Larry Pepe responds to critics about his critique of Josh Gross and steroids in MMA
By Zach Arnold | October 13, 2010
This was the article that created a controversy in media circles: Larry Pepe eviscerates Josh Gross for proposing zero-tolerance UFC policy, says current drug testing procedures are great
In Larry’s response to the critics who didn’t like what he had to say, he wants to know where the hard evidence is in regards to a drug epidemic in MMA. Furthermore, he states that at best the ceiling is probably around 15% for usage given past studies about drug usage in the NFL.
From his radio show last Monday:
“And I want to address a couple of the criticisms that I’ve seen and clarify some things because I think some people missed the point. You know, let me start with the Bloody Elbow piece, Kid Nate was very complimentary to me personally. Bloody Elbow’s been around a long time, they do a good job. None of this is personal. This is an issue that I think is up for significant debate and I’m glad that it’s being debated and I’m glad people got a chance to hear the other side because I think people hear an opinion sometimes like this overwhelming percentage of fighters are on drugs, on steroids, and people just say, OK, well, that must be on the case and I don’t think that’s the case and you’ll understand why if you go back and listen to that episode. And Kid Nate actually takes issue with both my opinion and Josh’s position. But with respect to mine, he tells me that there’s no Santa Claus which of course is devastating to me because, you know, I’m a big fan of Christmas. (laughs) But, putting that aside, what he’s really saying is that I had gave the statistic that there have been 10 UFC fighters who have failed in the last 8 years and his point is that certainly for me to believe that the testing is effective and we’re catching everybody and that type of thing is like believing in Santa Claus. Now, first of all, as far as are we catching everybody? Of course we’re not catching everybody, neither is the NFL, neither is Major League Baseball. They don’t and never will catch everybody. This battle will rage on until the end of time between people who want to cheat and use drugs and people who want to catch them and we’re never going to catch everybody with any kind of testing, it’s just not going to happen and it’s not going to happen in any sport. To me the real question is, do we have a problem? Is usage at the rampant level that Josh suggests? Because you average out his percentages, that crazy range from 30 to 70%, and let’s just call it 50%… The question is whether you believe that we have 50% of the UFC fighters using drugs. I don’t because there’s absolutely no evidence whatsoever that that’s the case outside of some locker room conversations and there is evidence, in my opinion, that it’s not the case and that is the drug testing. Do I think it’s perfect? No. Do I think we’re catching everybody? No. No drug testing ever will. But to extrapolate out from 10 fighters in 8 years which is a little over one a year, one fighter in 2009 and 2010, to extrapolate that out to half (50%) is insanity to me. That was my point. I’m not trying to estimate exactly how many people because there’s no way for us to know, but we do have evidence that suggests that that can’t be the case.
“The other thing that I brought up in the last piece is an NFL study of 2,552 players, retired players, and in that study they determined that 9.1% had used drugs and about 15-16% of lineman, where strength and size were a bigger issue. Now, some people attacked using that study saying that the average age of those polled was 54 but those people actually made my argument for me because these are retired players who have no reason to lie. It’s a confidential survey. They’re not getting paid any more. They’re not going to lose any money. They’re not going to get suspended. But more importantly, with the average age being 54 the majority of the players in this study actually played in the NFL prior to 1987 and the reason that this is very important is because the NFL did no drug testing before 1987. So, I don’t think you have to be, you know, there’s no stretch, there’s no leap of faith to believe that more people use drugs when they’re not being drug tested than when they know they are being drug tested and they can get suspended and lose portions of their salary. I think to think otherwise would be kind of silly and in a non-tested environment athletes are going to use drugs more than a tested environment. In the non-tested environment, the number of NFL players were 9.1% to 16%. So in a tested environment, you have to believe that that number is no higher and logically a bit lower. So, even if you use those numbers, even if you say it’s 10%, it’s 15%, in a non-tested environment, when you’re taking a non-tested time period into consideration and the majority of people in the study played in that non-tested time period, I think 15% is the ceiling and I don’t know where the argument is that MMA fighters are going to be more likely to use drugs, use steroids than NFL players. That makes no sense to me, either, because you know a) they’re going to get suspended for 9-12 months, they don’t make a salary. MMA fighters don’t make money if they’re not fighting outside of some sponsorship deals and not that many MMA Fighters have sponsorship deals that aren’t directly linked to them at a fight, like wearing a t-shirt at a fight or wearing shorts at a fight, so if you can’t fight your ability to earn money goes down to next to nothing whereas if you can’t play four games in the NFL, you still collect your salary for the 12 weeks. So, thank you, because by pointing out the average age of the players, you actually made my point for me.
“Then some people raised the issue of blood testing, that without blood testing all this doesn’t matter because the urine test is a joke and Kid Nate made a comment that entire classes of extremely powerful PEDs are never going to be detected by the tests. The only steroid related compound and HGH technically is different than steroids but let’s link them together, the only one that I’m aware of and I checked with actually an attorney who deals with drug testing cases all the time, and he wasn’t aware of any known steroid that is detectable in blood but not detectable in urine. HGH is detectable in blood BUT even back in April when the Nevada State Athletic Commission was considering adding a form of blood testing for HGH, a gentleman named Robert Voy who was a former chief medical officer for the US Olympic Committee actually dissuaded them, telling them that as of that time that blood testing for HGH was still not effective and unreliable. Now, how that far that’s come since then, I don’t know but in terms of these entire classes of extremely powerful PEDs, the only thing I know of that is not detectable in urine that is detectable in blood is HGH and according to those comments unless the technology has really leaped forward it would be unreliable so I’m not sure that blood testing is the end-all of everything.
