UFC 67: The Introduction of a Star – Mirko is Here
Article by: Lars B.
All hail Cro-Cop! This Saturday will mark the day that many hardcore American MMA fans have waited for a long time; the debut of Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic on US soil (and obviously the debut of mmaplayground.com). The former Croatian Anti-Terrorist soldier will drag his thunderous left leg into the biggest MMA production in North America, and arguably the world. The Octagon will house one of the most dangerous men on the planet for up to 15 minutes, but it will probably be closer to one minute. Cro-Cop will look to land one of his tree trunks to the side of 24 year old Eddie Sanchez’s head at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Saturday night. Sanchez, The North County Fight Club member and Jason Lambert teammate, is coming off a KO victory over Mario Neto at UFC 63 and boasts a 6-0 professional MMA record, but don’t expect those facts to block a vicious high-kick that could send his head into the 17th row. The only thing that will prevent that from happening is hard work, heart, and a riot shield.
Cro-Cop was brought in as a hired gun to clean up the UFC Heavyweight division. The much maligned division was in serious need of some lifeblood, and that is exactly what Dana White got when he signed the most feared striker in the world to a 2 year contract. Cro Cop’s contract with the UFC is a 6-fight deal that is speculated to be in the $6 - $7 million range, the richest contract ever dished-out by the once shallow-pocketed Zuffa. They purchased the rights to an international MMA star that can, and will, turn the North American fight scene on its head. On the streets of Zagreb women are naming their babies after this man. Men are left high-kicking street signs in an attempt to replicate the infamous weapon that their idol unleashes on his victims. This is not some Croatian "can". This man can do some damage!
Cro-Cop may be fighting in an unfamiliar land, but do not expect Eddie Sanchez to be the fan favorite come Saturday night under the bright lights. Cro-Cop’s 21-4 record is littered with 14 KO’s that have been against some of the best competition in the world. Barnett, Silva, Coleman, and Minowa, to name a few, have all fell victim to the assault of the Croat. His latest triumph over the primal looking Wanderlei Silva has been repeated over and over on MMA highlight reels, and the KO truly solidified his position as one of the best fighters in the world.
The biggest acquisition in the UFC’s history will have to be utilized carefully, and Joe Silva sees Eddie Sanchez as a fighter who will put up a heart-filled fight, but more than likely fall victim to a horrific knockout. The only chance that “Dirty” Sanchez has to win this fight is to smother Cro-Cop against the cage and somehow get him to the ground. Sanchez cannot treat Cro-Cop like a promiscuous female with STDs and keep him an arms length away. He must cut down the distance and not allow the Croatian to extend his weapons that he calls limbs. Look for this fight to end quickly and violently if Sanchez cannot do that.
Sanchez has to be commended for having the stones to step inside the Octagon with such a feared competitor like Cro-Cop. It will surely earn him the respect of many fans and of the UFC brass. Look for Sanchez to get a winnable fight in his next appearance in the UFC, but the young California fighter has nothing to lose on Saturday night. When Big John McCarthy slaps his hands between these two fighters make sure that you do not blink, because this one could end in a flash. The arrival of Cro-Cop on the US MMA scene will be a catalyst for other international fighters to bring their abilities to the states. The growing pockets of Zuffa and the shrinking bankroll of PrideFC will play a big factor in the signing of big name free agents over the next few years. Now the question is; how will the somewhat uneducated US fan base accept these international fighters? I have a feeling that once Cro-Cop unleashes just one of those devastating left high-kicks that the US fans will welcome these foreign fighters with open arms. Enter Cro-Cop.
Prediction: Cro-Cop wins by signature left high kick in the 1st
The Numbers:
Vegas - Cro-Cop -1500
Sanchez +800
MMAplayground.com Cro-Cop 2096 votes
Sanchez 56 votes
Site updates, 1/27/07
Let's see... what do we have going on here at the moment....
UFC 67, inaugural season event #1, coming up on Saturday. Make sure you have your picks and wagers in place a few hours before the PPV event is live for us all to watch. The fight card seems pretty set in stone at this point. If there's someone you'd like to see get involved in the game from the get-go then by all means please use the Invite A Friend page to get them involved before our first event is locked out for selection.
