White boys from the Midwest

Sam Caplan at Five Oz. of Pain has a post talking about Bob Arum being interviewed about MMA. In it Arum claims that the UFC is just a bunch of "white boys from the Midwest" and that "50-60%" are using banned substances. I have problems with both of those characterizations.
First off, the white boys from the Midwest point. I could care less if it was, frankly, if those were the best fighters in the world. It's simply not true, however. Though there's a good representation of Midwest white boys fighting in UFC and every MMA promotion, it's because of merit. There are some of the greatest wrestling programs in the world in the Midwest, at Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa State, and so on and so on.
I'll use one page of the UFC fighters list as a sample. It may or may not be perfectly representative, but I don't really want to go through every page right now.
This page goes A through some of the E's:

Abbadi Danny 2-2-0 5' 11" (180 cm) 185 (84 kg)
Ultimate Fighter castmember, kind of an idiot. Sadly, niether white nor midwestern. Orlabdo FL

Alessio John 25-11-0 5' 10" (178 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Possibly midwestern, but a differnt country. Definitely white tho.

Alexander Houston 7-1-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Good lord! A midwesterner! Omaha NE. He also matches the male criteria, but comes up short on whiteness.

Alves Thiago 16-4-0 5' 8" (173 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Fortaleza, Fortaleza, Brazil. Brazil is noted for having a lot of non-Midwesterners roaming around, not doing Midwestern things. Same nickname as the next guy, "Pitbull".

Arlovski Andrei 12-5-0 6' 4" (193 cm) 240 (109 kg)
I didn't look it up yet, but I'm gambling he's Russian. No! The Pitbull is Belarussian. However, he is white, male, and fights out of Chicago, which is in the Midwest. I don't think that "international Sambo practitioner" is what Arum was driving at, however.

Assuncao Junior 5-2-0 5' 9" (175 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Looks male and white. From Atlanta GA, according the UFC's site. Funny note: Under strengths, lists, "heart". Damn, that's rough.

Aurelio Marcus 14-4-0 5' 10" (178 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Coconut Creek FL. Originally from Brazil. Beat Gomi in a non-title fight.

Baroni Phil 6-5-0 5' 9" (175 cm) 184 (83 kg)
Long Island NY. The New York Bad Ass is known for gassing in the late rounds, not eating deep-fried things at county fairs. Though I bet he would, especially if he could have a smoke and a beer with it.

Belcher Alan 10-3-0 6' 2" (188 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Born Arkansas (Midwest!) fights out of Biloxi MS. Damn, so close. Recently beat Sean Salmon after taking the fight on about 15 minutes notice and moving up to light heavy. Sean Salmon has no luck.

Belfort Vitor 12-5-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 205 (93 kg)
I'm guessing this fellow may be from abroad. The Phenom was born in Rio de Janeiro. I think thats in Kansas.

Berube Allen 2-1-0 5' 8" (173 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Misses the region completely. born in Maine, trains in Tampa FL. Also nicknamed "Monstah Lobstah". Should be banned forever from fighting for his acts on TUF and for his insipid nickname.

Bisping Michael 14-0-0 6' 2" (188 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Definitely white...born, sadly for Bob, in Liverpool England.

Black Jason 22-2-1 5' 8" (173 cm) 155 (70 kg)
BINGO! Born in Iowa, trains in Iowa. Midwesterner, white, male. Nailed it Bob!

Bocek Mark 4-0-0 5' 8" (173 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Stupid wrong country again.

Bonnar Stephan 12-4-0 6' 4" (193 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Munster, IN , USA...that is pretty Midwestern.

Braga Wander 16-0-0 5' 8" (173 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Brown Mike 9-3-0 5' 6" (168 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Portland, Maine

Bruno Steve 12-3-0 5' 10" (178 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Born Brooklyn NY, fights out of Coconut Creek FL

Buentello Paul 20-9-0 6' 2" (188 cm) 235 (107 kg)
Amarillo TX

Burkman Josh 19-4-0 5' 10" (178 cm) 170 (77 kg)
The SLC, UT

Byrnes Steve 6-1-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 185 (84 kg)
Born in Cleveland! fights out of Hawaii though, noted for its lack of whiteys not wearing tourist gear.