“I am also, I also question why do we have to go beyond what any other major sport does when we have the lowest failure rate in any major sport. NFL does not do blood testing, Major League Baseball does not do blood testing. why does MMA have to do blood testing and if you’re going to say it’s because they fight and it’s violent, again, go back to that prior episode (I won’t get into the details now) but I would strongly argue that when you look at the injury reports from an NFL weekend and the injury reports from a fight weekend that the risk of harm and risk of injury to an NFL player is greater than an MMA fighter. And, we also found out earlier this week that the Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to do some form of blood testing. They haven’t fleshed out all the details, it hasn’t been done yet so I don’t want to put too much on that but depending on how that blood testing plays out, then we will be doing some form of blood testing and the fighters do get blood tested once a year when they do their licensing although the focus of that blood testing is really on infectious diseases. Mike Chiappetta did a nice piece on this whole blood testing issue at MMAFighting.com so you can check that out in terms of these new details of these new policies. But at the end of the day, again, if we don’t have a statistical problem and we are failing less fighters than the NFL and Major League Baseball is failing in terms of their players, why is this, why do we then hold ourselves to a higher standard? I don’t believe that we have to have blood testing, but I’m in favor of anything that gets added. The question, though, comes back again to whether we have an epidemic in MMA as Josh (Gross) and others would suggest and there’s nothing that tells me that that’s the case.
“Last but not least, on the credentialing issue. I saw some comments that I got the time line wrong in terms of when Josh gave out the results to TUF 4 before the show was over and when the Sherdog credentials were pulled. I had thought that it was a result of him giving out those, the results of the show. It turns out that it may not have been. Apparently, the credentials may have been pulled before. You can jump up and down and say, look look look, you got it wrong. Doesn’t matter. Whether they pulled it before or after is not the point. The reason I raised the history is because I believe that you at least have to question whether this was a completely objective opinion given the relationship between the parties. When the credentials were pulled, not particularly relevant. What is relevant is that at the time the comments were made that don’t appear to me to have any basis in fact or any evidence, at that time there exists then and exists now a contentious negative relationship between Dana White/Zuffa and Josh (Gross). That’s my point and any time that type of relationship exists you at least have to question whether you are getting a completely unbiased opinion and if you listen and go back to the episode (which a lot of people didn’t actually catch this part), I said I don’t know that it plays into it but to not at least raise the question is silly and at the end of the day if you really believe that it didn’t matter that he gave out those results, if you believe that their relationship is fine and that Josh can be completely objective, then you have to question if he’s a reporter for Sports Illustrated, one of the biggest sports entities in the business, and he’s not getting credentialed, obviously the UFC and Josh are not on great terms. That was my only point.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wacky Japanese happenings (plus UFC news & notes)
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2010
On Tuesday, Akira Maeda ran a big Outsider show at Yokohama Bunka Gym main. The main event was a 5 vs. 5 ZST vs. Outsider themed program. ZST won the series 4-1 and the main event featured the pro-debut of “Tattoo Man” Yoshinaga, who won the Outsider 65-70 kg tournament but lost to Masayuki Okude. My favorite photo from the event can be seen here. Main card results:
- 60 kg: Toshihiro Shimizu defeated Yuki Takei in R1 in 1’27 with a choke sleeper hold.
- 70 kg: Yuki Yamamoto defeated Takayuki Urano in R1 in 58 seconds with an arm-bar.
- 75 kg: Masayuki Hamagishi defeated Tetsuya Sano in R1 in 3’12 by referee stoppage (arm-bar).
- 68 kg: Apache Kojiro (Outsider) defeated Yutaka Shimamura (ZST) in R2 in 4’56 by referee stoppage.
- 70 kg: Masayuki Okude defeated Keinosuke “Tattoo Man” Yoshinaga in R2 in 1’35 with an arm lock.
Our friend Mr. Sano has had a rough patch lately but we hope that he continues fighting and getting back on the winning side of things. His ZST opponent, Mr. Hamagishi, told the press after the fight that he thought Mr. Sano was pro-quality and that he’d like to fight him again in the future.
Also on the Yokohama card was an “Outsider vs. US Armed Forces” 5-on-5 series (in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the US-Japan accord.) The Outsider army won 4-to-1.
- 72 kg: Yoshihiro Saegusa defeated The Great (Alex Ghana) in R1 in 28 seconds by TKO.
- 75 kg: Fumihiro Yamada defeated The Beast (Jimmy Canals) in R1 by disqualification. Beast used a knee to the face on Yamada while on the ground and broke Yamada’s eye socket.
- 65 kg: Takahiro Kuroishi defeated Sambo (Samuel Aguilar) in R1 by KO.
