brashleyholland

Yup! Daff pretty much nailed it; Diaz is great where he is, having fun fights. I'd love to see him in the UFC fighting Fitch, St Pierre, Kos, Kim etc....purely because I like seeing the best fight the best. But smart money says Diaz loses more of those fights than he wins, and does so in uninspiring fashion, getting smothered by guys with a superior top game that can neutralise his grappling.

Okay, so I've just finished season three in my back-to-backing of Prison Break. Season 1 I enjoyed, Season 2 was ok....Season 3...probably the less said about it the better. So I'm about to start Season 4 because I like to start what I finish, but I've just realised it's 24 episodes instead of 13 like the last two seasons and I'm having second thoughts. Is it really worth it? Does it get any better than 3? Normally I'd just watch it anyway but I'm itching to back-to-back The Wire, which I saw the first seasons of a couple of years back and loved, but never had the time to watch the rest. Oh, and Boardwalk Empire, which looks cool as hell. So basically what I'm asking is Prison Break Season 4: Yay or Nay?

Proof that being a Muay Thai wrecking machine is genetic. That's Melvin Manhoef's son, Million Manhoef (really). I'd love to the school bully that tries to take that kid's candy!

They should get you on the case looking for Shergar and Lord Lucan!

Damn, I've been found out!

Basically FEG are in a massive amount of debt to Real Entertainment, the people that co-produced Pride and jumped into bed with FEG to produce Dream. 'K-1' the brand wont go away - it means to much and has the kind of history behind it that will always make somebody money, the question is who? The 'K-1' brand is currently owned by Kazuyoshi Ishii (the 'Godfather' of K-1). Now, there was this supposed deal in place with a Chinese capitol company at the turn of the year - the rumour as to why this collapsed is that they wanted to do some corporate restructuring (read - get rid of Ishii), which is normal when a venture capitol company puts money into a failing organisation, but FEG (Ishii) resisted. So in essence K-1, or more specifically FEG, will have to die before K-1 can be reborn. Where that leaves Dream, I don't know - but you can bet it won't be a priority. ...and then we were thrown the curve ball. Strikeforce are *possibly* going to Japan in April. Say WHAT? They're talking about teaming up with Real Entertainment to take some of the HWGP fights to the Far East, and additionally holding a LWGP in the summer. So you have Showtime footing the bill for Barnett, Overeem and co's purses (something FEG can't afford to do) and Real Entertainment footing the bill for running the show (something Strikeforce, or any other US promoter can't just walk into Japan and do). Strikeforce takes their fee from Showtime and ad revenue (oh, and *CYNIC ALERT* doesn't have to get Barnett and Reem tested! :-o ), Real Entertainment makes money on the gate and via sponsorships etc...this could actually work. It's not digging Japanese MMA out of the hole it's in, but who knows, it might be a stay of execution... Got an article coming out on Sunday looking at the whole shebang, I'll link it here if anyone's interested.

Or.... http://www.theartofmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/garcia-and-korean-zombie.jpg

No, not yet at least. I've been told that they're 'working on something' but that's it. It would make sense though, given that both channels have the same overall owner, I think..

BAMMA have announced a TV deal with SyFy (UK) to air all 5 of their planned 2011 arena shows, starting with BAMMA 5: Daley vs Shirai http://www.mmabay.co.uk/2011/01/27/bamma-announce-uk-television-deal-for-2011-starting-with-daley-vs-shirai-on-february-26th/

There's more to it than that. Strikeforce don't want to get behind Diaz as a champion. There is a real fear that he will A) Run off to do a boxing match because his contract isn't 100% exclusive, B) use his leverage to turn down high profile fights consistently or C) do a 'Jake Shields' and jump ship at the end of his contract regardless of what they offer him. Add to this that he is already damaged goods; Showtime are apparently very upset that it is Diaz who is in the middle of the infamous CBS brawl with his fist ****ed (and CBS flat out want nothing to do with him, from what I've heard) and his ongoing drug issues...it's just not a guy that you want to allocate the marketing budget to when you have a huge HW tourney coming up. Talked about this on my radio show today as it happens.... http://mmabayradio.podomatic.com/entry/2011-01-26T12_00_12-08_00 (probably not safe for work, I swear without realising! Oh and forgive the crappy production values...equipment issues!)

Some good looking undercard fights as well! Cook vs Maguire and Thomas vs Wenn should be fun. Hopefully they'll pull some of the other...I don't want to say 'big', but 'name' fighters they've been working on out of the bag.

So I randomly discovered that Impact and all the TNA PPV's are available 'on demand' on my TV. Watched the most recent Impact and thought the ending, with Abyss falling down with that spiky thing in his back was very cool. So then your man comes out and says "They're coming"...did 'They' already come? Is this another 'They'? Surely they can't be doing the same thing again so soon?