Carneiro Roan 11-5-0 5' 9" (175 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Carter Shonie 66-14-7 5' 9" (175 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Chicago IL. Deceidely not white tho. The blinged pimp goblet gave that away.

Caudillo Luke 15-7-0 5' 7" (170 cm) 155 (70 kg)
North Platte, NE. Midwestern also. Lacking in whiteness. Bob's theory is looking not only stupid, but pathetic so far. What do you say to fighters who work hard, and prefect techinque, and show all this heart and effort, and get dismissed by some corrupt old scumbag like Bob Arum? Who's white, I'm afraid to say.

Chalangov Ansar 7-2-0 5' 11" (180 cm) 170 (77 kg)
2-3 isn't bad I guess. It just says "Russia" on his profile page.

Christison Dan 8-5-0 6' 8" (203 cm) 265 (120 kg)
Born LA CA, fighting out of Albequerque.

Clementi Rich 34-12-1 5' 9" (175 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Edison NJ

Combs Wes 12-2-0 6' 2" (188 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Victorville CA

Cote Patrick 11-4-0 5' 11" (180 cm) 185 (84 kg)
Rimouski, Quebec, Canada

Couture Randy 15-8-0 6' 2" (188 cm) 220 (100 kg)
Everett, WA

Cox Jeff 13-3-0 6' 4" (193 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Cleveland, OH There's one!

Crane Alberto 8-0-0 5' 9" (175 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Santa Fe NM

Cro Cop Mirko 22-5-2 6' 2" (188 cm) 220 (100 kg)
Zagreb Croatia

Crocota Edilberto 10-0-1 6' 0" (183 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Camp Formoso, Bahia, Brazil

Cruz Marcio 2-2-0 6' 4" (193 cm) 246 (112 kg)
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Cummo Luke 8-4-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Long Island, New York, USA

Curran Jeff 16-6-1 5' 6" (168 cm) 150 (68 kg)
Woodstock, Illinois, USA Another one!

Davis Rick 3-1-1 5' 9" (175 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Los Angeles, California

Davis Marcus 17-4-0 5' 10" (178 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Houlton, ME

Dent Jason 12-8-0 5' 9" (175 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Madison, OH Another one!

DeSouza Tony 9-3-0 6' 1" (185 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Lima, Peru The Peruvians make an appearance

Dewees Edwin 34-10-0 6' 1" (185 cm) 185 (84 kg)
Phoenix, AZ

Diaz Nick 14-6-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 170 (77 kg)
Stockton, California

Diaz Nathan 5-2-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Stockton, California

Doerksen Joe 27-8-0 6' 0" (183 cm) 185 (84 kg)
New Bothwell, Manitoba, Canada

Drwal Tomasz 14-1-0 6' 1" (185 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Krakow, Poland. With a good midwestern name like Tomasz....

Eastman Marvin 13-7-1 5' 9" (175 cm) 205 (93 kg)
Merced, California

Edgar Frank 6-0-0 5' 6" (168 cm) 155 (70 kg)
Summit, NJ

Edwards Yves 28-10-1 5' 9" (175 cm) 155 (70 kg)
The Woodlands, TX

Eilers Justin 9-5-1 6' 1" (185 cm) 235 (107 kg)
Nampa, Idaho

OK, thats 51 fighters. Decent number. Let's see what the numbers show.
8 are white and listed as being born in the Midwest, or fighting out of it if no birthplace was listed. Two of those are born in the midwest but fight elsewhere. so I'll be generous and say 8. that's 15.68% of the sample that is "White boys from the Midwest". Given that aproximately 65 million people live in what's generally defined as the Midwest, that is a good percentage, since something like 6 billion people live in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it puts a definitive lie to Arum's claims that they're all the UFC has to offer.

