brashleyholland

'Limited' is how I'd describe Dan Hardy at the moment. Lorenzo Fertitta just tweeted that they're not going to cut Dan Hardy. Wonder if we'll see him on 138. It's very likely that this has less to do with Lorenzo liking "guys who WAR!!!" as he put it, and more to do with them not wanting Hardy on BAMMA or Bellator.

Sad times Met him once, really smart dude and a genuine nice guy.

I interviewed him this morning. He said he's actually not interested, and would only do it if the UFC approached him with a big fight at 125. He said he feels that dropping a division before you win a belt is taking the easy way out. Good attitude IMO. Super nice guy as well.

Am I the only person that finds the idea of a middle-class, suburban white boy acting 'ghetto' Luke Cage hilarious? "Whazzup dawg, nah, I ain't fightin' no crime as Powerman tonight G...crashed my pop's Lexus on the way back from Lacrosse practise, now I'm grounded yo! Man's always keepin' me down!"

Good lord, this referee....must be a fan of the Saw movies!

A friend of mine has a spare ticket for BAMMA 7 if anyone is interested? She was gonna go with her boyfriend, but they split up and he gave her the tickets. It's in the lower tier, row E. She doesn't want any money for it, but you would have to sit and talk to her for the duration, lol. Anyone interested, shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up. Also, for any Twitter fiends out there, if you #FF (Follow Friday) @BAMMAUK today, they'll put you in a draw for a set of VIP tickets.

When they negotiated with Dan Henderson a few years back, he told them that he was going to see what Strikeforce offered him. Dana said fine, but when you come back to us there will be X amount knocked off our offer, and we'll tell Strikeforce how much we're offering. If you then go back to Strikeforce, and come back to us again, well shave another X amount off the offer. That's how they do business with people who think they're worth more than they are, or people who muck them about. I'd say there's a slim-to-none chance of Overeem getting a comparable offer to what was originally on the table. UFC holds all the cards.

For any UK fans that haven't heard, UFC on Versus 5 will not be on ESPN this weekend as per usual. It will however air live and free on UFC.tv, with free ondemand instant replay available all week. It's possibly going to be shown on FIVE later in the week as well. This issue is that the 'Versus' and 'Prelims Live' shows did not exist when ESPN signed their deal with the UFC a few years back. ESPN have been licencing these shows on a per event basis since, and chose not to licence this one. Either they offered too little, or the UFC asked too much.

Paul Daley will be announcing a September fight soon...I very much doubt he'll be on the September 10th Strikeforce card and BAMMA are being very tight-lipped... Hmmm....

Guess it was allowed by the UFC dress code then, otherwise he wouldn't have been allowed out of the staging area. All fighters attire is checked and approved by a UFC official. If they had a problem with it, then was the time. No good retroactively trashing a guy for breaking rules that don't exist. I'm not saying that it wasn't a goofy thing to do, but the UFC is just as much at fault as Hallman for not having a stricter attire policy, when pretty much everything else they have is air-tight (unfortunately not like Hallman's shorts).

Been on the cards for a while unfortunately. Saw Tom at weekend and knew that there was no way he'd be fighting. But....Jimmy vs Trigg is a much, much better fight than seeing Tom get repeatedly taken down for 5 rounds :-p We should be doing a comp for some free tix very soon, if anyone is interested..I'll post it up here.

Lol, I honestly couldn't think of another way to differentiate between the two...'The toothless one' and 'The one from The Expendables' might have given it away :-p Heheh, if it was a Bas story something ridiculously awesome like him elbowing a runaway grizzly bear in the spleen would have happened. And if it was a Lee Murray story, someone would have been stabbed :-p