- 70 kg: Ryuma Asano defeated Mayhem (Devon Edwards) in R1 in 23 seconds by tap-out.
- 100 kg: Lion (Lamont Kirkland) defeated Yoshitaka Ideta (Outsider) in R1 in 1’22 by TKO.
Antonio Inoki, political gadfly
I facetiously say that knowing his history as a politician and his roots in his dealings with North Korea, but if you want the extent of what he is up to these days in North Korea, The Wall Street Journal has you covered.
UFC 120, the card getting little advertising
I hope UFC promotes the show tomorrow heavily during The Ultimate Fighter because if I didn’t follow MMA as extensively as I do online, I wouldn’t know that this show is even taking place. ESPN Dallas did a panel prediction roundtable for the main fights on the card. On the ESPN Dallas site, Andrew Plante asks if the MMA scene in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is dead.
Meanwhile, at a press conference on Tuesday in Montreal, George St. Pierre says that Josh Koscheck’s remarks about him are an insult to ‘a lot of francophone people.’ I’m just waiting for Koscheck to bust out the cracks about the French Separatist movement shortly.
Dana White confirmed the obvious, which is that if Jake Shields can beat Martin Kampmann that he will become the #1 contender for the UFC Welterweight title.
Check out Elliot Worsell’s article today about Britain’s third wave of Mixed Martial Artists.
Other news & notes
Remember Dave Meltzer’s comments about just how big Batista would be if Strikeforce signed him? Yeah, I disagreed with him as well when he said it. However, Jim Ross keeps pushing this line of thinking as demonstrated in this article at Bloody Elbow, this time for a concept involving Batista vs. Herschel Walker.
WEC drew around 3,800 for their Denver-area event. Put that in perspective and think about what Urijah Faber drew last January at Arco Arena (around 10,000) and what he drew last April versus Jose Aldo.
The average amount of viewers for last weekend’s Strikeforce event in San Jose was 350,000 viewers. In other words, a little bit more than what they draw for the Challengers shows.
The Washington Times talks about how much money Zuffa has paid out for lobbying efforts.
Your two MMA newspaper headlines of the day:
- 2 men on house arrest allowed to fight in PXC (Guam) — they are accused of hitting a man with a fire extinguisher and stomping on his head
- MMA fighter arrested after beating and robbing video game opponent
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A look at the political war for New York MMA legislation with Justin Klein
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2010
Justin Klein, an attorney based out of New York City, appeared on Tapout Radio last night to talk about what is going on in the state of New York regarding MMA legislation and what needs to be done to clear political hurdles.
Justin is involved in a new project called the New York MMA Initiative and he is helping out charitably with a youth program that’s MMA-oriented in his area. He is looking for assistance in terms of equipment, so if you are a manufacturer of related goods and can help out, contact Justin. Here is what he is looking for:
“Well, right now, you know we sort of do it on a needy (basis) because it’s hard to get a lot of stuff but we need gloves, these kids need training gloves and, again, in terms of they don’t spar, I just want to throw out there because I know that question’s been asked. They don’t spar. They do grapple and they’re learning Sambo and Jiu-Jitsu but there’s no stand-up sparring, they do hit pads, that’s all they do. So I want to throw out there, but… they need training gloves, they need groin protection, and you know we got them a first round of rash guards and some board shorts but if we can get any of that gear we’d love that, too.”
We have the quotes from Justin’s appearance on the Tapout show last night. (Full-page mode.)
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Nick Diaz re-issues challenge to GSP, says he can’t be beat
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2010
DANNY ACOSTA: “Nick, did you make it a point to box with KJ to prove that you had better boxing?”
NICK DIAZ: “Uh… no, I think that he was going to, you know, it was going to have to be that way. He was force me to stand up and throw punches at him, so that’s what I had to do, you know. The only reason why I got him down is that I knocked him down, so… that’s the only reason why I was trying to take him down again because, you know, I don’t think I realized that, you know, that’s how I was going on top was knocking him down, not taking him down so I shouldn’t have been trying to take him down at all and I think I could have finished the fight if I had just kept it on the feet and been just a little more patient and I knew that was the key was to be patient in this fight and I’m a better stand-up fighter and… I just, this time I trained a lot on not running in, you know, when I stand conventional I don’t throw as many punches so I knew that was going to benefit me if I just stayed that way the whole time I can catch him coming in and that’s what I did, you know… felt good out there.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “Having been in there with him before, did you respect his power a little more?”
NICK DIAZ: “No, it’s not about power, you know, it’s not about power. It’s just about doing the right thing, you know? It’s not about him hitting hard or me hitting hard, we both hit hard, we’re both hard punchers. So…”
DANNY ACOSTA: “Are you happy the KJ Noons saga is over?”
NICK DIAZ: “Uh, yeah, you know, I want to get on to fighting some more important people and not that this guy’s not a great fighter, you know, I give it to you, man, you’re a good fighter. Uh… you know… this guy built a name on me, though, you know. I want to fight somebody who built their own name, you know, in MMA.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “Who are those guys?”
