brashleyholland

I was about to curse you for making me what that, but then I figured it was my fault. Anyone stupid enough to click a link that says "Hulk Hogan plays Def Jam Rapstar and flashes his junk" deserves everything they get.

Turns out it was a false, or at least mistaken report from K-1.nl, the original source. Got passed around so quickly though that Schilt's managers had to get K-1 on the phone to confirm he was still in the GP :-p Turns out the Gerges has been offered a fight on the card...now Badr Hari is currently serving 14 days in prison...should he get out and get his head straight in time, the thinking is that K-1 will offer him a reserve fight rematch with Gerges, which would be awesome. Knowing K-1, if that happens, I would seriously expect someone to 'get injured' and pull out after their quarter-final bout, nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

Not as yet unfortunately. Spotted a link to that picture and asked a buddy of mine in Japan to try and get me some more info. There won't be anyone you or I know competing on those kind of shows...it's just another little Japanese oddity. There was one a few years back where the guys fought in white suit jackets and trousers, with strobe lights and techno music during the fights. There's currently a full-on bare-knuckle promotion that provides fighters to DEEP. What I do know about the above... - 3 rounds (2x3mins, 1x2mins) - Win by KO/Sub/Stoppage, or twice knocking opponent to outside area - Called Seikendo Budo, based on his old Seikendo Ultimate Boxing events. Essentially fights with a more 'real streetfighting' element to them - So no pro-MMA fighters, more tough guys with some fighting/martial arts experience. I believe Ultimate Boxing had a very short limit on ground time...basically a stage-managed streetfight-style to make the fights as entertaining as possible. Will post again if/when I get more info/links, but at the moment his site is just an old archive in Japanese. Here the other pics... Sayama doing the intro http://ca.c.yimg.jp/sports/1288405106/img.sports.yahoo.co.jp/spnavi/photo/fight/201010/29/20101029001.jpg Fighters getting ready to bang http://ca.c.yimg.jp/sports/1288405106/img.sports.yahoo.co.jp/spnavi/photo/fight/201010/30/20101030023.jpg Hmm, I bet Paul Daley would have been better behaved if the ref for his fight with Koscheck was packing that kind of equipment! :-p

So this one is a bit of a stretch to believe...but there is a rumour in Holland that Schilt could be disqualified from the GP with Hesdy Gerges taking his place. I'm not sure that I'm buying it...It's Showtime have released a statement saying that Gerges has been offered a fight at the event, so it's possible that Chinese whispers from that are the basis for the rumour. Still, would be very interesting if it was indeed true... Also, check out the ring for Satoru Sayama's (Tiger Mask) awesome new MMA/Sumo hybrid. http://ca.c.yimg.jp/sports/1288405106/img.sports.yahoo.co.jp/spnavi/photo/fight/201010/30/20101030001.jpg You can win by KO, Submission, decision or knocking your opponent out of the main area twice. Ha!

Add Zimmerman, Ignashov and Rico Verhoeven to that list! Woo!

I've never seen a single episode of any Law and Order show...and I even here there is a UK version. Is it worth going back into? Also, The Event, yay or nay?

Anyone see this week's Sons of Anarchy? Very cool episode in which **SPOILER IN WHITE** the gang to to Ireland in an attempt to rescue Able, Jax's kidnapped son. SOA is probably my favourite show on TV at the moment. I guess it really is true; you can't go wrong with Ron Pearlman. :-D Loved the Irish-themed intro too!

Can't get enough of that stuff (although I am British, so that's probably cheating). The episode where they are trying to avoid the Football Results is classic comedy at its finest.

They also have all the Pride/Bushido and WFA shows too.

D'Oh!!!! Tomorrow, so Thursday, 28th of October. Well spotted

...I was gutted that he didn't get the chance to let rip with one of those on McSweeney at 120

Ooh, one last thing....FREE MMA!!!! M-1 Global will be presenting the latest edition of M-1 Challenge LIVE and FREE on their website, M-1Global.com, starting at 11:30am EST/8:30am PST...16:30 in the UK and 17:30 in Europe, I think? Reasons to watch: - Magomed Shikshabekov vs Che Mills - Shikshabekov (12-0) is a mini-Fedor, the real deal. - Guram Gugenishvili - heavyweight submission machine, 9-0, all but one of his wins via 1st round stoppage (7 subs, one sub to strikes), the longest it's taken him to finish is 2:16. - Alexander Sarnavsky - Undefeated (10-0) lightweight prospect, 21 years old, 7 out of 10 wins in the first round. - IT'S FREE!!!!!!