They can cut you off a loss, no issues there at all. They can sign you to a 10-year, 30-fight deal, but if you lose your first fight they have the right to cut you. They have this clause for two reasons: - They use it to get rid of newcomers who get the call up but clearly aren't ready. - They use it as leverage for bigger 'name' fighters or middle of the pack fighters. There is the threat of "Instead of renegotiating your contract, we'll cut you and send you away to 'get a few wins'. What we mean by that is we'll keep you out of the public eye so your worth to us has reduced by the time you come back, and we can start you on a lower rung of the payscale. So no issues there with Coenen, Einemo and Otherreem. It's the Alistair situation that is the issue. There are a whole host of things that the UFC can cut you for. Some of them are insane, but I'm not going to go in-depth into them because I'm not supposed to have seen the one I've seen :-p The point is, one clause allows them to cut a fighter for turning down a fight. It's Golden Glory's position that they did not 'turn down a fight' but that AA was injured. The problems they have are that AA had not previously mentioned these injuries to the UFC brass, they only came up when he was about to get cut. I mentioned in my original post how fighters who are hurt have to get seen by the UFC's doctor in Vegas before they're written off...this didn't happen with Overeem because he was 'on vacation' after the Werdum fight. GG released that video of him so that they could clearly document the fact that he was injured on a certain date. It's their belief that if they can do that and they do opt to take the matter to court (which is a HUGE risk for them), then they might be able to prove breach of contract on Forza LLC's (the Zuffa subsidiary that owns Strikeforce) part. Couple of interesting bits about the new Zuffa promotional agreements Strikeforce fighters had to sign. - If you take legal action against Zuffa, you have to do it in Nevada. Zuffa do not lose court cases in Nevada. - If you take Zuffa to court and lose, you pay 100% of their legal bills. This would bankrupt most fighters. It bankrupted Ken Shamrock. Both of the above are intended as deterrents against taking Zuffa to court, and the first stacks the deck in their favour if someone does. Besides, a court case would kill off any chance of reconciliation between GG and Zuffa.

You can't, because it sets a president that Zuffa don't want to set. You pay for one group of managers/agents to fly out and stay in a nice hotel, next month you're paying for five lots of managers to fly and stay at a nice hotel. Then the next guy wants his brother flown out. Then the next guy wants his nutritionist flown out. And so on. Remember Affliction flying an entourage of 30 people over from Russia for Affliction Trilogy? That's what you end up with. Only the UFC have 300 fighters to deal with, not 24 like Affliction did. I'm not sure what else there is to be flexible on. Zuffa will never be flexible when it comes to competition, never. They won't do business with a company that is competing against them. If TapouT opened a fight promotion and signed Fedor, Overeem, Kimbo etc tomorrow, Zuffa would drop them like a bad habit. They don't want guys fighting elsewhere. If Reem knocks out everyone in the Strikeforce GP, then comes to the UFC and knocks out their champ before getting smashed up in K-1 by an unknown (to UFC fans) like Saki or Ghita, it cheapens their title. Not to mention the time off he'd need to train and recover, or if he got injured. They can't and won't be flexible on that. They do a bit of both.

Erm, yes...I listed several. Not sure what you mean... In fairness, both parties could have handled it more discreetly and professionally. At the end of the day though, it's GG that will lose out in the long run. Zuffa wont make any more or less money this year or any other year just because Overeem and co are gone. They did this 100% on purpose, to send two messages. - Don't try and promote rival MMA shows. - Don't every try and hardball us with contracts. I'd say mission accomplished.

