a lot of money. Mr. Rutz questioned why he should have to wait until a new Mayor is elected in order to run shows at Amsterdam Arena.
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Giving credit to both BJJ and Bigfoot Silva after Saturday’s Strikeforce main event showing
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
Lost in all of the talk about Fedor losing for the second time in a row is the fact that he faced a bigger opponent who used better technique and more physicality to win the fight. Eddie Goldman reminds us that we should take some time and focus on the fighter who advanced into the second round of the 2011 Strikeforce HW GP tournament.
“One of the key lessons from the incredible victory of Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva over Fedor Emelianenko is: never underestimate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, we’ve all seen it now. We know a triangle choke, we know an armbar, we know all these moves that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has. That doesn’t mean that you can stop its effectiveness now just because you’ve seen it. Fabricio Werdum showed that against Fedor Emelianenko. This is not a Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn where over 90% of the people watching the show, including the announcers, never had seen a triangle (lock) before. Virtually everybody had seen it before and yet he still was effective with it. What Bigfoot Silva did in getting that takedown in the very beginning of the second round, really ducking the punch from the shorter Fedor, and Bigfoot Silva came in really with a wrestling move and dominated Fedor Emelianenko going from mount, side control, north/south, all those moves, we all have seen that before. Yet because of his speed, his timing, his technique, he was effective in them. Again, even though they were no longer the property or understood by a tiny number of people.
“I think this is a very important lesson that’s being lost in this whole discussion because as shocking as Fedor’s loss was, we also have to pay props to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and its practitioners because the two fighters that have now beaten him. Yes, he’s declining, he doesn’t seem to have the speed or explosiveness that he did a few years ago, but the two fighters that have beaten him are both primarily from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and, of course, have adapted that to Mixed Martial Arts. Never underestimate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This was a set of techniques that was developed really primarily for a smaller fighter to take on a larger opponent, including of course in self-defense situations. Now you had a bigger fighter, Bigfoot, much taller, stronger, bigger, and heavier, bigger reach than Fedor and able to dominate him with that and Fedor was not able to do much from the ground at all. That’s not a criticism of his style of Sambo. That’s just a criticism of his ground work and the training that he had for this fight because, again, in the end this is Mixed Martial Arts. You use what works and you take from all styles but the tendency has been in recent years for a lot of people in MMA to discount Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Don’t count it out. It still is great and it’s still is really one of the key foundations of Mixed Martial Arts.”
As for why Fedor lost and what failed him…
“Bigfoot said his basic game plan was to take Fedor down and ground ‘n pound him, which is what he did. But he certainly made numerous attempts to finish the fight on the ground with the submissions, getting his back, getting side mount, north/south, basically doing whatever he wanted on the ground and Fedor looked pretty helpless and clueless. I suspect, rather than him being clueless although he may have looked that way, that he’s just slowing down. His body is breaking down and cannot do what he wants it to do any more, which is why he said after the fight that he would retire. We’re going to see whether that happens or not.”
Despite Fedor’s recent two losses to BJJ fighters, Eddie says that shouldn’t whitewash the career of the former PRIDE ace:
“His last two fights, he’s been dominated by the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stars (Fabricio) Werdum and Bigfoot (Silva). That does not erase the fact that he was undefeated for 10 years in a sport where losses are commonplace, even for the best fighters including of course Werdum. Including of course Bigfoot Silva, and every other fighter in the Strikeforce tournament. And this is also a sport where losses are not career-killers unlike they are in boxing. Fedor’s record is unprecedented in the relatively short history of Mixed Martial Arts and because of its length and because of the caliber of fighters that he fought will be very, very difficult to duplicate. And it’s not just in the PRIDE days when he defeated Nogueira and Cro Cop and Coleman and Randleman and so many other fighters, Fujita, you can look up all those guys up. But also later. Look at his victories over Tim Sylvia that some of the marks in the media were saying that he was afraid to fight after Sylvia left UFC. Look at his victory over Arlovski. Both those guys were Top 5 heavyweights, consensus, in the world at the time they fought Fedor and they’ve never been the same since. Those were all historic victories even though, as I said, he’s obviously at age 34 starting to fade.”
“And don’t, at all, discount the great career of Fedor Emelianenko, even if he never has another fight, even if he never has another high-profile victory. He’s an all-time great, arguably the greatest Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight and fighter of all time and nothing can erase that history.”
Eddie did say on his radio show that Fedor being brought back into the SF tournament as an alternate would ruin the tournament’s legacy and that the tournament should be legitimate as opposed to pull old Japanese-style marketing tactics.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
How to help me help you out as an MMA supporter
By Zach Arnold | February 14, 2011
I want to thank everyone for their support this year as far as reading Fight Opinion and supporting me in various ways. You don’t know how much I really appreciate it. In an era where everyone is going for more volume and less substance, I’ve tried to find a balance (I am only one person, after all) and keep it somewhat interesting. Plus, I’ve done more transcriptions, which I think has been a good addition to the site’s content base.
