Monday, March 21, 2011
Observations from My Couch: UFC 128 "Ultimate Superhero"
- Watching Edson Barboza fight is like watching a Muay Thai instructional DVD.
- What on Earth was Elliot Marshall thinking when he stepped back into the Octagon? Did he forget that people would be watching?
- Mirko CroCop didn't so much as phone in that performance as he used an Old West telegraph. Heck, that performance bordered on "two cans attached by string".
- Dan Miller, you have heart.
- Jim Miller, you have Kamal Shalorus' heart, freshly torn from his chest and bleeding out in the palm of your hand.
- Urijah Faber: meh.
- Sure, it was impressive that Jon Jones caught a thief earlier in the day and then went on to beat the bejeezus out of Shogun and win the belt that night. But did he raise the dead before he went to bed? No? Bah, he's a scrub.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
From the Mouths of Babes
Tonight, on NY1 (a New York City-based news channel), on a program called "Inside City Hall", Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta debated the merits of sanctioning MMA in New York, while Assemblyman Bob Reilly discussed why the state shouldn't. There were, of course, some pearls of wisdom.
- White, on underground fight shows in NYC: "It's very real. It happens every weekend." Man, I wish. Try once every few months, bro.
- Reilly: "The UFC just fought to keep downward elbows in the sport." Dude, please kill your fact-checker.
- Reilly: "We're going to say that two men, or two women, can get in a cage and fight - sometimes to the death? That's not a message we want to give." Nevermind. Your fact-checker is clearly on our side, as he's making you look retarded.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
New Gig
I got a new gig as assistant editor over at MMAConvert.com. It's a national and international news beat, so expect continued coverage here of all things Northeast and crazy. Here's a link to a recent article over there - http://www.mmaconvert.com/2011/03/15/how-zuffa%e2%80%99s-purchase-of-strikeforce-is-not-a-monopoly/ .
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Things Are Looking Up in New York
Justin Klein over at FightLawyerblog has had his finger on the pulse of the New York State MMA bills, and today he's got some good news - http://www.fightlawyerblog.com/2011/03/more-good-news-senate-bill-to-legalize.html. Essentially, things are proceeding nicely, with the legislation now much further along in the process compared to where it was this time last year.
Also, there will be a UFC 128 press conference on Wednesday at Radio City Music Hall, with some kind of "bring MMA to New York" rally outside the venue at 12:30pm. Apparently, Dana White will be there leading the civil disobedience, with the first 1,000 victims of tear gas and police riot dispersal units getting a free T-shirt. Woop-woop!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Observations from My Couch: Bellator 36 "One Minute You're Kicking Ass, Then BAM!"
- Did Marcin Held not realize that there would be strikes thrown in his bout? Going for all those submissions was great, but man did he take a beating.
- I don’t know who that was fighting Lloyd Woodard, but it was not Carey Vanier. The Carey Vanier we saw in the tournament last season was a badass. This one, not so much.
- Toby Imada: still the slickest submission guy who will never win a championship.
- Sure, Kevin Aguilar handily defeated Matt Hunt, but he’s in trouble when he faces Matt’s brother Mike.
- I’m sorry, that was awful.
- There was a time when Rob McCullough was practically untouchable. Sadly, thanks to Father Time, he’s very touchable. Still fun to watch, though.
- Waachiim Spiritwolf vs. Jaime Jara wasn’t so much a bloodbath as it was a blood-sauna, blood-whirlpool, blood-seaweed wrap and blood-spa session.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Thoughts on the UFC Purchasing Strikeforce
- It speaks volumes that the UFC saw that the organization had value and shelled out the dough for it. That alone is a slap in the face to every Zuffa shill who clamored on about how "Strikeforces sucks". Think about it: the UFC was content to let EliteXC, the IFL, et al. die and pick apart the carcass post-mortem. In this instance, it didn't appear to Dana White and company that Strikeforce's death was at all imminent. Quite the contrary.
- For fans of the Strikeforce brand and their evets' particular "Pride-esque" feel, this is a mixed blessing. First, we all know what happened to Pride after Zuffa said they'd keep it alive. And sure, a lot of that had to do with the financial chaos and organized crime links that came along with the purchase of the Japanese organization. But other than some canned "Best of Pride" shows on SpikeTV, I don't seem to remember Zuffa putting forth much effort to keep the product going. However, on the plus side, now we know for sure that - for at least the duration of Strikeforce's contracts with Showtime/CBS - Strikeforce is in no danger of disappearing. It's now got Zuffa to prop it up. God only knows what will happen when those Showtime/CBS contracts expire (Will Strikeforce keep going? Will it go the way of the WEC?). But until then, the beast will live.
- This a mixed bag as well for fighters. If you're on the outs with Zuffa, you'll likely be on the outs with Strikeforce now, too. Where will big paychecks come from? Bellator? Sharkfights? The silver lining, though, is that if you do fight for Strikeforce, no matter what, Zuffa is underwriting your check.
- What does this mean for Bellator? Well, with organization #1 now merged with organization #2, Bellator's ranking certainly goes up. Unfortunately, it's suddenly gotten a lot harder to grow.
- Kudos to Scott Coker and his team. In just a few years, you took a San Jose-based kickboxing promotion and made it in a valuable thing that garnered the attention of the MMA industry's giant.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The always-engaging Zach Arnold has a pretty solid discussion going on over at his site re: the state of MMA media. Check it out at http://www.fightopinion.com/2011/03/10/mma-chattering-class/#comments , but here's what I wrote on the topic:
"The evolution of the MMA media is fascinating, especially because I’ve witnessed it firsthand.
