Jason Black - Filling The Void
Usually the best news comes when you least
expect it. Jason Black, a seven year veteran of mixed martial arts, with 22 wins in 25 fights and a reputation among the hardcore followers of the sport as one of the most underrated fighters in the game, had given up waiting, had given up expecting that he was going to one day get that call to fight in the UFC.
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Josh Koscheck: The MySpace Bulletin Wasn’t from Me
A bulletin that showed up on the official MySpace profile of UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck — one that ripped into the UFC’s policy for paying fighters — was not actually posted by Koscheck.
That’s the word from the American Kickboxing Academy fighter, who posted a follow-up bulletin claiming his account was hacked.
The original posting can be found after the “Read the rest of this entry…” link below. It basically states that the UFC is making record revenues while failing to appropriately compensate its fighters. UFC president Dana White was the biggest target in the 400-word diatribe.
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Fedor to Call Brother's Fight Versus Yvel
To residents of St. Petersburg, Russia,the "Flying Dutchman" will take on a different meaning July 21 when the ship is the backdrop for an international field of mixed martial artists, including wild Dutch fighter Gilbert Yvel (Pictures) and Russian heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures).
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Report: Sims, Thomas off TUF 5 Finale and out of the UFC
Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas will never be allowed to fight in the UFC, reports Steve Sievert of Houston Chronicle's Brawl Sports.
"Not only are they not fighting in the finale, they'll never fight in the UFC. Spike wanted that fight. It ain't gonna happen," UFC President Dana White told Brawl Sports.
During the eighth episode of TUF 5, Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas broke into an impromptu fight in the backyard which ended when they shook hands and agreed to face each other like professional athletes in an Octagon.
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Parisyan: ‘I would love to fight Fitch’
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Here’s a snip from Parisyan:
“I would love to fight Fitch. I’ll fight anybody at 170. I took the Josh Burkman fight. He was ranked top 10 in the world. Anyone who’s top 10, I’ll fight. Even me beating Jon Fitch, and I fight him and I beat him, I don’t gain anything. He’s a tough guy. I’m not underestimating Fitch. But still, I don’t gain anything beating Fitch, but I would fight Fitch. I want to fight for a title.”
Fitch will be in action less than one week from today against Roan Carneiro at UFC Fight Night 10 on June 12 at the Seminole Hotel Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. With a win in front of a national television audience on Spike television, it would no doubt do wonders for his name recognition among casual fans.
It would also help build an insane showdown between two top fighters at 170.
UFC nixes UFCmania.com sponsorship of Jon Fitch
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The headline speaks for itself.
We received terrible news recently that the UFC will not approve our sponsorship of welterweight Jon Fitch at UFC Fight Night 10 on June 12, which is less than one week away.
No reason was given and the folks who I attempted to contact over at UFC headquarters didn’t respond.
The unresponsiveness is not surprising.
I’m just a small-time blogger trying to market and support an up-and-coming fighter — not some big-time player with deep pockets. And if the UFC doesn’t agree with that — for whatever reason — then far be it from me to tell them how to run their business.....
Serra Claims TapouT Lied On Their Debut Reality Show
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The following is a press release sent out by Matt Serra's people:
In the recent episode of the television show TAPOUT, several issues regarding Matt Serra's affiliation with the company were brought into question. Matt wants it to be known that his conversation with Charles (aka mask) was edited totally out of context. Matt’s sponsorship by TAPOUT has been always been one of respect and loyalty.
Matt was promised by TAPOUT that they would produce a special edition Serra short for his upcoming championship fight. This promise was never fulfilled! The conversation that was aired without Matt's consent had nothing to do with wanting more money nor leaving them for another sponsor. The conversation was simply about Matt wanting to know if they could get the short produced by the time of his fight with GSP. They never would follow through with the shorts they promised. This is what the “real” conversation was about and nothing else! In the end, Matt decided to go with Sprawl after they guaranteed that they would produce the shorts that he wanted for the fight. In addition, most people do not know that one of Matt's jiu jitsu students is affiliated with the Sprawl Company and throughout Matt’s MMA career he remained with TAPOUT. He turned down several lucrative deals so that he could remain loyal to TAPOUT.