We’re not backed by money marks or promoters or agents. I’ve never taken a payoff from anyone to push an agenda. Hence, I pay for site costs out of pocket. I have maintained this site for a long time and I will continue to do so. However, site costs are growing.
If you would like to contribute and help out our cause, click here and donate some money via PayPal. I don’t have any fancy fund-raising gifts to hand out for each contribution, but I will personally thank you if you do send some cash to help cover our costs. If you believe in solid MMA writing, you’ve come to the right place.
We also try our best to help promote other writers on other sites and write on MMA-related topics that perhaps other sites don’t have the time or focus to deal with. Help me to help you out as an MMA supporter.
Thank you for your ongoing support!.
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Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dave Meltzer: Strikeforce needs to move on from Fedor and they’ll be better for doing so
By Zach Arnold | February 14, 2011
A three-parter from Sunday night’s radio show de jour.
The first passage deals with Fedor wanting to retire and why no one seemingly will let the man do so.
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “When I read last night Scott Coker, I don’t know if we talked about this on the show last night, but Coker and Vadim Finkelchtein, both of them, talking about ‘oh, ho, no he’s not retiring, he’s going to come back,’ and Coker just seems like he completely blew off the idea that Fedor was retiring and Vadim seemed to be strongly suggesting that this poor guy was going to coming back.”
DAVE MELTZER: “What’s Vadim without Fedor?”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, that’s the point. And then today when I read in the update today that people that actually spoke Russian, when they heard what Fedor said and then what Roseanne translated it was completely different or at least different in the sense…”
DAVE MELTZER: “It wasn’t completely different, but she lightened it. He was saying that he retired and she was saying that he was thinking of retiring.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah, let this poor damn guy retire! If he wants to retire, let him go.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I think there’s too many people relying on him, you know, I mean he’s going to (have to) go out kicking and screaming, they’re not going to accept it.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “This, right here, is a tragedy if it happens.”
DAVE MELTZER: “It feels really sad in a lot of ways. If he doesn’t want to fight, you know, let him not fight.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I mean just this idea of, you know… I don’t know, all three of them really annoyed me. Coker and just like not taking it seriously at all.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Well… you know the thing with Coker is that Coker’s probably been watching too much wrestling and seeing all these guys retire and they never do so he just doesn’t take it so seriously.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah, but, man it just came off so callous. And the same thing with M-1. I mean, Vadim is obviously…”
DAVE MELTZER: “I didn’t hear, you know, maybe he did come callous. I only…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I’m just reading the quotes, I don’t even know how he said it. But, you know… every quote was like, ‘oh, no, he’ll be back, in fact he may be an alternate’ and this and that. Just like, man, the guy made it clear he really doesn’t want to do this now and why would you throw a guy back in there who you’re forcing to, I don’t know.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Well, they’re not going to force him. I mean, you know… I mean at the end of the day, he can not fight.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “The Russians may force him.”
DAVE MELTZER: “The Russians may force him. That’s true. That’s true, which is really quite sad.”
The second passage deals with why Mr. Coker, M-1, and others just won’t let go of Fedor when they should for the sake of the man’s career and for the sake of their business goals.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dave Meltzer criticizes HDNet being allowed to discuss UFC on the Strikeforce prelims show
By Zach Arnold | February 14, 2011
I’m not sure what to make of this, so make of this radio show commentary what you will.
“It was a fantastic show, I thought, you know, as far as compared to previous Strikeforce shows. I mean they… they built up the next round of the tournament, they made the tournament out to be a big deal. They had the video packages. You know, they promoted Gina Carano’s return. I just thought overall and, you know of course, they had very good fights so I mean that, you know, that’s something different but from a production standpoint a lot of the weaknesses that, you know, Strikeforce has had, you know not so much Strikeforce has had, that Showtime’s had because Showtime’s the one that does this. It seems as they kind of like learned and it was just a really fast-paced I thought very entertaining show.
“It really felt like, it felt like a major league show. You know, it didn’t feel like they were the secondary group other than some very strange things that they did during this show but that’s, you know… they have the mentality that they are a sport and their main competitor has the mentality that they are a business and I see that, you know, it’s just a different, you know, different thing. I mean it just amazed me when, you know, again, it’s HDNet covering it as a sport and, you know, Greg Jackson’s there and they interview Greg Jackson and ask him about, you know, how Rashad Evans is doing and how Jonny Jones is doing and, you know, its your competitor and your competitor who’s running in a month, you know, in the same market basically and it was just weird to see. I mean I understand that they’re saying ‘well, we’re just covering it like it’s a sport,’ but you know UFC wouldn’t do that, you know, and… you know they have to realize that they are in a war and the guy who’s on top in the war absolutely knows he’s in a war and behaves like he’s in a war, and you know as their television goes if they’re going to say, ‘well, we’re not in a war,’ they’re probably going to lose a war when you pretend you’re not in it and the other guy who’s more powerful than you knows he’s in it and is pounding on you, so… It’ll take, you know, I don’t know, it was just really, really interesting to see that they… they have the mentality that they’re not in a war.”