Some good, very good and (potentially very) bad news from HKL today. First the good; providing he gets his legal problems sorted, there is apparently a chance that Badr Hari will compete on the K-1 WGP Finals card in December. As the field is set, I'd expect this to be a reserve fight rather than a superfight, as you know K-1 would love to get him back in the WGP somehow. What's also interesting is that Hesdy Gerges is being talked about as another potential reserve fighter. This was the guy who Badr kicked when he was down, losing his 'It's Showtime' HW title and nearly starting a riot in the process earlier this year, which in turn led to him pulling out of the WGP to get his you-know-what together. Could be interesting, if 'It's Showtime' will let it happen. Now on to the very good and (potentially very) bad - which are one and the same thing. It looks like It's Showtime are making a move on K-1 in the HW tournament stakes, butting on their own multi-round GP next year. Good: We get to see (so far): Hesdy Gerges, Melvin Manhoef, Tyron Spong, Dan Ghita, Gokhan Saki and potentially Badr Hari fighting in a GP. Also Good: The Final 16 will be in March, with the Final 8 in May. This will leave the top fighters open for the K-1 WGP, which as we know wraps up towards the end of the year. Potentially Bad: There have been rumours of various rifts between It's Showtime and K-1 for some time now. Mostly financial, but they have recently been exacerbated by what the Dutch group feels has been discrimination towards their fighters from K-1, both in and out of the ring. I have heard from a number of people in Holland that It's Showtime are very confident that they can 'go it alone', and this GP could very much be a litmus test. A huge rift is not what the kickboxing world (especially) needs right now.

It's very much down to the individual. There are guys who are so good at one or two aspects of the game, that they can afford to be lacking in another. This is getting rarer and rarer as the sport evolves...and honestly, it's more down to the individual than the styles themselves. Like Daff said, some guys are just great fighters who can make things (and a lack of other things) work for them.

That's pretty much it. Also, BJJ/No-Gi are, by their very nature, tailor-made to be used in MMA/real-life situations. Modern Judo (for the most part) isn't. Most competition Judo taught in the world today follows the pattern of Olympic Judo, in which there is no striking and very little in the way of actual combat. It's strayed very far from it's roots. That's not to say that you can't use it in MMA, or that someone with a Judo background can't be successful. Look at Dong-Hyun Kim, Karo Parisyan, Manny Gamburyan, hell, even Fedor - Sambo is a modern hybrid martial art with it's main roots in Judo and Karate. The fact is though, someone who trains their entire life to compete in Judo competitions is going to have less tools to be successful in MMA than someone who has done the same amount of work in BJJ/No-Gi. That's really why we see a larger number of successful MMA fighters from BJJ/No-Gi backgrounds than Judo ones.

That's a nearly impossible question to answer. The number doing the rounds for Brock, for example, is somewhere north of $5m, including his endorsements. He spends a lot on training, because he owns his own private gym and brings in top guys to train with. If you go to the other end of the scale, most guys on small shows are fighting for hundreds, not thousands. At that level, sponsorships don't mean much. Many guys get paid a tiny nominal fee and rely on commission from ticket sales to make a couple of hundred. Extreme Brawl, a small UK promotion, takes this one step further; why you buy a ticket from there site, a dropdown box allows you to chose which fighter on the card you want to support, and they get a percentage of the ticket price. Very cool. Training can be expensive, but most coaches will 'take the hit' so to speak for a good fighter while they're not making much money. The thinking behind it being that if you do sign a big contract and make money, they'll get a percentage of it and will reap the rewards when you make it big. Endorsement deals are again massively varied. There's loads of good info out there if you google the 'Meathead' Mitrione situation from his last fight...his manager has given some good interviews where he talks about what a guy can make. Again, it depends on who you are, where you're fighting, if it's on TV PPV etc. Wrestlers can make more money for the patch on their but, based on the fact that they're going to spend 15 mins with it pointing at a camera while they're on top of someone. Seriously. The fact is though, even in the UFC, fighters don't really make a living wage just from fighting. Most 'full-time' fighters teach classes, or do private 1-2-1 fighting/fitness sessions to make a living. Josh Barnett still teaches catch-wrestling at Erik Paulson's place. Shane Carwin and Brett Rogers only recently quit their day jobs. There really isn't a straighter answer I can give to unfortunately... apart from that MMA is a hard way to make a living.

I put all of these down to inexperience. Unfortunately, at his age, they're things that Brock may not have time to correct. You CAN train a chin. At 14, I was knocked out by a single punch in an exhibition karate fight. At age 19, after some serious Muay Thai and boxing training, I survived a gang beating by nine guys with bottles, koshes and a knuckle duster without passing out. You get used to being hit. Brock isn't built like a guy who crumbles, he just doesn't know how to take it. If he was 25, I'd bet my life that he'd be HW champ again in a year and for the next 10 year. At this stage in his life though...I'm not sure. All respect to Cain though.