He also claims "50-60%" of fighters test positive for banned substances. Though I don't have the resources to do this quickly, I pretty strongly feel this is incorrect on its face. I recall several high-profile cases of people showing up positive, obviously Stephen Bonnar, Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca. I can't think of too many others, though I'm positive they've happened. Sherdog shows the UFC as having put on 11 events this year, with six more to come so far. That's 90 fights this year. From what I know, 2 fighters have tested positive in the UFC. One event from what I can gather was not tested, that's the UFC event in London, "Nations Collide". So take those 10 out. 80 fights, 2 positives, one under appeal. Look, I'm no statistician, but I can pretty plainly see that is not "50-60%".
So none of Bob Arum's points are true. He's a senile moron who should not be given any credibility at all.
Good night Bob.

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.

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

What about Josh Barnett?

I started to think about the Heavyweights in MMA, and it struck me that we haven't heard a thing about Josh Barnett, former UFC Heavyweight champ. His own site JoshBarnett.tv, has precious little info. It does have a lot of pics of Josh. Anyone have any tips?

San Caplan has not one...

but TWO MMA interviews up.
Phil Baroni ^Sherdog, who's fighting Frank Shamrock this Friday, and Manny Gamburyan ^Sherdog, who's fighting Nate Diaz for the Ultimate Fighter 5 title this Saturday. I'm rooting for Manny.

Here's Baroni on Shamrock, from Sam's Five Ounces of Pain blog on cbssportsline.com:

As a person, he's not a good guy -- I think he's a scumbag, and I think he's an idiot. I really don't respect him as a person. I think he's a horrible businessman who f---s with a lot of people. He tries to play by his own rules. He's not honorable at all. I think he's a hypocrite in what he says.

Phil droppin' the f-bombs. The funny part is right before that he mentions how he respects Shamrock as a fighter.

I recommend reading and also following Sam's blog. Good stuff with sources, like, you know, and actual journalist!

Dean o' Mean

While his most recent result, against Houston Alexander, was...uh...less than impressive, Keith Jardine had three fights in a row which were very impressive. He lost via decision to Stephen Bonnar, which I still cannot fathom how that came about, as Jardine whipped his ass for all but about 2 minutes of that fight, and had a win over Wilson Gouveia which impressed the heck out of me, and a picture-perfect devastation of Forest Griffin, ending it with what my friends and I called the "Hand of God"...reaching his hand up as far as he could and dropping it like massive thunderbolts on Griffin's helplessly-flopping melon. Of course, he came out and got his keister handed to him by a little-heralded 4-1 underdog who was a late replacement and a man who impressed the heck out of me.
So where does that leave Jardine? he's in the light heavyweight division, currently stocked with pretty much the best fighters in the world. Rampage, Shogun, Chuck, and Hendo to name the best four light heavies in the game today. Add to that guys like Wanderlei Sliva, Rashad Evans, Stephen Bonnar, Forest Griffin, and Tito Ortiz...and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Vitor Belfort, Michael Bisping, Ricardo Arona, Jason Lambert, Babalu Sobral, and Jeremy Horn, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Little Nog)....whew. Jardine's place also depends on whether Brandon Vera decides to fight in light heavy permanently. When's that guy going to fight again anyways?
Jardine's shown heart in his fights, great takedown defense, and technical expertise with an unortodox style. His fight against Gouveia had a great example of strategic adjustment mid-round, after losing the first round Jardine switched up and took the dude apart with pinpoint strikes and his bread-and-butter viscious leg kicks. Of course, Gouveia's rumored crap cardio comes into play here too... As I mentioned before, I feel like he absolutely destroyed Bonnar, that's one of the worst judges' calls I've ever seen. True, Bonnar nearly knocked him out, but still, that doesn't count more than 13 minutes of total domination. Bonnar could barely walk!
Ah well. My personal top light heavies would go like this:
1) Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
2) Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
3) Dan "Hollywood" Henderson
4) Chuck Liddell
5) Wanderlei Silva
6) Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
7) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
8) Ricardo Arona
9) Kazuhiro Nakamura
10) Tito "If I couldn't talk shit, I'd be silent" Ortiz

There's a lot of caveats in there, and a few fights coming up that will change things. I put Shogun on top because he beat Jackson badly. Jackson did a good job on Chuck, but I thought it was an a-typical result. Of course, if you beat a guy twice, the typical result for your sample size is you beat that guy. I had a hard time not putting The Pride of Murrieta higher, with no head-to-head showdown with Shogun. Dan holds two belts. He beat the living hell out of Wanderlei. He beats people up. He has shown inconsistency in the past.