Later on in the radio show…
“An easy thing to watch and they did the Greg Jackson interview which was just… interesting. I mean, I get it from their standpoint because because from an HDNet standpoint you watch Inside MMA… in their minds, they are people who are covering the sport of MMA. Okay? But they were, you know, covering a promotion by, you know, then going out there and acting like that the promotion’s rival is actually the more important promotion and that’s kind of weird when you’re watching, you know, a Strikeforce event and they’re basically telling you, ‘yo, you know like, you know there’s Jon Jones and Rashad Evans and all this, this is like the important stuff.’ “
Let me also mention (before I forget) some comments Alistair Overeem made last week to Josh Gross & Jon Anik at ESPN.
JOSH GROSS: “The belt’s not on the line, we know that. But do you still feel, as champion, that every fight you’re in is a championship fight, essentially you’re defending the title the way people perceive you to be?”
ALISTAIR OVEREEM: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, the belt is not on the line so that means the belt is not on the line. I am a champion, yes I am a K-1 champion, yes I am the DREAM Heavyweight champion, yes, but does everything, am I representing these organizations? I think I’m representing myself.”
(Later on…)
INTERVIEWER: “You’ve basically been huge in Japan for a long time now. Do you feel that it’s time that you got over here and fought on North American soil a little more to get your name built up? It seems a lot of people know the name but they don’t see a lot of fights.”
ALISTAIR OVEREEM: “Yeah, I definitely do think that. I’ve been wanting to fight in Strikeforce for a while but, yeah, the problem Fedor didn’t want to fight me, Werdum was injured after that fight, there were no interesting fights for me and for me the challenge was to do the K-1. That was my goal and I won that tournament, but now it’s time for me to come to the States. Yeah, I’m going to do the fight(s) and show the American fans some great stuff. The time is here now and I believe this is going to be it.”
Interesting times ahead in the Strikeforce portion of the MMA world. I like the idea of HDNet covering the preliminary fights and airing them. Showtime should be doing this, but we know the reported reason they don’t (‘airing undercard fights is a UFC thing’). Some TV coverage is better than none at all.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 50 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Scott Coker on Fedor’s loss: “It’s our job to put the fights together, it’s their job to win”
By Zach Arnold | February 13, 2011
Video by MMAFighting.com and Ariel Helwani
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, what about this loss, Fedor to Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva? How of a big blow is this to the tournament?”
SCOTT COKER: “I mean, you know, I mean to me, people think it’s a blow of the tournament but really, hey, it’s our job to put the fights together, it’s their job to win and Fedor is who he is, but, you know, tonight is Antonio Silva’s night and I look forward to the next round. We have some great fights there and, you know what, I always said, three-to-four weeks ago, look… you never know who’s going to make it to the finals, right? People already assumed, ‘oh, well, Fedor’s going to win, why does he have to fight Alistair Overeem in the second round?’ or ‘why does he have to fight Fabricio Werdum? It’s not fair,’ but, you know, four weeks everybody thought that the Patriots and the Falcons were going to the Super Bowl, right? So, in this sport, that’s the beauty of it, you never know what’s going to happen and I think these guys are such at a high-level of competition that on any given night they can beat each other and I think tonight was his night.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “What did you think of the stoppage?”
SCOTT COKER: “You know what? I’ll tell you, I mean Fedor went to the hospital, so I’m not sure if he has a orbital fracture or not, but if he does the official should be proud of himself and when I looked at Fedor I said, ‘oh my God,’ it looked like his nose was broken, he didn’t look like he could see out of his eye, I mean… you know, he’ll have another night, you know, so I think that safety comes first always.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You were around him all week this week in New York & New Jersey. What was your take on his mindset and the fire that was in him? Did he seem amped up for this fight?”
SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, he did, but he just ran across a big guy. And, you know, all my guys told me the same thing, look, Fedor, they always felt Fedor could win but they also said, look, if Bigfoot gets on top of him he’s going to have a hard time because you’re looking at a guy who’s 280 pounds that is not untalented, this guy is a talented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter and when you look at all of his wins like in Pro Elite, you know, I mean he’s done some great things, he’s had some big victories and so, you know, he’s a skilled athlete and, you know, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the tournament.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think Fedor will retire?”