Fight Camp Directory - Taking feedback via the forum and from various site contacts we've updated the fight camp directory so that fight camps of similar sizes are pitted against each other for competition sake. You're now able to sort via things like overall win percentage, average member bankroll, etc, based on what fight camp "weight division" your camp fits into. A big thank you to all who offered creative feedback on how to rank things.
Fight Camp Message Boards - These have been upgraded to match the feature availability that we enjoy here on the community forums, including pictures, edits, and other features.
Account activations - A few members have been confused by the account activation process messages. We've simplified things and made the interface a little more specific so that hopefully it will be easier for people to sign up and validate their accounts to make their picks and wagers.
Overall site progress - We've been online for a full two weeks as of now, are working our way towards 2,500 members, have some great fight camps formed up, good talk on our message boards, and great feedback to help improve things to pull us out of "BETA" stage here in our little MMA game world. A big thank you to all those who have spread the word and contributed ideas  A big welcome goes out to all those joining us from (in alphabetical pollitically correct order so as to avoid offense): Auto Forum Universe, BloodyKnux, Bullshido, MMA.tv, MMAFighting, MMAForum, and Sherdog.
WRITERS - We are still in need of 2 or so qualified, passionate writers to help keep the MMA community informed of recent MMA news and events. If you have writing experience and/or think that you have what it takes to keep us demanding MMA fans "in the know" on things, then please contact us.
Next week - We're currently in the process of building a new feature which should help put a number of forum topics to rest.... we don't want to say much about it, but we plan on adding this new section to the site after next week's UFC 67 event and it will need lots of user input to make this something that the MMA community can reference. Your fantasy MMA picks will play a large roll in this feature (don't wanna say much more about it until it's launched) so make sure that you go with the fight picks that you feel strongly about.
Again, welcome all who have joined us and thank you for the support you've all lended so far,
Moderator Will
HDNet Showing Live MMA Again
With the UFC buying WEC HDNet will no longer be showing their live fights. They will continue to show repeats. But this is the best part:
(Towards the end of the story)
Linky Loo
Site updates con't
1) NEW FEATURE - My Wager Finder
If are having trouble finding enough people to place wagers with either on the MMA Fantasy Game Talk forum or from within your fight camp then perhaps this new feature is for you. With it, you can search for people who are open to wagers on the fight you're lookin' to make some e-dough on 
How can I get myself on that list? There is a new option on the My Upcoming Events page right below where you make a pick for a fight that says "I'm open to wagers on this fight". Simply click this box and you will automatically come up when your pick matches what people are looking for
Make sure you go back in and check off the fights you're willing to accept wagers on! And don't forget that you now have more wagering flexibility for some of the long-shot fights with the new option to set variable wager amounts in your wager propositions.
2) BUG FIXES
We have corrected 2 errors dealing with the event picks display graph on the "Event Picks and Points" page and the corresponding "Event Picks" page from within your fight camps. We've also correct a small bug on the My Upcoming Events page that some new registrants were sporadically experiencing. Thanks to those who pointed them out for us.
3) UFC 67 fight card
The UFC 67 fight card was updated earlier today. Melvin Guillard has sustained a hand injury and will not be fighting Dustin Hazelett  Taking his place will be Diego Saraiva. Please note: any picks or wagers you had made for this fight have been automatically deleted and need to be reset. Also added to the fight card are 2 newly confirmed bouts: John Halverson vs Roger Huerta and Terry Martin vs Jorge Rivera.
4) Layout and ads
The website layout has been altered slightly and ads have been rearranged... I know ads piss people off, sorry! Unfortunately though bandwidth and servers cost money  /cringe
If you haven't seen your website suggestion implemented yet, stay tuned! We're getting to 'em as fast as we can! More to come in the next 1-2 weeks...
Four blockbuster matchups officially added to Pride 33! Frank Trigg, Nick Diaz, Takanori Gomi, Kazuhiro Nakamura and more!
Four blockbuster matchups officially added to Pride 33! Frank Trigg, Nick Diaz, Takanori Gomi, Kazuhiro Nakamura and more!
Four blockbuster matchups have been announced for Pride FC's next show, Pride 33: The Second Coming. The show scheduled for February 24th in Las Vegas, Nevada is already headlined with the "Champion vs. Champion" showdown between Pride Middleweight Champion, Wanderlei Silva and Pride Welterweight Champion, Dan Henderson.