But that's my top ten and I'll live with it. If Tito loses to Rashad he's off, but I don't know who I put up there in his place...I mean, what, Rashad? Not proven in a lot of ways. It's a hard thing for me to figure, since I don't have the long experience of other commenters. I'll ask for anyone who happens by to give me their list, and I dig feedback. As for Jardine, the point of this whole thing, I'd say he's somewhere down around 13-14th right now, maybe a notch lower after getting whupped. But every fighter gets whupped. That's what fighting is all about: getting your ass kicked, and coming back strong. We all get beat up, every day. These guys just do it with fists, and knees, and bad-ass flying guard passes.

Bodog on ION

whatching the Bodog show on ION from Costa Rica, they've shown Nick "The Goat" Thompson vs. a guy named Denes who doesn't show up on Sherdog, and Eddie Alvarez vs. Henze. Nick and Eddie dominated, and they're going to show the pay-per-view from the Fedor-Lindland event from a couple months ago that I watched with my brother. Alvarez is a pretty interesting fighter...I'd like to see him in the UFC some day. He got dominated by Thompson in that fight tho, and Thompson won the "belt" for Bodog's Welterweight division. rewatching this bout, there's no damn way Thompson should be a welterweight...he's 6'1" and Alvarez looks like a midget...I guess if a guy cuts weight...
The first round on a second viewing was closer than I remembered. But still, I'd like to see Thompson as a middleweight. He's got great standup and he's a crafty fighter...Thompson vs. Spider Silva might be a good fight.

onion UFC article

it's jokes man. They take down articles pretty regularly, so i'll copy it below. Trademarkcopyrightblahblahblah theonion.com don't sue!

Sportsgraphic
May 31, 2007 | Onion Sports
Ultimate Fighting Championship's Popularity
As Ultimate Fighting continues its phenomenal rise, Onion Sports runs down the most commonly cited reasons for the sport's popularity:

America's deep abiding interest in Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Professional wrestling fans like to relax and watch it after long hard days of suspending their disbelief

The fact that this shit is actually legal

Accidentally TiVo'd by people hoping to watch the Ultimate Frisbee Championship

Are heterosexual males; nothing more heterosexual than watching a well-muscled man force himself between another man's legs, mount him, and pound away at him until he submits

Because the ability to escape an arm bar isn't merely a fighting technique but a metaphor for how, in these difficult times, all Americans are trying their best to escape

Unlike many sports, has useful applications in one's home and workplace

Nice to see someone else getting their ass kicked for once

Easy touchstone for doomsayers decrying the degradation of American culture

Although detractors decry it as a brutal, bloody form of human cockfighting, aficionados know it is a brutal, bloody, totally fucking awesome form of human cockfighting

interesting TUF note

just randomly wandering through Sherdog as is the norm, and I noticed that Rob (best fight we've ever had!) Emerson had already fought his opposing coach Jens Pulver way back in his first fight in 2002. Of course, this was Rob's first pro fight in an org called "Ultimate Wrestling", and Pulver's...fifteenth, after he'd already posted wins over B.J. Penn, Caol Uno, and Joe "Daddy" Stevenson. It's easy to forget that MMA has been going on for quite a while, and that a lot of fighters have a long history in promotions other than the "Big Two" Pride and UFC. Jens is a good example, but Joe "Daddy" is a good one too...with 34 professional MMA fights under his belt, Stevenson has fought some real fighters: Mishima, Guillard, Neer, Cummo, Denny, Dewees, and Jens. So before we saw him lay a brutal choke on an over excited Melvin recently, he had a long and impressive resume as a mixed martial artist. The way the UFC promotes fighters, you'd think they were making their debuts when they enter the Octagon.
I'd recommend doing a search on any fighters you're interested in on Sherdog, Wikipedia, and of course Google to see what else they've been up to. You may run into some interesting results. Also, consider finding a way of contributing to the great free sites like Wikipedia. They're an amazing resource that costs very little to access, and it's a good feeling to help them get better. A LOT of articles on combat sports originate in non-English-speaking countries, and it's a small thing to help, say, clean up an article about a kickboxer or SAMBO champ you admire.