Pat Barry is an awful MMA fighter, and anyone that buys into Joe Rogan's "He's a K-1 level striker" hype has never seen Pat Barry in a K-1 fight. Barry never beat ANYONE in K-1. He's great at what he does, but he really, really should have been 1st rounding a King of the Cage special like Joey Beltran.

I guess it's because of all the injuries/inconsistency that seems to plague Forrest of late. He's not fought in over a year, and only twice in the last two years, both times looking pretty awful. Franklin is hardly on a tear, but fought twice the fights, looked better and is not fighting due to choice more than anything else. It's also a situation where you have a very scrappy fighter in Forrest against a more measured, technical striker in Franklin. Who knows what their timing etc is going to be like due to inactivity, but you'd think that Rich would have a pretty good chance of picking Forrest off with counters all night. That's my take, anyway.

I'm not sure if we were watching different fights or not, but Shields look absolutely awful against Kampman. I'm not saying that Kampman got robber, or even that it was the wrong result, but you can easily make a case for Shields losing that fight. If Dana didn't have a stick up his ass about giving Fitch a title shot, there's no way Shields would be fighting GSP after a performance like that. It wouldn't have been a 10-7 round - infact, by the curent methods of teaching, 10-7's shouldn't even be possible unless a point is taken away. Besides, Brock did somewhat fight back and score a takedown.

Also, please explain this... http://quick.dezro.com/HardGayAlbum.jpg

Is this the guy who supposedly legit got the crap kicked out of him by Naoya Ogawa?

Just got my press credentials confirmed...closer than the cageside seats and don't have to pay £400 for the privilege...HA! :-p

Daley's opponent has been announced...DEEP Welterweight Champion Yuya Shirai (20-8). It's a baaaad match-up. Shirai has a terrible chin, and is a small 170lb'er, where as Daley is huge at the weight and probably the hardest striker in the division. It's gonna be a short night. I know the names of a couple of other guys on the card...no other big names but as BAMMA haven't released the card yet I'm keeping shtum Oh, and a cageside seat can be yours for only £400!!!!

BAMMA said last night that tickets go on sale at 11am, with the card announced at 10am, which was 45 mins and 2 cups of coffee ago :-p Plus, Tom 'Kong' Watson released this statement at about 5am this morning (UK time)... http://www.tomkongwatson.com/?p=173&cpage=1 ...basically stating that BAMMA have not paid him in full for the Reid fight in September, and are essentially blackmailing him into signing a three-fight deal with them. Talk about poor timing :-p In good news though, Badr Hari will be back in May, fighting in France. In not so good news though, the It's Showtime!/K-1 Amsterdam ArenA show in May has been cancelled due to K-1's financial difficulties It's a swings and roundabouts week!

He's flitted between 170 and 185, but he's in a state of semi-retirement at the moment. Don't quote me on it, but I believe the thinking was that with only 5 weeks to organise and complete a camp, relocate to England, weigh-in and fight, getting down to 170 would be more trouble than it's worth. I've never met Trigg, but Paul gets HUGE between fights, and does a very strict, scientific diet/weight cut. He's off to Mike's Gym in Holland this Sunday, so it could be that he doesn't have the time to do it properly. Ahh, if I told you I'd have to kill you...lol. Writer, journalist, interviewer, radio co-host...general combat sports person with my fingers in as many pies as possible :-p Heh, could be a coincidence? Lol, hopefully that'll mean an announcement coming soon.

It's my job...I'm a lucky mo-fo :-p Latest word is that Trigg at a catchweight is off the table. Maybe. Couple more names being thrown around but we should know for sure later today. Seems like Daley's people leaked this out a little too soon, so there is a lot of pressure on to get the deal done, etc. Also heard that Strikeforce are apparently very annoyed at the whole situation.

Partial card to be announced later today, tickets on sale tomorrow at 10am via ticketmaster.

It's looking like Daley is a go for the MEN Arena on Feb 26th. Possibly against Frank Trigg.

Or not, lol. Buuuuuut, it looks like BAMMA is rising from the ashes and could be having Paul Daley headlining an Arena show in the UK sometime this year. He's got his bout agreement already, could be confirmed today. Strikeforce is in a tough spot with regards to the UK. Bravo was bought up by Sky, who have a deal of sorts with the UFC. I know that the UFC have been fairly insistent in the past when it comes to their TV partners having deals 'the competition' in major markets. If that's the case, then I don't know where else Strikeforce would fit in to the UK market. Channel 4 maybe, now that they're looking for new directions in the post Big Brother age? ITV have been keen supporters of boxing in the past, but it just doesn't seem like a good fit for them.