SCOTT COKER: “No. Not at all.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You don’t think he’s done?”
SCOTT COKER: “No.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You seem almost certain of this.”
SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, I mean, you know, you know how it is when the fight happens, it’s an emotional time, he’s injured right now. But I don’t see any uh… I don’t see him retiring on a fight like this.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I know Del Rosario & Johnson, that was the number one alternate fight, Del Rosario won. Is there any chance, considering how this fight ended, that if someone gets injured, Fedor slides in there?”
SCOTT COKER: “Oh yeah, absolutely. Fedor could be, if there’s an injury in the future, Fedor could be the guy. But, you know, with Shane and Chad (Griggs), maybe we’ll have those guys compete, you know, on the undercard on the next fight and keep moving along and keep growing but, you know, it’s going to go to the Committee and, how can Fedor not be your first pick?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And in the back of your mind, is there a little bit, some sadness that you weren’t able to put together the Overeem/Fedor fight, that’s the fight that everyone wanted to see?”
SCOTT COKER: “But, how do you know we’re not going to put it together? See, that’s the thing. … Here’s the thing is that, you know, you don’t know what’s going to happen with Alistair fighting Fabricio (Werdum), right? So, I think people will see either Fedor fight Werdum in a rematch or they’ll see Fedor fight Alistair, depending on what the outcome of that event is. So, you’re still going to see Fedor in some great fights and, you know, I don’t think he’s done.”
The tone in the interview is interesting enough to watch. A more fascinating interview was this one with M-1’s Evgeni Kogan, who was very introspective about Fedor’s career after the loss.
“I think there’s probably a good chance that he comes back,” Mr. Kogan said. When asked about whether or not Fedor would come back as a tournament alternate, “Of course Fedor being back into the tournament would be great for the tournament.” Evgeni said that if Fedor continues fighting that he will do his training in Holland and that he would fight more frequently.
As for whether or not Fedor’s loss is a blow to M-1, the thought was dismissed.
“It’s not a blow at all. Business as usual. We’ve got some pretty exciting things to announce in the next couple of weeks for the U.S. 2011 for us really is a breakout year and we’ve done a lot to get here and I think that really this was an eventuality which was always going to happen and we’re prepared and Fedor is pretty much I think the greatest fighter that has ever fought and we were privileged to have worked with him and to work with him in the future should he continue to fight, but we’ll be fine.”
When asked about M-1 solidifying a deal with Showtime for television, Mr. Kogan answered the question by saying, “no comment.”
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A bruising end to The Last Emperor’s MMA reign of excellence
By Zach Arnold | February 13, 2011
Video by MMAFighting.com and Ariel Helwani
“I’m very, very happy right now. This is the fruit of a lot of hard work with my camp, with all the guys who trained hard with me and I’m very, very happy.”
That’s how Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva described his win over Fedor in the Strikeforce HW GP on Saturday night at the Izod Center. Alex Davis, Bigfoot’s manager, has recently been going through a very rough period in his life and found the proverbial rainbow thanks to Bigfoot’s stomping of the former PRIDE gaijin ace.
“I can’t even describe how I feel. We always joke, me and win, one day we’re going to get to the beach and we finally got there.”
When asked if he was surprised that the doctors stopped the fight before round three Bigfoot exclaimed, “Yes, but when I looked him at the other side of the ring I saw that his eye was very swollen and I would have caused more damage to his eye and end up hurting him bad.”
He also felt that it was the doctors and not Fedor who called for the stoppage. “It certainly wasn’t him, he’s fought the best, he’s beat the best, and he wouldn’t ask to stop it. It had to be the doctors.” As for whether or not the fight should have been stopped earlier, “I don’t think so because a good fighter has to fight in the good and the bad and he’s an excellent fighter, he knows how to fight and weather the storm.”
Even with Fedor not fighting with 100% fighting spirit heading into the bout, Bigfoot says that he fought the best Fedor he could possible, “but I also worked very hard. I trained very hard for this fight so I deserved the victory.”
Bigfoot has gone through some setbacks in his MMA career (including that now-forgotten failed drug test). It’s taken him a long time to earn respect from MMA fans, although Alistair Overeem gave him at least a 40% chance of winning Saturday’s fight. As for earning respect, “It takes a while. You have to beat the best. I’ve shown the world that I can do it and you just have to keep on fighting to be the best.” As for whether or not Fedor will retire, “No, I don’t think so. I think he has a lot to show, still. I think he’s going to come back, fight again, and he’s going to come back better and he’s still going to do a lot of good fights.”