damn

Okay...Sean Salmon, who i've taken a distinct liking to from his "Full Time Fighter" posts at UFCJunkie.com, had an opponent cancel due to injury less than two weeks before UFC 71. And then another opponent steps up. Up for the fight, and up a weight class. This could be a brutal pummeling inflicted by Salmon...he's a very, very strong wrestler, with outstanding body control. Alan Belcher is a game fighter, but I don't see him standing up to Salmon for more than a round. He'll be out of breath completely unless he keeps it on the feet and strikes with Sean.
So, not as good a fight, but a fight, and after watching Sean train (through the magic of the tubes) for the last few months, I'm happy for him to get his time in the cage. I'm bummed for Eric Shafer, who by all accounts is a good guy, and for Belcher, who by all accounts should get his head caved in fighting light heavy on two weeks notice. Of course, I thought Babalu would destroy Jason Lambert....

shows what I know. Good luck Sean, let the chips'n'punches fall where they may.

The Smashing Machine

I am at this moment watching a DVD called The Smashing Machine, which tells the story of a few years of Mark Kerr's fighting career. So far we've seen his introduction to MMA from wrestling, his successes in UFC and Pride, and his battle with drug addiction. I'm at this moment watching him beat Enson Inoue in the 2000 Pride GP's first round. The raw emotion of this film is very affecting. Seeing the legends like Coleman, Vovvchanchyn, Rutten, Wanderlei Silva, and Royce Gracie just casually walking around makes it seem kind of unreal. The backstage and training footage is amazing, the sounds are unbelievable.
There was a scene where Coleman and Kerr were waiting during a pre-fight press conference of some kind, and Coleman is staring at Kerr, with pure pain in his eyes. They're both in the tournament, and you can see Mark Coleman praying to any god he can think of to not have to fight Mark Kerr.
They really are careful, tender almost about his drug use, and his fights and conflict with his girlfriend Dawn.
Well not right just now..."...As far as me having a couple beers, every now and again...what's the big deal? I was jamming needles into my arm ten times a day."
They do a VERY good job of showing the sheer drudgery of training. Over and over, up the stairs with a weight vest on, kicking the pad until you're staggering tired, situps, weights, running, grappling. I imagine all of the tasks that I do day after day in my job, repeating the same or similar movements and mental exercises, and think, could I possibly handle this kind of pure physical strain, and the mental fortitude it takes to handle it? Kerr handled with drugs before, they're showing him (as far as I know to this point) handling it sober.
The way they portray Bas Rutten is interesting too, as a concerned mentor. He's one of the original MMA superstars, and continues to be a figure in it though his fighting time is slowing to a trickle, through announcing and commentary, as well as training. So to think of him with a camera in front of him as a concerned mentor with no other thoughts seems a bit disingenuous. He is a media figure.
They're showing the second round of the Pride GP, Coleman's bout, and Kerr watching. Coleman delivers body shots that make huge contusions on his opponent's ribs...and wins a decision. I can look up all these fights on Sherdog, of course. I lie this set up.
Kerr enters the ring against Fujita. Fujjita has a thicker skull than other humans. He is legend in his ability to take punishment. The Smashing Machine delivers massive blows after taking his man down. Fujita take sKerr down, takes his back and delivers punishment. kerr turtles up. The ref watches...the movei goes to soundtrack with no ambient. Fujita is merciless with knees to the body. The fight ends with Kerr on the ground eating knees and punches, and Fujita wins the decision.
Showing Coleman Vovchanchyn's final match, interposed over Kerr getting a wicked cut in his chin stitched up. Coleman has Igor on his back and delivers vicious knees to the head (now illegal) from north-south. I know we've all seen this before, but it's like I'm seeing it all over again. Coleman wins the tournament, and the $200,000, which will feed the mouths he talks about.
I'm gaining a greater respect for Mark Coleman and his work and training. The man was pretty well dominant for his time, and he beat some great fighters. The juxtaposition of his victory and Mark Kerr's wounds being tended to after his loss was heartbreaking. Marrk has not fought since July 2001, states the documentary, but Sherdog, as usual, has the updated facts. Mark has fought six times since the loss to Fujita, with a record of 1-6, losses coming from Heath Herring, Mike Whitehead, and Vovchanchyn. Five straight losses.
The credits end with "In Loving Memory of Bubba T. Moose".
DVD extras...
Bonus Film, "Fight Day". Renzon Gracie in a wild and wolly ring, with screaming fans and some great ju-jitsu. Renzo lives in New Jersey. I've seen him talking about it on IFL broadcasts. He has an infectious smile...you want to grin with him.
I'd recommend the hell out of this whole DVD. Amazing. The rawness of it stunned me a little...that is one facet of MMA and combat sports in general that I've always loved, so I was waiting for it, but it was still powerful. These men are unbelievable athletes and to see them humbled like this, and not being able to walk away from it and watch the winner like they do in MMA & boxing broadcasts, it makes a difference.

