brashleyholland

Keep in mind, the endgame for the 125 and proposed 115 markets is not the US. It's all a longer-term play to tap the Mexican and Asian markets, where there are a lager number of talented guys in these divisions than North America and Europe/UK.

So Cage Warriors have just announced three, four-man, one-night tournaments at 125, 135 and 155lb. First one looks like Bantamweights in April. Show will kick off with semis, followed by a reserve fight, then the finals will serve as the main event. All streamed live on Junkie/televised live depending on where you are in the world. OMG

With Couture, it's absolutely a money thing - always has been with him. He'd apparently pitched numerous TV/Movie ideas to Fox/UFC, all of which had been shot down. The UFC got him the Fox deal (I'm almost certain his contract was with Fox for that), which had a clause allowing either party to break for no reason with just 4 weeks notice. He negotiated the Viacom deal, which is with Spike/Viacom, not Bellator) then went back to Fox/UFC to allow them to match it - apparently they showed no interest so he simply exceeder his termination clause and walked. The blanket ban from the UFC was a reaction to that.

It's their show, they don't have to let anyone through the door that they don't want to be there. Anyone can apply for a second's licence from the state, just like anyone can apply for a fighter's licence etc. Possessing a licence doesn't give you carte blanch to work any venue you chose though. As far as I'm aware, the only people the UFC have to admit to their events (outside of the obvious - cops etc) are commission officials.

And if my Auntie had b******s she'd be my Uncle.

Assuming you don't have x-ray eyes, explain how a fighter sees through his opponent's torso in that position.

What about the damage done by an unintentional illegal blow? Illegal moves are illegal for a reason, after all, and not just illegal if they're unintentional. How many times have we seen a fighter land 2-3 completely unintentional groin shots, and a ref eventually take a point due to the cumulative damage, even though all the shots were clearly accidental? Should that apply here? Apparently (I've read the book but can't remember myself) in BJM's book he says that you should always take a point in that situation, even though it's gamesmanship. That's what's getting people's backs up.

I've been around MMA in some capacity or other for going on 16 years now. I think that I'm better placed than many to break down fights objectively. Pretty much everything about that fight says that Hioki wins, in my book. Yet when I put my accumulator bet down on Saturday night, I picked Guida. Not because I thought he was going to beat Hioki, but because I thought the judges would give him the fight. Still, my accumulator (only a five fight one) came in, so I can't moan too much. What did you guys think about BJM not taking a point from DJ for the hand down/knee to the head thing?

No, not for nearly a year. I write for the Daily Mirror here in the UK, plus a couple of websites like Addicted MMA. I've written for others over the past year (YourMMA, Fight Lounge etc), and done some magazine work. Most of my MMA time is spent on Cage Warriors and Full Contact Contender nowadays though. Was training for a 'comeback' (lol) after not competing for years, but I fell off a bridge while walking my Doberman in the snow last week (don't ask) and did something nasty to my ankle, so it's back to beer and takeaway food for me for a while :-p Gonna be doing some judging and commentating this year as well.

Yeah, they're pretty awesome :-p Seriously though, thanks. I don't get time to do nearly as much of that kind of writing as I'd like these days. I do a weekly news column for The Daily Mirror here in the UK, plus my work with Cage Warriors and Full Contact Contender, which is the UK's biggest ammy show, so my time is stretched. Hopefully I'll get more done this year. Will post it here if I remember

The Spike deal was in place before they let Lombard go. Rebney said they looked at the Lombard deal and couldn't see a way to make matching it financially viable. Here's my take, anyway. http://www.addictedmma.com/story-Blog_9940_The-Friday-Night-Takeaway-Cutting-Your-Nose-Off-T.php

Something that totally went under my radar until recently - Spike Lee is now directing the Oldboy remake. Last I'd read about it, Spielberg was directing an adaptation of the original Manga (rather than a remake of the Korean film), with Will Smith in the lead roll. I think my brain black it out at that point. Anyway, Lee is now at the helm, it's a remake of the movie, not the Manga and the lead roles are Josh Brolin and Sharlto Copley. Oldboy is one of my favourite movies...I'm actually looking forward to what this lot do with it.

It's not a 3D version of the original - it's a sequel. It's also rubbish. Golden rule: If a movie is not screened for press prior to release, there is a very good reason for that.

New Years Eve Weekend MMA Extravaganza! So this weekend MMA fans are in for a bit of a treat! First off we have Saturday's UFC card, with Dos Santos/Velasquez 2 and a really good set of undercard fights. Then, on New Year's Eve we have GLORY 4/Dream's NYE card. Some decent MMA and a ridiculous 16 man, one-night kickboxing tourney. If that's not enough, straight afterwards you've got Cage Warriors' NYE card, streaming live and free on Facebook (prelims) then MMAJunkie (main card). Featherweight champ Conor McGregor (hotly tipped for UFC) moves up to fight 21-3 Ivan Buchinger for the vacant lightweight title. Also Chris Fields defends his middleweight title against the notorious Jesse 'JT$' Taylor. Ais Daley, Jack Mason and the clearly UFC-bound James Brum are also on the card. And it's FREE!! I sat down with Jesse last night... Funny story - When we finished this interview, Jesse and left and went downstairs before us. When we followed about five minutes later, we stepped out of the lift into the hallway on our floor, and walked straight in JT$ doing a load of crazy karate moves on his own. We all sort of looked at each other in an awkward silence, then he said "Well that was weird" and walked off. Wish we'd had the camera on! :-p