Years ago, magazines and newsletters were king, and their reps were accorded the most respect in terms of treatment. Then, as those outlets died off, websites publishing hard news (i.e., full stories with fresh quotes and analysis) gained prominence. Then blogs took over. Now, from what I see, it’s all about twitter. The driving force behind this evolution is of course economics – when publishers saw there was virtually no money to be made in MMA magazines, they got out, and websites started getting funded. Then when free blogging platforms emerged, and people realized regurgitating available news cost less but scored just as many eyeballs, the blogosphere became the new media leader. And what’s even cheaper than bloggers? Social media.
I think the trick for anyone with any aspirations on longevity in the MMA media industry is a revenue stream outside of the finite capital sources MMA media commands. AOL cut your funding? SBNation giving you the boot? Dude, write a book. That’s what I did.
For the MMA media, it’s all about the hustle. Back in the day, well-known journos would moonlite as PR men for the very promotions they covered, ghostwriting press releases, event programs… you name it. Hell, I wrote PR stuff for the old WFA (the John Lewis version), and one of my fellow FCFers (who went on to Sherdog) was writing content for Zuffa’s glossy programs that they handed out at UFCs. This is how media members make the business model work."
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Predictions for UFC 128: "Ultimate Throwing the Northeast a Bone"
It must be a leap year, because the UFC has come to town – the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, to be exact. So what should we expect on Saturday night from our favorite brand of Octagon-contained combat? Another dose of “geez, this card sucks”? Aw, hells naw. Northeast fans are getting treated to a light-heavyweight championship bout between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and starry-eyed challenger Jon Jones, plus a bunch of other fighters who’ve probably never set foot in the Garden State in their life (and never will again). So! Predictions!
- Shogun vs. Jon Jones – Remember how Shogun won that Pride tournament, then came to the UFC and got his ass kicked by Forrest Griffin? Sure, the dude has since bounced back, and defeated the likes of the mighty Mark Coleman (er, what?) and the fearsome Chuck Liddell (what-what?) to earn a shot at then-champ Lyoto Machida, and sure it took Shogun two tries to defeat the “Dragon”. But really, he’s back to being a monster now. So Jon Jones, you better watch out. Because if you don’t use some of your utterly unorthodox technique and seemingly unending raw talent, you’re going to get hit. Maybe even in the face. Like, around the cheekbones or temple area. Oh yeah, Jones via TKO.
- Urijah Faber vs. Eddie Wineland – Former WEC featherweight superstar Urijah Faber looked damn good choking Takeya Mizugaki into oblivion in his first fight at bantamweight. Eddie Wineland, though, sure looked good defeating fighters nowhere near Mizugaki’s level. So, um, why was this match-up made? Faber via over-large chin.
- Jim Miller vs. Kamal Shalorus – Let me see… Kamal Shalorus squeaked by Jamie Varner and squeaked by Bart Palaszewski, and now he gets to take on Jim Miller, who in 21 fights has only lost to Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard? Methinks this is Joe Silva’s way of showing Shalorus the door. Miller by any goddamn submission he wants.
- Nate Marquardt vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama – When there’s a title or potential title-shot on the line, you can count on Nate Marquardt to screw it up. As there isn’t one in this case, expect him to beat on the durable Yoshihiro Akiyama for all three rounds to earn the decision.
- Brendan Schaub vs. Mirko CroCop – I’m not entirely sure Mirko CroCop even cares about fighting anymore. But I’m pretty positive that the young and hungry prospect Brendan Schaub does, so watch for him to KO the old Croatian warhorse at some point.
- Edson Barboza vs. Anthony Njokuani – If you were to take eleven deadly Muay Thai fighters from Thailand, boil them down in a pot and add some acai at the end, what you’d end up with is Edson Barboza. He’s going to kill Anthony Njokuani so bad, Dana White is going to award him the heretofore unheard of “Funeral of the Night” bonus.
- Ricardo Almeida vs. Mike Pyle – No one beats Ricardo Almeida on his home turf. No one. Almeida via submission.
- Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau – Ditto for Kurt Pellegrino. “Batman” via sub.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A Piece of MMA History: Reality Fighting 4
There was a time when checking out a fight show in New Jersey meant showing up to a high school gymnasium, sitting in the bleachers or on a metal folding chair, and watching local dudes throw down. Such was the case with Reality Fighting 4, which took place on July 19, 2003, at Marist High School in Bayonne. On that night, Glenn Sandull and Carlos Cline – the area’s two best heavyweights – battled it out in the main event, while future TUF star Phillipe Nover notched a quick win, Hazem Ibrahim conquered, and FoxSports reporter Jay Glazer fell to a submission. But in retrospect, one of the more notable bouts of the evening was the debut of a 26-year old from Long Island. He was friends with Phil Baroni, and part of the Hofstra wrestling/anti-jiu-jitsu contingent that existed at the time, and his raw talent and intensity had him utterly crushing his opponent in a minute and a half. His name was Jay Hieron. Few who saw Hieron then doubted that he’d go far – he crushed wrestler Jermaine Johnson at ROC 5 five months later, smoked Team Endgame boxing trainer Fernando Munoz at ROC 6, and traveled up to Massachusetts to defeat black belt Fabio Holanda just six days after that. What followed was a career full of ups and downs – mostly “ups”, with an IFL championship and a stint in Strikeforce in there, although his “downs” included losing to Georges St. Pierre and Jonathan Goulet in the UFC. Nowadays, you can watch the “Thoroughbred” on MTV2, kicking ass in Bellator’s welterweight tournament. But it all began at Reality Fighting 4, with Heiron’s dominant performance in the card’s opening bout.
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