NICK DIAZ: “I want to fight the best in the world, you know, so if you don’t think I’m the best in the world, then bring me the best in the world. I want to fight Georges St. Pierre and I think that he’s the best and I think that, you know, if you don’t think I’m the best, then let me fight this guy. I think, you know, people need to stand up and say something, make this happen, you know.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “You successfully defended your title for the first time. You said you want to win titles in three weight classes. Is that something you want to pursue immediately?”
NICK DIAZ: “Yeah, you know, I would like to fight at 155 pounds, I would. I can make that weight, I can make, you know, 185 I’ll fight that weight, I’ll fight at whatever you know I just want to be paid for it, I want someone to offer me the fight, you know, if that’s what’s up, you know. You know my brother can do it, I can do it, you know, and… you know… he likes fighting at 155 pounds, too, he’s only fighting at 170 when they want him to, you know… so… just depending on what time of the season, you know, if I’d rather fight at a lighter weight or a heavier weight, I can do it all, man. I’d just like to get paid for it, you know.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “Do you feel you’re finally respected as a pound-for-pound in this sport?”
NICK DIAZ: “Why not, you know? Who’s out there, I mean, C’MON, how do these guys expect to beat me, you know? I mean, like, who you got… who’s out there, you know? I’ve fought everybody, you know. They don’t let me fight Georges, you know, I fought everybody that fought him already pretty much, you know.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Thomson says Strikeforce Lightweights are comparable to top UFC Lightweights
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2010
JOSH THOMSON: “You guys saw me at my camp, you guys saw me there a couple of times sparring and gosh, I got to tell you, I was really… I was almost in tears three weeks before this fight just because I had such a [expletive] camp, you know… had a lot of injuries and I came out and I was like, there’s just no way I’m pulling out of this fight, I want this fight. I want to make sure that I fight somebody who they think is one of the best MMA, you know one of the best Lightweights in the world. I want to fight these guys, you know, and I’m at that stage in my career where I know that I’m that good so I want to fight all the best guys I can.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “Is there a reluctance for you to pull out not only because of money and sponsorships and the event and everything else but also because you pulled out in the past and it’s slowed down your career?”
JOSH THOMSON: “No, I don’t think so, but no, there was no reluctance. Really what it was for this fight is that I really wanted to fight him, you know, and not just him because it’s JZ, I want to fight guys that they think are the best guys in the world and they think he is. His only losses, like I said, are to the best guys in the world. Those are the guys I want to fight, you know? He could have given up a couple of times in that fight, you know I had him in a tight guillotine in the third (round) and just couldn’t get it done but it’s just one of those fights. Those are the guys, if you can’t get up for a guy like him or Gilbert (Melendez), you shouldn’t be in the sport and this was a fight where I put a lot of pressure on myself to win and I think you guy saw it when you guys came in and watched me spar.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “You’ve been saying it for a while now that you could easily go in there and compete with the UFC Lightweights and now you kind of taken aim at WEC Lightweights. What prompted that?”
JOSH THOMSON: “I’m not taking aim at any of them. I think all of them are great fighters. That’s the one thing I should make the point is that I think Ben Henderson’s a great fighter, you know. I love his style, I think he’s a great fighter, he goes out there and lays it on the line. He’s beaten some of the best guys. The thing is though is I feel like Strikeforce has a whole another level caliber of Lightweights, they’re right up there with the UFC Lightweights. I’ve trained with Frankie Edgar, I’ve trained with BJ Penn, they’re great fighters you know but I’ve fought Gil and I’ve trained with those guys and I know deep in my heart I know that we’re right there with them.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “And you knocked on Gilbert Melendez’s door after the fight. Is that the fight you want next or, you know, Lyle ‘Fancy Pants’ Beerbohm, you’ve exchanged words. Is that a fight you’d welcome as well?”
JOSH THOMSON: “You know I do know that Lyle’s been given an opportunity to fight one of my teammates, Justin Wilcox, several times. Justin’s going to be fighting here pretty soon. I do know that Justin is interested in fighting him. I’m looking at Gil, I’m not looking to go backwards, you know and to me, that’s a step back. A big step back, you know, and I’m not trying… here’s the thing is that I want to make sure it’s clear that it’s not that I don’t think that Lyle’s a great fighter, I think he’s a great fighter, I really do. He knows how to win, he’s shown that time and time again, I think he’s like 14-0 or 15-0 or something. But why would I go backwards to fight him instead of fighting Gil? The big thing is that I step up and take fights and that’s why I’m in the position that I’m in, you know, and… that’s the only way I can put it.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “The UFC really exploded with the trilogies, you know, you have Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. Do you think that Gilbert Melendez/Josh Thomson III could be that fight for Strikeforce to really put it on the map?”
JOSH THOMSON: “I think 100%, I mean, um… you know, I think to be honest this will be the first Trilogy that really the fans really, really want to see. It definitely will be the first one in Strikeforce history, but as far as in MMA in general, granted Randy and Chuck is great but I think the first fight was such a shock with Randy beating Chuck, then the next two fights they weren’t shocked at all, Chuck went out there and took care of business and did what he always does and knocks people out, so… they weren’t that type of Gatti/Ward like Gil and myself and so the fans are going to be the ones that benefit from Gil and myself. It sure the heck ain’t going to be us, we’re both going to be beat up after the fight.”