So as it's all coming out now, I might as well spill some of the beans I have on the Overeem firing situation. Where to begin... Golden Glory are promoting shows in Europe called 'Ultimate Glory'. There's talk of It's Showtime, a Dutch kickboxing/MMA promotion doing shows in the US next year, with GG as a co-promoter. The UFC does not like this, as it's essentially someone with good TV connections (with Showtime/HDNet) going after their market share. This was the start of the bad blood. The way fighters are hired in the US greatly differs from the way they're hired in Japan and Europe. In the US, promoters do their deals with individual fighters through their agents. In Japan, 'teams' like Golden Glory take their fighters to a promoter and shop them as a package deal. Promoters then pay the team, camp, gym whatever you want to call it. Take the K-1 WGP last year; they paid (or didn't pay, lol) GG a lump sum, not Overeem, Schilt, Saki, Ghita etc individually. Golden Glory negotiated in this way with Strikeforce. This is why all of a sudden there were a bunch of GG fighters in the UFC/Strikeforce one after the other. Jon Einemo wasn't brought in to the UFC off a 4 year lay-off just because, y'get me? Anyway, Zuffa was not happy about this...they do business their way, or they don't do business. Unfortunately there were already contracts that has to be fulfilled, so they had to work with them. When attempting re-negotiations, GG were insisting that the UFC/Strikeforce pay them directly. GG's contracts also stipulate that the promoter pays for travel and hotel expenses for the GG management teams. Again, common in Japan, unheard of in the US. Ed Soares buys his own flight and room. Zuffa were really not happy about this. Reem did not have enough fights on his deal to finish the GP. He refused to re-sign, as Zuffa's new deal would have been with him, not GG, and would have been an exclusive deal. He stands to make over half a million dollars if he wins the proposed K-1 WGP this year, so it makes no sense to sign a new deal on terms that would preclude that. Also from GG's point of view, they are owed a LOT of money by K-1 right now. Japan being Japan, the feeling is that if they continue to work with K-1, they promotion will look to get some or all of that money too them. If not, tough luck. GG owes fighters, so they obviously can't risk passing that up, and K-1 want Overeem to defend his title. So again, GG would stand to lose a lot were Overeem exclusive to the UFC. GG basically threw their toys out of the pram and would not play the game with Zuffa on AA's contract. Zuffa told them that because they turned down a fight outright, they can cut Overeem, and they did. GG feels that this is wrong. When a UFC fighter claims to be injured, they are flown out to see the UFC's independent doctor to confirm their injury. Reem hadn't done this when he was cut, which is why GG released that emergency episode of The Reem documentary showing AA getting treated for multiple injuries. They feel there is a good chance this will go to court, as AA's contract does not allow him to be cut if he turns down a fight due to injury. Einemo, Valentijn and Marloes are basically innocent victims in all this (although Val wouldn't have lasted long anyway). The word in the GG camp right now is that Sergei Kharitonov will be cut if he fights at the United Glory show later this year. Yes folks, there is a very real chance that the HWGP, which started off with Fedor, Werdum, Bigfoot, Barnett, Overeem, Arlovski, Rogers and Kharitonov could end up with a Cormier vs Griggs final :-D I think they'd probably just scrap it though. Reem will fight on the United Glory card, then (presuming it goes down) enter the K-1 WGP and fight on New Years in Japan, possibly against Fedor. OneFC is looking to put on Marloes Coenen vs Cris Cyborg 2 later this year. I think that's about all I know...feel free to pester me for anything else though and I'll see if it jogs my memory.

Ooooh, but that reminds me of a really good MMA anecdote! I wont tell you the names of the two guys involved until very end, because I think it makes the story a little more surprising. Basically there are two very famous MMA fighters and a good friend/business partner in a bar. This is going back some years now, before both were famous. Anyway, drink is flowing, fun is being had and one of the guys (who is married, btw) picks up this chick. The story differs slightly here from the version told by one of the fighters and the version told by their friend, but they basically either left, or were asked to leave the establishment. The chick that had been picked up apparently had some history with one of the bouncers. Anyway, they're outside, and a little drunk. The two fighters get into a little horseplay, grappling around, when the bigger one shoved the smaller one into a car. This caused the bouncers to come over and start shouting at the two goons who were damaging their patron's cars. Fair enough. Anyway, one of the doormen grabs a baseball bat, obviously sensing that the two guys while drunk, obviously mean business as they weren't deterred by five doormen shouting at them. The two fighters square up to the bunch, while the friend gets the girl out of there. After a bit of increasingly unfriendly banter, the smaller fighter basically tells the guy with the bat that he's gonna insert it into an orifice that isn't normally intended for baseball bat storage, despite what is suggested in those European import DVD's you've seen, you dirty heathens. By this point, the friend who'd taken the girl to safety was back, with another friend who had come out of the bar...so now it's 5 on 4. Suddenly, the bigger fighter lunges at bat man, who poops his pants and runs back into the bar, with the fighter chasing him. The smaller fighter destroys two of the four who remained, while the friends fight the other two. The scuffle was pretty much done in 90 seconds, but the smaller fighter wasn't done. The bouncers had scattered, but he chased one of them up the street, smashing him up, letting him run for a little while, then knocking him around again. There was blood everywhere, and the fighter had continued this for a whole block, leaving a trail of the red stuff up the street. The friend and the girl gave chase to get Dan off the guy as police had been called. The trio ran back to the bar to get the bigger fighter out, to find that he had destroyed the entire bar, mostly by picking up the semi-concious bouncer he had chased in and throwing him into tables and across the bar. The four of them (the other friend had disappeared) ran out and were chased by the cops. They had to half carry, half drag the girl (who had fled with them in panic) and literally throw her over chain link fences and brick walls as they tried to avoid the cops. The girl ended up cut and bruised from all this, and her dress was ruined. She was, obviously, irate. They finally got to their car and dropped her home. No action for the naughty fighter. Any guesses then? Chris Leben? Junie Browning? Tank Abbott? The Brother's Overeem? Scroll over for the answer... Try Dan Henderson and Randy Couture :-p The friend was a guy called Aaron who works at Clinch Gear, and has been a friend to both of them for 20+ years. He told me this personally a couple of years after he'd posted it on Sherdog, back when Sherdog had cool people posting there. Hendo talked about it on a radio show too one time. Bonkers.