Everyone who knows Matt personally knows that he is a very loyal and honorable individual who tells it like it is! Matt is very proud to be the UFC Champion and looks forward to providing exciting fights in the future to all the MMA fans around the world!
UFC 71 Test Results: All Clean
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The Nevada State Athletic Commission announced earlier today that all of the six fighters that were tested for ‘drugs of abuse’, tested negative for any signs.
Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, Karo Parisyan, Josh Burkman, Alan Belcher, and Sean Salmon were the six fighters chosen by the NSAC at random to be tested after UFC 71.
The NSAC announced earlier in the week that all six had also tested negative for performance enhancing drugs as well.
IFL: Two spots for four teams
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Understand the battle for a place in the playoffs
On June 16 the IFL will reach the final stage of qualifiers for the team competition. As the format of the event is not the most usual in the world of MMA, GRACIEMAG.com decided to make life easier for web-surfers, explaining the chances of qualifying for each of the teams, two of which, the Pitbulls and Dragons, are made up of Brazilians.
With the wins last weekend, the Sabres and Anacondas guaranteed a place among the four teams with the best campaign in the first phase, and thus are already qualified. On the coming 16th, four more enter into action and their fates will be decided.
Find out below what each one needs to do:
Ayre comments on Fedor, Angle, and Lesnar
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I’ve been trying to do some digging lately on the biggest free agent names in MMA right now and have been working the phone (I’d say “phones” but I’m only using one phone) and e-mail. Bodog Fight founder Calvin Ayre was kind enough to respond to some of my questions. I don’t have anything Earth-shattering to report, but thought some of you might still be interested in Ayre’s responses.
Here’s the mini-interview:
Five Ounces of Pain: First, it’s being reported by several outlets (including the Wrestling Observer) that Kurt Angle will be meeting with Bodog Fight officials this week. Can you confirm those rumors and possibly comment on interest in Angle?
Calvin Ayre: There have been conversations between Bodog Fight and Kurt Angle’s manager to discuss the possibility of working together. Kurt would be an amazing asset to our organization as a cross-over athlete with an Olympic wrestling pedigree. At this time, there are only discussions and no formal meeting is set to take place this week.
FOP: Second, Brock Lesnar is now a free agent following his win Saturday night for FEG/K-1. Has Bodog contacted his representatives yet? If not, is there interest in talking to him about possibly joining the promotion?
CA: Bodog Fight has not contacted Brock’s representatives. Cross-over athletes require a great deal of time to review and assess their performances in a new sport and matching them with appropriate opponents can be difficult. Brock was an incredible wrestler and phenomenal entertainer in the WWE; working together in the future may be a possibility.
FOP: Final question; is Bodog currently negotiating with Fedor Emelianenko?
CA: Working with Fedor and the Red Devil has been a rewarding experience for our organization. There is considerable interest in several of the Red Devil fighters, Fedor being one of them.
Dana White was on The Jim Rome Show today
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Some notes from the radio interview:
He talked about how he got interested in the UFC (mentioning fighter John Lewis by name).
He talked about how ‘the old owner’ (Bob Meyrowitz) burned so many bridges and did things the wrong way. White claimed UFC was supposed to be a one-time show, but did so well that they ran shows over and over again and the old owners didn’t realize that they were creating a new sport. It was bad to market it as “two men enter the cage, one man leaves.”
When asked about the position of UFC as a sport in America, White said that UFC will never be as big as the NFL but “we’re NASCAR-big now, we’re MLB-big now, we’re NBA-big now.” He said that unlike the NFL, which isn’t popular outside of North America, the UFC product can cross cultural barriers and be global. White made an analogy to someone going to England to watch cricket and not ‘getting it’, but everyone gets UFC.
Dana talked about how UFC PPVs outsell WWE and boxing. He says that the UFC PPV audience comes from both industries. When asked what is more dangerous (MMA or boxing), Dana hesitated at first but stated that 5-6 boxers die a year and that more people die in football (on the high-school level) but nobody complains about that because it’s football.
