MMAWeekly.com fighter rankings

MMAWeekly.com's fighter rankings are out. See if you can notice anyone missing....

New article from Sam

Sam Caplan from Five Ounces of Pain has a new article up on CBS Sportsline: The Top Ten Underachievers in MMA. I like the idea and don't feel it's a slam or anything. Saying someone's underachieving means you think they're good to begin with. Additionally, that's one thing I love about MMA: You can root for a fighter with a bad record. You can pull for a guy with an 0-3 record because MMA is so tough, anyone can get caught. It's not like boxing where if you Mayweather your way around, tagging pillow-jabs on a slower fighter, and hand-speed and cardio get you through. Sure, there's some fights like that (Sylvia-Arlovski 3, Arlovski-Werdum, Griffin-Sanchez), but far, far fewer. You have to engage in MMA, and if you do, you can get nailed, whoever you are, period.

FIGHT! Magazine

Looks interesting. I will probably get a subscription.

oh no

Say it ain't so...
Both Franca & Sherk test postitve for anabolic steroids. Hermes issued a statement apologizing, before the results came out. Sherk says nothing, will probably appeal I guess. A couple thoughts: Sherk's belt is gone, if he loses his appeal he's on the shelf for a year. Ask Frank Mir what they do to dudes that can't fight. Hermes claims to have been fighting paycheck to paycheck, got hurt, roided to get healed with eight weeks til fight night. So I guess with his $2,500 fine he still made $11,500 for the fight. That's gonna have to last a while. What about his Armory Academy? Doesn't he get paid by his students? I know it's not the lap of luxury, but come on. I guess he'll have to track down some more students or fight somewhere outside of CSAC's reach...though that will pretty much end his UFC career. What about the lightweight belt? BJ Penn was supposed to have the next shot, though he wants to fight 170, and there's a slew of others....Spencer Fisher! Joe Daddy, Din Thomas, Jens just left for WEC, Huerta, Tyson Griffin, Frank Edgar, Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon, and so on an so forth. Good grief. What a MESS. Lordy.
I wonder how long Sherk was on the sauce? It taints them both. It taints the UFC. This is how many fighters that have tested positive? I can name Barnett, Bonnar and these two off the top of my head. Add this to the K1 show where the fight card read like a freakin pharmacy and MMA is looking kind of ugly now.

I don't know what to say about this

Okay, Joe Riggs fought Nick Diaz in February of 2006. Unanimous decision, Riggs. I didn't see this fight, I'll try and track down a video. Anyhow, after the fight, Riggs and Diaz end up in the same hospital. You go to the hospital after a fight pretty much no matter what, from what I understand. You get a piss test, and checked out for the medical reports. What happened there?

Riggs: Yea. I had an IV going. My blood was spraying everywhere. It was like a horror movie. I’m kneeing him and telling his brother, I’m like, come get your brother off of me. He was like, nothing I can do, man. No. His brother, that guy is an idiot, just hanging off his ball sack like a barnacle. I swear to God, I thought he was all for show. Nick Diaz is legitimately nuts. He’s crazy.

And from Diaz:

Trigg: Nick, do you take medication?

Diaz: No. I don’t take no f#%king medication. Come on man.

I cracked up like 15 times reading that. Riggs has never struck me (thankfully) as an idiot, but few fighters make me go "Hey, I want to discuss philosophy with that cat!" But man, Nick Diaz makes Riggs look like a fuggin GENIUS. I respect the hell out of Diaz' talent, but he comes off as such. a. knucklehead. Him and his brother. But man, what a crazy story. I'd like to see what the non-participants saw, get a third party account. But damn.

USA Today boxing vs. MMA article

USA Today decided to weigh in on the tired boxing vs. MMA argument, and they came at it from the inital standpoint of fighters preparing for US Olympic qualifying. Wouldn't it be cool if something that started out effectively as pankration in the original Olympic games made it back? Anyways, there's some interesting points.
One stupid one from amateur super heavy Mike Wilson:

"It's gotten so popular back home where I live and it's just like everybody, 'Oh, I'm a cage fighter. I'm a cage fighter.' And I'm like, 'If you're a real fighter, I want to see your butt up at 6 in the morning, putting in road work. I mean, all these guys train and go to a gym once or twice a month and call themselves cage fighters," Wilson said. "Boxing, you've got to be in top physical condition, mental condition. There's just so much more to it. It's an art. It's like a fine art. It's a chess match. It's a thinking man's game.

Ok, when you're touting the intelligence of anyone who fights for a living, you're on shaky ground.
Bantamweight Gary Russel Jr.:

"A lot of boxers like any type of contact," Russell said. "In Ultimate Fighting Championship there's more stuff you can do. You've got to be in shape, though."

And one more for the road from Wilson, or at least from his t-shirt:

"Real men fight in the ring. Cages are for the zoo."

What'chall think?

teh funzorz

Susto do Shogun
Uploaded by IvanCanello

dailymotion.com is basically the only place to get Pride video nowadays.

nice

Sam Caplan summarizes some stuff over at 5 oz. of Pain.
Apparently Brandon Vera's getting closer to fighting again, and he wants to fight twice in 07. we'll see.

Performify's picks are up

Over at UFCJunkie.com.
In re Nate the Great vs. Silva, talking about one of Nate's previous UFC fights:

Marquardt’s most recent performance was a thorough trouncing of elite grappler Dean Lister on the undercard of UFC Fight Night 8 in January. Lister was dominated so completely that the fight was scored 30-27, 30-25, 30-25 as a unanimous decision for Marquardt.

Just to be clear, 30-25 means you had TWO ten-eight rounds. A 10-8 is utter devastation.

nice writeup

at Sherdog.com of the upcoming UFC 73 "Stacked", which I saw a small aircraft towing an advertisement for today at the beach, specifically it mentioned Tito vs. Rashad. And Tito complains that the UFC doesn't advertise him enough. Feh

Join us! Join us!

i started Team Flying Guard Pass...so far I've got my brother, Eric, and Ikoi. Well, Eric when he de-asses his melon and figures out how to join up. I think he forgot what his username is, so I'm sending invites to some poor random shmuck.

Also, if you saw the link from my page you're morally obligated to join my team and get all your picks 100% correct. God said so.