You know what sucks?

UFCJunkie.com has a "no-spoiler" policy in effect for the UFC event tonight in England, since they're showing it on tape delay in the USA. But Sherdog.com doesn't. So if someone saving the fights from UFC 70 for later, someone like me, goes to sherdog.com to look up, say, BJ Penn's record since they're watching Penn highlights on Youtube, they'll see a shocking result.
That just screws my whole viewing enjoyment.

This weekend

Lots o' stuff.

04/21/07 Shooto Professional Shooto 2007
04/21/07 CW Cage Wars
04/21/07 UFC 70 Nations Collide
04/21/07 CR 21 Judgement Day
04/21/07 No Limits Proving Ground
From Sherdog.com

Looks good. There's one next weekend for KOTC, I'm going to see if I can get up to Soboba for it.

NCFC

I'm trying to track down info on North County Fight Club _Sherdog.com to feature on the site. Manny Rodriguez, KOTC Heavyweight champ, and Jason Lambert, who recently busted my card by beating the living hell out of Renato Sobral (who beat Shogun, by the way), are current fighters for NCFC, as well as Eddie Sanchez, who was recently TKO'd by Mr. Cro Cop. That is not the last you'll hear from Sanchez, in any event. Rest assured that I'll post anything I hear.
I met Manny at the pub in San Marcos, Churchill's, and frankly have not run into a more mellow, laid-back big guy in a while. You know, it's the guys who just chill and could care less that you have to be the most careful about. Like "Ha, sure, take a shit on my head, what does it matter? Enjoy your rehab!" then your arm is across the street in the baseball field. Just thinking.

just thinking

I was reading UFCJunkie and some rumors pointing strongly to a St. Pierre-Koscheck matchup to determine who gets a shot at the welterweight crown and the thought came rushing back:

Welterweight Champ Matt "The Terra" Serra


Image from http://www.fcfighter.com/

Still messes with my head.