On the Bisping debate, it's got to be Maia really. The UFC are praying that Grove doesn't beat him, else they face the prospect of putting Mike in with the winner of Nate/Okami. It's gone past the point of wanting now...they need Bisping to win, now more than ever. Pearson, Hathaway and Hardy have all been literally or figuratively crushed in the past few weeks...Bisping is the only Brit with any kind of momentum. For my money, Maia is the most winnable fight at MW for Bisping in terms of top guys. What I would have liked to see is Leben fighting Wand instead of Stann, with Bisping fighting Maia maybe a month or so later and the winners facing off for a title shot after the Okami/Marquardt winner gets theirs.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Daffanka" data-cite="Daffanka" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="26660" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>It feels very, very strange to have Lesnar - Velasquez just looming around the corner.<p> </p><p> I haven't been this excited for a fight in a while.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Agreed. I got back from the very messy and hectic weekend that was UFC 120 a couple of days ago and have been struck down with man flu ever since (made worse by the fact that my Mrs is currently in Cali so I'm having to make my own chicken soup and tea!), so I've not really got into the build-up as much as I would have liked. </p><p> </p><p> That said, now that the fight it dawning, it's really hitting home. I think in terms of the skills of the fighters and their positions in the heavyweight rankings, this is one of the most relevant and important heavyweight MMA fights ever. It's right up there with Fedor/Nogueira and Fedor/CroCop fights, probably the most relevant in the UFC's HW division since Barnett/Couture waay back (in terms of deciding a number 1 HW). </p><p> </p><p> I still think that Fedor beats Brock more often than Brock beats Fedor, but I can't entertain F-to-tha-yodor as the baddest man on the planet while Brock is knocking off all these top guys. </p><p> </p><p> As for a winner...I'm genuinely stumped. Cain seemingly has all the tools, more-so than Carwin. But it disturbs me that he couldn't finish Kongo. As a counterpoint, he then went on to stop two guys with only 5 strike-based stoppages losses in a combined 78 bouts in his next two outings. Still don't know if that sells me. I think the Vanilla Gorilla will take it. </p><p> </p><p> Also picking Kampmann for the upset (of sorts). Its a tough fight for both guys, but the more I think about it the more I'm with Kampmann spoiling the party. Sanchez to get back on track, Gonzaga to derail Schaub and Hamill to...ah you know what, I just don't care about that fight.</p>

Look at Hardy and Fitch though. Fitch is 6'1 and although I don't know how much he weights fight time, he looks big at the weight. I do know that Hardy (6') normally hits the scales at 190+. Obviously the counter-point is that at 185, he's potentially going to be facing 200lb monsters; not good for a guy who is often the smaller fighter in his own weight class. But then that's the who point of going up, right? What we're saying is that GSP is simply better at what he does than everyone his own size, so in order to test himself, he needs to fight bigger people. He's a sportsman at the end of the day, he's made his money...surely he feels the same way.

Nope. Takedown, strike, pass, strike, stand-up, takedown, strike, pass, submission attempt, strike, stand-up, takedown...etc etc. Kampann is one of my favourite fighters to watch, and while I do think he has more on the ground for GSP than say, Hardy or Alves, I don't see the end result being much different. He's something special. I really want to see how good he is at 185.

That's what it boils down to for me really as well. I'm not confident of his ability to swim in the UFC's WW division, where the one unique thing that brought him success in Strikeforce - a suffocating top game - is ten a penny in the UFC. And like Daff said, the guys who can't out-wrestle him will crack him coming in. Kampmann has spoiled the début of an 'outsider' who came in with a lot of bluster before, and it's completely possible that he'd do it again...I'm just not sure that I want him to. Shields vs GSP is something different; we're looking at the champ's next few fights being Kos (seen it before, no reason to think it'd be any different this time), Fitch (ditto) and Hardy (same again). I think Shields would be best served to have a crack at GSP then get up to 185.

I'd completely disagree. Jake Shields has gone on to be one fight away from fighting for one of the most prestigious titles in the sport against one of it's highest profile fighters. Nobody remembers that Gil was even involved. As for Diaz, he's parleyed the whole thing into part of his 'bad boy' image. Take the new (Paul Heyman produced) EA MMA ads...Diaz is featured mean mugging and eventually assaulting a PA. He's laughing the experience all the way to the bank; if anything it's made him more promotable.

Possible this, probably that, blah blah blah. I don't know much about wrestling, but I know this... If I make a chocolate bar with fruit and nuts in it, then all of a sudden I take the nuts out and there is no immediate, discernible decrease in the number of people buying my bar, then guess what? Nobody, or only an insignificant number of people, cared about the nuts. Sure, I could be using a different kind of chocolate or different fruit...but unless a % of my customer base evaporates when the nuts go, then the nuts weren't what was making people buy the bar. On a slightly related note, "Fruit and Nuts" would be a great name for the EY/OJ tag team. No, because when it was, they weren't.

Sean 'Big Sexy' McCorkle has been gracing the Underground with his awesome presence. Check out this great post, answering some questions on what it's like for fighters at UFC events. If you read the thread, there is tons of other great stuff in there, including this little gem... http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=forum.posts&thread=1710123&page=1