Monday, October 15, 2007

What I think's goin down

With Randy's split, and now Dan Henderson coming out and saying "WTF is up with you guys paying us jack" I think some of the major camps may be in a spot where they're willing to try something big and splashy. Couture's departure may have been the first salvo, or perhaps the captain charging over the ramparts to get the others to follow. Between Henderson and Couture, for example, they have a huge number of fighters in their respective camps, Team Quest and Extreme Couture (always sounded more like a fashion designer for snowboarders to me). So a mass move by both could be devastating for whoever they opted to give the finger to. Obviously fighters have to make a living, but how long would UFC last with no decent fighters? What if Forrest Griffin, Karo Parisyan, Dan Henderson, etc, all said "No thanks, we'll put on our own show, Team Quest vs. Extreme Couture"? I'd watch that shit, baby. I'd pay a PPV for it.
Forrest vs. Sokoudjou? Whee!
There's other influential teams out there, and if the UFC's been stepping on feet trying to cover for their fuckups (Ireland, paying shit-tons of cash for a piece of crap Pride organization, overpaying failures Cro Cop, Rua, Werdum, anyone else from Pride, failing to get Fedor, etc) by nickle-and-diming fighters, they could all just walk. You think Ed Fishman wouldn't help? He'd probably do it for free to spit in Dana White's big mug.
Some possible teams that could fuck off:
Xtreme Couture
Team Punishment (Tho Tito may love the opportunity to stay in the UFC with weaker opposition)
Jackson Submission
Team Quest
Miletich Fighting Systems

Those are off the top of my head. What I'm getting at is we could be looking at a major labor upset within MMA. Since the camps are the incubators of talent, not the leagues, they will in effect play the role of a union local in a lot of cases. I'm interested in how this all shakes out, I predict a rapidly shifting landscape for a while as big money interests start asserting themselves. Right now the relative shallow talent pool is going to play into it, making fight camps more influential, along with agents.
Ah, what a crazy world. Don't be surprised if the UFC goes out of business for a while, or Dana White and the Fertittas get ousted/lose control.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Wicked

OK, the whole M-1 buyer thing is friggin awesome. It's like a magic show mixed with a spy thriller, with midgets in monkey suits to boot. One actual real live journalist that I talked to (who shall remain nameless, because it's make more kickass that way), said to my frantic little-girl jumping from foot to foot hands-clasped whimpering:

I can't. I made a serious vow of secrecy. I can tell you it's not Zuffa, ProElite, or anyone in the MMA industry. In fact, chances are you've probably have never heard of the company.

Vows of secrecy! I wonder what journalists would do if it was a vow of celibacy? I bet there'd be a lot fewer journalists. Or a lot more Jimmy Olsens, if you catch my drift.
Anyhoo, I hope this is all sorted soon. Every now and again I think "This is NOT pro wrestling."

Make a statement

Ok. I know everyone wants to see at least the two main fights in next weekend's card. I know everyone is freaked out Randy left the UFC and/or Fedor signed with M-1. I also know the UFC 78 card as it is defined now sucks ten kinds of dirty hooker ass. So here's what we, the fans, do: FUCK 78. Fuck that card. Don't buy it. Call your family, check out an ex-girlfriend, finish a crossword, make a cake, whatever. Don't buy UFC 78. It's a shit card anyways. Let the UFC know that we're pissed off, and we don't want to watch great fighters split because Dana White has to show how long his dick is.
I'm going to make other plans right now for the night of 78. I've already got plans for 77, and fuck it if I look like an asshole, I want to see Silva-Franklin. Sorry. I'm not Gandhi or MLK.
But 78? Mew Jersey? B-level main event? Fuck it. Not buying it. I urge anyone (I know at least two people read this blog a day, I'm looking at both of you) reading this to not buy it either, and to email the UFC and let 'em know why. I'm sure they're already looking at taking a bath on this event, but let's make 'em take a bath and a barbed-wire colonic besides. Let's make it hurt. Let's have a fan strike.
Here's some other stuff to do:
Brew your own beer!
Check out a punk rock show.
Find a new restaurant or cook a kickass meal
Learn how to play poker (worth a damn). Note: Do not go to this link if you're going to play me.

Anything other than buying this shitty card and validating Dana White/the Fertittas as fucking overlords of MMA. Forget this card.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

LOL

What. The. Fuck.

Randy Couture quits the UFC.
What. The. Fuck.

Randy Couture, the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and one of mixed martial arts most revered fighters, notified the UFC via fax from South Africa at 11 o'clock Thursday morning that he has chosen to resign from the UFC, "The Natural" confirmed with Sherdog.com.