UFC & Pride Saturday/Sunday

Quickies...
UFC
• MATT SERRA? THE TERRA? OH...MA....GAWRD.
• What the hell happened to Diego Sanchez? I didn't think he was afraid of anyone in the world, and he looked positively timid in the ring against Koscheck. Boring fight!
• Garcia v. Huerta! What a battle! We were standing and cheering, my youngest brother was jacked up.
• Kendall Grove looked good.
• I won the jackpot, and my sister stiffed me. I didn't even get my $5 back. She was bitter that I'd won the poker game we played earlier (Winning $55 in a nickle game is pretty kickass, I have to admit). You know, I was never bitter when she nailed my ass to the wall at earlier fight night games. SO fooey. I did manage to pick 6 out of 9 fights dead on tho. Thanks to Performify at UFCjunkie.com. I was wrong (with everyone else) on Serra-St. Pierre, Koscheck-Sanchez, and I picked Garcia over Huerta. Though by the end of the fight I didn't care who won, that's what we watch MMA for, in a lot of good ways. Congrats to those two dudes for bringing it!
• Sanchez-Koscheck may have been just as surprising as Serra-St.P. I mean, who would have thought these two action guys would do their best Tim Sylvia impersonations, standing and jabbing for three rounds? Of course we had to swallow that crap for five rounds when Sylvia had the belt. Just an aside: THANK YOU RANDY.
• I think everyone saw the smile on Matt Hughes' face when Serra took out GSP, but is it warranted? Does he deserve and immediate shot at Serra, or should he still rematch with GSP? Part of me says give someone entirely new the next shot, the other part has to constantly be reminded about how long Hughes defended his belt and how hard he fights. I'm undecided.
PRIDE
• It didn't come on until WAY after midnight. The production values were pretty poor, often with some simple graphic left up for long periods of time. Soukodjou was impressive, knocking out Arona in the first round with a viscious uppercut. This kid looks good but my bro asked me: Who does he fight? Fedor? Fedor would DEVASTATE Soukodjou. But I thought Nog would too, soo.....
• Butterbean apparently didn't fight. My brother was sad (everyone else was pretty much passed the hell out, and I was on my way...drinking and poker and a whole fight card had passed already...), a little, but I didn't notice (see parenthetical note)
• I was excited to see Zelg Galesic fight in the big ring, and he really didn't disappoint, even showing us the feared sack drop on Takimoto's face, but it didn't work out in the end, and he was submitted. His strikes are still awesome though. He's a kid.
• Frye, Shinjo, two old guys who got whupped. James Thompson has almost no striking power, and got dropped in the first ten seconds, but Frye soon gassed and was whacked in the grill repeatedly. He eventually gave up his back and the ref stepped in. Everyone kept joking that he looked better than Donna Frye, our San Diego councilwoman. I think her moustache is a little less distinctive.
• The founder of Pride brought out two old school rivals in Sakuraba and Tanamura, with Sakuraba in a weird mask the whole time. Then he talked for about 74 hours. They would not stop talking. On and on. My word.

More as I think it over.

So-so UFN

Okay, I thought I'd weigh in briefly on last night's Ultimate Fight Night & TUF 5.

• Kenny Florian is cool. I liked him early and I still like him. He was fired up after that fight, screaming his head off. Anyone know what he was saying? I couldn't make it out. He showed tremendous brains & heart in that fight, getting snagged in the knee bar and escaping. The near tapout was very dramatic, and Florian/Mishima was the best fight of the night.

• Rogan made a great point about Ken-Flo: He's a normal guy who works really hard. I think that's why I like him. I hope he gets another shot at Sherk, or whoever the title holder is. Florian/Franca might be freaking great.

• Guillard has to watch his damn melon. He pretty much stuck his head in there like he was begging to be choked out.

• McNully/Hardonk was boring as hell. Ranks above, slightly, Herring/O'Brien in boredom and ineptitude.

• TUF 5 looks like it'll be loud, but maybe not awesome. The kids seem like they're putting on a show for the cameras, like all of them do. As of now I'm going to Tivo through to the fights, but we'll see.

• Can't wait for Jens and BJ to fight. There's still some prime smack flying.

• The team Jens brought with him to TUF looks great.

• Jens and Lauzon being together has already been mentioned, but is it weird that both of these guys are training fighters they'll possibly have to throw leather with? The whole thing seems set up to make everyone spaz out as much as possible. I guess that's the point.

• This interview with Joe Daddy is pretty good.

More as I think of it.

Total Combat Xtreme Fight Card

I got an email from Total Combat with the fight card for their upcoming event here in San Diego. Sherdog.com is the greatest.