Just to clear this up - Cage Warriors, BAMMA and UCMMA won't be working as part of Safe MMA now that it's been set up. Safe MMA will be run by the guys at The Centre of Human Performance at 76 Harley Street. They'll have some admin help from a couple of other MMA industry people, and the likes of Marc Goddard and Rosi Sexton will remain on the 'board'. The 'big three' UK promotions were heavily involved in the development of Safe MMA as all involved felt it was essential that CW, UCMMA and BAMMA were on the same page and able to back the project fully. If the three UKMMA powerhouses weren't on board, this would have been dead in the water. The whole point of Safe is that it's independent of any one promotion, or group of promotions. With that said, I'm sure all three (and others in UK MMA) will have a say in any future evolution of Safe MMA. Everyone is being encouraged to join, but nobody is getting blacklisted for not doing so. The idea is that if you're not Safe registered, you can't fight on a Safe show. Similarly, a Safe registered fighter should not fight on a non-Safe show. Obviously, and especially in the first year or so, there will be situations where Safe guys have to fight on non-Safe shows, and situations where Safe shows have a non-Safe fighter compete (for example, if they have ammy fights, or a kickboxing bout on the same cards as MMA). In these cases, Safe MMA has provided a detailed set of procedures. For example - If I (as a Safe registered fighter) were to fight on a non-Safe show (either a non-Safe registered show in the UK or an overseas show where there is no blood testing) I would need to provide a set of bloods for my opponent, and a simple medical form (filled in by the on-site medic) before I was 'green-lighted' again on the Safe database following the fight. If I can't do that for whatever reason, I would need to get myself fully blood-tested and medically assessed at my own expense in order to be re-green-lit. In the case of a promotion having a non-Safe fighter on, eg ammy, non-MMA, or a same day replacement without bloods (although this is massively discouraged), there is a procedure for disinfecting the cage after the bout. This is a tough one for me to be objective on, as I am deeply in love with Johnny Hendricks and his beard. I do think he beats today's slightly more battle worn GSP. With that said, it's difficult to assess how good a guy like 'Big Rig' is until he seriously beats up a top level guy. Nobody is calling his KO's of Kampman and Fitch 'lucky punches', but until you've seen what he can do against a fighter who can take or avoid that shot, it's hard to gauge. With that said, if he bangs out Ellenberger in the first round, we may just be dealing with a welterweight Chuck Liddell :-p

Out of interest - has anyone here heard about Safe MMA? If so, thoughts? If not, give it a Google and share your thoughts? Thanks, and Happy Holidays! Xxx

<p>I think it's safe to say that my mate Luke is on the show now, as he was briefly glimpsed in the most recent promo vid. </p><p> </p><p> Hoping he does well, he's tailor made for the UFC.</p>

Saturday was one of my best 'fight days' for a long time. I got to work at the insane CAge Warriors 50 show up in Glasgow (potential CW card of the year) which had Bellator's Wilson Reis taking on Rowdy Owen Roddy in a fight of the year candidate. Then I got to chill back at the hotel watching UFC on Fox and the Manny/JMM fight on giant projectors. The 8 hour drive home in a slowly dying Cage Warriors van wasn't great, mind :-p

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Blackman" data-cite="Blackman" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="26660" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Well, looks like history is being made. UFC 157 will feature the first women's bout in the company's long history. What's more, it even becomes the main event, which might be logical, yet is preceded by the highly anticipated Machida vs Hendo. So apparently, UFC's being serious.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> UFC's golden rule: Title fights go last. I think 48 was the last time they broke it, when Shamrock/Kimo went on after Mir/Sylvia. Could be wrong though. </p><p> </p><p> On a side note, I just MC'd the Cage Warriors 50 weigh-in...I'm no Joe Martinez <img alt=":(" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/frown.png.e6b571745a30fe6a6f2e918994141a47.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> The show is streamed live and free on MMAJunkie tomorrow, of anyone fancies watching some quality fights!</p>

When you're a fighter like GSP who relies on the fast, powerful 'snap' of your takedowns/guard passes etc (and to a lesser extent fleety footwork), the injury he had is a game changer. It's the one and only reason that I'm not still competing. There are ways and means to work around it, and GSP is obviously a top shelf athlete and physical specimen. But few, if any, people are 100% after cruciate problems. Whether GSP now has limitations, and if he is able to adjust to work around those limitations, are the two big questions for me. Also, Condit is pretty awesome. Kampmann vs Hendricks will be all kinds of good fun too.

Oh wow, Meathead vs Nelson...didn't see that one coming!

Too right. I don't remember the exact quote, but Bas Rutten pretty much summed up the whole 'lucky punch' myth when talking about the Randleman/Cro Cop KO. Something along the lines of "If I'm in a fight, and I throw a punch, and it hits...how is that lucky?"

Here's the thing - The UFC genuinely believed that they would be able to have Overeem pre-emptively apply for a licence to fight on December 29th and get it rushed through. When they realised that it would not be possible, they were left with few options for a challenger to JDS; Cain was the only option. Overeem wants to get back on the horse (pun intended) as quickly as possible - if he waits for the winner of JDS/Cain 2, that's verging on 18 months out of the cage. Assuming that Overeem beats Silva (which he has a freat chance of doing), you've got a perfect set up for Overeem vs JDS/Cain on the big 4th of July weekend card. With Carwin - all is not as it seems. This injury is not new, I had it confirmed to me at the end of September and got three different, well placed sources to confirm it, although none would go on record. I believe the UFC was trying to ride it out due to TUF's bad ratings. I'm guessing that Nelson vs Kongo will be announced shortly.

Lol, Rich Franklin got Nate Quarry'd this morning! KO of the year I reckon.

Keep in mind that Invicta already has a working relationship with Strikeforce (who as we know are owned and operated by Forza/Zuffa) to fighter share. Shannon Knapp has already made comments to the effect that she sees no reason for this to change. My guess is that at first we'll see the likes of Cyborg, Rousey, Tate, Coenen and maybe Carano in the UFC, while Invicta generates challengers for them.