Added to the line up is a bout between already scheduled Pride Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi, taking on UFC standout Nick Diaz. Gomi, who is making his debut on American soil. Gomi is in for a tough fight as Diaz is a fighter regularly competing at 170 pounds, rather then 160 pounds. Thus, Diaz has the distinct size advantage going into the fight. Gomi's Lightweight Championship will not be on the line, however if Diaz can get the win, you can expect to see a title match between the two some time down the line. Diaz who has recently signed a two fight deal with Pride(and a different contract with EliteXC) will be debuting in the Japan based organization. Expect for fireworks, as both fighters are very exciting!
Former UFC Welterweight Number One Contendar, and current ICON Sport Middleweight Champion Frank Trigg, will be making his return to Pride as he takes on Pride Welterweight Grand Prix winner Kazuo Misaki. Both men are coming off huge wins, with Trigg winning the ICON Sport Championship from Jason "Mayhem" Miller, and Misaki coming off the Grand Prix Championship win over Denis Kang. Trigg, who is a current Pride colour commentator has recently come out of retirement and he hopes to further himself with a win over a Top 5 ranked contendar. Trigg recently commented on coming out of retirement. “I wanted out. They wouldn’t let me out. It’s like the mob,” says Trigg. “I was done. I just wanted to be a broadcaster and help the sport any way I could. But then for like 2 months I got offers every day.”
Kazuhiro Nakamura will be returning to the U.S to face off against UFC and IFL standout Travis Wiuff. Nakamura, who recently defeated Travis Galbraith in the U.S during Pride 32, will be hoping to rack up another win infront of the American audience. Wiuff is a seasoned vet with a MMA record of 42-9. He is coming off two straight wins, and hopes to advance him career by getting a win over the Top Ten ranked young judoka. This is a big fight for both men.
As previously reported throughout the week, Pride Lightweight standout, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai will be taking on former King of the Cage Lightweight Champion, Mac Danzig. Danzig couldn't be in for a tougher debut in Pride, as he is taking on the #2 ranked Lightweight in MMA. Sakurai's most recent win was over Luciano Azevedo at Bushido 12. "Mach" is 0-1 on American soil with his loss thanks to former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes. Sakurai hopes to make an impression on the American fans, and he wants to show them why he is the #2 ranked Lightweight in the world.
Other names that have been off and on for the event are former Pride Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, his kid brother Antonio Rogerio Nogueria, Ricardo Arona, Kazuyuki Fujita, Cung Le, Josh Neer, Joe Doerkson and Wes Sims. Pride 33 will take place on February 24th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and will air live on pay-per-view in the United States. These four matches, along with the Silva vs Henderson main event, are five confirmed matches for the American show.
Kevin Randleman Hopitalized!
Kevin Randleman Hospitalized! - Article by: Bal K.
Things just seem to keep going down hill for Kevin "The Monster" Randleman. Internet forums were on fire today, with rumors of "The Monster" being hospitalized. Sadly for Randleman, these rumors turned out to be true.
Randleman's training partner and friend Wes Sims was able to verify that Randleman is infact in the hospital. "He's in the hospital, but I haven't even been able to talk to him yet." Sims did verify that it was a severe problem with his kidneys including some degree of failure. The degree of severity of this injury is still unknown.
Ken Pishna, of MMAWeekly, did some research on Kidney failures and and according toWebMD.com, "....the kidneys have an amazing capacity to heal themselves. This means most patients who survive acute kidney failure can enjoy a complete recovery within one to two months. Some patients, however, need a year or so before their kidneys are fully functional again. Others, whose kidneys have been severely damaged, may go on to chronic kidney failure."
The former UFC Heavyweight Champion's career has been a course for the worst as of late. With his most recent loss coming thanks to Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Champion, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Randleman's record has been pushed to a lackluster 16-12. Randleman has been looked highly upon for having an endless amount of potential, however he has not lived up to the hype. He has had five straight losses in Pride, with his last win in Pride being what many consider a "lucky punch" knockout over Open Weight Grand Prix Winner Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. "Cro Cop" soon avenged that loss with a 0:41 second submission victory. His total Pride record has been 4-7. A younger Randleman had an average career in the UFC, going 4-3 over a two year span.
We wish Kevin all the best in recovery and hope he can make a speedy return to the MMA world!
Website updates yet again!