DANNY ACOSTA: “So you want to see Thomson/Melendez III on CBS?”
JOSH THOMSON: “No, I want to see Thomson/Melendez on PPV.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Scott Coker says he’ll continue to work with DREAM despite their money troubles
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2010
Danny Acosta did a good job with this interview. Watch it for the full context, but some bullet points:
- Talked about getting a new Strikeforce logo and that it looks cleaner than their original logo.
- When discussing 2011 TV plans, he said they were working on ‘multiple television properties’ and when asked if a reality show was one of them, he said ‘absolutely.’
- Scott says that while Nick Diaz vs. Mayhem Miller isn’t a #1 priority fight, it is a fight ‘that should happen’ and that he will sit down with Diaz in a couple of weeks and see what he can work out regarding any issues about the weight disparity between the two fighters. (Diaz fights at 155 and 170, Mayhem at 185.)
- Josh Thomson wants to fight in St. Louis in two months, but Scott says he has a broken hand and it’s unlikely going to happen.
- Danny asks Scott about JZ Calvan (Gesias Cavalcante) saying that DREAM stiffed him on money. This is not a new phenomena amongst foreign fighters complaining about not getting by DREAM. Danny asked Scott if Strikeforce will continue to work with DREAM amidst these problems and Scott said that every fighter Strikeforce has sent over to DREAM has been paid. When pressed on whether or not he would stop working with DREAM due to DREAM not paying fighters, Coker side-stepped the issue and indicated he wouldn’t comment on that. When asked if he will continue working with DREAM he said, “Oh, absolutely.” He further backed DREAM by saying that “they’re the best organization in Japan and we’re going to support them as much as we can.” Scott noted that he would like to bring Tatsuya Kawajiri to the States to fight in Strikeforce against either Josh Thomson or JZ.
- Regarding all the heavyweights under the Strikeforce banner in 2011, Scott promised that they will all fight each other. When asked about Fedor being in that mix he responded, “For how long, we’ll see.”
Topics: DREAM, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It’s Showtime & Black Label Fighting promoters accuse Semmy Schilt of cheating
By Zach Arnold | October 10, 2010
Basic premise is that at last week’s Seoul World GP event, Semmy Schilt fought Hesdy Gerges and beat (you’ll remember him as the guy Badr Hari went nuts on in Holland earlier this year). So, what’s wrong? Simon Rutz says that one of Schilt’s corner men treated him for an injury (taping) and a doctor didn’t intervene. Rutz believes that if a doctor had seen the injury to the right shin bone that the fight would have been stopped. The ‘treatment’ was taping in between the first and second round.
Official protest statement can be read here.
We asked Bas Boon for comment and this is what he issued in response:
The protest comes from a frustrated Simon Rutz who does not control his “star” fighter Badr Hari. Round one and two were for Semmy and round three for Hesdy, so the result 2-1 is correct.
As for the protest, I hope for Hesdy that the unprofessional behavior of his management will not lead to not using Hesdy in a superfight or reserve fight on December 11th. All fighters and coach/managers must sign a form at the rule meeting and can not discredit K-1 (Simon likes to speak about the rules, well… this is also a rule). Simon Rutz has all the right to protest how much he wants, but he should first wait for the result which takes two or three weeks according to K-1 rules.
What is really surprising is that a Dutch newspaper “the telegraph” printed this story on the front page – stating there is e a big chance of Semmy being disqualified? This is speculation, as K-1 never spoke to any media about any protest or result (confirmed by mail) and these lies came by a press conference from Simon. I contacted K-1 and they never talked to any media about this. This was orchestrated by Simon Rutz, who is a promoter himself and has his own agenda. They called the action of Bas Boon sneaky?
If Rutz would have read the K-1 rules, he could have seen that the worst penalty they could have given me for taping Semmy after the first round would be a caution, warning or finally a point deduction or yellow card. However, I did use tape from the organization and an official was present who ask me to stop taping when the second round started, so there is nothing sneaky about that – as Simon claimed in the Dutch telegraph newspaper.
It also proved that we could enjoy another two great rounds and that medical interference was never necessary.
Disqualification is mentioned in the K-1 rules if I would have entered the ring during the fight, which did not happen.
It’s a last attempt of desperate management (if you can call it a management) who sees their “star” fighters not performing or even not see them at all… not to mention how unprofessional this behavior is.
Kharitonov performed very well in only his second K-1 fight and Saki and Alistair did great. Semmy had a hard fight, but deserved the win.
Topics: K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quick thoughts on Strikeforce (Noons/Diaz II) event
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2010
I thought the fighters fought hard and put on a great show. I commend them tonight. I’m very proud of Marloes Coenen, who has not taken the easy path to get to where she has been. She’s been around for a long time and is a pioneer in my book. Very happy for her success.
The sad part is that not many people watched the show. Dave Meltzer said the estimate going into the show was 8,000 and by the time the show was close to over, Josh Gross and Jordan Breen estimated the crowd in the 6,500-7,500 range. There’s a few reasons for it:
- SF Giants fever. With the two pro football teams sucking hard, the Giants are the one pro team that everyone is paying attention to. The local ratings prove it. Throw in the fact that the Bay Area is also a very strong college football market (both Cal and Stanford won their home games) and there were a lot of things going on to distract the attention of people who might have went to the show.
