brashleyholland

Tim Sylvia is now *off* the Dream card. They tried to switch opponants on him with two weeks notice, so he pulled out. Could affect future bookings with Dream for Timmeh. Add Nick Diaz to the list of fighters making bone-headed comments in public...He posted a comment from his YouTube account on a video of Takanori Gomi containing a particularly offencive racial slur. The video was of Gomi acting a little drunk after his fight against Kawajiri in Pride, and Diaz's comment read something along the lines of "Drink up you stupid ['G' word]. I wonder if anyone has taken time to explain that Gomi is Japanese, not Veitnamese, or if Diaz actually knows what the word means in the first place :-P Scott Coker thinks that Fedor will probably fight for Strikeforce at the end of the second or sometime in the third quarter of 2009. Here's hoping for a July CBS card, so we might actually get so see him fight the winner of Rogers/Overeem later in the year.

I really, really, hate Wade Barrett's gimmick. The bareknuckle champion of Europe? Really? Otunga - Celebrity lifestyle-leading, arrogent, etc...believeable. Tarver - Intense former boxer...believable. Skip - classic comedy character. Young - Partyboy...believable. Dannielson/Bryan - Indy Star...fact. ...But Bareknuckle champion of Europe? That's really...gimicky. First of all, it's clear to anyone who sets eyes on him that he isn't a bareknuckle champion of anywhere. Has anyone in the WWE ever seen a bareknuckle/unlicenced boxer? If he looked like Tank Abbott, fine. But he doesn't. And you already have a guy with a boxing gimmick who at least looks like he knows how to throw a punch. Sort of. They might as well say he's a Repo Man, Trash Collector or a Hocky Player :-p I think they missed a trick by not matching him up with Regal. I like the contrast between WR and his rookie, but I think the idea of the English Gentleman that Regal does so well mentoring a rough around the edges Brit would have worked well.

So ESPN are reporting that Lesnar will return on the 3rd of July, which would be UFC 116, at the MGM Grand in Vegas. It could potentially be put back to August if Lesnar thinks he needs another month. As expected, he'll fight the Carwin/Mir winner, with Velasquez on standby in case of medical suspensions/injuries. If the winner of Carwin/Mir is fit, Cain will face the winner of JDS/Gonzaga. And according to Mauro Renallo, Overeem/Rogers has been signed for May 15th and *will* now be for the title, after originally being proposed as non-title affair. He also said that Fedor is 'pencilled-in' to fight Werdum on the same card...to be honest I think there is about as much chance of me appearing on that card as Fedor :-p

Raw was ok for me. - I like what they are doing with the Bret/Vince thing. The 'broken leg' gives them a reason for Vince to be able to beat up on one of the best wrestlers of all time. It also give Vince something to focus on in what will no doubt be a 'brawl' type match, as we know that Hart can't take shots to the head. I just hope they keep the eventual match short and sweet and Vince ends up tapping like a madman to the Sharpshooter. - I half expected HBK to turn on HHH during the main event, seemed like he went back to 'jolly old DX' almost too quickly. Not a fan of the Undertaker on a screen bit costing HBK the match, would have been better if he was actually there. - Batista promo was pretty good, I enjoyed it more than other promos of his I've seen. - MITB qualifiers...meh, pointless, I think everybody is agreed on that. -------------------------------------------------------------- The one thing that really bemused me about Raw though was the choice of guest hosts...Cheech and Chong? Are you kidding me? Now, I love those guys; my stepfather was a HUGE fan when he was younger (read into that what you will) and gave me all their albums, and I think 'Up in Smoke' is a classic movie. Still, I'm 25, and Cheech and Chong are...well, a bit before my time...Up in Smoke was 6 years before I was born. Does any of the WWE's target audience even know who these guys are? Are they still that popular in the US? Also, their fame aside...does anyone find it strange that the WWE has tamed down it's content to be more child/family friendly, yet last night's Raw featured numerous drug references and Tommy Chong, who is a big legalisation advocate and spent time in prison a few years back on drug-related charges? Far out man...

The really jaw-dropping part of all this is that in the same interview Vadim Finkelstein said "we won't fight Overeem (who has never tested dirty) unless he tests clean before the fight"...before stating that they would be persuing a bout with Josh Barnett (who has pee'd hot three times) in Japan. Hmm. To be fair to Fedor, he would have fought three times last year and was injured for alot of 2008. He fought twice in 07 and 06 and three times in 05...so he's not really a whole lot less active than say, a Mir, Nogueira, Lesnar etc. I know what you mean though, it seems like every time he gets some momentum behind him for a really big fight, something nixes it.

I thought it was an hour of that TNA Epics show then a two hour Impact?

Also worth adding, a couple of people who are 'close to the situation' as it were, have mentioned that Strikeforce may have a 'Champion's clause' similar to that which the UFC includes in every fighter's contract. That would certainly explain M-1 recently dwindling interest in a fight with Overeem.

Purely because Rogers is comming off a loss. Not that the Strikeforce title means anything anyway. If Rogers wins, there are a number of ways to play it. 1) Immidiate rematch (hoping of course that the first bout was exciting) or 2) Overeem vs Fedor (if they can get him) with Rogers fighting the winner. If Fedor hasn't committed I reckon they'd go for a straight up rematch for the belt. If Fedor has committed for a few fights, makes sense for him to fight AO regardless. A Rogers rematch with either one would then be sellable.

So...pretty quiet day for Strikeforce then? - Aoki vs Melendez looks to be a go for the CBS card on April 17th. Strikeforce title on the line, Dream title not on the line. - Also, Mo Lawal has signed on for a title bout at 205lbs against Gegard Mousasi - Andrei Arlovski has put pen to paper and expects to fight Antonio Silva on the May Showtime card. - Alistair Overeem has confirmed a non-title bout with Brett Rogers also on the May Showtime card. SUBTEXT: Strikeforce is not expecting Fedor to fight for them any time soon. AA costs six figures, you'd have to think that Overeem wont put the gloves on for a whole lot less. Same for Rogers. That leads me to believe that there is absolutly no way that Fedor fights Werdum on that card and it could be another 6 months before they get on CBS again. Thoughts?

There is a Strikeforce card on Showtime in May...but I *really* can't see Showtime coming up with the cash for a Fedor fight. The situation now is that M-1 have supposedly decided that Strikeforce has not lived up to their side of the agreement that the two parties have. They are now refusing to negotiate any fights with Fedor until Strikeforce sign a new contract. This ties in with recent reports out of Europe that M-1's main financial backer in Russia has been unhappy with the return on the Strikeforce deal. Depending on who you believe, Alistair is either fighting Ray Sefo in a K-1 bout on their Yokohama card, or Neil Grove at Dream 13. My money is on the Sefo bout, as a win there could tee him up nicely for a rubber match with Badr Hari, which would be a huge fight (and a huge payday) in K-1. Grove vs Barnett or Sylvia at Dream would also make sense.

<p>LOL, and after all that, SportsNavi just announced that K-1 have confirmed Overeem for an April K-1 bout. :-p </p><p> </p><p> Ah well!</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="lazorbeak" data-cite="lazorbeak" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25823" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Yeah it's pretty funny but I'm not sure you'd get much out of it if you haven't seen the films like Dolemite or Shaft that it's parodying.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Yeah, I can see how it'd come off as wierd/cheap if you haddn't seen Shaft, Super Fly, etc. Fortunatelly I have a whole 'Blaxploitation' shelf (mostly on VHS, it's not exactly the top priority to update <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> ) and am loving BD already :-p Petey Wheatstraw is another good one to see in that genre.</p><p> </p><p> Speaking of Dolemite, isn't Dolemite 3 supposed to be out this year?</p>

No worries. Reading it back it sounds liek the plot to some conveluted Japanese version of the Sopranos :-p Speaking of Japan, there's some intersting talk of a Fedor vs Overeem bout taking place in April on the same day as the Strikeforce card. Strikeforce would then air the bout on tape delay as part of their CBS broadcast. Apparently Strikeforce thought Hendo vs Shields would do well on it's own as a main event, and didn't want to give M-1 a cut by having Fedor on the card. Which makes sence. Fedor's contract is up some time around September though, so it'll be interesting to see if he gets another fight with Strikeforce before then. My worry is that the fight will end up not being broadcast on CBS. HDNet Have the exclusive broadcast rights to K-1 and Dream in North America I think, so I don't know where this puts Fedor/Overeem in terms of it being broadcast. Here's a thought though. There is a big MMA event happening on the 24/25th of April in Japan called ASTRA. It's a one-off show to comemorate the retirement of Hidehiko Yoshida. It's being put on by J-ROCK, a Japanese promotional and management company that houses Yoshida Dojo. Because it's a one-off, and Yoshida is one of, if not the highest-profile Japanese MMA fighter of all time, they expect fighters from other promotions to appear. Now, maybe it's just wishfull thinking, but Yoshida rematching Ishii or fighting teammate Kazuhiro Nakamura (Yoshida has mentioned both as probable opponants as they can't get Wanderlei Silva), plus Fedor vs Overeem is going to generate the kind of money that makes things happen. Also, it would work out great for showing the tape delayed Fedor/Overeem bout on CBS.

Shutter Island still isn't out in the UK...they've been running trailers for it since the beginning of last year Not long to go though, and I am a fan of Scorsese and sometimes Leo. They managed not to completely screw up one of my favourite Korean movie(s) with a western adaptation, so bonus points there. Will Smith is staring in Oldboy - not holding out such high hopes for that :-p I'm working from home today and plan on watching Black Dynamite...anyone seen that yet? It's a tribute/spoof of the Blaxploitation genre - so Grindhouse with a bit of soul...Bump 'n' Grindhouse, if you wiiillll. The story goes that 'The Man' has poisoned America's Malt Liquor supply, which as we all know is where the black man gets his power from (Seriously, that's in the synopsis). In order to stop whitey's nefarious scheme, our hero Black Dynamite has to do a whole lot of pimp-slapping, kung-fu kicking and love making. He even gets to visit the president of the USA in the 'Honkey House'. Awsome Will post later and let peeps know if it's any good.

Actually, the truth is that criminal involvement in the Japanese fight game has been public knowledge since day one, it just doesn't get reported all that much outside Japan (and not a whole lot in Japan). Many important figures from Pride and K-1's hierarchies have gone to prison, both K-1 and Pride have legitimately employed admited Yakuza fixers and there was a huge, public manhunt for one of DSE's biggest 'backers' a couple of years ago. I don't know much about puro, but what I do know is that the guys who book the talent/buildings and broker the TV/production are all mostly the same group. As for the Yakuza's involvement in Japanese MMA, the short answer is yes, the same people are still involved in the game, bar one or two key players who are either in prison, forced exile or have fled Japan. The long and short of it is that the Yakuza are involved in many aspects of Japanese business. If there is money to be made, they involve themselves more, if not, there's is no reason for them to be around. Sometimes if an industry isn't doing well but they see potential, they will invest money and connections and get it off the ground. Benevolence or money laundering, who's to say? :-p It's a commonly held belief that Pride went bust because a newspaper reveiled their links to the Japanese Mafia...that couldn't be futher from the truth. What actually happened was that a former Yakuza named Kawamata filed charges with the Kanegawa police alledging that his life had, and was still, being threatened by Yakuza connected to DSE/Pride, specifically Sakakibara and his boss, 'Mr I'. Mr I was Mr Ishizaka, aka Kim Dok-Soo, a Yakuza boss of Korean decent, and the man behind Sakakibara, DSE and thus Pride. He was a loan shark in Osaka before getting into the fight game. Sakakibara came to power after Mori****a, the previous head (and owner) of Pride was mysteriously found hanged in a hotel room shortly after announcing (I think) the Pride 2003 GP. Nobody asked why Mori****a's shares didn't revert back to his wife (read: they went to his 'other family'). Shortly after Sakakibara came to power in Pride, they started doing business with a number of production and ticket distribution companies which all had a common link - Sakakibara was on the books of all of them. Anyway, when Kawamata filed the charges he cooperated with Shukan Gendai, a Japanese magazine that ran a month's worth of features smearing the people involved. It wasn't the fact that Pride had Yakuza links at all (that was already accepted) it was that they were connected in such a public way with such a serious criminal investigation that preassured Fuji TV (who were themselves in termoil) to drop them. Couple of other interesting notes: - The reason Kawamata and others were being threatened by Pride's Yakuza in the first place was because he'd done a dodgy deal to book Fedor vs Yuji Nagata in an MMA fight (guess how that one went)for Inoki's NYE event. Pride had exclusive rights to Russia Top Team fighters (Fedor, Aleks and more) at the time, so Fedor's management and a 'Super-Agent' called Mijatovic opened a new camp called Red Devil and simply shifted Fedor and his brother out of RTT and into the new team. The company they set up to do all this? M-1 Global :-D - Mijatovic eventually also fell foul of DSE when they realised they could cut him out and do business with M-1 directly. Mijatovic has lost his other big client, Cro Cop, at the same time as the Fedor/Nagata fight went down, so his worth was becoming less and less. According to the Gendai reports of the Kanagawa police investigation, Mijatovic was summoned to a hotel room where a gun was held to his head and he was warned not to cross DSE/Pride. - Kawamata is also known in Japan as Inoki's right hand man in terms of booking oversea's MMA guys for MMA and wrestling matches. So there's at least one definate link to puro. After the colapse and sale of Pride and the fact that Mr Ishizake/Kim Dok-Soo fled to Korea during the investigation, Kawamata stepped back in to fill some of the power vacume.

I guess so. I think my issue with submissions, especially things like the ankle lock which are supposed to be bone-breakers, is that guys will sometimes literally spend over a minute in the hold. With a finnisher, it's easier to suspend disbelief because it either knocks you out or it doesn't. If it doesn't you kick out. I think it's something Japanese wrestling does well...guys having multiple 'finnishers' and bouts often ending on random moves. Then you have guys with a 'super' finisher that they hardly use, which always works for years on end. Then when someone finally does kick out of it, it's a huge deal. I should probably just chill the you-know-what out and get on with it though :-p

Despite saying that I don't like the idea of a 'legends' division earlier, I still think there is money to be made with a Tank Abbott vs Ken Shamrock fight. They've been trying to pull that one off for years...it was supposed to go down last year (hence why Shamrock fought a guy so massivly obese that he died a few months after the fight because of his weight, and why Abbott fought Mike Bourke)...but Ken ended up getting busted for roids. It's a fight I've wanted to see since UFC 8...two of the best trash-talkers in history who legit hate each other. Plus knowing how those guys fight, it'd be over quickly Plus, I don't think any amount of patronizing could do any harm to the legecy of Ken and Dave than they have already done themselves. With Severn, it's highly unlikely that he'd get sanctioned in most states aged 55. There was another guy his age called Skip or Chip something or other, he was outright refused licences post 55, no matter what scrub they'd wheeled in for him to fight. Tim Catalfo was refuesd a licence at 48 in Nevada. Severn's fighting guys who are 0-2, 3-4 or don't even have pro records...most of his fights are part of a deal he does where he does a public speaking engagement or a 'seminar', so I dunno how interested he'd be in fighting a Gracie or Taktarov or someone like that even if they could get around the licence issue.

Makes sense I guess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JerichoLiontamer.jpg ...doesn't look painfull at all I really hate submission finishers...guys sit in them for minutes at a time without tapping/passing out. Yet the following week the same guy in the same move is tapping like it's going out of fashion. Hate it. One or the other, not both.

Just a couple of random WWE questions after the EC last night: I realise that Jericho stopped using the 'elevated' Walls of Jericho some time ago, but was there a particular reason he went from using that to the regular Boston Crab? I always though the old version looked great and made it stand out more. Also, I read somewhere else that there was a bit of controversy with one of the comentators saying that Morrisson should "take a shot of cortizone and suck it up"...apparently his mike went dead for a few seconds afterwards...anyone pick up on this or know why thats such a boo-boo - is JM one of the guys who had drug issues? Also, those were the first Elimination Chamber matches I've seen since the original chamber bout at Survivor Series (I think?) some years ago...now, I don't remember a whole lot of the bout, as I wasn't following wrestling at the time (I do remember there being an awsome tag bout with Benoit/Angle vs The Guerrero's vs Edge/Mysterio that night). Anyway, from what I do remember, that first EC match was awsome...loads of crazy high-flying moves off the sides of the cage and the top of the pods, lots of blood and broken glass from guys getting smashed through the pod doors. Just a real stand-out bout. What I saw last night was totaly weak-sauce in comparision...was there even a single move from the top of the pods? I dunno if it's WWE's toning down the violence (which I guess would explain the lack of blood/broken glass), but no big spots? I had it on in the office while working, but I'm sure I didn't miss anything. Have all the recent EC matches been like that? Seems like it makes the whole point of Chamber/HITC redundant.

It all comes down to two things: When is Lesnar good to go and Will the winner of Carwin/Mir be fit enough to face him? Apparently they're looking at June/July/August for Lesnar...if the winner of Carwin/Mir isn't fit, they've already said that they'll give Velasquez the fight. The winner would then fight the interim champion, probably at the end of year card, injuries permitting. If the Mir/Carwin winner is fit, I can't see them risking Velasquez in the meantime...I reckon he'll sit on the shelf like Carwin did last year. I also wouldn't be hugely surprised to see Junior Dos Santos springboard into title contention following Nogueira's performance. As for Nog, I don't see the upside in 'protecting' him anymore...if he can't take a punch, he's going to struggle in the HW division regardless. There a rematch with Mir, *if* Mir loses to Carwin or Lesnar. If Mir beats Carwin and Lesnar, you could have Brock vs Nog. Like I said earlier though, I don't like the idea of him fighting these young guns anymore. For my money, give him Mirko and see how he fares.

Off the top of my head, MMALogic, Zach Arnold and Alan Conceicao all mentioned it early last year/late 2008 after the Mir fight. I believe Goldenboy also mentioned it on the UG, which is as good as a confirmation as far as I'm concerned! (He's a very well connected and respected guy that has been involved in all aspects of the fight game in the States for decades) To be fair, the problems themselves aren't new - he's had a lazer surgery on his right eye before, just before the Tamura fight in Pride. Apparently he wears a helmet for protection in training. The commissions are very strict on eye problems - Clay French is a great fighter who struggles for licences in some states. He only has one eye, but with perfect vision.

Lol, I'm seriously starting to believe in Karma. See, after the Hamil fight, I reckon Bisping owed the world a couple of close decisions. With Evans and Silva, and the Hendo knock out, I think he's paid in full. They've had their current WOWOW deal since late 2008, I believe it airs on their subscription service - so not strictly PPV, but you pay a monthly fee for the station and the UFC airs on tape delay and replays. Dana White said China/India/Korea before Japan in one of the recent press calls. The fight game in Japan is in an absolute mess at the moment...they don't run a PPV model, so most promoters are basically just middle-men. Huge companies like Fields and Don Quixote foot the bill, and the events air on big TV networks acting as a 3-hour advertisement. Don Quixote balked at the pricetag of the Yoshida-Ishii fight on NYE...this is the same company that footed the $4,000,000 purse for the Yoshida-Ogawa fight five years ago. That's the single reason that we saw a DREAM/SRC co-promotion on NYE. So yeah, with sponsors not backing the fight game to the same extent they were, TV isn't interested. Thats the issue they are facing over there - couple of course with the issue that to get sponsors, buildings and TV time in the first place in Japan you need certain 'connections' which the UFC doesn't have. Akiyama vs Wanderlei would be HUGE in South Korea though.

1st round was Bisping, but still close. 3rd was close, but Wanderlei absolutly won it by virtue of nearly finishing the fight at the end. That's damage - which is the first factor considered. 2nd round is the contentious one. The fact is, that guillotine wasn't on. He could have had another 5 minutes, it wouldn't have mattered. Like Rogan said, thats not how you finish an arm-in guillotine. You don't have the angle to get the choke possition propperly, and your own arm prevents it from hurting/crushing like a can-opener does. If anything, he was tiring his own arms out. That said, I don't expect most judges to realise that - so can see why someone would have scored it for Wanderlei. My massive bias aside, I honestly gave that round to Mike. The sweep and the guillotine were all that Wand had, personally I don't think that was enough to win the round, but with a round so close, it can go either way. So while I do thing Bisping won 29-28, it was by no means a robbery. I'm also firmly in the camp of people who believe the 10-point must system is flawed for 3 round fights and that they should be judged as a whole - in which case it's a pretty clear win for Silva. My questions now: Who do Bisping and Silva fight next? Odd's are that Silva gets Akiyama...Bisping vs the winner of Beltcher/Cote? Maia (should he lose), winner of Grove/Munoz?

Well, his wrestling was always garbage, but I guess he had the fact that he was the best ground fighter in the history of MMA to counteract that In all seriousness though, Nog does have some holes now - unfortunatelly they are physical holes rather than anything he can make adjustments for. He has some serious vision problems for starters...there was a serious rumour going around last year that went largly ignored by the MMA media, but was acknowledged by a couple of well-connected MMA blogers. Basically the rumour was that Nogueira was denied a licence to fight by one of the major US commisions, i.e. Nevada or Cali. Now, this could all be false..but the sources were very, very good, and there has been no denial of it whatsoever. Apparently Zuffa made it abundantly clear that this was a no-no topic of conversation, which lead some to believe that they intended to continue using Nog in unregulated areas or states with lax commissions (Oregon, for example). The UFC has a UK date locked in for the end of this year...I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Nogueira on that show, and any Asian event they put on in 2011. Back to Nog's health, he has the body of someone in their late 30's, lots of injuries - poor reflexes. His famous chin appears to be faltering as well. I love Nogueira, I've followed his entire career since back when people were saying "Meh, Brazil never churns out good heavyweights"...that said, I have absolutly ZERO interest in seeing a guy with vision and speech problems get matched up against fighters like Velasquez anymore. I find the idea of a 'legends' division patronising; but if Nogueira wants to fight then they should be very carefull about who they match him up against. Cro Cop would be ideal, as would the winner of Struve/Nelson.

Yes, for shame! Hand in your Union Jack on the way out!