Total Combat April 13th @ The 4th & B
Fight Card

1. Richard Dalton VS Ray "The Big Easy" Seraille – Heavyweight

2. Frank Salgado VS Virgil "Corn" Zwicker – 210lbs

3. Diego Cardijo VS Eric Urek – 155lbs

4. Tony Velarde VS Josh Griggs – Heavyweight

5. Ryan Bixler VS Mike Granche – 155lbs

6. Paul Ingrassia VS Joey Beltran – Heavyweight

7. Joshua Williams VS Mario Rivera – 170lbs

8. Courtney Thomas VS Jose Martinez – Heavyweight

9. Tony Roberts VS Paulie Ascala – Heavyweight

Card Subject to Change

I did a quick look around sherdog.com's fight finder (awesome resource) and found a few of the fighters. I'll take a more in-depth look and see if I can contact some of the fighters and get some words to put up here. I'm going to try and get down to this one, since its so close to my house. Stay tuned!

This weekend

As I mentioned before, this weekend is crazy. Here's the "Upcoming Events" sidebar at Sherdog.com:

» 4/5/2007 - UFC: Fight Night 9
» 4/6/2007 - CITC 2: CHAOS IN THE CAGE 2
» 4/7/2007 - IFL: Moline
» 4/7/2007 - UFC 69: Shootout
» 4/7/2007 - American Bushido: 2007 Grand Prix Semifinals
» 4/7/2007 - Turf Wars III: Extreme Fury
» 4/7/2007 - Warriors Cup: Stockton (myspace page...)

There's an assload of MMA stuff on myspace, which is good, I suppose, for the fighters and promotions, but not so good for the users. There's not much worse interface, design, etc on the web than myspace, AND it's owned by the reprehensible NEWS Corp & Rupert "Repressive Regimes are my BBF!" Murdoch. Meh.
That list doesn't even mention the fact that you can get PRIDE 34 at midnight on PPV and that the Ultimate Fighter 5 starts after UFNL on Spike! I'm hyperventilating a bit waiting for this evening. Even though I'll miss mc chris...some sacrifices must be made. Here's Performify from UFCJunkie.com running down some of the fights at Fight Night Live tonight.

Rich Franklin has been reported as fighting Martin Kampmann (from Sherdog.com):

The next chapter in Rich Franklin's (Pictures) quest to regain the UFC middleweight crown will unfold on June 16 Sherdog.com has learned, when "Ace" faces Martin Kampmann (Pictures) in the main event of UFC's first foray into Ireland.
In his return to the Octagon after losing the belt to Anderson Silva, the 32-year-old Franklin easily stopped Jason MacDonald (Pictures) in early March. On that same card Kampmann, 24, endured Drew McFedries' power before winning by arm-triangle choke.
Having won each of his three UFC contests, the Dane (15-2-0) gets a chance to prove he belongs among the best at 185 when he steps in against Franklin (21-2-0, 1 NC; 8-1 in the UFC).
It's expected Zuffa will officially announce the fight during Thursday's UFC Fight Night telecast from Las Vegas on SpikeTV.
Also, a fight between Forrest Griffin (Pictures) and Hector Ramirez (Pictures) is being discussed.

I'm looking forward to a rematch for Ace, personally. He's an impressive fighter, even if the UFC brass has a bit too big of a hard-on for him. I liked how he told the crowd to STFU when they started booing the amazing Spider Silva. Boo-birds always amazed me. Boo before, if you must, but after everything's been laid on the line, shut your porkhole. Anyone who steps up deserves at least respect.

I got lots more I want to talk about, so stay tuned!

Start!

This week seemed as good as any to start an MMA blog. With Ultimate Fight Night and TUF 5 on Thursday as well as UFC 69 Shootout and PRIDE 34 Kamikaze AND an IFL show...it boggles the mind. I'm going to try and post from very much a fan's point of view, with none of the snotty "I could roll with Minotauro" BS you see in some other blogs.
Hang in there, check back, and thanks for coming by.