- The card didn’t have many fighters the fans perceived as ‘stars’ and it hurts.
- I talked about this in the past in various posts, but Strikeforce can no longer rely on San Jose as a home base. Once they went to Showtime, they became ‘national’ instead of regional in the eyes of the fans in the area. As much as Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area has helped out in trying to promote shows and help with PR, the fans locally that used to go aren’t going any more. They don’t have a regional connection to the group like they do with the professional sports teams here. This is a problem that I don’t think can be reversed at all for Scott Coker. Interestingly enough, it’s an issue for both SF and UFC. (UFC only drew a reported 4,500 local fans for their Boston event and the rest were part of the traveling circus.)
I am very surprised that Nick Diaz won the fight and focused on boxing. I thought Noons would beat him to the punch and in the end, Diaz did better on his feet. Very surprised, and pleasantly so.
Bad judging reared its ugly head once again (for the Thomson/Calvan fight) and you can sense the growing exasperation amongst everyone at this point.
Tyron Woodley is not close to being ready to fight Nick Diaz, even though I suspect that fight is coming shortly.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Make your predictions for KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz (the rematch)
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2010
Scott Coker says Strikeforce’s relationship with CBS is good, but Steve Cofield is wondering where the big Heavyweight fights are.
Nick Diaz says he doesn’t hate KJ Noons again because Noons is actually fighting him. So, why aren’t people fired up to see the fight?
I’m going to list the four main fights on the card here, since the undercard features Jeremy Lappen’s CAMO (amateur) creation for fights. They’re having a bunch of amateur fights for a “Bay Area region” bracket.
- Welterweights: Tyron Woodley vs. Andre Galvao
- Lightweights: Josh Thomson vs. JZ Calvan (Gesias Cavalcante)
- 135-pound women’s title fight: Sarah Kaufman vs. Marloes Coenen
- Welterweight title fight: Nick Diaz vs. KJ Noons
Interesting UFC fights coming up on the calendar: Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim & Dan Miller vs. Joe Doerksen (via MMA Junkie), Kenny Florian vs. Evan Dunham.
Quotes from the UFC 120 conference call.
My favorite headline — Norway rejects MMA fighter and ultranationalist ‘Red Tarzan’.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Please tell me things will get more interesting for TUF 12 and Brocktober
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2010
Ross Pearson told ESPN that he will get knee surgery shortly and come back next February.
Ed Soares says that he would like to see Jose Aldo (his client) vs. Frankie Edgar. Tasty. The WEC 51 show last Thursday drew a tad under 500,000 viewers of Versus. Will Cooling at Inside Fights says the WEC 51 numbers are a disgrace.
A brand new martial arts center has opened up in Dubai.
Here’s Sarah Kaufman talking about her fight against Marloes Coenen:
“My training for this camp has been great as always, you know Adam Zugec obviously’s a great coach, I’ve gone really far so far with him. My whole team at Zuma, you guys rock and, yeah, as I said, the camp’s been really good.
“You know, I’m really happy obviously that I’m on the main card, it’s a great card. There are, you know, all four fights on the main event of the card are awesome fights or have the potential to be awesome fights so I’m excited for that. I’m excited for the title itself because it’s where it should be and everyone’s, the fans, I’ve had really good support.
“Of course you want a knockout and you want an exciting finish and you want to be able to kind of follow up with what you did the last time as much as you can this time, but it’s a fight and anything can happen and obviously I want to finish it and I’ll try for one but probably not a slam.
“I think it’s a really good fight. Again, it has the potential to be a really tough fight for both of us and I think she’s expecting that and I’m expecting that and that’s what it’s going to be.
Marloes Coenen reflects upon her early fight career and what a win this Saturday against Sarah Kaufman would mean for her. Dave Meltzer has a preview of Saturday night’s fight between Josh Thomson and Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante. I’m really, really looking forward to that fight. Here’s a Josh Thomson interview talking about the goal he wants to achieve, which is another fight with Gilbert Melendez. Speaking of highlights, yesterday’s appearance by Frank Shamrock on Chronicle Live (CSN Bay Area) was too funny. He appeared with retired NFL player Lorenzo Neal (big MMA fan) and Greg Papa and put over Nick Diaz as “the Mike Tyson of MMA.” Frank was promoting his “MMA for Dummies” book and the upcoming Strikeforce show in San Jose. In a five-minute segment, Frank did a better job promoting the show than everyone else has combined. Not even close.
Speaking of Mike Tyson, I thought his appearance last night on The Ultimate Fighter was unfortunately the one highlight on what has become a rather boring series. You can certainly tell that UFC made sure to bring in star power over the next several weeks (including Chuck Liddell) to try to keep viewers tuned in. Unfortunately, with fights like last night’s bout between Kyle Watson (Team GSP/red) and Andrew Main (Team Koscheck/yellow), there’s not a lot of hope for this season. That was one of the worst fights I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t necessarily blame Kyle, either — he did what he had to do, but he largely played positional control with an incredibly weak opponent and then took advantage in the second round. On the show, GSP and coach John Danaher tried to play up that Watson was in trouble in the first round, but he wasn’t. At no point during Main’s monkey climb on Watson’s back did I ever sense any danger at all. And I certainly didn’t sense any danger when I saw Main punch, or should I say try to punch because he can’t punch on the ground to save his life. The technique was simply not there and the fight outcome was never in doubt. I know that Jordan Breen and others have long said that TUF has become a vehicle to sell coaches fighting at the end of the season, but the show used to genuinely recruit raw talent and mold them into stars. The show has lost its way and needs to reinvent itself in order to build new stars that can help carry the UFC for the next decade.
