more of this crap

This time Cage Potato calling KJ Noons names. I'm going to end up sounding like the world's biggest Noons fan, which I'm not, but fucking A, quit buying the bullshit you guys! Seems like conventional wisdom is saying that Noons is a punk for "ducking" Nick Diaz. I disagree entirely. While Dion is a total chimp, he does have a right to rep his client. If they don't want to fight the guy, who knows, it may just be for a good reason, like he's a complete assclown. Why would you even want to give someone like that a shot? Why would Elite XC want him in there representing them? Good god, imagine if Nick Diaz won their lightweight belt! The assclownery would rise to staggering heights!
Seriously, though, all this chatter is just bullshit. The guy's only been idle two months. Big Nog (despite being on TUF 8) has been idle since February. So fuck, calm down. Breath. What Fabricio Camoes has to say about anything at all at this point in his career means very, very little. Props to him for try to build himself up, though.

man o man

SLOW FUCKING DAY. it's so slow that I actually believed that Jared Shaw and fucking Mark Dion verbally spewing diarrhea on each other was interesting.
I need to get out more.

• Kenny Florian Accusing Roger Huerta of Greasing Up Bloody Elbow


• Sengoku 4 Preview: Ryan Schultz BE again


• Cyborg Soldier Movie Review at Fightlinker


• Videos: Hamill on Franklin, Rogan on the Rape Choke, + More from Cagepotato.com

I can post links! I did just now!

Noons "ducking" Diaz? Please.

Image property Tom Casino/EliteXC

Lots of places are reporting on Jared Shaw's weak-ass smack talk on KJ Noons. They're swallowing the whole thing like chumps. According to Shaw, Noons "won't even pick up the phone" or some shit. I'd say that if a professional fighter with a management company isn't picking up calls from a promoter, it's because they've exhausted their options in some way or another. Or it's a ploy for more money, which is exactly what Shaw is doing.

Left to right: Jared Shaw, a penis. Separated at birth? Compelling...if true.
First off, all of the hot air coming out over this is from the lips of Jared Fucking Shaw. There's a few people out there who just hate KJ Noons, mainly jackass potheads from central CA (the third state of California...I so wish they'd secede), because he totally destroyed their mush-mouthed whiny pothead hero. Jared Shaw opens his mouth and they happily repeat whatever he says because it validates what they think already, not because it has any merit on its own. We don't know if it has merit: we don't know what's really going on. Is there a big-time dispute over contract language? Did Gary Shaw show up with no pants on at KJ's cousin's bar mitzvah? Did the Noons camp suddenly realize they couldn't work with a diseased scabies mound like Jared Shaw? We don't know. So to yap that anyone's ducking anyone without all the information is stupid.

Second, a lot of folks think this EliteXC CBS card coming up is the be-all, end-all of MMA in the entire history of the universe. It's not. It's important for EXC, and for MMA journalists who stand to make a better living if the thing goes mainstream, and for fans who are deeply invested. But if EXC fails, that just means that there's more fighters for other orgs and the price goes down. I have zero doubt that right now Noons' management is basically trying to soak every penny they can out of EXC. I doubt they'd agree that the sun was up if it may cost them a buck.
That of course is just my opinion. Could be that Noons is fucking terrified of Diaz, and hides under his bed shivering if he hears anyone lisping nearby. BUT WE DON'T KNOW. That's the point. I'm not taking anything Shaw says at face value. His interests do not lay with the truth. They lay with making as much money as he can. A big time repeating network deal can make him fuckin' truckloads of money (more power to him I suppose. Take care of your fucking employees though, prick), and that is what needs to be considered when reading what he says. Just like you can parse everything Dick Cheney says in relation to his love of eating tiny helpless babies alive, you can parse everything either Shaw says with their love of making stinking oodles of cash.

Can Faber get up for Brown?

One thing about smaller promotions is often questionable title fight matchups...and when you have a world-class pound-for-pound guy like Urijah Faber in a relatively rinky-dink org like the WEC, it can be exacerbated. Case in point: Mike Brown vs. Faber for the WEC 145lb belt September 10.
No way am I saying Brown is not a valid opponent...his record is fine at 17-4, with his only losses coming against the upper echelon of fighters: Hermes Franca in his pro debut, Genki Sudo (I've been installing Linux lately and seeing "sudo" makes me wonder what I need superuser privs for), Imanari (via leglock, duh) and the feisty Joe Lauzon (all his losses are by sub). He's got a few quality wins (I am not familiar with every fighter, so obviously at a given time an opponent could have been ranked higher), Yves Edwards, Jeff Curran, and Mark Hominick. He's a veteran with skills.
The issue is Urijah Faber. He appears to be a hardcore fighter who loves it for the sake of it. But so did Chuck Liddell going in against Keith Jardine. I realize they're different fighters at different points in their careers, but you gotta admit that Liddell didn't get up for Jardine, came in with no gameplan other than "knock this ugly fucker out" and looked pretty befuddled losing a decision, despite abrading Jardine pretty badly. Is there a fighter who can come in against Faber and do the same thing? While Urijah is one of the most aggressive fighters to ever step in the cage, aggression CAN be countered by a skilled & prepared opponent.
So it's possible that someone can face Faber with a smart plan and beat him. Likely? Probably not...not without some luck. Faber's only loss was to Tyson Griffin, and that came fighting over his natural weight and after a freak cut on the cage. The far more likely scenario is Faber getting a taste of mainstream fame and reading his own press. I don't care how dedicated an athlete you are, that stuff can get in your head. High-level athletics also naturally selects for super-confident individuals who may have a hard time seeing their own weaknesses (see Shamrock, Ken and Hughes, Matt)...combine any slipping with overconfidence and you have the making of an upset.
Urijah Faber has won with his energy, speed, strength, and grappling...as if that wasn't enough, he went in and beat Jens Pulver with his standup game, of all things. He had a BJJ black belt on his back for most of a round and looked like he was waiting for his dry cleaning, it worried him so little. Chance Farrar was clowned, and he's a tough-ass fighter. Norifumi Yammamoto for a while was seen as a dream fight, but he's been getting injured lately, who knows where Kid Dynamite is right now. The only fighter in the world who can beat Faber at this point at featherweight is Faber. There are some compelling fights from different weight classes for sure (Tyson Griffin rematch, Frankie Edgar, Imanari, Torres, etc), but as far as the 145 lb class is concerned, Faber is King. The only thing that occurs to me as a possible reason for him to stay totally focused would be the rumors of a WEC-UFC merger or whatever the story du jour happens to be...is he still in the WEC because of the lure of feature stories on ESPN, PPV millions, and UFC glory? Because right now Faber in the WEC is lamer than cornrows on a white guy. Hopefully we get to see him step up to the highest levels in his prime, and not later. The sport is ready for a guy like Faber, and so is the mainstream public. The best answer is a 145lb division in the UFC.