"I sent the letter of resignation to the UFC today, resigning not only from my position in the company as a commentator and as an ambassador, but also as the heavyweight champion," Couture said over the phone from South Africa, where he is currently filming a movie.

"The motivation for the decision is two-fold," he continued. "I know Fedor (Emelianenko) just signed with another organization and that's the only real fight that makes sense for me at 44 years old as the heavyweight champion of the UFC. That's the fight I wanted and if that can't happen it doesn't make sense for me to compete with all these other guys. And then obviously that's not going to happen now. And, two, I'm tired of being taken advantage of, played as the nice guy and basically swimming against the current with the management of the UFC. I have a lot of other things going on in my life that I'm doing just fine with. I don't need the problems. I don't feel like I get the respect I deserve from the organization, and that's motivation No. 2 for the letter of resignation that was sent today."

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

TUF plus a treat

So I'm watching The Ultimate Fighter and it's a pretty boring episode, basically all hype. Mac Danzig had a couple slow-talking lines, and Dorian wasn't half as crazy as they made him out to be...he actually seemed like a pretty decent guy, the crazy message board posts aside. He made a dumb mistake in a thoroughly dumb situation, ie a reality show. But the stuff he said afterwards was basically sensible. Whatever. The fight was stupid. The taller guy was helpless, pretty much. He looked helpless. Even tho the little dude Hightower seemed like a dudebro jackass he was definitely game compared to Bowman.
Well, as I'm watching, there's a little ad onscreen telling me to tune into channel 95 in North County for a special treat afterwards. Turns out its a fight card from a local gym, Unleashed. It appears to be at "Blanca's Fiesta Hall" in IB, which is way south near the border. So far I've seen two of the fights, and it looks like they could only afford maybe one or two lights for the production, and it's low-quality video, which is too bad, because the fights so far are pretty good. I know there's one other local promotion, Total Combat, in San Diego, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while. I like seeing the lower-level events, because who knows, you may see a Forrest Griffin or a St. Pierre in the making...I'll keep track of these dudes.
A third fight (Wallon Kennel vs. Muniko Enrique) just ended with a slick modified triangle by Kennel. The fight before was an armbar finish, and the first a TKO. Here is the event page from Sherdog, apparently all the fights listed on the fight card at the site didn't go on, but it looks like an action event, as they all ended in the first. No decisions, not bad. It's listed as "Galaxy Productions" on Sherdog.
Well, overall, if they'd get some lights, it would be pretty dang good for what it is. They have Kimo Leopoldo doing commentary, and he's doing pretty good, actually. The main play-by-play guy apparently sat about five feet from his mic as I can barely make out his voice. He also has kind of a tinny little voice. They talk over each other a lot too.
Nice event, though, I'm going to see what they've got and if I can see something live. There's an Unleashed gym here in Escondido, I should definitely go wander around and see if I can make friends with anyone and get some "press" info.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

WEC? Lyoto-Alexander

OK. What's up with the WEC? They don't have shit scheduled til December. From the end of September til the middle of December, nothin'. I'm watching a replay of the Faber-Farrar event right now, it was decent, but not amazing. I love to watch Faber fight, he's a madman. The other fights on the card seemed a bit like mismatches. Yahya-Hominick was funny in that Yahya just zombie-chased him around til he grabbed something and locked in a choke after some climbing.
All right. We have some fun in the UFC Light Heavyweight division. Forrest Griffin and Keith Jardine basically put themselves on the map with their wins in the last event. Forrest saved us the trouble of PRIDE dicks yammering about bad judging by cinching in the choke at the end of the fight, and Jardine, well, he dominated that fight beginning to end. There's a couple guys waiting for them, unfortunately, at the field-level contender seats. Houston Alexander has torn apart two fools in the UFC, including short-memory Jardine. Lyoto Machida has bored hiw way to victory in every single fight he's been in. So we have four guys on the winning tip, with Jardine being the guy to lose most recently. Forrest has two straight, Machida undefeated, Alexander two in a row via quick knockout.
In my book, we have a problem. Rampage has to defend. Against who? I'd say Rampage-Machida for his next defense. Then the winner of Rashad-Bisping vs. Forrest, and square off Alexander and Jardine. That could be an absolute war. Then one more fight and you have a #1 contender, while still being able to throw a LHW bout in there with Lambert or Ortiz. Why not Lambert vs. Ortiz? Sounds like a battle...
Anyways, I'm dashing this off, so gimme some feedback on it.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Karo is Kursed

Karo Parisyan's opponent for UFC 78 can't get a fucking visa. Sucks to be Karo.
The intertubes are shouting he should get Kos. I'm cool with that, I'd love to see Karo tear that dude to shreds.

 
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