As for the first half-hour Primetime special featuring Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, all I can say is I don’t agree with the sentiments that it was ‘awesome’ (as Bryan Alvarez said it was.) I came away from it thinking the same thing that I did going into watching the show, which is that Brock Lesnar is trying to sell a fight by himself without a lot of help. Cain Velasquez is a nice guy and a talented fighter, but that’s about it as far as creating an emotional connection with the fans. Zuffa tried to make him out to be a big star doing Spanish-language interviews, but I was largely unmoved by the constant “first Mexican heavyweight champion” rhetoric. In short, I didn’t come away after watching the show any more excited about the Lesnar/Velasquez bout than I already was in the first place.
I have plenty of thoughts about the Primetime show and you can read them right here.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Larry Pepe eviscerates Josh Gross for proposing zero-tolerance UFC policy, says current drug testing procedures are great
By Zach Arnold | October 6, 2010
Before we get to our main item of the day, here’s a few headlines for you to check out.
Yesterday, three notable matches were bandied about on various news sites: Stefan Struve vs. Sean McCorkle, Shane Carwin vs. Roy Nelson, and Rich Franklin vs. Forrest Griffin. I’m interested in all three of these fights, primarily the Franklin fight. I’ll pick him to win that fight, but I think it will be a great stand-up battle. As far as the Carwin/Nelson fight is concerned, that’s a fascinating fight for one reason — if it goes to the ground, Nelson will tear him apart. If Nelson’s chin remains as good as it was in the Junior Dos Santos fight, Carwin will have his hands full.
275,000 PPV buys for UFC 119? To me, that sounds just about right. Actually a little bit on the high side, in my book, but about right on target given that card line-up.
Dan Hardy is using criticism on MMA message boards to fuel his spirits for the upcoming UFC 120 fight against Carlos Condit.
The Bismarck Tribune has an interview with Dane Sayers, who is on TUF 12. For the TUF 12 Finale on 12/4, Kendall Grove vs. Demian Maia has been booked. On Wednesday night (Spike TV), the UFC starts their three-part Brocktober series of hype shows to hype up Brock Lesnar’s fight with Cain Velasquez.
Are you buying or selling the December 4th Strikeforce card in St. Louis? Card line-up features Dan Henderson vs. Renato Babalu, Paul Daley vs. Scott Smith, and Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Lindland.
You want to see an MMA fight with two real grizzled veterans? Try Jeff Monson vs. Travis Fulton on October 23rd in Pompano Beach, Florida. The fight will happen as a lead-in at Club Cinema, which will show the UFC Anaheim event later on that evening.
Josh Gross is defending his position that UFC should cut fighters who fail drug tests. He definitely took a stance that not a lot of people agree with, but I’m glad he made his case. His logic may sound draconian to many, but I understand what his general thinking is. If you believe, like most people do, that Zuffa is the only major player in the industry (and they certainly do like to act like they are “the sport” at times), then the only way fighters will respond to matters like using PEDs is if there’s a great fear that they could lose their job with the UFC and lose out on making a lot of money because of getting cut after a drug testing failure.
However, this is not a theory that Larry Pepe of Pro MMA Radio believes in one bit. In a passionate 20-minute segment on his radio show last week, he blasted Josh Gross over his claims about how serious the issue of drug usage is in MMA and the idea of UFC implementing a zero-tolerance drug testing policy. Here is the full transcript.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 60 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Promotional video “Collision Course: Part 2” for Nick Diaz vs. KJ Noons fight
By Zach Arnold | October 5, 2010
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Big John McCarthy talks about needed changes to MMA officiating
By Zach Arnold | October 5, 2010
You are in Canada (Alberta) putting on some certification courses. Tell us what you’re doing/up to.
“I’m up here to put on a judging certification course for the Edmonton course and also other commissions that are within the area that have some people coming out to it to try to give some insight into what the judges should be looking for, you know, the different types of things that fighters are doing and trying to get things more… kind of just, you know, honed into what the judges should be looking for so we have the right decisions if it comes down to a decision for the fights, the right decisions are coming forward so the right fighter gets the win like he should and it doesn’t effect them in a bad way.”
What do you think judges are missing? After every major MMA events, there are complaints.