If you noticed that the website was down for a few minutes today, here's why! The fantasy wager system has undergone an overhaul as per numerous feedback requests from our members. You may now propose wager deals using different amounts per wagerer. For example, you may want to bet me 10 of your fantasy dollars for 100 of my fantasy dollars that underdog Eddie Sanchez will beat CroCop in their upcoming fight at UFC 67. For wagers that involve a fight result, the person proposing the wager will now set result parameters when sending the wager proposition rather than the recipient having the option to make their fight result selection. We've also added a notes field for the "Decline Wager" procedure which gives the wager recipient the option to give a brief explanation and/or comment regarding his action. The Fight Camp Directory page now will order by win percentage, then by total wins, then by camp name, with camps having only 1 member being at the bottom of the list regardless. A big thank you to all who gave us feedback on all the aforementioned, keep the improvement suggestions coming!
Our website navigation has been slightly re-organized, so don't get confused! Everything is still here, just ordered and separated a little differently 
In other website news, Pride has confirmed 4 more fights to the upcoming Pride 33 card: Takanori Gomi vs Nick Diaz, Kazuhiro Nakamura vs Travis Wiuff, Hayato Sakurai vs Mac Danzig, and Kazuo Misaki vs Frank Trigg. Matt Hughes as also confirmed via his personal website that he'll be fighting TUF4 runner-up Chris Lytle at UFC 68. All these upcoming bouts have been posted, so make your picks and wagers!
Thank you to all who contacted us regarding the open forum moderator positions. For now (until we outgrow things) we are set in this department, but still could use a couple more passionate, talented, knowledgeable MMA writers to join newly appointed writer brownpimp88 in keeping us all up to date on MMA news and happenings. If this sounds like your bag, then contact the site admin for details.
We've been up and running for a week and a half now and are approaching the 1,000 member mark. A big thank you to all those who helped spread the word and invited your friends!
Just a few updates...
We have 2 more confirmed fights for the season opening UFC 67 event: Hoger vs Lyoto and Frankie Edgar vs Tyson Griffin. Make sure you get your picks in before fight night on the My Upcoming Events page. We're also getting close to having enough confirmed bouts taking place in the upcoming Pride 33 and UFC 68 to add them to the events list as well.
In other site news, we've had quite a few new member signups in the last few days which is great to see. A big thank you to all who have helped spread the word! Make sure stop by the Introduce Yourself forum to let us know who you are and how you came to be a mixed martial arts aficionado. We'd also like to announce the welcome addition of 4 more moderators (in alpha order): MMA, nate22, Omega, and zephead.
Thanks also to all who have submitted feedback in helping us come up with ways to improve the site functionality, suggesting useful features to make things easier around here, and pointing out bugs to get fixed. In the upcoming weeks we'll be adding more features and improvements, so stay tuned and keep the suggestions coming!
One final note: Lots of folks have been asking about having the upcoming Ultimate Fight Night being included for picks and wagers. While we understand that those who have found the site already would love to have an event a little sooner than February 3rd to score some points and place some wagers on, please bear with us for just a week and a half longer! /beg. The website hasn't even been online for a full week yet, and we'd like to give as many people as possible the chance to get in on the action from the season's start. Don't worry, all future Fight Night events will be featured as fair game, I promise!
UPDATE ADDENDUMS
We've added the confirmed matchups for both Pride 33 and UFC 68 to the table to get the picking and wagering rolling.
Our own nate22 has secured an upcoming interview with none other than the Vanilla Gorilla himself, Lodune Sincaid. Please post your questions and suggestions for the interview here.
If you'd like to see a fight camp ranking system implemented then we'd like to hear your input on how you'd like to see it done, forum topic here.
And so it begins... MMAPlayground.com Inaugural Season
()Greetings and welcome Pride and UFC MMA fans!
MMAPlayground.com's first fight season is about to begin! This inaugural season will kick off with UFC 67 and will span through the next 9 Pride or UFC events after that. For our first season here the winner will receive $500 (real dollars, not fantasy wager dollars!) as a reward for their superior knowledge of MMA combatants. The game is easy to play and free. You've got nothing to lose!
If you're wondering how the game is played, then make sure to read the and . Also, any is welcome to as we strive to improve the site to be able to move it out of beta status.
So let the games begin!
PS - As site traffic and user numbers increase we'll be looking for some level-headed forum moderators along with a few talented writers who are devoted MMA fans to post news and updates from the rapidly evolving world of popular MMA. If you think you fit the bill for either of these and want to help out, then via the Private Mail system here on the site.
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