Silva’s win means that he gets to face the winner of the upcoming Alistair Overeem/Fabricio Werdum fight, whenever that takes place. “I wouldn’t like to fight Werdum, he’s a Brazilian, he’s my friend,” but concluded his statement by saying that he’s glad that the GP will have a Brazilian in the final.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
In his own words: UFC President Dana White’s jubilant celebration over Fedor’s demise
By Zach Arnold | February 13, 2011
From the dickhouse-shirted man’s fingers to your eyes:
wtf has [Fedor] done for the sport!? Ur
fuckinnutsM1 = M done! What did I tell you Vadummy!!
lmfao!! Quit ur cryin
bitch. You don’t have to live the lie anymore. Get his nuts out of ur mouth now.all the fedor nut huggers were so excited for 2 nites set up fight. Didn’t work out and they are BUMMED!!b
he was INCREDIBLY mismanaged!! Worst management in fight history
the media here in america has embarrassed themselves over the past couple years with the fedor BS
who the
fuckhas he fought in his last 5 fights that meant anything? Its OVER now so u can stop defending him[M-1] blew it on EVERY level! Really screwed fedors career up
I honestly believe he has been done for a while but he would have at least gone out fighting the best
I
fuckinglove it! They are in a frenzy and running here from the net cause I have been right and it KILLS the net nerdsthey are in a butt hurt nut huggin frenzy!!! Lol, thanks for the support
I did, the internet has fabricated this whole fedor thing and scared the living
shitout of the media and the net geeks r bummin nowmy ass isn’t the one hurtin tonite
pussyboy its u and ur fedor nut huggin buddies. LOLreally!? Hundreds of net nerds signed up for twitter tonite cause they are pissed he lost and all their BS came crashn down 2 nite
deal with it nuthugger. I know it hurts but reality is a
bitchI had a blast 2 nite!! Thanks to all the passionate fans out there. You guys are the best and make this
shitfun. I’m tappin out. Good nitehow am I disrespectn his fans. I have opinion and others have theirs and if you come say dumb
shitto me I give it back.omfg! Quit ur cryin
bitchesand go to bed
Alistair Overeem on Fedor: “He’s going to fight again. 100%.” He thinks it’ll have to happen in Japan or Russia because Fedor has a hard time handling the media spotlight in the States. (A problem Alistair clearly does not have. He’s been everywhere this week and has done great.)
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 79 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Scott Coker: Winner of Strikeforce HW GP should be ranked number one
By Zach Arnold | February 11, 2011
This is a transcript of just part of the video interview.
RON KRUCK: “You look at the first round match-ups, I mean there’s some epic fights. How did you come up with the opening round fights and the tournament bracket?”
SCOTT COKER: “You know, we sat down for two weeks and we thought about how we would lay this out, and you know we’ve had some criticism from some of the fans saying, well, why is it, you know, these guys are all on top? You know what, we wanted to give the fans the best opportunity to see the best fights that we could put together, guaranteed. And, you know, Fedor, he might win, he might lose (Saturday) night, right? You don’t know, right? But if he should go forward, then he’ll fight the winner of Alistair and Werdum and, so, we’re guaranteeing these fights because, you know, in a tournament format and I know this from experience, very rarely do the guys that you expect from the bottom, you know, like you have eight guys and say, OK, this guy should win and this guy should win, so this is the finals you’re going to get. Very rarely does it happen and I’ll give a good example, three weeks ago or four weeks ago everybody in America thought the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons were going to the Super Bowl, you know, I did. And then it ends up being, you know, Pittsburgh and Green Bay. So, very rarely does it end up the way you think it’s going to end up. So, we’ve mixed it up a little bit, fans might get confused but I guarantee you when they start seeing these fights, they’re going to be happy.”
RON KRUCK: “As you look at the fighters that you have put into this Grand Prix, do you feel when it’s all said and done that the winner should be considered the #1 Heavyweight in all of MMA and that’s including the fighters in the UFC?’
SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know, our style has never been to disparage anybody. But I can tell you this, not only are these the most talented fighters in the world, they’re the most proven fighters in the world. Look at who Fedor has fought already in his past. Look at who Alistair’s fought. Look at who Bigfoot Silva’s fought. I mean, these guys have all went through the gauntlet several times. Josh Barnett, I mean these guys are all proven fighters, they’re all have been at the top of their game and going into this tournament it’s going to see who is still at the top of their game and the fighter that goes through this gauntlet of athletes should be the #1 fighter in the world.”
One of the interesting things that you see Mr. Coker say in multiple interviews is that he has all the guys signed under contract and that he’s not too concerned about any major injuries taking place. How can he say that when it seems like every other fight that Fedor has a hand injury? How can that be said when contracts haven’t been signed for all the fights (so far, to my knowledge), let alone all of the building venues? Even PRIDE when they ran year-long tournaments had buildings booked for the whole year and announced them ahead of time. We still aren’t sure where Strikeforce’s April event is going to take place.
- Dave Meltzer: Can Fedor regain his legendary aura?
- Dave Walsh: Why you should support the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP
SF has had a good week on the East Coast doing the media rounds. Check out this ESPN interview with Alistair Overeem.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 88 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If you didn’t notice already, UFC’s Toronto pre-sale figures are a really big deal
By Zach Arnold | February 11, 2011
You don’t think selling 40,000+ tickets, scalpers or not, for the April 30th show at the Sky Dome (Rogers Centre) is big? Of course it is. Not that this comes as any surprise to us given that I predicted 10 months ago that a show with GSP would easily outdraw the Blue Jays (and it has).
There was great consternation that the Sky Dome was too big of a facility for the UFC to run their debut in Ontario and that they should run the Air Canada Centre. I didn’t buy into that idea because Ontario, along with other major Canadian cities, have been huge PPV-buying markets for the UFC. Naturally, UFC was going to draw big for their first foray into Toronto. I will say that it is quite astonishing just how fast tickets are selling, which is a good thing.
UFC must be hoping and praying for Georges St. Pierre to beat Jake Shields. If the fight is ugly but GSP wins, that’s one thing. If Shields wins and it’s exciting, that’s a crapshoot. If Shields wins and it’s ugly, then I don’t know how hot Toronto would stay as a live-event market. Ultimately, the goal is for St. Pierre to win and look strong so that the ‘dream match-up’ between him and Anderson Silva happens in Toronto.
For the moment, let’s enjoy what (on card) looks like a solid show in Toronto on 4/30 with St. Pierre/Shields, Couture/Machida, and Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo for the new UFC Featherweight title. Here’s a transcription of a recent interview that Mr. Hominick did with Mauro Ranallo for The Fight Show at Tuesday’s press conference for the Toronto event:
MAURO RANALLO: “It is an opportunity obviously you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Tell us where you are mentally, knowing that it’s just literally weeks away from what will be the biggest fight of your life taking place here in Toronto.”
MARK HOMINICK: “Like I said, this is the biggest opportunity in my life. This is what I’ve been working for every single day since I’ve been 13 years old and, you know, I’ve been just kind of riding the wave really, you know like, just carrying the momentum. (In) my first fight with Affliction is really when I changed as fighter and really, just that mental edge, I started hitting my prime age where, you know, really my athletic prime and I just carried that streak going forward and I’m ready to go for April 30th.”
MAURO RANALLO: “What proved to be the catalyst of that change? Was it your age, your maturity level, your wisdom, what was it?”
MARK HOMINICK: “Whatever (it was), I’m not sure really what it was, all of a sudden a spark. I just kind of looked around and I looked at the guys I was training with, you know when I was at Xtreme Couture I was with, you know, some of the best of the world like, you know, Tyson Griffin and Gray Maynard and you can go down the list and I’m hanging with these guys and I’m like, you know I can compete with the best in the world. I just got to go out there and prove it and not be so concerned about what my opponent’s going to do. Like when I lost to Rani Yahya and then I’d lost to Josh Grispi, you know like those are two fights, you know, I should have won and I went in there so concerned about what they’re bringing to the table, you know, like with Yahya I was like, man, I don’t want to go the ground with this guy, you know, he’s got such strong jiu-jitsu as opposed to me saying, OK, I’m going to stop his takedowns and I’m going to knock him out and that’s the kind of attitude. It’s almost like there’s a chip on my shoulder, like I got something to prove and it’s been five in a row now, seven of the last eight, and that’s been the big change.”
MAURO RANALLO: “You were already successful in a prior stint with the UFC as a Lightweight and now at your more natural weight at 145, obviously the goose bumps are going to be there. This is, you know, again it’s a Hollywood script almost for you coming from Thamesford, Ontario, and now being a part of this historic event and vying for a world title. Are you counting on maybe Jose Aldo getting those Octagon jitters for the first time?”
MARK HOMINICK: “You know what? When you’re fighting for a title, you’re at the top, you’re at the pinnacle. Those UFC jitters or main event jitters, they should be gone and I’m not expecting him to have any and I’m not, either. I feel like I perform best under the bright lights. If you look at any of my top performances, you know, like UFC 58 I went there against a #1 contender at a weight class above me, I was a 5-to-1 underdog, it was my first time fighting on PPV, first time fighting in Las Vegas, on the televised card at Mandalay Bay and I went out there and finished him in the second round. It’s like those are the kind of fights that I, you know, feel that I show up in top-form, in top mental form, in top physical form under the bright lights and they’re not going to get any brighter than this show in Toronto and that’s where I’m going to showcase.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Stylistically, this is a fan-friendly fight, has all the hallmarks of a Fight of the Night, if not Fight of the Year candidate. You say Jose Aldo’s never faced an opponent like you before, a striker like you.”