“Well, I think it’s… I don’t even want to say two-fold, there’s many levels to it. Part of it is, you know, back a long time ago the current… the judging standards for MMA now are the same ones that Jeff Blatnick and I put in place before UFC 22. Well, the sport’s evolved a lot and even back then when we put that in, we had put certain things that they had to take out because it was a lot of political pressure against the sport at the time and the owner of it, one of the things we had was damage, the amount of damage one fighter does to another was an important aspect of it and he absolutely took it out, he said I can’t do that, we have enough problems, do you want me to in writing to say that what the things judges are looking for damage? So, there’s things that need to come about. There needs to be a change, even the criteria we have right now effective striking, effective grappling, aggressiveness, and then ring or cage control. That’s the elements the judges are supposed to look at and grade the fighters and base his opinion on those elements and there’s some things that need to be changed. Damage is one of those things. But it can’t be just damage and a lot of times when we talk about damage, people get the idea of well a way guy is lumped up or something like that. Well, that means striking and there has to be also the damage of what submissions do because with MMA there’s so many elements to it. We don’t want to be telling the fighter how they have to fight. That would wreck the sport and it’s wrong and it’s what a lot of judges are actually kinda doing by the way they’re judging the fights now, they’re not giving credit to certain things. They’re giving a lot of credits for takedowns when the takedown doesn’t lead to anything or they’re giving credit to a guy who’s punching but is actually having to defend most of the time to a guy who’s doing submission, so the big thing is we need to hone things in and make it to where the fighters know exactly what they need to do in the fight and the judges know exactly what the fighters should be doing and so when those fighters are going about that fight and they’re trying for submissions, they’re getting credit for it. When they’re doing good strikes and doing damage with the strikes, well then they’re getting credit for it. They’re not just getting credit because they’re in position of being on top or someone or something like that which happens sometimes in our sport.”
The ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) has agreed to look into the half-point scoring system proposed by Nelson “Doc” Hamilton. What are your thoughts on the half-point system?
“Well, there’s many elements to the half-point, I’ve been talking about half-points now for the last three years. Doc went and he took it and he brought levels to it and I don’t know if the ABC is going to take a look at it, they have a committee that’s looking at the half-point scoring system right now and I’m sure that they’re going to look at all the elements. They may not bring all those elements that Doc has brought out, he’s got four elements to he calls his scoring system for Mixed Martial Arts Specific Scoring since the 10-point must system really came from boxing. But, you know, in his change of the criteria, like I’m talking about, he has a thing where bringing damage is a big part of it. The half-point bringing that in so someone can give a half point and he also has the referee doing things inside to call catches or near submissions so judges who might not see exactly what’s going on have an idea that, ah, that’s a close submission, and then he also has a table judge who scores not the fight but scores the techniques that occur in the fight as far as positioning and things like that so if it becomes a draw based upon the judges’ scorecards, it would go to the table judge and the person who had the better positioning and techniques throughout the fight, they’ll get the fight. Do I think the ABC’s going to take all those in? Probably not but just the fact of the half-point itself is important especially when you get into three round fights. The big problem with the 10-point must and the 9-points that we have, most judges don’t want to give an 8 point round to somebody and a fighter can do something, they can work very hard and they can deserve it but the judge will kind of be reserved in giving it because he doesn’t want to take away what he thinks is the other person’s ability to even come back and win this fight if I give that 8 point round in the very first round, well I’m basically taking away this other fighter’s chance of winning which is not the way they should look at it. You should judge the round for the guy, if he the guy deserves an 8 he gets the 8, if he deserves a 9 he gets a 9, if he deserves a 10 he gets a 10 but that half-point system it’ll help with a lot of fights because there’s one where you’ll have rounds that are very, very close and you’ve got to 10 to the winner and you’ve got to give 9 to the loser when really a 9.5 would kind of characterize the round more for what it was, it was a close round and then you got the one where it’s clear it’s 10 and 9 and the guy actually got beat pretty good in the round but if you have two of those rounds on the cards the way it is now, it’s going to look like a 10-9, 10-9 and in reality when you have an even fight after the second round so the half-point system I think will help with people understanding some of the other scoring that’s going to go on, it’s going to give judges another opportunity to especially give a little bit more credit to those close rounds than they can give now.”
You were in Toronto conducting a similar course for the Ontario commission. How prepared is the Ontario Government to start conducting events next year?
“You know, I think… I’ve talked with Ken and Ken Hayashi came out to my course, came out two different days and he spokes to all the participants and he answered all their questions. I thought he did a really good job of kind of telling them exactly the way he’s going to do things, why he’s going to do them that way, and he talked about in the beginning this is a new sport for his commission and, you know, he wants the grass roots organizations to come in and start running smaller promotions and he wants to bring in guys to do that but he told all those guys there, he says you know you know the UFC wants to come to Toronto and if they do, I’m telling you right now, I will be importing more-experienced referees, more-experienced judges to do that assignment he goes because I’m not going to put you in that kind of pressure right off the bat, he says it’s wrong for the sport, it’s wrong for the fighters, it’s wrong for my commission. Over time we will work to get you to that position but I’m not going to just dump anybody into that. He’s looking at doing things the right way.”
How did it feel to officiate at the UFC event in San Diego on August 1st?
“You know, it was good. I got to see a lot of people that, you know, I hadn’t seen in a while. I got to talk with some people that I really cared about and spent a lot of time with them even after the fights were all over. It was a good experience, you know, the UFC is a great promotion and they do an incredible job of putting on great fights. Any time you get to work with top-level guys that’s… it’s… it’s what a referee can look forward to.”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |