brashleyholland

I remember someone showing me a tape of CZW with some guy getting hit in the back with a weedwhacker. Chopped him up pretty bad. Yuk.

Actually, in Japan they often break to clean up blood if it's flowing freely. Then again, they don't do it for the fighter's sake, they do it because most decent-sized Japanese MMA is funded by corporate sponsors and the TV networks who broadcast the shows. MMA is marketed heavily towards women and families on TV...they don't like blood, so you'll often see it being wiped up by refs. That said, they're *much* quicker to stop fights on a cut for the same reasons, so it's becoming a less-frequent occurance.

His weight and diet was sorted over a month ago, waaaaay sooner than he normaly gets it done. As far as motivation is concerned...he's more motivated for this fight than he' been for any other fight in his career, even the Silva rematch. You can take that to the bank ;-) He's living in a single room, which is big enough for a bed, chair and a desk with his TV and XBox in it. That's literally where he's spending every second that he's not in the gym. He doesn't want to see anyone, speak to anyone or do anything other than train and fight Rashad. When we went up to the Wolfslair a few weeks ago to do some videos with him, he didn't even want to speak about Rashad...it's legitimate hatred, but the kind that is driving him to train his ass off rather than the kind that will make him rush in and do something stupid. He does not want to lose this fight. He didn't even want to do the Primetime stuff...his manager Anthony had to sit him down and remind him that he was contractually bound to promote the fight. The long and short of it is that he's an animal right now and if Rashad is expecting anything less then he's going to be in for a very long (or short, depending on how you look at it) night. I can't realy say much more than that, but put it this way; if you can get some good odds on Rampage winning this fight then bet the house ;-)

As for Daley...not really a whole lot to say is there? It was a stupid move, something that has likely killed any potential top flight MMA career he was hoping for. Hopefully things will stay civil between the UFC and the rest of Rough House. I was chatting to a couple of the RH guys on facebook yesterday...Nik Osipczak summed it up best: "You can take the boy out of the hood..." As far as him being cut goes, it was the right move by the UFC. There is still some hope on Daley's side that he'll be brought back, but I can't see it. He's issued a full statement of apology to Kos, the UFC and his fans today. None of the 'I didn't here the bell' rubbish - he's manned-up and accepted that what he did was inexcusable. After all the noise Dana made about the Strikeforce brawl and stuff like that never happening in the UFC, there was no other option but to cut him. It'll be interesting to see if SF makes a move. Great display from Shogun...hopefully this marks a full-time return to form. Bring on Rampage!

He's not good at much of anything. Like you said, the single thing that he had going for him was the intrigue he generated, but now that's gone - whats left? He'd hurt Kimbo baaaaaad. After last weekend's showing I'd back Lavar Johnson to wreck him as well. I don't know if Rogers would even be sanctioned against Kimbo in some states at this point. This isn't pro wrestling....you can't use someone with name value like Kimbo to 'put over' the likes of Gonzaga, because Kimbo can't fight, and everybody has seen that in his last three bouts. Fighters in the UFC gain nothing from beating him...it's not like it's going to do Mitrione's career any good; he'll likely be cut on a loss next time out. Also, there is no way to build someone like Kimbo up, because there are no easy fights in the UFC. Mitrione was 1-0 with no amateur MMA experience...who's easier than that? By employing the kind of guys Kimbo can beat, they'll make themselves look bush league. Guys like Buentello would do some serious damage to Kimbo...again, I doubt if any AC in the states would sanction that fight. This is why Dana White is so good at his job. By cutting Kimbo, the message he's sending out is clear: If you want to watch washed-up boxers, scrubs and street fighters go at it, that's fine. But you can do so at Rage in the Cage, King of the Cage or what ever bush-league event Ray Mercer is fighting on next. Just not the UFC. Tony will be cut if he loses to Couture. Personally I'm glad to see him gone. Strikeforce would look like they were seriously scraping the barrel if they picked him up...but I could maybe see them doing something with Kimbo and Hershal Walker.

Something weird is going on with this. Bellator's CEO is saying that as far as he knows, Filho is turning up at the airport on Monday as scheduled. So either their has been some kind of mix-up somewhere, or Filho has lost it again and is attempting to misdirect the blame. Either way, he's becoming a massive liability for promoters to book...even the mighty Ed Soares is going to struggle to find him work soon...

One from the sad, but not unexpected file: Paulo Filho has pulled out of his bout with fringe top-10 middleweight Hector Lombard. Before you think the worst though (which is what I did), it may not be his fault...apparently Bellator, or a combination of Bellator and his management, didn't get the correct paperwork filed in time for him to obtain his visa. If that's the case, then it's unfortunate. He's had a lot of issues of late and this could have been a big stage for him to prove that he can still compete. If it's called off though no fault of his own...well, that sucks. Still, there have been whisperings that his painkiller addiction is still troubling him and affecting his training...so who knows. In other news... Mamed Khalidov (one of my picks as a break out fighter last year) only managed a draw against Ryuta Sakurai. Not good...he didn't look great in the second Santiago fight, and while he's retained his title with the draw, it doesn't bode well for his chances of getting picked up by the UFC or Strikeforce. On the same show (KSW 13 in Poland), Marius Pudzianowski (the strongman who is fighting Tim Sylvia soon) could only manage a draw in a sloppy brawl with Yusuke Kawaguchi - a small, fat HW from Japan without a decent win on his record. The big fella looked horrible so I'm told...he was sucking air after a few minutes and was winging punches with his chin up almost instantly. Tim Sylvia isn't exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to modern heavyweights, but I'd put money on him icing this roid monkey in the early going.

Money where your mouth is time...who have people got for 113? My picks are here for the prelims and main card respectively: http://www.mmabay.co.uk/2010/05/03/ufc-113-machida-vs-shogun-ii-pre-event-preview-and-predictions-preliminary-card/ http://www.mmabay.co.uk/2010/05/04/ufc-113-machida-vs-shogun-ii-pre-event-preview-and-predictions-main-card/ I went for: Machida - decision Koscheck - Submission, 2nd round (as much as I hate to say it, unless Kos stands with him, Daley's in trouble) Mitrione - (T)KO, 1st round Stout - decision Belcher - (T)KO, 2nd round Lawlor - (T)KO, 2nd round Davis - (T)KO, 1st round Hendricks - (T)KO, 2nd round Hague - (T)KO, 1st round Yoshida - submission, 2nd round MacDonald - submission, 3rd round.

That's pretty much how I see it. I'm thinking sometime in the third minute. ...or Jason Brilz...very little upside to Brilz vs Nogueira if you ask me...it's a disaster waiting to happen. Nog gains nothing from beating him.

I think it was a case of him speaking in relative terms. There aren't many guys in the UFC's 205lb division that wouldn't do Coleman some harm...even the guys people consider to be 'cans' or gatekeepers (Vera, Jardine etc)..you'd still put money on them putting a beating on Coleman based on the fact that they're younger, fitter and healthier alone. But what can a Ken Shamrock really do to hurt him at this point? Or a Kimo, or a Taktarov? If he gets put to sleep by Ken, then yeah, maybe it's not prudent for him to be in there anymore. I agree with Dana that it's not healthy for him to be fighting anyone that the UFC has under contract. But a trip around the senior circuit shouldn't be too much of a risk when the hardest hitter he can potentially face is Tank Abbott In terms of finding a guy with name value, I think they're safe on that front. The Rampage + Rashad factor, plus the return of 'Prelims Live' on Spike should take care of PPV sales. It'd be a shame if they dragged someone completely random like Sosznyski, Jardine or Hamill in though. I really hope Thiago gets the nod for the sake of the fight. I think those two would make for a wild one. For selfish reasons, I think that Silva is the guy that Nogueira has the best chance of beating, out of the three names mentioned. Anything that gets him closer to a rematch with Shogun (one of my three favourite MMA fights of all time) is good in my books.

Looks like Fedor vs Werdum is a go-go for Strikeforce/M-1 in June. Not sure if this is good or bad news in terms of their future with CBS. It'd be really bad news for their relationship if CBS had outright said no to a card with Fedor on it. My other (slightly more tinfoil hat) theory is that CBS want nothing to do with M-1. There is a very good reason why M-1 cannot get a licence to promote fights in sanctioned states within the US...its the same reason that corporate America wants nothing to do with mysterious Russian companies. The good news is that it sets up a Fedor vs Overeem/Rogers 2 for a late October/early November CBS card, if they are still on board. That would fit with Fedor's desire to fight Josh Barnett/Ishii on NYE in Japan, as well as Overeem's participation in the WGP final 16. As far as the fight goes...there are a number of people who I'd say have a chance of beating Fedor...Werdum is not one of them. He's getting folded early.

**OFFICIALLY GUTTED** Nogueira vs Griffin is likely off UFC 114 later this month. I was really, really looking forward to that fight for some reason It's looking like either Thiago Silva or Ryan Bader to replace him. Of the two I'd love to see Silva take the spot...that'd be a really exciting fight. That said, I think Bader would have a really good chance of beating Nog.

I don't think he's stupid...but I do seriously question his ability to run a promotion like Strikeforce as it currently needs to be run. The thing is, Coker has been one of the most influential promoters in the history of American kickboxing since I can't remember when. He got American and North/South American-based guys into K-1 and was basically their international talent scout (outside of Europe and Asia) for the best part of a decade. But here's the difference...in all his years of kickboxing, he's been a promoter where the talent is secondary to the sport. When he was promoting the US K-1 shows, most of the people in the room didn't know who any of the fighters were (and I speak from experience on that one). Of just as much importance is the fact that he never had to worry about selling his shows outside of putting asses in seats in the arena. He's never had to sell PPV's, TV shows etc, just a few thousand tickets...and he was great at it. Even when he made the switch to MMA, he did it well. He used guys like Daniel Puder and Cung Le, guys who had a following in the local area. He put on main events like Frank Shamrock vs Cesar Gracie/Phil Barroni - grudge matches that people in Cali wanted to see - and he broke attendance records. What he cannot seem to manage though is dealing with guys who have more leverage than he does. He's in a position where he cannot afford to lose a Nick Diaz or a Gil Menendez. If Nate Diaz had entered the Octagon and soccer kicked someone after a fight in the UFC, he'd be looking elsewhere for employment on the following Monday. If Nick Diaz had to be pulled off a card because of his smoking habits just days before the event, he'd have plenty of time to smoke his career away after Dana cut him (see Karo Parisyan). To run a promotion on a national level, you need stars. You also need to be able to control them, to the point that they know not to step out of line. Guys like Diaz, guys who are champions, from a camp full of your top-shelf fighters, they know that they have pull. If you can't keep them in check, they'll take advantage. I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that post Strikeforce: Nashville, Cesar Gracie was telling people at the Team Gracie afterparty that Strikeforce wouldn't dare fire Diaz because if they did, he'd take his entire camp to the UFC. Whether that's truth or Chinese Whispers doesn't matter, the point stands. Coker needs to take a hard line for the good of his company and until he does, things like this will keep happening. Unfortunately, he's made a deal with the Devil in CBS...he can't take a hard line on his core of fighters because if he does, he'll lose them. The promoter should always be in control and Coker is far, far from it.

I don't have a problem with guys like Ken and Mark fighting, as long as they are fighting each other and not prospects or ranked fighters who will end up hurting them. Lets face it, nobody is going to gain anything at this point from beating a Kerr, Taktarov, Frye, Shamrock, Coleman, Abbott, etc...but as long as it's medically safe, who are we to say that they shouldn't compete against guys of a similar age? As far as the promoter goes, it's a smart move. Barnett has never really been a massive draw outside of Japan, and the country as a whole has been largely starved of top-flight MMA. Shamrock and Coleman might not exactly be the cream of the crop, but they're two of the big names that most MMA fans of a certain age (read: those with the money to buy tickets and travel across the country to attend the event) associate with the sport from their days in the UFC and Pride. I'm not a fan of so-called 'freakshows' per-se, but I'd go and see this if it was a little closer. Shamrock-Coleman was a dream match when I started following the UFC. So what if it wont be a great fight, it'll be fun to see those guys go at it and it'll probably end nice and quick. Winner gets Tank

Interesting news on Sherfail... Robbie Lawler vs Babalu at a 195lb catch weight for Strikeforce's E3 week show. Didn't see that one coming. Not a fan of the idea myself. It's just another indication of how shallow the talent pool is. What does either man really gain out of a win? A loss puts the loser further away from the title in their own division, while not really doing much to move the winner any closer to a title shot. Silly, desperate matchmaking.

I honestly have no idea about Bellator, but I see no reason why they shouldn't be financially secure. They only have one moderately big contract (Heurta) and they aren't running massive buildings or being extravagant with their production. With Dream, it's sort of a yes and no answer. Big Japanese promotions don't work like US promotions in terms of how they are run. They basically broker fights for TV networks...they're essentially middle men. TV networks like Tokyo Broadcasting Systems pay whatever is needed to put on the best possible fights to get the best possible TV ratings. In MMA's hayday in Japan, MMA was getting 50% of the TV audience of the entire country on New Years Eve...hence why the NYE cards were always loaded with the best/most expensive talent. When MMA is hot in Japan, they're incredibly profitable. The problem now is that there are no Japanese stars for them to promote to men or women. No Sakuraba, Fujita or Yoshida for the men. No Masato, Kid or Uno for the women. Aoki was never popular with either. The reason that the 205lb GP has been pulled is that the line up was Babalu, Lawal, Mousasi, M'Pumbu, Filho...see a pattern here? No Japanese fighters. It's possible that Nakamura could have entered, but he isn't exactly a superstar after a string of 'Meh' performances. Tatsuya Mizuno is 7-5, and would likely get rolled in the first round by any of the above guys. There is very little upside to having a decrepit Sakuraba fighting at 205 again, even if he was interested, which is unlikely. The Japanese public need strong Japanese fighters to follow. Until there are some, Japanese broadcasters won't back MMA, which means that there is very little money to be made.

By all accounts, they're not right now. They get a flat fee from CBS and Showtime to put on a show. I don't have the numbers to hand but It's something like $1.3-1.5 mil from CBS and about $900,000 from Showtime. Strikeforce: Evolution: $481,200 payrole. Cung Le was the biggest earner at $150k. They did a $634,000 live gate on top of the $900,000 flat fee. Showtime and CBS film and produce the shows themselves, so no cost to SF there. The networks take care of the TV and online advertising. CBS even paid for the billboard ads when Fedor fought Rodgers. Even with fighter and staff salaries, venue hire, insurance and all the other complicated bits and pieces, there's a fair bit of scratch left over. There is a reason they line their prelims with amateur fighters...they don't have to pay them (the upside for the fighters is that they'll get a decent sponsors check, but if they're amateur then they're not in it for the $ anyway). Here's the interesting bit. When they co-promoted with M-1, there wasn't a lot of money left in the pot. This is why M-1 wanted to renegotiate before having Hendo on the same card as Fedor. Hendo's salary = even less in the pot. CBS wanted 'name' fighters (Werdum, Mayhem, Shields) on the Fedor vs Rogers card for ratings purposes (they are making a fortune from selling commercial time during SF cards). Even with an amateur-infested prelim portion of the show, there wasn't much spare change flying around. One of the big sticking points for M-1 is having more M-1 fighters on the card. M-1 knows that it's fighters will compete for chickenfeed. Their theory is that if they can save a couple of hundred grand by replacing Nick Diaz and Cung Le with Karl Amoussou and Victor Nemkov, there is more cash to divide up at the end. Plus, M-1 acts as agents for their fighters. Standard rate is 20% of a fighter's take, but god knows what kind of deals they have in place with these guys who will sell their souls to get out of Russia and Armenia. Either way, the more M-1 fighters on the card, the more agent's percentages they take on top of their co-promotion cut = a bigger slice of the pie. So here's the Catch 22 for SF as far as making money is concerned. They need CBS to keep afloat. They need Fedor to keep CBS on board. When they use Fedor, they don't make money. The fact that the Showtime events make a profit is irrelevant: Nick Diaz makes $100,000 right now, but come negotiation time, he'll want Dan Henderson money. They need to pay for the most talented guys they can possibly afford for when/if the Fedor deal goes bump, and to fill out their Showtime cards. However, with every 'name' they bring in and every payrise they give to Diaz, Mayhem etc, there is a Babalu, a Brett Rogers and a Gilbert Melendez who all of a sudden want the same $$$. In short, they're doing ok now...but they can't keep it up for ever...it's impossible with their current model. If they lose CBS, it'll be the end of SF as we know it and they'll be back to promotion regional shows in Cali with Frank Shamrock fighting Scott Smith in the main event.

You win the internet. Remember the words of the wise cleric Quagmire though: "Fat chicks need lovin' too....but they gotta pay!"

That's what I was thinking...hardly remember that fight though...

In Soviet Russia, football kicks (not throws) you!! Lol, this thread has already been nearly shut down once for religious debate, lets not get on to nationalism or politics as well Something else that grinds my gears: The fact that I pay about 70 quid a month for broadband, a phone I don't use and 200+ TV channels...and there is NOTHING on TV!!!

I think it's a case of American MMA being very 'en vogue' in Japan at the moment, and getting a lot of press. FEG don't want Kid making headlines because he's been nothing but bad press with poor in-ring efforts and drug issues. If he drops another 'L', well... Drugs are a hot topic again lately because Enson Inoue had his comback fight after being busted with weed. Also, on the 9th of May, there is a big Inoki-promoted pro-wrestling show (Josh Barnett vs Takayama) which features the debut of a former Sumo superstar called Shinichi Wakakirin. He was kicked out of Sumo for life because of...you guessed it...a weed bust. The annoying thing for me is that in the past SF haven't been taping prelims at all...hopefully the addition of Kid and Shaolin vs Beerbohm changes that.

Josh Barnett is fighting Geronimo 'Mondragon' on a Strikeforce promoted show in Australia on July 17th according to Tatame. Didn't see that one coming!

People who wear Affliction/TapouT shirts and act like idiots, giving actual fighters and combat sports in general a bad name. Sorry for the rant, but something just reminded me of this. I while back I was at a small pub, having a couple of post-training bevvies with some guys from my gym. It was a quiet pub, we were keeping ourselves to ourselves. Two idiots, one decked out from head to toe in TapouT, the other wearing an Ultimate Fighter jersey, were basically being your standard pub idiots, bumping into people, getting lairy at the staff and patrons and for some reason telling people that they "boxed in the UFC". Right. As time wore on they were getting verbally abusive and were warned, then asked to leave, which they refused to do. The landlord say they had one more chance, after which he'd call the police. Now, we're not the most imposing looking bunch of blokes, truth be told we look fairly geeky/unassuming as a group. Anyway, it was our turn to get singled out for the 'witty banter'...when ended up with one of these meatheads stepping back and sandwiching the smallest member of our group on his way back from the bar, causing him to drop the four pints he was carrying. Unfortunately, this small fella was Robbie Olivier, former Cage Rage British featherweight champion. Anyway, Robbie took this guy's legs out from under him and double legged his mate quick as a flash, by which point the other seven of us had got over to him. It took the eight of us, the landlord, and two other guys to get the two of them out of the door and there was a fair bit of mess created in the process. Mr TapouT bailed, but the other just wouldn't let it go. We'd all stayed in the doorway of the pub while the landlord explained to him that he was barred for a week, but would be allowed back if he just went home now. He ended up headbutting the landlord out of knowhere and Ian, who was our grappling coach and the only on of us even remotely similar in size to this caveman, had to take him down and choke him out so we could pin him down until the police arrived. A couple of days later there was a small article in the local paper about a pub getting it's windows put through. The only reason I'd even looked at it was because the title was "Cage Fighters Ransack Pub". I couldn't believe it, but I was reading about the scuffle that had taken place a few days prior, only now it was "...two teams of rival cage fighters..." and "bloody brawl spilled out of the cage and into the pub". It also said that after the fight, bricks had been thrown through the pubs front and side windows and that "Cage Fighters were now barred for life". I was so annoyed that I rang the pub to find out what was going on. All we'd done is help get two idiots out of his pub and save him from getting a pasting and now the group of us were supposedly banned for life, as well as being made out to be a bunch of pub-smashing hooligans. He was really apologetic about the whole situation as it turned out. About an hour after we'd left, some guys put bricks though the windows, One of them was Mr TapouT from earlier on, who was identified from CCTV footage after not bothering to get changed before committing criminal damage. Apparently a couple of crazy regulars (y'know, the all-day drinkers) had spoken to some student who wrote for the local paper who happened to be there, blaming us 'cage fighters' (the irony being that only Robbie amongst us had ever competed in a cage) of fighting 'UFC boxers' and generally smashing the place up...lovely. A couple of local MMA gyms and boxing clubs got visits from the police later in the week, warning them to advise their members not to go out in big groups after training causing trouble... ...all because two idiots were wearing TapouT. THAT, grinds my gears. Rant over

This never gets old...

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