White claimed that 85% of the fighters in UFC are college-educated and that they include guys who were Olympic wrestlers and went into martial arts (which he stressed required money). He said the fighters are good human beings and once again brought up the Haystacks Calhoun comparison to Matt Hughes (one’s fictional, one’s real). “Reality is better than anything you can write.”
He said that the blueprint of UFC was based on the business of boxing and what not to do. White said that Don King and Bob Arum destroyed boxing and that nobody in boxing has done anything to secure the future of the sport. He stressed that UFC is ran like a real business.
When asked by Jim Rome how he was able to build UFC into an empire with no college degree and no formal business training, White responded by saying “I know fighting” and “I know what fight fans want to see.” When pressed to give an example of where boxing has gone wrong, he brought up the De La Hoya/Mayweather event on May 5th. White said that seats were $2,500 USD a piece and the PPV cost $55 or $60. He said that Oscar De La Hoya has many fighters under contract (like Shane Mosley), but chose not to put the best fights on a single card and stack the line-up. White juxtaposed UFC events in comparison to boxing by stating that he builds entire cards that fans want to see and that when prelims start at 5:15 PM, 75% of the fans are already at the build ready to watch.
Dana shyfully thought that Rampage/Liddell lived up to the hype and made the claim that Chuck Liddell is the best or one of the best MMA fighters in the world. White said that he is still in shock that Chuck got knocked out, and he also deflected criticism of Chuck staying out late at night before fights by stating that Liddell has always done that and “gotten up at 3 or 4 PM in the afternoon the next day.” White also stressed that his intention is to book Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva, claiming that “it will probably be the biggest fight in MMA history.”
Tito Ortiz, Doing What He Does Best
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Doing what Tito does best, Talking Shit! In a recent blog entry on Tito Ortiz’s Myspace profile, Ortiz had these notable things to say about his next opponent:
I am really pumped on caving Rashads face in… more focused than I have ever been I think. He really has no idea what he is in for…I guess until you get your ass kicked really good, you never really do. I am going to make him rethink his career in the UFC. Maybe he should go back to flipping burgers after I put him in a wheel chair. LOL
Tito Ortiz can sure hold his own against the best WWE superstars. Hyping fights, dramatic entrances, and legendary revelry’s, that is why people love him.
Brock Lesnar Post Fight Interview
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OTM: So this is your MMA debut and you came out with a win, tell me how you feel about that?
Brock: I’m glad its over, I really enjoyed it! (It has been) A long time training for my first fight and It really hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m disappointed because I didn’t get to fight Hong Man at the last minute but I still wanted to fight, and I’m very excited about the victory.
International Fight League Coaching Legends to Visit Troops on USO Tour to Persian Gulf Region
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ARLINGTON, Va. - The International Fight League (IFL), the world’s number one mixed martial arts league, will have two of its world champion coaches-the Quad Cities Silverbacks’ Pat Miletich and Tucson Scorpions’ Don Frye, along with reigning PRIDE world champion and Portland Wolfpack assistant coach Dan Henderson-embark on a USO tour to the Persian Gulf region in late June. These three legends will visit with service members and perform demonstrations of their fighting techniques to the troops. The tour is co-sponsored by U.S. Army Europe.
Faber Fever in Full Effect as WEC assaults the Nation
“The California Kid” has gone Nationwide.
With the third successful defense of his World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) Featherweight Championship belt now in the bank after a technically brilliant first round submission win over previously unbeaten Chance Farrar on Sunday night, Urijah Faber not only lived up to the media attention afforded him in the weeks leading up to his bout at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, but he showed a new legion of fans watching on the VERSUS network just what state of the art mixed martial arts is really about.
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Yahoo! Sports Launches Official MMA Section
Internet powerhouse Yahoo! Sports has launched a dedicated MMA/Boxing section, furthering its coverage that begin with the hiring of famed boxing writer Kevin Iole from the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month.
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