MARK HOMINICK: “There’s no question. I believe I am the one question mark in Jose Aldo’s, you know, if you look at his record because like he’s done, like, there’s no denying his skills, denying his credibility as being, you know, within the Top 3 pound-for-pound. No question there. But I think I am the one question mark in his game because he’s never faced an elite striker, you know, high-level and I got the credentials to prove that. Someone who likes to move forward and push the pace, so you know because he’s a very intimidating fighter and you’ve seen a lot of fighters like, you know, one example Mike Brown, the former belt holder, you know you could see how intimidated he was in there against him especially when Jose hurt him early and that’s something that, you know, I’m not going in there intimidated. You know, like, if you let your opponent put the fear of God in you, you’re never going to perform. You got to go out there confident and that’s one thing that I’ve learned over this last little stretch.”
MAURO RANALLO: “You’ve always been a very cerebral fighter, as many Mixed Martial Artists are, the old cliché 90% mental. You have a personal situation as well. Your wife is going to be, close to being due with your first child at around that time. How are you going to be able separate professional from personal and how will it help you?”
MARK HOMINICK: “You know, things in life happen for a reason. If you break it down, you know, like leading up to this I have the biggest title fight of my life, the biggest fight in front of the biggest crowd, fighting in the home province, my wife’s pregnant three days after the title fight, you know, things are in line and I’m just falling, riding the wave and carrying the momentum. Things in life happen for a reason and it’s carrying forward and that’s what’s giving me the motivation.”
MAURO RANALLO: “How do you stay mentally grounded?”
MARK HOMINICK: “You know, just being, moving back home was a big thing, you know. I live in a town of 2,000 people, my wife and I moved back home, just keeping on grounded roots and, you know, I know where I came from and I know where I want to be but I want to be the guy, you know, living in Thamesford but also fighting at the Rogers Centre in front of 42,000 fighting for a world title.”
MAURO RANALLO: “We know what the Hollywood ending for you and for many Canadian fans is but when you visualize the outcome of this fight, how do you see it unfolding? How do you become UFC Featherweight champion?”
MARK HOMINICK: “I’m just going to go out there, fight my fight, and prove why, you know, I have this winning streak going, carry the momentum, and Jose Aldo is beatable and I’m going to prove that on the 30th.”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is Fedor a mainstream star in America? Is he still an ‘invincible’ ace?
By Zach Arnold | February 10, 2011
Steve Cofield and Kevin Iole of the Yahoo Sports/Cagewriter.com writing team had a discussion recently about the upcoming Strikeforce HW GP.
(The tournament starts this Saturday and airs on Showtime. Josh Gross is reporting that Strikeforce officials are expecting 14,500 seats filled up at the Izod Center for Saturday’s event.)
I took a snippet of the conversation the Cagewriter.com team had about the upcoming tournament, with the focus primarily being on Fedor and whether he’s lost his mojo and is still the favorite to win it all.
STEVE COFIELD: “So, Overeem, you know, is relatively big. Not size-wise, but popularity, you know he’s still growing with, again no pun intended, the audience in the United States. Fedor’s way up there but how far up there is he? How much traction do you think Fedor’s gained over the last couple of years with those MMA fans who didn’t get to watch him in PRIDE and in Japan?”
KEVIN IOLE: “I think that he’s grown because he’s gotten a lot of hype on CBS, a lot of hype on Showtime, but he’s still not where he should be for a guy of his talent and his accomplishment and I think that part of it is because of the way he’s been promoted by M-1 and handled by M-1 and kept largely away from the American people and he hasn’t been too forthcoming in terms of being, making himself accessible to American media. I think he’s certainly growing because CBS & Showtime have done a very good job of getting him out and the best they can given the parameters and the difficulties in dealing with M-1. But I think he could be bigger and he should be bigger. You’re talking about one of the, you know if you don’t say he’s the greatest MMA fighter of all time, certainly he’s in the Top 3 and his accomplishments, there are people who debate chiefly UFC President Dana White from, you know, 2006-on what has he done? He’s fought lesser opponents but, you know, from 2000-2005 I mean what this guy is a Hall of Fame against some amazing fighters. So, you know, and he basically went 10 years undefeated. I mean, that’s just unheard in this sport where everybody loses. So, I think you know he’s a great fighter who’s still not quite as known as the mainstream American sports fans as he should be.”
STEVE COFIELD: “So, there’s two storylines with Fedor going into the tournament. The first is, and this is the one I’m a little worried about because I have Fedor way up there still in the pound-for-pound list, I think he’s tremendous. BUT, we’ve seen a lot of guys who were dominant from, you know, ’99 through like 2006 and they didn’t evolve, the rest of the field kind of caught up. Everyone else is working and getting better. We’ve seen it happen a lot. Is Fedor one of those guys? I mean he’s going against a huge guy in Bigfoot Silva, who is pretty well-rounded. Do you feel like he’s been caught? Is he a lot closer to the field than he’s ever been?”