ShoXC on friday

Watched with charles and des and ikoi. suganuma vs. hamman was a decent fight, poorly called by the PBP guys. the cyril diabate was just OK. the rest of the fights didn't really light me on fire. Still, decently put together. I'll not cancel Showtime for another week.

google reader blues

One problem with MMA right now is its size...relative to a lot of other sports it's in its infancy. There's simply not a whole lot of news every day, unlike say baseball, with its MLB, minor league, college, high school, and other teams, and hundreds of players who may at any second go insane or kill someone or do something else that's newsworthy. So some days, you end up with only a couple notable stories. Today it's Rampage's arraignment being delayed. I've seen that in my newsreader (google reader) at least 15 times today. It's barely news. But there it is again! Due to the vagaries of RSS feeds I'll probably be getting it for the next five days. Sherdog's in particular seems to update in spurts...nothing all day, then 50 stories in a row. Like they're jacking off into my google. How dare you!
Well, there's a ShoXC card later tonight, hopefully it doesn't suck. If anything happens, I'll fuckin' blog about it! Yeah! WOOO!

Oh please

Fightlinker has an "Open letter to Kenny Florian" up on their site, where they criticize Kenny for a number of things.
I disagree with the whole letter. Kenny put together a great fight plan, and whipped a kid who had rolled through almost everyone in front of him. While It may not have been the most exciting for some, it was effective above all.
Here's the scoring criteria (from NSAC):

7. Thus for all Judges scoring UFC fights, the prioritized order of evaluating criteria is:
-clean strikes and effective grappling are weighed first.
-octagon control
-effective aggressiveness

Note the insertion of the word "effective". While Huerta may have been more aggressive, he was certainly, by a wide margin, less effective.
One can make and argument that aggressiveness should count for more, and I'm fine with that. But the criteria is what it is, and if a fighter dominates a fight within the scoring criteria he (or she) didn't merely "not lose", they won. I mean, what are they looking for, people who put their heads down and swing their arms in windmills? Like a second grade "I'm going to swing my arm and if it hits you it's your fault" fight? Yes, you want people trying to finish. But the fighter's the one who decides when he/she can try to finish the opponent.
This applies to Lyoto Machida, too, a guy many people seem to really hate. I don't feel that way, as I've said in the past. I think the guy is pretty incredible, and I hope he gets a title shot soon.

whoa

I've been ignoring this little son of a bitch haven't I? Vacation, life, etc. Too much yakking on Fightlinker. Wev!
I just noticed they're putting up fight-worn gear from Forrest Griffin for auction.
Fight-Worn Forrest Griffin Gear Being Auctioned Off for Charity
Seeing that made me think about the fact that Griffin's win didn't really fill me with joy. His beatdown of Shogun, I was just thrilled. It was awesome, the guy showed a ton of heart and a huge tank and went for the finish. The win over Rampage was just...tame by comparison. It wasn't very interesting. Griffin's persona is OK, his story is all right, but for some reason the "TUF guy wins the belt" thing didn't do much for me. What is he, the third TUF competitor to get a title shot after the show? Second to win it. I guess it depends on who he defends against, and how he does. Seems unlikely they'll give him a powderpuff opponent, or that he'd accept one.
I don't know what it is about that fight, but it left me feeling a bit uninterested, like I wasn't really engaged in the first place. Kind of like BJ's win over Sherk. OK, it's cool that he won, and he was pretty dominant, I hold nothing against the guy, great work. But overjoyed? Even excited? Nope.
Hopefully GSP and Fitch put on a good show this weekend. I wouldn't mind seeing Herring-Lesnar go a couple rounds. I have a feeling Heath is going to find a way to win this fight. He's a tough dude with a whole lot of experience. We'll have to see.
Kenny Florian-Roger Huerta is being talked up like a FOY candidate...I don't know about that. I think Kenny's going to walk all over this kid. Huerta's got a bright future, but so did Joe Lauzon, and you see what happened to him, eh?