I wouldn't be able to pick the England cricket team out of a line up even if they were all wearing pads and helmets :-p Your story doesn't surprise me one bit...I'm friends with a couple of Paul's friends...lets just say that your mate wouldn't be the first guy they'd started on for no reason. Was his Mrs there? She is seriously fit :-p

Looks like the Zuffa are punishing Golden Glory for the Overeem situation now. Marloes Coenen, Valentijn Overeem and Jon Einemo all cut...

Here's fun...credit to Zeus Tipado at Middle Easy, who I'm stealing this from. Watch this... ...and tell me what the outcome should be. Basically what we have is a couple of fighters clinching. The buzzer goes to end the round, Fighter A releases the clinch, Fighter B throws a punch that puts him out. What should the outcome be? The official result was a (T)KO for fighter B at 3:00 of the 1st round (3min rounds) as Fighter A could not continue. He is appealing the outcome. The options you have are T(KO), DQ or No Contest. If you think it was a justified strike, then it'd be a T(KO). If you think he threw it after the bell, but it was an accident, it'd be a NC. If you think he purposefully slugged him after the bell, it's a DQ. Lot of grey areas here though, interested to see what you guys think.

I'd sorta had a heads up on the whole situation from some friends over in Holland re: what happened with The Reem over the past couple of weeks. As for what happens next, his camp are playing things very close to their chest. There are some supposedly big things happening with It's Showtime over the next 12 months, and K-1 is also potentially out of the poop short-term...at least to the point that we might see some kind of WGP this year. My slightly educated guess would be that Reem is waiting out the WGP/New Years offers before deciding where to go next. He won't be boxing a Klitchko in the next 12 months though.

He shoots, he scores....I'm officially changing my screen name to BrashleyTrolland :-p

Good to see that the spirit of Mr Perfect is still alive and well http://ironforgesiron.com/2011/08/video-can-you-say-perfect-plex/

Just had a hint dropped to me by someone that is not normally wrong that depending on what happens this weekend, Dan Henderson is being looked at as a potential opponent for the winner of Shogun vs Griffin 2 as a number one contender fight, possibly in December. Also heard the interesting little nugget that Franklin vs Bonnar/Little Nog could happen as the co-main event of UFC 138 in the UK. Wouldn't mind that at all! Little Nog is one of my all time favs, and I haven't seen him fight live. I actually booked a trip to Japan for the 2005 GP finals in part to see him fight (also for Fedor vs Cro Cop, which was the biggest fight in MMA at the time). The Critical Countdown fight between Rogerio and Shogun is one of my favourite bouts of all time, yet it's also the reason I ended up travelling to the other side of the planet and not seeing Little Nog fight. Swings and roundabouts. That whole trip was a mix of awesome and depressing now that I think about it. No Nogueira, Wand lost a grinding decision to Arona that stopped his 18-fight LHW unbeaten run, Tank Abbott (one of the first NHB guys I got into in the 90's) was humiliated (infact, every time I've seen Tank fight live he's lost) and Roman Zentzov, a Russian fighter that I expect none of you have heard of but who I know quite well, was tapped in short order by some WORLD CLASS heavyweight guy. On the plus side I got to eat a ton of sushi and shabu-shabu, meet Igor Vovchanchyn for the third time and see Shogun cap off what I consider to be the best Grand Prix run in Pride history.

I literally don't bother with Sherdog MMA forums anymore. I honestly don't see the point. Just had a quick peep for hilarities sake...I genuinely feel stupider for doing do :-D