KEVIN IOLE: “Well, I think he’s closer to the field because other guys are getting better. I don’t think he’s coming back and I do think, Steve, that, you know, he has a diverse game. I mean, he doesn’t rely on any one thing. I think he can do a number of different things. You know, he’s a hard hitter, he’s got good jiu-jitsu, he’s got judo, he’s got a lot of different aspects of his game that I think, you know, he can rely on that would help him in a major fight. Plus, he’s very calm and I think that, you know, that attitude he has really helps him as well. Having said that, I think that the new breed of heavyweights is a lot better than they were five years ago. You know, if you look at 2006 where the heavyweights were and you look at where they are now, there was nobody near a guy like Cain Velasquez, to use him as an example, and even a guy like Bigfoot Silva. I don’t think Silva’s the greatest fighter in the world but, you know, he’s a massive guy that has pretty good quickness for a guy his size and as hard as he punches, you can’t roll him out against Fedor. You know, I think Fedor wins that fight but, you know, he’s got a huge reach, he’s got, you know, big hands if you’ve ever shaken hands with him you know they’re like ham hocks they’re so big. And, you know, he hits you with that and it changes, power changes anything and you get caught with one of those big punches and forget about it.”
STEVE COFIELD: “I think the other storyline with Fedor is that air of invincibility. I really do believe that and, you know this, from Tyson and great fighters throughout history that Fedor, for a long time, could walk into the ring and have guys beaten almost before the bell sounded. I think that happened with Cro Cop. Cro Cop was DOMINANT but he was afraid in that fight. I think Mark Coleman, to a certain extent. Different guys. I don’t know that that exists any more. What do you think?”
KEVIN IOLE: “I think you’re right, Steve, I mean I think saw it start to melt away with Brett Rogers because I think in the Brett Rogers fight, you know here’s a guy who worked at Sam’s Club just a few months before, wasn’t a particularly accomplished guy in terms of win or anything fighting Fedor and, you know, he did some damage and he had some success in different areas and all of a sudden I think, you know, it’s like, wow, he went for broke and he got, I don’t want to say got lucky, but he had success and I think other people saw that and said, hmmmm and Werdum I think realized, hey, I can win this fight. I’m not saying that he was brimming with confidence or overflowing feeling like it was a slam dunk but certainly I think Werdum knew going into that fight, hey, I have a chance, you know, I have some skills in this fight, Fedor’s human, Brett Rogers proved it and Werdum took advantage of, you know, a couple of really bad mistakes by Fedor and beat him. So, I think that just like happened to Mike Tyson in boxing, that was a great analogy. Once Evander Holyfield beat him, Buster Douglas did it a little bit but Tyson regained that, but once Evander Holyfield beat him it was over for Mike Tyson. He was never the same guy again and I don’t think that’s the case with Fedor because I think he’s still closer to his prime than Mike was and Mike didn’t maybe take care of his body the same way that Fedor does, but I certainly think it helps the opponents because now they believe that, hey, they can go in there and they can compete and he’s not some cyborg and that, you know, that they have a chance to beat him and then he may make a mistake.”
STEVE COFIELD: “Now the interesting part is that Rogers then faced Overeem and I thought he looked scared
shitless. (Ed. — I filled in the blank for Steve.) He walked in, he was intimidated. So, let’s look at the overall tournament. I want to stay on the side of the bracket, Overeem is imposing. He’s scary. He’s intimidating. For that reason, are we overlooking Werdum a little bit? I mean, he’s got some good wins. I think a lot of people are just assuming, hey, Overeem’s going to move into the next round.”KEVIN IOLE: “If you’re good enough to beat Fedor, you’re good enough to beat anybody. So, you know, I don’t think you can overlook Fabricio Werdum. Having that said, I think you got to consider Overeem the favorite in that fight. I mean, you know as you said, he’s a much bigger, stronger guy and I think he’s an overall better fighter. I also think that he’s going to be a fight that we’re going to see Alistair Overeem very ready for because he know what’s at stake, you know, he doesn’t win that fight, he doesn’t get Fedor and that’s the fight that makes or breaks, you know, especially if you’re outside of the UFC and you’re a heavyweight, the one fight you want is Fedor Emelianenko and so this is the fight, it’s right there for him and he can’t afford to look ahead or not be ready, have any other kind of excuse, so I think we’re going to see the best Alistair Overeem that we’ve ever seen when he fights Fabricio Werdum and I think (at their) best against best, that’s definitely a win for Overeem.”
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |